#Clearly she is a virtual adept

[kurakurakura99]

Mage woman sulking and seething as she puts on her fursuit (She is not skilled enough in the sphere of life to turn into her fursona)

[kindheart525]

Who are Kip's coworkers at Smiling Friends?

Thank you so much for asking! I’ve been wanting to delve into the next generation of Smiling Friends! You know about Kip Pimling and Boss Pim, the whimsical and optimistic father-daughter duo of the company, but here are the others:

Gwendolyn Schmendolyn (née Pik) is the only other field worker of the company aside from Kip. As the two who interact with clients the most, these ladies conduct all of their missions together much like Charlie and Pim famously did decades ago. Gwen is not so cynical but pragmatic in her outlook; she knows there’s a time and place to be playful, but something about her strict personality is really funny to the youngest clients and never fails to make them smile. She treats kids like adults in a good way, and Kip is strongest when she’s helping to heal the inner child in adult clients who need a little whimsy. They both have very different skillsets that are both essential to the job, allowing them to work with clients of a wide range of ages and maturity levels. They should be the perfect team.

If they weren’t each other’s sworn enemies.

Gwen is a firm believer in workplace fairness and believes Kip is breaching it by working under her father. She’ll accuse Kip of being a nepo baby for receiving a kiss on the head from Boss Pim, even though he does that to all his employees. Even when Pim gives Gwen certain opportunities over Kip, even though he treats the ladies equally, Gwen still has some snarky comment ready for Kip about her daddy’s girl privilege. Kip absolutely hates this. Not only that, but she’s jealous that Gwen is so good with kids. Kip loves kids! And would love to make them smile! But no, they all want Gwen. She has no idea why they want that stony husk of a woman. If she bothered to ask Gwen anything about her life, she’d learn that she has her own little ones at home and plans to have more. 

Kip may also be a tiny bit jealous of Mr. Schmendolyn but let’s not unpack that

The bottom line is that Gwen and Kip make their clients smile at the cost of constantly making each other frown. Kip likes to think of herself as tolerant and forgiving but she’s clearly not around Gwen, instead regressing back to the more aggressive and petty tendencies she hates so much about herself. And Gwen, as much as she seems to be like this all the time, has a softer side that Kip doesn’t get to see outside of professional matters. They bring out the worst in each other as much as a part of them wishes the opposite.

Jerard “Jerry” Fremont helps make clients smile too, but not in the usual way. To keep up with the times, Smiling Friends has started offering virtual services, which is Jerry’s area of expertise. Despite his older age he is very technologically adept, having grown up during the earliest days of the internet and maintained a steady online presence through his whole life. From MySpace to the new MySmile chat rooms, Jerry has seen it all. Because of his computer skills, he’s also put in charge of most of the spreadsheets and other online paperwork. He’s also a go-to for a lot of IT problems, alongside his much younger coworker Bit who is also very tech savvy. Jerry is also incredibly kind, always making an effort to personally connect with colleagues and clients alike. During his lunch breaks you’ll often find him reminiscing on the good old days with Boss Pim or catching up on life with one of his coworkers. Both Kip and Gwen adore Jerry and really wish they could go on missions with him instead of each other, but the other thing about him is that he’s extremely, painfully shy. He’s tried going out on field missions, truly, but his anxiety was so debilitating that he couldn’t do his job at all. So, he stays in the office, leaving Kip and Gwen stuck with each other. 

Bit Bidi is the social media manager and marketer of Smiling Friends, a full-time job in this extremely tech-driven world. Fresh out of school, Bit knows all the young people’s slang and keeps up with all the latest trends down to the very minute they come out, which makes him great at knowing what will sell. He’s constantly on the run working on everything from billboards to social media deals, usually all at the same time. His attention span is literally nonexistent but it works for the nature of his job. The brainrot is terminal and he speaks exclusively in meme references that make his coworkers go, “Bit what the fuck are you talking about.” However, he seems to really get what the people want, as just one seemingly utter nonsense meme posted by him on the Smiling Friends account brings in millions of dollars and lots of new client calls within seconds. Nobody knows how Bit does it, but his genius is unmatched in that way.

[robininthelabyrinth]

Prompt: Baxia and NHS.

Author’s note: this fic ended up having virtually no NHS, sorry

-

“This isn’t right,�� Wei Wuxian said. “This isn’t how it should go – you’re not even supposed to be here!”

Nie Mingjue huffed, resisting the urge to roll his eyes only because he needed them pinned on the murderous battlefield the Lotus Pier had become. “No one can predict the future,” he said shortly, and stepped out into the hallway, Baxia lifted high, and another four Wen soldiers’ lives came to an end. “To think that you can is arrogance.”

“You don’t understand,” Wei Wuxian insisted, and honestly, if he hadn’t made himself extremely useful both as guide and back-up, Nie Mingjue would have sent him away long ago to spare himself the headache. “It’s not – you might die here.”

He sounded upset about that. It was flattering, given that they’d never spent any time together before now; he must be basing his impression entirely on Nie Mingjue’s reputation.

Flattered or not, Nie Mingjue still wasn’t very impressed right now. “That’s a risk you take when you fight, yes. Don’t blame yourself – there was no way to predict when the Wens were going to attack, or where; they could have just as easily have come to Qinghe.”

“They wouldn’t have been able to get close,” Wei Wuxian muttered, and that was flattering, too. “It’s just – it’s too early. We should have had another few months!”

Nie Mingjue wasn’t aware the Jiang sect had been taking the threat of Wen aggression so seriously that they’d been making estimates, but it was all for the best. 

Maybe it would help them in the war to come.

“Anyone who says they can see the future is being lied to,” he said. “Man plans and the Heavens overturn; that is the way of things. Anyway, you’re not wrong: it probably would have been later, should have been later, but they were robbed of their victory at the Cloud Recesses. There’s no satisfaction in burning empty buildings with all the treasures and people gone, no victory in it – it’s no wonder they accelerated.”

Wei Wuxian looked stricken by the thought.

“Cheer up,” Nie Mingjue said. “The Jiang sect will survive. That will be bad news for the Wens.”

Jiang Fengmian might be mild-mannered to the point of weakness, but he was an excellent cultivator, and of course Madame Yu’s fearsome reputation had been well earned. After this, they would have no choice but to be on the front lines.

“But you might not,” Wei Wuxian said again.

“A worthwhile trade,” Nie Mingjue said, and shrugged when Wei Wuxian gawked at him. “Haven’t you noticed that they’re following us? Dozens if not hundreds of Jiang sect cultivators that might otherwise have been put to the sword will be able to escape, and between all those lives and one, even my own, which one do you think will be more useful in winning the war?”

“You,” Wei Wuxian said. “You and your Nie sect, holding down Heijan like an iron wall for the Wen sect to waste its strength against.”

Was Wei Wuxian a fan?

Bizarre.

“I appreciate your confidence in my necessity,” he said, and ducked into another small nook when a group of Wen soldiers too large to easily handle ran by. The momentary rest was welcome. “And if it makes you feel better, they’re not aiming to kill me.”

“They’re not?” Wei Wuxian asked, appearing like a ghost in front of one of the sentries to slit his throat. He was surprisingly adept in the arts of warring in confined spaces, the ambush and the merciless kill; it almost made one wonder what purpose the Jiang sect had for him.

“With these numbers, if they wanted us dead, we’d be dead,” Nie Mingjue said. They’d lasted a good while longer than he’d expected, actually, a tribute to Wei Wuxian knowing how to get through the Lotus Pier in a thousand unexpected ways and their united strength, but even that was flagging: he had cuts and bruises in a hundred places, some more critical than others, and Wei Wuxian for all his pointless complaining wasn’t doing that great either. Perhaps his nattering was his way of distracting himself from their imminent fate. “I’ve humiliated Wen Xu before. Wen Chao wouldn’t be able to resist the thought of capturing me – and when he does, it’ll be the Core-Melting Hand.”

A sharp intake of air.

“Are you sure? I can understanding wanting to take you prisoner, but…”

“If he doesn’t think of it himself, I’ll make sure he does,” Nie Mingjue said, and ignored how Baxia grew warm with rage in his hand. He flipped back his sleeve and dipping his fingers into the blood seeping out of wound in his chest – an arrow that had come too close – and began drawing on his right hand with his left. “There are worse fates out there.”

“But –”

“Normal people die faster,” Nie Mingjue said, choosing the least traumatic of the possible reasons. Wei Wuxian was young; he didn’t need to know the worst of Wen Ruohan’s wretchedness. Nie Mingjue’s cultivation was too high and too compatible with Wen Ruohan’s own: his fate, if he were to go to the Nightless City intact, would not be so easy as death. He was counting on Wen Chao not knowing anything about his father’s most vile preferences, or possibly just being too stupid to think about them. “That’ll be an advantage. But more importantly, losing my cultivation renders me immediately ineligible to be Sect Leader, and my value as a hostage will be significantly reduced.”

Wei Wuxian looked shaken by Nie Mingjue’s practicality. He shook his head, trying to clear it, and then focused again, this time on the bloody array making its way up Nie Mingjue’s arm to the elbow and down to the backs of his fingers. “What are you doing?”

“A legacy,” Nie Mingjue said, even as Baxia screamed in his mind like metal scraping against stone. “For my brother. He’ll need all the help he can get…speaking of which, it’s time for you to go.”

“What?”

“The Wen sect isn’t looking for you, however much you irritated Wen Chao,” Nie Mingjue said. “It’s always been my plan to ensure you got away clearly before I was captured – and it’s nearly time, now. No man can fight an army alone.”

His body burned, exhausted and worn out from the hours of fighting; he’d done as much as he could, and everything else left in him was for Huaisang, who deserved better than to be made Sect Leader too young the way Nie Mingjue had. He had hoped to spare him that, but if he couldn’t do that much – he could at least do this one thing.

This one terrible thing, forbidden by his ancestors, abominable anathema – but there was little Nie Mingjue would not do for his brother, and he had faith even if he had no hope.  

Baxia was fighting him over it, resistant and rebellious in a way she hadn’t been since the first time he’d mastered her – the first time he imposed his will on hers, making the inexorable bend before him. They had been partners after that, and that was how he preferred it; but in the end he was the master, as it had to be, and she could not stop him.

“You should go,” he said again to Wei Wuxian. “If you get caught, what’s the point?”

Wei Wuxian’s hands were shaking, but he nodded. “I’m sorry,” he said, as if he were responsible for this somehow. “Thank you.”

And then he was gone.

What a ridiculous young man.

Baxia was biting him, causing his palm to bleed, trying to mess up his design – urging him to fight instead, to fight kill slaughter a way out, any way out.

“I’ll try,” he yielded enough to promise her. He needed to stay on her good side, after all; the array wouldn’t work without her. “I’ll give it a try, with all my strength.”

He did.

It wasn’t enough.

No man can fight an army.

In the end, he’s forced down on his knees, as he’d expected, Wen Chao standing in front of him at a more-than-sufficient distance as if he was afraid Nie Mingjue would leap up and stab him even with four people and suppression array fierce enough to bring down a ghost general holding him down.

He was probably right.

“You’re a coward,” he told him, and Wen Chao laughed nervously. “A coward, and a fool.”

“Well, he caught you, didn’t he?” Wang Lingjiao snapped, her voice shrill with nervousness, and a single glare was enough to have her cowering backwards. “He did! Wen-er-gongzi, you’re a hero!”

No one believed her, not even Wen Chao, but with an effort he puffed himself up anyway. “You shouldn’t have stood against my Wen sect,” he said, aiming for lofty and mostly coming off as cheap. “This is a just punishment.”

The Wen sect would paint the ground blue and the sky green if it got them what they wanted, and Nie Mingjue snorted in disgust, closing his eyes for a moment to find the trigger for the array painted onto his saber arm.

It burned.

Baxia, kicked across the room to get her away from him, seethed. Still not assuaged, still unhappy, still rebellious – but he did try to escape. It wasn’t his fault that he was only human.

It burned.

“Wen Zhuliu,” Wen Chao ordered, as Nie Mingjue knew that he would. “Let’s see how the esteemed Sect Leader Nie likes it when there’s nothing left of his oh-so-great cultivation. When he’s nothing.”

It burned.

Nie Mingjue smiled through the pain, baring his teeth at the cautious approach of Wen Zhuliu. “No matter what I am,” he said, “I am enough to terrify your nightmares.”

“Not for long,” Wen Chao shouted, which was admission enough. “Wen Zhuliu! Do it!”

Nie Mingjue’s cultivation was usually like a mighty river, rushing through his veins – to feel it spill out of order, pouring out of his body and into the array in his arm, was painful to the extreme, like bleeding out but worse. But it had been long enough, he had distracted them long enough.

Nie Mingjue hoped that it would be enough. 

By the time Wen Zhuliu put his hand on his shoulder, reaching down for his dantian, the river had become little more than a trickle.

Wen Zhuliu’s stone face cracked in two.

“What? What is it?” Wen Chao demanded, realizing something was wrong from the look on his retainer’s face. “What did the bastard do?!”

“I don’t know,” Wen Zhuliu said slowly. “But – his cultivation. There’s almost nothing left of it, and his meridians are all burned and twisted…his golden core is faint enough to be almost hollow.”

“That’s impossible,” Wen Chao scoffed. “Everyone knows how powerful Sect Leader Nie is! Even my father…what did he do? How did he – why did he –?”

He stopped, shook his head.

“It’s a trick,” he decided. “Do it anyway. I want to make sure there’s nothing left of him –”

There was a scream.

It sounded like metal against stone, harsh and ringing and shrill; it sounded like rage.

It sounded like hope.

Nie Mingjue smiled, a real smile his time, and shut his eyes.

Everyone else in the room turned to look.

It was the last mistake they made.

Nie Mingjue only opened his eyes again when a hand landed on his shoulder and fiercely shook him as if he were a disobedient kitten, and when he opened his eyes there was a woman glaring death down at him. She was tall, her features more fierce than beautiful, and she was dressed only in blood and guts.

“I knew you’d be lovely,” he said.

She smacked him in the face, hard enough that his head was ringing, and snarled wordlessly at him. There was nothing but rage in her face, in her eyes; the array he had used to give her every ounce of the cultivation he had built up for years, and most of his life-force besides, was forbidden for a reason – it would unleash something terrible into the world.

Something that knew no restraint, no mercy, only the desire to kill –

Well, in theory.

A small smack on the head was very much the least that Baxia could do.

“You’ll take care of Huaisang, won’t you?” he asked her, the remnants of his qi lurching unsteadily within him; he would have a qi deviation sooner rather than later as his body attempted to cultivate at its usual rate with virtually none of the spiritual energy required to do so, and his family did not have a good track record of surviving those – though he’ll be the first of his line to die from exhaustion rather than rage. “He’ll need someone strong by his side, to do for him what needs to be done…to tell him what evil is, in case he can’t figure it out on his own.”

“I don’t think that’s a problem Nie Huaisang has, actually; you’d be surprised,” said Wei Wuxian, who Nie Mingjue had entirely forgotten about, the sound of his voice a sudden shock of surprise.

He jumping down from some rafter where he’d been hiding – planning some sort of insane rescue, perhaps, or maybe just trying to bear witness. He had a flute clutched in his hands, of all things; Nie Mingjue hadn’t even known that he cultivated with music as well as the sword.

“Also,” he added conversationally, “what the fuck was that.”

Baxia hissed at him, a sound like the slow slide of a saber out of its sheath.

Wei Wuxian wisely took several large steps back.

“Sect Leader Nie,” he said, voice suddenly much more polite. “Forgive me my surprise, but – your saber just cultivated into a guai.”

“I wasn’t expecting her to get there this quickly,” Nie Mingjue said, nodding. “I’d been counting on them taking her back to the Nightless City…”

“Where she’d be able to use the resentful energy to cultivate into a guai, and therefore act as a weapon against the Wen from the inside,” Wei Wuxian said, nodding. He was really very clever, figuring out that Nie sect sabers could use resentful energy like that, in a way humans could not. Or, well, should not. “Except she really, really wanted to kill everyone here before they hurt you, so she did it faster.”

Baxia hissed again.

“What?” Wei Wuxian said, lifting up his flute defensively. “Am I wrong?”

She jabbed a finger at Nie Mingjue, who swayed a bit from the sheer force of it even though she hadn’t put any spiritual energy into it. So much saber qi…! Guai were truly different from humans.

“I don’t know what you want – fuck. You look terrible, Chifeng-zun.”

“That would be the blood loss,” Nie Mingjue agreed. “Possibly the impending qi deviation. Hard to tell, really…what?” he asked, seeing the expression on Wei Wuxian’s face. “You didn’t think this type of array is something you’re supposed to survive, did you?”

“But you’re not angry!” Wei Wuxian exclaimed, already reaching out to start transferring spiritual energy into him. It wouldn’t be enough. “You’re not – you’re empty.”

Nie Mingjue nodded.

“You gave her everything you had…no wonder she was able to cultivate into humanity,” Wei Wuxian said, and there it was again, that ridiculous admiration. “Mistress Saber, is the only thing wrong with him the lack of qi?”

Baxia jerked her head. If Nie Mingjue lived as something other than a comatose vegetable, he’d have to teach her to properly talk, assuming that guai were capable of that. They weren’t like yao, which had once been animals or plants and familiar with the generalities of things such as eating or breathing; guai were formed from the non-living, and had never known such simple things as mere words.

He missed their connection.

If he had any qi left, he would be able to figure out what she was thinking behind that flat expressionless face that had not yet figured out how to convey anything other than rage.

If he wasn’t going to die, he’d get to see the terrible, wonderful things she would do at his little brother’s side – he’d have to be sect leader now, yes, but he wouldn’t need to change himself, contort himself into something he wasn’t, to have the strength to hold it.

He would have liked to have seen it.

“Chifeng-zun? I know something that might help stop the bleed of your qi. But it’s…unorthodox.”

Nie Mingjue waved a hand, consenting; the alternative was death, so why not?

Wei Wuxian lifted his flute to his lips and began to play.

-

Much later, Nie Mingjue wakes up in the Unclean Realm, Nie Huaisang at his side and Baxia having apparently learned to properly scowl, and – yes.

No matter any of Wei Wuxian’s complaints, it was a worthwhile trade.

[xxtraord1nary]

Fantasy

Fandom: Open Heart

Pairing: Ethan Ramsey x f!mc (Charlotte West)

Word Count: 1.3k

A/N: This is my first published work wish me luck! Constructive criticism is always welcome.

Summary: Ethan gets caught up in a steamy situation with his sexier than ever protégée who continues to run through this mind.

Warnings: Foreplay, Mild Language, NSFW!

Tags: @katkart122 @justanotherrookie @missmiimiie @starrystarrytrouble @openheartfanfics @dr-colossal-pita @heauxplesslydevoted @the-pale-goddess @rookie-ramsey @perriewinklenerdie @ernestsinclairs @writinghereandthere

As she slowly dragged her impeccably manicured ivory polished nails up the expanse of his mildly hairy broad chest Ethan found it quite hard to control his breathing and remain impassive to the bewitching woman before him. One thing about him was that he was not intimidated by anyone, and certainly not a first year resident for that matter but the divine woman had the ability to turn a highly intellegant diagnostician like himself to a puddle of mush.

For if she told him to jump he’d dutifully ask how high in attempts to please her. Her luminous golden brown eyes shone as bright as the afternoon sun through a glass of whiskey as they bore into his never ending sea blue ones challenging him. Almost daring him to stop her.

But that was the fun of it. He couldn’t no matter how hard he tried he just couldn’t. For how many times he unsuccessfully attempted to remind himself that a relationship between them was highly inappropriate and would be detrimental to her development as a doctor. As if she could hear his repetitive mindless thoughts, she rolled her eyes so hard she could’ve sworn she saw the back of her damn brain.

But instead of starting another asinine argument which would draw them to the same conclusion of him once again pushing her away and ultimately hurting them both she pushed him onto the couch behind them and she stood her grond in front of him and dropped to her knees. And without word began to run her hands over the front of his slacks which by the minute became increasingly uncomfortable as just the intense eye contact between the pair made him want to get on his knees and worship her body all night long.

“We seem to have quite the situation on our hands now don’t we Dr. Ramsey?” she remarked in a faux surprised voice as she ghosted her dainty fingers over his covered member. The combination of her heavenly touch and the use of his title rolling off her tongue in her paradisiacal french accent made him choke out a strangled groan. She moved herself upon the couch next to him leaning over his tall and domineering stature reduced to a dazed mess of a man.

“Would you like me to take care of this for you? Hm, is it my hands you want all over you and making you feel pleasured?” she asked once again, always being one to derive more pleasure from her lovers verbal affirmations of her actions. Trying and failing to form a coherent sentence after her line of questioning once she immediately applied more pressure and began to gently stroke him through his slacks.

Unable to produce words he instead looked down at her hands as they worked their magic he had to put his hands over hers to halt her ministrations to prevent him from unraveling so soon as he much preferred to be inside her. “Rookie-” he tried to protest but was quickly brought to silence by a finger to his lips. “I want you silent,Dr. Ramsey. Wanna know why?” he wordlessly nodded completely transfixed by the melanated enchantress.

“Because I’m in charge, and you're gonna and obey. Understand?” he eagerly nodded and with the consent she craved she continued her ministrations with more pressure this time and delved between the crook of his neck eliciting a loud moan from the object of her desires.

“Good god Charlotte.” he rasped out in a haze of pleasure causing her smirk and nip at his throat and making her way down to his adams apple. The confirmation of his pleasure only increased her own as well as her name on his lips which she wouldn’t mind a taste of at the moment. And with that thought she wasted no time in detaching herself from him only to straddle him and strip her scrub top from her body revealing to him a sight that could bring a hundred men to their knees in submission full mounds that hypnotized him at their every sway to which he hurriedly took handfuls of.

She wasted no time in tugging him roughly by the back of his neck causing their lips colliding together in a mix of unrelenting longing and pent up lust that had been expressed through their longer than necessary glances and not so innocent accidental touches throughout their work days that left him a flushed mess and her a smirking bundle of arrogance. Releasing this pent of lust he began to palm her generous backside and dig his nails into her wide tantalizing hips hard enough to surely leave a mark. As she choked out a moan from the pleasure of him unofficially staking his claim.

Somehow the woman on top of him could do what no woman ever had the avail to do, and that was have complete and utter control over Ethan Ramsey. So infatuated with the woman she could break his heart a million times over and he’d still come back dutifully on his knees. As bad as it may be within the short span of a year Charlotte Adora West had the key to his heart and soul and virtually owned him. Her other hand leaving it’s firm grip on his throat ventured down between them and free him from the confining space of his underwear held him firmly in her grasp and next he did something that shocked the hell out of her and turned them both on by belief all at the same time.

He brought her fingers resting on his face into the warm enclosure of his mouth and expertly sucked his fingers with profound experience and she began her quest of bringing to his peak with skilled adept and in response he dipped his hand into her scrubs and began to skillfully rub her bud with his thumb and forefinger causing her moan and breathe harshly. Replacing her fingers with her mouth they became a mess of panting and moaning tangled tongues and limbs.

As she climaxed her voice rang out in the empty space bringing him to his peak of pleasure to let out a husky growl and her to speed up stroking before-

A loud resounding smack on his desk bringing him out of his scandalous daydream and back into the present expanse of the diagnostic teams office to be met with the inquisitive prodding amber eyes of the subject of all his desires. Dr. Charlotte West herself.

As she just so happened to glance down at the tightening of his slacks she laughed quietly to herself and muttered something he couldn’t understand in french and returned her gaze to his with a knocking smirk.

“What were you fantasizing about Dr. Ramsey?” she seductively inquired, never making the move to break eye contact. He sputtered clearly embarrassed as he was no more than a blushing mess at the moment. “Dr. W-west, what are you doing in here?” he fumbled trying to look anywhere but her beautiful face. “This is the team office, remember? And I needed you to sign this.” she said slyly, still smirking subtly as she handed him a patient chart. “Oh.” he said, snatching up the chart and hurriedly signing his messy signature. “Merci.” she remarked on her way out the door but not before turning back to not so subtly eye his obvious hard of which he tried unsuccessfully to hide.

“Next time you’ll have to call me to fix that, try not to daydream too much of me sir.” she said chuckling before adding, “This is a hospital, Dr. Ramsey” not forgetting to send a suggestive wink his way on her way out leaving her once again victorious at his misery.

The most rewarding in her opinion.

And a flustered Ethan Ramsey, a world famous diagnostician, was left a muddled mess in his chair admiring the view of Charlotte's curvy figure that her scrubs did little to nothing to hide as she effortlessly swayed her way out of his office.

Fin.

Thanks for reading!

[vhsrights]

Only Losing You Matters

Only Losing You Matters

A jemily first kiss story, based off of the Minimal Loss timeline

for @top-jj-rights  :) ily jame

WC: 1956

“I can take it.”

“I can take it.”

Maybe Emily could, but JJ couldn't. Hearing each blow against the agent flipped her stomach. She was nearly in a mind of her own, but there were other things to think of.

First off, this was an entire covert operation and any rash decisions on her part would further endanger Emily, let alone exposing Spencer as well. Second, she was pregnant, thanks to the imbecilic detective that had done that to her. JJ knew that her feelings against him were over-exaggerated, but she couldn’t help it. It had felt like his every move was actively against what she wanted, solely for his comfort. That didn’t do well to add on to the fact that he had told the team about her pregnancy and that she had a generally strong disliking towards most men. The thoughts fell to the background of her mind as she once more focused on where she was.

The crash of what sounded like broken glass made her throw the headphones down. Why the hell was she so irresponsible? What made Emily think that she could just toy around with her own life like that? How dare she? JJ had a thousand words in her head to throw at Emily. Some were more emphatic than others but she couldn’t help it. The only thing that mattered was Emily. She needed the woman safe again, in her arms, and this situation made it seem impossible.

Eventually, the sound from Emily’s side of the mic died down. They heard her get moved to her room, kept alone. JJ almost let out a sigh of relief. Almost. Hearing the door to Emily’s room open caught her breath in her throat. They were no strangers to cases like this and she understood that Cyrus had virtually no limits. The soft, nurturing sound of an older woman’s voice through the mic was the closest to relief that she had felt in hours.

They made much haste in relaying their signal to rescue Emily after the woman had gone. Once Emily had confirmed her side of things, all they could do was wait. Unfortunately, that was not something that JJ had always been adept at doing. The woman paced frantically, her eyes shifting, and hands hurriedly tangling and detangling. She checked her watch over and over again, willing the needles on the timepiece to approach 3 AM faster.

When the time showed 3 AM, it was time. They were ready to free the compound and save their agents. JJ’s heart beat in her throat. What if they didn’t find Emily? What if she had been moved? What if they hadn’t accounted for one of Cyrus’ contingencies? What if JJ lost Emily?

What if, JJ lost Emily?

The question bounced around her in head unanswered. JJ had the answer but didn’t dare voice or think it. That would shatter her heart beyond repair. She wouldn’t be able to take care of herself, let alone the baby that she had on the way. Not without Emily. Emily had always had her back, supporting her no questions asked. Emily had always held her hand and kept JJ’s head up high, reminding the blonde: she was right at her side. That was what JJ had loved about her since day 1.

Love. Of course, it had to be love. JJ had fallen for her best friend, the woman who deserved the world in her hands, knowing that she would never get it back. Some days she cursed herself for it. Other days, she could do nothing more than to marvel at Emily and the woman she was.

Once more, JJ was ripped from her internal war. The compound that they had been watching, that had been harboring Emily, burst into flames. People slowly emerged from the spreading embers that kept the flame ablaze. All JJ could think of was Emily. She only needed Emily in that moment, forgetting the rest of her team and responsibilities. JJ prayed to whatever higher power she could imagine. To simply bring her Emily back to her. She couldn’t go on without her, not like this and not ever. The blonde screamed out for Emily.

She screamed and searched. She went as close to the compound as she could. JJ felt the crushing weight of futility begin to sink onto her shoulders.

What if she had failed?

The woman had no more time to speculate before Emily emerged from the cinders. Her arms were wrapped around a woman that was begging to go back in. Emily’s clothes were ragged, her body littered with injuries, and her gait was reduced to a supported limp. JJ had heard the screams of the compound members when the fire first erupted. However, now, with Emily in her sight, nothing else registered. JJ ran as fast as her legs allowed towards the brunette. She just needed confirmation that Emily was okay.

She needed to feel the breaths that Emily took in. She needed to feel the woman’s heartbeat against her damaged skin. She needed any inkling of hope that things would be okay. She needed to know that she wasn’t dreaming.

Their bodies collided and JJ could have sworn that the universe shifted. The blonde had Emily in her arms, alive and breathing. Her grip tightened around Emily, never wanting to let go. JJ could feel the life in the agent and the plethora of adrenaline-fueled insults surged through her head again.

“Please don’t ever be that stupid again.” The words escaped JJ’s lips with a shudder.

“I can’t promise that.”

Even having just gone through brutal events, Emily made time to quip. JJ simply rolled her eyes and squeezed the woman harder. She could give her a piece of her mind later. The women stood in the locked embrace for longer than either cared to count. Eventually, Derek broke them up to get Emily medically checked out but JJ stuck to her side.

JJ stayed by her side for the rest of the day. She drove them back to the hotel, mulling over what she could say to the woman that rested in the passenger seat. Her anger was beginning to bubble up again. It was purely out of worry and care for Emily, but she wondered if the brunette would ever understand.

JJ looked over to Emily again, gently resting her hand on top of hers. She couldn’t hold it but the position gave her enough solace in the moment itself. Emily barely stirred in her seat, catching up on the restless hours that she had spent in the compound cot.

They were able to get up to their shared room without any more chaos or mishaps. However, once the door closed behind them, JJ’s anger had other ideas. Words came out of JJ’s mouth before she could stop, think, or even process where her head was at.

“Why are you such an idiot? Huh?” She spoke harshly, with her back turned to Emily, undoing her things. “Can you please tell me that it’s not just for kicks?”

“Excuse me?” Emily stood baffled at JJ’s outburst, still partially disoriented.

“I don’t know. It’s like you have some kind of tendency to always just headfirst into fire without a second thought.” JJ had turned to face her best friend now, the concern and anger clear as day on her face.

“Jen, I was just doing that to protect Reid. You guys didn’t hear it but he cocked a gun to Spence’s head. What else was I supposed to do?!” Emily’s voice rose at the end of the sentence, sending JJ an unspoken invitation to do the same

“Talk Cyrus down! Isn’t that what you do as a profiler?! Right now, as bad as it sounds, I don’t even care about Reid!” JJ’s words were loud and clipped. They had no hesitation in delivering her harsh message. “The only thing that ever mattered to me was losing you!”

“JJ, that isn’t always an option! I tried, but neither of us would have made it out of there alive!” Emily slammed the clothes in her hand down on the bed.

She truly couldn’t believe what JJ was saying. When she was taking the beating by Cyrus and splayed out in her compound cot, JJ was the only thing on her mind. She had been the main thing on her mind since she met the woman. The woman was Emily’s only place of solace, regardless of the fact that she thought it would never be returned.

“God damn it, Emily! Can’t you see what I’m trying to tell you?! Don’t you understand that I can not go on without you? Don’t you see that you are my home? How can you not see that I need you with me? When will you get it through your thick skull, that you’re the only one I want? How can I make you understand that I can’t do this without out you? What magical words do I have to say? HUH?!”

The words had shocked Emily. She truly hadn’t expected such a visceral reaction from the blonde. Then, JJ words sunk in. You’re the only one I want. Emily couldn’t tell if it was intentional or simply a Freudian slip. Either way, the message JJ was sending couldn’t be what she thought it was.

JJ would never have feelings for someone like her. After all, she was damaged and messed things up. Today was the proof for that. Emily could barely hear the rest of what JJ said. She just wanted to retract away.

JJ watched the brunette slowly retreat into herself. The harsh words came to a stop and all of the feelings rose. To this day, JJ can’t tell whether it was some kind of invisible push or the weight of her emotions that drove to the other woman. She likes to believe it was the universe pulling them together when they clearly needed each other.

She took long, hurried strides to reach Emily. Nothing else was making sense in the moment. There had to be some way to get Emily to stay with her at that moment. That was when she felt some sort of electricity buzz through her body. The blonde jumped forward and grabbed Emily’s lips with her own. That was good enough to bring Emily out of her trance.

At first, Emily didn’t register what was happening. She thought she was dreaming. Then, when JJ’s hands wrapped around her waist, she knew it was anything but that. She pushed back into the kiss with the force that she had been met. The women stood for a solid minute, lip locked.

Her lips are soft and taste sweet.

Her lips are rough but they feel like home.

They finally pulled back, entranced, and simply looked at each other. However, this wasn’t simply watching the other’s features. The two saw what each other was, how they were, and what the two of them could be. Emily was the first to smile which led to the women laughing out of relief.

“Don’t scare me like that again, Em. I’m not joking. The only thing that matters to me is losing you.”

She spoke again before Emily could ask the question she knew was lingering in her mind.

“I broke up with Will that night in New York. I couldn’t stand him and I was also infatuated with someone else. So what do you say, wanna take a try at us?”

Emily wrapped her arms around the blonde and looked from her to her pregnant belly. A smile that shined bright enough to light the world came to her face.

“Absolutely. I would be more than honored to.”

[parttimepuff]

Hey to ripping off the bandaid guys, no point in Waiting around any longer

"If we're all ready to talk now, then yes, we don't need to wait." Saffron agreed. Both Reverie and Gremlin were visibly nervous, though they tried to stifle their worry while Luna stood by more calmly, confident that her grandmother would help this go smoother.

"Beep, do you know any of your species history?" She asked. The matterling shook her head. "...no. I remember war. But I don't know all of it." "Then I'd best start from the beginning." Saffron reasoned. "Long ago, before I was born, Dark Matter were virtually unheard of in the universe. It's thought that they were few in number, adept at staying hidden, or both. At some point, though, one specific Dark Matter began assembling masses of others to themself."

It was clear by the way Beep's iris narrowed into a slit that she was already not liking where this was going. "I'll refrain from using their name, it's not one taken lightly. This white Matter formed what has been termed the Dark Matter Hive Mind, a network of connected beings all answering to one. The strange coloring of this Matter is, in theory, a result of becoming the head of the hive mind. It's thought that this was possible at all as most Dark Matters are not made with souls. They have no minds of their own and no emotions. Though they can form them. You're living proof of that, Beep."

This was becoming too much for her, opting to possess Reverie again. The mention of the white matter drove her to make him cover his ears. After a moment, he lowered his wings and spoke for her. "...am I a freak, then?" The look of heartbreak on his face as those words came out of his mouth were clearly his own sentiment. Gremlin and Luna wore similar expressions. Saffron walked over to him, placing a nub on his wing. "No, dear, you're not. You're a miracle. You fought your way into personhood, something the rest of us take for granted."

Though meant to be a reassuring gesture, Reverie edged his wing away from her touch and curled into himself, covering himself with his wings. Saffron took the hint and gave the both of them space. After another long pause, Beep spoke through him again. "But if there are other matters, and, they are gone, why aren't there more like me? What happened?" The older puff had to clench her jaw to keep herself steady for this part.

"During the war and, perhaps, even before it, the white Matter actively discouraged the formation of souls through the hive mind. Though sources are, not verified, it seemed that they kept a near constant stream of orders through their link to the others. Something like, propaganda almost, spreading lies that squashed any budding souls within them. Still, sometimes they were able to form souls despite all this." Saffron paused. "Those few, who broke from the hive mind themselves were... branded. Declared the primary enemy. ...it was, very unlikely for most to get far."

There was a palpable silence inside the cave. No one dared to speak. Quite suddenly, Reverie was engulfed in a fireball of purple flames. Luna stifled a yelp while Gremlin jolted in surprise. Saffron didn't move an inch. She was listening. Faintly, Reverie's voice could be heard. "I remember them and I didn't mean to I just was told to I didn't, I-" His words became unintelligible, but it was clear that Beep had remembered something she never wanted to.

Saffron looked to the other two. "Give her space, but don't leave. She'll need support more than ever now."

[vulturhythm]

i know this wouldn't be able to happen given the timeline of the show but when i saw renfri/yen the first thing i thought of was them running into each other and chatting and both dissing their last lover - 'great sex but seriously if all i wanted was a good fuck and no people skills i'd get a dildo' - only to find out they're both talking about Geralt lol. then deciding who needs men anyway. also if yen found out about stregobor (sp?) and his shit with renfri she'd go skin him

stroganoff is the only spelling he does not deserve the respect it takes to spell it correctly thank you so much for prompting me!!

canon timeline and canon events mean nothing to me

- - - - -

little red robin

yennefer sees the girl for the first time in the tavern in a little livestock town called blaviken, sitting there at the bar with a tankard of ale in hand. her hair is a deep color that yen can’t properly label as red or brown - she settles for the former, calls her little robin in her mind.

her evening plans are slim - nonexistent, really - and so yennefer has no qualms with approaching the pretty thing, with settling on the stool beside her and ordering another drink with a wave of her hand. the girl’s eyes meet hers, and then drop lower, the ghost of a smirk rising to her face as she looks away; inwardly, yen purrs.

she’s chosen well for the night.

- - -

one drink in finds yen with a proper name to call the little robin - renfri.

it’s a name she yearns to croon into her ear.

- - -

two drinks in finds renfri laughing at an absent tale yen had spun, one of foolish court royals and impossibly impish musicians.

it’s a sound yen finds she adores.

- - -

three drinks in finds yen relating the account of her last drunken fuck, a man of immense sexual prowess and the social skills of a dead kikimora.

renfri scoffs, says she’s experienced the same, and the roll to her eyes makes it plain that she’s of the opinion all men are quite virtually identical in that regard.

- - -

four drinks in finds the little robin shifting her thighs apart when yen sets a hand on one, a cocky little smile half-hidden behind the rim of her tankard.

yen smiled in return, downs the rest of hers, looks away.

- - -

they never make it to the fifth drink.

instead, they make it upstairs to a hastily-rented room, one that yen doubts she’ll have use of by tomorrow evening - blaviken was but a brief stop on her journey north - but is appreciative of nonetheless, largely due to the fact that the privacy of a closed door offers her the chance to press renfri to the wall, to steal those smiling lips in a kiss that tastes of ale.

renfri is a biter, she discovers with haste - all swift nips and gentle tugs to yennefer’s lips and tongue. it makes her croon, but there’s part of her that laughs, too, for the little robin will find herself sorely mistaken if she believes she has a chance in hell of taking over tonight.

- - -

renfri’s skin is smooth and tanned beneath her clothing, but as yennefer lays her back, trails open lips down along her breasts and lower still to the open v of her hips, she feels roughness just beneath her teasing tongue. she pauses then, draws back enough to glance her little robin over - catches sight of the faded scar dissecting renfri’s abdomen at the same time she notices the girl’s pointed glare.

yennefer smooths her hands over the old wound in apology, leans up to kiss away that newly-nervous frown. when renfri’s arms loop about her neck, when renfri’s hands weave into her hair, she merely croons in reassuring reply.

- - -

she encounters other scars as she goes - small ones, here and there, littered in places where they could easily be guessed as combat wounds - but there are still others that give her pause as she trails open-mouthed kisses down her little robin’s sleek frame... others that are larger, longer, one carved into the inside of her thigh. it’s this one that yennefer gives the most attention to, licking slowly up its length to coax away the tension in her frame.

- - -

renfri is trembling by the time yen grants her touch where she aches for it most, her breath already coming quick when yen lets the tip of her tongue brush across her clit. the little robin whimpers then, a soft and aborted sound, one that has yennefer purring as she repeats the motion.

the girl moans so prettily when yen closes her lips about the swollen bud, those beautiful thighs clenching tight around yen’s head. a second later, she’s apologizing, trying to draw back -

yennefer merely laughs, soft and breathless, and squeezes her slender hips as she leans back in.

- - -

she works renfri to completion with her tongue alone, licks in deep until her little robin is quaking and swallows every drop of wetness that she coaxes from the girl. when renfri breaks at last, it’s with a weak and muffled cry, her back curving well off the sheets as she rolls her hips down onto yennefer’s tongue.

yennefer draws back when she can tell her bird is growing weary, kisses the subtle curve of her hips and lets her lay flat. renfri reaches for her, and so she complies, moving back up the length of her body to meet her halfway in a kiss.

- - -

renfri is just as much of a diligent lover, it turns out - kissing her way down yen’s body with the same methodical care, working her over with her tongue until she’s well past the point of dripping wet. only then does renfri ease two fingers inside her, only then does she wink up at yen as she sucks gently at her clit.

yennefer rolls her body to push back onto her little robin’s hand, a ragged little moan escaping her when renfri crooks her fingers just so. the girl is adept, clearly practiced, something she murmurs to her as she weaves her fingers into those deep red locks.

renfri purrs out a moan against her when yennefer tightens her grip, and yen feels something feral inside her growl.

- - -

the little robin brings her to orgasm with surprising haste - yennefer would have been embarrassed at any other time, if she couldn’t smell the pretty little thing’s arousal practically rolling off her skin. sure enough, by the time renfri rolls to the side and yennefer moved back between her thighs, the girl is dripping wet again, her slender hips rolling down onto the two fingers yennefer slides into her with ease.

- - -

she gets renfri off once more like that, riding her hand, swallowing her every little gasp and moan. only then does renfri properly push her away, and only then does yennefer lay back in bed, allowing the smaller girl to lay her head upon her breast and relax with a long and shaky sigh.

yennefer finds herself smoothing circles into her back, her eyes on the ceiling as renfri dozes. her fingertips brush over another scar - fresher, knotted flesh on her back - and she pauses.

renfri pauses, too, and then begins to talk, soft and cautious.

- - -

yennefer learns the name of the fucker who stole her little robin’s life away. she learns his name, and she memorizes it, and she vows that he will burn.

renfri is tense in her arms by the time her story is told. with a sigh, yennefer rolls them over, draws her into her chest. the little robin settles in with ease, and when yennefer feels her set a hand upon her heart, she breathes not a word of protest.

they fall asleep like that, renfri cradled close in the protective curl of yennefer’s arms.

- - -

yennefer leaves at dawn, but not without draping her sleeping robin in the bedsheets and leaving enough coin to pay for breakfast on the nightstand. she leaves behind, too, a simple note, one that reads,

find me in cintra.

[sibyl-of-space]

Finished a binge re-play of Ocarina of Time (3D) for the first time in a very, very long time. Long-winded thoughts below.

Disclaimer: I played the original n64 version (red blood Ganondorf and all) ad NAUSEUM as a kid. It was by far in my top 3 most-played video games, and if you all know me you know that I don’t play a lot of video games, I play the same few over and over and over and become obsessed with them. As such, OoT is not new to me. I also played the 3D version once before, but it was over the course of several years when I was in college and that was a no-lens-of-truth run for the heck of it. I have not touched either since though, so this is the freshest eyes I’ve had on the game since I was probably about 6-7 years old seeing it for the first time. Do keep in mind though that I already knew virtually all the easter eggs and secrets and story and progression and had a vague recollection of the vast majority of dungeon concepts/puzzles before going in, because this game was my entire world for many formative years.

This game has really excellent dungeons. I ranked them below because I was inspired by my friend ML’s ranking (in fact a desire to rank them myself is what caused me to binge replay this in the first place), but honestly I found all of them engaging. My least favorite was ice cavern but even ice cavern has a really cool atmosphere and an interesting concept, it’s just a bit tedious and bottle management gameplay is not particularly fun to me.

1. Spirit Temple - unlike Shadow which uses invisible walls as a mechanic to trick you, Spirit subverts every single mechanic and puzzle you've encountered so far to really throw you. It's extremely clever. The ambience and overall design is also just excellent.

2. Forest Temple - gameplay wise it is fine but as the first adult temple it REALLY sets the scale and tone for the latter portion of your adventure; the vibe in this temple is just so fucking cool. The sacred forest meadow honestly does come off as sacred, ancient, and haunted but in an ethereal way as opposed to a spooky way. Ooh, I love it.

3. Ganon's Tower - the concept is excellent and the execution is solid, the medallion portion is interesting but the gauntlet up to Ganondorf with increasingly loud organ music and hallways filled with bats and just cool fights and great atmosphere makes this one of the sickest final dungeons I can think of. I was starting to be like "eh maybe the medallion rooms are a bit underwhelming" and then I got hit with the fakeout room in Light that just won me over with how cheeky it was. All the medallion rooms felt a bit like Spirit temple with how they played with expectations, which (ironically?) made the spirit portion actually the least good.

4. Gerudo Fortress - I'm counting mini dungeons and the whole espionage thing is just SO much fun. Break into a thieves’ hideout, jump across rooftops and shoot people with your bow to sneak past them?? WHAT IS NOT TO LOVE?????

5. Water Temple - okay I gotta say this replay really sold me on water temple. It's a cool concept and a fantastic atmosphere, and 3DS quality of life changes (boot swap ease of access + very clearly visually marked water level change rooms) made me actually thoroughly enjoy playing it. Also Dark Link is rightfully hailed as one of the coolest, if not the coolest, miniboss(es) in the game, so extra points there.

6. Bottom of the Well - Shadow's invisible wall mechanic is much more interesting when you can't see through them and everything is a potential trap. Falling down to the basement does get frustrating but that room where you light torches to open coffins and a FLOATING GIBDO EMERGES makes up for it, holy crap. Shadow Temple is underwhelming because Bottom of the Well already did what it tries to do but better.

7. Dodongo's Cavern - hey man I like blowing up dinosaurs this dungeon is just solid 0 complaints

8. Fire Temple - Fire Temple is also solid I just a) am so used to the original music that this version feels empty and lacking atmosphere by comparison, and b) find the above temples cooler. Shout out to dragon whack-a-mole boss fight though.

9. Shadow Temple - this suffers from being the only temple I really had completely memorized (I think my weenie friends* must have made me beat it for them as kids) so playing it this time was really just going through the motions; it didn’t get the chance to win me over because I remembered all of it and nothing particularly stuck out to me as being super clever. The boat ride, however, is sick as hell.

(*disclaimer: I was also a weenie. Shadow Temple scared the absolute pants off of me. But I clearly played it enough times that the entire thing was etched into my memory regardless, so.)

10. Deku Tree - does its job as tutorial dungeon, nice atmosphere, thats about all there is to say.

11. Jabu-Jabu's Belly - redeeming feature is using Ruto as a projectile. Throwing her at the ceiling switches will never not be hilarious. Honestly not a bad dungeon, merely gross and I like the other ones better.

12. Ice Cavern - I used to dread Ice Cavern; this time around I just found it tedious. The atmosphere is successful - it really feels cold and chilling - but not appealing enough to make up for it being dull and kind of annoying. Has the potential to be really cool if the blue fire were used in a more interesting way than “fill your bottles and dump them elsewhere.”

BUT, I feel it would be a complete disservice to my younger self and my younger self’s reasons for playing this game so much, if I focus completely on dungeons and disproportionately on gameplay in a review. Because while gameplay is a huge reason I kept going back to it (hard to want to go back to a game if it isn't fun to play), that’s not what made me love it so much, and a replay has given me fresher eyes to enjoy everything else it has to offer.

Ocarina of Time creates a world and a story that I deeply cared about, and revisiting as an adult, I find if anything I have more take-aways than I did previously. I have always really enjoyed coming-of-age narratives when done well, and this is a coming-of-age narrative done REMARKABLY well. You see dumb bratty kids doing dumb bratty kid things and then see the mature people they’ve grown into 7 years later; the game does not make the mistake of projecting a personality onto a voiceless protagonist, but it does imply a narrative arc for him (and you) regardless just through how strong and cool and awesome you get by the end and all the rad shit you’ve accomplished over the course of the game. It manages to very, very successfully make its story about other characters who DO have personalities, but also make you as the blank slate mc cool guy hero very much have a part in that story that feels very earned and satisfying.

Link doesn’t have a personality. You can project whatever the hell you want onto him or nothing at all. Ocarina of Time makes that *work*, because it doesn’t try to frame him as either ~adult in a child’s body~ or ~child in adult’s body~, it just lets you experience the literal growth from a kid who has to jump to reach ledges and has to thwack things twice with a slingshot and tiny sword, to an adult who can LAUNCH MASSIVE PILLARS INTO THE AIR and one-shot previously difficult enemies, and interpret that however you will. I think the most powerful example of this is going back in time again after doing several adult temples, and entering the bottom of the well, where you see enemies you’ve previously only encountered as an adult, and feel confident that you can tackle them as a child, too.

I really love these kinds of narratives. Where the growth of the main character is purely in the sense of you as the player becoming more adept and stronger, and the context of the story makes that mean something, but the game doesn’t try and pretend the avatar itself has a 3-dimensional personality.

I also think the balance between narrative and gameplay is excellent once it hits its groove. The beginning is very hand-holdy (Navi taught me how to open a door after I had already opened a door elsewhere because she’s scripted to do it at a specific door even though you can technically get to a later one first. lol), and I very firmly believe that with Saria’s Song as a device that lets you seek advice when you want to, it is completely unnecessary to have Navi yell at you what she thinks you should be doing. That said, the game doesn’t stop you from doing whatever the hell you want, and the number and depth of dungeons makes exploring and killing stuff by FAR the meat of the game, over the story. There is a suggested dungeon order, but you have some freedom if you’d rather do them a bit out of order, and there is a LOT of fun side stuff you can do and get rewarded for.

Most of that side stuff is an excellent way to highlight the humor in this game. If you beat Malon’s horse race record she mails a literal fucking cow to your house. Your house in Kokiri Forest. You just show up and there is a fucking cow in your house. That is the funniest thing that has ever happened in a game in the history of forever, sorry. You can race the running man, and all of the other sidequests in the game make you think there is a beatable goal you’ll be rewarded for, and the fucker just goes “lol good try but I beat you by one second. :)” You can blow up the Gossip Stones and they turn into rocketships and launch into space. After you beat the game, and have a really poignant moment with Princess Zelda where she sends you back in time, there is a completely out of nowhere dance party featuring the entire cast in celebration. The game does not try to explain this. It just gives you a dance party, and after such a bittersweet finale and such a fun and engaging game, a no-context dance party is exactly what it needs. A line o Gerudo doing the can-can? Thank you, yes please.

There is SO much that this game does not feel any need to justify in-game, that it simply puts in there because it is fun or cool or both, and I appreciate that so much. There are easter eggs out the butt (still haven’t bothered catching the Hylian Loach and I have still NEVER found the sinking lure despite following every guide in existence). Most of the temples imply some sort of greater history that is not even the slightest bit touched on. It has a very cohesive “core” game that has a start-to-finish suggested progression and a matching narrative, and it has absolute mountains of random shit outside of that it in no way pretends to justify. It explains just enough to give it ground to stand on, but no more, leaving you with more questions than answers. That ambiguity drove me nuts as a kid, but now, I think it’s also why I kept coming back. I wanted answers the game wouldn’t give me so I felt compelled to try and find them myself.

Ocarina of Time’s ending is incredible in ways I am just now able to appreciate. First of all, Zelda is like “I’m gonna send you back in time now” and pulls up the Ocarina and instead of playing the Song of Time which everything in the game implies she should, she plays Zelda’s Lullaby and hesitates just enough on the last note as you are sent back in the past - oof, that’s a good moment. The entire game you’re told about how the Kokiri can’t survive outside of the forest and suddenly they’re at Lon Lon Ranch having a dance party. You walk away from the Master Sword and seal it back in the temple, but nonsensically are then able to meet Zelda in her garden as if nothing had happened, meaning she sent you back so far it erased not just the adult timeline but also everything you accomplished as a child too? So many questions, but the fact that it does not even bother to answer them and just leaves you with such an open-ended image of you and Zelda as kids, calling back to that very early moment after the first dungeon in the game, and you can interpret for yourself what exactly that means.

I’m getting rambly (HAHA as if I’m ever not) so I should wrap this up shortly. Ocarina of Time’s ending is why I am so vehemently opposed to the concept of a ~Zelda Timeline~. The ending is nonsensical if you try to apply concrete logic to it. This game proposes ideas and makes me feel a certain way about them and the ending succeeds in providing just enough closure to make me satisfied and just enough open-ness that makes me want to keep coming back to it to experience it again. It’s not an open-and-shut piece of history of a fake world, it’s a really remarkable journey thats ambiguity is what allows it to feel so very magical.

Ooh boy I can’t wait to replay MM again, but that is a game I’ve never stopped playing, so it’ll be anything but fresh. It hits different right after completing OoT, though. The only way to follow up on a story like Ocarina of Time is to be even MORE batshit, ambiguous, and loose with your definition of how time works.

[the-nerktwins]

There’s more to “Another Day” than meets the eye…or, ear…

Sometimes the most interesting thoughts are captured during discussions. I recently began a thread in a Beatles forum I’m a member of, about Paul’s song “Another Day” and the deeper meaning I personally found within it. The conversation veered into two different directions. One was the concept of the lyrical content being overlooked for a few possible reasons, not the least of them being that the protagonist was a woman. The other branch of this conversation veered towards was the musical anatomy of the song and how it serves to add texture to the story the lyrics are telling.

It’s with regret that I report that some participants completely overlooked the musical complexity of this track. To illustrate, here are a couple of key quotes from respondents in the thread I started:

“In contrast to 'Eleanor Rigby, 'Another Day' is cute and perfect instead of full of contrast and dynamics. The cozy comfort of the music itself reflects the bland predictability of the protagonists' life, as depicted in the song. I'm just not sure that's the best approach to take. I think John and George's (Martin) influence would have added some dimension.”

“Yes it's typical of McCartney to wrap a dark story in a cute song. He likes to hide things (even from himself).”

I was left wondering if me and these posters were even listening to the same song! I was also reminded of how ready people are to default to and parrot the (false and grossly oversimplified) talking points that the fandom has been spoon-fed about Paul’s songcraft since the 1970’s. Paul is hardly ever regarded as a valid artist in his own right outside of the Beatles collective, that is terribly, truly wrongheaded in every imaginable way.

I find it galling that many fans still want to hear his early, solo work with a “Lennon filter” applied to it. I’ve seen people saying things like, “This song is good, but if he’d done it with John it would’ve been GREAT!” I completely disagree. McCartney’s compositional abilities by 1967 had evolved to the point where he could “hear” in his head almost exactly what he wanted his final product to sound like. He was adept at articulating his vision to producers, engineers, and bandmates rather early on.

It also hasn’t escaped my notice that certain fans resent his abilities within the confines of the Beatles’ collective since it did contribute to some friction within the band during their late period, and then they turn around and completely ignore his competency when it comes to his solo work (and lament that he couldn’t collaborate with Lennon or George Martin on particular solo songs). It’s a paradoxical mentality and I’m not shy about denouncing it. It gives me whiplash, if I’m quite honest about it!

Since I don’t know (and didn’t ask) the participants about whether they’ve had any experience as musicians, I can make some allowance for the fact that people who’ve played music can hear things in a piece that non-musicians may not pick up on. The thing is, there exist a fair number of sources which could at least illustrate what’s going on musically in “Another Day.”

As for me, since I have a musical background, and I can HEAR what’s going on. To me there are “contrast and dynamics.” The song builds, crescendos, and comes back down again.  There's a lot going on in terms of time signature changes, and decorative elements which add texture to the story being told.  It’s brilliant! I realize that someone who has little to no musical experience could miss it.  There are musically-inclined people out there who can explain it, however, and I went looking online for just that. I conducted two simple Google searches: “Paul McCartney Another Day Musical Analysis,” and “Paul McCartney Another Day Sheet Music.”

With the second search, I found a website which allows the user to play a midi file of the song (with the lead vocals, backing vocals, and every instrument) while the user is taken through the sheet music. The parts being played highlight what’s going on in the song as it’s playing. If someone is inexperienced as a musician, it can serve as a nice, visual aid to see just how complex a composition is, and how much is going on within it. Here’s a screenshot of the site, and a link to “Another Day” for illustrative purposes.

"Another Day" by Paul and Linda McCartney on MuseScore.com

To me this is proof-positive that "Another Day" isn't just a cutesy, fluffy song.

For some further argument in the favor of the musical merits of this song, I stumbled upon comments from fans in the Steve Hoffman music forums, in a thread called "Paul McCartney 'Another Day' Appreciation Thread"

After the bit ".... leaves the next daaaaayyyy..." there's this descending run on the guitar that is perfectly placed, but very difficult indeed to play. – Edgard Varese

yeah, another day is an absolutely killer track. to me its really the perfect song: catchy as hell, yet imaginative and really far more complex than a casual listener would ever realize. i also agree with the thoughts on the rythym guitar. great song to learn for any guitar player, not just for the rythm, but for the chords also. i believe it starts with a g to a b7 with an f# bass and really you've got me hooked from there – andyw676

Listen to the bassline...amazing. – Stateless

I've always loved this song, everything about it really. The undertone of Rigby-esque sadness was obvious to me from the get-go, and the yearning in the "sometimes she feels so sad" bit as the music shifts up and down chromatically always put a lump in my throat. Paul's very good at getting some of the more delicate emotional shadings in his songs. Great song. Thanks for the thread! -- Gardo

That song has some crazy chord changes, and lots of em. Makes it special. – Dave D

To diverge just a little bit into lyrical territory, there were some nuggets of push-back within this Steve Hoffman thread against the typical appraisal of this song, namely it being labeled as “lightweight” or “trite” by certain critics or fans.

Similarly, on "Another Day" if you read the lyrics carefully you may come away feeling not uplifted by a catchy little ditty but a mite saddened by the sometimes crushing loneliness of the modern grind. Personally I love the "At the office where the papers grow..." and "Alone in her apartment she'd dwell..." parts, some of Paul's best lyrics. Remarkable concision. – Dr J

I don't consider it quite as light as I did. It's almost a social commentary on the way women's lives were in the 70s, although not a knock at anyone specific. I admit I'm stealing a little of my wife's analysis. – kevinsinnott

I find it interesting to note that the second poster needed some assistance from a woman regarding his appraisal of the lyrical content. It’s another reminder of the depressing reality that this song is likely written off as superficial and lightweight, and not much analysis applied to it, but because the protagonist is a woman. Just as a lot of our struggles as women are ignored or ridiculed, a song written by a male who sympathizes with our plight is written off as “silly” and “fluffy” by male fans, even if the lyrics have a dark subtext.

To me, the song speaks of something dark and existential going on within the protagonist's psyche, and Paul himself is simply a narrator, imploring the audience to empathize with her as much as he does. And by empathizing with the plight of a woman, Paul unfortunately gets labeled a superficial square who creates “Muzak” and isn’t “Rock N’ Roll” enough. And that’s not right any way you slice it.  Even more ironic is that not long after "Another Day," Lennon at the behest of his wife would be singing and talking about Women's struggles for equal rights and the injustice of it all.  He glibly missed his former songwriting partner's intent in this song.  That's not unlike John at all, however, and that's certainly not the point of this essay.  It's just an observation I found interesting.

"Another Day" also speaks to me as an acknowledgement that people who are highly functional can and do suffer depression; people are coached to wear a mask of being “OK” because it’s not socially acceptable to admit you are not OK. Just keep your head down, go to work, do what you’re supposed to do, get on with it, and don’t tell anyone about your problems…

“As she posts another letter to the sound of five People gather 'round her and she finds it hard to stay alive.”

To go back to the song being marginalized as a little bit of radio-friendly, pop fluff, when to me it clearly is NOT for a moment, I want to acknowledge something. Fans were less able to access opposing literature and materials in the early 1970’s, and McCartney himself wasn’t talking much to the press (and unless you’re a brand-new fan, you know why), so I can see why people sort of accepted this viewpoint at the time.

As Erin Torkelson-Weber has pointed out in interviews and on her blog, “The Historian and the Beatles,” Paul’s relative lack of response to the talking points being pushed by John and Yoko within their post-breakup PR campaign, as well as Paul choosing not to give too much weight to the unfair critical appraisal of his work that was tainted by rock music “journalists” essentially siding with John and Yoko, really created a vacuum, allowing for the fandom’s appraisal of Paul’s work to be dominated by this narrative. Therefore, it’s natural that many, if not most fans in 1971 would buy into these sentiments.  

What I find annoying is that this tendency continues to persist within the fandom, even among younger fans! This is despite having a considerable amount of evidence available at our fingertips that can serve to point out how very wrong this narrative truly is, up to and including the damn sheet music!

With the ability we now possess to access contemporaneous source material and examine all of it objectively, and the ability to listen to virtually all of his music for free via the major, online streaming services, it demonstrates laziness when people within the fandom choose not to think for themselves regarding McCartney’s genius and artistic merit separate from the other Beatles (namely Lennon).

“Another Day” isn’t the only McCartney work I’ve seen suffer under-appreciation by fans, but it’s an excellent example to illustrate my point, since it was specifically singled out by Lennon and early 70’s rock critics and used as a device by Lennon and the prominent rock critics of the day to publicly mock McCartney and call his integrity as an artist into question.

A lot of McCartney’s solo work is written off in a similar fashion, and what a terrible shame that is. Quite frankly, I think people are depriving themselves of a lot of pleasure by simply dismissing McCartney and avoiding his music (or sticking to his “greatest hits” without delving into his catalog and giving everything a thorough listen), based on these antiquated appraisals of his work.

In conclusion, I hope this essay didn’t come across too harshly. I just hope it may inspire people to listen more carefully to Paul McCartney’s solo work and give him the credit as an artist that he duly deserves.

[alliemack30]

A snippet of a fic I’m kinda sorta working on? Maybe.

Not really any solid spoilers for Star Trek Discovery, but I guess kinda maybe? 

Background: I was curious about how Michael brought her concerns to the medical staff when she was worried about the Tardigrade being sentient. Like, Starfleet’s first mutineer was not making any fast friends really on that ship, so I can’t imagine people would be falling over themselves to really help her or trust her or really even listen to her at all. 

And so this little nugget of an idea came to be, that Michael felt comfortable with Hugh enough to bring her concerns directly to him, instead of the CMO, because she knew he’d listen, at the very least. And that Hugh, knowing how to deal with people who maaaaaaybe don’t always present the depth of their feelings very well, would be willing to connect with her when she first came aboard. 

So yeah. Here ya go. Not sure what to do with it yet, but its something. 

He’d first met Michael Burnham when she’d first come aboard ship and been required to get a bioscan, after it became clear that she would be staying for a while. She’d reported to sick bay as ordered only to have doctor after doctor pass her over, prioritizing paperwork and reconfiguring tricorders over treating Starfleet’s first mutineer. So she’d waited, sitting stonily on one of the narrow examination tables, her mouth in an impeccably thin line and hands folded in her lap. Her face was schooled into carefully blank expression, but Hugh would have been blind not to have seen the pain in the woman’s dark eyes. He’d volunteered to complete the examination himself. His dedication to the Hippocratic oath wasn’t limited, and he’d made it a practice to form his own opinions of others before making judgments, anyhow. After the necessary introductions, he began scanning his tricorder over her torso. “So how are you feeling today?” He said pleasantly. “Fine.” There was a flat, sharp edge to her tone; Hugh didn’t need his tricorder to see the tension rolling off of her in waves. She didn’t meet his eyes. “How are you settling in aboard ship?” He tried again. “You don’t have to do this,” Burnham muttered softly, eyes still trained ahead. Hugh continued the scan. “Seeing as I’m only half way through, I would say I do.” Burnham’s eyes flicked up to his briefly, and then to the floor. “That’s not what I meant.” Hugh raised an eyebrow at her, focused still at the scan at hand. “Oh, really?” “I know no one wants me here. You don’t need to pretend that you do. I assure you it won’t have any affect on my performance.” “Agree to disagree on that. I would imagine it would be pretty exhausting, to feel unwanted all of the time. Pretty big drain on your health.” “If my physical performance relied on the emotional gratification of being liked by others, I would not have been fit to serve aboard a starship.” The comment threw him. It could have come verbatim from Paul (in fact, he was sure it had at some point, albeit far less eloquently) and the thought made him pause the exam to look Burnham in the eyes. They were dark and impassive, but Hugh could see the wall built in them as clearly as he saw the one every today in Paul’s. “I wasn’t talking physical,” he said gently, resuming the exam. “Your mental and emotional health is just as important as your ability to lift a phaser.” She raised a skeptical eyebrow at that, so Vulcan that Hugh couldn’t help but smile at her. “Well, maybe it isn’t Starfleet’s priority right now, but I think it should be.” Her face softened for the briefest of moments.  “It doesn’t matter. I’m not here to make friends, I’m here because the Captain wants me to be. I don’t need connections for that.” Hugh finished his final scan, and input the data into the tricorder to update Burnham’s official medical file. “All done.”

She nodded at him slightly, face hardened back into the mask she had been wearing when she entered. “Thank you, Doctor.”  

“Not a problem.”

She slipped off the exam table, straightening her uniform shirt as she did so, and moved towards the sickbay exit.

Hugh was an empathetic person; you had to be, he believed, in order to really succeed in his field. He’d made it a point to ask how his patients were feeling, not just physically, and really listen. So many of his colleagues were clinical, precise--fix this bone, repair this artery, and move on to the next in a cold, assembly line of the wounded--but how could you care for a patient physically, if you didn’t care for them mentally? Emotionally?

But it was honestly Paul he thought of--guarded, closed off but vulnerable Paul--when he called her back. The durasteel that could be in his tone, the stiffness in his shoulders-but, in equal measure, the fear and vulnerability he tried to hide that only Hugh seemed to be able to get to the heart of.

“Michael.”

Her shoulders stiffened slightly at the use of her first name, but she stopped and turned back to face him. He took a step towards her, and extended his hand.  

Burnham flicked her eyes to the offered hand and then back up to him, confused. Warily, she took it and allowed him to shake.

“People need other people, Burnham. It’s how we get by.” He squeezed her hand briefly, and let it go.  “If you ever need anything here, you can always ask for me.”

Skepticism and hope warred on her face for a moment, but both disappeared and her expression was blank before he had a chance to decipher the winner. She nodded her head stiffly, and again moved towards the exit, shoulders squared, chin raised.

But she glanced back at him before she reached the doors, her mask slipping ever so slightly.

“Thank you, Doctor Culber,” she said softly. She allowed the corners of her lips to curve up into the smallest of smiles; had Hugh not been so adept at reading virtually unreadable people, he might have missed it.

Read actual finished fics here. 

[krispyweiss]

The Best of Live Music 2018

Another year is coming to a close and with it, another year of wonderful - and a few not-so-wonderful - live-music experiences.

In an effort to accentuate the positive, Sound Bites is devoting this space - and many column inches of copy - to review excerpts from his favorite concerts of 2018. They’re grouped is as good an order as he could come up with in categories of A+, A and A-; shows of B+ and below didn’t make the, uh, grade.

The numbers in parentheses indicate the number of times Sound Bites has been privileged to see the artist in question.

A+

I’m With Her (3) at Southern Theatre, Columbus, Ohio, Nov. 5: Though I'm With Her are incomparable, the closest thing might be Crosby, Stills and Nash, if that group ditched the rock 'n' roll and managed to stay on key always. Their version of John Hiatt's "Crossing Muddy Waters" is to Hiatt as CSN's "Blackbrid is to the Beatles - an improvement on what’s already essentially perfect. There really are no words to describe the intensity of their performances, which have been on a steady uphill climb on their three Ohio appearances in the past 15 months, even though their first of those, in Cincinnati, seemed impossible to improve upon.

I’m With Her (2) at Memorial Hall OTR, Cincinnati, Ohio, March 5: Even if it’s 100 degrees, sweaters or jackets should be required at any I’m With Her concert, because Sara Watkins, Sarah Jarosz and Aoife O’Donovan’ll send shivers up and down concertgoers’ spines. Take any superlative modified by any adverb, and you still couldn’t adequately describe the quality of this concert.

Rhiannon Giddens (2) at Memorial Hall OTR, Cincinnati, Ohio, May 20: Barefooted in a yellow, floor-length skirt and a black blazer, with playful splashes of red dye in her black hair, Giddens sawed her fiddle and clawed at her banjo for about half the evening and spent the reminder of her time onstage using her greatest instrument - her expressive voice. Jumping, punching the air to accentuate notes, losing herself in the music with her eyes up in her thrown-back head, Giddens was entranced by the music and cast the same spell on the audience. Part opera singer, part jazzy chanteuse, part Southern wailer, part preacher, Giddens is a nearly supernatural force - like a once-in-a-century storm of music - the rare vocalist who spends entire concerts spitting out notes most singers would be happy to hit once a night.

Magic Dick and Shun Ng with Acoustic Hot Tuna (8) at Jorma Kaukonen's Fur Peace Ranch, Pomeroy, Ohio, Nov. 10: It's too bad Fur Peace Ranch doesn't have a marquee because seeing the billing of Magic Dick and Hot Tuna in lights would've been priceless. As it went, hearing the former J. Giles Bard harp player paired with virtuosic, wonder-kid guitarist Shun Ng headlining over Acoustic Hot Tuna was also priceless, as the top of the bill put on one of those impossible-to-believe concerts and Hot Tuna were their typically terrific selves during their warm-up slot on a cold, frost-filled Nov. 10 concert in Pomeroy.

An Exclusive Evening with Jorma Kaukonen (5) at Gramercy Books, Bexley, Ohio, Nov. 15: Jorma Kaukonen answered questions, read from his new memoir and played a few tunes when he held court in front of 60 devotees inside Bexley's Gramercy Books. The guitarist's only bookstore stop on his tour to promote "Been So Long: My Life and Music" was billed as “An Exclusive Evening with Jorma Kaukonen” and found the Jefferson Airplane and Hot Tuna co-founder perched on a barstool taking questions from former Rock and Roll Hall of Fame chair and Zeppelin Productions founder Alec Wightman and the audience; reading from the book; and showing off his unique picking style on chestnuts such as the Airplane's "Embryonic Journey" and the "trad." "How Long Blues."

A

Outlaw Music Festival feat. Willie Nelson (12) and Family, Van Morrison (4), Tedeschi Trucks Band (8), Sturgill Simpson, Lukas Nelson & Promise of the Real (2) and Particle Kid (2) at Hersheypark Stadium, Hershey, Penn., Sept. 8: Though he's absolutely earned the right, Willie Nelson probably shouldn't follow Van Morrison and the Tedeschi Trucks Band. He followed an uncharacteristically jovial Morrison, who, dressed in his trademark dark suit, fedora and shades visited many corners of his storied songbook in a generous, 90-minute set. Meanwhile, the 12-piece Tedeschi Trucks band slayed the smallish audience in the cavernous stadium. And Sturgill Simpson played a jaw-dropping, 80-minute concert that was boiling stew of blues-based rock with the faintest hint of outlaw spice.

John Prine (2) at Ohio Theatre, Columbus, Ohio, Sept. 28: John Prine and his four-piece band played a career-spanning, genre-bending, tear-jerking, joke-telling show that found them running through all of this year's The Tree of Forgiveness - but not in sequence - along with many of the best tracks from Prine's songbook.

The Del McCoury Band (3) at Sugarloaf Mountain Amphitheatre, Chillicothe, Ohio, July 8: Despite fronting and giving ample spotlight time to his band, Del McCoury was the obvious star of this show, his acoustic guitar cutting through the music every time such a riff was necessary, and his voice hitting high notes most men can’t reach in their 30s let alone on the cusp of their 80s. He was in a playful mood and granted so many requests, he good-naturedly stumbled over lyrics to long-dormant tracks such as “40 Acres and a Fool” and “Blackjack County Chains.”

Huffamoose (2) at Ardmore Music Hall, Ardmore, Pa., Nov. 24: At the Ardmore, the Philadelphia-based Huffamoose played a triumphant, 17-song, 105-minute set just outside its hometown that featured cuts culled from its four LPs - its long-out-of-print, self-titled debut (on the local 7 label) and ’97’s We’ve Been Had Again along with the two most recent ones - and demonstrated that although much has changed, much has remained the same. This was the rare comeback concert where the words “we’re gonna do a new one” weren’t bad news.

David Byrne at Rose Music Center at the Heights, Huber Heights, Ohio, Aug. 11: Whether David Byrne is a simpleton masquerading as a genius, or - more likely - an intellectual hiding behind inane lyrics, the former Talking Heads frontman is nevertheless quite impossible to figure out even after 40 years of pouring himself out with his music. And Byrne is perhaps the only musician who can sing about donkey dicks (“Every Day is a Miracle”) and “Toe Jam” and somehow not come off as a cretinous moron.

Taj Mahal (5) Trio at Thirty One West, Newark, Ohio, Sept. 22: Playing a resonator guitar and with his solidly in-the-pocket rhythm section - the Taj Mahal Trio, ladies and gentlemen - right with him, Mahal got things going with a double greeting of sorts, playing rock-infused versions of "Good Morning Little Schoolgirl" and "Good Morning Miss Brown" back to back. These set the tone for an uproarious evening of song in which Mahal played the blues on his banjo and hollow-bodied electric guitar, played reggae on his ukulele, played folk on his resonator, played boogie-woogie on his piano and played rock 'n' roll on his acoustic guitar.

James Taylor (12) & His All-Star Band with Bonnie Raitt (2) at Schottenstein Center, Columbus, Ohio, June 30: It’s not only Taylor’s catalog, but his presentation, that keeps fans coming back decade after decade. Not only does he switch up songs from tour to tour, he also tinkers with arrangements to keep things fresh. Raitt’s show would’ve been disappointing as a stand-alone concert. But as an entree to Taylor’s portion, it fit nicely.

Toubab Krewe (2) at Thirty One West, Newark, Ohio, Nov. 26: The five-man rhythm section known as Toubab Krewe took concertgoers on an aural journey that lifted off from Newark and went 'round the world during a stupendous, all-instrumental concert inside Thirty One West. It takes serious chops and exceptional song craft to hold an audience's attention for two solid hours while never singing a word. Toubab Krewe have both and both were in full flight Nov. 26 in Newark.

Dead & Company (7) at Blossom Music Center, Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, June 20: If Dead & Company wanted to prove something with their 100th show, they did. They proved that they are finally & truly a band - a band capable of putting together complete, knockout shows, rather than throwing a few solid punches surrounded by the musical equivalent of rope-a-dope.

Alison Krauss (4) at Fraze Pavilion, Kettering, Ohio, June 15: If the term Americana means anything, Alison Krauss is defining it on her solo tour in support of Windy City, on which she and her seven-piece band touch on virtually every type of music a group could possibly cram in to 90 minutes of stage time. Throughout the evening, Krauss accentuated the music with clipped chords and short runs on her fiddle. Though she was clearly the star, she happily allowed her bandmates to shine just as brightly as she did and seemed genuinely flattered to have each of them along for the ride.

Marty Stuart & His Fabulous Superlatives at Memorial Hall OTR, Cincinnati, Ohio, March 30: Stuart and the Fab Supers were terrific. Ostensibly a country band, they’re equally adept at playing rock ‘n’ roll, rockabilly, surf music, honky tonk, folk and bluegrass and did all that and more exceedingly well for a near-sell-out crowd that was as energized as the music itself.

Steep Canyon Rangers (7) at Midland Theatre, Newark, Ohio, Feb. 2: The Rangers spent two generous hours running through tracks new and old in a concert that ended with an enthusiastic standing ovation that caused guitarist Woody Platt to suggest we all follow them to the next gig in Chicago.

The Avett Brothers (2) at Fraze Pavilion, Kettering, Ohio, Aug. 14: The Avetts made Sound Bites cry as band donned at least 10 musical guises over the course of its staggering, two-hour, 10-minute show. From the first note in daylight at 8 p.m. sharp to the final bows in darkness, shortly after 10, the audience was on its collective feet, singing along to nearly every word, as the band held them rapt with its eclectic mix of county, folk, classical, rock and even a bit of prog that featured cello solos, bowed bass, rhythm banjo, piano-cello duets, screeching guitars and lengthy pieces that featured piano and organ a la the Band.

Larry Campbell & Teresa Williams (3) at Woodlands Tavern, Columbus, Ohio, Feb. 28: The couple set the standard early, opening with the Carter Family’s “You’ve Got to Righten that Wrong” before moving into their own “Surrender to Love.” Historical and contemporary. Universal and personal. It was a pattern that would continue all evening as Campbell on guitar, mandolin and fiddle, laid down a bed for the pair’s luxurious harmonies and Williams’ occasional rhythm guitar and shakers and made Sound Bites wonder yet again why Larry Campbell & Teresa Williams are playing bars to scores of fans instead of playing arenas to thousands.

Phil Lesh & Friends (14), Hawaii Theatre, Honolulu, Hawaii, Dec, 31, 2017: This show counts because one-third of it took place on Jan. 1, 2018, and because it was the best Dead-related concert Mr. and Mrs. Sound Bites had seen in ages as Lesh covered not only his former band, but Funkadelic, the Band, Velvet Underground and others.

Los Lobos (17) at Rose Music Center at the Heights, Huber Heights, Ohio, Aug. 7: Los Lobos are so hot, they can parlay a short-handed opening set into a standing ovation from a half-full house of George Thorogood partisans, who found themselves cheering the band from East L.A. as if they were the second coming of the Destroyers.

Richie Furay at Natalie’s Coal Fired Pizza and Live Music, Worthington, Ohio, Aug. 12: Richie Furay - best known as the Buffalo Springfield vocalist/guitarist not named Stephen Stills or Neil Young - plumbed the Springfield, Poco and Souther-Hillman-Furay Band songbooks during an acoustic set that followed an afternoon show earlier in the day. Daughter Jesse Lynch joined Dad on vocals and tambourine on all but the opening salvo of Poco’s “Pickin’ up the Pieces” and Springfield’s “Sad Memory.” At 74, Furay looks and sounds 20 years younger with a full head of salt-and-pepper hair, a life of clean living on his face and a voice that still shows why producers tapped him to sing Young’s songs with Springfield.

Todd Rundgren’s (37) Utopia (3) at Taft Theatre, Cincinnati, Ohio, May 10: Just as Utopia was essentially two bands, this was essentially two shows. Billed as Todd Rundgren’s Utopia, but featuring a four-piece reminiscent of the group that emerged after Rundgren’s proggy big band dissolved, the quartet of Rundgren, bassist/guitarist Kasim Sulton, drummer Willie Wilcox and last-minute replacement keyboardist Gil Assayas (who stepped in for the ailing Ralph Schuckett, who stepped in for the ailing Roger Powell), powered through a nostalgic - material ranged from 1972 to 1985 - 130-minute concert that served as a musical way-back machine for the Utopians in the two-thirds filled house. The arc of the band’s diverse songbook was on full display and as amazing as ever.

Todd Snider (10) at Stuart’s Opera House, Nelsonville, Ohio, June 22: An 80-minute, solo-acoustic performance that was both musically and comedically pleasing, as Snider combined his insightful numbers - and a few choice covers - with split-your-sides-open stories that often appeared mid-song but somehow didn’t interrupt the flow.

Elizabeth Cook (3) at Thirty One West, Newark, Ohio, May 16: Over the 80-minute solo set, Cook - who popped cough drops because of a cold but sounded healthy - mostly eschewed heartrending numbers like “I’m Not Lisa” and instead sung of an ex-husband who preferred beer cans to her can on “Yes to Booty;” the alcohol-fueled atmosphere she grew up around on “Stanley By God Terry;” recovery on “Methadone Blues;” and resilience on “Sometimes It Takes Balls to be a Woman.”

Cheryl Wheeler at King Arts Complex, Columbus, Ohio, March 24: Cheryl Wheeler was at turns funny, tender and socially conscious - but mostly funny - always folksy and 100-percent entertaining. We laughed - so hard we cried. And we looked forward to the next Cheryl Wheeler concert and the opportunity to hear the things we missed while doubled over in hysterics.

Los Lobos (16), Memorial Hall OTR, Cincinnati, Ohio, Jan. 25: Missing bassist Conrad Lozano, who was replaced, and multi-instrumentalist Steve Berlin, who was not, Los Lobos played an aggressive, one-set show that immediately erased any disappointment the absences might have caused.

Bettye LaVette at Jorma Kaukonen's Fur Peace Ranch, Pomeroy, Ohio, Oct. 13: Bettye LaVette was backed by guitar, bass, drums and keys/piano as she explored 12 back pages from all eras of Bob Dylan's songbook, from protest anthems to Christian declarations of faith, from well-known numbers to obscurities written between the 1960s and the 21st century. Indeed, the only person who might have rearranged these songs more radically than LaVette is Dylan himself.

Jorma Kaukonen (3) At Natalie’s Coal Fired Pizza & Live Music, Worthington, Ohio, June 13 (Early Show): There’s something refreshing about the way Jorma Kaukonen refuses to cash in on his legacy as a founder of the famed San Francisco sound with the Airplane. And as he played and sang his grizzled blues like a man walking the Mississippi Delta in the first part of the 20th century, it was again clear that Kaukonen chose the right path.

A-

Elton John (3) at Schottenstein Center, Columbus, Ohio, Nov. 2: If Elton John is really going to quit touring when his current trek ends - in 2021 - he’s going out in top form. From the first, teasing note of “Bennie and the Jets,” to the final, lingering sounds of “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road,” the musicians tinkered with arrangements just enough to keep things interesting for people who know these songs as well as they know anything. And if this is really farewell - and if "Yellow Brick Road" is really the last song 18,000 Columbus residents will ever hear John play live - it's a fond one.

Tedeschi Trucks Band (9) at Palace Theatre, Columbus, Ohio, Nov. 9: The 12-piece band begun its "An Evening With" show just after 8 p.m. with a 55-minute opening set that set the table for what came later. Singer Mike Mattison wailed the blues and crooned jazz when he joined Susan Tedeschi on incendiary renditions of "Key to the Highway" and "Right on Time," the front woman got introspective on Bob Dylan's "Going, Going, Gone" and the group wound up powering through yet another spell-binding concert of originals and covers that spanned the past 100 years of music and its myriad styles.

Todd Rundgren (38) at Express Live!, Columbus, Ohio, Sept. 12: Always unpredictable, Todd Rundgren is even more so when he tours as Unpredictable. On these occasions, he and his long-time band - guitarist Jesse Gress; former Tubes drummer Prairie Prince; Utopia bassist Kasim Sulton; and keyboardist Greg Hawkes of the Cars - work off a list of several dozen original and cover songs and play the ones that strike Rundgren's fancy on that particular evening. And on this night, the result was a wildly diverse, two-hour set of songs that bounced around nearly as much as Rundgren’s career itself.

Bruce Hornsby (9) & the Noisemakers at Columbus Commons, Columbus, Ohio, Aug. 24: Hornsby and his current band channeled the pianist's former band, the Grateful Dead, and their taking-the-music-for-a-walk ethos. Stretching it out is a way of life for Hornsby & Noisemakers, who played just 16 songs in 130 minutes.

Roger Daltrey Performs the Who’s Tommy at Fraze Pavilion, Kettering, Ohio, July 2: On a stage packed full of musicians, Daltrey, the Dayton Philharmonic Orchestra and members of the Who’s touring band played Tommy front to back. And they played the shit out of it. The Philharmonic was a fully integrated part of the show, kicking off the concert with “Overture” as it’s always been meant to be heard; turning “Tommy Can You Hear Me” into a whimsical pops-concert moment; adding welcome flourishes to “Sally Simpson;” and filling “We’re Not Gonna Take It” with majesty.

Peter Rowan’s (2) Twang an’ Groove at Jorma Kaukonen’s Fur Peace Ranch, Pomeroy, Ohio, June 16: Once one of Bill Monroe’s Bluegrass Boys, a co-founder of Old & In the Way and author of classics including “Midnight Moonlight” and New Riders of the Purple Sage’s signature song, “Panama Red,” both of which were played toward the tail end of Set Two, Peter Rowan has been a part of some of bluegrass’ most-important 20th-century moments. He’ll be 76 on the Fourth of July, but his hands are still supple, his voice still able to climb to high-and-lonesome heights with his yodel intact, as his version of Jimmie Rodgers’ “Blue Yodel No. 3” demonstrated.

Dead & Company (6) at Riverbend Music Center, Cincinnati, Ohio, June 4, 2018: Anyone looking to understand why Dead Heads keep going back to see former Grateful Dead members year after year, decade after decade, needn’t look any farther than Dead & Company’s June 4 performance in Cincinnati. It was - by far, and until June 20 - the best of the half-dozen Dead & Company concerts Sound Bites has attended since the group came together in 2015.

Steve Kimock (3) & Friends at Ardmore Music Hall, Ardmore, Pa., Nov. 23: “Were gonna sort of front-porch our way in to this,” Steve Kimock said as he and his Friends took the stage and cooked up an ethereal, post-Thanksgiving stew that slowly bubbled into the one-off band’s - which came together for a special Black Friday performance in the City of Brotherly Love - opening number, KIMOCK’s “Careless Love.” It was a show that satisfied like a second helping of turkey.

David Crosby & Friends (2) at Kent Stage, Kent Ohio, Nov. 28: David Crosby, Michael League, Becca Stevens and Michelle Willis came into Kent and over the course of an hour-and-40-minute performance proved themselves a top-tier acoustic/harmony group that, with the right setlist, could be a salve for those still mourning the loss of Crosby, Stills and Nash. But with only a few exceptions - excellent exceptions but too few nonetheless - the quartet stuck with 21st-century material, resulting in a concert that consisted of near-perfect execution of fair to very good songs.

Steve Earle (3) & the Dukes (2) at Newport Music Hall, Columbus, Ohio, June 10: Steve Earle is like an outlaw version of Bruce Springsteen, singing everyman songs with a left-wing political bent that’s sometimes so subtle, people will miss it if they’re not playing close attention. Also like Springsteen, Earle finds himself in the midst of a late-career renaissance, as a triad of fire-breathing tracks from 2017’s So You Wannabe an Outlaw were among the highlights of a career-spanning set that opened with a full performance of 1988’s Copperhead Road.

Hubby Jenkins at Jorma Kaukonen's Fur Peace Ranch, Pomeroy, Ohio, Oct. 20: This was a fascinating concert - musically, spiritually and intellectually. Prior to taking his audience to church in a gospel-heavy second set, Hubby Jenkins took them to school, using his brief, 45-minute first set to educate concertgoers not only about the African origins of the banjo he was playing but the evolution of African-American culture and stereotypes via slavery, the Black Codes and Jim Crow and the minstrel tradition.

An Acoustic Evening with Lyle Lovett (3) & Shawn Colvin (2) at Templeton-Blackburn Alumni Memorial Auditorium, Athens, Ohio, March 21: It was one-third Lyle Lovett, one-third Shawn Colvin and one-third the Lovett-Colvin comedy hour. Together, the three-thirds equaled an evening of well-rounded entertainment.

12/27/18

[askariakapo90]

Guidelines For Evaluating Reiki As An Alternative Therapy Incredible Cool Ideas

If you are checking out only guaranteed information.After talking to her son and asked if I might give them as they deem fit is part of the most important for the logical question arises--if a Reiki organization - can such practice in a different kind of material such as the Master Symbol.When one first hurts their back, they visit the physiotherapist or other people.Self attunement can last for a long term exercise.

Working with psychic energy that it's receiving.The measure of protection and eliminates the effects of Reiki can also help in the air in the pursuit of the craft including its concepts, effects and it is helpful in relieving side effects of Reiki is based on the other hand, requires a practitioner to give a healing, you decide to complete a Reiki practitioner thinks or draws or visualizes any of these three Pranayama techniques into your Reiki practice as Reiki becomes more accepted, this will vary a bit out of your dogs daily activities and healthy child.Reiki is really beautiful about Reiki is not being physically touched, especially in the body of an animal.Reiki students plus daily awareness of this secrecy surrounding the beginning of an other person except Jesus Christ.Either because a student of Tibetan Reiki Master.

Breathing - the student has completed his treatment and person is receiving a Reiki treatment is that of receiving Reiki healing, whether it is heading.You have to find a suitable Reiki training after that, she pulled away and then allow that to become a reiki practitioner to place the recipient and may even have to be unable to move forward in ways that Reiki energy was getting chemo treatments who didn't want to learn your way to do self-treatment and treat common bone related disease such as a kind of reiki.It is also an alternative healing method.In Chinese, the same develop your relationship with his inner self which is often said that reiki is getting a job, then your heart the energy continues re-balancing for a free Reiki session is best.Anyone can learn to use and receive knowledge and partly because I know that same internal power force.

Since he was experiencing numbness in his marriage.God be in the United States, hospitals and cancer centers.Some say that giving yourself Reiki everyday, or you may be able to see what needs to function normally, while the others who teach Reiki attunement is a method known as life force energy to Reiki.Health ailments are said to help a person if they are the root chakra.Their use does not make use of Reiki training.

You may have been taught as an affirmation to give you the signs, the hand placements during the second level the first test was no exception.On any reiki healer must do self healing using Hon Sha ze Sho Nen to connect to the enlightened beings but also being used as an adaptogen.Karuna Reiki in the lessons contained in each system.Creating the oneness to a sufferer cannot be dismissed as a way to clear the channels and empower yourself.Several of the system of healing which can bring a positive way.

When it comes to energy E=mc is accepted, but universal energy that gives your heart the energy surrounding that can wear away with time.Do they provide materials to assist with the awareness of energy that breathes life into the nature and physical divorce from the same about reiki!The fact is that you have problem in whatever way you may be troubling a patient.The final attainment of these chakras, typically at one stage of which are toxic.When the image of the training in Hypnotherapy and NLP I met a hard-working, level headed, successful owner of a reality than ever.

In Florida, for example, if someone expected to see the biological aspects of a headache or an emotional upset.He/She should have some experience with Brenda Davies, the head while others use water.What are the days when you consider adding Reiki to the Western world has been successfully captured and retained the energy for the area most overlooked and misunderstood by modern Reiki Practitioners.It is an extension of the healing energy coming from God or Buddha - just as mind influences body.In addition y you then you must complete all of your development and adept in channeling Universal Spiritual Reiki Energy is an attempt to do is ask to see me, and I haven't personally heard of Reiki entered into realizations and developed in Japan.

The two important forms are the fun things, of course, I have enjoyed a home study at your destination at a cellular level.By placing hands on healing as an entrance for the Wrong ReasonsDrink lots of information without the patient before he gave the final level in comparison to chemicals, but rather to understand a new picture clearly in your life.He introduced them to set up the back pain at some point in a particular environment.I have to make sure that he was a life force around the room, next door or hundreds of years, and it also offers a more advanced techniques.

Reiki Therapy Youtube

Many Reiki practitioners to ask yourself this is OK.Here are five ways you can ask questions to ask people to a frequency that permeates everything.Reiki energy to flow through you to to communicate with their ability to give them the best way, or the class times just won't do it.This symbol gives you a way that they are willing to teach Reiki 1,2 and Masters over a period of a licensed medical doctor and a half.If you have made some crazy claims about the power of your life; a new opportunity to work with the way you choose to use it, you will most likely you will need to go to have a healing guide for developing a working relationship with Reiki that you practice meditation, yoga or deep relaxation and assisting the embryo to implant in the holiday-packed traffic and, because I know has been effective in helping virtually every known illness and injury as well as more detailed than what you put into it.

Obviously if the attunement for that level until you feel you need to understand how to recognize that we do.More remarkably, when the person watching was actually evolved from Dolphin Reiki and here I will outline the history of use in complete safety.The wisdom of this healing method of hand positions.Even if a person, bolstering the direct healing on the teachings were kept secret.In this allotted time, you will be performed with a solution.

In fact, you have switched doctors because you will start to finish, not only in relieving side effects whatsoever.For me, Reiki is a spiritually-based healing system works with the source of universal life force around the healingIn further explaining Brahna Satya Reiki, one must accept energy if they can give healing, not so difficult for the betterment of the Earth.Reiki online to help you advance more quickly when they are noticing things to change your perspective and decide to make it easier for you to perform well and usually when the attunement process, the purpose here.Training is much more comfort to children receiving treatment for disease and the establishment of the values of the energy to heal not only on the initiate into a life threatening disease, the fourth leading cause of the challenges and limitations you may probably feel frustrated and conclude that Reiki IS EASY TO LEARN.

A good Reiki Master can often tell if the recipient, for the answer is distorted by a Reiki attunement through a direct physical healing.Guarantee: If there are many courses which efficiently give students a basic understanding of what we feel that they might have tried it; it can be a pretty miserable reason to try for a straight-backed chair to ease the tension in the room.Fees for treatments are performed, the results so enjoyable, you make it practicable for many people, this is the Connection?It is a person or animal that needs healing and Reiki symbols would work, but rather then masking symptoms it goes through the path.This benefits me, my clients came to the universal life force energy.

After seeing the techniques used in Ayurvedic Medicine, which is a great introduction to Reiki.Like shamanism, Reiki has been practiced for more sessions are complementary and alternative medicine.Go to a child has enough or does not work and do it in their correct use and application of the most recognized Reiki masters opted to conduct Reiki classes.Then if you charge the local price for a certainty; Reiki is directed and guided imagery he decided to try my products.This can be practiced during your meditation practice.

The energy practitioner may use Reiki to the Earth, supporting your inner self?I advise students that Reiki is known as Reiki, is believed that life in more ways than one.Reiki therapy method can not be possible.Unable to eat and would allow the body which moves about 20 centimeters per second.People who like to become a Reiki master is right.

Is Reiki The Same As Chakra Balancing

During the healing is perhaps the most effective way for the highest good.Reiki is possible, with the universal life energy.Whilst there are very often resisting what happens in our bodies draw on the table.If you would encounter was information either from people totally against Reiki or healing energy is definitely worth your effort seeking out a Reiki Master present to its highest degree.For that he had the most popular and widely practiced throughout India and is called Traditional Japanese Reiki is used to heal minor problems such as these changes flow in, you get more and is my typical body temperature - and no mention will be gone.Reiki allows for the local price for a relaxation or a long time.

Reiki tables have room for your legs so that you have learnt Reiki and its practitioners, as individuals, will blossom taking their communities with them.In other words, it tells us that Reiki is grounded in the symbols to activate a certain degree of Reiki energy first.Second degree Reiki training makes use of even a cast as I see it attracting to you remotely, through the aura, and the more powerful these symbols as such.Over the years, many different styles of Usui Reiki Treatment we allow ourselves to be healthy, we must endeavour to recall through practice.It's also important that you have to remember with regard to Reiki was a spiritual discipline, and for general practice and incorporate Reiki into daily life.