#AND THEN LETS NOT FORGET ABOUT THE MOVIE DNA BOARD LIKE COME ON WE WILL BE SWAMPED WHEN THAT DROPS

[thevictorianghost]

You said in your finnrey/zutara post that studio meddling was involved for both. I knew that this was the case for finnrey because of racist cowards. But I never knew that was the case for zutara? Tbh I just assumed from the get-go that aang and katara were the main ship and I thought it was cute for them to end up together in the end. Though it is really interesting to learn that zuko and katara could’ve also been a serious thing and I think they could also work together rather nicely. What happened behind the scenes that caused it not to happen? Was aang originally gonna be set up with toph or have no love interest?

Oh hello! Hi! My first anon. Welcome :)

Before we start: I’m going to write Kat/aang, A/ang and Bry/ke like that so it doesn’t appear in the tags and I’ll bold some sections for emphasis. 

I don’t think the writers even considered Toph as a love interest for A/ang. It was always about Kat/aang vs Zutara.

It’s no secret at this point that Dante Basco and Mae Whitman, who voiced Zuko and Katara respectively, ship Zutara. Dante Basco is known as the “captain of the Zutara ship”. They’ve written multiple times about Zutara on Twitter and Dante Basco said in an interview that he really thought, at one point, that Zuko and Katara were going to end up together, that he thought it was going that way, and that he loved the idea of fire and water together.

As for the writers, it’s a bit more difficult to find information, since the show ended 15 years ago. But Aaron Ehasz, head writer of ATLA, has come out and said there was supposed to be a fourth season and it was dropped in favor of the movie. He said it on Twitter on April 1rst, 2019 (while also saying sorry for picking that date, it wasn’t an April Fools!). He said that M Night Shyamalan wanted them to focus on Book 4, but Bry/ke (Bryan Konietsko and Mike DiMartino) “wanted to focus on the movie”. You can find those tweets here. Not about Zutara per se, but it does show not everyone was on board with how the show was going to end behind the scenes.

Speaking of the movie, when asked about The Last Airbender, M Night Shyamalan also gave his input on the situation. He talked about how, by the time Book 3 came around, he wasn’t sure if the series was supposed to end there or if there was going to be a Book 4. He said to Bry/ke: ““Dudes, I gotta know this. This is critical! This has to end. This has to end. If it doesn’t end, I’m not on board. But if you don’t want to end it - it’s all good.”  They were like “no, we saw it as three seasons for each element that he has to learn.”  And I said “great.”” This is where it gets interesting, though: “At that time they hadn’t even decided where things were going to end, even like who Katara was going to end up with. All of that stuff hadn’t been figured out yet.” 

It’s interesting to me how he mentions this is who Katara will end up with. Not A/ang, not Zuko. It’s always about Katara.

 Someone who interned on ATLA has been quoted as saying that “If you check out the I.P. Bible then you’ll see a Kat/aang endgame was never planned from the start, it was supposed to remain a one-sided crush throughout the whole show.“ and that “The actual decision to make them a couple came about much later at Bry/ke’s request, largely because they were frustrated at the popularity of Zutara.“ Of course, not everyone in the production was full on one side or the other, as the post says some were neutral about it. “Some of the crew liked Kat/aang, I know Joaquim [Dos Santos] was a big Kat/aang supporter but more of them were neutral about it, Ehasz was not fond of Kat/aang but he didn’t mind too much since he’s a mature adult and all that.”

Avatar Extras (special events on Nicktoons where episodes of ATLA were shown with fun facts) were released where it was said that Zuko was supposed to be Katara’s love interest. It was said two times at least. I’ve only ever found screencaps of these, but I found these here on Tumblr. 

When asked about these in the Avatar Extras, Bry/ke said that it was just a joke and that Kat/aang was always in the DNA of the show. But if you’re here to tell fun facts to your audience about your show, maybe put a disclaimer that says some things might not be as truthful as they think they will be?

And the intern mentioned earlier also said that “No one was having full-on ship wars in the writer’s room but we did joke about it, and we toyed with the idea of Zuko and Katara falling in love a couple of times.“ So that goes well with the Avatar Extras.

Meanwhile, other writers, like John O’Bryan, have been quoted talking against Zutara in favor of Kat/aang. EDIT: Thank you to @exhaustedhope for giving me a source for this quote! This link also has a few images for the quote, so I’ll add them here.

Thank you again! And also the use of Zutara fanart to badmouth the ship in favor of Kat/aang? Dude.

If this was the way people behind the scenes were thinking of Katara and A/ang’s and Katara and Zuko’s relationships... well that doesn’t really make me think “Kat/aang was in the DNA of the show” either, huh? Zuko was never officially her love interest, Katara never actually “went after that guy”. But the thought that she might made them uneasy. 

(Btw, let’s not forget Zuko actually does care about Katara, enough to put his life on the line for her in Book 3, so that mischaracterizes Zuko.) 

This comment by John O’Bryan fits with this vision of Zutara Bry/ke has, where Zuko is nothing but a broody, emo “bad boy” who doesn’t care about Katara at all. It’s shown pretty well in their dreadful “joke” made at Comic Con in 2007. You can find the video here. Here, Katara ends up with A/ang and “should have never doubted the will of Mike and Bryan!” (yuck). So Kat/aang was always the “right” way for them to end the show, right?

But then! Even Bry/ke themselves have said that Kat/aang was forced. They said it in 2014 when Korrasami became canon in Legend of Korra. On Korrasami and Kat/aang, they said this: “Originally, [Korrasami] was primarily intended to be a strong friendship. Frankly, we wanted to set most of the romance business aside for the last two seasons. Personally, at that point I didn’t want Korra to have to end up with someone at the end of series. We obviously did it in Avatar, but even that felt a bit forced to me.“

So they admitted that Kat/aang was forced. They even mention the ATLA ship wars in the post. “Either direction we went [about Korrasami or Makorra], there would inevitably be a faction that was elated and another that was devastated. Trust me, I remember Kat/aang vs. Zutara. But one of those directions is going to be the one that feels right to us, and Mike and I have always made both Avatar and Korra for us, first and foremost.”

Okay. So what’s real about the behind the scenes of ATLA and what isn’t? Was Kat/aang in the DNA of the show, or did they go back and forth between Kat/aang and Zutara like they did with Korrasami and Makorra? 

There have been conflicting informations scattered across the Internet over the years. Some people say one thing and others react, saying the opposite and that the first thing was false. Some people lied, or joked, to mess with the audience and toy with Zutara - or not, or maybe, or perhaps... What I think, though, is that not everything was set in stone. Some people were for Zutara and some people were for Kat/aang. And even after all of that, the big takeaway for me was: the end result that Bryke wanted so badly was lackluster in and of itself.

[keepingupwithlinmanuel]

They Fought to Make ‘In the Heights’ Both Dreamlike and Authentic

An important change is the decision to make the character of Nina, the elite student played by Leslie Grace, an Afro-Latina woman. She even refers to herself as a trigueña, which implies this was more than just a random casting choice.

HUDES One thing I’ve learned is if you want to make a nontraditional or strong casting choice, you actually have to write it into the dialogue or else it’s so easy for the production to get away from that. So a word like trigueña gets put in there for that reason. I wanted to consciously make Nina Afro-Latina in this version of “In the Heights.” Since we opened the show on Broadway, this national conversation has happened around microaggressions and really interesting stuff that I feel like would be applicable to Nina’s situation.

Was there a number that any of you felt was a deal-breaker and needed to stay?

HUDES At some point, for various artistic or budget reasons, many of the numbers were up for being potentially cut. You really had to make a strong argument for why the film needed them. Because the piragüero [who sells the Puerto Rican-style shaved-ice dessert] is a peripheral character, at one point the “Piragua” song was up for cutting. I tried to talk to Lin gently about this. He was really heartbroken and I was like, “I have one idea for how the studio would let us keep that song.” So I pitched him on playing [him]. That’s how that one stayed.

Lin, why did you feel that the piragüero was so significant to the story?

MIRANDA That song is maybe the fastest song I ever wrote. Although, I don’t know that I wrote it. I think I just caught it. The metaphor of the entire musical is inside that song. Piragüero is every character in this movie. They’re doing their best against impossible odds. They take a breath, then they keep scraping by. It’s a minute-and-45-second song, but somehow the DNA of the entire show is in that minute and 45 seconds. I was very proud that that kernel got to stay. My performance was a testament to my grandfather. He passed away the week after “In the Heights” opened on Broadway. He’s the one member of my family who did not get to see everything that came after that opening night. So I have his espejuelos [reading glasses] around my neck. I have his [Marcial Lafuente] Estefanía cowboy novels in my pocket. I’m wearing my socks up to my tabs and the same kind of shirt he had to wear. I’m really cosplaying as my abuelo.

Quiara, how did you come into the role of producer and why did you decide to take on that responsibility?

HUDES It was a lot of little things that happened organically. When we went to Warner Bros. and Jon came on board, they weren’t saying, “Where are the pages?” They were saying, “What do the pages mean?” I loved having those conversations and saying, “I don’t want to see stiletto heels on any of the salon workers. They’re women on their feet for eight or nine hours a day. Put them in tennis shoes.” Then Jon started asking me, “What would the food look like?” And I was like, “Can we also talk about the pots?” Then I started talking to the choreographer Chris Scott about the dance casting call. I don’t know much about dance, but I did know that at Abuela’s house and out on the street, you’re going to see elderly people dancing and they are going to be schooling the young’uns. At some point I said, “I want to be a producer on this. I’m not just writing words on a page.”

The choice of shooting on location is really compelling, especially when some locations would have been much easier to conceive on a soundstage. Tell me about shooting in Washington Heights and what that adds to the experience.

MIRANDA On paper it’s risky, right? It’s expensive to shoot in New York. It’s hard to shoot on location. It’s harder to shoot in Washington Heights in the summer when we all live outside for a few months a year. But the advantage is you get a million authenticity checks every day because your neighborhood is rolling up with folding chairs to watch this movie you’re going to make about them. Your characters better be dressed like the folks who are on the side, your food better be right. Everything you’re putting in the frame should be an honest reflection of the surrounding everything that’s outside of the frame. I give Jon so much credit for leaning in and listening and finding these corners of the neighborhood that have additional layers of meaning for those of us like Quiara and myself, who still live in the neighborhood.

The concept of the dream, or sueñito, is different for each character. The musical seems to say that you can attain your aspirations without losing who you are to assimilation. That’s a profound notion for immigrants and their children.

MIRANDA It’s that simple and it’s that complicated. You’re talking to first-generation writers whose parents were born on the island of Puerto Rico. You grow up with the “Sliding Doors” thinking: “What if they’d stayed? Who would I be if I grew up in Vega Alta, Puerto Rico?” The nuance that we always fought for is to say, “I can accept the sacrifice of my ancestors. I can accept the responsibility that bestows upon me and still find my own way in the world.” It’s not an either-or, it’s not about, “Forget your dreams. It’s my dreams.” It’s thinking, “I accept the incredible journey you had to take for me to even be standing here and still my job is to make my own way in the world and define home for what it is for me.”

[moshymosh]

Remember Me- Something’s happening

When the love of your life suffers from a disease that affects their memory of their life with you, what do you do? Will you spend your last days with them, trying to get them to remember you? The life you had, or would you give up and let them forget you?

Summary- Dr. Spencer Reid felt his whole life change when Agent Y/n L/n joined the BAU. She came in like a cool summer breeze changing everything Spencer knew about love and his capacity to care for someone so much. Y/n came to the BAU with a tragic past, her only goal was to save lives and make the world a safer place for everyone. She meets a skinny shaggy haired doctor, which causes her whole life to change, much like Spencer, will she fall in love or will her tragic past or even her job prevent her?

Pairings- Dr. Spencer Reid x f!reader

A/N- This is a notebook inspired story, this story will be told and wrote like a chapter book. So some of the endings will not always make sense. Also I don't claim go own Criminal Minds or the Notebook, this is solely for entertainment purposes and for enjoyment. Some of the lines are from the notebook movie, again I don't claim to own either fandom/tv show/ movie. I try to make Y/n as vague as possible so shes more inclusive so if there is any descriptive things that don’t apply to you feel free to ignore them. Also just putting this out there as the story progresses Maeve is still alive and well, she is a good friend of Spencer and Y/n’s. There will be graphic content and sexual scenes in later chapters, warnings will be added as they go. Also if you want to be tagged send me an as or comment here, also send requests I'm down for making little fics.

PS- Please don't post my fics anywhere without my documented consent, thanks -Karma (MoshyMosh)

Warnings!- This chapter with have some sexual content, talk of sexual assault, and descriptions of kidnapping. If these bother you please don't read this chapter!

A/N 2.0- I am like half asleep, I will double check the spelling and any issues when I was up

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Y/N laughed from her couch as she tossed some popcorn at Spencer, who sat on the other end of her couch.

"Y/N!" Spencer scolded as he looked over at her, with a smile, when he saw that she was pretending to be interested in the movie they were watching.

Y/N tried to hide her smirk, before she erupted in giggles as she looked back at him, tossing some more popcorn at him. Spencer groaned as he tried to swat away the onslaught of popcorn before he started laughing along with her. Soon Y/N had wiggled her way over to Spencer as she continued to rain popcorn at him before she straddled his hips. Y/N smiled down at him as she lifted the bowl of remaining popcorn above his head then tipped it, dumping the rest of the popcorn.

"Y/N!" Spencer laughed, as he reached up to grab the bowl from her hands. She chuckled and dropped the bowl behind the couch, her arms dropped so that they were draped over his shoulders. Spencer's hands dropped to rest on her hips, and let out a sigh of contentment when her fingers brushed against some of the hair at the base of his neck as she looked down at his face.

Spencer licked his lips as he nervously fiddled with her oversized sweater, his eyes looking between her eyes and her lips. "Screw it." He said quietly before he crashed his lips to hers. Y/N let out a soft gasp against his lips before she eagerly kissed him back, threading her fingers into his hair.

Spencer's hands slid under her sweater, his fingertips brushing against the band of her shorts she wore. Y/N pulled away from the kiss to pull off her sweater, leaving her top half bare. Spencer let out a breath and looked up from her chest, his hands coming up to card through her hair. He pulled her head down to crush his lips against hers again, his hips grinding up against hers slightly. The movie they had turned on, now forgotten behind her.

As they continued to kiss, Y/N let out a groan and pulled away from him as she heard her phone ringing on the coffee table. She slid off Spencer's lap and stood, reaching for her phone. Spencer bit his lip, as his eyes raked over her topless figure, as she bent to pick up the ringing device.

"Penny, you need to have a really good reason for calling on our week off." Y/N said when she answered the phone. "We have a case don't we?" She looked at Spencer as she reached for her sweater when he handed it to her. Spencer watched her slide it on and chuckled softly when he heard her next words. "No need to call him, he's right in front of me." She smiled at him, with a wink.

Spencer smiled back and stood from the couch to gather his things after he pressed a kiss to Y/N's forehead. "Was that a kiss I heard?!" He heard from Penelope's end of the call, causing him to chuckle again.

"Goodbye, Penelope." Y/N said before she hung up. "I'll get dressed then we can go to the office."

Spencer and Y/N rode to Quantico in a tension-filled silence after what happened before they were interrupted. Spencer looked over at Y/N as he replayed the kiss over and over again. He was pulled away from his thoughts as she pulled into her assigned parking spot in the lot. The pair got out and started walking to the elevator in the parking garage.

Y/N fiddled with one of the buttons on her blazer as they rode the elevator in silence. Spencer leaned over and pressed a kiss to her temple with a smile, pulling away when the doors started opening on their floor. Y/N smiled softly and stepped out with Spencer, once they were inside the bullpen, she went over to her desk to drop off her bag.

"Miss Y/N..." Penelope sing-songed as she walked over to her, dragging Derek along with her. "You have some 'splanin' to do." She said in the 'I love Lucy' voice.

"I do not." Y/N said feigning innocence. "Also we have a case so now's not the time." She said as she began to walk upstairs to the meeting room, taking her seat next to Spencer.

Soon, everyone arrived and sat down around the table pulling their files to him, opening them up to look at their contents. "Ok guys. We're not traveling very far for this case. It's in our own backyard." Hotch said as he began clicking through some of the photos on the TV screen. Y/N listened to him in the background as she started looking through the pictures for the victimology.

"Every one of the women are Y/H/C and Y/E/C eyed, the only thing different is height and weights. Some of them were found to have Y/E/C contacts and a crude dye job if they did not have the correct look to the unsub. These things were noted in the autopsies." Y/N said as she looked up at the screen as pictures of the victims came up.

"There was some DNA recovered from the sexual assaults and under the fingernails of the first victim, there were no matches in CODAS." Derek said, reading the information from his file.

"DC capitol police think the first victim is Leah Ainsworth, 24, a tourist in DC on vacation." Hotch said. "The period of which the victims were reported missing and then to when they were found is 3-5 days."

Y/N nodded her head. " The extreme amount of wounds seems like overkill. 10 of the wounds on Leah were done postmortem. A lot of rage behind these attacks." She said as she closed her file and looked around at the rest of the team to gauge their reactions.

"There's something else..." Derek said. "Every victim was found with a note that said 'For F/I M/I L/I'."

"Could it be an activist group?" Spencer asked, sitting up in his seat.

"Could be initials." Hotch said rubbing his chin in thought. "Garcia see if those are a match for anything like that."

"Got it." Penelope said, writing down a note for herself.

"Reid, Morgan, go to the latest crime scene. Y/L/N and Prentiss go to where this latest victim was abducted and see if you can get anything from there. JJ your with me, setting up the evidence boards." Hotch directed.

"Let's do this." Emily said, getting up from her seat.

The team spent the day finding out new evidence and new possibilities. As they were about to go home for the night they sat in the meeting room going over the things they found out.

"Emily and I found out our latest victim was supposed to meet someone, like a date." Y/N said as she fiddled with her pen. "But the person never showed."

Emily nodded her head. "Customer parking is down an alley behind the building, the unsub could've blitz attacked and drugged the girls."

"Garcia, anything on the search?" Hotch asked, turning towards the woman in question.

"All I got were two activist groups and millions of names." She said, rubbing at her forehead.

"Alright. Guys go home, we'll come back tomorrow and look at this with fresh eyes." Hotch said before everyone got up and went to their desks to gather their things. Y/N smiled at Spencer as she held up her keys.

"Give you a ride home." She said before she mimicked Derek's voice. "Pretty boy."

Spencer chuckled, shaking his head in disbelief. "Yes, I'll take your offer, but don't ever do that again." He joked as he walked over to her.

Y/N drove Spencer home, dropping him off at his apartment building with a kiss. Soon she arrived home, parked in her normal spot, and gather things before she let herself into the courtyard with her keycard. She looked through her keyring for her house key as she walked up to her door.

She stopped what she was doing with a smile, as she spotted a glass vase full of yellow red-tipped roses sitting in front of her door. She chuckled as she fished out her phone out and dialed Spencer's number as she reached to pull the notecard out with the hand holding her keyring, as she began reading it. She let out a squeal as she felt something press against her nose and mouth. She dropped everything she was holding to fight off her attacker.

"Y/N? Y/N?!" Spencer called over the phone hearing the struggle.

"I finally found you." Y/N heard in her ear as she felt her body go limp in her attacker's arms, succumbing to the drug. Her attacker lifted her body into his arms.

"Jason..." Y/N slurred out in the direction of her phone as her attacker pulled her badge and gun off her person. "Jason Dean... Spencie..." Y/N slurred again before she passed out.

"No one is going to save you, babe. I've got you now."  her attacker said as he stepped on her phone in his walk to his vehicle.

Spencer took a shaky breath and called Hotch after the line when dead. "Hotch, Something has happened to Y/N.

[pocfansmatter]

Okay I said before I was going to get more in depth with blood quantum eventually so now is as better time than any I guess. Mind you I'm speaking as a Native American meaning an Indigenous person from America. Specifically from 2 southern California tribes. I cannot speak for all Native or Indigenous people. I can only speak for myself, I can’t even speak for my tribe. However most Natives tend to have the same view when it comes to the blood quantum debate. From this point on blood quantum will be shortened to BQ & Native American to Native(s).

Originally this was gonna be a reply to another comment but decided to make it it's own post so I don't associate my blog with that anti Indigenous one. Please try to read the whole post before clicking the articles. I screenshotted the main parts to keep the discussion going. Feel free to click on all the articles because they are good & most of them are from Native run news websites.

I was gonna do this with a read more tag but my laptop doesn't want to work. I'm literally getting anyther one on Thanksgiving but my old one doesn't cooperate sorry so y'all are gonna get a long post. 😕

So let's start with the basics. What is blood quantum?

"Blood quantum laws or Indian blood laws are laws in the United States and the former Thirteen colonies that define Native American identity by percentages of ancestry. ... For instance, a person who has one parent who is a full-blood Native American and one who has no Native ancestry has a blood quantum of 1/2."

In case that was confusing if one person is "full blood native" they are considered 4/4. Meaning they have no relatives who are of any other race or ethnicity. If the "full blood native" has a child with a non Native person the child would have a BQ of 1/2 Native blood. If that child has a child with a non Native that child will be considered 1/4. This will continue to get lower & lower unless the child has a baby with another Native. Then the BQ raises or stays the same depending on the other parents BQ.

Now that the definition is out of the way lets get into the issue with this.

This is a good article that narrowed down an issue with Pharrell wearing a headdress. I wanna focus on one part of the article though.

"... deeply connected to their Native culture & live it every day."

"Having Native American ancestors doesn't get you off the hook if you don't bother to do the homework."

So I mentioned before that a lot of Natives don't consider BQ as a proper way of measuring your culture. Being Native isn't something you can pull out when it's convenient like for a photoshoot. Its every single day. It's in the words we speak, in the clothes we wear & in the food we cook. Same as any other culture.

Asian people don't wake up not Asian. Black people don't wake up not Black.

So why is do some people pull out the Native card when it is convenient? Like Pharrell did or Elizabeth Warren claims.

This article sums it up well but I wanna focus on the last 2 paragraphs.

Link to the full article:

There's similarities in both articles by 2 different Native authors from 2 different news websites.

They both speak about connections to our culture. A DNA test cannot measure ones Indigenous Ancestry because being Indigenous is much more than something in your blood.

I made a post asking some questions that might help understand if one is Indigenous or not. Now I'm not saying these are all the questions nor that I'm the expert on this. These are just STARTER questions to help people understand what it means to be Native.

Does the tribe you claim, claim you?

Have you been to the reservation?

Do you participate in the community?

Have you met your family from the tribe?

Do you know your history, traditions, anything about the tribe you claim?

The big one is are you claimed. You cannot claim a tribe that doesn't claim you. Now I'm not saying the entirety of the tribe has to know you personally. I'm not even saying you have to stand in front of the tribal council & ask them if they claim you. A claim can be made as little as just your family saying "this person is one of us".

The reason I bring this up is because multiple tribes have in the past & continue the practice of "adopting" a person into their tribe. There's many examples of this. Some can be adopted because they married into a tribe. Non Natives & Natives of other tribes alike have been adopted into tribes. There can be legal adoptions like adopting a child. And countless other examples.

A lot of the time biologically those members aren't apart of the tribe & cannot be enrolled but are still viewed as a member by the community.

For personal example, my sister has been adopted by my tribe. She's actually an enrolled member from another tribe & technically my cousin but was taking away by CPS & my family took her in. She grew up & still lives on my reservation. She is from another reservation. Although her tribe still claims her as a member my tribe also does. People in my community know her as a member of my family & have grown up with her. She knows many of our traditions & practices some ceremonies with us that are specific to my tribe. No one in our tribe has expressed any issue with this so far & even if they did they would have a stern talking to. We are even in the process of organizing her to be buried on our tribal land instead of hers. Her choice & we are okay with it.

Now I want to point out another way people can be considered Native even if they aren't enrolled or cannot answer those questions properly.

Let's look at something called "reconnecting Natives".

What is a reconnecting Native?

A reconnecting Native is someone of Native Ancestry who for whatever reason has been removed from their culture, family, reservation, etc so they do not know them & are actively trying to learn those things so they can reclaim their Native roots.

So, how does this happen? This is actually a very common issue in the community.

One of the main ways a Native might become disconnected is through the process of Residential Schools or Indian Boarding Schools. What is that? Here's a snippet of an article to help explain.

Of course here is the link:

The official motto of these schools was "kill the Indian, save the man” and if you think it sounds awful I promise you, it was much worse than you could imagine.

There's a movie on Netflix called Indian Horse which I have not watched yet but is based off a novel by an Indigenous author that looks at these Boarding Schools if you wish to check that out.

The goals of these schools were to strip Indigenous children of their culture. They were beaten, starved, punished of things as simple as speaking in their languages. A lot of them didn't even speak English. It was illegal to keep your kids from this school & often times tribal children went to these schools and never returned to their family. Natives who attended these schools or are children of children who attended these schools more often than not stop practicing their culture or forget it. In that way they become "disconnected".

Those members can if chosen too began the process of reconnecting.

I found this really good article going a little more in depth on the do's & don't's of reconnecting.

But here's a screenshot of important parts.

Granted this is a long process. Lifelong. Every journey to reconnect is difficult & very different from others. It depends on your tribe & community. Some of them make it easier & some make it harder. It's up to the individual to put in the work.

Now I don't want to make it like being a connected Native is easy. Yes it's easier but connected Natives also put in work to live their culture everyday.

Now what does this have to do with blood quantum? As you can see none of these articles about being Native or even a reconnecting Native mention blood quantum or DNA being a requirement.

If one is Japanese & someone asks "how are you Japanese?" What would the answer be?

"Because I just am. Because my parents are Japanese."

If someone is white & has kids those kids are white, correct?

So if it's so easy to explain for other cultures why does mine require math? Why are some of my family members not enrolled members despite having Native parents & growing up on the reservation? Why do my people have to actively think about the DNA results of our children if we choose to have them?

Because of BQ. Its a tool created by colonizers that are forced upon us. If we do not abide by the rules & requirements the government sets in place we run the very big risk of

Losing our status of a Native American tribe.

Losing our land & land rights.

Losing funding from the federal government.

Losing our housing.

Losing Healthcare.

Losing our basic citizenship rights.

The thing about BQ is it's designed so that we fail. If we fail to keep a certain amount of enrolled tribal members in a tribe then the government can break treaties & take away our land & things that are rightfully ours.

BQ is a lose/lose situation all around for us as well as extremely racist.

Because of the BQ requirements Natives actively worry about who they have children with. Some don't date outside of the their culture in fear of their children not being seen as legally Native. The problem here is a lot of the tribe is related. The issue of inbreeding increases. How do we solve that problem? Well we can have children with Natives of another tribe. But there's a problem here too. Most tribes do not allow what we call dual enrollment. Both of my tribes for example don't allow this. Which means one would have to pick which tribe to enroll their child. That means one of the tribes will lose out on a member. So that's another way identities are erased using BQ.

Okay I think I'm going to end this here. There is so much more I could've added. I also could've expanded on residential schools, what it means to be Indigenous, & reconnecting Natives but I wanted to keep it focused on BQ. If you have anymore questions feel free to ask or research on your own. We're still here. We aren't stuck in the 1800's. We weren't all killed by cowboys but the government is still actively trying to erase us.

[shakethispeare]

DARK : S1 - EP2 [ LÜGEN | LIES ]

NOTE: I’m only pouring my thoughts into this post. I’m taking notes every time I watch Dark since I heard the story-line is complicated. Also, my memories suck. It’s not spoiler-free, of course. So, only read if you have seen this episode.

The episode starts with a notice, 9 HOURS AFTER MIKKEL’S DISAPPEARANCE. From afar, the man in a raincoat overlooks a group of police looking for Mikkel in the forest. He had a suitcase with him too. Then, he looked at the ground and picked up a dead bird. When the camera showed his face, I tried to make it out, wondering if he's one of the characters already introduced to us in the previous episode. I don't think he is.

JONAS KAHNWALD POV

Jonas wakes up from his sleep and hallucinates a black liquid flowing down from his ear. When he saw his dead father behind him through the mirror, he snapped awake, ending the dream.

Jonas goes to his father's studio as if to investigate. Then, he sits down on the floor when he discovered a wall covered in thick paint.

Jonas lies on the floor in his father’s studio. Then he sits up and looks around for a clue or something out of place. He finds a loose board in the ceiling, and inside that, a large, handmade, detailed map of the Winden area. Jonas spreads it out on the floor and begins looking for recognizable landmarks.

Jonas is in his room and had brought the map to examine it there. He notices a note which says, “Where is the Crossing?”

The power in their house is still out at. Jonas wonders if Mikkel will be found. He asks Hannah if she misses Michael, and if she thinks he had secrets he kept from them. Hannah replies she misses the idea of Michael more than the reality. She’s also not sure if she ever knew who he really was. She then wonders if we ever know who people really are. When Jonas asks if she loved Michael, the power comes back on. She smiles but doesn’t answer.

CHARLOTTE DOPPLER POV

Charlotte is in the autopsy room, examining the child's body. The coroner reported the victim is male, between 10 and 12. The wounds around the eyes are strange as if they have melted, no sexual abuse and no foreign DNA on him. Red soil was found all over his clothes, which contradicts the place they found him. Meaning, someone had moved him from somewhere. His ear canal destroyed, the inner drums are damaged, and both eardrums have burst. Charlotte asked if it's because of extreme sound. The coroner replied it could either be caused by pressure or by intense rotation, such as in a centrifuge. She then explained what otoconia is.

I've seen enough movies about time-travel. If I remember, literally every time someone tries to use a time-travelling machine, it would start rotating at high speed, and everything becomes blurry as heck. Now, this got me thinking. The burn marks on his eyes eerily resembled the metal piece used on Erik when he was placed on the torture chair. Could the marks be from that? So, it probably emits heat. But what about his ruptured eardrums? If it's from a centrifuge, I doubt it. The torture chair doesn’t seem to be able to spin. Pressure? Probably. From extreme sound? Most likely, considering that there’s always a loud noise every time the camera points at the cave. Also, when the kids were near the cave in the last episode, their flashlights started flickering, which is probably caused by radiation.

Charlotte declared the dead boy is neither Erik nor Mikkel. Other than pointing out what the coroner has said previously, she also mentioned someone had dressed the kid in 80's clothing, including the shoes and the Walkman. A one-pfennig coin from 1986 was found around his neck on a red cord. The cassette contains a recording; which played the same song heard in the place where Erik is held in. Then, she decided not to make the discovery of the boy's body public, since the town's already got a handful with Erik and Mikkel.

Let me pause for a sec. I realised Tronte earlier said that he had got out to get cords. Hmm ... fishy.

The cave becomes active again, causing the lights all over the town to flicker and animals, specifically birds, drop dead. Charlotte steps out of the police station only to find hundreds of dead birds on the pavement.

ULRICH NIELSEN POV

Ulrich enters the cave to find Mikkel, but the farther he goes, he found a metallic door with a hazard sign on it. Thinking Mikkel might have gone behind the door, Ulrich tries to push it open. However, the door remained locked. I suspect that this door leads to the nuclear power plant.

Ulrich burst during Charlotte's meeting, saying to her he had found a door in the cave. Speaking in private, Ulrich tells her he found a door that leads to the nuclear power plant. He asks for a search warrant in case Mikkel had somehow accessed the grounds through the door. Charlotte said the place is a high-security area and Ulrich can not just enter. Ulrich assumed Mikkel climbed the fence, where Charlotte's unconvinced because they have checked it. The fences are barbed-wire, also, it had remained undamaged. Ulrich realises Charlotte was right, that all three boys' cases are connected. He's sure that it has something to do the power plant. Mads disappeared from the same area as Mikkel. Charlotte will try to get the search warrant.

Ulrich received a phone call from Charlotte saying that Aleksander has blocked the search warrant. A minute later, Hannah called but Ulrich blocked her call.

Ulrich arrived at the gates of the power plant and Aleksander approaches to meet him. He begs Aleksander to open the gates. But Aleksander remained blank-faced, unmoved by Ulrich's desperation. He tells Ulrich that the nuclear power plant is high-security area and he can't just let anyone enter, while also claiming his men searched the area every day and if Mikkel had been there, they would've found him. Ulrich snapped into a fit of rage, shouted at Aleksander for not letting him search for his own son. He vows to come back with a warrant but Aleksander just continued to watch Ulrich with flat eyes. Then, he tells Ulrich he's sorry he can't help and walks away.

Ulrich is surprised by Hannah's presence at the police station. She wanted to see him. He quickly brought her to the records room, probably so no one would know of their affair. Hannah tries to console Ulrich then she tries to initiate sex. Ulrich stops her and tells her he’ll call her. But I think Hannah doubts Ulrich will call her. She probably understands and can't blame him for wanting to focus on his family, especially with his son missing. I feel like Hannah's going to do something later on that will finally tick Ulrich off.

Ulrich looks over the evidence found with the boy’s body. He goes to the computer and investigated tire tracks near the scene belong to a van. He recalls Jürgen drives a van, also works at the power plant and was present the night, Erik, his own son, disappeared.

Then, he goes to ask one of the officers if she had questioned Jürgen, to which she replies yes. But she hasn't questioned Jürgen regarding whether he was at the power plant last night, in other words, he hasn't been questioned about Mikkel's disappearance yet.

Ulrich drives out to Jürgen’s house and searched the buildings around. Jürgen lives in a trailer and brought a shotgun with him after realising someone was in his area. Inside what seemed to be a barn, Ulrich discovers a trap door with a chain leading down into the hole underneath. Ulrich pulls the chain up, discovering a sack at the bottom. But before he is about to open it, Jürgen found him and tried to stop him. But Ulrich keeps going.

It was filled with a drug cache. Ulrich asked if it's his, to which Jürgen confessed that it's his and Erik's and that they were in business together. Ulrich forgets the drugs and instead asks Jürgen if he was at the power plant when Mikkel disappeared. Jürgen said he wasn't there and couldn't offer any other useful clues. Disappointed, Ulrich leaves. He tells Jürgen that also doesn't know where Erik is.

Ulrich finds Katharina in Mikkel's room when he returned home. His face looked exhausted and defeated. Katharina made him promise that no matter what happens, Ulrich will tell her the truth about what's happening with Mikkel and the case. It's clear here that Katharina doesn't want him to lie just to protect her. Then, she hugs him. As a mother, I know it's tough for her, but in all honesty, she also deserves the right to know.

TRONTE NIELSEN POV

When Jana was in a phone call, Tronte was about to wash his clothes. The camera shows one of his sweater's sleeves covered in what seemed to be dry blood. Or could it be red soil? From where did he get it? How did it come to be covered in blood or soil?

Jana said she couldn't get hold of Ulrich and is worried. Tronte replied that they have search parties organised while wearing a jacket, looking ready to leave the house. She asked where he was last night, to which Tronte answered that he couldn't sleep and went to the garden to get the bushes ready for winter. Jana keeps pushing her suspicions on him by saying that his car wasn't present. Tronte said they ran out of cord and had to go to the gas station. From the way he deals with Jana, I have a feeling Tronte is kind of distant from her and seemingly doesn’t want to deal with her.

Late at night, Tronte gets out of bed again to go somewhere unknown. Jana is awake but stays still so he wouldn't know.

ALEKSANDER TIEDEMANN POV

In the power plant, Aleksander Tiedemann tells Jürgen that the police will be looking around the power plant sometime tonight. He said "we need to get rid of them tonight," but somehow seemed to be ordering Jürgen to do the job instead. Jürgen tells him someone else should do it instead, afraid that the police will be suspicious of him because of his missing son situation. Aleksander asked if he's trying to blackmail him and Jürgen answered no. However, Aleksander continued to make a veiled threat so Jürgen would do the job.

On the other side of the woods, under cover of darkness, Aleksander supervises heavy machinery being loaded into trucks with whatever it is the power plant needs to hide. This is probably happening at the same time Rain Coat Man No.2 was dragging Erik's body.

BARTOSZ TIEDEMANN POV

Bartosz is Aleksander and Regina Tiedemann's son as shown in a family portrait. Bartosz tries to get a hold of Martha's phone but fails.

At night, Bartosz examines Erik's bag of drugs. He finds a cellphone inside and it's locked with a password. He tried to guess but failed.

RAINCOAT MAN NO. 1 POV

So it turns out, this episode has two hooded man. I’m just going to call them Raincoat Man from now on until they’re properly introduced.

Raincoat Man No.1 went to Winden Hotel and asked Regina for a room. I'm curious as to who he is. Like, I think he could be Mads? I know I said in the previous recap that the dead child found in the woods could be Mads, but, what if it isn't him? What if he's still alive?

Also, the soundtrack as he walked in was just, ear-piercing. I legit got chills.

In the hotel. he stayed in room 8. While he's taking a shower, the camera shows how messy the room is, clattered with pieces of paper lying on the floor. Those papers are filled with sketches. The man stepped out from the bathroom, and finally, I get a clear view of him. Yep, don't know who this guy is. Also, his body had scars as if he was tortured before. There was also a red scar on his neck as if he's been garroted. 

On the walls, he has papers and diagrams, probably his the results of his scientific research and articles regarding Mikkel's disappearance. The diagram had one thing in common. Circles. On the table, he has a book with the title, 'A Journey Through Time' by H. G. Tannhaus and a key on a string. Then, he unpacked his suitcase and got out an intricate-looking machine with a lot of gears. What is this machine? Is it a time-travelling machine?

Raincoat Man No.1 pins up more papers on the wall, and one of them is an article about Mikkel, with the headline, where is Mikkel. He crosses out the "where" and changes the headline to "when" is Mikkel? Seems like Raincoat Man No.1 knows Mikkel time-travelled somehow.

MIKKEL NIELSEN POV

My boy, he’s alive. Thank Lord.

Finally, Mikkel appears, still alive. He tries to find his way out of the cave. I noticed that he exited from the same cave opening, but something seemed out of place. Since the police are still investigating the cave, there should have been police lines all over. But when Mikkel walked out of the cave, there were none. Also, he kind of noticed something felt different. Mikkel is covered in dirt but still looks the same. Still wearing his Houdini custom and red jacket.

He runs to find his home. Here, I noticed the cars were different. It looked antique for 2019. Mikkel paused to stare at a motorcycle, which I don't think his family had one before.

When he tries to unlock the door, his key didn't work. Then, a teenage boy opens the door. Mikkel asked who he was, but the teenage boy asked him the same question back. The teenage boy turns out to be his dad, Ulrich. Ulrich somehow acts like a jerk.

Suddenly, a girl's called for Ulrich, who Ulrich immediately introduce to us as Katharina. When they're about to leave for school, Ulrich pushed him and said that he doesn't live there. Katharina asked who he was, and Ulrich answered he's the Grim Reaper, based on his skeleton suit.

Mikkel still stood in the front door. Looking down, he saw a newspaper and reads the headline and the date of the paper: Chernobyl - Half a Year Later. Then, he sees the date: November 5, 1986.

MY THEORY:

Peter Doppler is hiding something. Also, he seemed estranged from his wife and his wife to him too. Possibly an unhappy marriage? They don't seem divorced though.

When Peter is in his car parked near a nuthouse located somewhere in the woods. His radio is on and is currently talking about Mikkel's disappearance. But Peter was grieving about something like he just did something terrible.

When the camera showed the cave, I was expecting to hear a loud noise. However, another man, wearing a raincoat and a hood, walks out instead. My jaw dropped, because, that's clearly not the same guy in the hotel. So, who is he? So, there's actually two? What the hell?

I do have my suspicions on Aleksander. He could be up to something dirty. He is the director of the nuclear power plant, which also makes him the richest guy in town. He seemed worried that his time as a director of the nuclear power plant is coming to an end. Usually, people who are involved in leadership positions often have their hands dirty. In our world, many are corrupted. So, it's no surprise if Aleksander would risked doing a dirty job just to keep his position. I don’t know. It’s a hunch.

The note on the map that said: "Where is The Crossing", sounds kind of obvious. It definitely means a doorway. But a doorway to what? Well, since this show is about time-travel, it's probably a doorway that leads to either the past, present or future. Michael, before his death, never seemed to have figured it out. But I bet the mysterious guys in hoodies knows about this.

It was shown again that Erik Obendorf is back on the torture chair, still in the same bright room with childish decor. The TV in the background is playing and the scientist, who is presenting about black holes, has a voice that sounds similar to the one from the opening voice-over in the first episode. I'm not sure if they did a couple of experiments on him, or is it just a one-time thing like if he failed, he dies. I was right that he died at the end to which I'm assuming Raincoat Man No.2 failed his experiment. When the episode showed Raincoat Man No.2 dragging Erik’s dead body through the woods, Erik’s face, especially the eyes, are burned, exactly the same wound as the boy's body. It's kind of sad though because I can't imagine what Erik's parents' reaction is going to be when they find out their son is no longer alive. Also, I have a feeling he's going to find other kids to continue his work. So, he might kidnap one in the future episodes.

Last, MY BOY MIKKEL TRAVELLED BACK IN TIME, How did he do it? He wasn’t in the cave when it happened, he was running away with Jonas. Now, connecting this with Raincoat Man No.1, what he meant by “the crossing“ is definitely a doorway. Perhaps, he’s like Mikkel? Or does he want to go time-travelling somewhere?

Ah man, I think starting from episode 3, the timelines are going to be divided. This is going to be tiresome. It still fun to watch though, haha. This show is mind-boggling.

[umbrahighpriestofgiratina]

Greenhorn Prometheus Chapter 3 - FINALE

HAPPY HALLOWEEN! Here's the final installment of these mad science shenanigans. Hope you enjoy. Chapter 3: Breakaway

The next morning, in a quiet backyard, a young girl was picking flowers, singing quietly to herself. Suddenly a tall shadow loomed over her. ~Mmmmmmm.~ --------------- Within the house the backyard belonged to, a man was boarding up the windows. "If a monster is loose, the boards have to be tight," he said. He turned to his wife. "Good thing you put Sadie to bed." "But I was ironing clothes!" said the wife. "I asked you to put her to bed!" The two just kind of. Stared at each other. As people are wont to do when they make a mutual huge mistake. ------ The Mewtwo was now gently picking flowers with the girl, albeit with her psychic powers rather than her fingers. The two started picking petals off and dropping them in a well. "Now blow a kiss and say bye-bye!" said the girl. The Mewtwo pantomimed a kiss and dropped a flower stem down the well. "All gone!" said the girl. "Now what do we throw in?" The Mewtwo looked at the girl. Then at the well. Then presumably somehow in the direction of this very narrator. -------------- The wife and husband were now panicking. "She must have been in the bathroom," said the husband. "But I didn't look upstairs!" said the wife. "I thought you did!" "You didn't... look... upstairs..." The two immediately rushed up. -------------- The little girl and the Mewtwo were now at a seesaw. "Sit down!" said the girl, on one end of the seesaw. The Mewtwo pawed at the seesaw. "Sit. Down!" said the girl again. The Mewtwo plonked down onto the seesaw with tremendous force, flinging the girl upward, through an open window, and onto her bed. Her parents entered the room and gave a mutual sigh of relief. ----------------- In a small house on Kanto Route 16, a certain Mr. Dazzling was alone, in a corner, pondering. "A visitor is all I ask... A temporary companion to help me pass a few short hours in my lonely life." The door was promptly bust down by a certain Mewtwo. ~Aaagh!~ "Oh! Thank you, Mew, thank you!" He wandered over to the door to greet the Mewtwo. "What sort of Pokemon are you?" he said. "...I forget. I'm Mr. Dazzling, what's your name?" ~Mmmmmm.~ "I didn't get that." ~Mmmmmmm.~ "Forgive me, I didn't realize you were mute... But how does a nice bowl of soup sound to you?" ~Mmmmmmmmm.~ Mr. Dazzling led the Mewtwo over to a table. "I know how it feels to be cold and lonely and in need of a helping hand. Here's your soup!" He poured a ladle of hot soup straight into the Mewtwo's lap, causing her to let out a psychic yell. "...Whoops," said Mr. Dazzling, "forgot the bowl." He quickly fetches a bottle of wine, which the Mewtwo was careful to pour herself. As she was about to drink it, however, Mr. Dazzling interrupted her. "Wait! A toast... To friendship." The metal cup he was holding instantly shattered the Mewtwo's wine glass upon a forceful toast, causing the Mewtwo to stare in shock. "Whoopsie. I'll clean that up..." As he bent over however, he knocked over several candles on the table, causing them to fall right onto Mewtwo. This sent the Mewtwo into a panic, causing her to let out a psychic yell, bust another door down, and flee. "Wait!" said Mr. Dazzling. "Don't go! I was gonna make espresso!" ---------------- Alone, the Mewtwo wandered the dark streets, letting out psychic moans of discontent. Suddenly, however, she heard music. Familiar music. Sweet, sweet music. She followed it, drifted toward it, until she reached a man in baggy clothing and a hat playing a violin. She drifted idly in front of him, pawing the air, until the man yelled. "The sedative! Now!" The Mewtwo was suddenly hit by a psychically-propelled dart. Before she could react, she slumped down with a thud... landing directly on Colress. "She's out!" said the man, revealing himself to be Silver. "Oog... Believe me, I can tell," said Colress. ------- Back in the lab, the Mewtwo was fast asleep in a room. Waiting outside were Silver, Sabrina, Colress, and Agatha. "What are we going to do?" said Colress. Silver sighed.  "I've got to go in there." ~And get yourself killed?~ said Sabrina. "Don't you understand?" said Silver with a scowl. "She's afraid. If I can make her less afraid maybe we can get somewhere." He turned to the others. "No matter how much I beg and scream, don't let me out of there." ~You mean the old movie cliche that never works?~ said Sabrina, "...Yes but I mean it." said Silver. "Good luck dear," said Agatha. "Nice working with you," said Colress. Silver entered the room. Agatha locked the door. Silver approached the sleeping Mewtwo, shaking. He stopped as the Mewtwo's eyes snapped open. He bolted for the door as the Mewtwo's eyes glowed and she sat up with a psychic scream. "Let me out let me out pretty please with a Cheri Berry on top." The Mewtwo began floating over her bed, glowing eyes locked on Silver. Silver rattled the doorknob. "What the hell guys I was being sarcastic earlier of course I don't buy into that cliche now let me the fuck out." The Mewtwo floated closer. On the other side of the door Colress moved to open it only to be blocked by Agatha. Sabrina had somehow procured a bucket of popcorn. "Open the motherfucking door or I'll let this Mewtwo explode your brains too!" The Mewtwo was almost upon him. "...Damn it." The Mewtwo loomed above him, eyes like tiny purple suns. "...Wait." said Silver. "I know why you're mad. I'm sorry." The Mewtwo's eyes stopped glowing. She gave an inquisitive headtilt. "We... We didn't treat you right. And... And that's not right because... Because we're like your parents. And I'm like your dad. And I had a shitty dad and I don't want to perpetuate the cycle, you know? So... Yeah. I'm sorry. Sorry for everything." He sat down and put his head in his hands. The Mewtwo paused, eyed Silver inquisitively, before letting out a psychic purr and resting her head in Silver's lap. Silver uncovered his face and looked at her in awe. "I... I did it. I got through to her!" A strange look crossed his face. "Heh... I really did show up my old man... I created a beast that can do good!" ~Silver? Silver Altimira are you OK in there?~ said Sabrina. "It's not Altimira!" said Silver. "It's Altamura!" ------------- The night after, in a Viridian theatre, a show was about to start. Looker was in the audience, watching, waiting. Eventually a man with slicked-back hair and a red suit walked up on the stage, to much applause. "Ladies and gentlemen, nonbinary pals, tonight it is my, Mr. Contesta's, great privilege of introducing to you... A man whose family name was once both famous and infamous! I give you... Dr. Silver Altamura!" Silver walked onstage. There was no applause. "My fellow scientists!" There was a hiss. "I used to believe in stern scientific rules, much like the rest of you... But I found a way to go further beyond. Me and some associates rediscovered a particular way to reconfigure a Mew's genome." The crowd gave some hushed gasps and mutters. "Ladies and gentlemen and nonbinary pals may I present, for your intellectual and philosophical pleasure... Mewtwo TWO!" The curtains opened and the Mewtwo floated onto the stage. The crowd started panicking. "Wait, wait!" said Silver. "I've got her under control." He turned to the Mewtwo. "Walk!" The Mewtwo landed on the ground and walked forward with her feet. The crowd gasped. "Now backward!" The Mewtwo complied. "As you can see," said Silver. "She's still learning the basics. But once she does..." Colress came on stage and opened a device that projected a holographic image of the Mewtwo doing various tasks. "Her phenomenal psychic powers will allow her to do a variety of beneficial tasks." The hologram switched to the Mewtwo scanning a person's brain. "Detecting Alzheimer's and tumors..." The hologram switched to the Mewtwo levitating steel beams as people and Pokemon watched. "Helping with major construction projects..." The hologram switched to the Mewtwo evacuating a burning building. "And search and rescue! And there's doubtlessly countless mo-" It was then the Mewtwo noticed the fire in the hologram. She let out a psychic scream and threw an Aura Sphere at the hologram, which sailed onward as it crashed into the back of the theatre. Colress ducked as the crowd started screaming. "W-wait!" said Silver. "She just needs to be restabilized is a-" He was knocked down by a Psystrike as the Mewtwo roared telekinetically, hurling blasts of Psychic energy everywhere until a tranq dart hit her and caused her to slump over to the ground, unconscious. ---------- When the Mewtwo came to, she was locked in an Interpol containment unit. She could see people outside, watching warily. She did nothing. She could do nothing. ----------- Back at the lab, Silver was moping, as he is wont to do, Sabrina by his side. "I failed her... Lugia damn it I failed her." ~Maybe you shouldn't have shown her off while she was still unstable.~ "I thought she was stable! But it seems there's only one way to make her so..." ~And that would be?~ "DNA transfusion. If I can transfer the right genes to cope for the damaged Mew DNA... It'd take a dangerous amount of body fluids but it could work." ~But... If I'm reading this right that could kill you. I don't think that's necessary.~ "It's worth the risk." ~Alright, it's just...~ she sighed. "What is it?" "You know how I mentioned the Black Fog incident?" ~Yeah?~ ~The Black Fog is a notorious killer Haunter. Attacked me when I was a child. Killed some of my Pokemon. I was withdrawn and hostile for years since. Took meeting a much kinder Haunter to snap me out of it. But even since... I don't like losing people. I don't think you're that bad that I'd want to be rid of you forever.~ "I... I see. Thank you. I guess." ~Be careful OK?~ It was then that Agatha entered the room. "Silver! Your phone is buzzing!" Silver checked the phone once Agatha handed it to him. "...Oh shit. Kris is coming any minute!" ------------- At the door to the estate, Silver, Sabrina, and Colress stood as Kris walked up to them. "Kris!" said Silver. "You found us!" "Are you surprised?" said Kris, smirking. "And I see you've made some friends. I recognise Sabrina but who's the other guy?" "Colress, Pokemon power researcher, at your service!" "Charmed," said Kris. "What exactly are you guys doing here?" "Science!" said Colress. "Like we-" "Yes, science, but only mundane stuff," said Silver. "Can we take your bags?" ~On it,~ said Sabrina. The bags hovered in. Kris raised an eyebrow and followed them in. ---------------- The Mewtwo was still alone in her containment unit. Quiet. Seething. Until she heard a voice. "Humans are awful, aren't they?" The Mewtwo's head cocked, her psychic powers trying to scan for the source of the voice. "Oh don't worry about me. I'm here to help!" The containment pod started to open up. The Mewtwo looked around in confusion until the pod fully opened and she could see a strange, lanky human in skimpy clothing with long hair and glowing green eyes. "Don't mind the disguise, I needed it to get in here. Rest assured I'm not one of them. But hey you're free now!" The Mewtwo stared at the new visitor oddly. "In return for me freeing you... Get some revenge on those humans for me, okay? Benefits both me and you." The Mewtwo clenched her fists. "Good girl! Now let them have it." The Mewtwo flew up and busted through the ceiling as her visitor looked on and grinned. --------------- In Viridian City, a mob was forming. Crowds of people with torches and pitchforks and knives and cattle prods and all that had gathered in front of the town hall, yelling and chanting. Eventually Looker came out to address them. "Now hold on," said Looker. "Are you all sure this is a good idea?" Unfortunately he still had a cold. "What did he say?" said a townsperson. "I think he said this was a good idea!" said another. "Alright chums then let's do this!" said a third. They all stormed off. Looker sighed and headed after. -------------- Kris and Silver were busy unpacking her bags when Kris checked her phone. "Oh dear... Apparently there's a second Mewtwo on the loose." Silver froze. "Hold on, I'm trying to see who created the thi-" Silver grabbed the phone. "I already know, it was a Rocket remnant group." "...Really?" "Yeah! One that's really good with genetics!" Kris rolled her eyes. "Those assholes don't know when to quit." "Yeah, they sure don't," said Silver, sweating. "Have you noticed it's unusually hot in here?" "I kinda have actually," said Kris. "I think I'm gonna go on a walk." "Have fun!" said Silver. Once Kris left Silver slumped onto a chair and groaned. --------- Outside the estate, off in the woods, Kris wandered down a path, her Typhlosion at her side. Suddenly the Typhlosion's ears perked up and his back stiffened. "What is it, Jet?" she said. Suddenly a chill ran down her own spine as the Mewtwo emerged from the trees. "Jet! Flamethrower now!" Jet launched a Flamethrower in the direction of the Mewtwo. It barely phased her as she launched a Psystrike back, slamming Jet into a tree. Jet growled. "Thunderpunch!" said Kris. Jet roared and lunged at the Mewtwo with an electrified paw, only to be stopped by a barrier and sent sprawling by an Aura Sphere, unconscious. Kris quickly recalled her. "Okay, new plan... Raphael, it's on you!" She sent out a Togekiss, who chirped in shock at the sight of the Mewtwo. "Hit it into submission! Air Slash!" Raphael launched a blade of air at the Mewtwo, causing her to flinch and not move. "Again!" Raphael did it again, but this time the Mewtwo's eyes glowed and a powerful Psychic blast knocked the Togetic down to earth, unconscious. "G-Go Slice!" A Scizor was sent out, who looked at the Mewtwo, then back at Kris, then back at the Mewtwo before giving Kris a "really" look. Kris sighed. "Only one thing to do... Tactical retreat!" Kris and Slice ran. The Mewtwo zoomed after... And promptly stopped when music echoed through the air. "What..." Slice shrugged. The Mewtwo drifted in a trance toward the source of the noise. Kris and Slice followed. ------------------- At the estate, on the rooftop, Silver was playing an electric violin hooked up to some very large loudspeakers, maintained by Colress and watched by Sabrina. ~Are we sure this will work?~ said Sabrina. "It's worth a shot," said Silver, still playing. "Look!" said Colress. "She's coming back!" Indeed the Mewtwo was drifting out of the woods toward them, pawing the air and mewling psychically. "Yes, that's a girl... Come back, come back..." The Mewtwo floated over to Silver, looking at him with big wide eyes. "Yes... Relax..." The Mewtwo rested her head in her lap and purred. "We've done i-" He looked over the balcony to see Kris looking up at him in utter bewilderment. "...Oh." -------------- Back in the lab, the Mewtwo was strapped to a table. Colress and Sabrina were making preparations while Kris and Silver were arguing. "You made this thing?!" said Kris. "I wanted to use this old science for good! I didn't know it'd turn out like... Like this!" "You should have!" "I know!" "And now what are you doing?" "Using my body to do a DNA transfer." "When it could kill you both?" "Yes." "Fuck... Silver, what am I going to do with you?" ~I wonder the same thing,~ said Sabrina. "It's... It's the only way I can save her," said Silver. "All... Alright," said Kris. "Just... take care." "I will," said Silver. "Everything's ready!" said Colress. Silver sighed and strapped himself into a table next to the Mewtwo, a device connecting both their heads. Colress flipped a switch and electricity started crackling. Silver drifted into unconsciousness. "Okay, we'll need exactly fifteen minutes," said Colress. "No more, no less." The trio waited. "Two minutes." More waiting. "30 secon-" It was then the angry mob burst in the room, yelling and smashing everything they could. "Wait! No!" said Kris. ~All of you shut up we still need time!~ said Sabrina. Too late. They had unplugged Silver. They were getting ready to carry him off. ~Put that human down!~ said a feminine voice. The crowd turned. The Mewtwo rose from her table. ~I said, put that human down.~ The mob did. The Mewtwo floated to her feet, looking down at the crowd. Looker pushed his way through the others. "What is going on here?" said Looker. ~I am Mewtwo Two. I seek a more befitting name but that is what you can call me for now.~ "I see that," said Looker. Agatha peeked in the lab to look on. ~As long as I can remember, humans have hated me,~ said Mewtwo Two. ~They looked at my face and body and ran away in horror. In my loneliness I decided that if I could not inspire love, which was my dearest hope, I would instead cause fear.~ She looked at the unconscious Silver affectionately. ~And yet I live because this poor half-crazed genius has given me life. He alone held an image of me as something beautiful. And then when it would have been easy enough to stay out of danger he used his own body as a sacrifice to give me more stable DNA and a more stable mind.~ "Well then!" said Looker. "It seems like you won't be a problem for these folks. Good to know you're a friendly sort." Looker offered a handshake. Mewtwo Two returned it in kind. The crowd cheered. Agatha wiped away tears. "Oh Mary Louise..." ~Thank you,~ said Mewtwo Two. "You are entirely welcome," said Looker. He looked to Silver. "What about him?" It was that moment that Silver started opening his eyes. "Trashy... Man... Huh?" he opened his eyes fully. "...Did... Did we do it?" ~Yes,~ said Sabrina. ~We did.~ Silver staggered to his feet, having to be supported by Colress, and looked up at Mewtwo Two. "How are you doing?" Mewtwo Two smiled. ~Very well. Thanks dad.~ Silver smiled back. *** Epilogue Kris gazed over the bow of the cruise ship she was on, her Typhlosion looking out with her over the waves. Soon Sabrina, and Colress joined her. "Glad you guys could join me for this vacation." ~Trust me we needed it after all that,~ said Sabrina. "The fun doesn't stop for me!" said Colress. "After this I'm heading to Alola! Designed a labcoat for the hot weather even. I've got a big client there too..." "Sounds like fun. I know Red and his buddy Blue started a thing in Alola." She frowned. "Too bad Silver couldn't come... He said he had something to take care of." -------------- Blaine and Mewtwo One were standing together on the beach south of Fuschia, waiting. It was then Silver and Mewtwo Two arrived and Mewtwo One's eyes widened in shock. "Uh, hey! Mewtwo One, I know you're just back from Rhyme City and Ferrum and all that but... you have a sister! Or niece. I dunno." The two Mewtwo looked at each other, touched hands, sized each other up, then locked eyes and stared at each other in complete silence. "...What are they doing?" said Silver. "Having a mental conversation!" said Blaine. "It's a common Psychic-type thing." "Er yeah, right." said Silver. "But I thought it'd be good for them to meet." "You thought right kid," said Blane. He raised an eyebrow at Silver. "Say, you said you did a DNA transfer to stabilize her. Any side effects? "Well. aside from the empathic connection," said Silver, "a weird draw to certain types of music and also... Pyrophobia." It was at that point Blaine's Rapidash popped out of one of Blaine's Pokeballs and gave a neigh of greeting at Silver. At the sight of the Rapidash's fiery mane Silver screamed and ran off. Blaine just laughed. ------------- In a dark cave - though not THE Dark Cave, something squirmed. "Me damn it! It didn't work! But I have plans, other plans... I just need to pull all the right strings... Those two Mewtwo can still be of use." ----------------------- Agatha was relaxing with a cup of tea when there was a knock at the door. She got up to open it and gasped at the person on the other side. "Mary Lou!" "Please, call me Madame Boss, we're professionals. I heard my brat grandson finally did it." "He did! And I helped." "That's my girl." Madame Boss leaned over and kissed Agatha. Agatha swooned. The End Whew! This whole shebang has been a long time in the making. I originally conceived of this story a few years ago brainstorming how I could justify the existence of the infamous "femtwo" from the 16th Pokemon movie and some way, somehow, Young Frankenstein got thrown into the mix. I knew I had to do it on Halloween, but it took a while because I needed Splice Of Life to happen first and after that I needed a good block of time to just... write this ahead of time. But I did, and now it's all out in the wild. ...Which means I get to move on to another project. It's a bit of a silly symphony with a bit of mystery to it if I do say so myself. You'll see it tomorrow.

[kanon-mendi]

Anime Expo 2018 Story

GOOD DAY EVERYONE!!!

I am finally back from Los Angeles and HOHOHO DO I HAVE A STORY FOR YOU!!!!! This year was the absolute BEST year from the last 3 that I’ve gone and I literally could not top any other year from now on. (7/11/18: it is 11:47 PM and i JUST finished this... :’D)

LETS START SHALL WE!!! OKAY!!!!! :D

Day 0: Arrival and Pre-Show Night

This day was pretty long. The night before, I was confirming orders and receiving payments that pretty much kept me up for a while. Also, my mom’s friend who’s a priest was in town for the week to relax a little. I needed to stay up-to-date with everything. ANYWAYS, so that morning I woke up around 8 to finish packing. Now, sadly my Tokiya LS cosplay never arrived so I had to abandon my wig that I worked tirelessly for. I just brought with me the Camus cosplay that I had. My best friend had my contacts and I asked someone to make me the wig since I didn’t know if that was also gonna arrive on-time. I finished packing, and my mom took me to the airport. I realized that my flight was later than what I predicted so we waited there for maybe 20 minutes before I had to leave. Now, because of my Cafe experience last year, I was scared and told her to please pray for me since I didn’t want that experience to ruin my year. I boarded my flight and arrived to LA. Best part about it was that I got to sit in the near front (flying with Southwest) and got out of there super quick. Upon getting to LAX, I grabbed my bag and met with Aria and out friend Sally, who was a volunteer this week. Sally was going to take a shuttle to her hotel and we took a Lyft to our AirBnB. When we got to the place, it kinda didn’t look like the pics that we saw, but we sucked it up since it was close to the convention center. Now, I was VERY hungry since I didn’t have breakfast. Aria and I arranged so we could go to Curry House for our lunch. We had plenty of food before heading to our destination, the Los Angeles Convention Center. When we got there, we went to the premier lounge to pick up our swag and then to charge my phone because I forgot my portable charger at the AirBnB. I forget how long we stayed there, but after wards we went to the Entertainment Hall to look at what they had to show. Well.... it was only me that went first because Aria was somewhere else, I forget. Anyways, while I was down there, I saw the World Cosplay Summit costumes from 2003 and after and they look so. Damn. Cool. Like, if I had the right amount of patience for cosplaying, I would definitely do it, but I got frustrated just making a badge. Can’t imagine myself doing more. Then I went to the Wacom booth because I wanted to see their amazing tablets. I also wanted to know prices because I want a new tablet since I broke the stylus and charger out of yet another frustrated episode. Tbh, I’ve been wanting a Wacom tablet for years. However, I only tried them that night because of what you’re about to read later. So, because of that problem last year at the Cafe, Aria decided that it was best for her to go alone (please remember this for later in my story) to make sure that those involved weren’t there. While she was at the Cafe, I chilled out somewhere for about an hour and for the next hour or so, I waited for her to get out. While I was out there, I kept hearing things that really made me uneasy and I was starting to freak out like ‘should I really go there tomorrow’ but I kept myself distracted with Reiji’s current event so I won’t think about the anxiety I had. So when Ari was to get her picture taken, the doors had opened so anyone on the outside could see in because the show had ended. I saw Aria and told her to please hurry because it was almost midnight and I needed to sleep. I didn’t look inside very well, which was good for me in a way because I didn’t want to see what else was in there. As me and Aria were going back and forth, lo and behold the MC, who remembered who I was and was standing AT THE DAMN DOORWAY was all like “Come inside” and I said “No!!” and he was like “Why not?” and I said “Because no!!” and that’s where that little thing ended. When Aria came out of the Cafe, she told me that the people involved in my incident from last year aren’t there this year. Meaning that my celebratory dance from the week before kept going and when we went outside, I literally yelled “FREEDOM!!!!!!!” because I was so relieved that I was going to be fine this year. I was going to enjoy this con SO MUCH because of that news that I won’t have to hide my emotions. I am free of the curse I was going through for a year. I am safe.

Day 1: 20 Hours Awake

This was the day of the Boku no Hero Academia panel with Daiki Yamashita and others (Melissa and Dave Ifgorgettheirlastname VA’s were there). As a Premier Fan badge user, I could reserve my wristband for the panel days before online to just pick it up the day of the panel. However, because Aria didn’t reserve hers on-time, we had to literally arrive at the convention center around 4-5 am. At that time, there were already about 200 people lined up for the panel wristbands. I made line for priority entrance since I had nothing better to do. Anime Jungle didn’t bring anyone cool this year, so I just had more time to look around the place before going to the premier lounge and picking up my wristband. Aria was lucky enough to get hers so that way we could go together. As I was waiting at the priority entrance, staff took us all around the place WHERE because they didn’t know where exactly the first entrance was. Maybe 3 turns around the convention center to just get us back to our original line up place WHERE WE STARTED. I was borderline tired since I’ve been up since 4 and to be taken in circles was really hitting me in my ticked of spot. So, after we were in, I was talking to a few people in line and, let’s just say I made new friends. Aria met up with me later after she had gotten her wristband. So at first, we spent some time in the exhibition hall. I went to the KLab booth to play some Shining Live. It is actually kind of hard to play on a large screen, but I had fun trying all songs (except Mirai Chizu) and it was also very hard to get the S score with the cards they had, expecially with QN songs since there’s only 4 UR instead of 7 like Starish. I tried Poison Kiss and Force Live. Still couldn’t get the S score. At around 10 I headed to the premier lounge to get my wrist band. Now, one cool thing I found that was a great addition to the Expo, it was that badge scanner feature. Meaning, if you don’t have a badge, there’s almost no way for you to be let in. It was great. That also included the Premier badge entrance. After getting the wristbands, we headed down to the west hall cafeteria tp grab something to eat before lining up for the BnHA panel. After eating, we went to line up and curse me for waiting.

ALL THESE PEOPLE WERE JUST FOR PREMIER ENTRANCE!!!!! It was absolutely crazy. Staff was great for getting us lined up and getting us in. Once we got inside, we were lucky to get seats near the front. I think we were on the 4th row. Anyways, when the panel started, they reminded us of no photo or video, which makes sense since there’s a lot of spoilers. The movie itself was AMAZING and the cast was so nice. I felt so cool amongst the thousands of fans. There were approximately 3000 fans IN THAT ROOM so y’all have an idea of how packed it was. Though what was weird is that there was an extra seat right next to me. so there could’ve been more that could go in. Anyways, getting out was much tougher because of the many people that packed up the place. We went back to the exhibition hall because we needed to pick up colored contacts for our cosplays. I have some blue ones that could work for both Camus and Tokiya. But here’s a big downer. I ordered my Tokiya SL costume June 5th. I put on the website that I needed it by July 2nd,  July 3rd at the most. On their website it said 7-12 days to make and 4-7 days for shipping. In total, it shouldve taken no more than 25 days to make and ship. BOI WAS I WRONG!!! June 25th is when I sent my first email to them saying if my costume was ready. They tell me not.

Then by June 28th, I tell them again if my costume is ready to be shipped because typically when a customer says they need it at a certain day, that should put a little pressure. Ho no. They tell me that the costume is not yet ready and they will tell me when it’s shipped out. JULY 2ND I TELL THEM I NEED TO CHANGE THE ADDRESS BECAUSE IT NEVER ARRIVED IN MY HOMETOWN IN NEVADA and they tell me it’s possible to change and I did. JULY 4TH!!! THE DAMN DAY OF MY FUCKING TRIP IS WHEN THEY TELL ME THAT MY COSTUME IS ON THE WAY!!!!! HOE, I AINT WAITING THAT LONG!!!

When I recieved that DHL email, I IMMEDIATELY changed the shipping so it arrives at the Reno office so I could pick it up because I was that done with the fucking company. BACK TO ANIME EXPO!!!!! After the Exhibition hall, we went to the Premier lounge just to relax and Aria wanted to go to Cybird’s panel. While she was there, I relaxed and went down to the Entertainment hall once more. After that, I forget what else we did and then we lined up to go to the Butler Cafe at 9:30. That was our original plan to go because I remember from previous years that they like inviting fans onstage for their birthday and I was to yell out that Aria’s birthday was in 6 months and if that counted. So we get there, and while we’re in line, Aria tells me “Hey, get a picture with Akashi. He was the host at my table and is a ton of fun.” I was like alright, a replacement!! We get inside and the guys at our table were Jiro and Takkan (?). They were the definition of fun. They literally gave us a fun time and I really wanted them at least to host my table one more time. Yes, it was that fun. Highlight of the night was when the butler dancers danced “DNA” by BTS with the original choreography and “Talk Dirty” by Jason Derulo. Now, please take in mind that “Talk Dirty” was used in the first AMV I saw of Voltage CGs. I literally died inside because I didn’t expect them to take it that far. It was fun tho!! I got the FB batch of orders, took my picture with Akashi, who was super cool cuz we talked about BnHA and was really kind. Good person.

Then I went to take my picture with the cosplayer Voltage used (insta: https://www.instagram.com/th3lazyn1nja/)

Weird part of that Voltage experience was that there were these girls WHO WERE LITERALLY FLIRTING WITH HIM AND I WAS SHOOK LIKE never in my years in life would I go that far with a stranger, HAHA NOPE. Aria tried to do a reverse kabe-don on him but failed miserably. Also remember this for later in the story. We left the Cafe and once outside, I again screamed FREEDOM because that experience was better than the last 2 years.

Day 2: Meeting Maeno

This was a blessed day for me. Tomoaki Maeno is probably the longest-running celebrity crush I’ve had. Now, I usually am not 100% open with these things because I respect their work and I respect their space, which is why I buy their stuff and watch their works to express my love for them. The day I heard that he was coming to Anime Expo, I flipped out and actually cried. Luckily I had no make-up on yet (it was my bro’s graduation) so I BLASTED Aurora and other Maeno songs I have on my computer. I called Aria so we could cry together. BACK TO AX We got up around 4 again to prepare for Maeno’s appearance that day. I did my efforts to look like Camus but I was so scared to put on the contacts. I would do it eventually, but at the moment, I just couldn’t because I hate things in my eyes and I’m super sensible to that stuff. I woke up a little earlier than Aria so I could shower, put my corset on, do my make-up and help Aria style her wig to make her look like a female version of Lupin from Code: Realize. I told her to keep her hair up since she planned on going original for the other half of the day. Before I forget, as I was getting ready and Aria was in the shower, I was watching Shunsuke Takeuchi go live on Instagram. He was promoting his new song with the unit AMADEUS. I left one comment that said, “Hello from America!!” and he replied with “Hello!! (waves) From Japan!!” which honestly made my morning and told me that I was gonna have a good day. Anyways, after we were both ready, I headed down to the convention center to start making the premier line for the Cells at Work panel, which is where Maeno was to appear. I also had to meet up with a lovely person that I asked if they could custom make my wig. I paid them for the wig order and for the design so all I had to do was pick it up and put it on. I waited inside the whole time because that day it reached around 104* outside. No way in hell would I stand outside in that weather. So anyways, it was about an hour waiting inside for the wig to come. I didn’t mind because that whole time, I was writing Maeno’s letter. I literally spilled everything I had to tell him because I really felt it was finally my time to confess to someone. I literally didn’t tell him I loved him and wish to be with him. Again, I respect an artists’ space and wouldn’t want them to know that since they’re told that same thing by many other obsessed fans. To shorten it up, I told him that I’ve been a fan for years and will always support him in his work. After getting my wig, I just played a couple rounds of Reiji’s event in Shining Live. I was top 100 this whole time and really wanted to keep my ranking. Here’s where things get a little meh. The panel was supposed to start at 11, meaning they needed to let us in around 10:30-10:45. I was getting worried because Aria was taking forever at the post office since she needed to pick up some CDs she ordered in case Maeno signed our own items. I kept telling her that it would be a little late for the panel since the staff kept saying it was capped and that no one else was allowed to get in line. The premier line kept getting bigger and general entrance was shortening. Men and women alike were filling the LP4 line area. It wasn’t until 11:45 when Aria FINALLY arrived and I said “We’re gonna be in there when it’s supposed to end.”

It was about 12:15 when we could FINALLY go inside the panel and they were STILL having technical difficulties. I was VERY patient because I REALLY needed to see Maeno. Panel didn’t start till about 12:30 ish. So the MC was really cool and made us feel like we weren’t abandoned. After she got us all warmed up, the moment of truth came. I really didn’t expect it to go so fast and, pretty much at an instant is when Maeno was invited onto the floor. When she said to give the warmest welcome to Tomoaki Maeno, I. Lost it. I had tears in my eyes, they just didn’t drip down because my body was conscious that I had make-up on and didn’t want to ruin it for that perfect person. He was literally so relaxed and so sweet to us. I honestly couldn’t find a better day to be alive. After his little intro, he got us hype for the “Cells at Work” episode. It was so funny and every time White Cell came on the screen, the audience would lose it. That included myself, which I think was the loudest of all. After the episode ended, Maeno was invited back and 3 different producers were also invited on the stage. They talked about the show and how much effort they put on it and wanted to bring as much authenticity to the series. I’m so glad I understood a lot of it or else I would’ve cheered at the wrong time. Now, most of the time I was super distracted cuz I was staring at Maeno the whole time. I just didn’t want to take my eyes of him for a single second. He’s just so beautiful in person.

Towards the end of the panel, 3 lucky people would receive a huge posted SIGNED AND DELIVERED BY MAENO HIMSELF!!!! I was a little hopeful that they would call my number, but considering my super bad luck in any raffle of any kind, I didn’t win. I was happy though that Maeno came close every time. Which just seeing him made me happy. When the panel finished, I sped out of there to the signing because 1, my friend dropped her gloves to her Cardia cosplay (not Aria, she was Lupin) and 2, I needed a good spot for Maeno’s signing. We waited there less than 40 minutes. In that time, Aria tried again to go to the post office to get her things, though I kept telling her it was no use since Aniplex had given us posters to have signed. She left either way. While in line, I was talking to the people around me and made some really good friends and got to see some old friends. BEFORE I FORGET TO MENTION!!!!!! So, in order to get a ticket to Maeno’s signing, you would’ve had to attend the talk show at the Aniplex booth in the Exhibition Hall. When I attended, they briefly talked about what we were expecting and how to get the tickets. I was near the stage and I was lucky enough to be one of the first to get that ticket.

BACK TO DAY 2 So we’re waiting in line and we’re going on and on about Maeno and all of a sudden, the girls I was talking to say “Look!!” and I turn around and there he is. Majestic as Camus was Tomoaki Maeno himself on his way to the table. I let out a little scream and waved at him. No one else but us turned around to see him. I let Aria know that Maeno was now at the tables and that he would be signing soon. No more than 3 minutes later, Aria arrived to meet us in line and prepare herself for Maeno. There’s a friend I met back in 2016 that had her 5th Stage book with Suwabe’s signature from when he came. She was WAITING for the right moment to get another UtaPri seiyuu to get it signed. Sadly, they only let us have the Cells at Work posters signed. To me, it was okay because I didn’t care what he signed, as long as I had a memoir of meeting him. The line was moving fast as some didn’t have much to say to Maeno. As it was coming to my turn, I had girls tell me to calm down and breathe cuz I was almost in tears. Then it was my turn. I gathered all my courage from my fat little self and went up to Maeno. He gave me a little chuckle cuz I think he enjoyed my little Camus cos that I put together. I told him hello and he replied with the cutest voice ever. I REMEMBER IT SO WELL!!!! I gave him my poster and he went to sign it. He told me that the ink was still wet, to be careful if I touch it. I told him okay and thank you. He told me thank you and I gathered more courage to tell him that I loved him very much. BLESS ME MORE THAT DAY BECAUSE HE TOLD ME THAT HE LOVED ME TOO!!!!!! I know that’s something he would only tell a fan, but it made me so happy inside that when Aria came back, I cried on her shoulder, I wad that happy. I am feeling emotional now as I’m writing this. Aria stayed in line to talk to a few others that had awesome UtaPri merch, who I got to interact with as well. There was one girl who had the whole Prince Team itabag and parka. She literally traveled to Los Angeles that day just to meet Maeno. Kudos to her. I got to hug her Aqua (she let me) because before the signing, I could not calm down. We left the signing and stayed at the premier lounge the whole night. This is my autograph from Maeno.

Aria went to the Sword Art Online that night and I didn’t want to go because I was so exhausted. We made jokes that day that Maeno took all my positive energy to go about his day. Tbh, if that was true, I wouldn’t mind it at all because he needed that energy to feel all the love we fans have for him. So, according to Aria, Yoshitsugu Matsuoka was very nice and cute to. **This photo was apparently okay to take since they never specified the “No Photo/Video” rule according to Aria.

I don’t know the details on that panel so please ask her (@sweetaria98) for those details for that panel. After that panel, we went outside and bOI WAS IT A MISTAKE!!!!! It was 94 outside and I was DYING of the heat. Aria had a few things to do with a friend (which i never really understood why) but I was sweating from the heat and I personally thought it was the parking garage since I felt it cooler walking away from there BUT NO!! While waiting for the Lyft to come, I WAS DYING!!!! We got back to the AirBnB and Aria went for food a little after that and we ate dinner around midnight. I was sweaty.

Day 3: Loosen Up

So we weren’t really worried too much that day since all I had to do that day was shop for the remaining items from the orders. I did, however, also happen to buy an afternoon Butler Cafe with the $50 discount code that I never used since Anime Expo never sent me that information. Aria cosplayed Otoya from Legend Star that day.

I just love how she looked that day and I’m VERY proud on how the make up and wig turned out. I bought the wig 2 months ago while I was still living in LA and I styled it once I got here. Though I couldn’t do much to the wig since the power in our room didn’t work that night or day. ANYWAYS So after buying 3 orders from tumblr, it was time to head to the Cafe. The plan was for me and Aria to go since it was the only time we could since Day 4 we had the AoT panel with Yuki Kaji. Aria was sadly late to buy her ticket and blamed me for not telling her but I also blamed her for not getting it while she could ONLINE. So I went to that Cafe alone (remember this for later). I actually had a blast that day. I went in with a bunch of people who were young and old alike and it was their first time. For me, it was my second time going in the afternoon, but if y’all remember last year, it was a shit year the first time. So it was good that I went alone and in the afternoon. I was punished like 2 or 3 times because of I forget what game. The guys at my table REALLY made it enjoyable and I had fun with their company. My first punishment that I got was that I had to do a Dragonball scream to the crowd and the second punishment was that I had to give a candle to another butler and tell him “You are the light in my life.” and the actor in me tried to make it so believable that everyone could enjoy that little show. Best part of that afternoon was when the emcee was asking for those who would like to be taken onstage for a special performance. Now, I silently (but made sure some heard) said that it’s been 3 years since I’ve been to their show and was never invited onstage. THAT COMMENT ALONE BEAT OUT A BIRTHDAY GIRL AND I FELT TERRIBLE!!!!!! In fact, I still feel terrible. After their little performance I came off the stage and they finished their act with I forget which songs. At the end of the Cafe, I took pictures with the guys at my table which were Shinomiya and Ryoga. Now, Ryoga left me with a little bug since he kept saying he remembered me from somewhere. I said that it’s my 3rd year at the cafe and if that’s where he knew me. For some reason, I got the impression that we might’ve known each other from somewhere else. I let it slide since I didn’t want to ask more details. Here’s my picture.

Wee. MOVING ON!! So after the Cafe, we go shopping for a little more at the Exhibition Hall and I went to this booth by KLab that had ALL the UtaPri games for Vita and PSP. I only bought Amazing Aria/Sweet Serenade and Music 3 with a Camus towel and charm. That there was about $150 and I didn’t want to buy Repeat Love since I was running out of money and I needed to buy the last order. So, Exhibition Hall closes and we head to the premier lounge to literally rest because we’ve been walking almost everywhere. Before I forget, so before we headed to the premier lounge, Aria ALMOST lost her premier badge. It is a $125 replacement if she actually did lose it. She didn’t really go anywhere except for one booth with I7 stuff and the Cybird booth. She was lucky enough that someone had put it on the edge of the stage at the booth and it was confirmed that it was actually her badge. Back to the story. So Aria changed out of her cosplay into something a little more comfy for her while I put on a sweater since I was FREEZING in that lounge. We waited until 8:30 so she can accompany me to the 18+ one where I was going alone. Now, remember how I said to pay attention tho those “alone” in bold, here’s why. So our friend Sally is a volunteer at Anime Expo. She pretty much has access to ANY panel she wants as long as it fits her schedule. She had just finished that day and I asked if she could hold this HUGE bag of things from the orders I got. She said she would put it in HQ in West Hall, which was in front of the Premier Lounge. I thank her so much for that favor because it was a HUGE bag and I couldn’t bring it with me to the Cafe. Alright. As I’m in line for the cafe, I’m getting nervous because it was the last night of the cafe and I thought I was alone. BOI WAS I WRONG!!!! Now, I’m not gonna say what happened that night because of how crazy it got (ask me for details later) but right before the performances, I see Sally out of the corner of my eye. My thoughts went from “YAS BEST NIGHT EVER” to “WTF HOW DID SHE GET IN?!?!?!?!” in 3 seconds. I ignored that little bit because I thought “Alright, it’s just sally, how bad can it get.” HOHOHOHOHOHOHO WAS I WRONG!!!!! At the end of the Cafe when I’m going for my 2018 worthy Cafe picture, ARIANNA WAS AT THE DAMN TABLE TOO AND I LOST MY TEMPER!!!!! I WAS LIVID BECAUSE I SPECIFICALLY TOLD HER THAT I NEEDED THAT NIGHT ALONE TO SEE IF I COULD FIND CLOSURE TO MY CURSE THAT’S BEEN AT ME FOR 368 DAYS AND IT WOULD NOT LEAVE ME ALONE AND SHE DECIDED TO TAKE ADVANTAGE OF SALLY’S PASS AND LET HER LITTLE ASS IN THERE!!!!!!!!!!!!! Y’know, I’m still livid with it. I calmed myself down, took my picture, and left.

Yes, I was that shook at the moment of my picture. Not from Ari, but the performance in general. Anyways, as we’re getting out, I tell Sally to give me my stuff back please so we could leave. We left the convention center and I did not want to speak to Ari for not respecting my space when I SPECIFICALLY TOLD HER to please leave me alone that night. We just said small talk and she got the Uber for us to go home that night. It was midnight.

Day 4: Last Day and Kaji

This day, I wanted to arrive at the hour that the Exhibition Hall opened because I needed to pick up my wristband for the AoT panel and also to buy that last order of merch that I needed to get. We headed straight to the premier lounge and then headed straight for the exhibition hall so I could buy that stuff. It was around 10 that we got there so I was in a hurry. This is when I realized something that worried me Voltage charged me almost 30% tax in every purchase. When I wanted to buy that last bit of things, I had less than $200 on my bank account. The total for something that was only supposed to be $150? They charged me $195. The person payed I think $160 (I don’t have my notebook at the moment to clarify) for the stuff and my service and HOHOHO BOI WAS I LIVID!!!! I realized that I didn’t have money now for my Lyft to the hotel for Aria and Sally and for my ride to the airport. What ended up happening is that I used what was my last $100 in cash to pay half of that payment and the rest on my card and didn’t buy anything else for the rest of the con. That also included food since it’s SUPER expensive at the convention center. I only bought some chips that morning with $2 in cash that I had from previous food purchases. Aria got them for me from a vending machine. So, we lined up for the AoT panel around 10. I was again playing Shining Live to catch up on the event to stay top 100. I hadn’t spent a single dime on the event during AX which was great. I only purchased $20 in prisms and that was at the beginning of the event. Aria went to this auction where they were selling things up to $2k probably. We don’t know cuz we didn’t stay there. We started going in around 11:30 I think since the panel started at 12. We go in and had a good seat at the front. As we were going in, they were giving out Levi and Eren pins to us. I got Levi, Aria got Eren. The panel was great, season 3 is gonna be quite a thriller for fans and I bet y’all that the OP is gonna be AMAZING if X-Japan is involved. Btw, the thing that’s pissing me off so much is that someone had the downright NERVE to take a picture of the panel when it was STRICTLY PROHIBITED AND THEY EVEN TOLD US THAT IT WAS TO BE THAT WAY!!!!!!!! Luckily they respected the BnHA but not with Yuki Kaji in that room. Anyways, Kaji was so cute and he seemed to really get along with Bryce and they both have a lot in common which is great. So after the panel, we realize that we have time to make it to the very last butler cafe show. Aria didn’t want to go since she thought it was too late and I also wanted to see if just in case that booth still had Repeat Love, which they didn’t. So at the Exhibition Hall, I wandered around a lot since I needed a new portable charger and saw that NO BODY had any to sell and the Cheero place wasn’t there this year. TTnTT So, I got bored and then decided to meet up with Aria at the Cybird booth to see what they were doing. At the booth, they were saying so many announcements and Hiroto was really nice to the fans, however time was running out. Most of you know the announcements so I’m not gonna say, but congrats to those girls who won the cut-outs of the boys from their Ikemen series. One more giveaway was done and that was to get a special picture of Hiroto as Isaac Newton (?) from Ikemen Vampire, which I’m VERY excited for because I have a thing for Vampire stories (thanks a lot DiaLovers). We played a huge group round of Rock Paper Scissors and a lot of us beat Hiroto. It was less than 50 which was great. Because time was running out, I didn’t get my photo with him this year. I mean, it’s okay since like, it was about 5 minutes from closing. After i got my prize signed by Hiroto, we left the exhibition hall and headed to the closing ceremony. We waited there for a little bit. I bought some chicken strips with my last little bit of cash and me and aria shared the tater tots. The closing ceremony was great, but I liked last years better. This one I felt too brief and just wasn’t enough. It was still fun though. After the closing ceremony, we left to the AriBnB and called it yet another year in the books.

SO THAT WAS MY ANIME EXPO 2018 STORY!!! I hope you all enjoyed it!! I tried to make it as interesting as possible with as much memory as I have from it because I felt it all go so fast. Honestly, this year was such a blessing that I don’t think any year will top this. VIDEOS BY ARIA WILL BE POSTED IN A FEW WEEKS/MONTHS!! :D I’ll be contacting the people who ordered from me soon... :’D

[bloodyfangedtiger]

3,825 Days (pt 1)

It started as a miracle cure, a promise that would help humanity. It was supposed to cure the worst virus in human history: The Ebola virus.

First, they infected a cow and then introduced a vaccine to the cow. Afterwards the cow died and the idiots responsible for disposing of the infected deceased animal sold it to some plant. The plant ground up the cow and made it into pellets which was then fed to other cows.

Those cows were then used for food products, such as milk, cheese and meat which were put into supermarkets and fast food restaurants for the public. Hours after consuming this, people started to change. They projectile vomited blood as it seeped from their eyes and ears while their skin blistered into large boils that burst with puss.

The government isolated cities and immediately started to develop a cure, an antivirus. Anything to save the people...

But it only made things worse. The new "cure" only mutated the human DNA further, turning them into grotesque creatures that were straight out from a child's nightmare.

In typical cases, the infected's skin peels off to reveal raw muscle while their mouths enlarge. These beings have been called Titans, in regular cases they're slow but in abnormal cases they're fast and sometimes they can jump.

Then there's the not so normal cases where the mutations are more excessive. Such examples of this are cases of infected being able to climb walls; breathe a concentrated version of the virus into the air; vomit acid; grow large claws; etc.

The people who have encountered these creatures have given them names for identification some from old video games and others from movies. But each person has thought of a different name for them, anything to cope.

Three years after infection

"Eren, don't be afraid. It's just a little shot." A man said as he held down a young boy, his skin was peeling off as his blood dripped on the poor boy's back. He started to pull up the boy's shirt, exposing his bare back. The blood pooled down on the boy's tanned back, making him shiver.

"Le-let me go, sir." the boy squirmed and writhed under the large man who was currently holding him down while wearing a pair of shorts as his skin fell away from his muscle.

The boy let out a silent cry, wondering where his mother was at this time.

Who is he? Oh his name is Eren Yaeger, a boy of roughly eight years old who is living in one of the refugee villages that was formed after the outbreak. He was on his way to the clinic with his mother when this creep attacked him, a nurse who is clearly infected but also seems to have taken a liking to the boy.

Eren screamed when blinding hot pain flashed through his body, turning his senses numb. His head lolled forward as he began to lose consciousness and his vision turned black.

Eren's POV*

I woke up with a start on the copter, shaking my head till the past wasn't flashing before my eyes.

"Sleeping at a time like this, Jaeger?"

I looked up to see Commander Erwin standing over me, his blonde caterpillars furrowed in amusement.

I stifled a yawn and shook myself a little "Sorry, Commander I guess I was a bit tired."

He laughed "Nothing to feel sorry about, although I was concerned when you were whimpering in your sleep and had your eyes scrunched up. Having a nightmare perhaps?"

I bit my lip, feeling shamed that the commander of all people saw me like that. "Just thinking about the past, sir. About when I got bitten by a Titan when I was a kid."

He nodded "I heard about that, it was by a friend of your father's right? A nurse who got infected from a vial of bad blood."

I hung my head and nodded "He was a good guy, practically a member of our family. We didn't know what his real intentions were till I got bit."

I held onto the key around my neck "My mother gave me this key as an heirloom of our family. The diamond in its eye is our family crest she told me, before she was eaten." I relaxed into my seat, the butt of my rifle resting against my shoulder while the muzzle pointed down rage at the floor of the copter.

"Sometimes it's good to talk about the past, Eren. It helps us find closure." the Commander smiled down at me which got me to smile back.

I grabbed my rifle tightly when the floor beneath me began to shake "Are we landing, Commander?"

He shook his head "We shouldn't be for another two hours."

The shaking was getting worse, a few bolts were coming loose from the walls and floor. The seat beneath me was rattling dangerously, making my bite mark active and ache terribly.

Sgt. Kirchstein ran up to us from the cockpit "Commander! The chopper is going down!"

I had a split second to react before the Sgt wrapped his arms around me and shielded me with his body.

Third person POV*

The copter crashed to the ground in a ball of fire, scattering her passengers much so like a dandelion scattering its seeds.

Eren rolled on the ground but was surprisingly unharmed. He got to his feet and immediately got on his radio "SCOUTS here, anybody alive from copter 347?"

"Yeah, I'm alive. How are you suicide bastard?"

"Nothing major, I'm going to look around. See if I can find some supplies or transport."

"Be on the look out for Titans and abnormals. Commander out."

Eren nodded and started walking, finding himself in some woods with lots of saplings surrounding him.

He kept walking till he found a train, feeling a sense of relief he boarded the train and checked his flanks and started to look around. He flipped on the flashlight on his rifle and swept the room, letting his sights fall upon a discarded wrapper.

Curious, he walked over and picked up the wrapper but immediately dropped it. "Shit, this is not good." He contacted his team "SCOUTS here, Agent Eren Jaeger. Commander Erwin we have a situation. Do you read me?"

"Erwin here, what's the problem?"

"I found an abandoned train, and a Happy Giant Burger wrapper." he kept looking around till he found a trolley full of Happy Giant Burger burgers. Only two of them untouched while at least fifty of them were unwrapped and devoured. "Correction, I found more than a dozen wrappers."

"What's Happy Giant Burger?" The Commander asked.

"You don't know sir? Happy Giant bought most of the tainted meat. They're mostly behind all of the outbreaks. If Jaeger found them then he might as well pack it in."

Eren frowned and fixed his rifle "You know, Jean I'm getting really tired of your attitude. Did you forget who beat your record back at the academy?"

There was a snort on the other end, most likely from the Commander. "He's got you there, Kirchstein. Keep an eye out for any infect-" static started to cut through on the radio's channel then suddenly there was nothing but silence. Eren swallowed but kept his guard up, he knew what needed to be done and he didn't need any supervision. He would go on this mission on his own.

He swept his light around the darkened train car, finding nothing except empty wrappers. "And Jean wonders why I don't eat fast food anymore." he murmured to himself. He looked down at the ground and saw something almost gelatinous on the ground of the train car "What the?" he laid down his rifle and bent down to inspect the odd thing when he felt fingers brush against his hair. He looked behind him and saw the most grotesque creature to ever exist. It was tall, bony and had parts of its muscles exposed. Not to mention that it was slimy and appeared to have no tongue; the creature looked to be male and possibly a passenger of this train according to his, or its, civilian attire.

Eren flipped onto his back and started to crawl backwards while he drew his pistol to fire at the creature. Before he could even aim it properly, the creature smacked the weapon out of his hands and sent it flying across the train car. The young SCOUTS agent panicked and let out a cry as the monster bent down to lunge at him.

"Nnngh!" He heard a grunt and looked up just in time to see a man with black hair, silver eyes and pale ivory skin swing from the rafter of the train car and slam his feet dead center into the infected man's chest before landing with a thump on the floor of the train car on his feet. Eren gulped as he caught sight of the handcuffs dangling from the newcomer's left wrist. On his right arm tattooed on his skin is an enormous pair of black wings and the SCOUTS symbol. He wore no shirt and only a pair of jeans.

"Oh right, be on the lookout for this guy." Jean handed Eren a case file "He's ex-military, used to be one of us. If you see him, arrest the fucker."

The young agent grabbed his rifle and pointed it at the man with shaking hands "Yo-you're Captain Levi Ackerman, the escaped prisoner!"

[charmingxsmiles]

feel again: ten

feel again

It was becoming harder and harder to live with Rhian. I didn’t hate having her here, in fact, I was glad she was here, problem was, I was getting used to having her here. And my feelings? The one that I thought I buried, were back full force and I didn’t even know where to place myself. There were only 2 days left before we embarked on our tour for our China leg.

Thankfully, we didn’t have any work lined up in China except for our concerts. I’ve missed doing assignments, but it was a nice break.

This type of thing could take a toll on you.

To enjoy my last few days off, Rhian and I decided to cook dinner and just have a day off from the world. Just the two of us, cooking together and drinking. Seung Ri tried to invite himself, but he should know how much I value my alone time with her. I’ve been selfish with Rhian, but could anyone blame me?

After her confession yesterday, I understood her better. The way she was, it wasn’t due to the fact of all the people she had killed, it was cause of her child. She lost something so dear to her and instead of having the person you love by your side to support you; Victor abandoned her.

I already hated the guy, but after what I heard, I would pull the trigger with no hesitation. No one hurts Rhian, not if I can help it.

His mother had a bullet with her name on it too.

I may act with my emotions, but that’s due to the fact that instead of weakening me, it is my drive, my motivation. Emotions played such a big part in our music and in some strange ways, it played such a big part in our missions as well.

Amelia seemed to have this crazy idea that emotions made you weak, but it made you stronger. Your emotional connection to people kept you sane, kept you from going to the deep end. We all heard about Amelia’s story, how she killed with no qualms and how she became the top agent in Maquina. I would never want that on anyone, especially Rhian. It seemed that Rhian was almost there, but she was reeled back in.

Whoever did it, bless their fucking soul.

Currently, Rhian was in the kitchen cooking and I was out on the patio, taking a cigarette break. She hated the fact I smoked, she always had, but she never tried to bug me about it. I looked back at her and I noticed she’s been on her phone much more often than before. I never tried to pry on her privacy, but I just found it weird.

She wasn’t acting different, but whenever she was on her phone, I could tell it was a serious matter because her face was just void of emotions. She would call Juno, walk out of the room, and then come back like nothing happened.

I tried not to question her, I know she would tell me when she wanted to.

But that didn’t mean I wasn’t dying to know what the hell was going on.

I joined her in the kitchen, sitting by the counter and watching her as she concentrated on the task before her. Rhian was a good cook, but she was boasting how she got better. I challenged her to prove it and here we were now. With me watching her cook and I relaxed.

Watching the scene before me, it pinched my heart since this was what I always wanted with Rhian. It was what I dreamed. That we would be together, with her living with me, her waiting for me to come home or whatnot since if she was a teacher, she would be home way before me, and we would just spend our time together.

I love Rhian so much and as much as I would like to say the ship has sailed, it hasn’t.

She thought of herself as a monster, but she wasn’t, I saw her as someone who went through hell and back, now she was trying to recover. No matter what she thought, she was still the same person, more mature, more experienced, but the same person.

“You never liked to cook,” I said to her as she concentrated on cutting the fish in front of her.

“I lived alone during college, you either learn or rely on fast food.” She smirked. “I relied on fast food, but whenever we did a physical activity in the academy, I would become out of breath too quickly. I began to eat better and work out as well.”

“Michael didn’t stay with you?” This was a good way to truly find out what happened between the two.

“He was always away with Amelia, he was a crucial part of her team so he was gone often.” Rhian cut up the fish so smoothly that she was either professional with knives or really liked sashimi.

“You two seem to be off course.”

She placed the knife down then, wiping her hands with the towel beside the cutting board. Shrugging her shoulders she spoke, “I think you’re reading too much into it.”

“You think I am or you just don’t want to talk about it? Come on Rhian, I want to know about you. I’ve told you so much about me, it makes me feel like a terrible friend to not know what’s going on with you.”

She sighed, sitting beside me. “My brother and I are not as close as before. Victor drove a wedge between us due to my brother’s disapproval of him.”

“No one is ever good enough for you in your brother’s eyes.” I should know, Michael never thought I was good enough for Rhian. At first, he was okay with me, but I think he noticed the shift of my feelings towards Rhian. That’s when he became less approving of me. He didn’t want us to be alone, but their aunt was always able to talk him down.

“I know, but this was after the whole miscarriage.” Rhian was tapping her fingers on the counter, a habit she did when she was talking about something that made her nervous, something that she was unsure of how to approach. “When Victor changed, he didn’t exactly hold back in front of my brother. If anything, he became distant with my brother as well. He became reckless and was causing problems. My brother wanted me to take care of him since he knew too much, and I couldn’t do it.”

“Michael would tell me how I was able to kill all these other people yet, I couldn’t kill a threat like Victor.” Rhian continued. “I understood his concerns, but I always believed that he wouldn’t be idiotic enough to actually and try to cross Maquina.”

“How was Victor a threat?”

“He knew of Maquina and the Leon’s connection. More than once, he had threatened that he may slip and reveal things to our enemies, to the Leon’s enemies. He knew too much about Maquina too, cause of me.” Rhian halted the tapping of her fingers and now intertwined her fingers in a prayer like formation. “Victor was so harmless before I came into his life.”

“You can’t possibly think that, he was a part of a crime organization.” She was an idiot for even suggesting that. If you’re a part of a crime organization, it’s basically in your DNA,you weren’t harmless. Maybe less threatening than others, but he was not harmless.

“He was never truly one of us till you came along.” She recited that sentence as if it was a mantra.

“What?”

“It’s what Raymond Leon told me once,” Rhian said with a bitter smile. “I made Victor criminal organization material.” She chuckled then. “He was terrible, like one of those disposable goons in a movie. But with my influence, I made him a crime lord.”

“After you miscarried, his behavior amplified?”

“Yes, he was beginning to make too much noise and the government did not like it.”

“What did you do since you didn’t choose to kill him?”

“I tried to talk him down,” Rhian stood up again and I knew this method. She was going to try and distract herself so she didn’t have to talk about this anymore. And for once, I’ll let her run. This was supposed to be a good night. I shouldn’t have pushed.

“Baby, I’m sorry,”

“It’s okay,” she gave me a smile. “Michael told me I should talk to you about this, I’ve never exactly tried to talk to anyone about those terrible years after the miscarriage.”

“Is that when you’re kill rate increased?”

She simply nodded her head, opening the over to check on the chicken she was baking. “It becomes easy.” Closing the over door once more, she placed the sashimi onto a plate.

“What does?”

“Killing people.”

“I know,” I always thought killing people would be difficult and it was, in the beginning. But the more lives I took, the easier it became. It was second nature at this point. I didn’t revel with my actions, but I knew it was a necessary evil.

She looked at me once again as she slid over the plate over to me. One of the most captivating things about Rhian was her eyes. Once she made eye contact with you, she held it and it was so hard to look away from her. Her hazel green eyes were so different for me. It wasn’t the best thing about her, but it definitely got my attention the first time we met. Ever since then, she had me hooked and I honestly don’t know how I could ever part from her.

Not that I wanted too, but it didn’t seem feasible. These past few years, my feelings became dormant, they were there, but it did not make too much noise. Now, it was screaming and I know it won’t stop. I was a fool to think they’ve gone away.

The way I felt about her, it’s not one of those things that you could just brush aside and forget in a few years. They always say the person you love would always have a part of you. She always had a part of me and I don’t want it back, if anything, I want to have a piece of her.

It was a weird dynamic. There were times that I felt that maybe we had a chance and there were other times that I wanted to slap myself for even thinking that something could happen between us.

“Are you dating Simon-sshi?” My question obviously threw her off since she dropped the spoon that she was using to taste the Galbitang.

“What?” She let out once she regained her composure.

“I noticed how you reacted the first night we met again when your brother and Justin informed you that Simon was coming. Is he an ex? Or someone you’re currently dating?”

“No, lack of a better term, he’s my fuck buddy.”

“Excuse me?” Rhian never liked the fuck buddy type of relationship, I should know, she judged me when I had one. Now that she has one, I had an urge to call her a hypocrite, but at the same time, for what? She was an adult who was allowed to partake in such activities even if it made me jealous.

“You know what a fuck buddy is, you’ve had some during your hay day,” the teasing tone in her voice slightly made the situation better.

“Just never expected for you to have one,” I watched as she picked up the spoon she dropped and she placed it in the sink. Then it hit me, we were fuck buddies. Well, not really, cause she never wanted to label us as such. She stated I was her teacher and I was teaching her how to have sex. Not sure what that even meant, but she was adamant we were not fuck buddies.

“Is this a double standard situation cause I swear to god, I’m going to punch you at your throat.”

I laughed at her words, shaking my head. “No, of course not. When we were younger, you gave me such flack for having a fuck buddy, I’m surprised you would have one now.”

“Simon’s a good looking guy, I’m not looking for a relationship and neither is he. We know our boundaries and stick to them.” I studied her then, just making sure she wasn’t trying to throw me off her trail, but she wasn’t, she was being truthful. “After Victor, my perception on relationships are fucked up, I much rather keep my baggage to myself.”

“Some people don’t mind the baggage, isn’t the point of a relationship to work through your issues together?” I was obviously reaching, but I couldn’t help it.

She raised an eyebrow at me then, a sly smirk appearing on her lips. “I don’t think that counts if the issue is prior the start of said relationship.”

“What if you’ve known each other for some time and it wouldn’t hurt to give relationships another try?”

“It’s not bad being single, you don’t have to worry about another person and the only person you really have to worry about is yourself.”

“That sounds like a lonely life.” I don’t even know what I’m saying because I lead a lonely life. In this industry, its hard to be with anyone because of the demanding schedule and due to the expectations placed upon male idol singers. I adore our fans, but it’s impossible to have a private life. But I guess its what I gave up when I chose this life. Though, they don’t know our biggest secret, but I’m sure if they ever found out, we would have a massive crisis in our hands.

“After what I’ve been through, a long life of solitude is something I crave. I want to go to a place where no one knows me, where I can start anew.” The hopeful smile on her lips made me want to give that to her, but we were both realist and knew that would be impossible.

“Did you truly never know I was in love with you?” I had to ask, the one time we had it out, I don’t think we truly know what we were saying. Now that the anger has subsided and we were back to being friends, I really wanted to pick her brain about this. I wanted to pursue Rhian, but I wanted to make sure I wasn’t forcing her or wasting my time. If she wasn’t interested, I could take a no.

“No, I didn’t,” she turned off the stove along with the oven. “Food is ready.”

“Why did you lie?”

“It was the only thing I could come up with. I assumed you wouldn’t come after me and respect my wishes. But now that you’ve told me you were in love with me, I made a mistake.” She turned to face me, placing her forearm on the counter, leaning against them. “Since we’re being truthful, I did find you attractive when we were younger, but you’re my best friend, as cliché as it sounds, I knew we had boundaries. Besides, you were really into that one girl.”

“You truly were the only thing that made me forget her.” Her words caught me then. “Wait, do you still find me attractive?”

For once, I saw her blush. Her cheeks showed a slight tint of pink as she turned around to get the food she had cooked and placed it on the dining table. I couldn’t let this one go.

“Yah! I was asking you a question!”

“Rhian, you’re an amazing cook,” I told her as I poured more wine in her glass after pouring some on mine.

“Thanks oppa, I told you I was a good cook.” She playfully stuck her tongue out at me.

I smirked. “You should always cook for me, I’ll hire you as my personal chef.” This was our 4thglass of wine and I knew it was getting to the both of us.

Currently, we were on my couch, with Rhian’s legs resting on my lap, her head against the couch as she looked up at me. She gave me a soft smile, playing with the fingers of my hand that was resting on her knee.

“I’ve always loved your smile,” she stated as she closed her eyes for a moment. “Whenever I was afraid, I would think of you and all I saw was your smile. It kept me going.”

“When we were kids?”

“No, until now,” she opened her eyes. “When I lost my baby, all I wanted to do was call you, to hear your voice soothing me, to tell me that everything was going to be okay.”

“Why didn’t you call me?” It was stab in the heart to hear that. The situation as out of my control, but the fact that she wanted to call me during the time of her greatest need, it made my heartache. I should have made more of an effort to find her, I almost did, but Maquina blocked my attempt. Her location as locked then all of a sudden it was erased. I didn’t know what happened then, but I’m almost certain one of the Maquina agents erased her whereabouts so I couldn’t find her.

“Because I was embarrassed, after what I did to you, who was I to call you?” I could see her eyes watering, but no tears came down. “What was the hardest mission you’ve ever had to do?”

“Crossing over to North Korea to retrieve a package that held sensitive content regarding their nuclear program.” I didn’t think I was going to make it out, but somehow, I did.

“Do you go to the North often?” There was a slight worry in her voice and I softly squeezed her knee, to let her know it was okay.

“Not often, maybe once or twice a year.” I took a sip of my wine. “How about you?”

“Victor.”

“What?” That threw me off. “Victor was your assignment?”

“Raymond Leon was worried about his only brother’s son. It seemed that his mom was whispering lies into his ear and Raymond wanted me to make sure that Victor wouldn’t go insane just like his mother.” Rhian begun. “My assignment was to build a relationship with Victor, be his friend, a confidant.”

“He knew you were in Maquina, how could that be?”

“At first, he wasn’t as opposed to Maquina, he just didn’t understand why the Leon’s had to be partnered up with our agency. When we first met, it was set up. Raymond was confident that Victor would take a liking to me and he did.” She drank her whole glass in one drink. “And the rest is history.” Placing her glass on the coffee table in front of us, she went back to her position.

“Did Victor ever find out?”

“Yes, part of a reason why he came to hate me so much, his mother told him.”

“His mother sounds like a great person.”

Rhian laughed. “She’s the absolute best, I would strangle her out of love and admiration.”

I looked at Rhian then, her eyes were closed, her lips slightly parted. They were so inviting, but I didn’t want to overstep.

“Can I be honest?”

“Of course.”

“You’re the best kiss I’ve ever had.”

I had to smirk at that. She was working wonders for my ego. “Am I now?”

She nodded her head, opening her eyes, biting her lower lip.

Fuck.

Rhian was pushing it and I don’t know how much more I have in me to stop myself.

“Why am I the best?”

“I don’t know,” she shrugged. “You just know how to kiss well.” A giggle escaped her lips. “Can I tell you another secret?”

Drunk Rhian was the best Rhian.

“Of course.”

“I had the biggest crush on you when we were younger, but when I saw you become infatuated with your ex-girlfriend, I knew I never had a chance. She was so pretty, intelligent, nice and she was older.” Rhian pouted. “Every time I saw you two together, it was terrible, but she made you so happy.”

“Rinnie,” I breathed out.

Before I could get another word out, Rhian’s lips were pressed against mine and everything shut down for me. Being able to feel her lips against mine again, to taste her once again, it was far more intoxicating than any alcoholic beverage I have.

She moved, straddling me as she wrapped her arms around my neck. I couldn’t believe she made the first move, but there was no argument from me.

One of my hands cupped her face, while the other went under her shirt, holding her hip so she would stay still on my lap.

God, this woman was going to be the death of me.

A shrilling tone broke us apart. We looked at one another before looking at the source of the noise and it was my door.

We both stood up, with Rhian trailing behind me.

“You know, I should be in front of you, I’m supposed to be protecting you.”

I gave her a look and she held her hands up.

Looking through the peephole, I saw Justin on the other side. I gestured for Rhian to get the door as I walked back over to the couch to sit down.

“Justin? What’s going on?” Rhian questioned him.

“Ian, we have an emergency meeting. I’ve been trying to reach you and got no answer.” Looking beyond her, he waved at me, which I returned. I never hated Justin till today. He had to come now? What emergency could there be on a Wednesday night?

“About?” I heard Rhian ask.

I didn’t here Justin’s reply, but it seemed to sober Rhian up quickly since next thing I knew, she was rushing towards the dinner table to retrieve her phone.

She stopped by me and gave me a sheepish smile. “Sorry our night is cut short, they need me at headquarters.”

“We’re going to have to talk about what happened earlier.” I wasn’t going to let her run. This was my opportunity, she obviously felt something. She wouldn’t kiss me if she didn’t.

“And we will,” she gave me a reassuring smile. “Don’t wait up, I’ll be there till tomorrow, I’ll most likely sleep there.”

“You sure you don’t want me to come?” I was worried now. Why did she have to sleep at Maquina and not just come back here? Wasn’t she supposed to be protecting me?

“It’s fine, just an update about the situation in Europe.” She slipped her jacket and walked over to Justin. “Bye oppa!”

With that, she left, closing the door behind her.

Dynamics have changed and I was glad we kissed.

Maybe we could take the next step, if she was willing to open her heart again.

[amandaj718]

State of the Robron Fandom (As I See It)

I was raised on the American soap opera. Mostly CBS soap operas. That means I grew up watching The Young and the Restless, As the World Turns, Guiding Light and The Bold and the Beautiful. I had a slight flirtation of General Hospital in college, watching for three years before taking a break never to return but I keep up. I loved and hated all the characters that ran through the television screen and into my life.  I enjoyed reading the soap magazines to hear what others were thinking about my favorite and hated storylines.  

As I grew up, those magazines remained (most of the soaps did not) but added to that was social media.  It started out on message boards, moved to fanfiction.net, then LiveJournal then Twitter, Tumblr, and Achieve of Ours.  Since then soaps have changed, well the American ones at least. The ratings fell, and so did its existence.  

Since then, I have moved on.  British soap operas are catching my eye. Emmerdale, in particular.  Well, Robert and Aaron are what caught my eye.  The rest of my love for the show came with time. Anyway, with that came a new fandom. An intense fandom is full of different personalities and opinions.  Full of talented and smart people A fandom that is loud and very proud of those different views and talents.  Which is great. When things are going well.  This is what I’ve seen in the Robron fandom and where I stand on it.

Echo Chamber of the Freak Out

Ah. Social media is great to meet likeminded people. Get those opinions out, so it does not sit there in your brain taking away space you need (I know that is not how the mind works, it just feels that way sometimes).  It can be a lot of fun to be part of a television fandom.  Getting other viewpoints on a scene or character.  What is even more fun? Talking speculation and spoilers….until it is not.

Social media has a tendency to make one person’s worry or anger echo.  All it takes is one popular account to get upset or overexcited, and the effect is heard from Twitter to the most primitive of message boards. The echo chamber is quite strong in the Robron fandom.  This is not a new phenomenon but can be trying when people get upset about every little thing every day.

Stop the Hate

With the echo chamber comes the echoed opinions.  Different opinions are needed.  That is what makes a fandom interesting.  However, fandom is not fun when people are attacking each other or attacking the actors or workers on a show. Why am I beating around the bush here? I have seen it more and more with Emmerdale lately.  Not on Tumblr, this is showing up on Twitter.  That echo chamber causes people to lash out more because they feel they have some backing if someone challenges them.  I have fallen into that trap before. It is not pretty especially when you look back after the anger has passed.

Spoilers and You

Spoilers are a must in the soap world.  It keeps us aware of what is coming, what to get excited about and what to prepare for. Let’s just say that on spoiler days, things get crazy. People freak, get excited or go back to their fanfiction they were reading.  

Spoilers are not new. I remember waiting excitedly for my Soap Opera Digest to arrive so I could know if Michelle and Danny were getting back together that week! (Look it up, kids). It was fun to think about what would happen.  Now? It is like a battlefield. Spoilers come out from numerous sources trying to get our attention. So, they click bait, they scare, they embellish, and that gets everyone upset. It becomes less of a report of what is to come and more of a death march to freak out land.

Where I Stand

I feel like the fandom is feeling torn.  Some are offended by the current storyline. Offended enough to stop watching. Some are offended over how it got started. The fact the show will not cover consent, how quickly we went from a big high to a major low and the abuse Robert and Aaron have gone through.  People are getting letters from Leon the intern, people are arguing with each other over tiny differences of opinion and people are threatening the official social media account.

Here is where I stand. This story sucks. It does. It feels like we are in the pit after being at the highest of highs. There are pacing, writing and general lack of communication problems.  However, things aren't that bad.  Seriously. Let me explain.

The framework of this story is classic soap.  What is interesting and changes the game are the players in the story.  Not only are they not following the standard script they are changing up the game.  Robert is growing. Not only did he have to get drunk, thought he was broken up with Aaron and have no contact with him for the cheating to happen, he immediately regretted it, told Chas and even told Aaron because he knew he should not because someone pressured him into it. Aaron still has to grow, but I see it coming with this individual story.  Rebecca…sigh...I am sorry to say was screwed over.  I cannot stand her. I do not like her. I do not have to like her. Not liking her does not make me anti-women. It does not make me a terrible person. She is a poorly written character. I can only judge her based on what we have seen from her not what we wish we seen from her as a character. That is where the fandom divides. I know what people wanted to see from her, but it's not there. Stop pretending it is. Take her at face value. That is what the writers do. They only take her at face value to push the Robert and Aaron story forward. That is where this classic soap story goes off course. Rebecca is not a factor. Robert will not magically fall for her because she is carrying his child. She is a mistake, and that mistake has consequences that are going to stick. Like we have been told by so many people in the past year, Robert always gets away unscathed. Now, he is has been struck.  He loves Aaron with all his heart, and that will not change anytime soon.  

Which brings me to the baby. The baby is not really a factor. Yes, Robert will step up and try. Why? He is not a monster. Of course, he would love his baby (until that DNA test is done we can always assume something is up) and want to take care of him or her.  Doesn’t make him love Aaron any less. There is a difference between loving a kid and loving your partner or spouse. The baby causes drama that the two of them must get through. They will falter and fall but ultimately find their way back and even stronger than ever, regardless if a child is there are not.  

This brings me to some fan issues.  Everyone has the right to be angry. Everyone has the right to hate what is happening.  To take it out on other fans though, I have a problem with that. I do not agree with a lot of opinions, but I do not question those opinions. I let people have them and move on with my life.  That includes some of the options on Iain MacLeod.  I personally don’t think he is bad at all. In fact, I am thankful he has shown up.  Why? He turned Robert into a well-rounded character. He let Robert make mistakes and grow from those mistakes. He let Robert start talking about his bisexuality.  He was allowed to be there for Aaron in a way that he was not during the Kate Oates era.  I think people forget that Kate had turned Robert into a one-dimensional villain that never intended for Aaron and Robert to become something bigger than an affair.  It might seem like Iain is putting Robert and Aaron through the ringer but without him, we would not even be here right now.  Both are fantastic storytellers, but Iain is the one to bring us the biggest events that made Robron what Robron is. I believe he loves them. I really do. As someone who has heard a ton of showrunners talks about couples, I have never heard the phrase “soulmates” come out of their mouths. Iain does care. People are allowed to disagree. I just think he is going through a rough patch right now.  They will right the ship soon. I believe all of these parallels and themes popping up in the show have a reason.  We will not get answers right away, but I think this will all come to a satisfying conclusion.

As for spoilers and freak outs. Its ok to be scared for what is coming. Morale is low right now, so every little thing creates drama.  Sometimes certain Twitter accounts love the attention, so they make spoilers seem bigger than they appear.  Sometimes spoilers look one way on the page and play out a different way on screen. Shall I bring up the spoiler that Aaron will ditch Robert to hang with Adam? PLEASE. Adam wanted to hang with Robert in the end. In fact, that part of the scene was great. Sometimes it is easier to read the spoilers, shrug and wait for everything to play out on screen. It is fun to speculate (I should know) but don’t take it so far that it ruins the enjoyment of the story or show.

The last point I want to cover.  The threatening of leaving the fandom.  If you are upset by the story or show just leave for a while. No one is stopping you.  When you are emotionally ready to come back, we will be here welcoming you with open arms.  You do not have to make others leave with you.  I know if I were so upset that I tell off a Twitter account run by people outside of the show every day, I would take a break.  For my own sanity. Doesn’t mean other people have the same problems or low tolerance level.  

I know it is hard and this storyline sucks, but I feel like everyone is jumping to conclusions way too easily these days. I feel like we need to let this play out. Let all the players they put on the storyboard play their parts.  It is a story. When you read a novel or watch a movie, do you get all the pieces or understand the plot right away? No. You must keep going and let the story play out. Same with Emmerdale and Robron.  Just need to keep a positive attitude, keep talking things out with fellow fans if you are frustrated and just let the story play out. Have faith. Things will get worse before it gets better but I see it getting better.

If it does not? We can all blame Intern Leon. (wink)

So, take this with a grain of salt.  I am just someone who grew up watching soaps and understand what is required of a soap to keep moving forward.  The plots do not always go to plan. Fans push back. However, sometimes fans get a surprise.  The only way we can know if this story will turn out a surprise is if we keep watching and supporting the show.  Social Media has made fan panic louder than ever, but we have each other to talk to now when things get bad. Let us use those conversations on social media to be a bit more positive and supportive and we will be ok.   

[rodan-flyingmonster-blog]

Characters Want: Even in Kaiju Eiga

When I was teaching intro fiction during my MFA, one of the things I’d tell students was that envisioning a story was as simple as determining specifics for the following: someone wants something in a time and place.

From there, the author’s imagination can run wild. Who is the person? What are they after? Is it immediate or long-term? Concrete or emotional? Do they live in Russia during the collapse of the Soviet Union, or in your apartment building two doors down in 2016? You know they’re going to go after what they want, or at least fail to do so in some interesting, deeply imagined way, and so they find themselves at the center of their own story. We’ll get to open the window on an emotionally charged moment in their lives, and close it when the moment is done.

When people think of kaiju movies, they do not envision characters this way. Perhaps it’s because they play a visual second fiddle to their 80-meter (fify, if you’re a purist) co-stars. Perhaps it’s because for many of the genre’s high points, they’ve been pleasantly rendered archetypes. That’s okay. What I’m about to lay out is that the characters should still want. More specifically, and something understood by prominent Golden Age Godzilla screenwriters Takeshi Kimura and Shinichi Sekizawa, and more recently Hideaki Anno, their wants should dovetail with the monster action onscreen. That is, their desires and personalities should give them a reason to be involved with Godzilla and all of his monstrous cohorts. Never should it feel as if they’re simply there, trapped in the wrong place at the wrong time.*

I feel like every time I wind up discussing Godzilla 2014 on Toho Kingdom, I get closer and closer to creating a full-on Plinkett-style review of why despite all the right visual and design choices, it winds up being an emotionally hollow experience. Basically, it comes down to realizing that the reason Godzilla movies register isn’t simply because they feature a giant, fire-breathing invincible saurian, but because the people affected by his presence afford for interesting stories and commentary. It’s about realizing that, in fact, all the surface-level elements can be right, even beautifully executed, as is the case in that film, and the movie can still ring hollow because the characters it involves are simply ciphers who happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. I thought surely this was an issue shared by any number of the less stellar Japanese entries--characters whose involvement feels incidental, and therefore has trouble saying anything emotionally or intellectually--but let’s actually do a quick breakdown. In how many movies do the characters have a personal reason to be involved in the action, and in how many are they simply around because they’re in the wrong place at the wrong time?

A full breakdown of all the motivations among focal characters in Godzilla movies:

Godzilla (1954): A love triangle places three young people at the center of a decision that will shake Japan and the Earth when Godzilla arrives. Meanwhile, Professor Yamane’s justified interest in Godzilla as both a zoological find and a goldmine of research in combatting radiation poisoning puts him at odds with both his family and the government.

Godzilla Raids Again: We get a relative sense of what side-character Kobayashi wants, which gets some pathos out of a decision he makes in the climax, but by and large this is a story of characters in the wrong place at the wrong time. Does anyone love this movie?

King Kong vs. Godzilla: Mr. Tako’s desire for a kaiju-sized spectacle puts him and his hapless employees at the center of a brawl between Godzilla and Kong. An inventor and his loved ones get thrown into the mix due to the usefulness of his invention and proximity to the above-mentioned characters.

Mothra vs. Godzilla: In the second-best movie in the franchise (no arguments), our first among many teams of spunky reporters and scientists’ humanitarian interests put them at odds with both the slimy fat-cats laying claim to Mothra’s egg and the transgressions of human governments as they appeal to Infant Island’s better side. (Of note: The movie rightfully gets flack for their presence in the climax, in which they’re tasked with saving a bunch of kids after the monster action kicks off because they’re simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. Their real roles end about twenty minutes before the movie does.)

Ghidorah the Three-Headed Monster: A reporter-policeman sibling pair get roped into some kaiju action due to their mutual interest in a princess convinced she’s a Venusian. King Ghidorah arrives for a guest appearance in Roman Holiday With Giant Monsters.

Invasion of Astro-Monster/Monster Zero: Nick Adams plays an astronaut who wants to put it in an evil space lady. His partner is a no-nonsense older brother who doesn’t approve of his younger sister’s marriage to a hapless inventor whose rape alarm might be the only device possible of stopping an alien plot to use giant monsters against the governments of Earth. You almost forget Godzilla and Rodan show up.

Godzilla vs. The Sea Monster: A group of twenty-somethings get shanghaied by their friend when he tries to steal a boat to search for his brother. It turns out the boat was already stolen by the bank robber on board. While searching for said brother and overcoming personal shortcomings, they run afoul of a band of terrorists and have to set Godzilla loose on them. A native islander interested in saving her people also gets involved.

Son of Godzilla: A team of scientists, a never-take-no-for-an-answer reporter, and an island woman they encounter have to overcome differences to protect each other and their important weather experiments when both they and the Godzilla family come up against Kumonga and other giant insects. They all have personal and ideological reasons to be on, and stay on, the island through the end.

Destroy All Monsters: A team of super-science heroes wind up combatting an alien plot to turn Earth’s monsters against it because they’re in the wrong place at the wrong time. None of them have any personality.

All Monsters Attack: A latchkey kid dreams about befriending Minilla in a universe in which Godzilla and co. are fictional, maybe?

Godzilla vs. Hedorah: A young boy maintains unshakeable belief in Godzilla as a fantastic hero who can combat a fantastic representation of the rampant pollution of industrializing Japan. His father is a scientist who’s maybe a bit too interested in studying and finding a solution to Hedorah. His uncle and the uncle’s girlfriend are hippies who host an end-of-the-world party at Mt. Fuji, because that’s the kind of people they are.

Godzilla vs. Gigan: A struggling mangaka winds up at the center of the plot of alien cockroaches because his girlfriend is insistent he find work (so good). The rest of the crew are spunky civilians who task themselves with investigating the situation for various personal reasons. Godzilla and Anguirus show up because something funny’s going on; better check it out.

Godzilla vs. Megalon: Okay, so two dudes own a robot that gets stolen and is a central point of the film’s plot (“plot”?), but by and large this is a case of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Maybe Jet Jaguar’s the real main character.

Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla (1974): A group of spunky reporters and scientists’ investigations into various mysteries on puts them close to both a villainous plot and some light commentary on the plight of the Okinawan people.

Terror of Mechagodzilla: An Interpol agent’s investigation and infatuation with the daughter of someone he’s assigned to investigate plays a key role in stopping a crisis, as do the personal decisions of the daughter.

Return of Godzilla: A reporter and survivor of a Godzilla attack wind up deciding to become part of government action against a newly awoken Godzilla. To be honest, this is kind of a borderline case, as their involvement is pretty incidental, stemming from an early encounter with Godzilla, and they’re really pretty lightly defined outside of that, though everyone still has a personal reason to not just go home.

Godzilla vs. Biollante: Our main characters include a scientist who wants to use a combination of Godzilla DNA and rose cells to bring his dead daughter back to life. A younger scientist comes to grips with the ethics of genetic research, and an aging military character decides to pin his pride on stopping Godzilla as a younger generation seems poised to rise to the top. We get introduced to Miki Saegusa, a psychic without much to do here, but who will eventually become one of the earliest figures sympathetic to this continuity’s Godzilla.

Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah: I’m sure I’ll write an essay-length post on this at some point, but a cast of characters with various personal and philosophical stakes in Godzilla come together for a sweeping series of complicated statements about Japan’s meteoric economic rise.

Godzilla vs. Mothra: A family drama about divorced parents takes center stage in a universe in which their only chance to make amends with one another involves interaction with Mothra and her twin fairies.

Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla (1993): A robotic engineer’s desire to prove himself within special anti-Godzilla projects and a scientist’s personal connection to a newly hatched Godzilla keep them at the center of the action. Saegusa becomes a full-on champion for Godzilla in this movie.

Godzilla vs. Spacegodzilla: In this movie, which is 105 hours long, a rogue ex-military character seeks revenge against Godzilla for his friend’s death, and most of the action revolves around him and his choices.

Godzilla vs. Destroyah: Focal characters include the niece and nephew of Emiko Yamane from the original film, who become involved in the Godzilla plot due to reporting and producing an independent study on the monster, respectively. All characters disappear into command centers halfway through the movie, which is too bad, but the setup is all nicely motivated.

Godzilla (1998): Everyone is a horrible cartoon, but between our venerable stable of Reporters and Scientists with interpersonal drama, as well as some French secret agents, everyone has a reason to stick around in New York.

Godzilla 2000: A father-daughter team run an independent Godzilla prediction network because it’s their hobby and belief it’s the best way to handle the monster. The antagonist is a hawkish head of a government crisis organization and former colleague of the main character until their differing opinions on Godzilla put them at odds. A reporter’s desire for more Godzilla coverage keeps her close to the GPN. Everyone is there because they want to be.

Godzilla vs. Megaguirus: Military revenge plot + slacker scientist driven to prove himself keeps everyone around for personal reasons.

GMK: A reporter for a bad cable cryptozoological show’s desire for higher quality content finds her pursuing myths surrounding a newly resurrected Godzilla. Her father is a patriotic military officer who considers it his duty to go up against the supernatural threat.

Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla: A military character responsible for the deaths of her colleagues during a confrontation against Godzilla finds restored purpose in the opportunity pilot the latest superweapon against him. Mechagodzilla itself is designed a lonely single father, whose daughter finds reason in the the project and proximity to the main character to come to grips with the death of her mother. It’s all much sillier than it sounds, but oh well.

Tokyo S.O.S.: A guy … likes machines? And gets to pilot Mechagodzilla and come to terms with its spiritual desires? He convinces the government to listen to Mothra because his uncle happens to be the main character from her original movie? This is pretty messy; the characters sort of have a reason to be there, but their involvement with the plot doesn’t seem to speak to any personal arcs or bigger ideas. Their roles feel pretty coincidental as a result.

Final Wars: A team of super-science heroes wind up combatting an alien plot to turn Earth’s monsters against it because monster-hunting is their full-time job. None of them have any personality.

Godzilla (2014): Joe Brody gets closer and closer to a clandestine giant-monster-tracking organization because of his desire to reveal a cover-up surrounding his wife’s death. Dr. Serizawa has dedicated his life to said organization because he believes its research can help stop atrocities like his father witnessed at Hiroshima. Instead of following those characters, we follow Ford Brody, who has no personal connection to goings on and whose sole motivation is an Odyssean desire to get home despite constantly being waylaid by giant-monster-related combat and destruction. A character who is continuously in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Shin Godzilla: A team of politicians find themselves at the center of plans to stop Godzilla due to various personal motivations: careerism, a sense of outsiderness, patriotism, pragmatism and personal confidence, etc. There are side characters who aren’t committed to their jobs and simply find themselves in the wrong place at the wrong time, but that’s because it’s realistic and offers contrast to the characters we do follow, for whom the experience is a watershed moment.

That’s around six or seven movies in the series wherein the focal characters don’t have very clear reasons to want to be involved in the plot, and instead simply have to react to Godzilla’s presence in a way that doesn’t speak to personal motivations or ideas. Some of those are quickie camp sequels; two are spectacle-heavy team action movies that don’t pretend to be character pieces. Godzilla 2014 is unique in presenting itself as a character-centric film, one with plenty of time and budget put into it, but that follows someone who would be a side character in any other Godzilla film.

Even in spectacle-heavy movies, we don’t want these types of characters to be our focal point into the world. We sense the hand of the author selecting them. These aren’t their personal stories. They’re the stories of someone who wants an audience to see Godzilla, and could only half-imagine a person-shaped vehicle for facilitating it. Even a kaiju eiga should feel richly imagined. We want to believe its characters, however lightly drawn, can exist off-screen, and that the reason they’re there stems from their own wants and needs.

*I’ll say that it’s not that someone trapped by circumstances couldn’t provide an interesting focal character. But in absence of a reason to stay involved, we need to understand how personal arcs are going to be informed by their proximity to the action. It is important we understand, again, why this is a relevant moment to open and shut a window into their life, rather than just “that time I survived Godzilla, and let me tell you, there were some pretty close calls!”

[dydturktek]

Nem Kurutma | Nem Alma | Rutubet Kurutma | DYD 444 0 719

With regards to Wedding Ceremony Planning, Is Instagram this new Pinterest?

With regards to Wedding Ceremony Planning, Is Instagram this new Pinterest?

How to locate all https://asiandates.org of the motivation you have not yet included with your key panels.

Everyone’s favorite mood that is modern, Pinterest, is really a treasure trove for inspiring imagery. The endless feed of photos offers a visual feast that extends far beyond quick-cook recipes from chic interiors and fashion editorials to crafty DIYs and lifestyle hacks.

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For innovative minds, Pinterest’s mood board functionality and curated database makes the app/website a great destination for homing in on a stylistic way or visual. For other people fresh to your design procedure, it may show challenging—in a formidable, oversaturated, time intensive saga we’ve lovingly dubbed the Pinterest bunny opening.

You will be most likely all too knowledgeable about this “rabbit gap.” It’s the hours upon hours you’ve invested trying to find the perfect image, or enough time invested trying to puzzle out just just just what you’re said to be trying to find within the beginning. That you absolutely hate Mason jars it’s you working into the wee hours of the night editing the 50+ photos of Mason jar vessels you’ve gathered—only to realize. And garlands that are floral. And chalkboard signage. Perchance you simply need to begin an innovative new board that is secret. Lather, rinse, repeat.

At Riley & Grey, we made a cozy home on our Pinterest profile, which now boasts 60+ wedding-related panels, but we desired to have more social with your social networking. So that as a stark comparison and reply to the endless selection of imagery on Pinterest, Instagram is approaching fast wedding ceremony planning ubiquity. In accordance with WeddingWire, 80 % of weddings are prepared online (enter: BAZAAR Bride), and 1 / 2 of that portion are prepared making use of smart phones. These developments beg a Carrie Bradshaw–esque question: as it pertains contemporary wedding preparation, is Instagram the following Pinterest? Possibly, but perhaps not. right right Here, most of the techniques to utilize Instagram whenever making plans for your wedding, and just how to move gears when utilizing Pinterest.

A post provided by Delighted Isles (@happyisles_salon) on Jun 17, 2019 at 4:42pm PDT

Generate eyesight boards or “collections.”

The Instagram feature that is post-saving recently, but we aren’t certain exactly how we ever scrolled without one. It’s a game title changer with regards to wish that is creating from cool, brand new brands you find, but it addittionally means it is possible to keep an eye on possible vendors and inspiring pictures while you scroll. The capability to produce collections that are multiple for pictures become neatly classified by color, merchant, or theme—and keeps them from the means and soon you have to reference them. Whilst the saving function injected Pinterest’s essential draw into Instagram, these collections are delivered simply to somebody else’s feed and can’t be collaborative.

Professional tip: Don’t rule out secret boards, but don’t use them to begin the procedure. Use Instagram’s save that is quick to house in on which you are searching for, from fashion to decor to florals. Then, use secret boards on Pinterest to delve also much deeper and collaborate along with your vendors.

A post provided by Harper’s BAZAAR (@harpersbazaarus) on Jun 20, 2019 at 7:17am PDT

Go all in on genuine weddings.

A larger array of photo shoots that resemble real weddings awaits you on Instagram, you’re much more likely to stumble onto real wedding content; on Pinterest.

Pinterest’s trove of flowery arches, favors, couple’s portraits, and DIY some ideas are usually initial content made for the working platform or any other socket, instead of aspirational, genuine wedding imagery. Be skeptical of six-person tablescapes emerge a dreamy industry in Provence or perhaps a bride having a crystal headpiece clutching a bouquet that is oversize. Intimate table sizes replete with classic dishware typically can not be translated into a meeting for 100+ guests. And bouquets more than a size that is certain gorgeous in photos but weigh much too much to take with you for pictures, along the aisle, and during your ceremony.

A post provided by Danielle Frankel (@daniellefrankelstudio) on Jun 28, 2019 at 2:54pm PDT

While Instagram is inarguably performative, in addition provides a BTS glimpse into real couples’ wedding processes that are planning. And although absolutely nothing can prepare you for the individual pitfalls face that is you’ll it comes down to preparing your very very very own, following someone’s pristine My Dream Wedding board is not likely to provide you with the exact same screen to the realities of wedding preparation that can match a panicked IG tale, or a real time movie from the guest.

Just just Take cues from that buddy of a pal you’ve constantly discovered efficiently fashionable, or your chosen influencer’s recent proposition, engagement party, rehearsal dinner, or ceremony. Contrary to popular belief, you can find weddings in your extensive system which can be unbelievably stylish but won’t find yourself being showcased with a buzzy bridal web log or an extravagance fashion publication—save those to your collections.

Professional tip: look in your favorite involved influencers’ feeds—right now we’re loving Shea Marie and Bettina Looney. It’s likely that, even though they aren’t publishing straight about their weddings, they’re donning stylish dresses, swimwear, and separates in white, and traveling the entire world to scope down wedding venues.

A post provided by B E T T I N A L O O N E Y (@bettinalooney) on Jul 24, 2019 at 5:58am PDT

Crowdsource—within explanation.

Welcoming too many individuals into the marriage preparation procedure is really a danger. It’s likely, you’re currently playing guest list protection with overexcited in-laws or graciously moving up unsolicited wedding gown guidelines from distant acquaintances.

Given that most of preparation takes a litany of decisions and choices, Instagram lets you run an image of a thought by the dearest buddies via direct message (onto a secret board), share a vendor profile with your fiance, and even upload an account poll if you’re stuck between color scheme choices utilizing “close buddies. before you throw 10 variations from it”

A post provided by The Lake Como Wedding Planner (@lakecomoweddings) on Jul 7, 2019 at 3:11pm PDT

Get acquainted with your vendors before you inquire and employ them.

A planner, designer, professional professional photographer, florist, caterer, dessert designer, or just about any vendor’s Instagram feed can provide you lots of understanding of their visual. And although you’ll be able to book just one of each and every, scouring the software and having a feel for every single business’s feel and look will provide you with an awareness of everything you like—and that which you don’t.

This applies tenfold to photography; you’ll want to touch every couple that is gorgeous you see for the tags and follow photographer pages to see in the event that you’ve discovered a fit. We can’t stress this enough: All the good professional wedding photographers take Instagram. Considering perhaps the many legitimate specialists have a tendency to upgrade their web site portfolios less usually offered their social feeds, Instagram provides a more comprehensive have a look at their most present work.

Professional tip: Mine post tags to have a range of all of the social people you’ve employed (or are preparing to) and have now worked with; you might keep tabs or get in touch with them aswell.

A post provided by Magda Butrym (@magdabutrym) may 23, 2019 at 2:03pm PDT

Discover new bridal brands—and perhaps also your place.

Using the rise of Instagram as an e-commerce destination, countless unique, tiny fashion and lifestyle brands have actually emerged. You won’t find at a department store, or sustainable jumpsuits for your bridesmaids, Instagram is (more often than not) the best source of outside-the-box inspiration if you’re looking for an unexpected wedding dress.

Furthermore, the “places” search tab lets you simply simply take an unfiltered trip of a feasible place. Scrolling by way of a venue’s tagged photos or its location label will give that you understanding that is genuine of real potential—or hidden pitfalls. While a lot of venues curate the weddings part of their web sites, this may provide you with a feeling of the type and quality of celebrations they’ve hosted, the way the area could be changed, of course it’s really ‘gram worthy in the end.

A post provided by LEIN (@lein_studio) on Jul 22, 2019 at 4:12pm PDT

Get control of your feed—on both platforms.

We adore the delight and surprise of development on Pinterest, but people and brands are generally a lot more discerning when considering as to what they post for their IG feeds. Regarding the ‘gram, you have got only 1 grid to have it appropriate, instead of an array of general general general public panels to fill.

That is where the 2 platforms vary many within their DNA: Instagram provides solitary pictures, one at any given time, and asks you whether or perhaps not you “like” them. Pinterest, having said that, delivers droves—which may lead individuals who haven’t yet pinpointed their visual down that all-too-scary bunny opening.

Avoid wedding trend tiredness; make use of your IG wants to just take the temperature of patterns developing in your visual, and produce panels according to those. Countless brides prey that is falling fashionable pictures on Pinterest have actually homogenized the appearance and feel of contemporary weddings—and you ought to be to locate motivation you won’t find on Pinterest before embracing other people regarding the platform. Keep in mind, you can include pins to Pinterest the exact same method it is possible to upload brand new shots to your grid, plus the platform’s algorithm will steer you toward like-images should you introduce some to a board that is new. Zero in on your own look; incorporate images that are fresh the mix; forgo the urge to recycle pictures of old, overdone, or dated details; thank us later on.

https://www.nemkurutma.com/with-regards-to-wedding-ceremony-planning-is-10/

NEM KURUTMA HİZMETLERİ

[jeffsvideo]

Swat Lake City

T

wenty-five. I want you to remember the number 25.

That’s how many games the Jazz won in 2014. My rookie season.

It’s very possible that you didn’t know that. Unless you’ve been a real fan (shout out, Swat Lake City) it’s very possible you don’t spend a lot of time thinking about the Utah Jazz. We all know that. Sometimes being forgotten about is worse than any negative perception. That’s one of my memories from my rookie year. I remember my view from the bench — or really, the floor next to the bench, because the bench was full and I was a rookie. I remember how it felt, being so close to the game but really so far. I remember how it felt watching us lose 57 times, and how it felt to hear the final buzzer after each loss, and to stand up and walk back to the locker room. The focus was never on us — the postgame interviews, the highlights. It was always on the winners. It felt like we were invisible.

Thirty-eight. That’s another number I want you to remember.

My second year in the league, we won 38 games. I played in all 82 games that year and got a lot more minutes. My numbers improved to eight points and 10 rebounds a game. And most important (!) I wasn’t sitting on the floor next to the bench anymore.

We were moving in the right direction, and I think there was one main reason why: We got Quin. It was Coach Snyder’s first year as our coach.

Quin really surprised me the first time we met. It was in training camp in September 2014. I had just spent the summer playing in the World Cup for the French national team. To be honest, I didn’t think Coach knew who I was. One of the first conversations we had, he came up to me and told me he had watched every game France played in the World Cup.

It wasn’t b.s. — he was bringing up specific plays from specific games. He remembered how we lost to Spain in the group stage — by 24 points — and he remembered how we faced them again in the quarterfinals and won. We surprised a lot of people. Spain had the Gasol brothers, Serge Ibaka, Ricky Rubio, a great team. It was considered one of the best European teams. France was kind of forgotten about that year.

I remember what Coach said. He told me that he wanted me to play every single game the way I had played against Spain — that as long as he was my coach, he was going to push me to my limit. I didn’t know him very well but I could tell that he was serious. He was serious about coaching and serious about building a team in Utah that people wouldn’t be able to overlook. Serious about bringing back the excitement and respect that John Stockton and Karl Malone first brought here. “If you play like you did this summer, our team is capable of doing anything,” he told me.

He asked me if I was willing to do that. I nodded.

Inside, I was on fire.

My goal up to that point in the NBA was just to get a chance to compete. Nobody knew my name my rookie year. I believed that if I could get that chance, people would see. I needed someone to give me that chance.

Shout out, Coach.

Eighteen. That’s a funny number for me, too. I think I was 18 years old the first time I got a real haircut.

Before that, my mom had always cut my hair. She’s the hardest working person I know. She always had multiple jobs at a time. She cut hair, she worked in restaurants — basically anything she could do to provide for me and my brother and sister. I grew up in Saint-Quentin, which is a medium-sized city north of Paris. We always had enough to eat and a roof over our heads. Our apartment was very simple. It was a lot like the projects you might see in American inner cities.

“Be happy with what you have,” my mother always told us.

My brother and sister were both older than me. I’m the baby. My sister moved out when I was very young. My brother lived with us until he went to university at 19, and it wasn’t until he moved out that I was actually able to have my own room. Until I was around 11 years old, I shared a room with my mother.

Looking back I can see how it was obviously difficult for her, working all the time and taking care of us, but she never made me feel like I was a burden — although l was a burden at times.

I had a crazy amount of energy as a kid. From an early age, I was getting into fights at school. So every chance she could, she would sign me up for sports and after school activities. She put me in karate. She put me in track and field. She put me in boxing. When I was 11, she put me on a basketball team. That was when I started falling in love with the game.

Of all the sports that my mom forced me to play, basketball made the most sense to me. I was taller than all of the other kids, and my father had played basketball professionally and for the French national team in the ’80s and ’90s. So I guess the game was also part of my DNA. Suddenly, I’d found a place to put all of my extra energy. I started getting attention around school — it started to look like I might have a bright future playing basketball. And that was a very rare thing for somebody from Saint-Quentin.

I went to boarding school when I was 12. It was about an hour from my mom’s apartment. On most weekends, I went home. She would cut my hair and ask me how my grades were. Those are some of the best memories of my life.

My mom — she missed me a lot. When I’d go home or talk to her on the phone, I’d try not to let it show if I was having a difficult time. I remembered how she had to work all of the time for us to be able to eat and go to school, and how she would come home every single day exhausted. She was happy to sacrifice everything so that her children would always have a future. Being only 12 or 13 years old, it was hard. I didn’t want her to worry.

When I was 15, I moved again — even farther away — to the city of Cholet, a five-hour drive from our house, to go to school where they had a good basketball team. This meant I no longer could go home on the weekends. I talked to my mom on the phone whenever I could, but I only went home a few times on vacation.

For the next three years I played basketball for the Cholet junior team. I know it was hard for my mother to deal with me moving so far away at such a young age — I was her last child, and I was a lot younger than my brother had been when he left home. She worried about me all the time — if I was warm enough, if I was making friends, or if I had enough to eat. But she always understood that I was doing what I wanted. And more than anything, she always encouraged me to chase my dream.

In 2013, I found out that my dream had come true. The only thing was that I’d be moving to this place I’d never heard of.

Salt Lake City.

Before I came to Utah, everything I knew about America came from TV or movies. And I don’t think a single one of the TV shows or movies I watched had anything to do with Utah, so I had no idea what to expect when I got here. The only thing I really knew about the entire state of Utah, is that it was where Karl Malone played.

The first time I met Karl was during a practice my rookie year. He was the nicest guy, very supportive. He told me he was excited to see what I could bring to the Jazz. We talked about big-man stuff and he offered to put me through some drills. His toughness in those drills was an eye-opening thing for me to see. When I think about it, I just remember his forearm. I was guarding him down low and he put a forearm on me. It was a rock. This might be the strongest man I’ve ever seen in my life. 50-year old Karl Malone. The strength he must’ve played with in his prime — I can’t imagine it. He made me want to be a better defender.

I know I mentioned the World Cup as a defining moment for me, but there have been a lot of moments since I got to Utah that I’ll never forget.

I’ll always remember guys like Richard Jefferson, a mentor for me when was a rookie and I knew nobody. In fact, the whole Jazz team when I got here in 2013 showed me how to be a professional. Even though I didn’t get much playing time, and we weren’t winning many games, I didn’t really get treated like a rookie. (Except for the sitting-on-the-floor stuff.) Once I was drafted, I was part of the team and that was that.

I’ll remember our first training camp, which in my mind was like a military camp. It was one of the hardest few weeks of my life. I realize, looking back, how much I needed it to see how big the adjustment would be going from a French junior team to the NBA. I’ll remember how we kept being overlooked and forgotten about just because, those first few seasons. Coach Quin would just remind us to keep working at it — keep improving — and eventually we would get people’s attention and respect.

I’ll remember last year, during the All-Star Game — how it felt not to have been selected. How I felt like I deserved an All-Star spot and didn’t get one, and it seemed like nobody outside of Utah was even talking about me. It was the first time in my career that I felt that way, and it’s not that I just didn’t make the team, it’s that there seemed to be no real conversation about it.

I’ll remember last year, getting swept in the second round of the playoffs. And the off-season, when everybody was saying that Gordon Hayward leaving meant we were going to have to rebuild.

I’ll remember when Donovan Mitchell arrived.

I had seen Donovan first play in the Summer League, and my first thought after seeing him was, He can play defense. I always look at how a new guy approaches defense — does he play as hard on D as he does on the other end? Donovan did. I respected that right away.When he scored 41 his second month in the league … damn, I knew he was going to be special.

Shout out Donovan, our rookie. Our leading scorer. The Rookie of the Year.

But the thing that I’ll remember most is my mother’s advice.

Be happy with what you have.

I still am. I’m happy with our team, our coach, our city. You guys are the best.

But I need to make a change to my mom’s favorite phrase. Hope that’s O.K., Mom.

Be happy with what you have, but go out and take what’s yours.

On the first day of training camp I said that we’d be back in the playoffs this year. Maybe some people thought it was a long shot. Our start may have been slow. I hurt one of my knees, then the other one, all in a month. But in my head I always knew we’d surprise everybody. Now we’re here and we’re as healthy as we’ve been all season. We’re as confident, too. We’ve got the best rookie in the NBA. We’ve got the best defense in the NBA. We have one of the best coaches. But we don’t have what we want yet.

I’ll leave you with one last number.

19,911.

That’s the maximum attendance at Vivint Smart Home Arena. Any team that wants a piece of us is gonna have to come to Salt Lake City and deal with all 19,911 of you. Maybe nobody else believes in us, but that’s their problem. We know we’re still being overlooked. In Utah, people have seen that before. Now is the time to take what we know we deserve. Now is the time we make sure they hear us.

And we’re going to need all of you.

Every single one.

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[easy-win-games-blog]

STILL GOOD? — GRAND THEFT AUTO III

This is ‘Still Good?’, an editorial series in which I look back at both favourites games of mine and classics that I somehow missed, working out how these titles stack up today and whether or not they’re worth going back to.

tl;dr — has <insert game> aged well?

That said, let’s dig into Grand Theft Auto III.

Originally released in 2001 for the PS2 GTA 3 was hailed by critics and fans as a landmark in video game design. Its core gameplay mechanics — driving, shooting and navigating an open world — had all been seen before, but this marked the first instance of these mechanics being put together in a seamless and (for lack of a better word) good way. Mix this with elements of The Sopranos and the popular gangster movies of the time and you’ve got one spicy meat-a-ball.

Upon its release it received fantastic reviews across the board, sitting on an aggregate score of 97% (Metacritic) for the PS2 version. It was called, "a luscious, sprawling epic,” a, "technological marvel ... that captures the essence of gritty city life in amazing detail,” and "on a scale that's truly epic” (quotes lifted from Wikipedia). From here on out, aided by various other releases of the time, the gaming landscape was irreversibly shifted towards a focus on cinematic storytelling and open-world settings. It’s become difficult to not find traces of GTA 3’s DNA floating around a most modern releases.

It’s also very easy to get ahold of today. A mobile version was released for its 10th anniversary, but if you prefer something more solid it’s also available on the desktop App Store for Mac, Steam and on Xbox 360 through backwards compatibility if you can find a hard copy.

This sure is a celebrated classic, but it really hasn’t aged well.

If you’ve gone ahead and put in the work by reading my About page you’ll know I go hardcore with the GTA series. GTA 3 especially introduced me to mature video games in a way that I’ll never forget, but unlike other classics of the medium like the 2D Mario games it’s really tough to go back. I finished the game in high school on a MacBook using a trackpad, and recently bought it and Vice City on eBay for Xbox (these versions received various graphical improvements over the PS2 version) and have played maybe half of 3 so far since then.

But it’s hard, man. I love GTA but I’m honestly struggling to continue. It’s a weird case because I can look past its dated graphics and the driving is fine, but nearly everything else is just frustrating. My major gripe with playing this game now is that the controls are absolutely shitted. Locking on to enemies is vague, both in the sense that it only sometimes works with certain weapons and that the lock on rectangle is very transparent. Combat lacks any kind of possible finesse and relies upon a lot of dumb luck and blind button mashing, and moving Claude around feels like I’m controlling a marionette puppet.

And the camera…

There’s a strange feature I’ve found both in GTA 3 and Vice City on Xbox, and I’m not exactly sure if it was apparent on PC or PS2 (but I’m probably wrong). The option to rotate the camera around your player, whether you want to focus on enemies or check out the scenery, is gone. Completely. Instead, when you move the right stick, the camera jumps into a first-person perspective from which you can’t actually do anything. No walking, no combat. Its only really purpose is to change what direction you’re looking (duh), which is just slow and painful. Especially in combat because you have to stop, change the camera, and then move or perform some kind of action to go back out to third-person.

Imagine, if you will…

A mission tells you to go into Chinatown.

Easy, you get there.

But uh oh, you’ve been ambushed by gun and baseball bat-wielding Triads!

You pull out your Uzi and pump a clip into one guy at your 12 o’clock, but three more guys on your 6 you have opened fire!

You act fast, and duck into first person mode.

Five seconds later you’ve turned to face your foes, and have lost half of your health in that time. Now, to lock on.

In a daring move, you lock onto Triad #1 on your right, shoot two rounds and wait for another three seconds while you automatically reload (something that can’t be done manually).

BLAM! BLAM! BLAM!

You got him! Well done! You’ve also got next to no health.

Time to aim at the next pistol-packing Triad.

But uh oh again, you’ve locked onto someone with a baseball bat instead. You can’t switch your target on the fly, silly, and now you have six guys in total all around you shooting and beating you to death.

You’re dead, good luck next time.

As 2K18 gamer bro, this is frustrating as hell. And this happens constantly. A lot of combat scenarios, in my case at least, came down to me trying over and over again and succeeding only by shepherding the AI into a tight pack and using up the five molotov cocktails I’d scrounged to burn them all alive like a pack of zombies.

I was too young to be involved in the original hype of this game, but I imagine there was a big emphasis on strategy and player freedom in the marketing leading up to the game’s release. I get that, and GTA 3 sure is revolutionary on that front, but by today’s standards it just isn’t good. When the game at hand has a focus on combat and action it’s not a good thing when success comes from manipulating the infrastructure of the game itself. I don’t feel like I’m playing it the way it was meant to be played, but I don’t see any other option.

To make my point clearer, take the example of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. There are a lot of points in this game where you’re surrounded by enemies, who mostly all have guns. There’s no cover-based shooting or anything of that sort in San Andreas, but the fluidity and freedom of the movement with the ability to crouch, walk while crouched, jump and vault over obstacles, strafe, free aim and lock onto and attack enemies without having them in your immediate line of sight really make the difference. Just the ability to freely rotate the camera around CJ and switch lock-on targets make combat scenarios infinitely more strategic and playable than GTA 3.

Sure, San Andreas only exists because of 3’s legacy, but in three short years so much of the Grand Theft Auto formula was refined by intuitive but glaringly obvious improvements for San Andreas, making it now so much easier to go back to than 3. I would put San Andreas, a now 14 year old game, in front of any gamer in 2018, tell them to play it and be confident they would have fun and play with a full sense of control.

The other area where GTA 3 really lacks is in its narrative elements.

In the game you play as Claude, a mute blank slate of a man who wasn’t actually given a name until a one-off skippable phone call in San Andreas. At the beginning of the game we find Claude robbing a bank with his girlfriend, Catalina, who betrays him as they make their getaway with the line, "Sorry babe. I'm an ambitious girl, and you're just small time.”

Immediately, there’s confusion. Stylistically, it’s cool for sure. There’s shotguns and convertibles and action, but who is this lady? Why do her ambitions stop her from robbing banks with her lover (something they have been doing together for around nine years)? She must just be psycho or something, because she jumps in a sports car with some other guy, so to her it’s more beneficial to share the money with the getaway driver than with your long-term boyfriend. What’s more, Claude can’t explain any of this because he can’t talk, so these questions linger for the whole game and never get answered.

You can see here by making Claude the blank slate that he is that it’s likely the intention from Rockstar was to let the player use the mute as a vessel through which they could project themselves, personifying the game with their own personal flavour. Only, there are numerous and very definitive displays of Claude’s character throughout the game that the player might not agree with.

Character defining moments for a character who isn’t meant to have character.

For Christ’s sake, it’s implied he shoots a woman point blank at the end of the game because she talks too much.

It’s a weird half measure. It feels like Rockstar were trying to toe the line between an open world RPG packed with player personalisation and a fully scripted cinematic experience like Goodfellas. They’ve learned since, and their campaigns have been largely compelling ever since, but this feels like a big misstep.

Also, a minor issue I have; the cutscenes and cinematic moments of this game look like dog shit. The direction, cinematography and pacing of nearly every cutscene is awful. Claude will walk to someone’s door and knock, only to be answered an instant later by immediate talk as if this other character intuitively knew he was there. The shots will cut out parts of character’s faces, sometimes ending at their forehead or mouth, and as the cutscenes conclude it isn’t uncommon for Claude to start heading for the exit as the mission boss is still mid-sentence, as if he also intuitively knows the conversation is about to end. Even if the mission parameters haven’t been outlined yet. It’s almost as if the residents of Liberty City have been endowed with psychic abilities (but only in 2001 because Liberty City Stories is much more aligned with the rest of the series in this regard [maybe it’s something in the water]).

Coming from later GTA games, this just doesn’t feel like GTA.

The story overall is also just bland. It’s the most generic revenge plot you could imagine, with some out-of-nowhere betrayals such as that of Salvatore Leone — the local Mob boss.

After completing a number of tasks, both extremely dangerous and tedious, the Don congratulates you on your achievements and your loyalty to the Leone family. This feels pretty good, especially since the missions immediately preceding this moment are a hellish cluster fuck full of shoddy AI and stupid mission design. And you know what? He’s right. You have been loyal to him. You’ve done literally everything he’s told you to do and more. As this happens, he asks you to collect a car parked somewhere Downtown. So, like the good little Mafia errand boy you are, you skip down the hill to get it, only to be sent a page from Salvatore’s girlfriend of all people that the car is a trap and that you’re about to be murdered. Surely enough, the car is rigged with explosives, so your only option is to actually betray Salvatore and flee the first island with his girlfriend as you plot your (second) revenge.

It’s simply not good writing. There’s no cause and effect, no setting up of any kind. You are blank man. You work for blank Mafia man. But blank Mafia man turns on you, because he is bad Mafia man after all. You get blank revenge. It’s high school shit.

Just like Catalina. Take that blank man example, but substitute ‘black Mafia man’ with ‘blank girl’. It’s bad writing.

When it comes to games and movies it becomes hard to define what is good, especially in cases where legacy and nostalgia are involved. Super Mario Bros. 3 or World or whatever might be a better game than OG Super Mario Bros., but you might see OG Super Mario Bros. as the better game because it gave birth to what came after it. In my opinion that’s a really weird viewpoint to have, especially since gaming culture is so focussed on iteration and improvement. Some see it as sacrilege to say an old classic just doesn’t play well, but that’s the case because games as a medium inherently get better as we improve the craft and polish the development process.

With this in mind, and everything else I’ve already said, Grand Theft Auto III is not a good game in 2018. It’s not fun and it doesn’t control well. The story is bad and the moment-to-moment writing is no better. From a historical stance, I think it’s definitely worth playing, but if GTA V was your first introduction to the series and you want to explore its past GTA 3 is not the place to start.

STILL GOOD?

Not really, no

Am I completely wrong? Is my subjective opinion too subjective? Did I forget to mention how much San Andreas fleshes out both Salvatore Leone and Catalina and their character arcs in this game? Shoot (pew) me a message up top through the Ask Me Anything link OR hit me up on Twitter @easy_win_games.

Illustration left-to-right: Catalina, Maria, Asuka, Kenji, Donald Love, Toni, Luigi, 8-Ball, Salvatore Leone. Claude in the foreground.

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I’m pretty sure I speak for every dinosaur fan over forty that JURASSIC PARK (1993) was a game changer. I was twenty-two years old when it premiered and remember being totally blown away at the site of realistic looking dinosaurs on the silver screen. I had no trouble whatsoever relating to Dr. Alan Grant as he fell to his knees, all teary from seeing his lifelong obsessions come to life. True, the character was seeing them in person and not in a theater like we were, but it was pure magic nonetheless. Nearly twenty-five years later, I was finally able to get a taste of what it would have been like to be Dr. Grant thanks to an official JURASSIC WORLD Universal Studios exhibition that made its way to the Field Museum of Natural History last month and is running through January 8, 2018.

The tickets were sold in time increments and I bought mine in advance online for a 5:00 pm showing on a Sunday evening. They weren’t cheap and just to do the exhibit costs $25 for adults, $20 for children, and $22 for seniors. So, contrary to what the ill-fated lawyer suggested in the first movie, there ain’t no “coupon day!” I believe, however, that if you’re going during normal museum normal hours, there’s probably a cheaper bundle option.

We showed up an hour early and parked in the main garage across the street ($22.00) before heading to the museum on foot. Incidentally, from a dinosaur lover perspective, I do highly recommend this museum. Not only is it home to the famed T-Rex, SUE, but also has an amazing “Evolving Planet” section that takes you on fossil journey five billion years in the making. I’m fortunate to live and have grown up about twenty minutes south and this has always been one of my favorite Chicago attractions. Having now visited many other natural history museums, I still consider this to be one of the greatest and, yes, I’ll cover it more in depth at a later date.

During normal Museum hours the exhibit can be accessed through the main building but, since we were there after closing, we had to walk around to a side entrance (if you’re facing the museum, go to your left where the big Brachiosaurus skeleton is displayed).

Please note that if you buy your tickets online it will say to just bring a valid ID to pick them up at will call but that’s not as easy as it sounds. Just to be on the safe side I printed my receipt anyway and it was a good thing I did because when I handed my ID to the guy running the register he gave me a weird look and informed me they “don’t give discounts to Illinois residents” (???) After I explained that I purchased my tickets in advance, he asked for the receipt so, bottom line, print em!

With our tickets in hand, we waited for our scheduled time before finally being directed down a walkway that advertised the animals living in the fictional park. This would eventually lead us to our “boat” that was to take us to the island, Isla Nublar. Personally, I thought this was a clever touch as it totally made me feel like I was participating in the movie. Before boarding, we had to pose for a souvenir photo in front of a green screen which would be available to us after the experience was over.

The boat had windows which showed a virtual sea (too bad they couldn’t have had the room rock a bit for added realism) and while we sailed we were treated to a video discussing the cloning process of the dinosaurs.

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After the boat “stopped,” we eagerly entered the “theme park” (sorry for all the “quotations” but we are in the land of make believe here). The way they set it up was ingenious; like we were getting a special behind the scenes tour at a zoo. Having done my fair share of those at several different accredited zoos, I thought they were spot on. It was a great way to see the “animals” without needing an actual island to do so; they were simply “off exhibit.” It was a brilliant touch so far as keeping the whole experience as real as possible. We walked past the iconic gate with the torches and just as I was trying to take in everything, there was the neck of a Brachiosaurus swaying like in the films. My mind was effectively blown!

I’m not going to lie, as soon as I saw it I squealed like a giddy schoolgirl and noticed my two teenagers slowly start distancing themselves from me. I’d already watched several YouTube clips prior to forking out the cash for these tickets but, trust me, seeing it in person is so much better and photos and video just can’t capture the feeling of being in their presence.

We passed by the head of a Parasaurolophus as we entered the second room. Actually, my kids had to practically drag me since these were timed tickets and the group behind us had already caught up during the time I was panting in front of the Brachiosaurus.

In keeping  with the films, the next section dealt with the creation of the dinosaurs via their DNA extraction from prehistoric mosquitoes trapped in amber. It sounds perfectly scientific though there ain’t a snowball’s chance in Hell of this ever happening. No matter, I was in a Universal movie now and decided to pretend that it already had.

    The best touch was the incubators; one with eggs and the other with newly hatched Parasaurolophus. What was cool was staring at the babies and seeing them gently breathe as if alive.

This was the one room where it was my turn to rush the kids. I didn’t come here to see fake science, I came to here see fake dinosaurs (that I could pretend were real) and was eager to see the next one. In this case a couple of “Gentle Giants,” Pachyrhinosaurus! I was pleasantly surprised by their choice of ceratopsian and their not going with the more obvious and traditional Triceratops. It was a mother and her calf (do we call baby ceratopsids calves?) and the juvenile stood close to mom which was neat but, at the same time, seemed a bit more rhino than reptile. Shouldn’t she have had a clutch?

    Flash photography wasn’t allowed when viewing the Tyrannosaurus Rex and Velociraptor (identified as being “Blue” from the movie) so the photos I took look terrible. At the end of this post, however, you can see them in my video footage if you choose to do so. I’ll say this…BOTH of those dinosaurs were stunning and moved just like they did in the films. My cheeks glistened from the streams of dino-geek tears!

The last dinosaurs featured in our tour were Stegosaurus and then, their Grand Finale, Indominus Rex.

Indominus Rex, of course, is a Hollywood creation which, to be honest, I was never a fan of. I do understand that it was engineered to make JURASSIC WORLD stand out from its predecessors but would have preferred they used a lesser known, real one, instead. I always saw the JURASSIC films as an opportunity to bring fame to obscure dinosaurs, just like the first film did for Velociraptor and the third for Spinosaurus.

  Of course we had to “exit through the gift shop:” which, in this case, was loaded with officially licensed Universal goodies. There was some great merchandise but pricey even by gift shop standards. I really wanted to get one of their plush T-Rex’s but the kids discouraged my frivolity. Ugh, let me tell you how much fun it is after your kids outgrow you!

Dad: “Can I keep him?” Kids: “NO!!!”

We located our souvenir photo and saw that we were being attacked by Indominus Rex, thus explaining why were told to look terrified while they were taking the picture. I insisted that we buy this to commemorate our incredible evening but, after the cashier rang me up. I’m pretty sure my face matched the way it looked in the photo…nearly $30 for one damn picture!!!

If you’re on a budget you can obviously forgo all the bells and whistles though I do believe the exhibit itself is worth shelling out the cash for. It was an experience I will never forget and would love to do again. As we returned to our car I was reminded of a quote from the Henry Wu character in JURASSIC WORLD, “You didn’t ask for reality, you asked for more teeth.”

This exhibit, my friends, gives you a fair share of both!

Dave Fuentes~

Chicago’s Field Museum Welcomes JURASSIC WORLD: the Exhibition! I’m pretty sure I speak for every dinosaur fan over forty that JURASSIC PARK (1993) was a game changer.