#May twenty fourth 2021

[armoricaroyalty]

𝐕𝐀𝐋𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐈𝐍𝐄'𝐒 𝐃𝐀𝐘 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟒 / ❛ boy crazy ❜ part two (@nexility-sims)

When Zofia walked into a room, everyone noticed. It might have been the enormity of her hair or the constant noise of her rings and bracelets or else the overwhelmingly sweet scent of her favorite body mist, but she was captivating in every sense of the word. Hannah had been jealous of her, once upon a time. It would have been impossible to grow up with her without any jealousy: next to Zofia, everyone became shabby and dull. Ranks didn't matter at all, no title or royal honor could ever compete with that kind of natural charisma. Hannah loved her, but there had been days when she'd hated her, too. Now, though, she was only grateful. When Zofia walked in, nobody noticed the rest of them slipping out.

read part one here

author's note: @nexility-sims and I have been working on the zofia/rui romance since....early 2022? some time in 2021? since #rufia has completely dominated 2/3 of our joint brain power for years, it seemed fitting to finally let them out of our DM's to celebrate Love Day Valentine's Day. Happy V-Day, everyone!

Transcript under the cut.

CHEF | Aren't long nails against dress code, anyway? SERVER | [laughs] Girl, I don't give a fuuu— SERVER | You wanna know who else is wearing acrylics tonight? CHEF | [bored] I dunno, who? SERVER | Oh, nobody, just the Princess Zofia. CHEF | [gasps] CHEF | Shut. Up. You actually talked to her? What was she like? SERVER | She's fucking gorgeous. Like, obviously, but up close, she's even more beautiful. CHEF | Yeah, yeah, but what was she like? SERVER | Okay, so I didn't actually talk to her because she was all over her new boyfriend. They were like, so into each other. It was so sweet. CHEF | Really? I heard it's just a PR relationship so people will think she's over Sigis. SERVER | No way! They're obviously crazy abut each other. You can't fake— UNIDENTIFIED MAN | [offscreen] EVERYBODY OUT! HUGO | What, do I gotta say it again? All of you, clear out! HANNAH | [sighs] Please excuse us. HANNAH | My cousin and I need somewhere to speak privately. Will you please excuse us for a moment? CHEF | ??? SERVER | [shrugs] HUGO | ...anyway, did you see it? HANNAH | See what? HUGO | That stupid little hair flip. He did it a million times. HANNAH | He's growing it out for her. HUGO | Really? Hard to believe, he's so fucking vain. HANNAH | She told me she asked him to grow it long. [deep, beleaguered sigh] She thinks it's sexy. HUGO | What, are you for real? HANNAH | Oh yeah. She's always had a thing for guys with long hair. HUGO | ...huh. HANNAH | Anyway...what's your take? Personally, I don't see what she sees in him. HUGO | [snorts] He's better than Marshall. HANNAH | That's the world's lowest bar. Subterranean, in fact. HUGO | So what are we going to do? HANNAH | He's not a dog, we can't just run him off. HUGO | Well, you can't, but maybe if I— PIDGE | [offscreen] HEY! What are you two talking about? PIDGE | ...and why are you hanging out in the kitchen? ARTHUR | ....hi. HUGO | [icily] Farrier. HANNAH | It's late, Pidge. What are you still doing up? PIDGE | Uh, excuse you. Mama said I can stay until midnight. ARTHUR | ...you two aren't talking about Rui and Zofie, are you? HUGO | ... HANNAH | ...no. PIDGE | You two are such LIARS! PIDGE | Both of you are judgy control freaks! I thought he was really nice. HUGO | He could barely string a sentence together. ARTHUR | I mean...Armorican is his third or fourth language, isn't it? HUGO | Whatever! He gives me the creeps. HANNAH | Well, she says she's in love. HUGO | [scoffs] In love? They've known each other for six months. PIDGE | So? What if it was love at first sight? HANNAH | [exasperated] Pidge— HUGO | Just ignore her, she's fourteen. PIDGE | For your information, I'm fifteen. And I'll be sixteen in May, sooo— HUGO | Yeah, a baby— ARTHUR | Can I remind everyone that Zofia is twenty-two? She's an adult, she can make her own choices, and this is none of our business. HUGO | You're right, Farrier. It's none of your business. HANNAH | [offscreen] Hugo, enough. PIDGE | [mouthing] Rude. HANNAH | Arthur, what was your read? ARTHUR | I don't know, and I don't want to form a judgment until I've actually gotten to know him. He seems...fine? On par with the other guys she's dated. HANNAH | [sighs] "On par with all her other boyfriends" is the entire problem. HANNAH | I just don't want her to get hurt again. This happens every time, you know? She falls hard and fast and then the guy turns out to be a scum-sucking lowlife. PIDGE | [laughs] Hellooooo, what about Van? He was— HANNAH | Probably thw worst of all of them. Trust me, Pigeon. He's...he's no good. HUGO | [jokingly] You see, baby bird? That's why you're not allowed to date until you're thirty and why Hannah's gonna join a convent— PIDGE | No way, that's not fair. HANNAH | [tiredly] Hugo, shut up. No one asked. PIDGE | Yeah, Hugo. No one asked. ARTHUR | Look, I think we should at least give the guy a chance. HANNAH | [sighs] I guess we owe her that much. PIDGE | Guys, I actually talked to him, and trust me: he is like, sooo nice. HUGO | ... HUGO | I bet I could take him. PIDGE | Hey! Hannah, did you hear what he just said—

[leclerc-s]

honest series timeline

(white events indicate an official date, blue events indicate no official date, red indicates which events have corresponding parts)

1989

july first: daniel ricciardo's birth december thirteenth: daphne jones' birth

1994

september first: carlos sainz's birth

1996

february seventh: pierre gasly's birth

1997

march second: penelope trevino's birth september thirtieth: max verstappen's birth october sixteenth: charles leclerc's birth december eleventh: rowan todd's birth

1998

june sixteenth: natalia ruiz's birth

1999

may eleventh: mae jones' birth march twenty-second: mick schumacher's birth november thirteenth: lando norris' birth

2000

october fourteenth: arthur leclerc's birth november twenty-first: freya vettel's birth december thirty-first: logan sargeant's birth

2001

april sixth: oscar piastri's birth july tenth: dulce perez's birth september seventh: bailey winter's birth

2002

january twentieth: isabella perez's birth february twentieth: zoya torres' birth trevino family moves to madrid, spain first meeting between penelope and carlos

2003

first meeting between natalia and charles

2004

2005

freya's adoption

2006

october twenty-fourth: daphne's debut album release

2007

2008

november eleventh: fearless release

2009

september thirteenth: daphne gets interrupted by kanye west at the vma's

2010

twenty-fifth: speak now release

2011

july tenth: daniel ricciardo's debut grand prix

2012

october twenty-second: red release

2013

2014

june twenty-seventh: mae's debut in girl meets world october twenty-seventh: nineteen eighty-nine release

2015

march fifteenth: max verstappen and carlos sainz's debut grand prix april fifteenth: eyes wide open release mae and max begin dating first meeting between daniel and daphne

2016

february twelfth: kanye west releases famous february fifteenth: daphne seemingly shades kanye west at an award show july sixteenth: kim kardashian releases video footage of kanye's phone call with daphne, daphne issues a statement defending herself after the leaked call september twenty-eight: daphne and daniel begin secretly dating october fourteenth: evolution release october twenty-third: daphne performs after the us grand prix mae and max break-up

2017

daphne disappears for a year august twenty-third: daphne announces reputation october first: pierre gasly's debut grand prix november tenth: reputation release

2018

march twenty-first charles leclerc's debut grand prix november ninth: singular act i release natalia and charles' friends with benefits relationship begins

2019

pierre and rowan's situationship begins march sixteenth: lando norris' debut grand prix june thirtieth: scooter braun purchases daphne's masters july first: lover release july nineteenth: singular act ii release september thirtieth: seven release (see seven for further info) november twelfth: zoya's debut on high school musical: the musical: the series

2020

january thirty-first: miss americana release march twenty: the entire phone call between daphne and kanye get leaked july twenty-fourth: folklore release december eleventh: evermore release daniel and joshua reunite mae and max

2021

lando and bailey's fake relationship begins april ninth: fearless (daphne's version) release march twenty-eighth: mick schumacher's debut grand prix may twenty-first: sour release september: filming for daisy jones and the six begins november twelfth: red (daphne's version) release mae and max begin dating again

2022

march: filming for daisy jones and the six wraps natalia becomes pregnant july fifteenth: emails i can't send release september twenty-eighth: daphne and daniel get married october twenty-first: midnights release pierre and rowan accidentally get married in vegas september twenty-eighth: daniel and daphne get married november twentieth: sebastian vettel's final race

2023

january seventeenth: baby leclerc is born rumors of daphne and fernando dating begin (see the daphlonso scandal for further info) lando accidentally leaks daphne and daniel's secret relationship during a livestream (see the daphlonso scandal for further info) march fifth: logan sargeant and oscar piastri's debut grand prix march seventeenth: daphne's eras tour kicks off and emails i can't send fwd release mae and max get secretly married the first meeting between logan and zoya july seventh: speak now (daphne's version) release july eleventh: daniel replaces nyck de vries at alphatauri august twenty-third: mae and max's familial wedding party september eighth: guts release october twenty-seventh: nineteen eighty-nine (daphne's version) release november 11th: daphne's famous line change, "karma is the guy on the track" (see karma is the guy on the track for further info) november fifteenth: mae and max's vegas wedding party (see what happens in vegas never stays in vegas for further info)

2024

january 25th: charles leclerc extends his contract with ferrari for a disclosed amount of time (see divorcegate for further info) january 26th: lando norris extends his contract with mclaren for a disclosed amount of time (see divorcegate for further info) february 1st: lewis hamilton announces his departure from mercedes, and announces his multi-year contract with ferrari. (see divorcegate for further info) february 4th: the 66th annual grammys, daphne announces her new album, the tortured poets department ( see let him be a trophy husband! for further info) march 2nd: the 75th formula one season begins. april 19th: the tortured poets department release june 21st: the secret of us release july 29th: carlos sainz to williams racing announcement august 23rd: short n' sweet release august 27th: logan sargeant's departure from williams racing september 26th: daniel ricciardo's departure from visa cashapp rb december 8th: the final eras tour show

… more events to be added

[openphrase123]

i realize this may not be the best time to ask because of the last post you made, but how do you find the motivation to keep up with so many projects at once? the fact that you can is both inspiring and also very scary and i'm jealous. "average person writes 1 fic in their lifetime" WRONG. ficwriter openphrase123 who writes 3276453287 fics in their lifetime all at once is a statistical outlier and should not be c

oh this answer got long here's a readmore

well first of all. i have a boring dayjob that lets me marinate big ideas on the backburner. i can turn my thinking brain off for 90% of my projects at work. i've been working there for seven years, i can plot fanfiction in my head without taking a single performance hit LOL

second. um. i'm thirty in like four months. that is in NO WAY old, but i have been on this earth long enough to know when i, specifically, cannot execute or follow through an idea. i only pursue projects i know i can reasonably finish without going crazy. i just kind of. know how my brain chemistry works? i have reasonable expectations for myself?? i'm friends with my brain even if it likes to overthink or be anxious or have seizures or go down weird ocd-adjacent thought paths

third, which feeds a lot into the above point. but when you are in your teens and twenties it's going to take you some time to figure out the rhythm of how you work. i like to take a lot of mini breaks in between what i'm doing. this does not work for my girlfriend, who has ADHD and is like "if i take a break i will never recover" so she doesn't do that. brains are all different and you gotta find what works for you

fourth. well. this one might just be me. but the reason i have like 8 concurrent projects is because when i get tired of one, my brain is VERY happy to latch onto another one. no matter what i'm doing, something is getting done?? that's why i was writing 3 fics at once trying to decide which one to do next. and why i couldn't figure it out and had to leave it to a tumblr poll

and, fifth. idk. i don't write fanfiction when i don't want to? if you look at my ao3 account i haven't done it since. like. 2021? and before that the last time i wrote any fanfiction was in like 2013. of which i cannot track down that old accout but i swear it probably exists?

s.sixth??? and this one is going to sound the braggiest. and maybe it is a little bit. i'm good at this? not like. naturally. i wasn't born writing 100k fanfics. but i've been writing fiction for like. most of my life. i wrote a lot of awful stupid shit before i started writing good shit. i'm not falling asleep at the wheel or anything but after you're making art for enough time, it more easily falls into place. after doing it for so long you develop an intuition for the kinds of projects you will be sufficiently motivated for. i don't know how to describe this without sounding like a pretentious asshole. maybe i can allow myself to be for like five minutes. i've earned it

i hope that helped??? my brain kind of just. does stuff. i've trained it over the years to do stuff in the direction that makes me happy!! i wish my brain would let me go clean my bathroom instead but eh. tradeoffs?

[dirtbra1n]

HII good morning time for ask game. Throwing rare ssmy ones at the board. Shirabashi. Hiramiya. uhhh kuresawa tashiro No wait i cant do that to kuresawa. He loves his girlfriend. I WILL do it to ogasawara though. ogasawara x sasaki. And for fun if you have brain power. tell me about ur favorite mairuma dynamics….

HIII GOOD MORNING I’ve still got twenty minutes til noon as I write this part it counts. woke up read this and said aloud Oh sunnfish loves me…. my friends love me………

shirabashi: I get it, it doesn’t compel me*.

*I’m continuing my effort to get myself into these things. this is definitely still following the trend of I’m Not Doing Enough To Mindpalace Niibashi. sunnfish wouldn’t it be really funny if I shoved him into pathologic au. no better way to get me really invested in you than to suffer sundry agonies I’d say.

I think some of the kagibashi points sort of reflect onto the wall a little warped here which is really fun. Why are you tall. why are you so good at basketball. How Are You Single. followed by one conversation that concludes, Oh, that’s why. being someone who knows that shirahama cares so much about his appearance adds some fun color to this too. I think there’s some fun stuff to poke at there I’ll turn the heat up and let it simmer awhile

hiramiya: I get it, it doesn’t compel me**.

**You know. it’s also kind of a lie I think I just don’t follow through enough on putting petri dish miyano under a microscope. like. I think even in a world where miyano didn’t meet sasaki and consequently did not have to reckon with #BisexualityGate. having bl brain is kind of just a by-default queer thing straight up. Yeah I want to watch Hirano senpai and his handsome roommate I know next to nothing about gently and sensually embrace one another. I want Hirano senpai to be on the bottom. I’m normal. This is normal. like miyano can we talk about this. we’re taking this conversation to the hirakagi dorm and you will put the clipboard DOWN.

in other words Someone definitely would have to pitch me on more straightforward hiramiya—it won’t be hard, I didn’t say hirano was the dating sim au game’s default and preferred route for NO REASON—but going by system settings of What’s funniest. I’m 100% primed to skip down the road of Miyano most insane voyeur moments (#1). this is kind of a theme for hirano ships for me actually. Wait hold on HOLD ON JUST. ONE SEC

kagi would be there too. just chilling.

I know you took it back but I think a we got married setup with tashiro kuresawa and yuki would legitimately be very funny. just wanted to say that

SASAWARA: HA HA . YOU KNOWWWW…. probably could go trudge up one of my. I’ll be right back again

ogasawara sex comedy teaser for public consumption. don’t worry about masato here this isn’t about him

being brief It’s the old friends feeling. being verbose it’s You’ve seen me at my worst and snappiest and least tolerable and you still haven’t gone anywhere. you’re so annoying. are you home right now? need to drop off a cd. you’re gonna hate the third track but the fourth one’s gonna make you cry.

I’m always thinking about it. sasaki wanting ogasawara to leave him and miyano the hell alone on their date but the second ogasawara vanishes sasaki’s texting him Hey, where’d you go? old friends feeling. am throwing up all over the floor currently. I Get It. It Compels me.

MAIRUMA. BY THE WAY. love trio are my kids. I think the passive competition between clara and alice is the funniest cutest thing in the world

^ page saved in may-nearly-june 2021.

also Literally every single relationship with iruma involved compels me that’s my LITTLE BLUE BOY!!!! going to come back to this on the mairuma front later on the coattails of either rewatching the anime or catching up on the manga. and then They’ll all be sorry…… okay wrapping this one up now I love you sunnfish

[cadybear420]

Cadybear's Reviews- Witness

Welcome to the twenty-fourth official Cadybear's Reviews! Today I'll be talking about Witness, which I have ranked on the "Rotting Flesh Tier" at 2 stars out of a possible 10. My last and only playthrough of this was around May 2021.

Hahahahahhahahahahahhahahahahahhhahahahahahhahahahhahhahahhaahahhahahahahahhaahahahahahahhahaaaahahhahahahahahahahhahahahhahahahahhhahahahahhahahahahahahhahahahahahaha what the fuck were you guys smoking ahahahahahahahahhahahaah

Looking back on it though, this one probably… isn’t the worst. It’s certainly generic and aggravating, but there isn’t really anything about it that is outright offensive. I mean, maybe by the Choices standards of the year it came out, it certainly would be trash tier. But as of late, we’ve gotten some *really* bad stuff that gives this one a run for its money. 

A lot of people tend to deem MC as whiny, spoiled, obnoxious, and a jerk to Cassian. But a few others have pointed out that a lot of MC’s behaviors make sense considering she’s just been through a deeply traumatic event (y’know, witnessing a murder) and so it’s natural for her to be a bit messy and irrational and unpredictable, especially when she’s thrown into a lot of less-than-desirable situations. I mean, after suddenly watching a murder take place right in front of you, who wouldn’t be terrified.

Which is a valid point, but also frustrating since we still have zero agency with this character. We don’t really get much say in how our MC responds to or deals with this trauma, and it would be nice to have options because there are different ways people can respond to trauma. But of course we don’t get that, because writing different possible versions for a MC requires actual effort. 

To add insult to injury, pretty much all the options for MC to behave more rationally (as well as this pre-set childhood backstory about how everything her parents did was for status) are paywalled. Choices certainly isn’t immune to highway robbery and paywalling ridiculous things, even in their best works, but for God’s sake, they make us pay diamonds to even eat anything for breakfast or dodge a taser gun! 

Also, the trope of having a MC being protected by a super muscular bodyguard LI is… so fucking done to me. Especially since this app is generally aimed at straight/wlm audiences. I don’t mind if other people like it, obviously, but I’d like to see it switched up for a change. At least let us have a male MC option for this– seriously, this story is very pointlessly genderlocked (Then again, we’d have one side of the fandom complaining about “taking away one of the few games with female locked playable characters” and another side of the fandom complaining about how the MC is “female coded” because they get protected and rescued by a bodyguard, but those are their problems tbh). 

Okay, so why don’t I consider this one one of the worst? Well, even considering the many, many problems people have justifiably brought up about this– the stiff MC, the ridiculous diamond-walling, the formulaic romance dynamic– while those are all real problems with the story, I don’t any of them are outright offensive. Especially considering a lot of the newer books we’ve been getting like Surrender, FCL, and TBB, which seem to give straight up toxic relationships and behaviors a mere slap on the wrist. 

MC and Cassian’s relationship isn’t something I would call a healthy relationship, but I wouldn’t call it toxic either. So between that and the relationships of the aforementioned books, it’s like choosing between prune juice and bleach. Which is pretty much the difference between Rotting Flesh Tier and PooPoo Tier– the former is the equivalent to prune juice while the latter is the equivalent to bleach. 

And, hey, this one is at least a fun kind of bad. People have memed on this one to hell and back for the ridiculous stuff, such as how eating breakfast is paywalled and “Say I don’t like breakfast” is the free option. It at least gave us some stupid stuff to laugh at that will be remembered in Choices history. 

So overall, it’s not quite the worst. But at best it doesn’t really do anything new or special and is just fun to laugh at, and at worst it’s annoying as all fuck.

[roweclementine]

Getting ready to end my Spotify subscription when it expires at the end of the month but I’m keeping the account up so here’s all of my playlists that I’ve made since I joined back in summer 2020

Downloads (the Big One)

2023:

March 2023 (v proud of the cover for this one; can’t believe I’ve been doing these for a whole year)

April 2023

May 2023

June 2023

Fourth Of July 2023 (Rowe’s Version)

august 2023

September 2023

October 2023

November 2023

December 2023

March-December 2023

2024:

January 2024 (platonic breakup season woooo)

February 2024

March 2024

The monthly playlist idea was stolen from @trenchcrows. Each playlist has as many songs as there were days in that month (except when they don’t because some of them used to have Lovejoy/Wilbur songs in them). They were my favorite/most listened to/most looped songs from each month. It was a fun project and I think that it’s cool that I can look back and figure out exactly when I got into certain songs or when certain things were happening to me. November-January was certainly A Time.

Queer Playlists:

Aspec (aro and/or ace songs)

🏳️‍⚧️ (trans/nb songs)

🏳️‍🌈 (gay gay homosexual gay)

Podcast Adjacent Playlists:

Favorite SFBO Episodes

Favorite Podcasts

Songs from Let’s Learn Everything!

Playlists For Specific Artists/Albums:

GLOOM DIVISION (new idkhow album go stream it)

We’re Not Panicking! At The Disco Anymore (by Fall Out Boy)

Everything by Jon Walker (all of the songs/bands mentioned in Everything)

Jon Walker favorites

Waterparks songs named after colors

Waterparks Songs Named After Pixar Quotes

Sparrow Sleeps

Infinity on High but it's my favorite parts (by fall out boy)

Local Dreamers (the Wait I Need to Listen to Twenty One Pilots More So They Show Up on My Wrapped playlist)

American Beauty/American Psycho, but with 9% more Demi Lovato

Razzmatazz, but with 9% more Tessa Violet

Playlists For Specific Situations:

Songs to listen to at the end of the year

Beachy

Therapy :( (Rowe is not having a good time)

Therapy :) (Rowe is not having a good time but she’s trying to be optimistic now)

✨ Seasonal Depression ✨ (Rowe is not having a good time part 3, now with more Christmas)

Christmas Songs That I Actually Like (We’re going to ignore the fact that Every Snowflake is Different isn’t technically a Christmas song ok?)

Relationships:

Breakup songs

Show Me The Door (break up songs; a playlist dedicated to my mother)

/ (love songs)

Hopeless Romantic Bittersweet Yearning (more love songs)

& (songs about friendship)

Spotify Wrapped:

Rowe’s 2020 Wrapped

Rowe’s 2021 Wrapped

Rowe’s 2022 Wrapped

Rowe’s 2023 Wrapped

Rowe’s Wrapped 2019-2023 (I had Spotify in 2019 but was using a different account at the time)

Minecraft:

Fallen Kingdom Saga

Minecraft Songs

The Minecraft Archives:

TMcA

tmca!Tommy

(The Minecraft archives was a mcyt (dsmp/Hermitcraft season 8) tma au that I was working on which I am no longer writing because of Current Events)(I also had a TMcA!Wilbur playlist but I deleted it back in February along with all of my other Lovejoy playlists because fuck Wilbur)

The Rest Of Them:

Saturday Saturday Saturday Saturday (sometimes you just wanna listen to songs with Saturday in the title; here’s a playlist for that)

Favorite Covers

Walmart Radio but it’s the songs I actually like

# (songs with numbers in the title)

Duets & features

Inside you there are two wolves (aka Fall Out Boy are liars)

Eurovision Favs

and finally,

Some Songs That Aren’t Lovejoy:

When did this happen why are there so many of them this post took like an hour to make

[halfseoulco]

The Name Chapter: TEMPTATION — TOMORROW X TOGETHER: A review

Published Monday, February 13th, 2023 — The story of Peter Pan has been a beloved children’s fairy tale for many years and has been told and retold in a plethora of ways—but never quite like this.

Introduction

Big Hit Music, formerly known as Big Hit Entertainment, under HYBE Labels (or HYBE Corporation) has a well-established reputation for storytelling through music. There are entire universes contained in the very fabric of their songs, birthing entire books and Webtoon series (see: BTS’s 花樣年華 The NOTES and 7FATES: CHAKHO; TXT’s THE STAR SEEKERS; and ENHYPEN’s DARK MOON: THE BLOOD ALTAR). Elements of these stories are presented through the artists’ music videos and, when watched in a certain order, help the viewer connect the dots and understand what the music and concepts are trying to convey. Because KPOP is an industry that relies heavily on concepts, continuous storylines are not necessarily common, although some groups may try to tell a story within the frame of one music video or a series of music videos released for a particular album. However, Big Hit Music has, much like with their older labelmates, BTS, given TXT a rich and immersive universe that flows from album to album, spanning the eras in a way that especially showcases the group’s growth and maturity into young men.

A Brief History of TXT’s Discography

When TOMORROW X TOGETHER debuted as a group on March 4th, 2019, the members were still young boys—as the oldest, Yeonjun was still months short of twenty; and Hueningkai, the youngest, was sixteen. They began their journey with a fresh and youthful concept highlighted by bright colors and graphics, debuting with “어느 날 머리에서 뿔이 자랐다 (CROWN)” and “Blue Orangeade”, which presented a strong first impression and helped lay the foundation for their spots as leaders of fourth generation KPOP. Now, coming up on the fourth anniversary of their debut date, they have covered a variety of themes along the vein of growing up—the blissful ignorance of youth, isolation from peers, love and heartbreak—and this latest comeback presents the darker, more seductive side of leaving adolescence behind.

The Name Chapter: TEMPTATION ties back to a similar naming convention for their previous series of albums, the first of which includes their debut release The Dream Chapter: STAR (2019), The Dream Chapter: MAGIC (2019), and The Dream Chapter: ETERNITY (2020); and the second of which includes The Chaos Chapter: FREEZE (2021) and The Chaos Chapter: FIGHT OR ESCAPE (2021). minisode 2: Thursday’s Child (2022)—part of another series that also includes minisode1 : Blue Hour (2020)—laid the groundwork for a seamless transition from the sadness and heartbreak explored in The Chaos Chapter series to whatever the next release would have in store. The title track of Thursday’s Child, “Good Boy Gone Bad”, demonstrated how heartbreak can turn into the kind of anger that changes a person for the worst—into someone who they or those around them can no longer recognize—and 2023 brought to light the next sequence of events for our five Lost Boys.

Teasing The Name Chapter: TEMPTATION

With a title like The Name Chapter: TEMPTATION, there is little room to misunderstand what is about to happen next. Currently at age 23 (Yeonjun), 22 (Soobin), 21 (Beomgyu), 21 (Taehyun), and 20 (Hueningkai), TXT is entering the period of young adulthood, where there are plenty of complex emotions, interesting sensations, and new experiences to be had. In the concept trailer released for TEMPTATION prior to the EP’s drop, the visual imagery immediately reminded fans of Peter Pan, showing the five boys moving through a window into a new world. There is a narrator who makes references to Wendy, Peter, and learning how to fly; and the language used made the concept quite clear and easily established expectations for the direction of the quintet’s next release while also showcasing the group’s dancing. The concept trailer was then followed by a preview of the EP’s tracks, which further reinforced the storyline previously presented. I didn’t need to hear the songs in their full capacity to know that this was a darker, more sensual take on the classic Peter Pan tale—which I will delve into deeper later in this review.

“Sugar Rush Ride” MV

Heading the group’s promotions is the title track “Sugar Rush Ride”. Preceded by two teasers (one | two), the music video takes some of the more traditional elements of Peter Pan’s Neverland and twists them into a Garden of Eden-like setting, enhanced by psychedelic effects meant to mimic ecstasy or euphoria, or the sensations of leaving one’s body. The video begins with the five members waking up on a beach before moving onto different locations, including an open field, an enchanting yet slightly sinister forest, a gorgeous waterfall, a cave full of butterflies, and an opulent setting dressed up by a tree with multicolored foliage. They return to the beach at the end, ready to leave this magical world.

On its own, the visuals tell the story quite well: five boys arrive in Neverland, where they stay and play for a while, seduced by the fantasy it offers. Loss of innocence is an archetype typically associated with growing up; and the temptations of Neverland are too great for them to resist. Furthermore, as many fans took notice, it is the most scantily dressed that Big Hit has allowed them to be since their debut, especially for Hueningkai, who as the youngest has a history of being covered up as much as possible when the older members have been in more revealing attire. All visual aspects of this concept point to a clear maturity that hasn’t really been tapped into prior to TEMPTATION—and the members lean into it quite well.

An Analysis of The Name Chapter: TEMPTATION

The EP, consisting of five songs, flows like a story all on its own and for optimal enjoyment should be listened to in its designated order. The reason why I say that no one has really told the story of Peter Pan like this before reveals itself as soon as the first few notes of the record play—because no one has ever stopped to consider that maybe Peter Pan isn’t the hero—maybe he’s the villain.

TEMPTATION opens with “Devil by the Window”, an English track that refers to Peter Pan as not only the “devil by the window” but also “a wolf in sheep clothes”. In the most popular retelling of the story, Disney’s version, Wendy tells her younger brothers stories about Peter Pan’s adventures and heroic deeds; and getting to fly to Neverland with him is viewed as an amazing opportunity. However, “Devil by the Window” describes Peter Pan as a sinister figure in the night waiting to lure TXT away to Neverland, which is less of a paradise for children and more like an awful ride you can’t get off of. The brunt of the message is contained in the chorus: “I met the devil by the window, traded my life/Temptation touched my tongue, spread the wings of desire/He’s whispering, ‘Give up, don’t you put up a fight’/Said the devil by the window, ‘Dream on, dream on, good night”. In fact, the language of the song paints an image of Peter Pan that is quite similar to the serpent in the Garden of Eden.

The soundscape of “Devil by the Window” creates a richly seductive palette that weaves it way throughout the rest of the record. When paired with the gritty bassline and the breathiness with which the members infused their voices, the lyrics help set the scene for our Korean Lost Boys to make their journey to Neverland. The most interesting part is the end, which is rather abrupt after a tempo change that feels like floating right before a sudden drop, which might be interpreted as an indication that the flight from home to Neverland has ended.

TXT chose to perform “Devil by the Window” alongside “Sugar Rush Ride” during their promotional circuit; and the choreography helps further the storytelling aspect of TEMPTATION in a way that would leave the story slightly lacking if it were to have gone without.

There are certain expectations for title tracks in the KPOP industry and most groups choose to perform their most so-called “fun” or general public-friendly songs. “Sugar Rush Ride” is, in some ways, “Devil by the Window” repackaged as a title track with elements of pop music sprinkled on top to disguise the utter debauchery that it really is—and I really don’t mean that in a negative way. Sonically, the structure of the verses are more pop leaning, while the chorus falls back into a soundscape more similar to its predecessor. It incorporates the same kind of breathy singing, as well as some beautiful falsettos adorned throughout that add a beautiful layer of vocal color to the song. The sighs that punctuate the chorus really add to the seduction that they established in “Devil by the Window” and I am truly so obsessed with the hidden vocals, which create some amazing contrast between them and the members’ voices.

Lyrically, “Sugar Rush Ride” describes an experience of heightened sensation— hence the sugar rush, which feels like a euphemism for substance use, supported by Hueningkai’s lines “You’re so addictive/내 혈관은 (translated: my veins) full of sweets”—although sugar is also used as another name for desire. Now that TXT are in Neverland, Peter Pan is trying to convince them to stay, enticing them with whatever he is giving them to produce the sugar rush. They’re still aware that he can’t be trusted; Taehyun’s lines in the refrain, “꿈에 데려가는/침대맡에 liar”, translate to “the liar at [my] bedside who takes me into [the] dream”*, indicating that they know what he’s trying to do but they’re buying into it anyway. They also continue to refer to him as the devil; and during the post-chorus, which moves at a faster pace established in the second iteration of the chorus, there’s an acknowledgement: “You’re a bad liar/What are you doing to me (what did you do to me), sugar?”* Again, much like the story of the Garden of Eden, having previously not known desire, the Lost Boys are finding that they can’t get enough of it and the sensation is overwhelming.

The Kulture Study by Form of Therapy, my favorite KPOP reaction channel, pointed out in their review of the song that after the sugar rush comes a crash, something that I agree with. Exactly when that crash will come and what shape it will take is still yet to be seen at this point in the album—which brings us to the next track.

“Happy Fools” sits right smack dab in the middle of the EP, a brighter, more carefree song that describes wanting to stay in a state of blissful ignorance in spite of what it would mean for them if they did. Coi Leray’s verse adds a fresh-faced playfulness and an additional layer of “not a care in the world” vibes; and the members settle into their short-lived period of contentment before being forced to face the reality of their situation. You shouldn’t let the sound of the song deceive you; the title and the lyrics make it very clear that they know that they’re on borrowed time.

Tinnitus is a condition in which one may experience a ringing or buzzing noise in one or both ears, whether constantly or intermittently. With that in mind, “돌멩이가 되고 싶어 (Tinnitus (Wanna be a rock))” doesn’t carry the kind of unpleasant quality you might expect based on the title; rather, it is a soft, sensual track that takes influence from Latin beats. It’s definitely a tie with “Farewell, Neverland” for my favorite song on the EP, its dreamy instrumentals and vocal colors making it not so much a dance track as it is a song that gets your body moving. It’s short and sweet but describes both a longing for one to be more than they are and an admission that things didn’t happen the way they wanted them to. The lyrics do mention tinnitus both explicitly and implicitly, sometimes as a “deafening empty sound” or a “daze”—and more than the underlying layer of self-deprecation, it carries a more deeply rooted disillusionment. In other words, the enchantment of Neverland has been broken.

Following that train of thought, TEMPTATION ends with “Farewell, Neverland”. The Korean title is “네버랜드를 떠나며”, which translates more closely to “Leaving Neverland”*. Matching up with the title, the song contains plenty of imagery that ties it to the Peter Pan story, including the lines and words used such as “Boys don’t grow up”, “endless flying”, and “my Peter Pan”. If “Devil by the Window” and “Sugar Rush Ride” are more about Peter Pan himself, “Farewell, Neverland” is, obviously, more about Neverland. They call it a “paradise full of lies” and say that it is “no home”, indicating that whatever they came to Neverland searching for, they didn’t find it; and whatever temptation was presented, it ultimately wasn’t enough to make them stay. However, our Lost Boys speak of Neverland more fondly than they spoke of Peter Pan at the beginning of the EP, calling it “my love”. Paired with the acoustic guitar and Latin-influenced instrumentals similar to “Tinnitus”, it certainly does seem like a rather romantic goodbye, if not a little bittersweet.

Conclusion

The Name Chapter: TEMPTATION is, as TXT’s work always is, a solid album. It presents a new side of the five young men that ties in with them growing up. The KPOP industry is often unkind to older groups, placing more favor with groups that maintain a youthful image; and while TXT are by no means old, their decision to fully delve into the processing of maturing into adulthood so explicitly in their music while also embracing sensuality that very carefully toes the line of propriety is to be respected and commended. As I mentioned previously, the EP tells a story and I would not recommend listening to the songs out of order. Interestingly, it splits quite evenly, with “Devil by the Window” and “Sugar Rush Ride” forming a pair and “돌멩이가 되고 싶어 (Tinnitus)” and “ 네버랜드를 떠나며 (Farewell, Neverland)” forming another with “Happy Fools” bridging the gap between them. Now, having gotten a taste of what an older, more grown up TXT is capable of, I can’t wait to see what they show us next.

Genius Lab USA Rating: We go up like the moon, [...] get it poppin’ like balloons. We gon party every day living like some happy fools doing what we wanna do.

The Name Chapter: TEMPTATION Track List:

Devil by the Window

Sugar Rush Ride

Happy Fools (feat. Coi Leray)

돌멩이가 되고 싶어 (Tinnitus (Wanna be a rock))

네버랜드를 떠나며 (Farewell, Neverland)

*These are my translations.

[theghostpinesmusic]

Deschutes River Canyon 2024 (1/3)

I've been lucky enough to experience spring three times this year.

As I may have mentioned in a few of my late-fall trip reports from last year, I've been on sabbatical since September, and though a lot of that time has been spent going to conferences, revising course materials, reading (and reading, and reading...), and writing, I've been trying to build in breaks here and there as well to preserve (or regain?) my sanity.

One such break came at the beginning of March, when, between the end of a months-long streak of reading primary sources and the beginning of gathering that information into a coherent manuscript outline, I flew out to Arkansas to visit my brother, his wife, and their children, then rode along with my parents to North Carolina to spend a week with just them, and finally ended up in Ohio, where I got to see my grandma and aunt and catch up with some old friends.

I could (and probably will, at some point) write a bunch about this trip in particular, but for the purposes of this report I'll just say that in early-to-mid-March, both Arkansas and North Carolina had already burst into spring, to the point that stepping outside of the house to go for a jog necessitated pregaming with nearly lethal amounts of allergy medication. Considering my trip from Klamath Falls to the airport in Medford for my Little Rock flight had required navigating snow and ice atop a mountain pass that normally doesn't melt out until May, it was a surprising (and welcome) change.

I returned to Klamath Falls' late-winter in mid-March, but a week later Lindsey and I were off to the Deschutes River Canyon for a backpacking trip over her spring break. It was my fourth year in a row hiking in the canyon: I first learned about the Deschutes River Trail in the spring of 2021 when, ground down by COVID and various work stresses, I looked for and found a backpacking trip within reasonable driving distance of our house that I could take to decompress over my spring break. On my own, I hiked twenty or so of the trail's twenty-five miles, then looped back to the car.

Unexpectedly spellbound by the area's geography and history, I came back in 2022, and with Lindsey not joining on the hike but offering to help me shuttle a car, I hiked the whole trail through. In the spring of 2023, we planned to hike the trail together for the first time, but bad weather made it impossible during the one week we could get away from work, so we did the hike instead in mid-June. It was interesting to see how different the canyon was in June as compared to March, and I wrote a bunch here about that experience at the time.

This past March, then, despite being my fourth year in a row hiking in the canyon, was the first time that Lindsey and I did the trip together during the "right" time of year. Aside from this lengthy preface, this trip report/write-up will probably be a bit shorter than most since, as I said above, I already wrote a bunch about this trail after our 2023 trip. But, this year's pilgrimage to the canyon was a fun time, and there were at least a few things that I think are worth recording for posterity. So, here we go!

As in the previous two years, we started at the south end of the trail, at Mack's Canyon. The drive to here from the highway is slow, rocky, and a little frustrating, but it is also beautiful, especially as you being winding through the canyon in earnest about halfway through, sandwiched on a narrow road between enormous pillars of columnar basalt on one side and the roaring Deschutes River on the other.

Mack's Canyon has a nice (paid) campground, although we've never used it. Instead, we left our car there to be shuttled by Linda's River Shuttles (they're great!) and hiked back down the road a quarter mile to where the trail branches off up and to the left. You don't have to walk along the trail for long before you've left the campground behind and entered the barren and weirdly gorgeous expanse of the canyon.

Despite being in the midst of my sabbatical this year, I was still excited to get away into the wilderness for my first backpacking trip of the year, and Lindsey was obviously ready for some very serious hiking.

It takes less than a mile for the canyon to truly open up, and for the trail's history as a former railroad line to become obvious.

If you're hiking north from Mack's Canyon along the river, there are a few points early on where following the trail becomes difficult and requires a little scrambling on loose rock. This is because the former railroad line used to cross three steep canyons via tressels that have since rotted and collapsed. Instead, the trail descends into and then back out of these canyons, at points requiring some scrambling on top of the tressels' foundation stones.

These canyons have never given us much trouble, and I've seen older hikers, children, and dogs all cross them without incident, but they are the only three brief sections of this trail's twenty-five miles that I would call "technical" in any sense. So if for some reason you're using this write-up to plan your own trip, just be aware.

In-between and of course after the canyon crossings, the trail is much more straightforward. There is one two-ish mile section featuring a barbed-wire fence that you have to alternate between passing on the right and left, but that mild frustration is offset by the fact that this part of the trail includes some of the best examples of columnar basalt you'll see on the entire hike.

Unsurprisingly, hiking through the canyon while constantly exposed to the June sun is hot, and we remarked right away on how much cooler the trail was in March, with temperatures running lower and a breeze blowing. Just before the final canyon crossings, though, some clouds also blew in and it almost felt too cold. Partly to warm up, I scrambled up a bluff and took a few pictures of Lindsey in the context of the broader landscape.

After crossing the final set of canyons, we stopped for a quick lunch break about four-and-a-half miles from Mack's Canyon. I had packed away the last of a loaf of zucchini bread that Lindsey had baked a few days before, so I dug that out and we shared it. Surprisingly, it had been warmed to the perfect temperature by the sun shining on my pack. I felt like a too-tall hobbit, enjoying baked goods in the wilderness.

We pushed on from there a few more miles to Lockit Camp, our preferred camping spot for the first day of the trip. Despite the trail being chock-full of excellent camp sites with easy water access, most of those sites exist near or past the twelve-mile mark when you're hiking north from Mack's Canyon and with a five-hour drive north from Klamath Falls before we can even start hiking, we typically don't have the time or inclination to try to reach, say, Harris Ranch or Fall Canyon Camp on the first day. If you find yourself in the same situation, you can't do much better than Lockit Camp, about eight miles from the trail's southern starting point.

There are a few tent spots here, and we've usually set up camp on one of the ones above the river, but decided this time to camp closer to the water. It was a bit of a tighter fit for our Copper Spur UL3, but we made it work.

We set up camp and made and ate dinner a bit later than is typical, but it was a warm enough night that not finishing up until after dark wasn't particularly uncomfortable. While we were cleaning up camp and getting ready for bed, the canyon was suddenly filled with the rumble of a train approaching on the tracks across the river from us. On a three-day hike through the canyon, you will often see (and hear) multiple trains. As a big fan of trains, I see this as an added bonus to an already great hike, though admittedly it's more fun when they come through at 3pm than when they wake you up at 3am.

In this case, I had enough time to set up my tripod and take a timelapse photo as the train went by. It wasn't a great photo, but it did capture the weirdness of seeing a train pass through an otherwise wild place at night.

As usual with this hike, our second day would be our long day. We didn't have an exact camp site in mind for the second night, but we usually stop three or four miles away from the Deschutes' confluence with the Columbia, which meant that we'd have to cover thirteen miles or so to stay on schedule.

Sleeping outside for the first time since November, nestled up against the natural white noise machine of the Deschutes, I fell asleep quickly and slept until the sun shone through the tent into my eyes and woke me up the next morning.

[mintytoastypoetry]

1

the low frosty air

sirens, echo throughout the streets

the crisp winter air

01/05/21

2

morning it is so

testing our minds growing old

magnificent frost

01/07/21

3

silence as it is

brightly as the sun and moon

our love is glowing

01/08/21

4

dinkydoo is that

hilarious and foolish

small but amazing

01/09/21

5

brethren and sun

community and united

forevermore so

01/10/21

6

long ago with pain

leaves and trees among them stay

my mind pleasantly

01/11/21

7

horizons anew

through and through to do and adapt

for the changing plans

01/12/21

8

warmer than normal

no sustenance today

thus was my fun day

01/13/21

9

productivity

projects and more to do so

comes always a cost

01/14/21

10

endings and more there

it is only another

beginning for all

01/15/21

11

woke up a bit late

introspective mind of young

today is and was

01/16/21

12

this will be a mark

upon our decades of life

fill the memories

01/17/21

13

so contemplating

is the mids of old and young

future and past gone

01/18/21

14

sad thoughts for no reason

characteristic unhelped

no avail unfixed

01/19/21

15

celebration none

is one for me and good luck

pray new creation

01/20/21

16

power and greed someone

we all see the results of it

newly oppressed old

01/21/21

17

news and sociality

stressful and tenuously

restoration needs

01/22/21

18

relax and chill more

this was the new motto today

saturday forever

01/23/21

19

these days for burning

are just the mode of younger

years and tears alike

01/24/21

20

with strength and vigor

we decide we know better

we ignore love ignore facts

01/25/21

(81 days later)

101

oh how I miss my dog

as sad as it is it must be

I have moved on now

April 11th 2021

102

days of spring oh yes

lovely twenty four of such

seventy till next

April 12th 2021

103

withdrawl from there

is the best thing we can do

honestly, come on

April 13th 2021

104

dangerous gov bill

I am sorry but not so

it is not helpful

April 14th 2021

105

nothing e’ver changes

we’re part of a silent

crowd nothing changes

April 15th 2021

106

quiet and quite still

are the tenets of each skill

dormant inside you

April 16th 2021

107

national haiku

poetry day how fitting

quite amazing wow

April 17th 2021

108

chris cuomo what

you just, no words to say

I just have no words

April 18th 2021

109

if you think violence

is okay only for you

you a hypocrite

April 19th 2021

110

anniversary

wow, such wow today indeed

i hate it sorry

April 20th 2021

111

seriously none

nothing ever tends to change

we the silent crowd

April 21st 2021

112

happy earth today

even though we continue

allow it perish

April 22nd 2021

113

thirty five days of

spring hallelujah, praise Him

please summer come fast

April 23rd 2021

114

like pond and sky there

we do reflect, you and I

farther clouds and stars

April 24th 2021

115

you promised you’d love

me that far, the lies, deceit

you’ve told burrows deep

April 25th 2021

116

my soul is left cold

all my memories we share

all my pain to bear

April 26th 2021

117

you and then my heart,

enjoy and find pleasure in

breaking it apart

April 27th 2021

118

mask mania ugh

i understand and now we

should all by now know

April 28th 2021

119

stabbing someone is

not something someone does as

an innocent gal

April 29th 2021

120

banning menthol cigs

much wow, so effective just

as prohibition

April 30th 2021

121

Someone in my car

sleeping called the police here

now its all good now

May 1st 2021

122

fifty days until

the real summer begins yay

much the yay and wow

May 2nd 2021

123

happy one two three

not going to lie kinda

funny, much laughs ha

May 3rd 2021

124

may the fourth be with

gina corano, she did

nothing wrong at all

May 4th 2021

125

if you want vaccine

take vaccine, only if you

know the valid effects

May 5th 2021

126

making humanity

a multi-planet species

quite a feat to take

May 6th 2021

127

spring oh spring go now

thank you so much for being mild

but now its time, warmth

May 7th 2021

128

what in heck china

get better grip on your thing

foolish mistake dudes

May 8th 2021

129

happy mothers day

and to all mothers as well

wish you the best luck

May 9th 2021

130

confederate lost

happy day of defeat yay

victory to union!

May 10th 2021

131

eat what you want day?

well, if this isnt the day

like, this a good day

May 11th 2021

132

no neil tyson, lol

that is not why people arent

getting it, nope nope

May 12th 2021

133

well its about time

ugh cdc, of course now

welp, bye bye gas lol

May 13th 2021

134

oh great still nothing

nothing changing nothing at

all, great yay whohoo

May 14th 2021

135

yes, finally the

stores are doing it thank god

now I cant wait now

May 15th 2021

136

<redacted>

May 16th 2021

137

cannot wait for it

summer just around that little

corner, oh yes oh

May 17th 2021

[cadybear420]

Cadybear's Re-Reviews- Witness

Welcome to the second of Cadybear’s RE-Reviews! In Re-Reviews, I of course reassess my original opinion of a story I’ve recently replayed. Maybe my opinion has changed, or maybe it still holds up and I have further thoughts. 

Today I will be re-reviewing Witness, the twenty-fourth review I’ve done. The last time I played this story was 3 years ago, in May 2021. I last reviewed it in March 2024, putting it on the Rotting Flesh Tier with a 2 stars out of 10 rating. As of my most recent replay however, I can comfortably put it on the Bronze Tier at 5 stars out of possible 10.

HahahahahhahahahahahhahahahahahhhahahahahahhahahahhahhahahhaahahhahahahahahhaahahahahahahhahaaaahahhahahahahahahahhahahahhahahahahhhahahahahhahahahahahahhahahahahahahaAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHHA what were you smokiiiiiiiiinnnnnnnngggggg PB

Yeah, I never thought I’d end up re-ranking Witness higher, albeit only from the 2-Star “Annoying” ranking to the 5-star “Mixed Bag” ranking. Maybe it’s because newer books like Surrender, FCL, UT, and TBB are so ungodly awful that I’ve just become desensitized to Witness’s level of bullshit now, but this book honestly isn’t too bad. It got plenty of groans and eyerolls from me for sure, but it didn’t actively piss me off or even deeply annoy me this time around. 

But, y’know, there is still a reason I started this review the same way I started the original review. 

So why doesn’t this book irritate me anymore? Well, quite simply, it does do a few things right. 

Let’s start with the MC. She… actually isn’t too awful, at least not nearly as much as I remember. Although the story does give us a pretty standard normative trope of MC having to be constantly protected by LI, they don’t force her into complete helplessness, and some dialogue choices even allow us to challenge Cassian’s protectiveness. I do like that we get a fair amount of options for how MC behaves in certain situations, something that is slightly misrepresented in my original review. Maybe she can act more level-headed, or maybe she can be too nerve-wracked from the trauma of witnessing a murder. This is something I want to see more of for MCs with trauma. 

And although she does complain by default quite often, some of it is understandable. I mean, if you’ve just witnessed a murder, and then had to be put under witness protection with some very strict restrictions on what activities you can and can’t do, and enter an entirely new life being constantly on the run and constantly having to watch your back… I imagine that would get pretty frustrating pretty fast, no matter who you are. 

I’d say this book’s bigger strengths, however, are in the non-romance and non-sexy aspects– similarly to Wolf Bride. The general conflict with the O'Connells, Finn, etc. didn’t wow me, but it was pretty solid. Plus, this book has a lovely atmosphere with its visuals and the locations like Nantucket beach and Ireland countryside that we get to go to. It does have a very peaceful and calm vibe to it, and while I don’t mind the usual urban and royal settings in most Choices stories that tend to be busier, this one’s settings are a refreshing and unique change of pace. 

Unfortunately, this book shoots itself in the foot when it comes to a lot of these acceptable aspects. 

The most glaring of the problems boils down to, well, the one that everyone has brought up before: the excessive diamond options. The tiered diamond options is an interesting feature that they advertise at the start of the book, but they completely butchered it by paywalling the most ridiculous shit. Like, literally just, the most basic of things… dodging a taser gun, having an honest discussion about Cassian’s protectiveness, accepting help from Cassian during a fight/escape, taking action to help Cassian during a fight/escape, expressing fear and vulnerability about MC and Cassian’s situation, or even– most infamously of course– just eating any breakfast! 

Like I get diamond-walling eating breakfast with Cassian, but they also have to diamond-wall grabbing a waffle to go? Just why???? Like, I like having options for our MC to have healthy communication with their LI and to express fear and vulnerability. I don’t like that they are paywalled this frequently! How PB thought it was a good idea to paywall this many of the options for our MC’s behaviors and character is just… beyond cringe. 

Other Choices stories certainly aren’t immune to paywalling survival tactics or even ridiculous mundane things, but those moments were incredibly rare. This one is just like 

“Oh no, you have to take a piss, but there’s no way you can make it to the bathroom! What do you do? 18 diamonds: Have Cassian carry you to the toilet. 12 diamonds: Relieve yourself in the bushes. Free option: Pee your pants.” 

“Oh no, you just took a very messy and nasty shit! What do you do? 18 diamonds: Thoroughly cleanse your ass with the bidet. 12 diamonds: Simply wipe your ass clean. Free option: Say I don’t like wiping,” 

“Cassian accidentally farted and the sound and stench gave away your hiding spot to the O'Connells, and you’ve only just barely managed to escape from them! What do you do? 16 diamonds: Talk things out with Cassian. Free option: Get angry and kick him in the balls for not controlling his Ass Gas to keep you safe.” 

“Aisling is about to stab you! What do you do? 16 diamonds: Dodge it! Free option: Freeze in terror and just die I guess. Existence is pain anyways.”

And the thing is, this is a really, really easy problem to solve. This is why I think Witness could have easily been a decent-tier story. Think about it. Most of the books I put in the Rotting Flesh and PooPoo tiers are ones that need full-on plot reworkings. TNA 3, TBB, MTFL, Surrender, UT, FCL… they all had storylines that were just done horribly.

Witness’s plot, on the other hand, is one that actually isn’t too atrocious in a vacuum. It isn’t rotten in its beliefs or spirit, it isn’t too artificial in its romance aspect, it isn’t seriously glorifying toxic behaviors or being hypocritical about toxic behaviors. Maybe at the very most it can be nearing MTFL levels of melodramatic, and MC can… sometimes be a spoiled brat? But that’s about it. It’s otherwise an average story. 

The problem with Witness is that it was given poor direction in its premium choices. It gets really distracting and makes it hard to take the story seriously at best, and it feels borderline manipulative at worst. Which is incredibly bad, but it’s also incredibly easy to rework, and most of the story would still be pretty intact after said reworking. This story does rely on having 5 premium options per chapter… but it doesn’t need to. 

A lot of the times where they give us those premium Choices where there’s an 18 diamond one, a 12 diamond one, and a free one… well, just make the twelve-diamond one a free choice. You can have one option that’s premium and gets you a scene with Cassian, but then two others that are free and give you more choice. If you don’t want your MC to be in the mood for breakfast, you can have that… but if you want them to at least eat something, you should be able to have that too without having to pay diamonds.

A lot of the other premium choices, such as: dodging a taser gun vs staring in shock, helping Cassian vs letting your memories overwhelm you, or grabbing hold of Cassian vs panicking and missing his hand… just make them timed Choices instead! That’s how easy it is.  

The book does have plenty of other problems as well, granted they’re maybe not quite as glaring. For one, I of course still find it very pointlessly genderlocked. While the standard normative trope of (female) MC having to be protected by (male) LI isn’t too overbearing as I mentioned before, it still would have been neat to have an option to play as a male MC in this particular situation. I’m pretty damn sure this isn’t something only women could experience, this story does not need MC to be a woman in order to work. And honestly, we need more media that shows it’s okay for men to want protection and express vulnerability. (But sure, muh few female-lead vidya games I guess. I mean, men just have sooooo many video games out there that allow the male leads to be protected or express fear and vulnerability amirite?) 

However, while the general romance dynamic isn’t quite as overbearingly normative as I remembered… the sexy writing absolutely is. You could play a drinking game with the number of times the narration blubbers over “the curves of your waist”... or “your breasts”, or any glorification of how “wonderfully hourglass feminine” the MC’s body is, and I barely even spent diamonds! (Disclaimer: Do not do this drinking game, you will die). Meanwhile all the sexy writing about Cassian is just about how oh-so-masculine-muscular he is, because that’s the only way men’s bodies are allowed to be sexy. I mean there is one scene where MC can check out Cassian’s ass that I did like, but they don’t really fixate on it as much as they do his muscles. 

To be fair, though, that is a problem with Choices books in general rather than Witness specifically, but it was significantly more overbearing in Witness. Also, I realllllyyyyy don’t like them straight-up guilt tripping me into choosing the premium bikini over the brown one-piece. “Har dee har, must be sexy because woman, woman not being sexy is bad”. 

It was also very hard for me to buy MC falling for Cassian, at least in the first volume of the story. I know they’ve kind of set up this MC as someone who is inexperienced with romantic feelings due to an aversion to commitment, but her and Cassian being able to say “I love you” to one another after only a month of knowing each other under witsec protection just doesn’t feel earned. PB if you’re gonna make the MC have a more pre-set personality and character arc, at least commit to it. 

I have mixed feelings about MC getting angry over Cassian’s proposal too, something else that a lot of people have memed the story for. I get the MC being scared since they’re establishing her as someone who initially is not interested in a committed relationship, but I do think having the reaction options only be angry ones just… didn’t feel right. 

Also, this is a smaller thing, but the reuse of certain soundtracks. They frequently use soundtracks from books like ILS, HSS, and ATV, books which I found to be of much higher quality. So it alway hurts when they use those tracks in such a mid-ass book like Witness. But also the fact that the tracks feel way too melodramatic for the scenes they use them from. Like why are you playing the emotional ATV tracks when Cassian and MC are having an emotional moment??? Their moments are not emotional enough for that. 

So in the end, this is a book that is pretty mid-level, but easily didn’t have to be. Honestly, I think if they didn’t paywall the most mundane of tasks or having healthy communication, this book wouldn’t be so infamous, and I’d probably rank it at 6 or maybe even (and that’s a hard “maybe”) 7. 

[jamelyblogs]

The band independently released two albums Twenty One Pilots (2009) and Regional At Best (2011), before being signed to the Fueled by Ramen record label in 2012. Their debut on the label, Vessel, was released in 2013. The The duo achieved breakthrough success with their fourth album, Blurryface (2015), which produced the hit singles "Stressed Out" and "Ride" and became the first album in history in which every song received at least a gold certification. from the Recording Industry Association of America.2​3​ The release of the single "Heathens" also made the group the first alternative artist to have two concurrent top ten singles in the United States. The duo's fifth studio album, Trench, was released on October 5, 2018. On May 21, 2021, the duo released the album Scaled and Icy.

In March 2018, their song "Hometown" received a Gold certification from the RIAA, making Blurryface the first full-length album to have all songs achieving at least Gold status.4344 .In July 2018, Twenty One Pilots broke their silence of over a year, first sending a cryptic email to fans and then posting a video on all social media platforms, in addition to updating their logo and branding.45​ 46​ On July 11, 2018, the band would release two new singles, "Jumpsuit" and "Nico and the Niners", both songs entering the top positions on the Billboard Top Rock Songs Chart. In the following weeks, he would release two more new singles, "Levitate" and "My Blood", as well as the respective videos for each of the aforementioned, and the announcement of his third studio album, Trench, scheduled to be released. released on October 5, 2018 along with a new world tour, called "The Bandito Tour", which began on October 16, 2018.

On March 4, 2019, 5 months after the release of Trench, the band confirmed that they were working on their next studio album.49 Regarding the possible theme, frontman Tyler Joseph said, "there's a character that hasn't been talked about." talked about yet on any album that plays a very important role in the narrative that obviously will have to be talked about and is probably where we are going now, so it won't be about repeating the same themes, but rather it will remember all that and introduce a new character, a new direction".

Where is it trending?

THE TREND IS ON INSTAGRAM, ON TIK TOK, ON YOUTUBE AND SPOTIFY

What's your opinion on the trend?

WELL, THE TRUTH IS THAT I REALLY LIKE THE TREND BECAUSE OF ITS SONGS AND EVEN MORE BECAUSE OF ITS LYRICS.

Why is it trending?

IT IS A TREND BECAUSE OF ITS LYRICS

[nbmsports]

Limiting MLB Draft to 20 Rounds Trades Magic for Efficiency

On Sunday in Seattle, for the fourth year in a row — enough for a full class of college prospects — Major League Baseball will hold a streamlined version of its amateur draft. From an event with unlimited rounds to one with 50 rounds, then 40, and now just 20, the draft is exclusive and efficient, in keeping with baseball’s restructured minor league system.But efficiency has a cost: the countless long-shot careers that may never be realized. Dozens of current major leaguers turned pro after being drafted in rounds that no longer exist. They are grateful for their timing.“Twenty rounds doesn’t seem like quite enough,” said Kevin Kiermaier, the center fielder of the Toronto Blue Jays who was picked in the 31st round by the Tampa Bay Rays in 2010. “I mean, if it was like that now, then I would have never had an opportunity.”Kiermaier, 33, is perhaps the best modern example of the talent that once bubbled far below the surface of the draft. Chosen 941st overall from a community college in Illinois, he has won three Gold Gloves, played in the World Series and earned more than $60 million in an 11-year career.Four players who made the All-Star team last summer — David Bednar, Nestor Cortes, Ty France and Joe Mantiply — were also chosen after the 20th round. So were two members of the Houston Astros’ World Series-clinching lineup last fall (Chas McCormick and Martín Maldonado) and several other longtime major leaguers, like Jesse Chavez, Seth Lugo, Kevin Pillar and Rowdy Tellez.Two Hall of Famers (Mike Piazza and John Smoltz) were drafted in extinct rounds, as were several others with a case for Cooperstown, like Mark Buehrle, Keith Hernandez, Andy Pettitte and Jorge Posada. Many low-drafted players could have stayed amateurs and tried to improve their draft position the next year — but their careers, of course, would have then unfolded differently.“Cutting the numbers down, you’re going to have to create other opportunities for those kinds of players that would have been drafted to come into the game,” said Omar Minaya, a former general manager and longtime scout who now advises the Yankees. “Players do develop late sometimes, so it’s good that M.L.B. is doing things to put those infrastructures in place.”Starting with the 2021 season, teams have been limited to 180 players under club control — there was no limit before — and four domestic farm teams, plus one or two “complex teams” that operate from the spring training base. Short-season Class A teams were eliminated, partly because of the calendar; in 2021, the league shifted the date of the draft from June to July, to coincide with the All-Star Game and raise its profile.Some teams that were cut are now part of M.L.B.’s predraft league, created for scouts to get one last look at prospects before making their picks. Other teams have joined so-called partner leagues — the American Association, the Atlantic League, the Frontier League and the Pioneer League — partially funded by M.L.B. but independent of any specific franchise.Undrafted players, in theory, can join one of those teams in hopes of attracting interest from M.L.B. But removing them from the draft acknowledges the staggering odds against them.“When a player signs a professional contract, you want that player to have some chance of one day becoming a major league player,” said Morgan Sword, M.L.B.’s executive vice president for baseball operations. “That’s why players become minor league players, because they want to one day become major league players. And we did have a lot of players in the system who had — what’s the right way to say it? — almost no chance of ever reaching the major leagues.”Then again, to paraphrase Jim Carrey in “Dumb and Dumber,” there is a huge difference between almost no chance and no chance. A draft selection — whatever the round — certifies that a major league franchise sees something in a player, and often that is all the player wants.“It was definitely nice to know that they picked me for a reason, and I could get to go show it off and play my game,” said Zach McKinstry, the Detroit Tigers’ regular leadoff hitter, who was drafted by the Los Angeles Dodgers in the 33rd round in 2016. “I got an opportunity right when I signed. I spent three days in Arizona and then they sent me to low A and I played on a championship team that year.”McKinstry, who played at Central Michigan University, was a backup before a teammate’s injury gave him a chance to elbow his way to the Dodgers. He was keenly aware that most minor leaguers — especially when the draft lasted 40 rounds or more — were needed only so the better prospects had somewhere to play.“There’s a lot of injustice in the game, real or imagined, so there would be a lot of negative thoughts in those scrums in the outfield during batting practice,” said Bob Scanlan, a San Diego Padres broadcaster who pitched nine seasons in the majors after signing as a 25th-round pick in 1984. “There was a lot of talk like: ‘You know you don’t mean anything to this organization. You’re just here as a filler piece. Why are you even working your tail off?’”Scanlan was 17 when he signed with Philadelphia, turning down U.C.L.A. for the allure of the quality coaching he would get in pro ball. In recent decades, though, college programs have become more sophisticated, with advanced facilities and instruction that offered an appealing alternative to the dusty outposts that once made up the low minors.“The development time is less and less with the caps on the total number of players, so the guys you would pick late are probably going to go to college,” said Matt Arnold, the Milwaukee Brewers’ general manager. “Signing and then going to Helena, or wherever, is going to be less appealing than a really nice A.C.C. or SEC school — and even those second-tier programs have a lot of things they can sell.”Sword said the costs of improvements across the minor leagues — in ballparks, travel, nutrition and salaries — far outweigh the savings from eliminating so many draft picks; “it’s probably nine figures per year leaguewide,” he said. Sword added that in 2021, more than 200 players jumped from partner leagues to the affiliated minors.“The paths for those types of guys to the big leagues exist just as they always have,” he said. “It’s just that the path is different than it once was.”Even so, it stands to reason that with half as many draft picks as there were just four years ago, hundreds more players from each class are now giving up their baseball dreams for more realistic careers. Arnold, who grew up in Bakersfield, Calif., rooting for a since-departed Class A team, wonders about the impact of losing so many acolytes for the sport.“A lot of those guys, even if you were a 35th rounder from the middle of nowhere, you go home and you start an academy, and now you’re a hero,” Arnold said. “You’re a guy that played pro ball, and you bring it back home. And maybe he wasn’t great, but he carries the game with him as a steward in a way that I think we’ll miss.”The guys who make it, perhaps, will have to preach a little louder. Kiermaier, for one, embraces the role.“I look back at how everything evolved for me, and I’m so thankful for my journey,” he said. “I’ll never forget that I was a 31st rounder. I’m proud of that. That number means a lot to me.” Source link Read the full article

[eyndr-stories]

Across The World C5 - The Fourth Place

Summary:

The gods of this world are ancient, most of them forgotten, or nearly so. Nomen has been taught not to make deals with any old gods, should they be unlucky enough to come across one. However, when their little brother Maribus stumbles into mortal peril, they find they have no real choice but to accept the trials of one such god in order to save him.

This is an original story written by yours truly! I started writing this back at the very start of 2021 when I had a particularly wild and extremely vivid dream. This story is heavily based on said dream! This dream is also why I strongly distrust bunny mascots / anthro rabbits lmao but anyhoo, I think i've improved as a writer since this so the quality may or may not be quite on par with my other stories. I also had some help from my cool aunt Kerry with editing this, so if there's anything amiss here we can totally blame her lmao

That all being said, I do still like this story, and I hope you will too!! Enjoy <3

Things To Know:

major character death (its okay though, they live lol)

blood and violence

happy ending

protag (Noman) is nonbinary and referred to with they / them pronouns

first person POV

8 chapters in total, about 13,000 words in total. So roughly 1600 words a chapter. Lil bite sized chappys!

No swear words used, somehow

(lmk if i should add anything, i can't think of anything else)

Ao3 link here

Chapter 1 here

Chapter 4 | Chapter 5 | Chapter 6

C5 - The Fourth Place

     We stood on a beach made of red sand. A long bridge in front of us extended into the dark purple ocean and connected the beach to an island. By now, the sun had nearly set and vibrant dark red streaks bled across a lavender sky. From this distance I could just make out the silhouette of a small town resting on that island. A long sturdy bridge spanned the distance between the mainland and the island.

     Amicus pulled at my poncho and pointed at the island. “I’m willing to bet the door is in that town somewhere.”

     “Agreed.”

     We started walking across the bridge. Other people were heading towards the town as well, walking with us along the bridge. When we all arrived at the entrance, we could see there was a commotion of some sort.

     “Our god sways the fate of us all. They’ve told me so directly!” a broad and sturdy woman claimed. She stood tall before the nervous crowd. “We needn't worry about the rising waters of the ocean. Our god will sever our tie to the mainland and save us. Our town will not perish this night.”

     The people around us began murmuring. A few seemed calmed by the woman’s words, but others looked more skeptical as their eyes glanced toward the endless purple water.

     “I’ve been leader here for twenty years and I would not mislead you. Our god is wise and powerful, we can trust them. Everyone will be safe in town!” the woman shouted.

     The crowd dispersed and we followed the group into their town.

     Amicus whispered, “Do you believe her?”

     “In my experience, gods prefer we fix our own problems. My mother told me a story once about a god who got so fed up with their following never doing even the smallest of things for themselves that they ate the entire town."

     "Huh. I'm so hungry I might just eat a town myself," Amicus mumbled.

     I was getting hungry myself. I debated whether it'd be worth it to try our luck in another marketplace as we walked.

     We looked around at stone buildings framed with beach-wood. Lovely red-orange glass outfitted most of the windows. Balconies and rooftops were filled with people chatting and laughing as a warm breeze rippled through. I noticed the people on the lower level with us were not laughing, but discussing with worry about the rising water level. The consensus was to trust their leader, who had never steered them wrong before, but lower voices whispered they might take action themselves to be safe. No one said what that action was though.

     Amicus and I turned down another fruitless street.

     "What if the door isn't here?" Amicus looked worried.

     I put a hand on his shoulder, but just as I was about to say something, the ground swayed. No, not the ground, it was the entire island that moved.

     Amicus stood closer to me. “What was that??”

     "I'm not sure, but I think the faster we find the door, the better I'd feel," I said as I noticed the fear on the faces around us. Even the people on the balconies had stopped chatting for a moment. "Common, the door has to be around here somewhere."

     We continued searching as night settled around us. The air turned cold, but it was nothing like back home. I threw my poncho over Amicus when I saw him shiver and he gratefully wrapped it closer. The ground began swaying more frequently, and I began feeling a little motion sick. This was not good. Whatever had been worrying everyone seemed to be arriving faster than expected.

     Amicus gently grabbed my arm, bringing us to a stop. “Nomen… I’ve been meaning to say something.”

     Amicus seemed pretty serious, so I gave him my full attention. “What is it, Amicus?”

     “I… I wanted to apologize. I really regret not braving the maze with the warrior to come meet you by the doorway so that I could help you through, after that hermit crab shattered your fire starter. If I could do it over again, I’d do things differently. I just wanted you to know that I’m sorry,” Amicus told me.

     “It’s alright.” I put a reassuring hand on my friend’s shoulder. “I found my way through okay, no need to worry. I really do understand, that warrior was really scary.”

     “And I made you face her alone!” Amicus said.

     “It’s okay, I forgive you. Honestly,” I assured.

     Amicus relaxed. They nodded.

     We picked up the pace as we kept an eye out for the door. I was so focused I didn't notice my boots were wet until I was dragging them through the water. I looked down and realized the buildings were beginning to groan as the ground shifted even harder. Water rushed higher around our feet. I was pretty sure that woman’s god wasn’t saving the town tonight.

     The chatter around us quickly became hysteria. I pulled Amicus out of the way as a crowd of people rushed by in a panic.

     Amicus's voiced sounded so small when he asked, “We’re too late, aren’t we?”

     I couldn't reassure him.

     Amicus threw his arms around me and buried his face against me. “I’m sorry we couldn't save Maribus.”

     “It sounds to me like you’re giving up. Not cool.” I sounded way more calm than I felt. “I've still got one piece left after this one. That means we can still come back and find the door. The town will go back to how it was when we first came through the door and we'll get another chance to figure it out.”

     “But… what if I don't come back with the town? I'm not from here, and I don't have a fire starter of my own.”

     I honestly didn't know. I didn't let my terror show on my face. Instead, I forced a smile. "There's no reason to assume you wouldn't come right back with everything else. But… just in case, I'm going to try to bring you with me. Like when we go through the doors." There was a roar, and then a rush of water as the stone walls cracked. I could see a wave taller than the town itself rising and ready to crush the entire island.

     I grabbed Amicus in a tight hug and whispered. “Don’t let go no matter what, okay?”

     "I won't if you won't." Amicus hugged me back just as tightly.

     I squeezed my eyes shut. Just before the wave finally hit, a horrible thought occurred to me. It seemed I’d have to face the rabbit after all.

[captainmdhridoyhossain-blog]

[ad_1] Salt Lake racer wins fourth gold in 5 races, breaks American report at Global Cup match in Kearns(Chris Detrick | The Salt Lake Tribune) USA's Erin Jackson competes throughout the Women' 500m on the Gangneung Oval throughout the Pyeongchang 2018 Wintry weather Olympics Sunday, Feb. 18, 2018. Jackson completed in twenty fourth position with a time of 39.20.   | Dec. 4, 2021, 12:12 a.m. | Up to date: 2:46 a.m.Kearns • Erin Jackson’s circle of relatives can’t be in Beijing for the 2022 Olympic Video games, which has banned all enthusiasts from out of doors mainland China to stem the unfold of COVID-19. However Friday from the trackside stands on the Utah Olympic Oval, they were given a glimpse of what they may well be lacking.With cousins, her aunt and her father cheering her on, Jackson streaked round her house ice to win gold within the ladies’s 500 meters at the opening day of the World Skating Union Global Cup long-track speedskating races. If truth be told, she went quicker than some other American lady has ever long past. Her time of 36.809 seconds broke the nationwide report of 36.9 set 8 years in the past by means of Heather Bergsma.“I’m simply happy she’s the place she’s at,” Tracy Jackson mentioned of his daughter. “I didn’t know she used to be doing this excellent.”Just right doesn’t correctly describe how Erin Jackson is doing this season. Taking down the report used to be a small milestone in comparison to the only Jackson, 29, claimed remaining month within the season opener in Poland.There, the Salt Lake Town racer become the primary Black lady in historical past to face atop the rostrum at a Global Cup.Jackson now stands atop the Global Cup standings — 10 issues forward of Japan’s Nao Kodaira, the silver medalist on the 2018 Pyeongchang Olympics — and is marked as a favourite to medal in China in February. She might be the primary American lady to win a person medal since Jennifer Rodriguez in 2002 (bronze within the 1000 and 1,500) and the primary lady to win gold since Bonnie Blair received the 1,000 in 1994.But neither the ones accomplishments nor her 4 wins in 5 Global Cup races this season ensure she’ll in truth be at the ice in Beijing. The one strategy to ink her title onto the beginning listing is to qualify on the U.S. Olympic long-track staff trials in Milwaukee on Jan. 5-9.“After we get to Olympic Trials,” mentioned Jackson, who positioned twenty fourth within the 500 in Pyeongchang in 2018, “it’s up for any individual.”The similar is going for Brittany Bowe, any other Salt Lake skater, who leads the sector standings within the 1,000 meters. And for Joey Mantia, who sits No. 3 at the males’s 1,500 leaderboard. And for some other American athlete in the hunt for Olympic glory.“It’s nonetheless a decent, tight race,” Staff USA trainer Ryan Shimabukuro mentioned. “She best received by means of a 10th [of a second] lately, , and the following day it might be turn flopped. And she or he is aware of that. So she’s all the time glad to take a victory, however she doesn’t get complacent, that’s evidently.”That doesn’t cut back this week’s races to mere observe. The issues athletes select up on the Global Cup races this season lend a hand decide what number of racers each and every nation can ship to the Olympics. The issues additionally decide an athlete’s seeding on the Video games, will have to she qualify.Most significantly, possibly, those races can stoke an athlete’s fireplace.“It’s indisputably self assurance construction, ?” Jackson mentioned. “However so far as everybody else is going, like, I will be able to’t in reality consider what everybody else is doing. Everybody’s were given their very own plans for the season and once they wish to be speedy. So, yeah, I’m simply going to stay doing my plan and seeing the way it works out.”It’s labored out neatly to this point, and Shimabukuro mentioned he has no issues Jackson is peaking too quickly.[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RBCoVo6d7s8[/embed]“The function is in February, no longer now,” he mentioned.

“I feel we’d all be kicking ourselves if we, , set the sector on fireplace right here after which got here up with not anything in February.”Russia’s Angelina Golikova took 2d in the back of Jackson within the 500. In the meantime Femke Kok of the Netherlands additionally made the many of the “Quickest Ice on Earth” on Friday by means of environment the Dutch nationwide report within the 500 — a substantial feat for any person from a rustic to which speedskating is the identical to soccer in The usa or football in Brazil — with a time of 37.017.Japan’s Yamato Matsui and Wataru Morishige went 1-2 within the males’s 500, adopted by means of Laurent Dubreuil of Canada. Irene Schouten and Antoinette de Jong of the Netherlands took gold and silver within the ladies’s 3,000 and Nils van der Poel of Sweden set an international report in successful the lads’s 5,000 (6:01.566) by means of just about 3 seconds over Dutchman Patrick Roest.Jackson’s circle of relatives will probably be within the stands once more Saturday as she races for her 5th Global Cup gold in the second one ladies’s 500 race of the weekend. Bowe and Mantia, in the meantime, will each scratch house ice for the primary time in world pageant since 2019 later this weekend. Bowe will most likely compete within the ladies’s 1,000 and staff pursuit on Saturday and the 1,500 on Sunday. Mantia is anticipated to compete within the males’s mass get started and the 1,500 on Saturday and the 1,000 on Sunday.Additionally Sunday, Mia Manganello Kilburg is anticipated to race the ladies’s mass get started. [ad_2] #Black #lady #win #Global #Cup #isnt #put #Olympics #Speedskater #Erin #Jackson #earn #spot #trials

[whatisonthemoon]

Ratlines, NATO, and the Fourth Reich: How (some) Nazis won World War II

This was originally posted by Substack user "ebeggin" on September 2, 2021: https://ebeggin.substack.com/p/ratlines-nato-and-the-fourth-reich

On May 8, 1945, Nazi Germany surrendered to the Allies, ending the self-appellated “Third Reich” as well as World War II in Europe. By the end of the year, most of the public faces of Nazi leadership were either dead or captured - Adolf Hitler and Joseph Goebbels had committed suicide on May 1, Heinrich Himmler followed in suit on May 23, and Hermann Göring would commit suicide the next year on October 18, 1946 after being sentenced to death for his crimes. In occupied Germany, the denazification process officially began, with decidedly different approaches from the West and the Soviet Union. The Soviet administered East pursued denazification zealously, with members of the Nazi Party being arrested and interned in prison camps. In the West however, the administration of punishment was more, shall we say “selective,” as large numbers of Nazi party members not only avoided any punishment for the crimes that they were complicit in, but received protections and employment from the occupying Americans. Among these party members were many high ranking officials who were given positions of influence in the West German government and American intelligence services. The protections afforded to these avowed Nazis would allow for the emergence of a sort of “Fourth Reich” formed from an anti-communist reactionary alliance between Cold Warrior American intelligence services and the fascist secret armies and private military companies that operated throughout Europe and beyond. For the purposes of this detailing this network in this essay, I have drawn heavily on Alexander Cockburn and Jeffrey St. Clair’s Whiteout, Martin A. Lee’s The Beast Reawakens, Paul L. Williams’s Operation Gladio: The Unholy Alliance, and Daniele Ganser’s NATO’s Secret Armies, and included links to sources for a couple of the claims which readers might find particularly unbelievable.

Now then, the most well-known instance of American recruitment of Nazis at the end of World War II was Operation Paperclip. The United States Counterintelligence Corps brought over a thousand German scientists, many of them Nazi party members and a number of them party leaders, to the United States. The best known of these Nazi scientists was Wernher von Braun, who had developed the V-2 rocket weaponry for Germany during World War 2 and would go on to play a prominent role in America’s ballistic missile and space rocketry programs, serving as one of NASA’s most vital assets. It is often overlooked that von Braun was not just a rocket engineer though, but a high ranking officer in the SS. During his time overseeing the construction of the V-2 rockets, von Braun used slave labor from the Dora concentration camp, working over twenty thousand prisoners to death. The construction of the V-2 rockets actually killed more people than they killed in their deployment as weapons. Paperclip also brought over other similarly monstrous scientists, including Hubertus Strughold, who had murdered human test subjects taken from concentration camps through exposure to extreme cold, intensive air preasure, and surgery without anesthetic, and Kurt Blome, the head of Nazi bioweapon research who deliberately infected concentration camp inmates with numerous different diseases, many of them deadly. For the United States, Strughold’s work would prove invaluable in making manned spaceflight even remotely possible, while Blome’s research would shape the development of American chemical weapon and nerve gas programs before he was sent to West Germany to work on still undisclosed secret projects for the military. Of note, Blome had also been a collaborator with the infamous Japanese “Unit 731,” which killed hundreds of thousands of prisoners in inhumane experiments. Similar to the fate of von Braun and the other Paperclip scientists, most of the scientists in Unit 731 were also granted immunity for their numerous war crimes, with the United States using their research in combination with Blome’s to develop bioweapons of their own, later deployed in the Korean War.

   Scientists weren’t the only recruits from the Nazi regime protected by the United States. At the end of World War II, countless Axis war criminals fled to countries such as Spain and Argentina through “ratlines,” orchestrated by the fascist Croatian Catholic priest Krunoslav Draganović in cooperation with the United States Counterintelligence Corps (CIC). During World War II, Draganović had overseen the deportation of countless Yugoslavian Jews to Nazi concentration camps, and after the war organized the ratlines to provide escape routes to members of the Ustaśe, the Croatian fascist movement to which Draganović belonged which had murdered hundreds of thousands of Serbs, Jews, and Roma. Draganović soon expanded the ratlines operation to provide escape routes to various prominent Nazis and other fascists. Among the escapees who used these ratlines were Adolf Eichmann, Josef Mengele, Croatian Dictator Ante Pavelić, and Léon Degrelle, who would go on to establish the neo-Nazi organization CEDADE. The CIC was aware that these ratlines were operating, and at times even helped facilitate them when it wanted to recruit certain Nazis who would otherwise have received death sentences for their crimes. One of the most prominent Nazis brought out of Europe on this US-Ustaśe ratline system to work for American intelligence services was Klaus Barbie, the “Butcher of Lyon.” During World War II, Barbie was a member of the Gestapo who personally tortured and killed numerous prisoners in the Netherlands and France, including children, and would ultimately be responsible for the deaths of well over ten thousand people in this capacity.

In 1947, Barbie would be recruited by the CIC as a part of American anti-communist efforts before making his way to Bolivia in 1951 in an escape facilitated by the United States government. Barbie would live in South America for decades until his capture, trial, and execution by the French government in 1983. In the decades between his arrival and capture however, he would make himself exceptionally useful to the United States and play a major part in several “regime changes” in the country. Barbie cozied up with the Bolivian government initially, becoming an advisor on internal security while at the same time serving as the main liaison for the Central Intelligence Agency in the country. When in the early 1960’s, that same government did not break off friendly relations with Cuba and acted with leniency towards organizing tin miners, Barbie was in communications with the CIA-backed René Barrientos who would lead a coup against the elected government and install a military dictatorship that would conform to American interests. Similarly, Barbie had been the main point of contact for the CIA in the country when agents assisted the dictatorship in assassinating the revolutionary guerilla Che Guevara. When the usual tumult of mid-20th century Latin American politics led to another coup, this time by a general less inclined to play by the rules set down by the US, Barbie helped organize another coup, this time to install his friend General Hugo Banzer Suárez in 1970. Under Suarez’s rule, thousands of leftists and trade unionists were “disappeared,” prison camps were established and Barbie’s torture methods were adopted, serving as a prelude to the methods of the Pinochet dictatorship and similar CIA backed right-wing regimes.

Under Banzer, Barbie would become heavily involved in facilitating the production and trafficking of cocaine, an unsurprising choice considering his patrons. The Bolivian cocaine operation would be the main supplier for the Medellín Cartel lead by infamous cocaine trafficker Pablo Escobar, and in turn would fund the creation of Barbie’s narco-terrorist mercenary group, Los Novios de La Muerte. When widespread protest forced Banzer to resign and bring back free elections after the extent to which his family profited from cocaine trafficking organizations came to light, Barbie was instrumental in the 1980 “Cocaine Coup.” Barbie provided the mercenaries that would violently install General Luis García Meza, who during his brief reign would commit to a “crackdown” on the drug trade in Bolivia that was ultimately a smokescreen for consolidating the cocaine monopoly Barbie had helped establish. When Barbie was finally captured in 1983, despite receiving a tip off from the CIA about his impending arrest, he had caused untold irreversible suffering throughout Bolivia and served as a major architect for one of the largest cocaine trafficking networks, which would be of particular utility to Barbie’s handlers in the CIA. Here Barbie serves as the most egregious example of Nazi war criminals receiving protection from American intelligence, being smuggled out of the country on the ratlines, and then used abroad as an instrument of imperial domination.

This isn’t to say that every prominent Nazi or fascist the Americans recruited was brought to the United States or sent down to South America: many were made some of the most important figures in the West German government and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Some of the former members of the Nazi government could exercise a small degree of plausible deniability with regards to their devotion to the ideology. Hans Speidel was a German general who was one of the participants in the July 20 Plot against Hitler in 1944, a conspiracy which was motivated more by Hitler’s poor handling of military affairs than any distaste the right-wing generals had for the government’s explicitly racist policies, considering they were able to tolerate a decade of the latter. Speidel’s involvement in the plot to make a separate peace with the west while continuing the war against the Soviets made him a palatable enough to serve as one of the founders of West Germany’s Bundeswehr, the successor to the disgraced Wehrmacht. Speidel served as the first of its highest ranking generals and a key figure in facilitating the country’s integration into NATO, going on to serve as the Commander in Chief of the Allied Forces of Central Europe from 1957 to 1963. Another high ranking Nazi military officer who would become of one West Germany’s highest ranking generals was Adolf Heusinger, a member of Nazi High Command. By his own admission, Heusinger had no involvement in the July 20 Plot and actually told the government everything he knew about the conspirators. None of this prevented Heusinger from serving as chairman of the NATO Military Committee in the early 1960s of course. Interestingly, both Speidel and Heusinger were involved in the Schnez Truppe, an illegal “secret army” set up in 1949 and composed of thousands of Wehrmacht and SS veteran officers. The Schnez Truppe compiled lists of socialists and left-wing sympathizers to round up in case of Soviet invasion, with the United States being aware of the entire arrangement. Other examples of Nazis throughout NATO's highest echelons of its military structure are almost innumerable. Johann von Kielmansegg, Ernst Ferber, Franz Joseph Schulze, Ferdinand von Senger und Etterlin, and Karl Schnell were all Nazi military officers who would also hold the title of Commander in Chief of the Allied Forces of Central Europe, while Johannes Steinhoff was a Nazi lieutenant and fighter pilot who served as Chairman of the NATO Military Committee in the early 1970s. Steinhoff’s moment of most widespread attention was probably in 1985 when he took then President Ronald Reagan to pay respects at a German military cemetery that interred a number of SS members. Throughout the Cold War, fascist military officers who had served under Hitler continued to direct military operations in West Germany and Central Europe.

The military was not the exclusive domain of high ranking Nazis in West Germany. In 1957, over three-fourths of the senior officials in the West German Justice Department were former self-identified Nazis, a higher percentage than at any point under actual Nazi Germany. Many of these Nazi lawyers and jurists had been the same who created the legal framework for the Holocaust, and this does not even take into account the officials who, while not members of the Nazi party, were directly involved in Nazi policymaking. One of the highest ranking holdovers from Hitler’s government was Hans Globke, the Chief of Staff for the German Chancellery from 1953 to 1963. Back in Hitler’s Germany, Globke had never officially been a member of the Nazi Party, but he had formulated the 1933 Enabling Act which brought Adolf Hitler to power, drafted numerous anti-semitic laws, and served as the chief legal advisor to the Office of Jewish Affairs which was responsible for administering the Holocaust. When the Allies eventually took Germany, the British and Americans concluded that Globke was too valuable as a statesman to face punishment for his involvement in genocide, laying the path for him to become the most important advisor for West Germany’s first chancellor, Konrad Adenauer. A decade after World War II, one of the architects of the Holocaust was one of the most powerful men in Western Germany. In his capacity as Chief of Staff, Globke was instrumental in strengthening ties with the United States, NATO, and the CIA, and establishing the country’s intelligence services, which just so happened to fall under the administration of his good friend Reinhard Gehlen.

Reinhard Gehlen was likely the most important Nazi recruited by the Americans at the end of World War II. A lieutenant general and spymaster in Nazi Germany put in charge of military intelligence on the Eastern front, Gehlen was responsible for the deaths of millions of Soviets during his time there. Gehlen was too talented for his own good it seems, as his intelligence reports correctly described the successful advance of the Soviet military, which Hitler saw as an act of “defeatism,” and prompted him to dismiss Gehlen from his post in April 1945. Fortunately, Gehlen would not have to wait long between employers as only about a month later, with Hitler dead and Nazi Germany defeated, he surrended to the US Counterintelligence Corps who in turn introduced him to his new boss: Allen Dulles, then the Swiss branch director of the CIA precursor Office of Strategic Services. A few months earlier, before the war had even ended, Dulles was engaging in secret negotiations with SS General Karl Wolff. Wolff was in charge of occupied northern Italy at the time and responsible for the deaths of three hundred thousand Jews, and Dulles wanted to secure an early peace in the region to keep the predominantly communist Italian resistance from overthrowing the fascists and coming into power. These clandestine negotiations, which granted clemency to a vast number of SS officers in what was known as Operation Sunrise. When Stalin learned about these negotiations, he was furious, assuming that the US was attempting to secure a separate peace contrary to the agreement established between the Soviets and the rest of the allies. Stalin had reason to assume the worst, since part of the negotiations with Wolff entailed an attempt to recruit him and his men for Operation Unthinkable, the possible invasion of the Soviet Union after the defeat of Nazi Germany. While Dulles was unable to secure his “separate peace” before Germany’s surrender, Wolff was protected from the Nuremburg trials for his cooperation and allowed to live out the rest of his life a free man.

When Dulles met with Gehlen, the inevitability of conflict with the Soviet Union was the main matter on their minds. To this end, Gehlen informed Dulles of the incomplete plans for Werwolf, a plan formulated by Heinrich Himmler when the prospect of defeat was beginning to loom over Nazi Germany. The plan called for a secret army organized behind enemy lines in Soviet territory that would engage in clandestine paramilitary operations with plans to draw on hidden caches of supplies and weaponry set up by the Reich. If this sounds familiar, it’s because the Americans would put a similar plan into effect in the form of Operation Gladio, the “stay-behind” network of covert fascist paramilitaries deployed across Europe under the oversight of NATO and the CIA. In 1947, Gehlen was sent back to Germany to work under the CIA as the head of a new intelligence agency that would become known simply as the Gehlen Organization. Staffed by numerous former SS officers, the Org attempted to implement these secret armies in the Baltic and Ukrainian SSRs in cooperation with MI6, working to smuggle anti-communist exiles behind enemy lines under the leadership of men like Estonian SS officer and war criminal Alfons Rebane. Despite some early successes, Soviet counterintelligence managed to successfully thwart most of these efforts. Around the same time, in collaboration with the CIA, the Gehlen Organization also set up the neo-fascist organization Bund Deutscher Jugend and its paramilitary branch, the Technischer Dienst, to serve as West Germany’s own “stay-behind” secret army, once again composed of Wehrmacht and SS veterans. It’s probably not surprising to learn that one of the trainers for the BDJ-TD just so happened to be US Counterintelligence Corps recruit Klaus Barbie. The discovery of the BDJ, its weapon caches, its American funding, and its kill list of West German socialists all became a point of controversy in 1952, leading the Counterintelligence Corps to intervene to prevent local West German authorities becoming privy to sensitive information. After about a decade of these kinds of operations, in 1956 the Gehlen Organization was dissolved into the newly formed Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND), the German foreign intelligence agency which still exists to this day, with many of the SS officers in the original organization being brought over into the new national intelligence agency. For his part, Gehlen would serve as the first president of the BND from 1956 to 1968.

   A final illuminating example of this supranational “Fourth Reich” is found in the post-World War II activities of one of the most important recruits of the Gehlen Organization, Otto Skorzeny. The exploits of this scarred SS officer and intelligence operative are almost too numerous to comprehensively list, but a brief overview of his activities should serve to demonstrate how US-backed Nazi activities in Europe, Latin America, and beyond all tied back together into a global network. During World War II, Skorzeny had established himself as one of Nazi Germany’s most vital special forces operators, such as in Operation Oak in 1943 when he rescued Benito Mussolini from certain doom. Towards the end of the war, with a growing understanding of the Reich’s coming defeat, Skorzeny’s reputation lead to his recruitment by a number of wealthy German industrialists who had backed and profited from Hitler’s regime for the purpose of smuggling their wealth out of the country. At this time, Skorzeny was also working alongside Reinhard Gehlen as one of the coordinators of the proposed Operation Werwolf. When the war came to an end, Skorzeny purposefully presented himself as a prisoner of war to American forces, correctly predicting that his skillset would make him a valuable asset to the United States in their oncoming pivot to a focus on anti-communist efforts. While interned as a prisoner by the Americans, Skorzeny had left behind a network of his own ratlines to allow SS members to escape Allied territory for safe havens such as Spain, Portugal, and Argentina in what was variously known as the Organization of SS Veterans (ODESSA) or Die Spinne (The Spider), organized by the Werwolf agents Skorzeny had trained. Like the ratlines operated by Krunoslav Draganović, these ratlines were tacitly approved and at times even facilitated by the US Counterintelligence Corps. Skorzeny would eventually “escape” from American custody in 1948, but according to his own testimony, the Americans actually helped facilitate this escape. After a brief period lying low, Skorzeny would return to activity as a member of the Gehlen Organization - with American and British internal documentation indicating the Org was a cutout for covert American sponsorship of Skorzeny.

   Skorzeny set himself up in Madrid in 1950, living comfortably under the dictatorship of Francisco Franco, where he quickly found that his services on behalf of German industrialists had paid off. In 1951 Alfried Krupp, the SS-associated weapons manufacturing heir who had used slave labor and operated private concentration camps during World War II, received a pardon from the American occupation for his war crimes and returned to operating his business with all of his capital restored. An incredibly wealthy man once more, Krupp served as another of Skorzeny’s patrons by recruiting him to serve as his company’s representative in Argentina. Through this Argentina connection, Skorzeny became involved in frequent dealings with President Juan Perón, who transformed his country into a haven for Nazi war criminals and their ill-gotten loot. Beyond Argentina, Skorzeny engaged in globe-trotting work on behalf of the Gehlen Organization and by extension the CIA, participating in the 1952 Egyptian coup, bringing on board German technicians, and helping to reorganize the Egyptian service on the basis that the new nationalist leadership would provide the United States with a valuable anti-communist ally, even if this meant undermining the British by installing militant anti-colonialists in one of their most important former colonies. However, when the Egyptian leader Gamal Abdel Nasser refused to allow the Americans to establish a military base in his country and continued to maintain relations with the Soviet Union and Communist China, the United States reversed its stance and Skorzeny would convince many of the German technicians in the country to depart - ironically, on the basis of orders relayed to him by the Israeli Mossad.

   Outside of his intelligence work directly on behalf of the CIA, Skorzeny operated as the focal point for a loose “Fascist International.” Skorzeny was a mentor to Jean-Fraçois Thiriart, the “Nazi Maoist” with strong ties to the Belgian branch of Operation Gladio, joined the Belgian fascist Leon Degrelle in founding the Spanish Neo-Nazi group CEDADE, maintained communications with Klaus Barbie during his activities in Bolivia, and associated with the covert Portuguese mercenary group Aginter Press which carried out anti-communist counter-insurgencies and was connected to the “strategy of tension” carried out by Gladio operatives in Italy. In cooperation with one of the founders of Aginter Press and Propaganda Due lodge member, Italian neofascist Delle Chiaie, Skorzeny formed his own mercenary organization, the Paladin Group, which would train paramilitary death squads. During the last decade of Skorzeny’s life from the late 1960s to the early 1970s, the Paladin Group would provide its services to Francoist Spain, Apartheid South Africa, the military junta in Greece (ran by Operation Gladio assets), and Augusto Pinochet’s CIA-backed dictatorship in Chile. After Skorzeny’s death in 1975, Chiaie continued his mercenary and neo-fascist activities, including assisting Klaus Barbie and the CIA in the Bolivian “Cocaine Coup.”

Let us take all of this together: the United States facilitated the escape of numerous SS officers and Nazi war criminals from any consequences or punishment, integrating them into government scientific agencies, installing them in positions of leadership in West Germany and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, and using them as intelligence assets. These CIA-backed Nazis would both help establish the secret armies of Operation Gladio, serving as middlemen for their American sponsors, and facilitate coups in countries to bring them more in line with American interests. Based on these facts, I propose a radical revision of history, and one that I will admit is not entirely original. Given the extent of American cooperation with and support for former Nazi leadership, as well as other fascist organizations through Operation Gladio, we should consider that Stalin was not only correct in believing the Americans had attempted to secure a separate peace with parts of the Nazi government, but that they had actually done so. In this light, the Cold War was a continuation of World War II, with the United States allying with the remnants of the Third Reich who they reconstituted into a new, supranational form. The American military intelligence apparatus dismissed the doomed approach of Operation Unthinkable in favor of a long term Werwolf style war waged through clandestine means such as Operation Gladio and Operation Condor. The ideological fervor of Hitlerism might have died in 1945, but the pragmatic new Nazism lived on through the efforts of men like Dulles and Gehlen and finally triumphed over its eternal enemy in 1991. Today we live in the world created by that lingering Nazi victory: an Invisible Americanized Reich.