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jadelotusflower · 4 years ago

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It’s Cold in that Fridge: The Case of Nakari Kelen

Since The Case of Mara Jade has been doing the rounds again, I’ve finally gone back to this post that has been sitting in my drafts for literally years. So let’s honour this absolute badass who deserved better:

Once upon a time, the Star Wars universe was but six films (and a tv series) in the story of the Skywalker family. But beyond George Lucas’ story was an absolute boatload of books, comics, games, and other materials that made up the Expanded Universe. When Disney purchased Lucasfilm and the rights to the Star Wars saga, everything in this universe was decanonised and deemed “Legends” - some aspects of this universe were retained or re-purposed, others sit in Disney’s figurative vault and will likely never see the light of day (and seeing how the ST turned out, maybe that’s for the best).

But this transition between Legends canon and Disney canon was not so simple, because the nature of publishing meant that there were novels approved during the time of Legends canon that would be released in the time of Disney canon. In particular, there had been the planned trilogy “Empire and Rebellion”, set between A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back, with each novel from the perspective of one of The Big Three.

Razor’s Edge (Leia) and Honor Among Thieves (Han) were released prior to the Great Canon Split of 2014. But while the Luke-centric novel had been planned, it was not due to be released until well after the Split. So Heir to the Jedi (so called as an homage to the Legends progenitor Heir to the Empire) became one of the first books of the Disney canon.

What does this background have to do with Nakari Kelen? Perhaps nothing, but I do wonder how the writing process was affected by the shift from Legends to Disney - was the novel a relic of the old EU with any reference the LFL storygroup didn’t like excised during editing, or was it a trendsetter for the new EU, a Sign of Things to Come?

The most salient point being, of course, that Nakari Kelen - like so many love interests before her - was not allowed to go along her merry way at the conclusion of the novel, but was shoved into the fridge.

If there was one constant of the Legends EU, it was that Luke Skywalker’s love interests couldn’t catch a break. Mara Jade naturally lasted the longest relationship-wise, with almost twenty years of marriage to Luke before some bright spark decided she had to go (as per the aforementioned case study). But before Mara there was Jem, Shira Brie, and Gaeriel Captison (who came close to escaping the curse), and in the Legacy of the Force series they brought back sole survivors Akanah and Callista, only to kill them off for good too (and rather brutally, if I may add).

So perhaps when Kevin Hearne began writing HttJ within the confines of the Legends continuity, he was merely sticking to the status quo, or perhaps once subsumed by Disney they needed to make sure Luke's slate was clean (so to speak). And I can’t put all the blame on Hearne since I don’t know whether it was his idea, or LFL mandated - but regardless it was a poor decision.

The root cause of fridging, imo, is limited imagination. How best to cause your male protagonist pain if not kill off someone they love, or at least have strong feelings for? The answer is of course, easily. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

The Luke Skywalker of HttJ is fresh from his victory in ANH, a lieutenant in the Rebellion: young, not dumb, and full of...

Nakari Kalen is an absolute Queen a civilian volunteer and crack-shot sniper who loans her ship Desert Jewel to the Alliance. Luke is immediately attracted to her, they bond over a mutual love of fast ships and leaving behind desert home planets, and engage in the inexpert flirting of two nineteen year olds while also risking their lives several times over.

I want to make it clear: I actually really like this book. It's a breezy read, almost serialised as The Early Adventures of Luke Skywalker, and is ofttimes genuinely funny. And credit where it’s due to Hearne, many of of the supporting roles in the novel are female. Other than Nakari, there's Soonta, the Rodian who gives Luke her uncle’s lightsaber, Sakhet the Kupohan spy, and the Givin cryptographer/math genius Drusil Bephorin. In a genre where male characters are often the default for these kind of roles, it was nice to see, but makes the regressive fridging of Nakari even more egregious.

Luke and Nakari make a good team fighting brain-sucking monsters and Imperials, but more importantly they have fun together - she encourages him to work on his Force skills, and he successfully moves objects with his mind for the first time (leading to Nakari adorably dub him "a little noddle scooter"). It's a very sweet, if brief, relationship, and a respite from the danger of the mission. They spend the night together (leaving the reader to decide exactly what happened behind closed doors), and share a kiss before splitting up to try and escape bounty hunters. No prizes for guessing what happens to Nakari immediately after she received the Skywalker Kiss of Death.

I assume there were two motivating factors for why Hearne and/or LFL couldn't let Nakari live:

1. If she survived, fans would wonder why she doesn't appear in ESB/subsequent material.

I recall this bandied about on forums back at the time of the book's release, and to that I say - so what? Fans are always going to wonder, and try to paper over the gaps in canon, to make up their own headcanons to explain any any perceived inconsistencies. It's certainly no reason to kill someone off.

It is in fact possible for two young people to have a romance that just fizzles, or doesn’t work out for whatever reason - it should not require great maneuvering or explanation. If Nakari doesn’t show up in the next book in the timeline, what about it? The reader is smart enough to assume she and Luke broke up, decided to just remain friends, whatever. But it seems that the only way for a female character to exit stage left is for her to die, which is bullshit.

And actually, there's no reason why she couldn't have shown up again. ESB and RoTJ cover a month and a few days, respectively, of Luke's life - just because there was no mention of Nakari doesn't mean she didn't exist at that time, whether or not she and Luke were an item. She could have made an appearance in a subsequent novel, or Rebels, or the comics - she could have become a recurring character, showing up when the Rebellion needed her, or - heaven forbid - even have her own comic/book/show! Her existence in Star Wars canon didn't need to begin and end with Luke Skywalker, merely to service his plotline and backstory and abandoning the richness of her own.

No, the only reason Nakari had to die was to facilitate this:

It was a blow to the gut, realizing what that sudden absence meant. I hadn't seen it with my own eyes, but I had felt Nakari's life snuffed out through the Force, and into that void where she had shone anger rushed in - anger, and a cold sense of raw power and invincibility...I took a step to join in the hunt but stopped, breathing heavily, unaccountably sweating even though I felt so cold inside and the power of the Force roiled within me... I shook with emotion and power, and none of it felt the way the Force had before...I saw what kind of space it was , a black hole that would always be hungry no matter how much I fed it. I might never feel warm again if I didn't get myself under control.

Luke feels the dark side and is tempted by the boost of power it offers him, but immediately identifies it as dangerous and unnatural. I can understand why Hearne wanted to include this - it is a book of firsts after all: Luke's first solo mission, his first time using telekenisis, and ending with story with his first experience of the dark side makes sense. But it wasn't necessary, which leads to:

2. How to push Luke to touch the dark side without killing someone he has romantic feelings for?

Also, obviously, shite of the bull (or nerf, if you prefer). Even if this brush with the dark side was absolutely necessary for the novel's climax, there's any number of ways it could be achieved. At this point, Luke is fresh from losing important people in his life - Owen and Beru, Ben, and Biggs - lumping another death on top of that a narrative trick for Luke to react not only to losing Nakari, but the others as well. But it's cheap, the first card in the deck, and why not show a bit of imagination? Luke is young and inexperienced enough at this point that any number of things could be the catalyst - the whole book he's struggling with his growing powers, why not try and reach too far in the firefight with the bounty hunters, his anger and frustration with himself in not doing enough trigger the dark side temptation? It would work thematically and doesn't involve a fridging that ultimately has very little payoff.

Because Nakari is killed less than ten pages from the end of the book - afterwards Luke grieves, but ultimately chooses to honour her memory and be grateful for what he learned with her, recommitting to becoming a Jedi. It's all very surface level, and once again a female character's death facilitates a male character's development. Was it so imperative that Luke lost someone he cared about as part of this story? Sure, this was a time of galactic civil war, and it's far from unrealistic that these stories have a high body count, but who to make collateral damage remains an authorial choice, and in this case Nakari Kelen was (a) a female character of color, (b) a love interest of the protagonist - not just of this book, but the entire Original Trilogy.

I don't know to what extent (if any) race had to play in the decision. I'm sure there was a segment of the fandom absolutely livid that Luke Skywalker kissed (and maybe had sex with) a black woman. Was her death LFL hedging its bets, or demonstrative of the general lack of attention/respect they show their characters of colour?

In any case this was a chance to stand out from the old EU and it's fridge full of Luke's dead girlfriends, but instead they chose to introduce and kill off Nakari for the sole purpose of Luke's manpain and character development, and that's gross.

And then there's this:

A grisly yet reliable fact about custom bounty hunter ships is that you can always count on them to have body bags stashed somewhere for the easy transport of their kills. They often have built-in refrigerated storage, too.

NAKARI IS KILLED AND LITERALLY STORED IN THE FUCKING FRIDGE I COULDN'T BELIEVE WHAT I WAS READING.

I really hope this was unintentional on Hearne's part, because yikes. He was halfway there, this book was full of interesting female characters who had agency - Drusil in particular was a delight with her super math and inability to understand human interaction. Nakari was full of life and fun - capable but relatable, showing a different side of the Rebellion and those that suffered under the Empire's rule. Fridging her in her first appearance is considerably more vile, because it reduces her to a footnote of Luke's story, a plot device to Help Him Grow, rather than a springboard to tell more of her own story.

Because Nakari was a compelling character ripe for spinoff potential. I would absolutely have read or watched her continued adventures, juggling missions for her father's Biolabs company and trying to aid the Rebellion, shooting her slug rifle and cracking wise, maybe even finding a way to amplify her mother's song Vader's Many Prosthetic Parts to really stick it to the Empire, or try and free the political prisoners on Kessel.

The old EU was made great by allies and enemies of Our Heroes showing up again to help or hinder them, and/or branching out into their own material. We fell in love with them, and followed their stories even as they diverged from the main saga, eager to read more about their lives.

Nakari Kelen never got that chance. In many ways, she exemplified what Disney Star Wars was to become: an exercise in wasted potential.

#star wars #star wars meta #heir to the jedi #nakari kelen #luke skywalker #fridging #it's cold in that fridge #star wars expanded universe #nucanon

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bikerjongho · 4 years ago

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the convenience of the ocean | ateez ot8

genre: fluff, humor

characters: college student!ateez ot8

description: ATEEZ is free from school stress and can now enjoy themselves at the beach as a vacation. Naturally, their mischievousness and playfulness shines through while they’re there as tourists.

word count: 3.2k

warnings: N/A

author’s note: the second addition to the ateez music video series! masterlist (which lists the rest of them) here. also, hakuna matata ya @itsapapisongo >:)

The small convenience store nestled between the beach and a wave of hotels normally had about only ten people in it at one time. It was a small and cute little thing, and the eight boys on their razor scooters took note of it. Once they arrived at the store, they threw their scooters down onto the ground with a clatter before entering the store and doubling the people with their presence.

The band of friends had finally booked a fun vacation together at a local beach, ready to relax and unwind from college, work, and other activities. They traded their lived-in hoodies that smelled of stress and ramen for brightly colored Hawaiian shirts, sunglasses, and flip flops. Their hair was now unkept and messy from the wind and not from the lack of sleep. The sun was finally able to grace them after being stuck inside for school, and they all were beginning to sprout a lovely tan.

Wooyoung, an immediately friendly presence in the store, was the only one that waved at the cashier as greeting before hooking an arm around San's elbow and venturing off to the frozen section to look at ice cream and other sweet treats. Yeosang and Yunho murmured to each other about snacks in the snack section, while Mingi sat and stared at a sunglasses rack that was parked near the front of the store. Seonghwa, Hongjoong, and Jongho headed off to look at the soda, the only item in the store they intended to leave the store with.

And there was no intention of buying the soda. "That's a really small shop," San had commented as they rode down the boardwalk on their wheeled chariots. "We could probably steal soda from there." He had said it as a joke, but the more the group talked about it as they rode, the more they all were infected with the rush of stealing something.

The stealing wasn't for malicious purposes - they all had money, and they all didn't regularly steal from businesses. But the thought of being sneaky, dastardly, and just a little bit annoying after putting up with strict rules, homework, and constant vigilance that came with school taunted them like a devil with sin. And soda was not something that would be missed from a store, and they all agreed that it was delicious. "Let's never do this again," Hongjoong said seriously as they rode on their scooters, but he was smiling.

So it was set that the boys would steal a few cans of soda from a small beach convenience store. Everyone was put perfectly into place so the plan could be executed without a hitch. San and Wooyoung were meant to be a loud distraction, and it worked like a charm. Wooyoung made loud commentary about how mint chocolate ice cream was delicious, and San, who liked mint chocolate, argued that it was disgusting. Everyone's attention was focused on their chitter as Hongjoong, Jongho, and Seonghwa reached the soda aisle.

Jongho reached the soda first and, without preamble, began taking cans and unloading them into his bottomless swim trunks. Seonghwa strutted up to the aisle and shoved a few into a backpack he was wearing. Hongjoong threw the remaining soda into a floppy and summery bag that rested in the crook of his elbow. Wooyoung and San's bickering carried through the store, hiding attention from the three soda stealers.

Yunho and Yeosang continued to chat about snacks as the shelf of assorted snacks stared back at them. While they were all for the soda stealing, Yunho had pointed out that there needed to be a few normal people in the group since they were a large crowd. "Yeosang, you didn't just tell me you don't like animal crackers," Yunho sighed, the true expert of snacks and did not discriminate when eating them. "That's sacrilegious." He said this casually, easily, coolly, as Yunho usually was, which only stirred up Yeosang.

"What can I say, I just prefer things with a bit of tart," he replied, his soothing voice audible underneath San's emotional and loud damnation of mint chocolate ice cream.

Meanwhile, Mingi's job of staring at sunglasses and keeping the attention of the cashier was working a little too well. The cashier, a girl with short black hair and an ocean blue shirt, was staring at Mingi like she had never seen a man before. He pretended to not notice but still felt his knees turn into mush. She was pretty, after all. He turned his attention back to the sunglasses and found a few pairs that he really liked, though he knew they wouldn't be buying them anyway, considering that they were stealing soda.

Yunho and Yeosang appeared behind Mingi. "We're done," Yeosang said, which was code that their soda stealing had been a success. He tugged on Mingi's shirt.

"I genuinely like these, though," Mingi argued, picking up a dark and round pair of sunglasses. "And we're at the beach. It would make sense to have a pair."

"You know we can't get it," Yunho said sternly, which sounded like they didn't have enough money for the sunglasses. That wasn't the case, but they all agreed before that it would be weird to steal soda but buy anything else from the store. "Maybe later in the vacation."

The three main soda stealers were flocked together, now at the front of the store. The only one out of the three of them that seemed remotely suspicious was Jongho, with conspicuous lumps in the pockets of his red swim trunks, but they were only noticeable if a passerby really stared at his legs. And still, the cashier could not stop looking at Mingi. Wooyoung and San were trailing behind them, their mint chocolate debate prolonged and not just an act anymore. Hongjoong nudged them so they could be quiet. All they had to do was leave the store.

"Nothing caught your eye? That's too unfortunate," the cashier said as they all headed to the door to leave. Jongho looked like a deer caught in headlights, and he put his hands at his sides to cover up his pockets. Hongjoong nudged him.

"No, just looking," Hongjoong laughed. He slung his bag full of soda from the store closer to his body and gave a genuine smile to the cashier, who returned it. A few of them were staring adamantly at the floor like they had never seen floor before.

"Your sunglasses are really nice," Mingi commented, pointing over to the rack where he was at, giving a small grin to the cashier.

"But we don't need any," Seonghwa said, looking a little too firm. He nudged his head to the door.

"We don't want to spend too much money while we're here," Yunho added, nodding so genuinely to the cashier that the rest were convinced that he was telling the truth.

The cashier looked back and forth between Mingi and the sunglasses rack, caught in between two thoughts. Then, putting a finger over her mouth for them to be quiet, she pulled out a twenty dollar bill of her pants pocket and slid it into the cash register. "It's twenty dollars, right?" She asked, while Mingi's mouth hung open as the gears inside his head clicked. "Go ahead and take one, it's fine. I paid for it."

"Thank you!" A few of them cried immediately. Hongjoong's bag on his shoulder was now significantly heavier. Mingi carefully took the pair of sunglasses that he liked off of the rack and immediately put them on.

"Thanks so much!" He said, nodding gratefully to the cashier. The rest of them looked like they wanted to strangle him for leaving them in the store any longer. If only the cashier knew what they were doing with the soda.

"Well, have a nice day!" San sang to the cashier. They hauled themselves out of the store, Mingi, decked out in his new pair of shades, and the rest of them embarrassed by the cashier's blind kindness.

"Mint chocolate is the superior ice cream flavor," Wooyoung said to San, the first words spoken now that they were outside.

"It's really not," Hongjoong sighed. "My God, let's never do this again."

"We should do this again," Jongho said gleefully and pulled out a can of Coke from his swim trunks. Mingi and Yeosang also went directly for Jongho's swim trunks and pulled out their own cans from his pockets.

"You all act like you've never had soda before," Seonghwa judged, pulling out a can of his own from his backpack.

"Am I the only one that feels bad about this?" Hongjoong said. They all nodded at him, and Hongjoong sighed in defeat.

"Have a soda, Joong," San said cheerfully and pulled out a soda from Jongho's bottomless soda pockets and held it out for him. "Isn't their slogan 'you aren't you when you're thirsty?'"

"Snickers," Yunho and Wooyoung said in sync, looking at each other and sighing. Hongjoong looked at the Coke in San's hands before shaking his head and taking it.

"I guess what's done is done," he sighed before cracking it open and taking a sip. A few of them grinned as they watched him drink it.

"Well, that raised my adrenaline, I say we go to the beach," Yunho said cheerfully. "I'd like to get pummeled by a wave."

"Me too," Jongho sang, bouncing on the heels of his feet, already moving onto the next part of their day.

The boys began traversing towards their hotel to change, a bright yellow building that faced towards the ocean. "So," Mingi said as they walked into the hotel's main floor, "we can all agree that the cashier was into me?"

"Yes," they all chorused to him.

"If you didn't see it, you're as blind as a bat," Seonghwa grinned. Mingi adjusted his sunglasses, now carrying a new meaning, and smiled.

Through some miracle, they all fit in the elevator on the way up, but separate trips had to be made on the way down for beach supplies. They traded their Hawaiian shirts and loose t-shirts for tank tops, and their cargo pants for swim trunks.

Jongho took the pleasure of carrying all of the boogie boards down the elevator and out to the beach. Coupled with his overflowing red swim trunks and flip flops that slapped the ground every time he took a step, he looked like an excited little kid ready to be knocked out by a wave. Hongjoong brought a cooler filled with water bottles and a book for himself to read, and Seonghwa was sure to remember the sunscreen.

"Remember when I got that sick tan last summer?" Wooyoung grinned, watching Seonghwa fill his bag with a can of sunscreen.

"I remember, you looked like a Cheeto," Seonghwa said sweetly. He held out the sunscreen for him. "You should put this on."

Yeosang and Mingi were eager to carry all of the buckets and shovels for sandcastle making. How Yunho had acquired this absurd amount of buckets and shovels, they didn't know, but none of them were complaining. San had proposed a sandcastle making contest, so they were all eager to put his tools to good use.

For one last activity, Wooyoung made sure to grab a kite and a volleyball before exiting the hotel room. Soon enough, they were all on the beach.

San, eager to be soaking wet as soon as possible, ripped off his t-shirt and dove into the water, Wooyoung following in tow. Since there was a volleyball net nearby, Hongjoong, Yeosang, Jongho, and Yunho set themselves up for a match: Hongjoong and Yeosang versus Jongho and Yunho.

"Two-ho for the win," Yunho danced while Jongho nodded cheekily and picked up the volleyball. Hongjoong looked at Yeosang and shook his head. Yeosang reciprocated.

Decked out in a sleeveless tank top, there were more than a few girls that glanced at Jongho as he raised his muscled arms and served the ball over to the other side of the net. On the same leaf, San was looking too much like a model as he pushed his hair back every time came up from the water, chest fully exposed. However, the imagery of a swimsuit model was frequently ruined by Wooyoung, who was eager to tackle and splash him down into the waves.

Mingi had taken it upon himself to use the sandcastle equipment first, and was now digging a hole in the sand. "Can you cover me in sand when I'm finished?" He yelled to San and Wooyoung, who were more than happy to oblige. But from the way Mingi was digging, it was less of a trench and more of a completely vertical hole. Seonghwa had taken Hongjoong's book and was relaxing in a beach chair, his dark hair blowing in the salt-filled wind, making him look relaxed and regal.

And they did this for a while. Each time the volleyball teams scored, a stressful thought from the previous semester was swept away in the waves. Seonghwa became engrossed in Hongjoong's book and forgot all about grades he wasn't too proud of. San and Wooyoung washed away their worries in the waves. Mingi was shrieking too much while sand filled up his lower half in the hole to think about being stressed.

There was always something about the ocean, despite it being a sticky and hot summer day, despite the sand that was filling up in their pants, despite the screaming infants on blankets around them, that made it able to cradle and wash away any negative emotions from seasons past. The boys soaked in the sun and let the cold waves take them away.

In a few hours, the sun had lowered and painted a stunning pink and orange display across the sky. After a quick dinner break, the boys were back on the beach for their long-awaited sandcastle contest.

Wooyoung had rounded up a small boy to be the judge of their sandcastles. "I didn't round him up," Wooyoung groaned to Hongjoong while Hongjoong eyed him suspiciously. "He started playing with me and San in the water, now we're friends. And he said he'd judge our sandcastles! It'll be fine."

Sebastian, the boy, sat in the sand building his own sandcastle, making him the perfect judge. He couldn't have been more than six years old and had wild and curly black hair.

A few of the boys squatted down and waved to him, while Wooyoung ruffled his hair and gave him a squeeze. "Make sure to give me first place, okay?" He said and winked to Sebastian.

"If your sandcastle is good," Sebastian said wisely.

Ultimately, everyone decided that four teams of two would be best. The groups of two sat evenly spaced from each other: Yunho and Wooyoung, Hongjoong and Jongho, Mingi and Seonghwa, San and Yeosang.

"You have until Mommy says I need to go," Sebastian said, and they all looked to see his mother reading a book intensely a few feet away in a chair. They'd have unlimited time.

So the sandcastle match began: Yunho and Wooyoung opted for an old-time stone castle, complete with a drawbridge and moat for water. Wooyoung put little balls of sand at the bottom of the trench that he was digging for the moat. "They're alligators," he said, and Yunho rolled his eyes.

Hongjoong and Jongho chose a towering and thin castle that was remniscent of the one from Sleeping Beauty. Jongho suggested a dragon snaking around one of the towers, and Hongjoong tried his best to make one, but it ended up looking like a dog rather than a fierce winged creature. "Just tell Sebastian it's a flying dog, he'll think it's neat," Jongho murmured as he side-eyed Hongjoong's work.

Mingi and Seonghwa decided to make a mansion rather than a castle. With Seonghwa's attention to detail, the windows and ceilings of the mansion were pristine and perfect, while Mingi created the most structurally sound foundation for the house.

"Doesn't Bowser have a castle?" San asked Yeosang. The two of them ended up creating a rendition of Bowser's Castle, complete with fire jutting out of the sides and a moat filled with molten lava. San didn't have molten lava on hand to make it realistic, so they took Jongho's red beach towel and stuffed it into the moat.

They had all been watching Sebastian's mom carefully, and when the amount of pages she had left grew shorter and shorter, they rushed to finish up their castles.

"We totally won," Wooyoung grinned to everyone. He gestured to his and Yunho's classic stone sandcastle. It was impressive, but it was up to Sebastian to decide who would win.

Hongjoong's winged-dog looked menacing on his and Jongho's sandcastle, and the sole mansion made by Mingi and Seonghwa was a dream home.

"But does your castle have Bowser?" Yeosang asked, and gestured to his, San's, and Bowser's castle, where a mini Bowser stood at the front, claws out and mouth open in a roar.

"What do you think?" Yeosang continued, directing his question at Sebastian, who looked thoughtfully at them all. Sebastian had eight sets of eyes on him.

"Don't you want to live in a mansion?" Mingi whispered.

"Dog with wings, Sebastian," Jongho implored.

"Lava moat," San said.

"There's alligators in our moat," Wooyoung countered.

Sebastian looked back and forth at the four sandcastles. He stood up and walked around them, inspecting every inch of each. The boys held their breath when Sebastian walked by them like they were inexperienced chefs being judged by the master chef.

Finally, Sebastian stopped. He pointed to Jongho and Hongjoong's dragon-dog castle. "That one."

Jongho and Hongjoong erupted into victorious roars. Jongho picked up Hongjoong and spun him around while shouting while the rest of them shook their heads in defeat.

"But I liked all of them," Sebastian clarified, dragging his foot in the sand shyly. "I just liked the dog with wings."

"My terrible dragon won," Hongjoong sobbed.

Wooyoung dramatically slumped his shoulders. "Sebastian, I believed in you," he sighed, but went over and gave a pat on the head to the boy. "Thank you for being an excellent judge." The others murmured in agreement, and Sebastian gave a toothless and happy smile.

After Sebastian left with his mom, the eight boys agreed that it would be best to sit and watch the sun set while they admired each other's sandcastles. Hongjoong passed around their stolen sodas as they watched the last of the sun's rays wink over the horizon.

"If today went like this, tomorrow will be crazy, I'm sure," Yeosang said, content.

"We could upgrade and steal a table from a restaurant," Mingi suggested. "Or just Jongho could, since he's strong."

All of them laughed at that. "But today really was a great day," Seonghwa smiled. "Something about the ocean."

"Something about the ocean," a few of them agreed. The last of the sun vanished from view, turning the ocean water to a dark and deep blue. As they all settled together and turned their attention to the dark water, the eight of them casted a willowy silhouette against the sand as the moon peaked out and signaled the end of their day.

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onestowatch · 3 years ago

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Lollapalooza 2021: 15 Ones to Catch (Who Aren’t Headlining)

Lollapalooza is officially one week away, and wow does that feel good to say. As one of the first music festivals to welcome us back to festival season after a far too long hibernation, the annual festival, hosted at Grant Park in Chicago, Illinois, is set to bring the musical stylings of Tyler, the Creator, Miley Cyrus, Foo Fighters, Megan Thee Stallion, and plenty more. But, unless you’ve been living under a rock, chances are that you’re already more than familiar with the artists set to headline. So why not figure out who to see while you’re waiting to scream along to Call Me If You Get Lost.

From collectives who are moving beyond the need for genres to music that is just as likely to make you cry as it is laugh, these are 15 ones to catch (who aren’t headlining) at Lollapalooza 2021.

Peach Tree Rascals

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When & Where: Sunday, 2 p.m. at Bud Light Seltzer Stage

Peach Tree Rascals’ Lollapalooza set has been a very, very long time coming. The Bay Area–bred collective has been steadily making waves with their genre-bending approach to indie-pop that calls to mind a more idyllic, lovesick BROCKHAMPTON (an act you should most definitely catch as well). And despite emerging a growing fan-favorite in the last couple years, the aforementioned rascals have yet to play a show, ever. With a headline tour that was canceled due to COVID, Lollapalooza will officially be making history as the first-ever Peach Tree Rascals set.

Tate McRae

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When & Where: Saturday, 5:15 p.m. at Grubhub Stage

Tate McRae’s rise through the pop stratosphere has felt meteoric. First gaining fame at the young age of 13 for being the first Canadian finalist on So You Think You Can Dance, McRae has certainly come a long way to stand as one of the most promising voices in pop. With a vocal range more than powerful enough to deliver haunting dark pop ballads like “you broke me first” one moment and stand side-by-side with Khalid on the summer bop “working” the next, there are no two ways about it. McRae is a pop star in the making and this is your chance to catch her before her inevitable headliner status.

Marc Rebillet

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When & Where: Saturday, 9:00 p.m. at Grubhub Stage

Part-time meme and full-time artist, Marc Rebillet creates music with an unmatched comedic timing. It’s a comedic genius that has led to him getting a 24-hour ban on Twitch—for taking his shirt off in the middle of a stream, an act which I’m guessing Lollapalooza will be more than forgiving of giving his penchant for performing in a bathrobe. The self-described improvisational artist creates all his songs from scratch, resulting in an experience where no two live shows are quite the same. Come for the comedy, stay for the absolute dancefloor bangers.

Dayglow

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When & Where: Thursday, 3:45 p.m. at Lake Shore Stage

Dayglow is sure to bring a smile to your face and put a pep in your step. Apologies if I sounded like my grandparents there, but there’s no denying the sonic sunshine that is Dayglow’s rapturous brand of indie-pop. Paying homage to the dance-inducing melancholy of ‘80s pop duets, it’s difficult not to get swept up in the Austin, Texas–bred artist’s hypnotic vision. It’s the sort of euphoric music that feels almost tailor-made for the return of festival season—drenched in sunny rays and brimming with infectious sincerity.

Giveon

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When & Where: Friday, 4:45 p.m. at T-Mobile Stage

Before his breakout moment on Justin Bieber’s “Peaches,” Giveon was already charting his path for R&B domination. With an angelic and haunting baritone, each R&B rumination carries with it a palpable weight—an emotional turmoil that is only elevated by the minimalistic soundscapes which allow the proper space for his transfixing voice to fully shine. For a crash course on Giveon, check out a compilation of his two standout EPs, When It’s All Said and Done… Take Time. Or better yet, experience the magic of Giveon live.

Ashe

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When & Where: Thursday, 6:30 p.m. at Grubhub Stage

Ashe creates effortlessly timeless music, blurring the line between the nostalgic songwriting of Fleetwood Mac and a modern-day folk-pop star. The sentiment is best expressed in her critically-acclaimed debut album, Ashlyn, which demonstrates the Los Angeles artist’s peerless songwriting acumen, toeing the line between rapturous euphoria one moment and deeply affecting storytelling the next. If you need a good laugh or cry, do not miss out on Ashe.

Sir Chloe

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When & Where: Sunday, 12:45 p.m. at T-Mobile Stage

Fronted by Dana Foote and comprised of Teddy O’mara on guitar, Palmer Foote on drums, and Austin Holmes on bass, Sir Chloe’s music exists in the nebulous void of haunting dark pop and heart-rending alternative garage rock. The New York–based indie rock band originally started as a college project, birthed in the music halls of Bennington College, and now they’re set to take Lollapalooza by storm. With an impressive debut album, 2020’s Party Favors, under their belt, this set feels only the beginning for the bewitching indie outfit.

jxdn

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When & Where: Sunday, 3 p.m. at Bud Light Seltzer Stage

jxdn is the latest artist to make good on pop-punk’s continued resurgence. The first signing to Travis Barker’s DTA Records, the breakout singer-songwriter has found a fan in not only the blink-182 star but in Machine Gun Kelly, who jxdn is set to tour with this fall and makes an appearance on his debut album, Tell Me About Tomorrow. With an acclaimed debut album in the books and some of pop-punk’s biggest stars behind him, jxdn is sure to deliver a Lollapalooza debut for the ages.

AG Club

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When & Where: Friday, 7:45 p.m. at Grubhub Stage

AG Club, an abbreviation of avant-garde club, is a genre-less music collective that shares a lot in common with fellow Lollapalooza must-see act, Peach Tree Rascals, including a collaborative single. But don’t get things twisted, this Bay Area collective has their own vision in store for you. With a brash, in-your-face attitude, AG Club is likely to draw comparisons to the Saturation era of BROCKHAMPTON and glory days of ASAP Mob, but with their introspective, omnivorous approach, they deftly manage to emerge as an act all their own. If you want to go where the party is, don’t miss AG Club.

Tai Verdes

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When & Where: Friday, 1:45 p.m. at Bud Light Seltzer Stage

Where would we be without TikTok? I, for one, would be without my preferred form of short-form entertainment and the world be without the infectious pop-R&B stylings of one Tai Verdes. Originally working at Verizon before his breakout single, “Stuck in the Middle,” became a viral hit on TikTok, Verdes is now one of the most promising and rapidly rising acts in music today. And with his debut album, TV, the viral star proved himself no one-hit-wonder, delivering a collection of tracks that span a range of emotions and genres that we cannot wait to experience live.

Dominic Fike

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When & Where: Thursday, 7:45 p.m. at Grubhub Stage

Dominic Fike is a musical chameleon. First breaking out with his unassuming radio hit “3 Nights,” to only jump into the absolute vibe that is the Kenny Beats–assisted “Phone Numbers,” and culminate it all with the genre-spanning debut album, What Could Possibly Go Wrong, Fike is an artist whose limitations seem limitless. It’s a notion that plays out in his breathtaking live show, reworking his hits with an insatiable appetite until they’re songs that exist only in that singular moment. Fike’s is set you will not want to miss.

Oliver Tree

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When & Where: Thursday, 9 p.m. at Grubhub Stage

Alternative auteur Oliver Tree is nothing if not unpredictable. Flaunting his signature JNCO jeans and an impressive professional razor scooter pedigree, the inimitable artist delivers on an infectious blend of alternative, electronic, hip-hop, and pop that defies any simplistic classification. And with his debut album, Ugly Is Beautiful, now out in the wild after a much-hyped cancellation and subsequent surprise release, Tree has more than his fair share of music to pull from. Plus, given his penchant for going in and out of retirement like he’s trying to break a record only known to him, it’s probably best not to miss this set.

RMR

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When & Where: Sunday, 2:45 p.m. at Tito’s Handmade Vodka Stage

RMR originally made headlines with his breakout single, “RASCAL,” a transfixing country trap ballad that saw the rapper donning a black balaclava and Saint Laurent bulletproof vest while rapping over an interpolation of Rascal Flatts’ “Bless The Broken Road.” Since then, the anonymous rapper has been spotted hitting the town with Sharon Stone and embracing his penchant for melodic trap in the Westside Gunn, Future, Lil Baby, and Young Thung–loaded Drug Dealing Is a Lost Art. Existing at the fusion of trap country and melodic rap, RMR’s Lolla set is one you’re not likely to forget anytime soon.

Chiiild

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When & Where: Sunday, 12:00 p.m. at Lake Shore Stage

Nostalgic and novel, Chiiild’s self-described brand of “synthetic soul” is nothing short of intoxicating. Setting its own sauntering pace, Chiiild’s unique take on R&B and soul takes on a cosmic energy, as if floating through a wormhole with nothing but a single cassette deck on hand. It’s a testament to the Canadian band’s all-encompassing approach that draws upon not just R&B and soul but psychedelia, jazz, indie, and pop to craft a sound that is all their own. Take a trip on Sunday, and meet us at Chiiild.

All Time Low

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When & Where: Thursday, 6 p.m. at Tito’s Handmade Vodka Stage

Because teenage you wasn’t old enough to convince your parents to let you see All Time Low the first time “Dear Maria, Count Me In” was trending.

#lollapalooza #lollapalooza 2021 #tate mcrae #peach tree rascals #marc rebillet #dayglow #giveon #ashe #sir chloe #jxdn #ag club #tai verdes #dominic fike #oliver tree #rmr #chiiild #all time low

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jq37 · 5 years ago

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The Report Card – Fantasy High Sophomore Year Ep 6

The Fall of Fabian Seacaster

OK, let’s do this.

We pick back up with Kristen and Riz who are still outside Garthy’s room. Kristen’s Detect Good and Evil from last week pings Garthy as well as the general aura of the Golden Gardens which is protected in the way a sanctum sanctorum would be but with celestial energy. Riz and Kristen improvise a not super cogent plan that involves ribbon dancing and knocking over barrels before Riz just decides to cut to the chase and ask Garthy’s guards to send for Sandra-Lynn. Once she comes out (still looked sexed up and pretty annoyed) they’re not quite sure what to ask her and Riz wants to bail but Kristen (who has cast Zone of Truth, tried to muscle into Garthy’s house, and gotten smacked down physically by Sandra-Lynn) says that she’s worried about Sandra-Lynn because she’s “not poly but [she’s] acting poly.” Being directly called out is enough to snap Sandra-Lynn out of it (and to think about Fig’s reaction) so she agrees to get her stuff and come back to the gang’s suite.

Meanwhile, Fabian is hanging out with Bill’s cult of 20-ish warlocks. They’re all super glad to see Fabian--who they assume has been sent by Bill to help them--and they want him to regale them with the tale of how he slew his father in battle. Fabian tells them the story which, as you all know, isn’t a story about besting his father in a hard-fought battle so much as it is about a story about bittersweet mercy killing. They are less than impressed, especially considering they want Fabian to defeat Captain James Wicklaw who has promised to kill all of Bill’s followers. Ego stung, Fabian says that he may not have bested his father but he did (help) kill a dragon and, more importantly, he’s gonna lead them into an ambush against Captain Wicklaw (who he sees, presumably looking for him, with 30 men).

Oh boy.

Fabian telepathically alerts the Hangman that he’s about to get into a big fight before slamming down a door and full-out attacking Captain Wicklaw. He’s able to get a good couple of attacks in and Wicklaw misses his first couple of attacks but then Fabian fails an intelligence save with a Nat 1 and gets stunned while Wicklaw tries to open his skull and eat his brain.

Meanwhile with the rest of the Bad Kids, the Hangvan alerts Gorgug that the Hangman has sped off and everyone assumes Fabian is in trouble. They all do their best to get to him as quickly as possible and, even though these scenes are intercut with Fabian’s I’m going to summarize them all at once:

Fig (w/ Gorgug in tow) Dimension Doors as close to the Hangman as she can. Then, Gorgug has the idea to try the classic pirate move of grabbing a rope, cutting the weight, and instantly flying to where on the ship you want to go. They try that and begin flying towards Fabian at terminal velocity, both dislocating their arms. Fig passably disguises herself as Jemina Joy (even with quadruple disadvantage) and tries to get a wizard to teleport her to where Fabian is but they’re going way too fast for anyone to hear her. Gorgug (also with quad disadvantage) tries to throw a hand axe and, on a nat 1, almost cuts the rope they’re swinging on.

Gilear is fully passed after a back-slap from Fig.

Adaine casts fly on Riz (because his rogue speed means he can make the most use of it) so he can go get Garthy to see if they have any teleport spells. Then, she gets on Baxter with Kristen and Sandra-Lynn (plus Tracker who follows in spectral wolf form). Kristen tries to bring up Sandra-Lynn’s relationship stuff again and Adaine casts Tasha’s Hideous Laughter on her. Adaine tries to pull from the jacket to get something to help her get to Fabian faster and she gets a Razor scooter.

Ragh drives the Hangvan towards Fabian’s.

Riz finds Garthy who takes him to a room, pops out neon angel wings, and does some kind of teleport spell that almost seems like it moves the space closer to them rather than the reverse.

But, none of this really matters because Brennan says none of them will be able to make it to Fabian before 22 rounds of combat. Woof.

Still in the first round of combat, 2 of the warlocks manage to hit Wicklaw and break Fabian out of his grapple (right after Wicklaw says that he’s eaten many of Fabian’s siblings but let’s put a pin in that because we have so much to get through here). Fabian declares that all spells are on him for the remainder of the fight (which is maybe the last funny thing he says all night). Then, 6 of the 20 warlocks on Fabian’s side die to gunshots from Wicklaw’s men. Fabian sends his men forward then falls back and attacks with his crossbow. Wicklaw mocks him for abandoning his crew so viciously that I feel like he should have spontaneously taken a level in bard. Brennan rolls for the ten still living pirates who never got names and only one survives. Then he rolls for the named pirates (Alistair and the three I haven’t mentioned yet because this episode is A Lot--Chungle-Down Bim, Old-Young Benjamin, and Creaky McBarrel) and only Creaky dies. In two rounds, Bill’s cult is down to four (plus one guy who peaced out after Fabian said he didn’t actually brutally murder his dad).

Fabian’s tactical retreat shakes the confidence of everyone but Alistair who stays loyal (even as he gets wrecked on his next attack on Wicklaw). Chungle-Down Bim is so disgusted by Fabian’s cowardice and performance that he tries to Eldritch Blast him and misses. He says, “Yeh ain’t no pirate and Bill would spit in yer eye.” Fabian has to hold back tears. He, with a heartbreaking mix of trepidation, reluctance, and resolve, asks if there are any ropes he can use to escape. Roll a perception check. He does.

Natural 1.

Sure, Brennan says. There’s a rope that looks like it will 100% guaranteed hold Fabian’s weight. Fabian goes for it--leaving behind a stunned and crushed Alistair--and finds that it’s actually a clothesline. He goes plummeting down a quarter-mile towards the ground but, before he actually hits, he hits a bunch of other ropes and, on his last possible chance, is able to save from splatting and taking max fall damage. Lou opts to take some damage anyway because he’d feel like he was cheating otherwise.

The rest of the group shows up through their various means and all immediately assume that Fabian got jumped. Fabian is meek in a way we’ve never seen before. I’m talking Adaine with Jawbone in Prompocolypse meek. He doesn’t tell them what happened and he answers all the questions with short yesses or no’s as much as possible. The healers heal him (plus Fig and Gorgug) up and take him back to the suite. The Hangman asks if he’s alright. “No Hangman,” he says. “It’s all bad.” Cathilda brings him kippers but he feels like he doesn’t deserve them.

Garthy has a little tete-a-tete with Fig about their tryst with Sandra-Lynn. Garthy is all about getting down but not if that person is in a monogamous relationship (even though they’re against them on principle). Fig (who has been avoiding her mom since the top of the ep) says she’s only mad at Sandra-Lynn (she says Sandra-Lynn, not Mom--oof) since Garthy didn’t know better. It just sucks that this happened to Jawbone. Jawbone as in Jawbone O'Shaughnessy? asks Garthy. Turns out he’s visited (many times) and they’ve boned (super hard) which, honestly, totally tracks.

Because she didn’t get a full night of sleep, Tracker can’t keep the Moon Haven spell up all night which isn’t great. Kristen can also gather than she’s too tired to remember anything that happened earlier in the night (ie: things about Sandra-Lynn and Jawbone). Fig, concerned that she might get mind controlled again without the Moon Haven up asks Adaine to tie her up (this actually happens before the above conversation with Garthy).

Sleeping arrangements are Fabian, the Hangman, and Riz as a bodyguard in one room and everyone else in another. Adaine trances a little early so she can regain her spells and be awake in case anything happens. Brennan makes everyone do wisdom saves. Kristen and Adaine roll high and Adaine gives her TWO (2) NAT 20 portent rolls to Fig and Gorgug. That leaves Riz and Fabian, but we’ll get to them in a minute.

Adaine wakes up from her trance and she sees Ragh get up early as well. He says he’s going to get some food. Adaine, vigilant as ever asks Ragh who his first kiss was. Ragh acts confused for a second, and then screeches and attacks her, waking everyone up. He’s been dominated. Adaine goes for a Tasha’s Hideous Laughter and subdues him. Also Fig is able to escape Adaine’s magical ropes so maybe she’s not the best person to do that next time.

Meanwhile, Fabian is having a nightmare. He dreams of Wicklaw trying to eat his brain and Chungle-Down spitting in his face and his betrayal of Alistair. He sees the ghosts of the warlock cultists entering hell and his disappointed father. And then, he’s approached by a man. A man with a familiar, non-threatening sounding, yogurt-offering voice. Fabian, like Adaine before, feels very strongly that if he looks at this man’s face, something terrible will happen but he does take the offered yogurt and agrees to go with him without looking at him. He’s taken to a lovely, sunny, kind of museum area dedicated to Bill Seacaster. Fabian thinks it’s very nice but he starts to notice that though there are many pictures of Bill and Hilariel, there are none of him. He asks why. The man says that Fabian needs to look at him. Fabian is hesitant. The man says that Fabian really needs to look at him. The yogurt in Fabian’s stomach curdles, weakening him (and me because yogurt grosses me out on the best of days and this is not the best of days). The man turns Fabian’s face to look at him and Fabian finds himself looking at a doughy, middle-aged Fabian Seacaster. He laughs hysterically and Fabian wakes up, plunged into the sea.

Elsewhere, Riz wakes up in his room. Fabian is gone, he’s paralyzed, the Hangman has been stabbed through by Fabian’s sword and is leaking oil, and Kalina is sitting on his bed. She was able to get in with the Moon Haven spell down. She speaks to him unsettlingly casually. She sounds almost friendly as she demands Riz and his friends stop looking for the Nightmare King’s crown on the pain of their lives. Riz, a grizzled old knight to his core like all of Murph’s characters, can’t wrap his head around why she would be doing this. It’s simple. Power. She psychologically toys with him, saying that Riz throws himself into his cases (which she seems to know quite a bit about) to distract himself from how sad he is about his dead dad. Then, she says that Fabian is in massive danger and if Riz doesn’t play ball (pun not intentional but it’s staying in), he’ll die. Riz assumes she knows where the Nightmare King’s crown is and she asks why he’s sure she knows which makes him think she actually doesn’t know. Riz, who sleeps with his sword because he’s rightfully paranoid, uses it to Misty Step outside but he’s still paralyzed so he just hits the ground and breaks his arm.

Kalina meets him outside, tells him Fabian is long gone, and tries to bargain with him: information about his dad for information about what he knows. Riz counter-offers that he’ll tell her about where the Nightmare King’s crown is if she guarantees his friends’ safety. She doesn’t care about the crown. She wants to know what Riz knows about her. Riz agrees (to save Fabian) and tells her everything he knows except that he withholds the information about Adaine’s mom being involved and tries to withhold the information he got from Ragh but he accidentally gives himself away without saying Ragh’s name. That’s enough for her to put two and two together though and she leaves to kill Ragh’s mom.

Back in the sea, Fabian has to make three Constitution checks. He rolls two nat 20s in a row for the first two and is rescued two flying imp monsters (presumably sent by Kalina) who drop him off at the edge of town. Fabian, absolutely destroyed, rips off his eyepatch and takes off his Owlbear jacket as he makes his way back. He rolls one last Constitution check. Nat 1. He’s got pneumonia. Cathilda shows up in the Hangvan to pick up Fabian.

The rest of the group is still shaken up by Ragh’s attack. They snap him out of it and someone gets Garthy. Post Riz’s encounter with Kalina, Ragh bursts in, devastated and says that someone from home called and said that his mom died. The whole group is immediately suspicious because--post Gorgug/Zelda debacle--they know they shouldn’t have signal. Ragh tries to call another number and all he hears is laughing on the other end. When Riz (healed up by Garthy) looks, he sees that his phone shows 5 bars for a second. Riz, Tracker, and Sandra-Lynn also see the flicker. Possibly illusion magic. Tracker and Garthy can also now suddenly see the Shadowcat in the picture (but it doesn’t seem like the rest of the Bad Kids can). Riz thinks Ragh’s mom is in serious danger but not dead yet.

Garthy has the idea to send the group to the Leviathan Library so maybe Adaine can learn a Sending Spell to communicate with their various parents and allies in Solace. They give Adaine a note that says to let the group safely use the library addressed to one Aida Aguefort.

Fig checks in with Sandra-Lynn to see if maybe she was under the influence of something more malevolent than alcohol when she cheated. Sandra-Lynn cries, and admits that she just F’d up but that they should deal with the problem at hand for now and that’s where we end, with the bulk of the group en route to the library.

Detention

Fabian for Everything

Oh Fabian.

Fabian, Fabian, Fabian.

I don’t think I have ever seen a series of events so driven by a single character’s careless actions.

Truly, almost every single bad thing that happened in this episode can be traced directly to Fabian losing his entire chill at the worst possible time.

All those warlocks, dead (And Alistair either dead, seriously hurt, or set on the path to show back up with a vendetta later on down the road).

Because Tracker didn’t get her 8 hours, she couldn’t do the Moon Haven properly which is why Ragh got mind-controlled, the Hangman got stabbed, and he got brain-jacked and dumped into the ocean.

It’s why Kalina got to Riz. It’s why Lydia’s in danger.

And it wasn’t just that what he did was dumb, it was also completely unnecessary. There was no plot reason for what he did and he wasn’t forced into it. It was a completely character driven decision and it was bad, y’all. It was pretty much an absolute fail parade.

Honor Roll

Brennan and Lou for Absolutely Stellar Roleplay

Everyone had their moments this episode.

Siobhan and Zac made some clever choices. Ally brought some needed levity. Emily subtly continued her emotional threads about Fig’s relationship with her mom and her distress over her actions while mind controlled. And Murph had that absolutely stellar scene in the back half of the back half of the ep with Kalina.

But Brennan and Lou 100% carried this episode.

Brennan is such a good DM that I feel like it’s almost easy to take for granted. Like, if you visit a town, you’re gonna talk about how how cool the shops, and food, and events were. Not about how well the roads are paved. But if the roads are all janky and potholed and stuff then it’s a big issue.

This episode clearly took a major turn from whatever was supposed to happen but Brennan deftly kept pace with all of Fabian’s wild choices and made sure the roads were paved before he got there.

So much of this episode was just Brennan talking to one other person (Fabian and then Riz during the Kalina scene) and he nailed all of it. The disgust from Chungle-Down. The betrayal from Alistair. The concern from Cathilda. The quiet but sinister lilt of Nightmare Fabian. And the affable, dispassionate, Just Business evil from Kalina.

And Lou. Everything Fabian did this episode was an extremely bad idea but it is exactly what Fabian would do in the situation. Lou played him completely consistently, even when it clearly pained him to do so.

When Lou rolled a nat 1 on his perception check for an escape rope, Brennan essentially handed him a fully loaded gun and said shoot yourself, and Lou grit his teeth and he did it.

Mad respect to both of them for keeping the tension and gravity going for a full three hours basically. That was lightning in a bottle. D&D is an amazing game.

Random Thoughts

I know there’s a significant chunk of the fandom that ships Riz and Fabian and, can I just say, RIP to y’all.

It really was narratively cool that we started out with the Sandra-Lynn plot in this crazy, over the top, comic scene and then ended with the quiet conversation between Fig and her mom on the same topic. It really was a through line throughout the episode without over-shadowing the main drama. This episode had a clear A and B plot just like a scripted show.

Also if Garthy is a powerful as Brennan is making them seem, wild that the NK and Kalina were able to bust through what is supposed to be super sanctified ground, especially since Tracker--a jr. cleric--has been keeping them at bay by herself.

Zac: This is a real Axford move.

Also Zac: I don’t understand what’s gonna happen if this goes well.

Riz and Murph Equally: We’re so stupid.

I think it’s funny how players in D&D tend to treat Zone of Truth like it forces them to spontaneously say things that are true rather than just preventing them from actively lying.

The kinda wild thing about how this whole mess started is that Fabian’s character development is part of why it happened. When he told the warlocks about the dragon and his dad, he gave everyone else their due credit, didn’t hog the spotlight, and didn’t lie/embellish the truth to make himself sound cooler. That in turn disappointed them which made him relapse into S1 Fabian who attacked Gorgug on the first day of school for absolutely no reason. I was actually going to give him major credit for that before he, you know. Made some other choices. He absolutely gushed about how cool his friends were and then invited exactly none of them to his terrible plan.

Lol at Lou being like, “I rolled to get Alistair to make a better speech?”

Bill’s cult of about 20 guys has collectively sent him like 350k gold. That’s insane! They’re all so poor!

Lou playing Fabian very confidently making an absolutely suicidal decision, and then surfacing to laugh hysterically for a full thirty seconds out of character about how he’s for sure gonna die, was such a mood. It was like Lou was being held at gunpoint by Fabian for the entire first half of the session.

Big props to Zac for trying to get everyone in on the action by suggesting the Hangvan would see that the Hangman was gone and let the group know.

OK, so now let’s talk about that line about Wicklaw having eaten many of Fabian’s siblings. Hoo boy. You know this episode was wild because that line was said and never followed up on. What might have been a headline in a different episode was a footnote in this one. No big surprise that Bill would have fathered a ton of kids. That pretty much tracks, as Adaine said last ep. I feel like this was something that was going to come up regardless, Fabian just forced it to be right then and there. This dude hates Bill so going after his kids seems like an obvious move (unless he’s bluffing I guess, but I doubt it). But, like, did Bill know about these kids? Was he fully ignorant? Willfully ignorant? Did they know they were Bill’s kids? Are there any left? Can Fabian please have a little pirate sister because I would love that so much you don’t even know.

You think Lou expected to say (loosely quoting), “I try not to cry in front of Chungle-Down Bim,” when he woke up that morning? Idk but I can tell you that I didn’t expect to hear it and feel strong emotions about it.

Chungle-Down Bim, which is short for Bimothy.

Lol, Brennan makes Emily rolls with Quadruple disadvantage and she still gets a 15 because she has a plus 11 to persuasion. No wonder she’s so quick to slam the disguise self button if there’s even a sliver of a chance it’ll work.

Adaine getting a useless Razor scooter on the way to try and help Fabian and then being like, “Well, I’m still gonna keep it,” was such a funny beat during the tenseness of that fight scene.

I need you guys to know that this is a mindflayer ability: Extract (Ex): An Illithid that begins its turn with all four tentacles attached and successfully maintains its hold automatically extracts the opponent’s brain, instantly killing that creature. Truly what was he thinking? You’re gonna eat his brain? Go ahead because he clearly isn’t using it!

You know the part of Princess Bride when Wesley is giving the “To the Pain” speech to Humperdinck? I feel like that’s what Brennan did to Fabian this episode. “Oh you think I’m going to kill you? No, that would be too easy. This fight is to the pain. You will watch your allies get slaughtered until you are forced to betray them or die. You will escape but in the most clownish fashion possible after breaking your most loyal ally’s heart. You will be beset by your concerned friends and forced to either own up to your horrible life choices or stew with them and lie by omission. You will be the reason your ultimate enemy is able to break in and attack your friends and you will be forced with your worst nightmare before being unceremoniously dumped into the sea. You won’t die. You’ll just wish you had.” Absolutely brutal.

Anyone else feeling a possible villain turn from Allistair? Dude’s a warlock so he’s already prone to dabbling in questionable power sources. And Fabian really did him dirty. I was hoping he’d at least get Kristen or Tracker to try to see if he was around anywhere for a heal but he just went into shellshock shutdown mode and they bounced. We didn’t see him die on screen so I feel pretty strongly that we’ll be seeing him again in some form.

Also, maybe I’m way off, but did you guys feel like Fabian missed a clear opportunity? I thought he was gonna ask his dad for help. Or, at least try and talk to him before the fight. Clearly it’s possible because the warlocks are doing it. Just pray for some infernal intervention or guidance or powers or something? Worth a shot when you’re in such a bad situation anyway.

Fabian never did tell the party what was going on. They all still think he was ambushed and forced into a fight somehow. I really can’t wait for the truth to come out. I wonder how long he’ll sit on that info. He better tell them before they fight Wicklaw again and they find out that way.

Every single player playing up their concern for Fabian and making a point to presume he was in the right and that it had been a wrong place/time situation to make him feel even more like garbage was *chefs kiss*.

The Hangman basically acting like a big metal dog and pressing itself up against Fabian to comfort him is weirdly adorable.

“Anyway, I’m gonna go get tied up.”/“What?”

Also I love Adaine’s reaction to being asked to do it. She’s like, “What? I mean, I’ll do it but, what?” Sidenote, Fig said she was gonna ask Riz as her first choice but that’s also a terrible choice! He has like a minus 2 strength modifier I think. Ask Gorgug!

Truly, the entire episode can be encapsulated in the fact that Siobhan was sitting there with two nat 20 portent rolls but sidelined and useless because Fabian decided to go completely rogue.

I have to give Adaine big credit for checking to see if Ragh was mind controlled because whenever I’m watching a show where a bad guy can shapeshift or possess people, I always think, “Why don’t they just have a codeword or something?” This is one of the few times I’ve seen it properly executed. Genre savviness saves lives people.

Fabian’s rolls really matched his decisions this week. It was like the dice were punishing him with all those nat 1s on crucial checks.

Also, Brennan being like, “You get pneumonia” was lowkey hilarious. Just like, insult to injury. What’s next? He’s gonna die on dysentery on the Oregon Trail?

I wonder if Fabian is considering chronomancy-ing this away? The thought for sure crossed my mind. Also, everyone was joking about everything being all a dream, but that’s something that could happen in this campaign without it being cheap because it’s been set-up that that’s the kind of bad guy they’re up against so I’m staying vigilant.

Ragh coming into the room and, voice cracking, announcing that his mom was dead cut me up so bad. And I thought it would be not as bad on my rewatch. Nope, still awful. I can’t believe I like him so much now. This is like a Steve from Stranger Things level turnaround for me. Also, the chat was absolutely blowing up when Murph was like, “I tell her everything,” without excepting Ragh’s info at first. Brennan is a nice DM for reminding him about that (despite the absolute ravaging of Riz and Fabian otherwise this ep).

Also gotta give a shout out to Murph this ep for playing Riz so well during the confrontation with Kalina. His steadfast, simple, “We can’t stop. It would be wrong. Fullstop,” mentality is so pure. Riz is such an interesting character. When he tried to withhold info, Murph said, “I have low deception.” That’s who Riz is. He’s a rogue with low deception. He’s sneaky but only in pursuit of justice. No guile at all. Kalina, who is as casual as he is wound up and amoral and he is knightly is such an interesting foil for him. I’m very intrigued to see how this develops.

Like I said in the recap, Garthy and Tracker can now see Kalina in the picture, even though neither of them saw her when she broke in (that they know of) so the plot thickens there. I’d go into it more but I really don’t have any new theories off the top of my head and this was honestly the least of my worries re: this ep.

Also, she says that all of her abilities come from serving the NK, and she had the abilities since she was working with Pok so this doesn’t seem to be a new development. I will say though, based on the info the group got, I really thought she was gonna be a more ancient being, you know? Maybe it’s just a title and she’s just the latest tabaxi to serve him and get it? I dunno.

Truly the mood for this episode was dawning horror. Things just got progressively worse in new and interesting ways every single scene.

Speaking of, let’s talk about Fabian’s vision. First of all, Brennan did a great job real-time DJ-ing that scene. The switch to that creepy music was very unsettling. Second of all, the chat exploding when Brennan started doing That voice and everyone for a brief moment thought that maybe, Maybe, Gilear was the Nightmare King, was delicious. But, on to the important stuff: When this happened to Adaine, my guess was that if she had looked at figure, it would have been a representation of her anxiety which I think was like 65% correct based on what happened to Fabian. Her worst possible future for herself is probably herself ruled by anxiety to the point of uselessness so she would have seen that version of herself. Fabian’s worst possible future self is essentially Gilear. Which, on behalf of Gilear, ouch. But, yeah, I see why it would be. And, honestly, NK-Fabian was worse than Gilear. Gilear is pathetic, sure, but he’s pathetic in pursuit of his own goals. To be stuck in his dad’s shadow, devoid of any other purpose is the antithesis of Fabian’s whole making a name for himself thing and a sick twisting of his very real pride in his dad. It’s a real raw nerve to hit, especially right after his colossal failure that left him feeling unworthy of even his favorite snack.

I’m really glad Fabian looked at the face of his nightmare. Brennan pushed him a little (in that fantastically unnerving, cajoling yet demanding voice) but I think he would have done it anyway. Like, it’s good information for the team to have and, if anyone was gonna get hit, it made most sense for it to happen right then, when Fabian was already at basically his lowest point. Both Adaine and Fabian felt like something horrible would happen if they looked at their nightmare and I’m wondering if there’s a mechanical effect to that or if it’s just psychological. I feel like there might be some not yet revealed mechanical effect going on but, when your players are as devoted to the RP as Lou (who, again, asked to take damage from his fall even after Brennan was gonna let him off with just the shame) you can get away with just giving the character trauma and having the player hinder their own actions based on it.

Titles for this recap that I rejected include Actions and Consequences and Keyfish 2: Pirate Boogaloo (because the first part of this episode truly felt like the CritRole Keyfish incident but spread out over an hour and a half).

Yet another thing that would have been a headline item in another recap but is just a footnote here: Aida Aguefort. That’s gotta be a sibling, ex, or parent (in my order of probability). What is an Aguefort doing running a pirate library? Are they as chaotic as the other Aguefort? I think it would be very funny if Arthur is this dude in a high position in a “normal” town who is just feral and Aida is living on this insane pirate island but, like, a completely normal librarian.

Oh, speaking of Aguefort, Kalina called him out on his child soldier factory and, listen, I know she was just trying to hurt Riz but she doesn’t not have a point.

Kristen was able to discern that Tracker probably won’t remember what happened with Sandra-Lynn but I hope she keeps track of that info because if Tracker rolls high perception and finds out that she semi-willfully kept that information from her, she might be miffed.

Are all of Bill’s dead warlocks gonna work on his hell ship now? Didn’t they become warlocks specifically because they were bad at being pirates?

I notice the group didn’t wait for Fabian even after Riz presumably told them what happened. I also notice that Cathilda was able to find Fabian right away which is interesting.

Adaine solemnly Razor scooting at the front of the party towards the library is low key hysterical.

Fig better hope it doesn’t get back to Jemina that she was being impersonated.

Also, that plan was crazy but super not the craziest thing Emily has ever done and Brennan backed her up on that. He was like, “This is good. This isn’t Hilda Hilda,” which is where the bar is because Emily is crazy.

Fig: We’re gonna fail./Gorgug: We’re gonna die./Adaine: And, more importantly, we’re gonna fail school.

Riz’s “How about no dead friends,” one-liner was so good. Unfortunately, it didn’t do anything to stop his paralysis. Ouch.

I’m assuming Kalina was asking what he knew to see if there was anyone she needed to kill because they knew too much about her? Because, otherwise, it seems like unimportant info for her. I was thinking when it was happening that she needed him to give her that information so they could take it from him and he wouldn’t have it anymore, like in a weird Fae way, but that doesn’t seem to be the case. It’s probably just the simple thing.

Garthy doesn’t leave the Golden Gardens which is probably good for game balance. You don’t want to give the players a super powerful ally who has no reason not to help them at any given time. That’s rife for PC abuse.

I have to say, after last week, I was hoping we’d be done with the pirate stuff halfway through the ep and en route to Falinel but this was such a turn. I was saying to someone last week, it’s very tempting to try and predict where a D&D game is going by using typical narrative structure as a guide but that only halfway works because you really can’t account for the improvisational nature of it. I absolutely could not have guessed that this is what this episode would be and I’m glad.

Goes without saying, this ep totally snatched the crown for Most Heart Attacks Given To Me By BLM from Family in Flames.

“The game isn’t about what you plan; it’s about what happens,” sounds like a line from an inspirational Ted Talk, and not from a man who, minutes later, said that a pirate named Chungle-Down Bim wanted to use a teenager’s mouth as a toilet.

“I feel drunk from anxiety.” Same Ally.

You wanna know how many pages of handwritten notes I have for this episode? If you guessed 16, you’re right. And I was so into the ep, I forgot to keep track of crits, which is why I had to watch it a second time.

Emily proposing “felettes” as the feminine version of fellas.

“How many HP you at?”/”I’m not telling you.”

Just, the idea of this warlock drawing on Bill’s power to try and attack his son is so raw.

Brennan, being asked by Zac if he can help with Emily’s crazy plan: You absolutely may not and, in fact, take five points of damage.”

Siobhan: What do you have to lose?/Gorgug: *Rolls a nat 1 and almost severs the rope he and Fig are holding on to*

Garthy plays the harpsichord (I have in my notes harpsichord and not harp so I’m going with that) post-coital which is definitely a choice.

The shot of levity that Brennan injected between the big fight and the NK invasion by having Garthy know Jawbone was great. I knew it was coming as soon as Fig said his name, but the comic timing was still perfect. Apparently, Jawbone’s stories are crazy even by Garthy’s standards, which is wild.

Also funny, Fig being tied up as combat started. It didn’t end up making a difference but, at a certain point, when enough bad things have happened, piling more bad stuff on top just becomes funny like, yeah. Of course. That tracks.

Ally: Sleep when you’re dead, which might be this episode.

Riz and Gorgug (and Allistair) each roll one nat 1. Kristen rolls a nat 20. Adaine has 20s for both of her portent rolls (which she gives to Fig and Gorgug). And Fabian rolled an amazing 2 Nat 20s (in a row) and FIVE nat 1s.

Edit: Oh, forgot to say! Next week there won’t be a game because Thanksgiving is happening in the States. Early Happy Thanksgiving for y’all in the U.S. who are celebrating. I’m thankful for a week off to recover after the ordeal that was this episode.

[Footnote: This ended up cracking 6000 words, in case you’re wondering about the ways I choose to spend my time. Shoutout to y’all for reading these and justifying the dissertation length brain dumps my dumb, former English major brain compels me to produce for absolutely no good reason.]

#fantasy high #fantasy high spoilers #dimension 20 #dimension 20 spoilers #report card

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palettes-and-prompts · 5 years ago

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Character Palette/Personality Palette

If I have seen the movie/show/or whatever this character is in I will let you know! But if I haven't I'm just gonna give my best guess to their personality or what I think they like and everything. I will make them two palettes, one based on their appearance and one based on what I think their personality is. If you'd rather not see this just block the tag "character palette and personality guess" I figure no one's tagging anything like that so it should be easy to filter out. If you genuinely like this character and I lowkey diss them I'm sorry, I'm not going to apologize though, you're going to have to live with it. If you wanna send me a character for a palette and my guess at their personality/interests just drop it on anon and I'll see what I can do.

Alright so this is Ranpo Edogawa from the anime/manga Bungo Stray Dogs. Still haven't read or watched it but it's on my list.

I don't know what the word is for someone who hits on girls and gets rejected often is. But whatever the word is, he's that. I feel like he says shit like "Ladies love my sick moves." And he's always winking at people and doing finger guns. And even though he hits on girls it's not like, aggressive or gross, it's just like lowkey annoying because he uses cheesy pick up lines. He seems like the kind of guy who's annoying but if a woman is being harassed he'll step in and do some weird parkour karate or something and just knock a guy out. And he's always like "Have a nice day, ma'am!" And when he and his partner leave he's like "I forgot to get her number!" He seems like he's either calm and collected in front of his boss or his boss has known him forever and they roll their eyes then this fuckin guy walks in cause they're like "God, what did you do this time?" He seems like the kind of guy who still owns a razor scooter and for sure uses it to go everywhere. He probably wasn't raised by his parents, more likely some grandparents who are constantly being like "Please don't do whatever you think about doing today. Just be normal today. For once? For me, can you just do that?" And he's like "Yeah." And he's always staring signs that say "Don't step on the grass" and he's screaming internally because he wants to step on it but his grandparents said no. He seems nice and dumb. I like it. I wouldn't trust him with a baby, but maybe he could babysit a ten year old or something.

Anyway here's his palette based on his character design.

And here is his palette based on what I think his personality is.

#character palette and personality guess #character palette #personality guessing #edogawa ranpo #bungo stray dogs

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tellywoodtrash · 5 years ago

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Sanjivani - Week 6

Overall Plot

Holy shit, what a fucking week. Lots of interpersonal developments (read: dhamakas!) Shashank ousted Juhi all those years ago (on the request of Rahul) because he was in love with her?!?!? Shashank is also possibly Sid's father, or somehow personally associated with him?????? Rishabh's background is revealed too!!!!! Phew. I am dizzy.

The Medical Stuff

Not that much focus on the medical stuff this week. Neil's dad is quickly diagnosed with Legionnaire's disease and I assume cured (since we didn't see him after that, and Neil happily went along to Sid's for Ganpati.) There's an old friend of Shashank's whose wife had a nasty fall and is showing some pretty bad effects of concussion. Sid's injuries seem to be the priority right now.

The Acting

Dude. Sayantani, what a stellar actress. I could not take my eyes off her in the the scenes where she's at Juhi's house. Her eyes glittering with a strange sort of determination, almost like a suicide bomber, as she presses the button to detonate life as Shashank and Juhi know it. Fucking amazing. She blew (pun unintended!) even Mohnish outta the water, with her ice-cool, unperturbed performance, standing up to him so ably! Gurdeep too, had a nice couple of scenes, alternating between Juhi being disturbed at what she found out, as well as having to take charge of one crisis after the other, and she played it with such grace and poise. Surbhi had a more toned-down week (other than the scenes when Sid gets injured.) I particularly liked the apology scene and the scene where she's praying for Sid. I'm watching YPNTKH rn, and find Namit to be waaaay more polished in that than he is here? How did his dialogue delivery and acting regress a level or two, when he’s so damn steady there? Now I'm legit suspicious of the director(s) of this show, coz if they're not extracting the best out of their two leads, who have proven to be much better performers than they’re exhibiting in this show.... What are they even there for?

The Characters

Sid: Watching YPNTKH has given me a new appreciation for Sanjivani!Sid (he's called Siddhant in that show too!) because he's a much better character here. He's a soft boi who isn't hyped up on ego and toxic masculinity, and I really really love and appreciate that. His admonishment of Ishani (during her apology) underscores his true character; he glossed over her poor behaviour towards him in public and even the fact that she slapped him, to focus on how she was ready to blow up her own career and throw it all away over a past she had nothing to do with. He's an excellent mentor who truly cares for his team and wants to make them the best doctors that they can be. Also, I'm so, so heartened to see how accommodating he is of Ishani's germophobia. Everyone else treats it as a quirk or inconvenience, but he truly takes it into consideration, asking for consent before coming in contact with her (at almost every instance they're close by - not just once for effect and done - I hope they maintain this aspect for good), or protecting her from unwanted contact from others. His crush on her is just so adorable - checking if she’s okay while he’s carrying her, remarking he’s glad that he didn’t punish her for her insubordination because he likes seeing her all soft and contrite; his bashful glee when she gives him a flower, the (mischievously) proud grin as he watches Ishani walk off to give Rishabh what he deserves; gently guiding her to where the best views of the Ganpati fest are, all the while shielding her from unwanted contact from strangers; semi-consciously dragging himself on top of her, to protect her from the gunde!!!!!! What a good, good bean he is. He's truly so beloved that seeing him brought in injured paralyses the whole hospital in shock, and they all unite in both dawa-and-dua ways to ensure he pulls through. Please show, I am fucking begging you; do not ever ruin this character by making him a typical Tellywood hero. Keep him soft and respectful and lovable forever!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I deserve a male character like this after all the fuckery I’ve been through the years!

Ishani: Ishani finally comes around to seeing Sid for what he is. Even before she learns that he wasn’t the one to blame for the poster drama, she opens up about her emotional issues to him, perhaps the first person she's let in for over 20 years now. Not only him, we see she lets in his mom as well; letting her smear colours on her face, hug her, and feed her sweets from her hand, even asking for more. Really sweet and shows the willingness to make progress on her part, for people who really matter. We also see the side of Ishani that's fiercely protective of those she considers her own; lambasting Rishabh for trying to play with Asha's career, and taking on a whole group of rowdy men who were harassing her, but as per usual, her impulsive side creates more problems than she ever accounts for. Couple that with her tendency to self-blame to a destructive degree, and our girl has a lottttt of work to do, mentally. I really liked the scene where she's praying for Sid, and she says that Sid is her friend, he's everyone's friend here, and they all really need him in Sanjivani. That's all the emotional development that's appropriate for now; what the fuck is this sudden realization of "love" that's coming outta nowhere acc. to the promo for next week???? Please! It's too fucking early for love and all. Friendship, maybe a confusing infatuation of sorts because he’s been her saviour multiple times now, that's it. Not CAPITAL L waala LOVE and all. Also not a fan of how she was just paralyzed and clutching at Sid and weeping after he got injured, instead of doing something helpful. Like, it's hard to believe she's a good doctor when she reacts so emotionally in scenarios like these. I think her skills extend only to diagnosis and she should maybe focus on that, instead of the surgical part.

Asha & Aman: Asha's woes against the patriarchy continue. First with Rishabh threatening to derail her career by bringing her family into the picture, and then those random drunkards at Ganpati. She does pull together nicely though while Ishani is panicking tf out, and manages to insert a chest tube for Sid to alleviate the internal bleeding. I’m glad that she finally opened up to Ishani about why she’s so competitive and bullheaded at work, which in turn leads Ishani standing up for her against Rishabh. A solid girl!love bond growing there and I am thrilled! Aman toh... Lol, continues being Aman. He offers to beat Rishabh up for Asha, roams around the hospital like an errant 10 year old, just generally having a gala time, unlike the others who are there to focus on work. I really cannot read the vibe between these two; are they just really good bro-sis type friends, or is there a romantic undercurrent? I can't tell. Either way, they're good together, and I don't mind whichever way it develops.

Dialogue(s) of the Week:

Asha [when Ishani freaks out that she threw away the literal white flag she was carrying to make up with Sid]: Ab ke ho gaya???? Wapas se teri overacting; dekh, sahi dustbin mein daala hai (iss baar.)

Aman [literally rolling into the scene on a razor scooter, seeing the yellow rose that Asha suggests Ishani give Sid]: Chee, chee, chee chee; itni gareebi aa gayi, ki yo peela phool dene laage tum log? Arre, manne bol diya hota, english waala phool mangwa deta, phoren se. Lekin [scoffs disdainfully] tumhari marzi... [scoots away]

Rishabh: We finally conclusively know who the worst fucking person in this show is so far. Ding ding ding! Winner winner, chicken dinner! This dude is just something fucking else. He threatens to fuck up Asha’s career if she tells anyone about the poster drama. He is a classist fucker who puts down Asha’s background to Ishani, saying she has “gaon waali harkatein.” He doesn’t give a shit if Sid dies of his injuries, to the point that even Vardhan is taken aback with how vitriolic he is. A truly vile creature, this one. We finally find out that he’s the son of the canteen waale chachaji, which explains the confrontation on the day Sid was called in for his investigation (Sid says that only he knows Rishabh’s “asli aukaat”, before Rishabh rudely pushes past him and the canteen chacha who came to offer them both chai.) All his LV belts and fancy car and show-shaa is just to hide his actual economic background and as such, he prevents his father from interacting with him while in Sanjivani. He’s terribly rude and dismissive of him, to the point where the dad wishes it was Rishabh who was battling for his life instead of Sid, who’s always been more of a son to him. Yiiiiikes. Anyway for all his bluster, I am happy that he’s properly terrified of Ishani, who threatened to fuck. him. up. if he steps out of line as far as she and her friends are concerned.

Neil: I was hoping we’d see more of the Neil-struggles-with-medicine-and-his-father’s-expectations plot, but it was done away with for this Ganpati wala track. Maybe next week? Shout out to him for his adorable wardrobe filled with cartoon characters, even a Tweety Bird waala kurta that he wore to Ganpati!

Rahil: Ride or die for Sid, and I’m so glad these two soft boys are best bros. They deserve each other. He seems to be pretty close with Sid’s mom too, which makes me wonder what his family situation is? It was nice to finally see Rahil integrated into the group of residents, teaming up with Asha and Aman to get the truth out of Rishabh. I also like that despite his own terrible injuries, he takes charge of the situation when Sid is injured and gets him the first aid he requires at the moment by instructing Asha/Aman/Neil what to do. Nice progress from that first case where he was panicking and Ishani had to step in. He’s inconsolable when they reach the hospital though, and unwilling to leave Sid’s side to get his own injuries looked at. Best boy, all the love for him!!!!!!!!

Shashank: Lord above, what a week for poor Dr. Shashank. All his children are spontaneously combusting and giving this poor man the worst week of his life (probably.) Anjali unrepentantly blew up his personal and professional relationship with Juhi, Juhi is freezing him the fuck out (I refuse to believe that he has any romantic feelings for her unless he says so himself, out loud), Sid has been brought in at the brink of death, and Ishani is on the verge of a breakdown blaming herself for what happened with Sid. For godssake, this poor man is still recovering from a VERY MAJOR BRAIN SURGERY! Could y’all cut him some damn slack, you terrible little brats!?! He’s trying his best to manage; diplomatically addressing the issue with Anjali, trying to engage in conversation with Juhi, comforting Ishani and friends about Sid, but gosh, he’s really struggling to keep his head above water. Also, the overwrought reaction about Sid......... We’re supposed to think he’s Sid’s father right? But would they really do that to this character???? Make him romantically involved with Juhi AND have an illegitimate child with another woman? Very unlikely that they’d make him such a horndog. So one of these plotlines has to give up, and I really hope that it’s the Juhi one. I can begrudgingly tolerate him being Sid’s dad, but being in romantic love with a woman who was canonically a daughter-figure to him for all these years? Un-fucking-acceptable.

Sid’s mom: We don’t have a name yet, but Aarti Bahl (aka Ekta Sohini) also played Nurse Padma Bansal Gupta (Shashank’s second wife) in DMG after Shilpa Tulaskar left. So is she Padma here too, or a whole new character with the same face? As for why the previous actress was replaced, I have a feeling it was because she didn’t look age-appropriate and/or conventionally “attractive” to be paired against Mohnish for this “is Shashank Sid’s father?” plotline. I’m not sure what to make of Aarti’s acting, she seemed very stiff with that forced smile throughout the Ganpati function; and wasn’t too impressive in the scenes where she was panicking and hiding from Shashank either. The scenes I really liked her in were when she was lovingly fussing over Ishani, and later in the hospital when she remarked how proud she was of Sid for standing up to protect the honour of a woman. She has a very soft and calming voice, and her dialogue delivery is really pleasant and soothing, so I’m hoping I grow to like her in this character.

Juhi: Juhi’s not really having a great week either, but she’s a boss bitch who has everything (mostly) in control and I am so fucking happy to see that. I’m glad she didn’t fall apart over the “truth” or try to leave Sanjivani over it - curtly stating to Shashank that she’s signed a contract and intends to honour it, unless he fires her again. She has a brief confusing moment with him while conducting a motor function assessment to determine his fitness to do surgery again, but other than that, she’s all pulled together. She’s mostly brusque with Shashank, trying to prove that she deserves to be here because of her capabilities, and trying to break out from under his shadow to be a proficient COS in her own right; but she’s also gently firm with him when he emotionally barges in trying to help with Sid, insisting that she has it under control and assuring that she will not let anything happen to him. It’s so great to see her balance both her medical/admin skills as well as the firm-yet-empathizing demeanor so ably.

Anjali: Oh Anjali. I love you but you have some serious daddy issues that you need heavy-duty therapy for. On one hand, I understand why she is so resentful and passive-aggressive the way she is (Sayantani’s portrayal compels us to peek beneath the layers!) but on the other, she really had no right to throw Shashank under the bus like that. But I can’t say I didn’t enjoy the way she did it - so bloody spectacularly; unfazed at getting slapped by her father in front of her “rival”, chugging down a whole glass of wine and insulting Juhi’s cooking before she left for the night. So tragic, yet so fucking hilarious. On a professional front, I’m predicting that she’s gonna tire of this Luxury Ward COS post real soon, since it only seems to have her stand around kowtowing to rich assholes like a receptionist of some sort. I can only hope that she wises up to Vardhan’s BS soon enough, instead of serving as collateral damage and falling into the quagmire he’s planning with Rahul to target Shashank/Juhi.

Vardhan: Not much of Vardhan this week other than him entering that secret room he’s built for Rahul in the Luxury Ward. Good. I prefer him in small, controlled doses. And at least we have some clarification that even with all his shady crap, he’s not as horrible a human being as Rishabh - stating that even though he doesn’t like the way Sid operates within Sanjivani, he hopes he pulls through in surgery.

Overall Rating: 4/5

#sanjivani #sanjivani (new)#tt reviews

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quarktrinity · 5 years ago

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i am PUMPED for a boss fight against dustin now

i kinda see him more as the shopkeeper that sells all the items you will literally never use, and hes hidden in this super obscure location

dustin items include:

2 WEEK OLD MARSHMALLOW BAG - “oh, this one i named dierdre! shes kinda old and stale, but shes got personality for miles, you should give her a try, freckles.”

EMPTY BEER CAN LABELLED “ITS EMPTY, FUCKNUTS” - “i labelled it because i kept forgetting it was empty and tried to drink from it. its good for throwing at peoples heads, wanna see a demo?”

RAZOR SCOOTER THAT’S MISSING A HANDLE - “if i were a boring person, i would never recommend this to literally anyone, but im not, so you can have it for free! my gift to you, in exchange for a favor i can redeem at any time i deem appropriate.”

CARTRIDGE OF POKEMON BLUE - “i tried to see what would happen if i turned my gameboy off while i was saving like how the game explicitly tells you not to. i thought youd like it, freckles, seeing how much you enjoy blue things that dont work they way you expect them to. yes, im talking about your sweater, it makes you look like a rectangle.”

STICKY NOTE WITH A PHONE NUMBER WRITTEN ON IT - “;)”

#dustin kropp #bmc #jeremy heere #homo zone

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buyelectricscooternow · 5 years ago

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ADULT BEST ELECTRIC SCOOTER

The craze for motorized scooters for teenagers continues to comb America and mini electrical scooters are excellent for youthful youngsters who're shifting on from push scooters. We scour for market for the best electric scooter for adult, Have a look at all of the reviews on the products so you can make an informed decision.

The primary mini electrical scooter that I noticed was the X-treme X-10 scooter that my husband purchased for our son, Paul, at Christmas and he is all the time out on the pavement driving about within the contemporary air. Its high velocity is 8mph and its vary is simply 5 miles, so I by no means fear about him going too quick or too distant from house. My husband selected it due to its good security options which embody a variable velocity twist throttle, which signifies that if Paul ever falls off it should cease instantly. And it has a superb rear hand lever operated brake, so if he by chance goes off the pavement, he can brake straightaway.

This mannequin of mini electrical scooter is advisable for teenagers that weigh not more than 100 lbs. It is acquired 6" stable, polyurethane tires that give him a easy journey and the handlebars are adjustable for top, so when he grows it should develop with him. It got here full with two 2 volt sealed batteries that are simple to recharge on a daily electrical outlet for between three - 6 hours, in order that's simple for him to do himself.

Being electrical, it would not make any noise to upset the neighbors and I am happy as a result of it is environmentally pleasant. This mannequin is a part of a variety of mini electrical scooters by X-treme, and is just for use on flat, dry, degree floor like a pavement, you may get harder fashions to be used the place there are rocks or gravel on the bottom.

For my daughter, Clare, we selected the Razor iMod Candy Pea pink mini electrical scooter. She loves the type of it and I have to say I believe it is fairly cool myself! It is acquired a European look which is just like the Vespas you see in all places in Italy. Clare additionally loves the truth that her mini electrical scooter has two audio system and a docking station the place she will plug in her Apple iPod and take heed to her personal tunes or FM radio.

It is so good to see each my children outdoors enjoying, as an alternative of being glued to the pc or the TV. Clare's Candy Pea scooter has the protection twist throttle and may go as much as 15 mph, in order that makes her really feel actually 'grown up'. She likes to go to the shop for me and with loads of space for storing underneath the seat, carrying it house is not any downside. I make it possible for they each put on crash helmets and knee and elbow pads always after they exit on their mini electrical scooters, however to this point we've not had any spills.

One of many snazziest mini electrical scooters that I've began to see the older children driving on is the Euro-Model scooter from Razor. It is a scaled down model of a traditional grownup scooter design and appears identical to an actual moped. It may possibly go as much as 15mph and has a variety of 10 miles per cost. It is for ages 12 and over has a excessive torque motor and variable velocity chain drive which supplies it most energy switch and a quiet journey. It is acquired 12" entrance and rear pneumatic tires and is available in purple or Bistro inexperienced. Its most weight load is 150 lbs and it additionally has the secure twist-grip acceleration management and hand operated rear brake out there on most mini electrical scooters. Just like the Candy Pea vary, this mannequin has space for storing and a 12 volt rechargeable battery plus a middle mounted kickstand.

There are a lot of advantages to proudly owning low cost electrical scooters, one in all which is their low price of operation and upkeep. Since they use long-lasting excessive efficiency batteries for his or her energy as an alternative of costly gasoline it may reduce working prices tremendously. Plus, batteries have fewer issues than gasoline engines and due to this fact very seldom want restore. These hi-tech batteries are extraordinarily sturdy and reliable and can endure many recharges.

Many Electrical Scooters Are Foldable....

Low cost electrical scooters have many advantages along with being very cost-effective of their operation. They'll simply maneuver in tight areas the place different automobiles can not go and park in small areas the place vehicles should not permitted. Some fashions may even be folded as much as the scale of a briefcase, eliminating the necessity for a parking house altogether. This may enable homeowners to go nearly wherever while not having to fret about parking.

In case you use your foldable scooter to drive to work you'll be able to fold it up, carry it into your office, and retailer it in a small house or closet till it is time to go house. This may give you peace of thoughts, realizing that somebody will be unable to steal your journey whereas it sits outdoors unattended.

If it is too far to drive your scooter to work you'll be able to journey it to the bus cease as an alternative. Since they comprise no flammable liquids, electrical scooters can legally be folded and carried on the bus. As soon as at work you'll be able to merely retailer it in a closet or small space till it is time to return to the bus station for the journey house.

They're additionally sufficiently small to suit into the trunk of a compact automobile, so you'll be able to take them with you wherever you need. And no want to scrub out your storage to make room to your new automobile as a result of it may safely be saved and recharged inside your own home or condominium.

How Quick Can an Electrical Scooter Go?

About the one drawbacks to low cost electrical scooters are their high speeds and ranges. Sometimes, well-liked electrical scooters have speeds that fluctuate from about 10 mph to 30 mph. If it's essential journey quicker than this, it is not going to be doable with an electrical scooter.

Is Vary Essential?

The gap a scooter will journey earlier than needing its battery recharged is named its vary. It's the whole distance you'll be able to journey a scooter earlier than the power within the battery is totally exhausted. Regular ranges for well-liked fashions will differ from as little as 5 or 10 miles as much as 50 miles or barely extra.

Vary is a vital consideration when seeking to purchase an electrical scooter. It is all the time finest to purchase one which has an extended vary than you suppose essential. The rationale for it's because sure components can lower your automobile's vary. Chilly or moist climate, touring up steep streets, and different components will lower the space your automobile can journey earlier than requiring a recharge. So make sure to determine in these components when figuring out the vary wanted.

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With all of those benefits it is simple to see why each younger and previous are having fun with dependable and cheap low cost electrical scooters as their transportation. Their small dimension and stowing capability make them best for nearly anybody given the appropriate circumstances. The aged take pleasure in their ease of use whereas the youthful technology likes the liberty it provides them to journey round on their very own. Others really feel higher realizing that they're serving to to scale back smog and air pollution all over the world.

#BEST ELECTRIC SCOOTER FOR ADULT #ADULT BEST ELECTRIC SCOOTER #adult electric scooter #Electric scooter #electric scooter for adult

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cherry-kirsch · 7 years ago

Text

“i face god and walk backwards into hell” — akira, probably

shukitaryu/shihoann/harumako || multi-chapter || sfw (probably)

Seven gays make a group chat and have no life what so ever.

chapter one: settle for bondage like the rest of us

[ AO3 ]

August 15th 2017 1:25pm

akirana grande: what's up you big gays

akirana grande: in recent news i fucking hate goro akechi

get boned: what part of that is recent???

akirana grande: as in; "recently i've realised that i want to punch him right in his face"

akirana grande: HE HAS A MULLET. who the fuck has that haircut in this good year of 2017??

lesbiann: i have to agree; he looks like a mop

akirana grande: he looks like a twat.

get boned: what did he do this time???

akirana grande: breathed.

get boned: that's a crime. he must be Arrest No Arguments.

lesbiann: i feel like every time you see akechi you just hear kill bill sirens

akirana grande: don't you????

get boned changed the chat name to Come@BigBangBurger@7pmToKickAkechi'sAss

lesbiann: i've never wanted to smack a man more

lesbiann: akechi is the reason i Do Not Trust Males

get boned: i say we all-out attack him in the middle of shibuya

akirana grande: he'll never see it coming???

lesbiann: Die.

akirana grande: so, getting off the topic of akechi

akirana grande: (bc frankly just thinking of him makes me want to Commit)

akirana grande: do you think if i dressed morgana up in a pinocchio costume and asked him if he wanted to be a real boy he would scratch my eyes out while i sleep

lesbiann: hmmmm

lesbiann: i don't know

lesbiann: why don't you give it a try?

akirana grande: do you think i have a death wish ann

lesbiann: yes

akirana grande: fair

kamenrider is online.

akirana grande: the second useless lesbian has arrived

akirana grande: hello makoto

lesbiann: Incorrect. makoto and i are the most useful people on the team

get boned: ...

get boned: considering the rest of our team is an anthropomorphic cat, a dorito gremlin, a criminal, a pirate, a furry and the mad hatter

get boned: i'd say you're pretty spot on

kamenrider: we're addressing this later, you should be paying attention in class

akirana grande: it's just kawakami, she, frankly can calm her tits

get boned: bro there's rumours going around that she wants to fuck you

akirana grande: i'd rather Die.

lesbiann: that's morbid

akirana grande: when aren't i morbid, join the club ann

akirana grande: anyway i thought she was married to ohya??

akirana grande: another useless lesbian

get boned: ohya is like… on another plane of existence

lesbiann: she dresses like a teenager from the 1970's

akirana grande: some people would find that attractive

lesbiann: i Do Not.

akirana grande: anyway, i'm happy for our lesbian teacher and her 1970's girlfriend

get boned: anyway, i'm Gay

kamenrider: why are we even talking about this

akirana grande: you were the one who told me to pay attention to kawakami

kamenrider: pay attention, you're not failing any of these classes

get boned: you can't tell me what to do

kamenrider: if you don't pay attention i'm hitting you on the shins with my old razor scooter

akirana grande: lmao u got told

kamenrider: the same goes for you too, akira

akirana grande: i gotta go my uncle just died

akirana grande is offline.

get boned: you don't have an uncle???

kamenrider: ryuji

get boned: yes makoto

kamenrider: get off your phone

get boned: yes ma'am

get boned is offline.

lesbiann: hey makoto wanna be in lesbians together

kamenrider is offline.

lesbiann: you didn't say no.

August 15th 2017 4:53pm

hackerman: y'all i just woke up what the fuck

akirana grande: thats unhealthy

hackerman: you're unhealthy

akirana grande: you're talking to the winner of the Big Bang Burger competition

akirana grande: of course i'm unhealthy — tell me something i don't know

get boned: i was there when he did that

get boned: he fucking unhinged his jaw like a cobra

get boned: it was neato

hackerman: 'neato'??? what the fuck ryuji

get boned: if you have a problem come fight me

hackerman: i will. name a time and place

get boned: 11pm behind the ramen shop

get boned: come prepared to lose

hackerman: it's on, i can't wait to see your face pushed into the dirt

akirana grande: kinky

hackerman: maybe for you akira

lesbiann: yeah, akira

lesbiann: settle on bondage like the rest of us

akirana grande pinned a message to the channel.

get boned: HGFIDJPSOK

get boned: what the fuck ann

lesbiann: akira did u pin that???

akirana grande: you just admitted to being into bondage

akirana grande: of course i pinned it

lesbiann: this is homophobic

akirana grande: I CAN’T BELIEVE YOU’RE INTO BONDAGE

lesbiann: why are we still talking about this???

get boned: because it’s hilarious

kamenrider is online.

kamenrider: ann you’re into bondage?

lesbiann: I DON’T WANT TO TALK ABOUT THIS

kamenrider: it’s okay, ann, we all have our kinks

get boned: I’M SCREAMING

lesbiann: please PLEASE stop talking

akirana grande: and, makoto, yours is???

kamenrider: justice.

akirana grande: iconic.

yiffmaster is online.

yiffmaster: Futuba, I do not understand this nickname.

akirana grande: great the whole gang’s here!

kamenrider: haru isn’t here yet

akirana grande: Irrelevant.

get boned: is no one going to address the fact that yusuke’s username is yiffmaster???

hackerman: no because we’ve all been aware that yusuke is a furry for a while now

yiffmaster: What is a furry?

akirana grande: …

akirana grande: this world is beautiful and light

lesbiann: i can’t believe yusuke is a furry

hackerman: i mean if we’re going to call yusuke a furry, ann should be called a furry too

lesbiann: No.

hackerman changed lesbiann’s nickname to ‘furry numero deux’.

furry numero deux: this is homophobic

hackerman: this is art.

furry numero deux: Art is Dead.

yiffmaster: Incorrect. Art is very much alive.

kamenrider: you heard it from the art man. art is alive.

hackerman: HGOFDIJPS

hackerman: art man.

akirana grande: there’s no need to feel down

hackerman: i said art man.

lesbiann: pick ur head off the ground.

yiffmaster: ?

get boned: this is iconic yusuke

yiffmaster: I do not understand.

akirana grande: me, except i don’t understand maths

get boned: who does understand maths tho???

kamenrider: me.

furry numero deux: me.

get boned: Die.

akirana grande: ABORT ABORT ABORT

get boned: what.

akirana grande: akechi just walked in

akirana grande: he’s always here does he even have a life???

furry numero deux changed their nickname to lesbiann.

lesbiann: judging by his weird obsession with you???

lesbiann: not likely.

get boned: he is in leblanc a lot

akirana grande: its creepy! He has me make him a coffee and then he watched the news for 2 solid hours

get boned: dude he totally has a boner for you

akirana grande: i’m not into dudes who can break me

akirana grande: wait

akirana grande: correction – i’m not into guys who hate my guts.

yiffmaster: Akira, what are you trying to say?

hackerman: he wants men who can break him to step on him

akirana grande: please, step on me

lesbiann: a thrilling conclusion from akira kurusu

lesbiann: well done

akirana grande: thanks, I’m Gay

get boned: aren’t we all?

kamenrider: back to the matter at hand; Akechi

akirana grande: i wish he wasn’t

kamenrider: don’t we all

akirana grande: yes anyway. so akechi has just walked in and ordered a coffee and a cinnamon swirl

akirana grande: we don’t have any more cinnamon swirls

hackerman: dad’s gonna make you go out and get one

akirana grande: haha no he’s not.

get boned: 3

lesbiann: 2

kamenrider: 1

akirana grande: …

akirana grande is offline.

hackerman: lmao told u

get boned: #prayforakira

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elizabethschoices · 7 years ago

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#LoveHacks, Book 2, Chapter Six: My Thoughts

We start the chapter as our MC and we’re meeting up with Leah outside of an office building on the outskirts of SanFran. We’re getting ready to pick out our office space! I just want an office space that’s functional. I can add my own flair to it later on.

The first office is fairly plain and contains some décor left from the previous occupant. It’s okay, and it’ll work. Like I said, I can put my own spin on the design later. But there’s only room for one desk, which is a drawback. Leah starts to flirt with MC a bit, but then notices a fat pigeon sitting outside the window. Ew!

Leah wants us to be nice to the damn thing and name it like it’s a pet. I’m gonna name it Barry. MC starts to look on the bright side, but then Barry flies away in a hurry. However, she retains her positivity and we go see the next office. This second one if slick and newly remodeled, and probably hella expensive. And kind of big for only two people. I guess we would need to expand sooner or later...

Fucking hell, I do not care about this story enough to spend 18 diamonds on an office space.

The other office.

MC does make a valid point about how we’re only starting out, and so we should conserve our resources until it’s time to expand. She and Leah agree to meet there the next morning to christen the new office. (Hopefully not in the way that it’s usually done.)

We’re now playing as Brooke and we’re at The Double Tap with all the friends. Brooke is just happy to be back in their bar with their regular friends, which now includes my Ben!!!

Parker comes over with drinks and makes a quip about how we keep adding people into our group. She explains that she can’t sit down for a drink at the moment because she and Horatio are alternating shifts, and then she heads back to the bar. Brooke says she might have the right idea about moving to a bigger table because Keo is part of the group now.

Cole objects, and so does Horatio. Cole asks Brooke if she thinks she’s moving too fast with Keo, and these answer choices are dumb. Are you... jealous?

Ho shit, she got mad and accused Cole of wanting Keo to himself.

He has his moments where I like him.

MC suggests the guys give Keo a chance, and then Brooke brings up the GNO all the guys are going on. We get our scene we got a sneak peek of last chapter and that’s it.

We’re back to playing as MC and we’re meeting up with Leah at the office. She’s brought champagne and four glasses, the other two for some friends that were apparently asking about MC. Is it who I think it is?

IT IS!!!! ISABEL AND FELIX!

Felix jokes us on our guidance counselor office space and then they both come in, each with a bottle of champagne because they couldn’t pick one out. Isabel claims her bottle is the best bottle and MC asks how work at ClickIt is going. They say it’s insufferable due to Martin’s new lifestyle blog, which simply panders to idiotic women that think the blog actually cares about them, when in reality it’s something that was made out of spite.

The blog has garnered support and is up for the same award that MC and Leah’s blog is up for. Leah pulls us aside and I’m sure this will be a premium choice to recruit our buddies and rescue them from ClickIt.

I don’t even care anymore.

Let’s stay a two-woman team.

We toast to Stark Industries and then we’re playing as Mark.

The boys have all arrived at a place called The Garage, which is a dirty dive bar, apparently. Mark says the place seems to be filled exclusively with bikers, and clearly none of our boys are anything close to that. Especially my boy:

Cole looked the place up, and it had one review by a person who was body-slammed through one of the tables. Lovely. And then two guys get into a fight. Horatio has hope Keo isn’t in a motorcycle gang and just randomly picked this place, but then Keo shouts out to them, saying it’s his favorite place.

He takes the boys over to the bar, where the bartender calls him ‘Razor.’ Keo corrects him, saying that when he’s with his friends, to call him Keo. Wtf kind of shit is this boy in? And how does he have the time to be in it if he’s a firefighter?

Mark asks about the name, and Keo gets all shady and says it’s just an old nickname that should be forgotten about. Cole thinks Keo is a gangbanger, Horatio is optimistic, and all I’m gonna say is maybe they call him Razor because he knows some sick scooter moves?

Cole dismisses the though immediately and then Keo is back with a round of drinks. The tough guy MC went out with bumps into Keo and starts some shit because apparently errybody gotta be a Alpha.

Tough guy is told that if he messes with Razor, he’s messing with the entire bar, so he backs off immediately. Then Mark is immediately turned to and asked about how he feels about Keo. He’s our bestie! Please don’t hurt us.

The boys all go along with it, and my boyfriend is the best boyfriend this series can throw at me.

The guy says that any friend of Keo’s is a friend of his, and his nickname is Gerbil, apparently. Gerbil praises Keo, but says there’s some business he needs to tend to outside with a man named Johnny. Keo gets angry and makes an unfinished threat about the guy, and Ben cutely freaks out about what’s gonna happen when Keo ‘gets his hands on that guy.’ He wanders outside and the boys head to a window to try and see what’s going on outside. Horatio manages to catch a glimpse of him, and he’s talking to who I am assuming is Johnny.

They argued, exchanged something, and then Johnny walked away ‘like a scolded dog’ according to Horatio. Maybe Johnny is a dealer? Only other thing I can think of is Keo being the dealer. The boys decide to tell Brooke about Keo, and then we’re playing as the bane of my fucking existence.

Apparently we’re at a protest. For what, exactly? I guess a grove will be torn down in exchange for a parking garage. Sereena is trying to hype her worthless self up and honestly I’m going to try and keep this part as short as I can because I hate this little cunt.

We see Aiyana protesting with like, facts and stuff. She finishes her little speech and sees Sereena, approaching her. She’s surprised Sereena is actually there. I am too, because since when does Sereena care about anyone but herself. I also like owls. What a coincidence.

Sereena bullshits her way through this conversation and then the bulldozer comes. Jump in front of the bulldozer and run this bitch over, please. Well, she got arrested instead I’m okay with this. But then Aiyana bails her out an hour later. Boo.

Aiyana asks Sereena out on a date and LMAO MAYBE ANOTHER TIME ‘CAUSE I AM NOT SPENDING DIAMONDS ON SEREENA

We’re playing as Mark again now and all of the boys are at The Double Tap after they spent the night at The Garage. Keo seems to really like the boys though, and says it’s the best man-date he’d ever been on. Mark whines about it being called a man-date and then Keo goes to sit with the women of the group while the other guys go to get drinks.

Cole asks how to tell Brooke that her man is shady af, but Horatio suggests that it may not be their place to say anything at all. I’m always torn on these kinds of situations. On one hand, we love our friend dearly and want what’s best for her. On the other hand, it’s her life and she’s happy with Keo. I think that for right now, we should wait. All we know for sure is that Keo has some shady things going on, but we don’t even know what. We can’t go to her with this if we have nothing to show her. It will only piss her off.

Cole thinks they have a right to get in the business of their friend and their friend’s significant other and asks why they shouldn’t. Ben suggests the pursuit of happiness and then gives me this golden line:

Brooke jumps into Keo’s arms and everything. She’s clearly happy with him and I don’t think Mark and co. have the right to do anything to endanger that.

MC and Sereena approach the gang and ask how the man-date went and if they found anything concrete on Keo, and they haven’t. Just more shadiness. Mark says they can’t destroy Brooke’s happiness, and Sereena says it may blow over soon and Brooke will see things clearly.

And then this predictable plot point happens.

At least we get to go to Vegas.

Until next time!

#lovehacks #lovehacks book 2 #choices #playchoices #choices stories you play #choices stories we play #choices game #pixelberry #my thoughts #my review #my opinion #elizabethschoices

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ntrending · 6 years ago

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How will we travel the last mile between public transit and where we want to go?

New Post has been published on https://nexcraft.co/how-will-we-travel-the-last-mile-between-public-transit-and-where-we-want-to-go/

How will we travel the last mile between public transit and where we want to go?

St. Stephen’s Community House sits among single-family homes, recycling plants, wrecking yards, shipping centers, and parks, all occupying the Linden neighborhood of Columbus, Ohio. Begun as a Catholic social center in 1919, it has morphed into a gathering place that helps local residents connect with jobs, medical care, supermarkets, and transportation. And just as in its early days, the center also helps them connect with one another. So it is that at 5:30 p.m. on a Tuesday in October, about 150 people gather to hear city officials present a reinvention scheme. Even the standing-room section is crowded.

A screen displays a slide deck for a 10-point strategy—called the One Linden Plan—to improve this historically underserved low-income area. Onstage, hip-high cubes show photos of happy kids clinging to smiling parents. While Linden is just a few miles from the city center, transportation options from here—to jobs, doctors, even grocery stores—remain mostly limited, slow, inaccessible, unreliable, or a combination of those factors. One Linden aims to change that.

In Columbus, as in many cities, the people who would benefit most from public-transit improvements—people with lower incomes, minorities, residents with disabilities, the elderly—often have difficulty accessing it. The world might be stuffed with bike-shares and scooters, but trendy wheeled devices serve primarily the young, solo, and able-bodied. Meanwhile, as urban areas get more expensive, poorer residents are often pushed even farther out. Cities struggle to get everyone from place to place without clogging freeways, spewing air pollution, consuming fossil fuels, or further disenfranchising anyone.

In places like Linden, the biggest problem is often getting to or from a transit station in the first place. Urban planners call this the “first-mile/last-mile problem.” Here, remedies will include a trip-planning app that incorporates all available modes of transportation, whether scooters, bikes, or ride-shares. Most of these options typically require smartphones linked to credit-card accounts, leaving out portions of the population that have neither. But several of the proposals detailed in One Linden don’t require a bank account or phone plan. Officials also promise transportation hubs that link the different transport modes, and offer extra help for pregnant women and people with cognitive disabilities.

In the auditorium, the residents are attentive, hopeful—and dubious. It’s not the first time they’ve heard great-on-paper strategies. Many stay on the page. Some worry that if the improvements actually happen, it will just catalyze gentrification, destabilizing the very people whose lives should improve.

Knowing these doubts like the potholes on a familiar street, Lawrence Calloway, a South Linden commissioner, turns the meeting into something of a pep rally. “Can you all say, ‘Linden’?” he asks from the stage.

“Linden!” the crowd yells.

“LINDEN!” Calloway calls, louder.

“LINDEN!” they respond, louder still.

He smiles. “This is what we’re talking about,” he says to them. “Our community.”

Calloway asks the crowd to raise their hands if they provided input or helped shape the plan. Most of the hands go up. He nods. “It is an instruction on how to use every last nut and bolt and piece of wood and metal and brick and mortar to make sure this thing works,” he says of the plan. “So if you didn’t see yourself in it, maybe you need to mention how you can be in it.” Cue murmurs of approval.

Calloway ends by once again saying the community’s name. A cheer of “Linden! Linden! Linden!” rises like an approaching train.

Afterward, people disperse to knotty circles of conversation. Nicole Williams is hanging out near glossy, novella-length copies of the plan. Two-tone eye shadow applied in vertical patches gives her a tiger-like aspect. A friend asks after her son, and Williams turns her wheelchair to look around the room. He’s here somewhere, she says, smiling.

But Williams and her son almost didn’t make it tonight. She had scheduled a ride for 5 p.m. with a van service for people with disabilities. It didn’t show up till 6 or so, well after the meeting had started. While she waited, her friends started texting her. “They’re talking about you!” they said. Williams has been active in the transportation initiatives, and she missed her onstage mention—all because of a way-late ride.

This, of course, is part of the whole thing. Under the Americans with Disabilities Act, cities must provide transportation for people with physical or cognitive impairments. But such specialized services are often less reliable than buses, which Williams can and does sometimes ride. But the fare box next to the driver blocks her access. The maneuvering makes her nervous. Once, avoiding the box, she broke the glass on the bus door. “I was just so embarrassed,” she says. “You know? I was just so embarrassed.”

Her solution is simple: “Everything should be made for everyone.” She says it with the same conviction that the community just chanted, “Linden!”

In an urban-utopia vision of the future, everything is made for everyone—and involves fewer personal cars, which pollute the air, contribute to climate change, keep us sedentary, and create cortisol-boosting gridlock. Multiple studies suggest that switching to alternatives—walking, biking, public transit—increases physical and psychological well-being, and even reduces mortality.

The main challenge to getting around without your own car remains the gap between home and public transit, and between a transit station and an office, factory, store, or friend’s place. Depending on where you live, that could make getting around difficult to impossible. In Franklin County, where Columbus is, it contributes to an infant mortality rate about 1.3 times the national average. According to city data, 7.1 infants died per 1,000 births between January and October 2018 in the county, and the rate is 2.3 times higher for black infants compared with other ethnic groups. The problem arises in part because mothers can’t make it to medical appointments—a first-mile/last-mile issue if there ever was one.

Cities and companies are slowly chipping away at the obstacles. In many urban areas, you can now rent a bike to begin or complete your journey. Some places, like New York City, subsidize them for lower-income residents. On-demand services like Uber and Lyft come when you call, and sometimes cost less than traditional taxis. And then, of course, there is the Great Scooter Invasion of 2018. Across the U.S., electricity-jolted Razor-style scooters have sprung up rapidly. After registering, you can pick them up and drop them off around town. But these modes usually require credit cards, bank accounts, smartphones, the ability to stand or pedal, and confidence riding in traffic. And you have to go it alone, without company or cargo. That leaves out much of the population much of the time. It amounts to discrimination, witting or not.

That’s something Sarah Kaufman, associate director of the Rudin Center for Transportation at New York University, has examined empirically. Her research found that almost 75 percent of New York’s Citi Bike riders are men. A 2017 review of 54 research studies suggested that women want more separation between their bikes and traffic. Moreover, women are often on daisy chains of errands and caretaking trips shuttling the kids or buying food; many studies show that even in relationships based on egalitarian ideals, women do more of the housework and childcare. So while scooters and bikes might be great for riding home from happy hour, they’re subpar with kids or cargo. “These new modes are hard for people who have responsibilities other than themselves,” Kaufman says.

Creating systems that work for everyone is the basis of an approach called universal design. In 1997, a group of engineers and designers at North Carolina State University established its seven basic principles: that facilities and services should be equitable; flexible; simple and intuitive; include easily perceived information; tolerate errors; require low physical effort; and provide size and space for all users. When transportation engineers implement accessible ways for more people to get around, they are embracing the spirit of that philosophy.

Some cities have begun to make accommodations. In Hangzhou, China, you can rent bicycles with kid seats. Fortaleza, Brazil, has child-size bikes. In 2018, Detroit offered ones with hand pedals or cargo carriers in a pilot program. But pointing to individual examples at all means that the distribution of last-mile wealth still has a long way to go.

The U.S. Department of Transportation is trying to help midsize cities with these disparities. In late 2015, it launched the Smart City Challenge, offering a competitive $40 million grant to municipalities that want to modernize and data-drive their transportation. Out of 78 applicants, Columbus won the money with a proposal that focused on Linden and its last-mile problems.

Two years on, much of what Smart Columbus has achieved, including in its work with One Linden, remains invisible from the outside: PowerPoint presentations, meetings, back-end app development, building permits. But over the next two years, the city—using federal money and $10 million from Vulcan, the late Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen’s investment and philanthropic arm—promises to build better, more-accessible transit hubs, user-friendly software to help everyone get around, and smart systems to collect data on how people use it all in order to make ongoing improvements.

Right now, the Smart Columbus staff is trying to get both buy-in and input from residents. Part of that happens inside a very visible building called the Smart Columbus Experience Center. Located downtown next to the winding Scioto River (about a 15-minute drive, an 18-minute walk plus a 17-minute bus ride, or a $14 Lyft trip from St. Stephen’s), it’s a sleek-looking black beast of a building, curved at one end. Inside, there’s a showroom with demo technology and electric cars that people can take out and test-drive. Behind this display space, the Smart Columbus team toils in an open office. A glassed-in conference room says “Connected” on its door. There are many bagels.

Brandi Braun, the city’s deputy innovation officer, sits in the Green Room, so called because of its vivid chlorophyll-colored wall. She explains that a lot of people are expected to move to the area by 2050—up to 600,000, based on data from a regional planning commission. Braun looks excited and afraid, like someone locking in the harness of a roller coaster. “We can’t build our way out of that,” she says. Car lanes, she means.

What to do about it? “It can be easy to immediately think of the tools—like the sensors, the data, the internet of things, the whiz-bang,” she says. And she does tick off those toys: ad hoc devices that can give older cars intelligent features such as collision-avoidance, or traffic signals networked to buses, and an operating system that collects anonymized data for researchers who will use it to keep the inevitable traffic flowing.

But more important to neighborhoods like Linden are Smart Mobility Hubs, every-mode gathering places where a person can grab a bike or a scooter or a bus or a ride-share or a pay-by-the-hour rental car. In the hub at St. Stephen’s, residents will be able to charge devices at USB ports while using free Wi-Fi. Or peruse job boards and community events at kiosks not unlike those interactive guides in fancy malls. They’ll be able to load cash onto transit cards—all without a bank account or data plan. An app will let users map out multi-leg trips using every service the city has to offer. So, if you want to ride a scooter to a bus and then walk to the pharmacy and ride-share to pick up your kid from school, the app will let you organize and pay for all of that, no credit card required. Six such hubs across Columbus will link Linden, specifically, to loci of education, jobs, and commerce.

It’s a start. But it’s not going to equalize areas of the city overnight—or ever, necessarily. Which is hard, when expectations are so high. “There is this perception that we’re going to have flying cars and light rail, and we won’t have traffic in four years,” Braun says. That’s not true, of course. But the goal is to help people who’ve been left behind in the past, whether Lindenites, the elderly, or those with cognitive disabilities.

In 36 other cities around the U.S. last fall, there was a multi-modal transit initiative that wasn’t aimed at disadvantaged populations and didn’t come courtesy of the government. It was offered by Lyft, the $15 billion ride-hailing company that also owns the nation’s largest bike-share operator, Motivate.

The program provided 1,900 participants across the United States and in Toronto with ride credits and passes for cars, scooters, and public transit…if the winners promised to not use their cars for a month. It didn’t change any infrastructure or shift policy; it was just a sweepstakes. But around 130,000 people signed up for the chance to solve their personal last-mile problems.

In a lot of ways, Denver’s Grace Orders was an ideal winner: She already had a Lyft account, so she wasn’t going to let her vouchers languish. And she was already a ride-share convert. Orders works at a health-tech startup downtown, in a co-working space a block from a 1.25-mile-long pedestrian mall, which has several nearby train stations and a free bus that stops every block. But she doesn’t live near a train stop, so every morning she took a Lyft Line—the kind you share with other riders—to avoid a nearly $30 parking fee if she drove to work.

During the free trial, she continued to do that—but instead of taking a Lyft home, she’d step aboard a scooter, ride it to a park near her house, then walk the rest of the way. She started batching her grocery and social trips so she didn’t have to call multiple cars. “It helped me really plan my day and think about what I was going to be doing with errands,” she says. “Also to be more efficient with trips, just more thoughtful about it.” It didn’t change her life much, and she’s probably not going to continue to spend $700 a month on Lyft services, but it did make her rethink her relationship to her vehicle—as in, maybe she shouldn’t own one at all. “Having a car is a cost that can be a little ridiculous,” she says. Maybe she could Lyft-scooter-walk all the time, and not pay for an automobile that often sits unused.

Read Next: No jetpacks. Zero flying cars. Where is the future we were promised?

Carmakers can see that mental calculation happening and are trying to respond in ways that will keep them relevant if someday a 1-to-1 ratio between people and cars is no longer the American Dream. GM’s Maven program links car owners and some lessees to drivers who want to rent their wheels short-term. Volvo’s M will give subscribers on-demand access like that of Zipcar. Ford bought big into an autonomous-vehicle software company.

But perhaps a failed pilot program by Ford tells the real story: In 2016, the company launched a scheme that let three to six customers share the same lease. After three months, no one—no one!—had signed up.

In general, ride-sharing schemes don’t actually prompt many people to give up their cars. Data from a 2016 UC Berkeley study, supported by the DOT and car2go, a pay-by-the-hour rental service, suggested that just 2 to 5 percent of car2go members stop owning autos because of ride-sharing options, while 7 to 10 percent chose not to buy one at all. On top of that, companies like Lyft might actually make city driving worse: A July 2018 report by Schaller Consulting found that of U.S. city dwellers using “transportation network company” (TNC) cars, 60 percent would have walked, biked, or stayed home if they hadn’t been able to summon a ride, and 40 percent would have sparked up their own vehicle or taken a cab. “TNCs are used instead of personal autos mainly when parking is expensive or difficult to find and to avoid drinking and driving,” the report states. For every mile a Grace Orders didn’t drive, a TNC gigger drove 2.8 miles—meaning that TNC systems actually increase vehicle use by about 180 percent.

Ride-shares, then, do not represent an unalloyed good, and on their own are unlikely to help people navigate cities in new ways. But they and the bike and scooter and whatever-comes-next companies they buy up are going to be part of the first-mile/last-mile ecosystem. And so some cities are helping to make them work for people with lower incomes, as last-mile options. St. Petersburg, Florida, subsidizes Uber rides to and from transit stations. Meanwhile, Detroit and Austin, Texas, have autonomous shuttles. Columbus recently introduced such a service downtown, and expects to add one in Linden by year’s end. But there’s more to a city than its most crowded corridor.

In an office park about 10 miles from downtown Columbus (a 25-minute drive, a $20 ride-share, or a 1.25-hour bus trip), you’ll find Arc Industries North, which helps connect people with cognitive and physical disabilities to jobs. Inside, Jose, 48 , whose last name is withheld to protect his privacy, shows off a film he made about the internships he held this past summer. From the other side of the table where he sits, occupational-therapy student Olivia Vega smiles as pictures flash on his computer screen: Jose handing out maps to zoo-goers, Jose mugging next to a tiger or working with the city parks department. The images transition to slides of white text on blue background, explaining the work he did. What goes unmentioned is the difficulty Jose faced getting to and from those jobs.

That’s where Vega came in. Her program at Ohio State University partnered with Smart Columbus to tailor a navigation app for residents with cognitive disabilities. Last summer, Jose and the other interns began testing the app, called WayFinder, and offered suggestions to its developers.

WayFinder—made by AbleLink Technologies and available nationally—is like a customized Google Maps. It displays routes that caretakers and travel trainers preprogram in, following GPS waypoints along the way and enhanced by text, vibrating alerts, audio cues (“You’re halfway to work” and “This looks like your stop, but don’t be fooled”), and pictures of landmarks.

Jose finds WayFinder far better than conventional map apps: “What GPS does is get people lost,” he says. With this app, “you say, ‘WayFinder, show me the best way to get to’ a specific place.” Like the mall. “And it takes you directly to the mall.”

Before WayFinder, Jose stayed close to home—inside a small radius that included a Panera Bread, Walmart, and Half Price Books—all places he could reach on foot. Now he can go wherever the bus goes. He found out he likes antique shops, Tim Horton’s, and the Ohio-themed food truck downtown.

“I’ll definitely keep using it,” he says of the app. “Especially here in the city, or if I want to take a tour of a national park. I really want to see the Smithsonian.”

City residents with physical disabilities, like Nicole Williams from Linden, still face challenges. If her son misses the bus, there’s no reliable way for her to help him get to school. She can’t ride a scooter or a bike, or drive a car. Paratransit rides aren’t dependable. Waiting for an accessible ride-share takes much longer than a regular one, an issue at the heart of several lawsuits against Uber.

In the end, transportation that works for people who face impediments of any kind—whether they have a disability or they just don’t have a car—benefits everyone. When you fix the first and last miles of any journey, for anybody, the rest of that journey, and the destination, are more accessible, no matter who you are or where you want to go.

Written By Sarah Scoles

#Technology

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