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#this took 1 hour because i spent 45 minutes looking for the Most Perfect Picture for the last one but went with the Stupidest instead

saganandkatelynindc · 9 months

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Some bumps in the Road...(part 1)

July 21, 2023 - Happy Birthday to ME!

Well - I wrote this blog late last night and finished it early this AM and apparently did NOT hit POST NOW! Then I shut my computer down because I couldn't get Lion King to run without glitching and you know what happened to the post I had worked on for a few hours... DANG IT! I appear to be distracted.

Katelyn is sick. I think she had food poisoning as we all had different food for lunch and she was the only one that got all the symptoms of food poisoning. That started about 4:30 yesterday after another amazing day. So let me start from the beginning of yesterday. I'll get to the bad stuff toward the end. (She is much improved - FYI)

July 20, 2023

We had a leisurely breakfast - so leisurely that we kinda' missed our departure time so I simply recalculated and came up with another plan. Who can look at time when you are laughing and talking about places we have seen and things we have done? Instead of the Korean War Memorial we would go directly to the Eisenhower Memorial directly across from the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum where we had timed tickets to enter at 10:00 AM. PERFECT!!

The Eisenhower Memorial leaves me wanting. I really want to like it, but I can't understand it.

Behind the two main pieces - Ike as General (above) and Ike as President are excerpts of some significant speeches he gave - but you wouldn't know it unless you decided to see if there was anything on the back - but the wall. Also there is an abstract wire "something" that is supposed to be a picture of Point du Hoc on the beaches of Normandy but NO ONE would possibly know that unless you read the brochure - which I did. I took this image off the Internet and - well - what the hell is that?

Plus there are these huge column in the front of the memorial that are just there. Weird. I did take the kids around the back and we read the speeches - but I spent most of my time thinking - WHO APPROVED THIS!?!?! I have seen it in the morning, afternoon and night and I'm still not feeling it. Moving on.

My plan had only 2 hours scheduled for the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum - and that was a big boo-boo on my part - because the kids needed more time. We had a tour of the Supreme Court scheduled at 12:30 SHARP and to make that we would need to leave exactly at noon. With only 45 minutes to go and having never left the first gallery, I called a meeting. I suggested we skip the Court (since I'm still furious about all the recent decisions they are making regarding women's control of their own freaking bodies.) Senator Stabenow's office made the reservation for us - which was nice - but the time didn't really work. So we extended our Air & Space Time.

We opted for a planetarium show - which was awesome and left me feeling like a moron- the kids know so much about the current exploration of our universe and I know so little - my mind was blown as they discussed what we had watched. Then it was time for lunch.

On to Arlington Cemetery. But that will be part 2. Gotta' run.

Stay tuned....

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prorevenge · 4 years

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Pastor lies cheats and steals. He gets exactly what he deserves.

If you want to read on YouTube that's OK with me. You can call me kaldra or OP. as my user name is not easy.

Sorry I am on mobile. Also I'm sorry but I need to be very vague about where this happened.

The cast

Pastor Bob (not real name). Contractor. Me, kaldra (or OP if you want)

Setup I have been a computer technician for more then 15 years. I have worked on all kinds of computers. Everything from tiny point of sale computers to large rack server computers.

I had been attending a new to me church. I was trying to date a women there this church was her idea. That relationship crashed and burned but that's a different story.

Now we can start

It was about 5 years ago. I had just sat through a long sermon about generosity and giving to those that need help. At the end of the sermon pastor Bob asked for an additional donation because the churches roof needed repairs. And it would cost $20,000 US dollars. that's right twenty thousand freedom dollars for a new roof.

After the service I'm talking to my date. Pastor Bob walks over to me. I say hi and he introduced himself we talk a bit. Pastor Bob asked what I do for a living. I tell him I'm a computer tech with a shop. As I'm telling him I have a gelling he already knows what I do. Pastor Bob asks me to have a look at his laptop. It's being very slow So I agree.

I turn the laptop on and I hear a clicking noise. This clues me in its probably the hard drive. But I can still access the data. This is a good thing it means I can probably recover the data. So I tell pastor Bob the hard drive is dying and it needs to be replaced. I also tell him I can probably recover the data. Pastor Bob asked how much it would cost to fix. I tell him for most people I would charge around $250. However I feel I can donate my time so I would just need $60 for a new hard drive. Pastor Bob agrees so I write up a invoice. New hard drive $60 labor $0, data recovery $0, and 2 to 4 days for repair. pastor Bob signed the invoice. So I take the laptop to my shop.

I open the laptop. HP why do you use so many screws and clips. I get the hard drive out and connect it to my recovery rig. I setup the recovery to clone a data to a new hard drive. But not the new one for the laptop. A high end storage drive. I go home after locking up the shop.

Next day Monday I open the shop and check the recovery rig. It's working but it will take at least 10 more hours. So I start work on the other tickets. Then at closing time I lock up and go home.

Next day Tuesday, I've had pastor Bob's laptop for 2 days. I open the shop and check my recovery rig. Good news recovery completed 100 percent data recovered. Report says hard drive developed to many bad sectors. Now I have a choice to make. I could put a 1 TB hard drive $60 or a 120 GB ssd $60. or I could pay some money myself for a 240 GB ssd $100. I decide why not and put the 240 GB ssd in the laptop. I then clone all the data over from the new recovery storage drive to the new 240 GB ssd. An hour later the clone is done. So I check everything the laptop works great and is exactly like how it was before the first hard drive died. Even the logins still worked. So I call pastor Bob and tell him his computer is done. He says that's great he will be here soon to get it.

About 45 minutes later pastor Bob walks in. I show him his laptop working and much faster. He loves it signs the pickup form. He then pays me with a check for $60. It's important he paid with a check. I do a bank run on Monday and Friday. So that Friday at the bank. I am informed that pastor Bob's check is void, what? Why? Pastor Bob had placed a stop payment on the check. So I call him he ignored my call.

I go to church on Sunday. Pastor Bob gives a sermon about not lying. I walk up to talk to him he avoids me. So I leave and decide I'm going to write it off. I spent $100 and some time to do something nice.

A few weeks later a customer walks in looking for a new computer. So I offer he a drink and go over his options. I'm chatting him up an he tells me he is a contractor he mostly does siding and roofing. He is thinking about offering solar. That's why he is getting a new computer. I ask how much does a new roof cost. He says up to about $10,000. So I ask him why would someone say $20,000. He had no idea. I thought it was strange. I asked about the church. Contractor said it would have been simple and around $5,000. And he could probably do it for less. Contractor buys nice new laptop.

Sorry the setup took so long the revenge starts now

Something about what the contractor said bugs me later. Why would pastor Bob lie and say $20,000 for a new roof. And why would he stiff me for $60. I then remember I never cleared the recovery rig storage drive. So I check and there it is pastor Bob's laptop data.

I look around it's slow and I'm all caught up on repair tickets. So I decided I'm going to clone pastor bobs data to a second laptop. I look around a bit. He had all of his logins stored in a folder on the desktop. Including his online dating logins. And online poker. Did I ever mention pastor Bob is married. I start printing his online dating messages. I look back and find pastor Bob had been adult hugging. several women from his online dating. he had been paying for his dates from the churches donation fund. I am getting angry now. Then I realize he had adult hugged the women I was dating when I was dating her.

It was then I decided to break pastor Bob. I printed out all his dating messages and the women he adult hugged. for the last 6 months except I refused to print the naughty pictures. It was an impressive packet. I then decide I need copies of the packet. So I order 100 packets printed from a major online printer. A few days later my order of revenge packets arrived. These revenge packets are amazing double sided. Staple bound, with a cover with pastor Bob's face on it.

Now the conclusion and I think it's worth it.

. This church had a calendar of what the sermon might be about a perfect Sunday was approaching. I go to church that a few Sundays later a bit late. Everyone is in the church so I put a revenge packet on each car. I have a few revenge packets that are in yellow envelopes. So I put them in the mail. I sent one to all the high ups In the church. and I sent a special packet with some of pastor Bob's naughty picks to pastor Bob's wife. I set the return address to the church. I also emailed a bunch of people the revenge packet from a burner email.

A couple weeks after I went back to that church. Pastor Bob was gone so was the wife. several of the women were also gone including the one I was dating. I asked one of the important people there. What happened? The answer was amazing. I was told about the revenge packet and how everyone had gotten one. The day my revenge packet appeared. The sermon pastor Bob had given was about the evils of adultery and cheating on your wife. Thank you church calendar.

The fallout

Pastor Bob was fired and shunned. Multiple women from the church have not returned including the one I was dating. Pastor Bob's wife is devorcing him. And she is the one that owned the house and cars. No longer pastor Bob is now being sued by several people including the one that fixed the roof. He never paid any of them. There was also rumors of a criminal case for embezzlement. No one has seen Bob in a while now. The church might close if they can't find a new pastor. But the churches money is very low. Apparently he also spent over $30,000 on online gambling.

TLDR

Pastor lies, steals, and cheats on his wife with multiple women. Gets found out and doxed. Gets fired, devorced, and arrested. And no one knows I did this to him.

Notes because you might ask.

It's quite possible that several of the very young children and babies at the church were his. But I cannot confirm this.

I have no idea where Bob is now. I would think still in jail.

(source) story by (/u/madbr3991)

#prorevenge #by /u/madbr3991 #pro revenge #revenge stories #pro revenge stories #pro #revenge #last10

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tommyquackson · 4 years

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Not Working | p. parker | part 1

Not My Gif

summary: you and peter are together but maybe it’s just not working

warnings: angst, that’s it

note: happy holiday season I should be able to write a little more after all my finals next week.

Dating your bestfriend was a blessing. There were no awkward first dates, no weird introducing to your parents (not that you had any to introduce) and no wondering how they felt about you. It was perfect, well until recently.

You’d been dating Peter for over a year, but you’d loved him since you met him, but he hallways had his eye on someone else. In Pre K it was this girl named Lacy, elementary school was Tracy, Middle schools was Gwen Stacy, freshman year was Liz Allan, and then MJ, but after him and MJ broke up, he finally set his eyes on you.

But lately things have been off, Peters usually busy with spider-man but lately it’s like he forgets your around. he rarely texts or calls you and he’s missed the past 3 date nights.

You’d been confused at first, no idea why peter was acting the way he was but then you saw it. You saw how happy Peter got when MJ joked around with him, saw how much he invited her to places you’d never been. You saw how much they missed each other and it broke your heart.

Tonight was supposed to be date night, but Peter hadn’t shown up yet, he was an hour late. You called peter again, just in case he was stuck on the subway running late. No answer. You called May, thinking she’d seen him getting ready, she picked up and told you he had left the house with MJ about 45 minutes ago. You thanked her and sighed deeply. You wakes back to your bedroom, after cleaning up dinner. You laid in bed and scrolled through snapchat, seeing what the world was up too. Ned posted something about star wars so you had a convo with him for a bit. Then you saw MJ had posted, you clicked her story and it stabbed you in the chest. It was her and Peter, at the planetarium, the date you had planned for you and peter next week. You’d both bought the tickets on a day you knew you’d be available. You call MJ to see if she’ll answer.

“Oh hey y/n, what’s up?”

“Hey mj, are you still with Pete?”

“Uh yea, you wanna talk to him?”

“Uh no it’s fine, can you just give him a message?”

“Of course, what is it?”

“Tell him to stop by my window tonight if he can, it’s extremely important. thanks mj, don’t have too much fun.”

“Of course, if you ever want more time with your boyfriend just let me know. bye girl we love you”

“love you guys too” You sigh before hanging up. You wished you could be mad at MJ, but she’s done nothing. You wish you could be mad at peter but he hasn’t done anything either. You can only be angry at yourself, for not helping then get back together sooner. Instead you were selfish and you took peter for yourself.

You spent the next few hours packing up most of Peters things. The things he needs to take back to his home. You kept a couple of his t-shirt’s and sweaters, but gave him back all his medals and baby pictures, childhood gifts and gifts. You kept the teddy he gave you but gave back the jewelry. You’d almost forgotten about the promise ring he gave you a couple months ago. It made you realize how quickly things had changed. You packed up his extra school stuff and old robotics bots and set everything in your car to drop off at his place tomorrow. Then you played some music and waited. You’d waited for what felt like forever until you heard your window open. You looked over and saw Peter crawling through as spider man.

“Hey babe, what’s up. I got your message from MJ.” He walks over and kisses your forehead.

“Peter we need to talk.” You patted the bed next to you and smiled lightly.

“Uh okay. What’s up” He asks confused.

“Peter, tonight is the 4the date night you’ve missed to and each time i don’t say anything because I know you were with MJ and i don’t want you to think i’m not allowing you to have friends, but it’s becoming more clear what your priorities are.” You look down at the bed so you don’t cry.

“What? I didn’t know, i’ve been totally forgetting.” Peter looks apologetic but you know he’s just confused.

“Exactly peter. I love you, but I know it’s not me you want. It took me so long to realize but I see she makes you happy”

“Y/n-what-no-but we” He stammers over a response.

“It’s okay peter, i’m okay”

“No- y/n. It’s not-“

“No peter; you don’t love me. It’s okay” You smile sadly, lightly grabbing his face with your hands.

“I do! I dont-i’m-but”

“You still love her peter. I’m not angry, not at all. You love MJ, not me. There’s nothing to do about it. You’re still my best friend.” You pat his face before kissing his cheek and walk towards the window.

“y/n please” he begs following you.

“I’ll drop your stuff off tomorrow at Mays” You bit you’re lip and open the window for Peter to leave out of. He crawls out and calls your name but you turn your back towards him. You can hear him begging for you to talk to him, to please just look at him.

You can’t turn around because if you do, he’ll get you. He’ll look in your eyes and beg and you’ll do whatever he asks of you. Because that’s what you do when you’re hopelessly in love. You do whatever they ask just because it was them who asked.

Days pass by, you don’t go to peters place. You don’t go to school. You’re not ready to talk to ned or mj or even peter. You just stay at home, writing and sleeping and wishing Peter feels better.

When you do finally go to school, you dread lunch, because you know your only friends are the people who you’ve been avoiding. You walk calmly through the cafeteria and sit at a different table then your friends. You’re right behind them actually.

“Peter, y/ns back and she’s not sitting with us, what the heck happened?” Ned says a little too loud. It hurts your heart that Peter hadn’t told anyone what’s going on.

“She broke up with me” Peter says defeated.

“What? Why?” Ned whispers loudly again.

“She says i’m still in love with MJ. Gave all my stuff back and hasn’t texted or called once.”

“Well do you?”

“Do I what?”

“Still love MJ”

“I don’t know, I mean, my feelings never went away because we didn’t breakup like a normal couple. I had to leave. So we never got closure, but with y/n, it was easy. She’s my bestfriend always has been Ned. I do love y/n but I don’t know if it’s the way she loves me. But I know MJ loves me the way I love her, I just don’t know if that’s as a friend or something more.” Peter sighs, dropping his head to the table.

You look down at your food, no longer hungry and and decide to leave. You stand and throw away the u touched food, and practically run out of the cafeteria.

#imagine #tom holland #tom holland imagine #marvel #spiderman #peter parker #peter parker imagine #peter parker x reader #spider man: homecoming #tom holland stan #spiderman: ffh #spiderman x reader

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chlorue · 4 years

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here’s to never growing up

a little shameless fic to sooth your troubles.

Pairing: Ian Gallagher/Mickey Milkovich

Description: It was finally Franny's fifth birthday. What did Ian do? Spent two weeks planning it. The party is full of disapproving PTA moms and a new friend for Ian. Ian had spent weeks planning this party and he was damn well sure it was going to turn out well.

word count: 2,814

read on ao3

The sun was bright today. The rays shining on the Gallagher backyard. Ian was frantically running around the backyard making sure everything was in line for his niece's 5th birthday. The entire backyard was decked out in whatever leftover party decorations Ian could find in the basement. Small party tables with fun tablecloths were placed around. Balloons were everywhere. Ian found a pile of streamers in Carl's room and placed them on the stairs and tables. There was no necessary theme to the party, it was just Ian felt obligated to go all out. He had Lip get the cake, Liam to get the other food, Carl to get party favors that weren’t weed, and Mickey to keep Franny and Debbie away from the house. So far everything was looking up.

Ian was sitting on the steps looking at his phone waiting for someone to text him that something was wrong. He would look at his phone lock screen every few seconds, see nothing there, and put back down next to him. Finally his phone dinged. He rushed to pick it up. It was from a small group chat he put together.

the one who sold weed once

hey are we serving alcohol at this party????

the one with a son

Nah, half of us can’t even drink, recovering alcoholic and the lithium thing

the smart one

What about all the PTA moms?

the one with a son

They’ll just have to get over it.

Okay, can you all shut up? This is a five year olds party, we’ll be drinking the soda Liam

gets.

It seemed everyone got the message because they stopped texting. Ian sighed and leaned back. He tried to drown out the sound of buzz on the streets. Luckily Frank was nowhere to be found, he hadn’t been for the past few days. Something shocked Ian out of his small trance. There were voices that were familiar coming down the street. Ian stood up to see Tami with Fred on her and Lip a few paces behind her with a white box in his hands.

“Hey fuckwad!” Lip called when he spotted Ian. Tami swatted him, most likely for the language. “Sorry.” Lip apologized. Lip set the box on a table and pulled his little brother into a hug. Ian pulled away and patted Fred on the head.

“Thanks so much for getting this, you two are amazing!” Ian opened the box to see a rectangular pink cake that had swirly white writing. Happy Birthday Franny! It was perfect and Ian let a small weight off his shoulders.

“Eh, you just owe us for Fred’s 5th birthday.” Tami patted her son's head.

“I can do that.” Ian sighed and smiled. They both looked to be doing better. He had heard about the fight they got into at his wedding and was glad to see them back together. Lip had sent him too many pictures of the house and Fred.

The back door swung open, startling all three of them, revealing Carl and Liam. “What’s up whores!” Carl yelled. Lip, Tami, Ian, and Liam collectively sighed.

“We really need to have a talk about language in this family.” Tami sighed. Ian nodded and took a seat at the table. Liam and Carl made their way down with a lot of bags.

They set them on the table just in time for Mickey to stroll in. Liam started pulling bags of chips out and Lip told him where to put it. “Carl, are you just gonna stand there?” Ian cocked an eyebrow.

“What do you mean?” Carl asked and Ian groaned. Lip saw his brother's stress and took Carl away from the table. Tami took Liam and the rest of the bags away from the poor man.

Another presence slipped into the chair next to him and kissed his head. Mickey. Ian pulled his head up to see his husband. He smiled for a second before realizing. “What are you doing here?”

“Uh, comforting my stressed out husband?” Mickey smiled.

“Where is Franny? And Debbie?” Ian looked frantically around the backyard. The party wasn’t really a surprise. Ian had asked Debbie two weeks ago if he could plan it, but Ian didn’t expect to really take over his life. He really wanted to be special for the little girl. “You were supposed to be keeping them occupied!” He groaned.

“Calm down hotstuff, did you happen to look at the time?” Mickey cupped Ian’s face and made him face Mickey. Ian was confused, mad and shocked all at the same time. Once Mickey let him out of his hold Ian pulled his phone from his back pocket. The time read 1:45. The party was starting in 15 minutes.

“Fuck.” Ian sighed. Ian had been so focused on things going wrong he must’ve lost track of time. “I’m sorry, I’m just really stressed. I want her to like this.” Ian pulled his hands down his face and faced his husband.

“Dude, she’s 5, she got excited by my name tag yesterday, I think this will fill her to the brim with joy.” Mickey rubbed his shoulder. Ian felt better knowing Mickey was next to him. “Jesus you are tense.”

“Hey Ian!” Tami’s voice broke through the small silence. “People are arriving!”

“Let them in.” He called behind him. Tami gave a thumbs and went back inside. “Well, our backyard is about to be filled with every mom and her kid from Franny’s school, you ready?” Ian asked.

“Jesus, ready for the dirty looks at my hands? I’m used to it by now, so I guess.” Mickey kissed Ian’s cheek before getting up. “Just, uh, holler if you need help. Please don’t put any more stress on yourself.” Mickey smiled before stomping up the stairs. He was met with the first kid and mom. The mom smiled at him and he smiled back before moving into the house.

Ian sighed and got out of his chair. “Ian! So nice to see you!” The mom smiled as she approached Ian.

“Mary!” Ian faked a smile. Mary Lynn was a god damn bitch. She never liked Mickey or Ian. She would pretend to be nice to them and Franny only to go over to the other mom’s to talk about how horrible they were. Ian pretended not to care, but sometimes he would rant to Mickey about how much he wanted to punch her. “You look great!” No she didn’t. Ian was resisting the urge to pull her fake blonde hair off her head.

"Chelsea here is so excited to hang out with Franny! I can’t believe she’s turning five, they grow up so fast!” She gave the fakest laugh Ian had ever heard. Ian returned it.

“Yeah, we’re excited too!” Ian wanted so badly for this conversation to be over. “You can go ahead and find a seat, Franny will be out soon.” Ian gave one last fake smile and pulled his hand from her grip. He walked in the back door only to be met with six more PTA moms.

Today was gonna be a long day.

The party was in full swing now. Franny was running around and playing with her friends while their mothers sat at tables talking. Ian was leaning against the chain-link fence watching his niece run around with a big ass smile on her face.

Another presence took its place next to Ian. He turned to see the dark red hair of his little sister. “Hey, you really didn't have to do this, you know?” Debbie smiled.

“Eh, I didn’t have anything else to occupy my time,” Ian smiled and took a drink from his cup. Debbie patted his shoulder and sighed. “You know, you might want to mingle with the moms over there.”

“Oh, god no. I’d rather not inhale the cheap perfume up close.” Debbie laughed.

“Well them maybe you should go hang out with your daughter, I’m gonna head inside, see what other shit Carl has to drink.” Ian patted his sisters head before walking away. He made his way into the Gallagher kitchen to see the rest of the family scattered through. Liam was plastered by the punch bowls, Lip was by the pack and play with Fred, Carl was sitting on the table, and Mickey was leaning next to the fridge.

“Welcome back,” Carl said, not even looking up from his phone. “Drinks and food are over there, we will be serving cake in 40 minutes.” He deadpanned.

Ian pushed his head, forcing Carl to look up and smile. “Oh, hey man!”

Ian smiled and went over to the counter area, not before throwing his cup away. “Hey, are Kev and V coming?” He leaned over to Liam. He invited the neighbors not only because they were some of his best friends and they loved Franny, but for moral support and help as well.

“Yeah, they just had to close up the Alibi.” Liam sighed and continued to stir the punch. Ian ran his hair through his hair. Then a knock came from the door. “That must be them.” Liam said and turned around.

He was right. Veronica and Kevin were strolling in with Amy and Gemma racing in front of them. “What is up to my favorite people in the world!” Veronica exclaimed as she strutted into the kitchen. Kev waved to everyone, but his attention was clearly on the very eager girls who wanted to get outside and see their friends. “God, it has been way too long!"

“You were two nights ago.” Mickey said. Mickey was now over by the Pac-And-Play with Tami. V shushed and he went back to playing with Fred.

“So Ian, how are you holdin’ up. I know PTA moms can be a handful.” V sighed and placed herself next to Ian.

“I think I’ll be fine with you and Kev here. I texted Fiona earlier for a pep talk.”

“Damn Fi, she always gave some sort of pep talk, shitty or not. They fuckin’ worked.” V sighed and laughed.

“God, can parents please name their children something fucking normal. I swear I literally just met a kid named Neptune.” Lip groaned as he swung open the door. “Also Ian, some people want to talk to you.”

Ian groaned. V gave his hand a squeeze and he took a deep breath. Time to venture back into the unknown.

Ian had been outside for about an hour. Turns out what the mothers wanted to talk to him about was alcohol. Whether he was serving it? Where was it stored in the house with the kids? Ian finally got away from it all. He was sitting in a lawn chair in the shade watching Mickey play with Franny.

“Hey do you mind if I sit?” Ian looked up to see a mom he had never really seen before. She was tall and had blonde hair, like most of them. But this blonde looked real. It was in a high ponytail. Her eyes were blue and her makeup was pretty and subtle. She wore a pink bomber jacket, white undershirt and gray pants.

“Oh, yeah sure, go ahead.” Ian smiled and pointed to the chair next to him.

“Thanks, I was getting tired of listening to Jennifer go on about her failing marriage, and you looked lonely.” The woman smiled.

“Did she tell you the reason it’s failing?”

“No, what is it? Something juicy?”

“Nah, he won’t let her drink more than three tequila shots.”

“That doesn’t seem that bad.”

“ A night. ” Ian smirked and the woman laughed. “I’m Ian by the way.” He held his hand out.

“Amara.” She shook his hand. “This is a really nice party, did you plan it all by yourself?”

“Eh, only a little bit. It’s not like it took up my life for about two weeks.” Ian smiled. Amara laughed. She seemed different from the rest of the moms there. She was fit, like really fit, she seemed a tiny bit dorky, but she was nicer than any of the other moms.

“Tell me about it. When my son turned 4 we held this “small” gathering that ended up turning into a whole block party!” Amara laughed.

“Wow, I feel like that happened when I was like 12. Gallaghers knew and know how to party.” Ian smiled.

“You haven’t seen the chaos that is my company.” Amara smiled. “I’m surprised you aren’t serving alcohol today, PTA moms and all.”

“Oh, basically none of us in this family can drink anymore, other than my little brother and my deadbeat father.” Ian sighed. “My older brother and sister are recovering alcoholics and I can’t drink on my meds. It fucks with my lithium.” Ian takes a swig of the Pepsi in his hands.

“Oh, that sucks. But that’s the South Side for you.” Amara sighed. “My wife and I may have moved to the North Side, but we won't forget the weirdos here.”

“Wait, you’re gay? And South Side?” Ian was now even more interested in this Amara. She was gay. No wonder she was so different then the rest of the moms. And she was raised on the south side. She definitely did not look like it.

“Oh, hell yeah! Most of my company is a part of the LGBT community. And yes, born and raised in a foster home here. That is how I met my wife, Callie. She’s over there playing with our son.” She pointed to a woman with dark skin and brown pixie cut. She was playing with a small boy who looked to be about the same age as Fran.

“Very pretty. My husband and I are born and raised as well. In and out of foster and group homes, though.” Ian smiled.

“You’re gay? No wonder the moms despise and love you.” Amara laughed. “Who’s your husband?”

“Him.” He pointed to Mickey who was now swinging Franny around.

“Oh, is he the one the moms are mad at because of his tattoos?” Amara asked and Ian nodded. “I bet they’re fucking dope, my friend did one of my favorite tattoos.” She pulled her sleeve to expose her wrist. On it was what looked like a heart, but it looked like it belonged to a robot. “I have two more, but they’re on my back.”

“I only have two. One is a military thing, and the other is a set of boobs.” Ian sighed at the memory of the failed tattoo.

“Dope!” Amara beamed and they both laughed. “But why boobs?”

“It was supposed to be a memory of my mother, but it went wrong.” Ian smiled.

“Does your husband have any others, other than the knuckle tats?”

“He has one on his forearm, long story. And my name above his heart.” Ian looked back over at his husband. He was laughing and dancing with Franny. Amara cooed and smiled. “Yeah, he did spell my last name wrong.” He looked over to Amara. She sighed and hung her head back.

Suddenly Franny was in front of them. “Uncle Ian! Let’s do the cake. Pwease?” She gave Ina her best puppy dog eyes. Ian laughed and stood up, hoisting her up.

“You comin?” Ian looked at Amara. She smiled and hoisted herself up, tightening her ponytail.

Everything had settled down by 9 PM. Franny was asleep, Lip and Tami left, Liam was downstairs watching TV and Carl was doing who the fuck knows in his room. Ian came into the room from the bathroom to see his husband leaning against the headboard scrolling on his phone. “Well you are a sight for sore eyes.” Ian said leaning against the doorway. Mickey shot his finger up and Ian laughed. He crawled onto the bed and rested himself right next to Mickey.

“Hey, who were you talking to today? The blonde chick?” Mickey started to play with Ian’s hair.

“Don’t get jealous, she has a wife. And her name is Amara, and she is one of the most cool PTA moms I have ever met. She’s South Side too, her and her wife.” Ian smiled at his husband. Mickey looked slightly amused.

“You know, it was really amazing that you did this for Franny, lord know both of us didn’t get the luxury of this.” Mickey sighed.

“Fiona tried her hardest, but I got sick on my 5th birthday.”

“When are you not sick, honestly?” Ian laughed at Mickey’s comment. Mickey smelled nice. A mix of cigarette smoke and soap. It was a smell that reminded Ian of where his home was. He wanted to move out and get a cat and kid with Mickey, but that was a problem for future Mickey and Ian. Ian was focused on Mickey, not realizing that he was slowly falling asleep. He drifted off, but not before pulling Mickey down with him.

“Thank you.”

#shameless #shameless fic #shameless us #gallavich #ian gallagher #mickey milkovich #my fic #my wriitng #all mistakes are my own #mickey and ian #amara and callie may or may not be based off adora and catra

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stenbrozier · 5 years

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Adult!Richie Tozier x Reader (Headcanons)

*Note: I have NEVER written for Richie before and don’t see a lot written for him so I’m gonna change that cause I love Richie more than anything 💗 (This from when Richie leaves Derry at 17 to him going back at 40)*

SPOILERS FOR IT CHAPTER 2 !!!!!

~ When you first met Richie, it was right after he moved to Hollywood from Derry.

~ He was auditioning for everything comedy, whether it be SNL or just as a regular act at a nightclub, which is where you found him.

~ You were a bartender at this rinkie-dink club on the outskirts of Hollywood that he had landed an act at, and when he walked on stage for the first time, his curly black hair caught your attention, along with his personality.

~ The way he lit up the stage and the audience made your stomach do flips, and when he saw you looking at him for the first time, you could see the light blush on his cheeks from about 50 feet away.

~ After his act, he came over and sat at the bar, winking at you before being bombarded by the smaller talent scouts that floated around. He gave them all his number before he turned to you, holding out his hand.

~ You took his hand and he kissed it. “I’m Richie, Richie Tozier.” You laughed at the cocky energy he gave off, but then you stopped when you saw the tiny little smile that came over his face.

~ “(Y/N),” you replied as you went and took the orders of a couple people that walked up. You went back to him when you fulfilled them, grabbing his hand again. “What nights do you perform?”

~ He shrugged. “Tell me your schedule and I’ll follow it.” Richie smirked and you just rolled your eyes.

~ When you were closing up, Richie offered to help and then walk you home, and when you told him no he said “come on I work here too”

~ While he walked you home, he would grab your hand and hold you close, shielding you from the cold winds.

~ “You wanna come inside? Have a drink?” He nodded eagerly, following you inside and sitting on your couch waiting for you. You brought him a beer and put on a random show, wanting to know more about him.

~ “Well, my hometown fucking sucks. I lost all of my friends at 14, so that’s the only reason I really moved out here.”

~ “Well, now you’ve made a new friend at 22.” You grabbed his hand, and he kissed your forehead, making you blush. “D-do you wanna stay the night? I don’t have to be at work tomorrow until 1 and I was thinking about maybe sleeping in. You can leave whenever you want of course I just...”

- Richie cut you off my kissing you, making your heart beat even faster than it was. When he pulled away, he pushed your hair out of your face. “I would love to.”

~ So that night you guys cuddled on the couch, getting to know each other more than you had ever gotten to know someone else.

~ Most nights after that were spent watching movies or reading or just being there together.

~ Midday dance parties in your underwear while you made breakfast when you were supposed to be making lunch.

~ “Richie, close the curtains.” “Who’s gonna see how sexy you are when we’re on the first floor? Plus, I like the way the sun lightens up your face.”

~ Fast forward a bit and you were now living in the heart of Los Angeles, your boyfriend of 3 years being one of the main comedians at the biggest nightclub on the West Coast.

~ He would be working till 1am and then would come home to lay in bed with you and cuddle, talk about his set, or just simply fall asleep in your arms.

~ You had quit the old bartender gig once Richie got hired, but you did work a babysitting business on the side, just so you weren’t sitting at home by yourself all day. One day, Richie came home from an interview and you were watching a couple kids, handling everything that was thrown at you with ease. One of them was throwing up and the other throwing a temper tantrum but you kept your cool and just handled it. That’s when Richie knew he wanted to start thinking about kids, but first, he knew he wanted to ask you to marry him.

~ He knew about your commitment issues and how worried about ending up like your parents: two drunk skunks who didn’t love each other and just decided to stay together for you when it would’ve been better if they just broke up.

~ When he asked you to marry him, you could tell he was nervous because his personality did a complete 180 flip.

~ You said yes, obviously.

~ You guys got married in Tennessee, where you were originally from, and it was the first time any of your family had seen you so happy.

~ Your neice fell in love with him and was with him the entire reception. She cried when she left and couldn’t be with Richie anymore.

~ Your first dance was to “No Diggity” and it was no surprise to anyone.

~ When you guys got back to California, you tried having kids immediately. Richie wanted one so bad and you weren’t opposed to the idea at all.

~ Your mom made you a picture frame that said “(Y/N) and Richie Tozier, 1999” and you use it for a picture of you two when you first started dating.

~ It took you about 4 months to get pregnant and when Richie found out, he cried for a good 45 minutes. He would soon make fun of himself for that during his show.

~ When you were about 6 months pregnant, Richie got offered to do a tour of the United States, and he wanted to do it but didn’t want to miss the baby growing up. That was the point where you realized how truly important you were to him.

~ When you had the baby, Richie cried when he found out it was a little girl. Her name was Merin Rose Tozier.

~ He was so involved in Merin’s life. He did whatever he could to make sure she never cried, which basically meant holding her at all times.

~ When Richie went back to doing shows, you two were at every one. Richie always made it a point to make jokes about you, immediately followed by “She’s gonna kill me for these jokes. I love you, baby.”

~ Merin’s first birthday was just you three so you decided it would be the perfect time to announce that you were pregnant again.

~ Once again, emotional Richie.

~ This time, though, your pregnancy was a lot lore difficult. You had morning sickness for the first 4 months, and then you were diagnosed with the flu. While in the hospital, Richie and Merin sat with you, taking turns nodding off.

~ Being released a few days later, Richie insisting you still take it easy. So you weren’t allowed to get out of bed for an extra week, which made you roll your eyes.

~ When your water broke, Richie was in the middle of an act and you were rushed to the hospital, and you called Richie about seven times until someone answered and it wasn’t even him.

~ “So, uh, I was thinking...” Richie was interrupted by the intern that picked up his phone running out onto stage, whispering into Richie’s ear. “My wife’s in labor, sorry. G-get refunds or something.” He was being booed, but all he could think about was his family growing.

~ You were the one to name your daughter this time: Evangelina Lee Tozier. Richie just held her and looked up at you and Merin admiringly, loving his three girls more than he could ever love anyone else.

~ You guys got a dog when Evangelina was about 2, a big Saint Bernard, and Evangelina didn’t know what to do, which resulted in many cute videos of her trying to pick him up as a toddler.

~ You didn’t know about IT until Richie had a nightmare about him and explained their encounter to you, but he couldn’t remember who he was with, which was a bit weird.

~ Staying up late with Richie to either watch a movie or just simply make out until one of the girls woke up.

~ When the girls both were in school, you started up your babysitting business again, this time only taking on about two kids a day so you didn’t have too many kids to watch when Evie and Mer came home.

~ Richie helping out by getting the girls on his way home from his writing sessions.

~ When Evie turned 5, you guys’ celebrated by taking them back to Tennessee, it being the first time any of your family was going to meet the girls in person.

~ They loved it so much that you and Richie made the decision to move out closer to Nashville, where he could get work.

~ Bolton, your Saint Bernard, was found out to have cancer on yours and Richie’s 10 year anniversary and it made you cry big time.

~ But Richie stayed strong and held you and the girls and Bolton, knowing that his family would soon grow smaller, much to his dismay.

~ When Bolton passed about three months later , you and Richie both struggled so you decided to get another dog after a couple of months without one, this time a puppy.

~ The girls didn’t know they were getting one, so you surprised them on Christmas with a small golden retriever, who was lovingly named Pudge, cause of how chubby she was.

~ For a few years, your life was perfect. There were no troubles, your kids were healthy, the dog was healthy, but something completely unexpected and big happened.

~ Richie got a call from Derry. You got a call from his agent saying that something was up, that he threw up after a random phone call. You took the girls down to the arena, checking in on him. The only words he got out to you were “IT’s back” before he was on stage.

~ You insisted you all go as a family, leav Pudge with your mom and dad. Richie argued and argued, until you got your way, like usual. You packed the girls up, hopping in the car and waited for him.

~ His hands shook as you all made the drive up, your keeping your hand on his lap the whole 21 hour drive, reminding him to breathe.

~ Your first reaction to the town was how rundown it was, how in shambles it had become. Richie pulled into the parking lot of a small inn, taking all of your things inside before sitting your daughters on the bed in the room.

~ “You stick with Mommy or me, do you understand? You can NOT go anywhere by yourself. Hell, go with one of my friends if you can’t find either of us. But you have to be with an adult at ALL times, okay?” The girls nodded, but you knew on the inside they were very scared.

~ When you guys got to the Chinese restaurant, Richie took a breath, leading you all inside. Richie walked in to the small seating area for him and his friends, seeing the gong and not being able to resist himself. He banged it, signaling his arrival. You and the girls snickered, and all of the other adults in the room looked at you three with furrowed eyebrows.

~ A smaller man ran and gave Richie a hug, looking at you all again. “How much did he pay you? Blink twice if you need help.” He laughed full heartedly, the others following along. “I’m Eddie, what’s your name?”

~ “(Y/N). And for your information, I’m paying him.” The group howled in laughter again, and Richie blushed, nervously scratching the back of his neck.

~ Richie was surprised how well you and the girls fit in, and he loved that his best friends loved his family. But when the fortune cookie fiasco took place, he vowed to never come back to Derry again. He was so ready to pack up and leave, seeing the trauma on Evie and Mer’s faces, breaking his heart.

~ Surprisingly, you were the one who convinced him to stay: the person who had absolutely no clue what the fight with IT would entail. You knew you weren’t going to be involved in it, but you figured that since this was such a big part of Richie’s childhood, he had to face it.

~ When Richie was away killing IT, he texted you as often as possible. Like he text you when he got his token, when they were about to get to the house and when they were in the sewers. After that he lost service, but you also figured that his phone was probably soaked through and the mother board had short circuited.

~ When they all came back from the Well House, you and the girls met them at the quarry, your heart breaking when you didn’t see Eddie and you saw Richie sobbing.

~ You went in, leaving the girls on the shore and hugging Richie. He hugged back, crying into your hair. You knew he was in love with Eddie from the moment you saw them together, but you also knew that he loved you, so comforting him was important to you. Eddie was his first “love” and losing that must be so hard, you couldn’t even fathom it.

~ “I’m so proud of you Richie,” you whispered into his ear as he grabbed at your wet shirt, needing something to hold onto and cry. And he cried. And he cried even more when the rest of the losers joined the hug.

~ “I would thank you people, but I don’t even know who you are cause I don’t have my glasses.” You all laughed at him, separating. “No, like, seriously I can’t find my glasses.” You rolled your eyes and smiled, helping the others search for them before getting out and going back to the inn.

~ When you had all of your things packed, you gave each and every one of them a hug, growing close with them so quickly.

~ “You two better keep in touch.” Bill was adamant that everyone was going to continue talking this time, and neither of you were opposed to it. They accepted you and your family in the Losers’ Club, and what could you and Richie want anymore than a place to belong?

#richie tozier x reader #it movie #it richie #richie tozier #eddie kaspbrack #it chapter 2 #headcanon #imagine #masterlist

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ahmeddocuments · 4 years

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Day 3, (Paris: Disneyland Paris/Midnight in Downtown Paris), 27-9-2019

Written by Ahmed Hassan, edited and corrected by Aya Ashraf.

The alarm went earlier today, it was set to wake me up at 6:00 AM. I gotta say, a busy day I'm having today. I've been alive for 28 years and I spent most of these years fantasizing about visiting Disneyland. It was all linked with my childhood, and how this place always looked like a sanctuary of my childhood fears, also a way to look up to a future built on fulfilling dreams.

I started to get ready, left the house around 7:00 AM. I was heading back to Charles de Gaulle Airport as Mohamed, a friend of mine, will join my tour for the upcoming two weeks. It took me like 20 minutes to get there, started looking for his flight and turned out I'll have to wait for like 45 minutes. I was extremely hungry actually but decided I'm going to wait for him till he arrives to make him have the full experience from day 1. It was his first time in France and Europe so he was pretty excited, in a way that made him buy us the two Disneyland tickets! I've known Mohamed since we were together in university, so we're talking about 11 years at least here, and Mohamed has always been a lovely caring and generous person.

After hearing the call for Mohamed’s flight, and it was a matter of minutes till he shows up. He finally appeared and it was an emotional scene full of mutual excitement about what we're going to witness later. Mohamed needed to have a french SIM card to use internet, so we made sure we got that at the airport. It was almost 8:15 AM and we're having two tasks before going to Disneyland: 1- to check-in in Mohamed’s hostel in Downtown Paris. 2- Start the journey to Disneyland!

We moved by RER and metro to Montmartre. At the hostel, he left his luggage and changed his clothes quickly to more Disneyland-appropriate outfit. But no matter what he did, nothing would have ever topped my planned outfit for the day! It was just a few days before travelling when I was surprised by Ahmed Hamdy, one of my best friends, giving me this t-shirt as a souvenir from his south-east Asia trip, and I instantly decided that this is gonna be my Disneyland day t-shirt!

So that’s it, we’re ready to go. Before going, we had a sneak peak at Sacré-Cœur of Montmartre, and it really felt nice seeing that one year later. I really like the idea of an important building appearing in the middle or a regular city scene, like it’s just blended there making everything look beautiful.

We had the longest RER trip ever, around 70 minutes to reach Marne-la-Vallée–Chessy station, which is commonly known as the Disneyland station. For those who don’t know me well, a very important pleasure of mine is to introduce something I really like to someone and see their reactions to it. And that’s exactly how I felt guiding Mohamed around the RER system and how everything is operating, I felt good about myself knowing more about Paris and actually started guiding people there, or at least discover it together all over. I also felt good seeing him really excited and his eyes sparkling as the RER starts moving, as people go inside the train and leave. I’ve felt the same back in 2018 and I’m still feeling it to date!

We’re going up to the park entrance, and we were instantly overwhelmed by how long the queue looked like.

We had the one day, two parks tickets; which allows us to have best of both words: Disneyland Park and Walt Disney Studios Park. The queue we saw at the main security gate took only a few minutes to pass, and we decided we’re starting our day with the Studios park first as it closes a few hours earlier than the main park. Nothing feels like seeing the Disney sign at the entrance, as if you’ve voluntarily chosen to teleport two decades back to your childhood and enjoy what you've been missing.

We stepped our feet inside Disney studios, and suddenly we’re in a scene of Animaniacs. Everything looks so colorful like it was painted a few hours ago, and the Weather was just PERFECT!

I also loved the level of details, which is what Disney is all about. I mean, I’m literally inside the first building and I’m already fascinated!

The first thing we saw after passing through the main entrance was the Park’s main feature: The Hollywood Boulevard. It was basically a statue of Walt Disney and Mickey Mouse greeting incoming visitors. I’m still shocked with how pretty that looked. Sometimes you just can’t help but recall moments like this just to feel you’ve done something right to yourself.

Both statues were followed by a replica of a typical Hollywood street, with multiple shops and stores that represent different styles. The street ended by what looked like a Hollywood sign in the horizon, which looked brilliantly real from far.

Using the Disneyland mobile application, we started to check the games with the least queues. The park was really busy that day, we had to go for the Hollywood Tower Hotel, which is one of the few rides I knew from before. I’ve always watched videos of how cool some of the rides were, and I couldn’t believe that I was actually waiting in line for it. (Later I couldn’t believe I’ve actually waited for 45 minutes, that turned out to be the least time spent in a queue for a ride that day)

The dominating style of the game, and most of the studios, is Art Deco. Which is one of my classical fantasies. It was a horror game in an elevator going speedy over multiple floors with very exciting free falls in the elevator shaft. It felt absolutely crazy being inside this game!

We later went for the longest queue of the day on Crush Coaster. It’s a one-car roller coaster that had Finding Nemo Theme. We thought it’s not gonna be an exciting game, but it turns out to be a great experience! We waited for 90 minutes, but it was worth it.

We stopped for a drink later and took a walk to freshen up. I’ve had the opportunity to take a picture that made my day, I’ve finally found my real match!

The Last ride we had at the first park was Studio Tram Tour: Behind the Magic. It was a 15 minute tour of studio effects, shooting stunts and special effects simulation in movies. I enjoyed every part of it, to the extent that I recorded the whole 15 minute ride, but I’m sharing below the most interesting part of it.

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And like it couldn’t go more Art Deco, there was this restaurant that played live jazz music to attract customers and I absolutely loved it!

Now as much as we were sad leaving the first park , we were pretty excited about visiting the other park. We were going through the entrance of the main park and It’s passing through Castle Club hotel building.

Now nothing felt as great as walking down the main street and seeing the “Sleeping Beauty” castle up in the horizon, like yes, I instantly went back to when I was young, caring less about anything but beautiful colors and details.

As we started getting closer, surrounded by music and happy kids, the castle started getting bigger and bigger, revealing of course everything I've imagined when I was younger; pure happiness. It looked real not just an illusion, it actually existed and people are visiting it!

I had the opportunity to go around the castle, and even go inside. I never thought I’d find anything interesting inside, but it turned out to be even more beautiful. The interior looked like a huge hall with stairs and a very beautiful ceiling.. The second level of the hall was surrounded by beautiful glass windows, that let the light do the work.

We decided to end our fairy tale for a while since we still have a full park to discover. Most of the things we wanted to visit were really busy and required queuing for at least two hours. We found a ride called Phantom Manor, which was, as described, a haunted house ride. We’ve decided to give it a shot since it had a 30 minute waiting time only. The building looked as creepy as it should, making us feel excited cause we literally don’t know what’s going to happen next.

We went inside and discovered it was mainly inspired by The Phantom of the Opera, making it more creepy. It was mainly an underground carriages ride, telling a story of a marriage between the evil and the good. Everything felt completely real; the mansion interior, the theme, the music, the forced-marriage.

It was 5:30 PM already, and we wanted to get ready and save ourselves a spot near the daily fireworks show at 8:00 PM. So we moved to my most awaited ride of the night; Star Wars Hyperspace Mountain.

Not only for being a star wars fan, but for the sake of how I wanted to have that space mountain ride experience, I’ve watched multiple versions of the game and nothing made me feel lucky more than having the opportunity to have it in a Star Wars theme.

The queue lasted for approximately two hours, it even rained while we stood there. We knew it was worth it so we decided to wait. Later when we were finally in, we had the time of our lives! It was a really fun ride with so much adrenaline for being in one of the Star Wars’ galaxies with a very high speed! We were screaming like we have never done that day, we wanted to have another but that would’ve been a waste of time indeed. We saw one of our on-ride photos which described our excitement in a funny way!

That was followed by a quick ride that’s right in front of it, Star Tours, another Star Wars themed ride! Man, I was on fire today! The ride was a cinema simulation of a ride in the world of Star Wars. The queuing didn’t last 15 minutes, and it felt like nothing because it was all themed with everything I loved about this world!

I mean, Come on! I saw a talking R2-D2 and C-3PO!

The ride was just brilliant, I absolutely loved it and loved how real it felt. The ride has a separate Star Wars gift shop that felt like heaven!

It was 7:30 PM, we ran our way to the castle again to find a good spot, and we were very lucky finding a good place to witness the fairy show!

And now It was starting to get darker...

We waited for a couple of minutes before the beauty started. It was a recap of Disney’s well known movies and tales, made in a very beautiful way. The light system on the castle and the surrounding was just on point. It was accompanied by a very beautiful soundtrack, and most importantly: The greatest fireworks show I had ever witnessed to date! Here’s a small sample of my full 20 minutes video of the whole event!

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After the show ended, everybody applauded and screamed like I had never heard before. That was the end of the day for what I assume to be everyone’s best day of their lives.

Everybody was leaving the park extremely happy, and as we welcomed the park by the same shot, we were saying goodbye the same way. It had all started only a few hours earlier, which felt like days ago!

Everything looked beautiful as it was the best way the park is saying good bye to us!

It was 9:00 PM , we were facing a nightmare trying to leave, as thousands of people were leaving the park at the same time. The RER station was packed with people. We could find a train of course but it was super crowded. I suggested that since we’re both starving, we might step out at the next station to have a meal at Val d’Europe. I had visited that mall back in 2018 because it wasn’t far from where I was staying, and I knew the whole mall would’ve been closed by now except for restaurants. We had to walk all the way around the mall till we found the food court and had MacDonald’s. The time we had our meals gave us the opportunity to wait for people to leave from Disney, and have a much emptier train for our long ride home.

I was extremely tired on my way back. I texted Islem to make sure he’s home and awake, and instead, he told me not to go home and meet him at Gare du Nord. Mohamed was heading to his hostel and I went up to meet Islem at 11:40 PM, just a couple of minutes away from midnight. I said, Okay that’s a good time to go home and rest, but no. Turns out He was with his Algerian friends, who I knew one of them from the year earlier. They had a car and they waited for me to do like a Midnight tour of Paris! That was an experience of a lifetime! We went through Rue de Rivoli, Place de la Concorde then passing to the other bank along the Seine. Then we parked right in the middle of Champ de Mars right behind Eiffel tower. The tower looked more beautiful at night, allowing me to see other side of Paris I haven’t seen before.

Somehow, such a scene brought me back to the movie Midnight in Paris. It was about all the fun starting when nobody is around. It was all about yourself and your thoughts, and how reality can be better than imagination. The tower was, as usual, well-lit. We parked the car and took a walk around it, had a very nice orange juice and then decided to leave.

I can’t remember pretty much what happened after I got in the car, because I was extremely tired. But as my google maps timeline shows, we went outside Paris to drop off one of Islem’s friends to his dorm. We then headed to our home which was a really long drive.

We arrived home at 2:40, I was dead tired in a way that I instantly wanted to just sleep and have no thoughts about what happened during the day. but as someone who’s writing that a few months after this day, I gotta say it felt priceless. Deciding to go through such details made me remember this all over like it was literally a few hours ago.

I’m grateful for everything that turned out to be well-planned, and I’m grateful for any pop ups or events that spiced it up and made it look the same way I’m documenting it.

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whiskynottea · 5 years

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An Interruption in the 1st Law of Thermodynamics.

Chapter 1, Chapter 2, Chapter 3, Chapter 4, Chapter 5, Chapter 6, Chapter 7, Chapter 8, Chapter 9, Chapter 10, Chapter 11, Chapter 12, Chapter 13, Chapter 14, Chapter 15, Chapter 16, Chapter 17, Chapter 18, Chapter 19, Chapter 20, Chapter 21, Chapter 22, Chapter 23, Chapter 24, Chapter 25, Chapter 26, Chapter 27, Chapter 28, Chapter 29, Chapter 30, Chapter 31, Chapter 32, Chapter 33, Chapter 34, Chapter 35, Chapter 36, Chapter 37, Chapter 38, Chapter 39, Chapter 40, Chapter 41, Chapter 42, Chapter 43, Chapter 44, Chapter 45, Chapter 46, Chapter 47

AO3

@theministerskat , my Detroit airport and Ann Arbor specialist, thank you so much for your help!

Chapter 48. Closer

“Gimme a ticket for an airplane, I ain’t got time to take the fast train. Lonely days are gone – ”

“Lamb! Stop it!”

“What?” My uncle looked at me, with a most innocent face. “What’s wrong with The Box Tops? I’m trying to get you in the mood for your flight!”

“I am in the mood, I don’t need your singing to help me!” I huffed, looking out of the car window.

Will it be raining in Michigan, too?

Lamb was driving ridiculously slow, casually tapping his fingers on the steering wheel as he sang, when all I could think of was reaching the airport and getting on the plane that would take me to Jamie.

Well, I wouldn’t get exactly on that plane.

The first plane would get me to London. Then a second one would whisk me across the Atlantic to Chicago. And finally, after a third flight from Chicago to Detroit, I would finally get to see my Scot. Really see him. Run my hands through his red hair. Smell the spices of his perfume. Tickle him until he would beg for mercy. Kiss him until there would be no breath left in his lungs.

In twenty-two hours I would be standing in front of him - if I could still stand. I would most likely crawl to him, unable to move after travelling for so many hours.

I didn’t care. I would be in Michigan.

Total flying time was almost twelve hours. Total time of the journey, twenty-two. Cheap flights. Not everyone can handle it - or so I was told by Lamb.

Scot: Have you arrived at the airport?

Sassenach: Almost. You know how Lamb drives.

Scot: Tomorrow you’ll be here, babe.

Sassenach: I wish I could just apparate.

Scot: You haven’t taken an Apparition Test.

Sassenach: Since when do Gryffindors care about rules?

Scot: It wouldn’t do to get you here splinched, wee Ravenclaw witch.

I choked back a laugh that made Lamb shoot me a questioning glance. “I haven’t seen you so happy since you got your letter from Oxford. Which was almost a month ago, if I remember correctly.”

“More than a month,” I murmured. In retrospect, it seemed even longer.

The first day or two, I had spent the majority of my time on Google maps, mentally strolling around Oxford via computer screen. Then, I caught up with a few TV shows Jenny and Joe had been raving about. I read books that had nothing to do with human anatomy and physiology and enjoyed staying at home, a cup of tea and a hardcover in my lap, the rain pelting down on the living room windows.

Joe and Gail had left for New York, their semester starting when Jamie’s had. Jenny and Ian remained in Beauly after the summer had ended. They had both accepted their offers to the University of Edinburgh and they would come back in September, which was exactly when I would be leaving for Oxford. Jenny and I talked almost every day, but I missed having everyone in close proximity. It felt as though I had been left behind.

The flight to London was less than two hours and I had resolved myself to watching a movie, when the tiny lady sitting next to me started talking. I smiled politely and nodded more times than I could count, and kept making attempts to insert my headphones while I silently prayed that she would get the message. She didn’t. Her son was graduating and then getting married and “Oh ye can imagine, dearie, how many things remain to be done!” Even if I couldn’t imagine, I didn’t need to. By the end of our journey, she had listed and analyzed them all, pausing only once or twice. Most probably to breathe, I had thought. Her enthusiasm made me smile. Her nasal voice, however, made my head buzz by the time we arrived at Heathrow. Mrs Macallan - “Like the whisky, ye ken?” - was sweet and kind hearted, but I felt lucky to be getting away from her on my next flight.

After retrieving my oversized rucksack, and bidding her farewell, I walked around the airport, absentmindedly looking at window displays and testing several perfumes. Finally, bored and tired, I searched for a quiet place to sit.

Sassenach: Seven more hours in Heathrow.

Scot: In thirteen hours I will kiss the hell out of you.

Sassenach: Oh really?

Scot: Yes. I can’t stop thinking about it.

Sassenach: Me or the kissing?

Scot: Both.

Sassenach: Hmm where are you?

Scot: Just finished up at the pool. We’re going to a place called “Fraser’s Pub”!

Sassenach: So you’re already THAT famous there?

Scot: Aye, restaurants open in my honor. I can’t help it Sassenach.

Sassenach: Snob.

Scot: Oh, is that you Ms. ‘I’m studying at Oxford, you common peasants’?

Sassenach: Ass.

Scot: THIRTEEN HOURS!!

Sassenach: Twelve and forty-five minutes 😛

Scot: I love you, got to go, the guys have started making fun of me. Ttyl?

Sassenach: Okay. I’ll be right here.

A ridiculous picture followed right after that, with Jamie’s lips so close to the camera I could hardly recognize them. Then another one, with him and John smiling broadly, heads bent together. I sent him a picture of me cuddled up next to my huge grey and purple rucksack and then tried to get as comfortable as possible, determined to get some sleep.

It seemed I was one of those people who can sleep wherever and whenever they want, not allowing anything to disturb them. Not the endless amount of people passing by, not their phone ringing, not even announcements calling their name.

When I opened my eyes, my phone had fifteen unanswered calls, nineteen unread messages, and two missed alarms. The most terrifying of all, however, was the time.

I had ten minutes to be at my gate and I didn’t even know which gate I was supposed to be at.

I picked up my bag, hoisted it unceremoniously over my shoulder and started running.

I had struggled to sleep the last two nights, the excitement of visiting Jamie making dozing off an impossible task. And now that I had a plane to catch, I fell asleep in the airport, and slept for more than six hours!

Seriously, now?

I was the last person through the boarding gate and I was the only one who went through it gasping for breath. When I finally took my seat, I checked my phone. All the missed calls and messages were from Jamie, all saying pretty much the same thing.

Where are you?!

Sassenach: Just got on the plane. OMG THAT WAS SO CLOSE! I almost missed my flight. I can actually hear my heart beating inside my chest.

Jamie replied immediately.

Scot: You scared the shit out of me, do you know that? First, I was afraid that you’d miss the flight, then I was terrified that something happened to you.

Sassenach: I’m sorry. 😞

Scot: You better be.

Sassenach: I didn’t do it on purpose!

I quickly calculated the time in Ann Arbor.

Sassenach: Are you still out?

Scot: No.

Sassenach: You’re at home? Still awake?

Scot: Yes, guess why! Because my girlfriend is crazy, and she sleeps in airports like the dead!

I saw the three dots appear, then stop. My heart thumped inside my chest.

Scot: You just scared me, is all. It took all the nerve I had to stop pacing back and forth in the room, and that’s mostly because I woke John up at least three times. I couldn’t handle it if something happened to you.

Sassenach: I’m okay. I’m sorry I scared you so. I love you. gtg! Plane taking off. ❤️❤️

Scot: I will kill you when you arrive. Even before kissing you.

Sassenach: That will make a fool of you. You’ll miss my kissing you back.

I spent my time during the flight watching movies and sleeping. No one talked to me, apart from the stewardess with the impossibly perfect makeup, who came passing by every ten minutes with coffee or tea, food, more coffee or tea …

I only had an hour layover at O’Hare International Airport and I didn’t even stop to look around. One last flight - and a short one, at that.

One hour later I landed at Detroit Metro, murmuring continuously, “I’m here, oh my God, I’m here!”

My whole body ached from sitting for so long, and walking felt like an exotic exercise. I had been right in that I would be crawling once I got here.

But then, I wasn’t. I rushed off the plane and pushed my way to the tram, jumping into a car just before the doors closed. I followed the flow of the other passengers, feeling like herded cattle, and took the escalator down to the arrivals area.

The moment the escalator brought me low enough to see out across the great open space of baggage claim I saw him standing there, tall and beautiful, waiting for me. I felt a huge smile spread across my face and mentally urged the people in front of me to move faster. Finally, a kind of magic seeped into my muscles, pushing me forward, and the only thing I could do was run to him.

I dropped my bag just before I reached him and a moment later I was jumping into his arms, wrapping my legs around his body, relying on his strength to support my weight.

A crushing hug. And then we were kissing as if we were the only people in the whole terminal. Fierce and consuming, it was a kiss that tried to make up for all the lost ones, all those we had been sending to each other during the last month, vanishing somewhere in the space between us.

But this kiss was real and hot and powerful, filling our hearts with blood again, after more than a month when distance made their beating dull, normal.

“You’re here,” he whispered. “I can’t believe you’re finally here,” he added, echoing my thoughts. “I missed touching ye, Sassenach. My arms always feel so empty without ye in them.”

I looked at him for a long moment, my throat too tight to talk.

“Come,” he said, and bent to pick up my rucksack. “We’ve a bus to catch.”

His hand was warm when he took mine and we walked together towards the shuttle pickup area. It was silly, but even walking next to him felt different. As if I couldn’t discipline my feet and each step would be the first to start a dance.

We sat in the second to last row of the bus, desperate for some privacy. His hand perched on the inside of my thigh, drawing abstract lines that were driving me crazy. I leaned my head onto his shoulder, trying to be decent, but five minutes later I was biting and sucking his neck until I felt him shiver.

“What are the plans for today?” I asked, my voice low.

“Today we’re going back to my dorm and we’re not leaving the room at all.” He shot me a naughty glance, implying that I knew exactly what was going to happen in his room.

“What about John?” I asked, frowning.

“He won’t come back tonight.” Jamie’s owlish wink and the sly grin that followed suggested that he had taken care of everything.

“I’ve turned everything upside-down for him. Trust me to make a bad first impression.”

“Dinna fash, Sassenach. Ye’re doing John a favour,” Jamie said, his lip curling up as he looked out of the window.

“What do you mean?”

“Ye gave John the perfect excuse to stay over at another guy’s place. He’s on the team, too. And I think John was waiting for an opportunity to stay alone with Hector since the first time he saw him. He hasn’t admitted it yet, but I’ve seen the way he looks at him.”

“John is gay?” I asked when he finally finished. “You haven’t said anything!”

“What was I supposed to say, Sassenach? ‘Claire, let me introduce ye to my gay roommate?’”

“Well, no, but… Anyway. And how about Hector? Do you think that he returns John’s feelings?”

“He’ll be a fool if he doesna. John is amazing. It’d be like you giving me your number and I never calling you. Impossible.”

I laughed at that, shaking my head. My curls escaped from my unruly bun, but I didn’t care. Jamie liked them down. “Yeah, right. That being said by someone totally unbiased.”

He looked out at the winter landscape for a moment. Then, his eyes were back on me and he let out a long sigh. “I’m so happy ye’re here, mo chridhe.” He squeezed my hand and bent his head to kiss me.

I couldn’t get enough of his lips.

We got off of the bus and walked quickly towards his dorm, partly because we ached to be finally alone and partly because it was freezing cold outside.

“Why did you have to come here?” I asked, feeling my nose go Rudolf-red. “Hawaii is one of the States, too.”

“Oh, excuse me Sassenach for not getting a scholarship somewhere sunny!” Jamie smiled and pulled his beanie lower, to cover as much skin as possible.

“It would be a nice change to Edinburgh,” I murmured. He just squeezed me closer to his body.

As we walked, I was fascinated by how much of the campus was woven seamlessly into the city itself. Just off the main streets that were filled with restaurants and shops, were smaller homes all in a line, and then suddenly a university building would pop up with a distinctive blue and yellow sign out front.

We didn’t stop walking fast once we pushed through the entrance doors of Jamie’s dorm. He rushed me across the lobby to the elevators, only this time I was almost sure he was moving quickly as not to be stalled by any fellow Wolverines looking for greetings and introductions.

We reached his room unnoticed. Jamie tossed my rucksack into a corner and closed the door softly behind me. I stood still, looking at the room.

His place.

It wasn’t big, and the beds and two desks made it seem even smaller. But it was cozy and clean, and had something of him that made me feel comfortable. I turned to look at Jamie, and for the first time in a month, I felt like I was home.

“I missed you, you bloody Scot.” My whisper was more than a confession. It was the profession of the gift I had been bestowed. The gift of having him in my life. Of having a home.

“I missed ye too.” He smiled in his crooked way, the way I had fallen in love with. “More than ye’d ever imagine.”

And then his lips were on mine, tender and honest. The connection we had longed for, when all we could do was rely on a screen to see each other. Now, we could feel. Our love was tangible, filling the room as our breaths mingled, as our hands intertwined, as our hearts beat together, their own song.

It didn’t take long for our kiss to turn wild.

Jamie shed the outer layers of my clothing, murmuring that I was a wee onion or something. I smiled and helped him, taking off some of his own clothes as well. It was when his hand found its way underneath my sweater that I yelped.

“Cold! Freezing hands!” He looked at me with a pout that wasn’t nearly cute enough to make me relent. “Don’t even think about it!” I said, pushing against his chest with a pointed index finger.

Jamie laughed and swiftly took me off my feet, eliciting yet another yelp from me. He lay me carefully on his bed and took off my sweater.

“No hands,” he promised, raising them in the air as he bent to kiss my neck. His lips moved to my chest, teeth softly biting my nipples, and I slightly regretted keeping his hands off the game. I needed him to touch me.

I squirmed beneath him, making my intentions obvious.

“Oh, no,” Jamie said, sucking my breast in a way I was sure would leave a hickie. “I spent so much time this past month telling ye what I was planning to do to ye when I’d have ye close again. So much time, seeing ye touching yerself and wishing it would be my hand instead of yers. I mean to take my time, mo nighean donn.”

A soft bite and a wicked grin. His eyes burned in mine.

“I mean to lick ye, kiss ye, taunt ye, feel yer smooth skin against mine and leave my marks on ye. I mean to hear yer moans and whimpers fill the room. And then, Sassenach,” he paused for effect, and I ground myself against him. We were both ready. And all the talking during our video calls didn’t go to waste, after all. “Then, I mean to fuck ye and feel ye fucking me until we canna move our limbs anymore.”

Everything went according to the plan.

Chapter 49

#thermodynamics #the first law of thermodynamics #high school AU #college AU #Jamie x Claire #outlander fanfiction #outlander fanfic

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thrashton · 5 years

Text

Soaring light (chapter 1)

thank you for your lovely comments and messages for the prologue!! here’s the first chapter!

Name: Soaring Light

Fandom: Skam france

Pairing: Lucas Lallemant/Eliott Demaury

Tags: assassin!au, falling in love, angst, hurt/comfort

Summary: Do not get attached, do not waste time, do not engage in any physical contact… The list of rules were long, but Lucas had never been the one to follow orders. In fact, he might have broken all of them in just a week, all because of the piercing blue eyes staring at him from the assignment in his hands, and the charming, mysterious boy they belonged to.

Chapter summary: Lucas tries to be very subtle as he online-stalks Eliott. It doesn’t go too well.

——--

(prologue can be found at the soaring-light tag at my blog, just click on the tag on this post. tumblr don't wanna show my post in the search tag if I put in links... and on ao3 with the username thetimeisnow)

CHAPTER ONE Why were storms a thing? Who invited storms? Lucas was going to find out and kick his ass. It was stupid, the rain covering his sight was stupid. The way he can’t see in front of the road he’s driving on was stupid.

The whole day was stupid.

Lucas had spent five hours trying find Eliott Demoury, but there was no one at his apartment, no one at his registered working place and no one at his two favorite coffee shops. He had googled his name and regretted it in a second, because dousins - no, hundreds - of model photos of the perfectly sculptured face and the piercing deep blue eyes stared back at him and Lucas had let his laptop fall close with a groan.

He can’t be attracted to his assignment to kill. Well, technically, he could. It wasn’t in the rules. The contract just said he wasn’t allowed any physical contact with his targets, mostly to hide all traces of DNA. And to make sure he didn’t get attached, which was another rule. Well fuck him, just the picture of this man got his knees weak.

Lucas hesitated a moment, then sent a text.

To: Manon D.

Change?

Change of contract, that meant. Manon would know that. In their work of line you had to keep yourself short and never, absolutely never, give out any information over the phone. Especially not their private phone. Lucas knew he’d most likely get his brains blown out if he said too much and he would never risk one of his closest friends and colleagues life as well. His phone buzzed. Manon, quick with a response as always.

From: Manon D.

No thanks, got my dream man ;)

To: Manon D.

Ugh. Fine. Drinks tonight?

From: Manon D.

That’s a yes, thanks. I’ll tell Mika and Emma. See you at 8?

To: Manon D.

Lol, sure. Bringing the boys if they’re up. See you, sunshine.

From: Manon D.

Dickhead.

Lucas rolled his eyes. His ever the lovely friend and colleague, Manon. They had worked in the same business for two years before they realised they were both carrying the same burden. They had been on the same funeral, a funeral for an older man whose two sons were the target of Manon, and his new wife was assigned to Lucas. He remembered it like it was yesterday as they stood gaping, staring at each other in the church when the priest did his thing.

A smile appeared on his lips at the memory. Back then, it had been the shock of his life but now it was a fun thing to remind him how small the world was. They were going to meet at their usual bar, and Lucas had actually seen a few pictures of the blue eyed God in just that bar when he googled his name, so maybe his luck would turn tonight. He could use that as an excuse to get pissed drunk.

Perfect. Just what he needed.

He parked his car exceptionally well considering the storm raging outside. It was only 6pm, but the sky was pitched black. He gave the car window a good, long stare before he forced himself to get the door open. The few meters from the car to the door of the building he lived in felt like a mile and his clothes was drenched in rain as he stumbled inside, muttering angrily to himself.

Stupid ass weather. He was going to kick its ass.

His older neighbour greeted him from the stairs and Lucas threw up his hand in a reply, he didn’t really feel like speaking until he was in comfortable, warm, dry clothes. And a beer in his hand. Maybe a joint between his lips. Ah. Perfect.

Pulling on his sweatpants like his life depended on it, he hurried towards his bed. Where the magic happens, as his best friend Yann dramatically put it when he visited Lucas new apartment for the first time. Well, where his hand happened. Or, another correction, where his hand was supposed to happen. But how no matter how much he tried, what type of porn he put on, he couldn’t get those stupid fucking blue eyes out of his head long enough to concentrate on jerking off, and there was no way he was going to pleasure himself thinking of his next assignment to kill.

Fucking hell.

Eliott really got the best of him. He needed to get rid of this guy fast, so he could get back to his normal routines, so his body could see some hot, big tits chick on his phone screen and think that’s hot! and not but it’s not him. How was this even possible? He hadn’t even met the guy!

In conclusion, his visit to the bed was unsuccessful. Lucas groaned loudly, burying his face in his pillow. He couldn’t wait to get drunk. A week from now Eliott would be dead and Lucas would be rich and he’d get the fuck out of Paris. He’d bring Yann, Basile and Arthur and they’d go to Amsterdam, or something. Find a nice penthouse apartment where they could throw the best parties in Netherlands, bring the best people and smoke a ridiculous amount of weed.

Lucas phone rang. He glanced over at the screen the name of his best friend staring back at him. Yann would know if he ignored him, that guy could read him like a book.

“Yep”, he answered as he put the phone to his ear.

“We going out tonight?”

“Uh-uh. Manon, Mika and Emma too.”

Yann went quiet for a moment. “Emma?”

“Dude. It was years ago, pull it together.” He gave out a light chuckle.

“Fine”, Yann sighed loudly, “only so you get get your lonely ass out there.”

Lucas laughed at him and got up to a sitting position on his bed. “Do you know a Eliott Demuary?” he asked. That wouldn’t hurt, Yann didn’t know he did for a living. Lucas wanted to tell him badly, but he wasn’t going to risk his best friend’s life only to have someone to talk murder with, that would be dumb. Yann wasn’t stupid though, and Lucas suspected he had a slight suspicion of what he did during his days; not that he’d ever tell him, or that Yann would ever get it confirmed.

“Of course”, Yann replied and Lucas almost choked on his own spit.

Okay. That wasn’t the answer he expected at all. It took a few moment for him to pull himself back together and hide the sudden excitement in his voice as he tried to sound as carefree as possible. “Aha”, he said and shrugged, “how’s that?”

“Why are you asking?” Yann was hesitating.

Fuck. Maybe he didn’t sound as carefree as he thought. “You know, just saw a picture of him.”

“Yeah, he went to our school…”

Lucas frowned. “What? No?”

He imagined Yann nodding from the other line. “Yeah, he did. Literature, I think, not sure. Don’t you remember, everyone was talking about him?”

Lucas did definitely not remember, because there was no way he could forget a face like that. “Are you for real?”

“Yeah!” Yann exclaimed, “are you? Ladies were fighting to get into his pants.”

“Shit.” How did he manage to miss this? Lucas shook his head, no, it didn’t matter. Now he had a way in to complete his assignment and he should be very happy for that since Eliott apparently didn’t want to be found. “Cool. Awesome. Nice. I mean, have you met him recently?”

Yann was silent for a moment. “Are you crushing on Demuary?”

Lucas gasped. “Excuse me? I am not!”

“I don’t blame you. He’s hot and- Oh, sorry, forgot you’re still hiding in the closet.”

Lucas pouted and wished Yann was standing in front of him so he could shove a middle finger up his face. Yann knew he was - or maybe was? He wasn’t really sure himself - gay. A little gay. Just a tiny little bit. Like, dick is nice and all and titties isn’t as nice. Which, in conclusion meant; a little gay. “Unfair”, he told him, “was just asking.”

He could hear Yann moving around. “Well, haven’t met him in a while but I’ve seen him in town a few times. Seriously Lu-Lu, you didn’t know he went to our school?”

“I didn’t, I swear! I wouldn’t forget a face like that. I mean, Yann, have you seen him?”

His best friend laughed. “Yeah, I have. How about you spend some time crying over a picture of Eliott and I come over with some beer?”

“Yeah, that’s fine.”

“Great. I’ll be over in 45.”

Lucas ended the call without saying good bye. He had no time to waste when he only had 45 minutes to google some more information about this mysterious man, who apparently went to their school. Did that mean Eliott knew who he was? No, that would be impossible. If he hadn’t seen Eliott, Eliott hadn’t seen him.

He found an instagram account. With a stupid fucking riddle to solve. It took Lucas longer than he chose to admit to figure out the name of Eliott’s second account, but when he did; it was absolutely worth it. A majority of his posts were black and white art. It looked like doodles but there was real talent behind it.

Too bad he was going to kill the guy, he would really want to hear the stories about the numerous posts of raccoons. A short video caught his attention; Eliott in a black hoodie, staring into the camera with his lips pressed together and his hair in a soft mess on his head. He zoomed slowly until there was nothing else than his left eye covering the screen. Lucas found himself sighing, feeling like an absolute jerk about having to end this, clearly well liked and talented young man’s life.

Most of Lucas’ targets were old men. Rapists, embezzlement criminals or other scandals more often than not involving money. He’d never really felt bad about killing them, a lot of them deserved to die. Lucas never stayed to see if his job was finished after poisoning his targets; he learned early on that it was way easier to get caught that way. Instead, he showed up a few days later, or watched the news if his target was someone famous or well-known.

But Eliott. He couldn’t believe this man had done anything to deserve to die. 50k was a lot of money and the higher the prize, the worse the crime. That’s how it usually went, anyways.

And in that moment, trying to pause the video just when Eliott zoomed in on his eyes, Lucas fucked up. He liked the video. Panicking, he yelped, a high pitched noise he’d be embarrassed to even try to describe, and got up from his bed fast enough to make his vision blur. As a first reaction his brain thought of the brilliant idea to throw the phone away from him to keep him from making more mistakes, but then he realised that shit, he need to unlike the video before Eliott noticed. He stumbled after the phone, tripping over a shirt on the floor and hit his toe in the foot of the bed at the same time. Ignoring the pain radiating through his body, he reached over the bed in panic and clicked on the red heard so fast and intensely that he accidentally disliked and liked it again.

Lucas wanted to scream. With an surprisingly steady hand, he finally managed to to unlike the video and sank down on the floor with a loud groan of disappointment. Shit. What the hell. Being subtle wasn’t his best personality trait, obviously.

Eliott had a lot of followers, someone liking his video wouldn’t matter, right? That was, of course, if his theory that Eliott didn’t know who he was, was correct. Lucas considered blocking him but quickly threw that idea aside; the video was worth seeing a few more times.

The doorbell rang. Yann. Had it been 45 minutes already? Apparently it had, because Yann was standing with a big grin and beer in both hands as Lucas opened the door, still sweaty and his heart beating like crazy in his chest.

“You look like you just ran a marathon. Which I know you wouldn’t.”

“Fuck you”, Lucas smirked at him, giving him a helping hand with the beer. “I accidentally liked one of Eliott Demaury’s posts on instagram. It was stressful.”

Yann let out a snort. “When he sees it, he’ll show up with flowers and a ring and propose right here, I’m calling it.”

“I unliked it. And liked it again. And then unliked it again.”

“Even I am slightly embarrassed for you now”, Yann laughed, “let’s drink to forget about it.”

Lucas smirk grew, it sounded like a good plan. Little did he know, forget about it was the least he would do that night.

#skam france #skam france fanfic #lucas lallemant #eliott demaury #soaring light #elu #elu fanfic #elu fic #skam france fic #yayyyyyyy chapter one

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exceedinghappiness · 5 years

Photo

This past weekend (Thursday-Sunday) I took my very first solo trip across the country to the beautiful San Diego, California! It wasn’t just my first trip to California ever, but it was also my first flight ever! I’m from Michigan and I've lived here my whole life. I just turned 23 (Aug 21) and I’ve only ever made it to very little states near me... (Ohio, Kentucky, Chicago). All my life, all I’ve ever wanted to do was travel and visit new places and see and experience new things. My family in general are not much big travelers, so they didn’t know much about it, or have any desire to push me past the things that scared me. Well, California has always been a dream state for me to visit. I’ve always wanted to see the beautiful ocean, the palm trees, the perfect weather all year round, etc! Well after talking about “I will make it there one day” to my family about 100x a day, about two months ago, I finally decided that as a 23rd birthday gift to myself- kinda as a new start to a new year in my life, I decided to plan that trip! I don’t have many close friends in general- let alone one that would travel to Cali with me in a short amount of time. I also don’t have family who would do the same! The one fear of mine was flying there. I had never been on a plane before, and all my life that and heights have always been my biggest fear. But I thought about the fact that as the years had went on, my fear of heights weren’t as bad, and I’ve done many things that I enjoyed that I didn’t think I’d ever do. I first booked my flight and started doing LOTS of research about the best way to plan this, considering I’ll be all alone, in a new state I’ve never seen before. I knew no one there, and only had some places and things listed that I knew I wanted to see. I do have a friend who lived in San Diego for two years, before moving back to Michigan. I asked her some of her favorite places and what not to see. I managed to find a cheap hotel in the middle of The Gaslamp District, which personally was an excellent location for me to stay. It was in the perfect location to walk to many restaurants, shops, Balboa Park, Petco Park, etc. It was only a 15 minute ride to Sunset Cliffs and Ocean Beach, and the airport! I ended up Lyfting to the beach and airport each time, since it was a little more difficult to walk, but it only cost about $10-$15 each way if you chose shared ride, which personally made me feel a little more safe and comfortable. Plus if you left to one of the locations in the morning, and planned to spend the day there and come back at night, then it was cheaper than taking a few trips there and back each day. I then spent all the rest of my time walking everywhere using google maps, and yelping places nearby! Let me tell ya, after figuring all those details out, it was all so smooth and wonderful! I had an amazing time just taking as much or as little bit of time the places I wanted to go, and things I wanted to see. I made the choices for everything and didn’t have to worry about feeling like I missed out on things because someone I was with didn’t want to “go there” or “see that.” I felt like I gained an extra bit of independence and learned a whole lot. The one thing that was probably the hardest about traveling alone, was when you’d want to get a Instagram worthy picture in front of somewhere, and you had no one to take it. I learned if you look around you and look for a friendly face. Usually I’d go for young teenage like girls who are most likely very into social media, or young mom’s who are already taking the time to stop and take millions of pictures of their children. They are usually sooo nice and will say yes to taking 1 or 100 photos for you (I did so happen to find a young photographer at Ocean Beach who took over 100 pictures of me, with different angles- so that was cool: see first photo).

Now on my last full day in Cali (I had a 9am flight Sunday morning) I didn’t have a whole lot of money left so didn’t want to spend it all getting a lyft to and from the beach again, as much as I wanted to. I just wanted to see something new! Well, Friday afternoon- I was walking back from Balboa Park to my hotel in Gaslamp which was about 45 minute walk. There came a point where I ran across a street before the light turned green and then got stopped at the next crosswalk. Suddenly there was a young, attractive gentleman stopping at the crosswalk as well. He had a paramedic uniform on and a very friendly smile on his face. He then turned and asked me what I was running from. I was pretty confused by his question, where he then proceeded to explain I must not be from around there because no one runs across the street unless they’re running from something. I then explained everything. Obviously not telling too much detail or anything because I’m by myself, in a different state, and with some guy I’ve never met before. He was super nice though, and explained how he accidently got on the wrong trolley home from work (which he’s never done before) and was walking to the trolley station, just a couple blocks before Gaslamp. Then he seen me running across the street, was concerned and also knew we’d be walking awkwardly at the same pace a few blocks so thought it’d be less awkward to introduce himself instead of complete silence. We then talked for a bit. He’s very open and very funny! He was very easy to talk to, which is unusual for me who is super introverted. He then asked if he could walk with me until he gets to his destination, because it would be safer than just by ourselves. We ended up walking the 30 minutes to Gaslamp. We were so into our conversations that we both forgot about his street and we didn’t even mind it. He then asked for my Instagram and told me how happy he was he took the wrong trolley that day. I walked the rest of the way to my hotel and he left to go back to the trolley station. Now... Saturday comes and I’m standing in line at Dunkin’ Donuts, it’s not even noon yet and he messages me on Instagram, asking my plans for the day. I didn’t have any so I just told him id probably just walk around and see where it takes me. he knew that was my last day there and told me it was his only day off that week. He asked if I’d want to hangout for a bit. I was a little unsure considering I didn’t actually know him, and all my family told me not to talk or go with strangers. I decided to take the chance but still be safe with it. He ended up meeting me at the Starbucks just a four minute walk from my hotel. He met me there at 1, but was actually early. He was dressed very nice and had a huge smile when I walked up to him. He told me he had a whole day planned for us and some back-up plans if I didn’t like some of his ideas. His first was to take a trolley ride to Old Town San Diego, which I had yet to see plus I had never been on a Trolley before. I loved that Idea and we then ventured off and talked about sooo much along the way, He showed me a bunch of his favorite music, and told me about his life growing up, etc. I enjoyed every single moment of it- even the overly crowded trolley. We then arrived to Old Town, which was totally awesome! He knows so many facts about so many things, and made the history of things so entertaining! He was so comfortable to joke around with and be myself around, it was so wonderful. He also took a few pictures of me in certain spots because he knew i’d want it for Instagram later. I didn’t even have to ask him. I do regret not getting a single picture of him or with him the whole time, only because in the beginning I felt a little weird to ask him because I wasn’t sure how he felt about pictures. He bought me my very first Churro, which was delicious! We just had an amazing time together. Then around 7, we planned to go to one of his Rugby teammates party, but we chilled in the parking lot outside of Old Town to wait for the details of this party. We then had a moment of silence after laughing about something we were talking about, and kinda just stared at eachother smiling. He then kissed me, and it was almost like a “too good to be true” kinda kiss. Eventually we decided to go to his home town and the town he lives called Chula Vista. We took a couple trolleys there and made it there at 7. We walked around his city, talking about the different places and the memories he’s had there growing up. I met his best friend’s mom, who was a total sweetheart and loved me, and told me she better be seeing me again soon. I met his cousin and their roommates, and some of his dad’s co-workers at the fire station. We then made our way to downtown Chula Vista which had a bunch of taco trucks, bars, and shops. It was so cute and everyone was so nice. We stopped in his favorite bar, and he bought us both a Corona then we headed out back to the outside. We spent the last couple hours out there just talking, laughing, showing eachother music, etc. It was then midnight and I had to get back to the hotel to get ready to go to sleep for my early flight in the morning. We ended up stopping at his and his roommates house just a couple blocks down (I know that doesn’t sound safe, but I sent my aunt the address just in case) We all ended up playing video games, eating some homemade tortillas his cousin made, and just listening to music and goofing around. I honestly didn't check my phone or anything just about the whole day, because the whole day was just too amazing and fun. He then drove me back to Gaslamp around 2am (I still didn’t feel comfortable telling him my hotel so I just walked two blocks to my hotel after) but we sat in his car for a bit and just talked about how this whole meeting eachother has felt like a movie. We laughed about it, then explained how terribly sad we are to have to say goodbye already. We both teared up a little and just enjoyed our last few moments together (hopefully not for long though). I then left and so did he. We texted all night til I fell asleep. Now here I am now, writing this Monday night. I’m home now and still felling extremely sad to have left. I’m so happy I went and had the most amazing experience I’ve ever had. We have both been texting and Snapchatting all day, since. I miss him a lot, and it’s crazy saying that considering I’ve only known him a day. But there’s definitely something special about him and I definitely believe there’s something special about the way we met. I believe everything happens for a reason, and his taking the wrong trolley and getting off on that stop that day, and me running across that same street and catching his attention, was all meant to happen. That’s why I believe there’s a special reason he was put into my life, whether or not it ends up romantically, He definitely gave me the most amazing memory I’ll ever have so far. I appreciate him and his kindness, and for just being there. I find new parts of me, I never knew existed. I’ve learned new things. I know so much I want to do now. I’ve made a new friend. Plus sooo much more. California will always hold a very special place in my heart. I definitely plan to visit San Diego again very very soon! Until then... Time to save money and just reminisce through photos and memories in my head.

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environmentworld-blog · 5 years

Photo

Making an environment in One Week - Part 1

I decided to make a whole environment piece in one week. So yeah!

WHAT THIS IS: Practice and an experiment. This was just a personal test to see what I could achieve and share my experience. WHAT THIS IS NOT: Healthy and practical. Healthy for reasons you will read bellow (at least for me), and practical because rushing things doesn't make you better. Even though there was some discovery here for myself, I didn't learn any new techniques, didn't learn from critiques, etc. I dont recommend to do this as a constant art practice. Its not smart if you are planning to grow in your craft.

That said!

Its been both a challenge, and a great time. It was definitely a big learning experience for me, and I am not very happy with the results but I decided to share it because I got something out of it, and hopefully some of you will as well.

The main challenge was to conceptualize and go from blockout to final in 1 week. Basically, going from here...

...to here...

...in one week.

The result is running realtime in UE4. I used Blender, ZBrush, Topogun2, the Substance suite and Photoshop.

DAY 1. Starting out...

This was, heads out, the hardest part. The whole piece took me around 45 hours. 4 hours after work from Monday to Friday and at least 12 hours on each day of that weekend. Needless to say, at the end of that week I was completely exhausted. MVP of the week was my girlfriend who decided to take care of my chores the whole week while I worked!

Looking at the empty canvas is always scary.

And of course this time it was no exception. It added an extra layer of pressure knowing that every minute I spent looking at it and clicking around, would take valuable minutes away from my busy week.

I had to figure out SO MANY THINGS.

When tackling down an environment, there are many things I usually keep in mind. You have composition, theme, storyline, execution method, end platform, etc. And in this crazy jungle of thoughts that usually strikes me when starting to build a piece, I can get lost really quickly and begin walking in circles.

First I had to CHOOSE A PLATFORM. Unreal, of course. Moving on!

Then I had to FIGURE OUT THE MAIN THEME, on which I'm going to build my scene. So I almost instantly thought: pirates. I LOVE pirates. I mean, who doesn't? And with Uncharted 4 still to this day in my veins and one of the latest Magic The Gatheringset ever-present in my head (go Ixalan bois!), I had all the inspiration I needed. I had found my theme. And I set it in stone, for I would never allow myself to lose time changing it. That was not an option...

And of course, I ended up changing it.

Now, I need to THINK OF THE STORY. It was going to be amazing! I wanted to have a small boat in the sand with a treasure on it. And in the back, a huge ship shooting at it. As if the pirate stole the treasure and was getting away! He got to shore, but the ship was too damn close, so he had to take away whatever we could in his hands leaving most of it behind.

Cool, I liked it. It was no Dark Souls environment art storytelling, but it kinda worked!

So then I jumped to the next and one of the most crucial of steps: GATHERING REFERENCE AND BUILDING A MOODBOARD.

I think I got rid of most of my pirate-related reference, but here you kinda see what I was aiming for terrain wise. I had to cut a lot of it, but the feeling was there. This step is almost crucial, and it is really important not to underestimate reference. Spend 1-2 days looking for it. Always keep it open while working, and never stop looking for new pictures!

All this took me a good couple of hours. Perhaps 3 (tight time frame after all). So I HAD to move on to the engine now. No time to waste.

Next, I started with my main BLOCKOUT. This is definitely the most important part of it all. Here is where you should spend the most time when making environment art. The blockout is going to dictate the overcome of your whole piece. Don't think in details, details sucks, details are for murlocks. Nail your main shapes and composition FIRST. You will definitely tweak things around, but having your composition, shapes, balance, and flow of the piece in place in the beginning, is not only going to allow you to work more effectively, but it will also keep you inspired and moving forward.

So I did. This is the first blockout of this piece ever.

I started out with the simplest of compositions. I can go quite crazy trying things out at this stage but, not to my surprise, I hadn't much time to spare. So a simple rule of thirds, which I personally dislike (here is why), will do for now. I knew that I was going to keep a simple 3 point composition, and 2 counterbalancing points will do the trick for now.

Also, at this points rocks, water and sand texture were taken from the UE4 library.

I moved on then to BLOCKING OUT LIGHTING. As everything in this stage, it was very simple. Just used a basic skysphere (default to UE4) and tweaked the values a bit. I knew for a fact I wanted to keep working on both the mood and the clouds. But no time for that right now.

The goals of my first day were to have the whole blockout done. At this point it was almost 10 pm and I wasnt ready. And I wasnt going to bed until I had at least a very basic sand texture there.

So I made it.

And since its really awful, I figured I might aswell explain what was I shooting for composition wise. The framing was going to be natural vs man-made. Rock vs water. So the big rocks on the fore and the middle ground where doing that for me. At the same time, I was throwing all the flow lines I could to make the ship pop up.

And that was it. 11 pm. Time to eat something, go to bed, and go to work the next day. I could have stayed up all night. But I knew better.

DAY 2. Sand and rocks

Day 2 started out nicely. I almost ran home to get my hands on this! I was confident that I was going to pull it off. All was great!

I jumped right away to Substance Designer. I knew (and had been thinking all day) that I wanted to have the sand in as soon as possible. So I jumped directly to my next step BLOCKING OUT TEXTURES. Not everyone works this way, but I found out that having a solid blockout of your textures helps you to see the bigger picture. In an interesting scene, not only color but also roughness take a big part in making it look unique and appealing to the eye. And having your materials blocked out will get you early to a point where you can start tweaking lighting, composition and even propping to get the most out of your scene.

This screenshot is 2 hours in on the second day. I kept moving rocks trying to improve the composition, and all this new perspective came from my new sand material being applied to the terrain. I built a simple blend shader and vertex painted some roughness variation in where the land met the sea.

Also grabbed this super high poly ship from somewhere on the internet and used it very quickly to try to pull my vision a bit forward. All assets were created by me in their entirety, but blocking out a ship just for the blockout's sake would take me a whole day, and I was already starting to get scared from the scope of this scene. At this point I didn't think I was going to pull it off, and grabbing these ships helped me realize that my original vision simply wasn't going to happen. They were a lot of work, so I had to improvise something on the fly.

Much like in game development, the cool parts get cut. Ships were out, and I spent a whole hour trying to think what to do to replace them. And the clock kept ticking.

So I kept working on the composition. A 3 point composition would do it. A simple offset of focal points kept in flow by the terrain and contrast. Not too fancy, but would do the trick if done correctly.

Then I thought I might as well move on to the next thing: CREATING KEY PROPS. So I decided to get started with the rocks. I sculpted these godforsaken monstruosities and quickly decimated and textured them.

Here is a quick tip for you all: DONT RUSH THINGS. Because when you do, you end up losing time. They looked like crap. And I knew that. And hated the fact that I had to redo them. That didn't only make me lose time, but also severely affected my morale. Tackle things smartly, and give every piece of the puzzle the time it requires, because if one single piece is off, everything will look unfinished or just wrong.

Then added some fog and, just like that, the day was over. What a waste.

DAY 3. Rocking rocks.

Day 3 started at 7pm. I had to get to work with the rocks right away. So I did.

I looked for a lot of references and got to it. I ended up finding some killer ref on it, that was exactly what I needed. In the end, and after pretty much all day, I was happy with what I got. The sharp edges broke nicely with the smoothness of the scene. It almost felt like I was achieving a gradient between the smoothness of the water, the semi-rough surface of the sand and the sharpness of the rocks. I quite liked that. There was even a cool story element to it.

It also had to be reusable, so I sculpted it 360 degrees, since it was going to be rotated like crazy. I knew they weren't perfect since there was barely any small detail on them, but I would come back to them later.

I also kept developing the blend shader a bit. And used it on the rocks as a test, painting some sand on top of them.

DAY 4. Propping, mesh scatter and sand!

Getting back to it on the fourth day had me excited! I knew what I wanted to do with the rocks, so I started creating bigger variations and some backdrop ones. Once I had them, I kept working on the composition and framing of the whole piece. Also created some sharp ones to add at the distance, as some reference I found showed.

So at this point, halfway there, I had my composition kind of there, my secondary props almost done, my main textures half done, and I was still experimenting with lighting. Damn.

When propping, it's always good to keep micro-compositions in mind. There is a lot to talk about on this topic, and I plan to do it in the future in more detail, but as of now this should do. Every big shapes should be grounded, accompanied by medium and smaller bodies. And this is what you can see I did here. Breaking the rotation of assets and having other smaller props around them, blend big assets and terrain together smoothly, almost like in a gradient.

And then it clicked. I decided to take a huge U turn. Pirates wasn't an option anymore since the ships were too expensive to make. So I decided to turn into scifi. Star Wars more specifically. For some reason I just got a bit of a scifi vibe out of it. Decided to follow my gut.

First big change was lighting. Before I was aiming for something really moody and gray. Tons of fog, low visibility and and sad/uncomfortable mood. Changed it into a mostly clear sky at dusk.

DAY 5. Prop making

Getting back to it on the fourth day had me excited! I knew

My first idea was to recreate the crash from Star Wars Jedi Knight Jedi Academy on the planet of Blenjeel (the one where the sand worm tries to get you). So I thought it could be a really nice remaster piece to make! Story was figured out and all.

So I used some UE primitives to build the basic shapes of what I was going to go for in both focal points. It was going to be the fallen ship and one of the ships parts you need to retrieve in the mission.

But as I started looking for reference, what I could find was really limited. the game is really old and there is barely any art for the level. I found a single piece of concept art in one of many Star Wars wikis and started blocking it out from it.

My plan was to execute the main asset that day, so I quickly jumped into it. And as I started modelling one of the turbines of the ship (you can see it in the next image), it resembled something I was really fond of. So, again, a new sporadic change in the design...

Pod racers! I LOVE pod racing. Who doesn't?

And like that, day over!

DAY 6. Of grounding and helmets

First day of the weekend. My intention was to finish everything today. Wanted to have all props figured out, all dressing done, all painting in place, etc. The last day had to be just post processing and super small details in the scene. Lots of things happened on day 6.

The new prop was simpler and more easily recognizable. And, most importantly, I liked it! It would be now the remaining of a crashed pod. The races (as depicted both in the movie and the game) were pretty brutal, and so I figured I could try to show that.

Here is the asset.

After that I quickly jumped into grounding the asset better and adding smaller detail. Added some dragging marks for the turbine, wires, random parts of the broken pod scattered everywhere.

DAY 7. Final tweaks and presentation

Final day upon us!

I started the day early adding the third focal point to the scene. Backdrop pods racing at the distance. This wasn't only the third piece of the 3 point composition, but also a big storytelling element. This guy had some tough luck, but the race still keeps on going!

Also started to play heavily with a post process volume and some nice LUT tweaking.

Then did a final pass on everything. Added some more scatter, tweaked lighting, added some fake bouncing lights and tweaked the reflections. Then made some quick dead vegetation and added it around some rocks. The final composition was rather simple, but here is a breakdown of my mental process. It doesn't really matter which of the 3 focal points to see first, all of them are connected creating a circle flow between them.

In blue, you can see the helmet connecting with the turbine thru the wire in the sand, creating an arrow directly pointing back and forth. Framed by the rocks in the foreground, the helmet creates a strong contrasty focal point that is very likely to attract most attention at first glance.

In red, the turbine. The trail behind it serves a single purpose: its guiding the viewers sight towards the next focal point in the rotation. Also the same positioning of the turbine works as an arrow pointing left. Perspective and placement work together here for this end.

In green, the pod creates an attention spot simply because of contrast. And so it completes the circle. All shapes around are meant to both point towards it and guide the viewer back to the helmet.

General positioning on the scene and during the dressing had purpose. Playing with empty spaces vs populated ones, contrast and color helps, and here the sand areas and sea create clear paths to traverse. and the central, uninteresting, piece (in orange) creates the perfect shape to accentuate direction and a pivot for the whole image.

And so I was done! 8pm on Sunday. Crazy week! Was absolutely exhausted and had a real bad time trying to concentrate next Monday morning. But I managed to pull it off to the best of my ability in the given time, and the result was rather acceptable.

Many lessons learned on this. Not going to bore you with all the details of my own realizations, but I tought it would be nice to share the crafty side of them.

Im not doing this again any time soon. Even though I look back and can be proud of having finished a piece in this small amount of time, the gain wasn't really worth it. Things I would improve if would have had more time are:

Pods could have improved with some motion blur (didn't have the time to figure out how to make it happen in UE).

Smoke looks still and inorganic.

Rocks could be better grounded, with sand buildups on the sides.

Backdrop rocks are way too simple.

More color variation would have taken this to a much nicer place. I played it safe with complimentary colors.

Assets could use some more time.

And I think I could keep going on forever. Even though my eyes are still a bit used to seeing it constantly.

Thanks a lot for reading! Sadly I had to cut a bunch of it due to text characters limit, but I think this sums it up well enough.

Please leave any questions you may have, happy to answer them! Also any ideas and C&C on the piece is absolutely encouraged.

Thanks again, and till next time!

Otto

#environment #environment art #level art #unreal #ue4 #real time

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criminalminds-lol · 5 years

Text

Copycat (Part 1) [Reader x Spencer Reid]

Quantico, Virginia - November 11th 2013

“Annabelle Daniels, 17, was abducted while jogging in Quinton, New Jersey, on September 10th, 2011. Her body was found in Quinton on January 4th, 2012. Loren Hobbs, 19, was taken a week later, on January 11th, 2012, also while jogging, this time in East Windsor, New Jersey. Her body was found in East Windsor on April 21st. On the 27th, Cassandra Gibson, 18, was abducted from Eagleswood Township and her body was found on September 1st. A week later, September 8th, Addison Hunt, 17, was abducted after she went out for a run in East Rutherford and her body was recovered on November 4th. On November 11th, Sophie Peck, 19, went missing, also while running, this time from Aberdeen. Her body was found on March 6th. A week later, on March 13th, Tracey Cole, 17, was abducted from Independence Township, and her body was found on June 30th. On July 6th, our most recent victim, Haley Putnam, 18, went out for a jog in Quinton, New Jersey. Her body was found two days ago, November 9th. The police hadn’t previously connected the murders because they were in different precincts. When they sent us the file it only contained Annabelle Daniels and Haley Putnam, but it seemed odd that a serial killer would go dormant for that long, so I talked to Garcia and she found the five other murders. All of the girls were found in dumpsters behind grocery stores in the same county that they went missing in, all wrapped in a white sheet. Local authorities already checked for DNA, but they came up empty. All of the girls were within the same age, height, and weight range, and they all had long brown hair. When they were found there were ligature marks on their wrists and ankles and large gashes on their inner thighs which were presumably made by a regular kitchen knife. There was evidence of repeated sexual assault on all of the victims, but there was no semen left behind. When the bodies were found, there was no blood on the sheet, so they had to have been dead when he wrapped them in it, and there was no blood on the bodies either. Police are assuming that he washed the bodies before dumping them.”

“Forensic countermeasure?” Derek asked.

J.J. nodded. “It looks that way. It keeps the blood from getting in his vehicle or on him. Local authorities believe that the bodies were dumped late at night or early morning, because they were found when employees went to take out the trash.”

“This unsub is extremely organized. He manages to kidnap these girls in public parks in the middle of the day and then keep them hidden for months before he dumps them in public places. He knows what he’s doing. He has spent years perfecting his skills. Have Garcia look for any bodies that were found exactly one week before Annabelle Daniels was taken. Keep going back from there, and see if you can find anything. The MO and signature don’t need to match, necessarily. He’s been evolving, and for all we know there may be more victims that we haven’t found yet. We need to get there soon. Wheels up in 30,” Hotch told the team.

Everyone nodded, leaving the conference room to grab their go bags.

Quinton, New Jersey - November 11th, 2013

“Detective Alayna Welch?” J.J. asked as she walked in to see a woman standing, waiting at the elevator. The rest of the team followed behind her. “I’m Agent Jennifer Jareau, we spoke on the phone?”

Detective Welch nodded. “Of course. Thank you for coming.”

“These are SSAs Aaron Hotchner, David Rossi, Derek Morgan, and Doctors Spencer Reid and Alex Blake.”

“Thank you all for coming. I wish we had met under better circumstances. If you’d like to follow me I’ll take you to the rest of the detectives. Once we realized all of the crimes were connected I had the lead detectives on all of the cases come down here to meet with you. Since two of the kidnappings occurred in Quinton, we figured you’d have the most to look at here. The rest of the abduction and dump sites are all fairly close. An hour drive at most.”

Detective Welch lead the team into a room where a few other detectives sat. There was already a board set up on one side with information about each of the victims and another board with a map.

“Detective Brad Keys, East Windsor; Detective Alecia Garner, Eagleswood Township, Detective Roland Westcott, East Rutherford; Detective Tom Donaldson, Aberdeen; and Detective Brody Waller, Independence Township. They’ve come down to help to whatever extent you need them.” She gestured to each person as she spoke.

“I thought I was living in a peaceful state, or at least a peaceful town. Everybody thinks it can’t happen to them, but then it does. I used to be the lead detective at the NYPD, but I left because I hated the violent homicides. I came here for a fresh start six months ago, and two months in I was investigating the death of Tracey Cole,” Detective Waller said, looking up at Hotch. “I hope you can help us catch this son of a bitch.”

"We’re here to do just that.” Hotch turned to Reid, nodding towards the map. “I want you to get started on a geographical profile. Seven abduction sites, seven dump sites. We need to narrow down where we believe he might work or live and, if we have to, get other police departments involved. Morgan, I want you and Alex to visit the morgue and look at the bodies, see if there was anything that was missed. Rossi, you and I will go to the dump site of the most recent body. It’s been over two years since the first murder, so the other crime scenes are probably contaminated at this point.” Hotch turned his attention to the detectives in front of him. “Since there are so many bodies, we have been able to profile a few things already. First, this unsub is extremely organized. He keeps these women for months at a time and brutally tortures them, so it is likely that he lives somewhere secluded or he has a secondary location where he keeps them. Somewhere that nobody is going to hear them scream. His level of organization suggests that he plans the abductions months in advance.”

Reid nodded. “It’s likely that he frequents parks around the state and looks for women who fit his type. He probably comes back for days or even weeks in a row to figure out their routine. He might sit at these parks, just watching, for hours at a time. Once he chooses a victim and learns their schedule, that is likely when he kills he previous victim and moves on to the next one.”

“Until Haley Putnam, he always struck in different jurisdictions. The fact that he came back to Quinton tells us that it either has meaning to him, or that he is devolving. Possibly both,” Morgan explained.

“Lastly, a killer this good at what he does has probably had some practice. We believe that Annabelle Daniels was not his first victim. We have our technical analyst looking through VICAP for a woman whose body was found exactly one week before Annabelle Daniels was abducted. Although the signature of slashing the inner thighs is an important part of his murders now, it is likely that he evolved to that level of violence. It is possible that prior to her he had kidnapped and murdered other women,” Hotch explained

J.J. nodded looking around the room. “Please, keep what we have just told you to yourselves. Having so many different offices involved greatly increases the chances of this leaking to the media. It is in our best interest to keep this information under wraps. Currently, this case is not in the media, and we’d like to keep it that way. It is important that you keep the fact that we are here quiet, and that we tell the media that we are investigating the death of Haley Putnam as a single homicide. An unsub this organized could relocate if he thinks that we are onto him. Our best chance of catching him relies on him believing that we have no idea the murders are connected.”

Quinton, New Jersey - November 16th, 2013

“Hotch!” J.J. rushed into the room with a photograph in her hand. “Emilia Rakes, 18, from Oakland. She left home at six o'clock to go for a jog before school. Her mom says she does it every morning. Usually, she’s back by seven to get ready for school, but her mom says that she still hasn’t come home. It fits the timeline. He just took his tenth victim, including the first two that Garcia found.” She sighed.

Reid looked up, glancing at the picture. “Oakland?” he asked.

J.J. nodded, confused.

“Well, that changes the whole geographical profile. It narrows down the area.” He walked over to the map, drawing a dot on Oakland with a red marker. “Under the assumption that the unsub works a normal nine-to-five job which he lives within thirty minutes of, he would have to have abducted her between six and seven AM, giving him an hour and a half at the most between Oakland and his own home. If you include Oakland in the geographical profile, the only area that overlaps between all ten of the abduction sites and the nine dump sites as a possibility is Ridgewood, New Jersey,” he explained.

“Get that information to Garcia. Look at men between the ages of 40 and 45 in Ridgewood who have had prior arrests for rape,” he ordered.

“I’ve got one hundred and seventeen names, Reid, you’re going to have to do better than that!” Garcia told him. “Okay, um... Only men who have a normal nine-to-five job,” he told her.

“Well, that narrows it down a bit. Thirty six. Anything else?”

“It’s pretty likely that the unsub owns multiple properties,” Reid added.

“Okay. That’s it. Three names. Joss Church owns a house in Ridgewood where it seems he lives with his wife and three kids, and he also owns an apartment in Oradell which it seems like he rents out. Um... Oil Savege was convicted of statutory rape in 1990. He was twenty years old and his girlfriend was seventeen. Her parents pressed charges.”

“It’s highly doubtful the charge would have been statutory rape, especially with a girlfriend. What’s the last name?”

“Oh... Oh God. Brody Taylor, 41, owns a house in Ridgewood where he lives with his wife, Linda, and daughter, Y/N, and an old car repair shop that has been shut down for years. He inherited it from his father, Jared Taylor, when he died in... December of 2010, one month before the first girl was abducted. And... he was charged with aggravated battery and attempted rape in 1992. Apparently he attempted to rape a 19 year old girl who... oh god... was out on a jog in the park.” She sounded terrified, as she usually did when looking at the god-awful things that came with this job.

“Garcia, I need-”

“Home address and the address for the repair shop have already been sent to you and the rest of the team.”

(Y/N)’s POV

I was in the kitchen making lunch when I heard the knock on the door. When I opened it, I saw a man and a woman standing in front of me.

“Ma’am? I’m Dr. Alex Blake with the FBI, and this is Dr. Spencer Reid, we’re looking for Brody Taylor.”

“He uh... He’s not home right now. He’s at work. My mother is too. Can I help you? FBI?” I was confused, to say the least. What was going on? Why were the FBI knocking on the door and asking to speak to my father?

“We’re investigating a series of homicides. Ten women over the past three years. We’d like to speak with you if that’s alright?” the man asked.

I nodded apprehensively, opening the door further to let them in.

“Wh-why do you think I would know something about these murders? Why do you think my dad knows something?” I was confused. I had heard about a girl who had gone missing in Oakland recently, and a girl that they found dead in Quinton, but beyond that I hadn’t heard anything. Ten murders? All connected? Wouldn’t people have said something about that by now?

“Right now we just want to talk to your father. We think he might have some information about the man who may have hurt these women.” The woman sounded condescending, like she thought that I couldn’t understand what was going on, or like I couldn’t handle the truth. For some reason, I felt like she was lying.

“You don’t think he did this?” I looked at the man she had introduced as Dr. Reid, hoping he would be honest with me.

“We don’t know right now. All we know is that a lot of people have been hurt, and there’s a girl who’s missing right now, and all we want to do is help her. Do you mind if we ask you a few questions?”

He didn’t say it outright, but I knew. They suspected him of this. At first, I didn’t believe it, but then I thought back. Over the last three years? After my grandfather died, he had become more distant. I had always thought that it was just because losing his dad was hard on him; they had never been close, I don’t really know why I had thought that, but I guess it was easier to believe than the alternative: this.

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canaryatlaw · 6 years

Text

well, today was mostly alright, though I currently feel like shit due to reasons I disclosed in my post on my private blog and will thus not be discussing here. But yeah, today. Woke up at 7 and it was a little harder to get out of bed because I did get somewhat less sleep, but I managed. got ready, got to the courthouse, and waited for the attorney I was shadowing today to show up. This was a guy attorney I hadn’t shadowed yet but I had a basic idea of who he was, and the other guy who’s a new attorney like me that I was talking about the other day was also shadowing him, so we were all together. it was pretty good, not too hectic, but we didn’t get to do all that much, the most was probably waiting for an order to get finalized and stamped while he ran to another room for the next case. But it was good! We finished at like 11:30, and me and new attorney guy (I’m gonna need to come up with a better nickname for him than that) were scheduled to attend a deposition that was set in the west loop at 2, but generally we’re supposed to get there early so we can be there when they prep the client, so we were gonna try to be there by 1:15. We went back to the office and got some lunch, and I typed away furiously for a bit trying to get some stuff done in the small window of time I actually had. The wifi was being particularly annoying and wouldn’t let me load any pages, so I had to do most of it off my phone which was obnoxious. But at like 12:45 we headed over, we had to take the red line down to the stop my school is off and transfer to the pink line which is right in front of my old apartment building, so I was giving him kind of a cursory description of the neighborhoods and the routes the trains took because he’s only lived here a few months and hasn’t explored much, so that was fun. the deposition was actually at the Chicago transit authority building, who we apparently sue a LOT, probably because they’re kind of awful and keep injuring people (this one was from a car accident where this poor woman got rear ended by a fucking bus and needed surgery afterwards). But it was super awkward because they have a sign in desk like most downtown buildings do and they wanted photo ID, I still don’t have my driver’s license of course but I had remembered to grab the credit card that’s tied to my costco membership because it has a small picture of me on the back (with medium length brown hair that looks nothing like me now, but that’s besides the point) so I was able to use that as a photo ID at least. But like, they were all like “we don’t see anything in our system about you being here” and we gave them the firm name and they said the same thing and eventually I was just like “can you just call the law office on the 6th floor and ask them about this deposition?” and they did and then more or less approved and printed us the little name badges, then had us escorted upstairs, which was awkward because as that was happening the lawyer who was actually doing the deposition arrived and had to go through the check in process while we went upstairs lol. But eventually we all got upstairs and in a rather large conference room with the plaintiff. this was a deposition where the defense attorney was deposing the plaintiff, so our lawyer didn’t actually get to do any questioning (he does have the opportunity to cross but didn’t end up doing so because, as he explained after, that’s really only needed if the witness said something wrong and they need to fix it basically. It was only half of the deposition on the liability issue, not damages, and thank god for that because it was already extremely long. we had legit been going at it for an hour before we even got to the actual accident, and then spent another solid 45 minutes on that, so it was a lot. but the plaintiff did very well and the case looks like it could get a big settlement (I think they said her medical bills right now were $370K, which are like YIKES) so that’s good I guess. Once it was finished we went back to the firm, where I had to run around doing some stuff and sorting folders for a while before I got to actually sit down and do the court call schedule that I’ve now been put in charge of making each day, which is fine with me but apparently the new way they’re doing it has been causing some dissension among the assistants and I’m just like oh good, I’m getting handed this project right when people start objecting to it lol. But I was super determined to get it done, and it was already like 5 pm at this point but I just wanted to finish it, so I stayed and worked on it focusing for like a solid 50 minutes until it was perfect. the best part here though is that new attorney guy totally stayed and worked on stuff with me which I’m convinced he only did to stay with me, because once I finished he left with me. We’re definitely developing some camaraderie, which is definitely nice, and I mean, he’s not bad looking and we already established the Christian thing which is usually a big thing, so I definitely wouldn’t be opposed, and things have gotten a little flirty at times....so I guess we’ll see what happens there, lol. Right as we were leaving the sky looked like it was about to downpour, and it was because before I could get to the subway station and get underground it had in fact started raining. I didn’t know if the crowd would be any better at 6 pm instead of 5 pm on the red line, but it was in fact worse, and I had to wait 4 trains to actually get on one, which was a giant pain of course. But I finally did and once I got off the rain had stopped, which I was very thankful for. Walked home and decided to try a simple recipe for naan pizza I’d somewhat adapted, and it turned out really good, so I was pleased with that. and then I sat down and watched friday night lights for a while. definitely a good show, getting very interesting, so I’m enjoying that so far. And yeah, after a few episodes of that I started getting ready for bed and here we are. I’m tired and it’s already past midnight so I’m gonna go ahead and call it a night here. Goodnight darlings. Stay special.

#daily journal #September 2018 #Rachel's lawyer adventures

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feuillyys · 6 years

Note

a fic where either bahorel or feuilly works in a flower shop! or a fic where one of them works in an ice cream shop! or a fic where feuilly has magic/powers because il him! or a fic that's a Very Serious meeting of the feuilly fan club!

since i’m already writing some sort of version where feuilly has magic, i started to jot down a few ideas for this little thing - and naturally it spiraled out of contro and became a whole entire fic. i hope this is something similar to what you had in mind!

minute by minute;

Bahorel isn’t there when Feuilly gets home, which is strange.

They’ve lived together for almost two years now, been best friends for a million years longer. Feuilly knows Bahorel’s schedule inside and out by this point—and Thursday’s are his days off.

Feuilly drops his backpack onto the counter and grabs a juice box out of the fridge. The house is strangely quiet; Bahorel usually spends Thursday’s cleaning which means music is blaring from his crappy record player. Still, Feuilly can’t complain about the quietness, especially when he’s got a lot of studying to do.

He grabs his backpack and hauls it to the couch, dropping it unceremoniously. There’s a granola bar somewhere in there calling his name, and he doesn’t even care that half of his friends would tease him for his juice box and granola diet. He knows he’s a child.

Feuilly collapses dramatically onto the cushions—

And promptly sits on top of something uncomfortable.

Their couch is old. It’s old and probably really gross, but it’s Bahorel’s favorite couch even if it’s a relic from his childhood and they’re too broke to buy a new one. Feuilly is used to sitting down on the couch and finding all kinds of interesting paraphernalia, like chip bags or books or empty water bottles.

For as much as Bahorel is a neat freak, his couch has never been anything but disgusting.

Feuilly shifts forward until he can reach in between the cushions and figure out what he’s sitting on. His fingers brush the metal spine of a notebook—he grabs at it, interest piqued. It’s a decent notebook, spiral bound with a green cover, and there are words written in Sharpie scratched across the front.

Official Feuilly Fan Club™ Minutes

Feuilly flushes scarlet. He can feel his ears burning but he can’t take his eyes off of the notebook, as embarrassing as it is. He’s gonna kill his friends. Specifically Bahorel, because Feuilly is about a thousand percent certain that he’s behind this. God, this is so embarrassing—were they having meetings in his apartment? How was Feuilly unaware of this?

Christ. Who was involved?

His curiosity gets the best of him. Feuilly flips open the notebook, hoping it will clue him in to any information about why the thing even exists.

The first page is dated to two months back. Blush creeps up Feuilly’s neck again. This has been going on for a while. He has got to kill Bahorel.

11:00 Meeting scheduled to start; in attendance is Bahorel, Enjolras, Courfeyrac, and Combeferre. Jehan is late

11:01 Courfeyrac begins teasing Bahorel about calling this meeting

11:05 Enjolras names us the Official Feuilly Fan Club™

11:06 Jehan shows up—with cupcakes

Feuilly honestly might be dying. This is incredibly embarrassing. Though, now he knows with certainty that it was Bahorel behind this. Maybe it’s a good thing his best friend isn’t home. The rest of the first page continues on, most of the minutes written at the expense of teasing the group, some serious. At the bottom, the handwriting switches to someone new and it reads Courfeyrac banned from writing minutes. Meeting adjourned.

Well. On one hand, it explains why Courfeyrac had been so pouty about minutes during the ABC meeting a few weeks back. But the minutes don’t explain why this apparent meeting was being held, or even why they continued meeting, and Feuilly honestly is far too curious for his own good so he can’t be blamed for continually flipping through the pages.

The minutes vary between being jokes or being serious, even as Combeferre obviously took over and banned both Courfeyrac and Jehan from being in charge. Some make Feuilly smile—“1:03 Jehan mentions bringing R into the meetings and Enjolras gazes longingly into the distance for ten minutes straight”—but there are certain lines that make no sense.

12:46 Jehan gives Bahorel sample sonnets

10:10 Courfeyrac suggests amping up Bahorel’s wardrobe “to woo like the peacocks do”

10:11 Both Bahorel and Enjolras throw pillows at Courfeyrac’s head

2:30 Combeferre suggests honesty—receives glares from all other members

And most confusing of all:

3:45 Bahorel confesses

“Confesses what?” Feuilly wonders aloud, fingers tracing the word. It’s on a page all by itself, with no other writing or details scribbled along the page. The page before is dated yesterday, and stops in the middle of a sentence. The entire thing is so strange; Feuilly thinks, if this is a prank, he really doesn’t understand the punchline. There’s nothing else in the pages after the last line, no other details or pictures or graphs or ideas or anything. A half filled notebook full of minutes that may be fake but still somehow manage to make Feuilly’s heart stutter in his chest. A foolish part of him wonders if—if.

Keys jangle in the door, Feuilly’s telltale sign that Bahorel is finally home from whatever had been keeping him out of the house. For once, Bahorel doesn’t enter the house with a string of swear words or loud crashing sounds. The door swings open quietly and he slips inside. It takes him a minute to notice Feuilly on the couch, but he freezes as he puts his keys on the hook and raises his gaze to see Feuilly on the couch.

“Hey,” he says, sounding mostly normal. He even smiles. Feuilly wonders why it’s so easy for him to notice that this isn’t a normal Bahorel smile. He wonders why he knows everything here is to know about Bahorel and then some.

But mostly, he wonders why the sadness lingering in the corners of Bahorel’s expression seems to pearce him so strongly.

He realizes a second too late that he’s just sitting there staring at Bahorel with a dumbstruck look on his face. Bahorel raises an eyebrow, but then his eyes drop and he catches sight of the notebook in Feuilly’s hands—his face pales.

“Fuck,” he whispers.

Feuilly sets the notebook down. He stares at it, for just a second, before looking back up at Bahorel. He looks shaky and pale and terrified, horribly vulnerable yet… beautiful.

Feuilly’s breath catches in his throat.

“Oh,” he says, full of wonderment.

“Feuilly,” Bahorel says quickly, panicked. “Feuilly. Listen. That’s—okay, it is what it looks like but. Shit. Christ. How did you even find that? Fuck. God, it wasn’t supposed to happen like this, it’s all wrong.”

Feuilly stands up. He can’t believe it took him this long to realize it. Countless hours spent with Bahorel, sitting on the couch yelling at their shitty reality shows or buying each other coffee or laying together after nightmares; all the times people assumed they were a couple and they laughed but never corrected it because it wasn’t ever weird, how Feuilly didn’t even hesitate when Bahorel suggested they move in together—

All the lingering gazes, the late nights where Feuilly couldn’t place the feeling that swelled in his chest and made him feel warm, every single time that Feuilly came home after a long day and felt infinitely better the second Bahorel smiled at him.

It all comes crashing down on him, wave after wave of undeniable, plausible proof that he’s been in love with this man for almost his entire life.

“Bahorel,” Feuilly says, and there must be something in the way he says it because Bahorel’s mouth immediately snaps shut. His eyes are wide. Feuilly feels like both of their hearts are exposed now, but Feuilly knows how far down the line his heart lies and he has no clue where Bahorel’s—

Oh.

Maybe he does.

“Eleven oh one, Courfeyrac teases Bahorel about calling this meeting,” Feuilly says slowly. He can see Bahorel swallow thickly.

“Feuilly,” Bahorel warns.

“Ten thirty, Bahorel suggests a perfect date,” continues Feuilly. He gains confidence, to the point he steps closer to Bahorel. “Twelve forty six, Jehan gives Bahorel sample sonnets. One twenty, Bahorel lists all of Feuilly’s favorite movies. Bahorel is voted President of the Feuilly Fan Club. Bahorel quickly ends meeting when Feuilly comes home early. Bahorel accidentally writes his own sonnet.”

There’s only inches between them now. Feuilly reaches up and places his hand on Bahorel’s chest; the heartbeat underneath his t-shirt is frantic, nervous, beautiful. Feuilly tilts his head up—Bahorel has never looked more lovely than he does in this moment.

“What are you doing?” Bahorel whispers.

“Three forty one,” says Feuilly. “Bahorel kisses Feuilly.”

That’s all it takes. Bahorel closes the distance between them and kisses Feuilly like nothing else in the world matters. His lips are soft and perfect, and Feuilly realizes now he’s spent forever imagining what this would be like but it doesn’t even come close. Under his hand, Bahorel’s heart rate slows, steadily, until it beats in sync with Feuilly’s. Bahorel’s hands grip at Feuilly’s hips, and he pulls away just to be chased by Feuilly for kiss after kiss.

When they finally pull apart, Bahorel is breathless and beaming, and he rests his forehead against Feuilly’s.

“I’m in love with you,” he says honestly, openly. Feuilly doesn’t even try to stop the grin that splits his face.

“I should hope so, I can’t have just anyone be the president of my fan club,” teases Feuilly. He barely even gets a chance to laugh as Bahorel rolls his eyes and leans down to kiss him once again.

#feuilly #bahorel #feuilly x bahorel #the bromos #les mis #I'M SORRY THIS TOOK TEN AND A HALF YEARS ANON I AM THE WORST #also i'm uploading this to ao3 probably within the hour if i stop being Lazy #and if anyone was wondering.......... ferre was 10/10 the one who wrote that last minute abt bahorel confessing bc he Knew #and he's a meddling lil shit #anyway i have to Die #asks #anon

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shadowychopshopreview · 3 years

Text

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The Best DVD Copy Software of 2019 - Top Ten Reviews. We have researched, compared, tested, rated and ranked the best DVD copy software for 15 years. In that time we’ve considered dozens of programs, spent hundreds of hours testing products, created hundreds of new discs and examined the quality of the copy.

Copy Protection. Copy protection is a phenomenon that is used to make your work visible to a limited audience to judge your creativity or talent. Copy Protect helps you achieve this by making your media files, creative videos, cover songs, presentations, research etc. Into executable files that run only in the device you prepare them for.

We have researched, compared, tested, rated and ranked the best DVD copy software for 15 years. In that time we’ve considered dozens of programs, spent hundreds of hours testing products, created hundreds of new discs and examined the quality of the copy. DVD Cloner has topped our rankings for more than a decade, and for good reason. It has every tool and feature we look for in the best DVD copy software, including two copy modes: Express and Expert. Express allows you to start the copy process with minimal effort, while Expert gives you all the customization tools to get the exact copy you want.

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Best for Mac

DVD Cloner for Mac

It’s no surprise that the best solution for Apple users is the same as for Windows. DVD Cloner for Mac is easy to learn and use, and it yields high-quality results.

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Best Overall

DVD Cloner

You can start copying a DVD in less than a minute.

It has every customization option we look for in this category.

Saving ISO (disc image files) to your hard drive is more complex than necessary.

The time it takes to burn a new disc is longer than average, according to our tests.

DVD Cloner is the most expensive program we reviewed.

For years, DVD Cloner has been our top pick for DVD copy software. It’s versatile, easy to use and yields high-quality copies of the original content.

This application allows you to make a perfect 1:1 copy, compress a DVD 9 onto a DVD 5, pick and choose the aspects of a commercial DVD you wish to copy onto a new disc, and more. It’s also remarkably easy to use. DVD Cloner has two main interface modes, Expert and Express. The former allows you to dig deeply into the application’s potential, and the latter is a wizard-style sequence that walks you through the entire process of ripping, copying and burning a DVD movie. The interface is completely intuitive, but it also has powerful controls that allow you to customize your copy. DVD Cloner has consistently performed excellently in our quality, time and ease of use tests. Results are almost always crystal-clear and perfect matches of their source discs, and the program rarely produces an unplayable or unwatchable disc. You can also use it to merge several DVDs onto a single Blu-ray disc. This is an excellent option if you’re upgrading your physical media library or simply trying to consolidate the space it takes to store optical media discs. This software can also convert your movies and TV shows into standalone files. This is a great feature because it lets you watch your content on nearly any media player, and content can be synced to your multimedia devices easily.

Best Value

DVDFab

It provides the most features for the price.

It contains a full array of customization options.

Picture quality is excellent, with minimal quality loss on compressed copies.

In our tests, it took longer than average to produce a compressed copy.

If you want to use DVDFab’s ripper, converter and creator features, you must buy separate modules.

This may not be the least expensive DVD copy program, but it provides the biggest bang for your buck.

Its well-designed, intuitive interface is the most modern of the programs we reviewed. DVDFab does a great job keeping the program updated so that it’s compatible with your current operating system – something that isn’t guaranteed with other applications. But it’s the multiple copy tools that make this program such a bargain. You can make an exact copy of a disc, make a movie-only copy or split the content onto several new discs. This program also allows you to back up your DVDs to a hard drive. This is great because you can use the copied files to burn a new copy of a disc without needing the original. In our quality tests, DVDFab earned high marks. Exact copies were indistinguishable from the original, and compressed copies had minimal artifact and other imperfections. The downside is that it might be intimidating to beginners. Learning everything and using it to its fullest potential might require a few times through the process. However, if you’re willing to take the time, you can master the program with help from tutorials and other resources from DVDFab’s website.

Best for Mac

DVD Cloner for Mac

The step-by-step workflow allows novices to use the software flawlessly.

It is compatible with most current version of MacOS.

You’ll need an external DVD burner to use the software on recent Macs.

The interface seems a bit antiquated for 2018.

The best DVD copy option for Mac is the sibling of the best Windows pick.

DVD Cloner for Mac provides the same easy-to-understand workflow, customization options and backup tools as its PC counterpart. Its Expert and Express modes allow you to choose whether you want to make a copy in just a few clicks or take a little more time to create a personalized disc. You don’t have to splurge on the more expensive DVD-9 (or DVD-DL) blank discs; you can compress a commercial disc to fit onto the cheaper DVD-5 discs. You’ll notice some quality loss when you choose this option, but DVD Copy for Mac keeps that to a minimum. If you want to retain as much quality as possible, you can make a movie-only copy of a disc that will require less compression. This is also the fastest Mac DVD copy software we reviewed. It takes about 40 minutes to make an exact 1:1 copy of a commercial disc. When we compressed the copy, it took about 45 minutes. The program can save a disc’s image (ISO file) to your hard drive, so you can make new copies without using the original. You will need an external DVD burner if you want to use this software on a newer Mac, since they no longer come with an internal optical drive.

Best Quality Copy

1Click DVD Copy

Great compressed video quality.

Every program we reviewed can make a perfect 1:1 copy of a DVD. However, several contain the ability to compress a movie found on a commercial DVD-9 onto the smaller-capacity blank DVD-5.

This necessarily reduces the quality of the original movie. 1Click DVD Copy, along with our top pick, create the best quality compressed copy. Additionally, this DVD copy software is very easy to use. Like its name suggests, you can start the copy process in as little as one click. The interface is one of the simplest of all the programs we reviewed. However, it’s missing several of the features we look for. Such as the ability to customize new discs as well saving a disc image or TS folder to your hard drive.

Easiest to Use

1Step DVD Copy

All the tools in this software are available from the main window of the interface.

While its interface is antiquated, 1Step DVD Copy is the easiest-to-use DVD copy software we tested and reviewed.

All its features and tools are available from the main window of the interface. You have the ability to choose to clone a DVD directly, copy DVD files to your hard drive, burn a new disc from a saved DVD folder and convert DVD videos into digital files you can watch without a physical player. Anyone can use this software to its fullest potential, even those with limited computer skills. This simplicity does come with some tradeoffs. Unlike the best programs we reviewed, 1Step DVD Copy cannot copy a disc’s image (ISO file) onto your computer for archiving or backup purposes. Additionally, the quality of compressed copies leaves much to be desired.

Why Trust Us? We have reviewed this category for 15 years. In that time our reviewers and video experts have spent hundreds of man hours copying discs, customizing content, watching newly burned discs, and comparing results with other copies from other programs and with the original. We’ve used dozens of DVD copy programs and made hundreds of copies. We are intimately familiar with the software’s abilities, performance and drawbacks.

How We Tested During our evaluation of DVD copy software, we subjected each product on our lineup to a series of tests.

Quality Tests

We made at least two new copies of our test disc with each program we reviewed, one compressed and one uncompressed. Our video experts then examined each copy and compared it against the original, searching for quality loss such as compression artifact, pixelation and distortion.

We found that all the products on our list can make an identical copy of a DVD if they are uncompressed and burned onto a blank DVD-9. There were no exceptions to this. If you want a perfect copy of a DVD movie, bonus features and all, you can choose any of the products in our lineup to get it.

However, when we evaluated the quality of compressed discs, we found wide variations among the software. They all had noticeable quality loss, but some were much worse than others. Our video experts compared the compressed discs against each other and the original disc, and gave each program a letter grade (A-F) depending on the quality of the video.

Timing Tests

When we tested the DVD copy programs, we timed how long each took to complete a full copy of our test disc, both compressed and uncompressed. These copies had everything contained on the disc, including a full-length feature film, menus, audio tracks and all other bonus features.

We found that the average time to make an exact copy of our test disc to a blank DVD-9 is a little less than an hour. Some products take as little 40 minutes on the low end and nearly an hour and a half on the high end. If you have a single disc you want to copy, these variations don't matter much. However, if you have a large DVD library you want to back up, even a few minutes can make a huge difference in the time you must dedicate to the task.

Making a compressed copy takes considerably less time than an uncompressed copy. With one exception, the products in our lineup took about half an hour to compress the contents on our test disc and burn them onto a DVD-5.

Ease-of-Use Tests

Many of the programs in our lineup have very similar interfaces. We evaluated how easy it is to access and use the common features of each product. We documented how many clicks it takes to begin a conversion, load an ISO file and access each application's customization tools. We also tracked how many times the programs crashed during testing and how many unusable discs they created.

Things to Consider When Choosing DVD Copy Software

There are a few things you should understand and features you should look for when shopping for the best DVD copy software.

Every DVD contains what is known as an ISO file (or ISO image). These files are essentially the blueprints for a disc. They contain everything a DVD drive needs to recognize and play a disc on a computer or a television. DVD copy software scans this file, copies it onto your hard drive and then burns it onto a new disc. This creates an exact copy of the original disc, complete with the movie, menus, audio tracks and bonus materials.

Before a DVD copy program can make a new disc, it must bypass the copy encryptions found on almost all DVDs sold by major entertainment companies. These protections are intended to stop illegal piracy. The best DVD copy software circumvents these encryptions so you can back up, archive and make personal copies of the movies and TV shows you've already paid for.

https://shadowychopshopreview.tumblr.com/post/638386689678737408/using-sccm-for-windows-updates. We deploy the OS using MDT, install the SCCM Client with mostly default settings and manage software updates through our Configuration Manger (CB) server.

There are two types of blank discs you can copy your DVDs to: DVD-9 and DVD-5. DVD-9s have about 9GB of storage space and DVD-5s have about 5GB. This is important because nearly all commercial DVD movies are sold on DVD-9s, and the most common and less expensive blank discs are DVD-5s. The best DVD copy software allows you to compress the content on a DVD-9 to fit onto a blank DVD-5.

Keep in mind that if you compress your DVD copy, you'll notice significant quality loss on the new disc. This is the nature of video compression, and even the best DVD copy software can't get around it. This includes pixelation, compression artifact and motion blur. If you want an exact copy of a disc, you should purchase and use the more expensive blank DVD-9s, which will yield a copy with no quality loss whatsoever.

An alternative to compressing your DVD movies onto smaller discs is to create custom copies that require little to no compression. Most of the DVD copiers in our review allow you to copy just the main feature on a disc and leave off extras like menus, alternate audio tracks and bonus materials. In most cases, the main feature from a commercial disc will fit onto a DVD-5 with no compression. The best DVD copy software allows you to pick which tracks and content make it onto your new disc.

One other way to avoid quality loss due to compression is to split the content from a DVD-9 onto two DVD-5s, with the main feature on one disc and everything else on the other. The best products in our lineup have this feature among their main tools.

Another important attribute for any DVD copy program is the ability to save the disc's ISO file onto your hard drive. If you're using these programs for archiving purposes or have a large DVD library, this is a must-have tool. When you save an ISO file, you're essentially saving a virtual DVD onto your hard drive. These files act the exact same way as physical discs. You can play them through DVD player software and even burn new copies without the original disc on hand.

A great way to back up your DVD library is to get an external hard drive and back up each disc's ISO file. You'll never have to worry about a disc being lost, damaged or broken, because you'll always have that backup ISO file to make a new copy. The best DVD copy programs allow you to load an ISO into the interface and burn a new copy the same way you would if you had the original disc.

You can expect to pay anywhere from $30 to $60 for DVD copy software. But keep in mind that the more expensive software isn’t necessarily better. For example, our top choice costs $60, which is the same price for programs that are missing several of the tools we look for in this category. Make sure the program you buy has all the features you need, so you get the most for your money.

Is it Legal to Copy a DVD for Personal Use?

Ripping, duplicating and copying DVDs is a tricky legal issue, even if it’s for personal use. The short answer is that you can probably get away with it, but there are some things you should know. Starting with the law.

The DMCA The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) forbids anyone from bypassing digital rights management technologies found on most commercial DVDs and Blu-ray discs. This effectively makes it impossible to rip, copy or convert any media that contains copy protections, encryptions or similar guards without running afoul of the DMCA.

Title I of the DMCA rather definitively states, “No person shall circumvent a technological measure that effectively controls access to a work protected under this title.” It also prohibits anyone from making or distributing a product or service that circumvents protected content.

The title empowers the Librarian of Congress to issue exceptions to the anti-circumvention rule, and exceptions have been made for copying obsolete computer software, “jailbreaking” smartphones and using clips from movies for commentary and criticism. However, the Library of Congress has not made an exception for circumventing Digital Rights Management, or DRM, even for personal use.

Ripping, Copying and Circumvention

You’ve likely seen the warnings repeatedly that copying or ripping a DVD or Blu-ray disc is illegal. However, while circumventing DRM protections isn’t allowed, ripping and copying haven’t been specifically forbidden. What are the important differences between these concepts?

Ripping is the act of transferring files found on physical media, such as an optical disc, to a computer. This act is not technically illegal because it can apply to ripping homemade DVDs. Copying or duplicating home-produced DVDs or Blu-ray discs is likewise legal, so long as the user owns the copyright to the content found on the disc. But what about ripping movies and shows you didn’t produce?

There have been several statements and rulings made by government officials and courts both in the U.S. and the U.K. that affirm the legality of ripping even copyrighted works. In 2012 Congressman Darrell Issa participated in an AMA (Ask Me Anything) event on Reddit. During the session, he was challenged about the legality of ripping legally acquired DVDs and Blu-ray discs.

“You can in fact make personal copies for your own use. A good example would be ripping a DVD so you can play it on your iPad. That use is not prohibited. The MPAA always takes the view that your rights are limited, but for non-commercial use, making a digital copy like you suggest is a-okay,” Issa said.

This statement appears to be in conflict with the rules set forth by both the DMCA and the Librarian of Congress. However, Congressman Issa only mentions ripping copyrighted material; he says nothing about circumventing the copy protections. It was a partial dodge of the question. The asker followed up his question with a request for clarification about circumvention – a request that was ignored by Congressman Issa.

Software Copy Protection Products For Windows

In 2014, a U.K. court legalized making personal copies of legally acquired media for private use. However, this ruling does not touch on the subject of DRM. While Britons may duplicate copyrighted works for noncommercial use, circumvention of DRM protections remains illegal.

Prosecutions and Lawsuits

Despite the efforts of the above-mentioned institutions and individuals, circumventing copy protections remains against the law in the United States, the United Kingdom and most western nations.

Large-scale content creators, such as movie studios, use the anti-circumvention clauses in the DMCA to target software manufacturers that produce applications that circumvent DRM encryptions such as the Content Scramble System (CSS) for DVDs and the Advanced Access Content System (AACS) for Blu-ray discs.

A recent case brought by Advanced Access Content System Licensing Administrator (AACS LA) against the software manufacturer of DVDFab, resulted in the company’s U.S. based domains, such as DVDFab.com, being seized by the U.S. government and their affiliate program ordered to be halted. Representatives of Fengato Software (the maker of DVDFab) didn’t show up to the hearing that resulted in the injunction against them.

Software Copyright Protection

Bottom Line

While it is illegal for an individual to use ripping or copying software to bypass DRM, there have been no notable cases of copyright holders pursuing legal actions against individual users, nor has there been any action taken against publishers who review or otherwise cover products that circumvent DRM. It appears that the manufacturers of the software bear almost all the liability for the illegal use of their products.

What Is CSS?

Content Scramble System, or CSS, is the encryption method that protects discs from piracy. Unlike the protection encryption for Blu-ray (AASC), CSS is no longer being updated to keep up with codebreakers like those found in the programs we reviewed. As such, all these programs can easily decrypt discs so you can make backup copies of the movies and TV shows you have bought and paid for.

Related Product Reviews

Copy protection, also known as content protection, copy prevention and copy restriction, is any effort designed to prevent the reproduction of software, films, music, and other media, usually for copyrightreasons.[1] Various methods have been devised to prevent reproduction so that companies will gain benefit from each person who obtains an authorized copy of their product. Unauthorized copying and distribution accounted for $2.4 billion in lost revenue in the United States alone in the 1990s,[2] and is assumed to be causing impact on revenues in the music and the game industry, leading to proposal of stricter copyright laws such as PIPA. Some methods of copy protection have also led to criticisms because it caused inconvenience for honest consumers, or it secretly installed additional or unwanted software to detect copying activities on the consumer's computer. Making copy protection effective while protecting consumer rights is still an ongoing problem with media publication.

4Methods

4.1Computer software

Terminology[edit]

Media corporations have always used the term copy protection, but critics argue that the term tends to sway the public into identifying with the publishers, who favor restriction technologies, rather than with the users.[3]Copy prevention and copy control may be more neutral terms. 'Copy protection' is a misnomer for some systems, because any number of copies can be made from an original and all of these copies will work, but only in one computer, or only with one dongle, or only with another device that cannot be easily copied.

The term is also often related to, and confused with, the concept of digital rights management. Digital rights management is a more general term because it includes all sorts of management of works, including copy restrictions. Copy protection may include measures that are not digital. A more appropriate term may be 'technological protection measures' (TPMs),[4] which is often defined as the use of technological tools in order to restrict the use or access to a work.

Business rationale[edit]

Copy protection is most commonly found on videotapes, DVDs, computer software discs, video game discs and cartridges, audio CDs and some VCDs.

Airport Control, Working as an air traffic controller can be really tough but you’ll get the hang of it. Earn lots of cash while you make sure that all of the planes land safely in this time management game. 60-Day Money-Back Satisfaction Guarantee! Welcome to Big Fat Simulations, home of the original Airport Madness game series. We build air traffic control games. Airport traffic game. Air Traffic Controller is an online airport simulation game where you direct aircraft on the ground and through controlled airspace. Organize and expedite the flow of air traffic at a major airport. Your mission is to manage the airport avoiding any delays or collisions. Watch out for the planes in the air as for the once on the ground. Enjoy playing Air Traffic Controller, a free online game. Play the latest airport games online at AirportGames.net! We publish the newest airport and air traffic control games so anyone can play them for free!

Many media formats are easy to copy using a machine, allowing consumers to distribute copies to their friends, a practice known as 'casual copying'.

Companies publish works under copyright protection because they believe that the cost of implementing the copy protection will be less than the revenue produced by consumers who buy the product instead of acquiring it through casually copied media.

Opponents of copy protection argue that people who obtain free copies only use what they can get for free, and would not purchase their own copy if they were unable to obtain a free copy. Some even argue that free copies increase profit; people who receive a free copy of a music CD may then go and buy more of that band's music, which they would not have done otherwise.

Some publishers have avoided copy-protecting their products, on the theory that the resulting inconvenience to their users outweighs any benefit of frustrating 'casual copying'.

From the perspective of the end user, copy protection is always a cost. DRM and license managers sometimes fail, are inconvenient to use, and may not afford the user all of the legal use of the product he has purchased.

The term copy protection refers to the technology used to attempt to frustrate copying, and not to the legal remedies available to publishers or authors whose copyrights are violated. Software usage models range from node locking to floating licenses (where a fixed number licenses can be concurrently used across an enterprise), grid computing (where multiple computers function as one unit and so use a common license) and electronic licensing (where features can be purchased and activated online). The term license management refers to broad platforms which enable the specification, enforcement and tracking of software licenses. To safeguard copy protection and license management technologies themselves against tampering and hacking, software anti-tamper methods are used.

Floating licenses are also being referred to as Indirect Licenses, and are licenses that at the time they are issued, there is no actually user who will use them. That has some technical influence over some of their characteristics. Direct Licenses are issued after a certain user requires it. As an example, an activated Microsoft product, contains a Direct License which is locked to the PC where the product is installed.

From business standpoint, on the other hand, some services now try to monetize on additional services other than the media content so users can have better experience than simply obtaining the copied product.[5]

Technical challenges[edit]

From a technical standpoint, it would seem theoretically impossible to completely prevent users from making copies of the media they purchase, as long as a 'writer' is available that can write to blank media. The basic technical fact is that all types of media require a 'player' — a CD player, DVD player, videotape player, computer or video game console. The player has to be able to read the media in order to display it to a human. In turn, then, logically, a player could be built that first reads the media, and then writes out an exact copy of what was read, to the same type of media.

At a minimum, digital copy protection of non-interactive works is subject to the analog hole: regardless of any digital restrictions, if music can be heard by the human ear, it can also be recorded (at the very least, with a microphone and tape recorder); if a film can be viewed by the human eye, it can also be recorded (at the very least, with a video camera and recorder). In practice, almost-perfect copies can typically be made by tapping into the analog output of a player (e.g. the speaker output or headphone jacks) and, once redigitized into an unprotected form, duplicated indefinitely. Copying text-based content in this way is more tedious, but the same principle applies: if it can be printed or displayed, it can also be scanned and OCRed. With basic software and some patience, these techniques can be applied by a typical computer-literate user.

Since these basic technical facts exist, it follows that a determined individual will definitely succeed in copying any media, given enough time and resources. Media publishers understand this; copy protection is not intended to stop professional operations involved in the unauthorized mass duplication of media, but rather to stop 'casual copying'.

Copying of information goods which are downloaded (rather than being mass-duplicated as with physical media) can be inexpensively customized for each download, and thus restricted more effectively, in a process known as 'traitor tracing'. They can be encrypted in a fashion which is unique for each user's computer, and the decryption system can be made tamper-resistant.

Methods[edit]

For information on individual protection schemes and technologies, see List of copy protection schemes or relevant category page.

Computer software[edit]

Copy protection for computer software, especially for games, has been a long cat-and-mouse struggle between publishers and crackers. These were (and are) programmers who would defeat copy protection on software as a hobby, add their alias to the title screen, and then distribute the 'cracked' product to the network of warezBBSes or Internet sites that specialized in distributing unauthorized copies of software.

Early ages [edit]

When computer software was still distributed in audio cassettes, audio copying was unreliable, while digital copying was time consuming. Software prices were comparable with audio cassette prices.[2][6] To make digital copying more difficult, many programs used non-standard loading methods (loaders incompatible with standard BASIC loaders, or loaders that used different transfer speed).

Unauthorized software copying began to be a problem when floppy disks became the common storage media.[6] The ease of copying depended on the system; Jerry Pournelle wrote in BYTE in 1983 that 'CP/M doesn't lend itself to copy protection' so its users 'haven't been too worried' about it, while 'Apple users, though, have always had the problem. So have those who used TRS-DOS, and I understand that MS-DOS has copy protection features'.[7] Apple and Commodore 64 computers were extremely varied and creative because most of the floppy disk reading and writing was controlled by software (or firmware), not by hardware. The first copy protection was for cassette tapes and consisted of a loader at the beginning of the tape, which read a specially formatted section which followed.

The first protection of floppy disks consisted of changing the address marks, bit slip marks, data marks, or end of data marks for each sector. For example, Apple’s standard sector markings were:

D5 AA 96 for the address mark. That was followed by track, sector, and checksum.

DE AA EB concluded the address header with what are known as bit slip marks.

D5 AA AD was used for the data mark and the end of data mark was another DE AA EB.

Changing any of these marks required fairly minimal changes to the software routines in Apple DOS which read and wrote the floppy disk, but produced a disk that could not be copied by any of the standard copiers, such as Apple's COPYA program. Some protection schemes used more complicated systems that changed the marks by track or even within a track.

1980s Locksmith[edit]

Pournelle disliked copy protection and, except for games, refused to review software that used it. He did not believe that it was useful, writing in 1983 that 'For every copy protection scheme there's a hacker ready to defeat it. Most involve so-called nibble/nybble copiers, which try to analyze the original disk and then make a copy'.[7]IBM's Don Estridge agreed: 'I guarantee that whatever scheme you come up with will take less time to break than to think of it.' While calling piracy 'a threat to software development. It's going to dry up the software', he said 'It's wrong to copy-protect programs .. There ought to be some way to stop [piracy] without creating products that are unusable.'[8]

By 1980, the first 'nibble' copier, Locksmith, was introduced. These copiers reproduced copy protected floppy disks an entire track at a time, ignoring how the sectors were marked. This was harder to do than it sounds for two reasons: firstly, Apple disks did not use the index hole to mark the start of a track; their drives could not even detect the index hole. Tracks could thus start anywhere, but the copied track had to have this 'write splice', which always caused some bits to be lost or duplicated due to speed variations, roughly in the same (unused for payload data) place as the original, or it would not work. Secondly, Apple used special 'self-sync' bytes to achieve agreement between drive controller and computer about where any byte ended and the next one started on the disk. These bytes were written as normal data bytes followed by a slightly longer than normal pause, which was notoriously unreliable to detect on read-back; still, you had to get the self-sync bytes roughly right as without them being present in the right places, the copy would not work, and with them present in too many places, the track would not fit on the destination disk. Locksmith copied Apple II disks by taking advantage of the fact that these sync fields between sectors almost always consisted of a long string of FF (hex) bytes. It found the longest string of FFs, which usually occurred between the last and first sectors on each track, and began writing the track in the middle of that; also it assumed that any long string of FF bytes was a sync sequence and introduced the necessary short pauses after writing each of them to the copy. Ironically, Locksmith would not copy itself. The first Locksmith measured the distance between sector 1 of each track. Copy protection engineers quickly figured out what Locksmith was doing and began to use the same technique to defeat it. Locksmith countered by introducing the ability to reproduce track alignment and prevented itself from being copied by embedding a special sequence of nibbles, that if found, would stop the copy process. Henry Roberts (CTO of Nalpeiron), a graduate student in computer science at the University of South Carolina, reverse engineered Locksmith, found the sequence and distributed the information to some of the 7 or 8 people producing copy protection at the time.

For some time, Locksmith continued to defeat virtually all of the copy protection systems in existence. The next advance came from Henry Roberts' thesis on software copy protection, which devised a way of replacing Apple’s sync field of FFs with random appearing patterns of bytes. Because the graduate student had frequent copy protection discussions with Apple’s copy protection engineer, Apple developed a copy protection system which made use of this technique.Henry Roberts then wrote a competitive program to Locksmith, Back It UP. He devised several methods for defeating that, and ultimately a method was devised for reading self sync fields directly, regardless of what nibbles they contained.

Copy protection sometimes caused software to not run on clones, such as the Apple II-compatible Laser 128.[9] The back and forth struggle between copy protection engineers and nibble copiers continued until the Apple II became obsolete and was replaced by the IBM PC and its clones.

In 1989 Gilman Louie, head of Spectrum Holobyte, stated that copy protection added about $0.50 per copy to the cost of production of a game.[10] Other software relied on complexity; Antic in 1988 observed that WordPerfect for the Atari ST 'is almost unusable without its manual of over 600 pages!'.[11] (The magazine was mistaken; the ST version was so widely pirated that the company threatened to discontinue it.[12][13])

1990s CD-R[edit]

Floppy disks were later displaced by CDs as the preferred method of distribution, with companies like Macrovision and Sony providing copy protection schemes that worked by writing data to places on the CD-ROM where a CD-R drive cannot normally write. Such a scheme had been used for the PlayStation and could not be circumvented easily without the use of a modchip.

For software publishers, a less expensive method of copy protection is to write the software so that it requires some evidence from the user that they have actually purchased the software, usually by asking a question that only a user with a software manual could answer (for example, 'What is the 4th word on the 6th line of page 37?'). However, this approach can be exploited with the patience to copy the manual with a photocopier, and it also suffers from the issue of making the product more inconvenient for the end user to use.

Recent practices[edit]

It has become very common for software to require activation by entering some proof of legal purchase such as:

Name & Serial, a name and serial number that is given to the user at the time the software is purchased

A phone activation code, which requires the user to call a number and register the product to receive a computer-specific serial number.

Device ID, specifically tying a copy of software to a computer or mobile device based on a unique identifier only known to that device (like the IMEI of a smartphone).

To limit reusing activation keys to install the software on multiple machines, it has been attempted to tie the installed software to a specific machine by involving some unique feature of the machine. Serial number in ROM could not be used because some machines do not have them. Some popular surrogate for a machine serial number were date and time (to the second) of initialization of the hard disk or MAC address of Ethernet cards (although this is programmable on modern cards). With the rise of virtualization, however, the practice of locking has to add to these simple hardware parameters to still prevent copying.[14]Another approach to associating user and/or machine with serial number is product activation over the Internet, where users are required to have access to the Internet so the information on which serial number is installed on which machine gets sent to a server to be authenticated. Unauthorized users are not allowed to install or use the software. Microsoft's Windows Genuine Advantage system is a far-reaching example of this.With rise of Cloud computing, requiring Internet access is becoming more popular for software verification. Beyond online authentication, a standalone software may be integrated with the cloud so that key data or code is stored online. This could greatly strengthen the protection; for example, the software could store a property file or execute a process needed by the application in the cloud instead on the user's computer.

Problems and criticisms[edit]

The copy protection schemes described above have all been criticized for causing problems for validly licensed users who upgrade to a new machine, or have to reinstall the software after reinitializing their hard disk. Some Internet product activation products allow replacement copies to be issued to registered users or multiple copies to the same license.Like all software, copy-protection software sometimes contains bugs, whose effect may be to deny access to validly licensed users. Most copy protection schemes are easy to crack, and once crackers circumvent the copy protection, the resulting cracked software is then more convenient and hence more valuable than the non-cracked version, because users can make additional copies of the software. Due to this problem, user-interactive copy protection by asking questions from manuals has mostly disappeared.

In his 1976 Open Letter to Hobbyists, Bill Gates complained that 'most of you steal your software.' However, Gates initially rejected copy protection and said 'It just gets in the way.'

There is also the tool of software blacklisting that is used to enhance certain copy protection schemes.

Early video games[edit]

During the 1980s and 1990s, video games sold on audio cassette and floppy disks were sometimes protected with an external user-interactive method that demanded the user to have the original package or a part of it, usually the manual. Copy protection was activated not only at installation, but every time the game was executed.[15][16]

Sometimes the copy protection code was needed not at launch, but at a later point in the game. This helped the gamer to experience the game (e.g. as a demonstration) and perhaps could convince them to buy it by the time the copy protection point was reached.

Several imaginative and creative methods have been employed, in order to be both fun and hard to copy. These include:

The most common method was requiring the player to enter a specific word (often chosen at random) from the manual. A variant of this technique involved matching a picture provided by the game to one in the manual and providing an answer pertaining to the picture (Ski or Die, 4D Boxing and James Bond 007; the Stealth Affair used this technique). Buzz Aldrin's Race Into Space (in the floppy version but not the CD version) required the user to input an astronaut's total duration in space (available in the manual) before the launch of certain missions. If the answer was incorrect, the mission would suffer a catastrophic failure.

Manuals containing information and hints vital to the completion of the game, like answers to riddles (Conquests of Camelot, King's Quest 6), recipes of spells (King's Quest 3), keys to deciphering non-Latin writing systems (Ultima series, see also Ultima writing systems), maze guides (Manhunter), dialogue spoken by other characters in the game (Wasteland, Dragon Wars), excerpts of the storyline (most Advanced Dungeons and Dragons games and Wing Commander I), or a radio frequency to use to communicate with a character to further a game (Metal Gear Solid).

Some sort of code with symbols, not existing on the keyboard or the ASCII code. This code was arranged in a grid, and had to be entered via a virtual keyboard at the request 'What is the code at line 3 row 2?'. These tables were printed on dark paper (Maniac Mansion, Uplink), or were visible only through a red transparent layer (Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade), making the paper very difficult to photocopy. Another variant of this method—most famously used on the ZX Spectrum version of Jet Set Willy—was a card with color sequences at each grid reference that had to be entered before starting the game. This also prevented monochrome photocopying. It had been thought that the codes in the tables were based on a mathematical formula which could be calculated by using the row, line and page number if the formula was known, a function of the disk space requirement of the data. Later research proved that this wasn't the case. [17]

The Secret of Monkey Island offered a rotating wheel with halves of pirate's faces. The game showed a face composed of two different parts and asked when this pirate was hanged on a certain island. The player then had to match the faces on the wheel, and enter the year that appeared on the island-respective hole. Its sequel had the same concept, but with magic potion ingredients. Other games that employed the code wheel system include Star Control.

Zork games such as Beyond Zork and Zork Zero came with 'feelies' which contained information vital to the completion of the game. For example, the parchment found from Zork Zero contained clues vital to solving the final puzzle. However, whenever the player attempts to read the parchment, they are referred to the game package.

The Lenslok system used a plastic prismatic device, shipped with the game, which was used to descramble a code displayed on screen.

All of these methods proved to be troublesome and tiring for the players, and as such greatly declined in usage by the mid-1990s, at which point the emergence of CDs as the primary video game medium made copy protection largely redundant, since CD copying technology was not widely available at the time.[15]

While not strictly a software protection, some game companies offered 'value-added' goodies with the package, like funny manuals, posters, comics, storybooks or fictional documentation concerning the game (e.g. the Grail Diary for Indiana Jones or a police cadet notebook with Police Quest or the Hero's manual of Quest for Glory or a copy of the National Inquisitor newspaper in Zak McKracken) in order to entice gamers to buy the package. This trend is re-emerging in modern gaming as an incentive to both buy games and discourage their resale; some games like Forza Motorsport 3 and Dragon Age: Origins provide bonus in-game material that will only be given if one buys the game new.

Video game console systems[edit]

When Sega's Dreamcast was released in 1998, it came with a newer disc format, called the GD-ROM. Using a modified CD player, one could access the game functionality. Using a special swap method could allow reading a GD-ROM game through a CD-ROM just using common MIL-CD (standard CD Boot loading, commonly found on Windows Installation Discs, Linux Live CDs, and others). Dreamcasts sold after October 2000 contain a newer firmware update, not allowing MIL-CD boot.

The Xbox has a specific function: Non-booting or non-reading from CDs and DVD-Rs as a method of game copy protection. Also, the Xbox is said to use a different DVD file system (instead of UDF). It has been theorized that the discs have a second partition that is read from the outside in (opposite current standards thus making the second partition unreadable in PC DVD drives) which give the tracks the appearance that the disc was spun backwards during manufacture. The Xbox 360 copy protection functions by requesting the DVD drive compute the angular distance between specific data sectors on the disc. A duplicated DVD will return different values than a pressed original would.

The PlayStation 2 has a map file that contains all of the exact positions and file size info of the CD in it, which is stored at a position that is beyond the file limit. The game directly calls the position at where the map file is supposed to be. This means that if the file is moved inside the limit, it is useless since the game is looking outside the limit for it, and the file will not work outside of the limit, making any copied disc unusable without a mod chip or the use of FMCB (free memory card boot). FMCB uses the memory card to trick the built-in DVD video software into booting copied games. Before a copied game can be played, it must have been patched with a free application.

Free Copy Protection Software

Nintendo's Wii and Nintendo GameCube have their own specialty format for copy protection. It is based on DVD/miniDVD (Game Cube) technology; each disc contains some deliberately placed defects. The exact positions of these defects, which differ for each produced disc, is encoded encrypted in the BCA of each disc. The BCA is readable on most standard DVD-ROM Drives, but consumer burners can reproduce neither the BCA nor the defects. As an additional obfuscation mechanism, the on-disc sector format is a little bit different from normal DVDs. Nevertheless, it can be read using some consumer DVD-ROM drives with a firmware modification or 'debug mode'. It is also possible to hack the Wii to install unlicensed software, some of which can use the Wii's own drive to create disc images and then play these copies.

The PSP, except the PSP Go, uses the Universal Media Disc, a media format similar to a MiniDisc. It holds about 1.2 GB. Although it cannot be copied, one can make an ISO image (a file version of the UMD) on a memory card and play it on custom firmware, which can be installed on the PSP.

The PlayStation 3, Xbox One, and PlayStation 4 use Blu-ray BD-ROM discs. In addition to any protection provided by the consoles themselves, the BD-ROM format's specification allows for a ROM-Mark which cannot be duplicated by consumer-level recorders. While the BD-ROM format does provide considerable capacity (up to 100 gigabytes per disc with potential revision to provide more), increased consumer bandwidth availability combined with the increased size of games distributed through online channels (approaching 100 gigabytes for some titles) is rendering this point moot. To prevent the consoles themselves being hacked and used as a means to defeat these protections (as happened with the Wii and partially with the PlayStation 3), contemporary consoles employ trusted hardware paths that authenticate the internal hardware and software prior to operation.

Some game developers, such as Markus Persson,[18] have encouraged consumers and other developers to embrace the reality of unlicensed copying and utilize it positively to generate increased sales and marketing interest.

Videotape[edit]

Companies such as Macrovision and Dwight Cavendish provided schemes to videotape publishers making copies unusable if they were created with a normal VCR. All major videotape duplicators licensed Macrovision or similar technologies to copy protect video cassettes for their clients or themselves.

Starting in 1985 with the video release of The Cotton Club (Beta and VHS versions only), Macrovision licensed to publishers a technology that exploits the automatic gain control feature of VCRs by adding pulses to the vertical blanking sync signal.[19] These pulses do not affect the image a consumer sees on his TV, but do confuse the recording-level circuitry of consumer VCRs. This technology, which is aided by U.S. legislation mandating the presence of automatic gain-control circuitry in VCRs, is said to 'plug the analog hole' and make VCR-to-VCR copies impossible, although an inexpensive circuit is widely available that will defeat the protection by removing the pulses. Macrovision has patented methods of defeating copy prevention,[20] giving it a more straightforward basis to shut down manufacture of any device that descrambles it than often exists in the DRM world.

Another form of copy protection, MicroVision, was designed to prevent VCRs from recording a television program. Cable movie channels rejected it; Michael J. Fuchs of HBO said in 1985 that MicroVision was 'not good technology' because it reduced picture quality and consumers could easily bypass it, while Peter Chernin of Showtime said 'we want to accommodate our subscribers and we know they like to tape our movies'.[21]

Audio CDs[edit]

Consumer CD recorders included the Serial Copy Management System (SCMS), which allowed copies to be made from an original, but did not allow a copy of a copy. Professional equipment, including all computer drives, ignores SCMS. Since computer drives ignored SCMS, copies could be made freely, which led to record labels introducing additional copy protection measures.

By 2000, Napster had seen mainstream adoption, and several music publishers responded by starting to sell some CDs with various copy protection schemes. Most of these were playback restrictions that aimed to make the CD unusable in computers with CD-ROM drives, leaving only dedicated audio CD players for playback. This did not, however, prevent such a CD from being copied via an analogue connection or by ripping the CD under operating systems such as Linux, which was effective since copy-protection software was generally written for Microsoft Windows. These weaknesses led critics to question the usefulness of such protection.

CD copy protection is achieved by assuming certain feature levels in the drives. The CD Digital Audio is the oldest CD standard and forms the basic feature set beyond which dedicated audio players need no instructions. CD-ROM drives additionally need to support mixed mode CDs (combined audio and data tracks) and multi-session CDs (multiple data recordings each superseding and incorporating data of the previous session).

The play preventions in use intentionally deviate from the standards and intentionally include malformed multisession data or similar with the purpose of confusing the CD-ROM drives to prevent correct function. Simple dedicated audio CD players would not be affected by the malformed data since these are for features they do not support—for example, an audio player will not even look for a second session containing the copy protection data.

In practice, results vary wildly. CD-ROM drives may be able to correct the malformed data and still play them to an extent that depends on the make and version of the drive. On the other hand, some audio players may be built around drives with more than the basic features required for audio playback. Some car radios with CD playback, portable CD players, CD players with additional support for data CDs containing MP3 files, and DVD players have had problems with these CDs.

The deviation from the Red Book standard that defines audio CDs required the publishers of these copy-protected CDs to refrain from using the official CDDA logo on the discs or the cases. The logo is a trademark owned by Philips and Sony and licensed to identify compliant audio discs only. To prevent dissatisfied customers from returning CDs which were misrepresented as compliant audio CDs, such CDs also started to carry prominent notices on their covers.

In general the audio can always be extracted by applying the principle of the analog hole. Additionally, such programs as IsoBuster may be capable of producing hidden audio files.

Examples of CD copy protection schemes are Cactus Data Shield, Copy Control, and Data Position Measurement.

Other digital media[edit]

More recently,[when?] publishers of music and films in digital form have turned to encryption to make copying more difficult. CSS, which is used on DVDs, is a famous example of this. It is a form of copy protection that uses 40-bit encryption. Copies will not be playable since they will be missing the key, which is not writable on regular DVD-R or DVD-RW discs (except with special Qflix DVD-recorders and media). With this technique, the work is encrypted using a key only included in the firmware of 'authorized' players, which allow only 'legitimate' uses of the work (usually restricted forms of playback, but no conversion or modification). The controversial Digital Millennium Copyright Act provides a legal protection for this in the US, that would make it illegal to distribute 'unauthorized' players—which was supposed to eliminate the possibility of building a DVD copier. However, encryption schemes designed for mass-market standardized media such as DVD suffer from the fundamental weaknesses that consumers have physical access to the devices containing the keys, and once implemented, the copy-protection scheme can never be changed without breaking the forward compatibility of older devices (or the backward compatibility of newer media). Since consumers are highly unlikely to buy new hardware for the sole purpose of preserving copy protection, manufacturers have been prevented from enhancing their DRM technology until recently, with the release of next-generation media such as HD DVD and Blu-ray Disc. This period represents more than enough time for the encryption scheme to be defeated by determined attackers. For example, the CSS encryption system used on DVD Video was broken within three years of its market release in November 1996 (see DeCSS), but has not been changed since, because doing so would immediately render all DVD players sold prior to the change incapable of reading new DVDs—this would not only provoke a backlash amongst consumers, but also restrict the market that the new DVDs could be sold to. More recent DVDs have attempted to augment CSS with additional protection schemes. Most modern schemes like ARccOS Protection use tricks of the DVD format in an attempt to defeat copying programs, limiting the possible avenues of protection—and making it easier for hackers to learn the innards of the scheme and find ways around it.

The newest generations of optical disc media, HD DVD and Blu-ray Disc, attempt to address this issue. Both formats employ the Advanced Access Content System, which provides for several hundred different decryption keys (for the varying models of players to hit the market), each of which can be invalidated ('revoked') should one of the keys be compromised. Revoked keys simply will not appear on future discs, rendering the compromised players useless for future titles unless they are updated to fix the issue. For this reason, all HD-DVD players and some Blu-ray players include an ethernet port, to give them the ability to download DRM updates. Blu-ray Disc goes one step further with a separate technique called BD+, a virtual machine that can execute code included on discs to verify, authorize, revoke, and update players as the need arises. Since the protection program is on the disc rather than the player, this allows for updating protection programs within BD's working life by simply having newer programs included on newer discs.

4K resolution Blu-ray discs augment the existing Blu-ray protections. First, players must be dedicated devices that use protected hardware paths to ensure the entire process chain (from media to display) is not compromised. Second, some media require the use of players able to access the Internet for additional verification.

Notable payloads[edit]

Over time, software publishers (especially in the case of video games) became creative about crippling the software in case it was duplicated. These games would initially show that the copy was successful, but eventually render themselves unplayable via subtle methods.Many games use the 'code checksumming' technique to prevent alteration of code to bypass other copy protection. Important constants for the game - such as the accuracy of the player's firing, the speed of their movement, etc. - are not included in the game but calculated from the numbers making up the machine code of other parts of the game. If the code is changed, the calculation yields a result which no longer matches the original design of the game and the game plays improperly.

Superior Soccer had no outward signs of copy protection, but if it decided it was not a legitimate copy, it would make the soccer ball in the game invisible, making it impossible to play the game.

In Sid Meier's Pirates, if the player entered in the wrong information, they could still play the game, but the difficulty would be increased substantially.

As a more satirical nod to the issue, if the thriller-action game Alan Wake detects that the game is cracked or a pirated copy, it will replace tips in loading screens with messages telling the player to buy the game. If a new game is created on the copied game, an additional effect will take place. As a more humorous nod to 'piracy', Alan Wake will gain a black Eyepatch over his right eye, complete with a miniature Jolly Roger.

While the copy protection in Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders was not hidden as such, the repercussions of missing the codes was unusual: the player would end up in jail (permanently), and the police officer would give a lengthy and condescending speech about software copying.

In case of copied versions of Settlers 3, the iron smelters would only produce pigs (a play on pig iron); weaponsmiths require iron to produce weapons, so players couldn't amass arms.[22]

Bohemia Interactive Studio developed a unique and very subtle protection system for its game Operation Flashpoint: Cold War Crisis. Dubbed FADE, if it detects an unauthorized copy, it does not inform the player immediately but instead progressively corrupts aspects of the game (such as reducing the weapon accuracy to zero) to the point that it eventually becomes unplayable. The message 'Original discs don't FADE' will eventually appear if the game is detected as being an unauthorized copy.

FADE is also used in ArmA II, and will similarly diminish the accuracy of the player’s weapons, as well as induce a “drunken vision” effect, where the screen becomes wavy, should the player be playing on an unauthorized copy. [23]

This system would also be used in Take On Helicopters, where the screen would blur and distort when playing a counterfeit copy, making it hard to safely pilot a helicopter.[24]

The IndyCar Series (2003 video game) also utilizes FADE technology to safeguard against piracy by making races very difficult to win on a pirated version. The penultimate section of the game’s manual states:

Copying commercial games, such as this one, is a criminal offense and copyright infringement.

Copying and re-supplying games such as this one can lead to a term of imprisonment. Think of a pirated game as stolen property. This game is protected by the FADE system. You can play with a pirated game- but not for long. The quality of a pirated game will degrade over time.

Purchase only genuine software at legitimate stores.

Batman: Arkham Asylum contained code that disabled Batman's glider cape, making some areas of the game very difficult to complete and a certain achievement/trophy impossible to unlock (gliding continuously for over 100m).[25]

The PC version of Grand Theft Auto IV has a copy protection that swings the camera as though the player was drunk. If the player enters a vehicle it will automatically throttle, making it difficult to steer. It also damages the vehicle, making it vulnerable to collisions and bullets. An update to the game prevented unauthorised copies from accessing the in-game web browser, making it impossible to finish the game as some missions involve browsing the web for objectives.

EarthBound is well-documented for its extensive use of checksums to ensure that the game is being played on legitimate hardware. If the game detects that it is being played on a European SNES, it refuses to boot, as the first of several checksums has failed. A second checksum will weed out most unauthorized copies of the game, but hacking the data to get past this checksum will trigger a third checksum that makes enemy encounters appear much more often than in an authorized copy, and if the player progresses through the game without giving up (or cracks this protection), a final checksum code will activate before the final boss battle, freezing the game and deleting all the save files.[26] A similar copy protection system was used in Spyro: Year of the Dragon, although it only uses one copy protection check at the beginning of the game (see below).

In an unauthorized version of the PC edition of Mass Effect, the game save mechanism would not work and the in-game galactic map would cause the game to crash. As the galactic map is needed to travel to different sections of the game, the player would be stuck in the first section of the game.

If an unauthorized version of The Sims 2 was used, the Build Mode would not work properly. Walls would not be able to be built on the player's property, which prevents the player from building any custom houses. Some furniture and clothing selections would not be available either.

A March 2009 update to the BeeJive IM iPhone app included special functionality for users of the unauthorized version: the screen would read 'PC LOAD LETTER' whenever the user tried to establish a connection to any IM service, then quickly switch to a YouTube clip from the movie Office Space.[27]

Red Alert 2 and The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-Earth have a copy protection system that completely wipes out the player's forces briefly after a battle begins on an unlicensed copy. However, some who purchased the latter have encountered a bug that caused this copy protection scheme to trigger when it was not supposed to.

If a player pirated the Nintendo DS version of Michael Jackson: The Experience, vuvuzela noises will play over the notes during a song, which then become invisible. The game will also freeze if the player tries to pause it.

Older versions of Autodesk 3ds Max use a dongle for copy protection; if it is missing, the program will randomly corrupt the points of the user's model during usage, destroying their work.

Older versions of CDRWIN used a serial number for initial copy protection. However, if this check was bypassed, a second hidden check would activate causing a random factor to be introduced into the CD burning process, producing corrupted 'coaster' disks.

Terminate, a BBS terminal package, would appear to operate normally if cracked but would insert a warning that a pirated copy was in use into the IEMSI login packet it transmitted, where the sysop of any BBS the user called could clearly read it.

Ubik's Musik, a music creation tool for the Commodore 64, would transform into a Space Invaders game if it detected that a cartridge-based copying device had attempted to interrupt it. This copy protection system also doubles as an easter egg, as the message that appears when it occurs is not hostile ('Plug joystick in port 1, press fire, and no more resetting/experting!').

The Amiga version of Bomberman featured a multitap peripheral that also acted as a dongle. Data from the multitap was used to calculate the time limit of each level. If the multitap was missing, the time limit would be calculated as 0, causing the level to end immediately.

Nevermind, a puzzle game for the Amiga, contained code that caused an unlicensed version of the game to behave as a demo. The game would play three levels sampled from throughout the game, and then give the message 'You have completed three levels; however there are 100 levels to complete on the original disc.'

In Spyro: Year of the Dragon a character named Zoe will tell the player outside the room containing the balloon to Midday Garden Home and several other areas that the player is using an unlicensed copy. This conversation purposely corrupts data. When corrupted, the game would not only remove stray gems and the ability to progress in certain areas but also make the final boss unbeatable, returning the player to the beginning of the game (and removing the save file at the same time) after about 8 seconds into the battle.[28]

The Atari Jaguar console would freeze at startup and play the sound of an enraged jaguar snarling if the inserted cartridge failed the initial security check.

The Lenslok copy protection system gave an obvious message if the lens-coded letters were entered incorrectly, but if the user soft-reset the machine, the areas of memory occupied by the game would be flooded with the message 'THANK YOU FOR YOUR INTEREST IN OUR PRODUCT. NICE TRY. LOVE BJ/NJ' to prevent the user examining leftover code to crack the protection.

An update to the sandbox game Garry's Mod enabled a copy protection mechanism that outputs the error 'Unable to shade polygon normals' if the game detects that it has been copied. The error also includes the user's Steam ID as an error ID, meaning that users can be identified by their Steam account when asking for help about the error over the Internet.

The Atari version of Alternate Reality: The Dungeon would have the player's character attacked by two unbeatable 'FBI Agents' if it detected a cracked version. The FBI agents would also appear when restoring a save which was created by such a version, even if the version restoring the save was legal.

VGA Planets, a play-by-BBS strategy game, contained code in its server which would check all clients' submitted turns for suspect registration codes. Any player deemed to be using a cracked copy, or cheating in the game, would have random forces destroyed throughout the game by an unbeatable enemy called 'The Tim Continuum' (after the game's author, Tim Wissemann). A similar commercial game, Stars!, would issue empty turn updates for players with invalid registration codes, meaning that none of their orders would ever be carried out.

On a copied version of the original PC version of Postal, as soon as the game was started, the player character would immediately shoot himself in the head.

In Serious Sam 3: BFE, if the game code detects what it believes to be an unauthorized copy, an invincible scorpion-like monster is spawned in the beginning of the game with high speeds, melee attacks, and attacks from a range with twin chainguns making the game extremely difficult and preventing the player to progress further. Also in the level 'Under the Iron Cloud', the player's character will spin out-of-control looking up in the air.[29]

An unauthorized copy of Pokémon Black and White and their sequels will run as if it was normal, but the Pokémon will not gain any experience points after a battle. This has since been solved by patching the game's files.

If Ace Attorney Investigations 2 detects an illegitimate or downloaded copy of the game, it will convert the entire game's text into the game's symbol based foreign language, Borginian, which cannot be translated in any way.

The unlicensed version of indie game Game Dev Tycoon, in which the player runs a game development company, will dramatically increase the piracy rate of the games the player releases to the point where no money can be made at all, and disable the player's ability to take any action against it [30][31]

In Crytek's Crysis, if the player uses a naive copy of the game, his bullets are replaced by harmless chickens, making it almost impossible to beat the game without cracking the game.

In Crytek's Crysis 3, if a player used an unlicensed copy of the game, he is not able to defeat the last boss (The Alpha Ceph), thus making it impossible to beat the game.

In an unauthorized copy of Five Nights at Freddy's, the player can still play the game normally, but will be unable to exit until he/she is defeated by an animatronic enemy, with frightening noises.

In Mirror's Edge, during the game, the player's character starts to slow down making it impossible to jump over ledges and proceed further in the game.

The usage of copy protection payloads which lower playability of a game without making it clear that this is a result of copy protection is now generally considered unwise, due to the potential for it to result in unaware players with unlicensed copies spreading word-of-mouth that a game is of low quality. The authors of FADE explicitly acknowledged this as a reason for including the explicit warning message.

Anti-piracy[edit]

Anti-piracy measures are efforts to fight against copyright infringement, counterfeiting, and other violations of intellectual property laws.

Cd Copy Protection Software

It includes, but is by no means limited to, the combined efforts of corporate associations (such as the RIAA and MPAA), law enforcement agencies (such as the FBI and Interpol), and various international governments[clarification needed] to combat copyright infringement relating to various types of creative works, such as software, music and films. These measures often come in the form of copy protection measures such as DRM, or measures implemented through a content protection network, such as Distil Networks or Incapsula. Richard Stallman and the GNU Project have criticized the use of the word 'piracy' in these situations, saying that publishers use the word to refer to 'copying they don't approve of' and that 'they [publishers] imply that it is ethically equivalent to attacking ships on the high seas, kidnapping and murdering the people on them'.[32] Certain forms of Anti-Piracy (such as DRM), are considered by consumers to control the use of the products content after sale.

In the case MPAA v. Hotfile, Judge Kathleen M. Williams granted a motion to deny the prosecution the usage of words she views as 'pejorative'. This list included the word 'piracy', the use of which, the motion by the defense stated, would serve no purpose but to misguide and inflame the jury. The plaintiff argued the common use of the terms when referring to copyright infringement should invalidate the motion, but the Judge did not concur.[33]

Anti-piracy in file sharing[edit]

Today copyright infringement is often facilitated by the use of file sharing. In fact, infringement accounts for 23.8% of all internet traffic in 2013.[34] In an effort to cut down on this, both large and small film and music corporations have issued DMCA takedown notices, filed lawsuits, and pressed criminal prosecution of those who host these file sharing services.[35][36][37][38]

Other examples[edit]

On June 30, 2010, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) cracked down on many video-hosting websites including NinjaVideo.

RIAA sues file-sharers that share music over P2P networks.

The MPAA encrypts DVD movies using the CSS cipher, prohibiting the distribution and use of DeCSS, while also having the effect of banning free/open source DVD player software.

'Coded Anti-Piracy', also called CAP codes, are utilized to put a forensic identification on films to trace back any illegal copies of them back to the source.

Metal Gear Solid and many other computer games require a piece of information from the game's jewel case for the player to progress after a certain point, making unauthorized copies effectively worthless without the original jewel case; however, in the present day, said information can be easily be found on the Internet.

Microsoft removes Windows Vista and Microsoft Office from various torrent trackers.

Certain SNES games such as Super Mario All Stars and Donkey Kong Country may sometimes show warning screens, usually caused by dirty or damaged cartridges or use of third-party peripherals.

Rockman EXE Operate Shooting Star has anti-copying code that causes every step the player takes to reveal an enemy, also in an unauthorized copy.

Classic NES Series features a 'mirroring'. If a Classic NES Series game is emulated or the cart doesn't feature 'mirroring', the player will fall victim to copy protection. For example, in 'Classic NES Series - Castlevania', the player becomes unable to move the character at all.