#I will actually go to the page though it’s awesome that it was monumental enough that there’s a page on it

[macadam]

History lesson on the truck not monkey thing: Honestly, just go to TfWiki, they've got an AMAZING and hilarious page on it!

(Short version: Someone left a review on a Beast Wars episode that was similar to the one you posted (Prime is a Truck and not a stupid monkey!) and well, a bunch of people found it funny, adopted the phrase and "Trukk not Munky" discourse became synonymous to the arguments between old G1 fans that were resistant to change and younger fans)

Love that it snowballed that way smekisjwjsn. Imagine getting trukk-not-munky’d for posting a rant online. We should bring it back.

[inventors-fair]

Chapter Two: This Week's Runners-up! ~

And our (very strong) runners-up this week are @batatafilosofal, @hanavesinauttija, and @spooky-bard!

@batatafilosofal — Alesha Defies Death (Alesha, Who Smiles at Death)

I think this card, despite being one of my favorites, suffers from being just a little too out there for the winner’s circle. Despite that, it’s a tight margin, and I genuinely wanted to make more space for winners this week. Alas, restrictions and creativity—restrictions like mana, which mean that this could be an RWW Jeskai splash in the Khans world, weirdly enough? What I really like is how you made that overlap okay with your mana necessities, and on top of that the way that you placed this card in the world is just plain cool. It’s the timeline’s story that was unbroken no matter where the clans went, a story that echoes.

That ultimate is a bit crazy, but no matter, I would’ve done two. The first ability, I believe, should be worded like Urza’s Saga: “Alesha Defies Death gains “Creatures you control have first strike.”” Bit wordy but you can adjust the text box sizes or whatever. Middle chapter is awesome still. So where does that lead us? I want to commend you first and foremost for really spinning a new idea onto an older story. Surprising and impressive all at once.

@hanavesinauttija — Isperia, Assassin’s Trophy (Assassin’s Trophy)

Not much to say that’s not already present, right? Phenomenal job making this card out to be the actual trophy part of the trophy; honestly the original spell seems slightly odder in its namesake compared to this card. It’s great to see it be a monument, almost. The reflection in the flavor text of that change is both welcome and natural. Vraska’s stony return is fascinating and speaks to the power of this moment’s presence. It lends an almost in medias res quality; we return to Ravnica again, and boom, there’s no Isperia. Here’s her trophy. What happened? We don’t get to see the assassination, and that’s all the more mysterious.

It’s also a great way to get rid of your lands, heh. Excess lands? Sac ‘em and weep. This card is great for getting death triggers as well as mitigating the damage from tokens. Your own tokens biting the dust is great, too! Drawing and gaining life is excessively powerful when done this repeatedly, but if you have a 10/10 trampler coming after you, it ain’t gonna do as much good. But it could be okay if you draw into something! Who are we kidding, though. Maybe you get burned out instead and nobody attacks, heck. That’s not gonna happen in limited, though, and this card is a weirdly interactive warning for all who dare want to come by and take what Vraska rightfully stoned up. I’d have to see this one in action, honestly. Perhaps the discouragement from attacking is a bit much.

@spooky-bard — Adversary’s Executor (Grand Crescendo)

Heck it. This card’s a personal favorite of mine this week. You got this guy that I’m totally not imagining as a handsome ogreish bouncer coming in and wrecking the party, and, uh... Lost my train of thought. This card’s still absolutely amazing, though, and I’m glad it’s a rare and a stunner of a bomb. It’s rare that you see a card with such a clear pre-combat vibe to it, a threat to end all threats. The citizens clear out, and now even the big boys are going to have to contend with the hustle of an ogre who’s been sold to the highest bidder, that being Mob Nixilis.

Having the treasures be tapped is probably the best option, so good call there, whoof. I wouldn’t call it a boardwipe but it makes the 4/3s that you’ve been amassing all the crazier. Menacing into some chump-blockers feels awesome for sure, and then the combination of Riveteer Treasures and Maestro kick-you-while-you’re-down-ing just ends up being awesome, too. I think this is a great other-side-of-the-page card for sure. It has nothing to do with the mechanics of its predecessor and everything to do with its presence. Admittedly, killing a bunch of 1/1s is relevant, but I mean in terms of the cards’ goals, that those are antithetical. One of them wants to be the life of the party, and this card? This card wants to clear the room, because it’s bashing and looting time. The show’s hardly over, but it’s sure as heck stopped.

Commentary to follow. Eventually. It's a long day today. —@abelzumi

[collecting-stories]

Dear Diary - JJ Maybank

Request: Hi!! I have a fluffy fic request if u dont mind - JJ and y/n are best friends, but y/n has a huge crush on him and she writes abt it in her diary a lot. One day JJ accidentally sees a page where she is rambling abt him, and he's very happy cos he loves her too, but never told her anything as he was afraid of a possible rejection. So he starts giving her massive hints re: his feelings and then they eventually confess their love to each other. ❤

Request: can I have one with JJ please? Where the reader is in love with JJ but thinking he is in love with Kie or someone else. JJ loves the reader but is to scared to telling her. Can you make this with angst and fluffy? Thank you ❤️❤️

Outer Banks Masterlist

✰ ✰ ✰ ✰

The first and only time that you had worked up the courage to tell JJ that you had a crush on him you were fourteen. Just finished ninth grade, a little shier than the rest of your friends, excited about the summer, and harboring a monumental crush on your best friend. You had hoped, stupidly, that he liked you back and had eagerly pulled him aside during a party to tell him that you liked him.  

“Well?” And when he didn’t answer you back after a minute, just looking back over his shoulder to your friend group, to Kiara, you started to get nervous. This had been all wrong.  

“I just, don’t think I like you like that.” JJ replied, looking back at you, eyes apologetic, “Sorry, I think we’re awesome friends.”

“Yeah, friends.” You nodded, “that’s fine.”

“I just-” he glanced at Kiara again, laughing at something John B was saying.  

“It’s okay, seriously, it’s good.” You promised, knowing full well that you were lying to him. It wasn’t okay and you were slowly realizing that the ache you felt from not telling him was not worse than the absolute heartbreak you felt now, standing there knowing that he didn’t like you. That you were just a friend and that’s all you ever would be.  

Crushes are peculiar things though and you no matter how hard you tried you couldn’t shake yours. JJ was impossible to avoid, even if you had truly wanted to, but you did what you could to lessen the amount of time you spent with him. That first summer after you told him it was like he was everywhere you went. Like the universe was constantly reminding you of your failed attempt at love, putting JJ in your way no matter what you were doing. At a party, surfing with Pope, at your house, at the Chateau, it was like he was always around. The only option you saw for yourself was to distance yourself from the pogues too.  

And you did, because it worked. Staying away helped ease the heartache. Polite hellos and the occasional fishing trip with Pope or John B, you kept your distance from JJ and Kiara by proxy, terrified that you would hear something you didn’t want to if you stayed close. But even after three years and purposeful distance your crush didn’t lessen.  

The only thing that seemed to ease your mind was journaling. You’d been keeping journals for as long as you could remember, documenting moments in time that you thought you wanted to look back on someday. Good moments like parties and every time JJ said a single syllable to you and bad times, like how you knew he didn’t like you and you were positive he liked Kiara.  

The bell above the door of the smoothie shop you worked at rang as JJ and Pope walked in and you pushed your journal away from you before they could get a glimpse. “Hey stranger,” JJ grinned as he walked over, leaning against the counter.  

You could feel your heart beat pick up at the close proximity and caught the knowing smile that Pope gave you over JJ’s shoulder. “Hey,”

“I feel like I never see you.” He said, eyeing the board, “can I get a blue mango smoothie?”

“We just saw each other on Friday.” You offered, moving away from him to make the smoothie he asked for. He’d talk his way out of paying for it until either you or Pope fronted the bill, something you were used to when he did come around.  

Every couple of weeks, for a least the last year and half when JJ realized that you and he seemed to be drifting apart, he started dropping in at your work, looking for you. Sometimes you saw him before he saw you, ducking into the back and getting a co-worker to wait on him. But sometimes, like today, it was slow and you were the only one in the shop.  

“Barely, I offered you a beer and then I didn’t see you for the rest of the night.”

“Oh, I guess,” you shrugged, “I was talking to some guy from school.”

“What about?”

“Uh...none of your business.” You replied.

Pope laughed at your back and forth, grabbing a water bottle from the refrigerator by the counter, “I hate to ditch but I promised my dad I’d run groceries for him. Don’t let him talk you into paying for that!”  

“I pay for my drinks!” JJ called as Pope backed out of the store, waving at you. “I pay for my drinks.” He repeated, turning back to face you.  

“Okay.”

“So I was thinking,” he started to say, cut off by the whirring of the blender. You glanced back and frowned at him, shrugging about the noise before turning back. You were hoping he would leave once he’d gotten the smoothie, drawn away by something else. When the blender cut off finally and you took it out of it’s holder JJ continued on, seemingly unphased, “I was thinking you haven’t been out on the boat with us in a while.”

“I guess not,” you had steered clear of any group activities since you told him you liked him. An incredible feat considering you were turning eighteen soon and you’d been fourteen then. “I work a lot though.”

“Take a day off.”  

“I’ll try.” You offered, passing the smoothie across the counter to him. JJ reached out for it, hand brushing yours and smiling like he knew what his smile did to you. “Maybe saturday...if you guys are going.” It didn’t take much to wear you down.

“Saturday’s good.” He nodded, taking a sip, “hey-”

“You forgot your wallet.”

“No, I had my wallet...but it was in Pope’s pocket. Cause we switched shorts earlier, cause his got a stain on them and he didn’t want to wear those to wor-”

“Are you trying to sell me a story right now?” You laughed, “we may not hang out all the time J but I’ve known you long enough, I can tell you’re lying.”

“I’ve fooled you once or twice.”

“Name a time.” You laughed, punching in the employee discount for the smoothie before swiping your own credit card.  

JJ bit down on his bottom lip, eyes narrowing slightly as he looked at you, more serious than the playful nature of the conversation called for, as if he was thinking about something he’d said before. Finally, he shook his head, smiling and tapping the counter, “I’ll see you on Saturday.”

You were right, JJ knew he couldn’t lie to you but that didn’t mean that he had never tried. He had lied to you once, in the seventeen years that the two of you were friends, and actually pulled it off. And he’d regretted it ever since.  

-

As promised, because you lacked the ability to resist JJ, you showed up to the Chateau in the morning on Saturday. He was already out on the jetty, throwing fishing gear in the Pogue, just in case.  

“Does that cooler have person food or fish food?” You called, walking up to him. You handed you backpack to him and let him help you on board. When you stepped down he didn’t move away, crowding your space and looking down at you. You looked away quickly, though you didn’t miss the way he licked his lips as you skirted passed him.  

“Neither,” JJ finally said, popping the top up so you could look inside, “it’s all beer baby.”

You laughed, shaking your head at him. “I shouldn’t be surprised I guess. Where’s everyone else?”

“Pope and John B have work and Kie said she’s busy...sorry.”

“That’s okay, we can hang out.” You replied, shrugging, trying to calm your nerves as you stepped over some reels to sit down.  

“Exactly.” JJ agreed.  

In complete honesty he had texted John B after seeing you in the smoothie shop, asking if he could take the boat out on Saturday and, if asked, John B could pretend that he was super busy. He hadn’t really put anymore planning into this then that, despite Kiara telling him that he should. The last thing JJ wanted was to make you feel cornered or worse, to have you find out that he knew that you still liked him.  

It was an accident, really. A rather happy one, on his end. He’d been at a party with Pope when he noticed your backpack abandoned by the pool. He recognized the pins on the front and went over to grab it, finding a notebook beneath it that had your name on the inside with homemade stickers all over the front.  

“What are you doing?” Pope had whispered, leaning passed his best friend to see what JJ was looking at. Pope had seen you with your journal enough times to know exactly what it was. “Put that back.”

“Why? It’s just a notebook...” he replied, voice drifting off as he flipped through the pages, landing on one from the day before. In the dim light of the torches that lined the pool area JJ had caught sight of his name in your handwriting and stopped to read the page. He knew, technically, that it wasn’t a good idea for him to be reading something that you clearly didn’t intend to ever have anyone read, an invasion of privacy, he was sure Kiara would say.

“JJ!” Pope reached around him and grabbed the notebook out of his hand, slapping it closed and shoving it back into your backpack, “dude, don’t read that.”

“Sorry, sorry.” He shook his head, not saying out loud what he had just read. He’d seen it though, that you still liked him. Despite ninth grade and the one great lie that JJ told you. Despite the distance you had manufactured between you and him. You still liked him and JJ was determined to let you know that he liked you too.

He knew that he couldn’t just come out and say it though. How would that go? Him confessing that he read your diary and knew you liked him and guess what it was the incentive he needed because he liked you too but he was so worried about fucking things up that he just insisted on being friends. No, that would never work. You’d be pissed that he had read something he was never meant to. So he let Pope return your backpack and he started a long game of hints. Blatant hints that he was interested, or so he thought but you didn’t seem to realize. You were oblivious that every time he stopped in the smoothie shop or sought you out at parties or invited you to hang out that he was trying to tell you that he liked you.  

So he tried the more direct approach. An afternoon on the boat, just the two of you. But that wasn’t working either cause he was listening to you talk about some dumb podcast series your dad was obsessed with and how he would play it top volume throughout the house.  

“And the guy said-”

“Oh my god!” JJ groaned. He’d tried sitting close and touching your back and telling you that you looked nice and holding your hand when you stepped on board and you were with him, alone, on the boat, for gods sake.  

“What’s the matter?” You asked, a little startled at his sudden outburst.

“You. This.” JJ practically shouted, standing up on the boat suddenly and making it sway a little. “Not...what I mean is...I know I shouldn’t have but I read your diary thing and I know you still like me and I like you.”

“You read my diary? When?”

“At that party like last month,” He said, “did you hear me? I said I like you?”

“I heard you say you read my diary! JJ, that’s my personal thoughts and feelings, I can’t believe you read that!” You were comprehending one part of the conversation at a time and your brain had settled on this. That he had invaded your privacy.

“I didn’t mean too! I opened it and saw my name!”

“You should’ve closed it!”

“Well I didn’t!” He raised his voice to match yours, both of you almost shouting at each other on a boat in the middle of the marsh.

“Oh and what? You read it and thought ‘how pathetic she still likes me’ and now you’ve done all this?”

“Are you kidding me? You think I can even plan something that far in advance? I tried like 12 other ways of telling you I like you! And what are you talking about...I’m telling you I like you!”

“I don’t believe you.”

“Well tough shit cause I do. And I know you like me too cause I read it!” He insisted.  

You crossed your arms and looked away from him for a moment, a deep set frown as you thought about what he said. He liked you. “Like...like me, like me?” You asked slowly, looking back at him.

“Yeah.” He replied, shoulders drooping as he relaxed.  

“Well I like you too.”

“I know.”

“JJ!” You groaned.  

He bit his lower lip as he sat down next to you on the bench, facing you. “So...we both like each other?” He said, grinning.  

“It would appear so.” You couldn’t stop yourself from smiling as you twisted to face him. “This doesn’t mean free smoothies though, you owe me like...20 bucks, at least.”

“We’re gonna need to negotiate these terms.”  

-

taglist: @maplelattes22 @poguesrforlife  @freckled-and-daydreaming @chasefreakinstokes@millie-753 @fangirlwithme @alex12948 @katherine097 @tangledinsparkles @carbonated-beverage @mariofgreengables @damonsalvawhore27@dopedoodes @dolanfivsosxox @belledutchess @poguelifeeee @faded-blue @parkerpetertingle @thebookwormlife @summer-clouds-and-long-days @jellyfishbeansontoast @minigranger @hoewkeye @love-someone-special @tiredfeels @strangerthanfanfiction713 @the-only-nana @tomzfrog @mozz-are-lla@vindictive-hearts @poguestyleskye @ssprayberrythings @jenahbell@beautyandthebleh @gothackedalready @teenwaywardasgardian @sarahcxmeron @haha-fuck-you-thot @stillbelieve398-5 @rewindlr @queenniccimicci @kissessforharryyy @thedarkqueenofavalon @alytavzla @bqmblebee @linniep @nerdypartytrashpsychic @xxchxrryxx @spencer-reid-is-a-cutie @mirjanak@danielladreaming @obx-saltlife @youngestxhearts @spnobsessedmemes @wowitswondergurl @celestialmaybank @mybnkjj @pineappleandcherries @mysterious-adventurer @justawilddreamerchild @rhyetaylor62 @calm-rejects @balletandyuzu @oh-annaa@aiifandomsunite @x-lulu @ceruleanjj  @wicked-laugh @obxwriterfan @allie-mcginn@pcterparxer @literarycharleton @khiaraaa-in-spacee@crushe-s @teamnick @daydreamlilys @collectiveuniverses @activist-af @mdgrdians@buckys-sunflower @vindictive-hearts@copper-boom @talksoprettyjjx @5am-cigarette @smiithys @dontjinx-it @outerbanksbro @mysticsthinking @heavenlymama  @rudy-pankow-needs-an-oscar @babymatilda@raekenliar @jolomez @timotaychalabae  @summerkaulitz @lemur46 @haute-shawn 

[residentraccoon]

Fave 2021 national finals songs

Since I don't have anything better to do with my life at the moment I decided to ramble about stuff. Okay, here are my thoughts about my fave songs from the national finals of 2021, in no particular order!

Norsk Melodi Grand Prix

• Monument was my absolute favourite and I still can't believe to this day that it didn't win :( Keiino are fking fantastic and they killed the stage (though I kind of preffered the black outfits from the 1st heat over the final ones, they suited the song's athmosphere better). I cried real tears when I saw they lost, for real. Heartbreak 💔

• Hero was such a nice throwback to 80s music style, the staging was also really neat. Would love to see Raylee come back next year in the selection, she has a cool stage presence

• Okay but Vi er Norge was a banger and I'm still listening to this one, a real shame it didn't even qualify nor win the 2nd chance round. As you already knew before, I have a weakness for violins because yes. The performance was so energetic and fun, should have def qualified. Underrated.

• Ut av mørket/Fallen angel was really good too. I wanted it to be kept in norwegian for esc but oh well. The stage show was just a tad messy but memorable.

• I can't escape was something I'd hear from Roxen ngl, the style matches her perfectly, even her cursive singing, everything. Either way I loved this one too, this song feels like a hug.

• Pages was so magical, I'm glad we got another joik song, sadly this didn't qualify 😥

• World on fire was kind of generic but puts me in a good mood everytime I listen to it, it's really catchy.

• Let loose is so g r o o v y and cool, it was my fave from the 1st heat when I got to listen to the songs. I'm lowkey happy it advanced to the final instead of Elevate, I'm sorry but I saw everyone praising that one in youtube comments, I never saw the hype, it was too regular and plain for me.

• Own yourself was so cute and funky, loved how it showed her ethnic background a lil with that disco sound.

• Witch woods...ehhh...While it's funny and unique, I think it's suited more for a witch Disney musical than Eurovision. But I like it anyway.

• Faith Bloody Faith oh yes I needed a rock song in this nf. Relieved it won the 2nd chance. Oh and I just realized, the superfinalists in mgp were literally the ones from the 1st heat. Crazy huh?

• Nordlyset is something I'd listen to near a fireplace with a cup of hot chocolate in hands watching the snow fall in my cottage located in a forest far away from civillization. So soothing and beautiful <3

• Eyes wide open was epic just like his 2020 viking schlager song (i prefer his 2020 song over this one but that's another story)

Melodifestivalen

• Little tot was amazing but def not as good as Bulletproof. It's still catchy asf and one of my favs from this selection.

• Dandi Dansa aka a banger, again another catchy song.

• Every minute sounds like a summer hit, it's awesome. It's also the spawner of all those haha eric on a kitchen tile memes I've seen around during that time.

• The world and especially Sweden wasn't ready for the masterpiece called Rena Rama Ding Dong. They should tone down their preference for safe pop songs and choose meme worthy songs like this one in the future tbh. They didn't even qualify, Sweden = coward.

• One Touch is a fun club track, I can see this as a summer hit as well. But her stage show...go girl give us nothing

• In the middle, once again The Mamas delivered.

• And finally Voices, which its nf staging was superior to the esc one. We are so sorry Tusse 😔

Festivali i Këngës

• Zjarri Im a total banger, it wasn't even in the top 5 ffs Era Rusi queen.

• Njësoj has such a nice party vibe, should have qualified.

• Haven't paid any attention to Karma until it won, then I said hey this isn't so bad, it's traditional and ethnic, I can actually see Albania in the final with this.

Dora

• Rijeka was the only one I thought it will win by a landslide and I was surprised it didn't. The staging was a bit too over the top, though

• Tick Tock grew on me after it won and quickly became one of my faves of this year's esc. I'm still sad it didn't qualify 😔

• She's like a dream is super uplifting and also sounds like an 80s song.

• Colors is something I heard a million times before but for some reason I'm jamming to this? Also I heard she's blind, is it true?

Eesti Laul

• Took me a while to have a fave from this nf but after some listens Magus Melanhoolia stole my heart 🧡 it's so different from the others and the staging looked so proffesional.

• Lost in a dance had me d a n c i n, I noticed we had a lot of 80s throwbacks in this nf season, this included. The live was so dissapointing though 😔

• Not so keen on 6 at first but now I absolutely love it, she has such a nice style and the song's athmosphere is so magical.

• Time was amazing, surprised it came 2nd!

• I actually liked The lucky one lmao, I found it much better than his previous entry.

• Heaven's not that far tonight was the party 80s bop we didn't knew we needed

Dansk Melodi Grand Prix

• Probably my biggest letdown of this nf season but I actually managed to like Står lige her, digging the electro 80s (again) sound

• I also liked Øve os på hinanden as well, this one really feels like a legit 80s track rather than a throwback.

• Silver Bullet was interesting as well, it was the early frontrunner when the songs first came out from what I remember.

Uuden Musiikin Kilpailu

• I love you is so wacky and catchy, and in finnish! I'd hear this as a soundtrack in an old video game.

• Dark Side was the definite winner ever since I heard it, and they even got a top 10 finish for Finland for the first time in years! Couldn't be more proud 😭

• Hurt was also one of my favs, Aksel needs to come back to esc, maybe in 2022 methinks 🤔

• Wait what is Laura Põldvere, an estonian singer tm doing in finnish nf? While I liked Play, I knew it wasn't strong enough to win, and she even came last. Do you get any flashbacks from another estonian entry with the same name that came last? 👀

C'est vous qui decidez

• Voila was the clear winner and that's about it, she deserved the win, it's just too beautiful for this world 😭

• Alleluia was an interesting sound of afrobeat, too bad their chances were killed because of messy staging :(

• Amour fou was so catchy and I loved the horse head thing lmao

Pabandom iš naujo

• Discoteque all day any day. The Roop world domination 💛

• Where'd you wanna go is so calming. I listen to this when I'm stressed and it works wonders, this was really beautiful.

• Open is so unique and soothing, a total contrast from her 2014 entry.

• Never fall for you again is a total earworm, even now as I'm writing this...even if I haven't listened to it since February.

Sanremo

• Zitti e Buoni was my instant fave, it simply stood out from the others by a lot.

Festival da Canção

• Por um triz is a beautiful ballad, was my fave.

• Saudade was the early favourite, reminds me of Telemoveis with its weird but artsy style.

Israel NF

• ...I really only liked Set me free tbh.

• La la love had a good potential but I can't not cringe at the corona reference like...ugh. Such a fun party song killed by one lyric, such a shame.

Russia's NF

• Just Russian Woman was the only one who deserved to win.

Spain's NF

• Yeah, they were both good but I liked Voy a Quedarme more.

[yggdrasil-mith0s]

Tales of Symphonia is one of the most common answers I get when I ask "What was your first Tales of game?"

It's usually followed by "I didn't finish it my first time" or "I finished it but kind of forgot about it and didn't realize how good the story was."

Most of those people fell in love with the Tales of series through a different game than Symphonia even though Symphonia was their first Tales of game.

While this is okay, a lot of them also state that Symphonia is one of their favorite games in the series.

I have a theory on this and I want to lay it out. So... I will. Here is why I think Symphonia was a lot of people's first Tales game but wasnt the one that made them love the series.

First off, age. Destiny and Eternia (Tales of Destiny 2 in NA) were the only western releases before Symphonia. Destiny was released in 1998 and a lot of people weren't quite old enough to fully play through it all grasp the seriousness of the game and story. Those that were old enough probably weren't too excited about the gameplay and battle system which was mostly turn base at that time. It seemed weird, a little stiff, and a bit clunky at times. A lot of people didnt like that and the challenge it brought. It was also the first in the series (second ever) to reach the west. It had no fanbase and the internet wasn't exactly there like it is now.

Tales of Destiny II came out Seltember 10, 2001. That's right. One day before the Twin Towers fell, Tales of Destiny II was released.

Okay, I have to stop. It's Eternia. I hate they called it Destiny 2 in the west. Lol. I am going to say Eternia from now on.

Tales of Eternia had almost no good advertising for it's western release and the status of 9/11 brought about some weird thing where people only remember the towers and not much else going on. That being said, Eternia wasn't all that great and there were other things to be hyped about.

Namco thought that naming it Tales of Destiny II would be enough advertising since Destiny did pretty good in the west. The only problem is... they literally didn't do almost any advertising. They kind of just threw it out there to the west with minimal effort. A big mistake in my opinion but it sold enough to try the western market at least one more time.

Now it's on to Symphonia' release!!!

So here is the main part to my theory on why a lot of people begin with Symphonia but never finish or it takes a different game to love the series. This whole theory is more based on people 32ish and under.

It's because the beginning of Symphonianis bright, vibrant, and childish. I think people started it expecting some awesome adventure with a darker undertone than what we got in the first hour or the game. It takes a long time to get to the boss in the fire temple. There is one fight with humans. After that you fight bunnies and birds. Yep. You're supposed to be on a big adventure to regenerate the world and you fight bunnies, birds, and snakes at the start lol.

Also, your protagonists are children with two adults. Raine does make the situation better with her history enthusiasm but Kratos is kind of boring tbh. The cast is kind of dull at the start. They are immature (naturally) and fight bunnies lol. I digress when it comes to their decisions with the start to an otherwise epic, monumental game.

Symphonia was released in North Amarica July 13, 2004. Also, Final Fantasy was dominating the JRPG market and FFX was released a year prior and FF X came out just before 2002 and that's is arguably one of it's best games, mainly among FF/JRPG newbies. FF X-2 entering NA during December the same year (2004). Final Fantasy XI was kind of a disaster but it was there as well. Crystal Chronicles was a Final Fantasy game released in 2004 that was a multiplayer and kind of a 3D battle system (in a weird, "step outside the circle and you will die" kind of way).

There are a few other games that took attention away from Symphonia such as Drakengard. Drakengard got a bunch of advertisements that year. It was everywhere. I bought it abs remember thinking how amazing the gameplay and graphics were. It was one of those "test the limits, build an amazing story, and show off current gen capabilities" games.

Drakengard took up time. People had both saved to the memory card. A lot of people played both and sometimes never finished Symphonia or half assed paid attention.

Star Ocean: Till the End of Time was released. Star Ocean was a hit in the west and everyone waited forever for the new Star Ocean (TEOT). It finally came that year and Square Enix knew the west had been waiting forever for a new Star Ocean. Square Enix had the big name in the JRPG and did a beautiful advertising job.

All that being said, Tales of Symphonia is finally released. The gameplay and story were amazing. Word of mouth helped out. Couch co op existed and the 2 player option was actually fun. The second player felt way more involved and could move around during battle and at the time, a co op JRPG of that caliber didnt really exist. It drew some people in. Siblings could play an RPG together and it was actually a really good game with an amazing story and combat system.

Namco also advertised Symphonia and learned their lesson that name alone wasn't enough in the west. They had full page ads in Nintendo Power. They advertised it in EB Games (Electronic Boutique, AKA, Gamestop before Gamestop bought them). They actually advertised it very well. I think it was because Star Ocean advertisements were out there and that was their big competitor for that release (they had to beat that before they could step to FF even though SO and FF are both owned by SE).

So... I think the flurry of all these things created one of the best games of all times. However, all the other games surrounding it and what led up to it created a storm.

A storm that had almost everyone play it at some point.... but not realize it's a series. Having played it they eventually come across another Tales game and buy it or play it. Quickly they think "oh... that's a series? I played that. Oh... this looks good actually."

Thus.... we have a reason why so many people have ToS as their first Tales game, admit it's one of the best in the series, but then tell you it's not why they love the series lol.

Thanks for reading my essay. There is more but tbh I spent way too much time as it is and wrote out way too much. I highly doubt anyone is even going to read all this or be interested but here it is. My stupid, useless theory.

[ty-talks-comics]

Best of DC: Week of January 29th, 2020

Best of this Week: Justice League #39 - Scott Snyder, Jorge Jimenez, Daniel Sampere, Juan Albarran, Alejandro Sanchez, Hi-Fi and Tom Napolitano

Talk about a Cosmic Sandbag.

Shayne, the alt-future son of Hawkgirl and Martian Manhunter, gave his life and essence so that his father could return from the darkness. This book opens with the amazing return of Martian Manhunter as drawn by Jorge Jimenez with colors by Alejandro Sanchez. Manhuner hasn’t been seen since Justice League #28 when Lex Luthor absorbed him to become Apex Lex, so this return had a monumental feel, especially as the rest of the League looks upon him with awe. Jimenez makes this moment feel powerful as J’onn stands tall against Perpetua with his reds glowing vibrantly thanks to Sanchez.

As soon as Perpetua takes notice that J’onn has returned, she lunges after him. This is likely due to the fact that Martian Manhunter is legitimately one of the most powerful telepaths in the DC Universe and in the subsequent pages, he makes the choice to connect the minds of the people of Earth with his and the rest of the Justice League to try and swing them all toward the side of hope. 

This results in a wonderful double page spread where Jimenez poses Martian Manhunter like he’s about to use the Solar Flare from Dragon Ball and speaks to the people. Jimenez and Sanchez show the people on the streets and various members of the League looking towards the sky with smiles on their faces. Snyder scripts this amazingly by having Manhunter give the rousing speech of goodness and rising above that Superman would normally give. What makes this even better is that Manhunter, who usually suffers disillusionment from living amongst humanity, does an amazing job.

J’onn’s speech manages to rouse enough people that the Totality, the macguffin that could imprison Perpetua once again, begins to glow and surge with energy. Perpetua, starting to feel the fear of loss orders an onslaught of the League. Jimenez emphasizes the anger on her face, the fear on Lex’s and the intensity of the battle happening on the steps of the Hall of Justice.. Sanchez makes sure that the colors almost surge off of the page with flashes of red and blue.

As the hope of the people of Earth continues to grow, the tendrils of the Totality wrap themselves around Perpetua’s spindly body as she screams in anger and hatred. Tom Napolitano places Martian Manhunter’s thought balloons perfectly throughout these pages as Snyder ends J’onn’s speech with the people of Earth joining together in the feeling of heroism and hope. The Sigil of Doom begins to fade away and Perpetua has failed…

And then “KRA-KOOM,” Napolitano’s powerful lettering cracks across the page as Jimenez draws the Sigil of Doom firmly seared into the sky and made even stronger by the overbearing hum of Sanchez’s vibrant green. This is the kinda trope that Scott Snyder does well, but also kinda overuses in his grand scale stories: The Cosmic Sandbag. The heroes were on the very cusp of victory and it seemed like the people of Earth were actually believing in the hope that Martian Manhunter was talking about, but instead they gave into their fear, hatred and base instincts just like Perpetua thought they would.

Snyder utilizes this bait and switch technique to show just how influential Perpetua’s evil is and how at the end of the day it will take more than just a flowery speech to turn people, especially since they watched the Justice Leagues battle the forces of Doom and lose massively. Snyder used this in Dark Nights: Metal anytime Batman thought he had a chance in defeating The Batman Who Laughs and Barbatos. They would just pull nonsense out of nowhere and further plunge our hero into despair because he couldn’t anticipate the villain’s very next five moves. I love it and hate it because it helps to show hopelessness, which I am a fan of, but Snyder does do it a bit too much for my tastes (See The Batman Who Laughs mini-series).

The next thing we see is a Rita Repulsa-esque cackle from Perpetua and honesty this might be my favorite of Jimenez’s panels because he just makes Perpetua look so petty. She’s basically saying, “Bitch, you really thought!” before explaining how everything was by her design. She wanted to give humanity a choice to hear both sides and they still chose Doom. Manhunter tried to hide his mind from her, but he failed to realize that as the creator of the Multiverse, he could never think fast enough to avoid her. Perpetua is far more powerful than these heroes could ever have anticipated.

Jimenez and Sanchez absolutely kill the next few panels as Perpetua casts away the shackles of the Totality, breaking out of the tendrils as her black cape...hair(?) causes a gust of wind to shake our heroes while the background shows varying tones of blue, almost a mockery of their ideals of hope. She stands over the Earth while the void of space appears vast around it and with a flick of her wrist and a flash of yellow she wipes the Justice League from existence. Doom truly has won and she vows to create a new story from the ashes of Hope.

Though, the universe itself has other ideas. In the black of Space, green matter begins to coalesce into a form, then that form takes shape and appears to be Martian Manhunter. Daniel Sampere, Hi-Fi and Juan Albarran take over the art from this point and pose Manhunter as if he’s in a womb, reborn after being supposedly killed by Perpetua and saved by something else. I love that Snyder places such importance on Manhunter and his humanity. Despite the insurmountable odds that the League has faced up to this point, he still does everything in his power to call back to the Earth, to try to win the people back.

He is unable to, however, and it seems as though he’s not the only one unable to use his powers as the rest of the League shows up behind him. In an awesome splash page Sampere and Albarran show everyone as wearing black bodysuits, potentially symbolizing a loss of identity or power as none of them seem to be able to use their abilities. Hawkgirl seems to be the only exception because her wings are a part of her. Superman tries to rationalize that as long as they’re not actually dead then there’s still hope, but then he fails to fly, landing back on the moon.

Another awesome thing about this issue is how it calls back to the very first issue of the run with the Quintessence showing up. The Quinessence are a group consisting of Highfather, The Phantom Stranger, Hera, The Wizard Shazam, The Spectre and Ganthet of the Guardians of Oa. They are some of the most powerful beings in the universe and even they knew that this was how things were meant to be. They saw the same vision of Doom that Martian Manunter did and saved the League in the nick of time to prepare them for what’s to come, not just a war of Justice or Doom, but for Everything.

With everything that’s been hinted at as far as the next incoming Crisis, this is a really good inciting incident as far as things go. Perpetua wins and sets up the next true war for the Multiverse. Given there’s still things to sort out with The Batman Who Laughs, the conflict is set and the Justice League has to give their all to ensure that they can protect the Universe. Superboy Prime is coming back in the pages of Shazam, Wally West has found his kids and Dark Multiverse world of his own creation and this issue even references Doomsday Clock and kinda cements its place as an alt-Universe story, but acknowledges the importance of it.

Scott Snyder has set the stage for everything to come and thanks to his fantastic art team telling the story, he drums up the feeling that there’s still a way to see Geoff Johns original vision for Rebirth through. The hope is there, the League just needs to fight for it. I can’t wait to see what Robert Venditti can do as the writer for Justice League given the amazing work he’s done with Green Lantern and The Freedom Fighters series. Doug Mahnke also taking over as main artist is also a welcome change as he’s one of my favorite of DC’s regulars as well.

This was a high recommend and I can’t wait for the future!

[caelesjjk]

Push (Part 2)

Welcome to Part 2 babes!! Feedback is the best, so leave me some okay? I hope you guys like it!!

It was rainy and cold outside now. The leaves on the trees were starting to change colors and fall from the branches above. I loved walking to work on days like this. I loved taking in the smell of the rain and the sound of the leaves crunching underneath my boots. I loved the way the raindrops slid down my see-through umbrella. And best of all, my favorite coffee shop was getting in all their new flavors for the season and I couldn’t wait to grab a cup before I got to the school.

The little bell above the sky blue door rang quietly as I opened it, shaking out my umbrella and smiling at the sweet older couple behind the tall wooden counter. Mr. and Mrs. Hatfield owned the little coffee shop and were always kind enough to remember my order and my name.

“Good morning, Isabella.” Mr. Hatfield said as I approached the counter.

“When will I convince you to call me Izzy, Mr. Hatfield?” I asked him.

“Isabella is too beautiful a name to shorten it.” He grabs a mug and waits for me to tell him what I’d like to drink, while Mrs. Hatfield is already handing me a blueberry scone.

“I’ll do the chai tea latte today.” I smile and start to hand Mrs. Hatfield my money when someone from behind me pushes my hand away to hand her some money.

“Her order is on me.” The familiar voice says a little too closely to my ear. I turn towards him.

“Calum?” I say, eyebrows scrunched together in confusion.

“Morning, Bambi.” He smirks, grabbing a different coffee from the counter and walking towards a table in the corner of the small shop. I’m left there just staring after him.

“Here you are, dear.” Mr. Hatfield hands me my drink but I’m still not sure what to do with myself. What was he doing here? Why this coffee shop of all the coffee shops he could walk into?

“Well…go on dear.” Mrs. Hatfield motions with her head towards Calum’s table.

“What? I mean no…he’s just my boyfriend’s roommate.” I push some hair behind my ear and pick up the small plate from the counter containing my scone.

“That’s not what your eyes said when you saw him.” She motions with her head again, coaxing me to sit with him.

“I just…I um. Okay.” I stumble over my words and slowly make my way over to the table Calum is sitting at. His feet are propped up on the chair in front of him and he’s reading yet another book. This time, it’s the Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern. One of my all-time favorites.

“Need something, Bambi?” He doesn’t look up from the book, but I can see the small crinkles next to his eyes forming, meaning he is most definitely smirking behind that book.

“Can I…” I look back at Mrs. Hatfield and she widens her eyes expectantly “Can I sit with you?” I finally get out.

He doesn’t say anything, he only slides his feet off the chair across from him and turns the page of his book. I bite my lip, quickly sitting down on the chair and settling into it. I have no idea what to say to him, or how to say it. Calum smells slightly of cigarette smoke and delightfully woodsy cologne. It was much nicer than I wanted to admit. His white tshirt was tucked into a pair of holey blue jeans and covered by a maroon colored zip up hoodie. The curls on his head looked freshly showered and sticking up in a few places, and he was sort of…beautiful.

“You’re staring again, Bambi.” Calum lowers his book and meets my eyes.

“No I’m not.” I try to take a sip of my drink and almost drop it back down onto the table. He smiles wider and shakes his head a few times.

“What would Michael think if he knew his sweet little girlfriend was ogling his best friend?” He wiggles his eyebrows.

“I’m just sitting here, Calum. I’m sorry you’re such an egomaniac that even something that simple is apparently all about you.” I stand up from the chair and start gathering my things back together. What a waste of time this was.

“Sit down, Bambi.” He says, laying down the book he was reading on the table.

“No. I have to get to work.” I grab my bag and umbrella and take a few steps towards the door.

“Isabella. Please sit down.” Calum is standing up at the table now, he doesn’t make a move towards me though.

“And what will we talk about, Calum?” I turn back around and slump my shoulders.

“First of all, you can tell me how you manage to survive the elements with that ridiculous umbrella.” His tattooed arms are crossed over his chest as he motions towards the chair for me to sit down. I sigh loudly and walk back to the chair.

“I’ll sit back down on one condition.” I say.

“What’s that?” He slides back into his chair.

“You don’t make fun of my favorite umbrella, ever again.” I smile at him as I sit back down and he laughs lightly.

“Alright then, Bambi. No more umbrella jokes.” His long fingers come up onto the table top and push the small plate with my scone on it back towards me. “Eat up.” He says lowly. It’s like he has a direct line between my legs, and I have no idea why.

Sitting here with him isn’t uncomfortable. It’s strangely comfortable. We talk about the book he was reading. I tell him that I’ve read it dozens of times and he admits the same.  It was hard to imagine him as someone who read so often, but from my small amount of encounters with him, I was wrong. He asked about my job, and I told him about the sweet kids in my class. He told me he was an editor for a very small publisher here in the city. It was also something I didn’t expect but could completely see the more I listened to him talk. He also explained that his normal coffee shop across the street had been turned into some kind of hipster café and he wasn’t about to deal with that every morning. It made me laugh but only because I couldn’t imagine what the odds could possibly be that this would be his new found favorite place to read and drink black coffee.

“I should really go this time.” I said, looking down at the time on my phone. Just as I was about to put it away, it dinged with a text message from Michael.

Morning beautiful girl.

I smiled at the screen before typing a quick reply and putting the phone away. Calum looked up at me as I stood, the smile on his face not really there anymore.

“Did you tell Michael I was here with you?” He asked flatly.

“No. It didn’t come up.” I adjust my coat and look back down at him in his chair.

“Good. Don’t.” He slams his feet back down onto the chair I was sitting in before and picks up his book.

“Alright. See you around, Calum.” I don’t want to say anything else. Something has apparently upset him and I’m not here to push the issue.

When I arrive at the school ten minutes later, Michael is standing out front with a bouquet of wildflowers in his hands. His head is covered by a black beanie and he’s wearing an all black hoodie with some of his favorite anime characters on the front of it. I try to control my smile by biting my lip and walking towards him.

“It’s freezing out here, babe. What took you so long?” He smiles, handing me the flowers and holding my wind burnt cheeks in his cold hands.

“It just took a little longer to get coffee this morning, that’s all. What are you doing here Mikey?” I step up closer to him while he continues to hold my face.

“Well…” He presses a sweet kiss to my lip. “These are the first of many more presents you’ll be getting.”

“Presents? Why are you getting my presents?” I laugh lightly.

“Your birthday is on Saturday, love.” Michael says. It hits me like a ton of bricks. I had completely forgotten about my own birthday.

“Wow. I didn’t think I could be anymore scatter brained these days.” I lay my head against his chest and give him one more quick hug.

“We can go out on Saturday if you like? And you can stay at my place?” He kisses my cheek as I start to walk up the steps to the school.

“Sure. That would be great.” I tried to say with as much enthusiasm as I could muster.

“Awesome. I think you’ll like your last gift, but I can’t give you that one until we get back to my house Saturday night.” Michael says, his hands gripping a little tighter at my hips. Was he trying to imply something?

“Looking forward to it.” I smile and kiss his cheek. “I should go inside, I’ll call you later.”

“Bye, babe. Have a good day.” He lets go of my hips and begins his way back down the sidewalk.

I’m beginning to wonder if this morning actually happened. It all feels surreal. Seeing Calum in the coffee shop and enjoying his company. Michael showing up outside of the school and basically saying he wanted to have sex Saturday night. And I should most certainly be excited about that part. It’s what I’ve been wanting, for us to go to that next step. But now I felt more…uncertain than I had before.

Distracted would be the word I’d use to describe the rest of the day. There were so many thoughts swimming through my mind. Michael. Calum. And all the confusing feelings that came with them. The thoughts I was having about Calum weren’t right. I shouldn’t be thinking them at all. I was perfectly content with my sweet boyfriend. Right? Of course I am.  A text message ding  from Michael breaks me away from my thoughts as I walk home from work.

Come over? I have a surprise for you.

You already gave me a present today, Mikey.

One more. The doors unlocked, just come in.

Okay.

I took a deep breath and started walking towards Michael’s house instead of my own. It was farther than I’d normally walk but I needed to clear my head on the way there.  I was mostly hoping that once I got there, I wouldn’t see Calum at all, and maybe that would make it easier not think about him. But because I have monumental bad luck, Calum is standing outside on the small front step smoking a cigarette. He’s leaning against the side of the house with his hood over his head.

"Shit.” I whisper to myself as I approach the house.

“Back so soon?” He says as he breathes out the smoke.

“Michael invited me over.” I sigh.

“You don’t seem thrilled.” He raises an eyebrow.

“I am. Of course I am.” I scoff and reach for the door handle, but he wraps his hand around my wrist and stops me.

“Meet me in the kitchen tonight, okay? Around midnight.” He looks very serious as he says the words.

“Why?” I can barely breathe out the word, his hand on my skin is making it too difficult.

“We need to talk.” At that, he lets go of my wrist and steps back, placing the cigarette back in his plump lips.

I felt like I’d had the wind knocked out of me. I wasn’t expecting anything like that from him. I struggle with the door handle for a moment before I walk inside. I hear Calum quietly laugh at my struggle and I can’t help but smile at the sound. Once I’m inside, I slip off my boots and coat and walk back towards Michael’s bedroom. There’s soft music playing inside and I’m not sure if I should knock, but in the mean time, Michael has already opened the door surprising me and making me jump.

“Hey sweetheart. How long have you been standing out here?” He reaches for my hand and I let him take it.

“Just for a second. I was just… thinking.” I try to play off my internal turmoil.

“Well get in here beautiful.” He pulls gently on my hand and I clumsily step into his room.

There are a few candles lit on his desk and bookshelf and another gift bag sitting on the middle of his bed. I feel sick to my stomach.

“You really shouldn’t buy me anymore gifts, Mikey.” My voice shakes. All I can think about is meeting Calum at midnight.

“Come on babe, your birthday’s only once a year.” He leans over the bed and picks up the giftbag, handing it to me with the cutest smile on his face. I smile back and take the tissue paper out of the bag.

Inside the bag is a picture frame with a picture of the two of us from a couple weeks ago. We were in front of one of the big fountains in the middle of the city. Michael’s arm was wrapped around my shoulders and I kissing his cheek. I had almost forgotten we took this picture.

“Thank you, Mikey. This is so sweet. I love it.” I can feel myself getting a little emotional. And not because of how much I like the gift, but because a minute ago I was thinking about my boyfriend’s roommate. I’m a terrible person.

“Aww, don’t cry babe. I’m glad you like it.” He kisses my lips and lets it linger for a moment.

“I really do.” I breathe on his lips. He smiles against my mouth and kisses me again.

It’s just a slow movement of lips at first, and then our tongues start swiping over the other. Michael takes the picture from my hands and sits it down, before backing me up until the backs of my knees hit his bed.

“Do you want to lie down?” He asks, still kissing me.

“Okay.” I need to do this. I need to stop thinking about Calum.

I lay back against Michael’s comforter and he gently lays his body on top of mine, pressing his lips back to mine quickly. One of his hands touches my side and my hip where my shirt has started rising from our movements. It was almost working, I almost forgot completely about Calum and got lost in Michael. But that part of my brain that just can’t seem to stop thinking about Calum and his heavenly smile and perfect skin decided to speak up and I couldn’t keep it up anymore.

“You alright, Izzy?” He asks.

“Yeah, I’m just tired is all.” I run my fingers through his soft hair reassuringly.

“Okay, I’ll get us something to eat. You relax, yeah?” He kisses me once more before getting off the bed and helping me up.

“Thanks, Mikey.” I watch as he smiles over his shoulder at me and walks out of his room. I quickly stand up and wipe at my mouth and eyes. What is wrong with me? Am I going insane?

I happily ate the Chinese food that Michael ordered, but I also couldn’t stop watching the clock on the other side of the room. I shouldn’t go. I shouldn’t give him the satisfaction of knowing he has some kind of power over me. But more of me wanted to know what he had to say. I needed to know what he could possibly want from me.

I wasn’t going to go. I was going to stay right where I was and forget about this whole thing completely. I would lay here next to my boyfriend and not go anywhere near his roommate.

But as the red numbers on the clock turned to 12:00 I became restless. I couldn’t sleep. I couldn’t even force my body to turn away from the clock. And when it was 12:05, I couldn’t take it anymore, I quietly got out of Michael’s warm bed, making sure that he was still fast asleep before walking out in just his t-shirt and my underwear. I nervously padded barefoot down the hallway to the kitchen.

The only light on was the extremely dim one above the sink. Calum was standing there with his back to me with only some dark gray sweats draped on his hips. His hands were bracing him against the counter as he took a deep breath and turned around when he heard me come into the room.

“Don’t you own any pajama pants, Bambi?” Calum smirks, melting my insides.

“I didn’t go home after work. Stop looking if it bothers you so much.” Usually, I would move to cover myself, but I didn’t want to anymore.

“I don’t think ‘bother’ is the word I’d use.” He looks down before he takes a few steps towards me.

“Why did you want to talk to me,Calum?” I move over towards the fridge and lean my back against it.

“You can’t like me, Isabella.” He says.

“Like you? What are you talking about?” My eyes are wide.

“I see how you look at me. How you smile at me.  You’re with Mike and I don’t want him getting hurt because you can’t control yourself around me.” There’s a slight teasing in the way he says it, and it makes my blood boil.

“Fuck you, Calum. Don’t take me being friendly with my boyfriend’s roommate as flirting. It’s definitely not. Not even close.” I move away from the fridge. “And another thing, you’re the one always flirting with me. So maybe you should cut that shit out?” The words come out so quickly they’re barely understandable but I’m so angry that I don’t care in the slightest.

“I haven’t been flirting. I just didn’t want to hurt your feelings.” He crosses his arms over his bare chest and looks at me expectantly. I glare at him and move to walk out of the kitchen. “Wait.” He says quickly.

“Honestly, I don’t want to ever talk to you again. We can be civil for Michael’s sake, and that’s it. Otherwise, you can just go fuck yourself.” I start to turn away again.

“Never heard you talk like this, Bambi. It’s kind of hot.” I don’t even have to turn around to know he’s smirking. So proud of his pigheaded comment.

“Really? You literally JUST flirted with me. Are you fucking insane? No, I’m the one who’s insane for coming in here to talk to you.” I’m almost out the door this time when he says my name again.

“Isabella, just wait.” I turn around to see him standing in the middle of the kitchen now.

“What else do you want from me?” I sigh.

“Obviously, no one has ever flirted with you properly, if you thought that was flirting.” He steps towards me and I take another step back until my back is against the wall.

“That’s absurd, Calum.” I try to look away from his eyes, but it’s nearly impossible. They’re dark and warm and oh so easy to get lost in.

“Did you sleep with him?” He asks quietly once he’s only a few inches away from me.

“That’s not any of your business.” I can barely breathe.

“Just answer the question, Isabella.” His hands come up and rest against the wall, trapping me there with very little oxygen reaching my brain.

“No. I didn’t. Not yet.” I manage to look up and see his mouth set into a straight line.

“Why did you meet me in here tonight?” He asks. His face is close to mine I can feel his breaths.

“You asked me to.” I say quickly.

“That’s not good enough.” His bottom lip goes between his teeth as he steps up closer, his hips pressing lightly against mine.  Fuck, where’s the oxygen?

“I wanted to know what you had to say.” I reply again as more of a whisper.

“You know why I think you came in here?” One of his hands comes down from the wall, and I watch as he brings it down close to my thigh. “I think you wanted me to touch you.” He whispers the words in my ear, every inch of my skin blanketing in goosebumps.

The tip of his middle finger touches the skin just above my knee, drawing a small circle before slowly dragging up. I don’t stop him. I should stop him. But I can’t. I want him to touch me.

“Calum…” Is the only word I can get out.

“I think you wanted me to touch you here.” He says lowly, his middle finger pushing up the t-shirt I’m wearing so he can trace it along the band of my underwear. “And here…” He dips his finger just inside the band and slides it across to the front of my body and stops. “Maybe here…” He starts to slide his finger down the front of my underwear.

“Shit…” I say with a shaky breath.

“Goodnight, Bambi.” I can feel him smile against my ear where he’s been whispering as he pulls his hand away and slowly walks out of the kitchen. I can hear his door shut down the hall before I open my eyes and release the longest breath of my life.

“What the fuck…” I use my hand to wipe at the sweat starting to form on my forehead.

What am I doing?

[quicksilversquared]

A Different Type of Inspiration

Marinette has some of the worst designer's block that she's ever had, and Alya will stop at nothing to find some source of inspiration to get her friend designing again. Right before she (almost) gives up, they see a poster for a very interesting design contest. Will the theme be enough to get Marinette's inspiration flowing again?

(FF.net) (AO3)

Marinette was stuck, stuck, stuck, stuck, stuck.

Sometimes it happened- she got caught in a design slump, usually because she was tired and practically sleepwalking. Sometimes she drew a blank when she was free and had all the time in the world to sew.

But no matter the circumstances, it was frustrating.

"Just nothing. My brain is empty," Marinette complained to Alya. "I've tried designing everything. Hats, skirts, shirts, dresses, jackets, pants, even purses and backpacks! Nothing good is coming to mind!"

"Maybe you should take a break from designing," Alya suggested. "I mean, you aren't entering a design competition or anything anytime soon, right?"

"I'm not, but I wanted to make something new for my wardrobe! And I can't just give up as soon as designer's block hits." Marinette was frowning at her closet. "That's not how the fashion world works."

"Have you looked around the city for inspiration?"

"Of course I have." Marinette gestured to the bulletin board that had appeared on her desk. Pictures from across the city were pinned there, both monuments and people and even storefronts and plants. The pictures looked like they were in serious danger of creating a paper avalanche any second. "And I found interesting things, but they weren't inspiring any designs."

"How about the fabric store?" Alya suggested. "Maybe the fabric will talk to you."

That inspired a snort and an eye-roll from Marinette. "I think you've been watching too much Project Runway again, Alya."

"Well, have you?"

Marinette sighed. "No, I haven't."

Alya perked up. "Field trip, then! Come on, come on, and bring your camera!"

   The first few aisles weren't even remotely inspiring. There were cotton prints in all sorts of hues and prints, and while some of them were gorgeous- Marinette took some photos for future reference-none of them were really inspiring her at all. The next couple of rows were knits and while Marinette spent more time there, occasionally draping things over Alya's head, she didn't come up with any ideas. The sportswear fabrics aisle got passed by next, followed by the brocades, the satins, and the vinyl. By the time they passed through the section of trims, Alya was starting to wish that she had let Marinette go by herself to the store.

"I don't know why I'm even bothering to look through this aisle," Marinette grumbled as they paused briefly by the aisle of leather hides. "I've never been inspired by it before, I don't know why I would be now."

"Why?" Alya asked, pulling a dyed blue leather from near the end of the row off of the shelf and inspecting it. "Does it not drape well?"

Marinette shrugged. "It does, from what I can tell, but I get squicked out by the whole 'it's actually skin' thing, I think. If I could get past that, I could probably come up with some ideas for jackets and whatnot. Jagged Stone has some amazing leather jackets that I'd love to kind of replicate, but..." She shuddered. "Skin. It gives me creative block."

"Okay, fair enough," Alya sighed, following Marinette back towards the front of the store. It had been a thoroughly wasted day, it seemed. Marinette wasn't any more inspired than she had started out, and the only thing that Alya had gotten out of their trip was sore feet. She wasn't going to give up, though. There had to be something out there to inspire Marinette, Alya knew it.

And then her eyes caught on an announcement board at the front of the store. An employee had just finished stapling a new sign up to the bulletin board, and even from here Alya could read the words Agreste and Contest in the title.

Well. That could either be a source of inspiration for Marinette, or it would make her groan over a missed opportunity because her head was completely empty of ideas. Alya decided to be optimistic and she grabbed Marinette's shoulder. "Hey! Let's go check out the notice board and see if anything on there gives you any ideas."

"It normally just has postings about sewing classes and quilting workshops," Marinette said dryly, but she let Alya drag her over to the board. It only took seconds from Marinette to spot the same posting that Alya had. "Mr. Agreste is holding a design contest! Oh, no, this is the worst possible timing! I don't have any ideas!"

"Wait, look at it again," Alya said, frowning as she scanned the announcement. It seemed a bit strange, though to be fair she didn't look at design contest announcements that often and didn't really have a great idea what might be considered normal. "It says-"

"'Outfits must be designed using nontypical fabrics,'" Marinette read off of the flyer. "'No cotton or wool knits/weaves, silk, et cetera. Fastenings such as buttons and zippers are allowed. Contact Bessie Leroy with questions.' That's a lower designer at Gabriel," she explained to Alya. "Mr. Agreste probably didn't want to be bothered with questions himself, and Nathalie is probably organizing the thing and doesn't want to be bothered with a million emails." She frowned as she glanced back at the announcement. "I wonder what he's trying to accomplish with this kind of contest. It just seems super-weird."

Alya shrugged as she peered over Marinette's shoulder. "Maybe he just wants to know what kinds of materials are out there and the best way of doing that is a contest. Or maybe he's just tired of seeing draped silk gowns." They had looked up the past few large-scale contests that Mr. Agreste had held, and three out of the five past winners had been silk gowns. Pretty- gorgeous, even- but hardly enough of a standout design to stand out in a room full of silk gowns. The material had done most of the work for the designer.

This time, the contest would push designers out of their comfort zones. The design would have to stand up on its own and be truly fashion-forward, no using materials that were amazing on their own as crutches.

"That's just going to make it harder to be inspired," Marinette groaned, already turning and heading back towards the aisles. "I never go in the aisle of weird fabrics. They're mostly for costumes anyway."

"Maybe that's what you need to do, then," Alya suggested, jogging after friend even as her feet protested. "Go look at funny fabrics and see where your imagination takes you. Where is this aisle, anyway?"

"Back behind the leather." Marinette's nose wrinkled. "The entire area smells funny because of it."

"...maybe funny smells will spark your creative streak?" Alya suggested, trying not to wince. She was not doing a great job as inspiration cheerleader right now. Hours of wandering the fabric store had worn down her well of inspirational suggestions.

Marinette laughed at that as they entered the leather aisle (which, Alya had to admit, did smell funny). They headed down the aisle quickly- so quickly that Alya almost missed the rolls of rather interestingly-colored leather. Fake leather, it turned out when Alya paused to inspect it. "Leather" made out of cork.

Cork, which would probably be considered a nontypical material.

   Marinette was thrilled.

"Some of these look pretty similar to leather, especially from a distance," Marinette said as she ran her hands over a roll. "And it drapes really nicely too, I'm super surprised." She twisted the fabric between her fingers, testing it. "And I think I could probably sew with it, too, just like normal fabric. I might need the same kind of needle that I would have to use if I worked with leather, but it's not super-thick or anything. It's super-expensive, but Mr. Agreste does reimburse people for the materials that they use to enter his contests."

Alya's eyebrows shot up. She hadn't know that. "He does? Really?"

"It's not a universal thing for design contests," Marinette assured Alya as she pulled the roll out further to drape more of it over her arm. She gave an approving hum and pushed it back onto the shelf. "But Mr. Agreste said in an interview in the past that he doesn't want to miss great designers that maybe just don't have the resources to buy the materials they need to execute their designs properly. It evens the playing field a bit, so that the winners aren't just well-off designers that can afford to buy silk and whatnot." She pulled out her sketchbook and flipped to a new page, starting to scribble even as she continued talking. "It works, too. There's more than a few designers at Gabriel now that came from poorer families and they said that there was no way that they would have gotten Mr. Agreste's attention if they had only been able to work with the materials that they could afford back before they won some of his contests and got hired."

"That's...unusually nice of him," Alya commented, watching a jacket come to life in Marinette's sketchbook. "I wouldn't have thought Mr. Agreste to be the type of person to think that up."

"I think it was his wife's idea originally," Marinette commented idly, penciling in a pocket and cuffs on the sleeves. "And he's just kept continuing it, because it's gotten him some great designers in the past." She finally stepped back from her drawing and considered it before realizing what she had done. "Oh wow. That- actually worked! The fabric actually spoke to me. That was awesome!"

"Now you just need the rest of the outfit," Alya said, peering at the jacket design over Marinette's shoulder.

"I'm going to go look at the weird fabrics now," Marinette said absently, seemingly not hearing Alya. Her kind of floating, out-of-it expression looked curiously similar to the one she had often made when she talked to Adrien near the start of the school year. Alya had not missed that expression, but at least now it was design-related and not boy-related. "I can't believe that just happened. The design just flowed. I didn't even have to try!"

Alya could only nod along.

"I think I'm gonna go with a rock-and-roll theme," Marinette said as she rounded the corner and headed down the first aisle of less commonly used fabrics. She breezed past the vinyls without a second glance. "That jacket just screams Jagged Stone concert."

"Are you looking for more dark fabric, then?" Alya asked, pausing to inspect some lace. It was dark and had a kind of a rock-and-roll feel to it. "What about lace? Leather and lace is a pretty interesting combo, right?"

Marinette made a face. "It's a pretty classic combo, actually. Mr. Agreste would probably dock points since it's already been done."

"Has it really?" Alya had apparently missed that particular fashion trend. Still, she wasn't going to give up. "Okay, then, are you looking for something dark, or a pop of color to offset the jacke-"

"It's perfect!"

Alya glanced over, startled, to see Marinette standing in front of a row of what appeared to be some sort of netting. It came in a huge rainbow of colors, and some seemed to be shining a bit even in the somewhat dim lighting of the store. Marinette was already pulling out a bit of two colors, layering them and examining the effect.

"That looks...interesting," Alya said cautiously as she joined Marinette. She was fairly certain that the mesh was the same kind that she saw on athletic bags, and she had absolutely no idea what Marinette would be able to make out of it. "Wouldn't it be hard to work with, though?"

"Good things don't necessarily come easy." Marinette grabbed another two colors and held them up. This close, Alya could tell what she was doing. The background mesh was offset just enough that its colors peeped through the holes in the first layer of mesh. Some skin would still show through the holes unless there was some sort of backing, but that honestly just added to the whole rock-and-roll vibe.

"What's it made out of? Those ones you have right now are kind of shimmery, almost." Alya reached out to touch it. "I wouldn't expect it to be so soft, but it really wouldn't be uncomfortable to wear at all, would it?"

"It's made for athletic wear, I think," Marinette agreed. "There's definitely a front and a back side to it. That side is a little more shimmery, and the side closer to me is a little duller and a little softer." She reached over to check the label. "And- oh! One of the materials is recycled plastic. So it's environmentally friendly too, just like the cork leather!"

"You could have two themes, then," Alya suggested as Marinette continued playing with color combinations. "Unusual materials and environmentally friendly."

"Yeah, I guess you're right," Marinette said a bit absently as she layered a black mesh over a red. It was striking, and instantly Alya's mind went to Ladybug theme. It wouldn't be obvious, but almost everyone living in Paris appreciated a subtle nod to Ladybug. Hell, she knew people who would buy anything as long as it had red and black in it. She herself wasn't that obsessed (or, rather, she preferred to go about her obsession in ways other than buying overpriced clothing just because it was red and black).

"I really hope that this was the sort of stuff Mr. Agreste had in mind," Marinette said a bit sheepishly as she snapped a picture. "Because I already have an idea for how to use it."

"I think that might be the point of the contest," Alya said as Marinette pulled out her sketchpad for a quick drawing. "Because otherwise you might not think to use this sort of stuff."

"I'm thinking minidress with the netting," Marinette said, turning it over in her hands. "I would need a liner, at least for the chest and skirt. But it's got a subtle shine to it that I've seen at concerts and I really think it would pair with the cork leather well."

"You should probably email the contact person and get your fabrics approved before you get too carried away," Alya joked. "And what about the liner? We still need to find something for that."

"Something in matte black would work well." Marinette sighed. "I wish I could go with bamboo or hemp, but I don't think they would count. Keep looking?"

Alya sighed, exhausted after hours spent in the store. Still, if she could help her friend in any way, she would. "Keep looking."

   Once Marinette's materials were all approved, her designing could begin in earnest. Never one to be content with letting the materials do the work for her, she had to make sure that her minidress and jacket weren't special just because of the materials they were made from. She had ended up going with nylon for the lining for the dress and for pocket lining, simply because it didn't add unnecessary thickness to her designs.

At school, Adrien didn't have much to say about the contest.

"I knew it was coming up because I overheard the designers talking about it, but that's about it," he admitted when Alya interrogated him. "I'm not involved in that side of the business at all, and even father is being rather hands-off about it. He has one of his designers organizing it with Nathalie. He came up with the idea and he'll judge, but that's about it."

"What's the prize for this one?" Nino asked. "A photoshoot again, or something else?"

"The poster just said there was a cash prize," Alya said when neither Adrien nor Marinette said anything. "But of course there's publicity as well, and that's always good. Aren't there usually other big designers that come to these things just to scout for talent?"

"There weren't any at the hat thing, though!" Nino argued. "I mean, at least no one said anything if there were."

"That was because it was so small and at a collège besides," Adrien pointed out. "This contest is a big one. It'll be getting designers from all over Paris and probably the rest of France as well."

Marinette winced at the thought. That meant potentially hundreds of designers of every skill level. There wasn't a cap listed on the fliers, so there was no way of knowing how many people she would be up against. It wasn't like the school-wide competition, where there were only five or so other entries.

At least she wasn't going in expecting to win. Participating in this sort of contest had inspired new designs just because she was looking at new materials, and at the actual contest she could see the work of other designers and even potentially get feedback from Gabriel Agreste.

   As the month rolled on, Marinette started working on her pieces in earnest. She did her homework whenever she could so she could have more time to work on her designs. Akumas were defeated in record time as she put her entire concentration into taking them down as fast as she could.

Of course, the sewing could not be rushed. Attaching the mesh layers to each other was difficult and took the longest, since she didn't want the layers to slide out of position and ruin the effect that they were creating. It was also extremely difficult to sew them without the thread showing up where she didn't want it.

Still, slowly but surely, her pieces came together. Marinette modelled them for Alya the day before the contest, and Alya was definitely impressed. Even with her normal pigtails, Marinette definitely looked like she was at least going to a rock concert, if not performing herself.

"I'm calling it now," Alya said as she watched Marinette model the outfit. "You're gonna win, hands down. That is gorgeous."

Marinette snorted as she made one last turn. "You forget that I'm going up against actual established designers. I'd be lucky to even place, but that's not that likely either."

"You're not giving yourself enough credit," Alya scolded. "I'm not exactly an established reporter, but the Ladyblog is still number one on Ladybug. You're just as talented. Just because you haven't had the training for it doesn't mean you're less talented."

Much to Alya's disappointment, Marinette still shook her head. "I still have a lot to learn. Besides, if nothing else, I finally got out of my creative block. I've been sketching some other pieces that would go along with this one if I were doing a line. They're not fully developed pieces yet- I haven't had the time to really polish them up- but I'm not blocked anymore. It's great."

   Contest day arrived, and Alya turned up at the Dupain-Cheng apartment bright and early to help Marinette get her pieces over to the area where the contest was being held. Mr. Agreste had rented out a gymnasium for the day and overnight, his staff had turned it into a gorgeous showroom with all of the efficiency of a well-oiled machine. It was a gorgeous layout, but Marinette still froze the second she stepped into the room.

The sheer number of designs in the room was absolutely overwhelming. It was filled to nearly bursting with outfits, some made by aspiring designers years older than her and with tons more experience. Some of them no doubt knew of techniques that Marinette had never even heard of, and some were even old enough that they had probably been designing for longer than Marinette had even been alive.

That wasn't what gave her most pause, though. She had known that there would be far more experienced and talented designers present. Marinette was more worried about the materials some of the other designers had used. For a long moment, she panicked. Had she somehow misinterpreted the instructions? Was she really supposed to use really unconventional materials? She could spot newspapers and garbage bags worked into gorgeous garments up and down the entrance aisle and beyond. Other non-fabric materials were also present, though in smaller numbers. Things like window shades and magazines and cardboard boxes and hardware pieces...

She was going to look like an idiot with her much more fabric-like materials.

Luckily for her sanity, Marinette had Alya along.

"I'm not seeing a whole lot of creativity with the designs," Alya said, stepping up next to Marinette with one of the garment bags draped over her arm. "Like, that newspaper dress over there? If you envision it in pastel purple, I saw that exact design last week at the mall."

"But they're unconventional materials," Marinette managed in a panicked hiss. "What if that was what I was supposed to do? Just let me turn around now before I embarrass myself in front of Mr. Agreste-"

"I'm not letting you do that." Alya had planted herself in front of Marinette, keeping her from making a run for it. She put her free hand on Marinette's shoulder and looked her dead in the eye. "You got every single one of your fabrics approved. I saw the emails. I verified that they said what you thought they said and that you weren't misunderstanding them. Your parents verified what they said. Your materials are fine. I bet a lot of these designers didn't check first so they just went with the first unconventional material they could find. Look at some of these- I bet they just designed something while watching one of Project Runway's unconventional materials challenges or something and they missed that the description was nontypical fabrics."

Marinette blinked and nodded weakly.

"You have a rocking look that you can actually wear. A lot of these dresses and skirts and whatnot wouldn't survive a walk outside. Who knows, you might get points for that. You will be fine. And even if you don't win or place or anything, you still got a rocking dress that you can wear next time Jagged Stone has a concert in Paris."

Marinette's panicked expression faded as she started nodding. She straightened her shoulders and marched forward into the gymnasium towards the sign-in table as Alya followed. It didn't take long to get her checked in and set up at her station. A standard mannequin and two chairs had been provided for each competitor so that they would have a way to display the look and so they could sit down while waiting for judging to get to them.

It looked like it was going to be a long wait.

   Marinette and Alya had been waiting for over an hour and a half when then suddenly saw Adrien appear through the crowd. He looked exhausted, though he brightened when he saw the two girls and beelined over to them right away.

"You look like death warmed over," Alya said as soon as Adrien was within earshot. "Is your father dragging you around as well? I thought you weren't judging."

"I'm not judging. Father just wants me to get a feel for how he runs these contests. I'm fairly certain I've learned nothing so far, except maybe how to pretend how to be interested." Adrien let out a groan. "There's only so many newspaper dresses I can take before I explode."

Alya perked up, elbowing Marinette. "So there's a lot of people that used unconventional materials, huh?"

"Yeah, unfortunately. Pere's not pleased with most of what he's seen so far," Adrien admitted, lowering his voice so the other contestants nearby couldn't hear. "Unconventional materials are cool to see and all and it's interesting to see how people manipulated their materials to look like fabric, but overall the designs aren't anything new. Besides," Adrien added, voice dropping even lower, "Father was considering putting the winning look into production, and obviously newspaper and wallpaper dresses aren't going to work with that."

Marinette perked up at that. For a moment, she was positively euphoric. Maybe she had a chance at winning after all! Then reality came crashing back down.

Just because a lot of the designers had essentially disqualified themselves didn't mean all of the designers had. There were still probably loads of designers that had materials like hers and quite a few of them were very, very good.

She had entered for the feedback and advice. She had to remember that. Getting her hopes up would only lead to being let down in the end.

"There's also been a lot of vinyl," Adrien added. "Dad hates vinyl. He says it can look cheap too easily, because mistakes show up and it doesn't drape particularly well. In the stuff I've seen, darts seem to be a big issue. There was maybe one designer that managed to make it look good, but then the design was nothing new."

Marinette sent a suddenly panicked look at her dress, even though she knew perfectly well that it was practically impeccable. Gabriel Agreste was a legend, and he would be able to pick out flaws in a second. On the pigeon hat, flaws had been acceptable. They hadn't been given a whole lot of time to execute the look.

But with this contest? They had had a month. There had been plenty of time to find and fix mistakes. She had spent the last few days scouring her pieces for any flaws, but she didn't have the experienced eye that Gabriel Agreste did.

"So did you run off?" Alya asked, pulling Marinette out of her most recent freak-out with a subtle elbow to her side. "Or is you father finally getting to this section? We've been waiting forever."

"Father was taking a break before doing the final set," Adrien said. He glanced around as though looking for his father. "I hope he's getting something to eat. He forgets, and then he gets really grouchy."

"More than his regular grouchy?" Alya asked with a grin, and then she promptly clapped a hand over her mouth, looking horrified. "I mean, I didn't mean to say-"

Adrien snorted, hiding a grin of his own. "He's normally running on pretty little food. I keep trying to get Nathalie to put meals on his schedule so he can't skip them, but she never does."

Marinette's stomach started twisting itself into knots again. Never mind the fact that she seemed to be in a decent position, considering that she had one of the few outfits that, from Adrien's description, seemed like it actually met the challenge's requirements, and never mind that her construction seemed pretty good. A grouchy Gabriel Agreste was a terrifying Gabriel Agreste, and he would no doubt find all sorts of flaws. She was getting so nervous; any questions from Mr. Agreste would probably make her melt into a stammering mess and then she would look like an idiot and definitely quash any miniscule chance she had of winning-

A pair of hands on her shoulders cut off that train of thought as Marinette looked up, startled. Adrien was standing in front of her, hands gripping her shoulders and holding her steady. He was peering at her in concern, and Marinette realized that she had started hyperventilating.

"You don't have anything to worry about, Marinette," Adrien said, voice low and reassuring. "Your design looks fantastic. And Father might be grouchy, but he's only really hypercritical when it comes to the older designers. Like, he'll be honest about any flaws and he won't lower his expectations, but he's much better at giving his critiques and suggestions in a more tactful way. He only really tears apart the older designers that should know better."

And, just like always, Adrien knew just what to say to calm her down.

"And just so you know- him asking questions isn't necessarily a bad thing," Adrien added once he saw that she was calming down. "You would be able to tell if he was questioning a design. But sometimes he'll ask about the design process and if you had other ideas because he likes a design and is honestly curious about how you came up with something. Don't worry if he starts asking questions." He gave her shoulders another gentle squeeze. "It might just mean that he really likes it. Just be yourself and don't overanalyze his questions, okay?"

"You're giving her conflicting advice," Alya joked. "Either she's supposed to be herself or she's supposed to not overanalyze things."

Adrien ignored her, instead choosing to focus on Marinette. "You'll do fine, I promise. Your piece is awesome, Marinette."

And Marinette, her heart pounding, managed a small smile. "Thank you, Adrien."

   Gabriel Agreste had not been having a particularly good day. Inexperienced designers from all over the country had poured in and wasted his time with poorly-executed garments. Decent designers had taken his posting too literally and came with garments made with newspaper and plastic which could have all been avoided if people had actually bothered to ask about using those particular materials.

And then there had been the vinyl. There had been entire garments made out of the stuff. It had been done before, it was tacky, and most of it was poorly made.

"I think I've seen less than a dozen designs that are possible contenders," Gabriel sighed as he paged through his notes in disgust. "How many disasters do we have left to look through?"

"Only about twenty entries left, sir," Nathalie replied immediately. She handed him the information card for the next designer. "Do you want me to take the notes for the other designers, sir? Miss Leroy and Adrien's bodyguard can start sorting them out."

Gabriel sighed through his nose. "I suppose." He sent a look at his personal assistant. "In the future, ensure that the designers get screened first. Perhaps we should have required all contestants to send in their materials list so that we didn't have to waste our time. This is getting ridiculous."

Nathalie nodded, making a note on her ever-present tablet.

"And where did my son go?" Gabriel demanded. "I want him to see the entire process."

"I believe he's hanging out with the next designer." Nathalie pointed across the room. Sure enough, Adrien's familiar blond head stood near the next display. "It's one of his classmates."

   Gabriel did not have high expectations with the first glance at the card. Another student, and only just finishing collège at that. His expectations only rose marginally when he noticed the name.

So the girl had won one of his previous contests before. That hadn't stopped other far more experienced designers from churning out utter disasters for this particular contest, and the kid might be a one-hit wonder. Coming in with high expectations only meant being let down.

And then Gabriel set eyes on the design.

It was rock-and-roll, something he didn't dabble much in, but there was no denying that it was excellently done. Red mesh was overlaid by black, offset just enough that only a little skin would show through. The dress was lined with a black fabric in the skirt and over the chest, making the otherwise edgy garment perfectly tasteful. It would work well as a performance piece as well with only a few tweaks, and the mesh ensured that there would be plenty of ventilation in hot, crowded areas with lights burning down overhead. It had a good design, enough to make it stand out beyond just the fabric, but it wasn't overworked in an attempt to make something completely new. The jacket- cork leather, according to the designer card- was well done as well, with enough detailing to give it a distinctly rocker vibe without being too fussy.

This was exactly what he had wanted to see. The pieces- the dress especially, the cork leather that the jacket was made of just barely counted as a nontypical material in his mind, since it was imitating normal leather- were made out of materials that most people wouldn't have thought to use, but it was completely wearable. His mind whirred, already thinking of other ways he might be able to use that divine mesh layering technique.

This was one designer where he would definitely have to ask what other designs she had considered. It was possible that they could do a whole line with that fabric as the focal point-

He was getting ahead of himself, but it had been a while since he was so inspired.

Gabriel took a moment to make sure his best poker face was in place before approaching. Adrien looked up, stepping back from Marinette and her friend as Gabriel and Nathalie joined the group. He looked somewhat abashed, surely knowing that other contestants might view his friendship with the girls as favoritism.

"Miss Dupain-Cheng," Gabriel said, sticking out his hand. "It's a pleasure to see you again, and in person this time."

"Same." Marinette shook his hand. She was nervous, he could tell, but he doubted that she was going to break down like some of the other competitors had. She had stood up for herself admirably during the hat competition, when many designers would have floundered in the face of having their design stolen from them.

"Tell me about your design, please," Gabriel said as he started circling the piece. It was just as professionally done up close as it had seemed from further back. Marinette started explaining, and it was obvious that she had practiced. Her spiel was short and direct, letting the clothes speak for themselves. It was a skill that even some older designers sometimes had trouble with. He twisted the fabric between his fingers, examining seams and the less obvious features as he listened.

"So these are all environmentally friendly fabrics?" Gabriel asked, impressed. She had limited herself in the range of materials she could choose from but that hadn't had any detrimental effect on her outfit. It could easily be yet another selling point, since environmentally conscious was definitely on trend these days.

Marinette nodded.

"That's a nice touch." Gabriel jotted down a few notes on his sheet. "Are there any changes you would make to the outfit after the contest is over?"

"One. I would replace the lining with bamboo or hemp in place of the nylon, since that would be softer and more comfortable. The nylon gets itchy and needs to be layered so that it isn't transparent. That created a lot of static very quickly." Marinette winced ever so slightly, making Gabriel guess that she had tried on the garment and gotten shocked herself. "Other than that, I probably wouldn't make any changes. I'm very happy with how it turned out."

"Were there other designs you considered?"

Marinette mulled the question over for a moment. "Not really. I was pretty set on this one from the start. I did consider using green instead of red as the backing mesh but it just didn't pop quite as well. But as soon as I saw the fabric, the design immediately popped into my head. There were very few changed that I ended up making to the initial design."

Mr. Agreste nodded. "It is nice when that happens. Now, if you were making an outfit for a male model based on the same concept, what would you change?"

Marinette's heart skipped a beat. This was the approving questioning that Adrien had talked about! She gave herself a moment to think before she started talking.

"I would definitely change the proportions on the jacket," she started, gesturing to it as she spoke. "Broader shoulders, obviously, and maybe a slight tapering down to the waist instead of having it completely square. The zippers would also have a slightly different placement. And I would make the dress into a t-shirt or maybe a tank and probably entirely lined instead of just having portions, since it would look kind of cheap to be entirely unlined and but it would look funny to just have portions done. That would get paired with cork leather pants done in a similar style to the jacket."

Mr. Agreste nodded. Very sensible. That would be a good adaptation. "I might suggest lining the front of the shirt but not the back, if it would be worn under the jacket anyway. That would provide more ventilation, which might be wanted in a hot environment such as a crowded concert hall, but it wouldn't be readily apparent to others."

Marinette's eyes widened and she nodded. "And I suppose in that same vein, a tank top or sleeveless shirt might be preferable to a t-shirt since you wouldn't see the sleeves anyway with the jacket and it would be cooler without."

"Precisely. And I might even suggest having some slits or zippers in the pants that would allow for some air flow should the concert venue get too stuffy." Mr. Agreste glanced down at his paper, though it didn't look as though he was really seeing it. "And if you were to alter this for a stage outfit for a performer?"

Adrien grinned as his father and Marinette proceeded to discuss alterations that could be done to make the outfit really pop enough to be a performance piece. From there they moved on to discussing how Marinette would design a collection around the pieces she had created. Mr. Agreste pointed out elements of the outfits that Marinette might consider reusing in other pieces to tie together a collection and they both discussed how much variation there should be in a collection to have the pieces tied together, but each unique and not a different-color repeat of a previous outfit. His father hadn't shown anywhere near as much interest to any other designer, and it was great to see his friend getting so much advice. With each outfit that they discussed, his father was pointing out small details that a beginning designer might not originally consider- not it a harsh way, but in suggestions of what he might do if he were designing the piece and why. He was good at not making younger designers feel ridiculously inexperienced with his critiques-slash-suggestions, and Adrien only wished that his father could extend that skill to...well, to everything else he did.

Adrien came back to earth with a start when he heard the word "runway" being tossed around. He blinked at his father and Marinette before exchanging an incredulous glance with Alya. They weren't seriously designing a runway right now, were they?

"Sir, there are still more contestants to visit," Nathalie reminded Mr. Agreste before they could get too carried away- or, well, more carried away than they had already gotten. "We've spent fifteen minutes here already and the contest is supposed to end in another thirty minutes, followed by an hour for deliberation and then the announcement of the winners."

Mr. Agreste snorted, but stepped back from Marinette's design regardless. "I will hardly need an hour to deliberate. But yes, I suppose I should go look at a few more newspaper dresses. It was a pleasure meeting you again, Miss Dupain-Cheng. Adrien, come."

The little group left, and seconds later Marinette had fallen back into her chair. Alya started over, worried that all of the pressure from having to answer so many questions might have overwhelmed her friend. But she had no reason to worry- within a second of hitting the seat, Marinette was reaching for her sketchbook. Alya couldn't help the incredulous snort that escaped her as Marinette's pencil started positively flying across the page. She had only just gotten done with what Alya assumed to be a fairly stressful interview-slash-designer interrogation, and she was already sitting down to design? Unbelievable.

"I need to write down everything Mr. Agreste told me," Marinette said without looking up. Evidently she had heard (and correctly interpreted) Alya's snort. "I entered for the chance to get some feedback, and I got way more advice than I thought I would get. Mr. Agreste doesn't seem like the type to give out advice more than once. If I enter another contest of his and don't follow his advice for no reason other than I didn't remember it, then he's probably not going to go easy on me, since I should know better."

"He doesn't exactly seem like the type to give out the kind of advice he did freely, so maybe he does have a heart hidden in there somewhere," Alya said dryly, watching as Marinette finished scribbling out a list of bullet points of advice and immediately moved on to working out preliminary design sketches for some of the outfit ideas she and Mr. Agreste were tossing around. The sound of irritated voices- or, rather, one irritated voice in particular- made her glance over to the next contestant. There, Mr. Agreste appeared to be straight-up ripping apart a design (well, verbally at least). "...or maybe not, it's hard to tell."

   By the time the scheduled deliberation period was over and it was time to announce the winners, most of the designers had already left. Mr. Agreste had apparently made it fairly clear to anyone who hadn't used some sort of fabric that they were not even in the running to win. Marinette was impressed that there hadn't been any akumas created, but then again it probably helped that everyone who entered had come in knowing Gabriel Agreste's reputation and knowing that they could very well be on the receiving end of one of his scathing critiques.

That didn't mean that she wasn't going to have to fight an akuma today, though. Marinette had no doubt that there might be a designer-turned-akuma once winners were announced- and especially if she placed at all. She wasn't blind to some of the looks that the older designers were giving her, especially those who had been near her in the showroom and had seen how long she had talked to Mr. Agreste. Still, she wasn't going to read too far into it. It was fully possible that Mr. Agreste had spent so much time talking to her and giving her advice because she was a student who had more to learn from him and because she was a friend of Adrien's.

"Designers to the front of the room!" Nathalie's voice boomed over the loudspeakers. "The winners of the contest will be announced shortly."

"Here, I'll take the jacket bag," Alya said, reaching out for the second bag Marinette was holding. They had packed up the designs after the judging round was finished and Mr. Agreste had retired to a back room to peruse the cards for the few designs that actually got his approval. That way, they could leave faster after the contest was over and they wouldn't have to worry about someone messing with the outfit if Marinette placed at all.

"I can't wait to see what designed actually placed," Marinette said as she handed the bag over to Alya. She shouldered the other bag, the one containing the dress she had made. "I'm curious about the other fabrics people found now. I've got loads of ideas about what I can do with the mesh stuff and the cork, but there's no such thing as too much inspiration."

"You're lucky summer is coming up and you'll actually have time to work on stuff," Alya said with a laugh as she led the way towards the front of the room. "If this were the middle of the school year..."

"It was the middle of the school year when I started working on these pieces," Marinette pointed out. "And I made the time. It'll be easier without having to deal with homework, though." She made a face. "I will have to deal with Manon more often, though."

"You could just say no," Alya pointed out. They joined the crowd of anxious designers waiting for the winners to be announced. "Madam Chamack could find another babysitter."

"But I need the money for my fabric," Marinette groaned, lower lip starting to jut out in a pout. "And you saw the price of that cork leather, right? The other pieces I've thought of have that incorporated as well, and there's no way I can afford that much of it. I'll just have to grin and bear it... and hope that Manon grows out of her stubborn phase sooner rather than later."

"There's a cash prize for winning this," Alya reminded Marinette in an almost sing-song voice. "And if Adrien was right about things going into production, you would get money from that too, right?"

"I would have to win first," Marinette pointed out, her voice low. It only took Alya a second to figure out that her friend didn't want to attract the attention of any of the other designers around them, and a little too late she realized that her assumption that her friend would win (her very valid assumption, considering how long Mr. Agreste had talked with Marinette) probably looked pretty conceited, especially considering that the two of them were among the youngest people there. "So I don't think I'll quit babysitting quite yet."

The crowd fell silent as Mr. Agreste strode out onto the makeshift stage. A screen descended behind him, presumably to display photos of the winning outfits. Nathalie followed Mr. Agreste out, and they could see Adrien and the Gorilla hovering in the wings.

"Thank you all for coming here today," Mr. Agreste said somewhat stiffly as he stood in front of the podium that had been set up for him in the center of the stage. "It is time to announce the winners of today's contest. It was not as hard of a decision as I hoped it might be, as apparently my announcement didn't make it clear enough that I wanted to see unusual fabrics, not... newspaper dresses."

There were some cringes as the few designers that had made such dresses but somehow hadn't caught on to Mr. Agreste's immediate dismissal of their outfits based on their materials finally caught on that they had no chance of winning. A few of the other designers- ones who had gotten their lists of materials approved- exchanged excited glances at that, knowing full well that their chances of winning had drastically improved with so much of the pool of candidates disqualified.

"Still, I did come across some great designs out there," Mr. Agreste continued. "Now, without further delay, I present our runner-ups: Miss Melanie Derose, Miss Olya Noel, and Mr. Kevin Blanc." Three designs flashed up on the screen. One was a dress, one was a shirt and skirt combo, and one looked like it might be a wedding gown. Alya was surprised that it placed as high as it did because really, who entered a wedding dress in a contest for Gabriel? Gabriel, to the best of Alya's knowledge, did not do wedding dresses.

Polite applause rang out as the three runner-ups went up to go shake hands with Mr. Agreste. They got their photos taken, and then were each handed a gift certificate for a fabric store before they trotted back down the stairs on the stage and rejoined the group still waiting below.

"Third place: Mrs. Brenna Faure."

More clapping as an older woman went up on stage. She had designed a business attire sort of outfit, a shirt, jacket, and pants.

"The materials really don't seem that out there," Alya murmured to Marinette. "Don't get me wrong, it's a nice design and it looks cool, but for a contest with unusual materials?"

"I think the jacket is layers of tulle," Marinette said, peering up at the screen. "That's how she got that gradual change in color and the 3-D kind of look to it. I don't know about the other pieces. It is a very Gabriel look, though. It definitely is more in line with what they normally make than my piece is."

"I thought the point was to design out of the box a bit," Alya grumbled. Still, if that was what had won third place, then Marinette's piece would definitely place as well, right? Surely at least second place would be hers.

"The 3-D effect probably counted as out of the box." Marinette was peering up at the screen, intrigued. "I wonder...could I recreate that effect, but maybe with a night sky or something? I wish I could have seen that piece in person to see exactly how she did it."

"I've lost her," Alya sighed as Marinette tore her attention off of the stage to jot the idea down in her sketchbook. She struggled for a moment to keep a hold on the garment bag she still held, until Alya took it from her so Marinette could get her ideas down before the next winner was announced.

"Second place," Mr. Agreste announced as Mrs. Faure went back down the stairs to join the audience. "Mr. Justin Lacroix."

As the young man ascended the stairs to accept his prize and a photo, a casual outfit appeared on screen. The top was made out of braided fabric, like a braided rug, and hung off-the-shoulder. It was the clear focal piece, with the pants fading away.

Alya sniffed. If Marinette had lost to that, then Adrien's father had well and lost his mind. Sure, maybe it fit in with the brand better, but it was...well, not boring, she could see the appeal, but not as awesome as Marinette's dress and jacket.

"I like the texture," Marinette commented as the man waved to the crowd before bowing to Mr. Agreste and scampering off. "I wonder how he cut down on the bulk that the braid would normally create. You can tell that he just left it for the neckline, that's why it's chunkier, but he did something to the rest of it."

"Ask him later," Alya suggested. "He might not tell another older designer, but you're young enough that he might not mind telling you."

A sharp glare from a nearby designer quieted both of them before Marinette could respond. "Hush! Mr. Agreste is about to announce the winner!" As she turned back to face the front, both girls could hear her mutter to a nearby designer, "I don't even know why he even allows kids to enter these things. Heaven knows that they would never win. They're just wasting his time."

Funny, that's not what Mr. Agreste seemed to think, Alya thought, exchanging a glance with Marinette. Her friend looked highly incredulous. Wonder how much time he spent talking with Ms. Grouchy over there?

Mr. Agreste glanced back out at the crowd and Alya could have sworn that there was a hint of a smile around the corners of his lips, but that was impossible. Gabriel Agreste didn't smile. His face would probably break if he tried. "And now, in first place, for a particularly inspired design using a very interesting material..."

"...may I congratulate our young winner, Marinette Dupain-Cheng."

Even the akuma that popped up six minutes later, raging about favoritism and students stealing wins from real designers, couldn't diminish Marinette's joy.

I know it's perhaps not the most realistic thing to have Marinette win over a bunch of other designers, especially established ones, but the thing is that Gabriel has to actually like someone's aesthetic for them to win. Someone could be a fantastic designer but design things that don't fit Gabriel's personal taste, and even though they have a ton of experience they wouldn't win a contest that's focused on the Gabriel brand. Just based on the show, Gabriel likes what he's seen of Marinette's aesthetic (with the pigeon hat), so it follows that he would perhaps be more likely to pick her as winner.

(....also, he was REALLY inspired by the mesh technique. That may have been an influence.)

(I've been watching too much Project Runway. You can tell by my overuse of the word "aesthetic" :D And, in the story, most of the designers had also watched too much Project Runway and that was why so many went for unconventional materials instead of just unconventional fabrics)

Also re: Gabriel's characterization: I tend to write him kind of like Gordon Ramsey. He's VERY hard on the adults, who should know better, but is more of a guiding force with kids. He seemed to be a bit calmer than we sometimes see him with the bowler hat contest, which was all students, but he RIPPED into Alec (at least SOMEWHAT rightfully) when the TV host decided to trick Gabriel into being on the TV show, knowing full well that Gabriel wouldn't want to do it. It'll be interesting to see how accurate this is or isn't once we (finally) start getting new episodes again.

[marshmallowgoop]

I'm surprised you feel that way, although it made me sad (especially that senketsu was gone), I really loved the way they dealt with the themes of moving on, and of the impact the past should have on us.

I’m surprised that this is surprising! Apparently I haven’t salted enough about the ending recently, huh?

That said, I don’t know if you read this post that I linked in my last response, but I would recommend reading it if you haven’t (and if you want to understand more of my POV). The argument there is just one of the most eloquent I’ve written about why the ending plain doesn’t work, but I can also point to a whole slew of other essays/thoughts on the subject that I’ve done (the ☂ are warnings for Extreme Salt and the numbers in parentheses note that the essay was included on that page in my compiled meta book): 

Senketsu’s Death: For the Best? (186)  ☂

Senketsu’s Final Fate? (143) ☂

Senketsu “Outgrew” Being a Uniform? (139) ☂

OVA Thoughts ☂ 

Senketsu’s Death: Is Senketsu Really Dead? (145) ☂ , Part II  ☂ , Part III  ☂

The OVA is Awful if You Like Senketsu ☂

OVA Salt ☂

“Outgrowing Sailor Uniforms” ☂

And then the one I linked above: Gurren Lagann, Re: Cutie Honey: Kill la Kill Ending Salt ☂

Buuuut that’s a whole heck of a lot of TLDR, so let me pick out the relevant bits:

From Senketsu’s Final Fate? (143) ☂:

I appreciate how the OVA expanded on Senketsu’s dying linesome more with the idea of “graduating” from the past and learning to move on,but, opinions, it wasn’t really the closure I was hoping for. A peek in myanalysis tag shows that I don’t ever seem to stop yapping about how Senketsuis more than a uniform, and I’ll always argue that point,since that’s so much of what the show means to me. And while I’m compelled bythe OVA’s take on “outgrowing” being less about growing up but more aboutletting go of the past and moving on, it still rather adds to this idea of“outgrowing Senketsu”… which leaves a really sour taste in my mouth. Yeah, itseems to be more about what sailor uniforms represent (and particularly, what aKamui represents) than anything about Senketsu personally, but the point stillstands. He’s Ryuko’s friend and partner. You don’t outgrow that.

Worst of all, though, is that the closure at the end heregives off the impression that Ryuko doesn’t need Senketsuanymore, which doesn’t sit right with me. Cause, like, when you lose a friendand you learn to live without them, saying you don’t need them anymore feelsall sorts of wrong. People certainly need people, but with friends, itshouldn’t be about being so reliant on them that you literally need them tolive—it’s about wanting them in your life because they enhanceit by being who they are. So in this sense, yes, Ryuko doesn’t need him, butthat’s not something I want to hear in this show’s final moments. I want tohear that they were friends, that they had good times together, that she’llmiss him but she won’t kill herself in missing him, and she’ll never forgethim. This “I’ve outgrown you and I don’t need you anymore” vibe I get justfeels like a slap in the face after everything those two went through together.

From OVA Thoughts ☂:

I can’t enjoy the OVA as much as I would like because it mucks up one of the show’s most crucial elements. To spend a whole series touting two characters as equals and one and the same and then try to pass one off as just some grand mentor figure that needs to be “outgrown” and moved away from plain doesn’t work. And it works even less to treat him as though he’s been some object all along. All of that seems to be going on with the OVA, and all of it leaves me shaking my head.

From Senketsu’s Death: For the Best? (186)  ☂:

You might outgrow sailor uniforms (though I’ll point outthat this sentiment is pretty broken, considering Ryuko still has a year ofhigh school left and no, she’s not done wearing sailor uniforms just yet), butyou don’t outgrow friends. 

From Senketsu “Outgrew” Being a Uniform? (139) ☂:

Now, moving on from the battle and letting the past rest? Ican totally see that as a good way to conclude the show. With the idea ofchoosing your own destiny and breaking the strings of fate that bound you, theOVA does indeed work on a lot of levels and asks a lot of touching questions,too. What do you do with yourself once you are freed from fate? How do you moveon? All great. I dig it.

And I’d dig it a lot more if Senketsu was handled as nicely.Ryuko needs to move on from his death and not drown herself in sorrow for hisloss? Awesome! Perfect way to end the series. But it gets so… muddled.

First off, there are a million different ways to interpretwhat even happened with Senketsu. Is he dead and watching over Ryuko in theafterlife? Is he an imaginary space ghost? Is he a god? Is he in Ryuko’s heartand together they get to live out Ryuko’s greatest happiness for reals? Is heboth literally in her heart and Life Fiber Clothing Jesus atthe same time? Is he sharing Ryuko’s body a la Birdy and Tsutomu and they justhave to build him a new one? Is it like Wan and Raava where they’re fused but(I presume) they can still speak to each other and maintain their own personalities?All of these could work in canon, and for something that’s supposed to giveclosure, it’s rather frustrating and confusing. What is even meant to beconveyed with such an ambiguous conclusion to Senketsu’s story? If he’s deadand the theme is moving on from fate, make it clear that he is indeeddead—don’t complicate it.

From The OVA is Awful if You Like Senketsu ☂:

Meanwhile Senketsu’s character is totally shat on [in the OVA], he’streated as little more than an object when his entire arc was about realizinghe’s human and so much more than that, this forced, last-minutemetaphor of “outgrowing your sailor uniform!!!” that never made sense inthe first place and was totally contradictory to the entire rest of the show isfurthered in the most demeaning way possible (“lol senketsu ur just a sailoruniform and guess i’ve moved on from them even though i actually still have ayear of high school left and also weren’t u supposed to be, like, my friend andequal? not anymore!”), and there’s such ambiguity about his final fate thatnobody can seem to agree if he’s even freaking dead or not… which just mucks upthese forced metaphors even more. 

I was fucked up for days after I first saw the OVA because Iwas so disappointed by it. I could not believe the treatment of Senketsu, andeven now I still cringe a bit whenever I edit with it or write about it.

From OVA Salt ☂:

The OVA’s supposed to have this big message about moving on(and, in Ryuko’s case, moving on from Senketsu’s loss… I mean, at least, I think that’swhat they’re going for, but it gets so muddled), but it’s hard for it to meanmuch when you don’t really see her suffering. How much didthis loss mean to her? Who knows, because the show doesn’t get into it verymuch.

Which is awful, because it’s a loss that should mean somuch to Ryuko. It was literally one of her greatest fears that she’dlose Senketsu. She had a recurring nightmare about it, and she was so fiercelyprotective over him that she would have died for him without even a moment’shesitation. The two of them are described as “soulmates,” a perfect team,“two-in-one.” She wanted to spend the rest of her life with him. This isthe kind of death that deserves some time. And you just don’tget much in the OVA, and what you do pretty much reducesSenketsu to an object.

It’s just… disappointing, especially because I don’t thinkany other (heroic) character would have been treated like this if they had diedinstead–and the OVA certainly wouldn’t be so widely accepted if they were.

From Gurren Lagann, Re: Cutie Honey: Kill la Kill Ending Salt ☂:

Again, I think there’s merit in tragedies and the sad factthat things aren’t always going to work out. I think Senketsu’s death couldhave been really poignant and powerful even if it broke my heart. But themessage they went with [Senketsu living “wouldn’t do anything” for Ryuko’s growth] leaves me empty and not feeling anything but disappointment,and, even worse, it’s not even a tasteful portrayal of such a message as “TheSense of Wonder” is. Senketsu’s entire person is discarded, and a loss that should bemonumental is brushed aside as something righteous and “for the best.”

Okay, that’s a heck of a lot of TLDR, too. So, basically, I guess it comes down to this:

The idea of moving on from the past is fine. It’s fine to do that in relation to a character’s death—even great! However, Senketsu—literally the second or third-most important character—has a death scene that lasts, in its entirety, hardly over one minute. One. Minute. For the protagonist’s canonically-described soulmate. It’s just not good.

And not only that, Senketsu also dies less than five minutes before the end of the series. The show only focuses on Ryuko’s grief for a brief moment and then Senketsu is promptly ignored until, right at the last minute, the show decides, oh, right, yeah, Senketsu, moving on from sailor uniforms, yeah, sure. It seems to me that Senketsu was originally far less of a character than he ended up being, and that’s fine… but then you can’t just shove in your originally-intended ending and act like it’s cool. It’s not.

In fact, I’m sure Senketsu didn’t used to be such a character, because Ryuko thinking about Senketsu in the last moment of episode 24 wasn’t even in the almost-final script. The “outgrowing sailor uniforms” thing ended up being so tacked on in the final version of the story that even the nearly-final draft just kinda threw it out there and completely abandoned it. 

So that big, overarching idea of “moving on from the past” that the OVA tries to build on? It was literally thrown together last minute. And it shows. It shows so hard.

Because think of it this way: say Mako died, in the last five minutes of the last episode, in hardly a minute. Say that, as she perished, she told Ryuko that she’d only be holding her back in life (even though the entire rest of the series says otherwise), and that it’s good for her to go. Say Ryuko cried for all of thirty seconds and then there’s a flash forward and she’s shopping with her sister with cheerful music. Say that the whole show ends when Ryuko sees a girl who looks like Mako, feels sad for a second, and then is hunky-dory because she knows Mako helped her get her to where she is.

Would that seem well done or like a sad, but beautiful display of moving on? No! There would be an uproar if this happened! Mako’s death would have felt ridiculously tacked on and pointlessly cruel!

But that’s exactly what happened with Senketsu. His death isn’t given proper time, the “moving on” message is so forced that you don’t even really see it in an almost-final version of the script, and the only reason it gets accepted is because Senketsu doesn’t look like a cute human girl or guy.

And that is why I can’t stand the ending of Kill la Kill.

[jamesgriffithsphotography-blog]

Southwest in March

link

So I finally kind of finished going through my photos from my trip with my dad to the southwest this past March. It was a lot going through all of the photos I had taken and trying to find the best ones from each spot, especially because it was my first time in the region and I really fell in love with it. Besides you can never fully capture the feeling of a place with a photo, but you can try.

We flew into Las Vegas on a Thursday, which ended up being a Friday because of a Delay, and got a hotel outside of the city around 2AM local time (which was about 5AM our time). I didn’t take any pictures of the city, we drove down the strip just to see it but we were both exhausted and really just wanted to find a place to sleep.

The next day I got my first glimpses of the southwest landscape, and honestly just driving through it was one of my favorite parts about this trip. Our first stop was Lake Mead and the Hoover Dam. I didn’t take too many pictures that really stood out to me here, but the one below looking over the spillway at the dam was kind of cool.

After that we spent most of the day driving through Arizona towards the main overlooks of the Grand Canyon. We spent another night near the park entrance and went in first thing the next morning. It was amazing seeing this for the first time, and really demonstrates how hard it is to capture something as impressive as that in a photo. My favorite was from near the Desert View Watchtower (I believe that’s part of Navajo Point). It’s the first image in this post.

We drove out of the Grand Canyon park and stopped at the Little Colorado River Navajo Tribal Park. I loved this spot because it was so quiet and peaceful (hardly anyone was around) and yet you still had a really spectacular view. I don’t feel like I got anything too great here, I was mostly focused on enjoying it for myself, but this is about what it looked like.

And there was this tree there that I liked.

link

We left sometime in the mid afternoon and headed north towards Page Arizona and Horseshoe Bend. Horseshoe Bend is something I’ve wanted to see for a long time, in fact I probably would have been happy if it was the only thing I got to see. It’s just outside of Page so we decided to get a hotel in the city and go out a little before sunset. It’s a cool place, completely free (which seems weird to me coming from New York) you just park in a dirt lot on the side of the road and walk about a half mile over a slightly hilly path to the edge of the canyon. It was drizzling on and off which will often bring out some pretty cool features in the sky, like this rainbow I saw on the way.

link

And then we made it to the edge. Definitely one of my favorite views, and again the picture is nothing like being there. I found a pretty good spot before the crowds started to come. It’s a popular place (probably especially being a Saturday night). I didn’t want to lose my spot before the light got just right so I ended up sitting on the edge for about an hour while my dad paced around nervously a few yards back. I just wanted a simple wide angle shot with a little atmosphere and color in the sky, and I feel like I got it. I especially loved how clear the reflections in the water were coming out.

link

The next day we basically just relaxed in the area around Page. There’s so much nearby and you could really spend a lot more time there than we did. We drove up by Lake Powell which is where I got the picture below.

link

After I took this I wanted to go down into that little cove you can see in the picture, and from where we were it didn’t seem too far and the climb didn’t seem that steep. I started working my way down and quickly realized that the look of this hill was deceiving. I made it down though, and tried to take a picture to show how steep it was. It didn’t look that impressive in the pictures I was taking from the bottom but I was able to get an overview shot later on when we were looking out over the lake from the Glen Canyon Dam.

You should be able to see the road winding around near the top and a car parked, that’s where we were. I climbed straight down that in flat sneakers and only tripped once when I was already at the bottom. Now I feel better about myself. Below is the picture I went down there to take.

Now we moved on from Lake Powell and took a ride down 98 to see the area. I saw this mesa (or butte, not really sure) and had this idea for a shot. We pulled over and I set up my camera to take a series of images (with paying special attention to frame it without the fence that was right in front of me).

I stitched the photos together after I got home and the following is what I got. I was really happy with this, it’s always a good feeling when you have a vision in your head and your able to produce just that.

link

That night back at the hotel my dad found this balcony down the hall from our room that had a pretty awesome view of the north side of the city. It was especially awesome having the road there winding down towards the canyon. I set up my camera there around sunset and was able to get this sun-star shot with my wide angle lens.

link

And about a half hour later the colors in the sky really came out and I took this one with my 60mm lens.

link

The following day (Monday) we headed out of Page and into Utah, the main plan here was to go to Zion National Park but I wanted to see if there was anything cool to stop at along the way. I noticed about midway between Page and Zion there was the ghost town of Paria Utah and I thought that sounded pretty awesome. There’s a memorial kind of thing telling you about the town on the side of US 89 where a dirt road takes you in. We followed that and it was pretty smooth for a few miles before we turned a corner and both sides of the road seemed to just drop off. That’s where I saw the following image. This is technically part of the Grand Staircase National Monument and something about all of the colors in the mountains made me think of Dr. Seuss. I did a wide angle panorama which gives this a nearly 180 degree view (If I had to guess I’d say 160 degrees). You can see the road on the far left and just a little past the right edge is the other side of the road. By the way the actual town was a few more miles down the road, and I guess for some reason I thought there would be buildings or something down there. It was just a cemetery and a few plaques designating the site. I’m happy we went though.

link

The next image I really liked was this one from the northern section of Zion. We went there before going to the main section of the park because it’s a lot less crowded. This was cool because besides a few hikers every now and then we were completely alone. This is a panorama I took with my 60mm lens from off of the Hop Valley Trail. You can see Red Butte in the mid ground and Black Ridge in the background. At least I’m about 90% sure that’s what you can see, sometimes I’m bad with mountains. I love the contrast between the two very different mountains.

link

That was one of the last images I took on this trip. We did go down to the main part of Zion after this. After about an hour and a half of walking and bus rides we made it to the start of the trail towards the Narrows, it was closed at the time because of flooding but I wanted to see the start of it. So we went down the trail and found a cool spot so I took off my backpack to get my camera out. Unfortunately I had never put my camera back in my bag after we left the northern section. So I was more than an hour bus ride from my camera in a place I had wanted to go to for quite some time. I had my phone but it just wasn’t the same. I took that as a sign to just enjoy being there. I did use my phone for a few shots and videos just to have and we walked down the rest of the trail to the Narrows as it started to rain. I’m glad we did it, if for nothing else to say we saw it. Below is the proof, and you can kind of tell why I don’t like to rely on my phone for pictures. It’s a pain to focus and with the rain and low light it really doesn’t do a great job. There’s probably something I can do to improve it but why would I when I’ll always have my big camera :)

After that we headed back to our car and spent a night in St. George before driving back to Las Vegas in the morning for our flight home. All in all one of my favorite trips. We saw so much in a relatively short period of time and still felt like we had enough time to enjoy it all. I do want to spend some more time there in the future, but now I have a list of all the things I missed.

[inhumansforever]

Inhumans Prime Review

spoilers spoilers spoilers spoilers spoilers spoilers spoilers spoilers spoilers

It’s the beginning of a new era, wrapping up the end of the Inhuman/X-Men war and bridging the way to next month’s launch of The Royals.  Brought to you by the creative team of Al Ewing, Ryan Sook, Chris Allen, and Paul Mounts.  Full recap/review following the jump.

Issues like this, that are mostly set ups and are labels as ‘prime’ or ‘issue zero’ or ‘alpha’ are quite often perfunctory and usually entail short vignettes of various characters, acting as a kind of state-of-the-union that lets readers know where the players are at prior to getting the story under way.  Writer Al Ewing bucks this trend and tells an actual tale, with action, mystery and intrigue.  It’s still not essential reading and, with a lofty price tag, fans looking forward to The Royals, Secret Warriors, and Black Bolt can totally skip it without worrying that they’ll miss out on key details.  

The story begins in earth’s orbit where Noh-Varr’s apartment/Kree drop-ship circles the globe.  Noh is watching the news on television and sees that the Inhumans and X-Men have ended their hostilities.  Their war had resulted in the destruction of the Terrigen Cloud, eliminating all Terrigen and essentially bringing to an end the future of the Inhuman race.  

Noh is perplexed by this, but it quickly dawns on him that The Inhumans of this reality do not truly know what The Terrigen is.  Noh is from an alternate reality and he possesses knowledge about the origins of Terrigen that could save the Inhuman race.

The narrative switches to Arizona, where Maximus marches his band of ne’er-do-wells across the desert plains.  Max’s gang, made up of Triton, Lineage and The Unspoken, follow him because they have no where else to go.  He had promised them glory and redemption with his plot to generate synthetic terrigen (as detailed in Uncanny Inhumans #’s 18-20) but it had all resulted in little more than a romp whereby Max gained critical knowledge and a bit of fun and the others were just used as pawns.   Lockjaw teleports onto the scene, bringing with him Karnak.  Karnak is there to arrest these Inhuman criminals and bring them to justice on New Attilan.  Yet Maximus is not done having his brand of fun and he uses his psychic powers to force Triton to do battle against his brother.  Unable to resist Max’s influence, Triton attacks.  

The fight is quick and decisive.  I don’t believe I’ve ever seen Triton and Karnak go at it before.  Even though Karnak has never gone through Terrigenesis his ardent training and ability to perceive flaws easily offers him the upper hand on his brother.  A swift jab to a critical point on Triton’s forehead renders him instantly unconscious.  

Still, Maximus is not content to go quietly.  It turns out that he had save a last piece of Terrigen Crystal, feeding it to The Unspoken and endowing him with vast (albeit temporary) powers.  Perhaps Max is influences The Unspoken, because for the first time that I have seen he uses his abilities in a creative fashion, transforming himself into a giant fire-breathing beast.

Fortunately, Karnak’s arrival was merely reconnoissance and Lockjaw teleports in the remainder of Medusa’s forces.  Herein we get a neat splash page showing us all of the central Inhumans (new and old) who are set to play a part in the books moving forward.  

As impressive a force as all these Inhumans are, The Unspoken is still a formidable adversary while his powers last.  He blasts Black Bolt from the sky and downs an embiggened Ms. Marvel with a spot of judo.   As long as his powers last The Unspoken remains a terrible threat, yet Reader is able to neutralize it all by reading a tile with the fast-forward symbol from a television remote control.  It causes the time in which The Unspoken’s powers last to speed up, making minutes into seconds and quite suddenly the Unspoken finds his powers spent, resulting in his shrinking back down into his withered and enfeebled self.  

And still Maximus is not ready to quit.  Somewhere down the line Max has developed a much more potent version of his psychic powers.  He is able to take over the wills of half of the Inhumans, forcing the newer Inhumans to fighter the older ones.   The mayhem comes to an end when Lockjaw teleports in one last Inhuman.  The empathic Captain Swain shows up and, as guessed, her own powers of psychic manipulation acts to cancel out Maximus’.  Finally beaten, the mad prince is forced to surrender.  

Maximus is taken to New Attilan and imprisoned in a specialized cell that nullifies his psychic powers.   Black Bolt visits his brother like he had so many times in the past.  And once more Maximus baits and cajoles his brother with rambling insults. 

Just as Black Bolt has had enough of Max’s blithering, Max beckons him closer with the promise of a secret.  He whispers something to Black Bolt, something the reader is not privy to.  Whatever this secret is, it shocks Black Bolt, leaving him visibly shaken and disturbed.   

Black Bolt leaves his brother’s cell and encounters Medusa.  She can tell that he is upset and asks what is wrong, but Black Bolt refuses to tell.  Interestingly, Medusa refers to Black Bolt as ‘my husband.’  I had thought their marriage annulled, but apparently this was not the case.  Regardless, Medusa respects that her husband does not wish to discuss what it is that has so unnerved him.  

The trial of Maximus proceeds the next day.  Likely at Black Bolt behest, The Inhuman healer, Panacea has temporarily surpassed aspects of Max’s neurological functioning, leaving him in an unconscious state.  Gorgon wonders allowed why this has been done to him.  Panacea suspects that it is simply because no one wants to here his constant prattling, yet the truth is much more likely that Black Bolt doesn’t want him sharing his secret knowledge.  

It’s never made entirely clear exactly what Maximus is charged with, what it is that has necessitated this trial.  Of course his many crimes are too numerous to list, but a little specification would have been nice.  In any case, Maximus is sentenced to a life in prison, but in a prison on another world off somewhere in the cosmos.  Exactly where this prison is located, who the jailers are, is left unsaid.  My guess is that medusa is referring to the same prison set to play a key role in Saladim Ahmed and Christian’s Ward’s Black Bolt solo series set to launch in May.  

Following Maximus’ sentencing, Medusa gives a long speech addressing the future of Inhumankind.  She has not only abdicated the throne, but also dissolved the monarchy.  New Attilan will remain a sovereign state, but one under a new system of rule.  And the young Inhuman, Iso, has been tasked with overseeing the transition.  Iso gives a speech of her own, outlining her pledge to do her best to guide New Attilan into an uncertain future.  Without Terrigen there will be no subsequent generation of Inhumans.  Their culture and way of life has been put on a trajectory toward extinction, yet by remaining together, maintaining unity perhaps some semblance of what it means to be Inhuman may be salvaged.  

Throughout Iso’s speech, where shown clips of what many of the other Inhumans are up to.  We see Ms. Marvel and Moon Girl playing with Lockjaw; Daisy Johnson, Synapse and Sara Garaza (hey, nice to see her again!) watching the speech from a Shield base with a secretly-sinister Captain America lurking in the background; 

and Karnak taking his brother, Triton, to the Tower of Wisdom.  A final clip shows Black Bolt standing atop the tower of New Attilan, watching a storm cloud rolling in the horizon.  

An epilogue shows Crystal and Swain talking in a suite somewhere in New Attilan.  Crystal laments the loss of the Terrigen and the eventual doom of Inhumanity.  As things stand, Inhuman children and their children’s children will never be able to go through Terrigenesis.  They will never know the wonders and perils of what it truly means to be Inhuman.  Their conversation is suddenly interrupted by the arrival of Noh-Varr.  Crystal asks who he is and Noh responds with his classic line from the Young Avengers: ‘I’m Marvel Boy, come with me if you want to be awesome.’  

As detailed in the prologue, Noh is from an alternate universe and possesses knowledge of the Terrigen Crystals that may very well save the Inhuman race.  Yet what this knowledge is and what sort of adventure Noh has in store for the Inhuman Royals will have to wait until next month’s first issue of The Royals.  

An interesting bridge between the older chapter of the Inhuman mythos and the one to come.  There was some very cool parts to this issue as well as a few things that left me a bit cold. 

On the plus side of things, I’m hugely intrigued by the mysteries set up to play out in The Royals and Black Bolt.  I’m a longtime fan of Noh-Varr and I’m very happy to see him brought on board.  His advanced knowledge of the Kree from a parallel dimension makes him the ideal guide for The Royals’ upcoming sojourn into outer space.  

The advertisements for future issues of The Royals have hinted at Black Bolt possessing some monumental secret that could alter the fate of the Inhumans.  Whatever this secret is, it appears that Maximus has learned it as well and whatever efforts Black Bolt has made to bury or suppress this key knowledge may no longer suffice.  I can’t wait to find out what it is.  

The action was pretty cool as well, the fight between Triton and Karnak being the highlight.  And I was quite happy to see Triton offered a place in the Tower of Wisdom rather than being sent back to a human prison.  Hopefully this will entail the beginning of Triton’s redemption and we will soon see ol’ Fishstick standing once again side by side with the royal family.  

There were two quick matters that I particularly appreciated (and that I feel bode well for the stories moving forward).  The first is Medusa’s acknowledging the folly of Attilan’s being a former slave state during her speech.  The matter of the Alpha Primitives were completely omitted throughout the entirety of Charles Soule’s run on The Inhumans.   It’s a good bet that Soule did so on the urgings of his editors; I’m guessing that sweeping the matter under the rug was an aspect of Marvel’s efforts to make The Inhumans more appealing to a broader audience.  Whatever the case, I’m glad to see the issue will no longer be left unaddressed.  It’s a shameful and disturbing aspect of The Inhumans’ history, but the mistakes of the past should never be forgotten.  

The second thing I appreciated was Maximus’ condemnation of Black Bolt over how the Terrigen Cloud had so terribly effect the Mutants.  Although it was coming from Maximus, I’m glad to see the narrative relinquish the effort to recast the Inhumans as blameless on the matter. 

 It offers me confidence that Al Ewing understands that the Inhumans are cool and interesting because of their flaws, not despite them.  

There were a few places where the dialogue was a bit stiff.  Based on interviews Al Ewing has been given, and tidbits gleaned from his twitter account, it seems as though Ewing is quite excited to get The Royals off the ground.  Writing this bridge issue may have felt kind of like something Ewing just needed to get through so he can tell the story he is more interested in.   The perfunctory nature of the issue seemed evident in parts.  

The whats and wheres of Maximus’ prison seemed to be purposefully vague.  I’m guessing that Ewing did not want to step on Ahmed’s toes in terms of what is set to transpire in the Black Bolt solo series.   I suppose this could have been handled with a bit more finesses, but it’s a minor complaint.  Regardless, it’s looking more likely that Maximus may play a role in get Black Bolt solo, which is an exciting prospect.  

I’m sad to see that the Royal Inhumans are doing away with their official titles.  It’s going to be hard not thinking of Medusa as a queen and Black Bolt as a king.  I hope that Swain continues to accidentally refer to Crystal as ‘princess’; perhaps it will act as a way of showing that this change is temporary, that the team will regain their royalty if they are able to succeed in quest to obtain a new source of Terrigen.  

It also bothered me to see Medusa refer to Black Bolt as husband.  I’m hoping that winning back Medusa will be something that Black Bolt has to work on.  Furthermore, it doesn’t sit well with me that their marriage hadn’t been annulled… it means that Medusa’s affair with Johnny Storm was an extramarital infidelity.  

Ryan Sook is a great artist, one of the best illustrators working in the field today.  That said, his penciling for this issue does not in my opinion represent his best effort.  A lot of it seemed rushed and some of the action scenes felt rather static.  Both Medusa and Iso’s facial expressions were also kind of static and odd looking at times.  

While The Royals and Black Bolt received ample set-up, almost no attention was offered to The Secret Warriors.  This is likely in deference to writer, Mathew Rosenberg.   Rosenberg will be telling the story of what brings the Secret Warriors together amidst the backdrop of the Secret Empire event and it appears that Ewing is leaving the entirety of that tale in Rosenberg’s hands.  A good idea and I’m sure Rosenberg appreciates it… still a little more page-time for Quake, Ms. Marvel and Moon Girl would have been nice.  

Minor complaints for a book that was overall quite satisfying.  Again, this is by no means essential reading.  It’s a fun read for Inhuman fans who have a broader comic book buying budget…  but by no means crucial to those looking forward to The Royals, Black Bolt and Secret Warriors.  

Unnecessary but fun nonetheless.  Two out of five Lockjaws.  

[condensed-theorem-shop]

Hi, you seem to have lots of opinions on fics (esp. Glowfics) and I'm reading radiance right now. So I was wondering if you have any good fanfic recommendations for when I finish c:

Ooooh okay I can do this :D I’m not sure if you want recs for glowfic or fanfic or both or what, so I’m gonna err on the side of Everything.

Cut for Much Length.

Part 1: Glowfic Collections

If you’d like another big reading project to start on, boy do I have recommendations for you.

Effulgence. I’d describe Effulgence as the paradigmatic glowfic. (Don’t be daunted to the fact that the link is to a ‘how to read’; it is not in fact tricky to read. There’s a series of links on an index page, and you can just read through each in order.) The basic conceit is that Alicorn writes AU versions of Bella-from-Luminosity into tons of different fanfic universes, and then all of them meet up and take over the universe and also cuddle a lot. The exciting other half is Kappa(/Pyth/@shitifindon), Alicorn’s cowriter for Effulgence; Kappa writes various AU versions of the Joker (yes, from Batman) who are fantastic adorable masochists and fall madly in love with the AU-Bellas (“Bells”). The shipping is so adorable. I cannot recommend it enough.

Silmaril. Probably the biggest glowfic continuity (“story spanning a bunch of worlds that meet up”) aside from Effulgence, and (unlike Effulgence) currently updating, so it’s talked about a lot in the community right now. Hence, a good choice if you want to hop right into the discussions. (Please do!!) The writers for this one are Alicorn and Lintamande, the latter of whom writes a fantastic Lord-of-the-Rings setting with a cast of Elves from the Silmarillion who are traumatized and fantastic and huggable.

Particularly Good Threads. Okay, this one is cheating, but it’s worth linking. People on the forum are trying to compile a list of recommended glowfics. Some of them are not necessarily maximally recommended to someone new to glowfic, but people put brief explanations of what they’re reccing them for, so it should hopefully still be helpful.

Part 2: Individual Glowfics

The thing about glowfics is that they tend to spin off each other – Lintamande decides to write her elf characters in space this time, Alicorn has a version of Bella who is male and a demon visit, he ends up interestingly traumatized from that, then Kappa goes “hey can we write about what would happen if that interestingly traumatized Bell met my version of a character from the Vorkosigan Saga who was from a different universe and then met a monument and now travels in a floating canoe,” and you end up with a really fantastic story which no one can make sense of unless they have read, like, a dozen prerequisite threads.

So I can’t just recommend my favorite glowfics, because none of them would make sense; and you can’t really just start browsing through the glowfics on the Constellation unless you’re willing to put up with half of them being nonsensical. Reading through Effulgence will help a lot with that, as will getting familiar with the casts of a few of the more prolific glowficcers (Kappa writes the Joker, Miles Vorkosigan, Tony Stark, and Sherlock Holmes a lot; Pedro writes Sadde, who’s original to him; Lintamande has her various Elves). For the moment, though, here’s some glowfics that require relatively little context.

blood sweat tear: A fairy Bell meets Miles Vorkosigan. Works well without much context because Miles is figuring out what’s going on, so you can figure it out along with him.

in spite of a nail: An episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, if Bella were the Slayer and Kappa’s Sherlock were a vampire.

Lindworm: A classic fairy tale, with Bella as the heroine and a Joker as the dragon.

there’s only so much I can turn into: A good introduction to Sadde, since you’ve read Luminosity already! Getting to know Sadde will make a lot more glowfic accessible. Addy finds a Sadde.

in which a Bell is the second coming of Christ: exactly what it sounds like, and fantastic. No context needed.

Pre-Jump Earth Literature: a good introduction to Miles Vorkosigan, in his canon setting. And you get a gander at the popular Miles/Yvette ship!

Uninvited Guests are Welcome Here: another case where both sets of characters are a bit lost and explaining their worlds to each other, which makes it an excellent introduction to those worlds.

you know what they say about the young: Matilda (yes, from Roald Dahl) appears in Middle-Earth and makes friends with a very tiny Feanor. Excessive adorableness ensues.

A Table for Two: Gregor, the emperor of Barrayar from the Vorkosigan Saga, meets … Hannibal. From Hannibal. It is very satisfying.

More Than One Kind Of Artifact: another characters-explain-their-worlds-to-each-other thread. A Bell from an original world with magic artifacts meets magical-girl Edie and Emily (who are the AU offspring of Magneto and Professor X, but that’s a whole nother thing…)

Part 3: Shameless Plugging

You didn’t think I was going to let you get away without reccing you a couple of my own glowfics, did you? :D

For context: Jean is my spy/revolutionary/actor/bundle of issues/world’s worst planner. Faith is my teenage antichrist who keeps trying to fix the world by taking it over via mind control and otherwise making very bad decisions.

the prettiest song I heard: a Jean in an original universe of Kappa’s gets really, really fucked up, and then falls in love. (So many warnings. So many warnings. I am serious about the warnings. But if you like that sort of thing…)

one for sorrow (two for joy): a Jean attempts to kidnap a prince and accidentally falls in love with him in the process. Hilarity ensues.

don’t let’s ask for the moon: set in an original universe of Alicorn’s, but not much of that actually comes up. (People get magic from eclipses.) Jean rescues Adelene’s character Denice from an institution; there is adorableness.

neither fish nor fowl: Jean and Denice in Star Wars, and this time she is the one rescuing him from himself. Jean does not make a very good Jedi.

Out of the Blue: Faith and Throne’s character Theo explore vampires in an original setting. Mistakes are made. So many of them.

Incipio: Faith and Theo again, in Buffy the Vampire Slayer this time.

Part 4: Fanfic

Taking a break from the glowfic for a while! Here’s some general fanfic recommendations.

At the End of All Things: If you’d like to meet Lintamande’s Elves outside of a glowfic setting, she’s got an enormous (in-progress) story about Elves brought back to life in the modern day! It is fantastic and depressing!

The Stone Gryphon: a serious, historical-fiction take on the Narnia books, and the events in England that happened in between them. Amazing historical tie-ins, and strikes a nice balance in its attitude towards the more spiritual aspects of the Narnia books which I think a lot of fics have trouble with.

The Foodieverse: an astonishingly well-written Avengers AU … in which all the characters are involved in the restaurant industry. Captain America has a food truck. It’s amazing.

Five Places Cinna Came From: a series of Hunger Games AUs, exploring different possible backstories for Cinna and doing a ton of worldbuilding along the way.

Move Fast and Break Things: @ozymandias271’s now-complete Avengers AU, with female!disabled!Tony Stark, adorable!Bucky, and general amazingness.

Steve Rogers at 100: Celebrating Captain America on Film: a story wrapped around accounts of Captain America movies, good and bad, that might have existed in-universe. I am so delighted by this kind of worldbuilding.

Part 5: Original Fiction

You didn’t ask, but I am sharing some online favorites anyway!

Worm: If you have not read it yet, you should! A gritty-superheroes narrative, distinguished from the million others in the genre by the really awesome thought that’s put into powers. Everyone thinks of inventive ways to use their powers and does it. Warning: super long. And depressing. Read it anyway! There are glowfics set there!

Goldmage: An original novel of Alicorn’s! Delightful worldbuilding, sweet and exciting and depressing, read it read it read it.

Elcenia: An immense work of original fiction by Alicorn. Very glowficcy in some ways (and lots of glowfics are set there, so that’s another reason to read it). In the first book, a woman is accidentally magically transported between worlds, and explored Alicorn’s super-thoroughly-worldbuilt original setting while figuring out exciting ways to leverage the contact. Each subsequent book takes some minor character or characters from previous books and tells their story. This has the delightful effect that you can then reread it, and when Random Dude #12 is being grumpy and unreasonable you know it’s because he’s just had his best friend kidnapped and is having to pretend nothing happened as part of an elaborate plot involving telepathic vampires (no, not a real example).

Cordyceps: Another one popular in the same general circles as Luminosity is. Mystery/horror/post-apocalyptic, and marvelous. And depressing and needs a lot of warnings -- you may be sensing a theme here.

Part 6: Other People

Other glowficcers on tumblr who might have recs for you, off the top of my head: @luminousalicorn @kelsbraintumbler @scientiststhesis @curiosity-discoverer-of-worlds @shitifindon @lintamande @aestrix @trickytalks @throne3d @marrinikari @ansiblelesbian @inquisitivefeminist @mischiefmanaged777twoofus @erinflight and I’m sure I’m still forgetting people. They are all way more approachable than you think! At least if you are like me and decide people are scary and unapproachable for no particular reason!

All y’all I tagged -- any other rec ideas? :D

[kuriquinn]

The Importance of Being Shin [3/?]

General Disclaimer

This chapter has been beta-read by: Sakura's Unicorn

"Oh, hey! There you are, Sai. Come in."

The directive comes from somewhere behind a wall of white; as usual, the Seventh Hokage is buried in paperwork up to his whiskers. Sai steps lightly into the office, closing the door behind him.

It's been over a week since he encountered Sasuke Uchiha while out on a personal errand, but it's the first time he's had a spare minute to get out of the house since then. Between Ino's incessant need for food, sex, or reassurances that she's still pretty, Sai has barely had the time to go to work let alone make what amounts to a social call, albeit with the Hokage.

Naruto clears a space in front of him, moving one of the large piles, and Sai raises an eyebrow. "You look like shit," he tells him honestly.

Naruto scowls. "At least I have an excuse. You were born looking like a creep."

"There's an awful lot of frustration in your voice," Sai notes. "Are you having enough sexual intercourse? Irritability is one of the first signs of –"

"Finish that sentence and I'll have you cleaning chewing gum off the desks at the Academy for the rest of your life – believe it!" Naruto threatens.

Sai smirks. "Whatever you say, Dickless."

"Can anyone on your team even pretend to respect this office?" Shikamaru lurks in the background, probably to make sure Naruto actually reads the documents he's supposed to. Sai also suspects that the Hokage's advisor routinely uses his shadow jutsu to keep Naruto from collapsing over his papers. "None of the other Hokage's advisors ever had to deal with this."

"Well, you could take a page out of Gai-sensei's book and challenge me to a duel every morning, but that's not exactly your style, is it?" Naruto sniggers and then abruptly shuts up as his body goes rigid. "Hey! Shikamaru, man! Come on!"

"We have business to discuss," his advisor reminds him, not even trying to sound patient as his shadow pins the Hokage in place. "And I'd like to get out of here before nine o'clock for once, so could we get on with it?"

"Ah, now I see who wears the pants in this relationship," Sai remarks, earning sour looks from both men even as Shikamaru releases Naruto.

"He's right, though," the blond man says grudgingly, his demeanour turning serious. "I assume Sasuke did his usual cryptic routine and didn't tell you anything?"

"You assume correctly."

Sasuke only offered him hints, but Sai still has contacts. His former Root comrades – the reformed ones who aren't serving prison sentences or dead – hear things. Because he has the ear of the Hokage, he is, in a way, an unofficial link between the old world and the new. So, they still pass information on to him in the hopes of preserving the greater good in Konoha.

Root is nothing but a distant memory now, and the children who suffered there have long since been rehabilitated through the care and effort of Sakura and her clinic. Which means there's only a specific group of children who would benefit from Sai's experience.

A specific, dangerous group of children…

His teammates filled him in on the Shin Uchiha incident long ago – of the lingering remnants of Orochimaru's experiments and countless emotionless clones with fully active Mangekyō Sharingan.

Sai shudders at that.

It's the army Danzo would have killed to possess had he lived.

Beyond Naruto's optimistic plans for the future, he hasn't heard much about how the clones are adjusting to the orphanage. But given the suspected nature of this meeting, he supposes he's about to find out.

Naruto appears to sense his thoughts.

"Listen, if you want to say no, I totally get it," the Hokage tells him with the air of someone resigned to hear the worst. "I know that things are busy for you right now with the baby coming and all. You probably want to spend as much time with Ino and your kid as possible."

"Perhaps you might tell me what the job is first before giving me the option to back out," Sai suggests. "Is that now how one is meant to preface the assignment of an unpleasant duty?"

"It's not unpleasant exactly," Naruto hedges with a minor twitch, "but it would be…challenging."

"Konoha will be accepting three of the Uchiha clones on a trial basis to see if integration is possible," Shikamaru says. "They're going to need an instructor."

For other members of Konoha's ninja elite, this would not be an unreasonable request, but Sai isn't exactly anyone's first choice for mentoring the city's youth. His upbringing inside Danzo Shimura's organization still casts a long shadow, and while people might be more at ease around him than certain other reformed shinobi, they would still prefer Sai not be the one to influence the next generation.

"Protocol dictates their instructor be of jōnin rank," he points out.

"And you and I both know you have more practical experience than half the people serving as jōnin right now," Naruto replies. He holds up several files. "The mission specs are in here if you're interested – official reports and what Sasuke found out – but I think you already know what I'm asking you. These kids need someone to teach them, and I think you're the best candidate for the job."

Even though this is what he expected, Sai is unsure how to answer.

"Wouldn't Kakashi be a more appropriate candidate in this case?" he questions carefully. "His experience with the Sharingan, not to mention his responsibility in training the legendary heroes of the Fourth Great Shinobi War…"

"Kakashi might have all that under his belt, but there are other important experiences he doesn't have," Shikamaru says. "You grew up being a nameless, expendable pawn for a secret organization. Sorry if that was indelicate."

"No, that is a fair assessment," Sai acknowledges.

"It's really not just that," Naruto interjects. "I mean, yeah, your upbringing definitely has some importance, but the reason you're the best person for this job is your relatability."

Sai blinks at this. "I don't understand."

"The reason Kakashi was a good teacher to us was that he understood us on a basic level," Naruto explains. "Sasuke and I were orphans. So was Kakashi. He knew what it was to lose his parents and he knew what it was like to be judged based on something he couldn't control. And he had a soft spot for Sakura because she reminded him of the girl he cared for when he was younger."

"Rin Nohara," Sai remembers. He has heard bits and pieces about Kakashi's past over the years, but has never asked directly; prior to joining Team 7, Danzo required he be familiar with every member's background.

"Yeah. Point is there was something there that let him bond with all of us. With the clone kids, he wouldn't have that," Naruto says. "Not that I'd rule out bringing him in to help. Considering Sasuke's made it clear he wants to be as hands-off as possible on this one, Kakashi might be the only one who can help them deal with their Sharingan issues. But these kids are going to need someone they can go to who can empathize with them…maybe even trust one day."

"I seem to recall it took a while for you and Sakura to trust me. What makes you think the same can't be said for these boys?"

"You're not working for an evil organization anymore, are you?" Naruto shoots back, but without any true malice. Instead, his expression shifts back to serious. "As long as I've known you, you've done your best to learn about what it means to be human. Whether it's from your stupid-ass books or just talking to other people, you know what it's like to start with zero real emotion or feelings – just like these kids. There's no one else in the entire city who has that experience, and that's why you're really the only one I can see succeeding in this task."

They hold each other's gaze for a long while. Naruto breaks it with a tired smile.

"At least, that's how I see it. Like I said before, I get it if you don't want to take this on. I know I'm doing an awesome job selling this –" Shikamaru rolls his eyes. "– but it's not going to be a walk in the park. You say the word and I'll find someone else. It'll be hard, but we've done more difficult things before."

Sai remains quiet for several minutes, thinking over what his friend has said. As much as Naruto tries to hoke about "selling" him on the idea, he is being utterly sincere.

To be honest, Sai is tempted to turn down the job.

As intriguing as it is, he thinks Naruto gives him too much credit. He didn't achieve his current lifestyle by himself.

In some ways, it's Sai's association with Konoha's current Sannin and his membership within the renowned Team 7 that has allowed him to integrate into city affairs as (relatively) easily as he has. That and his wife's imposing nature.

Sai never realised that becoming the husband of Ino Yamanaka would lead to so many opportunities, whether it be choice invitations to social gatherings or establishing healthy work relationships with others. From existing in the shadows without even a name, Sai has become an actual upstanding member of the community.

With a job and everything.

When Sai was younger, he never would have dreamed that he would grow up to be the head city planner of the Leaf village. Instead of wetwork and black ops, he designs buildings and monuments to showcase Konoha's distinct spirit. All of his paintings have names now, and he's even sold a few to collectors.

And then, of course, there are the changes that he attributes to becoming a father.

Inojin is a perplexing child. It's as if every quality of Ino's that Sai finds mystifying and everything she doesn't understand about him were mixed together to create this…peculiar, amazing and completely separate individual; one that Sai loves with his entire heart, a sensation he never experienced before.

Nor did he ever truly expect to experience it again and yet, in a month or so, there's going to be another tiny, new life in their home. A daughter, the scans say. He's admitted only to Ino (and Sakura because she's always had a unique gift of getting him to talk about his feelings) how terrified he is of the prospect.

"You'll be fine," his friend and former teammate told him months ago when he first expressed these doubts. "You've done a great job with Inojin and, if you have any problems, you have so many people who would help you out." A surprisingly true fact.

But Naruto was right earlier; Sai would much rather be preparing for his daughter's birth, enjoying his wife and son, and planning Konoha's cityscape than embarking on what sounds like a long, complicated mentorship.

However…

There is a very strong part of him that knows he would not forgive himself for putting his happiness in front of the needs of three young boys – especially those who have been raised in not entirely dissimilar circumstance to him.

It is a testament to his friendship with Naruto, Sakura, and even Sasuke over the years that he could feel this empathy.

"I appreciate your offer to find someone else, however, you're correct," Sai says. "These boys will not develop in an environment where they are surrounded by the reminders of their past. In Root, we were forced to become desensitized to the deaths of our brothers. It was something we were required to learn. These clones have had it practically bred into them."

Naruto brightens. "So you'll do it?"

"Yes."

"Great," Naruto says, relief evident in his voice. "To be honest, I really didn't have a back-up if you didn't take it."

"You're not exactly known for your contingency plans," Sai adds.

"You won't start with them right away," Shikamaru says, also sounding relieved. "Once they're in the village, they'll need to undergo mandatory psychiatric evaluations."

"And they need to be instructed in the shinobi way," Naruto adds. "They'll have to attend lessons of some sort, but that probably won't take too long. "

"They have Sharingan, as well as more practical experience than most chūnin, so that should cut the time short. According to Kabuto's reports, they are highly intelligent, so the usual five years of Academy instruction won't be required."

"Which is a good thing because I don't want them around too many people just yet," Naruto says firmly. "Just because they're geniuses doesn't mean they have the right skills to get along with other kids."

"A situation which you would know nothing about," Sai notes, thinking of the stories his teammates have told him about Naruto's academic performance; the term 'dead-last' comes to mind.

"Watch it!"

"I am merely offering an observation that Sasuke would be making if he were here and not changing diapers," Sai says dismissively. "Speaking of, this is a matter of the Uchiha, isn't it? Shouldn't their new clan head be here? Inojin has been talking about the news for a month now."

Naruto makes a face.

"Usually? Yeah. But this was all decided before Sarada officially took over. Sasuke said something about not bringing old world thinking into the new clan or some angsty bullshit like that," Naruto complains, earning a discreet cough from Shikamaru. "Anyway, whatever his logic is, I happen to agree that Sarada shouldn't be burdened with too much of this until she's more accustomed to her responsibilities."

"And there are many," Sai says. "Quite a lot for a girl her age. Inojin is having his own difficulties simply shadowing Ino these days. For Sarada to take all of those duties on…"

"Well, it's an Uchiha thing, I think – they're all goddamn overachievers," Naruto says, although there's affection and pride there rather than criticism.

"Honestly, I'd rather she be an overachieving bureaucrat than become head of ANBU at thirteen," Shikamaru notes. "Because that turned out so well the last time."

It's a sobering sentiment and the three of them exchange grim looks.

None of them knew the truth about Itachi Uchiha until after the war – during, in Naruto's case – but they were all affected by choices he made. None of them want to see their children experience the same difficult decisions he faced.

Sai decides he doesn't like the tension in the room. Social protocol demands a change in subject, or so he's been trained by his wife to believe.

"Where will the boys be staying?" he asks, half-expecting Naruto to suggest something ridiculous like hosting all of them at the Hokage's residence. Hinata would probably let him, too; the woman is still utterly besotted, even after all these years.

There's a knock from outside the office and Naruto grins. "Funny you should ask that. Come in!"

The door swings open, revealing a familiar, weary-looking face.

"Yamato?" Sai asks, the question directed to both Naruto and the former interim leader of Team 7.

"Lord Seventh," Yamato says in greeting. Of everyone formerly on Team 7, he's the only one who ever refers to Naruto by his title even when they are speaking informally. "Anko Mitarashi just relieved me of my surveillance duties and directed me to come see you." He then nods at the others. "Shikamaru. Sai."

"Oh, yeah. I needed to talk to you," Naruto says, rubbing the back of his head sheepishly.

"Something that couldn't be conveyed via messenger bird?"

"This is better said in person," Naruto shrugs. "There's a situation that's come up that I need to know your thoughts on. If you're interested, Anko will temporarily take over your assignment."

"She's been retired for years," Yamato says in mild protest.

"Don't let her obsession with sweets fool you – she's still lethal," he warns. "And crazy. More importantly, she knows the old snake's habits pretty well."

"Are my abilities in question?"

"No. That's not it at all. In fact, I have another job in mind for you."

Yamato, Sai notes, has the sense to look at least slightly worried.

つづく

クリ

First

Previous Chapter - Next Chapter

[emilykatie]

20 Dad Things to Do on Father's Day

Make this Father’s Day Gifts delivery a great one with these 20 pop-approved games, projects and activities. Getting messy is definitely required!

In her job as a physician's assistant, my wife has been required to work in the E.R., get ready for 6 a.m. surgeries, and be on call — all things that have led to a rewarding career but nothing close to what our parents called a “normal work schedule.”

As such, it’s often just our two sons and me, the three Vrabel men, waking up to a day full of endless possibility and promise. And these days tend to begin the same way: with me making breakfast and asking, “So what’s on the agenda today?” and the boys responding with…well, abject silence, since they’re upstairs furiously Minecrafting while I talk to a stack of speedily cooling Belgian waffles.

Given the opportunity, my sons would be pretty well satisfied devoting one to 48 hours of their day to Minecraft. In these cases, it falls to me to devise the plan for the day, an activity or outing that not only has enough appeal to peel them away from their 8-bit fantasyland but also accomplishes the following: 1) enriches their lives; 2) helps them grow into wise, fulfilled adults; 3) is mentally active; 4) is physically active; 5) falls within my state’s laws of personal safety; 6) doesn’t cost $20,000; 7) is something I wouldn’t mind doing either. So, you know, no pressure.

Every parent wants to fill his children’s hours with activities that will empower and enrich them; every parent has stared at a wall repeating, “Yeah, I have no idea what that is.” To that end—and to celebrate Happy Fathers Day Gift to India online delivery —here’s an incomplete list of DAD things to do with your kids, as written by actual dads, prominent bloggers, musicians, and me, a humble writer-slash-Belgian-waffle aficionado.

1. Play in the street.

Sam Weinman, a New York City editor and author of Win at Losing: How Our Biggest Setbacks Can Lead to Our Greatest Gains, approaches parenting with this idea: “Allow them to be the conduit to your younger self. I like to remind my boys that being a kid never gets old.” His go-to? Dragging out two goals, waiting for traffic to subside, and playing a little hockey in the street. He’s even turned it into an annual event: a round-robin tournament with four kids and a dad on each team. Winners take home a replica of the Stanley Cup trophy—which is actually a popcorn maker. “It’s arguably the highlight of the year.”

2. Introduce them to a record player. Now, granted, this isn’t for everybody: It doesn’t always work to have a 2-year old’s peanut butter–covered hands around a precision device that doesn’t play if you bump it. But some years ago, I ventured into the attic to retrieve my old and spider-infested collection of records, and on many nights since, we’ve been charmed by this relic from the past. We page through the massive art, make jokes about bizarre 1970s-era artist names (“Meat Loaf?” my eighth-grader said one night, shaking his head in bemused disbelief. “Why don’t people make any sense?”), and indulge in the novel idea of listening to something straight through, instead of fast-forwarding or commanding Alexa to play something different.

RELATED: How to Spend More Quality Time With Your Child

3. Invent new cereals. According to my 6-year-old, I have been eating Cocoa Pebbles incorrectly for decades. He told me this while retrieving two other boxes of cereal, from which he created an innovative new breakfast called CocoaLuckyTrix. For the week after, we started breakfast by engaging in some cereal alchemy, producing such inventions as Cinnamon Toast Flakes, Rice Krispiespuffs, and my personal favorite, Marshmallow Apple Pebbles.

4. Learn which colas can explode. Everybody knows that Diet Coke + Mentos = geysers of carbonated awesomeness. But though it’s the most famous reactive liquid, Diet Coke isn’t the only drink that will activate on contact with Mentos and make a mess of your kitchen! Head to the grocery store and grab a sample of other sodas. (This is for science, so the cheap bottles work just fine.) If you’re feeling especially MythBuster-y, tape several pieces of poster board together, mark off heights, and see which beverage creates the greatest geyser. (Hint: Don’t skimp on the diet root beer.)

5. Send screens back in time. If your kids are into video games anyway, bond with and/or horrify them by showing them the ancient video games you had to deal with as a child. There are a few ways to do this: You can get an Atari simulator at Walmart for about $40, and Nintendo has released new (and tiny) “Classic Edition” plug-and-play versions of its NES and Super Nintendo consoles. The NES Classic Edition comes preloaded with 30 games, including Super Mario Bros. 3, Metroid, The Legend of Zelda, Dr. Mario, and Castlevania.

The Super NES Classic has Street Fighter II, Super Mario World, Super Mario Kart, and Super Metroid. Best part: Both let you save points, so hitting the power button no longer means obliterating your progress! Bonus: If your kids are into Minecraft, the graphics and gameplay on a Super Nintendo will seem like some impossible magic from the future.

RELATED: Want to Feel Old? Watch This Little Girl Try to Run a Gameboy

6. Climb your city. Troy Carpenter, dad and Instagram star @redblueox, has an altitude-themed go-to for his oldest: visiting monuments and ascending to urban heights. He’ll take his kids to Indianapolis’s downtown Soldiers & Sailors monument or figure out which days of the week he can visit the top floor of other skyscrapers. If you’re in a city with older kids, finding the highest heights can be a perfect mix of urban adventuring and making sure they get enough exercise to sleep well that night.

7. Create a spy network. Few concepts capture a kid’s imagination more than secret messages, which is what compelled Coy Bowles, guitarist with the Zac Brown Band, to fashion a game out of a quirk in his house’s design. “We have a 4-inch tall pipe that connects one recording-studio room to another,” he says. “Its purpose is to pass cables through the wall, but my daughter and I now use it for fun.” Bowles and his budding spy swap messages and toys through it. “It’s cute to see her so curious about what’s happening on the other side of the wall.” No pipe? Hide messages anywhere: in drawers, behind bookshelves, in the vegetable crisper, inside a favorite book.

8. Invent stories (with a little help). Take a few sheets of paper, cut them into squares, and write a single and possibly hilarious word on each. Biscuits. Alien. Rhinoceros. Havarti cheese. Then ask your kids to make up a tale, occasionally flipping a square over and adding the word on it to the story. It’s 100 percent free, 102 percent imaginative, and customizable to you and your family. (Translated: “You can use whichever ridiculous words you want.”) It’s this strategy that once made my 6-year-old spin a fantastic yarn about a space pirate who uses lightning to fight a volcano inside an evil toilet. (Full disclosure: His stories always seem to include a toilet.)

9. Go playground shopping. If you live in an area with multiple playgrounds, turn your travels into a piratical expedition. Make a playground map, mark the spots you want to hit, and devise a plan with your kids for exploring each one. Make lists of the best parts of each—which one has the twistiest slide, the biggest fountains, the most imposing jungle gyms—and revisit as needed.

RELATED: 7 Unique Playgrounds for Kids

10. Bust the kids. Mike Spohr is the editor of BuzzFeed Parents, coauthor of The Toddler Survival Guide, and inventor of the Police Officer game. “My kids ride their bikes until I (the police officer) pull them over—for speeding, to ask if they’ve seen an on-the-run thief, or any of a thousand other scenarios. They want me to differentiate it every time, which gets really hard!” His son is usually apologetic; his daughter sometimes gets sassy. But all parties go home happy.

11. Fail to walk a straight line. Block out your senses by closing your eyes and plugging your ears, and try to walk 100 steps in a straight line. It will not work. You will end up 50 yards to the left, or back where you started, or in the middle of a mud puddle—but never ever straight ahead.

https://www.parents.com/holiday/fathers-day/traditions/fathers-day-activity-ideas/

[anxietycalling]

... is this thing on?

HA. After like two months of trying to break into my own goddamn tumblr account, I finally figured out what password I used. So hi. Hello. Welcome back to the internet, self.

I mostly wanted to log in to give some updates about my life and start, you know, documenting it as there is some monumental stuff in the works for me this year. I’ll put the rest of it under a cut because I’m not a barbarian.

So one of the biggest changes for me since the last time I blogged reliably is that I got diagnosed with Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder. That was, uh, two years ago? Somewhere in that general timeframe. It’s not really that surprising, given my mother’s extreme fastidiousness that she later admitted to me is untreated OCD. I’m the only person I know who can walk soundlessly in pitch dark and make entire meals without touching food with my hands because of that. But anyways, I guess the reason it didn’t get diagnosed sooner is because, as my wonderful psychologist puts it, “You’re too smart to fall for obvious compulsions because you’re aware of how they affect your public perception, so you get trapped in the ones that are more realistic.” In other words, I intellectualize my OCD too much.  That’s not to say it doesn’t affect my life though! For... probably about a year, maybe more, I had a crippling fear of handling or preparing food for others because I had a persistent obsession that I would accidentally poison someone. At its worst it got so bad that I couldn’t touch plastic wrap or open packaging, either. Through cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) and exposure response prevention (ERP), my symptoms have decreased to the point where I’m able to cook for myself and others again. I still seek reassurance more than I should - which is another symptom of OCD - but I’m working on it. Baby steps!  Most of my symptoms are manageable now, but I do still get ‘stuck’ sometimes. Like I said, I have a wonderful psychologist. She makes me do things I don’t want to do. She’s nice about it, but she’s a bit of a stickler for progress. Which is good! She’s very practical in a way that previous therapists of mine haven’t been. I don’t like the ooey-gooey “How does that make you feeeeeel? How does it relate to your tortured chiiiiildhood?” nonsense, so I’m glad we can skip that. For years I thought I was just bad at therapy, so I didn’t pursue it. Turns out that the right person with the right counselling philosophy can be a great asset in managing mental illness. Which leads me to the reason I sought out a therapist to begin with...

When I moved to Ottawa, I got a regular endocrinologist for the first time in my life. She’s wonderful and willing to work with her patients at their own level. My husband goes to the same endo (but more on him in a second...) and seeing the differences in the way she interacts with each of us is awesome. She takes time to answer my many questions and often has great practical advice about managing hormone replacement therapy. My testosterone levels have been stable for... three years now? Maybe a little more? Aside from one set of bloodwork where my hemoglobin was high, there haven’t been any major hiccups. And my endo said that it wasn’t necessarily concerning, just a precaution because we don’t know what the effects of heightened hemoglobin levels in transgender men are yet. Another thing my endocrinologist does is refer her patients to other relevant services. After my second or third appointment with her, she wrote my letter of recommendation to the government so I could change my gender designation on my birth certificate. She also did the paperwork for OHIP to cover my top surgery. I got the letter from the Ministry of Health a couple of weeks later, and started down the path to actually, you know, getting surgery. It’s more complicated than you think! She recommended me to the Montreal GRS clinic (Drs. Brassard, Belanger and Bensimon). There is a fair amount of paperwork that they request before your file even gets passed to the surgery team. One of those things was a letter of recommendation from a health professional that meets the WPATH standards of care. That’s when my endo recommended my therapist to me. The WPATH standards of care require at least 6 months of follow-up from the practitioner, so I sat down in that office once a month until I got my dang letter. And what a letter it was! Cori, my therapist, basically wrote a strongly worded letter that implies her disapproval over needing a letter at all. Why, you may ask? Because I already had years of documentation detailing my gender dysphoria and persistent desire for surgery. Literal years of it, dating back to... 2007 or so. But she wrote the letter, we continued on, and my brain is much healthier than it’s been for years. 

Getting my IDs changed was a lot more work than I expected. Like, I knew that it would take a fair amount of paperwork, and I was prepared for that. I did my gender marker change first, which involved first getting the letter of recommendation notarized and sending it off to the government to get a shiny new birth certificate with an ‘M’ on it. It took about 4 months to get my first birth certificate. After that, back to city hall I went to change the gender on my driver’s license and health card. Getting the gender marker changed was inexpensive - I paid $35 for the new birth certificate plus postage. Ottawa city hall has services that will commission (notarize) your documents for free, so I didn’t pay for that, but normally in our city it costs between $15-20.  Next I did my name change. The form itself is about 30 pages or so, and most of it is just checking boxes like “Hey, I’m not a criminal, I’m not hiding from any debts,” and then getting it notarized and mailing it off. The name change took the longest - I waited about 6 months for my new birth certificate. Changing the name on my IDs was easy. All I had to do was go back to city hall (again) and wait in line (again) and update my drivers’ license, health card and social insurance file.  For about the first month after my name change, I had a folder I carried everywhere with me. You never really realize how many places you give your name to until you have to change it. The gym, doctor’s offices - despite having socialized healthcare and a (mostly) computerized system, you have to remember to change your name at every doctor’s office you visit separately. Now I have my updated IDs, so I can just show my driver’s license. 

Now I’m going to talk about the path to getting a surgery date at GRS Montreal. Yes, I got the letter for my OHIP funding relatively quickly, but actually getting my file to the surgical team was a logistical disaster. I’m not saying this is a bad thing, by the way - I’m glad that they’re doing their due diligence and making sure everything is well documented. It’s just kind of hard when you’ve already waited for so long to stay patient.  So, yes, I got my letter from Cori after 6 months. The reason I’m so irritated about it to this day is that a couple of months after they insisted they needed this letter, I got another email from the clinic saying they didn’t need it. And then they went back and forth on it another couple of times, so Cori and I just said fuck it and did it anyways, because I do not have the patience for that kind of back-and-forth. During the interim while I was getting regularly therapized, I also did all of the medical components they required. It was basically just a visit with my family doctor so he could sign a form and say “Hey, this guy is healthy enough for surgery and I am competent to handle any complications.”  I know that doesn’t sound like a lot, but having to fill out a million checkboxes and saying ‘No’ to a million health conditions I don’t have, multiple times, gets a bit tedious after a while. So I did all of that, and then I sat on my hands and waited. And waited. And waited some more. I prodded them occasionally via email, because I’m impatient at the best of times and am often bossy and direct with health professionals. Finally, after another 6 months, they passed my file on to the surgical team, who actually called me on the phone promptly to tell me the next steps. The surgical nurse literally emailed me an info packet on Jackson-Pratt drains while on the phone with me.  They gave me my surgery date in September. And now we wait again. I’m leaving for Montreal on February 25th. At this point I’m just impatient and trying to keep busy. 51 more days. The closer it gets, the more time stands still. 

My bio-dad died in... 2017? Something like that. I know, it sounds awful that I don’t remember when he died but also, he was just a shit person. He abused me, he let his girlfriend abuse me, and he continued being a terrible person even in death. There was money for me in some account he had (and had forgotten), apparently, and I spent almost a year trying to figure out how to get it with no luck. Seriously. Even my mom, who had long since divorced my bio-dad and remarried, tried - because the account manager said she had to be the one that accessed the account, even though it was in my name and I’m an adult... and my mother’s lawyer looked at the whole thing, figured out that it was super illegal, and the investment firm stopped returning my calls. What a fucking scam. And yes, I could pursue it legally if I wanted to, but I really don’t want to. I don’t have the patience or the money for lawyers.  Everyone in my family is unequivocally mad at me for not going to the funeral. I mean, why would I? Why would I go to the funeral of a man who sexually abused me and chose alcohol over both of his kids? But my family tends to be very “But faaaaaaamily!”, therefore, most of them have stopped speaking to me.  I’m not really upset by his dying, by the way. I kind of made peace with it in like 2013 or so the first time my mother called me sobbing to tell me he was on his deathbed. I wasn’t surprised then, either, that he had congestive heart failure due to alcoholism. He was so jaundiced the last time I saw him in person that he looked like a Simpsons character. He didn’t recognize me, either. My brother had to tell him that I was his own child. So that pretty much killed any kind of forgiveness I could have had for the man. To his credit, he maybe kind-of tried. If trying is calling me, on purpose, on my birthday every year to tell me what a woman I am and am becoming. Ugh. Gross. Grossgrossgross.  Also, and this is a big Also, I could not have stomached that funeral when everyone was acting like his death was so Tragic and Could Not Have Been Foreseen. Like! I remember from childhood that that man could put away a 24-pack of beer in a day. One of my fondest childhood memories of him - if you can call them that - is bottle return day, where we would wait for my mom to leave for work and then sneak his empties out of the house to return for the deposit, which he would then use to buy more beer and buy KFC for lunch. And this is a secret that we kept from my mother for, like, years. I don’t think she really ever knew the extent of his drinking. Or mine, when I was still drinking.  I wasn’t ever really bothered by his death. I had a breakdown about it, sure, but it was more about the finality of his having died without standing up for myself or demanding an explanation/apology for his behavior towards us, or for raping my brother’s girlfriend, or... anything.

I had a job with great pay, and I fucking quit it.  No, seriously. I was making $18 an hour and I walked away from it because it was driving me to a nervous breakdown. I wasn’t sleeping, I was barely eating, and I couldn’t have a day off without obsessively thinking about work. I got promoted way too quickly and sort of lied-to way too often about how things would change, they never did, and finally in October I couldn’t handle it anymore. I saw Cori and she basically told me that I needed to quit or she’d make me. And I still feel kind of bad about that, because Ash and I fought about that for months beforehand. Literal months. It’s the only thing we’ve ever fought about. But I sat in that office in tears about the thought of ever going back to McDonald’s, and it was the right choice.  The first month was really hard. Not financially - I had decent enough savings to float us for a couple months. But emotionally, I was devastated. I’ve always kind of vacillated my self-worth between pushing myself way too hard to try and force everyone to like me and crumbling under the pressure from that and turning inwards. I had no idea what to do with myself. I was sleeping at weird hours or not sleeping at all. The cats were glad I was home, and so was Ash, but I felt really sick not doing anything - or at least as much. Even with school, I felt kind of aimless. Online classes don’t really demand specific time frames. Yeah, there are due dates, but aside from that you’re really on your own.  Now I’m glad that I quit when I did. From what my friends who still work there tell me, things have only gone downhill. It’s not surprising. They take anyone who’s halfway competent and seduce them with promises they have no intention of keeping to accept promotions and then never follow through. They push people way too hard and they’re not growing and changing with the economy and the demographic of people they’re able to hire for minimum wage. Like, I’m sorry, but once I’ve recovered from surgery there are way better jobs I can get that will keep my brain way healthier. 

The husband. Well, to-be. We’re going to do it on paper at Halloween. Nothing flashy, just going to city hall and signing some papers and then it’s done. I’m not sure exactly where to start on this one because most of it happened so fast. I kind of dicked around with online dating for a bit and nothing really came of it; I had lost expectations around the time he messaged me. There was nothing that immediately said “Hey, you’re going to fall in love with this person!” but I took the leap anyways. I was having a hard time coming to terms with being gay and trans, so a low-stakes thing with less expectation seemed nice to me. ... And then we talked, and we both fell hard. I moved to Ottawa 2 months later, after a fairly tumultuous time going back and forth on the train pretty much every 4 or 5 days. I spent most of my money on traveling those months. It was extremely worth it.  I knew I was in it for the long-haul when he called me while I was on the train home one day. I’d just left, much against my better judgment, and he had a doctor’s appointment that I’d wanted to go to. Ash is not great at asserting himself with doctors. Like I said, I’m bossy and controlling, so this one would’ve been good for me to be at. He called me basically in tears. Something was weird with his bloodwork, and not only could he not start testosterone as originally planned, but his doctors thought he had leukemia.  In typical me fashion, I basically got home, worked a day or two and immediately turned around and came back. There were tests. There was bloodwork. Much of it is a blur, but the thrilling conclusion is that doctors often don’t know how to interpret Ash’s blood results because he doesn’t have a spleen, so his blood is shaped wrong. No cancer! Just weird blood and a crappy immune system. But that crystallized it for me. We moved into a friend’s place for a couple of months, and then, when we could, moved into our current apartment. And for a couple of months it was nice! Great, even! But our roommate’s girlfriend, who also lived with us, had a poorly managed personality disorder and was emotionally and sexually abusive to our wonderful roommate. It took months, but eventually we evicted her after having secret meetings away from the house to come up with a battle plan. In the end, she had to be removed by police and her parents had to come get her things. It’s something I hope I never have to do again, because it felt awful and the girl’s poor parents were clearly devastated.  We parted ways with the roommate in June. Amicably, but a bit sad. Part of it was that we had outgrown having roommates, and part of it is that our roommate, while a wonderful person, has a serious hoarding disorder related to anxiety that clashed awfully with my OCD symptoms. They’re in a house with some wonderful people now, so hopefully it’s better with people who are able to be supportive in a more helpful way.  All of this to say that I have a wonderful husband, who I love very much. 

Which brings me to my next point. Jeez, this is turning into a novel. I’m so sorry. But anyways, I started university in September! It’s been tough what with the work stuff, but I’m doing pretty well. I’m majoring in psychology and desperately white-knuckling my way through introductory biology so I can take cognitive neuropsychology classes next year. Eventually I’d like to become a clinician, but I’m pretty sure I need to go to graduate school for that. I’m taking less classes than I’d like because of surgery, but I’m going to take summer classes to make up for it. 

Also because Ash had to have emergency surgery before Christmas! We’d known something was wrong with his elbow for a while - it was an injury that he’d had since before we met. But over the course of 3 years, an injured elbow turned to a lump, and that lump lead to a loss of mobility. His family doctor didn’t seem overly concerned about it, and didn’t run the proper tests until this year. Thanks to a concerned sports medicine doctor who was way out of his depth, more tests were run. There’s nothing quite like the concerned, hushed tone of a doctor to strike fear into one’s heart. The diagnostic imaging showed a tumor had grown in Ash’s elbow. I named him Leopold.  A non-cancerous, aggressive giant cell tumor. In his elbow. Literally eating away at the bone. Likely had been for a while. They called us on a Wednesday. Ash went to meet the surgeon on Thursday. The hospital called the same day to book him for surgery. Monday he went to meet with the anaesthesiologist. Tuesday we went to the hospital and they removed Leopold. And let me tell you, it was an absolute shit show.  First of all, they expect a man who’s still drugged up from the anaesthesia to be able to decide if he can go home that night or not. They wouldn’t even let him call me before making him decide. Listen, this man is not great at taking decisive action in the best of circumstances sometimes. I actually ended up going home to feed the cats and going back before anyone even told me whether he was coming home or not! Then the post-operative nurses didn’t give clear directions on the aftercare, so I ended up calling the hospital multiple days in a row to figure out what was going on. They didn’t even tell me what type of stitches he had. I think the worst part was that the doctors didn’t actually check with us what kind of painkillers would be most appropriate. They just sent us home with a list, half of which wasn’t covered by insurance, and we had to white-knuckle it the first night with basically good intentions and fancy Tylenol before we could borrow the money for the rest of his painkillers the next morning. I honestly wasn’t sure we would survive that first night. Because the damage to the elbow was so severe, they put a nerve block into the arm that slowly started wearing off through the night. I never want to see anyone in that much pain. It was the kind of pain where you’re not even human anymore; you’re reduced down to an animal who’s scared and in pain, and all you want is for it to stop. I know it was necessary, what they did, to preserve motor function in the arm, but fuck, it was awful. I’m doing a bad job of explaining the technical side of this. It was an elbow resection with tumor removal and a bone graft.  The bone graft actually might be the worst part. Because the tumor ate so much of the bone, we had to do the surgery pretty much immediately because any kind of impact could have shattered Ash’s remaining bone permanently. And they had to be so, so careful during the procedure because the tumor was resting on a nerve. To the surgeons’ credit, they did not sever the nerve. It’s less irritated now, and the arm actually looks quite good, but I wish they’d given us more information ahead of time. I was woefully unprepared for how much work I would be doing. You never realize how much work your hands do until they’re taken away from you. Also, something else people never talk about with surgery is how much painkillers mess with your mood. Opioids are by nature depressants, but all the textbooks downplay exactly how severe the mood symptoms can be. Of course being bedridden plays into it as well, but painkillers severely inhibit cognitive function. That first week or so was awful. There were so many goddamn medications and most of them were useless. We were like robots, with the fucking medication dispensing. I had alarms set every 4 hours so the pain couldn’t come back. We tried. We tried so fucking hard, only to get to the follow-up appointment and have a very nice medical student give us the good stuff: Tylenol # 3 and morphine. Did I mention she was a very nice med student? 

So yes, that’s basically the state of my life at the moment. I haven’t really written anything since I left California, but I’m going to try this year to actually finish something. I’m going to post regularly, both because I kind of missed this place and because it’s nice to see concrete progress. Also, when I was looking for pictures of surgery results there wasn’t a lot to be found, so I’m trying to save someone else the same trouble.

Anyone who actually read to the end of this, you’re great and I’m very sorry I basically wrote a novel about my life. I know my descriptions are lacking in some places, so feel free to... ask follow-up questions, I guess? I dunno. It’s nice to be back. 

[templified]

Best WordPress Minimalist Themes TopNotch Themes | Templified

New Post has been published on https://templified.com/minimalist-wordpress-themes/

Best WordPress Minimalist Themes TopNotch Themes

    Amadeus

  Theme Isle’s Amadeus Pro WP theme allows your blog to be compatible with all major internet browsers, be it on desktop or mobile. This is important so that your readers can access your work from anywhere and from any time they wish. This also makes it easy for you to make your own posts since you do not have to worry about formatting.

The other main features of Amadeus Pro are simplicity and style. For the former, you can edit the theme’s code easily and with no problem since it was written neatly and efficiently. You also don’t have to worry about widgets and other add-ins. The relevant sliders are already incorporated into the theme. For the latter, you can customize the theme depending on your taste. There is an unlimited amount of possible colors, or you can pick out ready-made color schemes. The theme makes sure that your blog always looks at its best according to the owner’s discretion.

DemoMore Information Get Hosting

Cre8or

Cre8or is a simple, clean, fast loading theme with a beautiful grid layout style.  Create amazing stuff with style, energy and fun.  That’s what Cre8or is all about.

Tesla Themes has crafted another awesome theme for WordPress, this one is called Cre8or.  This minimalist portfolio template is full of white space.  (Is that actually possible?)  Cre8or is a portfolio theme that’s got tons of features and allows display of your products and projects in a professional grid layout that’s as impressive to look at as it is easy to use.  Tesla Themes is rightly proud of this template and this is what they have to say about what Cre8or has to offer creatives of all kinds.

Creative and fun, Cre8or has five different post styles to choose from, each one highlighting your content in a slightly different way.  Cre8or makes sure whatever you want, you can have it.  Within reason, of course.  Cre8or makes it very simple to adjust colors and fonts, providing the fabric of a website that you can really adapt and mold to what you envision.

Are you currently in the outsourcing business? Cre8or is a portfolio WordPress theme, which allows users to show their work at a gorgeous layout online. By building a site with Cre8or, you’ll have a private space which you can design based on your intended customers’ tastes. It’s perfect for businesses that have visually appealing products like bakeries, photography studios and site design. Because it is 100% responsive, you can easily show it to customers using your telephone or your tablet computer during encounters. Prospective customers looking at your site will not have any trouble viewing your page since it’s intended to operate with any browser. The theme designers out of Tesla Themes also made certain that the theme is optimized to load quickly even with slow connection speed.

Upon activation, the theme produces a theme options part in your WordPress sidebar so you just have to go to one place for all of the theme attributes. You can begin by selecting from the five available portfolio layouts. In these layouts, your clients will instantly find the images and videos that you share in your website. The attention to detail inside this theme can be seen in the innovative but fast loading animation features. Every page transition, by way of example, is revived to create your site more memorable. Clients looking for creative forms will certainly enjoy their experience in the website. All of the customization you want are accessible from the themes choices. The theme designers also included an visual composer for those that don’t want to get HTML codes. Whatever you share in your portfolio could be shared to your various social media accounts since the theme is incorporated with social networking sharing.

DemoMore Information Get Hosting

Milo

This is Milo, a simple minimalist WordPress theme for blogs and portfolios, it’s a professional grade theme with clean code, a beautiful left hand menu and great typography.  I think you’ll find it has enough features to keep you happily blogging for years, since the code is crystal clear, bug-free and it helps your site to load quickly, even if you have sizable images.  If you’d like to see more minimalist themes, check out our big collection.  You’re nearly guaranteed to find something you really like.

The Milo WordPress portfolio theme gives you a convenient, minimalist and simple WordPress framework, as well as an elegant layout, for either people or companies who want to create a simple, mdoern and easily accessible website to build a business.  This theme most definitely powerful for people that want to showcase a graphic work portfolio of their photographic work to shoppers or individuals, because the simple and minimal style doesn’t get in the way of the content.  That’s exactly as it should be.  No matter how sizable or little the completed website is, Milo gives the flexibility, utility and versatility to manage it.  Easily adjust any setting you can imagine, from colors to typography.  The flexibility is there to create the site you have in mind.

All aspects of this amazing, responsive theme concentrates on displaying skills and your outstanding skills and if you’re curious about starting a website that has the ability to sell products on-line, the WooCommerce integration gives you a massive headstart to doing just that.  WooCommerce is simple to set up and it’s practically infinitely extendable with a ton of add-on modules to help make it even more powerful.  Digital products, brick and mortal style products, it doesn’t matter.  Either will fly off the shelves with Milo.

DemoMore Information Get Hosting

No Sidebar Pro

If you want to remove everything possible to help keep your website slim and trim, who not consider removing the sidebar entirely?  I mean, that’s one option for sure.  This theme, creatively named ‘No Sidebar Pro’ has done just that and I think it results in an incredibly clean, simple and easy to manage website.  It doesn’t hurt that this theme is a Genesis Framework child theme, which makes it one of the fastest loading themes around.  This theme has removed everything that wasn’t absolutely essential to the success of the theme and this is the result, a professional and minimalist design that’s got plenty of features left to make it a great choice for all kinds of bloggers and businesses alike.

DemoMore Information Get Hosting

Monochrome Pro

Monochrome Pro is a true, simple Masterpiece. This theme, built on the Genesis framework, give you an incredibly simple looking platform for any sort of written and visual content. Monochrome Pro uses a clean, black and white color scheme to really focus your readers attention on what it is that you put on the page. Created by studiopress, this is a substantial but simple template, it has an incredibly sleep design with lots of white space and an Easy-to-Read typography set up. This is a visually strong theme, giving you an amazing online presents and an easy to use and easy to customized back end. There are plenty of theme options to choose from, getting started with this theme is fast and easy, the header is completely customizable, there are four different widget areas to add custom features to your site, monochrome Pro is eCommerce ready and mobile friendly as well. This theme really does seem to be the total package, ideal for any sort of blog or online

DemoMore Information Get Hosting

Monument Valley

Here we go, this is Monument Valley, an incredibly simple, beginner friendly WordPress theme that offers bigtime features, a GPL license and tons of simple to use tools to help make your website look and feel just like you want it to be.  This theme was coded to conform perfectly to the WordPress.org codex, following all of the latest best practices.  That can help it to feel familiar and highly usable.  It also does a great job of SEO, which isn’t surprising, because this theme is fast loading and lightweight.  With Monument Valley, you’ll have the ability to use any of the popular drag and drop page builders to help extend your website’s flexibility.  No coding is required when using any of these drag and drop page builders, they’re very intuitive to use and make it fun to make your website.  There are multiple demos, video support and plenty more.  Well with checking out this simple, functional theme.

Demo More Information Get Hosting

Maav

For agencies and creatives who want a super-simple way to present all of their creative work, a modern and minimalist platform for expressing that inner creativity, allowing said creative work to burst forth to the world, impressing everyone who lays eyes on those incredible creations, Maav might be a great choice.  This unique theme has it all, from ease of use to a massive amount of flexibility and I know a lot of folks really love it.  In fact, Maav has a perfect 5.0 rating on ThemeForest at the moment, though that could change at any moment.

Made by mThemesNet, Maav is a totally unique theme, Maav is fun, Maav is great for all sorts of projects, creative and otherwise.  I love the subtle curve to the front page image or video, it’s a nice little touch that helps differentiate the Maav theme from many others on the market.  Not everybody will agree, but it does give the site a slight different look than many others out there.

Maav offers one click setup, so you can begin the process of customization within moments of installing the theme.  There are three basic home layouts included, a minimal portfolio, a video header design and a basic agency site.  All three are outstanding ways to get your creative works out there for the world to enjoy.   There’s even a page builder to add tons of flexibility to your design layouts.  So whatever your website’s needs, they’re sure to be addressed by Maav.

Demo More Information Get Hosting

Simply Pro

Simple clean WordPress themes like Simply Pro won’t overshadow your posts or pages. The style is beautiful and understated.  Simply Pro is a modern, minimalist and attractive WordPress theme, great for bloggers and with the kind of simple, clean and crisp design that Simply Pro provides, your content will look amazing.  What should you look for in a great minimalist WordPress theme?  Design is certainly one.  And since Simply Pro has some of the best design around, your posts, your images, they’re going to look absolutely amazing.  Simply Pro isn’t just a pretty face, this Genesis Framework child theme makes your site work perfectly on all devices with fluid, mobile ready and responsive layouts that are constantly updated to work with the latest and greatest version of WordPress.  That’s one of the real advantages of a Genesis child theme, the fact that it will never fall behind the constant updates to WordPress.  Always a good idea.  Simply Pro is one of my favorite Genesis child themes, because it’s so minimalist and yet, the style is a little different than many other themes.  It’s a nice combo.

Simply Pro is also a theme with just a hint of bold, feminine style.  you may be interested in these great feminine WordPress themes.  Simply Pro is a modern theme for bloggers who want a trendy and attractive, powerful and simple to use theme. With Simply Pro, you get a minimal style for your blog, the content is practically going to jump off the screen. Colors and fonts can be switched out with ease and the Genesis framework is what powers this theme, so it’s rock steady and stable, not to mention perfectly responsive.

Demo More Information Get Hosting

Dorsey

Dorsey is one of the best minimalist WordPress themes around today, simple and easy to use.  Why should you pick a simple WordPress theme like Dorsey here?  Well, if you aim to offer up the cleanest reading experience around, you could do a lot worse than a slick, simple, clean and crystal clear theme like this one.  The best WordPress minimalist themes all have a few things in common, beautiful, clean layouts with plenty of white space and not a lot of extra embellishments in the design.  Dorsey is no exception.  This WooCommerce ready blog and portfolio theme is bursting with simple, easy to navigate content.  Dorsey is very simple to set up, simple to customize and simple to use for both front and back end users.  Everybody can be happy with that experience.  Any kind of blog looks great on this responsive, retina ready theme and I think you’re going to love it.  Dorsey may be pretty simple to look at, but it’s got a lot going for it. This WooCommerce ready theme is great for blogging as well as showcasing your portfolio, which is a nice combination if you want to sell some products on the side. Whether you’re selling digital downloads or tangible goods, Dorsey can help achieve a look you like with the features you need. The price is a little higher than some themes at $100, but if this theme has the look you want, I suppose it’s worth the price, considering how solid the support and features are.

Demo More Information Get Hosting

Mona

Mona is a lovely looking, simply designed women’s WordPress blog theme with very clean, attractive typography that’s going to really wow your audience and a lot of features that make it look different than other feminine WP templates.  Whatever you’re blogging about, a mommy blog, women’s fashion, news or just your own personal experiences, Mona is a really slickly designed and popular theme for women.  Friendly, fun and professional, that’s how I’d describe this theme.  Mona is easy to customize, completely responsive and it’s even retina display ready, so you can rest assured that this theme will look fantastic on any size screen resolution or on any device.  Cool!  Mona includes 3 main layouts for your brand new front page.  Two of these designs are grid layouts, and then there’s the design pictured above, the classic layout.  I prefer that one, but the grid designs are cool too.  If you’re a beginner, Mona is there for you.  User experience and ease of use are at the forefront, so your personal blog page, magazine or online journal will look amazing with easy to customize style.

Demo More Information Get Hosting

Beautiful Pro

Beautiful Pro is a minimalist theme for writers of all kinds, travel and lifestyle, personal and professional.  Beautiful Pro is a great looking, minimalist personal blog theme for WordPress, with ultra-clean lines, a well balanced layout and great typography.  That’s undoubtedly going to make for a wonderful user experience and it’s going to help readers to engage with your content, no matter the subject matter and no matter  whether it’s written material or images and videos.  This gorgeous child theme for the Genesis Framework is ultimately flexible, you can add custom features to give it nearly any functionality that you want it to have.  Responsive themes like Beautiful Pro make for great user experience on all devices too, since these responsive themes fluidly respond to the screen on which they’re being viewed.  That’s nice.  Oh yeah, since Genesis professional child themes are updated from the inside out, you’ll never have to worry about WordPress updates making your site look weird.  It’s all taken care of without even thinking about it, which means you can spend a lot more time creating content for your site, which is what blogging is all about.

Beautiful Pro is a stylish and attractive blog theme with a great style, clean layout, attractive typography and more. With Beautiful Pro, you get a rock solid framework to build the kind of website that attracts tons of attention. There are no extra embellishments to get in the way, the bright and sparkling style is plenty to help draw attention to your posts and pages, the canvas that is created with Beautiful Pro alows you to build a wonderful site that looks and behaves the way you want it to.

Demo More Information Get Hosting

Eclecticon

All the modern features of WordPress but with a clean, simple style that doesn’t attract unwanted attention to your site’s design.  Looking for a simple, minimal and modern WordPress theme with all the features of more intricately designed themes?  Then have a look at Eclecticon, a blog theme from CSSIgniter.  Eclecticon is a responsive theme that focuses the reader’s attention on your work, whether it’s images or blog posts, not on the theme’s design itself.  That helps to make a great first impression.  The Eclecticon theme has a minimalistic layout and it’s completely responsive, loads up lightning fast and it’s SEO optimized too.  You’ll have complete control over all design aspects of your site with dozens of different options available in the theme customizer and it’s incredibly easy to use.  For a minimalist portfolio, you should definitely consider Eclecticon.

Eclecticon is a thoughtfully designed, simple and modern looking WordPress blog and portfolio theme. Built by CSSIgniter, this theme offers a bold black and white palette with clean navigation that really makes a wonderful first impression on your potential clients. The design, which is minimal in style, leaves the focus squarely on your images and text, so your viewers will really know what your site is about the first time they set eyes on it. The elements in this theme let the images and typography speak for themselves and as a responsive theme, it loads quickly and looks fantastic on each and every device we tried it on. CSSIgniter is known for their SEO optimized templates and this one is no exception. You have ultimate control over tweaking this theme to look exactly how you want it to look, with a lot of options for beginners and advanced users alike.

Demo More Information Get Hosting

Hardy

This simple, clean one column WordPress theme has a style that doesn’t distract from your posts and pages, which is what minimalist design is all about.  This is Hardy, from ThemeTrust, and it’s one of my favorite one column themes around.  Simple doesn’t mean this theme scrimps on features though, it’s easy to create a website that looks precisely like you want it to look.  For blogs or portfolios, this one is a real winner.  If you’d like a bigger selection of personal WordPress blog themes, check out our full collection.

Demo More Information Get Hosting

Ariva

Ariva is a simple, modern text based theme that’s just come on the market and I thought I’d pop it into our collection here.  While I’m not sure it’s completely minimal in style, a lot of people have asked me about text based ‘typography driven’ themes and so, here’s a great example of that.  Why do I say it’s not truly minimalist?  Well, it’s got a little hint of a shadow behind the text, which means it’s more of a material design theme.  (A full collection of those can be found here.)  Either way, Ariva is a theme with over a hundred different layouts included, there are nine featured sections, half a dozen simple header styles, and seven post layouts.  That gives you a lot of flexibility in designing your website.  Fast, fast, fast, that’s one of the benefits of a text based theme but it’s true that it won’t work for everyone out there.  Simple, stylish and professional, what more could you want?

Demo More Information Get Hosting

Flexible

A theme that is perfect for minimalists, Flexible is filled with the kind of features that you need to help your readers get to know more about your brand while still being able to protect your business. With a fully responsive design that works for both web and mobile browsers, it allows you to design your site with CSS and HTML without the fear that it wouldn’t look right in certain browsers or so. More so, Flexible also has the ePanel options panel that gives you better control of your website—or even websites, if you need more than one, and this would automatically appear once you decide to use this theme.

Flexible also offers various page templates that you can use to customize your website, examples of which are contacts, blog page, search page, sitemap, and the like. It also has built-in shortcodes that you can use to customize your site even if you are not knowledgeable in code! Plus, with complete localization, an easy-to-sort Ajax gallery, and unparalleled support—plus free access to updates, this theme has everything you need to complete your site and make it work. If simplicity and manageability are your priorities, then Flexible is the theme for you to try!

Demo More Information Get Hosting

Minicon

Minicon is a clean, basic and simple WordPress theme that is a creative solution to the problem of finding a theme that perfectly blends form and function.  Minicon is a creative theme with single page and multipage layouts available to you.  With this theme, you can rapidly set up a fantastic homepage for creative agencies, studios, portfolios and other sorts of creative sites.  Minicon was coded with the absolute freshest Bootstrap code for fast loading times and great display on all browsers and all screen sizes.  Minicon is simple to use and simple to customize.

Demo More Information Get Hosting

Base

Base is a WordPress theme that is minimal in design, meaning the content is what matters most, the actual styling of the theme is quite simple and to the point. But that simple, modern style has a very important purpose, to make sure your readers are able to full concentrate on your content without distractions. That makes it easy for you to blog about what you want to and give a wonderful first impression on every single page or post on your site. Base includes an application Framework, a powerful and robust theme options framework and a boatload of options to help you customize your website.

Base is responsive, meaning it looks amazing on each and every device it was tested on, the images and layout seamlessly adapt to the screen size of your reader. That’s a nice effect and it’s almost mandatory to offer these days, with the prevalence of handheld devices like iPhones and Androids. Responsive websites tend to outrank similar sites that only offer fixed width layouts, all other factors being equal, so if you switch to a responsive them, you may actually see a ranking increase.  Custom widget areas, post formats and simply customized headers, text blocks, backgrounds and more, mean this theme is simple to use, powerful enough for any application and a smart way to help grow your business online.

Base was designed to be simple to customize via the use of child themes, so it will look incredible even if WordPress decides to change their code, it won’t break your site. That’s a wonderful features to help give you peace of mind.  All in all, Base is a great theme to use if you value creative flexibility and a wide range of easily customized features.

DemoMore Information Get Hosting

Tabor

Tabor is a WordPress theme that pushes the envelope of minimalism with it’s design.  This theme is absolutely stripped of anything that isn’t completely essential to running a blog.  You’ll find absolutely no fat in this theme and the typography and images really pop because of that.  Tabor is a theme built for content marketers, for professional writers and bloggers.  This theme supports all the makor plugins you might want to use to help drive traffic to your site, plugins like Yoast, Schema, OptinMonster and lots more.  Tabor is a Gutenberg friendly theme too, so you can make use of the latest tools for editing your posts, making sure the layout and content is exactly as you want it to be.  Rich Tabor, the designer behind this theme, decided to get ahead of the curve and make this theme perfectly, 100% ready to support the WordPress block editor.  It’s the wave of the future.  As Rich Tabor says in the description, with Tabor and Gutenberg, WordPress is finally fun again.

DemoMore Information Get Hosting

Marcell

Marcell is a clean and minimalist WordPress theme that is great for personal blogs and online magazines using WordPress. It should not be confused with Marcel the monkey from the television show Friends. Remember that cute little guy, ah, so cute. I was actually never much of a fan of Friends, I was more of a Seinfeld guy myself, but I can see why people enjoyed it. It was sort of the first Gen-X sitcom to come around and some of the characters were funny at times. But, whatever, I’m getting sidetracked when I should be telling you about this clean and simple WordPress theme.

Let’s take a look at one of the home pages for Marcell. Oh, before I forget, I’ve been using a really cool website to build these preview images, it’s called browserframe.com, and it allows you to upload a little screencap and it automatically puts the browser frame image around it. I think it’s a cool look, what do you think? Hopefully it’s adding a little bit of extra value to each of these posts that I am creating.

Hey, why not, here’s one more look at one of the 20 different unique homepage demo styles that are included with your download. You get all of this for a low introductory rate of $29. I think Theme Rex will probably up that price relatively quickly, but if you get it right away, you could get a premium theme for probably under under half of what it will end up costing down the road.  The look, it sort of reminds me of Medium.com, don’t you think?

This theme has an ultra fast load time, thanks to its clean design and lightweight code. I’ve already shown you a handful of the 20 different design styles that are possible with Marcell, and each one of them can be installed with just a single click. You can import demo data and have your site set up almost immediately. It’s a real time-saver and it’s really helpful to know precisely what you’re going to get for your website. Sometimes, themes are more difficult to set up and customize to look like you wanted to look, so it’s really nice when I seen offers that feature.

Marcell gives you the ability to set up an online shop and sell products with WooCommerce, that’s perhaps not necessary for all personal blog or lifestyle blog sites, but if you want to sell stuff, it certainly future you’re going to need. I mean, that makes sense, right?

If you’d like to take a look at more options for building a classic personal blog website, or full theme collection is a great resource to help save you time and energy. We’ve added dozens of the finest WordPress themes that we could find and hopefully you find one in that collection that works perfectly for you. I’m not going to add this theme to that collection just yet, but I am going to keep my eye on it, because I think that it is a great looking minimalist blog. As the steam accrues more reviews, I may take a second look at it and add to the collection. Considering the fact that it was only updated in September of 2018, it just hasn’t had enough time to proved itself to be a very high quality and popular, not to mention well-reviewed, WordPress template.

I just went back and looked at Marcel, it’s still rated absolutely perfect with over 100 sales.  Great work by the developer.

DemoMore Information Get Hosting

Nouveau

Most modern companies, if they’ve got a level of taste,  are going to truly appreciate the flexibility and elegant sophistication or the minimal, modern, sleek and stylized Nouveau WordPress theme, which is one of the best designed simple theme we’ve seen in quite some time.  What makes it so great, you ask?  Well, the responsive, Retina display for graphics is a start, this theme looks incredible on each and every device we’ve tried it on.

Simply stunning in resolution, Nouveau is a really nice take on a traditional blog theme, with bold parallax style.  Simple enough that you get the point across, just enough style to look incredible to a wide audience.  This theme fits so many niches, activities, genres, industries and hobbies, it’s a wonderful solution to a wide range of problems.  With stylish retina-ready visual capabilities and a vast multitude of structured, well designed layouts, Nouveau can certainly be counted on to work for a wide variety of uses.  Creative professionals, from graphic artists to photographers and even interior designers or fashion designers will find a lot of utility in this theme.  It’s a fully responsive theme, page creation is snappy and fun, since the interface is totally intuitive. Have a header only layout, if that’s what you want.

Or, put the menu on the left side for highlighting your content with a little bit of spice.  The structure of the individual pages can be rapidly edited and you don’t have to have a degree from ITT Tech to make that happen.  Thank goodness, right?  Non-developers rejoice!  The responsive design that Nouveau offers, the popular color schemes and layouts, the perfect looking theme, the high class features…these things and more are what set Nouveau apart and what makes it such a fantastic theme.  Create a website that defines you and defines your career.

WordPress Gallery Themes, Image Galleries for Photos

Demo Get Hosting

Zoa

This gorgeous WordPress team is called Zoa. So it was built with the elementary page builder plug-in and it’s a modern and minimalist eCommerce name that’s great for clothing stores for men and women, furniture stores, watch shops, jewelry stores, handbags, accessories and probably plenty more too.

Zoa Works hand-in-hand with WooCommerce as well as it’s many plugins and built-in features, so provides a mini cart, custom widgets, unattractive slider and smooth transition effects. There are unlimited color schemes, a menu with multiple columns Styles and plenty of widgets with Advanced features two. You can control the same and customize it anyway you want, making your store user-friendly for all.  For more WordPress WooCommerce themes, check this collection out.

Zoa has a very clean, flat and minimalist Style. That makes your products look great. With Zoa’s SEO optimization, your website loads fast and looks great on all devices thanks to a fluid and responsive design. If you never use the Elementor page builder it’s definitely one of the best out there. There’s almost no layout you can imagine that you can’t create with ease. This flat, minimal Shop theme is certainly one of the best come along in 2018.

This men’s shop demo looks great, I love a flat, simple and clean look.  This theme looks to really open up the possibilities for branding.

And this is the basic, flat shop that first attracted me to this theme.  I think it’s one of the best I’ve seen in 2018.

Zoa is completely responsive, WPML ready, has extensive documentation and is very well supported by the themes developer. You can build any sort of website thanks to the Elementor page builder. With regard to the shop you get a built-in quick view feature, color and image swatches are built-in, there are different product Styles, there multiple shop cat categories and layouts. All Things Considered this is definitely one of the best eCommerce WordPress themes around.

DemoMore Information Get Hosting