#Also gotta add the requisite

[biggestdev]

Unfortunately, I've come to the conclusion that I am too much of a messy bitch for Arch Linux.

I tried to keep my laptop going, I really did, but I figure I just had too many conflicting packages installed, and my routine of monthly (or even longer) updates kept screwing me over.

I should have guessed when I had something like 2,000 packages to update, and a dozen conflicts. I tried my normal MO (remove the conflicting packages & dependant apps, then reinstall after the big upgrade), and another red flag came up when I had to leave it on overnight to compile AUR packages (which should have taken minutes, not hours!)

Eventually it finished. Reboot... Black screen. Couldn't even get a terminal!

Thankfully it didn't scramble the disk, so I didn't loose any data. But at this point I'm too tired to recover my install... Again. I'm giving Kubuntu a try.

Yeah, yeah, sNaPs BaD or whatever, but at this point I need system stability more than anything else.

But at least I got the distro with KDE. GNOME BAD.

[danielnelsen]

sometimes it really does feel like awakening walked so inquisition could crawl

[vynsvision]

Overwhelmed by the new TOT update as expected

Listen, there's a lot going on, and I'm sure I'm the last person to get the update.

But holy heck, there's a lot to process. Of course, I love more chances to get schips, and I love the lounge, fieldwork, and weekly achievements. But its a lot.

I'm just going to process this bit by bit, idk if I'll notice more than anyone else, but anyway.

Fieldwork

D.A.V.I.S. is here!!! In Fieldwork!! (/pos) As someone who got Genshin Impact first but is more active on TOT, its awesome to see a reputation system! I'm a little confused as to how the "costumes"/"outfits" will work, but I'm excited for those schips. Each LI has a "region"... and Davis said they'll be adding regions...!!! My wlw heart hopes it means they add more LI's (Celestine, ofc, but also Darius would be nice), but it probably just means more outfits. I wonder if they'll raise the fatigue limit eventually, too, since its only 50 and can only debate 5 times before that's maxed out. Anyway, I like this a lot, and I'm excited to see how it develops! :)

The Lounge

Considering they didn't bring out the Serenitea Pot for Genshin until, like, This Year, its a lot that they've brought in something with basically the same exact premise... 3 months into their new game. Im not complaining, but I gotta say, its a lot. I am, tho, excited to decorate my lounge, and to see what styles/designs they choose for next sets. I wonder if there will be holiday related sets! I also hope to see the Lounge pop up in fics. NXX is very office-y, and its important for everyone to get to have a place to chill out. Its like a secret clubhouse. I'm really excited about it!!!

Achievements

The first thing I want to talk about here is the art on each tab. The font is gorgeous, the symbols of each boy in the background is such a nice detail. Also, I love color coding- it helps me keep stuff organized. I knew the boys were color-coded, but in- game before this, I didn't know where I could see who was which color. (Beside, maybe, their eyes.) But this is such a great bonus for me here and the colors they chose are so PRETTY!!!! (Also guess who just realized the two thin slashes in the opposite direction across the N is for the two "x"s in the... the name NXX. Im slow, ok??) Also I like that there's easy access to who's-codename-is-what, like how there's easy access to the color-coding.

I'm hoping, too, that as we get used to this update, we will get more main story. Of course I loved the Sins of Cynicism, but I hope we get more soon! With more characters and plot beyond... yanno... whodunnit's. And more re-occuring characters!

Weekly Tasks

Alright, maybe its just me getting to the less important stuff, but I think this??? Is so cool. Its a little stressful since I don't even know how I get work permits in the first place (I know how to use them, I just don't use them often. Anyone need any? I've got, like, 77!), but its also cool because it adds more (in quantity) rewards on top of daily that can give things like more schips, energy drinks, xp, etc. And Mora- i mean, Stellin.

Namecards

Maybe this is a small bone to pick (aka: there's not a lot to this), but i don't super love how they changed the namecard and the friends screen. The main thing i like from this is that I can show off more of my badges. Other than that, it just seems like a strange choice to use the space this way. I guess, too, I like that maybe (definitely) I will get something on my birthday. Idk what it is, and honestly I kinda hope I don't see anyone else's bday present so it doesn't spoil for me what I may get in mine. It would be the same gift but like. A surprise! :)

Misc

Idk who else realized this, but when in "Resource Requisition" in NXX, there's this funky little button here:

that smoothly and easily allows you to get to the File Room. As I did my daily check-in today, it was nice to not have to go back, wait for the HQ to load, just to click on File Room. Its small, but I really like it.

I also really like both of these icons, and that there's a way to get to one or the other. From NXX HQ you can get to the Lounge, but if you want to get to just the Lounge, easy-peasy just hit the button. Nice :)

What once was the "Decks" button is now the "Fieldwork" button, and "Decks" is hidden away in the "Cards" button. Phenomenal choice, great idea.

And finally, the wonder that is the "this is for Marius" (etc) info on a Study. Luke's was always the easiest for me to remember because Luke>Sherlock>Pipe, but the rest were trickier. Now its super clear "oh, I need to do this study to get stuff for this LI." Very nice.

I also wanted to add that they made it so that if you were really wanting to do a different Study, you could unlock it for 20schips. I really like that. I probably won't use my schips for that, but its very nice to have the option. I'm not always on top of which study is available on which day, so if I'm evolving Artem cards and I can't get that Study, I can open it to evolve his card. Not necessarily something I'll spend on, but still very neat.

ANOther thing!!! Sometimes, I tapped too fast when I was accepting/receiving cards, and I didnt get to see the animation of getting said cards. Now you can replay/watch that!! Super exciting and cool, I love that as a function. Look away if you catch me replaying Vyn's bday card thing. You Don't See That. 👀

TL;DR: (i mean you should but) This update has a ton of cool, new things, that help make this game more interesting, rewarding, and even smoother to navigate. Im excited to see how the game continues to develop, and I'm excited to see how the story progresses!

[canyouhearthelight]

The Miys, Ch. 139

Day Two of the Food Festival!  This one has a specific request from @baelpenrose, which was fun to play with in the Low-Stim session (always on day 2).

To everyone who has reached out to tell me how much they are enjoying getting to see Sophia actually relax and just have fun for once.... Y’all are the best! It’s been fun writing it, too. 

New reader shout outs go to @corvallis, @penguin--person, @amphibiousuprising, @chip5-0, and I think @lostsoul8822. I think that’s everyone... If I missed you, please DM me, and I’ll add you to the next chapter.

On with the show!

The first day of the Festival, Conor and I ended up staying through not only Maverick’s shift but the one after, just so we could drag him to our favorite spots. Day two, however, Conor was on deck as Support Personnel as well as Maverick, and neither were assigned to me - for the first half of day two, we were in the Low Stim Mode, so I was pretty sure I could brave it on my own with everyone else’s proximity alerts and my own personal hyper-alertness preventing accidental bumps.

For me, the most exciting part was the different foods offered, and the fact that I could focus on just the food. Not having to ignore the other stimuli was a completely relaxing experience. The visual of the mural, with everything present, was still completely different in the even, indirect lighting. The dual nature of it was toned down significantly, leading to the overall feel being softer and overall more pleasant without being distracting.

Halfway through a very good pad thai, I spotted Derek and Sam sitting with Ivan and poking at something that Sam was clearly excited about and Derek was equally doubtful of. I circled around so they could see me approaching, and made a point to wave. “What do you think?” I asked, trying to sign as I spoke but hampered by the food in my hands.

“It was a good try,” Derek confessed, cheeks stuffed with something that had previously been on a plate to his left as a backup plan.

Setting my food down, I grinned mischievously. “Doing my best,” I signed, leading to laughter on all sides.

“You just told him you do him the best,” Ivan murmured, my face immediately flooding red.

“That is NOT what I meant,” I tried to explain out loud, over-enunciating while I clenched my hands in embarrassment.

To his credit, Derek signed what he seemed to understand I meant, emphasizing each sign. It was clear that I had gotten several out of order and added one that changed everything overall.

After repeating the signs and getting confirmation, I shook my head and sighed dramatically. “I tried.”

Ivan was trembling with laughter. “You. You did,” he admitted. “But that was… wow.” His head dropped on his hands as he shook silently.

“Souffle pancakes?” I offered, finger spelling the word souffle since I had no freaking clue how to actually sign it.

“Egg pancake,” Derek explained, poking the one I offered and contemplating the jiggle.

“It’s cinnamon sugar, and not gooey,” I explained.

Apparently I got that one right, because Derek immediately stabbed a piece and shoved it in his mouth.  The only judgement I needed was the fact that he dragged the entire remaining pancake onto his plate.

Sam watched his roommate before contemplating his own sample. Before he could even ask, I held up a cup full of macerated berries. “And fruit topping for you, sir.”

“Are those my berries?” he asked, skeptical.

I shook my head. “Bog standard, from the consoles. Your vegetables and fruits are being used in the other shifts. We didn’t want to give anyone here unexpected tastes.”

He nodded and dumped the entire cup of fruit over his pancake, digging in happily.

Ivan batted his eyes at me until I explained. “Sam’s produce has… unexpected pairings. Tomatoes that pair with cheesecake and wines, strawberries that really go well with steak…”

“The mango that goes with beer but not fish?”

“Yeah, that one. Von soil does strange things to produce, turns out.”

“Those matcha-edamame are amazing though.”

“For ice cream, yes. For tea, less so. They’re like… cooking matcha, almost.” I laughed. They actually worked better for ice cream than matcha did, oddly - reducing the sugar content but still giving the same flavor.

“One vendor on the last day is using nothing but my produce,” Sam announced happily. “They asked my permission.”

“That’s good!” I encouraged him. “They should always ask your permission to do things like that.”

“People ask with requisition forms,” he agreed. “Mona asked in person.”

Note to self: much more patronage at Mona’s normal spot, I swore in my head.  She specialized in vegetarian dishes, and honestly made some of the best fried cabbage I’d had in my life.  Knowing that she was so considerate of Sam cemented her as my new favorite takeaway place.

After a little more chat, I finally waved my goodbyes to everyone and strolled slowly to the next tempting stall. I wasn’t really in any hurry, and did more people-watching than I did eating. Latkes were infinitely more interesting when I could overhear people arguing over family recipes.  A small bowl of udon was delicious, but not nearly as flavorful as the discussion around hot versus cold, what to top them with, egg or no egg… the only thing anyone seemed to agree on was that the smiling vendor ‘obviously’ ground their own flour, because the flour provided by the consoles was the wrong texture.

Another mental note: don’t learn to make udon.  Despite what I had previously believed, it takes a lifetime to make it right, turns out.

Wandering further down, I was delighted by the discovery of something that was very clearly Hannah’s doing: demonstrations of older food prep techniques.  Simon winked at me as he carried on a demonstration of - insanely - how to hand pull toffee. I didn’t know he could do that. Muna was demonstrating the correct way to make chapatis and handing them out as fast as she was making them. Clearly, she had been making them her whole life, because at no point did I actually see her look at them, but every single one was perfect.

Laughter erupted over my shoulder, and I whipped my head around to see the source. After wading through a crowd of smiling faces, I couldn’t help but join in.  There, right in front of the entire Ark, was Maverick trying to flip takoyaki as fast as the person demonstrating, and ending up with just a mess of octopus and batter on his side.  Both Maverick and the person guiding him were smiling, though, and in the end, the vendor handed Maverick four perfectly-round balls and quickly devoured all of the - less shapely, so to speak - ones on my partner’s side.  With an exuberant cheer and extending his arms wide to the crowd, the man exclaimed “The first takoyaki of a new student are always my favorite! Nothing tastes better!”

After bowing to his sensei, Maverick turned and spotted me, face still flushed with laughter.  He offered his food to a smaller man I did not recognize, who must have been the person Maverick was Supporting, before waving to me and continuing on.  Despite the urge to crush him in a hug, I forced my feet to stay in place and reminded myself that he was working.

By the time I trusted myself not to race after him, I realized someone had been trying to get my attention and had resorted to messaging me rather than shouting. “Phee, I don’t know what la-la land you are lost in, but look 100 yards to your four.”

The hell was Arthur doing here? He wasn’t scheduled to work this shift, as far as I was aware.  Craning my neck over my shoulder, I turned to see… Apparently a hallucination. It had to be.  There was no chance in any of the nine hells that Arthur Farro was dishing out spaghetti, much less smiling while doing it.

Almost dreamlike, I found myself drifting over to confirm that I was wrong, only to be startled when he shoved a plate with not only spaghetti but two gorgeous pieces of garlic bread under my nose. “Special plates, you can’t smell anything unless it’s on purpose.”

“You… Spaghetti?” I asked, eloquent as ever.

“Family recipe.”

“Leaning into the stereotype a bit, aren’t you?” I asked carefully before shoving as much of one thick, crusty piece of toast in my mouth as I could.

He shook his head. “Anyone who tells you their family is Italian and denies having a family recipe for anything is a damned liar.”

Skeptically, I took a bite. It was amazing. “Ah ee deh rehahee,” I tried to get out around the heap of pasta I was steadily shoving in my mouth.

“Maverick is a very bad influence on your table manners,” he observed drily, plating more portions and handing them out. “And no. Not happening.”

“You know I can cook.”

“Not the point. I also know that you will fiddle with it until it is unrecognizable, so there’s really no point in giving it to you.”

Defiantly, I took a smaller bite and chewed carefully. “Garlic, onions, obviously. Sausage and minced… Lamb? But that’s probably just for this session, knowing you it’s spicy sausage regularly.  I’m not getting carrot, though, so no soffritto? Unexpected…. Is that thyme, I’m tasting?”

“Rosemary, you heathen. And you’re still wrong.”

I mumbled to myself. “What did I get wrong? It’s gotta be the lamb… maybe he does usually use the lamb? I’m certain it is lamb…”

“It is lamb, and no, I don’t usually use it. But you left several things out.”

I stared at the plate again, confused. “I didn’t think I needed to mention the tomatoes….”

“Basil… oregano….” he drawled.

“Duhhh?” I poked through the last bite on my plate, sniffing it, trying to figure out what I was missing. “Fine, you win, I’m lost.”

“Mushrooms, Sophia. There’s mushrooms. Jeezus. It was an easy one, too.”  He showed me a bowl full of what looked like cooked and crumbled sausage, only for me to realize it was the tiniest diced mushrooms I had ever seen in my life.

“I am dying to know how you got them that small.”

“With a knife?” He arched an eyebrow at me as he turned to start another batch of sauce.

“Yeah, no shit, Arthur.”

“Correct, there is no shit in the spaghetti,” he confirmed cheekily as the vegetables started sizzling.

“Asshole,” I laughed, scraping the remaining sauce from my plate with the piece of bread I saved just for that purpose. Just as I was frowning at the sauce-less plate and remaining half-piece of bread, a scalding hot dollop of fresh sauce invaded my vision.

“You love me, because I won’t let you frown at your bread like that.”

Fiiiinnnne I sighed in my head as I shoved a piece of saucy, saucy bread into my cheeks and waggled my fingers to let him get back to work.

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[phoenotopia]

2020 October Update

So... we've launched. And our launch was... actually kind of... bad...

This is a dev blog, so I'll speak on it. But before that, we do have the game's steam page up. If you're anticipating the PC release, please do visit the steam page and add it to your wish list. It would help us a lot.

VISIT STEAM LINK

...

So what didn't go so well?

1. We launched in Nintendo's Americas and Europe territory. If you've been following the release, you'd know that America got the game first. We didn't move to launch in Europe at all since I thought the EFIGS languages (English, French, Italian, German, Spanish) were pre-requisites for Europe. By the time I learned that this wasn't necessarily the case, and attempted to course correct, the damage was done. We had half the allotment of keys to do outreach, and maybe some European outlets that would've covered us, did not.

2. When the game launched, rather than a victory lap, what we experienced was more of a public lashing. We did get some reviews that praised the game highly, but just as many reviews lampooned the game for its high difficulty or other failings. I've since released two patches (or 3, depending on how you count it) to address the difficulty. A lot of overnighters. If you recall in the last blog post, I thought it'd be a good start if we got 20 or so reviews on Open Critic. But we've only 8 as of this writing, and the aggregate score isn't so hot. So that's a fail by my metric.

3. A publisher reached out to us because they were interested in physically printing the game! Yay! But... to advance our talks, they wanted to see the game's sales numbers to ensure that there's a good chance their investment could be recouped. And unfortunately, the game's sales numbers are pretty low. They backed out :(

Some hard lessons were learned. The biggest lesson for me concerns how well we playtested the game. Looking at the original playtester list, it's a short list. You may recall from a previous blog post that our ability to test was severely hampered by technical limitations. Add to that, a lot of people on this list are objectively really achieved players. We're talking power ranked in Smash Bros, regular tournament goers, and people who've played and bested every Souls game. And as the maker of the game, I am most blind to the game's challenges.

Now, I'm definitely more of the opinion that you prioritize PC development first. I still have some reservations about some stages of PC development. But if you do PC/Steam first, you have the great benefit of being able to do Early Access, which gives you access to a greater testing pool. I now view it as an invaluable part of the equation. If we had been able to do Early Access for 1 or 2 months before release, we probably could have ironed out most of the game's difficulty and balance problems. Hard lessons, indeed.

There were a lot of other notable events that occurred over the past 2 months - the travails of press outreach, realizing my own limits as a developer, feeling defeated and getting back up again, etc. There's too much stuff to chronicle or go into detail. But it wasn't all bad.

Some good things did happen...

We got a publisher to publish for Japan! It came as a huge relief, because clearly, we don't know what the heck we're doing.

The publisher has been an invaluable source of information and feedback. They've recommended some changes to the game to improve user experience. Some of these changes I was hesitant to do at first because they concerned systems I thought integral to the identity of the game. But after trying it, I have to admit, they're good changes.

So a Japanese version of the game was moving ahead. And it looked like that'd be it. I wasn't planning to move forward with any other language translations due to the game's low sales and our funds being depleted. 

But, I was approached by a translator who urged me to move ahead with translations. He told me he was willing to work for only a small price initially and then be paid the rest after from a percentage of the game's sales until the cost of the translation was paid in full.

I was surprised translators were willing to work under such a model since it's entirely likely the game's current low sales trajectory would continue and they wouldn't earn back the full cost of translation. But I was also flattered they were willing to take a risk with me. After that, I approached some others with the same hypothetical deal, and long story short, we're now moving forward with French, German, Spanish, Portuguese and Russian translations. As for why these languages in particular, they were languages for whom I had contacts (because they reached out to me at some point in the past). And also because they were deemed more likely to be profitable based on their home country's gaming market/buying habits. I'd be personally happy to have my native language be represented, but it's not expected to be a profitable territory. But if the game does better in the future, it may justify the costs of translation. There could be a chance!

The plan right now is to get the game supporting these first round of languages and then to patch that into the Switch version as well as launch the PC version with these languages - all in December. A lot of things need to align for this to occur, so a delay isn't out of the question. It'll be busy... I'll update the blog again in latter half of December, probably near the game's PC launch date... OR to announce a delay. Let's hope it doesn't come to that.

Fan Support

While the past two months have been grueling, one good thing remains constant - fan art! Thank you everyone who submitted. It means a lot to me and the team!

Big thanks to Pimez who's taken on watching over the reddit community as moderator. He also combs the other communities and makes sure I see every new art piece. Despite juggling his own life and all these tasks, he still found some time to draw.

Pimez's piece reminds us that just because the new game's out doesn't mean we can't still celebrate the original flash game. The jail dog is a dog found only in jail and only in the flash game. I imagine Gail is just tossing a stick, and they're playing fetch.

A new artist to this scene æv draws both the Phoenix logo AND a super cute picture of Gail playing the flute. So precious, you want to pinch her cheek. Even the Sand Drake is enthralled!

Another new artist, beet4ppy arrives on the scene with two pictures! One features a no-nonsense battle-hardened Gail looking stoic and tough! Kinda reminds me of Vinland Saga actually. The other, a more cheerful group composition - I must say I'm a big fan of Fran's classic anime-style eye!

A returning artist, Cody G, returns with a picture depicting the tribulations of cooking. Gotta love Gail's frantic expression! I've heard the complaints, which is why we've added an option to slow the cooking mini-game down. An improved button font is also on the way.

Gamesing with two undertale x phoenotopia crossovers. Thomas being a robot builder makes sense taking a role similar to Alphys. But why is Alex dressed like a clown? Perhaps there is a hidden meaning here... 

A new artist, Warotar, draws both a pooki wearing Gail's clothes and Gail wearing pooki clothes. Awww. The pooki is a bit scary - it kinda reminds me of a tragic event in a certain anime. But the Gail is adorable!

POL#5655 submitted this one to KM's discord which made its way to me. Here, a stylized Gail appears unnerved by the dark red eyes stalking her in the background. Are they bats or something more sinister?

A new artist, MilesCPW, arrives on the scene with three rare well-vectorized arts! Love it! One scene depicts Gail balancing a bomb on her head - that's a speedrunning trick I only learned about recently after someone emailed me a video O_O

The other drawing gives us new insight into Katash - he could actually look cute if he wasn't trying to kill you.

And the bees... Okay, this one got a chuckle from me :D

A returning artist roccy_chair draws this heart-warming scene from the beginning of the new game. Aww. Mika doesn't get much screen time for story reasons, so it's nice to see her represented.

UnrealWorld_32 returns with another drawing of Gail in Panselo, this time capturing a more idyllic time. I like the tranquil nature of this piece. And Gail does in fact play the guitar, denoted by the guitar in her room.

Returning artist shafiyahh draws a nice portrait of Prince Leo - looking regal and princely. I like the storybook art style of this piece. It made me immediately think of "the Little Prince" - one of my favorite books actually!

Negativus Core returns with a beautiful group composition of Gail and the gang - flying from a Switch shaped window - totally sensible considering the game is only Switch right now. As usual, I'm impressed by Negativus Core's use of challenging angles to frame a more dynamic shot of the characters. Great job!

And it wasn't only artists bearing the banner. I'd like to give a big shoutout to everyone in all the game's little communities (from the reddit to the discords to this tumblr). I've seen this community help newcomers with gameplay and walkthrough advice, discussions, updating the wiki, and so on. It does bring a smile to my face. Thank you everyone!

[tellywoodtrash]

immj2 26.12.20 lb

lmao there’s regretting having sex with someone stupid and then there’s THIS guy; poore bed aur bandiii ko hi aag lagaane ki koshish karr raha hai.

I HATE THE WAY VANSH TALKS. I HAAAAAAAAAATE IT. IT’S FUCKING RIDICULOUS AND I HATE IT AND THEY NEED TO STOP MAKING RRAHUL TALK LIKE THISSSSSSSSSSS.

anyway long story short, bhai ne tandoor chaalu kar diya.

she’s so fucking stupid, she just stood there waiting for the fire to surround her instead of escaping out the side that wasn’t on fire yet.

this bitch and her stupid fucking dreams. i’m sick of them, i tell you, i’m fucking sick of them. you know what, half the time vansh isn’t even doing anything wrong (other than being a fucking antisocial weirdo, and also really bad at communication) and this stupid show just makes us root against him because of this dumbass chick’s forever paranoid thought process. sis you need to fucking go to therapy already. you’re just ruining your own life and relationship and this poor dude’s sanity as well.

the real villain of this show.

ghar mein ek aur surprise. man.............. enough with the surprises. don’t y’all have a surprising life on a daily basis, tum extra kyun add karte rehte ho???????????/

requisite shady call to angre, which i’m not even gonna pay attn to anymore. for all we know, he’s just asking him to make sure the audits for the year are done on time.

where they get so many fucking outfit changes from for this one “surprise” day???? like, he didn’t leave the hospital/her side since she got shot, and they’ve had 3 outfit changes already. and here i haven’t changed outta the same pair of jammies for 3 days now.

Bitch-oo Babe (ahana) is calling again. and vansh is making faces again.

riddhima’s like WHAT YOU WANNA TELL ME WHAT YOU WANNA TELL ME WHAT YOU WANNA TELL ME WHY WON’T YOU TELL ME WHAT YOU WANNA TELL ME. behen tum ek minute chup rahogi toh woh kuch bolein???????

network issues. LORD. WHO EVEN CARES. ITNA BADHAAA CHADHAAAA KE THEY’RE GONNA MAKE THIS CHARACTER INTRO AND I’M TELLING YOU IT’S GONNA BE ANOTHER PHUSKI BOMB.

shady ruse where he takes her phone on the pretext of not being able to find his and mutes the call from ahana. dude, it’s shit like this that makes it hard to root for you.

she’s like thank goddddddddddd vansh read my letter and accepted me with my truth blah blah. idiot. this is why you send it by whatsapp. at least you get blue tick confirmation ki usne padha. even then you should have a conversation about it. not just have assumed the letter is the end of the whole fucking issue.

of course. literally who is surprised?

ouff this family is so fucking extra. ek din hospital mein rehkar aayi hai, SARHAD SE NAHI LAUTI WOH!?!??!!!!!

LMAO WHEN I SAY THESE THREE SIBS ARE FOREVER THE BIGGEST MOOD..........................

this dude so tall ki what flowers dadi is throwing on R’s head is just reaching his chest level.

blah blah blah party tonight, coz we apparently live in a universe with no ongoing pandemic.

Chehra Appreciation Break.

this dumbass’s need to be a SANSAAAR KA BIG BROTHER isko le doobega. when you threw out anupriya and your relation with her, then kaahe ka half brother??????? kuch bhi. you just wanna collect max number of people to call you bhai.

riddhima also acting too fucking smart and jhaado-fying rob of being vansh’s wife. stupid.

can’t blame kabir for wanting to murder these smug assholes. we’re #teamKabir again, girls!

uhhhhhhhhhhhhh i’ve seen this outfit before. 

yup.

some more being a bloody weirdo. man he’s like those emo kids who never grew outta their ~~~edgy~~~ phase.

also i would fucking crotch-kick a man if he destroyed a perfectly good hairtie like this. BITCH YOU KNOW HOW HARD IT’S TO FIND GOOD QUALITY ONES???????? JUST COZ YOU’RE RICH DOESN’T MEAN YOU DO SUCH NONSENSE. A GOOD HAIRTIE IS SOMETHING YOU KEEP FOREVER AND ONLY HAND OVER TO A TREASURED SISTER WHO IS IN DIRE NEED OF ONE.

small cute moment. i love when riddhima mimics him!

oh boy, a internal monologue about teaching her a sabak at the party tho. oh vansh. why you gotta be like this???????/ 

vansh taking angre aside at the party and saying whoever’s trying to talk to riddhima is sure to show up here, so.......... taiyyaar rehna.

angre like “don’t worry, riddhima bhaabi ke paas koi anjaan nahi pohunch paayega.” ok but she’s always at threat of being murdered from the people she knows tho. so....................... idk how useful your security is gonna be.

as usual he’s saying nice but creepy shit. idk why she pays attn to his nonsense anymore.

Y’ALL NEED A RESIDENT ELECTRICIAN TO HANDLE ALL THESE RANDOM LIVEWIRES AROUND HERE, THAN ANY OTHER KINDA SUPPORT STAFF. THE FUCK IS THIS NONSENSE???????? (also, clearly vansh and kabir visit the same Torture&KillRiddhima reddit forum, since their plans are soooooooo similar.)

i’m so sick of him being like...............

pick a side and stick to it, you fucking coward.

anyway ahana’s making her way into the house. and security as usual, useless.

idhar useless tashan. why do you two even bother to talk to each other???? be like other exes, pretend the other one died and ignore everything about their presence.

riddhima being real overconfident and saying vansh ke hote hue not even deathhhhhh can touch me. yeah, i wouldn’t be so sure.

this sis really likes her stinging animal friends.

akjlakjfldskjfldskjflsdkjfl this dresssssss itselfffff they gave herrrrrrrrrrrrrr. haaaye bechaari mansiiiiiii. (i mean, i don’t feel TOO bad, coz this was the best dress of them all in that ep. of IB, but still yaaar. ek naya dress banwaa dete!)

dude. i ship it????? if riddhima HAS to be with some murderous psychopath, then i definitely pick a girl one over a boy one. girl psychos are just soooooooooo much fucking hotter. #teamRiHana

[sigcy]

We dabble in writing fics, as well! Here’s a slowburn sigcy fic (it’s still a WIP, first posted on AO3) that Mod Cricket and I worked on together. (CW for violence.) Part Four.

[ Part One ] | [ Next Part (coming soon!)]

Overwatch’s Recall had been in operation for nearly a year. Supported by the League of Nations-- the community of city states that had united post-crisis-- Gibraltar, Hong Kong, The Vatican, Singapore, and others, Overwatch managed to squeak by. They had supplies needed, personnel in roles filled, and the Watchpoints around the world began to fill with agents and recruits alike. Their numbers weren’t like they were in their golden days, but they got things done. They were striking blows against Talon everywhere they went-- Teams taking out supplies, intel runners doing their best keeping tabs on the organization. Talon was seeking to start another Crisis-- potentially ending the human race as they knew it.

And so they had to be stopped before they reached their goal.

But it was difficult--easier said than done-- Whatever they did, it seemed that Talon always seemed to be one step ahead of them. Where Overwatch stopped an incident in one location, Talon would succeed in another. Civilian casualties-- Human and Omnic alike. With each passing day, they teetered further and further toward the cliffs of war.

Angela Ziegler was one of them-- having joined back up as soon as she could. She immediately took her place as head of medical sciences-- spearheading the organization and along with Winston, and the newly rescued Mei-Ling Zhou, hoped to point this new Overwatch down a better path. They adamantly insisted they were not a Mercenary group, nor did they have any semblance of a Blackwatch organization in their ranks. Jesse McCree and Genji Shimada served just as much as the rest of them. Reinhardt, Brigitte and Torbjorn all returned of their own volition. Miss Fareeha volunteered her time, as well. With a daring rescue to Rio, they even had Lucio Correia dos Santos and Satya Vaswani-- a Vishkar defector. Even Hanzo-- Genji’s older brother-- had joined their ranks. Lena was present, her girlfriend in toe. The little family they had all been once before seemed to come together once again. More had joined them, over time.

Thursday, November 18th, 2077.

0319.

Angela didn’t know the specifics on how the mission went down. Nor, did she entirely care at the moment. She’d been bogged down with work at base-- requisition orders, several video conferences with UN officials, and her usual filing and medical paperwork-- and had been ultimately unable to tag along on the mission. and so when she’d been awoken by Athena requesting urgent assistance to the returning team, she didn’t waste a moment getting ready. A pair of flats, her usual black-on-black, her hair thrown up into a quick, messy bun. She looked tired, but still threw on her usual bit of makeup to hide that fact.

The prisoner—patient— asset-- had been 'captured', on her request. Athena believed the man to be rather important in Talon’s ranks— one of their scientists, judging by biometric scan and matching reports alone. Siebren de Kuiper, an astrophysicist that had been institutionalized following an accident that left many people dead. He’d gone missing following another incident involving Talon agents seemingly breaking him out— and now... here he was. Working with Talon? Or for them? Her colleagues wanted to know. They all needed to know. This could severely hurt Talon as they knew it. Baptiste had been sent; their only agent who had enough know how of Talon's Fulcrum to free Dr. de Kuiper.

“Angie, You gotta be careful with that guy. His file weirds me out. Story doesn't add up.” Jesse crossed his arms in front of his chest, the American furrowing his brow at the medic as she checked over the man’s file that Athena had prepared for her. He’d taken off his hat, a gesture of respect to Angela in her wing. “Guy took a couple’a bullets and still came comin’. He’s not to be messed with, darlin’.”

“Yes, Dr. Ziegler. McCree is right.” Genji insisted, the cyborg taking a similar stance as the two of them urged Angela to be careful. “He has a power unlike anything we have ever seen. It would be best if you didn’t go in alone--”

“I will be fine, gentlemen.” She responded, giving a warm, appreciative smile to them both. She appreciated their concern-- but she had handled all sorts of patients. “If he is as unstable as you insist, It would be best not to overcrowd him. Plus-- I wasn’t there, and so he likely won’t recognize me as easily. Perhaps from the old posters... But... he will hopefully not equate me with violence. It will be okay.” She reached out and patted at them both, to which Jesse simply sighed and shook his head.

“Ya really are a handful, doc. Yer gonna getch’yerself hurt, yannow that?”

“I am aware, Jesse. Thank you.” She reached up and tapped the man’s nose with a fingertip, scanning over the datapad with her eyes one last time before she turned to the door in question.

“The prisoner has been sedated to keep him still. He is also cuffed to the bed as per procedure.” Athena’s voice piped up from the nearby wall interface-- the insignia lighting up and catching her attention. They couldn't take any chances after what had happened with Amelie and Gerard all those years ago, she supposed.

Angela was to stabilize his condition, and hopefully get any information she could out of him. She was used to strange patient cases— just look at Genji, and Reinhardt, and even McCree. First, though… She had to stop the sedative and get him coherent.

The medic dismissed the armed guards outside the door to the room— who both insisted she leave the restraints on the man, and that he was incredibly dangerous. They insisted to stay nearby— but she retorted and demanded to have at least the room’s privacy. She was sure she could handle the man herself. There was no patient that she had been unable to deal with before-- and she had almost a lifetime of experience.

And so... she stepped into the room, spying the behemoth of a man where he lay. Sedated, injured, hooked to a caduceus IV that had been slowly fixing his injuries. Returning him to the peak of health. His file claimed that he was unpredictable and dangerous, yet she entered the room unarmed-- confident. Baptiste sat nearby, arms crossed over his chest as he slept in his chair. Angela couldn't help but smile at them both. A tap to his shoulder was enough to wake Baptiste, and the other medic only straightened in his chair before looking to Dr. de Kuiper.

"He knows you, Ma'am." Baptiste mused, leaning forward in his chair.

"A lot of people know me, Jean." Her shoes tapped on the tile as she approached, quietly pinching off the sedative stream into Dr. de Kuiper's IV, and ultimately removing the needle from the injection point. It would take several minutes for him to come to, and so she simply looked over his file on a datapad--committing things to memory-- until the man began to stir, his eyes opening and his mouth curling into a confused frown. He was tall-- akin to that of Reinhardt, she supposed. He’d been given basic pants after his gear had been stripped, and was tucked in to the bed with a hardlight cuff keeping his IV arm in place, secured to the bed. Another hardlight strip crossed his hips, holding him down. His face was scarred, and his mouth curled down in a frown line-- this man had certainly led a rough life-- just looking at his face alone. His frown turned into a grimace as he shifted slightly, obviously still sore.

“Can you hear me, Dr. Kuiper?” She asked, her voice soft and as comforting as she could manage as the man furrowed his brow and blinked away the bright lights of the hospital room. His eyes focused first on the ceiling, then drifted over to her as she repeated her question-- taking the little medic in and looking her up and down--sizing her up.

In all but a moment, he was awake and coherent, snapping to attention as he seemed to realize his situation-- his face twisting in anger as he yanked his arm up at the cuff, letting out a furious growl at the restraint. His breath hitched, anger and panic setting in as he pulled again, and again, and again. He looked to Baptiste, and to Angela, and he let out another furious grunt.

“Dr. Kuiper, I need you to calm down--” She started, her hands reaching out to try and steady him-- only to have a lashing hand grasp roughly at her chest with a tightened fist, drawing her up and in close by the shirt as he half-sat up.

“Release me!” He bellowed, and at that moment the woman was lifted from the ground ever so slightly-- not by force alone, however. The room almost felt lighter, the floor rumbling as though he caused it to shift and shake. “I will be a prisoner no longer! I was promised!” The medic kicked her legs, her mouth curling into a grimace and her brows furrowing in almost fear.

“Dr. Kuiper, I--!!” She started, before Baptiste intervened.

"Hey, hey, hey. It's alright." Dark hands touched at Dr. de Kuiper's shoulders, pulling the man's attention away from his commander. "Let's talk. It's alright. No one here aims to hurt you." A pause, and Baptiste tilted his head to the side, gesturing to the glowing gold caduceus IV above his head, its line trailing into his arm. "You were at that convention, right? When she told the world about her thesis? You told me you met her then. You know her, she sent me for you!"

Sigma paused, periwinkle eyes flicking to the caduceus IV as it hung above him. There was a moment of silence, a moment of shaking breath. After a few seconds, his eyes turned back to Angela-- the spectre of a woman who had haunted him all these years, and his fist was clenched in the fabric of her shirt. She weighed so little, and he could barely tell if it was his own strength or his mind that lifted her and several other objects in the room. Bright blue eyes looked at him, surprised far more than afraid.

"Put her down, big guy. Neither of us mean you any harm." Baptiste said, and it was as though he suddenly came to. He snapped to attention, gently returning the acting-commander to the floor as though she were made of glass. Movements slow, deliberate, delicate.

"I..." Dr. de Kuiper started, slowly pulling his hand he'd used in rage back to his side. "I am so sorry."

Angela dusted herself off, nodding in thanks to Baptiste as the medic's hands moved away from Sigma's shoulders. "You are forgiven, Dr. de Kuiper." She smiled, righting her clothing as though he hadn't touched her at all.

The smile made him hate the fact he even breathed the same air as her. It was warm, kind, and genuine. Like the first light after a terrible storm. An offer of grace. His gut twisted in anxiety as she turned to retrieve a datapad that had been dropped, looking to his vitals screen and scribbling on the datapad's surface for a few moments, and throwing a knowing look to Baptiste.

"I apologize for this whole situation, Dr. de Kuiper." Baptiste murmured, moving to sit back down. "For the record, they had to cuff me as well when I first arrived here."

"It isn't the first time we have... acquired operatives from Talon. Once, one of our informants ended up killed because of our carelessness." Angela's voice was blunt, still writing on her datapad.

"Amelie La'Croix." Siebren looked down at his lap, cupping at his forehead.

Blue eyes flicked down at Siebren where he sat, mouth pressed into a line. "You know her, I presume?"

Siebren sat quietly for many moments, before nodding. "She was... A shell. Emotionless, cold. I thought that that was just how she was... I--I'd never met her prior to... what happened, but--"

"Let's not talk about her." Baptiste offered a smile, standing up and undoing the man's hardlight restraints fully. "You're at Overwatch's base of Operations, in Gibraltar. You've been asleep for a few hours."

"I don't remember going to sleep."

"The water I gave you on the ship. It--" Baptiste started to explain, but Siebren only huffed.

"You could have told me."

"That was the point, my friend. I hope you'll forgive me."

"He was only following protocol, Dr. de Kuiper." Angela mused, a gentle hand placing itself on Siebren's shoulder as she sat on the edge of his bed. Her hand was warm, and it made his heart skip a beat, periwinkle eyes looking to her searchingly.

There was a knock at the door, and Angela's attention was pulled away as the door opened to an omnic nurse bringing in a tray of food, setting it on the side table next to Siebren's bed.

"Thank you, Sybil." Angela smiled at the nurse, until she caught two more peering faces from the door frame. Jesse and Genji. Jesse's face was twisted into a distrusting almost anger, while Genji's was always unreadable. Protective, furious. She only smiled reassuringly at them both, and Jesse crossed his arms in front of his chest before the door closed, the omnic nurse leaving the room once more.

"I am sure you're hungry, friend." Baptiste mused, and Angela stood, reaching to the side table to deliver the food to Siebren's lap. Toast, an unopened bottle of Orange Juice, an apple and some yogurt-- staples in hospital cuisine.

"If this isn't enough, feel free to ask for more." Angela added, looking to Baptiste with a nod. "I will let you rest, for now. Baptiste, why don't you go back to your quarters? You deserve rest, as well." Information that was needed would have to come later.

Siebren's heart panged as he realized he'd be left alone again, and he looked up to her, and then up to Baptiste. Frantic, almost. Don't leave him alone again, he was fit for work, he was--

"No, no, I'm fine, I--"

"Dr. Ziegler, why not leave him with at least something to keep him busy?" Baptiste's tone was gentle, knowing, as he gathered his jacket from the back of the chair he'd settled into. She had no idea what he'd been through-- but Baptiste had an inkling.

Angela paused for a moment, before nodding. "My apologies, of course. I will be right back." Angela took a step back, collecting herself and disappearing through the door within a few seconds. The room fell into silence, before Baptiste only turned on his heel and laughed lightly.

"Now it makes sense, doctor." He laughed, shaking his head.

"E-Excuse me?" Siebren furrowed his brow, collecting his orange juice and cracking the bottle open.

"You love her, don't you?" He turned to Siebren, nodding, a knowing smile across his face as though he were teasing an old friend. "You love Commander Ziegler!"

[seminalstudy]

Hi everyone! I’m currently in the process of transferring to a new university and one of the biggest parts of that has been planning out and scheduling which classes to take my first semester, in hopes that I can graduate at the same time as people my age :’) As someone who’s planned how to graduate in three years not once but twice now, I figured I could share my experience and/or advice with anyone looking to maximize their college academics!

1. Establish a timeline: Ask yourself how many years you’re giving yourself to complete your degree as this will help you figure out how heavy your course loads will have to be to graduate at your expected time (this could be anywhere from 2 years to 5 or more). At my first college, I planned to graduate in three years in order to save money and because the school had easier academics, so I was confident I could handle the extra work. My new plan to graduate in three years is so I can graduate with other students my age, set your goal!

2. Now that you’ve established a broad timeline, it’s time to start looking at potential majors/minors and career tracks: Hopefully, this is something you’ve started looking at before applying to college, but don’t worry - it’s not too late! As someone going into college with the knowledge that I’d be taking out max loans each year, I tried to figure out what I wanted to do early on so I could maximize my credits ie take as many required classes as possible and not ‘waste’ credits on classes that wouldn’t really contribute to my degree (ofc I ended up changing my mind 3/4 of the way thru the year but that’s life). I narrowed my options down to 3 or 4 majors and managed to eliminate 2 of them pretty early on.

3. With at least one track in mind, research all the requirements to earn a degree in that area: Universities often have “general education requirements” regardless of your major, so you take classes in multiple disciplines and broaden your perspective. Course catalogs/general bulletins/college websites are where you can find info about your gen-eds and major-specific required courses. It’s really helpful to map this out by hand or in a spreadsheet program (I did it both by hand and with Excel to stay uber-organized). This is also where you can narrow down the majors you’re interested in by looking at the required courses and course descriptions. I considered a Data Analytics major early on, but after seeing how much coding was required (not a strong suit or interest for me) I could comfortably eliminate it.

4. Reach out to your advisor/navigator/registrar to clarify any questions: If you’re confused by any of the requirements for your major/gen-eds, talk to someone at the university. I feel bad for the numerous advisors I’ve had because I pestered them with questions so I could have a complete understanding of everything - it really helps in the scheduling process and I’ve never had a staff or faculty member be irritated by the questions - they love to help (plus it shows initiative and starts forming connections which is A+). Seriously, reach out if you’re confused, don’t just sit in the dark!

5. Map out required courses and pre-requisites: This is where Excel or Google Sheets can be your best friend - they make it really easy to keep track of what needs to be taken when. Some courses require a certain academic standing (sophomore, junior, senior) for you to take them, others require you to take several classes before you can register for it. Certain progressions of classes can really limit what your schedule looks like, so this step is incredibly important (and somewhat time-consuming).  

6. Generate a slightly less vague timeline: Based on pre-requisites and required class standings, begin to assign classes to fall and spring semesters. Let’s say you have to complete a senior capstone in order to graduate, and you can only take it senior year, write it into the timeline. Maybe you need to take Math123 and Math124 for your major, but Math124 requires you to complete Math123 first. Place 123 into a semester and 124 in the semester following that. This doesn’t have to be exact, but it’s good to be aware of what your future schedule will look like, and what classes you need to take sooner rather than later (this is also time-consuming because you’ll find numerous variations in potential schedules). 

7. Determine the courseload you’ll need to take: Some people luck out and have lots of AP/IB or like credits that will transfer into real college credit, helping to eliminate the number of classes you have to take (I was not such a person). You’ll generally receive a credit evaluation during the summer before the first semester so you can plan accordingly. Most advisors recommend taking 15-17 credits, but if you need to take more so you can graduate faster or less so you’re not overwhelmed, do what you need. I ended up taking the max credits allowed then over that, but that’s only because I was pushing so hard to graduate faster. This kind of ties into the last step, but you also need to evaluate your personal strengths and weaknesses.

8. Determine the courses that will maximize your first semester: Fun fact, your major requirements can often double-dip and count for your general education requirements too! Look at the pre-reqs for your higher-level classes and try to choose those that will open up the most classes, see which of your major required classes could count for gen-eds, such as humanities or science courses. If you’re between a few majors, look for classes that a required for them. For me, I was between a Business Administration or Sustainable Business major, so many of the requirements were the same. I took classes that could count for both, but if I wanted to go one way or the other, I wouldn’t be screwed over.

9. Try to balance the courses you NEED to take with those you WANT to take: I’m a humanities kind of gal (science has not been mon ami in the past) but both of my colleges require science and math classes. So, when I have to take a math and science course simultaneously, I try to add in some of the subjects I’m stronger in (history, english, etc) so that my GPA wouldn’t die. If you’re fortunate enough that affording college isn’t a concern, I’d personally say take as many courses that interest you as possible, but when financing a higher level education is more of an issue, complete your requirements but leave some space to explore your interests.

10. With a handful of courses in mind, look at actually scheduling your classes: With online registration, you can generally look at which classes are full, what times are available, etc. Are you really, definitely, for sure a morning person who can handle that 8am? Do you need a definite break for lunch? Will you be more productive in the mornings or evenings? Are there multiple profs for the class and does one have better ratings than the other? (ratemyprofessor.com is a lifesaver) Is there enough time outside of class to study/do extracurriculars/have a social life? Sometimes you’ll really need to take a class and it’ll be at some ungodly hour, but sometimes you gotta suck it up. Try not to overload one day with classes and make sure there’s enough time between classes to get to your next class, especially if your school has a large campus. This part is really based on personal preference, so enjoy it!

11. Give yourself time to do all of this: Especially for a first-year college student, there’s a lot already happening, and the opportunities are endless. It takes a lot of time to thoroughly research. This is a big process if you really care about being organized, and it can set you up for great success in college! All of these steps are really tied together but you’ll need more than one day (I took several weeks lol) to plan out a college career.

12. It gets easier: After doing this for just two semesters, I was much more comfortable making these big choices. For my new university, I managed to accomplish this in only a few days, but I was already familiar with the major I’m pursuing and how to lay everything out. For those of you continuing in college, consider mapping our the rest of your time if you haven’t already, and keep track of the courses you’ve taken and still need to take! This way, you won’t be thrown any loops when graduation comes.

Disclaimer: This advice is based purely off my own U.S. college experience which is undoubtedly very different from others! Ultimately, pursuing a higher-level education is your own personal journey, and do what you need to do to find success, this is just me trying to help out others!

If you have any questions about any of this, want to talk scheduling with me, or see my schedule planning notes and spreadsheets, just message me, I’m always willing to talk and even more willing to make friends!

-B

[sleepykalena]

Why do people (including you) tag things with numbers? What does that mean?

This is a good question, actually! I used to ask that myself

When you search for posts with certain tags on tumblr, tumblr tends to display posts that only have said tag within the first 5 tags. So for things like personal posts, or posts that you only really want your followers to see, or posts that you wanna tag a certain way but don’t want it to be easily searchable for whatever reason, you fill the first 5 tags with numbers. Usually, you just tag it with #’s 1 through 5.

This tagging system is also why, when making posts for any fandom networks, you gotta add the requisite tags within the first five tags of the original post (i.e. reblogs with the tags won’t show up)

Anyway yeah hope that helps

[I’m fuzzy and trying to blow off some steam! Ask Me Anything]

[bigskydreaming]

gingerjab replied to your post “ANYWAY. The petition/prayer circle for Michael Trevino to be cast as...”

I’m forever an asshole obsessed with fire/ice ships so Thunderbird or Sunfire, fuck the inhumans one off and St. John. Also, Rahul Kohli as Neal Shaara/Thunderbird/Agni. Also I’m sposed to be asleep so ignore if this is a shit idea.

For the record, I actually kinda like the Inhuman guy, cuz I mean, its not his fault he’s part of a trash franchise. I think it probably helps that I’ve only ever read one issue with him, so as to render it absolutely impossible for his writing to piss me off. I like to just close my eyes and pretend he’s a mutant. Y’know. Like I do with Kamala!

Who is obviously a mutant.

(And like.....let’s be real. The dude is a pyrokinetic with a demon form, the codename INFERNO, and his REAL name is DANTE Pertuz. DANTE. INFERNO. Like, that’s the on-the-nose-fuck-your-subtlety-we-came-here-to-be-pretentious-as-fuck-with-our-literary-references-look-how-dignified-it-makes-our-character balls to the wall character concept I am HERE for. I’m like OH HAI I SEE WHAT U DID THAR. And they’re like “oh yeah? You got it? Hahaha, we were worried nobody would, phew, good job tho. Totally adds to the character right? Pretty clever of us.” And then I’d be like Hahahaha no, not even a little bit, but ‘scool, I like him anyway cuz I’m easy like that. I put out for puns.” And then they’d be like awwwww, dammit, we worked so hard on that. And I’d be like....well, that doesn’t speak highly of your abilities, I mean it was a super obvious joke. And then I stopped making up conversations with hypothetical people in my head.)

Also, in defense of comic book St. John Allerdyce and absolutely NO OTHER VERSIONS EVER because agreed, they all suck....

Comic book St. John is a snarky Australian asshole who in between acts of mutant mass destruction, has a side career as a successful romance novelist under a pen name.

(I’m not even joking. Comic book St. John, in canon, writes romance novels in his spare time as a hobby. LOLOLOL c’mon, how is that not a great character beat for a supervillain slash occasional kinda-if-you-squint-superhero).

Anyway.

I too am also trash for fire/ice ships because SCREW SUBTLETY, WE SHIP THEMATICALLY. But like, its gotta be the RIGHT fire/ice ship. I weirdly have standards with my fire/ice ships? Probably just because I’m obsessed with Bobby Drake but whatever, who cares, how is that relevant.

I mean, OBVIOUSLY, you have your proto-fire/ice ship, the one, the original, the Word I came out of the womb prepared to preach and ship and like, spread to the masses....Bobby Drake/Johnny Storm. Because like. They are elemental dorks whose competitiveness is only matched by their dumbness, how can you not love them, I DEFY YOU TO SAY.

I’m kinda meh on Iceman/Pyro, because like, original comic book Pyro and Bobby never even interacted I think? And in cartoons they’re always totally different generations/age groups, and in the movies they’re like....boring and stale and not even all that attractive and also did I mention boring, omg no offense to whomever wrote them, but I tried reading Bobby/Pyro movie fanfic years ago because like, that’s the only movie Bobby fic there is, unless you want to read about him being an asshole to Rogue and/or cheating with Kitty and just generally driving Rogue into the arms of the much (much much much much, like ewww) older Logan or Gambit. Because srsly, so appealing. So obviously, I caved and tried reading Bobby/Pyro fics because like, they had the word ‘Bobby’ in them, and the bar is too low in my X-Men fic reading habits. And omg I fell asleep. I just. It was all just the standard m/m cookie cutter generic ‘good boy plus bad boy uwu yaoi-zowey’ bleh starring two not at all deeply written or well-acted meh-looking white dudes, and just. Why.

But that’s what I mean when I say I’m wary of fire/ice ships, because sometimes with powered characters like, authors think oh hey, LOOK ONE IS FIRE AND ONE IS ICE, THIS TOTALLY COUNTS AS THEM HAVING OPPOSITES ATTRACT PERSONALITIES AND THUS I DONT NEED TO GIVE THEM A PERSONALITY, RIGHT? Like. They’re just very boring and unimaginative in execution, just because they expect the basic premise of fire and ice/’obvious opposites attract, obviously’ to do all the work for them.

(Katey if you’re reading this I’m super for sure not talking about YOUR superpowered romances, because you are wonderful and GOOD at writing and imaginative, and thus none of this applies to you. Requisite disclaimer.)

So, when they did this random Bobby/’New Pyro Dude like where did he even come from I still dont know’ hook-up, I was prepared to like, yawn endlessly, because I figured it would be more boring imaginationless ‘ooh look what an obvious pair they are and yet still praise me for how clever I am for pairing them’ crap. 

And I was absolutely right!

(But I mean, it was written by Marc Guggenheim, the odds of it sucking were totally in my favor. Betting against them being well-written under his pen might feasibly be construed as cheating. Whatever).

And also, the art did them ZERO favors, like I know they’re both generic blond dudes in their twenties, but I LITERALLY COULD NOT TELL WHICH WAS SUPPOSED TO BE WHICH in any of the panels that they were like, in bed together or dressing or talking or literally anything until they started using their powers to fight bad guys. It was soooooooo bad. Like the art just manifested every ‘look at the white gay date his mirror reflection lol what is variety even’ cliche and beat you over the head with it.

(Also Bobby is supposed to have brown hair, which at least would’ve helped a LITTLE bit. Meh. Still was gonna suck because like, nobody had any intention of WRITING them together, like, developing their characters and laying the groundwork for a possible relationship. It was just ‘oh look, the fire and ice dude got drunk at a wedding and hooked up, cool deal, now on with the story.’)

Anyway, the ONLY redeeming potential for a Bobby/Simon relationship in my opinion is ENTIRELY due to a fic I read with them. Its probably the only fic written about Simon ever, lmfao, so its not like the writer’s characterization of him has any competition among either canon or other fans’ renditions of him. But it was pretty well written, I actually liked their portrayal of Bobby, which I’m SUPER picky about in fanfics, and they actually invested time in developing Simon and his POV and giving him an actual personality and shit, that wasn’t half bad. So if Simon was written like that in the comics and their relationship progressed in similar ways, I could feasibly be on board with them.

But it won’t, so I’m not. Meh. Anyway.

I actually really REALLY like both Shiro AND Neal, with the caveat that I hate Neal’s stupid offensive-ass codename, I know Claremont only named him Thunderbird because he introduced him in an anniversary issue that was supposed to be a call-back to the original Giant Size lineup, and he needed a stand-in for John Proudstar, but like....wtf Claremont, just use your brain and save Neal to introduce a whole issue later and stick Jamie in John’s place the way everyone else does. He literally went by Thunderbird in the comics already in his Hellion days, which YOU wrote, so why the fuck did you feel the need to be stupidly offensive and act like Native American people and traditions are interchangeable with those of a guy from India? Ugh he’s so....gah.

Anyway. So I actually like both Shiro and Neal, though pretty much only when people other than Claremont are writing them, lololol. Which is admittedly...rare. Because of all his pet characters, they’re both at the top of the list of ones nobody else has any interest in touching. Bizarrely, my favorite run involving Shiro was when he was randomly shoe-horned into that Alpha Flight relaunch in the late 90s, that only lasted a couple years? Dunno if you know what I’m talking about, the team with Radius, Flex, Murmur, Heather as Vindicator and Mac was a robot or some weird shit.

I have no real thoughts on either of them with Bobby though, for a fire and ice pairing. Tbh I can’t really see Bobby/Shiro like, at ALL lmfao. For one, Shiro’s always felt written as though he’s a good ten years older than Bobby at least. Like they’re not really compatible dialogue-wise lol. And he’s pretty much never had any patience for Bobby in the comics, which has a lot to do with most of their interactions being written by Claremont himself, and Claremont infamously haaaaaaates Bobby’s character and trashes him any chance he gets, aka the few times editorial makes him actually use Bobby in a script. But I also think even under other writers, like....Shiro honestly is not the type to have any patience for Bobby’s antics or brand of humor, like.....he’s like JP but without the superficial crush JP used in canon to view Bobby’s idiosyncrasies as endearing instead of migraine inducing. I don’t think any readers would buy someone of JP or Shiro’s personality-type crushing on Bobby twice, lololol.

I DO however kinda like the idea of Neal/Bobby? If someone ever actually brought Neal back and gave him a new codename and stuck him on a team with Bobby? They’ve also barely interacted in canon, and the only time I can think of, Neal was super rude and dismissive of Bobby, because like, Claremont was writing it of course, so it made total sense for him to have the dude who’s literally been an X-Man for two issues talk down to the X-Man of several decades like the latter had no clue what he was doing, lol. Oops, still slightly salty there. 

But honestly, I doubt anyone who didn’t have hyperfixation fueled grudges on a fictional fave’s behalf would ever even remember that one canon interaction, and tbh Neal’s pretty much a blank slate character wise. His only defining traits from what little he’s been used are that he’s fairly young, in his early to mid-twenties, from a wealthy family, a little full of himself but in a ‘really wants to impress people and prove himself’ kinda way instead of an overly entitled ‘i genuinely believe I am superior to all you buffoons’ kinda way. And he was always endearingly enthusiastic and eager about new stuff he encountered from being with the X-Men.

(He was also randomly obsessed with Psylocke, but I truly think Claremont was like, well I’m just gonna write him like I would Warren Worthington because why not. So yeah, obvsly he’s super obsessed with Betsy. Duh.)

Anyway - I would like someone to do something interesting with Neal, and I think his and Bobby’s chemistry has a lot of potential and they could bounce off each other well. 

Also, I like Rahul, but I was randomly fancasting some of the more obscure X-Men awhile back for Reasons (I forget what they were tbh, but I’m sure I had them. I usually do). I came across this Indian actor named Karan Tacker and was like ohhhhhhh he totally looks like he could be Neal Shaara.

I mean, I’ve literally never seen him act, so who knows what his acting is like, but since we’ve established Neal’s character is essentially whatever the person to actually use him next wants it to be, I don’t think that’s a big deal lol.

So this is totally superficially based casting, like I think this guy looks and ‘feels’ the way Neal’s typically been drawn and the kinda vibe he gives off.

Also, incidentally, having absolutely nothing to do with anything, let alone my selection process, by pure coincidence the dude just so happens to have abs for daaaaaaays.

But I mean. Like I said, that is neither here nor there. Obviously.

Of no relevance whatsoever. I didn’t even notice, tbh. Don’t even know who hijacked my body and ghost wrote these last few sentences, quick, call an exorcist.

....oh noes, is this one of the consequences of being an ‘anti’? IS THIS MY COMEUPPANCE? *flees*

[blizzweirdo]

“No Omen, No Country’s Cause” Ch. 11

Sorry this is late, y’all. I became suddenly ill this weekend, and I’m still pretty x_x Hopefully this chapter is not weird because of it. I wanted this chapter to be dual perspective, but it just didn’t happen. This chapter follows Marín as she inadvertently discovers Nova’s mission and defends the Tyrador system against the UED, Stukov, and the Tal’darim.

Marín couldn’t sleep. In the darkness of her quarters, she laid staring at the grey, metallic ceiling above her. She tried to count the rivets to calm her mind, but she kept going back to the battle ahead and the plans, and choices they had made. Marín was still disheartened by their decision to not help Stukov. Asking for help from Artanis and Vorazun would even the odds, but they would need extra time for the evacuations of both Tyrador IX and VIII, and Stukov’s help would increase the UED’s momentum. Other than the protoss, nothing had really changed on their side. Her fleet had been able to replace what they had lost (and were working to add to the fleet), but the Republic had not—they had lost a lot of their production when Tarsonis was captured. The shadowy Moebius Corp. was the only fleet that had increased its number, pulling resources from somewhere beyond Umojan and Republic territories. Marín had encountered possessed Moebius troops during the End War. Controlled and abandoned by Amon, those who hadn’t died had been left to the Void. But Valerian still owned the laboratories and had a majority share in the company. He quietly began recruiting again when the dust settled—another sketchy detail that had been exposed by her government, the Umojans. With such mercurial allies and unpredictable enemies, the battle for the Tyrador system left her uneasy.

     Marín looked at the clock on her nightstand. It was three hours before she was due on the bridge. She decided she would go ahead and get up. She slipped quietly out of bed, trying not to disturb Vermaak who slumbered next to her. His sleep was untroubled by worry; he was steadfast in his duty and unquestioning of his orders in a way that she was not. Snoring like the engine of his vulture, he didn’t even move as she grabbed a uniform from the cabinet, dressed quietly in the bathroom, grabbed her datapad, and left.

     As she neared the lift to the bridge, she found herself going back over Stukov’s extraction plan and the information he had included about his son—what he looked like and where he was being held. Stukov had identified a crucial weakness in the carriers which could be exploited in other ways, and even an abortive attempt would have most likely put him on their side. She had toyed with going slightly rogue and assembling a rescue herself with those loyal to her—Ahlberg, Barre, Jansa—but if any of them were lost because of it, she couldn’t live with herself. Disobeying Augustin was also something that she was loathe to do.

     The night bridge crew greeted her with surprise. She told them that nothing was wrong; she was just going to her office—but then she was distracted by what the bridge crew was watching. Projected holographically was a field of thousands of golden orbs, glistening in the light of Tyrador’s distant star.

     “Is that the protoss minefield?”

     “Yes,” a commander on the watch said, “the last few are being set now.”

     “This is Karax, phasesmith to the Golden Armada. The last mines are away. Initiating shadow mode.” The globes disappeared in a wave of gossamer colors as if they had never been there. Marin stood staring, trying to pick them out against the dark of space. But she of course could not. The orbs were undetectable

     Marín had always been in awe of the protoss and their technology. Umoja had always been slightly more advanced than the other terran colonies, but the protoss made them all look like Neanderthals. And despite the Olympian task they had undertaken—enclosing both planets with a self-replicating shield of mines—they were ahead of schedule. Marín walked into her office and sat down at her desk, pulling up all the Core Fleet requisitions for the battled ahead. It didn’t hurt to make sure that there were no mistakes. She thumbed through them, page by page. But then she stopped; something wasn’t right. Among the orders was one for her wraith—and not for her use. She didn’t normally even submit a requisition for it; it wasn’t even in the normal manifest. The authorization code that had been used was hers, but there was no pilot attached. Her wraith was set to be prepped and launched in thirty minutes—before both she and Jansa were on duty.

     Marín activated the comm unit on her desk to see if she could get in touch with the engineer that was slated to oversee the hangar at that time. There was no response. A feeling of foreboding set in, and she wasn’t sure why. It was most likely a mistake. A weird one, but a mistake. Someone missed a digit somewhere—or I did—and the wrong bird was pulled. But the more she thought about it, the more she realized that multiple mistakes would have had to have been made for something like this to happen, which made it very unlikely that it had been an accident.

     She called Jansa in her quarters. The comm rang more than a dozen times before Jansa answered. When she did, it was obvious that Marín had woken her. Her light-blond, curly hair that was usually trussed into a tight bun, radiated from her round face like a halo from a medieval Earth painting.

     “Do you know what time it is?” Dani said grumpily.

     “Is that any way to speak to your commanding officer?” Marín said sarcastically.

     “Do you know what time it is, Admiral?”

     “That’s better… You know anything about someone else needing to fly my wraith?” Dani looked at her drowsily, not really fully comprehending what she was saying.”

     “No…”

     “There’s a requisition in for it, and I didn’t place it. Will you meet me in the hangar? It’s slated to leave in twenty-five minutes.”

     “What?” She said, still confused. “Okay? I’ll… I’ll be down there in a minute. I gotta… get on pants.”

     “Yes, that’d be a good idea. See you in five?”

     “Eh. Yeah.”

     Jansa ended the call. Marín stood to walk to the door, but she hesitated. Thinking better of it, she opened the bottom drawer of her desk and took out her stun pistol, affixing it to her belt. She wasn’t sure what she would find when she got there, but she didn’t want to be caught by surprise.

     Marín met Jansa outside the hangar. Jansa hadn’t taken the time to pull back her hair. It bobbed as she jogged down the hallway. She finished fastening her coveralls as she stood next to Marín.

     “Show me this requisition order.” Marín handed Jansa her datapad. Jansa looked at the order. “That’s your authorization code. But no pilot? How would you even make an order like that in the database? It shouldn’t let you.”

     “I know. That’s what I thought.”

     Marín and Jansa walked into the hangar bay. It was still early, and so it was eerily quiet.

     “Who’s on duty right now?” Marín asked.

     “Uh, Erik, I think. Let’s see who’s in the shack.”

     The shack was what Jansa called her office, which was a large shipping container that she had converted for her use and shared with the other engineers. Jansa entered, followed by Marín. There were shelves lining either side of the windowless room with random parts and scrap stuffed into every inch. Cables hung from above and everything was covered in oil.

     “You know, you could get someone to clean in here. We have people who do that.”

     “I did!” Their camaraderie was interrupted by Jansa’s yelp of surprise. On the floor behind her desk was Erik, her night subordinate. He was out cold. Marín checked his pulse.

     “He’s breathing. His pulse seems fine. He doesn’t look injured…”

     “I’m going to call a med—”

     There was a sudden crash from outside in the hangar. Both women instinctively crouched down lower.

     “What was that?” Jansa whispered.

     “Do you have a surveillance feed?”

     Jansa quietly stepped over Erik and pulled up the hangar’s security feed on her console. The perspective flipped a few times before it landed on Marín’s wraith. A tall, blonde woman in the uniform of a Terran Republic ghost was preparing to board it. She was stooping over to pick up her rifle and lean it against the wraith again. It must have fallen over. The wraith was not on the path of the launch rack yet and was still resting on its docking supports.

     “Do you recognize--?”

     “No idea who that is. You stay here. I’m going to go find out.”

     Marin took her pistol from her belt and slowly and quietly made her way out of the shack. She crept towards her wraith, ducking behind liberators, banshees, and tanks while keeping in line of sight of her wraith. Carefully, she inched forward, making sure to keep an eye on the ghost. If she didn’t, the woman could cloak and get the best of her. Between them was the rack’s deep-set track, yellow “DO NOT STAND” sings on either side of it. The woman continued to place items in the wraith—grenades and other armaments, she realized—until Marín was a few meters from her. She raised her pistol.

     “Hands up! Put your hands where I can see them!”

     The woman’s shoulder’s slumped, and she let out an annoyed sigh.

     “You Umojans sure are a nuisance.”

     “I’m going to be a ‘nuisance’ to anyone who injures my people and tries to steal my bird. Turn around and face me—slowly.”

     The woman turned. Her goggles were down, but the coldness of her gaze made Marín’s stomach flutter.

     “Kick the gun towards me…”

     The woman deftly touched her rifle with the tip of her boot and pushed it towards Marín. It skipped over the launch rack’s grooved path in the floor and slid next to her.

     “You’re making a mistake,” the woman said. “I have an important mission. And I’ve been ordered to let no one stand in my way—even you, Admiral Marín.”

     “Why do you need my wraith? How did you get my authorization codes? I need to know now.”

     “I’m sorry. I can’t tell you.”

     Marín felt invisible fingers tightening around her neck. She took a deep breath while she still could and fired at her. The woman tipped Marín’s hand at the last moment, and the shot went wide. The ghost angrily stepped forward, tightening her telekinetic grip on Marín’s throat and taking her weapon out of her hand. Marín’s vision started to tunnel. But then there was a sudden rush of wind and a deafening roar—and the woman and the sensation of being strangled were gone. Marín took in gasping breaths and looked around. The woman was lying in a heap on the floor several meters away. The booster on the launch rack had engaged without the wraith and had hit her. Then the emergency brake had engaged because the hangar door was closed, catapulting the woman down the hangar. She should have been much further away than she had landed. In the seconds before the impact, the woman must have been able to telekinetically slow the rack. Marín heard Jansa’s heavy boots pounding the hangar deck as she ran to her.

     “That was quick thinking.”

     “I was just waiting for that bitch to step on that track.”

     Marín laughed and started coughing. “You call that med team?”

     “No…”

     “Well, call them now and tell them we need some psi disrupter restraints. Let’s get whoever this is patched up and maybe we can get an explanation out of her.”

     As the med team came in, Jansa directed them around, leaving Marín to sit on the floor and rest. Her neck was badly bruised, and it was still hard for her to breathe. She watched as they loaded the ghost onto a gravsled gurney, restraining her and putting a psi disrupter collar around her neck. A nurse came, scanned Marín’s neck, and gave her an injection for pain, telling her she’d be fine. Marín got up, retrieved her datapad from the shack, and followed the gurney to the med bay. Ahlberg, her XO, was waiting outside. His face was flushed as if he had ran all the way there. He had obviously dressed quickly; the asymmetrical zipper on his uniform jacket was unzipped.

     “I got a call… You were down…”

     “I’m okay, thanks to Dani.”

     The gurney passed by him as they glided her into the med bay. His eyes widened.

     “Is that a Terran Republic ghost?”

     “Looks like it.”

     “They sent her to assassinate you?” Ahlberg said angrily. “Did Horner do this? I’ll bet it was Valerian! What do they think they are doing sending…” Marín watched as his blood pressure started to rise, the reddening of his skin even visible under the short-cropped hair at his temples.

     “Anders. We have no idea why she’s here, and I have no idea what her mission was. And I’m going to need your help finding out.” She slapped his broad chest with her datapad. He reflexively caught it. “Go in there and get her prints and run them through the Republic database. I doubt anything will come up, but even a response of ‘classified’ will tell us whether she was actually working for them or not. I’m going to call Vermaak. I need a shadowguard down here.”

     “Right!” Ahlberg stomped into the med bay. Marín put her hand to one of the unbroken line of touchscreens that ran along every hallway on Umojan ships. A UI popped up on screen, recognizing her handprint. She opened a comm to her own quarters. A brief thought came to her: Why did Vermaak not come to the med bay? Surely someone thought to tell him I had been injured. But maybe not. It was logical to notify her second if she was incapacitated, but not “next of kin.” She hadn’t died, after all.

     Vermaak sleepily answered the call, shirtless and having just rolled out of bed.

     “Hello?”

     “Hey, uh, there’s been an incident down here. I need a shadowguard.”

     “What? What do you need a shadowguard for?” Vermaak said, his eyes narrowing.

     “We had a security breach. There’s a Republic ghost down here that was messing with my wraith…” Vermaak looked irritated, which Marín thought was odd. “She attacked me.”

     “She what?” he exclaimed. There. That’s the right reaction. He paused for a moment and sighed. “I’ll send Baze. Where are you?”

     “Med bay. They’re working on the ghost right now.”

     “Okay. I’m coming down there.”

     “You don’t have to…”

     “Don’t argue with me.”

     “Fine. I’ll see you in a few minutes.”

     Vermaak started struggling into his uniform as he cut the comm. Marín wandered back into the med bay, questioning the doctor on call about the ghost’s status. She learned that she had a few broken ribs and a slight concussion, but that she would be fine in a few moments. As a precaution, they were keeping her heavily sedated. “Baze” arrived soon after. Marín was not familiar with any of the shadowguards on her own vessel, which was by design. She could make requests for their deployment, but they were under Vermaak and Oyaleni’s control. Even then, shadowguards would sometimes deny requests from them because of their own internal command structure. No one knew any of them on sight, no one knew their true leader, and no one knew their real names. He appeared in traditional shadowguard garb with a mask and breathing apparatus obscuring his face. She had probably seen him before in the mess, cleaning the deck, Or, heck, pouring me a pint in the bar. All of them live on the ship, and I have no idea who they are in their “real” lives—if their more mundane lives are their “real” ones.

     “Baze?”

     “Good morning, Admiral.” She shook his hand as he calmly extended it. All of his movements were controlled. He was short but lithe, his presence ominous in his black environment suit. “This is her? The Republic ghost?”

     “Well, we’re not entirely sure of where she came from, but her uniform would suggest it. I was hoping you could… Get something from her.”

     “I can try. She’s sedated?”

     “Yes, and we have a disrupter collar on her.”

     “You’re going to have to take that off… It will disrupt me as well.”

     “I can’t do that…”

     “But I can activate her neural inhibitor… Take her down a few notches.”

     “What’s that?”

     “The Dominion implanted most ghosts with inhibitors as a way to shut them down if they go AWOL. We don’t use them, but we also don’t brainwash our operatives, so they… Don’t tend to go rogue as often. I can activate and tune it to try and shut down her defenses. We used to do this if we got in range of Dominion ghosts all the time—but you have to get really close.”

     Marín considered this for a moment. She was unconscious, so it should be okay to take them off.

     “Remove the collar please, nurse.” Once it was removed, Baze pulled up a chair next to her bed. He removed a small tool from his pocket and placed it against her forehead. It buzzed slightly. The ghost’s brow furrowed.

     “I’ve activated the inhibitor. Now, let’s take a stroll…” He sat there unmoving for several minutes. Marín didn’t know what to do with herself. Could she speak to him? Was she disturbing him? She locked the outside med bay door and ordered the nurses away. Finally, he sat back in the chair. He shook himself briskly, as if waking from a deep sleep.

     “Anything?” She said. He sighed.

     “This is a dangerous girl. I… Haven’t seen someone like this in a long time.”

     “What do you mean by ‘dangerous?’”

     “PI of somewhere around ten, more or less.”

     “What? That’s…”

     “Extremely high. The highest, actually. Her name is Nova. The mission wasn’t about you. Something about the zerg? That’s all I’ve got. Sorry.”

     “That’s better than nothing.”

     “And you’d better get that collar back on her. That inhibitor won’t be enough once she’s awake.”

     “Thanks for the heads up.”

     “If you need anything else, let me know… And if you end up keeping her around…”

     “Yes?”

     “I’d like some time with her… Just to see what someone like that… Is like.”

     “I’m not keeping her on this boat any longer than I have to, sorry.”

     “Understood.”

     Baze left quickly. Ahlberg slipped back in through the door as he was leaving. Marín called a nurse in to replace the psi disrupter collar.

     “Was that… a shadowguard?”

     “Yeah, I thought one might help.”

     “Did he?”

     “Yes and no. You get anything?”

     “I confirmed she has a record. It appears to be Dominion, so she’s been active a long time. And, of course, it’s classified.” He returned the datapad to her.

     “Sounds like Horner and I need to have a little chat.”

     “You think he ordered this?”

     “No, but he has to at least have known about it.” Marín looked at her datapad. The UED fleet was due to attack in thirty minutes. She needed to be on the bridge. “Let’s get out of here.” Marín told the nurse on duty to call her if Nova awoke.

     Just then, Vermaak entered. She waved Ahlberg on.

     “Is that the ghost?”

     “The one that tried to strangle me? Yeah.”

     “Strangle you?” Vermaak said, more loudly than he intended. “Are you okay?”

     “Some bruises, but you probably can’t see them now.” Vermaak stroked her neck gently.

     “Faintly. They’re there. What did she want?”

     “My wraith? I don’t know what for.”

     “Why didn’t you call me,” Vermaak said. “I would have dealt with it. Security here is my concern.”

     “There wasn’t time.” For the first time since it happened, Marín allowed herself to be scared. The attack, she realized, would be something that would haunt her. She was used to gunfire, she was used to death, but psionic powers were something that were outside her frame of reference. They were something invisible and unobservable; they were something she felt shouldn’t exist like magic or the supernatural. But the fingers around her throat had been as real as if they were Nova’s fingers, her flesh-and-blood hand at her throat. Noticing her fear, Vermaak pulled her in and held her.

     “You’re fine. You and Jansa handled it. But…” There’s always the “but,” Marín thought. “You need to quit going off on your own. You’re the commander of the Core Fleet. People depend on you. You can’t go off in your wraith or walk right up to a ghost. Let your people handle it. That’s what we’re here for.” She pushed him gently away.

     “I had no idea there would be a Terran Republic ghost waiting for me in the hangar bay. That wasn’t me ‘going off on my own.’”

     “I know. But you worry me.”

     “And I worry about you. And you’re right. I have people depending on me. I need to be on the bridge right now, actually.”

     “Yep. Next time someone tries to requisition your wraith, you’ll talk to me, okay?”

     “Yes, fine.” She squeezed his hand, “I’ll see you later.”

     Marín left and headed towards the bridge. The UED would appear soon, but she needed to talk to Horner. Something nagged her as she entered the lift to the bridge. “Next time someone tries to requisition your wraith…” Did I tell him that? I don’t remember. I must have, she thought.

     As she walked onto the bridge, she felt ready to confront Horner.

     “Barre, get me the Hyperion.”

     “Aye.”

     “Oh, please bite his head off. Please, Admiral. That’s something I need to see,” Ahlberg said from the other side of the bridge. She shushed him.

     Horner’s face appeared above the holographic war table.

     “Admiral Marín, what can I do for you?”

     Keeping her face as neutral as possible, she began her interrogation. “You could answer some questions. Do you know a ghost… By the name of Nova? I believe she’s one of yours?” Horner went white and suddenly looked very uncomfortable. “That’s what I thought. What were her orders?”

      “I’m… Not at liberty to say…”

      Marín could feel the anger rising in her. She had a lot of respect for Horner, but she had no time for him hiding behind whatever security the Terran Republic had hiding this mission.

      “You’re the president-in-exile of the Terran Republic. If you’re not at ‘liberty,’ then who is? Is Valerian who’s really in charge of the Republic’s fleet? Wait, you know what? It doesn’t really matter. Because both of you are in a lot of trouble. Your ghost assaulted a flag officer, which makes you in violation of our treaty.”

      The bridge crew started murmuring behind her. Barre looked on with rapt attention. He’s always been a gossip. He’ll get out the popcorn in a minute.

       “What? Who?” Horner shouted, panicked.

       “Me! You sent her here to steal my wraith and you didn’t think I’d figure it out? What the hell do you want with it, anyway?”

       “The mission… It didn’t involve you; you weren’t the target. You have the last working wraith in the fleet, and that’s what Nova needed for the mission…”

        “What mission?”

        “To… Eliminate Stukov.”

        “You can’t help him, but you’ll kill him? How was she going to do that?”

        “Nova… Was going to use your wraith to get close to his vessel if he got past the minefield. Moebius’s techs figured out how Stukov was seeing through our cloaking technology. She… made some modifications to it... Even without them, after your meeting with him, Nova thought she could bluff her way onboard… Her mission was to get on the Aleksander and take him out. With the new cloaking system and her abilities, he wouldn’t have known what hit him.”

      “So, not only were you going to have her use my wraith, but you were also going to have her impersonate me and squander what good will I had been able to build with Admiral Stukov?”

      “I wouldn’t… put it that way… Look, it wasn’t my idea.”

     “If it wasn’t, does she work for the Terran Republic or Moebius?”

     “Neither. Both? Mostly Valerian.”

     “Well, that explains a lot. I could think of a thousand better uses for a ghost that powerful…”

      As she said it, half of an idea came to her.

     “Look, I’ll recall and reprimand her. I admit… Valerian’s getting a bit out of hand.”

      “No, she’s staying here until she can answer for her crimes. And she’s in no shape to go anywhere anyway. We’ll discuss the ramifications of Valerian’s actions when we’re not about to battle the UED. And the next time you two rub what few braincells you have together and come up with something stupid like that again, maybe inform your allies, okay? Marín out.”

      She made a motion across her throat for Barre to end the transmission. Ahlberg started clapping slowly.

       “That’s just like the Dominion… I mean the Terran Republic. Just do whatever they want whenever they want and deal with the consequences later.”

       “We’ll just have to remember that when it’s our turn,” Marín said.

       “We got that on video, right? I mean, on the bridge recorder?” Barre said.

       “Yeah?”

       “I’m gonna watch that again later. Maybe do an edit…”

       “Please don’t. Okay, enough. How much time’s on the clock?”

       “Ten minutes.”

       “Get us a visual, Barre.”

       The visual feed above the war table changed to that of the “minefield” outside, hidden from view, and the protoss fleet sitting just behind it. Beside them was the combined might of Moebius, the Terran Republic, and the Umojan Protectorate. For the first time, she felt as though they had a chance. And if they successfully defended the Tyrador system, they could push the fleet back to Tarsonis, cut off their supply chains, and force them to surrender there.

      She addressed the fleet as she always did, and let the clock run down. Right on schedule, UED ships began slamming into view on the other side of the minefield as they dropped out of FTL. Karax had positioned them in such a way that getting any closer in FTL would be perilous because of the two planets’ gravity wells. Beside them, bloated leviathans appeared, and the flying monsters of the zerg. She knew that among the battlecruisers, infested ships, and leviathans was the Aleksander. And just hours ago, they had been discussing a peaceful accord. But once again, they were on opposite sides of the conflict.

     “Hold, everyone. Wait until they’ve entered the minefield.”

     The UED ships first started striking the mines. A few battlecruisers were taken out. A science vessel tried to EMP a small area but ended up EMPing a few of his compatriots—the ships were too packed together for EMP to work effectively and any mines struck by a EMP were replaced through replication by a neighbor. The zerg units held back, as if considering their options. Or waiting for something.

     Another vessel, large and dark, dropped out of FTL. Its black hull and the clutter of UED ships around it made it take her a few moments to recognize it—the vessel was a Tal’darim mothership.

     “The Tal’darim?”

     Gasps of horrified surprise echoed across the bridge. At the same time, Tal’darim interceptors began launching from the mothership, creating a cloud of destruction in the minefield. The rest of the Tal’darim fleet, starting with void rays, began warping in behind the mothership. And then, suddenly, the Mothership was gone. All at once, the Uhuru’s visual field changed.

     “Barre, what am I looking at—,”she said, then realized what the red glow that was taking up the entire holographic image was: the underbelly of the Tal’darim mothership. “They blinked right on top of us! Get us out of here!” Proximity klaxons began ringing, and liberators started screaming by chasing the Tal’darim interceptors. “Fall back!” As the Uhuru backed away, Marín’s hope for Tyrador began to fade.

[k-l-neidecker]

One Person’s Take on what the Infinity War Pitch Room Conversation was Like — K. L. Neidecker

One Person’s Take on what the Infinity War Pitch Room Conversation was Like

A week or so back, I finally broke down and watched Avengers: Infinity War.

It took me a long time to get around to it. I’m not sure, but I think, perhaps, I’ve seen the requisite number of superhero movies one must watch to be considered a happy and productive human in modern society. Check that box, one piece of being an American consumer fully in place, now on to the next strange trend…

Not that I hate comic book movies. In fact, I enjoy them. Just, hey, a few dozen a year is more than enough, thanks! And let’s not even mention that we are stuck with Marvel movies as DC seems to be having…trouble…making movies that don’t suck since the third movie of the Nolan Batman series.

So, considering the spoilers about Infinity War which assaulted my eyes for months, and the fact I knew what was going to happen…the supposed “big moment”…I simply felt no great rush to see it. Sure, I’d see it sooner or later, but it was way down on the the list of things to do—somewhere below a visit to the proctologist and spraying out the inside of the garbage cans.

But, hey, I figured it would be fine for a movie night.

And from minute one, I knew I made a terrible mistake, one which proves karma is a bitch and in a past life I must have been a terrible person. Maybe Attila the Hun’s third cousin twice removed, Bob the Hunnish.

I’d like to present to you my imaginings if what the pitching and brainstorming room must have been like as they planned Infinity War out.

Neon lights flicker and highlight nicotine stained drop ceiling panels. The energy is high, the air buzzing with electricity, though that could always just be the faulty wiring buried in walls which have been privy to so many great ideas in better days…

“Ok, so me and the boys have been talking,” Jim said, gesturing to a pile of sock puppets discarded in a dingy corner, button-eyes staring blankly into the distance, “and we got some ideas for the next Avengers movie.”

The writer’s room hushed in anticipation. A head writer for Iron Man 2, an artichoke heart pickled in brine, wetly rolled from its perch.

“Ok, so we open with a battle! Action is good, right? People love that stuff.”

A cricket farted in the distance, the mating call falling on dead ears.

“I mean, just some fighting, on a space ship. In space! Bunch of stuff happens. Sure, it will be confusing, and maybe some viewers will wonder, hey, did I miss an entire movie or something, because this scene feels like it’s part of some larger whole…

“And then we kill off some important characters! Yeah, baby, yeah! That will get people invested.”

A murmur of assent rippled through the room, taking the form of various belches and the whisper quiet rustle of a nostril mined for ore by a probing digit.

“Ok, and then the Hulk enters the picture, a being so powerful he’s been sent into space because of how dangerous he is to have around…but Thanos mops the floor with him. And guess what? That’s the last time we see the Hulk for the rest of the movie!” Jim leaned back and placed dirty boots on the table, grinning.

He continued, “So, no Hulk, because hell, who needs him anyway, and it fixes the plot hole where he would simply own Thanos early on, end of movie.

“Then, we add in every Marvel hero we have into the mix. So many, in fact, that they all only get five minute snippets on screen, and we just keep cutting between everyone fast enough to send a third of our viewers into epileptic fits. Thank goodness for CGI because we need a half-thousand sets to marionette these characters over.

“Thor, even though he’s been around multiple earthlings over a bunch of movies, will act dumb as hell and confused about words like ‘moron’”

Moron twitched in his sleep, the sound of his name nearly pulling him out of his comfortable dreamland.

“Also, some of the best characters in our universe, the space cadets from Gargantuans of the Galaxy or whatever it was we made a few years back, will run into Thor at random in the almost infinite reaches of the unfathomable soul sucking emptiness that is the ever expanding universe. Good timing!

“Let’s see…ah, right, Thanos just keeps winning non stop, and our heroes simply throw the same tactics at him over and over to no avail. You know, like punches and missiles and some Kung fu or some shit. Hey, the dude owned Hulk, so why wouldn’t Captain America try punching him in the gob?”

Tim, the newest writer, one not yet broken in by Marvel and not yet fitted out for his Marvel Brand Gimp Suit™, broke his silence when he could take no more. “Hey, uh, this all sounds great and all, but don’t you think—“

“No, I try not to, Tim. Thinking is the direct cause of migraines and bed wetting. Ok, so, we have wizards doing the circle things with their palms, some space folk bopping around almost disconnected from the rest of the story, Avengers not calling other Avengers even though fifty percent of the life of the entire universe hangs in the balance…damn, what else was I going to say,” Jim grasped a bong like an infant would a bottle and ripped on it before smashing it on his own head in victory.

“Right. The love story. Every great tale needs a love story: Romeo and Juliet, Ren and Stimpy, all the greats. So, we have a budding relationship between Vision and whatsherface. Let’s make the viewer care, get them invested.”

Tim nodded, “Right, that’s a solid idea man, sounds—“

Jim cut him off, “Of course, with fifty main characters and a two hour runtime, we won’t actually see any of this love or whatever. We’ll just hint at it a bit, you know. Gotta save screen time for purple ballsack, er, I mean Thanos, to wax laconically about how nice a bro he really is on the inside.”

“Hey, no, I don’t think—“ Tim stuttered.

“Good, my man, good. I think you’ll fit in here with that attitude. So, then let’s kill of all the fun characters. Let’s start with the people of color. First scene to last scene, let’s off some green folk, dissolve some Wakanda heroes, let’s go for broke.

“Again, no Hulk. Just Bruce in a CGI suit, so it’s kinda like the Hulk but suckier. You know, we wouldn’t want that actor to actually be in the movie or anything. Just CGI his ass at all times. Note to self, can we just completely CGI his likeness and not have to have an actor at all?

“Let’s have Dr. Strangelove or whatever his name is willingly hand over the one item his entire order was formed to protect… You know, stay true to the characters.”

The sounds of shattering glass echoed from wall to wall as two writers leapt naked through the windows, fist-bumping one another and shouting, “Brooooooooo!”

“See, Tim,” Jim said, “that’s the kind of energy we need here. Get your shit together. Ok, and lastly, let’s dissolve all the interesting characters we have left. Black Panther for one! Oh, and did I bring up the White Wolf? No? Doesn’t matter. He doesn’t have an arc in the movie anyway. Hell, no one needs a character arc here. It’s only half a story, after all, and doesn’t need to stand alone or anything.”

Joseph the Randy Donkey brayed a lonely song at the water cooler before defecating a sad pile on the floor.

“Damn, I love that donkey,” Jim said while cleaning his left ear with his right big toe. “So, you see where I’m going here, right? For year people have complained we are formulaic, but look at us being all badass and breaking the mold! We will take a decade worth of characters and squash them together, making half a movie that means nothing on it’s own, simply designed to set up our next million dollar movie in a year, needlessly kill off dozens of the best characters in a way that means nothing and will be reversed within the first quarter of the next movie, dabble in romance sorta, and wipe out half the life in the universe to save everyone from running out of food and stuff!”

The room erupted in cheers and whoops. Three men dueled to the death in celebration, Moron awoke from his long slumber in time to vote in the midterms and drive without using his blinkers, seven Hollywood executives took time away from sexually harassing the donkey the stamp and squeal in delight, a motley mob of slatterns boxed with a dusty group of heroin addicts in a mock Walmart, and the seventh seal was opened in the distance.

But a hush fell on the room like a smothering pillow as Tim cleared his throat.

“Hey, um, if Thanos can control time and matter with a mere thought, wielding enough power to kill fifty percent of all living things at the blink of an eye…why doesn’t he simply will infinite resources into being instead of killing untold trillions due to limited resources?”

The silence in the room laid so thick in the air that a large housefly, fat and well fed on over-ripe Hollywood movie drech, collapsed like a crumpled piece of tinfoil from the mere pressure in the room.

Lucky for the brave writers of Infinity War, there was a handy and already broken window to defenestrate Tim from before calling the seventy-five actors and warming up the computers for modern CGI magic.

https://klneidecker.com/2018/10/22/one-persons-take-on-what-the-infinity-war-pitch-room-conversation-was-like/

[cpbauk21]

Why are the nail course and lash lifting course the best for a person?

Being beautiful is one of the desires of every person. Nowadays there is a lot of demand for beauticians. Everyone wants a perfect person who can totally recreate their look. 

Nail courses and lash lifting course are good courses that one can go for. It can help a person to start their career as a beauty specialist. You can get different types of benefits when you choose these courses. 

Benefits of choosing Nail course:

One can get various opportunities when choosing this course. These are as follows:

Career growth and mobility: 

The work of a nail artist is no longer confined within the walls of a salon. Nowadays there are innumerable nail spas in various shopping malls as well as marketplaces across cities. All of those are trying to find experienced, professional, and well-groomed nail technicians who can provide basic also as high-end services like gel and acrylic nail extensions. While developing technical skills, you'll also get to find out about the business aspect of the industry.

Fiscal satisfaction:

The acrylic nail course comes with lots of fiscal bounties and perks. However, you'll see that in your earnings, If you're down the line to your work. The additional nail art you do in a day, the more will be your day-to-day income. And if you add on to your experience of being a manicurist and pedicurist than just being a nail artist, either the fiscal bounties will be more. 

New challenges every day:

 While every day is a bright day for a nail technician, it's also filled with challenges. No matter how well-applied you're, the task to deliver trimmed, drawn, shaped, and beautifully painted and designed nails come with lots of challenges. You just do not give customers a unique nail art, but also make them feel better by making their nails clean and healthy. 

Benefits of choosing lash lifting course:

Lash lift course is one of the fastest-growing beauty treatments around the world. You can get different kinds of benefits when you choose this course from Candor Professional Beauty Academy. These are as follows:

Enhances your “Natural Eyelash”:

Eyelash Lifting works on your natural eyelash, there's no gotta add anything to your lashes, we just work with what you naturally have and make it more beautiful.

Suitable For Short Lashes:

Thankfully eyelash lifting is meant for nearly every lash length and thickness out there. And great news for those with short lashes – you'll still get amazing lifted results from shorter, thinner lashes.

Ringlets lifts and gives the appearance of longer, darker whips:

Eyelash Lifting does it all! When your whips are in their natural state they might be straight out or have a lowered interior, making their dimension appear thickset and short. When you have a lash lift your whips have Ringlet and Lift which gives the appearance of longer and fuller whips, add on a lash tone, and your whips will become dark as the night sky. 

Great Requisite To Eyelash Extensions:

 If you’ve had a take to Eyelash Extensions or couldn’t keep up with the sustentation? Eyelash lifting could be for you. This amazing treatment is low sustentation and a fleetly required all whilst still giving you that luscious natural sense. 

So you can go for it if you want to be a professional beautician.

[hellotechsgeeksfan]

The Xperia XZ3 has rounded goad, doing Side Sense cause, well, reason. When quid pro quo back-and-abroad between apps, we meet a few unlooked-for ends and an accident of hesitating animations. It was announced at Mobile World Congress in February, abreast the larger Xperia 10 Plus and Xperia 1 showcase. 

Sony necessarily these recent rings to be a strike – the fraternity’s fickle distribution has been a contest in neoteric forever, with an order of largely forgettable call (not least inasmuch as of their unfathomable title conventions). The fit gospel for Sony is that the Xperia 10 is remote from a wicked ring. These frequent from the utilitarian (Netflix) to the extravagant (Booking.com). That larboard me with only two devices to interruption – Xperia 10 and Xperia 10 Plus – and they adopt a renovated shape that requires you disturbed even before you encounter them for the first tempo.This is very valuable for the taller manifest, though it is less obtainable on the Xperia 10 than the Xperia XZ3 as of the Xperia 10's vapid discover. While Sony has had an uncivil tempo race in the everywhere sell, there was still a Sony entice you gotta with their devices, stuff other manufacturers were not up. It still appears an inconsiderable blocky, but the bezels have been scrawny down on the sides, as well as at the bottom. Taking photos, draft notifications, or even switching apps is incredibly impede with one workmanship. The photos you get out of both of these are stout homogenous. The bloatware isn't abandoned as imperfect as you’d find on a Samsung call, and you assume have to induct these apps, but it is astonishing that Sony last to immolate this alternative that most customers sort defect or indigence. Buy the Sony Xperia 10 from AmazonLast year, when I reconsider the Xperia Xperia XZ3 primary, I critic it immensely for flattering a quantity of the elements that constitute a Sony invention other. While the Xperia 10 Plus uses 12-megapixel and 8-megapixel cameras. On the Xperia 10, you have to faucet the flaunt, so it's a clunkier encounter.

Sony Xperia 10 Verdict – Should You Buy It? While its $299 estimation fasten is soliciting, and its common work is splendid, we’d in all probability opt for one of the Xperia 10’s more canonical competitors. The 21:9 parade, while occasionally shining, is pestilent more often than not – you no really extremity to have a hyper-obsequious technique to compel the Xperia 10 conformable. The less serviceable report is that, with the weirdly courageous sift, we’re not secure anyone will preempt it. In this reconsideration: Sony Xperia 10 indicates – How does the Xperia 10 test in-skill? Sony Xperia 10 shelter – We distinguish it’s high, but is it any commendable?Sony Xperia 10 production – Can it govern all your top dog apps? Sony Xperia 10 cameras – How vigorous are its photos? Sony Xperia 10 battery darling – Can it last all age? Sony Xperia 10 suffering and regard for stamps – It side $299, but is it rate it? Sony Xperia 10 – The judgmentSony Xperia 10 design compared to preceding Sony efforts, the Xperia 10 is a well-behaved countenance call. Of passage, this is the profession-off you have to constitute in fashion to get a telephone with a 21:9 look rate. The Xperia 10 has a 13-megapixel main-hamper sensory with a 5-megapixel abundance sensory. The Xperia 10 is Sony’s last middle-frequent ring. While there is a fortune of the ring around their cameras and departmental infighting between stigma, the ironmongery is the first scope where they are trusted to adieu their impress and the Xperia 10 yoke is their trial country – joint us as we do an overview of the Sony Xperia 10 and Xperia 10 Plus.Sony has provided both the Xperia 10 and Xperia 10 Plus with double cameras, but unexpectedly, they are totally a particle distinct. This might be something to do with Sony’s Android epidermal, which is noticeably more institutive than Motorola’s, for example. There’s also a clear amount of bloatware with the Xperia 10, with Sony commend a magnetize of apps to induct when you adjust up the telephone. The Xperia 1 at the demo habitat alters out to be model one. It’s a pity since the immature materials on show in the Xperia 10 would force for a very stout yield telephone. Buy the Sony Xperia 10 from Amazon. This has remote a fortune of optic pressure from the Xperia 10, acquire to older Sony call. In-act, the Xperia 10 perception serviceable. This allure to some unbecoming moments as you attempt and prevaricate your skill down the call to regulate the mass. You won't note much of diversity between the Xperia 10 and Xperia 10 Plus.For starters, Sony pierces an add of three smartphones – Xperia 10, Xperia 10 Plus, and Xperia 1. There’s a encourage ponderousness to the telephone, and the gently curvate sides constitute it comforter to confine. That ring born almost all of that in speed to go mainstream and, in my operativeness, the reason the opinion to sustain and decay into intimate namelessness. The command bud, tome check, and side-mounted fingermark scanner all touch true, too. This year though, Sony is the purpose to reignite that single meet you get when you elect Xperia. The moldable elevate circumstances can sometimes scion out of your dexterity, but this isn’t a proposition sui generis to the Xperia 10.  However, while the particular components of the Xperia 10 are comprehensively frappant, they sort system an expressly stick packet. For warning, while the spirit bud and mass rocking-chair observe serviceably, they’re placed too end to the bottom of the ring. The side-mounted fingermark sensory is also somewhat too parsimonious and can force undo the ring somewhat fussily. What’s more, the Xperia 10’s grade force it troublesome to utility one-handed. There is a one-handed way, which contraction the pick down into a smaller region, but apparently, it can’t mate the ring any smaller. Find out more – Best Sony Phone for 2020Sony Xperia 10 performance Xperia 10 uses the Snapdragon 630 CPU and 3GB of Ram (or 4GB, if you occur to reside in China). While these specs aren’t nicely intent-blustery, the Xperia 10 cause kind usefulness of its skimpy funds, and can order some foppish full-on changeable gamble and requisition apps. However, the Xperia 10 seems to difficulty negligently with multitasking.

[obtusemedia]

The best songs of the 2010s: #75-51

#75: “The Only Thing” by Sufjan Stevens (2015)

It was tough to pick a single song from Sufjan Stevens’ masterpiece, Carrie and Lowell, for this list. The album, about his dead mother, is consistently beautiful and tragic throughout.

But “The Only Thing” has the most devastating line of the whole album, and possibly the whole decade, delivered in a wobbly falsetto: “Should I tear my eyes out now?/Everything I see returns to you somehow.” Case closed. Now please excuse me while I cry for the rest of the day.

#74: “Best Song Ever” by One Direction (2013)

If you can’t appreciate this slice of pop-rock perfection that shamelessly rips off The Who, I’m not sure we can be friends.

“Best Song Ever” still sounds as the pinnacle of One Direction’s career, with its fizzy arena-rock chorus and adorable lyrics about that one special night with a mysterious woman, never to be seen again. The Millennial Whoops are plentiful, and they are irresistible.

Yes, “Best Song Ever” is a corny boy band song. But A) it’s the best possible version of a corny boy band song. And B) boy bands are wonderful. Just embrace the cheese.

(Also, One Direction was the greatest boy band of all time. Don’t fight me on this.)

#73: “Pray For Rain” by Pure Bathing Culture (2015)

Portland shoegaze duo Pure Bathing Culture delivered the closest approximation to a prime Cocteau Twins single since the early ‘90s.

It’s got the icy synths and shoegaze guitars to throw any listener into a hypnotic groove. The secret ingredient that makes “Pray For Rain” stand out, however, is the thumping, snare-heavy beat that invokes both military drum lines and trip-hop. It adds a propulsion to the otherwise dreamy track, creating a dissonant yet incredible experience.

#72: “Not” by Big Thief (2019)

Unlike the hushed folksy whispers of Big Thief’s first 2019 album, “Not” is a furious, noisy firebomb of an indie rock jam. Lead singer Adrianne Lenker’s warble is pushed to its limits, as her vocals crack and strain while the song’s tension (and noise level) slowly ratchets up in the song’s first half. 

Then, the pent-up energy is finally released for an explosive, discordant two-and-a-half minute guitar solo. It’s pure chaos and anger distilled into one instrument, and the greatest moment so far of Big Thief’s promising career.

#71: “Dog Years” by Maggie Rogers (2016)

The strength of Maryland indie-pop prodigy Maggie Rogers’ first few singles is how in tune with nature she sounded. I’ve dubbed it “REI-pop.”

And none of her songs are more reminiscent of a high-end outdoors store than “Dog Years” — and yes, that’s a compliment. “Dog Years” incorporates noises like wind chimes and owl hoots to its soulful synthpop production for a unique flavor. Rogers delivers on the vocal end with a stunning performance reminiscent of blue-eyed soul greats like Daryl Hall.

It’s a bummer that mainstream indie pop nowadays is going to mostly sound like Jeep ads. But “Dog Years” proves great art can still be created in that avenue.

#70: “The House That Heaven Built” by Japandroids (2012)

With “The House That Heaven Built,” Vancouver, BC indie rockers Japandroids made a perfect road trip anthem. The chugging guitars shoot to the sky, the drumming is furious, and the fist-pumping “OH OH OHs” are plentiful.

“House” is like a Bruce Springsteen collaboration with The Replacements: righteous fury backed by raucous, bar-friendly punk-rock. When lead singer/guitarist Brian King informs the listener that if “Anything try to slow you down/Tell em all to go to hell,” it’s something anyone can feel in their bones.

#69: “Adorn” by Miguel (2012)

“Adorn” is dangerously smooth. The chillwave-meets-80s-R&B production gets you halfway there, but Miguel’s buttery vocals are the main attraction here. From his endearing ad-libs (“whoap!”) to his effortless vocal runs on the gorgeous melody, he sounds like a seasoned pro.

I’m going to give y’all a hot take — “Adorn” is the Millennial “Sexual Healing.” It strikes that same nocturnal, sexy flair, and Miguel is working it just as hard as Marvin Gaye did. It’s too bad Miguel never was quite able to make something quite as impressive as “Adorn” again, but that single (and its accompanying, phenomenal Kaleidoscope Dream record) will cement him as a ‘10s R&B icon.

#68: “The World’s Best American Band” by White Reaper (2017)

White Reaper never claimed to be the world’s best band. Nope — they want to be the world’s best American band. So it’s only fitting that Louisville’s finest dirtbags cooked up a warm slice of some of the greasiest, sleaziest and most proudly stupid capital-R RAWK in years.

This is the kind of music Van Halen would’ve made if they were a low-rent Millennial indie band. This is the kind of music Gardner Minshew probably listens to. And it’s glorious.

#67: “I Just Had Sex” by The Lonely Island feat. Akon (2010)

This list isn’t really trying to measure importance or anything like that. It’s basically just the songs that made me the happiest this decade. And there are few songs that make me smile as much as The Lonely Island’s pathetically hilarious “I Just Had Sex.”

There’s so many golden moments here, from “I called my parents right after I was done!” to “The best 30 seconds of my life!” and “I think she might have been a racist?” The comedy trio was really on their A-game.

But what makes “I Just Had Sex” more than just a goof is that it’s also catchy as hell. That Akon chorus is legitimately one of the best pop hooks of the decade. What made The Lonely Island so brilliant in their turn-of-the-decade peak is their ability to make songs that often surpassed the actual pop hits they emulated, while not sacrificing hilarious lyrics.

(Also, shoutout to “Jack Sparrow” and the legitimately impressive baseball-themed “Let’s Bash,” both of which could’ve also snuck onto this list.)

#66: “Oh My Darling Don’t Cry” by Run The Jewels (2014)

Sometimes, you turn to hip-hop for inspiring messages and thoughtful, provocative lyrics (something Run The Jewels has certainly delivered on with tracks like “Early”).

But sometimes you just want an aggro banger that makes you want to smash through a brick wall like the Kool-Aid Man. That’s what “Oh My Darling Don’t Cry” brings to the table, thanks to its heavy helping of fuck-everyone defiance and El-P’s trademark apocalyptic, frantic production.

#65: “Your Best American Girl” by Mitski (2016)

In her signature song, “Your Best American Girl,” Mitski took the thrashing ‘90s guitars and epic chorus of Smashing Pumpkins’ “Today” and turned it into a conversation about race, insecurity and love.

Mitski, who is Japanese-American, vividly describes the angst of trying to fit the lily-white image of the “American Girl” for a boy. The song begins with insecurity — “Your mother wouldn’t approve of how my mother raised me/But I do, I think I do” — and then flips that statement into a proud stand for her roots: “But I do, I finally do.” It’s a powerful declaration, fitting of one of the decade’s most powerful rock anthems.

#64: “A Real Hero” by College and Electric Youth (2010)

Consider this spot a placeholder for all the best songs from the 2010′s best soundtrack: “Drive.”

Out of that soundtrack’s three stand-out singles, “A Real Hero” is the best by a hair. College’s slick, pulsing production is a perfect contrast to Bronwyn Griffin’s whispered, ghostly vocals. It’s the perfect love theme for an aggressively hipster-y movie where Ryan Gosling plays a dude in a gold satin jacket, drives around L.A. silently, and crushes a guy’s head in an elevator.

But shout out to the other two classics on Drive, “Nightcall” and “Under Your Spell,” which are also musts while driving around at night feeling moody.

#63: “Birthday Song” by 2 Chainz feat. Kanye West (2012)

“Birthday Song” is gloriously stupid. It’s the kind of song you laugh at the first time you hear it, but after a few more listens, you’re rapping along with 2 Chainz and Kanye.

And it’s hard not to rap along when there’s this many quotable lines: “SHE GOT A BIG BOOTY SO I CALL HER BIG BOOTY.” “I’M IN THE KITCHEN. YAMS EVERYWHERE!!” “Last birthday, she got you a new sweater/Put it on, give her a kiss, and tell her, ‘DO BETTER.’” And of course, the most iconic line of them all: “All I want for my birthday is a big booty hoe.”

“Birthday Song” is so ridiculous that it’s only a couple jokes removed from a Lonely Island single. And that’s what makes it so fun.

#62: “Every Day’s the Weekend” by Alex Lahey (2017)

Aussie indie rocker Alex Lahey made the best Blink-182 song of the decade with “Every Day’s the Weekend.” It’s got a soaring chorus with the all-important “WHOA OHs,” a chugging guitar riff, and it’s catchy as hell.

Just toss in a lackadaisical attitude and a “I Gotta Feeling”-style days-of-the-week chant and you’ve got a pop-punk classic.

#61: “Take a Walk” by Passion Pit (2012)

While MGMT burned their cultural capital by making zoinked-out psych rock (which was pretty solid!), their peers Passion Pit doubled down on their signature synthpop sound in the early ‘10s. Their 2012 album, Gossamer, is one of the all-time great albums with a happy, bouncy sound but crushingly dark lyrics. So naturally, its first single is a perky pop tune about financial struggles!

“Take a Walk” is so catchy and uplifting musically — just try getting that iconic synth riff out of your head — that Michael Angelakos’ lyrics about the Great Recession seem out of place at first. But it gels anyways. The uplifting music just emphasizes the dire situation Angelakos and his then-wife found themselves in, and it makes the soaring synth riff read as more melancholy than optimistic.

#60: “Gretel” by (Sandy) Alex G (2019)

"Gretel” is like an indie-folk song that went to the Upside Down. All the requisite parts are there — gently strummed guitar, lyrics with a man-of-the-people feel, humbly Middle American vocals — but it feels warped and twisted.

The easiest way to describe it is like if a typical folk-pop song CD was left in the sun for a solid week or so, allowing it to melt. And then you tried listening to it. It would sound positively spooky. Yet through the oddball production and eerie vibe, Alex G’s defiant chorus still shines through. A statement like “Good people gotta fight to exist” somehow sounds more powerful in a bizzaro song like this.

#59: “Downtown” by Macklemore & Ryan Lewis feat. Eric Nally, Grandmaster Kaz, Melle Mel and Kool Moe Dee (2015)

Macklemore might have been the 2010′s most unfairly hated artist. Yes, he’s corny. Yes, Kendrick should’ve won those Grammys instead. But the dude was fun, inventive and a unique voice in hip-hop at the time.

“Downtown” is a prime example of Mack’s talent. Or at least, his knack for assembling a fantastic supporting crew. Old-school rappers Grandmaster Kaz, Melle Mel and Kool Moe Dee deliver some forceful interludes, and Eric Nally and his wildman vocals give “Downtown” a killer, Queen-esque chorus. And of course, producer Ryan Lewis helps sell the song, with a constantly-switching beat that ranges from ‘70s funk to bombastic arena rock. Even Seattle legend Ken Griffey Jr. makes a cameo in the Spokane-filmed video!

In a late-’10s hip-hop scene filled with mopey sad white boys like Post Malone and NF, Macklemore’s goofy vibe and dad jokes are sorely missed.

#58: “Flesh Without Blood” by Grimes (2015)

In a decade filled with wonderful alt-pop weirdos, Grimes might have been the weirdest. One of her standout songs, “Kill v. Maim,” is about Michael Corleone from The Godfather Pt. II, but if he was a time-traveling, gender-switching vampire (yes, really).

“Flesh Without Blood” is comparatively normcore, but it’s still Grimes’ best slice of bonkers pop magic. Written from the perspective of a fan angry that she sold out, the track rides a surf-rock guitar groove into the oblivion. Grimes’ squeaky vocals are almost taunting in tone, but the hooks are so massive and the production is so fresh that I doubt listeners mind.

#57: “Slide” by Calvin Harris feat. Frank Ocean and Migos (2017)

Arguably the biggest name in cheeseball EDM took a shockingly sharp pivot into silky-smooth funk with “Slide.” And it worked! It worked weirdly well!

Of course, it helps that Calvin Harris has always had impeccable taste in guest vocalists, from Florence Welch to Haim. And by snagging once-in-a-generation talent Frank Ocean (and the fun, if not legendary, Migos) for “Slide,” he possibly pulled his greatest coup yet.

...well actually, no. His best song will always be the gloriously trashy and very British “Dance Wiv Me” with grime legend Dizzee Rascal. But the slick tropical grooves of “Slide” are a worthy contender.

#56: “I Belong in Your Arms” by Chairlift (2012)

I could’ve sworn this was in an old John Hughes movie. The wintry synths and retro-chic vibe of “I Belong in Your Arms” certainly would’ve fit snugly into the Pretty In Pink soundtrack, but no — Chairlift’s best single came out this decade.

“I Belong in Your Arms” is stunning in its atmospheric beauty. Singer Caroline Polachek’s vocals are almost Elizabeth Fraser-esque, drifting over the waves of keyboards while still packing a heavy punch on the chorus. And the song’s burst of energy doesn’t feel like a temporary sugar rush — it feels like the real thing.

#55: “Make Me Feel” by Janelle Monaé (2018)

“Make Me Feel” is unabashedly a Prince homage. And if anyone in modern music could successfully replicate the Purple One, it’s Janelle Monaé.

The genre-blurring, impossibly funky “Make Me Feel” immediately grabbed me upon release, with its sharp guitar edges, soft-loud-soft production and sticky hook. But Monaé’s vocal performance is what truly makes the track pop. She clearly had the time of her life here, switching on a dime from smooth and sultry to giddy yelps. If there’s a perfect Janelle Monaé song cooked up in a lab somewhere, it’s probably nearly identical to this.

#54: “Some Nights” by fun. (2012)

Jack Antonoff has always excelled as the second-fiddle. Whether that’s in being the less-famous person in his former relationship with Lena Dunham or being the behind-the-scenes production wizard for megastars like Taylor Swift and Lorde, he works best in the shadows (despite his solo side band, Bleachers, being pretty damn good).

And of course, the project that first brought Antonoff into the mainstream was his band fun., in which he was the lead guitarist and a songwriter. At the time when the band hit their brief apex in 2012, it seemed like frontman Nate Ruess, with his vocal acrobatics and theatrical style, would be most primed for solo fame, but that fizzled.

Eight years later, “Some Nights” stands as a testament that Antonoff (and the other two guys in fun.) can write an incredible arena rock anthem just as easily as a synthpop banger. The song turns a quarter-life crisis into a soaring epic that sounds like a glorious U2-Queen hybrid, with a drumline added on top. Despite cribbing its chorus from Simon and Garfunkel, “Some Nights” still holds its power.

#53: “The Less I Know The Better” by Tame Impala (2015)

There’s one thing that instantly hooks you into Tame Impala’s Instagram-filtered indie pop masterpiece: that bassline. It carries the whole song on its back.

Not to say the rest of “The Less I Know The Better” isn’t good — Kevin Parker’s jealousy-tinged lyrics are fairly relatable, the twinkling synths are nice, the melody is appropriately yearning. But that slap bass ropes all those elements together into a legitimately funky rock tune. If Tame Impala’s mediocre new singles had that bass, maybe they’d be less forgettable.

#52: “Shake It Out” by Florence + The Machine (2011)

Florence Welch might be the decade’s most underrated vocalist. Her voice has the power of a Mack truck, yet she can still convey subtlety when needed.

“Shake It Out” is not one of those subtle moments. It is arena-pop filtered through gospel; a song that sounds like it was meant for a cathedral. Welch describes battling her personal demons like they were literal demons. Couple her wailing with layers upon layers of organs and massive drums imported from the “In The Air Tonight” solo, and you’ve got a song too big to fail.

#51: “Young Blood” by The Naked and Famous (2010)

I really, really wanted to include more tunes from the golden era of radio-friendly indie pop, circa 2008-2012. But a lot of the best stuff — MGMT, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Phoenix — fell in the previous decade. And others are more nostalgic faves for me than actually great songs (sorry, Grouplove and Matt & Kim).

But The Naked and Famous absolutely still hold up. “Young Blood” still has the insanely high-pitched vocals and twinkly synths of that era, but the New Zealanders throw some distorted ‘90s guitars to create a unique sound. It’s like the Weezer writing a Passion Pit song (but way better than that would imply). Lead singer Alisa Xayalith’s piercing voice is an instrument all of its own, soaring across the synthesizers and guitars like a bolt of neon light.

“Young Blood” might be an early ‘10s time-capsule, but it has hooks for days and a somehow-still-fresh groove.

[harryandmeghan0-blog]

Bruno Mars performs at Fertittas' 'royal wedding' in Las Vegas

New Post has been published on http://harryandmeghan.xyz/bruno-mars-performs-at-fertittas-royal-wedding-in-las-vegas/

Bruno Mars performs at Fertittas' 'royal wedding' in Las Vegas

Bruno Mars sang of 24-karat magic in the air. It was in the air, and everywhere, Saturday night for the wedding of Kelley Fertitta and Tyler Nemiro at Red Rock Resort Convention Center.

And we do mean the entire convention center. You could not get near that place, as security was stationed at the roped-entrance to the escalators — which were nonetheless decorated beautifully with a long row of flowers.

The event was unofficially dubbed Vegas’ “royal wedding.” Fertitta is a daughter of Station Casinos Inc. CEO Frank Fertitta III and niece of his brother and company co-owner Lorenzo Fertitta. Nemiro’s LinkedIn page lists him as an executive with Shopify Plus.

Ostentatious even by Las Vegas standards, or the standards of nuptial celebrations anywhere ever, the ceremony starred Mr. Mars — who performed an hourlong set at the event’s after-party — Seal, and DJ Marshmello.

Also deserving of marquee treatment was a floral display (or, more like a City of Flowers, in lavender, purple and white) from Los Angeles-based Mark’s Garden and designed chiefly by Mindy Weiss.

And the cake stood 20 to 30 feet tall — so tall even LeBron James could not have dunked over it — was created by “sugar artist” Ana Parzych of Ana Parzych Cakes in Greenwich, Connecticut. This delicacy was made of vanilla infused Bavarian cream with strawberry marmalade, Italian cream cheese cake and butter-cream icing.

Preliminary estimates of $25 million for an event of between 400-450 invited guests might actually be conservative. The floral display alone was said to be at least $1 million and possibly as high as $2 million (messages to the company’s Instagram page and to Ana Parzych Cakes went unreturned).

As for the entertainment, add to Mars’ hourlong performance a rehearsal appearance by John Mayer on Friday, and sets from Seal and DJ Marshmello (who is also headlining at Wynn Las Vegas this weekend).

It’s been said that Mars doesn’t even lace up his Nikes for less than $1 million for a private show — and that was eight years ago, long before he commanded top dollar at Park Theater at Park MGM. Whatever the fee, Mars seemed in top form (judging by our social-media raking) as he performed “Treasure,” “Marry You,” and the requisite groove favorite, “Uptown Funk.”

Seal, as is his wont, stepped into the crowd to perform “Kiss From a Rose.” Marshmello was presented with blasts of steam, LED gymnastics across his booth and his ever-present white helmet mask (replicas of which were handed out to guests). Instagram posts indicated the Nemiros were given special, LED-trimmed masks. (Previous rumors of Beyonce and The Chainsmokers proved unfounded.)

Upon entering the pre-ceremony cocktail party, guests were greeted by a 20-piece string section (Coldplay’s “Viva la Vida” was in this ensemble’s repertoire).

The couple’s first dance was to “It’s Gotta Be You” by Isaiah.

The event featured a caviar bar — the bar being constructed of ice. Hotel guests marveled at Dom Perignon being carried through the hotel by the case. The dinner menu, personalized and wrapped in a linens scripted with “KT,” was a five-course experience.

Guests filed out at about 3:30 a.m., posting such reviews as, “This was beyond amazing,” “No words,” and, “This is the most beautiful wedding I have ever seen.”

It wasn’t over, either. Many members of the wedding party — including the newlyweds — filed into Scott Conant’s Masso Osteria for what had to be a somewhat blurry recap of the event.

Omeletes were consumed, mimosas (and shots of Fireball) flowed, and there was even some dancing on the bar. Even the morning after, there was still a lot of golden magic — and a lot of love — in the air.

John Katsilometes’ column runs daily in the A section. Contact him at jkatsilometes@reviewjournal.com. Follow @johnnykats on Twitter, @JohnnyKats1 on Instagram.

Source: https://www.reviewjournal.com/entertainment/entertainment-columns/kats/bruno-mars-performs-at-fertittas-royal-wedding-in-las-vegas/