#I also have a bunch of classics and poetry but they already have a spot in another room

[queerbluefae]

My new shelves r so tall (& I am so smol) I need to use a step ladder just to reach the last couple shelves 😂😭

[dandelion-wings]

oho are you asking for rarest rarepairs? because i like my rare pairs raw (and apparently full of brats)

from vague canon evidence if you break your neck in the right way to whomst'd've the fuck and why, I got:

Venti/Hu Tao

Furina(post archon quest)/Hu Tao

Rana/Jeht (though i think you've already talked about this one?)

Focalors/Venti

Focalors/Guizhong

Sorry to respond to this over a month later--all my spoons fell in the insinkerator about the time this ask came in, and I put it aside for when I had more energy and, uh, forgot about it. >>;; But I was delighted to find it again today!

Venti/Hu Tao

We all agree that Hu Tao 100% clocked Venti in last year's Lantern Rite event, right? And she's pulling the same "I'm going to pretend I don't know but I totally know" she does with Zhongli, right? Except Venti thinks it's fucking hilarious, and the "I know you know I know you know I know" we don't see during Waterborne Poetry was a fantastic game for them both.

And since we have Waterborne Poetry as an event, it would be fun to build it off that! It might take some massaging of specific timeline details because they just? sort of dropped several characters and the actual event? at the end, but I'm gonna be honest I didn't love the last few beats of that event anyway. It felt like it kind of puttered out disappointingly after a lot of initial promise, so I wouldn't mind the opportunity to rewrite some of that. Anyway, this would be a "behind the scenes" where Hu Tao and Venti continue to coordinate the actual event in the background while everyone else is doing the quests, being playful and teasing and occasionally deep and profound with each other (because they both do that exact vibe well), with a slow-burn growing interest that sort of kicks into higher gear when the rest of the group comes back and recounts the Finch/Callirhoe moment. Because, like, Hu Tao's not normal but she sure is mortal, and Venti knows how to enjoy fleeting pleasures and she is definitely not missing her shot, so- yeah. They go for it. XD

Furina/Hu Tao

Once again leveraging an event, I'd hang that off of their appearances in Chenyu Village in the latest Lantern Rite. Hu Tao (who thought Furina was both cute and fun to fluster in their first meeting there) ends up going to Fontaine to help with the spooky movie props mentioned in that conversation. She is essentially vacationing under the pretense of a "business trip," though she is indeed interested in Furina's play/movie and has a lot of suggestions to make, both helpful and otherwise; since she is stealing the chance at a vacation, though, she also makes Furina take her around to see the sights "as a token of our business partnership!" So they have some cute moments at all the good tourist spots, some cute interludes having tea together, and at least one deep and thoughtful conversation about mortality and the joys and sorrows thereof... and that eventually blooms into kissing in the back room of the theater.

Rana/Jeht

We have talked about this one, yes! Though I don't recall exactly what I said at the time, so I'll just answer as the meme prescribes: I would write this one using that bit about Jeht and her mercenary band accompanying a lost group of Akademiya scholars back to the jungle. Then they take a job there that puts them in proximity with Rana, either as a member of the group they're helping/escorting or hired separately as a local guide, and they go on a very classic jungle-adventure-with-budding-romance where traveling and fighting side-by-side forges bonds that turn into more. I like the idea of a bunch of side characters in the expedition who help with their development--I think Jeht could use a wise older woman who is as unlike Babel as possible, for one--and it's up in the air whether it ends with Rana joining Jeht's band, or Jeht (who does have so, so much trauma to process) deciding she needs to continue on alone for a while and them sharing a last kiss and promising to meet again some day. And then I say I'll write that reunion and don't actually touch it for six+ years.

Focalors/Venti

I absolutely could write any of these outside the constraints of canon, so much of my fic is AU, but I think this would be most interesting to me as in some kind of space between Focalors being designated Egeria's successor, and the separation into Furina-as-humansona and Focalors-in-the-Oratrice. Venti goes to visit the new Hydro Archon ostensibly to get to know one of the new ones; they have secret, quiet conversations about Celestia and the Thrones and what might make it possible to break one, and at what cost; and then it's not so much a romance here as, Focalors always did want to experience more than her divine self ever will get to, and, well- a bard is an expert at stirring passions, after all, and making a night's entertainment seem a grand and sweeping experience.

Focalors/Guizhong

TBH I don't know whether I missed a lot of Guizhong characterization in my years-ago rush through Liyue or if I'm just not good at putting together the threads we get from events, but she remains kind of a cipher to me? I have just enough of a mental picture of her to suffice for my Ping/Xianyun sadfic and that's about it. But given when Guizhong died vs. when Focalors ascended, while there could be material in itty baby Focalors meeting her (and in fact it could fit into the backstory of this), what I think I'd do is have it be separated by time: some mechanism Guizhong created is what Focalors comes across (or acquires in that itty baby-era meeting) that gives her the basis of the Oratrice, and the fic is her taking it apart, analyzing it, and rebuilding it to her purposes, learning what she can about Guizhong and her other works to help her with that analysis, and reflecting on this god she never, or barely, knew, who died in an effort to save her people. The romance is (obviously) one-sided and over centuries and is in many ways Focalors fantasizing about this idealized lover in order to drive her forward on her own, difficult, ultimately self-destructive mission. Though she is also, y'know, feasting on her own mental fanfic about the drama of it all. XD

[tillidontneedfantasy]

‘Fine Line’ - Harry Styles REVIEW: Finding His Balance

“When I played it for the label, I told them, ‘This is the first single. It’s two minutes, thirty-five. You’re welcome,’” Harry Styles recalls when discussing “Lights Up” in a track-by-track breakdown of his second solo studio effort, Fine Line, with Rolling Stone writer Rob Sheffield. Thank you, indeed. “Lights Up” was an excellent first single choice for a number of reasons, now all the more clear in the context of the album. Though oddly structured and not particularly radio-friendly, it’s interesting, catchy, short and to the point: as much as you try to hide who you are, once the lights are up, those watching will know, so you might as well shine; but do you know?

Just as importantly, does Harry? Fine Line is a vague exploration of the self, both personally and musically, filled with cryptic platitudes and slick guitar riffs. However, the one aspect of himself Styles seems to be most acquainted with, and thus most comfortable sharing, is the “dark running through” his heart that cannot be extinguished by all the lights; in fact, it is amplified. Perhaps Styles finds it difficult to be honest in his relationships, but Fine Line is sprinkled with dark confessions, most notably in a series in the middle of the album (immediately following “Lights Up”): “I can tell that you are at your best / I’m selfish so I’m hating it” in “Cherry,” a track of spewing bitter jealousy; “There’s no one to blame but the drink and my wandering hands” in “Falling,” a heart-wrenching ballad for the books; “I’m just an arrogant son of a bitch / who can’t admit when he’s sorry,” in the pleasant-sounding yet morose ditty “To Be So Lonely.”

Those confessionals are the strongest demonstrations of Styles’s songwriting potential, and are the meat and bones of Fine Line’s takeaway: losing someone you once loved can cause you to almost lose yourself. Hopefully, you find yourself along the road to healing; but Styles often leaves the listener wondering if he really does know who he is now or not. What we do know is two things: 1) The end of his last relationship caused a lot of pain and introspection and 2) The man likes to have sex. Understandable points. Good equation for a successful album.

BEST TRACK: “Fine Line”

The title track and closer, “Fine Line” immediately invokes emotion as soon as it begins, and it only intensifies throughout its six-minute and eighteen-second duration. As the song moves along, new elements are subtly and meticulously added, layered in with his low and almost careful singing in a way that sounds like nature. Around four minutes in, the song really starts to come alive, the instrumentation building and building towards an outro that reaches a crescendo at Styles’s final “we’ll be alright,” and then perfectly finishes with high-pitch vocal notes that feel like freedom before it drifts out with a few light piano notes. While its message about maintaining balance on the fine line between the extremes of love resonates, the real victory of this song is its ability to move you with just the music. Despite its length, it always feels like it ends too soon.

WEAKEST TRACK: “Golden”

While a pleasant-sounding opener and a good tone-setter for the rest of the record sonically, “Golden” could have been cut in half, with about twenty fewer repetitions of the title, and used as more of brief introduction or interlude instead. In contrast to the closer, “Fine Line,” which is the longest song on the album and includes just as much- if not more- repetitions of its title, it serves a purpose in that song, whereas in “Golden” it feels like filler. This monotonous track is the most prominent example of how often Styles’s lyrics seem to be lacking; he surely has the ability to improve, he just needs to access it.

THE IN-BETWEENS

Luckily for Styles, the production on this album is so outrageously good that it’s enough to keep you interested throughout. “She,” a six-minute psychedelic rock song is an epic trip (I mean, Styles’s guitarist, Mitch Rowland, wrote it on mushrooms, go figure) into a daydream with the perfect woman who doesn’t exist. “Canyon Moon” is a road-trip-ready, light, feel-good song where his musical influences are rather apparent; Styles cites Joni Mitchell and Crosby, Stills, and Nash as his muses, and another idol of his, Steve Nicks, claims it to be her favorite track on the record, a lovely feat. The pre-released singles “Lights Up,” “Watermelon Sugar,” and “Adore You” are sincerely all pop perfection, more mature and refined from his 1D days. The most experimental track, “Treat People With Kindness,” is interesting but falls short for a song that feels like years in the making, considering it has been a phrase Styles and his fans have claimed for the past few years. Although it is clear that Styles’s intention with the song was to spread a positive message which focuses on being kind and not taking life too seriously (though he proclaims that “if our friends all pass away / it’s okay,” and…I don’t know, is it really okay, Harry?!?) it feels like he could have done more with it. One particularly good line is towards the end of the track when he sings, “all we ever want is automatic all the time,” and perhaps he could’ve taken his own advice and given a song with such a grand title a bit more effort.

BEST PROSPECTIVE SINGLE: “Falling”

A close second to “Fine Line,” “Falling” is one of the strongest in Styles’s solo discography and more impressive considering he wrote it in about twenty minutes in a towel. In this beautiful ballad, Styles opens his heart, grabbing the listener’s in the process. “What am I now? / What if I’m someone I don’t want around?” he sings in a panic. This moment of self-reflection after the end of a relationship truly settles in as reality and you can no longer look away from your mistakes is painfully relatable. This track is the most honest of the bunch, and thus feels necessary. With all the previously mentioned pop jams already aptly released as singles, “Falling” feels like the wisest choice going forward to keep the momentum; listeners love a man openly grieving a heartbreak and taking responsibility for his actions (even cheating, I suppose, as is mildly implied in the first verse…I mean, this is your mans? Good thing his regret sounds sincere at least), and the unbelievable tone of his voice when he belts the last word of the bridge, “and I get the feeling that you’ll never need me again” is just the icing on the cake.

                                                                   ***

It is always a difficult task for a former group member to come into their own as a solo artist, and very few have done so with the admiration and reverence that Styles has accrued thus far. With his self-titled debut solo record in 2017, Styles made it clear, as most group-departing members do, that he had a sound different from that of his claim to fame in One Direction. His seriousness as a musician was now established through the positive reception of his debut, and thus his success allowed him to have a little more fun on Fine Line. It also allowed him to get a little more candid and authentic, knowing that the world has accepted him with open arms and has been begging for more. Styles mostly delivers with Fine Line, but in some ways it feels unfinished. The musical production is intriguing and exciting, and by far the best thing about this album, but is still somewhere between a regeneration of classic inspirations and a sound unique to Styles himself; all he needs is a little more time to find his own signature style (no pun intended) rather than just creating a conglomerate of musical elements from his influences and signing his name. But in the meantime, the music still holds up. The real conundrum is the lyrics, which are well and fine, but do not effectively communicate the truth hiding behind the sentiments yet give you just enough to let him get away with it. If he had given us just a bit more, Fine Line could have been a true triumph. However, this is only his second album, and being a confessional songwriting superstar while still preserving your right to privacy is, well, a fine line to walk (I had to, I’m sorry!), but I’m sure he’ll find his balance in no time. Grade: 3.5/5

DISCLAIMER – REVIEWER’S BIAS: I was a very casual One Direction fan during their peak of fame. I think Midnight Memories is a great pop album and I stand by that. I’ve always been more of a Niall girl, but I have never been able to completely resist Harry’s charisma; I’m only human. I listened to his debut album in 2017 maybe twice, three times at most, and just thought it was fine, but not particularly impressive. But since then it’s been impossible to deny his talent and star power. I was very intrigued by “Lights Up,” and with every single release I had found myself enjoying the songs more than I wanted to admit. I think Fine Line is a really great album. Sonically, it is in my exact sweet spot of the kind of music I absolutely love, so I was doomed to like it from the start. What stopped me from giving it a grade of 4 or higher though was that even with multiple listens I struggle to understand what the hell this guy is trying to say in his music. Many times, it takes me reading what die-hard stans say to understand what message he’s trying to send. Unfortunately, that is a failure to me. I know plenty of people love cryptic and ambiguous lyrics or poetry, but as a consumer, I want to be able to understand the story or the message with at least a couple of listens. Of course, lyrics can and should be left up to interpretation, but sometimes I don’t even know what he wants me to interpret! From my perception, this is just a reflection of Harry holding back from truly saying what he wants (with few exceptions, such as “Falling”). I think he is so talented and has so much potential but just needs a little more time unlocking it. I’m excited to see what he does in the future.

[hanramm156]

Rammstein Family Game: Get to know me! (Warning: a long ramble)

I’m honored to be tagged by @cherrisplace​ and @momoredcrow​. ^^ It’s been a pleasure to read other people’s Rammstein memories and opinions, so here comes mine as well. Writing is one of those rare things that keep me sane during this crazy season, so I apologize this being super long. More rambling is probably coming when everything’s cancelled and I have nothing else to do.

Rules: There are no rules. Tag whoever you want. Don’t tag yourself. Tag yourself. You don’t have to answer all the questions. Do what you please. Have fun.

Created by: @vapor-stein

1. I’m curious: when did you discover Rammstein?

2004 properly, but I might have heard Du hast or other popular songs even earlier.

2. Tell me your story. How did you discover them?

As said, it was 2004 and I was watching some random Finnish music show. Back in the days, I watched a lot of music videos from the tv and recorded my favorite ones to VHS. One evening Rammstein’s Amerika came from the show and I was like “??? What on earth is this??? Sounds interesting…”. I wasn’t into metal music back then (I mostly listened to indiepop and alternative rock), but for whatever reason, I got hooked instantly to this German band’s dark, eerie sound. It was refreshing to hear something else than English and the video was also thrilling.

Rammstein had intruded my mind already, but the final straw was when I saw the Mein Teil video. I liked both the song and the video A LOT - so much that I even felt kinda “dirty” for liking something this dark. A 14-year-old me was constantly asking from myself that: “am I even allowed to like this kind of stuff this much?”. The backstory for the song was creepy, but so mesmerizing – like I had been introduced to the darkest corners of human mind: yes, this kind of stuff happens, and we shouldn’t close our eyes from it. So next, the only thing I could do was to buy Reise, reise album, listen to it on loop and sketch my German notebook full of Rammstein lyrics. Here’s a proof:

I have so many stories about my relationship to Rammstein that I might have to write them all down now when there’s a lot of time.

3. Favourite song?

This topic would be worth a novel itself, but here are some of my favorites:

Asche zu Asche – So badass, gives me such an energy every time – plus, not to forget the burning microphones and SILVER REESH!

Bück dich – Yes, it’s a horrible story once again in this song, but I can’t help but to admit that the song is freaking catchy and in a weird way, hot. Also, there’s a funny backstory when I was in 9th grade and we almost performed this song in our official graduation party with my boyfriend and a bunch of our friends (maybe good that the idea was abandoned in the end…). We had a vague clue what the song was about, but we just thought it was funny – also, our German teacher dressed always in leather and loved Rammstein (she played us Bestrafe mich during one class and I’ll always remember the awkward atmosphere) so we were thinking to dedicate the song to her for as our goodbye. XDD Seriously, why I have been so weird for all my life…

Sehnsucht – In most of the pop songs, longing is described by tender words and soft lyrics, but not in Rammstein’s case. I’ve had this weird feeling of “longing” all my life that I can’t describe properly. It’s kind of an inner emptiness, only arts and music can help to deal with it when it hits. I think Sehnsucht describes so realistically what is longing about in reality: it’s this angry pressure in your heart which you want to get out of your chest but can’t. In the end, you just want to scream your lungs out.

Mein Herz brennt – Powerful song that always gives me goosebumps. I can’t even explain why. Maybe the fact that “tough” men being emotional is my soft spot and Rammstein hits that spot hard.

Links 2-3-4 – I have always been kind of a rebel and I feel like when everyone else is going to the “right” I have to go to the left, to the unknown. My heart is longing for adventure, for the paths the others are not going. I dunno, but this is such a powerful song for me. When I hear it, I always just want to jump around. In Tampere concert I went totally nuts when Links started as the second song, lol. From that moment I felt like I was back home with my boys.

Mein Teil – No need for further explanations anymore.

Los – The harmonica solo!!! The dropped c tuning and the acoustic sounds!! I love it.

Amour – My favorite R+ ballad. I confess that I listen to this and think about the lyrics when I’m in the mood for writing something painfully romantic.

Weit weg – There’s this painful longing once again that always resonates to me. I listened this to a lot after the “after blues” of Ratina concert.

Tattoo – A song that I didn’t care about so much at first, but for whatever reason, it’s almost my favorite from the new album nowadays. It’s catchy as hell and I like the “rattling” guitar riffs.

4. Least favourite song? Come on. I know you have one.

Feuer frei – Too much Vin Diesel vibes. I also get a picture of drunken, middle-aged Finnish guys on a R+ gig who don’t care about to band, but just want to have a party of their life and get drunk, far away from their wives. (No offense to anyone, but as music is almost like a religion to me, I can’t help but to have a bit of disrespect for kind of people who just “consume” music.)

Pussy – Both musically and lyrically, so bad, but I get the point the guys tried to give with this nonsense.

5. Favourite album? & 6. Least favourite album? aka. I ramble about all the albums.

Tough one… as the rules were vague, I decided to have a short opinion about each of the albums.

Herzeleid – Summary: a bunch of guys, born and raised in DDR, are tired of everything so they get together and play aggressive songs - you can almost smell the testosterone miles away while you are listening to this album. I have to admit that I love this album even though it’s not musically super creative. It’s just raw men with raw feelings – and I have to say, it works for me.

Sehnsucht – I was creeped out of the album art as a teenager, lol. But yeah, musically improved from the former one and there are some classic songs that make Rammstein as they are nowadays. I listen to this often when I’m driving.

Mutter – The album that they had the most struggles with if I have understood correctly. The pain can be heard through the songs and it’s so honest and raw. I lost my friend in 2004 tragically and this album was one of the things that kept me sane back then. Especially the beginning of the album (MHB, Links, Sonne) hits me hard in the guts.

Reise, reise – The album that started all this hype in me, so it has a special place in my heart. I also liked how they tried something different to their usual sounds in this one, like orchestral and acoustic songs.

Rosenrot – To be honest, this album has always left me a bit “cold”, so I cannot even make a real opinion of it. There are some good moments though, like Mann gegen Mann that really speaks to me.

Untitled: This has been on the loop since last August and I was honestly surprised how good the album was. I hadn’t listened to Rammstein for a while, but when I got this album to my hands after the concert, holy shit it hit me. I like hearing the path the guys have gone: their new music is much more mature than the first angry albums. Also, I love Till’s poetry in this one, like Was ich liebe and Weit weg.

I think I answered the question #7 already, so I’ll skip to #8.

8. Unpopular opinion about a member? A scandal? Anything?

Even though I appreciate Till as an artist and a poet, I don’t find his appearance attractive. You can throw rotten tomatoes at me now, but this is just my opinion, no means to offend anyone. Maybe the reason is that my taste for men tends to go for androgynous side, so I am not drawn towards very masculine men.

I’m not interested in Lindemann project and I don’t like their music so much, but the tour looked entertaining though. I bet all the people who attended had a lot of fun.

How Richard pronounces English is extremely sexy to my ear, even though it clearly sounds like a German guy trying to sound American - still, it’s like honey to my ears. Stupid man who makes my knees weak with everything he does.

I hate to admit that I don’t like Ohne dich so much. I don’t know why. :(

9. Have you ever seen them live? Tell me what you felt.

Three times this far! Oh man, I could talk about for hours how the concerts have made me feel, but I try to be reasonable now.

Ruisrock, Turku, 2005 – My first time seeing them live – and going to a festival without any adult supervision, so it was a special experience overall – and they blew my mind. It was raining and thundering and we were completely soaked with my friends, but it was worth it!

Bonus for everyone who managed to read this far: teenage me waiting for Rammstein to start playing, looking so badass with my denim jacket and R+ logo drawn with eyeliner. :D

Hartwall Arena, Helsinki, 2012: We went to the show together with my boyfriend to celebrate Valentine’s day and holy shiiiiit it was awesome. Hands down one of the best evenings of my life. I was so hooked to Rammstein afterward that when we were at my bf’s family’s cottage, his brother had to tell me to stop blasting Herzeleid all the time in the kitchen. :’D

Ratina Stadium, Tampere, 2019: Aka. byebye my life, say hello to fics, listening to the band all over again, stupid memes and all the content this fandom creates. I fell in love again with Rammstein during this concert.

I have tickets for Düsseldorf and Tallinn, but now I can only wait and stress that will Corona ruin everything. In that case, I’ll weep alone and write fics about the tour 2020 that ended up never happening.

10. Do you play any instruments? If you do can you play any song by them?

Yeah, I play guitar and piano but nowadays I mostly sing. Rammstein songs are super easy to play with guitar and I recently learnt to play Tattoo and Sex. Have been practicing Engle on piano as well. Some songs I like to sing are Deutschland, Tattoo and Engel. The “speaking” parts are difficult though. ^^;

I’m not sure who I could tag to this who hasn’t done it already, but I’ll try my luck: @ah-its-too-much​ @soronya​ @einemelodie​ @xiaolianhuax​ @so-darya-darya​ @maximaembra​ @kvidasjuklingur​

[jchb32273]

Fictober 2019 - Day 1

A little late in posting today, but here is Day 1 - Trust me, it will be fun!

Fanfiction - Dragon Age

AO3 Link

~~~~~

“Kylara?” I heard knocking on our bathroom door. “You can’t hide in there forever! I can pick the lock, you know!”

I groaned, knowing my roommate, Leliana was all too serious. The last time she’d been caught, she got fined for breaking school property. It still didn’t stop her though… “All right! I’m coming out now!” I looked at my reflection and thought, I look ridiculous!

I opened the door, just as Leli was pulling out her picks. She gasped in surprise. “Oh, you look so pretty!!” She grabbed my hand and pulled me into the bedroom of our dorm. “Now go on and put on the rest of your costume! You’ve already made us a half-hour late!”

“I still don’t know why you are making me go to this Halloween party. I don’t know anyone there!”

“Which is why you need to go, Kylara! You need to get out more! Socialize!” Leli stood there in her sparkling black cat costume and frowned a bit. “I will not let you sequester yourself in the library or the dorm room for the entire year! College is about having fun!”

“College is about working hard, getting good grades, and hopefully a meaningful career,” I countered. “Especially when you are on a scholarship like I am.”

“That doesn’t mean you need to stay cooped up all the time! Come on now, it will be fun, trust me!”

I sighed as I pulled on the silly mouse costume she had bought me. I am going to look so stupid in this… “The Theirin’s are the ones hosting! I bet there will be nothing but a bunch of rich kids with bank accounts bursting at the seams. I won’t know anyone there!”

Leliana came over and put her hand on my arm. “This isn’t some high-end social gathering by Maric or Cailan. Alistair is hosting this party. Also, you know me, and that guy you know from your science class… Cullen? He’ll be there. Morrigan is also going.”

“The goth girl from your poetry club?” I asked, curious. “Why would she even consider going to such a soiree?”

Leli giggled. “She said she was curious about how the other half lived.”

“I’m sure that isn’t her real reason.”

“Probably not, but it’s what she told me. Actually, I think she knows someone who might be there and she was hoping to meet him.”

“Who?”

“The bass player in Alistair’s band.” she replied.

“With all the money his family has – and their precious reputation – you’d think they wouldn’t let him have such a hobby… or host wild parties.”

Leli shrugged. “He’s always been the black sheep of the family and was only recently ‘brought back into the fold’, from what I’ve heard. So I guess as long as he doesn’t do anything to embarrass them…”

I tried to think back on what little I knew of the Theirins. Maric was the CEO of a huge business here in Denerim. His wife had died some years ago and his legitimate son, Cailan, was already vice-president of the firm. The scandal of the family was that shortly before his wife had died, Maric had had an affair. That was where the second son, Alistair, fit in. Initially, Alistair had been sent off to live with some distant relatives, but now that he was in his third year here at Denerim University (and doing really well), Maric had apparently decided to claim Alistair as his actual son. There was probably more to the story, but I didn’t thrive on social gossip like so many others in my classes.

All I knew was that just about every female (and some males) around the campus gushed about how handsome Alistair was and how they were going to do everything in their power to get him to notice them… now that Cailan was engaged to some high-end socialite. Stupid of them, really. Last I heard, Alistair was heavily involved with another wealthy girl, Ellie Cousland, I think? Who cares… I am here at this school to focus on my education… not play games to win the affections of some spoiled rich brat.

I sighed again. “Just promise me you won’t leave me alone… and we won’t stay for long, all right, Leli?” I looked at myself in the floor-length mirror in the room. The mouse costume was tight and hugged every curve on my somewhat voluptuous body. The glittery, grey makeup on my face brought out the blue in my eyes (so Leli said), but it also forced me to wear my contacts rather than my glasses. I hated the contacts… they made my eyes feel dry.

“Don’t forget your cheese, little mouse!” Leliana laughed and handed me the stuffed cheese plush.

I rolled my eyes. “You know, mice don’t really eat cheese.”

“Tell that to anyone who has ever watched classic cat and mouse cartoons. Now come on! We are already so late! Let’s go!”

We arrived at a really large gated community on the outskirts of the city. Cars were parked all up and down the streets. Leliana found a spot on a side street about three blocks from the house where the party was being held.

The party was already in full swing by the time we got there. Despite my telling her to not leave me by myself, Leliana was greeted by several members of her poetry club, including Morrigan (who looked just as thrilled as I was to be here). They pulled her away from “the bookish nerd” (I heard one girl call me) and over to the stage where Alistair’s band was playing.

The music was obnoxiously loud, though I had to admit it did have a nice beat to it. Though I tended to prefer classical music, I still tried to keep up with what was popular on campus. I knew Alistair’s band, The Griffons, were quite the rage. I even knew who was who on stage. Fenris was the bassist. He was a broody elf with odd glowing tattoos on his brown skin. So that is who Morrigan likes, hmm? Interesting. The drummer was a huge qunari who went by the moniker of “The Iron Bull” on campus. With the pair of massive horns on his head, I could see why. The keyboardist was a guy I had only heard about from others. I only knew his name was Dorian and that he was originally from Tevinter. The second guitarist was named Anders and while he was quite the looker, he paled in comparison to the frontman.

I had seen pictures of Alistair in the school newspaper and in social gossip magazines at the store, but seeing him in person for the first time was quite a different experience.

I can see why women fall for him… I thought. He is very handsome. Under the lights of the stage, it was difficult to tell the true shade of his hair, but it seemed to be a rich auburn. His dark brown eyes radiated warmth and compassion. His voice was deep and melodious… it gave me chills as I heard him sing.

“Hey Kylara! Good to see you!” I heard a man shout next to me. I turned to see Cullen, who was dressed as a lion. He handed me a beer and I thanked him.

I nodded. “I have never heard him live… Leliana has some of his CDs, but it isn’t the same.”

“He is pretty amazing. I’ve known him for quite a while,” Cullen spoke loud so I could hear him.

“Really?”

“Sure! I can introduce you if you want to meet him.”

“Why would I? He’s handsome and popular… not exactly the kind of guy who’d be interested in someone like me.”

Cullen seemed surprised. “You never struck me as someone who judges others at first appearance, ‘Lara.”

I blushed (though it probably didn’t show through the makeup on my face). “I-I’m not… I mean… I’m sorry. You’re right, Cullen. But still, why should I meet him? Isn’t he already dating someone?”

“He broke up with her last night.” Cullen said. “Turns out she was cheating on him.”

“Oh, that’s terrible.” I could hear the song was nearing its end. “But again, Cullen. Why should I meet him? What do you think he’d see in someone like me?”

“Al is a real friendly guy… and he loves having people around him. However, it is always the same kind of people. I know he’s been getting really bored of it all. You, Kylara, are a sweet, quiet girl. You are smart and not at all like the women who throw themselves at his feet. I think Al might find that a bit refreshing.” The song finished just then and Alistair told the crowd he was going to take a ten-minute break. “Come on,” Cullen said and took my free hand. I put the beer down and grabbed my cheese plush. “Let’s go.”

Cullen pulled me through the crowd towards the stage so quickly that I didn’t see the large clown shoes in front of me until it was too late. I fell to the floor with a crash. People all around me started laughing… hard. Mortified, I got up and before Cullen could say anything, I quickly ran out a side door and out into the back yard.

I don’t know how long I was out there, but the cool autumn air was beginning to give me goosebumps. I had contemplated just going back to Leliana’s car, but I couldn’t remember where she had parked. So in the end, I sat out in the yard on an old swing someone had left tied to a huge tree.

Just then I heard footsteps behind me. A soft, but deep voice asked with concern, “Are you all right?”

I turned in the swing, twisting the rope, to see who had spoken. To my utter shock, it was Alistair! I quickly turned the swing back around as my face heated up. Cullen must have told him what happened! I suppose he needs to know if I am okay… so there are no lawsuits to sully the Theirin name. “I’m fine,” I mumbled. “I… just want to be alo- ” The old rope holding the swing chose that very moment to snap and for the second time that night, I fell to the ground. I wanted to cry, I was so humiliated.

Alistair knelt down and offered me his hand. “Please, let me help you up.”

At first, I just wanted to shout that I was fine and for him to leave me alone, but then I noticed his eyes were not haughty, but genuinely concerned. I gingerly gave him my hand and with a strong pull, he helped me to my feet.

“Are you hurt?” he then asked.

I sighed. “Only my dignity.”

Alistair smiled. “Well, I suppose that is good to hear. I hear dignity is easy to fix… if you know the right people.” He then leaned close and whispered, “I heard they even sell it in the back alleys of Orzammar sometimes…”

I couldn’t help it, I snickered.

“See now, that’s much better. A pretty smile from a pretty woman.” Alistair smiled and then asked, “So, what is your name?”

“Kylara.”

“Well, Kylara, it is very nice to meet you. I really like your costume, by the way.”

“Really? Why?”

He held out the cheese plush I had dropped earlier. “Well, for one, I do have a certain minor obsession with cheese…”

[peace-coast-island]

Diary of a Junebug

Fall book recs!

Swear to Me by Rose Madison An old classic, a book I never get tired of reading! I met Rose in college and she’s a super talented writer! She wrote this, her debut novel, back in high school and it still holds up pretty well. I love the characters, especially Tux. I don’t know why, but I have a soft spot for well meaning and adorkable dumbasses. I also have a soft spot for characters like Rina, also an adorkable dumbass who’s a sweetheart most of the time and internally screaming half the time, usually over minor inconveniences.

The book is silly, heartwarming, and action packed. I think it could make a great manga adaptation if done properly - I’d definitely read that! A fairy quick read - about 160 pages, and the pacing is quick so the only issue is that it feels too short. But a lot happens in that short time!

Portal to the Past by The Livy Aubree Company I pretty much love almost everything by Livy Aubree. I’m also loving the new show, Orla and Ozzie, which is based on this graphic novel. I was always fascinated with the history behind the classic characters Orla and Ozzie, mainly Orla. Up until recently, Orla has been put on the wayside and aside from the graphic novel, she hasn’t really had time to shine.

I love the character dynamic between Orla and Ozzie, which is the strongest part about this story. The sequels are worth looking into, but they’re not as good. There’s some strong points but overall the sequels are inconsistent in terms of plot and character development. The show, which is finishing up its first season, is definitely worth the watch! 

Orla is one of my faves and I’m happy with how they handled Ozzie as his character has become a bit stagnant over the years - mainly because he’s the company’s mascot and all. What I like most is how the book and the TV show didn’t shy away from his flaws. Instead of making him a perfect goody two shoes (even when he’s clearly in the wrong - something that always annoyed me) they addressed the consequences of his actions and fleshed out his personality more so he wouldn’t be one dimensional. He was one of those characters who I always felt had a lot of potential to be interesting so I’m glad for this novel and the show.

An absolute must read! (Also I’m happy to say that my copy was signed by the show’s producer Levi Romero when I visited the island earlier this year!)

Wilde Louie by Jimmy Mathieson I enjoyed Postcards a lot so I looked into more books by him. This one is his second most popular book so I bought a copy at a second hand store when I found it. The Fairweathers is full of talented people and Jimmy has a knack for writing! 

Back at Concert in the Stars, Jimmy told me he’ll send an advanced copy of his latest book a week before it comes out - which will be around the end of the year - so I’ll be doing a review on that for my winter book reads!

So the story was really interesting! I love Louie and Shep’s relationship - the found family trope has always been one of my favorites! They both may be shady con artists but underneath they’re also good and caring people. Shep tries to act tough and all but the truth is he’s a father figure who ends up unintentionally adopting a bunch of misfits. And Louie turns into the exasperated big brother who’s like 10000% done when everything goes wrong. The humor and fast paced dialogue are the book’s strongest points!

Blizzards by Chuck Wortherly A book full of poems relating to snow and blizzards. There isn’t really much to say as that’s as straightforward as it can get. They’re short, one page poems and it’s a very fast read. I love the imagery and the brevity, which is really effective.

My top favorite is Freshly Fallen Snow, which to me reads like a song. It’s quiet and a bit sad, the imagery makes you feel alone and small - but not in an entirely bad way. Sort of like a quiet melancholy that settles into you. Another favorite is Ashes and Ice, which provokes striking and powerful imagery. There’s also Snowball Fights, which is about nostalgia, and Howls, which tells the story about a wolf lost in a blizzard.

Serena and the Cracked Sapphire by Shion Yuki One of my favorite mangas! It’s basically a magical girl type story, which I enjoy. I started reading the series in middle school and it still holds up really well. There’s twenty books in the series, which takes place in a span of five years. There’s a TV adaptation in the works that is planned to be released next year so I’m looking forward to that! Based on what I’m hearing, I have high hopes for the show.

So there’s the main character Serena, who’s a reincarnation of a princess. Her weapon is a wand with a cracked sapphire and most of the time she’s pretty OP as hell. There’s her team, a band of friends known as the Jewel Shards who fight alongside her. And there’s Celestia, who’s a reincarnation of a princess from a disgraced family, and she and Serena are soulmates. Serena’s like any other typical magical girl protagonist - clumsy, badass, sweet, stubborn, and optimistic. It can be cheesy and silly and it can be dramatic and sad. 

The first book in the series was and always will remain a classic. If you liked the first one, then you’ll enjoy the rest of the series. My favorite main arc is Team Crystal Shards because that’s when Serena’s team really comes together to fight the big boss. It’s basically the turning point in the series where Jewel Shards finally win the trust of the Crystal Stones and work together to fight the Shattered Diamonds. My favorite side arc is Apartment Hunting, where Serena and Crystal learn how to adult and fail epically at it. 

Shockwave by Rose Madison Rose’s first sci-fi book and it was a wild ride! I’ve never really got into post apocalyptic stories so I was intrigued to see how this would play out. I tend to like slice of life stories so this was nice. In the story, the apocalypse already happened so now it’s based on the characters living normal everyday lives - well as normal as it can get.

What I love most about this book is the storytelling. It’s third person narration through three main characters and the chapters are structured a certain way. Jenna’s chapters are focused on the present. She’s an inquisitive character who’s naive and easily impressed by everything. And there’s Swan, whose chapters starts out in the middle of the event going - sort of like that freeze frame moment where the narrator is trying to explain something by going back to the beginning. She represents the past and present, the one who provides most of the backstory behind the Shadow Wars. Finally there’s Lina, who represents the future as she’s always getting ahead of herself. Her chapters are dialog heavy and fast paced. The three characters are what carries the story and it intertwines together so well!

Unlike most stories about the apocalypse, this one is quite optimistic and lighthearted. There’s a lot of funny moments in the book like poor Swan who’s unable to catch a break as she winds up falling into all her cousin’s traps. Or Jenna mistaking a giant spaceship for two pyramids because she overslept and forgot her glasses. And there’s a running gag of Lina’s inventions always going haywire and turning evil, including the notable Project Shockwave. This book could make a really interesting sitcom!

Bumblebees and Lavender by Margie Shen Another poetry book, and it’s become one of my favorites! I’ve heard about Margie Shen for a while on social media but I was a bit hesitant to check her out at first. The last few popular poets I checked out were underwhelming, to put it nicely. I liked some of them but overall they were overhyped and the books were mediocre at best.

As for this one, I was throughly impressed. What I liked about this book is that the poems had substance. They’re not super short and simple - instead they’re complex and descriptive. My favorites were the ones that told a short story like Nutmeg Tea and The Beekeeper. There’s profound and thoughtful poems like Flora with Lavenders in Her Hair and Bittersweet Chocolates. I love A Touch of Honey, which made this book easily one of my favorites. I’m definitely going to look for more books by Margie Shen and keep an eye out for her next one, due out next year!

Seventeen and Counting by Eldred Emerson This is a ridiculous book and I love it! Sure some parts area bit too silly but it’s a wild ride from start to finish. There’s a movie adaptation that’s pretty faithful to the story and just as funny. It’s about this guy, his growing collection of cats, and their everyday misadventures. 

What I like the most is the names he gives his cats as he likes to go for the unusual. My favorite character is a black cat named Whiskercheeks, who goes by Whisk. His twin brother Wyn, short for Llewelyn, is considered the evil one and has the worst luck. Moneybags, aka Mon, is the baby of the family and causes a lot of mischief for the twins. There’s also Cotton Puffball, who’s always done with everything because everyone she knows is a mess. And there’s Rake Chewer, who likes to chew rakes and is a big klutz.

Overall it’s a really funny and cute book about a bunch of cats and their dorky owner.

[sanderssidesfanfiction]

A System of Sides: Chapter Fifteen

A/N: Here we are, guys! The final chapter! We’re considering putting out little snippets of Virgil’s letters here for anyone who is interested in what they have to say. It wouldn’t be all of them, it wouldn’t be in any particular order, and it wouldn’t happen regularly, but if you want to be tagged in those, let us know you’d like to see them and be tagged!

PREV

Words: 2,747

Warnings: food, knives

Thomas took a breath of fresh air from the Courtyard in front of the Mind Palace and grinned. "Wow," was all he managed to say.

"Hey, Thomas! You gonna come see my rose bush that I've labored for ages on or what?" Virgil called from further into the space.

"Coming, coming!" Thomas laughed. "Sometimes you can be so impatient. It's like we're kids all over again."

"Laugh all you want, Thomas, this is important!" Virgil retaliated. "There's no time for waiting!"

Thomas shook his head and walked further into the courtyard to where Virgil was standing. "It's about time!" Virgil said, though there was nothing but the barest hints of excitement in his voice. "Look at my prized plant!"

Thomas did, and his eyes lit up when he saw all of Virgil's hard work. The bush couldn't be more than three feet tall, but it was already very full and looked like it could grow to be over their heads if Virgil kept tending to it. There were five different kinds of roses on it, which made Thomas take a closer look. "That's impressive, Virge," he said, hand barely ghosting over the roses.

"Thank you," Virgil said, obviously quite pleased with himself. "Logan studied grafting plants at one point, around high school, just to learn how it worked, and I decided to do that with this bush. There's a color for each of us."

"Which one's which?" Thomas asked.

"The really bright red one is Roman's. It's lively and bright and sometimes a little over the top, but overall dependable and a classic. Patton's is the pure white, because there's barely a dark spot in his day that he can't fix. My rose is the dark red that looks almost black. Sure, it's dark and can sometimes be seen as morbid, but it's just as good as the others. Different doesn't mean bad." Thomas could hear the smile in Virgil's voice. "Logan's is deep pink, if for no other reason than I had to work on several generations of roses to get that color, through trial-and-error and I think he would appreciate the experiments. Which leaves you with pastel pink."

"Yeah? Why is pastel pink me?" Thomas asked, trying to contain himself while he waited with baited breath for the answer.

"You're a little bit like all of us, but you're still your own person. You're bright and happy like Patton, but you're also a little more subdued about it. You don't have the overtly bright tones everyone else here has, which isn't a bad thing, and in fact it means you're better with most other people in the world. Your color isn't harsh on the eyes, and it took some working to get just right, but once it's there, it's there for good. There's nothing you can do to hold that positivity of yours back. It's...I feel like I'm not explaining this right, but I hope you get what I mean," Virgil said.

"No, no, you're explaining really well. There's probably deeper reasons that you can't pin down, but I agree with every one of your choices. And...this is really amazing, Virgil. I had no idea you had such a green thumb! You're going to have to help me if I ever decide to bring home succulents like I've always wanted to," Thomas laughed.

Virgil beamed.

The front door to the Mind Palace opened and Patton brought out the card table from before, setting it up by the benches in near the sundial. "I'm getting the food!" he exclaimed, running back inside.

Thomas laughed and stood up, looking around. "This whole place is amazing," he said, looking around. "And you guys made it?"

"You helped some way back when," Virgil pointed out. "But Roman certainly took the idea and ran wild with it. I did help with the hedge maze out back, Logan thought it would be fun to test his wits with a constantly changing maze, so we both worked on it, and Patton hid a bunch of stuff in it when we were done. Logan focused more on the maze design rather than growing the hedges, though."

"I can see that happening," Thomas said, amused. "We should explore it sometime, though."

"We should," Virgil agreed.

Patton came back out, arms full with a bag of chips and two big bottles of soda, as well as plastic cups. "Roman's bringing the last thing, he just needed one more minute," Patton said as he got everything settled on the card table.

"What thing?" Thomas asked. "We already had pizza for lunch, what's the big surprise?"

Patton glanced at Virgil and Thomas turned around to find Virgil subtly shaking his head. "What are you guys keeping from me?" Thomas asked.

"Well, now, that would ruin the surprise!" Virgil said with false innocence. "You don't want to ruin the surprise, do you, Thomas?"

Thomas gave Virgil a half-hearted glare. It didn't last long, though, as Roman and Logan walked out, each holding the side of a very impressive sheet cake. "We would sing Happy Birthday but that seems a little inappropriate," Roman said.

Logan nodded. "We made the occasion clear on the icing, however."

They put the cake down on the table and Thomas walked over, reading the top of the cake. It said, "Happy Un-Frontstuck Day, Thomas!" in loopy blue icing, with blue trim on the edges of the cake and red icing flowers, not unlike the roses. Thomas grinned. "You guys!" he exclaimed. "You didn't have to!"

"No, but we wanted to!" Roman exclaimed. "You're important to us! So we're celebrating your being back. I invited at least two villages over, they should be here any time now!"

Thomas couldn't believe what he was hearing. His best friends from when he was younger, his family was celebrating him walking around the Inner World after twenty long years of being holed up in his room. What he did to ever deserve these guys, he didn't know.

There were people walking into view from the distance and Roman ran over to greet them, letting them into the courtyard. "These guys aren't really part of us, just part of Roman's overactive imagination," Virgil explained. "But they do know how to throw a good party when they need to."

Thomas just shook his head fondly as people started filing in. Logan cleared his throat. "Now, then. Shall we cut the cake before everyone in the Inner World tries to get their hands on a piece?"

Patton jumped up and down eagerly. "Yes! Yes! Yes! I want to try the cake!"

Thomas laughed and Logan cracked a smile. Virgil walked up to the cake, pulling a knife out of thin air as well as a stack of paper plates, and dished a piece of cake for Patton, handing it over. Patton eagerly took it and grabbed a fork from the tower of cups (why he hid them in there, Thomas couldn't begin to guess), running up to the villagers and starting to excitedly chatter at them. This was a strange feeling, but overall not an unwelcome one at all. It felt...normal, more normal that most things had felt in years. In a strange way, it finally felt like...he was home.

"Don't get too used to this," Virgil warned, "We need you to front sometimes still, especially with that boot! We don't want Roman running around and making it worse."

"I know, I know," Thomas laughed. "But something just feels right, and it's not a feeling that's going away any time soon."

Virgil shook his head and cut Thomas a piece of cake. "Eat up, I'm sure Roman's going to corral a DJ out of this group of villagers and he'll insist on everyone dancing sooner or later. Probably sooner."

Thomas laughed. "That sounds like it would be funny. Can Roman dance at all? Or no?"

"He can do musical numbers, let's put it that way," Virgil said. "Freestyle? None of us are that great at it."

"The rhythms in certain songs can be quite illogical," Logan stated. "It's hard to follow an abruptly changing pattern."

"I take it you don't like dubstep then," Thomas deadpanned.

"Dubstep? No. I do, however, have an appreciation for all sorts of poetry," Logan said.

"He likes rap," Virgil translated.

"Oh, I was not...was not expecting that," Thomas said.

Logan took a piece of cam for himself and shrugged. "There are a lot of things you do not know about me. Perhaps one day you can learn most of them."

He walked of and Thomas shook his head. "That sounds good to me!" he called.

Virgil took one last slice of cake for himself and sat down on one of the stone benches surrounding the sundial. Thomas sat next to him. "You know, I don't understand why we even bother with a sundial when it's perpetually daylight out here," Virgil said.

Thomas just cracked up. Virgil looked slightly miffed, so Thomas hurried to explain. "It's just...it's just all of this is so much to take in. I barely even got used to the concepts of this world yet and the fact that we have something that's essentially useless just sitting around as a centerpiece of useful things...I dunno, it just struck me as funny."

"I'll allow it," Virgil said, taking a bite of his cake.

Thomas grinned and nudged Virgil with his shoulder. "Hey. Hey Virgil. Hey. Hey. Hey Virge."

Virgil sighed and looked over. "What?"

"You're my best friend," Thomas whispered. "Don't tell the others. I want to get to know them better so hopefully we all can be best friends, but you're my first best friend ever, meaning you're super important to me."

Virgil turned beet red and Thomas grinned, thinking his work for the day over with that statement. "I'm so forcing you to do the Macarena when Roman plays it later."

Thomas just grinned wider in response. "Don't hate, Virge, or I'll just force you to do it too."

Virgil's eyes narrowed. "You wouldn't dare."

"Watch me," Thomas challenged.

"You're on," Virgil said. "You're on."

Thomas sighed as he walked back into the Mind Palace from the party which was wrapping up. It felt like there were a lot of people there, even if he knew it was just Roman's imagination. He was ready to collapse and sleep for a long while.

But when he looked up the stairs at his room he felt more than a bit of trepidation. He didn't want to go up there only to wake up the next morning and be stuck. He wasn't sure if he would be able to take that, not after seeing everyone again.

Virgil walked in from outside around the same time Thomas did, stretching. "Roman's organizing clean-up, which basically means waving a hand over everything and causing it to dematerialize," he said. "You good?"

"Yeah," Thomas said. "Just tired."

"I think it's a little more than being just tired," Virgil said knowingly. "I don't blame you for being worried about going into your room, though. The first time one of the others had a panic attack from coming into my room, I slept on the couch for a week. It's chill, we can hang out here."

Thomas frowned. "We?"

"Well, yeah, we, I'm not going to let you camp out on the couch all by yourself," Virgil said. "We can put on a movie or something if you want, get blankets, build a fort, whatever you want to do in here can be done."

Thomas was a little thrown by the offer, but that didn't mean he was going to turn it down. "That sounds great. I think it would be a good chance for everyone to hang out, too, don't you agree?"

Virgil shrugged. "If you want everyone here I won't object...this time. Just don't be surprised if I leave sometimes to recharge. I can only take so many people at once."

Thomas nodded. Patton and Logan walked into the room, and Virgil said, "You guys up for a blanket fort in the common room tonight?"

"Am I ever!" Patton exclaimed. "I have the perfect blankets for this! Let me go get them!"

As he ran off, Logan rolled his eyes. "That one is going to get us into trouble yet," he said. "I can grab some pillows, we're sure to have some of them laying around somewhere. Maybe a mattress or two as well, and some sleeping bags."

Roman entered the Mind Palace with a sigh and rubbed the back of his neck. "That was fun. What's going on in here?"

"We're thinking of having a movie marathon out here tonight," Virgil said. "If you want, you and Thomas can queue the movies together."

Thomas smiled at the thought. Roman eagerly pulled Thomas over to their DVD collection and started picking out some of his favorites. Thomas was just overwhelmed at the thought that these wonderful people actually cared enough about him to take the time away from their own projects and ideas to keep him company. "Thanks for this, guys," he said.

"Of course!" Roman said. "There is nothing I would rather do than binge-watch movies with you, Thomas!"

"I understand being anxious, I don't want you to feel that way if I can help it," Virgil brushed off.

Patton ran into the room with blankets and said, "This is something I've always dreamed of doing!"

Logan appeared as well armed with pillows and sleeping bags. "Anything I can do to help I am more than happy to achieve."

Thomas recognized all those responses as the subtle little "I love you"s they were, and he took them with great joy. "This is going to be fun!" he exclaimed, looking through the movies himself. "There's a lot of Disney in here, too, which is always a good start to a movie marathon. Does anyone have room for popcorn?"

Virgil laughed. "I'll go make it. Don't you go anywhere, nerds."

Thomas pulled out a few movies of his own and offered his choices up to Logan and Patton's approval. When he got the green light on them, and Roman got approved for (most of) his choices, everyone started building a fort from blankets and pillows. There wasn't much to hold it up, though, so they wound up making mounds of blankets and throwing pillows on top of them, adjusting everything to their liking until they called it a day.

Virgil came back to the common room with popcorn and looked over the movies. "Some Harry Potter? Really?" he asked, amused. "Why not all of it?"

"Because then we couldn't watch any other movies, obviously! It would be morning by the time we were done!" Roman exclaimed.

"Fair enough," Virgil muttered. "Which movie are we watching first?"

"I vote for the first Harry Potter!" Patton exclaimed.

"I would like to see something resembling historical fiction, or, short that, something that at least doesn't lean so heavily on the suspension of disbelief," Logan said.

"Disney," Roman stated.

"I think we should just watch everything so we don't have to worry about order," Thomas volunteered.

Virgil rolled his eyes. "Of course you do." Humming over the DVDs, he snatched The Avengers and walked over to the TV, putting it in himself.

"You can't do that!" Roman exclaimed in surprised anger.

"First person to put the DVD in gets to choose which movie everyone watches, you know this!" Virgil exclaimed. "Besides, The Avengers is an amazing cinematic masterpiece."

"Hard to argue with that logic, Roman," Thomas teased.

"That is neither true nor logical," Logan interjected. "Thomas, don't spread lies, especially to Roman."

"Hey!" Roman objected. "That's rude!"

Logan tilted his head downward. "Apologies. But the point stands. Don't spread misinformation."

"It was an attempt at a joke, which apparently fell flat," Thomas said.

"No, it was fine, you just happened to be nearby the one person who takes almost everything we say literally," Virgil said, getting situated on the blankets and passing around the popcorn. "Now hush, I want to watch the movie."

Thomas inwardly smiled as the movie started up. Was this what everything felt like when he was younger? Surrounded by people who would never want each other to hurt, working together to get where they needed to go? If it was, he was glad to have found it again.

He wouldn't trade this for the world.

Tag List: @lilbeanblr @kittyboof8 @irish-newzealand-idian-dutch @sanders-trash-4ever @hamilspntrash @swords-and-kittens @loganpatton @lizzysperil @tree4life25 @nyxwordsmith @docetuga @wingedkuriboh27 @virgilient @cookieartcannon @jordandobbertin @pr0bablypr0crstinating @hissesssss @areyousirius-noheisdead

[swipestream]

Sensor Sweep: John Carter Miniatures, The Metal Monster, Carcosacon, Call of the Wild Art, Robot Man

RPG (Modiphius): The John Carter Swords of Mars miniatures line is made up of 32mm scale high quality multi-part resin miniatures which come complete with resin scenic bases. The Swords of Mars campaign book includes a set of rules to play out battles involving squads and heroes, fighting across moving airships, desolate ruins or the beautiful palaces of Barsoom.

  Writing (One Last Sketch): A long while back, I wrote a short essay called “Writing the city” that I never published, yet the misgivings that went into that essay keep stirring my brain. The main question is this:

  In literary criticism of fantasy, why are long descriptions of the natural world and farmland or villages often labeled as boring, but when China Miéville fills page upon page with adjective-laden descriptions of architecture, this passes without comment, or even gets praise?

  Art (DMR Books): Fifty-five years ago today, Wayne Francis Woodard, better known as “Hannes Bok,” died in poverty. He was friends with, and had his work admired by, the likes of Ray Bradbury, A. Merritt, August Derleth, Farnsworth Wright and others.

I must confess that I’ve always been ambivalent about Bok’s art. While I find some of his work truly excellent, I consider much of it average or even poor.

    Fiction (DMR Books): It’s fascinating how the paths we take in life shape who we’ll become and what we’ll leave behind, when–on that fateful day–we’re blasted by the emerald lightnings of The Emperor’s Guard at the Pit of the Metal Monster.

For me, the dregs of life will be a room full of books.  For A. Merritt, luckily for us, it was his wonderful novels, few tho’ they may be, and the short stories and poetry he crafted during a relatively short lifetime.

But, whereas the ashes of our mortal clay will be scattered before the feet of the Metal Things

    Fiction (Gardner F. Fox): This is book #011 on the list of 160 books that Gardner Francis Fox wrote from 1953 to 1986. I will not be working on

Blank bookcover with clipping path

books in the order as Mr. Fox wrote them. I am doing the book cover designs based on when the transcribers who are assisting me, finish one. As they complete a book, it will be the newest release, so it will get a new book cover design. I also have to go back and replace the photo-bashed covers I made when I first started The Gardner Francis Fox Libraryin 2017.

  Conventions (William King): So that was Carcosacon and it was a lot of fun. A bunch of us drove up from Prague to Czocha Castle for a weekend of games, panels and live action roleplaying all dedicated to the Cthulhu mythos. We got there on Friday morning, checked in and were gaming by one o’ clock that afternoon in a library that looked like something from Dennis Wheatley complete with a secret doorway hidden in a bookcase that swung out to reveal a spiral staircase up to yet another gaming room. I thought there never was a better setting for a Call of Cthulhu session but I was wrong, and I’ll get to that later.

  RPG (Sorcerers Skull): Gygaxian Esoteric Planes: Places that often bear the names and some of the characteristics of various historical conceptual realms but are more defined in their characteristics. They are inhabited by supernatural beings that tend to behave like mundane beings, the only difference being “power.” Geography tends to be more important than in conceptual realms; planes can be mapped to a degree, and travel along associated terrain may be necessary.

Reviews (Don Herron): Our resident expert in everything Arkham returns to review a new (if repurposed) book on the fabled press. John D. Haefele certainly burst fully-formed on the scene with his A Look Behind the Derleth Mythos, but he’s done a ton of stuff on the subject, most recently a run of articles appearing in Crypt of Cthulhu. See his Amazon page for a thorough list of books, chapbooks, monographs, web and print surveys. He knows the turf.

        Cinema (Superversive SF): Can the story take a place on a bus rather than on a space ship without being fundamentally different?

Outland, an obscure movie starring Sean Connery at the low point of his career, cannot be set on a bus, but it most definitely did not need to be placed in space. It is, no pun intended, fully grounded in the traditional western genre in the theme, plot and pacing. There are even shotguns. Lots of shotguns. In a pressurized environment. All that’s missing is the tumbleweeds. We do get treated to the sight of some gyrating balls of… something, but the less said of those the better.

      Gaming (Rampant Games): In case you haven’t figured it out, I am a Virtual Reality enthusiast. I’ve been looking forward to the coming of consumer-level Virtual Reality since the early 90s. I expected it a lot sooner than it got here, to be honest, but I’m glad it’s here now. I love that I get to work with it as part of my day job. Anyway, I have been willing to sink a bit of cash into it this hobby… to the extent that I pre-ordered a Pimax 5K+. Offering about the highest resolution out there and 170+ degrees of field-of-view, it seemed like a game-changer for PC-based VR.

    Cinema (Men of the West): First, the good: As you would expect from any sort of Peter Jackson flick, it has gorgeous F/X. The visuals and modeling for the various vehicles and aircraft are marvelous. The colorizing to help set the tone, the costuming, etc., are all spot on. The acting was decent. The set design was pretty cool. The basic premise for the story was decent if absurd (mobile cities on treads?), with an interesting twist on the post-apocalypse genre. They had a fun dig at the near illiteracy of today’s people in the “screen age” (showing iPhones, etc), saying “they didn’t write much down.”

  Author Interview (Superversive SF): What does superversive mean to you? Superversive is the building of things never seen before to heights unreached. It builds where others have torn down, and gathers together all good things to be made into something greater and more wonderful than they were before. Where before one might find a blasted heath, one finds a garden growing by the Grace of God.

  Review (Fantasy Literature): As I mentioned in my review of Gray Lensman, Book 4 of E.E. “Doc” Smith’s famed six-part LENSMAN series, that installment, although it followed its predecessor, Galactic Patrol, by mere seconds storywise, was actually released over 1½ years later; 20 months later, to be exact. Book 5 of the series, Second Stage Lensman, would follow the same scheme. Although the events therein transpire just moments after the culmination of Book 4, readers would in actuality have to wait a solid 22 months to find out where author Smith would take them next.

        Art (Northwest Adventures): Jack London’s The Call of the Wild was serialized in The Saturday Evening Post from June 20 to July 18, 1903, only five years after the Stampede of 1898. It was an instant classic and the quintessential novel of the Klondike. The five-parter was accompanied by illustration from two artists, Charles Livingston Bull (1874-1932) and Philip R. Goodwin (1881-1935). Bull was hitting his stride, illustrating books for Charles G. D. Roberts as well as magazine covers but Goodwin was only 22 and just starting out on his career that would include illustrating Teddy Roosevelt’s book on hunting. The two artists together is a nice blend of Bull’s stylized poster art (which remind of Kay Nielsen’s fairy tale art) and Goodwin’s realistic dog forms.

  Art (One Last Sketch): No other imagined world has generated as much illustration as The Lord of the Rings. Considering the sheer amount of artistic material to draw from, however, even before the live action adaptations came out in 2001, we already had a consensus “look” for Middle Earth in John Howe and Alan Lee’s paintings. Why the collective consensus for what Middle Earth should look like coalesced around these two has a host of factors, one being how prolific they were, how often they appeared on book covers and ancillary material, and the last being their obvious skill.

  Fiction (Pages Unbound): You may have some familiarity with The Silmarillion and seen these newer works being published that are part of it. But maybe you are not sure where they came from, or how they fit in to the larger work. Here is the scoop: you can pick up any one of the three separate works from The Silmarillion that have been released as standalone volumes and enjoy it on its own. They are The Children of Hurin, Beren and Luthien, and The Fall of Gondolin. Some say the reading order should be publication order, but you would not be wrong to read Beren and Luthien first.

  Obituary (Washington Post): George Stade, a Columbia University literary scholar who became an early champion of “popular” fiction within the academy and worked as a critic, editor and novelist, most notably with the grisly satire “Confessions of a Lady-Killer,” died Feb. 26 at a hospital in Silver Spring, Md. He was 85.

  Tolkien (Alas Not Me): The Mouth of Sauron’s encounter with the Captains of the West in The Lord of the Rings has been reminding me of the Green Knight’s visit to King Arthur’s court in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.

The initial set-up is quite different, naturally.  The Green Knight comes in uninvited without any introduction or explanation — the reader is thus in the same boat as members of Arthur’s court — whereas Tolkien gives us some backstory on the Lieutenant of the Tower of Barad-dûr when he comes out in response to the heralds’ challenge.  The Green Knight arrives alone on a color-coordinated steed that seems an ordinary animal except for its hue, but the poet hints the knight himself might possibly be supernatural (“Half etayn in erde I hope þat he were”).  Intriguingly, the similarly color-coordinated fellow who approaches Aragorn & Co. is almost exactly the inverse, i.e., a living man on a possibly supernatural mountm

    Sensor Sweep: John Carter Miniatures, The Metal Monster, Carcosacon, Call of the Wild Art, Robot Man published first on https://medium.com/@ReloadedPCGames

[mrmichaelchadler]

Home Entertainment Consumer Guide: March 28, 2019

3 NEW TO NETFLIX

"Kung Fu Hustle" "The Lives of Others" "A Separation"

8 NEW TO BLU-RAY/DVD

"Aquaman"

At its best, James Wan's "Aquaman" is a live-action cartoon, complete with armies astride seahorses and sharks. It has a fantastic cast, including great supporting work from Nicole Kidman, Patrick Wilson, and Willem Dafoe. It's refreshingly goofy from a company (DC) that too often takes itself way too seriously. Really, the only problem with "Aquaman" is one common to the genre: bloat. There's no reason for this movie to be 2.5-hours long, and you can feel its charm washing away as the length sets in. My kids were excited for about an hour and it almost felt more like an obligation to finish it. I recommend watching it in installments. And focus on the fun stuff. 

Buy it here 

Special Features Going Deep Into the World of Aquaman Becoming Aquaman James Wan: World Builder Aqua Tech Atlantis Warfare The Dark Depths of Black Manta Heroines of Atlantis Villaneous Training Kingdoms of the Seven Seas Creating Undersea Creatures A Match Made in Atlantis Scene Study Breakdowns Exclusive Sneak Peek of Shazam!

"Detour" (Criterion)

An acknowledged classic of Poverty Row, Edward G. Ulmer's 1945 noir is as pitch black as the genre comes. Restored recently after years of people watching degraded copies, "Detour" has probably never looked this good. As expert Noah Isenberg explains in an excellent special feature, "Detour" was made for almost no money in roughly a week, depending on who you believe. It's a stunning piece of work, containing one of the best femme fatale performances of all time from Ann Savage. Ulmer and Savage's take on the role is instantly mesmerizing. Gone are the typically glamorous looks of the femme, replaced by grit and sweat and dirt. Savage's character feels threatening in such a perfect way that we know the minute our protagonist crosses paths with her, he's doomed. 

Buy it here 

Special Features New 4K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray Edgar G. Ulmer: The Man Off-Screen, a 2004 documentary featuring interviews with actor Ann Savage and filmmakers Roger Corman, Joe Dante, and Wim Wenders New interview with film scholar Noah Isenberg, author of Edgar G. Ulmer: A Filmmaker at the Margins New program about the restoration Janus Films rerelease trailer PLUS: An essay by critic and poet Robert Polito

"I Wanna Hold Your Hand" (Criterion)

Robert Zemeckis has been working with American nostalgia since his first film, 1978's "I Wanna Hold Your Hand," now available on a bonus-packed Criterion release. The film itself is a sweet comedy about not just Beatlemania but those years in which one had the time and energy to commit their lives to something like a band. A cousin of "American Graffiti," this ensemble piece is about a bunch of teenagers trying to get to "The Ed Sullivan Show" on the night that The Beatles would make TV and music history. It's a light-hearted comedy that doesn't hit every mark but is also truly hard to dislike. And it's particularly interesting as a stepping stone in the careers of both Zemeckis and Spielberg, who get together with Bob Gale for a fantastic special feature on this release about the making of the film. 

Buy it here 

Special Features New 4K digital restoration, approved by director Robert Zemeckis and cowriter Bob Gale, with 5.1 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack on the Blu-ray New conversation among Zemeckis, Gale, and executive producer Steven Spielberg New interview with actors Nancy Allen and Marc McClure Audio commentary from 2004 featuring Zemeckis and Gale The Lift (1972) and A Field of Honor (1973), two early short films by Zemeckis Trailer and radio spots PLUS: An essay by critic Scott Tobias

"If Beale Street Could Talk"

This might be the final great film of 2018 to be released on Blu-ray. There are some interesting films that came out the final few weeks of last year still to hit the market ("The Mule," "Bumblebee," others) but this is the last essential movie, one that you really need to see before you can close the book and move on to 2019. Barry Jenkins' adaptation of James Baldwin's book has been written about so many times since its TIFF debut, on this site alone, that there's not much I could possibly add to the conversation. Read my TIFF review. Read Odie's brilliant 4-star review. Read about it in our ten best. Read my interviews with Barry Jenkins and the stars of the film, KiKi Layne and Stephan James. I hold this movie very close to my heart and will for the rest of my life. It's gorgeous, riveting filmmaking and a true must-own on Blu-ray, especially given it has a commentary track by Jenkins himself. 

Buy it here 

Special Features Deleted Scenes Featurette: If Beale Street Could Talk: Poetry in Motion Audio Commentary by Barry Jenkins

"Mary Poppins Returns"

Everyone involved in this movie should give Emily Blunt a gift. Her prodigious charm is really the fuel that keeps this film moving (with no offense to Ben Whishaw and Emily Mortimer, who are always good). Blunt gets the film over its several dull passages, although even she can't save original songs that sound fine in the film but that I dare anyone to hum a section of outside of it. Like so many of the Disney live-action films, there's a magic missing here - the magic that allows a movie to live on in imagination when you're done watching it. This one is better than some (I'm still angry about "Alice in Wonderland" and "Beauty and the Beast") but that's mostly just because those movies didn't have a performer as charismatic and committed as Emily Blunt. For the record, my five-year-old STRONGLY disagrees. He loves this movie. But even he can't sing a song from it. 

Buy it here 

Special Features Deleted Song — "The Anthropomorphic Zoo" The Practically Perfect Making of "Mary Poppins Returns"  Seeing Things From a Different Point of View": The Musical Numbers of "Mary Poppins Returns"  Back to Cherry Tree Lane: Dick Van Dyke Returns  Practically Perfect Bloopers  Deleted Scenes Play Movie in Sing-Along Mode 

"Perfect Blue"

Satoshi Kon is an interesting enigma in that his name isn't as much of a household one as Hayao Miyazaki or Brad Bird but those who do know his work absolutely adore him. Kon's ambitious, visually breathtaking style is arguably never more brilliantly realized than in this 1999 masterpiece FINALLY getting a Blu-ray release for its 20th anniversary. That it took this long for a movie that so many people love to even get an HD release is telling in terms of how Kon's reputation doesn't seem to be at the level he deserves. 

Buy it here 

Special Features BRAND NEW REMASTER OF THE FILM NEW Lectures by Satoshi Kon featurette NEW Into The Blue featurette - New Interviews Original SD Version of Feature (Japanese mono Dolby Digital 2.0 with English subtitles) Angel of Your Heart Recording Sessions Angel of Your Heart Full English Version Theatrical Trailers and TV Spots—includes new trailers from US and UK re-releases Cast and Crew Interviews

"Spider-Man: Into the Spider-verse"

For months, it felt like Disney's "Incredibles 2" was the runaway favorite to take the Oscar for Best Animated Film. Who could have guessed that an animated superhero movie, which is usually the genre of straight-to-DVD fare, could be good enough to topple the highest grossing animated film of all time? Make no mistake -- this is no ordinary superhero movie. This is no ordinary animated movie. It may only be a few months old, but it feels like a classic already, a movie that I know I'll see at least a dozen times over the course of my lifetime. It gets richer and feels more ambitious each time I see it. This is a very strong edition of the HECG and I hope you got a nice refund from the IRS because this one is a must-own too. It also comes with some fantastic special features, including a cut of the film that includes several scenes that never got past the sketch phase re-cut into the movie. 

Buy it here 

Special Features We Are Spider-Man Spider-Verse: A New Dimension The Ultimate Comics Cast A Tribute to Stan Lee & Steve Ditko The Spider-Verse Super-Fan Easter Egg Challenge Designing Cinematic Comics Characters Heroes & Hams Alternate Universe Mode: In this all-new viewing experience, discover alternate scenes, plotlines, characters, and more with the filmmakers as your guide. "Sunflower" by Post Malone and Swae Lee "Familia" by Nicki Minaj & Anuel AA (feat. Bantu) All-New Original Short "Spider-Ham: Caught In a Ham" 

"Wanda" (Criterion)

I'll admit to not remembering having heard of Barbara Loden's "Wanda" until the Criterion edition showed up in my mailbox. It's a stunning movie, a bleak de-glamorization of the criminal life. A blue-collar woman named Wanda can barely make ends meet and has her kids taken away in a divorce. She basically stumbles into the life of a petty criminal, and the two form a strange, mesmerizing Bonnie and Clyde duo. He's abusive. She seems constantly uncertain, almost as if she could just wander off the face of the Earth. It's Loden's only film and it's a fascinating piece of work, almost akin to Cassavetes in its dirty, sweaty, naturalistic style. It's a shame Loden never got to make another movie, but I love that this one is getting appraised again a half-century after it was produced. 

Buy it here 

Special Features New 2K digital restoration by the UCLA Film & Television Archive, The Film Foundation, and Gucci, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray I Am Wanda, an hour-long documentary by Katja Raganelli featuring an interview with director Barbara Loden filmed in 1980 Audio recording of Loden speaking to students at the American Film Institute in 1971 Segment from a 1971 episode of The Dick Cavett Show featuring Loden The Frontier Experience (1975), a short educational film about a pioneer woman’s struggle to survive, directed by and starring Loden Trailer PLUS: An essay by film critic Amy Taubin

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[feadae]

For the Fairytale Asks: Muse, Spark, Roses, Castle, Swan Lake, candlelight, princess, sweet daisies, and dwarf.

Ooh wow you flatter me!

Muse: How do you like to relax?As long as I’m sitting by myself somewhere without anyone trying to get my attention, I’m fairly relaxed, but ideally I’d be in the little Hobbit-hole I’ve constructed for myself under my dorm bed, reading, writing, or watching something, in pajamas, with my blanket with classic book quotes on it. The basement of the university library is really nice, too, because you’re required to be stone silent down there, and it’s got a bunch of different kinds of seating for different studying needs, and that seating includes small couches with three walls, so you can pull a small desk in front of yourself and only have distractions in front of you, or you can pull two of the pods together and have a lovely nap (which is not actually that uncommon).

Spark: Favorite film?I’m really bad at picking favorites, so if I’m not careful, I’m just going to list my entire movie library… I usually default to The Princess Bride or Dead Poets Society though, and DPS is a particular favorite at the moment.

Roses: What fictional universe would you like to live in?D e c i s i o n sIf we’re talking living during the events of the book/movie/what have you and being involved in them, then probably Lord of the Rings, just because I’d trust the Fellowship with my dang life and I’m already basically a Hobbit anyway. Or maybe Stardust, because I just really love that movie and being a sky pirate would be fun as hell and also Charlie CoxIf we’re talking living day-to-day, not interacting with any of the characters, but living in the universe, then probably Harry Potter, post-Second-Wizarding-War, just because magic.If we’re talking in between, interacting with the characters and going on adventures of your own, rather than the plot of the book/movie/what have you, then probably CotIG, because it’s got an enormous cast of interesting characters, and I love them all, and good Lord, what I wouldn’t give to live in Tamerlane House for even a day.I’ve thought about this too much

Castle: Favorite fictional character?D E C I S I O N SThere are a whole ton of characters whom I adore, and there’s no way I’m choosing a most favorite from all of them, but a good default answer would be Hermione Granger, Ginny Weasley, and Luna Lovegood from Harry Potter. Say what you will about HP and JKR, and chances are I’ll agree, but I’ll never be able to ditch Harry Potter, because it was a hugely formative part of my childhood (seriously, one of my favorite memories is a few months after Deathly Hallows was published–a family tradition from the time I discovered HP in second grade was for my mom to read the books out loud to the whole family a chapter or two at a time–we had just reached the Battle of Hogwarts, it was a Friday night, and my brother and I were about to go to bed, but we wanted to know what happened next, so Mom made us a deal: we would get ready for bed and she would sit out in the hall with Dad and read while we got ready (our rooms and the bathroom we used were all within 20 feet of each other and it was a narrow hallway). So that was what we did, and when we were both ready for bed, we sat down next to Mom and Dad while Mom finished the chapter, and then she kept going, and we didn’t complain because hey we got to find out what happened next and we got to stay up late, and that was how we finished the series–sitting on the floor of the hallway, all four of us, in our pajamas, and Mom said, “The scar hadn’t pained him in 19 years. All was well.” and closed the book and we just sat there with the best Post-Book Bittersweetness I’ve ever experienced). And I’m pretty Hermione-ish now, but when I was a little kid, I was basically a carbon copy of Young Hermione (personality-wise), and I dressed as Hermione for Halloween for four years in a row, and she’s been my favorite character for a long time. As I grew up and got used to the fact that you don’t have to have just one favorite anything, my Favorite Character roster expanded exponentially, and I grew to love Ginny and Luna as much as I love Hermione, because they’re all badasses in their own ways and they each have valuable lessons that they taught little Elementary-School Me, that I carry with me to this day, and I swear I will listen to any critiques you may have about JKR’s writing, but these characters are way too near and dear to my heart for me to eschew HP altogether.(And yes I realize I could have answered this question with “prolly Hermione lol” and done the trick but that’s not how I function)

Swan Lake: Do you like poems? If so, what’s one of your favorites?Fun fact: I didn’t care about poetry that much until the first time I watched Dead Poets Society, and then I went on a spree with a poetry anthology my mom had, basically taking it as my own and dog-earing the pages of poems I liked (this very anthology is on my desk in my dorm room as we speak, lo these many years later). I still don’t know very much about poetry, nor do I usually care to learn, but I’ll always have a soft spot for Shakespeare and Poe, and in the weeks of obsession after I rewatch Dead Poets Society, I pull that anthology back out and reread my dog-eared poems. So here are a couple of those.“Engraved on the Collar of a Dog, Which I Gave to His Royal Highness” by Alexander PopeI am his Highness’ dog at Kew;Pray tell me, sir, whose dog are you?“The Laboratory” by Robert Browning Now that I, tying thy glass mask tightly,My gaze through these faint smokes curling whitely, As thou plyest thy trade in this devil’s smithy–Which is the poison to poison her prithee?

He is with her; and they know that I knowWhere they are, what they do: they believe my tears flowWhile they laugh, laugh at me, at me fled to the drearEmpty church to pray God in, for them!–I am here. 

Grind away, moisten and mash up thy paste,Pound at thy powder–I am not in haste!Better sit thus, and observe thy strange things,Than go where men wait me and dance at the King’s.

That, in the mortar–you call it a gum?Ah, the brave tree whence such gold oozings come!And yonder soft phial, the exquisite blue,Sure to taste sweetly–is that poison too?

Had I but all of them, the and thy treasures,What a wild crowd of invisible pleasures!To carry pure death in an earring, a casket,A signet, a fan-mount, a filigree basket!

Soon, at the King’s a mere lozenge to giveAnd Pauline should have just thirty minutes to live!But to light a pastille, and Elise, with her headAnd her breast and her arms and her hands, should drop dead!

Quick–is it finished? The color’s too grim!Why not soft like the phial’s, enticing and dim?Let it brighten her drink, let her turn it and stir,And try it and taste, ere she fix and prefer!

What a drop! She’s not little, no minion like me–That’s why she ensnared him: this never will freeThe soul from those masculine eyes–say “no!”To that pulse’s magnificent come-and-go.

For only last night, as they whispered, I broughtMy own eyes to beat on her so, that I thoughtCould I keep them one half minute fixed, she would fall,Shriveled; she fell not; yet this does it all!

Not that I bid you spare her the pain!Let death be felt and the proof remain;Brand, burn up, bite into its grace–He is sure to remember her dying face!

Is it done? Take my mask off! Nay, be not morose;It kills her, and this prevents seeing it close:The delicate droplet, my whole fortune’s fee–If it hurts her, beside, can it ever hurt me?

Now, take all my jewels, gorge gold to your fill,You may kiss me, old man, on my mouth if you will!But brush this dust off me, lest horror it bringsEre I know it–next moment I dance at the King’s!

My choir in high school also sang a song with the text from “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” by Robert Frost, and the song was freaking gorgeous, so that poem’s close to my heart too.

Candlelight: Coffee or tea?Honestly, probably neither. I’d love to like both of them, but no matter how much cream and sugar I put in them, I can’t get past the bitterness. I do like the occasional chai latte, though (they’re like liquefied snickerdoodles!), so both and neither at the same time, I guess.

Princess: Favorite TV show at the moment?I don’t watch TV that much; I don’t have the time to commit to whole seasons of things… I’m not even remotely caught up, but I enjoyed the few episodes I watched of A Series of Unfortunate Events. I also binged the first 10-11 episodes of Switched at Birth the other day, but I’m really only watching it for the ASL. I don’t really like any of the characters, except Daphne and Melody and probably Regina. I want to like Emmett, I really do, but boy needs to get his romantic feelings under control; he can’t keep ping-ponging between Daphne and Bay. That’s gonna end really poorly.EDIT: Can’t believe I forgot these–The West Wing and NCIS are staples in my life. NCIS is just loads of fun, and I love the characters, and I could rant for days about how damn GOOD The West Wing is. It was written by Aaron Sorkin, who’s one of my favorite playwrights (he wrote A Few Good Men, the play the movie’s based on), and it’s just written so damn well. I don’t typically give a shit about the inner workings of the government, but The West Wing makes me give many shits. Many of them. All the characters are intellectual badasses, and I love them all so much.

Sweet Daisies: Do you believe in love at first sight?That’s called infatuation, kiddos, and it’s not healthy for anyone.

Dwarf: Do you enjoy horror films?I’ve never seen any, because I’m only a few years out of spending 95% of my time with my family, and my mom hates horror films with a passion, so we never watched any. I don’t have an interest in that many of them, either, ‘cause I’m a bit of a scaredy-cat (barely made it through Chapter One of Bendy and the Ink Machine; quit five minutes into FNAF 1), but I really wanna watch A Quiet Place, primarily because ASL and partially because my horror-movie-aficionado friends say the atmosphere was like nothing they’ve ever experienced.

Thanks, Al! Sorry about the wall of text, but I’m really glad I got the opportunity to type it all!

[euro3plast-fr]

Yes, a robot can write your advertizing copy – here’s how

...And you won't be able to tell the difference

2017 is the year that copywriting by Artificial Intelligence (AI) has moved from science fiction fantasy to commercial fact. Game-changing new tools mean that computers can now produce convincing, accurate product descriptions that look as if they were penned by a trained copywriter. The future has arrived.

Download Business Resource – AI and Machine Learning for Marketing

The guide aims to help businesses of all sizes to apply to their marketing, focusing on Artificial Intelligence. All businesses can now use the services we recommend to implement Machine Learning. The guide explains why, how with an actionable and practical approach.

Access the AI and Machine Learning for Marketing

Many people regard AI as a bit of a joke and cannot imagine a day when software will write better than humans. Tay, the ill-fated Microsoft chatbot, became a laughing stock when she went from innocently playful tweets to racist rants and swear words in just 24 hours.

Who wouldn’t snigger at the romance novel titles generated by a state of the art neural pathway software, including such classics as Surgery Seduction, The Man for Dr. Husband and Lady Convenience Wife?

Yet in 2016 a world first for AI writing occurred at the Rio Olympics. The Washington Post covered 300 events using Heliograf, their in-house AI software. These robot-generated articles were published alongside ones written by humans.

Crucially, no-one spotted the difference. The paper now regularly uses Heliograf for sports reports like the one below and the same software is used under license by news organizations around the world.

Massive investment in Artificial Intelligence

So why has AI suddenly got so advanced? One reason is a recent explosion in investment that is now starting to bear fruit. Since 2014, AI has been a hot new target for ambitious venture capital funds. Across Europe, fundraising is booming. In 2017 there were 271 funding rounds for AI start-ups raising an average of $3.7m each, according to Serena Capital. That was a 250% increase on the previous year of 83 rounds.

Although these include a broad spectrum of AI specialties, not just those involved with Natural Language Processing (NLP), the trend is clear. It’s little wonder that Gartner predicts that by 2018, 20% of all content will be authored by machines and the International Data Corporation (IDC) estimates that the AI market will grow from $8billion in 2016 to more than $47billion in 2020.

Natural Language Understanding v Natural Language Generation

Any human who tries to learn a new language generally finds it easier to understand than to write or converse. Computers are the same. Natural Language Understanding (NLU) is much easier for them than Natural Language Generation (NLG).

NLU software is brilliant at hunting for keywords or key concepts in documents or the spoken word or rapidly scan thousands of pages and making sense of it all. However, NLU can’t create an article worthy of the Washington Post.

For that you need its much smarter cousin, NLG, the software designed to create original text from scratch that could soon be writing your web copy. Because it’s so difficult there are hundreds of tech firms worldwide working in NLU but only a handful dedicated to NLG.

Beautiful writing by Quill

An acknowledged leader in the field of Natural Language Generation (NLG) is Chicago-based Narrative Science and its platform Quill. Many NLG systems so far have been underpinned by templates, which is why so many sound robotic.

By contrast, Quill is smart enough to understand the user’s intent, pick out what’s interesting and develop an understanding of the story to be told. Feed it some structured data and Quill will transform it into a written narrative with a tone and style that reads as if a living person had sat down and tapped it out on a keyboard.

Customers of Narrative Science are a diverse bunch, including USAA, Mastercard, and the US Intelligence community. The company also works with over forty different partners including Microsoft, Deloitte and Tableau.

Product description copy written by a computer

One of its partners, Indix, has developed a Products Information Platform that marries the writing capabilities of Quill with its own vast catalogue of product data. To date it has collected information on over a billion branded products, plucking details from internet sources such as retail and brand websites and feeds.

Indix then uses AI and machine learning to clean, refine and structure each record into a standardized format. Key details such as category, price, size, availability and other features are all captured, ready to be made into unique, search engine optimized product descriptions. It’s hard to believe that this copy for adhesive (below) was written by a computer:

Say you have a website selling barbecues.  At the moment, you would need to get specifications from a dozen or more different manufacturers. All the sizes, burner and grate specifications, colour options, accessories and other attributes come to you in different formats, often with key features missing.

You then have to rearrange them into a standard order and write some copy in your brand style. Each one has to be checked for accuracy, approved for tone and style and tracked as it makes its way through the system. It’s expensive, laborious and time consuming with lots of potential for error.

That could soon be a thing of the past. Once everything is set up, Indix can create vast numbers of standardized product descriptions in just a few hours, all guaranteed accurate, free of spelling errors, optimized for search engines and at incredibly low cost. If copy needs to be split tested, Indix can swiftly and easily generate two different versions, such as one with bullet points and one without.

Copywriting project management

Over the years, I have headed up teams of writers producing large amounts of product copy. There is striking parallels in the way those projects are managed and the AI process.

Both start with a setup phase, in which a master document is created with all the available information for every product. I give the writers examples of tone and style while Indix builds a phrase library. In both scenarios a tight specification is drawn up defining attributes such as word count, number of bullets, keywords, where the benefits should appear, important features not obvious from the product photos and call to action.

If you think that sounds rather uncreative, then you’re right. There’s a place for creativity in copywriting, but a product page is not it. Consumers want clear information not poetry.  In a previous blog about large-scale copywriting projects, I argued that a cookie-cutter approach not only improves conversion but also reduces costs and frees up management resources.

Indix may not be for everyone, however. It currently only offers the service for products that are already on sale elsewhere. That’s not so helpful if you are the manufacturer selling direct and exclusively, although in future it may be possible to use the same system with data from your own records. The other hurdle is a minimum quantity of 10,000 products, which rules out many of the smaller and mid-sized ecommerce sites.

Email subject lines written by robots

Another trailblazer in the NLG field is London-based Phrasee.  It specializes in writing email subject lines. It’s a crucial part of the marketing because if an email isn’t opened it doesn’t get read. Phrasee’s technology is so advanced it captures the brand voice with uncanny accuracy and can even include emojis, emotions, colloquialisms, and alliteration.

Using science to learn what makes the audience tick, its software measures thousands of data points including behavioural analytics as well as emotional drivers. Split testing of the subject lines and scheduling is handled by the client’s Email Service Provider (ESP).

Phrasee doesn’t just produce subject lines in a fraction of the time it would take a copywriter, it claims to improve them. 95% of its AI-generated subject lines outperform those written by humans, like this one for the loyalty card Nectar which gained 41% more opens and 64% more click-throughs:

Control (human being) - 3x points AND 50% off Virgin Trains East Coast Advance Tickets

New (AI) - After 18 August it'll be too late... Make huge savings and collections with 3x the points and 50% off Advance tickets

Below are three more Phrasee subject lines that all got double-digit uplifts in open and click-through rates against the same control above.

Build up your balance...

How many points could you collect when you book? After 18 August it'll be too late...

Make the most of your train journey...

Pay per algorithm

Phrasee charges a fixed fee per algorithm. Different targets, such as men or women, lapsed or loyal customers, each need their own algorithm. It’s not cheap, but the proof is in the split test results. Demonstrably higher open rates keep clients like Dominos, dfs and Wowcher coming back for more. Saul Lopes, Customer Lifecycle Lead at Virgin Holidays is a fan, because “Phrasee’s AI has increased our email revenue by a few million pounds”

It takes around 3-4 weeks for Phrasee to build an algorithm and start generating subject lines that are on-brand and appropriate. The minimum list size is around 200,000 and the technology also works best if there’s at least a year’s worth of data about the performance of old email campaigns. The more subject line results that can be fed in, the quicker the algorithm starts to get warm and produce sales busting suggestions.

Currently, Phrasee only puts its AI to work on subject lines. However, the firm does have plans to offer email body copy as well as product descriptions in the future.

AI blog posts, commentaries, and personalization

It’s not only copywriters who could have their work done by a machine. Texas-based Yseop (pronounced Easy-Op) is a self-serve software used by banks, retailers and Fortune 500 companies to write commentaries from Excel charts at the press of a button. Would you guess this (below) had been written by a computer?

Personalisation is taken to new heights by the NLG tool Wordsmith, owned by Automated Insights. In one case study, the basketball team Orlando Magic used it to create customised emails and in-app messages unique to each one of their fans, like the one below.

  What does this mean for the future of writers?

I’ve been a copywriter for over twenty years, and the question everyone asks is ‘Are you worried that a robot will take over your job?’

Analyst Henry H Eckerson of Eckerson Group believes that will happen.

“In some cases NLG tools will reduce the number of people required to generate and analyze data. For business owners, this is great news: they can reassign staff to other jobs, increase their productivity, or lay them off”

AI vendors refute this, claiming that NLG tools augment, rather than replace, the writers and free up skilled staff to focus on higher value tasks, such as reading and acting on the reports generated.

Arden Manning, Senior Vice-President at Yseop says,

“None of us went to University to write data-driven reports all day long, but for many of us that is the reality. Asking highly educated analysts to write data-driven reports is a waste of time, money and human capacity.”

Jeremy Gilbert, Director of Strategic Initiatives at the Washington Post concurs:

"In no way do we want to replace human reporters with automated reporters," he said. "We want to free up reporters to do the kind of high-impact stories they want to do."

From my perspective as an experienced copywriter, I feel the same. It’s much more interesting to write a radio commercial or develop a new brand positioning than spend all day churning out standardized bullet points. There have been times when that’s actually made me feel like a robot!

But it was product descriptions that I cut my teeth on as a junior writer. If those kinds of writing opportunities disappear, how do the next generation of copywriters perfect their craft?  The industry as a whole will need to rethink training and qualifications for copywriters. If that helps humans stay smarter than robots, it’s got to be a good thing.

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Thanks to Mel Henson for sharing their advice and opinion in this post. Mel is an author, consultant and copywriter specialising in ecommerce websites and retail catalogues. She is the founder of copywriting agency Words that Sell, and Head of Creative at AWA digital an international conversion rate optimisation agency. You can follow her on Twitter or connect on LinkedIn.

from Blog – Smart Insights https://www.smartinsights.com/persuasion-marketing/web-copywriting/yes-robot-can-write-advertizing-copy-heres/

[bdamantherapper]

BDaMan’s Show Log (6/23/2017-6/24/2017)

*The following events take place between Friday, June 23rd and Saturday, June 24th.* Friday 12:01am - As Show Day has finally approached, it's time to start logging the events and work my way towards getting in that zone for tonight's show. 12:15am - As I usually do each day around this time, I decide to check my "On This Day" on Facebook. Found a lot of stuff relating to the "Here's The Man" release in 2013, along with a bunch of show stuff from past years. The most interesting part I discovered was that Facebook reminded it that it had been four years since B.Allen and I became Facebook friends. For anyone who knows my history real well, you'd know that obviously I've known B.Allen and Jabri way longer than 4 years. I'm assuming there was a short time period in 2013 (for whatever reason) that B.Allen and I weren't Facebook friends. All of that aside, I'm reminded that as the end of June approaches, it marks the 16 year mark that I've known B.Allen and Jabri. (Short version of the normal version of the story: Met them in late June 2001 at my Grandma's place, their mom married my dad in 2004) I'm reminded that the people you meet in life can be minor or major, depending on how the natural flow of life goes. If you would've told me a year prior in June 2000 that I'd be pursuing music heavily with someone who not only has the same name as me (with a different spelling), but someone that would be a big brother to me - I would've been so confused, to a point where I don't believe it. 12:38am (cont. from 12:15am): Since 2014, I've done full 30-45 minute performances (also known as sets) with B.Allen and prior to that, full performances with variations of the New Life crew, one exception being June 2009 at The Beat Coffeehouse. Tonight's performance marks the first full solo performance of mine since the 2009 one. B.Allen and I had a mutual understanding days ago that he wouldn't be able to perform with me for this show. I'm not taking it as hard as I once would have, it's hard to go from that transition of having someone with you on stage all these years back to solo performances. As they say, though: "The show must go on." 1:05am - Only in my house can I watch my mom watch "Orange Is The New Black" while I watch "The Bernie Mac Show". The way our house is set up, I get the best of both worlds. 3:05am - Night #2 of looking at TV Tropes of various shows. TV Tropes are officially as interesting as samples in music. 4:35am - Still not completely tired yet. Thank goodness for Melatonin and "Hey Arnold!" It'll take its course soon enough... 9:54am - With the help of some foolproof alarms, I managed to wake up when I needed to. With how long today's gonna be, I didn't wanna waste any time. 10:01am - Can't go wrong with The Price Is Right! Now just gotta decide if I'm having breakfast or lunch today. 11:22am - After a fair amount of promoting the show, I've decided on having lunch. Can't let the hustle of promoting delay the day. 12:17pm - Now that lunch is done, it's time to get some practicing in. 12:41pm - I really hate how any form of text communication can be misconstrued. I often can read through it, but sometimes, there are people who just come off so passive aggressive. Put some respeck on your texts to me. 1:24pm - Time to get some practice in! 2:12pm - My solo practice is cut a bit short, as I had to call Tony back (imagine Frank Gallagher, but a bit shorter and slightly more sane) to check in with him and see how he's doing. Convos with him always remind me to never take myself too seriously and to never take any disrespect. 3:02pm - Gotta get ready for the final practice with the Gazda band, prior to the show. Here comes the long part of my day. 3:43pm - Cos lets me know that he'll be here to pick me up shortly. I feel like it took us a long time to not only do music together, but a long time for us to do shows together. It's something we've talked about since we worked together at Walgreens. To put it in perspective, it's about 5-6 years in the making. 3:58pm - We've arrived at Dave's place to get the final show practice in before the show. I also finally get to meet KJ and Blair, two very talented musicians who will be involved with tonight's set. 4:56pm - Practice is sounding awesome with everyone here! Can't wait to see everyone's reactions to the set. 5:43pm - Practice is complete! Time to pack up shop and make the travel to Nomad. Shout-out to Blair for the ride. 5:53pm - Had a chance to listen to my recordings from the practice before we left. It was dope hearing just how well my songs meshed with the Gazda stuff. Shoutout to Dave for hooking that up. 6:07pm - For the first time since November 2015, I have arrived at Nomad! A tad earlier than I expected, but oh well. 6:36pm - A nap might've been a smart idea. I'm tired as a mug. I shouldn't have trusted the alarm tones of "Morning's Here" from Friends, a Jadakiss laugh compilation, a Kanye noises compilation and a compilation of Big Sean saying "Oh god!" It got me up, but I'm not sure if I'm gonna be staying up haha. Godspeed. 6:54pm - Ran into the homie, Kama here at Nomad World Pub. Hopefully gonna link with him on some shows and music. 7:05pm - My all-time favorite James Brown song, "The Payback" is on right now.  I'm containing my hype haha. Mitch (one of Dave's roommates) is spinning the classics right now! 7:09pm - The OG is turnt about "The Payback" right now. 7:43pm - Only in my lifetime can I just witnessed a "Happy Vagina" be drawn. Somewhat doubles as an happy avocado haha. KJ's artistry at work! All for the love of Planned Parenthood, y'all. 7:48pm - Just found out about 7 minutes ago about all the set times. I go on with Gazda at 10:45. 7:59pm - Aw, shit! "Flashlight" is playing!! For those who don't know, that is my favorite song of all time. 8:23pm - These fries are tasty as hell, though!! Shouts out to Sarah for sharing her fries. Chronicles of a Broke Rapper. 8:33pm - First time in the Green Room since the first Culchr Showcase from November 2015. So many memories plus thoughts racing through my mind. 8:47pm - Before I left the Green Room, I saw an old Culchr sticker we put down there. It felt so symbolic to see that, despite not quite feeling the Culchr surroundings love today. No Alex or B.Allen with me for this one. However, I hear "Juicy Fruit" by Mtume and it makes me feel better. Most specifically, the sampled vocals that Biggie interpolated for "Juicy". 8:59pm - Just heard the sample for "Looking At The Front Door" by Main Source. I believe Cos is DJing at the moment, not sure. On another note, it's dope that it's still pure daylight at 9pm. 9:16pm - Had to grab the portable charger quick. As I came back up and outside, I ran into the big homie, Carnage. Last time I saw him was at our Club Underground performance in November 2015. It's gonna be interesting taking the stage after his band performs. That's a mighty name to follow when it comes to the lyrics. 9:28pm - Cricket and Bernard are the emcees of the night. They seem like naturals at it. This is gonna be an interesting ass night. 9:31pm - Wild Age is up. This is the band that Blair is also in. They have a good 90s type rock sound. 9:51pm - Well then...looks like we're after Wild Age. Time to speed up the flip of the switch! 10:03pm - Apparently, we aren't next lol. Cos told me that Everything's Been Taken wanted to trade, but then retracted said trade after realizing they were already in the spot they needed to be in, set wise. Total tactical error. On a side, "We're on the move...nothing can stop us now! FEET DON'T FAIL ME NOW!" 10:31pm - Everything's Been Taken (Carnage, Laura Lou and Soul Beautiful) are up. I expect nothing less than dopeness here. They don't call Carnage the "Show Stealer" for nothing! If you add Carnage to an eclectic of musicians, there's minimal room for error. I'd like to also add that on the local scene, Carnage has been a driving force of inspiration for how my style has morphed. Ever since him and Desdamona came to my Poetry class in Senior year, I've been finding ways to carry that growl in my vocals while having some fun with it. That's about 7 years of me taking notes, sure ain't stopping now. 11pm - Got my drink tickets from Cos finally. Time to drink this Surly Hell. Still blown away by Carnage's performance of "MN Mean". Goddamn!! 11:15pm - Everything's Been Taken is on their final song, meaning that Gazda and myself are next! Now, it's time to flip that switch very soon. 11:21pm - Had to give Carnage props on the dope set. Told him how he's been an inspiration since 2010 and he told me how I was doing good to represent for the big men by having energy on stage. Man...my jitters are kicking in fast! 11:50pm - In the words of Sting, "It's SHOWTIME!" Saturday 12:21am - Wow! That turned out doper than I ever imagined!! Got some good props from a good chunk of people, especially Carnage himself. Even the OG from Louisiana gave me props. He was shocked as hell that I went the whole time prior to the show without saying anything about performing tonight. I still gotta work on the whole not losing the voice thing, but I pulled it off decently enough with some "change in mid-stream" mannerisms. 12:35pm - Shoutout to Sarah and Shane for letting me get a slice of their pizza. Hedgies Pizza, that's a major key! Shout-out to KJ as well for her very, very talented vocals. Shout-out to Dave for doing his thing on the bongos, as well as Blair for the keyboard and guitar - so dope! And of course, shout-out to Cos for getting it all together and having me involved. I have a feeling this is the start of a great musical relationship. 12:53am - Big shout-out to Blair for the ride home. Saved a young brotha some time. Wish I could've stayed to see Ayvah, but my body was telling me to get home for sleep. 1:10am - "Back to my palace, cause I suffer Morning Madness!" 1:45am - I'm about to slay these hot dogs and get ready for the decompress portion of the night. 2:52am - Catching up on Beat Shazam with my mom. At least this keeps me hype about music. 4:20am - As I watch "Malcolm & Eddie", I reflect on the day as a whole. Very, very few negative moments and a whole lot of positive moments (even some unexpected positive moments). A truly glorious day. I never understand how I manage to have so much energy after this much time has passed. One of many of my life's mysteries. Until the next show log, this is BDaMan - closing it out!