#1 is a group photo of 3 pokemon that i did not expect to get as much attention

[dailypokemoncrochet]

Links to their posts:

Miraidon / Sceptile / Veluza / Porygon evolution line / Hydreigon / Lechonk / Lairon / Eternatus / Tropius

[Link to check your own top 10 tumblr posts]

[alolanrain]

Let me introduce the Not Really, Parent Trap!AU, or better known as Reversed Parent Trap!AU. I’ve yelled at a few friends over this, and it’s no where NEAR done for an actual fic to be posted about it since a lot of the characters aren’t completely fleshed out yet. be aware it’s long so it’s under the cut!

So ORIGINALLY this was supposed to be just a Summer Camp!AU 

That quickly derailed into a kinda Reversed Parent Trap!AU 

So this starts after the Sinnoh Arc, it’s just the start of summer

Ash comes back to Pallet Town and buys the Ranch, it’s literally double the size of Pallet Town+the surrounding farms and product fields that make up MOST of Pallet Town, and the Castle literally takes up around ⅓ of the plot of land. 

Ash successfully revamps the entire place and land, making it habitable for everyone on his team and himself. This also equals refurbishing everything with the best quality shit he can get

So Ash spends a VERY pretty penny for everything, though admittedly it doesn't make a HUGE dent in his bank account from how often he gets paid a shit ton during his travels and the added bonus of being the Orange Archipelagos Champion AND the Chosen One

Who knew dying for a Regions sin pays well? 

He gets contacted by Gary a month later, it's near the middle of summer and Gary wants to re-open the Oak’s Summer Camp from their childhood. But he doesn't have a place to do it

Ash immediately offers his place, plus he has a plethora of Pokemon in and out of this Region they can use as example

They reopen the camp with just thirty spots available, no more than that since it’s just him and Ash for three weeks, teachers usually have up to a class of fourty at most so it will be fine

The kids come and they actually fall into two groups immediately, which ends up pretty easy for Gary and Ash to pick what group goes with who for most of the week

It ends up pretty odd group numbers though, Ash ends up with 18 while Gary gets 12 kids

Most of Ash’s kids already KNOW Ash, either from meeting him through his journey’s or knowing him from birth and up. Pallet Town IS small after all

They all range from ages (at the beginning of the summer camp ordeal) 5 to 11 ½ years old

After the first summer, the same group of kids always come back to Gary’s camp because it’s dope.

But having a Champion there as their “counselor” is doper 

Which makes Gary beg Ash to come back and help out at the summer camp every summer for three weeks 

Ash ofc says yes, it gets him away from Drake and Lance’s nagging and gives him a good break and spend time with Gary and his Pokemon

It does get out of hand at least once a day, but their KIDS there's nothing really Gary and Ash can do to completely stop it 

So like, Ash and Gary are around 15-16 ½ at the beginning. It originally started because Gary was feeling super nostalgic at the time and thought it would be fun to do it every other summer or something 

THAT plan quickly went out the window and both found themselves coming back to Ash’s ranch every summer to set up and do it

It quickly grows and becomes to be really famous from all the good reviews and how because a lot of top elite society people surprisingly came from Pallet Town in general *side eyes Lance, Drake, and Agatha* 

But its mostly because a Champion is there and they get to talk to another Oak and stuff that’s more close to their age 

I’m also adding in Ash/Raihan in here and forcible folding in the secret marriage!AU into here as well 

Raihan and Lance knew each other through Lance training at Hammerlocke gym when the Champion was younger and Raihan soon came over to train with Lance during the off season for Galar, the summer and half of fall. Lance noticed that Raihan would stammer and get weird every time Ash was visiting the castle. So being the giant meddler of a Godfather that he is, Lance pushed and pushed until Raihan agreed to help Gary and Ash out during Camp time 

Lance also makes it up and offers a visit, which both Ash and Gary happily agrees because they actually have a few kids thinking about going into the dragon tamer route later in life and it would be a great learning opportunity for them 

Soon Raihan isn’t spending time at the castle anymore, he heads straight to Ash’s ranch the same night the Galar League ends for the year. After party be damn! He has a summer camp to help set up for 

Raihans followers actually like the little cameo’s the kids have during a small vlog or a photo bomb with them doing something stupid before Ash or Raihan notices 

Even if Ash is in the middle of a league, he will ALWAYS come back to help out with the summer camp 

He even brings his friends with him and they help out as well 

Ash’s Pokemon A D O R E the kids, even his more reserved Pokemon like Flicker and Sceptile like hanging out with the camp kids during the night and early morning when they calm down and get tired 

The remaining 12 out of 30 kids always get put with Gary after both found out just how bad a lot of kids from the group of 18 home life is, Ash is more emotionally equipped to handle them and Gary wanted the more knowledge driven kids anyways

Raihan is permanently in Ash’s team as his second in command, but that doesn't mean Raihan can’t help Gary every now and then when Ash has everything handled 

The Group starts referring to Ash and Raihan as Mom and Dad respectively… but like on accident and then in private when it’s only to another Group member or to themselves 

NEVER to Ash or Raihans face on purpose 

Fast forward four years from then. All the kids have experienced their first journey, and some even their third journey

Ash and Raihan are now secretly married. The ones that know are;

1) Mr. Goodshow because he officiated and ordained them on Ash’s-no, THEIR, Ranch. 

2) Ash’s mom because she had become a mom to Raihan as well and its ASH”S MOM. she would maim him if he got married without her being there. Even though originally Ash and Raihan just wanted to sign the marriage license at Mr.Goodshow’s office in Sinnoh and leave it at that. No wedding, no nothing

3) Gary and Daisy because their practically Ash’s siblings and Daisy had physically and verbally threatened Raihan more so for Delia’s sake. She was the main driving force for a wedding, even though it felt like pulling stubborn, rotting, fractured teeth from both Ash and Raihan about the specific for their wedding 

Ash “ q u i t s “ the summer camp after the Kalos Arc 

More like Gary shoved him out and employed actual trained employees and counselors, also moving the camp to the old camping grounds Gramps used back then. Ash still lends a few of his more friendlier Pokemon at least once a full week out of the three for Gary to use 

also , mostly, because Chosen One and Champion duties are more important now since Ash is Champion of TWO whole set of islands 

The camp group as a whole dwindled down to a measly 10-14 every year after the original OG 18 group had left for their journey

But Ash still always plans around the summer because all the kids still come to the Ranch for the FULL Summer now

Raihan makes it his fucking MISSION to always be in Kanto during the off season. Friends and expectation of the Galar League be fucking D A M N E D once those last round of fireworks are shot into the air. Raihan is out of the building and passed the reporters and interviewers in SECONDS and it always leaves everyone guessing what has him so worked up about 

Its because Raihan misses his husband and kids, dammit! Especially because they don’t call him as much as they do Ash 

Yada, Yada, Yada - something happens and somehow everyone that’s been a part of each evil team past comes to stay at Ash’s ranch for some kind of “Group Therapy” which Ash was essential BULLIED into letting people stay at his ranch 

And it’s during the fucking S U M M E R 

When his fucking K I D S and H U S B A N D comes home 

To say he’s peeved is the biggest understatement of the year

But Ash isn’t going to say NO to his kids! Their his kids!!! And he’s their safe haven besides traveling the world and most of them a still pretty fucking young 

So the kids come, armed with the knowledge of everything that's going on and they don’t have to some at all because of the danger imposed by the evil team leaders being there

Surprise to EVERYONE else there, they come to the ranch fucking angry and pissed for Ash’s and Raihan’s sake

Also their encroaching onto THEIR turf 

Which is like… the BIGGEST fucking no in their book 

But anyways, they continue and help Ash around the ranch like they always do. They just snark back at all the adults because their not Ash OR Raihan so they won’t listen to any of them 

Gym Leader be damn 

Elite Four be damn 

Champion be damn 

Their not mom and dad so the group turns a deaf ear to them 

But before they came to the ranch that summer, one of the kids spot something flashing around Raihans neck during one of his gym battles they decided to watch out of pure boredom 

And so, as the little shit that they are, goes and screen shots and zooms in 

ONLY TO SEE A FUCKING R I N G ON A CHAIN 

So they send it to the chat and one of them is like 

“Holy-fucking-Arceus, that’s a fuckING WEDDING RING” 

Cue utter 

C H A O S 

And so it isn’t until that summer that they see Raihan and storm up to him 

Did i mention Rose is Raihans dad in this? Because that’s also an important part of why Raihan only wanted the bare minimum of possible people to know 

And they started begging and demanding if Raihan is married 

Raihan is internally panicking up a storm on the inside while trying to doge the questions

Also while trying to make everyone in the room as disinterested as possible 

But the kid is persistent 

And everyone’s watching because it’s lunch time and 90% of the people there have never been to Pallet Town before so they don’t know what restaurants are good 

So Raihan goes:

“What ring? I don’t have a ring! You’re probably hallucinating from the het, why don’t you just go lay down or something?” 

The kid reaches up on their tippy toes and flattens Raihans baggy shirt to show an outline of a small circle on his chest 

“That ring.”

Que Raihan starting to show his panic because now the have EVERYONE’S attention and he and Ash don’t want to come out just yet 

ESPECIALLY LIKE THIS 

Ash is outside with most of the kids since their helping him clean his Pokemon 

But Raihan is saved by the kid declaring they WILL find out who he’s married to

Thankfully not outright guessing Ash in anyway, which is weird how he and Ash ACTUALLY legitimately adopted three kids out of the group already 

So now everyone is watching Raihan and he damn well knows his reaction gave his lanky ass away 

They, especially the Galar League members, start to grill Raihan but he keeps shut and runs away as fast as he can with his metaphorical tail tucked between his legs 

And after a week or two they spot Ash walking into the dining hall shirtless because one of his Pokemon accidentally ripped the shirt to shreds 

Ash being him, forgets he has the ring on his neck while walking into the dining hall during lunch since he’s so used to the weight 

Now the kid who spotted the ring first just dropped their plate on the table and before either Raihan or Ash could gently scold them, they start stammering while jerkily pointed to Ash’s chest 

Soon they spit out;

“Ring! Ring!! Same ring!!!” 

The rest of the kids, who were dragged into guessing who married Raihan and also who now know what Raihan ring looks like, lose their entire SHIT 

They soon surround Ash and start congratulating him and Raihan, who’s upstairs on the third floor and putting some newly hatched baby dragon Pokemon to sleep, and Ash openly panics MORE than Raihan did 

One pipes up is Raihans last name is now Ketchum instead of Rose 

Ash goes from blushing to complete tomato red in the face the fastest anyone has seen it go before 

He soon ducks his head a mutters its Ketchum now and the kids happily start freaking out even more 

Everyone ELSE on the other hand is in absolute shock 

Rose is filled with rage because Raihan was supposed to go to one of his biggest investors youngest daughter when they both reached the age of 25 

Ash and Raihan are respectively 20 and 22 now 

Rose also doesn’t “condone” LGBT+ people in the slightest 

So to have his own son, who Rose hasn’t seen in fucking years on the man’s own free time might I add, to go behind his back and betray his father like this? 

Utterly shameful of his son to do so 

Though there IS nothing Rose can do because he no longer has the connections he had before and is still handcuffed on the daily 

A bunch of other people are in the range of angry to sad because they had crush’s/were in love with Ash and to know Ash has been off the market completely for a VERY long time is actually… quite off putting because Ash never spoke up about it 

And when one of them speaks up and questioned Ash on why he never told them, or even INVITED anyone else to his fucking WEDDING ash juts kind of… laughed nervously and shrugged 

Saying something on the line that half of his friends wouldn’t believe him, or would bombard him with questions as they are now 

He then breaks down everything, explaining that his marriage is a VERY personal thing to both him and Raihan. Both loved revealing in the fact that this is something that is just between THEM, including a few necessary people, and that they don’t HAVE to share it with the world 

Ash also explains how the Galar Region isn’t really accepting of LGBT+ people, and how would they take it knowing that their strongest Gym Leader is gay and married to another man?

Also that if word had spread around enough, bad guys and evil teams would start to target Raihan since he’s Ash’s husband and that Raihan also works in a different league 

The kids soon feel guilty, the one that pointed out the rings feels even more so, but it’s quickly soothed a little by Ash who told them that he and Raihan were going to tell them anyways 

“So can we actually call you Mom and Dad now?” 

One of them pipes up

Ash laughs and agrees 

Raihan soon comes down and is greeted with a bunch of kids/teen waggling their eyebrows at him with smirks, a sheepish looking Ash, and a good majority of the rest of the people having existential crises 

So he walks forward and sweeps Ash into a sweet kiss, soon pulling back and muttering how he’s been wanting to do that since the start of the summer. 

[supernoondles]

2019

The last day of 2019 was also the day I fainted for the first time--a fitting metaphor for the year.

2019 was overall very emotionally taxing. This year was emotionally defined by falling intensely, deeply in love with someone (who is a very private person so I will try to be vague to respect that) and being in a lot of pain because of situations mostly outside of our control. There were a lot of intensely joyous moments, and a lot of intensely sad ones. Throughout it all I wish I had communicated better. I also made some bad decisions with another person I really loved and cared about that resulted in us growing apart. Do I think I grew from the experiences? For sure. Do I wish I could have come upon these realizations through a different course of action? Also yes. Am I fully healed from the experiences? Not really, but I've been getting better.

2019 was also very bad in terms of research. It was the 2nd year of my PhD. After I submitted my rotation project I basically felt stuck in the swamp of my advisors rejecting new project ideas for like literally half a year. This, combined with my high emotional volatility (partially due to starting birth control), made me really sad, unmotivated, and susceptible to self-blame. I definitely had high expectations for myself and became frustrated at my lack of progress and felt a lot of pressure from myself to get my shit together. I also felt incredibly bad after most advisor meetings and not supported by one of them to the point where I had to have a conversation with him about the lack of support (which was very scary)! Things started picking up, though, near the end of the year. I published a paper in collaboration with a former post-doc/now professor elsewhere whom I learned a lot from, and started finally building out another system. I also started mentoring an undergrad who at some point told me I helped him feel like he had something important to say and belong at Stanford for the first time and those words meant a lot to me. I think I'm continuing to refine what I value as research contributions and increasingly think about what it means to build systems that aren't used outside of the lab to satisfy the annual conference publishing cycle. I'm also starting to feel the pressure of doing work that follows a narrative rather than random projects that interest me.

Oh, I guess in terms of "program requirements," I did finish taking required classes, passed qualifying exams, and got a master's degree. But honestly those weren't hard at all nor do I think are externally valued in the larger research community, so I don't really celebrate them as accomplishments beyond surface level.

In 2019 I saw two different therapists. The first one was awful, I think directly influenced some of my bad decisions, and also didn't respect my gender identity??? The second one is a lot better and I'm grateful to see her, even if 90% of our sessions are just talking about my relationship (romantic/advisor) issues, which is something I want to move away from in the future. But I also feel incredibly privileged when relationship issues are the primary stressors in my life--I am grateful I feel equipped to handle other crap, like deadlines, and don't have to worry about my own health.

Those were the main things that have colored this year. We'll now move into the section of this post where I go through my photos to jog my memory of other events.

New years started a tradition of getting dim sum with Jasper, Matthew, and Michelle dear to my heart. My high school friend was also visiting and we all attended a really awesome new year's eve party. I was also going on a lot of dates and having a lot of good sex, which made me really happy, and at the same time crying all the time at work. In February I received probably the best gift anyone has ever given me and saw Panic! at the Disco, which I said in an end of the year group meeting was a good memory of my year (it was, to relive my scene days!). In March I roadtripped both to Marin (which I had never to been before, despite all my years in the bay) and LA for Wondercon; it was nice to both see high school friends and go on a trip with the boo. In April I went on a hike with my office which was probably the start of us all becoming closer (we are the social office in the wing now, which I take pride in! Also we draw a lot of Pokemon which warms my heart). In May I went to CHI in Glasgow and then to Paris afterward, and the entire experience was very weird and bad and also too many flights were canceled and/or missed and I vowed to not return to Europe for a while, but man do I love the noodles at Trois Fois plus de Piment. In June we hosted a double apartment party with my downstairs neighbors (side note: I am really appreciative of the place I live in, for the community, convenience, and large-ass space and will be really sad to be kicked out fall 2020) and I started a friendship important to me. I cat-sat for my advisor (the one who doesn't make me feel bad) twice. I went to Redwood State Park with my family and hosted a summer solstice celebration. Over the summer a friend I met in Paris back in 2017 moved in with me. I had a much needed escape from the bay to Seattle where I was reminded how abundant the world can be. I also went to Tahoe to celebrate my parents' anniversary, and really liked stumbling upon a smaller lake with a cheap boat rental. Then I became FOMO about the highly competitive Bay Area camping and did a last minute walk-in at Redwood Basin in Santa Cruz, which made me realize that I don't actually love camping (but was nice nonetheless). I ate an expensive meal at Commonwealth before they closed. For my birthday we made a friendship quilt and I served my favorite dish of cumin lamb but it was also 90 degrees in my apartment (I felt really bad and bought two fans afterwards). I started buying many cartoon frog plush after being gifted a $3.99 on sale Safeway frog (called Baby!). I went on Tinder dates (one of which was at a quaker yard sale marketed as Harvest Festival where I got a 1970s Kermit puppet for like $2) that largely went nowhere. My high school friend visited and we were both sad about break ups. I did Inktober before I went to New Orleans for a conference on Bourbon St where everything felt like it was coated in a sticky film of alcohol. I almost missed my flight home because I fell asleep in a sculpture garden but I had the most amazing Uber driver who snaked his way through traffic (oh and the flight was delayed by like 3 hours). I went to kind of embarrassing haunted houses and pumpkin patches over Halloween, but also had the most incredible bowl of ramen at Mensho. My whole office dressed up as Zootopia characters which warmed my furry heart. I spent like $120 on a Pokemon shirt. I started playing Arkham Horror and rekindled another friendship important to me. In November went on a road trip to Big Sur because again, I had to escape it all. For Christmas Eve dinner I roasted a duck for the first time (which was delicious). Shortly after I waited in line for 2 hours for a rollercoaster at Great America, which taught me the value of buying a fast pass because at this point in my life that money is worth it, and then waited 2 hours in line at the DMV to get a RealID (I had made an appointment, which was the fast pass).

Okay, now we move to the hobby section!

I got really into sewing in 2019, having received a sewing machine last Christmas. I made a Judy Hopps (which I wore to CrunchyRoll Expo) and Korok cosplay (Fanime), several unsuccessful garments, a crab bean bag, a dice bag, a fanny pack, and put hearts nipples on a jumpsuit.

Shows! I think I went to way fewer shows this year. The ones I can remember are Elephant Gym, Thom Yorke the night before I had an 8am flight, Carly Rae Jepsen over pride weekend (also, she is my #1 artist of the year, which makes a lot of sense given my emotional space), Mitski at Stern Grove, Capitol Hill Bloc Party (which was super lame, except for Lizzo, where I cried), and the National (which was a fucking surreal experience as they played on Stanford's campus, I was the only one within earshot of myself who knew the words to Crybaby Geeks, and then the white catalog moms came up to me after to thank me for singing the song).

I also started playing my own music! I started playing viola again for the first time in 7 years (lol) in both pop-up concerts with the Awesome Orchestra (one in Golden Gate Park, one at the Exploratorium) and a string quartet through my school. Sometimes I am filled with joy and delight. Other times interpersonal tensions run high and also I am very bad at being in tune. It's life.

Media! I really liked Mob Psycho 100 Season 2 and Beastars. I feel like those were the only notable anime I watched this year? I saw the Farewell three times--first in Seattle where I sobbed for like 1 hour after the movie, the second time with my parents, and the third where Awkwafina was present for a Q&A. I thought Parasite was incredible and Promare was OK. I have spent an unfortunately large amount of my time playing Pokemon Masters. I finally beat BOTW and completed my Pokedex in Shield like 2 weeks after getting the game.

Resolutions! In my draft of my 2018 end of year post (which I never polished and posted, sorry), I said my resolutions were 1. come out to my parents 2. draw enough to table at an anime con 3. be disciplined about paper reading and have a doc. I did none of these things!!! However, for 1, I feel like I am well equipped to have this conversation but am waiting for my sibling to do it first out of respect. 2 was just bad. I barely drew this year except for gifts. 3 was okay--I did have a large doc in the beginning of the year when I was looking for ideas, but as time went on I abandoned it (I also stopped reading papers, which I don't think you're supposed to do as a grad student...)

My resolutions this year are phrased as intentions (-(c) Matthew). They span several categories. Relationships: I want to open myself to and actively seek experiences of love, because I miss that. That being said, I will only date someone if 1. they have their life together 2. they love themselves and 3. they challenge me to grow. (I do think you can experience love without dating; the thing I'm after is love in an expansive sense.) Work: I want to do enough work so I don't feel guilty about not doing enough work, and also not berate myself for taking a long time to do things. Hobbies: I want to sew at least one thing a month. Chinese: I want to improve my Chinese, especially pronunciation.

Having written this 20 days into 2020, it's not been so bad so far. But I was also really happy in the beginning of 2019. Here's to no global maxima, a monotonically increasing year!

[geek-patient-zero]

Part 1, Chapter 3 (pt. 2)

Or: Panic! at the (Former) Disco

Blood War: Masquerade of the Red Death Volume 1

McCann and the vamps do not do alright.

Fast Eddie Sanchez–remember him, the guy guarding the door to the members only area?–appears from the crowd, wielding a stiletto knife and quipping about entrance being invite only. He lunges forward to stab the Red Death in the chest.

And gets himself killed right away.

The stiletto melts before it can touch the Red Death. Red D. grabs him by the neck and, despite having scrawny corpse arms like the cover shows, lifts him up one handed. Eddie shrieks in pain. And ignites.

Gouts of flame burst from Eddie’s nose, eyes, ears, and mouth. Tongues of fire erupted from his chest. His fingers blasted into bits like fireworks. Legs and arms exploded like dry wood thrown into a blazing fireplace. His skin blackened and crinkled like burning paper. A blast of incredible heat roared through the chamber. And Fast Eddie Sanchez was gone.

The Red Death laughs “insanely,” which might be too cliche villainish if Weinberg’s going for a “force of nature” theme like his namesake from Poe’s story, as he pours Eddie’s ashes out of his hand.

“He was the first. But not the last. A fitting end to all those who defy the Sabbat. Or challenge the might of the Red Death.”

Alright then, I guess he’s a supervillain.

Understandably, the crowd of nameless vampires and ghouls lose their shit and panic. We’re reminded that fire destroys vampires.

...and though most had existed for hundreds of years, they clung to their unnatural existence with all the hunger of their mortal counterparts. More, for they knew beyond any doubt that they were the damned.

Like what’s going on isn’t already dramatic enough.

They run for the exit, but a mysterious force is keeping the door shut. That or Fast Eddie locked the door behind him when he came in to die. Either way, they’re stuck in the chamber with the Red Death, who’s strolling around killing anyone who gets close enough with fire hugs.

Methodically, it grabbed hold of any Kindred foolish enough to venture close. Clasped the vampire to its chest and turned it to ashes.

Dire McCann, Alexander Vargoss, and the twins, meanwhile, are presumably  still standing in front of their table, posing. Tyrus Bendeict is still seated, and panicking. He thinks the Red Death’s after him and the photos of Baba Yaga from Russia.

McCann shook his head. “Nonsense” he snapped at the wizard. But wondered if perhaps the Tremere sorcerer wasn’t correct.”

McCann’s instinct to be contrary is faster than his ability to think.

I’m starting to notice that Weinberg tends to write two sentences when one sentence with a comma would do. I think it’s supposed to make the narration look deliberate and dramatic, but instead it comes off as stilted and weird to read.

“Attend me,” snapped Alexander Vargoss to his Dark Angels. “He must be stopped.”

Features grim but determined, the Prince stepped forward directly into the path of the Red Death. Vargoss’ body pulsated with raw energy.

A fifth-generation vampire, he was over 2,000 years old and controlled incredible powers.

Jesus Christ, he’s a step away from a methusalah! What the hell’s he doing merely being the Prince of St. Louis? Is he just that bad at the Game?

Many of the important vampires in Blood War are going to be both really old and low generation. As the summary on the back cover states:

“This series reveals many of the underpinnings of the World of Darkness and spotlights the dreaded elder vampires known as Methuselahs.”

This is one instance where having a younger or higher generation vampire in the role might make more in-universe sense.

Raising his hands high over his head, clenching his fingers into fists...

...Vargoss extended his mighty will. “Halt,” he commanded in a voice that never before had been denied. “HALT!”

I guess if the Prince were higher generation, it wouldn’t be as impressive when the Red Death no-sells his Dominate attempts.

The Red Dead laughed in defiance. It continued to advance.

Bet he’s laughing at Vargoss’s Ginyu Force pose more than at his futile resistance.

“Halt,” repeated Vargoss, his voice uncertain. The first traces of doubt showed on his face. The Red Death was very close. It was too late, much too late, for the Prince to turn and run

Sit down, LaCroix Vargoss.

McCann opens fire on the Red Death, but once again the Ingram’s useless. Red D. isn’t even slowed.

Slowly, with great deliberation, the Red Death reached out for the Prince. To the detective, always suspicious of being manipulated, the monster seemed to hesitate for an instant, almost as if waiting for an interruption.

Whatever the Red Death is playing at, the ~*~Dark Angels~*~ step in before things get too awkward.

Moving with inhuman speed, Flavia and Fawn grabbed the prince by the shoulders, spun him around, and sent him flying.

Holy balls, I love this! The twins saved their boss by fucking hurling him away from the fire monster. In my head, I’m imagining them chucking Vargoss “off-screen”, him screaming in his David Warner voice all the way, followed by some cartoon crashing noises and a cat screech.

With Vargoss safe and probably unconscious, the twins turn their attentions to the Red Death.

...they could not resist the challenge the monster presented. Assamite assassins, they thrived on death and destruction. Two sets of matched blades, the finest in the world, slashed in wide arcs.

Yeah, attack the Red Death with blades. That worked so well for Fast Eddie.

To the twins’ credit, their blades don’t melt like Eddie’s stiletto when they try to slice off Red D.’s hands. But they don’t hurt him either. They just pass through.

McCann cursed aloud, astonished. In his entire existence he had never before seen the like. The specter appeared composed entirely of frozen flame. Which meant that nothing physical could harm it. The Red Death was invulnerable to normal weapons.

Like a ghost-type Pokemon. You gotta use special attacks on him.

Tentatively, McCann reached out telepathically with his mind.

...

I’m sorry, he what!? The big bastard’s telepathic too now!?

He hated revealing any hint of his true essence. But there was no other choice. He had to know the truth. What type of being was the Red Death? For a bare instant, thoughts crossed, as minds touched. Then McCann recoiled in shock.

Unable to attack the Red Death in any meaningful way without getting himself killed, McCann instead decides to use his suddenly revealed psychic powers to read his mind and remove some of his mystery just a few pages after his introduction.

With his mind probe, McCann learns that the Red Death is definitely Kindred, not something from a different game like a wraith or, god forbid, an actual mage.

It used a discipline McCann had never before encountered–Body of Fire. Transforming into this form took the combined efforts of several vampires, which meant the Red Death did not work alone. McCann caught a fleeting memory of a group calling themselves The Children of Dreadful Night. Then the thought was gone, swallowed by the creature’s obsession with destruction. In its present state, the Red Death was more elemental fire than vampire. It hungered to destroy life. It existed to kill.

The Red Death immediately detected McCann’s mind probe, closed off its thoughts, and sent back

...a mental stream of hellfire that would have burned the detective’s brain to cinders if he had remained in contact.

Psychically incinerating a dude’s brain if he tries any psychic shit on you. That’s actually an awesome power, if situational.

Let’s talk about this bit with the mind probe. We've just been introduced to this villain, this unstoppable force who came out of nowhere, who even ancient and powerful vampires like Vargoss are helpless against, and what little we learned about him we got from his actions and what he volunteered to tell us about himself. At this point in the story, the effectiveness of such a monster is enhanced by nobody knowing who he is or where he came from, or even his exact motives.

Obviously, we’ll learn more about the Red Death as the story goes on, until all will be revealed. I have no problem with that, and there’re still things we don’t know about old Red D. But thanks to McCann’s previously unhinted at telepathy he immediately confirms he’s a vampire, the name of this disciple everyone’s helpless against, how it’s powered, and the name of the group the Red Death was working with. In trying to show off McCann and further hint at his mysterious nature, Weinberg unintentionally undermined his villain early on. That stuff McCann just learned via mind probe could have been spread out in later chapters, and preferably they’d be uncovered by, you know, actual detective work, maybe with some supernatural help, instead of some sudden asspull power.

By the way, I looked it up on the White Wolf wiki, and there’s no result for a Discipline called Body of Fire, so it seems it was made up for this story. There’s a discipline called Godbody of Fire, but it’s a Kuei-jin power, not Kindred. It works completely differently, and Kindred of the East wasn’t released until ‘98, so don’t expect any plot twists in that direction. Besides, I don’t think the Red Death is Asian.

There’s also a Protean power called Body of the Sun, which transforms a Kindred into “blazing indestructible fire.” Thing is, it’s a tenth-tier power, the highest one. If a character has reached the tenth tier of a power, than they’re probably an Antediluvian or at least a really old Methuselah. Usually the only other tenth tier power of a discipline is an Antediluvian-only power called, I shit you not, Plot Device, which can best be described as “The power can do whatever the hell the storyteller wants.” Obviously it’s for storytelling purposes and not an actual in-universe power. (All that said, most of that I'd typed up before reading the next two books in the trilogy. We'll learn exactly what Body of Fire is in the next book, and why it's unlikely your vampire OC will ever learn it.)

One other thing. McCann doesn’t recognize the Red Death. But the Red Death recognizes him.

Anyway, that little psychic exchange? It took place in only a few seconds, and the twins are preparing their second attack, this time aiming for the eyes. McCann cries “No!” but they ignore him.

When they attack, the Red Death lashes out with his arms in sweeping motions, either trying to grab or clothesline them like the WWE superstar he is. Flavia, the one who hasn’t done anything separately from her sister so far, ducks out of the way. Fawn, the one who killed the fleeing assassin and made fucky eyes at McCann back in Chapter 1, however...

...was not so fortunate. Crimson fingers raked across her face.

The Dark Angel screamed, the first time McCann ever heard her make a sound. Then, an instant later, she exploded in a fireball of white flame. Involuntarily, McCann’s eyes snapped shut.

He hears a gurgling noise behind him and turns around, bumping into someone hurrying away. He opens his eyes and sees that Benedict’s still seated at the table.

Except his head’s been cut off.

And the Red Death didn’t do it, either. While everyone was distracted by the invincible fire vampire, someone went and chopped the poor Tremere’s head off. He instantly starts rotting away, because when a vampire dies their bodies decay to the point they should have if they had died instead of being embraced. The longer they live, the less there is left of them afterwards.

The Red Death has suddenly vanished as well. Post-battle, we’ve got a thoroughly emasculated Ventrue Prince and are down a doorman, a bodyguard, a wizard, and a few nameless cannon fodder vampires and ghouls. The Red Death lost nothing.

Vargoss, presumably covered in a bit of dust and with a banana peel on his shoulder, begins bringing order among the panicked vampires with help from “his overwhelming force of majesty,” which I’m assuming is the high-level Presence power of the same name. With the Red Death gone, the force keeping the exit shut vanishes too (so that wasn’t Eddie’s fault, may he rest in- oh right, damned), but Vargoss won’t let anyone leave until they calm the hell down. He doesn’t want anyone breaking the Masquerade by running past all those goth kids while screaming about fire vampires.

Meanwhile, Flavia, the surviving twin, is having a bad time.

Alone, on her knees in the center of the room, Flavia cried tears of black blood. Dark Angel and Red Death. McCann felt certain their duel was far from over.

Unless someone with a more impressive title comes along to challenge him.

The photos of Baba Yaga are gone, along with anything else Benedict brought with him, his assassin having pocketed them. McCann finds a lone clue, dropped by the assassin when he bumped into them a few moments ago: a green sequin. The kind from the dress Rachel Young, the supposed ghoul singer, was wearing.

Hurriedly, he scanned the crowd. Though no one had been permitted to depart, there was no sign of Rachel Young. The singer had disappeared. McCann was not surprised.

And that’s Chapter 3 done. We won’t see the aftermath of the Red Death’s attack right away. Next chapter we’re taking a break from McCann to focus on a new character in Washington D.C., which has apparently gone to all hell.

I mean that in a World of Darkness way, not the real life bad timeline way.

[squeemcsquee]

Anime Zap 2019, Friday

Previous Posts: Cosplay/Dressing Fun at Anime Zap 2019

Two weeks post-con and I’m finally getting my review done. I need to work on that...

As I think I’ve mentioned before, Anime Zap is my hometown con. It’s small (2,000 attendees, give or take a few hundred, probably) and relatively relaxed. My friends ( @shbumi @lechevaliermalfet @el-draco-bizarro and @someoldmemory for those on tumblr) and I find it a great way to hang out, have fun, and see Greg Ayres again. 

This year, I had the brilliant plan of working 4 hours in the morning, then going home, changing into cosplay, eating, and making it on time to the start of the con at 12:00. In actuality, I think @lechevaliermalfet and I got there at about 12:15 or so. 

This year, our friend group had a couple of first-time attendees on hand. Now, my rule for Zap is that if I’m the one extending the invite, I pay for the person’s badge for the weekend. Especially, as with my friend Ryn, they can only experience one day. Zap doesn’t have single-day pricing and demands cash at the door. To me, $40 cash at the door is a little steep for one day. 

That is, honestly, an aspect of the con I’d like to see change. I think they had one-day passes back when I first began attending, but those were eliminated. Then again, the con is locked in with the Embassy Suites for ten years, and maybe they’re concerned about growing too quickly. 

Anyway, we met with Ryn, and got ourselves all checked in. I was sad to see the return of the simple red cord lanyards after last year’s lanyards. But no big - the main thing is that the badge holds up, right? Badges this year looked nice, but were also minimalistic in artwork compared to previous years’ efforts. But at least we got to see artwork on the programs, as usual.

Once checked in, we grabbed programs and picked our first panel: Conspiracy Theories.

It was sparsely populated for the size of the room, but that was to be expected. This was the start of the con and most of Zap’s attendees are younger - they were probably at school still.  As for how I enjoyed it, I can’t honestly say. Some of it was interesting and entertaining, and some of it was just too out there. 

We left a few minutes early to get into the line for Opening Ceremonies. And I observed another change for Zap - Opening Ceremonies was now further down the hall, closer to the viewing room. The video gaming room acted as a buffer between it and the Dealer’s Room. 

Of course, if I’d looked at the map in my program, I’d have noticed it sooner, but at least this was a pleasant surprise!

I loved it. From what I could tell, moving down to the next ballroom hadn’t sacrificed any space for events. You couldn’t notice the noise bleeding over, since Video Gaming has its own ruckus. And it meant the walls of the Dealer’s Room weren’t shaking through the weekend, either. I can’t say for sure, but I’m guessing the artists positioned at that end of the con also got a bit more foot traffic over the weekend. 

Speaking of artists/vendors, we had time to browse a few before Opening Ceremonies began. One vendor had some awesome jackets, though sadly not in my price range for the weekend - here’s Ryn modeling one:

As far as Opening Ceremonies go, I need to give props to the Live Events team, as they are always upbeat and enthusiastic. Also, Greg Ayres was the only guest who was on-hand at the time, as the others were delayed arriving. We were also informed that Steak n Shake was closed on Friday for a water main break. Thankfully, though that’s the most popular place to eat during Zap, there are plenty of other options. 

As is somewhat usual for Zap, Opening Ceremonies ended early and we were released into the con proper. 

None of us had anything on the schedule we were absolutely itching to attend until Greg Ayres at 3, so we went to the dealer and gaming spaces to kill time.

Not a bad crowd for early in the day!

As has become a bit of habit for me with Zap, I made mental notes for what I was maybe going to get later in the weekend. But I also made sure to get a print and sticker that I wasn’t sure were going to last.

Another change that I noticed - and that wasn’t in the map - was that Zap was again utilizing the rooms across the hall from Panels 1 & 2. Those two rooms held an artist/dealer area and a tabletop gaming space, respectively. It was nice to see the con taking advantage of so much space.

Video gaming at Zap always has at least one thing I want to try out. This year, there were a couple different dancing games, Rock Band (Guitar Hero only for me, prior to this), a rhythm game that was very trippy but very fun, and then an arcade cabinet that actually had a bubble pop game. I think I killed more time in Zap’s gaming room this year than in previous years. 

Note to self: Cosplaying the Impala is not helpful for full-body dance games. And I need help with these, trust me. But despite my poor skills, it was fun!

The Many Voices, Hobbies, and Hair Colors of Greg Ayres was entertaining, as always. Greg is pretty much a staple of Zap, and always a highlight of the weekend.

After that, I debated attending Samurai Dan and Lady Jillian’s self defense panel, but as I’ve gone to it before, I opted out. Instead, I roamed the tabletop gaming areas a bit with @shbumi and Ryn, and played some Pokemon Go.

Last year, I had an exterior shot of the hotel itself. But this year, I want to include a shot of the views they have to offer.

We did finish with Pokemon Go and exploring in time to go into the final two demonstrations of No Sword? No Problem! Anime Fan Self-Defense. 

Afterwards, it was time to sort out dinner. But first, we had a tasting adventure. 

Now, normally Japanese junk food prices are super high in a dealer’s room. However, there was a vendor at Zap this year who priced everything pretty fairly. So, @shbumi got some durian-flavored mochi. $5 for 6 pieces. @shbumi was the only one who managed to eat a whole piece. Mochi in itself is pretty good - it was the flavor that was the sticking point. Durian is very...divisive, to say the least.

I think our taste test will become one of my favorite con memories, honestly. 

With Steak n Shake out of the equation, we opted for Jimmy John’s for dinner. And after dinner, was @lechevaliermalfet‘s first panel of the weekend: A Brief History of Ys.

Since he’s done it a few times now, we decided to try something new and filmed the panel, in hopes of either posting the footage on YouTube or at least figuring out where he can add/take away things. (We haven’t reviewed the video yet to see what kind of quality we got). Since I wasn’t sure I could record it in full on my phone without resorting to live streaming, we did stream it (and his other 2 panels) over Facebook Live.

Con Horror Stories  was up next. Both @shbumi and I came very close to offering up our story of the time I ruined her Lapis cosplay, but in the end, we opted just to listen to everyone else’s stories. 

We went to the Greg Ayres - Raw and Uncensored event next. Anime Zap brought back the 18+ wristbands, which are really a lifesaver.

And then, to cap off the evening, was Sh*t New Cosplayers Say. Moral of this panel? “Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should.”  I was too busy giggling to snap a photo during this panel.

And that was my Friday at Zap! It left me with a great feeling for the course of the weekend!

I’ll put up Saturday and Sunday in separate posts. They won’t be as photo heavy, because wow apparently most of my photos were on Friday this year.

Up next:

Anime Zap 2019, Saturday

Anime Zap 2019, Sunday

[jess1820]

ti amo nyc! seeing phoenix 3x with feenix friends (jul 5 - 7 2018)

So! 3 days of phoenix with wonderful people in new york (my first time in nyc!), I don’t even know where to begin x.x (Pictures are on IG, video on YT). The Speciale shows are beautiful and incredible, and the boys put so much thought, detail, and love into it all. It was one of the best experiences in my life and it was so fun seeing everyone at the shows!!

under the cut is pretty much a rambling summary of the shows (amazing and adorably decorated), cute moments, and when we met them (ft. my fav convo with branco abt pokemon and witnessing brotherly tension) 

💘 @andersfel @funkyphoenixfan @thesunwillshineagain

7/5 | Night 1 💗

the show The show was amazing! It had been 7 months since I had last seen them. We were between Deck and Chris, I settled for the second row (I could have squished to the barrier but it was more comfortable to just be behind a little). That day was super humid and hot, so this show was probably the most sweatiest, but so satisfying. It was such a fun time! We got consolation prizes which is always super great! And countdown for Mads aaaaa (it was her 21st birthday, guess who (Chris ofc) sung to her 😭!!!) It was such a beautiful moment. They played Goodbye Soleil first and she was a bit down, but once it finished, COUNTDOWN happened! She was so happy it was the best reaction (what a complete 180 lol). Telefono was such a tune to hear live, I loved it! They were using the telefono booth instead of the red telephone (after the show you could get a polaroid in the booth for $1, such a cute idea whaaaa!!).

I thought for the Speciale they chose to use different guitars (Chris’s mint green, Branco’s array of guitars (black and red) instead of the og guitars (telecaster and cream bullet), but turns out they just didn’t have their regular guitars in time because their gear was still being held by air france until the 4th show lol.   

after the show

thomas After the show, we went outside to wait (we should have wandered the disco afterparty that was happening inside! The boys were hanging out meeting fans). About an hour later, Thomas came outside first wearing a white tee and backpack on. It was a small group outside so he went around to everyone, signing stuff and taking photos, and he hugged everyone too! He was so nice and gentle as usual. He left shortly after because he said it was past his kids bedtime and he had to put them into bed, something sweet like that 😭. Romy was at the show (with we think, Cedric’s daughter?) and they were helping run the merch stand! It was too cute!! They were so sweet. They were also in front of the barrier at some songs on the far right jumping and having such a good time during the show! It was so pure. (And I guess Vee is bffs with Romy now hahaha).   

deck Ok next up, Deck came out and was very chatty and goofy. He didn’t go to the afterparty. Vee said something about him being a charmer and he imitated playing a violin to be romantic, oh, he is so precious. Deck was really examining the Rally single I brought to get signed and he was like oh this is very rare and was looking at it, front and back. He was so nice and so cute 💘.

branco (and chris) Branco came out next and was so pretty wearing a koi fish print shirt. He has the best shirts. B was very friendly. Mads brought up the Coco thing (he signed as Coco on her INBLT booklet from the Manila show) and we got to hear him talk about his nickname again, it was so sweet and precious (his nieces call him Coco if you need a refresher). I love hearing him speak in general aaaa (you know me). Gotta say I also loved hearing him yell “Monsieur Mazzalai” at Chris because he was the last one needed to sign Mad’s awesome jacket. Chris made a face at him 😂. I had a few minutes with B and I am v happy he signed his name with the music note doodle! Sadly I didn't have the time to get to Chris bc he had to leave in a separate car (the rest of the boys got into one van, I remember Branco had a whole foods market bag aha). I did get to watch Chris run to the car with his suitcase which was funny and adorable, I love him. 

7/6 | Night 2 💗

the show They did long distance call!! Aaah! I was finally at the barrier, right between Thomas and Deck (literally the center can you believe it). The show was amazing as usual and they had balloons that would rain down on us in italian flag colors. It was at this show where a lot of balloons were falling onto the stage so Deck was using his bass and hitting the balloons (og it was so precious). He was having so much fun. I got a Deck wink during the show too aaa 💖 . Also, they played Lovelife with Giorgio Poi which was really cool! The boys had told us yesterday that they had a special planned for tonight, and this was that! And, I got to touch Thomas’s hair lol he was in our section a lot! 💘

after the show

so many faces We stayed for the afterparty because the boys had told us last night to stay and meet them here. It was funny because we were all awkward at the party so we followed them around like children while other people were actually partying.

We saw Sofia!!! She was gorgeous, literally radiating. It was unreal to see her in person. Cosima was with her! We also saw Chris’s girlfriend! Ah they were so cute (they were getting sake, dancing by the DJ, it was adorable). Chris was going around everywhere, drinking a lot of sake and beer lol. I flagged him down once to say hi and he said hello and he pat my back and LEFT 😂. So I had to flag him down again to ask for rally to be signed. It was a bit uncomfortable to follow them around and when there’s a moment/you get the guts to say hi they are either with someone else or with family and you’re just standing there so awkwardly lol. It’s easier to talk to them when they’re outside vs inside with music playing and it being a bit dark. I think we all agreed on this.

branco I also spotted Branco too! I found him near the back by the merch and asked for a photo again. My phone was such a failure that it took a while to get a photo so when it was done he asked if it was okay, twice 😭 (it’s still a bit blurry but I think it’s cute). Sweet bb koala you are so precious 🐨. 

7/7 | Night 3 💗

the show We were back at the barrier for the last night (for us), back to the right side between Deck and Chris. We got to hear playground love (waaaaaaah) and tuttifrutti! Playground love was so beautiful og 😭.

Throughout each night during sunskrupt, Branco would take a water break. A massive water break. He would drink water, keep the bottle at his lips and look into the screen, pondering life, then take another long drink of water. It was so long we were laughing and watching him drink water each night 😂 It was such a thing. I was that dork who took photos of this moment hahaha.

After playground love was countdown (when Chris came out, he brought his own guitar instead of picking up the one that was on stage, already tuned I think). Going into countdown, he had to put a capo on the guitar and tune it a bit, which took a very short amount of time but it was still something he had to do, and he was like ah merde! It was really funny and cute to hear him swear on stage since it was dead quiet 😂 

cute speciale things I tried their phoenix sake and took a polaroid in the telefono booth! It’s so cute. I also tried their childhood sandwiches on a “DAMN good baguette” (yeah they advertised it like this) and I gotta say, it sure was tasty. I didn’t get to try the gelato. Everything was so cute, they had ti amo balloons and a disco ball. They had a DJ too (I remember seeing Hedlund and Daniel Glass DJ-ing). The super mercato was so cool but I heard it kept breaking. Luckily I was able to get the pins and patches I wanted! (Though I didn’t notice they had a blue ti amo patch until it was too late!) The merch table also had a lot of cool merch and some old stuff from Bankrupt!. The entire vibe of the place was amazing. Every glass surface was graffitied with phoenix ti amo nyc 💘.  

after the show

chris and branco (ft. the greatest conversation) The afterparty this night felt a bit more natural for us. Maybe because we knew what to expect, but overall it was just more comfortable. At the party, we saw only Chris wandering around. We spoke to him and got to tell him we were all friends online and he was really surprised (it was cute). He was v thankful for us cheering so much! He was so smiley aaah. Mads finally was able to give him the cutest phoenix doodle she made (literal cutest he found himself and kept pointing to it 😭). I also remember a bit where Vee was talking about Deck’s spider pose and Chris was asking how to do it and then he tried to do it 😂 Chris is the best hahaha

After the venue kicked us out/ the party ended, we went outside and found that Branco was already outside talking to other fans. I was being silly on this last night and was speaking (was I loud?) about how cute he was to my friends and saying dumb things like look at those eyebrows and those cheeks (everything abt him is so cute ok i love this koala) and he stared into my soul 3 times (while talking to another group of fans) 🙈 and I didn’t know what to do im sorry for staring at u B 😭 💀 (you’re so pretty god!!)

Ok once it was our turn to talk to B, we talked to him abt…..pokemon 😂 (I don’t want to say too much but supposedly he has pokemon go and I love pokemon so you can imagine why we went down this path). It was a perfect opportunity since Vee also likes pokemon and her backpack featured the eevee evolutions. He was like ahh pokemon…. We asked him to pick a favorite from the backpack and I think he was confused (it was dark) and he pointed to eevee and named it as pikachu. The way he said it was so cute oh my god. He was like that’s pikachu (he said it twice). We were telling him that’s eevee and then he was saying that he is very old from another time, the shakespearean time. I think Vee then said he’s immortal or a vampire and he didn’t deny it. (idk why) I had to bring up the old cringe photoshoot they did where he looks like a vampire and he was watching and listening to me so intently as I was describing it. Mads saved it and just said it was posted on their IG and he was like ahh. (He probably was like these girls are so weird). Then he said that he knew the pokemon names but in french and so he pointed to vaporeon and said that’s aquali. It was SO CUTE. WOW. I can still hear his voice saying aquali. Literally so precious. 

Switching topics, Mads was asking if he saw the super cute doodle she did that she gave to Chris and I think he said he didn’t, but Chris said he showed him? (this part is a little fuzzy for me). Branco said that Chris never lies, called him over and then they were discussing if Chris had shown him/if Branco was present. Chris said that Branco probably forgot, then shortly after they started to speak in french to each other and we felt like shit was going down right in front of us omg (brothers fighting?!). At the end of it Branco opened his mouth without saying anything, then closed it, speechless (or, I thought of a cat showing its teeth lol) it was insane.  

Aaaaaa if you made it here thanks for reading 💗 It was such a cool time seeing phoenix with the feenix gang from online! I hope we all get to do it again in the future ✨ You all made this experience so memorable. 

[littledonkeyburrito]

Some lint

1. Have you ever punched someone and broke their nose? Haven’t broken their nose but I’ve certainly hit a few in the face bc karate

2. What is the longest time you have gone without sleep? Forty-something hours without even a nap

3. Have you ever been someplace tropical? Several places

4. You see an ant on the ground, do you squish it? If it’s in my house, yes.

5. Have you ever baked a pie? I don’t think so.

6. What is your favorite social networking site? Instagram probably

7. Has anyone in your family fought in any of the wars? Dad’s dad was in WW2. Dad fought in Belfast in the 70s I think

8. Would you make any changes to your current bedroom? Yeah, I would like $100,000 to magically appear under my mattress.

9. Has a stray dog ever tried to bite you? Playfully. I stop playing with strays when they get boisterous bc rabies

10. When riding a bus, do you prefer to sit up front, down back or the middle? Middle-back generally

11. Have you ever been on a cross-country train ride? Yes, in a few places. I freaking love sleeper trains, I think they’re so fun with a group. On one of the sleeper trains I went on in China we accidentally taught the guy with the food/drink trolley the english word for beer because we bought more every time he went past.

12. Is there currently any caffeine in your system? No

13. Look around, are things organized? Yes, I keep my apartment very tidy.

14. Is there any TV show that ended that you wish hadn’t? Don’t Trust the Bitch in Apartment 23

15. Know what you’re planning to do after this? Attempt to kill time for a couple of hours until I can go to bed

16. How often do you update your Facebook status? I don’t really do statuses, just post photos from my instagram.

17. Do you even wear any jeans other than skinny anymore? All my jeans are of varying levels of skininess. From slim-fit to practically painted on.

18. Are you sensitive to caffeine? Yes. I would have a rum and coke right now but 1) I don’t have any coke, and 2) if I drank any it would take me a long time to get to sleep.

19. How do you usually get around? Walking or metro

20. Which languages do you wish you could speak fluently in? It would be nice to be fluent in spanish but if it happened magically overnight it wouldn’t be fun because I like the challenge. It would be cool to magically become fluent in arabic and/or mandarin.

21. Have you ever been accused of being too clingy? No

22. Can you speak any French? No.

23. Have you ever stayed in a hotel? Dozens. I travel a lot.

24. What is in your pocket? Some lint.

25. Is there a secret you’ve never told your parents? There are certainly some details of my life that I have omitted. Such as some experiences with sex, drugs and alcohol.  

26. Who was the last person to smoke a cigarette in your presence? People from that office I briefly worked at. Or probably more recently just random people on the street.

27. Have you ever lived with a friend? Yeah, a few.

28. What are a few of your favorite tv shows? iZombie, Brooklyn 99, Jane The Virgin, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Club De Cuervos, Parks and Rec 29. What kind of socks do you like to wear? Brightly coloured ones with wild patterns 30. Do you have your own house key, and how often do you actually use it? Whenever I need to get into my apartment. (This question must have been written by a teenager)

31. How often do you eat chocolate? Not actually that often. I don’t have as much of a sweet tooth as I did when I was younger. 32. How often do you wash dishes at your house? Every 1-3 days depending on how lazy I am.

33. How much sleep did you get last night? ~7 hours 34. When was the last time you went to a cemetery and why were you there? Last year on halloween myself and a few other drunk people from the party I was at decided to go wander around the nearby cemetery. 35. What were you doing when you heard about the attack on the twin towers? I don’t remember specifically hearing about it. I was only 7 so I wouldn’t really have cared anyway. Mostly what I remember is that they took cartoons off tv to play non-stop news for at least a week. 36. Doesn’t John Mayer suck? I have no opinions on him. 37. When was the last time you saw the sun rise? When I was in Colombia. One night in Cartagena I stayed up with a swedish and a colombian guy chatting in spanish while we watched the sun rise over the river. Then the cops came over and told us to leave.

38. What was the last picture you took? It was of my DS because I started playing pokemon in spanish and I was sending the picture to a couple of friends to say that the pokemon names are still the same in this language.

39. Are there many traffic incidents in your area? I don’t drive anymore so I don’t pay attention. 40. Have you ever been for a ride in the back of a truck? Probably at some point during travels. I’ve done a lot of weird shit 41. Are you currently downloading anything? No. 42. Does your father have any facial hair? No

43. Have you ever played golf? My mum attempted to get me into golf when I was a kid (maybe young teen?) and I absolutely hated it. It was the most infuriating game I’ve ever played.

44. What was the last tv show you watched an episode of? The Defenders 45. Do you like beer? If so, what’s your favorite brand? Beer is fine. I’m pretty used to Moritz and Estrella Damm because they are common local brands. The fucking worst beer is Balboa in Panama. God it was so awful. Also not a fan of San Miguel which is common across all of spain. 46. Do you feel bad when you throw food out? Yes 47. When was the last time you waxed anything on your body, if ever? I’ve never waxed. I just shave. 48. What’s your favorite fast food place? I don’t have one. I don’t really eat takeout here. 49. When was the last time you went out for a meal? A few weeks ago. 50. Have you ever been in a car accident? A few minor ones but not while I’ve been driving. 51. What colour shirt are you wearing right now? Navy blue

52. Have you ever had a bonfire on the beach? Y’know I actually don’t think I have... I should get on that.

53. Are you skilled when it comes to working in the kitchen? I don’t burn anything. That’s a skill, right?

54. When was the last time you went to a campground? That would have been back in April, camping in the Sahara Desert.

55. Do you listen to music while driving? Yes, and I sing along Very Loudly.

56. When was the last time you hung out with people younger than you? I have absolutely no idea. 

57. What is the closest blue object to you? Box of tissues on the coffee table.

58. How much did you spend on your last shopping trip? Probably about 25 euros at the grocery store

59. Have you ever gone over your cell phone plan by accident? I used to go over my data limit pretty regularly at my old job.

60. Can you honestly say you’ve been drunk before? Very, and many times. (this question must have been written by a teen)

61. Where did you get your last bruise from? Probably that mystery bruise I got in my armpit in central america. I’m pretty sure I got roofied that night so I don’t remember anything at all but I am still sooooo curious how I got that bruise. Nobody I was with knew how it happened either but then again they were all pretty trashed anyway so even if they saw they might not remember.

62. Are you a person that likes to take chances? Depends. Sometimes I take calculated risks.

63. Would you consider your life to be great right now? Right now it’s pretty mediocre but a month ago it was freaking awesome.

64. Do you remember the dream you had last night? Not exactly but I think it involved me getting tattoos on my arm

65. Do you get emotional easily? I don’t really have emotions tbh

66. Do you get obnoxious when you’re drunk? Nah, I get fun when I’m drunk

67. Who was the first person to ever give you flowers? I’m not sure anybody has ever given me flowers.

68. What was the last thing you heated up in your microwave? Chicken and veggies to go with my baked potato the other day

69. Were you born somewhere other than a hospital? No.

70. What was the last flavor of ice cream you had? Mango. It was homemade by a woman in Comuna 13 in Colombia 71. When you go out drinking, what do you prefer to drink? Beer or rum and coke 72. Is there a trash can near you? Yeah

73. When and where was the last time you took a picture of yourself? I think I took a selfie in my kitchen a few days ago 74. When was the last time you stayed up throughout the entire night? Cartagena, Colombia. ~8 weeks ago. But I stayed up until 2 or 3am a few times after that.

75. Have you ever considered a foreign-exchange program? No, I just fucked off overseas on my own accord.

76. Are sex and sexual activities something you enjoy? Yep 77. What’s an interesting fact about the state in which you were born? I know literally nothing about the region I was born in.

78. What’s one aspect of your life that did not turn out as you expected? Well I definitely didn’t expect to learn spanish 79. Is there a subject about which you know a great deal? Probably, but nothing immediately comes to mind 80. What was the last thing that you put off doing? I should probably vacuum and mop my apartment 81. What did you do instead of that activity? Anything else.

Before and after: 3 years ago, today

82. What size is the last bed you kissed on?  - Double.  - A single bed in a twin room in a hotel. Tbh I probably could have swapped to a double room but at that point I didn’t realise he’d be staying with me

83. When was the last time you were sick? - I got the flu pretty bad in 2013. Probably should have gone to hospital but instead I only took 2 days off work. - I had a mild cold when I got home from my last trip. 84. Do you have any summer plans yet? - I ditched summer in favour of going skiing in Japan - Summer just ended. I don’t know whether my next summer will be here next June/July, or back in Aus in January. Will depend on whether I find a job 85. When was the last time you shaved your legs? - Probably within 2 weeks - Earlier today 86. Is there someone you wish you were closer with? - I think I had just started developing a crush on a guy that I later dated briefly and then he cheated on me, lied about it and broke up with me by facebook message while I was on holiday overseas. So, not the best idea really. - I’m all g. 87. Do you tend to waste a lot of money? - I made 1 or 2 poor decisions with money but I was earning enough to cover my ass. - It’s not a waste when it’s something I actively want to spend the money on. 88. What did you last drink? - Probably pepsi - Orange juice 89. Have you ever received an injury from a hook up? - Uhhh no? - Not unless that’s how I got that mystery bruise in my armpit. 90. Do you have any good friends of the opposite sex? - Yes - Yes, the same ones 91. When was the last time you had a crowd at your house? - Probably around this time 3 years ago was my housewarming - I have never had more than 2 people visit this apartment at a time. Last time I had a crowd would have been my moving out party (from the place I just moved into 3 years ago) which was a bit over a year ago.

92. How many cell phones have you had? - 5 - 7, if you include the work phone I had 93. Where do you get all your clothes? - JayJays - H&M, C&A, Mango etc 94. Have you ever regretted kissing someone? - Nah - Nah 95. Have you ever gotten a speeding ticket? - No. - I got one just under 3 years ago 96. Would you rather sleep with someone else or alone? - Alone - Depends. Sometimes I wouldn’t mind having someone here 97. Do you think age matters in relationships? - To an extent - Not really 98. Have you ever lived with a girlfriend/boyfriend? - No. - No 99. When will your next kiss be? - Probably the next party I went to. I made out with a lot of people that year - No idea 100. Add up all the digits of your cell phone number. What do you get? - 40 - 50 101. When you lost your virginity, do you honestly feel like you were ready? - I didn’t regret it but I probably wasn’t emotionally ready for it. - Same as above I guess. You only lose it once.

102. Was the person you lost your virginity to younger or older than you? - Older. - ^^

103. Were you sexually experienced whatsoever when you lost your virginity? - Not at all - ^^

104. Have you had sex with more than one person? - Yes - Yes by a larger amount

105. Have you ever had sex with the lights on? - Yes. - Yes

106. Have you ever had sex on a floor? - No - Yes

107. When is the last time you had sex? - Probably like at least 6 months before - About a month ago (can’t believe my trip ended so long ago)

108. Do you care for that person? - Eh - I guess

109. Is this your boyfriend or girlfriend? - No - No

110. The first time you got drunk, how old were you? - 16 - ^^

111. Where were you located the first time you got drunk? - The afterparty of my highschool formal. It was in the backyard of a girl in my grade - ^^

[yumeka36]

Anime Expo 2019

I was only at Anime Expo for two days this year, commuting to downtown each day (unlike last year where I stayed at a hotel for all four days). As such, I didn’t take nearly as many photos as usual. But I still wanted to make a quick post about my time there:

First of all, I’m sure everyone will agree that the line to get in the convention on Day 1 was ridiculously long. I arrived really early around 6am to try and get an autograph voucher for Rica Matsumoto’s session later that day, but unfortunately even arriving two hours before opening time wasn’t enough and they were out before it was even my turn. So then when I wanted to line up to go into the convention, it took me nearly 20 minutes just to find the end of the line! It was zigzagging all over the place and no AX staff were around to control it. After waiting for nearly 3 hours, I saw that the problem was because they only had 6 people checking bags for each of the (supposed) two lines to go inside – definitely not an acceptable number for the amount of people attending. I got in line around 9:30 that morning and didn’t get inside until nearly 1pm! Thankfully the only event I had planned for Day 1 didn’t start until the afternoon. The event was the exclusive premiere of Mewtwo Strikes Back Evolution, a 3D remake of the very first Pokemon movie, Mewtwo Strikes Back.

The reason this event was such a big deal for Pokemon fans is because it’s the very first time the Japanese version of the Pokemon anime has had any official acknowledgement in the US: in the 20+ years of Pokemon’s history, there has never been any official access to the Japanese version through subtitled movie screenings, video releases, or the like – everything has always been “dub only.” Plus we got to see the movie a week before it premieres in Japan, something that has also never happened! As for the movie itself, it was exactly as I expected: the same movie as the first pretty much, except with CGI animation and a handful of minor changes. The pokemon looked good in CG, the human characters were kind of hit or miss to me. Stuff like the environment and effects looked cool, but for someone who watches a lot of Disney and Pixar films, I can’t say the movie animation looked that great XD Still a very nice nostalgia trip and I even teared up at Pikachu’s crying scene~ PokeBeach has a very detailed article here about the movie both in how this first official Japanese subtitled Pokemon release was handled and how the movie itself compares to the original.

After the screening, director Kunihiko Yuyama, producer Motonori Sakakibara, and Ash/Satoshi’s voice actress Rica Matsumoto did a Q&A, took a group photo with us, and Rica sang Mezase Pokemon Master, the very first opening song for Pokemon, which has been remixed many times over the years. As someone who has been watching Pokemon in Japanese for a long time, this event was a real treat for me and it was so cool seeing a live performance by the talented Rica Matsumoto! FYI, she’s been the voice of Ash in the Japanese version since the very first episode in 1997, she’s an accomplished singer, and has done Japanese dubs of other properties like The Wizard of Oz and Beverly Hills 90210.

~Click here for my Day 1 photos posted on my Tumblr~

I didn’t attend the convention on Day 2, though I heard the line to get in was better. On Day 3, all I had planned was shopping around the Exhibit Hall and Artist Alley. After that, I spent a couple hours in the Entertainment Hall playing Weiss Schwarz with friends.

~Click here for my Day 2 photos posted on my Tumblr~

So yeah, just two days this year and didn’t take many photos since I was either in line, in an event, or running around from here to there. But we’ll see what next year brings~

*Crossposted from my main blog, Yume Dimension*

[loveinthewriteway]

Character Tag Game: Ariana from Here

rules: choose a couple of fave photos/gifs of your character! copy and paste the questions down below! answer as if you’re the character that’s been tagged! then tag some of your fave characters/authors to answer next! (btw you’re also allowed to tag an author again if they have more than one character you want to answer these questions!) For a full list of questions without the answers in between, click here! --- OMG WOW I’ve been screaming over all these posts and I didn’t think I would get tagged but YAY thank you @ipoddymouth​ AND @fromherlips for requesting Ariana! Love you ladies😭 I’m going to tag @dotsandstripesxo for Cassidy in Poster of a Girl, @madminniefics for Liam in on pins and needles, @ipoddymouth for Hunter in Cupid’s Chokehold (HASH TAG TBT), @silverspringslouis for Cassidy in say you’ll never let me go, @fromherlips for Zayn in Cigarette Daydreams, and anyone else who wants to! Please tag me so I can read/reblog it 🤓

1. If it’s 1am and you’re still awake and wanting to talk to someone, who do you call and what do you talk about? If I were to call any of my friends, they would kill me in my sleep for waking them up because I’m the one who’s wide awake. At least, I know I would be pissed if one of them disturbed my slumber. For the sake of answering the question.. Louis. Only because he’s the only person who wouldn’t be mad at me! We would talk about anything and everything, that’s usually how it goes. (Ugh stop looking at me like that, Louis. You look like Spongebob when Squidward admits he likes Krabby Patties.)

2. Are you the big spoon or the little spoon? Little spoon because I’m literally little as hell. (Louis, your offer for being the little spoon is 100% unnecessary because why the hell would we be spooning in the first place. ...Don’t answer that.)

3. If you could only listen to one band/artist for the rest of your life, who would it be? Only one?! This question is stressing me out. I already skipped it and went back to it, and I’ve been thinking for 10 minutes. My first thought was Beyonce, of course, but what about the countless local artists that would greatly benefit from my listening? Okay, so maybe I’m overthinking this. I can’t choose, I’m SORRY!!! (If you must know, Louis is thoroughly disappointed that I didn’t say Ariana Grande.)

4. What kind of drunk are you? I don’t get drunk too often, but I do notice that I tend to think out loud without thinking. And I’m definitely a lot more talkative and bold than I normally am, which usually leads to my friends taking my phone away.

5. Are you a team player or do you prefer to go solo? SOLO. PLEASE. Fuck group projects, fuck partner projects (yes Louis, full offense), fuck anything that involves depending on someone else for a grade!!! This is a subtweet at you, Professor McGonagall!

6. When you were younger, what did you want to be when you grew up? I wanted to be the JK Rowling of color, to be quite honest. That hasn’t changed. :)

7. What’s your ultimate feel good/pick me up TV show or film? Jane the Virgin and Pokemon the First Movie! You would never expect to see those two in one sentence, huh?

8. What is one scent that reminds you of home? Why? Tiramisu. My relationship with my family hasn’t always been the best but.. one of the few things I actually remember fondly is walking the streets of Calabria, Italy as a 7 year old. While they would be hastily running errands and dragging me by the hand, they somehow always made sure they bought me some kind of tiramisu dessert. I was super excited when they first bought me a tiramisu cupcake, so they continued to buy me desserts each time.

9. If you were given a blank piece of paper and a pen, what would happen? I would doodle a bit at first, then maybe attempt at calligraphy. Of course, it would only look like a third grader’s first lesson at cursive, so I would start brainstorming poetry ideas.

10. What are your top three most used emojis? 🙄😒🖕🏽 (Yes Louis, these are all mostly because of our texting convos)

[pixie-skull]

# 13 Post: 8 Characters I relate to

es I will list my animated crushes to continue Post 12, yet for now, I answer the post to anyone from @myhollie1911 which thank you, darling. :D So this in random order, no special reason. XD Please listen to a childhood song of mine. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_dD99orDtCY Please tell me what common traits you see on my list.

(8) Psyduck from Pokemon (first gen anime).

Hey said characters, not fictional people or whatever. XD I just relate being seen by some (at least I felt this way more when younger) as less due to my Autism then things like my sexuality, so something that makes me feel bit different, yet with more self-love and confidence I grew be more proud of myself. XD I also had headaches when first wearing contacts and I am a maker of fun noises like this little-excited ball of awkwardness.

(7) Sailor Moon from “Sailor Moon”.

I am more aware that Sailor Jupiter may be a more fitting, but since as a kid, Moon I felt closer to. Anyways why, because she very embracing of her emotions (even though I am not a crier like her, just very aware I am attuned to my feelings), she a huge romantic, yet she tough and loyal, yet a peacemaker. @theghostlightison He can explain also why I am so much like this Sailor Guardian. A huge bonus is I self-head cannon, as well heard others too, Sailor Moon as Pan, and makes me feel happy to have a romantic who happens be Pan. Not a sexual character, someone who just daydreams and hopes so much. XD Helps her suit kinda looks like the Pan colors. Fun fact I consider making my Confirmation name Serenity only changed it to something more simple, yet powerful. 

(6) Pippin Took from “The Lord of the Rings”

Now this one newer to compare myself to, yet why not, I did meet Billy Boyd at my first Comic-Con back in umm 2014 or 2015, and Lord so much amazing. Now if it was Elijah Wood (one of my earliest guy crushes) I would have to ask to his forehead or something. XD Back on topic. I relate to Pippin for I feel in an adventure I the confused, loyal, funny (or try to be funny), and hopeful. I just feel he a good example of a character who the reader, moviegoer, or whatever to watch the world through his eyes. After all, he not aware of the world, but wants to learn and helps others, which I want to do, for this world already harsh, so why not find the stars in the darkness, all the while spread empathy and sympathy.

(5) Megara from “Hercules”

Now, this may seem a drastic different sense of tone, yet bare with me. I relate to her (even though when thinking this place, I have had family and friends compare me to Belle and Anna, maybe someone said Jasmine, so there are the runner-ups) due to she though, tries to be moderate (I feel like I need to hear both sides, not just one), been hurt and finds it hard to think over and over again. I sadly got the trait of perseverating so hard to fully forget, even though I could have forgiven. Plus she just wants love, yet after so heartbreaks that she could not control, she struggles to find it. Now the way I relate to this is because I feel my choice wait till marriage has made my relationships short (longest relationship thus far five months, kissed three people {which, by the way, the first kiss she was a nice peck and second and first guy kiss was that Disney magical kiss ^*_*^} ). Yes, I had people who could wait too, only of my breakups were due to I felt uneven, the ones I been where my ex-broke it off (couple expectations) typically said that my choice why. I am though, yet if I open up to you (like cry, which is not easy to open and cry for me) that is not something to say is easy. Yes, I am an open person, but to cry and come to you feeling raw and in concern, few can take that claim. So I may reveal my scars of past, yet to go when feeling ripped apart, is unspoken words of emotion. I can not explain it too well. Kinda why she is or was my old character portfolio, that and I very much like ANY shade of violet, which she wore. I also am a huge fan of Greek or any of Mythology.

(4) Luna Lovegood from “Harry Potter” (*cough* close tie with Nymphadora Tonks, all less than Luna *cough* )

Now back to typical tone and yes a little bird coughed it is a tie. for BOTH movie and book, I relate to Luna Lovegood. She I relate due to how much she thought outside of the box. XD I actually thought I am a Ravenclaw due to her, yet nope Hufflepuff. I also relate how much people who barely knew her would be confused by how she acted or saw life. I also like and relate how she and I both do not need proof or reason for sometimes why we act the way we do, just did it for made sense to us. Also, Luna really hopes to have that as a future cat (prefer black) name. Plus I am a sucker and want to try silvery white hair. ^_^ Currently my hair dyed all violet with hints of red. For Tonks tiny shout out, I relate to her for 1 book her I relate to (movie her was so cut down), 2 my personality and hers according to https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Myers-Briggs_Type_Indicator/ENFP are the something I guess to happen, 3 colorful hair, only I chose Luna for again BOTH movie and book I relate to. Funny enough I have also been considered an ENFJ which according to this http://parchmentgirl.com/mbti-myers-briggs-enfj-characters/ is Esmeralda and that makes me feel all bashful to be like her, for how much I relate to her and my crush on her. So I am either an ENFP or ENFJ.

(3) Pearl “Steven Universe”. 

Now this one I actually had a family member point out to me, so I can kinda understand, plus non-binary or other gender representation on this list too. :D I am though so much more laid back and not as touchy of things being in my way. I do have a soft spot for dyed hair too like her. XD I also currently have short hair for once (my hair I typical had to shoulder or over, yet wanted to challenge myself and happily been told I look good with short hair. Back on topic, like Pearl I am very voiced (yet able hear another point of views) in my concerns. Like Pearl too I can look great in both a gown and suit. In the words of my sibling of many, yet the one said claimed this “preppy, positive, and can be neurotic” which is why I am like Pearl, according to my sibling. Mixed feelings on being called preppy, I agree I am optimistic, and I do over think or worry things. Funny enough the given sibling reminds me a lot in certain moments like Amethyst. Hopefully, I can meet my own “Mystery Girl” (hopefully we see more of her again) or in my case “Mystery Person” seeing I am Pan. No rush, being single helps with self-love, if allow the “crushing loneliness” be self-hugs and more. XD I am in yoga and self-defense for myself and I love myself for pushing such fun classes. Fun fact, Steven is considered by most ENFP, so another character from the given product I kinda consider being in this spot.

(2) Marshall Eriksen from”How I Met Your Mother”

I am running out of ideas, yet had enough energy to think up this one. I will admit the final season leaves an iffy taste in my mouth. Back to why I relate to this Marshmallow. He can act his age or be the inner child-adult i hope to be. He is very caring and could care less what people think about him. A huge romantic. Marshall also awkward and as someone who does not always understand social settings, this can be relatable. He always finds new ways to love his Lily-Pad (who is played by Willow or Alyson Hannigan, lucky :O <3 She one of my big crushes), as well loyal to his friends. He loves his family and the amount of it he does, I relate, for my family, I do care for. He of all his friends, at least the boys, he had the most morals and his friends went to him. Also according to this  http://how-i-met-your-mother.wikia.com/wiki/Marshall_Eriksen this personality trait is “Marshall also believes in myths such as the Loch Ness Monster and ghosts.”. XD I also relate I struggle to smile on cue in photos.  I remember watching this show with my family when everyone was still home and not college and whatever adventure.

(1) Phoebe Buffay(-Hannigan) “Friends”

Now this one I can not fully agree with, yet after 2, I am running out of ideas. XD I know in middle school I claimed that if my friend group then I  the Phoebe of the group. So with such a claim does it hold up, for the most part yes, only again for being the oddball who means well. Also, I relate how I can say something and get what I mean, but no one else does, if my humor or reference to something. Plus this quote "There are several hints that Phoebe is, in fact, bisexual” from http://friends.wikia.com/wiki/Phoebe_Buffay , which is nice for I am Pan, and being goofballs is what I do well. XD Also funny Ross reminds me of a pal happens to be gay (I know ironic Ross and his relation to an ex in the LGBTQ+ community), so the fact my tiny middle school friend had a  Ross, a Phoebe, felt nice to have a group of people to relate to. Granted, I am glad to not need that feeling of needing to be the *interest name* of given show or movie.

XD knowing me, I like to include zeros, so here my number 0 character.

(0) Friar Carl from “Van Helsing”

The little positive spark in a moody world, who knows so much on mythical creatures, does not like fighting unless the last choice, like medieval weapons (I have fake ones), and tries to help without giving up easily. Also Hugh Jackman in the movie a bonus, his long hair so amazing. ^_^

NOW I AM DONE. =D I tag to answer this question @theghostlightison @thenamelessdoll (Van Helsing in the gif above reminds of a character of yours) @airasora @therealjacksepticeye 

Now I need to finish post 12 many parts. XD

[ilikeyourharrystyles]

So you may or may not know that I was away for the whole month of June backpacking through cities in East Asia with my friend Joanne. We went to Tokyo, Seoul, Jeju Island, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Ho Chi Minh City, Kuala Lumpur, Singapore, Phuket and Bangkok. We had some very interesting adventures, saw a lot of weird people and ate some amazing food so I thought I would write a few blog posts detailing our adventures.

We landed in Tokyo at around 8 in the morning and our hotel didn’t open check-in until 3 o’clock, neither of us had slept on the flight so we just wanted to nap but instead we dropped off our bags and went for food. Now you know I’m a vegetarian and have been since December but I knew going to Asia it would be difficult to find veggie food, because of course there was a language barrier but vegetarianism isn’t a big a thing in the cultures as it is over here (apart from the countries that have a strong Muslim population. So I had a pork curry, I didn’t eat the pork as I generally don’t like pork but the sauce was so good.

Then we went to Ueno park which was a 20 minute walk from out hostel and was super pretty but there was some weird drunk people there and it was a very interesting experience for the first day in Japan. Then we went back to the hostel to check in and have a nap. The hostel was really nice and I would definitely recommend it. So if you’re ever in Tokyo 1 Night 1980 Hostel is a good capsule hostel.

The next day we went to the Palace Gardens, but they were closed, which you will notice is a theme of the experience. Then we decided to walk from the Palace to Ginza to see Tokyo station, which has some French architecture then we headed to the Kabukiza theatre. We went to the museum that is part of the theatre which has some things you can try on or test noises to see how they did the theatre. Part of our ticket for the museum included a 3 minute watch of the show which was really interesting. We didn’t want to get a ticket to the full show because they were crazy expensive but we wanted to see what it was like so that was worth the money.

We headed back to a more central area and found a Sanrio shop where I spent a lot of money on stationary without realising because I was still kind of jet lagged and the currency conversion confused me. After lunch we headed to Shibuya and got a bit confused along the way because we got out of the train station at the wrong place so we spent half an hour wandering around not sure where we were. But we managed to get to the Scramble Crossing, which you honestly will not understand how crazy it is until you go on it. I have never seen so many people cross a road in my life. And it’s every single crossing as well, it’s not like every now and again there’s a build up, there’s just so many people.

Before going to Shibuya we had stopped off at a place called the Second Hand Books Street and honestly it’s just something you can’t even imagine. Every building has a second hand shop and there’s so many books. Not only that there was a few that had English books and I was expecting like some well loved Dan Brown novels but no, there were these HUGE first/second/third editions of classic, people’s bind ups of essays, histories. Things you couldn’t even dream of owning because they’re so expensive and it was incredibly surreal to see something like that so far away from home.

We walked up to the top floor of Shibuya 109, not really sure why, but just to see what was going on in there and to say we did it. We saw some really interesting clothes and accessories but nothing I could pull off. We also spent some time in an arcade where I played Mario Kart as an actual racing game and I was freaking out.

The next day we went to the Tokyo SkyTree which is the world’s tallest tower. We didn’t go up it because it was super expensive and there was a viewing deck at the Government Metropolitan Building which was free so we felt like that was a better idea. In the SkyTree complex was a Studio Ghibli shop which was super cool though it only really had stuff from Spirited Away, Kiki’s Delivery Service and My Neighbour Totoro, It would’ve been cool to see other items but hey ho. We also stumbled on a Pokemon store which was incredible and we spent a lot longer in there than necessary, and I spent more money than necessary. Then we went on a walk to go to the Sumo Museum but found it was closed (see the theme?) so decided to walk to Akibahara. We did a lot of walking this day because there was a couple of places on lines of the metro that we didn’t have tickets for and didn’t see the point in paying more just to go to one place. We realised we made a mistake when we checked our health apps on our phones and discovered we’d walked 36000 steps.

We couldn’t be bothered to walk the whole way to Akibahara because it was a lot further than we thought. So we skipped to going to the Meiji Shrine which was insanely busy and very idylic. There was a wedding having it’s photos taken when we were there which was really cool to witness as they don’t smile in their photos, but there was so many tourists taking photos of it and being annoying it made me a little bit mad.

Shinjuku was next so we could go to the Government Metropolitan Building. We got lost because Shinjuku is an absolute mess of a place. We also didn’t realise how far the building was from the station and ended up walking really far again. But the views were phenomenal, you can’t even see the end of the city it’s so vast.

After this we headed to Tokyo Bay to see the Rainbow Bridge and the Statue of Liberty. We took the monorail across the Rainbow Bridge to Bay. We walked around the shore bit where there was a bunch of malls and hotels and where the Statue of Liberty was. There was also a viewing area for the bridge, which was incredibly disappointing because it wasn’t rainbow at all. We also witnessed a couple on a date taking more selfies than you can imagine and some middle aged American man trying to chat up some young Indonesian women, very badly.

We ambled over to Palette Town to see the rainbow ferris wheel which was definitely more rainbow than the bridge. Then we stumbled into another arcade which had a lot of penny drop machines. I found a coin in a machine and put it in and like 10 came out so I just kept playing. Then a guy came over to us and gave us a huge tub of coins because him and his son had to leave. We ended up playing for somewhere around about an hour without spending any money. And these coin drops were on a whole other level than the ones I’m used to, there was like an arcade game as part of it. I had no idea what was going on but I had fun.

The Sunday was the day we chose to go to the first of the Asian Disneys. As we only gave ourselves one day for Disney we decided to go to Tokyo DisneySea as it’s the only park of it’s kind. It was such an aesthetically pleasing place as I love the sea. All the groups who were there were all dressed matching so they knew where there friends were or just because they were trying to be cute and it was adorable. We went on most rides though it was a little bit busier than we expected. They have this whole popcorn thing there where they had like 7 flavours. I tried caramel, pepper and salt but I wasn’t really interested in trying curry flavour or tomato and basil flavour. I discovered that Japanese people absolute adore the Disney bear: Duffy. I had never even heard of Duffy before this but he was EVERYWHERE. My only problem with the park was that it was hot and not enough rides sprayed water on you. Tokyo Disney also still runs on old school fast pass where you have to go to the ride and get your fast pass which stressed me out and most of the rides which were busiest ran out by 11/12.

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Asia Travel Blog #1 – Japan So you may or may not know that I was away for the whole month of June backpacking through cities in East Asia with my friend…

[squeemcsquee]

Anime Central 2018, Day Zero

Live and learn - that was sorta the unofficial motto of this year’s Anime Central for my group. We ended up with more folks in the room than intended - 6 in a 275 sq ft king bed room - I do not recommend. We traveled in a way we arranged the week before the con. We forgot things. We stressed and grumbled and still had a crazy amount of fun. At least, I think we did. I know I did.

What did we learn from Day Zero?

First, travel together can be fun but hectic. We all rode in a 7 passenger van, crammed full between us and our gear. We ate in said van on the way up, which led to a minor disaster on my part (mustard + shirt = not fun). FYI, I recommend either getting non-messy car munchies or just maybe stopping for the 30 minutes it’ll take your group to eat. I mean, we did fine, but if you have the time to spare, use it.

Second, no matter how nice and spacious a hotel room looks in photos, once you get crammed in, it feels teeny. But it was a very nice room and we (mostly) made it work without major meltdowns or grumblefits. And of course, I remembered to take photos for TraffickCam.

We were at the Doubletree and I don’t think any of us ever remembered or asked for the free cookies. I know they weren’t offered when we arrived.  Also, thank goodness @lechevaliermalfet and I brought our own towels. We had listed 4 people for the room, so we expected 4 towels, and requested 2 extra on top of that, as well as 2 extra pillows. We got the 2 extra pillows...but only 4 towels.

A thing to note about these rooms as well: If you are using the sofa bed, you are going to be moving furniture to get it out, and there isn’t much extra room there once you do. Like, even if it had just been 4 people, this room probably would’ve felt a bit cramped. As it was, we had the king bed, the sofa bed, and 2 camp cots.

Third, Anime Central staff were great with helping with registration issues. I’d forgotten to let @someoldmemory know she’d need ID for badge pickup. ACen staff let her use a photo of her ID. @lechevaliermalfet was getting the military discount, and they found a hiccup with the software that wouldn’t apply the discount. They got him taken care of. 

Fourth, more of a personal lesson for me: It’s ok to cosplay for badge pickup, even if you’re only maybe going to be there for 30 minutes. I was super excited and edgy about it, because I love cosplay but I was also just going “am I a big dork? A-Cen reg doesn’t take the time Otakon’s does, etc., etc.”

Here I was:

And then I saw other people cosplaying, was relieved and my little anxiety brain got educated. Check out this awesome Pokemon cosplayer!

And here were others, chilling and waiting:

After getting our badges and our bags, we headed back to the hotel. Speaking of badges/bags...

We didn’t get to do Giordano’s, so I still haven’t had them. But we still got deep-dish pizza at a different pizza place. So hooray!

Fifth, if you have to run around town to try to find things you forgot to bring, even if just to Target, it can wear you out. Or maybe that was just me? 

Sixth - You think you have time to maybe play cards, etc - but you may not. Maybe if we had gotten delivery. Or if we’d all had better sleep in the lead up to the con. Who knows? What I know is I took Munchkin up to A-Cen, and I brought it back home, and we didn’t need it all weekend.

All of my Anime Central 2018 Coverage:

A-Cen 2018: Day Zero

A-Cen 2018, Day 1 Cosplayers, Part 1

A-Cen 2018, Day 1 Cosplayers, Part 2

A-Cen 2018: Day 1 Cosplayers, Part 3

A-Cen 2018: Day One

A-Cen 2018: Day 2 Cosplayers, Part 1

A-Cen 2018: Day 2 Cosplayers, Part 2

A-Cen 2018: Day 2 Cosplayers, Part 3

A-Cen 2018: Day Two

A-Cen 2018: Day 3 Cosplayers, Part 1

A-Cen 2018: Day 3 Cosplayers, Part 2

A-Cen 2018: Day Three