#(I had a similar problem years ago when trying to complete my Master story collection)

[thirddoctor]

cursed with a disease that makes me super dedicated to the most useless tasks, like trying to track down extremely obscure comics for an already obscure cartoon from 25 years ago

[thesoobfiles]

she was a queen, ani – a. skywalker

Request: anon, one where jedi! reader is in a relationship w/ anakin but she’s insecure about herself and compares herself to padmé but anakin reassures her?

Words: 1.6k

Summary: Reader and Anakin are both Jedi Padawans; however, this doesn’t stop them from pursuing the other and this leads up to their current situation. They’re in a relationship and they love each other very much; but, the Reader can’t help but constantly feel inferior to Anakin’s extremely beautiful and intelligent friend, Senator Padmé Amidala.

A/N: I know the summary is essentially in the request, but I just thought I’d give my summary vs. the requester’s summary; whichever one explains the story better. They’re both there for the same purpose. Also, I’m so sorry this took so long but my writer’s block paired with my lack of time is not a good combo…

-

My first meeting with Padmé Amidala went a little something like this:

- 1 year ago -

Master Windu’s voice boomed in the small meeting room of the Jedi Council, “Padawan (L/N) and Padawan Skywalker, you’ve both been assigned to Senator Amidala.”

“Those who support the new bill, in danger they are.” Master Yoda confirms.

“Your mission starts right away.” Master Mundi added.

“You’ll find her in the hanger; she is waiting for your arrival.” Master Kenobi finishes off.

“Yes, Master.” Anakin said as he bowed before the Council, a slight smile beginning to form at the corners of his lips.

“Thank you for entrusting us with such as important task.” I bow as well before I leave the chamber with Anakin trailing behind me.

“You’re familiar with her, right?” I ask, to clear the air on the way to the hangar, “She’s the one you’ve known since you were nine?”

“Mhm.” Anakin confirms, the smile from before coming back full swing; completely oblivious to the feelings of insecurity beginning to radiate from my form.

“I see…” I reply, eyebrows furrowed in thought as we continue navigating the labyrinth that is the Jedi Temple.

I’ve never seen Senator Amidala before; only ever heard hearsay. I’ve either heard Anakin recall their memories together or happen to catch the occasional story from other Jedi. Other than that, I’m going in blind; however, if I remember correctly, Anakin mistook her for an angel upon their first meeting. She must be beautiful was my last thought before I actually saw her and wow, she is gorgeous.

During my thinking, it turned out my feet carried me all the way to our destination.

My eyes followed Anakin as he ‘casually’ walked up to what I assumed was Senator Amidala, as there were plenty of other Senators awaiting their Jedi escorts. I follow Anakin to the Senator and bow before her, as does he.

“Senator Amidala.” Anakin addresses her as he returns to a standing position.

“Padawan Skywalker.” She replies with a pearly white smile. I assume they’re trying to keep it professional for any prying eyes.

“And you must be Padawan (L/N). It’s nice to meet you.” She says, her focus and smile now on me.

“Likewise, Senator.” I respond, really taking in her features. She has flawless, fair skin and her chestnut brown hair is styled in a sophisticated up-do, adorned with a headpiece of some sort. She wears a rose tinted lipstick and light blush. Her chocolate brown eyes stare at me and my (E/C) ones stare right back. She really is beautiful, I’m screwed…

“Shall we get going, ladies?” Anakin’s voice snaps me out of our staring contest.

“Of course.” I say a little too quickly, “Senator.” I extend my arm in the direction of her ship. She smiles at me, then at Anakin as she boards the ship.

After she boards, Anakin slips his hand into mine. I look around and see everyone minding their own business. I give his hand a squeeze as we walk into our new mission, together.

That was our first meeting. In the span of a standard year, we’ve managed to meet 10 more times; getting assigned or passing by one another almost every month. I’m sure this is quite irregular for any pair of Jedi’s and a Senator.

By now, Anakin and I have been knighted.

I’ve brought up my insecurities to Anakin once before and he quickly shot them down; kissing them away. However, the more time we spend around the Senator, the more it seems to eat at my soul; the fact that this woman has been a Queen and a Senator in her life so far and she’s still so young, older than us, but still young.

“Goodbye, Padmé!” Anakin calls out to the Senator as she heads for her ship.

“Goodbye, Ani! (N/N)!” She calls out to Anakin and myself. I wave goodbye as she retreats into her ship and it leaves Coruscant for Naboo.

Anakin and I return to the Jedi Temple. We’re standing in front of my door and we casually scan our surroundings. Once we’ve determined no one is watching, I open the door and we rush inside.

Immediately, Anakin’s arms are around my figure and he buries his nose into my neck.

I giggle at the attention I’m suddenly receiving, “You’re so touch starved, Ani.” I say as I put my hands on top of his arms.

“You don’t know how hard it is to keep my hands away when we’re in the presence of others.” He says, muffled by my robes.

“I do actually.” I retort, turning to face him and whisper in his ear, “I suffer the same problem.”

“Then it must be fixed!” He sweeps me off my feet, “Ani!” I shout in surprise. He hurriedly carries me to my bed and plops me on it.

“Anakin!” I say as I swat his shoulder, “You should have let me take off my robes first! Do you know how dirty it is? Sitting on unknown ships and prancing about on the battlefield…” I trail off, beginning to take my robes off. He only chuckles at my little reprimanding rant.

“Sorry, your highness. I wasn’t aware you were afraid of a little dirt.” He replies good-naturedly as he too takes off his robes.

Your highness… Royalty… Queen… Queen Amidala…. Padmé Amidala… my mind hovers over the subject of Padmé Amidala, Senator and Anakin’s childhood friend.

I fold my robes with less energy and lie in bed, thinking about Padmé…

We’ve known each other for a year, shedding formalities and acknowledging each other either by nicknames or first name. She calls me (N/N) and I call her Padmé. I once considered ‘Addy’ but thought it was too similar to ‘Ani’, so I dropped it… She may be 5 years older than us; but she looks our age. It’s amazing how she manages to keep up appearances. I mean, she was a queen so it isn’t such a marvelous feat… She’s just so pretty. And regal, even in our presence. I suppose she wouldn’t just drop her regality when she’s with us… I don’t know what’s going on with me; whenever she’s around, I just feel so… inferior. She’s a great person and has a lovely personality, don’t get me wrong. She’s amazing in every way and I’m just-

“Don’t finish that sentence.” Anakin said authoritatively. I was so caught up in my thoughts, I completely forgot Anakin was with me. I turn to my right to see Anakin has settled in bed and has taken a hold of my hand.

He sits up and I mirror his actions. He turns towards me and grabs both of my hands. His cerulean orbs stare right into my soul. I forget, he has a knack for being able to read me like a book.

“You are amazing too.” He reassures me.

“She was a queen, Ani and I’m-“

“You’re a Jedi! Do you know how amazing you really are?” He asks with genuine curiousity.

“You wake up every day – risk your life every day – to go fight for the Republic! You command the 343rd Battalion; entire platoons of men look to you every day for guidance. Your skills with a lightsaber are nearly unmatched AND you’re one of the most beautiful Jedi to have every roamed these halls.” He exasperates while flinging his arm to the door that leads to the halls.

“Padmé is a great person and I love her.” He says and my heart drops to the pit of my stomach. “As a friend.” He continues.

“But, do you know who I love as a lover? Who I love with all my heart and who I wish to spend the rest of my life with?”

I look at him with innocent doe eyes, soaking in his words like a sponge.

“You, (Y/N). You are my best friend and the love of my life. Do you know how many times I’ve stared your way as a Padawan? Countless times. Or how happy I was whenever we got paired for a mission? I was exhilarated. It’s the joy you get when your feelings for someone are so strong, you feel like you’ll explode. You’ve always had my heart and never known it.” He finishes, or so I thought.

“I love you, (Y/N).” He says, letting go of my hands to grab both sides of my face, “With all of my heart.” The tears that have been collecting at the corners of my eyes finally begin to fall; being told you are the love of someone’s life and that they love you with all their heart makes you emotional.

His hands make quick work of wiping away the tears that cascade down my face.

Once he’s done and the waterworks stop, he says, “You are NOT inferior to Padmé and you never will be. Understand?” with emphasis on ‘not’ and looks at me. I nod my head in comprehension.

“Good.” Anakin lays back and pulls me into his side; rubbing my arm with the calloused fingers of his left hand. I steady my breathing from the crying I just did and relax into him, sliding my right arm around his back to take residence on his waist. The room is settled in a comfortable silence; the only noises being the sound of our breathing.

“I love you too, by the way.” I say in a small voice, keeping my eyes down as my thumb strokes the skin on his waist. He turns is head and looks down at me with a smile and responds with two words:

“I know…”

[laureviewer]

Persona 5 Royal: A Review

It’s finally time to review one of my all-time favourite games.

I first played Persona 5 around 3 years ago, and I’ve really grown since then in a few ways. A few thoughts before I begin: a) since my first playthrough, JRPGs have cemented themselves as one of my favourite types of games; b) I don’t hate all turn-based RPGs except Pokémon anymore!; c) after my first playthrough I went to Japan, and as Persona 5 is set in Tokyo, playing Royal was a lot of fun as I knew a lot of the locations, which meant I could dive into the setting deeper than the first time; and d) my 250 hours of playtime in total across both playthroughs can most likely be attributed to the incredible writing and masterful character development.

Warning: HEAVY story spoilers

I’m not trying to sell you a game. I want to give you an in-depth analysis of the story, characters, gameplay and all other aspects of this brilliant game, spoilers and all. I want a discussion. So, dive in and see what I really thought, no holds barred.

The Silence is Deafening

‘…’ – a direct quote from our protagonist, there. Our silent hero, codename Joker, is a victim of circumstance. Wrongfully accused of assault by a mysterious man who is angered that a kid prevented him from forcing a woman into his car et al., he must move away from his hometown to wait out his probation period and live a normal student life. Why must he live above a failing café under the guardianship of the cranky owner? Not to mention: why is he banished to Tokyo of all places, somewhere very likely much more exciting than wherever his hometown is?

Either way, Joker isn’t going to tell you. He’s quiet and lets the other many, many other characters do the talking for him—a usual trope of JRPGs, but it is still an issue as he is also put on a pedestal as an incredibly special, talented, empathetic and all-round great guy. He’s the only one capable of saving the world, as he has abilities no-one else has, for some reason.

But this isn’t as bad as I’m making it out to be. Sure, it doesn’t really make sense why you have such a huge following when you don’t have much of a personality, but that’s the beauty of the silent protagonist. You, the player, are the protagonist. The fact that you can even put your own name in as his name is telling. You make the decisions, you make the friends, and you carve out your own destiny from the choices you make. It’s always these kinds of games that, when I talk to my friends, I say ‘I messed up with Sojiro’ or ‘I went to the arcade today’—and it is me. Because even though I’m not a woefully silent Japanese male teenager with glasses, for the time I’m playing Persona 5, I am.

So, you are the protagonist. You learn that there are mental shutdowns all over Tokyo, making people go crazy and kill lots of people, such as a conductor crashing his train, or simply killing people on the spot. It’s weird, but what can you do? You’re just a student with his own problems: not only do many of the students avoid you because you are a delinquent, but the volleyball coach, Kamoshida, seems to be harassing students, from the ones on his team who seem terrified of him, to girls that are being hit on. When a strange app appears on your phone, you accidentally find yourself in the metaverse, along with Ryuji, who also has a good reason to get revenge on Kamoshida.

I Am Thou, Thou Art I

What teenager doesn’t have a rebellious self hidden deep within their subconscious? Well, these teens can utilise that hidden self past its usual constraints to overcome the crappy adults that suppress them and make detrimental decisions for them. Once Joker and Ryuji, and later many other young adults, realise this potential and recognise that these adults need to be stopped, they are awakened to their Personas. A Persona is a manifestation of a persona user’s personality, which the individual can use to face hardship and overcome injustice, even if just in the Metaverse, the collective unconscious world.

But, really, there’s no ‘just’ about it. Here in this world, which take the form of Palaces, the Phantom Thieves (you and your friends) can defeat the ruler of the Palace (the adult with a distorted desire) to convince them to change their heart. In this way, the ‘real’ them in the real world will atone for their actions and justice can be served. So, really, your actions are vital to solving crimes, dealing justice and, eventually, saving the world.

These Personas are like Pokémon for adults. You are special, as you can catch and wield multiple Personas, allowing you to have a whole array of powers, but your friends have one that they train and evolve throughout the course of the story. Catching them is a skill: you have to learn their weakness, and use a skill that takes advantage of it to ‘down’ the Persona. This gives you a chance to either: perform an ‘all out’ attack which sees all your allies fight them at once for increased damage; ask them for money or an item; or negotiate with them to convince them to become a part of you (and thus catch them for use later). This gets harder when there are multiple different Personas to battle at once, all with different weaknesses and strengths that means you must time your combat precisely to ‘down’ them at the same time.

Personas are one of the best parts of the game, as you can see.

Not happy with a persona’s moves, or you want to create stronger ones? Go to the Velvet Room, where Igor and the Twin Wardens Justine and Caroline will fuse two or more Personas together to create new ones.

This is where the Pokémon element is better and worse. You can get completely new and stronger Personas immediately, which is cool, but if you are particularly drawn to one it doesn’t make sense to keep using them as they will level up far quicker if you fuse them than if you keep them. I struggled with this at first, as Arsene is your first ‘official’ Persona, and I couldn’t quite believe you are only meant to have him for the first few hours. It’s like Ash giving up Pikachu after defeating Brock!

Also, have you seen how you have to fuse them? It’s so dark and unnecessarily vivid! You have to guillotine, electric chair or hang them in order to create these new Personas, which is so different to Persona 4 where the Personas are cards, making it less gruesome to get rid of your companions. It definitely made me feel bad for fusing them, but that didn’t stop me!

Essentially, the Persona franchise wouldn’t be the same without all the incredible Personas you fight and capture along the way. It really encapsulates what the games are like: stylized and deeply considered, exuding character and imagination throughout.

Take Over, It’s Time to Put You Down

Using these Personas are a lot of fun, too. The moves are elemental as well as physical, they can inflict ailments such as ‘sleep’ and ‘fear’, and evolve as you and your Personas level up. Personas all have strengths and weaknesses, and by fusing them, you can create Personas with stronger moves and resistances that, as you get towards the end of the game, means that you can fuse some incredibly powerful Personas that can fight any and all enemies, if you’re smart with the moves you inherit.

This all sounds very similar to Pokémon, right? Well, there are other more showy, fantastically fun elements that integrate beautifully with the stunning graphics to make every battle (which have the potential to become very repetitive) exciting and challenging. When a character manages to ‘down’ an enemy by using a move that is strong against it, they can either do another attack or choose to Baton Pass to an ally, chaining super-effective attacks to down multiple enemies in one round, which is useful if there are a lot of different enemies with different affinities and weaknesses. Then, once all enemies are downed, all allies can come together for an All Out Attack for an extra boost of damage.

As much as this is useful for the player, if the enemy downs one of your allies, they can also do a secondary attack, which means that they have the potential to wipe out your team very quickly. Plus, some moves are one hit kills, which may have low accuracy but is still extremely frustrating sometimes, particularly in regular 5 where I found the combat more challenging. The worst boss fight was Haru’s dad, where I actually had to change difficulty for the only time throughout the game—who decided it was a good idea to revive the robot shadows if you didn’t kill them in three moves?!

The Showtime moves, new for Royal, bring a fresh new element to the game. As you progress through the story, your allies start forming bonds, which will then be reflected in combat. At seemingly random times, they can join up with fantastic new animations (such as Yusuke cooking Ryuji some yummy food at a bar, who get interrupted by a shadow coming in the door, and they both take it out) and inflict massive damage. I was sad that Joker doesn’t get one, until the Royal section where baes Akechi and Sumire both team up with you respectively for new Showtimes. It made me wonder whether Joker just wasn’t as close to the rest of the team as he becomes to Akechi and Sumire, which actually also made me glad that I focused on both of them heavily in my playthrough!

Every song that plays throughout the game, including combat, is a banger, so even though my husband got annoyed hearing it coming out of my TV for 120 hours, this soundtrack will remain one of my favourites to date. Overall, the combat is great, and thankfully not too repetitive after so many hours of gameplay.

Adulting is Hard

The story of Persona 5 is deeply gripping, and keeps you invested and interested the whole way through. It didn’t absolutely destroy me like other JRPGs have done (see: Final Fantasy XV), but fun, emotive and has huge repercussions if you don’t succeed in your mission, including people dying and the world ending. No pressure, then.

Your actions, then, are crucial to making the world a better place: and the villains that you encounter are integral to succeeding. In true revolution fashion, it’s the kids that need to stand up to the adults to rid them of their distorted desires—but it’s not all random. The adults are truly abhorrent (the first one, Kamoshida, sexually assaults female students and physically abuses members of his volleyball team) and they continue a running thread from first to last—that is, the ones who you think aren’t connected at all seem to be connected to the final villain by the end. It’s very clever, and kept me gripped the whole way through—something that’s needed with 80+ hours of gameplay.

The writing is absolutely fantastic. All characters have their own distinct mannerisms, personalities and stories, which you get to explore with the Confidant mechanic (see below). The voice acting is great, and as I progressed through the Confidants, I really started to feel like they were becoming my friends, and that every time I turned on my PS4 I was hanging out with my pals again. It’s the way games should make you feel—like you actually care about what will happen to them.

This does make the game quite stressful (in a good way), as what you do has actual repercussions. It’s a bit frustrating sometimes that some of your dialogue doesn’t affect the game at large, as well as your romance choices. None of the characters acknowledge you have a girlfriend, and if you date Ann, for example, she won’t act any differently than if you decide to not even become her friend. While that’s disappointing, other dialogue choices can completely affect your game so that you always have to be very careful with your decisions. Will you get the ‘bad’ ending, where you fail to stop the final villain; the ‘good bad’ ending, where you accept his distorted view of the world; or the ‘true’ canon ending, where you revert the world to normal? A lot of choices throughout this lengthy game affect what ultimately happens, so you do feel like you’re affecting the story a lot more than, say, Pokémon. In fact, in Royal, you can even miss out on a whole section of the game…

Ascending to Royalty

As long as you max your Confidant links with Akechi (the renegade teen detective), Kasumi (the new gymnast freshman at your school) and Maruki (the school counsellor), you get to experience the 30+ hours that Royal adds to Persona 5. And—major spoilers here—once you’ve defeated the God of Control and exposed Akechi for the unhinged betrayer that he is, you should go to juvenile detention and your ability to use Personas should be gone for good, as Momentos has been destroyed.

However, in Royal, Maruki has figured out how to use cognitive psience—and you’re the reason why. His sessions with you has helped with his research, and so now he can make the world a better place by granting everyone’s desires in the collective unconsciousness.

As you can see by his actions, he’s not your typical antagonist. His heart is completely in the right place: he wants to make everyone happy by granting their desires for them, such as bringing back Futaba’s dead mother and helping Ryuji recover so he can get back on the track team. I resonated with that, and actually wondered whether it would be worse for certain characters, particularly Futaba and Haru who get to spend time with their respective dead parents, to reject the “blissful ignorance” reality that Maruki had created for them in favour of the truth.

By this point, I had grown rather fond of the deranged but entertaining firework that Akechi has revealed himself to be, and once I learned that Akechi would die (as he did in regular 5) if Maruki’s reality were to be revoked, I almost chose to accept it. But Akechi being adamant that he was going to stop Maruki no matter what as he didn’t want to live under anyone else’s rule helped make that choice for me. It was difficult, though. Akechi’s is a motive that is simultaneously selfish and noble: selfish as he doesn’t want anyone else to control him, even if that means other people are happy, but noble because he values the truth above all else. Plus, the fact that he was one of the main villains throughout the story up until this point made me question whether we should continue to trust him, even though he had decided to help us, even if it were primarily for his own gain. I think my fondness for him (perhaps because he is a fully-fledged Confidant in this game, unlike regular 5) and the wildcard elements he brought to the game made me feel a certain brand of loyalty towards him, and so I chose to honour his “dying wish”. And, of course, this path led to the ‘true’ ending!

This indecision is shown most clearly in Maruki’s palace, where you have to deduce what decisions in certain situations Maruki would think is the ‘right’ one. It really helps you understand where he’s coming from. For example, his question ‘if your friend is being attacked, and you don’t have much time before they get seriously hurt, would you a) run to get help but you might not make it back in time, or b) join the fight to help but you might get hurt yourself?’ Neither answer is necessarily wrong, but b) is correct as Maruki simply wants you to look out for yourself over others. The crux of his viewpoint is that you should endeavour to make yourself happy or safe, even if that means others may not be. It’s a very interesting conundrum, and one I enjoyed debating philosophically whilst playing.

The concept of right and wrong and mental health was also tackled in this game through Kasumi/Sumire. Ultimately, even though Maruki wanted to help her by allowing Sumire to pretend to be her dead sister, as she blames herself for her death, he ultimately did her more harm than good. With the support of Joker and the others Sumire was able to overcome her delusions and grow into a strong, confident young woman. This cemented for me how backwards Maruki was and that reality is the most important thing, even if it’s not always what we want, because that’s life. In this way, I feel that Royal added something to 5. Even though going into someone’s mind palace was about mental health, I never really considered it until Royal dealt with an innocent traumatised girl and a misguided man attempting to heal her. I applaud Atlas for tackling something so difficult pretty well.

Confident in my Confidants

It’s a good thing the player can really get into the story, because it’s heavily dependent on personal decisions and making friends.

In order to get stronger within the Metaverse, Igor, the man inside the Velvet Room, tells Joker that he needs to strengthen the relationship with his friends first. This is absolutely true—not just with your teammates, but with other individuals who live in Tokyo too, in the form of the Confidant mechanic. For example, while your teammates all get skills such as curing afflictions and taking fatal hits for Joker, others give just as much if not more valuable perks, such as Kawakami giving you more free time or Mishima allowing all teammates to gain experience even if they don’t contribute to the battle once you max them out.

The way you level them up is through socialising. This passes time, but is also incredibly interesting, as each Confidant has a gripping story (except Ohya!). You can’t downgrade a Confidant, but picking the right dialogue choices can make leveling them up much quicker in a game where time is everything. It’s also necessary to level up your stats, such as knowledge, kindness and charm, to allow you to progress with some Confidants and be empathetic or charming enough to deal with the situations thrown at you. I loved the dual play style of dungeon battles and social simulation—in a lengthy game, it broke up gameplay and kept it fresh.

As this was my second playthrough, I already knew that maxing certain Confidants would yield the best results, such as Kawakami and Yoshida who eventually allows you to negotiate with and catch shadows of a higher level than you. But in Royal, the new additions of Counselor, Faith & Justice—Maruki, Kasumi & Akechi—freshened things up. Technically, Justice isn’t new, but you can now hang out with him instead of his progress being facilitated purely by story.

Time to rate my friends from worst to best!

21: Ichiko Ohya Devil Arcana

I found this alcoholic journalist very annoying. Her story isn’t that interesting, she isn’t very nice, and the skills that she gives you to allow you to sneak around Palaces easier aren’t worth it either. I only maxed out her story near the end as I had time, but honestly, she shouldn’t be a priority.

20: Iwai Munehisa Hanged Man Arcana

Didn’t think anything of him until Royal, where I had more time to learn about his time in the Yakusa and his son. Useful for guns (which aren’t even an integral part of combat, really), but other than that I barely used his shop—plus you have to have high Guts in order to progress. Definitely better Confidants out there.

19: Tae Takemi Death Arcana

The fact that this doctor is a sexy goth is probably the best thing about her. You can level her up quite early on, so she is quite exciting at the beginning as she’s one of the only adults you can turn into a Confidant at that point, but after a while she stopped being interesting to me. In my Royal playthrough I found I didn’t need many healing items—SP was far more important!—and in the end I didn’t max her out. A fun outfit, but can leave her.

18: Shinya Oda Tower Arcana

Definitely annoying (but what little brother isn’t?) but there’s a sad reason for that—his mum is emotionally abusive, even if she doesn’t mean to be. In the end I wanted to max him out to save him from that life, but I never quite got that far. At least I managed to change his mum’s heart before I finished the game.

He’s also quite useful in buffing gun attacks and bonuses for downing and negotiating, so definitely useful for combat. I just ended up feeling bad for him, but he was also a bit of a shit, being a bully to his classmates; his big bro Joker helped with that!

17: Hifumi Togo Star Arcana

I never got to know her in my first playthrough, and I didn’t realise how useful she is for battles. She eventually allows you to swap players in combat, hastens escapes, improves money hauls, and allows back-up members to do follow up attacks. I’d definitely give her a shot for just those bonuses, even if you don’t want to romance her—but she is sweet, if very detached from the rest of the story.

16: Chihaya Mifune Fortune Arcana

I maxed her out pretty quickly so I could get the fortune readings; affinity was especially useful, as you can level up Confidants a tiny bit quicker, for a price. And, after she takes 100,000 from you near the beginning (!) and eventually gives it back, she’s lovely. Nothing special, and definitely not one to romance, but nice.

15: Twin Wardens Justine & Caroline Strength Arcana

Their Confidant path was slightly different: you have to show them Personas with specific moves, and they will level up. This was very interesting, and also put a natural brake on their relationship, as some Personas can’t be made until you are a certain level. They are also very useful as you eventually unlock group Persona fusions and can fuse Personas of a higher level than you, for a price. Always fun to get the ridiculous Personas a bit earlier on! Also, their story was super interesting, due to the mystery that surrounds their identities…

Also also, Royal gives a new element to your relationship with them. You can now take them out of the Velvet Room to show them ‘human things’, like aquariums and cinemas. I didn’t utilise this much as you only get skill cards, and no actual level progress, but I wish I had more time, as the dialogue in these sequences is hilarious as they try to understand why humans would do certain things. The fact that I’ve ranked them so low is telling—there are so many fun and useful Confidants that mean they rank this low. 

14: Yuuki Mishima Moon Arcana

I actually think you’re a bit mean to him—he’s definitely your friend, but every time you are asked to clarify this the dialogue choices make you seem like a dickhead when you say he’s only ‘sort of’ your friend! He’s helped you so much, stop being such a dick, player. Plus he helps increase EXP, as well as allows EXP to be given to back-up members so it’s definitely a good thing to max him earlier. Plus, he’s sweet, and gives you Momentos requests. Justice for Mishima!

13: Takuto Maruki Councillor Arcana

Lovely. What a gent. Shame he turned out to be distorted by deciding to change people’s realities by interpreting their vague wants instead of actually asking people if they’d WANT their realities changed or not. Sounds a bit like Thanos to me, but with a better reason to be evil.

The bonuses of Maruki though are: he’s interesting; he’s lovely; and his bonuses are mainly SP based, which is always hard to recover in Persona, especially in the early stages of the games. He raises your SP, gives you a chance to instantly recover ailments, gives you a chance to become focused and therefore raises your attack, and gives you a chance to recover your SP when low. Very useful, and you can’t play the Royal storyline without maxing him out before November 18th anyway.

12: Haru Okumura Empress Arcana

Again, I wasn’t too much of a fan of Haru on my first playthrough (perhaps because she’s quite a late addition to the team), but this time round, I had more time to get to know her. I really wanted to save her from her awful fiancé, and hoped I’d be able to say ‘don’t marry him, marry me!’ if I chose to romance her, but alas. I was also quite surprised with how business-orientated she is, which was a surprise. However, she was just too prim and proper for me, and even after her story showed her to be evolving into a confident woman, she didn’t evolve quite enough for me to be interested.

She’s useful, though, as all the Confidants are who are your team members, so leveling her up is a must, for help in combat and to evolve her Persona.

11: Morgana Magician Arcana

Morgana was the most useful as the support hero—I always wanted him in my party, particularly in hard battles, just to keep me and my allies alive. Plus, who doesn’t love a talking cat? Though, at one point, he does get moody and very annoying. While Morgana as a character was never that exciting past being the initial reason they can become Phantom Thieves and the mystery surrounding where he comes from, Royal switched that up by turning him into a dreamboat with piercing blue eyes when Maruki made his dream of being a human come true. They kept saying throughout this sequence how beautiful he was, which was amusing. A nice twist on the original game.

10: Toranosuke Yoshida Sun Arcana

I learnt to level this fallen-from-grace politician up quickly from my first playthrough as, once you max him out, you can negotiate easier with shadows of your own level, and negotiate with higher level shadows and add them to the compendium—absolutely necessary. Also, he’s basically a massive socialist leftie, so he rocks.

9: Yusuke Kitagawa Emperor Arcana

I didn’t like him much in my first playthrough, but now I appreciate him far more—he’s flamboyant, artistic and, best of all, happy to be in his own mind and be himself, no matter what people think of him. He’s a bit stuck up sometimes, but all in all he’s an outsider who fits in better than he really should. And he provides funny dialogue, particularly when interacting with Futaba. I also love his Showtime moves with Ryuji and Ann.

8: Ann Takamaki Lovers Arcana

I’m quite surprised she’s this low down for me, but even though she’s the first girl you befriend and she’s hopelessly beautiful to everyone who meets her, she doesn’t quite push past the ‘ditzy girl’ trope. The story does try to make her more nuanced, and to an extent it works—she’s also fun, thoughtful and empathetic—but there’s just too many misogynistic and ditsy jokes that even only a few years later don’t land anymore. Saying that, she literally uses her sexuality to break free of the misogyny that surrounds her body and the sexual abuse and prejudice she experiences, at the most from the volleyball teacher, and at the least from everyone around her. It’s a steep hill to climb, but she’s doing it.

I drew the picture below!

7: Sadayo Kawakami Temperance Arcana

Kawakami’s your teacher—what could possibly go wrong? Well, she’s also a sexy maid who comes over to clean up, though she won’t go any further as you’re her high school student. Yet. It’s a bit dodgy, especially as she acts like your mum, but even so, the forbidden fruit angle is fun. Her story is also compelling. Not only is she an interesting Confidant, but one of the most useful ones for the amount of extra time she gives you when you level her up. Why on both my playthroughs did I not level her up immediately?

6: Sojiro Sakura Hierophant Arcana

He’s your guardian who takes you in when you have to move from your hometown after your alleged assault to live out your probation. He starts out cranky, but has an absolute heart of gold. He ended up being one of my favourite Confidants—plus, he’s one of the most useful, as he is one of the only ways to get SP in the early game by making coffee and curry. You need to understand the pride I got from making coffee that met his expectations!

5: Futaba Sakura Hermit Arcana

Sojiro’s adopted daughter is so much fun that I romanced her in the first game. While some may think she’s more like a little sister, she’s just a bit more immature because of her hermit lifestyle and Arcana. She’s funny, loves games, and has great references; she is one of the only instances of a game that has a young girl who doesn’t sound like 40-year-olds trying to sound like teenagers. She has a heartbreaking story, but her personality keeps it light. She says it how it is, no matter what anyone else thinks. She’s great.

4: Kasumi/Sumire Yoshizawa Faith Arcana

I chose to romance the gymnast honour student in Royal, because how can you not romance the new girl? Though I wasn’t sure at first, as I found her quite twee at the beginning. However, she became a lot more nuance when she became Sumire, which is to be expected. Plus, she is really well integrated into the story and really makes you feel she cares about you. She has an amazing costume when she is Codename: Violet, and gives you some truly useful abilities, such as ambushing from a distance and avoiding being surrounded by shadows. She’s a great addition to an already great game.

3: Makoto Niijima Priestess Confidant

She’s bestgirl in terms of smarts, badassery, and simple relatability. She is Student Council President, an honour student, and has been manipulated by evil adults for their own distorted desires. Her parents have died, which instils her with deep guilt for being a burden on her sister. She’s also the only one whose Confidant story doesn’t actively revolve around herself: she changes, but it’s through helping her friend who may be a victim of trafficking rather than her own self-interests. She’s sharp, poised and even more badass when she awakens to her Persona, Johanna—it’s a freaking motorcycle!

2: Ryuji Sakamoto Chariot Confidant

Your best buddy. I’m always drawn towards these ones, who are treated a bit dumb but are loyal to the end. He’s also hilarious, like when he complains the Phantom Thieves are in the shadows and not getting any credit, and I chose the option ‘I like the shade’, he says ‘what are you, moss?!’ I really do wish I could romance him, because I can see a lovely storyline where he’s unsure at first but the fact that they’re soulmates transcends gender.

1: Goro Akechi Justice Confidant

I’m almost hesitant to admit I find him the most fascinating and fun. Not only is he dangerous, exciting and unhinged, he's at the centre of an incredible twist. He’s one of the most interesting characters, and you never know what he’s going to do next. I would definitely date him if Japanese games let gay relationships happen; he has all the best attributes for a crazy romantic relationship. Not IRL, but in a game, why not?

I love that he didn’t die and teams up with you in Royal, and that . He’s also the first character that Joker gets a Showtime move with, which made it quite special. When it is revealed just how evil and crazy he is, his whole character changes, including his Persona, his Phantom Thieves outfit, and his demeanor—it’s scary how excited he is by killing, but at the same time, he is absolutely certain of his viewpoints and won’t compromise for anyone. Many of these points would be a reason why he shouldn’t be my number one, but I can’t help it.

Honourable Mentions: Igor (Fool Arcana), Sae Niijima (Judgement Arcana) & Jose

Igor is the ruler of the Velvet Room, and the person who facilitates your rehabilitation in changing peoples’ hearts. However, ‘person’ isn’t quite right for Igor: he’s the God of Control, born from the desires of the collective masses who want to be controlled and be told what to do rather than make difficult decisions. It was a cool twist to realise that the God of Control had been impersonating the real Igor; I don’t know if Igor was lovely in the previous games, but he certainly is once you restore him at the end of 5. Despite him being interesting, I never felt like I had a connection with him, as you level up his Arcana automatically throughout the story, and he never tried to have a personal relationship with Joker.

Sae has her own palace and Arcana, but she’s not quite the same as the others. Like Igor, you level up automatically throughout the game when you confess to her the whole Phantom Thieves story, and while she does have a Palace, she doesn’t through any huge transformation other than realising that learning the truth is better than trying to win at any cost. She’s cool, and her outfit in her Palace is sexy, but you can’t romance her and can’t change much of what you say to her. I wish in Royal she could have been a fully fledged Confidant instead.

Jose counts even less. A new addition to Royal, he helps you change the cognition of Momentos by collecting stamps as you go further down, and he gives you items in exchange for flowers, so he definitely makes Momentos better. However, his addition is nothing world-shaking, and he only shows up randomly, which makes him quite annoying. I could have done without him, but at least he made Momentos more interesting than in the base game, which, compared to Palaces, was quite boring.

All in all, my main issue with the Confidant system as that you still can’t date boys. We’ve been saying for years ‘that’s just the Japanese way’, but considering the crazy hentai they bring out (still with only very little amounts of yaoi/gay hentai) it may be time to stop excusing them for not being with the times. Catherine: Full Body aimed to dispel that somewhat—perhaps Persona should too.

A Momentous Game

Overall, this is one of my favourite games of all time. The gameplay keeps me entertained for 100+ hours (though, to be fair, I do love long games) and the characters and writing makes me emotionally connect with the story they are telling. I’d suggest playing for at least 8 hours, as it’s a slow burn, but once that hurdle is jumped the real obsession begins.

Time to go and play Persona 4 Golden, as I’m not quite ready for the fun to be over yet.

[flatstarcarcosa]

house/home

Ship: wilson and wilson at large warnings: exploration of trauma and PTSD, references to abuse note: this ended up being similar to the last thing i did, what started out as a simple headcanon exploration turned into an emotionally charged, rambling piece that at one point, turns into a story. it has not been proof read yet. 

                                  --------------------------------------------

slade and i discover pretty quickly after the move to vermont that simply packing my shit and taking care of any lingering obligations in florida i was tied too is not, in fact, the entire solution to my problems. 

which of course ties into the larger theme of our whole relationship at this point in that we’re both just constantly attempting to run away from our problems, our pasts, our trauma all while scolding each other and saying it doesn’t work like that. 

he finds i don’t get settled right away. or even within a few weeks or months. the vermont house, for all purposes, for the longest of time, is not my house. it is not my home. i quickly default back into the same mindset i have had my entire life, drilled and beaten into me since i was a child that if someone else has paid for it, if someone else has bought it, if someone else has acquired it and is allowing me to use it, 

it is not mine. it is theirs.

which of course, that’s not the mindset that slade is coming from. he picked the vermont house because it made the most sense logistically. it was already there, sitting and waiting. filled with belongings he could never fit in elsewhere, filled with dust, filled with ghosts of memories past. 

it made sense to use it. 

so when we finally arrive, both regretting the initial idea of turning the move into a road trip, my things are waiting in storage containers. two large ones, sitting in the driveway and blocking access to the detached garage. 

the house smells of pine and wood and must, having been shuttered up for so long. he comments that he can’t exactly remember the last time he was here, and he opens windows and adjusts the thermostat as he moves through. 

everything is decorated in warm colors and wood, brown furniture and carpeting, and old linoleum in the kitchen that has seen better days. it’s distinctly him, and his presence coats everything i touch, as if his absence has meant nothing. 

which it probably hasn’t. after all, a house is four walls and a roof and completely unconcerned with the on-goings inside it.

my things get moved in at an easy pace, boxes stacked out of the way in the basement while we try to figure out placement. 

slade jokes we’re both going to have to pick and choose on the books; my amount added to his exceeding the capacity. he comments something about adding more bookcases in his study, and he trails off when he mentions something about adeline always wanting that done years ago. 

there’s pictures of her in his study. her, and grant, and joey. more pictures of the three of them alone or together than there are of slade with them all. one in particular, that i find by accident stuffed behind a novel about Achilles, specifically has slade’s face cut out of it. i don’t ask. i don’t have to. 

over the next few weeks my presence adds to his. 

we have a fake argument about the two batman statues i have, me putting them on shelves in the living room only to find them in absurd places the next day. he puts one in the freezer, another in a garbage can. 

my small collection of novelty mugs makes it’s way into the kitchen, along of course, with my shot glasses. we decide to donate my coffee maker, as slade’s is bigger and still functional. 

at first we come to what seems like the logical conclusion that my bedroom items will go in his room; in the master bedroom. we put my bedframe in the basement, wrap the mattress for now and leave it leaning next to it. my sheet sets go in the closet, i add my pillows to his bed. 

my shampoo and my facial cleansers sit next to his in the bathroom, our toothbrushes resting in the holder. my cologne next to his. my clippers in the box under the cabinet, next to a tiered container holding make up. my nail polish nestles next to his beard trimmer. 

as the weeks go by, little by little i try to claim the offered spaces as my own. 

i wake up one day to find he’s changed the living room furniture, i’m not sure why, and he seems oddly evasive about it. he jokes something about one of the kids throwing a party once, someone leaving nasty stains. he always meant to replace it. 

he always meant to do a lot of things, he says. 

i realize we’re both being crushed by our own innate guilt, whether rational or not, and that all we’ve done is try to run away from it again. 

and of course, it hasn’t worked. it doesn’t work, it will never work, because you cannot run from these things. they are a train, and you cannot outrun a train. 

i find myself wide awake one night, the sound of him breathing softly and measured next to me, and i’m staring up in the dark at a still unfamiliar ceiling and i realize that nothing is right,

none of this is right, none of this fits. 

i am not, yet, accustomed to this new space. im unused to the noises of the house settling, the noises inside and out of it, and i lay there in the blinding dark desperately searching for something familiar to latch onto before i sink to the bottom 

and i find nothing. 

even his warm, solid form right next to me isn’t enough to tether me to the present and once again i’m overcome with the unalienable need to run. 

he finds me on the back porch hours later, having apparently rolled over and noticed my absence, half a pack of cigarettes butted in the ash tray next to me, another one trailing smoke into the sky from my hand. i am still not calm enough to speak, and knowing that i will have to feels like a vice on my chest.  

my mind races to prepare answers, the raging urge of self-preservation steering towards the right answers, and the correct answers, and the answers the other party wants to hear, and it is a habit i never foresee myself breaking. 

the entire time i am screaming at myself to stop because it’s not necessary and it is not appropriate. and logically, i know this. my brain acknowledges the commands yet tells me so sorry there’s nothing we can do to stop this, it’s a train after all. 

he picks out a cigarette of his own, gently pulling the lighter from between the fingers on my other hand. he sits down on the edge of my seat, to my right of course, always to my right and the side he can see from. he exhales a lungful of smoke and for a few moments, the questions don’t come. 

my brain stops misfiring, the synapses all seeming to come to a stop as they compare now to then and finally decide, yes 

yes we can stop now. 

yes, you were right, now is not the same as then. 

a semblance of control returns to my body as he reaches behind me to lean on the back of the chair. 

“where’d you go?” he asks, casually, simply. as if that’s the most logical question to ask, as if that makes perfect sense, and i almost want to scream

because it absolutely is.  

and yet, even still, “what?” is all i can choke out, and i know my attempt to cover it with a cough from the cigarette is as see through as glass, but i do it anyway.

“you went somewhere,” he says, tapping ash. his fingers trail up my back, coming to rest at the nape of my neck, his thumb rubbing circles against my hairline. 

“i...i don’t know,” i say, and i want to cry all over again because of how far away and how small i sound. 

“hm,” is all he responds with. he nudges me with a knee, and i slide over and allow him to sit fully. i stub out my cigarette and immediately reach for another one, and he flicks the lighter and doesn’t comment on the chain smoking and for several minutes we say nothing. 

i know he’s waiting on me to invite him in. to give a cue, a sign that yes i’m fine now and yes i will be fine and yes i will give you a new list of all my problems and you can find out how to fix them, because that’s what you constantly try to do, because that’s all you know how to do, even to the point of creating problems just so you can solve them.  

and i cannot give him that because i know deep, deep within the most choked off parts of myself that there are just things that cannot, will not be fixed. 

and they cannot be run from, either. 

but they can accommodated. they can be unearthed and they can be tended to and they can be allowed to breathe and perhaps if i stop trying to strangle myself into the submission of others, i could get a foothold in my own mind. 

“could you maybe...move my bed and some of my stuff in the basement to one of your spare bedrooms?” i ask, and i hope that the fearfulness i’m feeling at daring to ask for something to be done for my comfort isn’t drowning my words. 

he lets out a smoky sigh, tilting his head back and looking up at the stars as he brushes his fingers against my steaming cheek. 

“i forgot how much you need a space of your own,” he says. my brain, still partially controlled by ghosts pulling on the strings of trauma, searches desperately for anything in his voice to justify the panic. for the annoyance, the exasperation, the condemnation, 

and yet there is nothing to find. 

“of course,” he says, “we can clear out one of the spare bedrooms and we can move as much of your stuff into it as you need.” 

he stresses all the right words in all the right ways so that it doesn’t come across as sarcastic or demeaning in response to my obvious needs and for a moment i could swear i black out as everything that i’ve fought for so long to snuff out explodes into sparks. 

i drop my cigarette at one point, completely unaware i’ve done it as i lean forward and press my head into his chest, fingers coiling into his shirt and he slips an arm around my waist and tugs me closer, leaning me against his hip in what feels like a practiced motion that he’s done hundreds of times.  

“i’m sorry,” i say, breathing the words into him. 

“that’s fine,” he says. “you’re fine.” 

“i know,” i say. 

we fall into silence for a while, interrupted only when i hear him sniffing, and for a moment i think is he crying too, now? did i start this?  then suddenly he’s swearing, jumping out of the chair and nearly knocking me to the porch, and i’m so startled all i can do is blink like a confused animal as i register the smell of smoldering wood.

“your cigarette is burning a hole in the porch,” he says, stepping away to turn the light on. 

and as i watch him go to reflexively grind the cigarette out with his foot, stopping when he realizes he’s not wearing shoes to turn and grab one of my boots from our shoe stand just outside the door, i can’t stop the laughter that bubbles up from my core. 

i hear a train whistle in the distance, and i can’t make out if it is a real whistle, or my auditory wiring misfiring, and i don’t care. i’ll ask him tomorrow, if there’s train tracks somewhere nearby, because it settles in the back of my mind that there will be a tomorrow, and a day after, and a day after that, and it wraps around me like a fuzzy jacket. 

he offers a hand and i take it, and it slips down to my waist as he leads me back inside. 

“you know, you don’t have to try to burn our house down to get my attention,” he says as the door slides shut behind us, and there’s the faintest hint of a smile on his lips as he speaks. i catch sight of the moonlight streaming in behind him, and it imposes on my eyes the sight from what feels like so long ago, 

the sun light beaming down on him in a florida parking lot as he looks down to grab for the dog’s leash, a stranger in my home saving my only friend from running head first into traffic while hunting a lone lizard

and i think what are the odds, 

that then is, in fact, so similar to now. 

[gingerreggg]

Okay, so I actually do have a little “fanfic” of the rebirth AU? But I used different names because I was using it for a creative writing project and I didn’t want my teacher reading a Splatoon fan fiction so I gave it a different context. This is a snippet of my writing style, so you can see what level I’m at (it’s not great but, something)

Here’s a key of all the characters:

Callahan= Callie (Callie actually picks up the name Callahan later in the AU, so you’ll actually see her original name in the writing at one point)

Maggie= Marina

Oliver= Octave (O.C.)

Chief= Captain Cuttlefish

Cleopatra is Cleopatra, another O.C.

Penelope= Pearl

The Domain= Octarian Empire

Harmony= Inkopolis

I hope y’all enjoy, it’s a little long (not sure word/character count), but it’s got a bit of substance to it—

“Looks like there’s some sort of firewall that’s preventing me from entering their matrix,” Maggie said over the keyboard clicks. “That means you can’t enter digitally, you’ll need to break into their headquarters.”

“I’m up for it,” Callahan shrugged. She sat up and removed the cords from her mantle.

Maggie peered up from her computer. “Are you sure? Cleopatra’s been around. She can neutralize almost any threat. Trust me, I’ve heard stories about her back when I worked for the Domain. She was one of the best soldiers.”

“If I defeated the king, I’m sure I can defeat his little minion.”

“Well, that was almost ten years ago. Things change.”

Callahan stood up and walked over to Maggie. “Trust me, I’ll handle it.”

The door creaked open behind them.

“Hey,” Oliver walked into the room. “So what’s up with little miss Cleo?”

“She’s too good,” Maggie sighed. “I can’t hack into the system; it’s completely fortified.”

“You’re kidding! You’re a class X hacker from the Domain and you can’t break her wall? That’s insane. Where is this tough cookie hiding, anyways?”

Callahan projected a hologram of Harmony. “If our assumptions are correct, she’s the owner of an elite night club on the West side of the city. It’s called Pyramids. We assume that her database is located somewhere inside the building. Either that, or it’s underground.”

“A physical break-in, I see,” Oliver smirked. “I like it.”

“Yes. Anyways, Maggie and I are going to go in undercover as clubgoers, and find out where her master computer base is. I’ll distract Cleopatra while Maggie finds her computer and compromises all the data she has, and destroys the computer, severing the connection between her and the Domain,” Callahan turned to face Oliver. “After that, I’ll arrest Cleo and let the government handle the rest.”

“Sounds good,” Oliver said.

Pyramids Night Club

21:49

The line stretched down a full block. All sorts of people waited to get into one of the hottest locations for nightlife in Harmony. Maggie and Callahan stood shoulder-to-shoulder in the pouring rain under an umbrella.

“Love your outfit,” Maggie smiled at Callahan. Callahan’s face rested into a scowl.

Maggie was wearing a tight-fitting turquoise dress and black pumps. Callahan wore a similar dress, but instead of having a blue-green glimmer, it was a deep velvet red, and her shoes were basic ballerina flats.

“This is why I hate going to clubs,” Maggie mumbled under her breath.

Callahan let out a sigh as memories flashed through her mind. Crowds of screaming people reaching out to her. Lights flooding a stage and music blaring. She imagined a figure. Slim, graceful, standing to her left.

She snapped back to reality. The line had moved up. Both girls listened to the sound of a disgruntled couple up ahead that was begging the bouncer for admission.

“Oh please, no means no people.” Maggie said. “Just go somewhere else. We have an important job to do.”

After 20 more minutes, the two finally made it to the front of the line. The bouncer gave them a quick glance, nodded, and let them pass into the club.

“Well, that was easy,” Maggie shouted over the blaring music.

Callahan, with a serious look on her face, leaned towards Maggie’s ear.

“You know that we need to do.” She whispered.

Maggie gave her a firm nod, and the two set off in different directions.

Callahan dove into the crowd. The city’s youth surrounded her. People were dancing to the loud, yet hypnotic melody. Bright neon lights flickered and the bass made the entire place vibrate. The sensation was familiar.

Almost as if it was a concert.

Another wave of memories hit her. The figure. The girl. Callahan was up on a stage with her. Even though she was only 18, she had grey hair.

“Agent 1!”

The girl began to sing. Her voice was strong, yet it soothed Callahan. The music changed from a blaring techno to a low-fi rhythm.

“Come in, Agent 1!”

The words began to formulate. The lyrics.

“Callahan, do you read me?!”

Suddenly, Callahan was back in the club.

“Yes, Chief. Maggie and I have arrived. I’m trying to pinpoint the location of our target.”

“Good,” Chief replied through Callahan’s implanted radio. “Make sure you take her out quickly, and quietly. We cannot let anyone in the club know what’s going on. This is a sensitive mission and the Domain must remain a secret. Understood?”

“Yes, I understand. I’ll report back once our mission has been completed. You can count on us.” Callahan disconnected herself from the radio frequency, and kept her vision forward.

Suddenly, a glimmer of metal caught her eye straight ahead. It looked to be some sort of headpiece. Callahan sifted through the crowd.

There she was.

Cleopatra.

Callahan observed her from a small distance before she approached her. She was fairly tall, and she had a prominent hourglass figure. Her slim waist harmonized with her wide hips. Her hair was long and black, and ironed out straight. She wore a short, golden dress with turquoise wrist cuffs, and leather boots that reached up to above her knees. Her legs were long and toned.

Her skin was a deep beige and her nose was long and narrow. Her eyes fashioned a familiar Egyptian look, with the thick eyeliner curling up at both ends. She was wearing a metallic headband that cut perfectly through the black sea of hair on the top of her head. Slowly, Cleo’s head turned in Callahan’s direction. Their eyes met for a long instant.

Cleopatra’s mouth slowly crept into a smile. She turned her entire body towards Callahan and began to slowly saunter towards her.

“Hey, there,” The music was blaring, but Callahan heard her loud and clear. Her voice was as smooth as silk, but she could project like a professional speaker. “Are you enjoying yourself? My name’s Cleopatra, but you can call me Cleo,” She slowly traced Callahan’s jawline with her finger. Callahan stood perfectly still.

“I’m the owner of this… lovely establishment.” Cleo’s face fell into a superficial frown. “You look tense, relax a little! Come have a drink with me.” She turned around and began to slowly strut towards the bar. Callahan followed close behind.

“This woman is weird,” Callahan thought to herself, weaving through the crowd. “How can she get so up close and personal with me so quickly? She knows something.”

Both girls took a seat at the bar. Cleo summoned the bartender and ordered two drinks.

“You drink margaritas?” She asked

“Sure, I’ll go for one,” Callahan shrugged. “But let me pay for it, my treat.”

“Oh, please. Don’t humor me! Seriously, it’s on the house. I can afford it.”

Suddenly, a man dressed in all black walked up to Cleopatra; he looked like a security guard.

“Cleo, there’s someone that’s makin’ a bit of trouble. You might wanna check it out.”

“Great, alright, I’ll be back babe, just give me a few,” Cleo said to Callahan. She stood up and walked with the security guard, and they dissolved into the crowd.

“Maggie, you there?” Callahan asked through her radio.

“Yep! I found the room, it looks like it may take a while for the data to collect though,” Maggie’s voice echoed in Callahan’s head. “At least half an hour. Do you think you can hold her off that long?”

“Yeah, that shouldn’t be a problem. Okay, get to it. We need to do this as quickly as possible.”

“Copy that.”

Cleopatra sat down next to Callahan.

“Sorry about that. This club can be filled with misfits sometimes. Anyways, where were we?”

Callahan forced herself to smile. “Drinks, they should be here any minute.”

“Ah, yes. Wonderful.” There was a pause between the two. “Oh, I never asked you. What’s your name? Surely you have one.”

“Violet.”

“Oh, that’s a beautiful name. Love it.”

“Thanks.”

The bartender came holding two short glasses. He placed them in front of Cleo and Callahan.

22:37

“Come with me,” Cleo giggled. She grabbed Callahan by the hand and led her towards the back of the room. Weaving through the people, they eventually were at the end of a long hallway. Cleo took a key out from her pocket and unlocked the door. Inside the room was a simple office space. Cleo closed the door behind her.

“This is my business room,” Cleo slurred. “We do the business in the business room. Very busy.”

“It’s very modern,” Callahan said.

The room itself wasn’t too big, but the space was used effectively enough to make it comfortable for two people. In the center there was a long desk with metal legs and a glass top. A holographic device was placed on one of the corners of the desk, along with a sleek keyboard. There were a couple of simple artworks plastered on each white wall of the room, and flood lights kept the space illuminated quite well.

Cleo took Callahan’s shoulders and propped her up against her desk.

“Let’s… let’s do some business!” Cleo gurgled. Her hands moved from Callahan’s shoulders down to her hips.

“What a… what a pretty body you have,” Cleo’s voice changed from a drunk garble to a deep, menacing tone. “Callahan.”

“What?!” Callahan thought. “She was faking it the whole time! Damn.”

Suddenly, Callahan was flipped up against the table, with her hands pinned behind her and her face smearing against the glass.

“What kind of idiot do you take me for?” Cleo sneered. “You think I would let my guard down that easily? I’m not a drunk slut. I know how to take care of business. You, out of all the people out there, should know that.”

Suddenly, Callahan broke free of Cleo’s grip. She quickly spun around and clocked Cleo straight in the face. Cleo stumbled backwards, blood oozing from her nose. She began to laugh.

“Do you really think you can beat me with a punch? Do you think your prosthetic body is any match for my expertise?!” She regained her balance and stood tall. “I’ve been in this business way longer than you think.”

“Listen to me!” Callahan pinned her against the back wall. “You’re scheme ends right here, right now. Maggie is severing your connection with the Domain right as we speak. It’s. OVER!”

“That’s what you think,” Cleo smirked. The door behind them slammed open. Callahan turned her head towards the noise. Two buff security guards tosseds Maggie into the room.

“Ow!” Maggie grumbled.

“It looks like whatever your little friend was doing in my computer room got caught!” Cleo tilted her head and made puppy eyes. “What a shame, she was almost done too.”

Callahan turned her head back towards Cleo. Her face still held an angry scowl. Within an instant, Cleo kicked her with the precision of her boot’s heel.

Even with the piercing pain in Callahan’s abdomen, she shot back at Cleopatra with another hook, but Cleo swiftly blocked the blow with her arm. The two stayed locked in their position, Callahan forcing her fist towards Cleo’s face, and Cleo pushing it back with her forearm.

“You look surprised, Callahan. It’s not often that you find someone that can match your ability without prosthetics.”

Callahan gritted her teeth.

“I know you’re secrets, Callahan. Or should I even call you that? That’s not your real name.”

“Don’t you DARE.” Callahan growled.

“You used to be a lot different. You were so innocent back then. But the Domain changed everything. They made you faster, smarter, stronger. They trained you far better than your old chief could. I seriously wonder why you still work for that old hag. He’s not worth your time.”

“Callahan, come on, beat her up! You can do it!” Maggie called.

“Come on, Callahan! Come on!” Cleo barked. “Beat me up! Come on!”

Callahan drew her arm back. Cleo snapped her leg upwards and kicked Callahan right under the chin, throwing her head backwards and making her fall back and knock the desk over. The glass panel shattered.

“I’m kind of surprised. I thought you’d be a worthy opponent. I guess not,” Cleo stood over her. “So much for that robotization.”

“I’m not done yet,” Callahan wheezed. She slowly stood up, wincing at the pain both in her guts, and her neck.

“You’ve got spirit, I’ll give you that, Callie.”

Images violently flashed in Callahan’s head. It began with the stage, the figure beside her, the music she was singing. Her grey hair and hazel eyes. The images changed from performance to war. The girl’s eyes staring right into hers. The look of betrayal and distress. The blood slowly dripping out of her mouth, her outreached hands. She whispered a name;

Callie...

“Callahan!” Maggie called. “Look out!!”

Callahan whipped her head and look behind her. A familiar face stood in the doorway.

“Get down!”

She quickly fell to the ground. A flash of light filled the room, followed immediately with the roar of gunfire. The sound of bullets shredding flesh filled Callahan’s ears.

Then, silence. Callahan looked up at where Cleo was standing. The woman who was once standing tall was now limp, rocking from side to side. She was covered in red, and there were holes all across the front of her body. After a few moments of tension, her eyes fluttered shut and she fell to the ground.

“Well, that was a close one.” Oliver said. “I’m glad I made it in time.”

“Oliver!” Callahan snapped. “Are you INSANE?! Chief said NO GUNS! You’re drawing too much attention to this! What about the all the people in the club??”

“Oh, them? The club closed 20 minutes ago. It’s empty.”

“It doesn’t matter. Someone could’ve heard it next door. We need to get Cleo’s body back to base. Along with those two body guards that you shot.”

Oliver sighed. “Yeah, my bad. I did save your ass though. Do I at least get a ‘you’re welcome?’”

“No,” Callahan stood up. “Now come on, we need to leave before the public figures out what’s happening.”

While Maggie went back to the computer room to compromise the data, Callahan and Oliver picked up the three bodies and lugged them out back. A van was waiting for them outside. An old man and a short woman hopped out of the vehicle to help them.

“How did the job go?” The old man said.

“It was going okay Chief, until Oliver went crazy with his machine gun.” Callahan snapped.

“What?!?” Chief yelled. “Oliver!”

“Hey! Callahan was in trouble. I just did what I had to.” Oliver said as he hurled one of the bodyguards into the back seat. “Cleo looked like she was going to end her!”

“No matter what the situation is, you MUST be discreet. Callahan can handle her own. Stick to your job, Oliver. For everyone’s own good.” Chief patted Oliver on the back and got back into the van.

“Ay yo!” The short girl piped up. “Where’s my girl Maggie? She okay?”

“Yeah, Penelope. She’s fine. Just finishing up the computer.” Callahan said as she closed the trunk door. “Come on, get in. We have to get out as soon as Maggie comes back.

Platoon Transportation Van

Log Date:

December 7th, 2144

23:34

“I cannot believe you used a machine gun to kill everyone!” Chief sighed.

“Well, hey, we got the job done!” Oliver said. “Maybe not the way we wanted, but Cleo���s been taken care of.”

The two took off in debate while Maggie, Penelope, and Callahan sat quietly.

Penelope pinched her nose. “I can’t wait to get rid of the bodies, they’re stinking up the whole van. I hate the smell of blood.”

Maggie’s gaze slowly focused on Callahan, who was staring out the window. She saw her reflection on the glass.

“Hey, Callahan. What’s wrong? You seem…”

“If Cleopatra was able to block my blows…” Callahan said towards the window. “Then how am I supposed to take out the Domain..? I can’t defeat people of her caliber, and as far as I’m concerned, she’s not a high ranking soldier.”

“Well, Callahan… as far as I’m concerned… the Domain is no match for us. No matter what happens, we always get the upper hand, and you know that. With all these missions we’re becoming stronger and stronger.” Maggie put her hand in Callahan’s shoulder. She turned her head to face Maggie’s.

“We’re a team now, Callahan. And the only way to go from here… is up.” Maggie smiled.

And for the first time in a long time, Callahan gave her a genuine smile back.

[whatzaoverwatch]

Anything can happen in the Woods (Part 9)

Yuuuup so there are more Overwatch characters than I had lead on. Honestly when developing the story I wanted there to be a big surprise twist. And to answer some questions, yes you can consider the drunk at the tavern to be Gerard (sorta update: welp so like with the Blackwatch comic that came out, it makes the interaction at the tavern really interesting but this is an AU soooo who the heckin cares) First Previous Next

Note: Female Pronouns

You found yourself wandering within the mist. Isolated and silent to even your own steps. The red cape cascading down your figure while you tread through the forest. No breeze or voice to ease your solitude. Ahead you spotted a shadowed figure. Unsure of whether to approach, a wave of familiarity came over you. It reminded you of him. But it didn’t look like the one you assumed. This wasn’t a beast, it was a man. A black hooded person with his back facing you. Approaching with caution, you broke the silence.

“Gabriel?”

The man turned, almost quickly as if he hadn’t expected anyone else in his accompaniment. When he faced you, you found his hooded face covered by a white mask. Almost similar to a barn owls skull that hung in the small cottage. The holes of the mask holding nothing but darkness within. But you could feel him staring right at you. A twinge of fear and sadness pulsed in his presence.

“[Name]? Why are you here?” His voice sounded a lot less ragged and more soothing to the ears. Halting your steps when you were a few feet in front of him. Puzzled in your predicament, you responded.

“I…I don’t know. But I felt that I needed to. Why are you here?” You notice his hands tighten into a fist before facing away from you.

“It’s not safe here…you need to go back.” He ordered with a wave of pain in his voice. The uneasiness lurked in your stomach as you stepped forward.

“No…I can’t. I don’t want to, I don’t want to go alone. Not without you.” Reaching your hand out to try to reach him, you watched him step away with a grunt.

“You are no safer with me [Name]. I shouldn’t have brought you into this. I was a fool to think that this would work…but I’m nothing but a monster,” he hissed having a built up of smoke form onto his body, “the longer you stay, the more danger you will be in. She won’t leave you alone and me…I don’t want to hurt you. Not like them…”

“Who are you talking about?” You heard him growl to himself in irritation. The smoke enveloping the fog leaving nothing but the sight on him in your vision.

“[Name]…please…” He warned trying to keep his distance in his stance.

You felt your heart ache as he said this about himself. Stepping closer you couldn’t help but place your arms around him. Feeling his breath shake at your hold, you press your forehead onto his back. “Gabe, you will only hurt me if you leave me. Please…don’t leave me here by myself.”

His muscles eased into your touch, feeling him turn around to face you. Looking up to the expressionless mask, you could feel the tears stinging the corners of your eyes. Feeling a glove hand almost like claws stroking your cheek, you felt yourself lean into his touch. He exhaled before leaning down close.

“I will never leave you [Name]. I will fix this, I will stop her before it is too late,” His one arm wrapped around your torso while he softly spoke, “You will hear things about me. Things that I have done. What I did to end up like this. I never wanted you to know about it…but I feel that they can’t be hidden. You’ll know everything by the time the full moon comes. When it does, I want you to do one thing for me.”

“I’ll do anything…I swear.” You could almost feel his smile from the other side of the mask. He rested his forehead into the material of your hood, taking a deep inhale. His fingers gripped onto the red cape almost desperately. Leaving you unaware as the shadows began to cloak between both your bodies.

“I need you to trust me…”

 --

Opening your eyes slowly, you winced at the faded light that peeked in the corners of your iris. Blinking to adjust your vision, you found yourself laying on some sort of crafting table. The carved stone cool against your fingertips. It was hard against your back, leaving you stiff and uncomfortable in your position. Trying to shift in your movements, you found yourself restrained onto the table. There was no chains, nor straps, but it was as if a heavy force was put on top of you.

Regaining your focus, you found yourself in a dimly lit cave. Carvings among the wall showing various encryption and what looked to be different instructions. You had recognized them to be different spells that you had found in the books you read from Gabriels’ bookcase. Only able to gain a small peek of your surroundings, you spotted various tables scattered with books, potions, and even a cauldron planted at one point of the room. The more you regained your conscious, the more your thoughts began to fill. Questions and immense confusion on how you got here and why were you unable to move. Something didn’t feel right about this. It was as if a part of you wanted to escape. Before you could call for help, two pairs of voices caught your attention.

“And she was alone I presume?”

“She was, a mortal came to stop my escape, but I am sure he took care of her.”

“That girl that lives in that small cabin, the bait. She is of no use to me, makes you curious on why he hasn’t rid of her. She had also brought that ignorant hunter with her in the rescue I heard.”

“He was too busy playing with the mutt to even notice.”

“Was always out to shoot first and ask questions later, if only he had learned from his teacher. It’d be good to be rid of that problem. As of right now I want to take interest of our new subject.”

Hearing the footsteps come closer, you turned your gaze over to find two women standing by your confined side. One was a dark haired, pale woman with bright eyes. She looked as if she hadn’t slept in years and looked deadly. But the woman next to her sent a wave of fear in your restrained state. The other woman had red hair with two coloured eyes: blue and red. Her skin was pale up to her right arm which was covered in visible dark veins. Her black cloaked body with purple accents draped over some rather sharp looking fingertips. She looked frail but just as menacing. You felt your heart drop when her eyes fell onto you. Her pouting lips formed into a rather sinster smile. Dripping in horror and wickedness like you couldn’t even describe.

“Well, it appears that our subject has awakened,” she spoke calmly with a delight in a tone that made you shiver, “I would’ve hoped you’d sleep through into the evening. But this makes things rather interesting.”

“W-Who are you? Where’s Gabriel?” You asked watching the cloaked woman quirk her eyebrow curiously. The other woman scoffed, leaning folding her arms in disinterest while the other tapped her cheekbone.

“He managed to even tell you his name, how curious,” she hummed in wonder. The smile never leaving as she gave you a gentle bow, “Allow me to provide you with mine. I am Moira, master of the crafts and warlock of the shadows.”

You swallowed hard at her introduction. Her voice drenched in distrust leaving you to suddenly feel fear for your life. Even more than you did when you first met Gabriel. Looking over to the other woman, you saw her gaze locked with yours. Her eyes piercing yours as if she was eating you alive in her thoughts. Moira spoke up through your discomfort gesturing to the other woman.

“Do not mind Amelie, she is only here to fulfill a task for me,” You followed her movements as she went to grab something from one of the tables. A small bag of some sort as she handed it over to the woman, “this should be enough to place your target into a deep slumber. Consider it as thanks for bringing me my new pet.”

“Merci master.” Amelie gently spoke taking the content only to feel Moiras hand touch her cheek.

“Just look at you, an entire month of work to create the perfect vampire. Like the black widow hunting for her prey. Now it is time to rid of who you once were started with that foolish drunk,” Moira turned over to you presenting Amelie as if she was her prized possession, “imagine, just a simple woman who wandered into the woods only to become completely immortal by my hands. Such brilliant work, hopefully you will be just as successful.”

Feeling your breath quicken at her words, struggling a little more in your restraints as she turned back to Amelie.

“Do you wish for me to stay? In case he comes for her?” You heard Amelie ask watching Moira shake her head.

“I will handle him myself. Even if he tries, it’ll be too late to save her. You may return to your manor and await for any further instructions. Thank you again my pet.” You watched the slight grimace upon the womans face before turning and heading out of your vision. Leaving you alone with Moira. Suddenly recognizing the woman that she was speaking of, you widened your eyes and looked over to the warlock.

“She was from the village, she disappeared a month ago. She has a husband and a son.” Moira turned to face you, the smile never leaving her lips.

“Indeed. Amelie Lacroix. A wandering soul with a greater purpose. As did the several others who have come into these woods.” You looked at her horrified.

“It’s you, you’re the reason for the disappearances.” She hummed in amusement, walking across the room with no denial in her gaze.

“They all enter the same, they all have their different ends,” she admitted moving over to one of the tables to look at some papers scattered in the room, “I just simply guide them to their inevitable fates. Some become fairly successful experiments like Lacroix. Others, well they simply become sacrifices in the name of magic.”

“You murdered them.” You hissed catching her attention with amusement.

“Only if I desire to. But I don’t do it alone. Most of the collecting comes from Gabriel,” She admitted only to look delighted by your visible confusion, “oh? So he hasn’t told you that detail in your deal has he?”

You blinked in shock at her confession. Feeling a sudden sickness in your stomach, you shook away the truth with a scowl. You knew he was possibly involved, but the more you knew him the more you felt that it wasn’t true. But seeing your fears bloom before your eyes you grew uneasy at your emotions. His words still floating in your head, you swallowed your fear and looked back up to the ceiling.

“How do you know him?” You could feel her smile grow wider, hearing her shoes click against the stone as she approached where you laid.

“I was hired to look upon his condition back when he was a hunter. He had merely requested that I find a way to control the curse that was placed upon him long ago. But I saw an opportunity that he just didn’t comprehend. A mortal given eternal life openly, just to throw it away? I only helped him see the benefit of his powers,” she laughed in amusement stroking her hand across your cheek. Trying to pull away from the touch only to feel yourself forced closer to the sharpened nails, “When that witch decided to meddle with my work, I discovered a new stage of the supernatural that no being had ever witnessed. A monster among the shadows. Of course all he desired was to find a cure. So I cut him a deal. I would seek out a “reversal treatment” to his problem, so long as he guided the poor souls from that village of yours to my doorstep.”

“You’ve been using him all this time so you could have lab rats? Why couldn’t you just pick them out yourself?” She pressed her lips into a thin line only to tilt her head.

“I like to keep my reputation under the radar. Besides,” she brushed some of the strands of hair that fell over your face to the side, “only he is able to track down the perfect candidates for my work. He seems to have found a way to determine ones soul if they have the chance to survive my experimentation. Some have been strong enough while others I believe he merely takes them for his own gain. Which makes me wonder: why has he suddenly gotten a soft spot for you? You show some potential, and yet he does nothing.”

Watching her fingers curl under your chin, you sneered in disgust of her touch. Looking away from her, you caught the soft scent of smoke from the cloak you wore. Wondering when you had put this on between when you passed out to now, you couldn’t think of that knowing your current situation. All you wanted to do was to run back to him. You didn’t know why, he was a monster and threat to the village, but you wanted to be with him. He had brought you joy that you missed when you were with your best friend. Gabriel became a friend, he became your comfort, he became your home.

“How the hell am I supposed to know? He made a deal with me to spare my friend,” Looking back at her, you frowned at the frosty glare she sent your way, “He also said he wouldn’t be able to kill me until the full moon.”

Her nail dug into your skin as you hissed a little at the pain. She clicked her teeth unamused by the answer. Watching her eyes wander down the cloak, she hummed curiously before standing upright once again.

“Whatever the reason is, I am sure we shall find out together,” Weaving her fingers together, her index fingers tapped looking behind her, “That is, if you are able to survive tonight.”

“What are you talking about?” Feeling a wave of regret overcome you from the question, her smile grew wider at the question.

“He seems to have formed a pact with you involving the full moon. I do not know your expanded knowledge involving the supernatural, but I expect it to be very limited due to the constant disbelief the mortals tried to cram down your mindless throats,” She began to explain as you felt the restraints on your tighten more and more, “But under the full moon, the werewolf takes on an uncontrollable form that even they cannot restrain. Consumed by their animal instincts, they will seek their prey and completely devour them. Not many survive the week within the beasts perimeter, so if you remain by his side, consider your existence to be wiped out like the others.”

Feeling the blood drain from your face, you struggled in your position. The very thought of him having no control of killing you just made your heart ache. But this was the fate you expected, so why did you fear for it now? Would he feel anything after he killed you? Before you could protest, a familiar howl could be heard echoing the cave. Drawing both of your attentions immediately. Moira sneered glancing over towards the noise.

“Ah, we are about to find out the answers to our question ourselves. This shall be an interesting experiment indeed.”

To be continued

[architectuul]

FOMA 15: In Search Of A Never Written Library

For most of the conscious part of his adult life, Dániel Kovács had been writing and collecting texts about architecture. Mainly in Hungarian, his mother tongue, but, sometimes, in English and occasionally in German and Italian, as these are the languages he more or less understands. And FOMA will this time follow Daniel to Hungary.

A newly renovated glass window from the Holy Cross Church, István Szabó’s own work. | Photo by Dániel Kovács

For a while I’ve been trying to build up a personal library on Hungarian architecture, mostly of texts written by others, as a matter of fact. Many books have been about this. Some are interesting for their authors: Edwin Heathcote, for example, wrote a book about Budapest before he became the architecture critic of the Financial Times. Others are important for their newly expressed viewpoints, like Ákos Moravánszky’s works about the era of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy. 

But the texts I own, as history texts in general, have been written (or dictated) by winners. They’re about architects who managed to secure their reputation, engage in public life, secure well-funded public commissions or at least, have a controversial carrier. These texts were mostly written about architects and architecture, that we talked about anyway. Only a very few tries to discover something new, something that no one wrote about before.

A few months back I got a letter from Bratislava. A Slovak architect, Vít Halada was enquiring about some buildings in Budapest by István Szabó, whose life and oeuvre had been the topic of my art history master thesis in 2007. For my biggest surprise, Vito not only knew about Szabó but even visited some of his works, and was compelled by his small Holy Cross church in Táltos utca, Budapest. Especially after ringing the priest’s bell and gaining access to the archives of the parish – an accomplishment I, shamefully, never managed to achieve.

István Szabó's Holy Cross Church in the original state. | Unknown photographer, photo from the author's archives

When retiring in 1975, István Szabó was about to enjoy a well-deserved rest after completing numerous public buildings and exhibition pavilions; thankfully, he has always been interested in quick and thrifty problem solving. So when he was approached by the priest of his own parish (he was a practicing Roman Catholic) if he’d design a new church, he did not take too much time for consideration.

Despite knowing that no Catholic church has been built in the capital since the Communist takeover in 1948-1949.

István Szabó’s first church, the All Saints Parish Church of Farkasrét in current state. | Photo by Dániel Kovács

With the backing of an influential ‘Peace Priest’, Imre Bíró, who was also a member of the Parliament and committed to ease relationships between state and church, Szabó managed to design and built a new All Saints Church for the Farkasrét parish. The project was permitted as a reconstruction and extension, but in fact a completely new building was erected on the basement walls of its predecessor. The whole building is constructed of prefab slab elements, used as bricks, having a hollow core filled with concrete. Szabó chose to use this widely available construction material because of the financial constraints, as the whole project was financed by donations – a situation I coined the term Deficit Brutalism for. As construction leader, he also had to count with the fact that the building was going to be erected by volunteer work of the parish members and high schoolars. The interior furniture was also designed by him, just as the glass windows. On the latter he tirelessly worked on until his death in 1988.

Cross-section of the Holy Cross Church. | Drawing by István Szabó, Hungarian Architecture Museum

The success of this, both Communist Budapest’s and his first church brought a state award, the Miklós Ybl Prize to Szabó – and numerous other commissions. In the last decade of his life, he designed ten more churches and lived to see seven of them being built. The second, the Holy Cross parish church in Táltos utca, Budapest, was erected in 1976-1979, using similar concrete slabs as load-bearing walls and Szabó’s own invention, the KIPSZER spatial grid system as roof structure. But when Vito, my Slovak friend visited the building four decades later, he found an almost entirely different one. The church was renovated a few years ago with government funds: the concrete slab walls were covered with red brick, the industrial glass surfaces changed to commercial glass curtain wall. Most of Szabó’s interior elements and his sculptures were put in storage.

Current state of the Holy Cross Church. | Photo by Dániel Kovács

Vito asked me to prepare a lecture on Szabó’s works and post-war Hungarian architecture. It did not took long to realize how little actual written information I have on Post-War Hungarian architecture – and how hard it is going to get some.

Szabó’s first church, the Farkasrét one, enjoys a protected status since 2011. But most of the era’s other important buildings do not. The former state institution for monument protection currently being under reorganisation and the Hungarian Architecture Museum closed for the public, it is not easy to gain information. This is particularly true when we’re talking about stuff of the seventies and the eighties, as these decades are simply too current for architectural research.

György Kővári’s KÖKI transportation center in the original state. | Unknown photographer

Sadly, we lose valuable buildings each year to year without serious consideration and research. This happened a few years back, when a major work of György Kővári, the Kőbánya-Kispest intermodal station or KÖKI in short, was partially demolished. Kővári is a lesser-known architect who mostly worked in the safe office of the State Railways Company; his chef-d'œuvre, Déli pályaudvar, one of the three main railway stations of Budapest, is a modernist landmark of the capital. 

KÖKI transportation center, interior in 2008. | Photo by Dániel Kovács

KÖKI was also well-known, or, more precisely, notorious. Finished in 1980, the building features orange plastic panels, red metal structure and blue signage and furniture system – a clear influence of Piano and Rogers’ Centre Pompidou in Paris. While celebrated in its heydays as a sign of progress, after 1989 and without proper maintenance, KÖKI quickly became a security hazard and fell into disrepair. In the 2000s it was already widely seen as an eyesore, and when demolitions started in 2008 to replace part of the original structure with a new shopping mall, basically nobody cared: a major building of Hungarian postmodern architecture, just like Szabó’s incredible industrial church in Táltos utca, was lost without anyone shedding a tear.

KÖKI transportation center, demolition works in 2008. | Photo by Dániel Kovács

Surprisingly, there are different cases. When the government announced in 2016, that they are going to demolish and replace Csaba Virág’s Power Distribution Center in the castle of Buda, then standing empty for almost a decade, the whole architectural scene started screaming. This building, designed to fit into the small-scale environment of the castle but finished in 1979 with state-of-art glass and metal façade, has always been considered a pioneering hi-tech work – in spite of the obviously and typical low-tech execution. While the public debated whether such a controversial building should be protected or not, professional organizations started to collect signatures, write letters and organized visited tours to the building. The widespread campaign resulted the government to withdraw its original plan about demolition and currently they are planning to restore the edifice.

Current state of Virág's Power Distribution Center. | Photo by Dániel Kovács

But if this can happen to well-known, centrally located buildings of the era, what’s going to happen with other, lesser known ones? Who is going to research about and engage with the protection of 1980-1990s architecture? A few texts have been written about the buildings above, mostly on Hungarian, but the Farkasrét church was recently included to the great catalogue of the exhibition ‘SOS Brutalism’ by the German Architecture Museum. This is, however, more of an exception then a sign of progress. In such a small market and with basically no institutional background, there is few ongoing research in these topics.

And yet, thankfully, there are always some wide-eyed enthusiasts to endlessly debate regional characteristics... A few years ago with friends we founded the Translations of Modernism collective, or Transmodern in short, as a platform for researchers an enthusiasts interested in post-war Eastern and Central European architecture. On our second conference on Socialist Modernism, held in 2016 in Berlin, we greeted 17 lecturers from 11 countries. Recently, we decided that the next conference topic is Postmodernism in Central and Eastern Europe. The conference takes place in Berlin on 17-19 May 2018.

Sándor Dévényi’s House of Weddings, 1983-1985. | Photo by Dániel Kovács

What am I expecting? The most interesting things to discover. Things, such as Sándor Dévényi’s incredible postmodern buildings, designed and constructed in the 1970s and 80s in a small Hungarian town, Pécs. The House of Weddings, which reuses Romanesque, Baroque and Art Nouveau elements. The Roman Courtyard, which has the most spectacular po-mo ceramic façade I have ever seen. And my personal favorite, the Lightning-struck House, which looks like… Well, guess what.

Sándor Dévényi’s Lightning-struck House, 1978-1985. | Photo by Dániel Kovács

Sándor Dévényi’s Roman Courtyard, 1991. | Photo by Dániel Kovács

I do believe that these interesting buildings with their stories are everywhere. You just need to get to know them, write them down and add them to the library. A library I hope to own once. Not just for myself, but for everyone who shares my belief.

---

#FOMA 15: Dániel Kovács

Photo by Barbara Antal

Dániel Kovács is a curator, critic and writer. He received his Master’s in art history at the Eötvös Loránd University of Sciences in 2007. After graduation, he became editor and later editor-in-chief of a Hungarian architecture and design magazine, hg.hu. Since 2010 he’s been a member of board of the Hungarian Contemporary Architecture Center. In 2012-2014 he’d initiated and organized the Budapest chapter of CreativeMornings. In 2014, he co-founded Translations of Modernism, a collective for the better understanding and exposure of post-war Central and Eastern European architecture. He’d written various articles to publications such as ERA21, A10, Octogon, given lectures on Hungarian architecture in Shanghai, Warsaw and Bratislava, and from time to time he manages to write something for Wikipedia. He also published two books on Art Nouveau and art déco architecture, but deep down he’s infatuated with post-war things. Since 2015 he’s been living and working in Berlin. 

[novelblujay]

Prologue

Title: Breaking Walls

Genre: Action, Dystopian Future, Original, Romance (later)

Words: 3.1K

Summary: Five preteens go out on a night time adventure and end up stumbling into somethings they were never meant to find.  How will it affect their futures?

Molly slowly opened her eyes and rolled over to face her twin’s bed. It felt like it had been hours since their parents tucked them in and went to their own room to sleep, when, in fact, she knows it has only been about 30 minutes.  She could  see the silhouette of her twin laying on his side, completely covered by the blanket.  If she didn’t know better she would have thought he had fallen asleep, but she could see the smallest movement towards the bottom of the bed that was him curling and uncurling is toes.  Most likely the only way he was staying awake.

The two had arranged to meet up with their friends from class tonight to go into the Underground.  The twin’s parents had always told them there was a child eating monster down there that ate kids that misbehaved.  They had believed it too until a year ago.  Now that they were 11, preteens, and they didn’t believe in such childish stories anymore.  However, if it was true they believed they should be safe, since they were no longer ‘kids’.  Molly sat up as slowly and quietly as she could making sure to not alert their parents if they were still awake.  Puck had told them that adults never sleep, but had refused to tell them what they do at night if not sleep.

Deciding it was safe to leave, she looked over at her twin,  “Wally,” she breathed so quietly she barely heard herself say it. However, Wally heard her loud and clear, and a blob of deep red hair popped up, and a pair of mismatched brown and green eyes, mirroring her own, shined back at her.

They silently nodded at each other and started slowly and silently moving towards their window that they had conveniently broken the screen of, earlier that week.  Two bags sat underneath it with a change of clothes and a flashlight for each of them.  They had been planning this for weeks, and had about a thousand backup plans to ensure tonight went smoothly.  

Their window led out to the backyard so they quickly changed out of their PJs and into some warm day clothes.  Wally was clumsily fighting his way into baggy jeans that barely stayed on his slim hips, and a sweatshirt that had several small holes and tears in it.  He always had trouble keeping his clothes clean and in one piece, due to his natural inability to do anything remotely gracefully, not to mention his daredevil habits that had gotten more than a few people hurt in the past.  Molly had chosen a very similar outfit to her brother, however her jeans fit much better, she was just as tiny as her brother but girl’s jeans were just made to fit their similar body type better.  Of course, her clothes were also clean and hole free, because unlike her other half, she tended to be overly cautious.  Often trying to talk her brother out of dangerous ideas and always the first responder, helping anyone that got hurt by or with him. She put on her sweater and zipped it up halfway, just a Wally finished putting on a belt.

Besides the fact that they had a similar body type, the two often had trouble convincing people they were twins.  Wally hair was dark red with loose curls that stuck up in every direction, in a constant state of bed head.  Molly was stuck with frizzy tight curling hair that was more of a light orange then red.  Their face structures were identical, although somehow as time went on Molly had collected more freckles than she could count and Wally hardly had any.  This made identifying the similarities in their shared round faces difficult.  The only thing that ever-got people to believe them was their age, and the fact that they had heterochromatic eyes.  They each had a brown-amber eye, and a green-yellow eye.  Oddly enough, on reversed sides, so the two often joked about having traded an eye for an eye before they were born.

Once they were dressed they snuck out of their yard and headed to a corner, near one of the Underground entrances.  It was a cloudless, still night and Molly marveled at the sight of the full moon illuminating the silent streets of their otherwise active neighborhood.  Wally was taking advantage of the lack of parental supervision and was running all over the street jumping over and on anything he could while still staying mostly quiet.

When the meeting spot came into sight there were already two shadowy figures standing there.  The significantly taller figure was Puck.  His raven hair was done up as it always was, perfectly puffed on top and the shorter sides blending into it perfectly.  Light brown eyes looked over at the approaching twins and Puck’s slim face broke into a bigger smile than the one he was already wearing.  His slender frame fit his obnoxious height much better than Wally’s did, partly because he had toned muscles from joining all the sports clubs at school, but Wally had been banned from joining any club because of his reckless behavior.  Puck was in tight fitting black pants and a grey, tattered hoodie that looked older than any of the kids, leaving very little of his tanned skin showing.  Beside him was Summer, a much shorter female figure with just as little of her lighter, but still tanned, skin showing.  Her long brown hair was up in a loose bun with a few strands falling into her, dark brown eyes.  She smiled and waved when she noticed the two approaching, her jacket bunched at her hands, threatening to overtake them, and jeans rolled up to keep them from dragging.

Walley sprinted up to the two, and leaped onto Puck at full speed.  Puck struggled to stay standing with the shorter male latching onto him, but Summer quickly reacted.  Grabbing the two and helping steady Puck.  Molly walked over slowly shaking her head, smiling lightly at her twins antics.  Wally detached himself from Puck and took his spot beside his Molly.  

“So, did anyone have any trouble getting out of the house undetected?” Puck asked looking at the two that had arrived last.

“Surprisingly we got out without any problems, I’ve never seen Wally be so quiet unless he was sleeping,” Molly answered. With Wally nodding vigorously beside her wearing a cocky smirk.  “I was most worried about you Summer, I know how strict and scary your dad can be.” Molly finished looking to Summer with concern.  

Summer rolled her eyes, it was only her and her dad at home and his parenting style was tightly woven into his days as a officer in the town’s military.  “Well, it’s not like my dad has been training me like I was in boot camp since I was five or anything.  At this point I’m like a master ninja or assassin or something.” She stood up taller and puffed out her chest.  

The other three just laughed at her.  “So are we going in or what?” Wally challenged moving towards what looked like a manhole in the middle of a patch of grass, covered with dirt and dead grass.

“Since you are so impatient, I nominate Wally to go down first.” Puck retorted kicking up the vegetation around their soon to be entrance to the Underground.  

Wally simply gave Puck a determined nod before getting to work lifting the cover.  He had to pull up a lot of grass, but soon he got his fingers under the cover and pulled upward with all his might.  The dirt began shifting, rising with the metal cover it had been calling home.  Once completely clear, Wally dropped the cover near by with a loud thud, and wiped his hands on his pants, much to Molly and Puck’s dismay, Then he grabbed his flashlight and aimed it into the hole.  Everyone slowly leaned forward to look down, they saw a makeshift ladder hanging over the side.  The ladder looked like it had been made by kids many years ago, using rope and random planks of wood.  Wally then proceeded to further disgust Puck by spitting into the hole.  Everyone, minus Puck,leaned in closer to  listen to it land, after about five seconds of silence they gave up .

“Wow... hope this thing goes all the way down,” Wally said as he started lowering his body over the side.  “Also, Molly don’t let Puck touch the ladder while I’m on it,” he smiled kindly at his sister.  Then turning to Puck giving the best glare he could, “I don’t trust him after last time.”

Puck rolled his eyes, and they all watched as he went down into the hole.  Molly held on tightly to whatever part of the ladder was in her reach.  It was painfully clear to everyone, except Wally, how anxious it made her to see Wally in any dangerous situation, but she was begining to give up on talking him out of his ideas.  She would simply choose to go along with them now, and ensure at least one person involved would be able to fix any damage caused.  Soon enough, there was a loud thud from the hole, and Summer quickly grabbed onto the back of Molly’s jacket to keep her from leaning head first into the dark void.

“So the ladder almost goes all the way to the bottom but it’s easily within Pucks reach.  If he helps us all up first we can all get out,” Wally called from below.  “I am definitely going to need him to come down here to help me get back up,” Wally laughed loudly from the bottom.  

That was all Molly needed before she quickly dropped into the darkness her twin had disappeared into.  “Idiots,” Summer whispered under her breath.  “Wally, quit dragging us all further along with this stupid plan.  I seriously thought opening the thing was as far as we were going to get.”  

“Sweet, innocent, Summer, you don’t know those two half as well as you should, and you’ve been their friend for much longer than I have,” Puck whispered to her.  “Molly did you make it to the bottom yet,” he called into the hole.  He was answered by a pair of flashlights shining up at him from below.  Taking that as a yes he moved toward the entrance.

“I hope you all know that this is kinda really illegal, and that I hate you all,” Summer stated in positive disapproval, after it was no longer possible to make out Puck’s form. “Also I’m coming down now, so Puck you better be out of the way.”  

When Summer’s feet hit the floor of the pit she was met by three face smiling at her in the light of the twin’s flashlights.  “What happened to ‘big brave assasin’ Summer,” Puck giggled, putting air quotes around big bad assassin.  

“She got got stuck with two trouble magnets and your stupid ass,” she answered back harshly, snatchings Wally’s flashlight from him.  She started leading the way down one the dark path before them, praying they don’t get lost on this adventure.  The others followed her still giggling.

As the light of the moon began to disappear, they all slowly came to the realization that they were in a dark, smelly tunnel that possibly lead out of their safe walled city, and it may or may not have something living in it.  Summer slowed her pace, allowing both Puck and Wally to walk as close to her as possible.  Molly was bringing up the rear, holding onto her brothers hoodie for comfort.  

The only sound was the dripping of water, and the pitter patter of their own footsteps echoing off the walls.  Suddenly, something fell from the ceiling and flew towards them.  Everyone ducked as fast as possible, except for Puck who screamed and flung his arms over his face.  After it was gone they all turned to watch the small, black object fly in the direction they had come from.

“Just a little bat,” Molly laughed nervously, turning back towards her fear struck friends.  “You ok Puck, did it hurt you?” she asked, maternal instinct kicking in.

“Ya, you ok big guy, sounded like a little girl was in here or something,” Wally teased, but still looked slightly uneasy.

Puck shot daggers towards Wally, smoothing out his already smooth clothes.  “Of course I am fine.  A measly bat can't hurt me,” he said trying to maintain a cool and collected facade. Then, turning to Molly and calming visibly, he answered her, “Thank you for asking, dear.”

Wally went to the back of the group, jumping up on a chunk of dislodged concrete.  Standing up tall and putting his hands on his nonexistent hips, “Well nothing can scare me! In fact, I challenge anything living down here to come and get me!” he said getting progressively louder.  “I can take down anyone and anything.”

Everyone was shaking their heads and rolling their eyes at Wally’s false bravery.  Suddenly, they all froze.  All eyes were fixed on the the spot just behind Wally, and when he realized he was no longer the center of attention, he turned to look at what he assumed would be more bats or simply spiders.  However, he was met with two huge shining cat eyes.  He quickly stepped back falling of his makeshift pedestal and landing on his back.  This got Molly moving again and she jumped to stand over her twin protectively.  She shined her momentarily forgotten flashlight at the eyes, revealing a dark tan, spotted cat with tufts of black fur shorting from the tips of its ears.  It's head level with their waists, paws flexed to reveal sharp claws, and lips pulled back in a snarl to reveal huge sharp teeth.

It blinked rapidly, its eyes quickly adjusting to see with the bright light in its eyes.  It lowered its body to a crouch and began to growl low in its throat, eyes shifting quickly over all four children.  

Summer was the first to act, throwing the only thing in her hands.  The flashlight hit the cat’s head, distracting it momentarily, while she moved forward grabbing the twins by the arm and yanking them away, and further into the ark tunnels.  Wally struggled to regain his footing after being pulled up from the ground, but Molly was alert and ready, grabbing Puck’s arm as they run by him.  None of them looking back to see if the large cat had recovered yet.  They all focused on running away from the angry growling behind them, taking many turns and tripping over various objects hidden by darkness.

Unfortunately, their escape ended all too soon with a dead end, leaving them trapped between a very angry looking cat and a moss covered wall.  They all froze and nervously turned toward what was surely going to be death.  They covered each other protectively and stared at the monster with wide eyes.  However, the cat never pounced, it simply began pacing, thus blocking any chance of escape.  But it didn’t matter as growling and occasional roars stopped any thought of escape.  The group of preteens crouched together holding each other for comfort and protection.  Several minutes passed by and they say the cats ears begin flickering away from them as if listening to something in the distance.  Seconds later the cat seemed to relax it's fast pacing, but never took its bright yellow eyes off the group.

Another minute or two passed and light, quick steps could be heard coming toward them.  Suddenly, a feminine voice spoke out in a rushed whisper.  “Lilly you have to keep it down! What if Ziv knew we had come this close to the city?”  The silhouette froze, only the outline of a short human with short bushy hair could be made out.  “Who are you?” they asked harshly pointing at the group, illuminated by the flashlight they were huddled around.  “Are you from the city?” they said in disgust and took a step back quickly.  The kids just stared back at the figure in confusion and fear, eyes still occasionally darting over towards the cat, who was now casually cleaning itself, ignoring the group.  The figure slowly stepped forward enough to be seen.  

There stood a short girl who looked to be about their age.  She had paperwhite skin that made her small amount of freckles stand out.  Her hair was unkempt and dirty blond, matching the raggy, filthy jeans and zip up she wore.  Her sharp, light brown eyes watched over the scared teens skeptically.  

It was Summer who found her voice first and spoke for the group.  “We just wanted to see what was down here, please don't hurt us.  We didn't mean any harm.  We just want to go back home.”

The girls eyes hardened and her lip curled up in anger.  “You all are from the upper districts aren't ya?  Elitist pigs looking to mess with thing and places where they don't belong”  She turned away from them, lightly smacking the cat on the side as she walked away. The cat slowly and lazily got up and began to follow her.  Then looking over her shoulder, she gave the group one last venomous look and said, “I hate you monsters.  Just get out of my tunnels and stay out.  Exit is this way take your first two lefts, then a right, and you'll be out, safe and sound in you beloved hellhole.”  With that said she disappeared into the darkness, the monstrous cat calmly walking beside her.  

Several minutes passed and no one moved, all that could be heard was the sound of the water continuously dripping around them.  As they slipped out of their shocked haze, they slowly made their way towards the promised exit without saying a word to one another.  Summer was leading, followed by the twins who were holding onto each other, and Puck brought up the rear.  He was intently focused on playing with the fringe on his tattered jacket.  The exit they came to looked much like their entrance, except it had metal handles in the wall to help climb out.  When they emerged, they found themselves at a familiar corner about three blocks from where that had met up earlier.

After exiting they silently covered the manhole so that it looked undisturbed by their exit.  No one there was sure what to say, and they were all still shaken by the life threatening run from the cat, and the encounter with the strange girl that seemed to live below them.  They all mumbled their goodbyes and headed toward their respective homes.  

All but Puck who, stopped by the hole they had entered through.  He broke the makeshift ladder and covered it up, making it look like it did earlier that night.  He looked down at his handy work, clutching the sides of his jacket tightly he started walking back towards his house.

[maddiebiscuits]

Maddie’s Big Gigantic Breath of the Wild Write-Up Where I Talk About Things I Like and Things I Didn’t Like

And regrettably, there are many things I did not like. But that doesn’t make this any less of a fantastic game that I enjoyed - I just wanted to put all my thoughts down in one spot. And yes, there’s spoilers.

--------------------------------------| Things I Like | ----------------------------------------

You can read any review for the game and that’s pretty much this section. There’s not much to say about the core game that hasn’t already been said, dozens and dozens of times, by professional or at least more knowledgeable game reviewers and critics out there.

Breath of the Wild (BOTW) is a big return to the uttermost classic Zelda feeling, of being a plucky hero in a big world that’s yours to traverse and discover, and get through on your wits and skills alone. But I’d actually argue that BOTW does the sense of open world and exploration far better than any other Zelda game comparison, not for the size of the maps (and man oh man they are big) but in that it gives you all the tools you need to explore within the first area and then kicks you out the door into the world. Any and all Zelda games, including the first, regardless of how “open” and non-linear you think they are, have a formula in that to progress through certain points, you must find an item that allows you to do so. BOTW dismisses that notion entirely and teaches you the core game mechanics and gives you the tools to explore wherever you want after the first area, and that’s a good thing. I spent the first several hours (upwards of a collective 20 or so) getting lost and just exploring, cooking food, finding side quests, fighting monsters, scaling mountains, and in a big way that’s sort of how the game is intended to be played. It’s full of creatures to hunt or befriend, hills to snowboard down on your shield, an expansive and hilarious physics engine to exploit, NPCs to meet and quests to be found and completed.

I like the provinces on the map, they’re either classic Zelda locations or call-backs to places from past games that weren’t always in Hyrule (large Majora’s Mask vibes, which makes sense, as this game takes place within the Child Era timeline). Even places that seemed the same at first ended up having subtle or severe differences, and of course the crisply-rendered graphics make the world vibrant, bright and inviting. While I miss the big orchestral scores I’m used to from other big console Zelda games, the subtle atmospheric music ended up being very nice and tonally appropriate, with familiar tunes sneaking in here and there in fun and sometimes beautiful ways.

NPC designs are unique, expressive, and full of character. Towns and hubs have a real sense of being lived in, with their own culture and way of life. Locations have their own passive dangers and benefits that make the world feel exciting and treacherous, and you can take any kind of approach to all kinds of situations. You can make special buff food or elixirs (one of the most fun things to do because I love watching the little food bits jump around in the pot) to brave the elements or give yourself extra bulk, or you can wear specialty armor or clothing, or do both. You can dye most outfits too, and tame and register your own horses and customize them. While a part of me misses the iconic green garb, being able to traverse Hyrule on a jet-black steed decked out in skulls and tattered leather while my Link was adorned with sleek black armor and cloak is kind of the best (and you can get the garb later, and then just build a custom green outfit yourself, which is how I went into end-game) Any weapon is fair game to wield as well, which was another part I greatly enjoyed and gave an added sense to exploration and that “get by on what you can find” survival aesthetic the game provides.

There really is a kind of subtle, almost accidental thoughtfulness to this game’s incarnation of Link. The background plot of the game describes, shows, and in some areas at least implies that Link was not a plucky hero from humble beginnings that the series is used to - Link was a prodigy in BOTW, a son of a proud and excellent knight who was to follow in his father’s footsteps to defend the kingdom and the royal family. Since he was a child he was groomed for this roll, despite the stress it caused him, until he became a trained and powerful warrior, even going so far as becoming the knight appointed to Princess Zelda, and wielding the Master Sword. He was the Hero from the beginning and was raised and trained his whole life to fulfill that role.

And he failed.

For all intents and purposes, Link in BOTW more or less dies (well, it’s implied he’s just unconscious and on the brink of death, but for my joking need to continue this “Link is the Chosen Undead” Dark Souls joke, yeah, he died). All the pomp and circumstance and careful, strict training surrounding his life ended up meaning nothing in the final grand scheme against Calamity Ganon. And this narrative carries not just to Link, but to the other cast of characters and Hyrule as a whole - years and years of careful planning and preparation was not what was needed to defeat Ganon.

The game starts with Link being resurrected, with no memory of what happened 100 years ago and nothing to his name but a shirt and some shoes (and the Sheikah Slate I guess). But it’s this Link, stripped of everything, who has to cross the wilds and adventure, working his way up from scratch, completing test after test and trial after trial laid out by the ruined Hyrule and the ancient Sheikah sages in their shrines, who reclaims the Master Sword, earns the green garb (or doesn’t - you only get it if you complete all 120 shrines, which I think fits tonally because I wouldn’t exactly dub a guy who failed the first time a hero until he’s been thoroughly re-tempered for the task) and defeats Ganon. It’s not a bunch of strict, stately training given to a person who’s told their destiny from a young age and forced immediately to live up to it that makes a hero in Zelda games - it’s the plucky adventurer coming from little, courageously taking on feats bigger than them for the good of Hyrule and the people within it, working up to the final encounter.

Hyrule and the NPCs you meet echo that tone as well. It’s a world that’s had to pick up the pieces since Ganon re-emerged and laid waste to their world. Descendants and spiritual successors of champions from the past risking themselves for the good of their people, unprepared and outmatched compared to what they’re up against, but coming out on top with determination and follow-through in the end. The main story of BOTW has a bittersweet, but ultimately powerful and true-to-form Zelda tale that, on top of the immersion and pure fun the game provides is why it’s so easy to see why people have rated it so highly.

Unfortunately, extended playtime with this game revealed a ton of flaws and personal nitpicks, because despite what these scores claim, no game is perfect, and neither is BOTW.

----------------------------------| Things I Didn’t Like | -----------------------------------

BOTW gets...repetitive, and at times annoying and even vacuous. I’d find a lot of really cool places during my exploration of Hyrule, but found that a lot of them just ended up being set-pieces to the world, with maybe a Korok hiding there (or maybe not, which was just super frustrating, climbing to a high mountain peak to find nothing up there). The game became measurably more enjoyable when I upgraded to full three stamina wheels, which took a lot of my early shrine upgrades to do, and that ugly, ugly little green wheel just constantly reminded me of how much I loathed it in Skyward Sword. I’d climb and climb and climb, usually not finding much of anything at the top later into the game. I’d find a set of interesting ruins, clear out the same enemies I’d fought 200 other times during the game, and not really find anything of interest within them. And god the enemies are repetitious. the same three core enemies in different colours, the same four or so core world bosses in different colours, the same Lynel and Guardians in different colours with ridiculous health bars that hit for 12 hearts a strike to impose the illusion of difficulty, when you end up just hitting them with ancient arrows, or using upgraded Stasis on them, or some other cheap trick because the combat and the difficult-to-time parrying and dodge/flurry attack prompts are not fun to activate (and if you fight them “properly”, especially the Lynels, get ready to run through all your resources).

When I go to a new area I want to see new enemies. Where are things like...I don’t know, Gibdos? Redeads? Poes? Darknuts? Skulltulas, Deku Babas, Gohmas, Armos, Dodongos, Aeralfos, Peahats, Likelikes SOMETHING ELSE besides these damn Lizalfos that keep JUMPING AROUND. I had one amazing encounter with a serpent dragon on an icy mountain peak, and had thought that I would have similar awesome encounters with the other two dragons in the game. Turns out the other two just sort of float around in locations and you don’t do anything with them except try to shoot them to farm items, no special encounters. Why.

I’d find a weapon I’d love but it would break quickly, so I ended up forming this habit of hoarding good weapons, bows, and shields, thinking I’d have to save them for later for fear they’d break, then ran into a problem where I was constantly getting showered in weaponry and had to play min-max on their attack numbers to decide what I was taking with me and what I wasn’t. I’d run into Koroks constantly to upgrade my storage space, but over time the malaise of searching for them after about 270 (out of a grand total of 900 Koroks) became too tedious and I stopped doing hyper-thorough canvasing of areas, especially because the canvasing didn’t really yield anything that exciting. I began, less and less, taking my horse places with me, because I could fast-travel and paraglide to locations I wanted to explore, and very often they were places I couldn’t even take my horse to. Armor variety, which I liked, ended up making a big chunk of food and elixir buffs superfluous and I no longer really felt a sense of danger or need to prepare for big exciting ventures into the bitter cold or so on. And upgrading armor ends up being a nightmare, as high-end stuff requires farming very precious materials, and if there’s one thing I did not like about Skyward Sword, it’s farming for materials.

Environmental hazards that could not be overridden with food or armor, particularly rain, halted my gameplay. I’d be trying to scale a cliff and, whoops - it was raining, which means you slip all the way down or exhaust your stamina trying to force through it. I’d have to go somewhere else and halt my progress on that spot, or attempt to find a place to make a fire and wait out the rain, which seems realistic in theory, but disrupts gameplay in practice. There’s also this weird abundance of cold areas in the game, but only really one hot area and only one “you’ll literally catch on fire here” area. A lot of shrine tests revolve around the same combat trial against the same enemy with a fluctuating health pool and do not get me started on the frustrating motion control mechanics for a few. I played the game on the Wii U as I did not want to get a Switch just yet, and suffered draw distance, framerate and even freezing issues. I figured this was an issue with the Wii U hardware, but hilariously it turns out this is an issue on the Switch as well (as an aside...it’s not really a good idea to have your flagship launch title with your new console be a game that the console can’t even run...)

Then there was the story. I know I just talked a lot of good about it, but the thing is, the tones and storytelling I was talking about come across as...accidental, a sort of side-effect of the game as a whole. I don’t really play Zelda games for top-tier story - let’s be real, Zelda games do not necessarily provide enriching, unique narrative experiences. They are fun, generic adventure games with action-RPG elements, and that alone is enough to make them classics beloved by so many. But it’s been 25 years and the world of Zelda has expanded into a deep-reaching and ridiculous lore, enough that it has enough content to provide for a hard-cover art book, a historia featuring a collective timeline with three branching routes, and an upcoming encyclopedia. As years go by, narrative elements in Zelda games, such as story and character development, become larger and more prominent as the series develops. This is not a bad thing, and as a huge Zelda lore nerd myself it gives games a bit of extra appeal for me personally.

The issue with BOTW, and maybe the Zelda series as a whole, is that it’s kind of “blooming late” on the story and character narrative department in a generation where huge arcing epics with deep and relatable characters run regular in a lot of mainstream triple-A titles. BOTW, for example, is the first Zelda game to feature voice acting, something I was very wary about when I first heard about it, and ended up being rightfully wary. No it’s not terrible - the cast is doing the best they can with the stilted dialogue and passive direction they clearly had to work with, but it creates a very underwhelming and at times embarrassing experience that shouldn’t be so in a time when English dubbing/voice acting and localization is at some of it’s best (though not always of course), especially for a big-name title like Zelda from a big-name company like Nintendo. If this was the first time they were going to try voice-acting, this doesn’t really inspire me to look forward to it being a repeated trend in other titles. And even then, there’s actually only a handful of scenes that are actually voice-acted, with the rest of it being the usual textbox scrawls with some vocal sounds over top like in previous games, which begs the question as to why they bothered to go with the voice work at all.

BOTW does something I refer to as A Plot and a B Plot, the A Plot being the main over-arching story of the game and the B Plot beside an over-arching side-story of the game. Typically, A Plots are the here-and-now of a form of media, it takes place in the present, with the B Plot being in the past, the future, or behind the scenes but being woven into the A Plot. When I set out to play BOTW, I thought that the failings of the past and it’s events would be the B Plot, with the A Plot as the here and now, focusing on new characters who would pick up the mantle of those who had fallen and see me into battle with Ganon. I thought I would follow the trials and tribulations of Princess Zelda in the A Plot, as well as the four champions, but it turns out, I was wrong.

When the game starts, the four champions are dead, and Princess Zelda is keeping Ganon trapped within Hyrule Castle, her power about to expend. At first I thought this was tonally appropriate - after all, they did fail, and it is supposed to paint a bleak picture of Hyrule. But this also meant that the only way for me to really learn or care about these characters was through optional flashbacks, and flashbacks are not really good tools to tell a story most of the time. I went and collected every memory, but didn’t really end up learning anything particularly new or exciting about any character other than Zelda herself - a wonderful character and incarnation of the classic princess, who is, honestly, a nerd. She’s an insecure scholar, burying herself in research to escape the stress of her failed ability to use her magic (Triforce, Light Force, I don’t know - the Triforce doesn’t feature at all in the game), the loss of her mother, and her honestly mean and scornful father and the doubtful whispers of her kingdom. She’s in over her head, and while her abilities and passion are best suited for studying the ancient technology and the Divine Beasts, at every turn it seems that she is forced away from this and told to focus on her destiny, that of using her sealing power to trap Ganon away. It plays again on that theme that pre-conceived notions and strict preparation in the name of prophecy and destiny and what have you still lead to failure, and that it’s through the heart of adventure and discovery that heroes that can defeat the darkness are forged. I expected that new champions would rise to replace the failed ones of the past, born from the adventure and sudden struggle of Ganon suddenly re-emerging, without any preparation beforehand. I expected Zelda to get her big moment where she proves that she doesn’t need old rituals and prayers to unlock her power, and that her inner strength comes from her true passions, and uses her research and scholar prowess to find ways to balk Ganon and use her power. I expected new heroes to rise and take control of the Divine Beasts in the steed of the failed champions of the past.

Well that doesn’t happen. The Divine Beasts get piloted by the ghosts of the fallen champions, who are ultimately dull and kind of not really likeable save maybe one or two. The new characters who help you get onto the Divine Beasts, which act as the “main” dungeons in the game, fall to the wayside and are forgotten after, apparently unable to become champions themselves (as only “champions” can board the beasts, apparently) despite the trials they face to assist Link and fight back against Ganon to save their people. The main dungeons lose their luster quickly too - they’re puzzle-based, requiring the same mechanic for each one (find five terminals, beat the boss at the end, each boss looks kind of the same). Something I thought was interesting was that each beast can be controlled from within, and you use that mechanic to solve puzzles. Two of the beasts end up using the same tilt mechanic though, and three beasts require shooting arrows at it to board (two of which are bomb arrows), and with the beasts’ interiors all looking the same it just sort of gets...a bit dull after a while. Been there, done that, done this, again. I really do miss more classic Zelda dungeons if just for the cheese factor, but this game does not have them.

Since the game has to use flashbacks instead of a continuous story to show the development and relationships of the characters (where dialogue is delivered unnaturally), the original four champions seem very one-note, defined by maybe one or two traits. The case of Revali is especially frustrating. Why is he so mean to Link? Is it his pride, did something occur between them, is it something else? We don’t know, we never learn, because primary characters introduced are not developed, he’s Just The Rival character, to fulfill the trope. His introduction in a mandatory flashback comes from Link literally looking at a bunch of planks of wood on a flight landing (I’m serious), and Revali is more or less an arrogant jerk to the end because That’s His Character I suppose. While we’re on the subject, the entirety of Rito Village is a wash - NPCs talk about how there’s nothing to do there, the Divine Beast is not causing any serious harm, it’s just not letting the Rito fly as high as they like and is being a general nuisance, the Rito that helps you board is just Some Guy and you don’t really see him again unless you want to do yet another optional and inconsequential mini-game. The dungeon is easy, borrows a boarding scenario from another beast, and borrows its in-dungeon mechanic from another beast. The whole area is such a let-down.

And then there’s Zelda, my poor, poor Zelda. She fails, just as everyone does, and I thought, and hoped, and prayed, just as I said before, that her inner strength would come through in the form of doing things HER way, using her research and her smarts, sticking it to the father and the people who didn’t believe in her by succeeding with the very methods they disapproved of. Well no - she activates her sealing power at the last second to protect Link because she loves him. It’s “tru wuv” that sparks her big character moment, where she does exactly what destiny pre-determined she do, not some awesome defiant moment where she pools her strength and self-confidence through her research and herself. She doesn’t even get to research and discover for herself that the power is apparently so closely linked to her “heart” or whatever generic nonsense works the magic this time - gotta love The Boy, that’s what makes you strong. And this is not extrapolating - when you complete all the shrine quests Kass the Rito bard gives, you can see him at Rito Village, where he tells the story of his teacher and the events just before the Calamity, and how his teacher fell in love with the princess, but the princess was in love with her appointed knight. The song his teacher taught to Kass after his teacher witnessed Zelda unlocking her powers was how her love for her knight was what brought it to the surface. Even the Zora champion Mipha, who I guess was supposed to be some callback to Rito from Ocarina of Time in a way, hints that her amazing healing ability is born by “thinking about who she cares about most”, and that’s not her family or friends or anything, that’s Link - who she loves and adores and wants to marry because that’s the Rito callback I guess.

I was so angry, it’s trite and tropey and ruins half the tone the game manages to do so well. Show me a BOTW Zelda who overcomes after failure not through “true love” and all the pre-destined nonsense that lead them all to failure to begin with, but the scholar she is using her research, her passion for knowledge, her wisdom, to unlock her power, to stop the Guardians, to seal Ganon.

Oh and then there’s Ganon. “Calamity Ganon”, now a non-character - just an amorphous, shadowy entity of no real interest. I suppose you could say that after the events of Twilight Princess or Four Swords, Ganon(dorf) is really no more, no longer a proper physical entity, no longer the Gerudo man who had ambitions or menace or a tangible presence when he entered a room - that person was long since defeated properly, and it’s only the lingering malice, that sort of twisted essence of the primordial Demise from Skyward Sword, that remains. From a lore perspective that works, but it doesn’t make for an interesting villain, just like flashbacks don’t make for interesting storytelling and character development. The final battle in and of itself is hugely underwhelming too. Calamity Ganon’s first form is an apparently “incomplete” gooey, robotic spider...thing...it’s very ugly as a design in a game that’s had largely strong character and enemy designs, except for the Divine Beast bosses which, I guess fits tonally. And unlike other enemies where you can kind of take multiple approaches to the battle, you MUST bounce the laser beams in the second half of the fight back at the boss with either a shield parry or the Master Sword, which I think is the game trying to do the old “tennis mechanic” callback but it’s really...kind of janky and often unresponsive? The second form LOOKED much cooler and more tonally appropriate, with a huge, flaming Dark Beast out in Hyrule Field that I’d ride around on my trusty steed fighting. But instead Dark Beast Ganon just faces one direction only, shooting lasers at nothing. Your horse sort of meanders around and you just ride updrafts or stand safely beside it waiting for Zelda to shout very loudly and clearly about the GIANT GLOWING TRIFORCE-SHAPED WEAK POINTS you can hit with your Light Arrows - it’s all an exact, even easier version of all the “boarding the Divine Beast” scenarios you did earlier in the game.

Zelda re-appears, seals Ganon, gives these really wishy-washy smiles and lines. The ghosts of the king and the Champions linger in the silhouette of Hyrule Castle and say nothing. We get no closure on the king and Zelda, who as far as the game wishes to imply in flashbacks and a hidden diary the king left in the castle, parted on extremely tense and unfavorable terms. the Champions get no final word in either. Zelda is shown after the credits kind of just...acting like everything’s a bit “back to normal”, saying her and Link need to go to Zora’s Domain to give the king closure on Mipha which...it’s been 100 years he’s...more or less made peace with the death of his daughter by now as was shown earlier in the game. Zelda says she can no longer hear the “voice” in the Master Sword and admits her powers must have weakened over the course of 100 years, but she’s actually okay with that for once, which I think would have been a bit more powerful of a statement to her character if she’d previously shown that her own determination and smarts were her true strengths all along, and not this HUGELY powerful magic. There’s a shot of the Silent Princess flower at the end, a flower that in the game Zelda comments on, saying that it cannot bloom in captivity and only in the wilds. Again, it would be a very thematically-appropriate metaphor for how Zelda’s true strength came from her journeys in the wild, focusing on her unique strengths and not those pre-determined by her destiny, but the game has her...literally in a state of “captivity” holding Ganon back. If anything the Silent Princess flower metaphor makes a stronger thematic statement for Link, not Zelda, and that’s really telling about how inconsistent and weak a lot of the story-telling is in this game. It was clearly supposed to really be about the relationship between Link and Zelda and their character development, but since they spend the entire game separated and only show shallow interactions of them together in short flashbacks that only really serve to develop Zelda (as well as her diary entries found in the castle), things end up feeling...vapid, forced and ultimately weak.

And I just...want to fight. A Darknut. One damn Darknut and have a cool sword fight. Or a Poe. Not another dAMN LIZALFOS. LET ME CLIMB TO THE TOP OF A MOUNTAIN AND FIND A WHOLE DUNGEON UP THERE.

I MISS.

HEART PIECES. AND UPGRADES.

AS REWARDS FOR EXCELLENT COMPLETION OF MINI-GAMES. IT INCITES. YOU TO REPLAY THEM.

AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

In summary, Breath of the Wild is excellent. But I’m a huge nerd and it’s clear that a lot of people who reviewed this game only went in for about 20 or so hours and didn’t complete it before passing final verdict. I hope Nintendo builds from this game’s strengths and learns it’s weaknesses.

[greatdrams]

Introducing… The British Bourbon Society

Getting on for a year ago now I was approached by two men at a bar who asked me to join their group.

Alright, caveat. It was a Bourbon tasting, and the men in question were founders of the newly-formed British Bourbon Society. I don’t really use Facebook for whisk(e)y purposes. I don’t really use Facebook for anything these days, but membership to the society was free, and my outlets for Bourbon nerdery few and far between.

Several superb tastings, dinners and American whiskey conversations later I am a huge advocate of the BBS, and even do most of the scribbling for their blog. In fact just last week I helped them choose their first Single Barrel. In short, joining this completely free society was one of the best decisions I’ve made since I got into whisk(e)y, and I’d actively encourage anyone even slightly interested in Bourbon to do the same. Hence this.

As the British Bourbon Society gets close to its first anniversary, I sat down with three of the co-founders, Andrew (@thebourbonator) Ed T (@londonliquor) & Ed R (@whiskybunker), to discuss how BBS came about and what's coming up next.

First thing’s first, how did the British Bourbon Society come about?

Ed T: BBS started out at Milroy's of Soho back in 2016. Six of us first got to know each through a small American whiskey group on Twitter that we'd created. We then met up at Milroy's one night to check out their whisky selection and that's where we came up with the idea for BBS. We all loved American whiskey and didn't understand why there were hundreds of Scotch whisky clubs in the UK but nothing similar for American whiskey. So we decided to set one up. We had two main aims: putting on great tasting events and creating a friendly, unpretentious community. The BBS Facebook group came first and then the website followed a little bit later. The six original members (including @mcrbourbon, @edkinguk and @barrelproofandy) are still all involved in BBS, which is great.

The BBS has been going almost a year now. What are your highlights?

Ed T: Seeing how BBS has grown to over 600 members in the past year has been really exciting. We've put on more than ten tasting events and dinners for BBS members in that time, often hosted by representatives of our favourite distilleries, and they've all sold out. Organising the Pappy Van Winkle blind tasting dinner and the Four Roses 'ten bourbon recipe' tasting with Brent Elliott, Four Roses Master Distiller are both highlights for me.

Ed R: Many highlights for me, but echoing Ed, just watching how the group has grown so rapidly in a short period of time and with such passionate members has been really awesome. We’ve worked hard to make it something unique and from having spoken to many people in the industry, the general consensus seems to be that we’ve managed to approach the idea of a ‘whisk(e)y society’ in a modern and refreshing way. In terms of events, my highlights would be our first event at Barbecoa, the Pappy Van Winkle dinner at Burger & Lobster and the Michter’s event at Milroy’s. I’d class all of those as hugely important to the growth of BBS - milestone events if you will. Oh, and getting our own single barrel is obviously a monumental highlight too.

Andrew: For me, the highlights have been many and I'm constantly surprised by what BBS achieves together.  Making contact with and visiting the European Bourbon and Rye Association (EBRA) in Zurich was a definite highlight – they presented us with the kind of hospitality that shows exactly why I love the bourbon community and cannot wait to reciprocate. When we first met up at Milroy’s over a year ago, one of the many (now realised) pipedreams was to be the first UK American whiskey group to obtain a barrel from a distillery. We’ve been lucky enough to forge relationships with a lot of the industry in our short time as BBS and are proud to say that we recently obtained our first single barrel with FEW Whiskey in Evanston, Illinois, which for me typifies how far we have come since we first met at Milroy’s. The biggest highlight for me aside from all of the amazing opportunities we have had to drink unbelievable hooch, has been meeting some amazing people in BBS, many of whom I feel privileged to call close friends today. We have created more than a whiskey group; it’s a community that continues to grow together and I’m excited for everything that comes next.

Bourbon – and American whiskey generally – is really gaining ground in the UK. How do you see the next few years playing out?

Ed T: American whiskey is growing massively in the UK right now and I don't think that will change anytime soon provided the distilleries, distributors and retailers play their cards right. Fundamentally, consumers need to be able to get hold of good American whisky at reasonable prices. A few retailers have recently started selling American whisky at inflated secondary market prices and that's a real shame. If prices get out of control, consumers will get disillusioned and look elsewhere – for example, there are loads of great aged rums out there right now at good prices.

As with Scotch or Japanese whisky, there are certain ‘cult’ Bourbons and ryes commanding vast price tags and quickly being ‘flipped’ online. What’s your stance on this; do you perceive it as a problem, and if so, what’s the solution?

Ed T: Flipping's become a big problem in the past year or so. Pappy Van Winkle and the Buffalo Trace Antique Collection immediately sell out and re-appear on UK auction sites a few days later for crazy prices. Whiskey drinkers lose out - the flippers are the only ones who benefit in that scenario.

BBS has been trying to make sure that these releases go to customers who'll actually drink them! For example, we recently collaborated with Milroy's of Soho to put on a Blanton's Tasting and Pappy Van Winkle Raffle, which sold out in minutes. If you won the Pappy raffle, you could buy bottles of Pappy at retail prices - the only rule was you had to take the foil off the bottle right away. We were lucky enough to go to a HiSpirits dinner with Preston Van Winkle recently and he was a big fan of that approach.

At the other end of the spectrum, and beyond the usual supermarket suspects, what are your top tips for Bourbon value?

Ed R:  Often people make the assumption that you have to spend a lot of money to get a great whiskey and that just isn’t true at all. We’re big fans of brands like Four Roses, Michter's, Blanton’s and Buffalo Trace because they offer excellent juice at very accessible price points. Four Roses Small Batch and Single Barrel are both excellent whiskies for the money. The regular - but very palatable - Buffalo Trace comes to mind too. You can find the latter for around £20-£25 a bottle and for that price brands like JD and supermarket own brand ‘Kentucky style’ bourbons don’t even compare in my opinion.

Just to touch on the supermarket own brands for a moment, I’d generally be wary of them. If it’s going in a mixer for a party on a Saturday night then great but if you want to sit down and truly appreciate a nice drop, it's worth looking elsewhere.

Andrew: Value is in the eye of the beholder and one man’s Pappy is another man’s Woodford Reserve, so whilst collecting bottles can be fun, buy what you like to drink and you’ll never feel short changed. Outside of what is available readily in the UK (which has been growing exponentially) don’t be afraid to scour the internet for pan-European honey holes where bottles scarcely seen on the secondary market can be found gathering dust at RRP. Admittedly, the internet is both a blessing and a curse in this regard and acute knowledge of secondary value has all but made stumbling upon dusty gems as common as finding a winter truffle in Epping Forrest. That said, it doesn’t make the thrill of the hunt any less enjoyable. 

Ed T: Elijah Craig Barrel Proof isn't particularly cheap but it's great value and you can still find it on the shelves. It's just as good as some of the massively hyped American whiskies that people will pay hundreds for on auction sites.

Bottling your own barrel of Bourbon makes quite a statement. There can’t be too many groups doing that in the UK. How did that come about?

Andrew: Paul Hletko, Master Distiller of FEW has been in the BBS Facebook Group for a number of months offering information on bottle releases and sharing knowledge of the distillation process to our members, so he was aware of what BBS was about. This coupled with our friendship with Maverick Drinks who distribute FEW in the UK led to our first BBS barrel. When we reached out to Paul directly to ask for a barrel, we were overwhelmed by the response as four samples from different barrels selected in his rickhouse landed promptly at my door and our tasting to select them shortly followed. Paul Hletko, John Young, (UK FEW Brand Ambassador), Michael Vachon and James Goggins (Maverick Drinks) have been staunch supporters of BBS and we look forward to continuing to collaborate with them.

Ed R: We work collaboratively across BBS, and all of us have varying skill sets that come in helpful. I happen to work in the creative sector so was able to enlist the help of the design team at the agency I work for to create our own bespoke label for the FEW bottle. Everyone has a voice and is able to suggest ideas; that’s how we’ve always been, and that was exactly the same for the bottle design. In true whiskey fashion, there’s a story behind the label and some little nods to our short history. I know we’re all really excited to reveal what it looks like soon – that and our new BBS logo.  

Is producing your own bottlings the long-term raison d’être for the BBS? A sort of American whiskey answer to the SMWS? 

Ed T: Working with distilleries to release BBS Single Barrels is definitely something that we're really excited about. BBS' main aim is to develop a great American whisky community right here in the UK and BBS Single Barrels certainly help to achieve that.

How can people join the BBS, and what’s on the immediate horizon?

Ed T: It's as simple as joining the BBS Facebook Group. Anyone who's interested should also check out the BBS website, which has our blog and whisky reviews, as well as the BBS Twitter and Instagram pages.

BBS has some great events on the horizon. The First Anniversary party is happening on 22nd April at Barbecoa and Milroy's of Soho. Our friends from EBRA will be flying over to join us for that one. Two very special Four Roses tastings with Benji Purslow, Four Roses' UK Ambassador, are taking place at Milroy's of Soho on 10th April and 15th May. We'll be tasting all 10 recipes of Four Roses, which isn't something that happens very often because the bottles are so hard to find. Finally, the BBS FEW Single Barrel should be released fairly soon, so there's a lot to look forward to.

Big thanks to Andrew, Ed T and Ed R for sharing their thoughts and experiences. Free membership, regular tastings, and Pappy Van Winkle at its actual retail price. What more could you want?

American whiskey fans – you know what to do.

Cheers!

[gallery type="rectangular" link="file" ids="24026,24027,24028,24029,24030,24031,24032,24033,24034"]

The post Introducing… The British Bourbon Society appeared first on GreatDrams.

from GreatDrams http://ift.tt/2noV1Mp Greg

[silvurgalaxies]

1-50 ples

Alright due to the length of this, I’m putting it under the cut. I seriously don’t wanna clog people’s dashes! So yeah! Thank you for asking! It was fun to fill out! XD 

Pfft that’s a lot of questions but uhh yeah I’ll do my best for ya! 

1. Your first OC ever? 

My first oc ever was named Hank, he was my sonic fan character I made three years ago. Originally, he was half demon, half dragon. Before I changed him to a half demon half hedgehog. I used him a lot and he’s still going through redesigns now. I still love him, but there’s a lot that needs to be fixed, especially the design and backstory. 

2. Do you have a personal favourite among your OC’s?

Well, that’s like asking to pick between two children. So I love them all equally. There’s certain ones I like using more than others, but as a whole? All of them.

3. Have you ever adopted a character or gotten a character from someone else? 

Yes. A year back I went on an adopting spree. Anchor, Cadmus, Angel, Skyler…all adopted children. But I love them as my own. I don’t adopt characters anymore. Except that one bat Saga designed for me a little while ago which I love. I try to develop them on my own, the design is a stepping stone. Each character has grown since I adopted them. 

4. A character you rarely talk about? 

Andrew is rarely mentioned, as well as Cadmus and Skyler. There’s a lot of characters I have yet to share. Nova as well. Cupid and Cole aren’t mentioned either, I am writing a story with them, but I have yet to post it. 

5. If you could make only one of your OCs popular/known, who would it be? 

Probably Sloth, the human Sloth. I mean, he’s a lazy guy who doesn’t really care about anything, but I feel right now he’s the most developed out of all of the others. 

6. Two OCs of yours that look alike despite not being related? 

Kody and Cupid. Both of them look really similar but they’ve never met ever. Techno and Sloth I’m not including because they were both originally made for AU’s but their human versions are completely different looking. 

7. Are your OCs part of any story or stories? 

Yep. Many of them are running story ideas I’m still working out the kinks for. I want all the characters to be as developed as possible before I move forward. They all live in one universe. And this universe is focused on angels, demons, sins, virtues, and the children of these angels and demons. 

8. Do you RP as any of your OCs? If you do, introduce one of your RP OCs here! 

I’ve used a lot of them! Hank and Kody were the most common until Techno and Sloth replaced them later on. But I use most of them! 

9. Would you ever be willing to give any of your OCs to someone else? 

I would never give them away. They are my children. But if something happened to me, and I wasn’t around to keep them, I only trust two people with them, and that’s Jazz and Saga. 

10. Introduce an OC with a complicated design? 

The most complicated design goes to Techno I hope you’re proud of yourself. Second place goes to anthro Sloth. 

11. Is there any OC of yours you could describe as a “sunshine”? 

Kody. No doubt about it that kid’s always a happy child. 

12. Name an OC that isn’t yours but who you like a lot 

Okay, like there’s a lot. I really, reALLY like Gear. Like, him and Snazz are my favorites. The human versions too. I love their dynamic and they’re both really interesting. I really love Scratch too, he’s great, him and his flames and secret stuffed animal collection, his sister Krystalia too. I’ve always loved the both of them. I also really like Firewall too. Besides that, I just love Cheezedonut’s dutchie, Sunday, he’s adorable. 

I love a lot of people’s characters, especially cause I know they love them too and put a lot of work and love into creating them, which is something I love to see. 

13. Do you have any troublemaker OCs? 

Hank never fails to annoy an entire room. He gets himself into bad situations cause he has a sass problem. He doesn’t know how to shut up. Cadmus is bad too, him and Skyler are bounty hunters, hunting both people and objects for pay. Cupid gets into trouble too, he thinks because he’s a god he can get away with pulling stupid stunts. Angst is the worst, he stirs up trouble wherever he goes. Sloth and his siblings, man those children are all sinners, it’s only natural for all the seven deadly sins to be troublemakers. 

14. Introduce an OC with a tragic backstory 

Hmm. A lot of them do sadly. The universe I put them in is kind of an unhappy place. I think human Sloth or Techno wins for this. 

15. Do you like to talk about your OCs with other people? 

In real life, I typically do not. I have a friend who does and that’s all she talks about sometimes. I tend to keep it low, not a lot of people know about my characters. On the internet or Skype I could go on for days. But I don’t want to annoy anyone with my talk of them. 

16. Which one of your OCs would be the best at biology (school subject)? 

Andrew. Guy’s an alchemist, ehh sorta. He’s the most intelligent out of everyone. He’d do the best in school. I’d say Cole, but Cole doodles all over his notebooks and doesn’t do homework as often. 

17. Any OC OTPs? 

I mean…Nate x Genesis, Techno x Gear, Sloth x Snazzy, Andrew x Angelica, and Cole x Cupid are what I got going right now. Possible Cadmus x Skyler but I don’t know if that’s gonna be a thing. 

18. Any OC crackships? 

Sloth x Techno, by far. It’s the funniest in human form cause they freaking hate each other a lot. Andrew x Hank, the both also hate each other.

19. Introduce an OC that means a lot to you (and explain why) 

Hank is the first character I ever made, and I can never let him go. He meant a lot to me while in middle school, and he’s still here, hanging out. I will never get rid of him. 

20. Do any of your OCs sing? If they sing, care to share more details (headcanon voice, what kind of songs they like etc)? 

Nate can play the guitar, and he writes his own music. When Angst was still sane he could play the bass and sing. Kody plays a mean kazoo him and Sloth have a band they’re going places, they are both masterful kazoo players. 

21. Your most artistic OC 

Cole. Stop drawing in your notebooks. He wins. He’s the most artistic. Techno is as well actually, his form of art is building or tinkering. He doesn’t share it that much cause he can be a little embarrassed of his creations. 

22. Is there any OC of yours people tend to mischaracterize? If yes, how? 

I mean not really right now from what I’ve noticed? Idk. 

23. Introduce OC that has changed from your first idea concerning what the character would be like? 

Techno went from a meme, to a meme with a backstory, to a fandom monitor, to his own AU, to a legitimate human, to a human with a demon parshally possessing him, to a demon hunter. Oh yeah I forgot to mention Techno is a demon hunter as a human, he’s mainly doing it for revenge. It flipped when he got stuck with Sloth. 

24. If you could meet one OC of yours, who would it be and why? 

I feel like Sloth would be the most reasonable. I would love to meet Kody! He’s adorable! But I would want to meet them all. 

25. The OC that resembles you the most (same hobby, height, shared like/dislike for something etc?) 

Ehh personality wise? Nova was designed to be a mascot. I never showed him. Techno is pretty close. We’re both awkward potatoes. 

26. Have you ever had to change your OC’s design or something else about them against your will? 

Techno’s change was a choice for me, cause of a Tumblr!Sans already made. But I’m glad I changed him. It was never against my will. Look at him now! He’s gotten farther than I ever thought he would. 

27. Any OCs that were inspired by a certain song? 

Hank was inspired by the song, “What I’ve Done” by Linkin Park. The rest were just random as heck. 

28. Your most dangerous OC? 

Sloth is the most dangerous, when he actually does something, it’s extremely powerful. 

29. Which one of your OCs would go investigate an abandoned house at night without telling anyone they’re going? 

Hank would do it. You go Hank. And then Kody would follow him. 

30. Which one of your OCs would most likely have a secret stuffed animal collection? 

….Cadmus would. 

31. Pick one OC of yours and explain what their tumblr blog would be like (what they reblog, layout, anything really) 

Sloth runs an asethetic blog where he posts pictures of peanut butter with filters and then he reblogs pictures of feathers. He doesn’t let anyone know this blog exists. Techno’s blog is just all over the place but really organized. He’d reblog pictures of machinery, lots of gear pictures too. 

32. Which one of your OCs would be the most suitable horror game protagonist and why? 

Oh jeez. I’d say Cole for this one. He’s the most ‘normal’ out of everyone. 

33. Your shyest OC? 

Kody or Cole. Probably Cole. If Kody is with Hank he’s really calm and friendly to new people. 

34. Do you have any twin characters? 

Andrew has a twin sister named Victoria. But they don’t see each other very much.

35. Any sibling characters? 

Hank and Angst are half brothers. Andrew and Victoria are twins. Human!Sloth has six “siblings”, and he’s the middle child. Human!Techno has a younger sister. Maple has four siblings, each one representing a season. 

36. Do you have OC pairs where the other part belongs to someone else (siblings, lovers, friends etc)? 

Oh hell yeah! We got Nate and Genesis (belongs to @krystalia-productions), Techno and Gear, and Snazzy and Sloth! (Snazzy and Gear belong to @alternativesaga) and now we got Sin and Flowriel (belongs to @marshiemonarch) 

Pairing characters is so fun!! I love it!! 

37. Introduce an OC who is not quite human 

Literally all of them except for Cole and Nate. I’m planning on converting Nate to a human pretty soon, cause right now he’s a sonic oc still ahah. 

38. Which one of your OCs would be the best dancer? 

Nate is really good at dancing. Anything related to music he’s pretty good at ahah. 

39. Introduce any character you want 

Name: Cupid 

Age: ageless

Gender: Male

Basic Description: He was a god who just awakened one day, his job is to ensure that people do fall in love, without him to do his job, no one would fall in love with each other. But what happens if his arrow misses and hits the wrong person? He’s also a smart alec he thinks he can get away with anything. He loves screwing with people’s love lives. 

40. Any fond memories linked to your characters? Feel free to share! 

All of them have their own memories, to be honest seeing them just makes me happy. Each one has a story about how I created or came up with them, and thinking about that too is cool. 

41. Has anyone drawn fanart of your OCs? If yes, maybe show a picture or two here (remember sources & permissions!) 

OMG YES AND I SCREAM WITH JOY WHENEVER THEY DO. I DONT EVEN KNOW WHAT TO SAY WHEN I GET THEM I JUST GET REALLY HAPPY AND EVERYONE IS JUST REALLY TALENTED IN TERMS OF ART AND I JUST HHHH.

42. Which one of your OCs would be the most interested in Greek gods? 

Greek gods? In that case, Cupid. I mean…he technically is one. Or Cole, he likes Greek gods a lot. ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

43. Do you have any certain type when you create your OCs? Do you tend to favour some certain traits or looks? It’s time to confess 

Most of them are male boy teenagers with a very similar haircut and always wear sweatshirts. Okay no I’m sorry. But most of them aRE MALE. ARGH. 

44. Something you like about your OCs in general 

EVERYTHING. I legitimately love them all and everything about them. They aren’t perfect which is something I love about them! 

45. A character you no longer use? 

Shade the Wolf, Nightmarestar, and a fricking ton of warriors OCs (like Leafstone omfg and Fastfoot holy frick xD)) 

46. Has anyone ever told you that you treat your OCs badly? 

No. Not yet. Maybe for backstories but no, no one has ever said that. 

47. Has anyone ever (friendly) claimed any of your OCs as their child? 

If it counts, @krystalia-productions has claimed Sloth. Okay no I’m joking Sloth literally lives with you. 

48. OC who is a perfect cinnamon roll, too good for this world, too pure 

Kody. The purest. 

49. Which one of your OCs would most likely enjoy memes 

Techno dabbed so hard once the universe was created. True story. 

50. Give me the good ol’ OC talk here. Talk about anything you want

They’re all trash bags but I love them all. Yep. I dunno what else to put here. 

[anjibooks]

Mini Reviews: Rhapsodic, A Poison Dark and Drowning, and One of Us is Lying

(Copied over from my blog anjibooks.weebly.com. Originally posted 3/7/2018)

I always try to write my reviews close(ish) to the time after I read them, because the longer the time between the review and actually reading the book, the less detail you can give. Here are three books that I read last year (2017) and never got around to actually fleshing out a full review. I know I use this excuse every time but I'm really sorry, it's a really busy year. I know these are all excuses but I'll give them to y'all anyway to ease my guilt. It's my junior year, and I'm taking all the hardest classes accessible to me = lots of work. Aside from that I also for some reason decided to take on a ton of extra work on the side including tutoring several students, being a producer for our school's play and musical plus I also do stats for the wrestling & lacrosse team plus I also do Cappies and I also like to enjoy just hanging out with my friends while also getting around to read occasionally. So yeah, lots of excuses but now you know why I don't write reviews quite as often. I actually haven't been having time to read quite as often, either, so sorry. Alright, now that you all are tired of hearing my excuses and about my busy life, here are some mini reviews to give you a feel for these three books. 

Rhapsodic by Laura Thalassa What attracted me to this book? While scrolling through Tumblr on my occasional need to look for ACOMAF material (my favorite book), I heard this book had a similar set up of characters and story to A Court of Mist and Fury, and it had a good review. Obviously I had to get it immediately. Unfortunately, this book was just that. A rip off of A Court of Mist and Fury. Instead of using the good bits of ACOMAF and twisting them into a new and enterprising book, this just took the tropes and tried to rush into a story that readers will swoon over. Spoiler, I did not swoon. In fact, I spent most of this book rolling my eyes. I really wanted to like it, I did, but I just couldn't. Other than the characters' amazing journey and the well thought out plot in A Court Of Mist and Fury, that book worked so well because we were already attached to the characters and story and  knew the world from our experience with the first book. Also the writing in A Court of Mist in Fury was just beautiful. I've never fallen in love with a story and its characters more than my experience with A Court of Mist and Fury. I know, y'all might be thinking I might've enjoyed the book if I quit comparing it to my favorite book. It was impossible not to compare, though. In fact, Rhapsodic basically was A Court of Mist and Fury with just changed names, and instead of beautifully setting up a story to connect with like A Court of Thorns and Roses did, this book just rushed right into the part of the story everyone loved, as if trying to just get to the money//fans. There was no journey to get attached to the characters. They were just there already, as was their relationship. All together, I found this book to just be a mess. The characters were just meh, I didn't care for any of them. I was actually more annoyed with the choices they made more than I actually found myself connecting with them. There were scenes where I knew I was supposed to care and that were pivotal moments, but I just didn't because I didn't care enough about the characters (or at all, really). I think that's all due to the lack of set up for the story. Would A Court of Mist and Fury have done as well as it did without its first book? Who knows. I just couldn't fall in love, or even in like with this book. Sorry. 4/10 stars. I'm not all that interested in trying the next one. Might as well leave that to fans who actually enjoyed the book and leave out the low rating for it. Synopsis: ​ Callypso Lillis is a siren with a very big problem, one that stretches up her arm and far into her past. For the last seven years she’s been collecting a bracelet of black beads up her wrist, magical IOUs for favors she’s received. Only death or repayment will fulfill the obligations. Only then will the beads disappear. Everyone knows that if you need a favor, you go to the Bargainer to make it happen. He’s a man who can get you anything you want... at a price. And everyone knows that sooner or later he always collects. But for one of his clients, he’s never asked for repayment. Not until now. When Callie finds the fae king of the night in her room, a grin on his lips and a twinkle in his eye, she knows things are about to change. At first it’s just a chaste kiss—a single bead’s worth—and a promise for more. For the Bargainer, it’s more than just a matter of rekindling an old romance. Something is happening in the Otherworld. Fae warriors are going missing one by one. Only the women are returned, each in a glass casket, a child clutched to their breast. And then there are the whispers among the slaves, whispers of an evil that’s been awoken. If the Bargainer has any hope to save his people, he’ll need the help of the siren he spurned long ago. Only, his foe has a taste for exotic creatures, and Callie just happens to be one.

A Poison Dark and Drowning by Jessica Cluess ​As you may or might not recall, I was very enraptured with the first book in this series and was quite looking forward to book 2. Unfortunately, the second was not nearly as fun a read as the first. There was just so much about this book that felt rushed. Since I read it a long time ago, I don't recall the exact details of what irked me about this book, but I remember a lot of feeling irked and a lot of eye rolls. A lot of stuff happened in this book that I didn't particularly care about. There's a new character introduced that I could tell from the beginning was going to be a main, but I just didn't care for them. Still don't. Also, sorry, but Rook annoyed me even more in this book than he did in the first, so, yeah, I didn't feel all that bad for him and his plight. Yeah, it's been a long time so I don't want to start spouting off too much stuff because I can't accurately remember it all. Also the "plot-twists" were not so much as twists as they were just... there. The big reveals? Yeah, they were easily guessable from about five hundred miles away. I'm sorry for the rant. This is why I don't like to write reviews long after I read the book, it's easier to remember the negative, especially if there wasn't anything overwhelmingly positive. I'm sure there were good elements of the book, they just weren't great and they are forgotten in comparison to the negatives of the novel. All together, like the first book, I suppose you could call it a fun combination of classic tropes and cliches. (Which is part of what made it so predicable). If you enjoyed the first book, read this one. Why not? Don't let my short little rant stop you from reading it, because plenty people did enjoy this one. Don't take my word on this book too seriously since it's been too long for me to give an accurate review. All I can really accurately remember is being annoyed and liking this book less than the first. So if you didn't like the first all that much, maybe this isn't the book for you since the story doesn't actually get better... I can't decide what to give this book, I'm caught between 5-6/10 stars, so I'll leave it there. Synopsis: ​ The magicians want her to lead. The sorcerers want her to lie. The demons want her blood. Henrietta wants to save the one she loves. But will his dark magic be her undoing? Henrietta doesn’t need a prophecy to know that she’s in danger. She came to London to be named the chosen one, the first female sorcerer in centuries, the one who would defeat the bloodthirsty Ancients. Instead, she discovered a city ruled by secrets. And the biggest secret of all: Henrietta is not the chosen one. Still, she must play the role in order to keep herself and Rook, her best friend and childhood love, safe. But can she truly save him? The poison in Rook’s system is transforming him into something monstrous as he begins to master dark powers of his own. So when Henrietta finds a clue to the Ancients’ past that could turn the tide of the war, she persuades Blackwood, the mysterious Earl of Sorrow-Fell, to travel up the coast to seek out strange new weapons. And Magnus, the brave, reckless flirt who wants to win back her favor, is assigned to their mission. Together, they will face monsters, meet powerful new allies, and uncover the most devastating weapon of all: the truth.

One of Us Is Lying by Karen M. McManus I often talk about how hype can completely ruin a book. This book was one that was severely overhyped. Sometime, I think it was over the summer ​everyone was talking about this book, you could barely turn a corner in the book world without hearing about One of Us Is Lying. Eventually, after a lot of resistance, I finally got sucked in and figured: screw it. I might as well try it out, I might be missing out. I wasn't. One of Us if Lying is advertised as a modern day "mystery" novel. The basic premise is that five students go into detention. The jock, the popular girl, the nerdy/good girl and the "bad boy" are all the classic cliches you need, and then the fifth is a student universally hated by everyone in his school. He runs a gossip blog and basically ruins everyone's lives. If you have a dark secret Simon posts about it. So when Simon is murdered in detention and it's discovered that he was about to make a post about everyone who was present in the detention room, they all instantly become suspects in his murder. Without spoiling on the mystery of the novel, I'd just like to say it was predictable and also poorly written/thought out. Why do I say that? Well, I predicted the murderer before I even opened the book. It's kind of hard to scrape by on calling the book a mystery if it's that predictable. By poorly written I mean the characters weren't written well enough for me to find them and their story compelling. There was not a single character in this book that had my sympathy/that I even remotely cared about. And the relationships? Don't even get me started. I know, I was suppose to majorly ship the bad boy and the good girl because that's a classic, right? I had to love it. I didn't, and it's not because that's a total cliche, because I love cliches. It's because the writing and the story, I just didn't particularly care for their relationship. At all, partially (mostly) due to the fact that I didn't actually care about any of them. They just weren't compelling, or written in a way that I could connect with them. And by poorly thought out? I mean this book caused a lot of controversy from a certain group of people, more on that in my spoiler section, but let me say I agree with this group 100%. Was it the hype that destroyed the book, or the book itself? I think a combination of both. I went into the book expecting great things, and was met with less than mediocre content, which made the let down even greater. All together, I was left unimpressed. 5/10 stars. Synopsis: The Breakfast Club meets Pretty Little Liars, One of Us Is Lying is the story of what happens when five strangers walk into detention and only four walk out alive. Everyone is a suspect, and everyone has something to hide. Pay close attention and you might solve this. On Monday afternoon, five students at Bayview High walk into detention. Bronwyn, the brain, is Yale-bound and never breaks a rule. Addy, the beauty, is the picture-perfect homecoming princess. Nate, the criminal, is already on probation for dealing. Cooper, the athlete, is the all-star baseball pitcher. And Simon, the outcast, is the creator of Bayview High's notorious gossip app. Only, Simon never makes it out of that classroom. Before the end of detention, Simon's dead. And according to investigators, his death wasn't an accident. On Monday, he died. But on Tuesday, he'd planned to post juicy reveals about all four of his high-profile classmates, which makes all four of them suspects in his murder. Or are they the perfect patsies for a killer who's still on the loose? Everyone has secrets, right? What really matters is how far you would go to protect them." SPOILERS Spoiler: ALL OF THEM WERE LYING, but not in the way that counted. See, the author tried to make it a huge plot twist that none of them killed Simon. Except that wasn't plot twist, it was actually what I was expecting. What would be more of a plot twist and what I was hoping to occur (but not expecting) was that one of them actually did kill Simon, because that would've actually made the story interesting. Seeing inside the character's head the entire book and being fooled by them? And then seeing why, the motivation and how (they came up with the plan)? Yes. I would have absotlely loved that. In fact, if that had been the case it might have actually redeemed the novel somewhat in my eyes. Instead, the novel took the predictable route and made Simon the culprit. Which is exactly what I had been expecting the entire time. And that group pissed off? It's the group saying that this book is mocking mental illness and using it as a get out of jail free card. I agree with that. As someone who's seen a lot of mental illness and is very close to it, I would say this was not a good way to represent it. At all. I could go on a whole rant on that topic, but I'll just leave it at I don't think this book handled the mental illness aspect well. Thanks for reading these rant-ish reviews. Sorry they were ranty. Love y'all! ​Anj

[bloggroovyninjacollection-blog]

Ways to Improve Your Punch Power.

William Lynch has actually been a freelance writer for the past fifteen years, working for numerous web sites as well as publications. Along with a regular monthly cost, fitness centers normally bill an added initiation fee. To take control of a gym you need to decrease its eminence to no by beating its residents. A great idea, however in method - at the very least when I attempted it years ago - just as you concern prepare a lift you begin fretting about the opportunity that your possible sharer will certainly be a mass murderer or something. Some gyms now supply workout machines that will remind you of your latest training weight when you get in an individualized code. With a soft frown Diona thought about simply how rich the Dranias' were, unpleasant with the degree of wealth she was seeing. All them could be done right in your own residence or in your backyard - you do not need a gym or great deals of devices. No. Your triumph will aid whittle down the gym's 'stature factors' as well as, equally as you have your own group of Pokemon, so a health club has several defenders. Perching staircase lift likewise has a similar plan, yet with a prolonged support at the buttock degree. If it is readily available and also offer a time restriction of two or three mins, make use of the entire health club. The Complete Health club 1000 steps 50 1/2 inches long by 16 1/8 inches large by 8 1/2 inches high when folded up for storage, as well as has an optimum user weight restriction of 275 lbs. Ii. Change of height: Another huge advantage of lift tables is that their height could be adjusted according to the will of the individual. For the power push-up, begin in a push-up setting with your chest close to the ground. The first time you visit a gym you'll state loyalty to among the video game's 3 groups (much more on which listed below) - your choice impacts how your choices across different gyms. Whether you manage a health club or make use of the facilities as a client, a health and wellness plans that define exactly what staff members and health club individuals should do to lower threat is a beneficial device. Nevertheless, the researchers did not eliminate that the psychedelic journey can have created an awakening", of the kind achieved by spiritual training, which likewise helped lift the anxiety. But while you dream of sculpting killer abdominal muscles, your fitness center has a financial profits to fulfill. Marah as soon as conned him into thinking that she intended to transform good, which she wished to aid the Rangers defeat Lothor. There is no demand for you to attach to the main power grid and also brighten your homes, be self-dependent and also attract power from the sunlight. If you are alone in a lift when this circumstance develops, as well as you wish to court this kind of selfishness and also hold the door after that, bitterly regretful though it is, you could do so. You are only encouraging them, and no good will certainly result it, yet it is your selection. You can see all my lift numbers and make a duplicate of it to your personal Google drive to utilize yourself. Because of this, I've located it most beneficial to put a high power pose into my morning regimen for 2 or 3 minutes and after that go on with the remainder of my life. All 6 of the Terran Rangers stood in a line, their headgears concealing their amused expressions. I call the child Hans and the big one Franz since they enjoy me in the gym, though I've never as soon as seen either of them raise a weight. In the very early 1990s, designer Haim Saban appealed the idea of acquiring up video from the entirely outrageous Japanese program Super Sentai, which adds the majority of the battle scenes in Power Rangers episodes to this day, and shooting brand-new story" series with American-based stars. Affiliate Professor Ashton Patridge from the professors of design at Auckland College stated off-the-grid, tiny neighborhoods" like Ta'u were preferably fit" to using solar energy. As soon as the door irised closed behind him, Andros saw that the other Astro Rangers were standing there, waiting on him. As an individual thinker and one to question old as well as spiritual realities, I offer this set declaration: that power is harmful towards freedom, that it has the propensity to disregard the passions of the people, as it grows individuals pass away, as it recedes the flower of freedom blooms. This is carried out in order that the layer of fat can be raised by the operating doctor and after that repositioned in a proper fashion. You could do a variety of workouts on the Overall Fitness center 1000 without even touching the wing add-on or leg pulley devices. Right here are videos of me doing 3 collections of 6 representatives on bench press at 220 lbs, 225 pounds, 232 pounds, and also 238 lbs Once more, each video clip is a few weeks apart and also they all look more or less the same. http://schonewache-blog.info comes as a study was published recently wrapping up that middle age now begins at 60 Nuffield Wellness said simply under 10 percent of its 211,000 gym participants are matured over 65. In this storyline we not only fulfill the Waste Barret household (waste is the populace that do not have any type of defense from a 'Family members' a ruling power in this dystopian future and are normally not well off or well cared for) yet we also reach learn more regarding the Family members, the characteristics of the globe, as well as the past of Eve (also known as For life). LYNN: Aly has decided to go professional, which she is extremely thrilled around, yet that suggests she won't have the ability to complete in acrobatics in college.. Mary McNary, one of Environment-friendly's customers, told The Province: It's frightening going into a fitness center setting. From not extending prior to your cardio session to rushing via your associates, we check out which health club shortcuts are true shortcuts and also which are potentially unsafe. Because his position was one of far better power, Gandhi won in the battle against the British Realm. It is constantly worth trying to negotiate your agreement with the fitness center chain if you are not happy with the rate or the terms. The devices for these kinds of workouts consists of treadmills, stationary bikes, elliptical trainers, stair mountain climbers and also more. The writing and the acting are not remarkable, the visual acumen isn't really excellent and we have not even reached Jackson's turn as an actor (which will should be a lot more memorable than his baseball abilities if Power is getting noticed). Kamdeepak pill is an effective solution which gives the wanted impact and aids to enhance power and period normally. The most adorable little superheroines in all of Townsville make the dive to the cinema in this feature-length computer animated journey based upon the popular Cartoon Network collection The Powerpuff Girls. The pelvic lift is an advanced movement that targets the glutes and hamstrings in addition to the abdominals. Chosen this up for ideas to supplement my barbell-based regimen, for when I can not reach the fitness center, and to help my other half with ideas to do in the house & fitness center. His afternoon training sessions at the fitness center have allowed more youthful competitors to work along with a master, as well as interested observers to see. Instructing your staff members all elements of power device training and also safety could decrease the opportunities of injury as well as keep your labor force safe as well as efficient. The gym includes exercising weights, cardio tools, security spheres, equipments and also resistance bands. Mirrors on all wall surfaces don't simply simulate the appearance of many fitness centers - they in fact make the room appearance bigger. A new wave of considering power reveals that it is given to us by others instead of grabbed. There are few far better workouts for targeting full-body power compared to the medicine-ball slam. If you're connected right into a year-long contract (common at numerous health clubs), you could be connecting on your own in to around ₤ 1,000 worth of gym time, despite what does it cost? you utilize it. Check if there is a minimal notice duration. The timing, specifically given the success of Deadpool, is best for a sharp and spiky , tongue-in-cheek comic-book movie that plays on its Japanese origins and provides Cranston (who really articulated beasts Twin Guy and also Snizard in the initial series) and Financial institutions the chance to eat furnishings like two starving goats entraped overnight in a branch of Ikea. Lift bridges, revolve platforms as well as move entire buildings all with the power of your mind. Strange; that solo trip right into the woods to clear my head transformed right into an unplanned first date ... kind of. However I definitely had a lot more fun being in the woodland trading tales with Blake compared to I ever before had obtaining pizza or going to a flick with a guy. Kunitz finds the seeds of the modern-day health club in nineteenth-century Paris, where weight training devices wased initially employed, and takes all of us the means approximately the game-changer: the feminist movement of the 1960s, which maded popular calisthenics and aerobics courses. The freshly formed Terran Rangers stood after the damages of the Command Center, still amazed concerning their recent improvement. When the various other Rangers discover that Trent is keeping Anton's key as Mesogog, they end up being furious. I then lifted your sleeves to see the marks ... i was so angry at him, at myself! PC gamers will be able to experience Pneuma's distinct problems in an unique digital truth setting through the power of the Oculus Rift DK2. A certified instructor understands how you can approach individuals in a favorable, productive manner to earn the gym participant feel secure, not picked on or humiliated. They are likewise called upon again to eliminate at the Abyss of Wickedness with the rest of Mesogog and Lothor's forces; against the Ninja Rangers as well as Dino Rangers. A great deal of individuals have survived illness, rough life scenarios, terrible connections or traumatic youths, as well as as opposed to being victims, they have found power in those occasions as well as come to be stronger. This power needs to be used for business productivity as well as not for individual gain.

[raystart]

Luca Barcellona: Take Your Pleasure Seriously

On a tiny screen in the palm of your hand, an ink-stained hand wielding a white paintbrush slips and darts across a bright red page. It leaves its trace like a figure skater on ice; the shapes look abstract – a thin curve here, a thick line there – but the hand moves with deliberate, authoritative grace. After four and a half hypnotic minutes of this dance, there’s the much anticipated reveal: “Take Your Pleasure Seriously” the strokes demand.

This is the ethos of Italian calligrapher and graphic designer Luca Barcellona, the craftsman to whom the hand in this video belongs. Barcellona, 39, is regularly hailed as one of the world’s greatest working calligraphers. Combining his monkish commitment to the craft with an inventive, youthful sensibility, Barcellona’s contemporary interpretation of hand lettering has coincided with a major resurgence of calligraphy in visual culture. Eager for a humanizing touch, the current proponents of the lettering craze are infatuated with process: Videos of artists in action permeate the web, and no design conference is complete without time marked by the slow production of a handmade typographic mural.

Barcellona recognized, and perhaps even helped inspire, this early on in his career, organizing live shows in clubs in Milan in the early 2000s, later going on to do similar events for galleries, museums, and globally renowned brands. In 2009, he faithfully reproduced a large-scale 1569 globe with quill and natural inks for the National Museum of Zurich, and in 2010, he produced his own T-shirt line, a brand he dubbed “Luca Barcellona Gold Series.” His script now adorns everything form Absolut Vodka bottles to Carhartt sweatshirts, and his signature, tightly packed compositions, often dense webs of Fraktur script, spell out phrases by the German poet Bertolt Brecht.

  In the beginning, Barcellona began lettering by skipping class to tag subway trains and graffiti under bridges. After graduating from high school, where he’d taken classes in graphic design, Barcellona enrolled in night courses and took a job at a music store. Using his time off to patiently practice calligraphy, he soon started taking on small commissions from the hip-hop scene.

Demand for his work grew, as did his encyclopedic knowledge of classic scripts, until one day he swapped the quill for a spray can, rendering the age-old letters he’d mastered with the tool of his teenage years. This pivotal moment defined what would become his trademark: gothic and classic lettering that elegantly and energetically incorporates the influence of graffiti and street art. He didn’t so much slip into the past as find calligraphy a present form.

  Your 2012 monograph has just been released in paperback, and, as with the first edition, it’s got this fiery front cover. You’ve written out the name of the title in a very elegant hand, but then the composition is punctuated by a black ink dot that almost looks like a bullet hole. What’s the significance of this?

To explain, I need to start with the story of why I decided to make the book in the first place. I had all this stuff in my drawers and on my hard drive, stuff that I’d amounted over 10 years of working. I myself had studied calligraphy by looking at books – I love books—so I knew that was the format that all the stuff I’d collected would take. It wasn’t just a marketing thing for me; it was about closing the circle. I realized, though, that I couldn’t choose the work myself. When a designer speaks about their old work, you’ll notice that they will always say, “But that’s an old piece. That’s old. Look at what I’m doing right now.”

You want to be growing, getting to another level, constantly developing, instead of being in stasis and getting comfortable doing the same thing over and over again.

LB Exactly. So I asked my friend, the graphic designer Massimo Pitis, to art direct and design the book for me – he and his team at WIRED Italia have just won Best Magazine of the Year at the 2017 Society of Publication Design awards. So I said, “Massimo, this is all my work. You have a different eye from mine, a different critical eye, so please choose what I should include.”

And the cover?

I created the initial hand lettering for the book jacket and he said, “If you leave it like that, it looks like a calligraphy book from 80 years ago. Add an ink drop.” That drop would represent my past in graffiti. It was about dirty hands and dirty clothes. Massimo said, “It’s the symbol of imperfection that we want.”

What about the slogan “Take Your Pleasure Seriously?” What does that mean to you?

At first I was thinking of calling the book Man of Letters, but it was too much of a pun. I had just read a book on Charles and Ray Eames and I’d seen the sentence there. I admire their work a lot. They were married, so living, playing, and working together, and in every picture they seemed happy, having fun while blurring work and life. To take your pleasure seriously means, okay, you have a passion, but it’s a serious one. Calligraphers have to have passion. But it’s also a job, and there are many elements that you won’t enjoy doing. You have clients. You have deadlines. You’re probably not inspired by the work every time, but you need jobs, work, income, as a craftsman. And you take that seriously.

How much of a blur is there between work and life for you?

I don’t have anything about calligraphy at home. I have comics, books on photography and architecture, a lot of vinyl. But nothing actually about calligraphy. Yet calligraphy is always on my mind. Every time I watch a movie, I see the titles. When I drink a bottle of wine, I see the packaging. I look at the letters.

So there’s a spatial divide between work (your income) and life, but no divide between your craft (you as calligrapher) and life?

Exactly. My studio is not in my house. I have to be able to say, “That’s the job, and this is life.” I don’t want to be a maniac either…You know what I mean.

There are typo maniacs, typo nerds, and that’s not who I want to be.

You just spoke about noticing the letters of everything around you. When did you first start noticing type?

When I was a kid, five or six years old. I used to play a game with my mother. We’d be in the car and she’d ask me to read the signs. I started to notice that every sign was different, and I began to ask, “Who did that?” My mother couldn’t give me the answer. I thought, “That’s what I want to do.”

Then when you got a bit older, you got into graffiti.

When I was 14. I started taking graphic design classes at high school. I started doing tags like so many others in the early 90’s. When you’re a teenager, you’re obsessed by shocking people, so I was creating letters to amaze others. Then I discovered calligraphy in graphic design class, and I said, “This is something serious. I have to go back to the beginning, study the ancient forms, Roman capitals, italic, etc.” I started doing serious calligraphy. Later, once I had the tools and had mastered the classics, I would start to mix it up a bit and combine what I’d learned with graffiti.

You were teaching yourself about calligraphy?

At the beginning, most people are self-taught. But that’s a huge mistake. I studied Italic with one teacher in a workshop and I realized this: Calligraphy is something that gets passed down by masters. It has to be handed down, from a master to a student, until that student becomes a master. It’s about sharing knowledge, not keeping your tricks and secrets to yourself. That’s the beauty of crafts, not just calligraphy. I know musicians and karate masters who say the same.

When you started studying, everything was analog, and by the time you finished, design schools were using computers. How did this affect you?

I knew that I wanted to draw. I wanted to take pencils, markers, and brushes. As a graphic designer, I worked with type and layout settings on the computer. But as a calligrapher, I wanted to get my hands dirty.

You started posting videos of your craft very early on. How did that start?

When I uploaded my first video, there was nothing to compare it with. I had only seen videos of calligraphers from the 60’s and there were very few of those. We now look at videos on our phones all the time, but in 2002, it wasn’t like that. I made a couple of videos that got a lot of views, and other people started doing the same; everyone was copying one another and getting inspired by one another.

Now there are so many calligraphy videos online. They’re hypnotizing to watch; some get thousands and thousands of views. What do you think about it?

There’s a problem when people only get their information from the internet. It’s like television in the 80’s and 90’s: What’s not on the web, for many, doesn’t exist. This means that people completely ignore the fact that there are older generations of calligraphers and a long, ancient history of the craft. They’re all focused on the young people on social networks that put their stuff online, but a lot of the quality is very, very low. The numbers are impressive, and it’s good from the perspective of allowing people who might not know anything about calligraphy to begin to appreciate it.

As a calligrapher, you have to know what you are doing, though. You have to know that you are a speck in the history of the craft. I am nobody in the history of calligraphy. Compare what I do to the work of the 15th century and you’ll see what I mean – that stuff is amazing; it’s incredible. What I can do is mix things up a bit, add to the history by using contemporary tools. I try to make calligraphy that has a bit of current reality. I’ve done it with live projections and used 3-D software.

It’s about using those new tools, but with the ancient gestures. You have to know it to be able to do it. The untrained eye can’t tell what’s authentic and what’s not. If you don’t know the history, then you might believe that the guy who puts up a video on Instagram is the best calligrapher in the world, just because someone in the comment section says so.

Whether the videos are amateur or not, why do you think people love seeing the act of calligraphy rather than just a piece of calligraphy in its finished form?

That’s simple. For the last 15 years, we’ve become accustomed to the idea that writing is just pushing buttons. Pushing keys. Yet handwriting has been one of the major inventions of human history. After 15 years of tech, we are losing it.

So the process of watching the process of calligraphy is an antidote?

Yes. I’m not saying we should write our emails in Gothic, with a nib and pot of ink. When I was trying to take calligraphy classes in the 90’s, design schools were trying to eliminate it. They were saying, Who needs lettering today? Now I’m teaching workshops on calligraphy all the time in Italy.

How does technology feature into your day-to-day practice, though? It’s not all quill and ink, and, as you say, you use old gestures and combine them with new tools.

Software can be great for simulating, like how you can put a drop of watercolor on the page and it’ll bleed in a beautiful way. But digital tools that simulate something analog only make sense if you can do the real thing. If you’ve never used real watercolor, how can you really understand its simulation? It’s like virtual sex. You can experiment with virtual sex, but if you don’t know the real thing, you’re missing out.

We’ve talked about your career path and sense of design, but not the words and messages you illustrate. You’ve quoted George Orwell. You’ve written out messages of support for things like the 2011 earthquake in Japan. What do you look for when you’re thinking about quotes or slogans to write out?

There are two options when you look for a message. The first is you can find nice, pretty sentences that people are going to like. The second is you can write something that you really feel and believe. Maybe a quote from a book, or a song you love. For me, it must be the second option; it must be something that has helped me in my life.

With the Orwell composition, the quote found me. I walked into an international bookstore and the spine of Why I Write, Orwell’s essay about political language, was sticking right out from the shelf. I didn’t search for it. I believe in serendipity.

For the Japan illustration, I saw the heartbreak after the earthquake; I had close friends there. I decided to design a T-shirt to raise money for relief. I wrote the slogan with a Japanese brush, very quickly, to denote emergency. There aren’t any classic decorations; it’s fast and urgent. You must find the right way to illustrate your message.

Because of its urgency, it’s very readable. That’s not your usual tact though, especially for personal work. Often you write out words not only in an archaic script that’s difficult for modern eyes to decipher, but you pack the letters very close together, making the composition even more tricky to unpick and read. For your political messages, this has interesting implications because the viewer has to focus and spends a lot of time with the message. And that time might mean that the message sinks in. What are the other benefits of illegibility?

Legibility can be your enemy because it means you have to add space, and you lose the beauty of a compact design. Density is one of my obsessions. Sometimes I just draw the alphabet or a series of capital letters because I don’t want people to read what’s written. I want them to enjoy the shapes, the gestures. Sometimes people ask me, “What did you write there?” and I answer “Nothing.” I always love that.

Creating a piece of calligraphy, especially these dense ones that take a lot of concentration, and mastering the craft as a whole, is of course exhausting. It takes a lot of patience. It can take three years of continual practice to perfect just one classic script. How do you deal with the everyday physical toll?

I should.

You don’t?

I try to. Like right now, my back is aching; there’s a lot of tension built up. It’s a very physical practice, and to do it, you have to know your body. If you want to write something with a small nib copperplate but you’re pissed off, stressed, or you drank too much coffee, you’ll shake and won’t be able to do it. It takes calm. You have to physically prepare.

When I hear this, it conjures the stereotypical image of the master calligrapher, hunched over scrolls with reams of paper and inky fingers, painstakingly illuminating characters. You do this of course, but you’re also a jack-of-all-trades in other ways. You’re an entrepreneur, because you help run a publishing company, Lazy Dog Press, that brought out your monograph. You organize exhibitions. You’ve run your T-shirt label. You’re not always bent over your desk.

Calligraphy is my discipline, but with this discipline I can do many things. I’ve done performances with piano players and karate masters. I’ve done restoration work, and I’ve worked in advertising, doing crazy hand lettering to sell a car. I’ve made clothing designs for Nike. Recently, I’ve been combining my love of record collecting with calligraphy. If you specialize in one field and there is an interest in it, then it’s great. When that interest slows down, it’s more of a problem. Yet I do believe that if you’re passionate about something, then people will be interested. That’s why I write “Take Your Pleasure Seriously.” People can tell whether what you do is true, whether you’re sincere.