#I can only speculate and make 50 different suggestions for where the story could go from here

[moongothic]

You know, I would love it if we could see Mihawk just. Get slightly fucked up by someone, have his sword stolen and watch him figure out how to fight with some random ass sword instead

I just think. It'd be neat.

Like we kinda know how The World's Greatest Swordsman fights with his itty bitty knife, we know what kind of damage he can do with his iconic Yoru

I just think it'd be fun to see him fight with a regular katana and try to get his stolen sword back or summin' IDK

[kindestegg]

Deltarune: On tea, relationships, and why people probably need to stop exaggerating

Alright, so ever since the introduction of the “character flavored” teas in chapter 2, there has been a lot of discussion about them. If you haven’t heard of it yet, in Deltarune Chapter 2, there’s an item that’s a tea that you can buy from an NPC and choose the flavor of, giving you a flavor that is named after a party member. So, Kris tea, Noelle Tea, Susie Tea, and Ralsei Tea.

The fun thing about this item is that it can more or less be used to “track” the relationships between the characters, so to speak. For example, if Noelle has the Susie tea, even if she’s not supposed to drink it due to normally leaving the party, she’ll still have a reaction to it, wondering if they would sell this in gallons and recovering an absurd amount of HP, 400 to be precise.

(this is long as hell, so please continue reading under the cut)

These teas are also actually a reference to a book series Toby is a fan of, Sideways Stories from Wayside School, which does have a chapter about students having ice cream flavored after their classmates. This is most evident when the characters drink their own tea, which tastes like nothing to them and recovers the least amount of HP: 10. In the books, the students also could not perceive the taste of their own flavor of ice cream.

So, the fandom gets ahold of this information and starts testing out the teas and how characters react to them, right? The thing is, I’ve seen people kind of exaggerate the importance of these items and even the meanings of them, and while I think everyone’s entitled to harmless headcanons speculating on the relationship of characters, the problem is people are using these teas as immutable proof and part of their theories.

One of such exaggerations comes mostly in the form of the infamous Ralsei Tea, as to which Kris apparently does not show much reaction, though curiously Ralsei is still happy to see Kris drinking it, and it only recovers 60 HP. For reference, the teas usually cap at a good 120 HP, which is when a character loves the flavor, Noelle being the outlier because she really is just that in love with Susie. For the most part the Fun Gang has pretty positive reactions to each other’s flavor of teas, recovering 120 HP… with the exception of Kris’ reaction towards Ralsei tea.

And the problem starts now: Due to this, people started using this little tidbit in their theories, claiming this was proof that Kris actually dislikes or even hates Ralsei, that we should be ashamed of ourselves for making Kris hug Ralsei, that it is torture for them that we choose nice dialogue options towards Ralsei, some going as far as to claim this is somehow tied to the infamous “Ralsei is secretly evil” theories.

But does this speculation hold any actual weight when analyzed more deeply?

… No. I’m sorry, it just does not, I’m not going to entertain this. In this post, I’m going to deconstruct how the teas really work, and exactly why claiming that this is good enough proof that Kris would dislike Ralsei is an exaggeration at best and downright false at worse.

To truly make a precise conclusion, we must first look at the full picture. We know that 10 HP means “tastes like nothing”, and we know that 120 HP means “tastes amazing”, but are there any other reactions that aren’t either 10 or 120, aside from the 60 HP we already know from Ralsei tea?

Pictured: Noelle reacting to Kris tea.

Pictured: Kris reacting to Noelle tea.

Pictured: Ralsei reacting to Noelle tea.

Pictured: Noelle reacting to Ralsei tea.

I think what people forget here is that you don’t have to really adore someone or outright hate them. Sometimes you’re more neutral on people. And I think that’s what happens here. As you can see here, Ralsei recovers 10 less HP for Noelle than Kris does for him, and still calls her flavor “soft and sweet”. Meanwhile, Noelle claims his tea has “nothing in it”, even though she still recovers 50 hp.

Does this somehow mean Ralsei hates Noelle, or she hates him, for that matter? … No, that wouldn’t make sense, they just met, they know nothing about each other. We do learn here one important thing though, flavor is not tied to HP recovery, as in, the flavor of each character’s tea will taste different to a different person based on what they perceive of them.

As a comparative example, while Kris tea tastes like apple juice to Susie due to her always smelling the apple shampoo they use, Kris tea tastes like blueberries, which is a reference to Kris’ appearance in the Dark World. So while Ralsei tea tastes like nothing to Noelle as she can’t perceive him well enough yet, it still heals 50 HP due to it not being her own tea, and Ralsei heals for the same amount, but he seems to perceive others based on appearance and wants to find something good to say, so he ends up tasting it as something “soft and sweet” because that’s what Noelle appears like.

We can also gain a new “base” HP recovery that is accounted for when characters drink tea that is not their own: 50 HP. And we know 50 HP means “I was literally just made aware of your existence and can’t comment much on you yet”. Now, if you look at Kris and Noelle, they recover 70 HP from each other’s tea. In Noelle’s words, they have been neighbors their entire lives, yet they still find it hard to call each other friends, necessarily. Although you can choose the prompt “we’re friends”, the reasoning still stands: Kris and Noelle just don’t have that much to say about each other. If you remember, when you visit Rudy at the hospital in chapter 1, then Noelle afterwards, they’ll comment on how Kris usually isn’t as involved or interested in their neighbor’s business, suggesting they really don’t hang out as much as you’d think.

So, 50 HP, 70 HP. Where does that leave us for Ralsei’s 60 HP? Does it actually reveal evidence of hatred or at least dislike?

… The answer, if you’ve been paying any attention, is no, of course not. If 50 HP means “literally just learned the other exists” while 70 HP means “not exactly great friends but have known each other for a long time and shared memories”, then that puts Ralsei at a pretty advantageous spot all things considered. Even with him acting somewhat suspicious, even with him being a creature from an entirely new magical world Kris was made aware of literally a day ago, even with Ralsei’s clingy behavior, Kris considers him more than just some random person they just met, and almost a good acquaintance to the level of Noelle.

And sure, you could still bring up comparisons to the higher HP recoveries, like Susie recovering 120 HP from everyone despite also not really being exactly friends with any of these people for too long, and for that I will say…

That girl will eat anything and considering they are all flavors she enjoys she’ll obviously down it in a second, and

Susie is just… a more open person. Once you get her guard down and let her know you truly want to be her friend and think she is cool, she’ll immediately consider you a friend and part of her team. (It’s also kind of sad in a way because it shows she may be desperate for the feeling of belonging but let’s not get into that right now).

Kris, however, is a much more reserved person. Once again I must remind you how everyone in Hometown comments about Kris not usually being very outgoing or talkative. Hell, even when they drink Noelle tea, no one can tell whether they like it or not. Susie may be an exception to this rule, simply because they do have a lot in common, particularly to the fact she was also always an awkward quiet person that their classmates could never place and would often get in trouble. Even if she was mean to them and a downright bully in chapter 1, teens can still have some pretty weird appreciations, and you can tell they must have been wanting to befriend her from the start. It simply just is a better relationship to them. Otherwise, people they haven’t invested in knowing well will probably not cause the same reaction.

Bottom line is… why are we having this debate again? In the end, it feels rather silly. Yes, Kris doesn’t recover 120 HP from Ralsei tea. Big deal? That doesn’t mean they hate or even dislike him, that there’s a deep turmoil and conflict going on between the two already. Ralsei is just a new friend they are still getting used to, that’s it. Can’t blame the kid for having boundaries.

For further proof, if you learn more about the content that is being referenced here, you’ll learn that in the same chapter of the book, there is actually a way for one’s flavor to taste “horrible” due to a person being perceived that way, but at no point in these reactions it’s suggested anyone’s flavor tastes bad, that any of them are disgusted, so I doubt any of these reactions can be seen as dislike.

Dang… this got a little long… but I just felt like I had to make this post because, reiterating, I find myself a little irritated at the fact people will use the tea’s reactions as part of their theories, claiming it as actual proof, when it is far from proving anything.

And before someone brings it up, yes, Kris has been shown to prefer Susie over Ralsei, do I have to point out the flaw in that logic? Preferring someone doesn’t mean you outright dislike the other person.

Moral of the story is: Don’t take conclusions for your theories without good backing in canon, feel free to make your headcanons but don’t state it as proof, byeee.

[makeste]

some rambly Wednesday night thoughts on Kacchan’s hero name

so out of acknowledgement of the fact that the vast majority of fandom has basically accepted Dynamight as canon, I have been doing some analyzing of my own internal fandom biases these past few days, trying to identify just what it is that’s still making me have such a hard time accepting this name reveal. and I think I’ve pinpointed that now. and so now that I have, I would like to partially renege on my previous post, because that was four whole days ago, and we have to grow and change with the times or else they will a-change without us.

anyway, so basically what it boils down to is that for me, it’s not enough for his name to just be an All Might tribute. for me, the reveal of oh, he named himself after All Might is just not enough on its own to justify having a 200-chapter arc devoted to this plot. it’s not a satisfying resolution. because the thing is, we already knew that. and so that’s basically the thought that’s been running through my head these past few days whenever I see posts analyzing the new name. okay, but we already knew that, though.

I’m trying to figure out how best to describe this, but basically it’s like this constant feeling of waiting for someone to finally finish the rest of their sentence. like, yeah, I get that, I already heard that part. but where’s the rest of it? because this doesn’t tell us anything new, is the thing. this is something we’ve known about Bakugou since day one. “I’ll even surpass All Might and become the best hero out there.”  yes, he looks up to All Might, that’s fine and that’s great, but we knew that.

here’s what it is for me. I need the name reveal to answer this specific question: what makes the Kacchan from chapter 252 different from the Kacchan all the way back in chapter 45? what is it that’s changed? what is different about him now? different enough that it took a journey of more than 200 chapters for him to finally settle on this choice?

and in my view, the answer to this question is very clearly not All Might, but Deku.

Deku is what has changed for him. his relationship with Deku. his restored trust in Deku. his desire to make amends to Deku. that’s the difference. this is what chapter 252 Kacchan has that chapter 45 Kacchan did not have. this is the only answer that to me makes any kind of narrative sense. when he makes the decision in chapter 252, when he finally settles on a name, his mind is clearly fixated on thoughts of atonement. and so his chosen name, in the end, has to relate back to Deku in some way in order for it to connect. that link has to be there somehow. that’s the only way that his name ties in with all of his character growth. that’s the only possible way this is going to feel right to me.

so yeah, if it turns out that the origins of the name “Dynamight” begin and end with Katsuki being a colossal fanboy nerd, I will be disappointed, ngl. not because I don’t think his admiration for All Might is important, because it is. but I will be disappointed because “I want to be like All Might” is his starting line, not his finish line. I’ll be disappointed because he’s had so much character growth since the story began that for him to choose a name that’s seemingly unrelated to all of that would seriously feel like a letdown.

having said that, there is one popular theory which, if true, would check off that box of “the name has to be connected to Deku” which is apparently such a deal-breaker to me! and that is the “Dynamight is a name that Deku originally suggested for him when they were kids” theory (as seen here for example). which I guess technically falls less under the category of “theory” and more under “speculation”, but still. the thing is, it’s all based on reasoning rather than evidence, but I think said reasoning is pretty sound. it’s basically that same rationale of “this doesn’t make narrative sense if there is no connection to Deku; so therefore, if this is his chosen name, it means that it must relate back to Deku in some way.” which to me is reasonable. and so if it does turn out to be true, I’m thinking I can get on board with that.

the 293 reveal scene is still pretty out of left field to me, ngl! but it’s worth noting that this is absolutely not the final version of his name, because as of right now the full name is technically GREAT EXPLOSION MURDER GOD DYNAMIGHT. the “GREAT EXPLOSION MURDER GOD” part isn’t just a title or preamble (all of those end with “hero”, so if that were the case it would have been “Explosion Murder God Hero: Dynamight”); it’s literally part of the name. I do appreciate that (as others have pointed out) he has apparently upgraded himself from Lord Explosion Murder to God Explosion Murder. but anyway, so it does mean he’ll need to change it at least one more time, though. which means we’ll get another “reveal” scene, and Horikoshi can pour all of the emotional weight and resonance into this second one, and if he does it right I don’t doubt he will sell me on it fully and completely.

and actually, if he really wants to go for the jugular, there is one long-awaited bonus move he can pull that will make it so that I basically never question anything he does ever again lol. and that is... well okay, let me backtrack. so first of all, maybe we get a scene where class 1-A is gathered at the hospital, or back in the dorms after everything has wrapped up, just convalescing and taking comfort in each others’ presence to distract them from thinking about how much therapy they’re all going to need now. and so they’re all there talking, and somehow word of Kacchan’s new hero name gets out, and while everyone else in the class is collapsed on the floor in tears, Kacchan and Deku maybe make some Significant Eye Contact for a bit and then Deku eventually says he likes it, but maybe shorten it down to just “Dynamight” though. and Kacchan is all “stfu nerd if I want your opinion I’ll ask for it” but of course he does go on to change it though, but not because of Deku’s suggestion!! just so we’re clear!! it’s just cuz he felt like it!! shut up!!

anyway. and just to be clear this last part is just me being WILDLY indulgent really, but I think it would be a real Power Move on Horikoshi’s part if afterwards, we cut to Deku heading back to his dorm room and thoughtfully lying back on his bed to reminisce, leading us into the flashback (by which I mean THE flashback, where Horikoshi shows that the name was actually his idea). and then, once we emerge back out of the flashback and into the room again, we see the familiar All Might posters on the wall and assume that we’re back in the present with Deku. but then we see the person that’s actually lying on the bed and it’s like WAIT A DARN SECOND, and that’s when Horikoshi reveals that we have actually transitioned to Kacchan’s room instead. BOOM. HOW YA LIKE THAT. TWO MYSTERIES SOLVED FOR THE PRICE OF ONE. TWIN FLASHBACKS, TWIN NERDY BEDROOMS. ALL THE PARALLELS YOU COULD EVER POSSIBLY WANT. MIRROR IMAGES, BABY. IT’S SPIDER-MAN POINTING MEMES ALL THE WAY DOWN.

lol but so anyways. tl;dr I’m coming around on this a bit. there are still certain things about “Dynamight” that will still feel slightly off to me even if the Deku Invented It theory does come to pass, mind. the main one being that it doesn’t really fit in with the theming of Deku and Shouto’s hero names, which I think are so simple -- basically just their own names -- for a reason. that reason being that it symbolically sets them apart from the flashy, superficial hero society of the past, and signals that this new generation will be different from that. and I won’t lie, I’ve always liked that about their names, and so if Kacchan’s doesn’t also fit in with this theme, it’s always going to look just slightly out of place to me. but unlike the Deku thing, that one’s not a personal deal-breaker, and I can learn to live with it.

so I guess we’ll see how it goes! right now it’s still about 50/50 for me; I can only talk myself into it so much until we see more of how this develops. it’s been long enough since the chapter release that I’ve had just enough time to completely second-guess myself on everything I ever thought I knew, but then two seconds later I’ll be like “nah this whole thing is completely crazy lol it was literally just a joke panel” and the whole process begins itself anew lol. all I know for sure is that I seriously cannot wait for the aftermath of this arc. it’s gonna be lit you guys. it is going to be so stupidly, stupidly good.

[ryansaiditposts]

The Lore of Folklore:

The Real Story Behind the Characters of Taylor Swift’s Folklore

 

 

We are all familiar with Taylor Swift’s record breaking, surprise quarantine love child, Folklore. Even more so in the Swiftie fanbase, we are familiar with the proverbial “love triangle” established in “Cardigan”, “August”, and “Betty”. What if I told you that I believe the entire album is centered around just these characters at different stages in life with Taylor’s story woven in? Also, what if I said that Taylor/Rebecca were an allegory? Not to mention the complexity of “Hoax” being a combination of all the characters in one? Of course, you would probably ask me for clarification, and that is the intention of the next few paragraphs. These characters reveal certain patterns of behavior, call and responses, and self-referential phrases that map out a much bigger story to tell. The trio of songs mentioned above were just the starting point.

 

To give you an overview of where we will be going, I want to give you the songs as they relate to each character. These will then be fleshed out to connect them in the way I hear and see Folklore play out. The songs and respective characters are as follows:

 

Betty- Cardigan, Mirrorball, and Exile (featuring James)

James- Betty, This Is Me Trying, and Exile (featuring Betty)

Augustine- August, The 1, and Illicit Affairs

Taylor- Seven, Invisible String, Mad Woman, Epiphany

Taylor/Rebecca- The Last Great American Dynasty, My Tears Ricochet, Peace

All Characters- Hoax

 

The genius of this album is that the struggles and identifiers of these characters can sometimes be interchangeable. That is what creates the magic, so take everything I say with a grain of salt. There is more than one perspective to these stories, but this is all what I heard from Inez.

 

The 1 (Augustine)-

I have been sitting with this song for a while. I began to wonder why, for lyrics that for all intents and purposes were sad, did I not get sad listening to this song. Sure, it’s about loss and what could have been, but it’s mere conjecture. Almost like a love that never really existed outside of the storyteller’s imagination. A film that was never made, if you will. Then it hit me, “you weren’t mine to lose”. Augustine simply imagined what it would have been like if the man she did not end up with could have been the one. Betty and James DID have a relationship and the theme of this “film” is repeated in the stories told throughout this album. She would have not gotten the chance to have the movie kind of romance if he had not chosen to be with her. Rose flowing with his chosen family.

 If one thing had been different, could everything be different today? Had he not already been in love with another woman, could we have been the greatest love story ever told? Something also struck me as odd. She called out him meeting some woman on the internet and taking her home. Knowing he has a tendency to stray, there could be a superficial level of jealousy. Imagining that he’s cheating on Betty, but disappointed that it isn’t with her. Not because she’s necessarily a bad person, but I think that as we will see later on in this breakdown, Augustine struggles with conventional relationship types and ties herself to sinking ships for the tragedy of it all.

 

Cardigan (Betty)-

So, not to rehash lore we are already incredibly familiar with, but this song is clearly Betty knowing that James is going to run back to her after straying the path. Cool, amazing, fierce. However, there is language here that suggests this is not the same instance as him showing up to the party. I believe that James has a very toxic pattern resulting from his wondering eye and Betty just has a bad case of loving him. At least, for a while. Betty likes the fact that she is able to show James who he really is when all is said and done, and being someone who has struggled with confidence, she doesn’t want to let this love go too soon. Even if she should. More on that in a bit.

 

Betty says, “Chase two girls, lose The 1”. We all assumed that she was referring to herself, but knowing that she was almost waiting for his return, it’s very possible that she intended to forgive him even before he asked. She had scars from years of not being enough and she may have even been bullied as indicated by this and him seeing in her what others could not when he was present in the relationship. That feeling of “what if” made sure she would not completely walk away. When you are young they assume you know nothing. Well, knowing something does not mean you know everything and I think she stayed long enough to find that out the hard way. Peter does lose Wendy because he cannot grow up.

 

The Last Great American Dynasty (Taylor/Rebecca)-

 

Taylor owns the previous home of Rebecca Harkness in Rhode Island. This beachside mansion has all the salt air and cliffsides to scream off of that anyone would want. Rebecca has a big reputation as a maneater who just isn’t ladylike and mild mannered enough. Sound familiar? Taylor Swift has been demonized, ridiculed, and made infamous based solely off of complete speculation. Rebecca faced the same fate as a middle-class divorcee who was cast as a gold digger after the Standard Oil estate. Truth is, both of these women were just in search of love that could last. Under circumstances far beyond their control these things ended so loudly that there was no right to privacy while they grieved or attempted to make sense of it all. Worse? They were blamed in a blameless situation.

 

Taylor makes her identity known to mirror Rebecca’s at the end of the story. So, what’s the connection to the album as a whole? Bill grew up in the area that the rest of them would eventually be in later on. Cliffside and salt air, the characters revisit these scenes and similar ones several times throughout the story. They lived at a different time here, years later. In fact, in terms of the house itself, it sat quietly for 50 years until Taylor would acquire it. She then marks her entrance to the rest of these stories as she then will later touch on points of her life leading up to Holiday House.

 

Exile (Betty and James)-

 

Communication is key. However, Betty and James eventually resented the back-and-forth nature of their relationship. He believed that she would always forgive him as she had always set that precedent each time before in their relationship. Although they always knew they walked a very thin line, they always felt like the other person would become better to them if they loved hard enough. Each had their demons, though. Between James cheating nature and drinking problem, he could become withdrawn and combative. Betty loved James so much that she gave him second, third and hundredth chances and even excused his more aggressive behaviors in a Streetcar Named Desire type loyalty. Until the branch broke that they were balancing on.

 

For someone like James, being left as a result of bad behavior can often be skewed as a betrayal in and of itself. Her leaving could have only been a result of her not telling him how to be a better partner. On the flip side, Betty was not clear in her signals of being fed up with his actions, but allowing him back time and again. The blame game ensues and each call out each other’s faults too little, too late. They have, in fact, seen this “film” before. They kept the hope that the cinematic love they were both obsessed with would eventually play out if they wanted it enough, but did not put in the work or self-reflect enough to make it so.

 

My Tears Ricochet (Taylor/Rebecca)-

 

Of course, it’s about a certain sellout record executive of her previous label who did not even have the decency to let her own her masters. I will not be bringing his name into it because he does not deserve to even be thought about. However, I think Taylor does an expert job of exploring the anger stage of grief and death that Rebecca and Bill would have had to face in his untimely death as well. The allegory dips in and out of this song to further establish the mirror effect of these two women and their fears/perception. Taylor calls out her own inability to leave with grace. Rebecca was left to burn at the stake after Bill died with no one to defend her either. While it is not his choice to have died, grieving does bring about emotions of abandonment when still panning out. Much like Taylor felt when the label she trusted acted like they had never met and that she had not given them her all to gift them any kind of notoriety.

 

Gathering stones is beachside activity, but when, so is collecting jewelry. This in a metaphorical sense could allude to also gathering dirt and receipts when it all falls down. This line has quite an impact in the context of a business transaction and the marriage of a rich couple. Toward the end, each woman speaks as though they have gone to the cliffside and screamed into the open air. Rebecca challenges the masses to go for her heart in same way the public felt she had gone for Bill’s, but knows that she would be missed all the same. Each woman is directly calling out their naysayers and bullies telling them they know they’re drunk on pain and negating the good they had done before tragedy. These fake people have both built them up and torn them down in times it benefitted them the most.

 

Mirrorball (Betty)-

 

As I previously mentioned, Betty struggles with self-confidence (relatable content). This song takes a deeper dive into Betty’s desire to be noticed by James in the way she needs him to and to show him that she knows him better than anyone else does. When he does not pay attention, she breaks into a million pieces. Although her friends consistently tell her that the end is imminent, she has committed herself to changing the narrative. She’s walking the tightrope, another call out to the thin line they feel they have always walked in regards to one another.

The insecurity is palpable in the self-deprecating “I’ve never been a natural, all I do is try, try, try”.  Remembering from their teenage years, Augustine, a natural beauty, is able to draw men in with a sense of sensuality and a carefree demeanor. She doesn’t have to get too invested in relationships because she only chooses men that are in high risk, low reward circumstances. On the outside, it seems like she has all the confidence in the world and that is intimidating to someone like Betty who does not exude the same assuredness and has been burned by trusting unnecessarily before. In spite of this, Betty is still a believer in true love even if James has given her no indication there is reason to believe.

 

Seven (Taylor)-

 

Little Tay on her Pennsylvania farm just discovering her own voice and the meaning of friendship. Making her own tales of time gone by and recounting the origin story of a girl who makes “too much” noise any time she wants. Also, quite possibly the REAL queer-canon of the album. Taylor was close to someone who she has not seen for a while, a girl. She remembers the feeling more than anything and a certain protectiveness that she felt for this person who was having to hide in the closet. Labels did not matter and love was love in this scenario. She wants them to know their story and the care she felt for them is not forgotten and still a source of inspiration for her life in present day. Think “hope ur ok” by Olivia Rodrigo.

 

This song explores Taylor’s fierce feminism and activism into adulthood. The unwavering support she gives to the underdogs and why Rebecca’s story resonates with her so much. She was the wild child the world tried to tame with constant expectation. The subject of Seven that she befriended reminded her that there are beautiful things out there and grounded her in a way to keep looking for meaningful connections and to respect the stories of each person she meets to gain perspective.

 

August (Augustine)-

 

Somewhere on the beaches just outside this small Rhode Island town, Augustine was manifesting a relationship that she knew had a slim to none chance with James. Despite her hopes and efforts, August came and went. James dreamed of Betty with Augustine in his arms, but wanted is cake and to eat it too as a seventeen-year-old boy. The thrill of it all enticed him to give his summer to Augustine instead. Particularly because she was willing to pursue him in the way she did. However, much like the surface level pining found in The 1, she just wished she could write her name on his back in a performative ownership move as if to say finders keepers.

This superficial relationship was hallmarked in sex and lust by being spent tipsy and wrapped and in bedsheets. It wasn’t shameful or tawdry to two kids, but would show it’s truth one single time before becoming a feeling both would continue to chase. The shaky and electrifying experience of sharing firsts and secrets though “Never Have I Ever” and the charged nature of “Are you sure?” feeling like a pact. Until guilt set in for James, there was only excitement and both were forever changed. One by the hope of it all, and the other by the excitement.

 

This Is Me Trying (James)-

 

Years after the first thrill and eventual heartbreak, James has never found direction. He fell behind the classmates that moved on with their lives and ended up here. Still in their same hometown, he is a shell of a man grappling with depression and alcoholism. He’s in Betty’s doorway once again in her front porch light begging for forgiveness. He even matched Betty’s previous speech pattern in “Mirrorball” by saying “I just wanted you to know…” as if to respond to her finally because he sees her after it’s all been said and done. He pulled the rusted, vintage car that once made him so cool off the road to the same cliffside that they once made out in front of. This represents the edge that they all seem to stand at one point or another to contemplate their mistakes. He calls out his own substance abuse and aggression (which we talked about in Exile as well).

 

He wants to continue his same party lifestyle, but feels like an open wound because his bad behavior has finally caught up to him. All he thinks about are his own shortcomings, especially now that he is left alone with them. Betty once again gets compared to a film in a reel on the one screen they have in this small town. Now, only a memory instead of a reality. The defensiveness from being what he perceived as betrayal has subsided and he is left to face the cages he mentally put himself into and the fear that he was not as good of a man as he tried to project to others around him. Betty being the product of his transgressions since she is left broken and resentful toward him now.

 

Illicit Affairs (Augustine)-

 

Augustine finally pulls back the layers on why she continues to try to recapture the feeling that James gave her at a mere sixteen years old. Someone displaying all the confidence in the world may have had less than Betty in actuality. It was all a misconception. Instead, Augustine feels that her looks and sex are what she has to offer and by giving herself away, she hopes to capture lightning in a bottle one of these times. She recreates the same structure of what she had with James only to meet the same disappointment.

 

The beautiful setting of the beach house gives way to the parking lot behind the mall in a way. In some twisted way, James brokenness recognized Augustine’s and she had never been seen in real way before that and then not again after. James thought Betty’s level headedness would fix him and did not want to have to face himself via Augustine since they understood each other in the worst way. Like I said, that first taste left her living for the hope of it all and it was simply a dwindling mercurial high. A drug, though, that could work a hundred times over.

 

Invisible String (Taylor)-

 

Taylor’s stories are often on this album the only ones with direct references to actual places. This one references Centennial Park and Los Angeles. This is the story of Taylor Swift and Joe Alwyn (William Bowery to some). This in and of itself is a modern day, currently in the making folktale. The idea of an invisible force bringing the two together to tell a great love story just like Taylor had always imagined. Here she self-references her own part in contributing to the media circus surrounding breakups and dating and owning her growth in those situations.

 

Allowing herself to live in the moment, she talks about the colors and touches of humanity this relationship has brought her. A deeper appreciation of the present and making memories that will one day make beautiful stories to tell for both themselves and for others that once tried to taint her narratives on hearsay. This is her story in her words and an expression of gratitude. Hell was the journey, but it brought her heaven.

 

Mad Woman (Taylor)-

 

This one is about the other one and his soon to be ex-wife. The one the masters were sold to. Shares a name with a two wheeled ankle destroyer and will also not be mentioned by me.  This is a slight reference to her Rebecca allegory in the sense that character assassination played a big part in that story, but not enough to say it’s a direct correlation. Although, it is interesting to note that they are hunting all of the witches even if you aren’t one.

 

Taylor gets raw about the cheating nature of the man in question whether it is in business or in relationships and how he should be called out for it. There’s a hardship in feminism, though. She watches as a woman who knows she is in the wrong defend the thief instead of the robbed. It explores the right to be mad when lied to or stolen from, particularly when you’re willing to go on record with false statements if they serve a certain narrative. Undeniably, this moment will go down in infamy for generations to come. In a word, folklore.

 

Epiphany (Taylor)-

 

Paying homage to her grandfather, Taylor sets a scene as a war rages on. Keeping your helmet to keep your life is a good direct correlation to mask mandates that swept the country as COVID-19 developed. The horrors of watching someone die for things that may have arguably been avoided sets the anguish apart in this song to any other she has done. This is the world in a life and death lens and nothing else. Trying to make sense of what she and the rest of us are seeing when it did not have to be this way.

 

The most hard hitting look at medical staff and the precarious position they stood in for both instances is found in the bridge. They watch to make sure someone is breathing. They stand in the face of danger and are contained to one place while a threat is posed but serve unselfishly and risk falling like the people around them in the hopes of reaching a breaking point or a point of clarity in the chaos. On a metaphorical level, this song establishes a very important piece of perspective for us to hold onto long after this virus is contained lest we forget.

 

Betty (James)-

 

The first injustice and a look into the dramatics of young love. We now at least get to know why James loves Betty so much and humanize him a little more for the things he’s been dealing with internally since a young age. He comes off a lot more charming here even if unsure. Possibly a reason why he leans on liquid courage later on, James is actually a bit shy in group interactions. This also causes him to avoid confrontation if it can be helped or talking about his feelings. He also has a tendency to fear loneliness as a result so he’s easily convinced to go along for the ride even if it isn’t the right decision.

 

However, here, he nervously plans for weeks to gather up the courage to ask for a second chance. From what we can gather, he was likely forgiven in this instance which made him more comfortable than before to do so again and again. The cycle started here with this grand gesture, but post-cheating, the damage was likely already done since he had gotten a taste of the thrill. Betty would serve as a constant, but she would not stand alone.

 

Peace (Taylor/Rebecca)-

 

Taylor knows she will likely always be speculated on, but she loves intensely even if no one else believes. Here, you can see her sympathy and understanding of someone like Rebecca who no one ever even considered that she may actually love her late husband. All she can ever hope for is that the person she dedicates herself to can recognize how invested she really is and can handle the storm that comes with that. She talks with her own pack of friends being wild and rowdy much like Rebecca, but hopes he never sees that as a sign of disrespect. It’s just who she is.

 

Everyone DID think the love was for show, but they knew nothing of what happened behind closed doors. Does a woman pace rocks staring out at the midnight sea who isn’t missing someone? I don’t think so. Painting dreamscapes on the wall referring to the home they share together. The very same place that tied Rebecca and Taylor’s stories together in the first place. I think Taylor learned to embrace the madness before the rest of Rebecca’s story became hers and stopped apologizing for being so loud but remembered to continue to let love in.

 

Hoax (Everyone)-

 

Every time I listen to this song, I hear a different character speaking to me. Then I realized each one was just taking turns. This one is a bit different so I’m going to break it down by character:

 

Betty- He had drawn stars around her scars, but the way he made her feel was just as bad as the pain they caused. She believed him each time he said never again. She let him back in time and again to be hurt in the same way, but nobody else would have done for her if he could just be the things he promised to be. She was bound to him even though he never came through.

 

James- He knows exactly what he’s done and that he cannot fix it now. He knows that she possesses a love for him that will never die, but that is unrealistic after a certain point. He resigns himself to having to miss her forever. The hero has effectively died, so the movie has lost a purpose in plot. He tried, but did not succeed.

 

Augustine- She had a plan for them. No matter the means in which to get it, she wanted him to love her the way he did Betty. She used slight of hand and a little convincing to lead him to her. It left her aching for more when she knew that would never come back. August slipped away and there was no winning. Winter came and the ground was frozen.

 

Rebecca- She stood out there screaming for a reason why she had to be left alone in the life that was supposed to be theirs. I don’t think she ever quite got past that feeling of abandonment and just needed anything to believe in. This beautiful mansion had become a kingdom come undone. Bill’s heart had given out like a broken drum.

 

Taylor- When you sign a record deal at such a young age and a man who has always taken care of you in that time suddenly becomes your biggest enemy, it can certainly feel like a total heartbreak. The hoax was making her believe that even if all was said and done he would at least have her back. He most certainly did not. She screams at the sun (now eclipsed) on the cliffside while he listens to her stolen lullabies. The part of herself that remains in New York being her life’s work.

 

Please let me know if you have anything to add! Any new perspectives I may have missed? I would love to further this conversation and find new ways to explore the Folklorian Wilderness!

 

-Ryan Freeman

[canvaswolfdoll]

CanvasWatches: Carole & Tuesday

A charming SciFi anime focusing more on the cast’s day-to-day lives than some major sociopolitical conflict that requires laser gun diplomacy? Set on a Terraformed Mars with brick and mortar solarpunk aesthetic? I can get into that.

The fact that Carole & Tuesday is a science fiction story came as a surprise, as most of the buzz and promotion that crossed my social feeds focused on the street performance aspects. Then, surprise! Tabletop fast food ordering and pizzerias that grow their tomatoes in house![1] Which is the sort of speculative fiction I’m enjoying nowadays: normal life with the fantastic acting as seasoning to spice up the world around them.

I’ve never paid special attention to music. I listen to music obviously, but rarely in any sort of analytical capacity. It’s pretty sounds that help fill in the background while I write, or to convey emotion in a musical, or to mark the start and end of a show I’m watching. I’ve never sought out music to listen to when looking for entertainment, it’s always a byproduct of whatever media I’m engaged with at the moment. Heck, these days, when I’m too lazy to set my car radio up to play a podcast, I just drive in silence.[2]

I sometimes feel I’m missing something by not engaging with the art form in a more conscious manner, and I only recently became aware that albums are a carefully curated thing instead of a collection of the performer’s most recent songs, so… yeah. Kind of a cultural blindspot.[3]

This tangent doesn’t even end with a neat little note of how Carole & Tuesday had inspired me to consume music in a more deliberate and contemplative manner. The soundtrack includes plenty of insert songs I happily threw on my background noise playlists,[4] and what few albums I seek out are video game and anime soundtracks.[5]

Carole & Tuesday was chiefly directed by Shinichiro Watanabe, who’s name was made with the Jazzy Space Epic Cowboy Bebop and Hip-Hop Samurai Series Samurai Champloo. It was probably inevitable he would produce an anime where music took front stage instead of informing tone.

Carole & Tuesday takes inspiration from Pop, but is unafraid to feature and mix other genres, such as Opera and Rap.[6] What’s really exciting is the decision to have the insert songs performed in English.

Historically, when diegetic music is present in anime, the song is performed in Japanese, and most dubs make the smart decision to leave the japanese audio and subtitle them. I may prefer dubs for my various reasons, but I wouldn’t dare ask for the policy on subbed music to change. Carole & Tuesday took an international view to its production, and thus used the most widely spoken language when no one (reasonable) would begrudge the use of Japanese performers.

Netflix picked up the show as part of their continued haphazard attempts to seize the genre with an attitude out of the early 2000s, and the company tapped to record the English dub did an admirable job matching voice performances believably similar to the singing voices.

Which may be the first time that speaking actors were hired to fit the singers.

The story takes place on Mars in the future year of… 50 years after humanity started migrating to Mars. I cannot find a year cited, which is the smart and wise choice and I am super annoyed I’m not going to be able to make jokes about the production's attempts and failure to predict the future.

50 years after starting to migrate over to the red planet, humanity has terraformed large swathes of Mars into a Solarpunk paradise. Earth is apparently not in a great state as refugees are desperately making their way to the planet, but Earth remains offscreen for the entire run. Fortunately no one has any giant robots,[7] so the two planets aren’t at war. While Mars has been made hospitable enough, the atmosphere does occasionally mess with the genetics of residents.

That’s just background details, however. The story is really about the titular duo. Tuesday is introduced fleeing the mansion of her politician mother, hopping onto a cattle train like Kiki, and riding off to Alba City with only a quitar and robotic luggage to keep her company, where she stumbles upon Refugee Orphan Carole busking with a keyboard. The two have a jam session and decide to become a musical act.

Meanwhile, famed child star Angela Carpenter[8] is setting to transition from a modeling career to an exciting career singing. Her mother pulls strings and utilizes her connections to team up with Tao, a genius of Artificial Intelligence Design who is willing to use his technology to provide Angela with computer generated music and lyrics.

Thus we have the start of a sci-fi John Henry Tale where the battle is not hammer and steel but instruments and voice.

I say ‘the start’ because while the two teams utilize different methods to produce their music, their methods are never weighed against one another. In fact, there’s barely a one-sided rivalry, as Angela is jealous of the titular duo’s ability to enjoy their career, and our two heroes take only a polite, professional view of Angela’s rising career.

Carole and Tuesday are both weighed down by a common problem with anime protagonists: they’re just nice. There’s a certain fear when writing protagonists, especially females, of accidentally making them off-putting that the writers overcorrect and don’t let the hero make mistakes or have much personality, to the point that Carole and Tuesday have very little agency.

Instead, it’s Gus, the ex-rock star manager the duo acquire, that does the leg work and takes risks while Carole and Tuesday just sing nice songs then sit back while the plotlines orbiting their rise to success are resolved by the men.

The show also can’t choose a lane, playing with several story threads that could carry full 24-episode stories by themselves, but instead are dealt with as lightly as possible.

We start with the story of a run-away from decadence and a refugee bringing their world views together, but that instead goes into a tournament arc disguised as a talent contest, then the drama of navigating the music industry, before ending with the presidential run of Tuesday’s mother causing public unrest. Carole and Tuesday don’t make a meaningful choice that affects any of these stories.

Meanwhile, Angela gets a story of asserting her identity while already in public view, facing dangers both external and internal on her journey.

Surprisingly, this is the first show in a while that I didn't resent for transitioning out of the episodic, playing with the premise portion. While Carole and Tuesday were attempting to get their big break, bopping around misadventures trying to get contacts, gigs, and filming a music video, Angela looms in her plotline, building up to the inevitable rivalry.

Angela is introduced just before her mother, Dahlia, starts reworking Angela's career from modeling to singing, hiring Tao, renowned AI designer, as Angela's producer. Angela experiences mild paranoia from Tao's standoffish nature, machinery, and making a holographic simulation of Angela. So Angela had a more consistent narrative during the first arc.

Introductions out of the way, it's time for everyone's favorite trope: the tournament arc! In the form of ‘Space!'s got Talent’ Generic Brand Named into Mar's Brightest. The main duo meets their rival, backstage drama ensues, some very good music is performed, and things are set up to technically give both Carole and Tuesday as well as Angela a win at the end.

With publicity achieved, Gus starts getting to work preparing the girls' debut album and booking appearances, as well as meeting other artists and (briefly) Carole’s father. We learn about Gus’s past client, Flora, who dropped Gus as soon as she found success, then found herself without a support base and spiraled into depression and addiction. Carole and Tuesday remain upbeat and optimistic.

Meanwhile, Angela starts getting harassed by a stalker and feeling helpless and poorly supported by those around her. Tao takes point on stopping the stalker when the police fail, ultimately taking him down before the stalker could pull a Mark David Chapman.

The story bleeds into the final act, as the presidential campaign of Valerie Simmons, Tuesday’s mother, moves forward in prominence. The AI algorithm Valerie is utilizing suggests she take an anti-immigration stance, which the woman follows in an attempt to further her career. Musicians are getting harassed by law enforcement, Tuesday’s brother Spencer is becoming uneasy with being an accessory to the campaign, and starts meeting with a reporter with information that Valerie’s campaign manager orchestrated a terrorist attack to villainize immigrants. Spencer and the reporter argue over how many chances to give Valerie, and agree on Spencer taking the evidence to Valerie, and if she doesn’t back down, then they’ll leak the scandal. Valerie, seeing the crimes committed for her benefit, gracefully renounces her candidacy. It’s very heart warming.

Carole and Tuesday write a protest song, and gather friends to sing it. This protest song has no observable impact.

Meanwhile, Angela learns she’s adopted, and her mother suffers a heart-attack shortly before Angela is set to win a Martian Grammy, and Angela spirals into depression and prescription drug abuse, to the point of collapsing at the end of her Grammy performance, being rushed to the hospital and missing her mother’s passing and funeral. Angela is adrift. She has no family, no support, and is just lonely.

Tao, who was working to sabotage Valerie’s campaign and burning as many bridges as possible after being targeted for refusing to assist the campaign, appears in Angela’s hospital room to drop a bomb: both he and Angela are designer babies, and though Tao must go into hiding now, he does intend to look out for his little sister.

Angela joins the performance of Carole and Tuesday’s protest song.

If it’s not already clear, I feel the story of Carole and Tuesday themselves was pretty lacking.

So, how would I rework this? Step one: we’re either cutting Carole and Tuesday, or combining them into a single character and making Angela the second. With the second option, Angela can maintain her backstory, but take Carole’s introduction of fleeing her family mansion and attempting to strike out on her own, meeting up with Carole and forming an act. To maintain the final arc, Carole would need to be reworked into the abandoned daughter of Tuesday’s late father, making her the half sister of Spencer and something to be hidden by Valerie Simmons’ campaign.

We then intermingle the two plotlines: Gus maintains his managerial position, and eventually convinces Angela to use her connections and mother to get her career jumpstarted, Ms. Carpenter still brings in Tao to write music, and now we can lean more into the AI-written music versus human compositions subplot as well as creative differences, which can lead to an arc where Angela and Carolday split to attempt solo careers, each taking a different manager.[9] Dahlia still has her issues and passes away, Angela her depressive spiral, but now Gus gets pathos by being there to help his client out of self-destruction, and the final number can also be a reconciliation of the main musical duo. The song can even be a combination of AI and human composition.

Carolday, meanwhile, discovers her relation to the anti-immigrant candidate and has to decide if she wants to finally have a family with Valerie and Spencer or stand up for her beliefs and assist a politician in bringing the campaign down. The resolution of the political plot can remain a happy compromise, but Carolday gets a slightly more active role in it.

The animation and world-building is great, and Angela’s arc is very strong. But the writing was too afraid to let either Carole or Tuesday dip into unlikeability that they become props to their own storyline, which is made further unfortunate as their supporting cast that do make decisions are mostly men.

The series is also riddled with a lot of good starts. Many short vignettes or minor details that could be made into full animes by themselves. Show more of Carole and Tuesday’s attempts to break into the music industry while also trying to pay bills and put food on their table. An expansion on the other competitors at Mars Brightest.[10] Heck, expand the roster of the competition and dig more into backstage drama. Carole’s father, who was sent to prison and found his wife dead and daughter sent to another planet upon his release, could carry a story of his own on his back! Valerie’s presidential run and the plight of Earth immigrants given more attention. Heck, even the story of how Earth, the origins of the human species, fell into being a third-world planet people are desperate to leave.

I’d even watch a series about the solarpunk pizzeria that grows their own tomatoes.

The music is really good, however, featuring many artists and styles, and those by our main duo wouldn’t sound out of place on a car radio or licensed on a primetime television show.

It’s a good show, but not an eternal classic. Maybe a second choice for someone digging deeper into anime. However, if its placement on Netflix means it’s someone’s introduction to Anime, that wouldn’t be terrible. Give it a watch if you want something to wind down for bed, or want inspiration for your own speculative fiction.

Kataal kataal.

-

[1] Solarpunk’s neat. [2] Mostly because I lost all my preset stations last time I took my car in for fixing, and I don't actually know any to punch in. Also, I use youtube for music when writing. [3] Also means I’m wholly unprepared to find music when I finally get a podcast project off the ground. [4] The soundtrack is very present on Spotify, which is nice. [5] I am finding myself increasingly intrigued by vinyl records, however. Probably a bit extravagant, and difficult considering my narrow interests. [6] Presumably to annoy fans of both. [7] Bam! Gundam reference! Anyone have Bingo yet? [8] Though I could swear they never use her last name on screen. [9] I’d find it amusing if Angela takes Gus and Carolday teams up with Dahlia, but the rest of my outline works better if Angela remains with Dahlia. [10] Though this one’s not a major loss. Typical tournament arc stuff.

[let-them-eat-rakes]

A PERFECTLY NORMAL, REGULAR OLD IKEA

Item #: SCP-3008

Object Class: Euclid

Special Containment Procedures: The retail park containing SCP-3008 has been purchased by the Foundation and converted into Site-██. All public roads leading to or passing by Site-██ have been redirected.

The entrance to SCP-3008 is to be monitored at all times, and no one is to enter SCP-3008 outside of testing, as permitted by the Senior Researcher.

Humans exiting SCP-3008 are to be detained and then debriefed prior to the administration of amnestics. Dependent upon the duration of their stay in SCP-3008, a cover story may need to be generated prior to their release.

Any other entities exiting SCP-3008 are to be terminated.

Description: SCP-3008 is a large retail unit previously owned by and branded as IKEA, a popular furniture retail chain. A person entering SCP-3008 through the main entrance and then passing out of sight of the doors will find themselves translocated to SCP-3008-1. This displacement will typically go unnoticed as no change will occur from the perspective of the victim; they will generally not become aware until they try to return to the entrance.

SCP-3008-1 is a space resembling the inside of an IKEA furniture store, extending far beyond the limits of what could physically be contained within the dimensions of the retail unit. Current measurements indicate an area of at least 10km2 with no visible external terminators detected in any direction. Inconclusive results from the use of laser rangefinders has led to the speculation that the space may be infinite.

SCP-3008-1 is inhabited by an unknown number of civilians trapped within prior to containment. Gathered data suggests they have formed a rudimentary civilisation within SCP-3008-1, including the construction of settlements and fortifications for the purpose of defending against SCP-3008-2.

SCP-3008-2 are humanoid entities that exist within SCP-3008-1. While superficially resembling humans they possess exaggerated and inconsistent bodily proportions, often described as being too short or too tall. They possess no facial features and in all observed cases wear a yellow shirt and blue trousers consistent with the IKEA employee uniform.

SCP-3008-1 has a rudimentary day-night cycle, determined by the overhead lighting within the space activating and deactivating at times consistent with the opening and closing times of the original retail store. During the "night" instances of SCP-3008-2 will become violent towards all other lifeforms within SCP-3008-1. During these bouts of violence they have been heard to vocalise phrases in English that are typically variations of "The store is now closed, please exit the building". Once "day" begins SCP-3008-2 instances immediately become passive and begin moving throughout SCP-3008-1 seemingly at random. They are unresponsive to questioning or other verbal cues in this state, though will react violently if attacked.

SCP-3008-1 is known to have one or more exits located within though these exits do not appear to have a fixed position, making it difficult to leave SCP-3008-1 once inside. Using any other door besides the main entrance to enter the structure or breaking through the walls of the retail unit leads into the non-anomalous interior of the original store.

Since containment began 14 individuals have managed to exit SCP-3008. Following extensive debriefing all individuals have been administered amnestics and released.

Incident 3008-1: At 00:37 on ██/██/200█ a human male exited SCP-3008, followed 10 seconds later by an instance of SCP-3008-2. SCP-3008-2 caught and killed the man before itself being terminated by armed response personnel. This incident represents the only time an instance of SCP-3008-2 has been seen exiting SCP-3008. A full autopsy on the corpse was performed; see 3008-2 Autopsy Log for more details.

The man was carrying an IKEA-branded journal seeming to document his time in SCP-3008-1, transcribed below verbatim.

- Close Journal

So, I'm writing this to document what I can only assume is my sudden descent into insanity. I can't possibly be THAT bad a navigator, and yet as I write this I've been trapped in Ikea for 2 days. I haven't seen another person in the entire time I've been here. I thought it was a prank at first. Turn the place into a maze, get all the people out and see how long it takes me to get lost, then everyone has a good old laugh. Realised that wasn't the case when I tried to backtrack. Everything had changed, so I ended up lost. Instead of the exit, it was just row after row of bookcases.

So, I'm trapped in Ikea. Sounds like the setup for a bad joke. The lights went out at 10pm. Nearly gave me a fucking heart attack, that loud electrical THUNK sound and then pitch blackness. Place is full of beds though and my phone has a torch on it - but no damn signal - so I found a bed and went to sleep. Spent most of the next day trying to find my way out with no luck. Did find a restaurant serving those meatballs though, so at least I won't starve. That's probably the punchline to that joke. Anyway they were still warm and fresh, but I haven't seen anyone around who could have cooked them. Made my way back to the beds before the lights cut out again since it's too dark to search with them off.

It's 9.10am now, the lights came back on a little while ago. I'm sure I've searched the entire area around where I came in now and the exit obviously isn't here, so I'm going to pick a direction and hope for the best.

Day 3 of my magical Ikea mystery adventure. If I wasn't sure that there was something seriously weird about this place before, I am now. Walked for 3 hours in a more or less straight line (insert Ikea joke here) before I came across a ladder next to one of those huge stock shelves they have here. Climbed up to get my bearings, and it looks like this place just stretches on forever. Like that scene from the Lion King, except instead of trees and grass it was all shelves and tables and crap. I did see a person moving not too far away though, so I headed over.

Thought it was a staff member at first - it was wearing the uniform. And hell maybe it was, maybe freakish 7ft tall monsters with long arms, short legs and no faces are just the kinds of thing they want working at Super Ikea. Damn thing completely ignored me though, and with no eyes or ears I can't even be sure it knew I was there. Thought about shoving it or something to get its attention, but its hands were big enough to crush a water melon so I decided against it. It just kept moving along and eventually I lost sight of it so I decided to carry on the way I was going.

Anyway, no comfy bed for me tonight. Looks like I've entered the Improbably Hard and Pointy Table section of the store. Guess I'll have to make do with some bunched up tablecloths. Phone battery died during the day too. Didn't work anyway, but I feel like I've just lost some vital lifeline.

You ever see one of those cartoons where they're going through doors in a hallway and they just pop out of another door in the same hallway? That's how I feel right now. I've seen nothing but the same identical bookshelf for 2 days now. Just row after row after row of them. I mean, come on. I love books as much as the next guy, but this is excessive. I'm obviously still moving forwards though, I can see the signs hanging overhead passing by. Too bad none of them say "Exit".

Not sure who I was addressing that question to. Lets just say it was practice for the autobiography I'm going to write when I get out of here. I'll call it "My perfectly normal trip to a regular old Ikea".

If I ever get out o

Finally found some other people! Yeah, turns out I'm not the only poor bastard trapped in here. Lucky for me, I guess. My 6th night here, 2 of those staff things came at me in the dark. Different from the first one I saw, but still messed up. Heard them coming, they were saying that the store was closed and I had to leave the building, all nice and polite like. I'm not sure which part of that was weirder, that they don't have mouths or that they were apparently trying to kill me while they were saying it. Came at me like rabid dogs.

So, I legged it. Sprinting through ikea in the dark like a fucking madman. I saw it when I cleared another stand of those giant stock shelves, all lit up with torches and floodlights. They've built a whole town in here! Got a massive wall built out of shelves and beds and tables and whatever else. I swear to god it was the most beautiful thing I've ever seen. Anyway I guess they saw me coming (or maybe they heard my girlish manly bellows of fear), because they had a gate open and 2 people were there waving me in. Heard the staff things slam into the gate behind me after it closed, still politely informing us all that the store was now closed. They wandered off eventually though.

They call the town Exchange, because that's whats on the sign hanging from the ceiling directly above it. Exchange and Returns. All lit up against the night using lights they've found and plugged into the power lines. And there are beds and food and people. Over 50 wonderful people with regular sized limbs and a full set of facial features. It's now my 7th night here, and the first one not spent in darkness. A full week living in Ikea. There's probably a TV show in that somewhere.

Now that I'm around other people, I'm starting to feel more normal. Maybe normal isn't the word. But after a week with only the sound of my own footsteps for company, I was becoming increasingly sure that I'd just gone nuts. That I was tied up in some padded room somewhere, banging my head against the wall. But no, I feel quite sane now, thank you very much!

Apparently there are other towns out there. Some with more people, some with less. I found that fairly mind-boggling - how can that many people go missing with no one noticing. Surely someone would have noticed that everyone who goes to ikea seems to fucking vanish. Or maybe it's not everyone. Maybe we're just the lucky ones.

The people here just call those staff monster things the Staff. Apparently they are fine during the day, minding their own business walking the aisles. As soon as those lights go out though, they go fucking bonkers. So during the day people go out to find food, water and whatever else they need. Apparently there are restaurants and shops around that randomly get restocked. No one knows how. Maybe the staff do it. Apparently they aren't very good at their jobs though because the restocking sometimes takes a while, which means the food needs to be rationed. Maybe if they weren't so busy chasing people around in the dark they'd get more done.

Anyway when night comes the staff go nuts and everyone holds up inside the walls. Apparently it's the same everywhere in this place, whatever this place is. The Ur-Ikea, from whence all other Ikeas sprang. Or maybe we're all still just in the regular ikea and this is all some fever dream brought on by mind-numbing boredom. Who knows.

Been here for 10 days now. Most of the people I asked said they stopped keeping track a long time ago and one guy, Chris, said he'd been in here for years.

Years.

[ILLEGIBLE SCRIBBLES]

Apparently there are rumours of people who do manage to get out. And of people who see the exit, only to have it vanish before their very eyes. I get the feeling not everyone believes that, but I do. Explains how we got stuck in here in the first place (sort of). And I mean, come on. Staff monsters, row after endless row of high quality Swedish furniture. I don't know why they would find a disappearing door so hard to believe in.

Anyway, I went out scavenging for food at a nearby shop with Sandra and Jerry today. Once you learn the landmarks of this place it's not so hard to navigate. The overhead signs help a lot, but there are others; not too far in the distance a huge section of those giant stock shelves has collapsed against each other and way off in the east (we all assume it's east anyway - apparently Ikea doesn't sell compasses) is some kind of tower that looks like its made of wood, reaches all the way to the ceiling. Maybe they were trying to break out through the roof. Lights up at night so there must be people there, but its apparently a few days walk (which means it must be miles away) so no one here really knows for sure. Apparently I got incredibly lucky sleeping out in the open for a week without getting ripped to bits by the staff. That's me. Lucky lucky lucky.

We found some food in the shop. Guess the staff restocked it during the night, which was nice of them. There was a telephone on the wall, so I figured I'd try it out. There was a voice on the other end, but they were just talking nonsense. Random words strung together with no real meaning. You ever see a video of someone with aphasia? Kind of sounded like that. Didn't answer me when I spoke to them anyway. Sandra says all the phones in here are the same.

Oops, asking the journal questions again!

I was thinking last night. The ceiling on this place is pretty high and as far as anyone can tell it goes on forever. Shouldn't there be some kind of weather in here? I'm sure I read about some NASA building that was so big it had its own weather patterns, with clouds and stuff. This place is definitely bigger than that, but now that I think about it I'm pretty sure I've never felt so much as a temperature change in here.

I'll add it to the Grand List of Weird Bullshit.

The staff attacked the Exchange last night. Must have been 20 or 30 of them all just asking us to leave the store calm as you like, while trying to smash the walls down with their bare hands. Apparently this happens pretty regularly, so everyone is prepared for it. Knives from the restaurants, lawn mower blades made into hatchets, a fire axe. One guy, Wasim, even made a functional crossbow. Anyway the walls have holes in them, which I hadn't noticed before, specifically so we can stab out at the staff when they attack. Took a couple of them down myself. They don't seem to bleed, which is weird, but they go down as easy as a regular person once you start sticking holes in them.

We had to haul the bodies away in the morning. Apparently the dead ones will attract more during the night, so we had to get them away from Exchange. We have a couple of those trolley things they use to move big boxes around, so we loaded them up and took them over to Pickup. Apparently people just name everything in here after whatever sign is hanging overhead.

Pickup was grisly. There were hundreds, maybe thousands of dead staff all piled up. There was no smell, which was a blessing. Apparently in addition to not bleeding, these things don't rot either. My curiosity got the better of me while we were unloading them, so I took a look at one of the more cut-up ones. They're just skin, or something that looks like skin, all the way through. No muscle, no bone, no organs. Are they even really alive in the first place? They certainly seem like they have bones when they are moving around, pounding on the walls. And I'm sure I felt more resistance than just skin when the knife went in during the night. Maybe something happens to them when they die. Just one more thing on the ever-increasing list of Weird Shit that goes on in here, I guess.

Something occurred to me, after the staff attack the other night. Every time you see a situation like this on TV or in a film, like its the end of the world or everyone is trapped on an island or whatever, once groups like ours start to form people always seem to turn on each other. Fighting for food or dominance or whatever else. That hasn't happened here. Apparently people from other towns come by from time to time, just to check in or occasionally to trade if they are short on something. But everything is always cordial. Friendly, even. Maybe its the threat of the staff, or perhaps the constant restocking of supplies in the shops means there's nothing much to fight over.

Maybe people are just better than they are generally given credit for. That's a nice thought. I think I'll go with that one.

A dozen people showed up at the gates this afternoon from a town called Trolleys. Apparently the staff broke through the walls and tore the town apart during the night. These 12 are the only survivors out of over a hundred. We let them in, obviously. One more point in the human decency column. Later, I asked if anyone knew how many of these towns there were out there. Between us and the new folks, we managed to come up with over 20 names. 20 towns filled with people, and who knows how many beyond that.

The motto for this place should be "How Is That Even Possible". Surely someone, somewhere must be looking for the thousands of people that must be in here.

I've been here for a little over 2 months now. Not that much changes, as it turns out. A couple of new people showed up, same story as the rest of us. Nice little trip to Ikea and suddenly they're trapped in Billy Bookcase's House of Faceless Weirdos. The staff attack the Exchange once or twice a week. We kill them and haul their bodies off, sometimes they hurt some of us first. They killed a guy called Jared a couple of weeks back. It was awful, frankly. Turns out regular humans still bleed in here, even if the staff don't. We tried our best, but none of us are doctors.

Jared was a good guy. He deserved better. We all do.

It occurred to me a couple of days after that, none of us were really looking for a way out of here. I don't even know where we'd start.

One of those quad copter things with a camera attached buzzed passed Exchange today. I thought it meant that someone was finally looking for us, that help was on the way. Apparently it's not the first time this has happened, though. Same thing happened a few months ago, and everyone is still here.

No idea if it saw us, it didn't stop if it did. Just kept flying until we could no longer see it.

Note: Based on recovery time of the journal, this entry appears to line up approximately with our first successful test piloting a drone inside SCP-3008-1. Analysis of footage shows a walled settlement under a sign labelled "Exchange and Returns". Attempts to relocate the settlement failed. Origin of previously sighted drones is unknown.

I started talking to people about the stuff they miss from home during dinner today. Probably not the best idea I've ever had, everyone seemed pretty down after. A bunch of people here have families. Husbands and wives, kids. Dogs. Franklin apparently has a pet llama, though I'm not sure I buy that.

But apparently some of the people here have some seriously odd gaps in their knowledge. 3 of them had never heard of the International Space Station, 2 of them seemed to think █████ ███████ was the Prime Minister, and one of them had apparently never heard of the Statue of Liberty. I believe them, too. They seemed just as confused as the rest of us.

The more I thought about it though, the more it started to explain a few things. What if the reason no one is looking for all us missing people is because we haven't all come from the same place. This is going to sound weird (maybe that should be the motto for this place) but what if all the people here have come from different dimensions? Realities? Whatever you call it. I've seen enough TV shows to know the drill. Sarah comes from a place where there is no Statue of Liberty. They didn't launch a space station where Wasim is from. If everyone here came from different places, even from ones that seem identical, there'd be no huge missing persons panic. No mass search. We'd just be a blip, a single missing person in a world of non-stop news.

Well. That was a fun train of thought.

Just realised that yesterday was the six month anniversary of my arrival here. I wonder if Ikea sells party hats. The routine around here has remained more or less the same. More new folk show up, one every couple of weeks or so. Food supplies go up and down, but we've never actually had a major shortage. Occasionally we get a visitor from one of the nearby towns, usually Checkouts or Aisle 630. We check in with each other from time to time, occasionally trade supplies if someone gets particularly low on something. It's comforting, in a way. A reminder that we aren't alone in here, some small glimmer of civilisation. Sometimes they bring medical supplies. Apparently there's a pharmacy a few towns down from Checkouts that gets restocked every now and then, so they share out what they can. I've never heard of an Ikea with a pharmacy before but at this point I wouldn't be surprised if someone stumbled on an Ikea Organ Harvesting Lab. Would certainly explain the staff.

Speaking of our faceless jailers, their attacks have been getting worse lately. 3 or 4 times a week now, with twice as many staff as there used to be. No idea where they all come from, or why the attacks have increased. We tried following one of them during the day a few weeks ago, me and Sarah. Wanted to see if they lead back to a staff room or something. Didn't seem to go anywhere though, just randomly walked through the aisles. We had to turn back before we found anything.

We've been reinforcing the walls, trying to arm ourselves better. Certainly no lack of materials to use. Wasim has been making more crossbows, but it's pretty slow going.

Too bad Ikea doesn't sell guns.

Note: No new personnel have entered SCP-3008 at Site-██ in the time span indicated in this entry.

The attacks are getting bad now. Almost every night, and with so many staff that the bodies almost pile high enough for others to climb the walls. I think we're in real trouble here.

Exchange is

I think Exchange is done. We got hit pretty bad last night. Not many casualties, but the wall is wrecked. We finally figured out why the attacks had been escalating, too. A box of supplies had a chunk of one of the staff in there. No idea how it happened but apparently a piece of one will draw them as well as a full body. Too late now in any case, there's too many bodies for us to haul away and still have time to fix the wall before night. Candace has called a meeting. I suspect there will be talk of abandoning Exchange, maybe try and get shelter at Checkouts or something.

It's already getting late though. I don't think we'll have time to make it. Maybe some of us will. I was fine for that first week out in the dark, after all. But then, how often can I keep getting lucky.

I'm only writing this for a sense of closure, I guess. For me, or for anyone who finds this. If this is the final entry here, I hope whoever is reading this is doing so from outside of this place.

My biggest fear? If I do die tonight, I'll just wake up here again in the morning.

Note: This is the last entry. It is assumed that while attempting to reach the "Checkouts" settlement he was separated from the rest of his group by a pursuing SCP-3008-2 instance and happened upon the exit.

[writingonjorvik]

Can We Discuss Adding A Level Cap?

So I’ve talked about SSO’s leveling a number of times, and there are more than a few examples of my thoughts on it, combined with the way it influences the stat system. Just as a few:

Can We Discuss Why SSO Needs More Higher Levels?

Can We Discuss How To Make SSO a Better RPG?

Can We Discuss the “Speed Is the Best Stat” Attitude?

Can We Discuss: Can We Discuss Breed Specific Abilities?

Can We Discuss: Can We Discuss Why Clothes Don’t Need Stats?

However, I wanted to talk about a different approach to this system that might help resolve a lot of the issues, while also moving SSO into a more interactive direction. And that would be putting a level cap on the game and moving to a prestige level/masteries system.

So I’m going to be talking a lot about Guild Wars 2, because I think they have an amazing masteries system and one of those systems is entirely based around mounts. And while I don’t think SSO should or can just emulate that system straight into their game, I do think it’s a good framework to look at for prestige levels compared to how other games handle it.

In GW2, after you reach level 80, the game switches to a mastery system. There’s still story, but instead of continuing to level, you gain access to several mastery trees that give you special abilities, like crafting legendary weapons, learning how to navigate the jungle, and in Path of Fire’s expansion, mounts. I think there’s a lot to be said about GW2′s mounts and how in a lot of ways they do it better than SSO, but that’s an entirely different topic. Masteries work like levels, but you can choose which one to work on/where experience you earn will go to pick which skills you want to work on. Further, in order to gain those skills, you have to complete special achievements to “buy” the skill after you’ve earned the experience. Points can be earned from simply completing the story, by meditating at special and difficult to reach locations, or by hunting down special quests. Additionally, when you complete all masteries, you start gaining a special currency for the game.

Now, this does a lot of things for the game. For the most part, you only have to earn the first level of a mastery to progress the story, meaning you can choose when you continue your additional mastery tracks. This adds a lot to giving you continued objectives in the game. It also caps out all the stats in the game, meaning there is, for the majority, a max level any one class can have in any stats. This can make balancing the game a lot easier since you’re not always having to rebalance the game for new levels and power levels. Additionally, it moves the game away from getting stronger, and into becoming smarter, creating new unique ways to play the game and interact with the world, which I would argue is more engaging content.

I particularly like how they handle mount masteries. Mounts all have unique ways of movement, but they also have unique acquisition methods too. Some you get from completing the story. Others have long quest chains to build saddles for them, or raise them from their eggs. The focus after you get the mount though is still centered around building a bond with your creature, unlocking special abilities that that mount alone can do.

This is why I think GW2′s system is way better for SSO than say looking at FFXIV or WoW, which just move their level caps with new expanions. SSO already doesn’t have combat, but it does have a broken stat system. Capping the stats would mean moving SSO in a direction where they can theoretically spend less time on balancing competitions (though there still needs to be a serious overhaul to be a good base), and into interacting with the world in more unique ways, which fits much better with SSO’s exploration focus. 

It also would help with the experience gap between new players and old players, like myself, who have had access to experience pools no one will ever be able to access again from old quests. This can help close the level gap. And it also means SSO can reprogram quests to actually give good experience amounts again to make the player feel like they’re making genuine progress.

But what would it look like?

So this is obviously speculation, but I have some suggestions. I’ve made two mock-up mastery systems for the two major areas of the game: the player’s powers and horses. And there are a couple things that would need to happen for these to work, but they both pair with one of the tracks, so I’ll discuss those first and then their corresponding track. 

The Wheel of the Year/octagon track focuses on the player’s ability. Now, obviously there needs to be a level cap to start this. I’d recommend player level 20, since 21 and 22 are kinda achieved just through, well, at least 50% from event exp, which like I said, is no longer achievable for new players. It’s also closer to the current horse level and as a D&D nerd, I like level 20. I also think level cap should represent in this case an above average skill level. Like, by level 20, you are basically an Olympian rider in skill level and a basic intent in magic.

The track itself would focus on moving past that “human” level of understanding, moving into the almost supernatural abilities the player should be developing in narrative. So there are skills to make races more interesting, which would help when more competition types are added, but basically this is along the lines of the abilities and special skills SSO has teased before, like the straight to gallop leap or immediate recoveries from failed jump, so on. Meanwhile, the Druid Circle tracks represent magic abilities we should be gaining as Aideen’s Chosen, so things like learning Soul Strike or being able to open Pandoria portals wherever, so on. I personally think if we got a full Pandoria map the size of Silverglade or something, it should be a survival focus map to help emphasize the whole dangerous magic aspect, but building these masteries could open ways to survive in that magic. On this system, little circles are passive abilities, like reducing cool downs on skills or boosting stats passively, where as big circles are actual active abilities. This should obviously vary to match each system, but there’s a lot of flexibility in this system and working these skills together, either with branches extending further out, or inbetween.

The second track is based on the Tree of Life, and it’s focused on the Wild Whisperer abilities and horses, since that seems to operate outside the other circle magics. Now, in order for this to work, SSO needs to expand the number of horses we can get in story, either for free or for a nominal shilling cost (talked about this in the Star Coin bloat conversation). I think this would also help balance the more premium cost of horses, because at least there’s a base option with any special abilities horses may have, more along the lines of weather resistant horses right now, unless special abilities were to become a part of dressage or something for bonus points. It also could help expand the “Soul Steed” system from it having to be the starter, to it being just horses for Aideen’s Chosen, because, well, supposed to be connected to all horses. This could open up more players being able to choose their actual Soul Steed, since not everyone wants to play the story with their starter.

This track would focus on expanding the abilities of those special abilities horses have. It could also make SSO’s map design way more inventive if they give all players an easy option to enter all these play styles. Imagine maps designed with super narrow areas, where there are still roads anyone can travel through, but also taking a pony through it will give you access to bonus secret areas from ducking into those tight and narrow corners. Or the inverse, traversing a canyon, and being able to leap off your a larger draft horse to high ledges and explore from there. SSO also toyed with this when the first Frisians came out around Midsummers, where there were branches you could grab without jumping on a bigger horse. I think a great addition to this would be that the standard/starter horse does become a kinda catch all, with some modified version of all of these abilities, particularly if there’s a shilling cost, or that there’s some kind of temporary stat system.

A feature I’ve seen a lot of players asking for is the starter to be a cold resistant horse, which I think would work well in this system. I think it also opens the option of potions that give temporary abilities, like the Tonic of Warming to negate the cold, or the Potion of Flying for boosting up off of your horse, as well as more expensive tack sets to equip that will give the horse wearing it the abilities of the starter and the horse with the ability a boosted one. It could still be linked back to this system, where leveling up the track even if you don’t like the free horse for it, you can still play with another horse you do like, or to combo abilities to explore the map in new and exciting ways.

Obviously, this would be a huge overhaul of the system, but I think it would mean the devs could move into a more interesting design for leveling than before, and could seriously expand what a new map in SSO means. For one, it opens all of the possibilities of the skills in a base overhaul, but moving forward, it means new ways to explore the maps and relearn the game with new abilities.

[prosteticanimals]

10 Things Most People Don't Know About fireinsidemusic

Just one these types of millennial who knocked my socks off was this younger Woman named Anushka, a teenager in her early twenties. Her white t-shirt with "MILLENNIAL" in huge, black, bold letters just caught our rapid interest and we couldn't prevent considering her Special Talent Presentation, here at Nirmiti Academy. The Do it yourself (Do It You) Craft was her unique expertise. She represented a young deal with of your millennials. Moreover, it was her presentation that spoke extra of her as a millennial. She was a real go-getter when it came to existing her unique talent in a unique way. We could see her beaming with delight and contentment to showcase her distinctive expertise to others. She was so psyched that she was talking a mile a moment. She experienced a lot of to mention about it and she or he could go on and on and preserve us glued to her presentation. The millennials like Anushka and several Other folks are determined to work on factors which interest them. Concurrently, I could also see her being struggling to smile and present herself Fortunately. Long gone would be the moments to the millennials where they really feel current and luxuriate in their surroundings. These are the era who feel the continuous want for Digital notice which potential customers them to overshare their life and times on social networking or go inward in deep conscience to find on their own. This leaves them unconnected With all the Bodily world all over them.

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In its place, the students Considerably prefer to master in the stories and experiences of Other individuals. These shared stories and activities assistance them to augment their particular encounter by Understanding in the accomplishment and mistakes of others. This helps them avoid creating a similar blunders as their influencers. As a result, they like to speculate more in their money and time on these applications which help them to establish various methods that they could include into their thoughts and final decision-creating method, therefore building a new skill established.

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However They can be the major workforce of the businesses currently, they do not believe in lifelong work. Lifelong commitment is a fairy tale for the millennials. They generally soar from on career to another since they are often searching for some thing new and much better. These higher expectations turn out to be their downfall and can make them fewer economically steady than their mom and dad.

Millennials are listed here to remain! They are really young, vibrant and energetic and they're the longer term. They are great belongings which the world will have to harness and use. These are the generation which is revolutionizing the planet. They are the budding leaders of tomorrow. They adopt technological innovation and stimulus in the identical breadth. This era can also be a collaborative and social technology that includes a focus on comprehending and setting up their expertise by means of different kinds of medium to find out the responses. It can be for your educator like us to provide an arena for engagement and discovery along with be considered a information specialist and mentor. It can be for learning platform companies like Nirmiti Academy to give an explorative and experiential expertise and produce out their true probable in everyday life and at work. It is this transformational journey that we at Nirmiti Academy look ahead to every single day to master, unlearn and relearn Using these youthful and magical era - the Millennials!

If the above mentioned title confuses you, you may well be missing out on a few of the very best possibilities the world wide web has to offer. Meanwhile, other people are expanding their Professions, getting ready For brand spanking new life as business owners, or are learning new techniques or increasing their knowledge base, normally at little if any Charge.

How are they executing this?

These are accessing MOOCs, or Substantial Open Online Programs. Although platforms are actually offered from elite colleges like MIT and Stanford for virtually ten years, open-supply classes proceed to improve in amount and popularity. Now, even some local people colleges like Wake Specialized University,Situated outdoors Raleigh, NC, offers MOOCs to a global viewers. This growing availability suggests There's now an unbelievable variety of courses available to anybody using an internet connection, in spite of area.

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Factors to Consider a MOOC

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Adhere to the backlinks in this article To find out more on a lot of MOOC classes. MOOCs can also be out there as a result of many different academic platforms, which include Coursera, Udemy, and edX. But MOOCs may be accessed directly via Each individual university, and can be found by making use of the following Google research restricting syntax entered into your google lookup bar:

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By way of example, if I enter web site:edu MOOC robotics, I get about 7,000 final results, like this Introduction to Robotics Specialization from Penn Engineering. By using this syntax, you are able to usually bypass the clearinghouses and find just what exactly You are looking for on university websites, even classes the clearinghouses might not supply.

Pleased MOOCing!

[fyeahcreepyshit]

I FOUND A LETTER FROM MY STALKER

Published on January 6, 2019 "I Found a Letter From My Stalker" Written by MinisterOfOwls ESTIMATED READING TIME — 12 MINUTES I found this note, nailed onto a tree on my front lawn. I really don’t know how to describe it. I’ll just let you read it yourself. [Note start] I saw you today. It was your birthday. You didn’t see me, you hardly ever do these days. Your skin looked so nice and healthy, and your eyes, they were the most beautiful I’d ever seen them. You’ve grown so much. I remember how you different used to look when you were younger. I remember the day I first met you. It was four years ago. I was sitting on my desk, head down, listening to the teacher rattling off names for attendance. The teacher called out a name I didn’t recognize, and a stranger’s voice answered behind me. Was there a new student? The teacher didn’t pause for a second, just continued calling out name after name. I turned my head to where the voice had come from. I saw you, a pale thing, so thin, your eyes so red, at a seat that should have been empty. I saw the fireflies flying around you, flickering. Dozens of them, never straying far from you. I saw them going through you, and coming out through your skin, like you were a mist to them. Can you believe I thought you were a ghost? No one else seemed to acknowledge the new stranger sitting at the back of the class. Class after class, hour after hour passed as I waited for something to happen. For someone to notice you, for you to leave, for you to let out a ghoulish scream and claw at me like in the horror story I was certain I was in. But nothing happened. Teachers came and went. My classmates laughed and slept, and you just sat there. The bell rung for recess. The other kids ran to their mundanities for the day, leaving me and you together in the empty classroom. You stood up and pulled a chair from the desk next to you, making it face your desk. You turned your head to me and spoke “Well, you’re slow today. Come on. Ask me your questions.” I don’t know why I didn’t run away screaming at that moment. Probably would have turned out better for me in the long run, but let’s not speculate. I guess, at that point in my life , I was pretty bloody lonely. I figured there was only a 50-50 chance you’d eat me and the other 50 was that someone wanted to talk with me. Kid priorities don’t make sense to me either these days. So I went along with the flow. I walked over to your desk, sat down on the chair you pulled for me, and asked my question. What were you? You told me you didn’t know. You said that once you were a child, just like me, with parents and friends. You used to go to the same schools as me. Then, one day, one ordinary day, when you were ten, you just woke up and you were like this, covered in fireflies and no one could remember you the moment they concentrated on anything else. No one, not even your parents. You told me of how I’d notice you, every day. How I’d think of you until recess every day. How I’d come to you every day. How we would talk, every day. How we would meet for the first time, every day, for the last three years. About how I’d forget the instant I walked out of the room. How everyone would forget you. How the fireflies would make them. How for the last three years, you’d been alone. Your story was very hard to believe. So I didn’t. I asked what reality prank show I was on. You looked, well, unimpressed, and asked me to continue telling my story. I was caught off guard by the non sequitur. You said last time I was here, I was telling you a story, a horror story about a haunted house. As you detailed the story, goosebumps prickled my skin. It was a story I’d been making up in my head. A story I hadn’t told anyone yet. At that moment, a million reactions were open to me, all simultaneously adequate and inadequate . But the only thing that seemed proper was to finish the story for you. So I did. Halfway through, you interrupted me to ask if my mother had recovered from her sickness yet. I had to shake my head, a bit ashamed at the fact that I shared this private matter to a stranger. The story ended a few minutes before recess. My next class was in another room. You told me to go. Your steadiness took me back. You seemed so… accepting of your fate. Like you’d already gotten used to the idea of being forgotten forever. I was a kid back then. I wasn’t a particularly smart kid, and I was probably on the onset of a crush. So you can excuse what I did next as an example of my childhood stupidity. I grabbed my scissors, pressed it against my arm’s skin, and dug in. As it drew blood, I pushed it forwards, till the cut forms the shape I wanted. Letter by letter, I carved your name onto my arm. Just so you up know, I don’t regret that. Don’t get me wrong, kid power might have made me do it, but it sure as hell didn’t make the pain go away. It was one of the most painful experiences of my life. But even then as a kid, I thought what was happening to you was unfair. I remember how your eyes looked when you saw that. The confusion. How strange it was for you, that anyone would want to remember. I remember that look so clearly. When I woke up the next day and saw your name on my arm, I remembered you. I didn’t forget. That day, for the first time, we had a conversation that wasn’t so one-sided. You said no one had ever done anything like that before and suggested I might have a mental illness . I won’t deny it, that drew a little blood. As we talked, a creeping thought came into my head: Did you prefer it when I didn’t remember? That night, I was sitting up on my bed, staring at your name on my arm, wondering if I should cover it up so I couldn’t see it and give you back your privacy, when I heard a crash. I looked up to see my bedroom window shattered and a dirty rock on my floor. I looked out of the cracked window, to see a dark figure on my lawn. You were outside yelling, about how we should hang out. It took me a while to get used to how bad you were at talking to people. Years without practice, made you a quite a bit rusty. That was all right. We had a lot of time. For the next two years, we spent the most of our free time together. Most of the time, we talked. You’d tell me an aspect of your life and how you lived. You still stayed in your old house. Your parents never noticed the food gone missing, never noticed the extra room, and you’d stolen the extra keys. One night, I confided in you, that I was beginning to think you were a part of my imagination, Fight Club style. After all, what could you do to me that I couldn’t do to myself? You spent the next month or so trying to leave bite marks on my ear or neck, to prove a point. I still have some on my ear, so I guess you did. Looking back, I could see the warning signs even then. Your skin seemed to get worse and worse, paler and paler, and you’d rub your eyes raw. It was in winter we had our wakeup call. The morning began like any other. I woke up, brushed my teeth, and started searching for clothes to wear. It was a winter morning, and my room was dark, so I didn’t see your name on my arm. The cold sent shivers through my body, and pulled out a long sleeve jacket. A small bell rang in my head. Don’t you usually roll your sleeves up? Yeah, and why did I? That was annoying. I finished tidying up and headed to school. On the school bus, I felt oddly content, like something I’d been worrying about had just… disappeared. I walked up the school stairs, down the hall, through my class door, and sat down on my desk. The same feeling of a burden forgotten hounded my mind. What was I forgetting? When recess came, I started came, I just sat at my desk, while my class mates ran out. It felt like a ritual , but I didn’t know what for. I was contemplating just walking out to join them, when I heard it. It was something small in the wind, like a whisper, but it came over and over, incessant. It sounded like my name. I knew this was strange, that this was worth my attention, but I felt oddly calm. Everything would be alright, everything would be fine, just ignore it. I sat there on my desk, my mind a war zone between two conflicting, contradictory, voices, when I felt a force tugging on my sleeve. The moment I noticed this, my jacket sleeve tore open. I saw your name on my arm, and then your hand that had ripped my jacket open. You’d been yelling at me for over 20 minutes. I think that was the moment we realized how on edge our friendship really was. One accident away from complete erasure. We spent the most of the next year in the town library together, trying to find out what the fireflies were. It wasn’t really a problem for me. Because of my mother’s treatment, my family couldn’t afford to go on any trips, and our house didn’t have heating anymore, so I was happy to spend my time with you. Trying to find information was a puzzle in and of itself. After all, how would I read about people I couldn’t remember and how would you find out who was special when no one could even remember enough about them to record them? We found out old family trees and records. Individually, we’d write down the name of everyone in the book on two lists and then we would compare. The names I hadn’t remembered to write down, but you had, would become the focus. They were the names who were under the curse of the fireflies. We compiled a list of “suspicious” books. Books we though could help us, because they were written by or were about the people we were searching for. I’d read the books, with the list of names side by side, reading it again for every page of the book. You’d sure the internet on the library computers , for articles about the people. Our search would lead us to the first glimpse we got of what was really happening to you. It was late at night when you found the picture. I was a bit drowsy at that time, and almost about to nod off when I heard a sharp intake of breath. I turned to see you standing up, pointing at the screen. I didn’t see anything. Well, anything noteworthy. On the screen was a picture of a clearing somewhere in the woods You held up your piece of paper where you’d marked out two names. Susie Applebee-Reagan, 13 Terry Applebee-Reagan, 12 Siblings For a moment, I saw the paper and the screen side by side. Side by side. And then I saw them. Two figures, emerging from the woods, towards the camera. They were almost humanoid, but all five limbs stretched to nightmarish proportions. Blank white skin, pure albino, that looked more like tree bark than anything on a mammal. A cloud of fireflies surrounded the duo. The shorter one looked emaciated. I could see the rib cages around which their… their eyes! God, their eyes! So small, so red. The longer one with their white hair, didn’t look alive anymore. They were just skin wrapped around skeletons. Their empty eye sockets had fireflies swarming out of them. Both reaching for the camera man. I looked at the article surrounding the picture. It was a blog post by hiker, twenty years after the two kids had been written about last. The picture was a mystery to the camera man as well. He’d been wanting to go to the woods pictured for a while now, but he never actually remembered going there. The picture had just appeared in his camera one day, out the blue. For a moment, I looked at your face. Your thin pale face, with those red veined eyes. Would that be you when my scar faded? Just a walking horror I’d glimpse, then forget? We worked through our reading list at a much faster pace starting from that moment. Maybe we should’ve gone slower. At least every book, every website we’d left untouched promised hope. The books we finished and tossed aside promised nothing but the clearing in the woods as your future. And we tossed aside a lot of books. I believe I tore through three fourths of my reading list before I stumbled across the journal. Oh God, that horrible, horrible journal. The journal used to belong to a mental patient, named Joey, who claimed to be a serial killer. He was locked up in an asylum when the police discovered his supposed victims never existed. He was ‘diagnosed’ with a need for attention, and shoved away. They should have electrocuted him. They should have fried him until his flesh melted and his hair burned. In the journal, he talked about how he carried out his killings. He knew things, bizarre and disturbing things no one else knew. He knew of strange creatures that lived in the woods. Of them, his favorite were the fireflies. I’m not going to tell you how he summoned these things. I trust you, I trust you more than anyone, but a thing like this belongs to the ground more than it ever will to the human mind. It’s sufficient enough to know that, these things were not fireflies. Joey would start his ritual by taking a kid. Any kid, anyone he’d liked. He could take them at any time, the dead of night in their own homes, or in broad daylight on their front yards. It didn’t matter if he was seen. He’d take them to his house and drag them to a room. Usually, an Amber Alert came up around now. He didn’t care. Like I said, it wouldn’t matter soon. He’d drag them to a special room in his house. Here the fireflies would come and latch onto them. Now, nobody was searching for the kids. Not the police, not the parents. Nobody. From then on, he could do whatever he wanted to the kid. He’d get bored of them after a day or two, after the child had broken. And then the kid would go too. Hacksaw, kitchen knife, anything would work. He detailed a large pit of bodies he kept in the woods, swarming with the bugs. I guess he got bored of that too one day, so one day he went right to the police station and turned himself in. Not of guilt, no, no, no. He just wanted someone to know about the stuff he was doing. Sick bastard. Oh, don’t get the wrong idea. He never stopped killing kids. The asylum doors didn’t stop him from doing what he liked. It just made him improvise. He made a new way. He modified the flies, so they could survive without a host, just in a dormant state. When a child (he specified the age) would approach the swarm, it would latch on and begin its effect. Over the years, the child would warp horribly into the things we saw in the woods. I wish I could hate him in peace. I wish I could say the world owed him nothing. But that wouldn’t be true. He detailed a way out. On the final page, was an exact explanation on how to get rid of the fireflies. You must have seen something in my face, at that moment you asked if had I found anything. I said no and closed the book. A few minutes later, you shut down the computer. You picked up the last book and went through it yourself. When you reached the end cover, you tossed it aside. I asked what we should do now. You said it was alright. I could go home. We’d talk about it in the morning. I stood up and walked past the shelves of books. I headed for the library entrance, but stopped right outside the door and waited. I waited until I heard the sniffling sounds. I sneaked back to our table, where you were quietly sobbing. You had your head in your hands. I sat back down, as you raised your eyes to me. You said you wished you’d never met me. How happy you were when you had nothing to lose. How I ruined your life. You’d never really gotten better at talking to people. That was the worst love confession I’d ever heard. I remember how we kissed that night. I remember your hands gripping my hair. I remember that kiss. I wish it could’ve been just a kiss. I’m sorry I ruined that moment. When my arms were around you, I was close enough to steal a firefly without you noticing. I remember holding the fireflies in my hand. I remember how it struggled, until it didn’t. Until it was a part of me. The fireflies shifted. They came over me, and left you. I remember the familiar look in your eyes. The confusion. I never wanted to see that confusion in your eyes again. You deserved to be loved and you deserved to know that. I wasn’t really living anyway. You reached for me. I pulled away, as the last lights of recognition faded from your eyes. And then you were just staring at a stranger, walking away into a crowd of strangers. That was a year ago. You’ve gotten so much better since then. You have so many friends now. So many people at your birthday party. You also look so much healthier. I haven’t been as fortunate. My skin’s gotten a lot paler, and my eyes hurt all the time now. I couldn’t go to school like you did all those years. I haven’t wasted my time though. I found Joey’s pit. The bodies, there were so many bodies. There’s a grave for those children now. Without me, my mom could afford her surgery. She looked so happy. Just yesterday, I saw her playing with my baby brother. I saw you crying yesterday. You were with your friends, laughing. For a brief moment, your eyes met mine, and then, they were so wet. I think I’m going away. For good I think. You’re not going to be happy if I stick around. I’m so happy I met you, even if you don’t remember me. [Note end] Sometimes I go through depressive episodes. I feel so lonely, even with my friends. I don’t know what’s going through my head during these times, and sometimes I’d end up in a bath tub, a knife in my hands and my wrists bleeding. Up till now, I thought I was cutting my wrists. I wasn’t. The cuts… they’re letters. I’ve been carving a name onto my arm. Credit: MinisterofOwls (Reddit)

[dorkforty]

So I spent some time this weekend diving down the rabbit hole of Hix-Men Fan Theory. That’s theories on what’s really going on in Jonathan Hickman’s X-Men, of course, specifically the twin series House of X and Powers of X. And, hoo boy, is the speculation rife! In the process of reading all this stuff, I learned some things I didn’t know, was introduced to some ideas I hadn’t considered, and put some of my own personal theories into a new context.

It was all terribly interesting, and an awful lot of fun. I haven’t been part of a popular fan debate on anything in a long time, and I’d forgotten how energetic it can be. I mean… I was certainly engaged with other fans of Twin Peaks Season Three, but that’s the David Lynch fanbase, which tends to be more artsy and adult, cheering on Our Hero’s directorial excesses even when they come at the expense of story and common sense. But there’s a real exhilaration in simply engaging with a story, and talking about it with others who just can’t wait to find out what happens next. So I decided to spend this week’s column talking about that instead of doing my usual long-winded reviews. Hope you enjoy it, but be forewarned: SPOILERS lie ahead. An endless array of them…

So What’s the Big Deal Here, Anyway?

The big revelation of the series so far, if you don’t already know, is that longtime X-Men ally Moira MacTaggart is actually a mutant with the power of reincarnation. Or, rather, the power of rebirth. Moira lives her life over and over again, born each time with full memory of all her previous lives, and obsessed with finding a way to prevent the mutant genocide she’s witnessed so many times. She’s currently on her tenth life, which we’ve been lead to believe is X-Men history as we know it. There’s even a timeline showing what she’s been up to across all ten lifetimes:

(click to REALLY embiggen)

Close examination reveals… rather a lot, really. Moira’s tried many different variations on things, some happier than others, but it always winds up the same way: mutant genocide at the hands of humans and their robots. With that in mind, considering her several lifetimes of genetics research, it’s not much of a stretch to believe that she married Joe MacTaggart specifically to give birth to Proteus, a reality-warping mutant whose powers are essential to the resurrection process introduced in last week’s House of X #5. If your goal is the survival of the mutant race, after all, figuring out a way to bring them back from the dead would be a good start.

(We still don’t know what happened to Life Six, by the way. Though some have speculated, based on some black panels in the sequence of her lives, that she may have been stillborn. Even though it’s been suggested that her mutant power won’t really manifest each time until she reaches puberty. Hmm…)

There’s loads of other stuff in there, too, including a few significant ret-cons. The biggest (aside from Moira’s mutant status) is that she let Charles Xavier read her mind on the day he first had the idea for the X-Men. So Professor X has spent all these years knowing a lot more than he seemed to, planning (presumably) for the situation we’re in now.

Years later, you’ll notice, they also let Magneto in on the plan. I really wasn’t sure when they did that, but people who are bigger X-Men fans than me have pegged it (based on the island base he’s living on when it happens) to sometime not long before X-Men #150. That’s where Magneto started his long turn toward heroism, refusing to kill Kitty Pryde in battle and fleeing to the peace and safety of Asteroid M. Fifty issues later, he’s pardoned by the UN, and not long after that, he’s the new headmaster of the Xavier School.

A few years after that, the timeline mentions a “schism” between Moira, Xavier, and Magneto. We don’t know when that happened or what might have caused it, but some are speculating that it happens just before the beginning of the Jim Lee “adjectiveless” X-Men series of the early 90s, when Magneto returns to being a villain. Which makes sense, I suppose. That Magneto seems lost and aimless, and easily lead back to villainy by his own acolytes. A split with the architects of the mutant master plan might well leave him that way.

But my money’s on it happening just before the beginning of the Grant Morrison run. There’s been a bit of a mutant population explosion, and they’re starting to form a distinct culture all their own. Xavier’s methods change in response, as he opens the school up to many more students than it’s traditionally hosted, and publicly comes out as a mutant. That’s a significant moment in at least one of Moira’s earlier lives. Hickman even copied the speech verbatim.

The Morrison Scene:

And the Hickman Scene:

So if the other two thought he was moving too soon, I could see that causing the split. It might also explain why Magneto strung himself out on power-enhancing drugs to better-disguise himself as Xorn, with the goal of eventually joining the faculty at the Xavier School and destroying it (and all hope of peaceful human/mutant relations) from within.

A few years after that, we’re told, Moira faked her own death using a “Shi’ar Golem” (whatever that is). And that, much to my surprise, is a total ret-con of a story in which Moira was assassinated by Mystique. So Moira’s been dead in-story for some time now, and is presumably still considered dead by most, if not all, of the cast.

And that begs a rather important question…

Where is Moira MacTaggart?

We’ve seen plenty of Moira in this book, in flashbacks and scenes from her previous lives. Some think that we may have even seen her in the future, in scenes from the X-Men: Year 1000 sequences in Powers of X (more on those in a minute). The one place we haven’t seen her is in the present-day (designated here as X-Men: Year 10). We’ve seen plenty of Xavier, forging a new mutant nation and recruiting every single mutant on Earth to join him there. We’ve seen Magneto in close conspiracy with him, discussing the ins and outs of the plan. We’ve seen them, together, sending a core X-Men team on a suicide mission. But no Moira. So where is she?

We don’t know. But there are theories out there, most of them revolving around another important question…

What’s Up With Professor X?

This is a natural question for a book like this. Hickman’s pulled enough swerves so far that virtually everything is worth (or seems worth) second-guessing. Some of the fan theories get pretty far out there. But questioning Xavier’s current actions seems entirely worthwhile to me. He’s embarking on an incredibly ambitious plan that, in some ways, goes against his core philosophy of “Why Can’t We All Just Get Along?” He’s suddenly arguing for mutant separatism, for one thing, and gathering as many mutants as he can onto a single land mass.

(A single, sentient, mutant land mass known as Krakoa, which has been known in the past to trap other mutants within itself and feed off their life force. It doesn’t do that anymore, of course, but still… You’d think somebody would be at least a little worried about how this is going down. Especially the part where they help Krakoa spread itself around the globe, and even onto other planets. But, nah. That couldn’t possibly be a problem…)

Now, all Xavier’s really arguing for at this point is for mutants to be governed by mutants, instead of by humans. And considering the multiple genocides committed against various mutant populations over the years…

…that doesn’t sound entirely unreasonable. It’s sort of like Mutant Israel. But in this case, it’s also rather elitist. Unlike Israel, the establishment of Krakoa puts mutants not only outside the bounds of human law, but also above it. And while nobody’s arguing for mutant rule of the human race yet, more than one prominent member of Xavier’s inner circle has expressed opinions in that direction.

It’s not just a philosophical change, either. His demeanor and body language are also quite different than what we’re used to from the staid, professorial X-Mentor. I suppose it could be explained away by his finally being able to stop pretending. He’s finally carrying out the master plan he and Moira cooked up so many years ago, and I could see how that would be freeing to him. So freeing that he’s got this “holy man” vibe about him at times. Which is appropriate, I suppose, considering how the resurrection process was sold to the mutant masses.

Yeah… Xavier’s not building a nation. He’s building a cult.

But he’s also more touchy-feely than we’re used to seeing, with more delicate gestures. To the point that some have described his movements as “feminine.”

Also? He’s only taken that damn helmet off once. And when he did? He was totally dressed up like his evil twin sister.

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So, yeah. What the hell IS up with Professor X?

As you might have already guessed, there seem to be two dominant theories. One is that his body’s being inhabited/controlled by the not-dead Moira MacTaggart. Or that her consciousness was placed in an Xavier body grown as part of the resurrection process. I mean, the official documentation we’re shown explaining that process does SPECIFICALLY SAY that nobody’s had their mind put into another person’s body yet. But that documentation might also be lying. And considering that just two paragraphs before that, it describes how they’ve solved the problem of Proteus burning out his bodies by making him a bunch of stand-by husks MADE FROM XAVIER’S DNA… There’s clearly a loophole.

(Alright, so Proteus can move his own mind from body to body without the need of the resurrection process. So TECHNICALLY it’s true that they haven’t mixed up mind and body as yet. But, yeah. That’s one hell of a loophole.)

The other dominant theory (and the one that I personally hope is true, just because it’s really cool) is that Xavier is actually his evil twin sister Cassandra Nova. Now, Xavier clearly has a male body, and even Cassandra’s emaciated stick of a frame wouldn’t look that male in a skin-tight outfit (black body socks don’t leave much to the imagination). But she’s jumped bodies AND implanted herself in Xavier’s mind before. So there’s precedent. There’s also a reference made to a “progerian mutant” in the Mister Sinister gossip column from Powers of X #4, and progerian might very well describe Ernst, the aged little girl form Cassandra was put into after her initial defeat.

Yes, yes. I know Grant Morrison’s original intent there was either completely misunderstood or purposefully ret-conned after he left the book, and that Ernst and Cassandra have since been established as two separate people. But screw it. The original idea was a lot better, and I’m holding out hope that Hickman’s going to ret-con the ret-con.

So, yeah. That one’s probably just a red herring.

But a man can dream, can’t he?

At any rate. Whatever’s going on with Xavier, this represents a real sea-change from his original dream, and it’s one that many people may have a hard time accepting. Which brings us to another often-asked fan question:

So the X-Men are Villains Now?

Well… Not villains, really. It’s more complicated than that.

I mean, sure. They welcomed some real nasty customers into the fold in last week’s House of X #5. A collection of genuinely evil mutants, including Apocalypse himself. But the idea is that they’ll agree to live by Krakoan law, or suffer the consequences of mutant justice.

So, yeah. It’s complicated. We haven’t seen everything of how they plan to interact with the human world. Emma Frost did, admittedly, work some mind control on a UN delegate or two to get Krakoa recognized as its own sovereign nation, and Xavier acknowledged that without damning her for it. But he also warned her of the dangers inherent in such things, and toasted her sacrifice.

And alongside that, there’s the miracle drugs they’re offering humanity: cures for cancer and dementia that can only be produced on Krakoa by mutants. Those are bargaining chips to convince other nations to recognize Krakoa, of course, and probably also function as some small deterrent to another genocidal attack. Who wants to give up a cure for cancer, after all, just to get rid of some people who simply want to be left alone? But, still. Those are genuine boons for the human race, and shouldn’t be forgotten.

Also, I’m pretty sure that Marvel Comics wouldn’t give Jonathan Hickman carte blanche to just turn one of their biggest franchises into a villain book. So I’m sure that, going forward, the X-Men will still be getting up to all manner of heroic deeds. They’ll just be doing it in front of a more morally-complicated backdrop.

None of this deals with another major fan question, however, this one most often being asked by people who aren’t completely on board for Hickman’s storytelling and the new status quo.

Why’s That Year 1000 Stuff Even There?

The one X-Men time period that seems utterly detached from everything else that’s happening is the far-future world of the X-Men: Year 1000. Mutants and machines have come together to overthrow humanity (keeping the last remaining Homo Sapiens in zoos), and now seek Ascension with the Phalanx, some kind of cosmic machine intelligence that either absorbs or destroys every culture it comes into contact with.

Hickman’s really getting out there with this sequence, tying together all the various Marvel machine races into one vast hierarchy that includes the Kree Supreme Intelligence, the Xandorian Worldmind, Warlock’s people, the techno-organic virus, and (somewhere way out at the very far end of things) the Celestials.

I only caught maybe half of this, you understand, and had to have the rest explained to me by people who’ve read a lot more X-Men comics than me. I had no idea, for instance, that the Phalanx had even appeared before. But they were evidently the subject of an entire X-Men storyline, and had something to do with the story that launched the modern version of Guardians of the Galaxy, too. Here, they just come off like one of those awesome Hickman-Riffs-On-Kirby things that he does from time to time. I didn’t need to know any of that to understand the story, either. It’s just interesting to me.

Anyway.

From my perspective, the Year 1000 stuff speaks to two very important questions about this story. First, it’s the ultimate payoff on all the Sentinel stuff Hickman’s been developing. Though the machines seem to be mutantkind’s doom in the short term, they may turn out to be its salvation in the end. Which may mean that Moira’s life experience, prodigious as it may seem in human terms, is too short-sighted. It may be that, in preventing Nimrod from going on-line and destroying the Orchis Mother Mold, the X-Men have doomed themselves to eventual destruction at the hands of machines far more advanced than anything Moira’s even dreamed of.

Second, though, the Year 1000 stuff also speaks to one of the series’ bigger metaphysical tangles: when Moira dies and is reborn, do the timelines of her previous lives just… end? Or do they keep going on past her, developing and growing without her? Is Moira MacTaggart just caught in an endless loop, or is she somehow taking the whole damn universe along with her every time, dooming it to end unless she can find a path to immortality?

I hadn’t even considered the latter possibility until I ran across it on a forum somewhere. Now, I can’t get it out of my head. And I guess the answer hinges entirely on whether the Year 1000 sequence is the future of Moira’s tenth life, or (like the Year 100 sequence before it) if it’s simply the far future extension of one of her previous lives.

We haven’t necessarily seen Moira in the Year 1000, by the way. But there is an Elder who’s masterminding everything we’ve seen, who has a helmet much like Xavier’s current Cerebro jobbie. And considering the effective immortality Our Heroes have developed… Well. It’s not completely out of the question, is it?

Something that probably IS completely out of the question, though, is covered by our final query:

How Could I Have Forgotten About Fan-Kink?

As I said at the outset, I haven’t been an active participant in any truly popular dork fandom in a very long time. And somehow, I had forgotten how horny certain elements of the fanbase really are. I mean, I’m aware of things like shipping and erotic fan fiction, but I haven’t personally run across it in ages. At least, not until I started digging into X-Men Fan Theory.

It’s only natural that X-Fans are into kink, I suppose. It’s baked in. Chris Claremont, the granddaddy of modern mutant adventure, often worked out his own personal sexual fantasies in this book. That’s why there’s so many dominatrix outfits. And I don’t even wanna THINK about Claremont in relation to the adult baby stuff from the very first X-Men comic I ever read.

No wonder this comic freaked me out when I was ten.

So, yeah. X-Fans do seem to love their kink. And Hickman seems to have set them off with a passing comment that a group of mutants should be called an Orgy. Which is a funny line, but wow. Some people have gotten REALLY into the idea. I’ve seen fantasies of mid-air threesomes and couplings involving all manner of mutant genitalia (and a few tails). And I haven’t even made the dive into any actual X-rated fan sites. This is just in regular funnybook forums, mixed in with theories about alternate timelines and how this character or that came back from the dead.

The best of this stuff has to be the things people have been saying about the Mister Sinister rumor column. Without going into detail, I’ve read theories about various characters reuniting for the lesbian/gay/interspecies love affair they were always meant to have but never did, or speculating on various dom/sub combos implied by rumors that I thought were fairly innocuous (or is “red shoes” code for something I’m not aware of?). My absolute favorite, though, is the (apparently long-running) theory that Wolverine, Jean Grey, Cyclops, and Emma Frost are all involved in a polyamorous relationship. This idea has inspired long treatises on the new mutant morality, and how they might be tossing aside all manner of human rules on Krakoa, especially the ones about sex and romance.

I’m not knocking it, you understand. No kink-shaming here. People should get into whatever they’re into, as far as I’m concerned, and more power to ’em. It’s just weird to go from posts detailing the events of “The Phalanx Covenant” to rapturous fantasies about the joys of telekinetic free love.

And since I couldn’t possibly top that, I think it’s time to shut up…

X-Theory: Fan Thoughts On Jonathan Hickman’s X-Men So I spent some time this weekend diving down the rabbit hole of Hix-Men Fan Theory. That's theories on what's really going on in Jonathan Hickman's X-Men, of course, specifically the twin series House of X and Powers of X.

[vampireadamooc]

Links tracing the Internet’s History of the Ojai Vampire.

The Ojai Vampire

Tuesday, September 6, 2011 http://thedemoniacal.blogspot.com/2011/09/ojai-vampire.html

The Ojai Vampire wan an alleged vampire that moved to Ojai, CA, circa 1890, and set up home near Creek Road.

Appearance: An undead corpse.

Lore: According to local folklore, circa 1890 a European vampire moved to the area of Ojai, CA, and set up home near Creek Road. The vampire was blamed for mysterious animal disappearances, cattle mutilations, and strange disappearances and murders of people. The vampire was dispatched by a local mob who crept up to the monster's stone sarcophagus which was guarded by a black dog. The mob sprayed the hell hound with holy water, causing it to flee. The mob then lifted the lid of the sarcophagus and drove a stake through the heart of the vampire. The vampire troubled the community no more.

According to some forms of the legend, the mob took the remains of the vampire and encased them in a slab of  cement. The slab was then hidden in nearby Camp Comfort County Park. To this day there are individuals who claim they know where the remains of the vampire are hidden, It is also still common for people to meet up in groups to attempt to find the location of the vampire's remains or of it's former stone sarcophagus.

Powers: Typical powers associated with vampires.

Defense Against The Ojai Vampire: The Ojai Vampire is no threat as it was killed by a local mob.

Posted by Doc Conjure at 2:42 PM

3 comments: Anonymous said... i have seen the vampire of ojai califorina i will never tell of it's loction neer camp comfort me and my friend found it we saw the black dog too. the vampire is real. not a story. i will never go back to that spot again, ever. i felt like we where being watched.. the black dog attacked us.it was very uncomfortable for us. we saw him in the coffin. you can see him if you can find it on your own...do not mess with the stake in his chest.......

January 11, 2013 at 3:07 PM Anonymous said... to those who have seen the black dog leave a black rose for me and let him know i am beseach him to the fulliest and thank him for being and existing in all worlds . emerald-grace3 - queen rebecca of rome italy

July 7, 2013 at 12:40 PM Anonymous said... Plz believe me leave the black dog alone when me and my friend came a cross the black dog it was not cool and me and my friend haven't talked since that day and we grew up together I see him every once in awhile and still no words between us it changed us both it has taken me awhile to send you this message stay away from the black dog and I will never leave anything for that dog if you feel you need to find the black dog good luck in trying to find the black dog

March 22, 2018 at 12:35 AM

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Ojai Vampire Update

Thursday, February 11, 2010 http://doaav.blogspot.com/2010/02/got-so-caught-up-in-new-vampire.html

Got so caught up in the new vampire encyclopaedia news, that I completely forgot about my further investigations in the Ojai Vampire!

After their previous response, I sent them another e-mail ("RE: A Query about Camp Comfort Park", Tuesday, 9 February 2010 7:19:42 PM). I was trying to determine if they had heard any variants of the tale: Hello,

Thanks for giving me the heads up on the sarcophagus issue.

I'm interested to know if you've actually heard about the vampire legend, however. What's your version of it?

~ Anthony And here's what they wrote back ("RE: A Query about Camp Comfort Park", Wednesday, 10 February 2010 3:47:04 AM): Office staff is unaware of any tall tales that have to do with so called "vampires" and the County parks. This makes me think that maybe the legend isn't as widespread as I thought. That, or they're new!

Or, we could go the conspiracy route and suggest they're covering up, but even if that was the case, would you want a bunch of vampire hunting wannabes to be scouring your Park, looking for a (most-likely) non-existent sarcophagus?

Didn't think so.

Besides, the story's obviously bogus. But it's an interesting lesson in the way "stories" are passed along. As long as no-one gets hurt, of course.

Posted by Anthony Hogg at 1:34 AM

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http://doaav.blogspot.com/2010/02/not-alls-sunny-in-california.html Tuesday, February 9, 2010

Not All's Sunny in California

I first read about the Ojai Vampire in Martin V. Riccardo's "Vampire Haunts" chapter for Rosemary Ellen Guiley with J.B. Macabre's The Complete Vampire Companion (New York: Macmillan, 1994).

The story is told on pp. 47-48 and relates the account of (unnamed) local ranchers finding their cattle mutilated and exsanguinated in the 1980s. They suspect a vampire, arm themselves and target a new landowner.

They come across something that resembles a "large stone box near a crossroad off Creek Road" and hear a vicious growl. It comes from a large black dog guarding this "box" (actually a sarcophagus). One of the ranchers whips out a large, silver crucifix, which keeps the dog at bay.

When they get closer to the box, the dog lunges for them, and they fire at it, with no effect. A plucky rancher flings holy water at it and the dog shrieks and runs away, leaving them free to approach the tomb "surrounded by tall weeds under the tree".

They pried off the lid and find "the cadaverous body of a nobleman" and stake it through the heart, just as the sun begins to set, and replace the lid.

Riccardo points out that the story contains "common pagan, Christian, and fictional elements of the vampire myth", taking note of the "crossroad, the spectral black dog, the nobleman, the silver crucifix, and the approaching dusk" (47). He also notes that a black dog is sometimes seen in the area and the sarcophagus has apparently been found, on occasion, with a window in the lid that reveals the vampire's unholy remains.

The story still circulates in Ojai, and is related on a section of Weird California's "Char Man" article. However, the date given in the story is vastly different from Riccardo's account. It also gives a bit of a background to the mysterious nobleman, too: According to urban legend, a vampire relocated to the Ojai area around 1890 from either Italy or Spain. He acquired a small ranch and kept a low profile. However, as soon as he arrived, local cattle began turning up dead and drained of blood. Shortly thereafter locals were assaulted by strange wolf like creatures. The townsfolk got up in arms and realizing that a vampire was in their midst, raided the vampire’s ranch during the day. There's also speculation as to the story's origins and a more specific geographic location of the vampire's resting place. It ends with a sombre warning: It has been speculated that this legend cropped up from a possible real life above ground tomb. It is plausible that an old family near the turn of the century could have buried their dead in this manner upon their estate. It is not only not unheard of, but also apparently the custom at the time in certain parts of Europe. Even the window in the stone coffin isn’t completely unheard of. Stating that, however, if you are wandering around Camp Comfort County Park and come upon a stone sarcophagus with a skeleton inside, don’t pull out the wooden stake. I did some more browsing on the case and found a classic friend-of-a-friend account: Supposedly in the mid 1800s a Vampire Settled in the Ojai valley. In the late 1800s the villagers of Nordhoff, now Ojai, hunted him down and staked him through the heart. Now I have heard that the poeple incased the remains of the vampire in a slab of cement. A buddy of mine actually says that he knows the location of the concrete slab. he says it is about a mile back from the intrance of Camp Comfort across the stream and over the first hill.....a bit of a hike but worth checking out....On my next trip to Ojai it is in the agenda. This is the area where the Phantom Dog roams as well as Charman I tried registering with the forum, to ask this guy to produce a photo of the tomb, but was sadly confronted with this: "Sorry but you cannot register at this time because the administrator has disabled new account registrations."

I also came across what appears to be a slight variant of the story, but much less literate: A guy that transformed into a vampire is repeatedly observed concealing a dead body by a large boulder in Camp Comfort Park after midnight. One thing's for certain, this spirit undoubtedly is bloodcurdling; one that you don't want to encounter at the stroke of midnight. The Ojai Vampire has all the classic urban legend traits, but I'm also reminded of certain elements in 1959 Western, Curse of the Undead.

Not only is it set in California, but the plot revolves around a mysterious gunman, ranch wars and a vampiric plague.

To cap it off, the vampire turns out to be Don Robles, a Spanish nobleman.

Posted by Anthony Hogg at 4:30 AM

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http://doaav.blogspot.com/2010/02/chasing-up-ojai-vampire.html Tuesday, February 9, 2010

Chasing Up the Ojai Vampire

After writing my previous entry, I e-mailed the Ventura County Parks Department (who administer Camp Comfort) with the following ("A Query about Camp Comfort Park", Tuesday, 9 February 2010 5:02:50 AM): Good morning,

Have you heard of the Ojai Vampire?

If so, what's the story you've heard?

It's apparently centred around Camp Comfort County Park.

There's rumours of a sarcophagus that's meant to be somewhere in the area, containing the remains of a vampire.

I don't believe in the story, but I'm wondering if the sarcophagus might actually exist. Can you confirm or deny this?

Sinc., Anthony Hogg And here's what they wrote back ("Re: A Query about Camp Comfort Park", Tuesday, 9 February 2010 7:37:41 AM): The Parks Department Administrative staff knows nothing about a sarcophagus onsite at any of the County parks. And you'd think they would, if there was one out there.

Nonetheless, they weren't very forthcoming about the vampire legend, so maybe they "get that a lot".

If any readers out there have been to Camp Comfort and seen a sarcophagus, or, better yet, have a picture of it, I'd love to hear from you!

Posted by Anthony Hogg at 7:36 PM

[aotopmha]

Attack On Titan Chapter 106, 107 and 108 Thoughts

Turns out I only missed three chapter posts during my inactivity.

Which is neat. But now I'm back and as rockin' as ever.

I think the simplest way to start is to address the biggest elephant in the room: the reveal at the end of chapter 107.

Historia is pregnant.

I'd make a soap opera joke, but that's too easy.

The first can of worms this opens is that she is a girl who likes girls and it is really common to not only kill one of the sides in a lesbian relationship, but also "turn them straight". The good part here is that the story does everything to disconnect it from that element. Chapter 107 shows the pregnancy is a necessity forced onto Historia because Eldia needs to survive until they develop good enough technology to defend themselves.

It goes back to one of the story's biggest thematic threads about survival and combines it with Armin's statement "If you can't sacrifice anything, you can't achieve anything."

I think it's equally possible that the pregnancy is as fake as it is real. So I'm going to look at both possibilities and what I think they have as a basis.

I think the tidbits that support the pregnancy being real are Hange's talk with Eren in the beginning of chapter 107, which shows him being angry at Historia being sacrificed and the concern the man at the end of the same chapter shows for Historia. The second one is a pretty easy one: it's just an act. The first one is trickier.

For Eren it would obviously be that he doesn't know because he's not in on the plan or he's talking about Historia being turned into a Titan.

Chapter 108 says that Eren and Zeke have talked. We don't know when, but if a fake pregnancy is planned, Zeke either didn't tell Eren, doesn't know himself, which would be odd considering it's stated to be there to extend his lifespan and Yelena is said to have come up with that plan, which I think is a reliable piece of information for now; that or Yelena is just acting independently to save Zeke because they can't interact due to being restricted by the Garrisson. The rest of the SL also seem to just take it as it is. If it's not real, not many people show hints of knowing it's not real.

It might just be a plan devised by only Yelena and Historia that nobody else knows about because Historia would not put anyone through the same fate of being forced into a situation of not their choosing. Not the child or the father. Only when she's probably forced to, which was implied in chapter 107, but 108 does give her ability to choose, which is another element that makes me suspect it's not real.

In addition to that, Historia only agreed to inherit the Titan. That was her chosen sacrifice. The pregnancy actually takes away most of her remaining freedom, something the characters have been fighting for to get back. Historia's choice in the cave meant taking back her freedom and choosing for herself. So it seems at odds with the themes so far. Giving your life, sure, but your personal freedom, too? Nah.

If the pregnancy is real, I think it's at least not chosen by people pleaser Historia. Her statement to take the power on seems to be genuine and out of the desire to genuinely help her friends and her people to survive, so I think the pregnancy would be a similar choice for her. We only have a few panels, but I think her character hasn't regressed.

(Chapter 107)

The story and where it could be going is an absolute headache to speculate about to me because there are so many pieces and variables to consider.

How much interaction did Eren have with Historia or anyone about the plans after Kiyomi's suggestion to have her have babies to keep the royal bloodline alive? There is a whole lot of questioning to find a better solution, as well. The past few chapters have each at least had one scene of someone looking for a better way.

Hizuru itself is suspect because they are greedy for Paradis' resources, too. Hange questions whether all really will be over in 50 years. The pregnancy is stated to be dangerous by itself, so the risk is still there. For Zeke's remaining year, it would make no difference whether the pragnancy is real or fake.

(Chapter 107)

Zeke's reason for giving away his parents is curious, too. Wouldn't *he* want to stay alive to make things right in his own way considering he thought he could do the job better than his parents? Talk about restoring the Eldian Empire is bad, but he at least seems to want to get this done by his own hand and in a much more smarter way. Regardless of his personal intentions, he would be a very useful weapon in the upcoming battle compared to Historia who would have no experience whatsoever.

My picture for now is that Historia's pregnancy is fake and they are betting on the upcoming battle to collapse Marley, which could happen with or without the rest of the world's support in that battle. If that happens, they could potentially get some sort of peace going. It's a massive gamble, which is something the SL is really familiar with at this point, but if they get Marley off their back, that's a step to potentially keep other nations away, especially if they try their best to show what's actually up to the world and stop the propaganda Marley is spreading.

In addition to that, while it would still aid the cycle, what has stopped Zeke from having a child himself with a woman that wants to? The hole of whether Marley knew he is royal blood was addressed by confirming Zeke has managed to hide it. Nobody on the wall with Dina survived so it didn't get out that way, either. That's another variable to add to the mix.

As with this whole story, it's meant to be a mystery, so I can wait for answers, but it's still at least a little frustrating. It's also exciting because this is the most unsure of any of my guesses about the story's direction I've been as long as I've followed it.

Speaking of uncertainty, trust and who to trust seems to be this arc's theme. It's not just the plot beats that are a mystery, but also the main players' intentions.

I consider Eren, Zeke and Historia the main players. We have not seen any details in their character perspective at all.

This aids everyone questioning them. One thing I appreciate in these chapters is that the characters have good reason to distrust Eren and Zeke. Eren went ahead and abused the SL's trust. Zeke turned an entire village to Titans and is responsible for many deaths on the Paradis side. It's not just drama for the sake of drama, it's testing the characters' bonds, something new the characters haven't been put through. This was the center of chapter 106 through Armin and was built to this moment:

(Chapter 108)

I already went into what Historia and Zeke might be thinking, but I have the most confident guess for Eren.

Of course he still cares. I think his concern for Historia is solid proof. The flashbacks are some time back so they are questionable, but that's in the present. His laugh at Sasha is something he does when in a high tension situation like that. He was tearing up in addition to that. The reason he went ahead so recklessly is to end this whole thing quickly and remove the need to pass the power because he doesn't want to pass it to anyone. In addition to that, he's the one who controls the power, so he's at least have some agreement and unity with Zeke. I feel like he would not agree with very crazy requirements.

But I think being suspicious is completely understandable and again, we don't really know for sure.

Finally, there are a few more minor developments I think that are noteworthy.

-Mikasa is a member of Hizuru's royal family. I like her being more plot important. Once again, Hizuru is suspicious, though. I think Historia might be in danger equally to Mikasa because of the importance they have as royal descendants, so that's something to note. I also really liked Mikasa sitting by Sasha's grave in chapter 107. Mikasa has had some quality scenes separate from Eren and together with Eren here. It's the most focus she's gotten in a while, which I think she really needs.

-I really look forward to the potential character arc with Gabi. It's been obvious since her introduction because of her similarity to Eren and his character arc, but the encounter with the girl Sasha saved seems to be a good way to kickstart it. It's potentially a very rewarding arc, as we saw it with Eren, I just wondered how it could have any sort of believable setup to it and here we go.

-I also like Marley's competency in chapter 108. They are not a forced threat which sometimes also happens, all conclusions they make seem pretty logical. Only Reiner's decision could screw them over, which he wants to probably make because those kids that went to Paradis kinda fuel his will to live. It's believable character behaviour all around.

These were excellent chapters in terms of setup, something I think AoT usually struggles with, but this managed to make me curious about pretty much all elements. I have my hesitations in terms of some of the elements (Historia's pregnancy in particular), but I really want to know more - I almost feel like I didn’t even go over half the possibilities where the story could go in this post.

Good stuff.

[backstorywithdanalewis]

Assault on Democracy Back Story with Dana Lewis podcast link: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1016881/7253866

Dana Lewis - Host: (00:00) A general thought that these people are fringe and, you know, crazy and live up in a forest somewhere. I mean, it's obviously much more serious than that and much more serious cost. Dana Lewis - Host: (00:13) We are seeing the cost of underestimating these groups now that are being called to the street by Trump. Kellie Carter Jackson: (00:19) Yeah. These, I think these groups have never really been Fringe That is what to me is most terrifying is that this group is made up of people who are educated, who have jobs, who have careers, who have families and thought that what they were doing was acceptable. If not necessary. Dana Lewis - Host: (00:42) Hi everyone. And welcome to backstory based in London. I'm Dana Lewis. What madness is unfolding in America? An American president has launched an all out assault on while pretty much everything. Trump came to power in 2016, calling mainstream media, fake news, and this done everything to undermine the public's confidence in journalism. That is not pro-Trump. He has called out the FBI and the courts for being part of the dark state and against every political opponent that is not on his side is later berated in tweets and rents that they are stupid or disloyal or losers. Same with anyone who was worked for him and later left and then came the election in a country admired for its democracy and rule of law. Trump started saying the election was false from the beginning. And if he didn't win the result, wouldn't be fair. He lost and then called it a massive fraud up to 70 court cases. Many by judges, he appointed said there was no evidence of cheating, but Trump won't concede and won't participate in a peaceful transition of power. And then he called a rally on the day, the us Congress was set to ratify the voting and he led his dogs off. The leash calling demonstrators to March to Capitol Hill were a riot occurred. Trump: (02:08) Never concede. It doesn't happen. You don't concede with step. Our country has had enough. We will not take it anymore. And that's what this is all about. And to use a favorite term that all of you people really came up with. We will stop the steel Dana Lewis - Host: (02:38) It's incitement to insurrection. Here's some of the violent imagery Mr. Trump used in his speech. Quote, Republicans are constantly fighting like a boxer with his hands tied behind his back. It's like a boxer and we want to be so nice. We want to be respectful of everybody, including bad people. And we're going to have to fight much harder. We fight like hell. And if you don't fight like hell, you're not going to have a country anymore. We will never give up. We will never concede. It doesn't happen. You don't concede when there's theft involved, our country has had enough. We will not take it anymore. And that's what this is all about. We are going to try give our Republicans the weak ones. Cause the strong ones don't need any of our help. Trying to give them a kind of pride and boldness that they need to take back. Our country, unquote, it was an attempt to overthrow the government protestors called for actually their terrorists called for the lynching of the vice-president and finding and holding accountable. The speaker of the house, Nancy Pelosi. They looked for her throughout the building and then occupied her office. Sadly, Nancy Pelosi: (03:53) The person who's running the executive branch is a deranged unhinged, dangerous president of the United States. And up only a number of days until we can be protected from him. Uh, but he has done something so serious that there should be prosecution against him. Dana Lewis - Host: (04:15) Trump is in the white house plotting what next he has been silenced by Twitter and Facebook. He's announced that he won't attend the inauguration and his supporters convinced the election wasn't free and fair vow to carry out more marches. And God knows what else on this backstory, why when social media was full of threats to the Capitol were DC. Police caught flat-footed American democracy today is badly bruised and maybe broken. All right, joining me now is Kelly Carter Jackson, uh, an assistant professor of Africana studies at Wellesley college in Massachusetts and the author of force and freedom black abolitionists and the politics of violence. Hi Kelly. Hi. How are you very well. I mean, you wrote a great article in the Atlantic and that's what led me to ask you to do the interview with us. So the, the headline is the inaction of Capitol police was by design. Are you suggesting some conspiracy here? Kellie Carter Jackson: (05:22) I, I'm not suggesting so much as a conspiracy, as I am suggesting the double standard that happens in American policing when it comes to black protesters, as when we're dealing with white protestors, we see a clearer, um, response that happens with marginalized groups of people and white people that is completely, um, different from what we saw earlier this summer. Dana Lewis - Host: (05:50) I mean, you're not the only, the only one, a lot of people that said did police very harsh in places like Portland and in Washington all over the country Dana Lewis - Host: (05:58) When it came to the BLM, uh, black lives matter protests and here you had white terrorists. Some of them, not all of them outside the Capitol and then push and then the terrorists pushing their way inside that building and policemen. I mean, the videos are perplexing. I have to tell you, I've, I've a correspondent. Kellie Carter Jackson: (06:22) We see police officers opening up the Gates, you know, which makes no sense. We see police officers taking selfies. I find that a port, you know, we see police officers who were grossly unprepared, grossly outnumbered. Um, and that, to me, I think the optics of the entire insurrection was the hardest to, to grapple with how is it that the Capitol police, the DC Metro police, you know, the FBI, everyone who could have been involved in was involved, did not, um, meet the resistance with equal fervor. Dana Lewis - Host: (06:59) I mean, out of respect for some of the police officers and their families, I mean, you see some officers fight valiantly to stop people from entering that building. Uh, one of them is, is beaten and dragged down the steps, uh, beaten with an American flag. And then you also see this black policeman Kellie Carter Jackson: (07:20) That was the most terrifying, heroic, Dana Lewis - Host: (07:22) Where the crowd is coming at him. Obviously he's not going to be very friendly to him and he kind of leads them, you know, he glances towards the door to the Senate floor and then in the end, leads them the other way to buy time for people inside Kellie Carter Jackson: (07:38) [inaudible]. But it just, I mean, that's one of the images as well, that has just stuck with me the most the, because I had fear for him when, when you see him sort of coming down the steps in that the mob turns the corner and sees him and he's like I'm outnumbered. And all he has is like, uh, like a Baton. Um, and it was also clear that like his badge, his uniform would not protect him from the mob, that there was no, um, civility or level of deference that was owed to him as his position as a police officer. And in that moment, I think he realized I'm not just a cop, I'm a black cop and that this is going to be a problem. Dana Lewis - Host: (08:24) So there's a lot of speculation. I mean, we're still coming to terms with what happened remarkably after spending my career covering big events like this, where there are repeated news conferences afterwards by the FBI, by the white house silence national guard was delayed and installed at one point Capitol police. As you mentioned, standing back in some of the videos, well coordinated with pipe bombs, being placed at the DNC and the RNC headquarters to maybe to distract police, uh, protesters armed with handcuffs and maps of the building who was pulling the strings. Kellie Carter Jackson: (09:03) I mean, we won't completely know that until we have a full investigation of what took place. But what I think is remarkable is that these fringe groups have been telling the public for months, what they intended to do, what their plans were. They, I saw, you know, a news footage of them showing like showing off their arsenal and showing, you know, when he gives the signal, we're speaking of Trump and he gives the call, we're ready. We're going to be ready. And you know, I think people didn't really believe them. I think people thought, Oh, who's got time. They're not serious. But people had orchestrated buses to come to DC. And this was not just, you know, for a protest. Dana Lewis - Host: (09:46) I think it was orchestrated by Donald Trump's white house. Kellie Carter Jackson: (09:49) Oh, absolutely. I mean, I think, I think that you cannot separate Donald Trump's leadership or lack thereof. Um, and these aport actions, uh, their circuit Lee certainly working in tandem Dana Lewis - Host: (10:05) New York times or putting the cops, cops policemen from Texas, Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, uh, as well as other States are now under scrutiny after scrutiny, after social media posts placed the mirror and in the riots that took place at the nation's Capitol in some policemen reporting that they were fighting off a policemen who were not in uniform, but people who were flashing badges saying, we're doing this for you as they punched him in the face. Kellie Carter Jackson: (10:34) Yeah. That's, that's the irony of this is that when you look at that crowd, you know, a lot of, one of the things that I wanted to say, but you only have a limited amount of space in the op ed, is that people think that these people are, are some French crazy radical group. Um, but this is us, that group of people was made up of off duty officers, veterans, soccer, moms, college students, elected officials. So when we think of who's present, I think we really have to have also another honest conversation about, um, who is, who is a part of the police force. And, and have we allowed the police force to somehow become co-opted, but also these, these radical groups as well. I've also read reports about white supremacists and Klan members, you know, um, actively gaining, um, you know, police Academy training and joining police Academy forces so that they can have more influence. That's scary to me, Dana Lewis - Host: (11:35) Reports from the, um, you know, that have been prepared by all sorts of people, but, uh, Michael German, a former FBI special agent has written extensively in the ways us law enforcement have failed to respond to far-right domestic terror groups concludes the us law enforcement officials have been tied to racist militant activists in more than a dozen States since 2000. And that hundreds of police officers have been caught posing a racist that posting racist and bigoted social media content use his words. What's your reaction to that? Kellie Carter Jackson: (12:11) I mean, this goes back to also what I said in the op-ed that the inception, the Genesis, the creation of the police force, uh, was developed out of slavery, was established during the institution of slavery to prevent runaway slaves from escaping the plantation. And that police force has evolved over time, but the white supremacists or anti-black sentiments have been, you know, sort of inculcated into the institution since its inception. So it's not surprising to me to see these things, given the history of policing in the United States of America. But what I do think is intolerable, that is how we have allowed for this to continue and that we have never really seen substantial police reform that would allow for, you know, these particular groups of people to be, um, ostracized from, uh, um, a police Academy. Dana Lewis - Host: (13:02) I mean, you said earlier, there's kind of a, a general thought that these people are fringe and crazy and live up in a forest somewhere. I mean, it's obviously a much more serious than that. And what is the cost? I mean, we are seeing the cost of underestimating these groups now that are being called to the street by Trump. Kellie Carter Jackson: (13:24) Yeah. These, I think these groups have never really been friends. You know, Kenneth, Kenneth Jackson is amazing historian at Columbia university and he wrote earlier about the history of the Klan. And he talked about it as an urban phenomenon. He says it was, you know, filled with police officers and judges and elected officials and businessmen and ministers. And that there's this superficial myth that, you know, the person who's in this group is like, you know, Bubba for Mississippi, or like some, you know, we think of some ignorant person, some uneducated person, but that is not the case. And that is what to me is most terrifying is that this group is made up of people who are educated, who have jobs who have careers, who have families and thought that what they were doing was acceptable, if not necessary. Dana Lewis - Host: (14:13) Do we know have to go in, in all the lessons learned from this and by the way, it's ongoing, right? Because there are marches that are called for on the, on the 17th. There were marches that are called for on the 20th day of inauguration. Um, do you think we have to go and look at the screening again and the recruitment again, in all these police departments, minimal minimally, and try to get these, you know, P Q unknowns and Nazis, uh, and clearly, you know, people who are racist out of those departments somehow Kellie Carter Jackson: (14:47) We do. And I, and I think that requires more reform. I think we have to completely redo the system. You know, I, I studied the abolitionists and the abolitionists were not trying to reform slavery. They were trying to abolish slavery. And I think that when we look at the institution like the police and we see all of its systemic, structural corruption and racism, you can't reform that away. You actually have to create something new in its place. And I think drastic change is needed if we're ever going to move forward from where we are right now, Dana Lewis - Host: (15:24) Kelly, what are Afra African-American saying right now after, you know, seeing what happened at the Capitol, what what's, what's the chatter? Kellie Carter Jackson: (15:34) I mean, it is a range. I have friends who have called me in tears, people who are so disturbed, they're, they're considering pulling their children out of school during the day of the inauguration, or not sure what's going to happen. I have friends who have made this somewhat comical and that it's not funny, but pointing out the double standard and finding ways that these white people look at this craziness, look at what we have allowed, who can help black people wouldn't ever be able to do this, you know, pointing out the double standard. I think there's a range, but for what most people feel is grief and anger and, um, a profound sense of disappointment at what this country is and what it's headed toward. Dana Lewis - Host: (16:28) Can I ask you what you are feeling on ongoing after ongoing, after president Trump, um, is, you know, th the two school of thoughts seem to be emerging. One is let's not further inflame how divided the country is. Let's start towards reconciliation, let them leave on the 20th, he's off Twitter. Now, you know, let's just push through this and forget about it. Well, you know, to some extent, you know, um, and there are others that say, no, no, no, this was a crime against the nation. Uh, and we have to bring these people to justice, including the president himself. Kellie Carter Jackson: (17:07) Absolutely. You know, I feel the letter, I feel you cannot simply cause harm and, and then apologize and keep it moving. You have to go about repairing the harm that you caused, and you have to be honest about your actions and then you have to face consequences. Um, I mean, these are lessons. We teach our children how we behave and how you apologize, and then how after that we should see changed behavior. Um, and I think one of the things that we've never really seen is repentance. We've never really seen a meta Copa, um, on both sides of the, and I don't think that we have yet to see real accountability. And so that's what I want more than anything. You know, I think that if we allow president Trump to just sort of fade away into the darkness and not have to answer to the damage and the harm that he has caused, then all we will be doing is preparing another person to come in and do it even worse at an even more astronomical level. Dana Lewis - Host: (18:14) And he's probably not going to, he's probably not going to fade away in the dark anyway, but Alabama Congressman Barry Moore has only been in office for a week. He's already had the delete, his own Twitter account, his official account, the Republican called Capitol riots, a disgrace. Um, but then in his personal account, he says, we have more arrest for stealing a podium, which was, you know, pictured in all of those, those very high profile photographs on January the sixth. And we do for stealing an election on November the third. So there's no repentance there, certainly. And then he says, I understand it was a black police officer that shot the white female veteran. You know, that doesn't fit the narrative. What's he saying there, Kellie Carter Jackson: (18:55) Oh my gosh. I mean, there's, there's so much there in terms of the duality of what he is presenting. And so much of what he said has also been not substantiated. There is no, um, fraud. Yes, it's, it's absolutely racist. And what he's also trying to do is in using the race card to flip these arguments around as to make this idea as though reverse racism is a thing it's not, it does not exist. Um, the racism is about power and black people don't have power. So, um, he can't make those arguments. And I think we have seen sort of like the verbal and intellectual gymnastics of how people have tried to maneuver themselves and to making an argument that they feel like there's merit that has no ground to stand on. And it's really disturbing to hear him say that. Dana Lewis - Host: (19:48) I just want to come back to where we started. The inaction of Capitol police was by design. If that had been a black lives matter protest with, you know, days in advance of threats on the internet about violence. Um, and as they approached to breach the doors of the Capitol, what would have happened? Kellie Carter Jackson: (20:09) Well, it wouldn't have happened. I think, I think we're clean. We should be clear on that. I don't think this would have ever happened if this were a black lives matter protest. Um, I think on par black lives matter protests have been peaceful. Um, and I think that deserves to be stated again and again, but I also think that had it gone crazy, you would have seen much more bloodshed. You would have seen more than five people killed. And I don't say that to dismiss the deaths of the five people, but I think we would have seen those numbers in the double digits, if not triple digits, we would have seen tear gas. We would have seen tanks. I mean, think about Ferguson. It wasn't that long ago with Mike Brown and we saw an army meet protestors and armies, what, um, and that was, you know, because they had burned down a, a quick trip. So a gas station, I can't imagine how much more before she would see with the nation's cat, Dana Lewis - Host: (21:07) The chief of police in the Capitol has resigned. And he's kind of shifting the debate to what happened with the calling in of the national guard. And, um, do you think that that's just smoke and mirrors that in fact, you know, they, they had a very good idea that this was going to happen and they just maybe decided not to be ready. Kellie Carter Jackson: (21:27) I think everybody a good idea of what was going to happen. I think again, I said this before, we've been warned for months since the election, not even since the election, before the election, Trump had primed people that this was going to go bad and if it goes bad, be ready. So I think there was no excuse to say that you were not expecting, you know, a crowd of this size that you would not be expecting resistance. Um, that makes no sense to me. And again, it goes back to this idea that we have to be honest with ourselves about, um, what we were up against there. I think part of the problem is that no group both the left or the right has, um, has really a monopoly on truth right now. And, and I feel like we have two narratives that are circulating and, um, and we can't seem to find common ground on the truth. Dana Lewis - Host: (22:16) Last question to you in the New York times today, I'm sorry for quoting the New York times so much, but Timothy Snyder writes that Trump's focused on alleged irregularities and contested States comes down to cities where black people live and vote at bottom. The fantasy of fraud is that of a crime committed by black people against white people. Kellie Carter Jackson: (22:38) Facts, short answer. I cannot there. I mean, you CA this is not a coincidence. It's not a coincidence that this happens the day that Georgia gets the first black Senator first Jewish American Senator. That's not a coincidence. It's not a coincidence that in places like Detroit and Philadelphia and Atlanta, you know, where large populations of black people live, that these votes are contested. I mean, and it's also historically consistent with the fact that black people's voting efforts and their votes have constantly faced suppression and opposition to not count into not matter. Um, and so in that sense, I think it is, it is absolutely racist and we need to be able to call a space. Dana Lewis - Host: (23:26) And the voter suppression was, uh, hard to watch people waiting and hours and hours making it so difficult, but, Kellie Carter Jackson: (23:32) Oh my gosh, it makes no sense. Dana Lewis - Host: (23:35) Kelly Carter Jackson assistant professor of studies at Wellesley college, and she's the author of force and freedom, black abolitionists and the politics of violence. Kelly wrote a great article in the Atlantic . I suggest you read it. Thank you so much, Kelly. Thank you for having me. All right. Joining me now is Dr. Darren Porcher. He was formally a Lieutenant with the N Y P D in New York, obviously. And he handled a lot of crowd control situations. There is that right, Darren. That is correct. Was the response by Capitol police designed to fail? Dr. Darrin Porcher: (24:08) I wouldn't say it was designed to fail. I don't think that they, uh, they pre-planned appropriately. When I say pre-planned appropriately, whenever you have a large scale demonstration of the magnitude of what we saw on the, um, the capital you need the focus on certain factions. The first thing is who is the group that's intending the protest. Number two, what is this group's ideology? And number three, how many people are going to come? You want to triangulate those three components. And that's how you'll assess which a personnel couple with technological innovations that'll partner in Dana Lewis - Host: (24:45) Those three things. And I think you would be hard pressed not to say that it was an, it was an Epic fail. Dr. Darrin Porcher: (24:53) It was a colossal failure to say, Hey, we clearly saw it mainstream American television up. And you know, the problem with that was mayor Bowzer. Um, Washington DC mayor was offered the resources of the national guard and she rejected it. And then she in turn focused on having national guard members that were not in uniform and they would not arm and placing them on the periphery, meaning behind the demonstrations, not behind the demonstrators, not upfront. And I just think that omnipresence is necessary when you have a demonstration of that magnitude, because it was clear that the intelligence reflected that this was going to be a hostile crowd and they were coming to invoke a level of violence, which we clearly saw manifest as a result. Dana Lewis - Host: (25:43) Would you agree with me now, as we know, more and more about this, that, I mean, given the digital traffic, I mean, who these people are and the calls to violence and the calls to arms and the calls to overthrow the government, the calls to take lawmakers and lynched them, um, that all the Intel was there. I mean, the, the Capitol police, absolutely. Should've known what was coming at them like a freight train, Dr. Darrin Porcher: (26:12) You know? Absolutely. I think what happened was there was a sense of, I don't think I know what happened was there was a sense of complacency on the part of the Capitol police. Oftentimes you have these demonstrations and a lot of law enforcement practitioners will take that road of look, probably nothing is not going to happen. Therefore we want to reserve the budget and we don't want to overreach and can take in connection with the expenditures that we apply to this particular demonstration. And it turned around in a bit them in the rear end. And when you speak to the traffic, um, on social media, it was clearly apparent that you had people that were coming with a specific agenda and that was the reap havoc. And that's what we saw. However, the Capitol police did not a plant did not plan accordingly. And as a result, this is what occurred. Dana Lewis - Host: (27:00) Can I ask you how you feel personally, when you look at some of these videos, you know, and especially that one where they, they grab a policeman by the helmet and they drag him down the steps and beat him with an American flag pole. Um, just tell me how you feel as an American and how you feel as an ex policeman. Dr. Darrin Porcher: (27:22) Well, as an Alexa, as an ex police officer, I felt that Harvard, I thought this was, I was horrified in the, um, the visions that were, um, revealed to me in connection with cops being beat up and just this overall overarching act of anarchy that plague that Capitol complex. It really begged the question of why didn't we have the necessary fortifications in play. I mean, this is troubling, especially when we look to what the agenda of this group was and Wu they were, and I blame the president for a lot of this because he was the person that ginned up the base on false claims of election fraud and had these people assemble at the Capitol. And this was specifically from a selfish perspective. When I say selfish perspective, meaning it was all about him. There was no election fraud, but he still felt as if his, his, his time in the white house was permanent, not temporary. And this is what happened as a result. So I think he bears a tremendous brunt of responsibility. Dana Lewis - Host: (28:25) No, you are very careful what you say and you appear on places like Fox news. If you've been saying what you just told me now, in places like that now, Dr. Darrin Porcher: (28:33) Yes, I will. Um, the day after. So I'm going to say on Thursday, when I came on Fox, I spoke to the specifically and how the president showed that a lot of the blame for this. And th the term that I used on Fox news was this was Charlottesville book too, for president Trump. Because when we look at the statements that he made, um, the inflammatory statements, that connection with what happened in Charlottesville, Virginia, coupled with there being good people on both sides, it was clearly his inability to make a proper assessment of what the situation was and put forth the NES necessary protocols. So I, you know, I spoke to this the same way I was speaking to you about this Dana Lewis - Host: (29:12) Police departments across the country have open investigations into policemen, uh, among their ranks to find out how they were involved, not whether they were there. We know that they were there involved in the siege on the U S Capitol on Washington. On January, the sixties are off duty officers who have gone to the demonstration. Let me read you a quote from, uh, one of the policemen that was interviewed by media there. And he says, they're extraordinary scenes with protesters holding blue lives matter flags launched at police officers, quote, we're telling them to get back up and get away and stop. And they're telling us, they're on our side, they're doing this for us. These are policemen who are showing a police ID showing badges. Uh, off-duty in the protests. They're, they're saying this as I'm getting punched in the face by one of them that happened to a lot of us were getting pepper sprayed in the face by these protesters. I'm not going to call them protesters, even their domestic caters. I mean, what's your reaction to that? There was so many, and I can't put a number on it, but there were a number of policemen that went to that protest and were involved in entering the Capitol building. Dr. Darrin Porcher: (30:27) Give me an example here with the NYP has one officer under investigation for actually going into that Capitol complex. When they, uh, when, when they breached the doors, we had members of the FDN, Y you know, the fire department of New York that also traveled to DC and, and were a part of this demonstration. We had a West Virginia legislator that did the same thing. He also, um, committed to when those doors were fracturing, entering their Capitol. Dana Lewis - Host: (30:59) Yeah, I mean, the FBI, uh, former FBI agent Michael German says, um, that the far right domestic terror threats have infiltrated many police departments across the country. There are, we know that there are police officers who have carried these Q Anon, uh, badges. And, uh, and then now they're participating in, you know, what an act of terrorism against the nation. Dr. Darrin Porcher: (31:26) This is actually an act of domestic terrorism. The Southern poverty law center has spoken to these far right groups for a period of time. And we haven't taken them serious. Now is the time that we need to read the tea leaves and address with this is a group that we need to have an active presence in law enforcement. Um, looking towards this is a problem, and it has to get done and needs to be proactive, not reactive on the part of law enforcement. This was an atrocity. This was an act of Arne Archy, and it shouldn't happen in the country like the United States, Dana Lewis - Host: (32:03) Weed, those people out of a police department, Dr. Darrin Porcher: (32:07) You have an applicant process in, um, division that investigates, uh, police candidates prior to coming into the department. Now, one of the things that they'll often do is they'll look to, uh, an individual social media and they'll knock on doors in that area. And that's where you can gain somewhat of a background assessment as to who this person is from a social perspective. But that being said, um, we need to, we need to look at this for what it is, and this is an act of domestic terrorism, and it needs to be, and it needs to happen now, not yesterday, not the day it happened. It needs to happen now, not a week from today, not a month from now. We need to ramp up resources and focus on this threat that is putting our country in jeopardy. As a result, Dana Lewis - Host: (32:55) It's interviewed a professor who wrote for the Atlantic magazine, Kelly, Carter, Jackson, um, and she really makes the case in the Atlantic that, um, and she, she teaches on, uh, force and freedom, black abolitionists and politics of violence at Wesley college in Massachusetts. She really makes the case that this is a racist response that had this been a black lives matter protest with all the Intel about what was coming, how many were coming, what they might be ready to do that police would have the police numbers and the police actions would have been very, very different. You're African-American, you're also an ex police policemen. What, what do you say about the racist element? Dr. Darrin Porcher: (33:40) Well, I challenged that narrative on several fronts because when we look at, uh, what happened with these black lives matter protest, what the course of the summer, they denigrated a lot of the large cities in the country. So it was clear that you didn't have a sufficient police presence. I give you an example. I live in New York city and a lot of the protests that subsequently placed the city under siege fell, what they bifurcated into, whether it was black lives matter, whether it was Antifa, or you even had common citizens that were protesting. We clearly didn't put forth the necessary resources in a place like New York city, as it related to these protests. And we subsequently paid the price for it because we saw the denigration of infrastructure we saw officer's assaulted, et cetera. So I've heard that narrative in that it would have been different if it was a black lives matter protest, but that didn't appear to be the case. When we look at the demonstrations that plague places like New York, Chicago, Portland, and Seattle, we clearly saw that the police didn't put in enough fortifications to ensure that population was safe. When we look at what happened in Seattle, for example, they even erected a no police zone, which they referred to as the Chaz zone. Whereas they literally took over a police precinct and it became an autonomous zone where citizens were basically there. So that being said, when you do the contrast and comparison, the quantitative statistics don't add up, Dana Lewis - Host: (35:09) Can I ask you just your personal view on taking Trump off his Twitter account and more importantly, and more broadly that they have suspended some of these new internet sites that, um, where there's a really, a lot of hate messaging back and forth. And, you know, on one hand you have the debate about freedom of speech and is that the right thing to do? But on the other hand, you have growing calls for people to go to the streets and carry out violence. What do you do? Where do you line up on it? Dr. Darrin Porcher: (35:41) It's a slippery slope. This is one of the things that the ACO was actually addressing in connection with president Trump being removed from Twitter. And it begs the question of free speech. I bill I'm affirmed, not, not just in my affirm proponent, but one thing that I do know is freedom of speech is not guaranteed. When you have an inflammatory content such as let's see if you go into a movie theater in New York fire, because you want a better, see, this is something which requires cause you to be held accountable. That being said, Twitter, ejected, president Trump, because he used Twitter as a platform to gin up the base and direct them towards the Capitol. And he specifically stated that I'm going to be there with you. That being said, Twitter was the vehicle of access that promoted this right now. I don't want to completely blame Donald Trump for all it is, but he does level a shoulder level of responsibility. So when you mentioned, um, social media platforms, such as parlor, which is a conservative, a social media platform that has since come under fire, one can argue that the regulatory process within the framework of parlor is not sound because they're allowing threats or inappropriate material. The B w Dana Lewis - Host: (37:01) I'm going to expect, we criticize those social media companies, the tech giants, if they can't police things like child porn, or if they can't police, uh, hatred and racism. And so we're demanding, they do that suddenly. Now they have taken down the one that you just mentioned, and, uh, there's a lot of criticisms. So I'm not, it's, it's a, it's a foggy situation. But I think, I think on the, you know, giving my own opinion, which I'm not, I generally don't do as a journalist, but I think when you're right there between the assault on the capital and inauguration, and there are more calls for violence on the 17th and on the 20th. And there is the, the, the media companies are not policing that they simply can't in some ways, in other ways, they just turned a blind eye to it. But in order for, to have law and order and not to really have the street on fire, I guess you, you have to trade some of that off in the short term. Dr. Darrin Porcher: (38:04) Yeah. I agree with you. And it goes back to what my, what I mentioned earlier, freedom of speech is not absolute. And therefore, I think that it's necessary that you have an entity, the marshal in to ensure that the content is sound such as child pornography threats, to one's life things, to that effect, those things need to be marshaled in. And it was questionable in connection with what was occurring on the platform of parlor. It may be, it may be a situation where Parla may be now forced to put forth in integrity cause, or, or, you know, some level of oversight Dana Lewis - Host: (38:41) Chip. But Dr. Darrin Porcher: (38:43) Yeah, but I, well, you know, that, that may be true, but I'm just saying that we're using that as an example, because that's what's happening right now. Future sites will develop and come to fruition. This is not the end of this. And so that being said, I think there needs to be a clear lane of oversight within that social media platform to ensure that hate speech or things that are illegal and not transferred on that, um, that platform as a result, Dana Lewis - Host: (39:11) Do you think this was pretty well organized? My last question to you, uh, the assault on the capital, when you take a look at the fact that pipe bombs were placed outside the democratic headquarters and the Republican headquarters, probably to distract police, um, people in there with the zip lock rings that I've seen a lot in Iraq and Afghanistan, military uses them to handcuff people. They knew where the offices were. I've seen maps that were put on the internet prior to the March where they said where Pelosi's office was, where vice-president Pence could be. Um, I mean, th this goes beyond a little demonstration that got out of control. Dr. Darrin Porcher: (39:49) I, I think quite the opposite. I don't think that this was organized. I think that what you had was you had, you know, thousands of people that converge on that capital, um, compound, and within that group, you had people that had their D their own internal agendas that they went in. They, they drift towards such, such as people that had zip ties. And, you know, why would you bring a zip tie to a protest other than looking to take people into custody Dana Lewis - Host: (40:18) Lynch Lynch? The vice-president Dr. Darrin Porcher: (40:20) Clearly believed that there was nefarious behavior, uh, you know, um, at the foundation of a lot of this. But I also think that whenever you have these protests, I think the, the organizers of the protest, I think it should be incumbent upon those individuals, the pre, the people that are bestowed upon the permit for a particular, um, demonstration, they should be held accountable for marshaling in the people that are coming in to, um, to protest, uh, demonstrate. And I don't, I don't believe they had a member. I don't think I know they did not have a permit for this. They just converged on the, uh, on the property and they committed to Dana Lewis - Host: (41:01) It is the words of the president they're in, right? I mean, he's telling them to go down there and he's telling them, Rudy Giuliani, all this stuff, Dr. Darrin Porcher: (41:15) Right. One can argue that the president gave people a fast pass to go out there and do that. But it goes back to where you asked the initial question that I think this was organized. No, I think this was more like, um, abstract. And you had different components of people, uh, Rose on that capital complex. And they looked for, or a set forth to advance their agendas. I don't think it was uniformly everyone that was there, but one person is too much. Dana Lewis - Host: (41:45) I lie to you sometimes. I tell you, it's the last question, and then I give you another one. Right? All right. So I'm pleading guilty and I'm just going to have one more question. You worried about the 17th and the 20th, and are we going to be prepared this time or they're going to get it right? Dr. Darrin Porcher: (41:59) They'll get it right. There's going to be overkill, to be honest with you, you know, you probably got to have F 16 fighter jets, Harrier jump jets. I've got to fly over the Capitol to make sure that there's going to be an air presence. There's going to be a ground presence to ensure that there is no repeat to what happened on Wednesday. Dana Lewis - Host: (42:20) Some of the calls are for legislatures across the country as well. Right? So people who don't necessarily go to Washington may show up, you know, in Virginia or in anywhere. And so the threat is still huge. Dr. Darrin Porcher: (42:33) Well, I think a lot of the, uh, the legislators such as be it, Josh Holly, or Ted Cruz that align themselves with the selection fraud. In many instances, people would say, Hey, look, you championed that cause. And so I don't want to say that there'll be held accountable from, uh, from a law enforcement perspective, but I think that the voter ship will hold them accountable. Moving forward. You know, one thing I give you an example, Lindy Lindsay Graham, who was a diehard supporter of Donald Trump, he put the brakes on this and said, look enough is enough. We need to cut the crap. We need to have a civil change of power. This was just too much. Dana Lewis - Host: (43:13) He said, he said enough. And, uh, he looks scared to me. He looked like he looked like he suddenly understood what the rest of us could see coming for a long time, that if you de-legitimized election and tell people that they'd been cheated and that the system doesn't work for them anymore, they are going to go to the screen. They're going to be angry. Dr. Darrin Porcher: (43:34) Yeah, absolutely. Right. You know, uh, words matter, especially when they're echo from the president of the United States or the leader of any country for that matter. Um, we had 75 million people that voted for Donald Trump. So the followship was wide and deep. Therefore you need to stay abreast of the fact of what you say matters, and you can put forth an agenda that can possibly create a toxic environment that can cause someone to either lose their life or become injured. And that's what we saw here. I, you know, right now, you know what the million dollar question is. I wonder what's going through Donald Trump's mind right now, looking at what happened, you know, and saying to himself, you know, cause this is what his legacy is going to be based on that for years, because I'll be the first to tell you, I fought. There was some phenomenal things that happen under the Trump umbrella, more so specific to the, the us dollar and the stock market, but do a lot of things that didn't go good. But more importantly, when you look at how he went out of the presidency, that's how he's going to be judged for eternity. And there's nothing that he can do to change that, Dana Lewis - Host: (44:46) To, to use your words, you know, toxic, it's a hell of a legacy Dr. Darren portrait there. And I really appreciate talking to you. Thanks so much Dr. Darrin Porcher: (44:54) As always Dana. I appreciate it. Dana Lewis - Host: (44:56) And that's our backstory on this a week when Democrats seek a second impeachment of Trump, the first president in history to be impeached twice, Joe Biden received 80 million votes, but Trump got 74 million. That's an awful lot of people were told the election was stolen. It's a lie, but they were told that by a president, many beliefs. And where does that leave the country now? And how does Biden govern in this climate of division Trump won't slink away easily. We'll be there to disrupt and divide and light a match to whatever bonfire he can set dangerous days ahead in the U S please subscribe to this podcast and share our link. That's this backstory, I'm Dana Lewis. And I'll talk to you again soon.

[megacircuit9universe]

Alien Tip Off

WED SEP 16 2020

Woodward’s tapes of Trump, extensively admitting how well he understood the dangers of SarsCoV2, way back in the spring... that it was airborne, that it was far more deadly than the flu, etc... have stayed in the news all week, with longer and longer clips being released that utterly destroy any possible, devil’s advocate, arguments in Trump’s favor on this... the single most important issue facing the nation.

It’s safe to say we’re all stunned!

He was simultaneously smart enough to grasp the true danger of the virus... yet stupid enough to... agree to go off about this on tape with Woodward and... still do what he did in his response to the threat.

The tapes don’t JUST justify his impeachment, and expose every Senator who voted to acquit, as dastardly cowards... but they gut any possible, devil’s advocate, arguments for Trump, by anybody with any grip on sanity.

This puts the current GOP Senate in great peril... even as it reduces the base of loyal Trumpist voters they were banking on... to only the criminally insane.

No more fluffy padding of evangelicals, and other right wing conservatives who, held their nose, so does speak, and went along for the sake of the party. They’ve now formed a very visible, and powerful movement to deny Trump, and any of his hardcore Senate loyalists... another term. 

And they’re doing it for the same reason they originally held their noses and went along... to save their party from the brink of irrelevance in a world where the blast doors of history are closing on old school conservatism.*

Which brings us to TikTok...

The deadline for the TikTok ban, as outlined by a sketchy executive order by Trump a while back, draws near.  

And while American companies like Microsoft and WalMart scrambled to get a deal done in time, China also chimed in last week and said... Yeah, no... if ByteDance sells it’s American operations... the new owners can’t have the algorithm without our say so... and... we’d rather see TikTok die in America than bow to Trump’s silly demands so... haha, just saying! :D

Meanwhile, TikTok has been challenging the original executive order in court, and everybody is now saying even if the deadline passes, Trump can’t just shut down an app like that... and he’d have to get both Android and Apple to agree to disable it in their app stores... which would lead to more litigation and... well, it could take many more months than Trump has left in power, to sort out.

Unless he gets reelected... or successfully remains in power despite being voted out.

Which brings us to the aliens!..

Monday night (September 14th) TikTok was suddenly flooded with videos of UFO sightings over the United States... concentrated in, but not limited to New Jersey, Colorado, and Nevada.  

The earliest and most viral of these was being debunked immediately as the GoodYear Blimp, but... the people at Goodyear Blimp have since said, no... that was not our blimp.

The videos depict a lot of different types of UFOs... they don’t all look the same.  Some were singular glowing orbs, or true flying saucer looking crafts, while other videos showed groups of strange lights acting in concert.

The common denominator for all of them, however, was... all are pretty lengthy and clear... corroborated by multiple TikTokers in any given area... and all have so far defied any rational explanation.

Blimps, drones, skydivers with flares, swamp gas, you name it... none of the off the cuff discredits have yet proven out... much less any explanation for why so many sightings happened simultaneously across the continent.

Of course, lots of alien lovers have been quick to tell us this is some message of peace or whatever... but when something like this happens, I can only go to my own model, as established here in this blog.

And I can draw no other conclusion than this... the Aliens were behind it, and they were deliberately using TikTok to spook Trump... and the other powerful men in his Junta (Barr, McConnell, etc).

Recall that earlier this year I speculated that Kim Jong Un was not only dead, but that it was likely the Aliens who killed him, because he was too likely to start a nuclear war.

North Korea has yet to admit that Jong Un is dead... but the rest of the world assumes, these many months later, that he must be.  He’s not re-emerged, and the few video reels of him released this year... barely even try to be convincing.

The media hasn’t talked much about this, because so much other shit’s been going on this year... but no... I’m not backing off my conclusion that he’s dead, because nothing’s come along to even slightly prove me wrong on that, much less embarrass me about that conclusion.

He’s dead.  

The aliens killed him.

And now those same aliens are using TikTok to spook Trump.

This implies that Aliens are a lot more familiar with the intimate details of our daily life than we normally think... knowing not only that we all have smart phones with cameras, but that we also have a hugely popular app that would ensure any sightings would go viral immediately... and that this is the same app Trump is trying to shut down.

What’s the message for Trump?

Well, first... a bit more context...

This past week, the other huge story in the news has been the west coast wild fires.  We’ve seen out of control wildfires on the Pacific coast in late summer for the past four years, as we did in Australia in their late summer, this past January... but this year’s fires in America have been record breaking in terms of their devastation.

The aliens... who’ve been monitoring this planet periodically since humans first learned of fire... paying closer attention after we developed electricity... and who have been permanently stationed in the solar system since we figured out fission bombs at the end of WW2... have had, as their main objective, to stand down, and observe us... unless the planet is in danger of a cascading failure due to either a nuclear or climate catastrophe... or both.  

In such cases, they are willing to intervene... for the sake of preserving the level of intelligence, and diversity of life that’s evolved here... because it takes so goddam long for this kind of intelligence, and this kind of diversity to evolve in the first place.  

Still, they’d always rather just hang back and observe.  

So... since World War Two... they’ve tolerated all kinds of nuclear bomb testing, and everything else, without feeling the need to do much more than hint, to world leaders, that humanity may not be alone in the universe.

Until very recently, when they pinpointed two individuals who were a direct threat to the planet... Kim Jong Un, and Donald Trump.  

Jong Un had no real impact on the climate, but he did pose a nuclear threat, dangerous enough, they had to intervene and just off him.

Trump poses both a nuclear threat, and a climate threat, so... Jong Un’s death was a first warning sign, and this latest stunt on TikTok, at the peak of the wildfires, is yet another.

Don’t think you’re commanding the most powerful military force in the universe, because you’re not.  We’re real, and you can’t touch us.  We know what you’re doing.  We know what you fear (TikTok), and we WILL take you out, Space Force or no Space Force... buddy!

Assuming I’m right about this... which I think you at least have to grant is possible this late in the game, given all that’s happened... it’s an unprecidented show of force, from an intergalactic army so shy of confrontation, we barely have any evidence they exist.

That tells you what a dire juncture we are at, right now, on this timeline**.

But the fact that the aliens would use TikTok to make this statement... does seem to suggest that they do have AI bot agents, on our internet, who are in communication with our own advanced AI bots from the future, left behind by our time travelers... and that they are all in cahoots to save the timeline.

Recall that while Alien propulsion tech is likely based in the manupulation of microsingularities, or mini-black holes, to frame-drag spacetime around the ship... for Aliens it’s more about space travel, than time travel.

Time travel doesn’t really mean anything on intergalactic scales.  It only has meaning for primitive humans hanging very close to Earth, moving back and forth through the span of a few decades locally, to grab objects, get footage, and leave bot agents behind to promote human rights.

The aliens hanging out in our solar system are more or less just as pinned to our timeline as we are... or the bots those time travelers leave behind.

And if you don’t get that by now, I would suggest reading back in earlier entries, but maybe I’ll do another one as a refresher soon.

It was encouraging to see a TikToker on my For You Page this past week actually mention John Titor, and go into a little depth about him, but as usual, nobody could follow it.***

But more encouraging was this display by the aliens, that gave the first confirmation I’ve seen, that they do know and care what’s going on down here, in times as dire as we’re currently living through.

And with that roundup of a week’s news... it is time for bed.

*With GenX turning 50, Millenials turning 30, and GenZ turning 20, the tide is turning forever away from old school conservatism, with all of it’s racism, sexism, and classism. November 2020 could be the first time, all three of these generations turn out to the polls in force (millenials were too apathetic before this, and Z was too young to vote) to drown out the fading influence of the Boomers and Silents, once and for all.

My guess, as I’ve said, is that the current anti-Trump conservatives will all move to the Democratic Party, leaving the Republican Party to die as a haven for neo nazis and KKK sympathizers... while the progressive left will form a new party to counter the comparatively conservative new democrats, who at least acknowledge climate change, and don’t pin everything else on the single issue of abortion.

**Worth noting that this passed week news also broke that scientists had detected a marker for microbial life in the atmosphere of Venus.  It appears to be the strongest evidence yet that life is not exclusive to Earth.

***Not to suggest I’m so much more clever than ordinary people.  It took me upwards of fifteen years of studying physics through videos, lectures, and audio books to get the full picture of how Titor’s distortion unit worked, and how the many worlds theory resolves the kinds of paradoxes most people imagine would happen. 

[johnboothus]

Everything You Need to Know About Ranch Water (and Why Everyones Drinking It)

“When I think of people from West Texas, I think of this kind of no-frills, get-the-job-done attitude. And that’s very much the spirit of Ranch Water,” says Katie Beal Brown, a native Texan and founder of Lone River Beverage Company.

In terms of ingredients, the cool mix of tequila, lime, and Topo Chico is as Texan as the Whataburger Honey Butter Chicken Biscuit is Mexican. But it’s in the Lone Star State and not south of the border that the simple cocktail known as Ranch Water has become a cultural icon.

Texas natives, particularly those in the west and south of the state, have enjoyed the humble take on the highball for decades. But only in the last 10 years has the one-time ranch-worker refresher found statewide success, equally at home in dive bars, cocktail lounges, and music festivals. Now, it’s starting to sweep the nation.

In the past five months, Google searches for the term “ranch water” spiked to an unprecedented high. Browse #ranchwater on Instagram, too, and you’ll just as likely find posts from North Carolina, Maryland, and Utah, as you will from the Great State of Texas. With a flurry of canned versions hitting supermarket and liquor store shelves, the Ranch Water craze shows no sign of slowing.

Like most drinks trends, it’s impossible to pinpoint one event that brought on this success. Instead, the rise of Ranch Water is a combined tale of cultural identity, iconic brands, and good ol’-fashioned marketing.

What Is Ranch Water?

Behind every iconic drink lies a tale as opaque as a freezing cold bottle of bubbly mineral water. And Ranch Water is no different.

We will likely never know if a wild-haired 1960s rancher did indeed first concoct the drink, as local lore suggests. Nor will we know if he was inspired by the “spirit” of said drink to follow the West Texas stars and trek a lonely 50 miles from Fort Davis to Marathon before falling asleep under a piñon tree.

The other common tale for Ranch Water’s beginning seems much more plausible. “It was a way for ranchers to have a happy hour,” says Taylor Samuels, owner of Dallas-based Mexican spirits bar Las Almas Rotas. “They’re out riding the fence line all day, making repairs, and checking on cattle. Ranch Water was the refreshment for the ride at the end.”

In such a situation, simplicity is key. Sure, the ranchers could have cracked open a Shiner Bock. But would that have been as refreshing as taking a swig from a bottle Topo Chico, topping with a splash of tequila, and squeezing in a zesty lime?

Almost certainly not.

The who’s and where’s of how the drink got its evocative name are also murky. Some attribute it to Kevin Williamson, chef and owner of Austin’s Ranch 616. Others link it to The Gage Hotel in Marathon, Texas, which first put the cocktail on its menu in 2010. By this point, however, Ranch Water was well known enough in West Texas that locals had been ordering it by name at the hotel’s bar for some time.

How Has Ranch Water Become So Popular?

It’s taken a decade since the Gage Hotel first added the cocktail to its menu to arrive at the current-day Ranch Water craze. How we got here is once again largely based on speculation.

Nico Martini, Dallas-based author of “Texas Cocktails,” says industry events and bartender culture both played a role in spreading the drink across the country. “Thousands of industry people come to Texas every January to go to the San Antonio Cocktail Conference (SACC). They experience Ranch Water here then take it back home,” Martini says. “Texas also has a massive presence at Tales of the Cocktail,” he adds.

It’s easy to imagine swathes of New York and Los Angeles bartenders returning home from these events and eagerly sharing their latest discovery. While tequila, lime, and soda is by no means a novel combination, when made with a regionally specific mineral water you have the perfect build for a geeky, insider cocktail. “All those New York bartenders going down to SACC, drinking the hell out of Ranch Waters, then going back home and not being able to get Topo — it becomes a challenge,” Martini says.

The drink’s mysterious moniker only adds to the allure. Ranch Water sounds infinitely cooler than tequila, lime, and soda. (See also: Cuba Libre and Moscow Mule.) Once again, there’s also insider appeal because there’s no way of knowing from the name alone what Ranch Water contains. Instead, you need to be au fait with the latest drinking trends.

The Topo Factor

At this point, we can no longer ignore the bubbly, mineral-rich elephant in the room: Topo Chico. Bottled near Monterrey, Mexico, since 1895, Topo Chico built up a loyal following in Texas because of the state’s close culinary ties to Mexico. Speak to any Ranch Water aficionado and they’ll tell you there’s simply no substitute for Topo Chico.

Despite operating under capacity restrictions because of the coronavirus pandemic, Dallas-based JAXON Texas Kitchen and Beer Garden sold 1,800 Ranch Waters last month. “It’s gotten to the point where I’m trying to buy pallets of Topo Chico versus ordering by the case,” says Alexander Fletcher, JAXON’s beverage director.

Outside of Texas, bartenders likely still struggle to buy Topo Chico by the pallet-load. But the “challenge” to get their hands on it (as Martini describes it) at least subsided in 2016, when the brand was acquired by Coca-Cola.

“Suddenly the distribution was just so much larger,” says Andy Arrington of Texas-based wine and spirits distributor Victory Wine Group. “Ranch Water has really benefited from that.”

Beyond regional connections, there’s good reason for using Topo Chico in Ranch Water. Las Almas Rotas’s Samuels says the water’s high mineral content provides a natural partner for peppery, earthy tequila, allowing the spirit to shine rather than overpowering it. And as all Ranch Water diehards will attest, Topo Chico’s turbo-charged effervescence provides the final piece of the puzzle.

“When you open a bottle of Topo Chico, you can leave it out overnight at room temperature and the next day it’s still going to have strong bubbles because of the carbonation that’s been pumped into it,” says Racheal Buie, Topo Chico’s brand development specialist for Houston.

Buie, of course, has a horse in this race. But she’s been a fan of Topo Chico for over a decade and started drinking the water long before she worked for the brand. “I’ve literally been able to witness Topo Chico go from 75 cents a bottle to being sold for $5 in fine dining places,” Buie says. “I really think the surge in popularity of Ranch Water is coupled with Topo Chico’s success over the years. As a Texan, a Topo employee, and a lover of Ranch Water, it’s an exciting time.”

Enter: Ranch Water Hard Seltzer

Whether a sign of Ranch Water’s success or a possible contributor to its recent popularity, the drink entered a new era these past 12 months when multiple canned versions hit the market.

Lone River Beverage Company debuted its Ranch Water Hard Seltzer in May 2020. After learning the legend of the “wild-haired rancher” and realizing it took place in the same area as her grandparent’s ranch, founder Brown felt there was an opportunity to tell that story to a wider audience and give people a taste of West Texas. The fact Ranch Water also lends itself to the wellness trend that’s seen hard seltzer surge in recent years also made it the perfect fit, Brown says.

Like many other hard seltzers, Lone River’s Ranch Water uses a brewed-malt rather than spirit base. The brand is currently only available in Texas and Tennessee, though expansion is on the horizon, Brown says.

For those looking to sample a tequila-based version on a national level, Cutwater Spirits launched its own Tequila Soda in March 2020. Flavored with a hint of natural lime, it’s a canned carbon copy of Ranch Water — in all but name, at least.

“[I]t’s important to clearly communicate that we use real tequila to make a signature cocktail known by many as ‘Ranch Water’ but known by all as ‘Tequila Soda,’” says Yuseff Cherney, Cutwater Spirits’ co-founder and master distiller.

Depending on how much Ranch Water’s popularity continues to grow, the decision to drop the iconic name may or may not prove savvy. To borrow (or butcher) a famous Shakespeare soliloquy: What’s in a name? That which we call Ranch Water by any other name would surely taste as refreshing and delicious.

But would that same drink be so damn popular?

The article Everything You Need to Know About Ranch Water (and Why Everyone’s Drinking It) appeared first on VinePair.

Via https://vinepair.com/articles/what-is-ranch-water-recipe/

source https://vinology1.weebly.com/blog/everything-you-need-to-know-about-ranch-water-and-why-everyones-drinking-it

[wineanddinosaur]

Everything You Need to Know About Ranch Water (and Why Everyone’s Drinking It)

“When I think of people from West Texas, I think of this kind of no-frills, get-the-job-done attitude. And that’s very much the spirit of Ranch Water,” says Katie Beal Brown, a native Texan and founder of Lone River Beverage Company.

In terms of ingredients, the cool mix of tequila, lime, and Topo Chico is as Texan as the Whataburger Honey Butter Chicken Biscuit is Mexican. But it’s in the Lone Star State and not south of the border that the simple cocktail known as Ranch Water has become a cultural icon.

Texas natives, particularly those in the west and south of the state, have enjoyed the humble take on the highball for decades. But only in the last 10 years has the one-time ranch-worker refresher found statewide success, equally at home in dive bars, cocktail lounges, and music festivals. Now, it’s starting to sweep the nation.

In the past five months, Google searches for the term “ranch water” spiked to an unprecedented high. Browse #ranchwater on Instagram, too, and you’ll just as likely find posts from North Carolina, Maryland, and Utah, as you will from the Great State of Texas. With a flurry of canned versions hitting supermarket and liquor store shelves, the Ranch Water craze shows no sign of slowing.

Like most drinks trends, it’s impossible to pinpoint one event that brought on this success. Instead, the rise of Ranch Water is a combined tale of cultural identity, iconic brands, and good ol’-fashioned marketing.

What Is Ranch Water?

Behind every iconic drink lies a tale as opaque as a freezing cold bottle of bubbly mineral water. And Ranch Water is no different.

We will likely never know if a wild-haired 1960s rancher did indeed first concoct the drink, as local lore suggests. Nor will we know if he was inspired by the “spirit” of said drink to follow the West Texas stars and trek a lonely 50 miles from Fort Davis to Marathon before falling asleep under a piñon tree.

The other common tale for Ranch Water’s beginning seems much more plausible. “It was a way for ranchers to have a happy hour,” says Taylor Samuels, owner of Dallas-based Mexican spirits bar Las Almas Rotas. “They’re out riding the fence line all day, making repairs, and checking on cattle. Ranch Water was the refreshment for the ride at the end.”

In such a situation, simplicity is key. Sure, the ranchers could have cracked open a Shiner Bock. But would that have been as refreshing as taking a swig from a bottle Topo Chico, topping with a splash of tequila, and squeezing in a zesty lime?

Almost certainly not.

The who’s and where’s of how the drink got its evocative name are also murky. Some attribute it to Kevin Williamson, chef and owner of Austin’s Ranch 616. Others link it to The Gage Hotel in Marathon, Texas, which first put the cocktail on its menu in 2010. By this point, however, Ranch Water was well known enough in West Texas that locals had been ordering it by name at the hotel’s bar for some time.

How Has Ranch Water Become So Popular?

It’s taken a decade since the Gage Hotel first added the cocktail to its menu to arrive at the current-day Ranch Water craze. How we got here is once again largely based on speculation.

Nico Martini, Dallas-based author of “Texas Cocktails,” says industry events and bartender culture both played a role in spreading the drink across the country. “Thousands of industry people come to Texas every January to go to the San Antonio Cocktail Conference (SACC). They experience Ranch Water here then take it back home,” Martini says. “Texas also has a massive presence at Tales of the Cocktail,” he adds.

It’s easy to imagine swathes of New York and Los Angeles bartenders returning home from these events and eagerly sharing their latest discovery. While tequila, lime, and soda is by no means a novel combination, when made with a regionally specific mineral water you have the perfect build for a geeky, insider cocktail. “All those New York bartenders going down to SACC, drinking the hell out of Ranch Waters, then going back home and not being able to get Topo — it becomes a challenge,” Martini says.

The drink’s mysterious moniker only adds to the allure. Ranch Water sounds infinitely cooler than tequila, lime, and soda. (See also: Cuba Libre and Moscow Mule.) Once again, there’s also insider appeal because there’s no way of knowing from the name alone what Ranch Water contains. Instead, you need to be au fait with the latest drinking trends.

The Topo Factor

At this point, we can no longer ignore the bubbly, mineral-rich elephant in the room: Topo Chico. Bottled near Monterrey, Mexico, since 1895, Topo Chico built up a loyal following in Texas because of the state’s close culinary ties to Mexico. Speak to any Ranch Water aficionado and they’ll tell you there’s simply no substitute for Topo Chico.

Despite operating under capacity restrictions because of the coronavirus pandemic, Dallas-based JAXON Texas Kitchen and Beer Garden sold 1,800 Ranch Waters last month. “It’s gotten to the point where I’m trying to buy pallets of Topo Chico versus ordering by the case,” says Alexander Fletcher, JAXON’s beverage director.

Outside of Texas, bartenders likely still struggle to buy Topo Chico by the pallet-load. But the “challenge” to get their hands on it (as Martini describes it) at least subsided in 2016, when the brand was acquired by Coca-Cola.

“Suddenly the distribution was just so much larger,” says Andy Arrington of Texas-based wine and spirits distributor Victory Wine Group. “Ranch Water has really benefited from that.”

Beyond regional connections, there’s good reason for using Topo Chico in Ranch Water. Las Almas Rotas’s Samuels says the water’s high mineral content provides a natural partner for peppery, earthy tequila, allowing the spirit to shine rather than overpowering it. And as all Ranch Water diehards will attest, Topo Chico’s turbo-charged effervescence provides the final piece of the puzzle.

“When you open a bottle of Topo Chico, you can leave it out overnight at room temperature and the next day it’s still going to have strong bubbles because of the carbonation that’s been pumped into it,” says Racheal Buie, Topo Chico’s brand development specialist for Houston.

Buie, of course, has a horse in this race. But she’s been a fan of Topo Chico for over a decade and started drinking the water long before she worked for the brand. “I’ve literally been able to witness Topo Chico go from 75 cents a bottle to being sold for $5 in fine dining places,” Buie says. “I really think the surge in popularity of Ranch Water is coupled with Topo Chico’s success over the years. As a Texan, a Topo employee, and a lover of Ranch Water, it’s an exciting time.”

Enter: Ranch Water Hard Seltzer

Whether a sign of Ranch Water’s success or a possible contributor to its recent popularity, the drink entered a new era these past 12 months when multiple canned versions hit the market.

Lone River Beverage Company debuted its Ranch Water Hard Seltzer in May 2020. After learning the legend of the “wild-haired rancher” and realizing it took place in the same area as her grandparent’s ranch, founder Brown felt there was an opportunity to tell that story to a wider audience and give people a taste of West Texas. The fact Ranch Water also lends itself to the wellness trend that’s seen hard seltzer surge in recent years also made it the perfect fit, Brown says.

Like many other hard seltzers, Lone River’s Ranch Water uses a brewed-malt rather than spirit base. The brand is currently only available in Texas and Tennessee, though expansion is on the horizon, Brown says.

For those looking to sample a tequila-based version on a national level, Cutwater Spirits launched its own Tequila Soda in March 2020. Flavored with a hint of natural lime, it’s a canned carbon copy of Ranch Water — in all but name, at least.

“[I]t’s important to clearly communicate that we use real tequila to make a signature cocktail known by many as ‘Ranch Water’ but known by all as ‘Tequila Soda,’” says Yuseff Cherney, Cutwater Spirits’ co-founder and master distiller.

Depending on how much Ranch Water’s popularity continues to grow, the decision to drop the iconic name may or may not prove savvy. To borrow (or butcher) a famous Shakespeare soliloquy: What’s in a name? That which we call Ranch Water by any other name would surely taste as refreshing and delicious.

But would that same drink be so damn popular?

The article Everything You Need to Know About Ranch Water (and Why Everyone’s Drinking It) appeared first on VinePair.

source https://vinepair.com/articles/what-is-ranch-water-recipe/