#Monstrously Simple Days at College | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

starrynightarchive · 3 months ago

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this is true! while i haven't yet had a chance to cook full meals for friends when they are feeling down, one incident does stand out.

my friend is now in college that's pretty far away from home so we can only meet once every 6 months or so now. they have always had issues with taking care of themselves. even though they weren't downright miserable i could see that they were kinda lost, what with the new environment and the past haunting them. and it's not a big thing but one time during call i offered to teach them how to make bread omlette. it's a solid breakfast and takes barely 10 minutes to make with minimal ingredients and tastes damn good. anyone can make it.

so after she came home i sat her down and walked her through how to make that simple dish. i made her sit and eat too. you should've been the sheer joy in her face. she kept saying oh my god. oh my god. it was good but i knew it was no michelin star hotel shit but she was so so happy. because i made her something. because i showed her that here. look. this is my love. and she has always had issues with food and too so it meant something to her. two days later she texted me a photo of that dish again because she made it at home and said "look!!! i am nothing like her (referring to her mother who she has a bad history with) !! i can cook something!! i am not her!!" it was such a simple thing but i made her a new memory that brought warmth.

food means different things to different people. in times of distress it feels pointless to eat but when you offer to feed someone you're showing that you care. and in such situations where grief and inner turmoil is so prominent it helps. it helps to see physical proof of someone's love, that someone is saying stay. eat. i care about you. i want you to be alive and happy.

food to me is linked to some of the most traumatic and pleasant memories, but after all these years the pleasant ones outweigh the bad ones. i remember being overcome with grief after a death of a loved one and i couldn't eat for days. couldn't stomach the thought of it. but one night, a bunch of my cousins sat down together, bought in a monstrously big banana leaf, heaped a shitton of food on it and we ate it all together, laughing and feeding each other with our hands. our eyes were still puffy with tears but the love was there and it was real just as the food in front of us and the steam wafting from it. at that moment, we were alive. we were hopeful, because this one dinner made us feel less alone. the grief was there and it was still overpowering but god, the love was there, too. warm and soft and real. and that was enough.

even if they don't feel like eating, just one bite fed by someone makes a lot of difference. food shows your love and helps one gain their energy back, physically and mentally. so yeah. feed your friends. it helps. it really really does.

legit the best advice i can give you: feed your friends

any time someone is in any kind of crisis or upheaval, offer to feed them. tell them they don’t have to choose what it is if they can’t make decisions, just ask about allergies and preferences and tell them you’re just gonna make food happen at their house.

friend having a baby? delivery gift certificate to order food to the hospital after the kid shows up.

someone’s relative passes away? offer to make them dinner.

buddy gets laid off? ask if you can order them lunch.

pal stuck in a depressive episode? offer to drive them to fucking mcdonalds, if that’s what they want.

people in crisis are tired and sad and angry and the last thing most of them are doing is thinking about feeding themselves. so if you have the ability or time or money, providing that is always, always a good move.

legit i do this all the time, and it is 100% always appreciated. i have taught all my friends that when something happens, we feed each other. it makes people feel extremely cared for, and I cannot recommend it enough.

#sorry bout the long post guys i just have a lot of feelings about food #and about love because i have so much of it to give #so here's a storytime post no one asked for #vi talks

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marshmallow-phd · 6 years ago

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Charming Instruction

Part of The Untamed - EXO Wolf Universe

Genre: Supernatural, Wolf Au

Pairing: Junmyeon x Reader

Summary: You were just an average, everyday college student desperately trying to graduate. Only one more year stood between you and that celebratory walk. However, due to an oversight by your adviser, it seemed that the one class you never wanted to take was required to take that walk. It wasn’t the subject matter that made you uncomfortable. It was the teacher. Your heart sped up every time you saw him and you didn’t want that distraction in your life, attractive or not. With meeting him now an inevitability, you swore that you would keep your hormones in check. But after your first day of class, a series of hi jinks and weird situations lead you to discovering the secret of your professor and why he seemed to bombard your every thought.

Part: 1 I 2 I 3 I 4 I 5 I 6 I 7 I 8 I 9 I 10 I 11 I 12 I 13 I Final

This first week of class had been the hardest Junmyeon had ever been through. Even more so than his first semester as a professor at the college. The off days that you weren’t in his class were better than the three days you were in attendance. He didn’t have to calm himself down to be in your presence or worry about losing his train of thought when he spotted you. But that was only two days out of the week. For the Wednesday and Friday that followed, he’d steeled himself up at the beginning of that first class. To his reluctant relief, you sat near the back, far out of his eyesight unless he strained to look for you. It would be easier to avoid your gaze, to not get caught staring at you so far back. Not only did he want to avoid scrutiny and gossip from his students, but he also didn’t want to scare you off.

As under the radar he tried to be with the rest of the pack, he was failing monstrously. For the past week, he’d been avoiding the house, taking the time away from everyone to try and work up a plan. A plan he was still trying to formulate. But everyone had noticed his jumpy and sketchy state. Of course, his constant absence left Kris mostly in charge, but he had a hard time feeling guilty about that. It was about time that Kris got a little taste of the chaos Junmyeon had been dealing with for the past few years on his own.

Coming down the stairs the morning of the second week of class, he overheard Sehun talking to Kris, trying to see if Junmyeon had spilled anything to his fellow leader. But he hadn’t and it hurt Junmyeon to hear the worry in Sehun’s voice.

Kris sighed, “Well, I have no clue. I think you should just give it some time and he’ll-”

Junmyeon stepped into the kitchen, keeping a smile on his face, even if it was fake and forced. “Morning everyone.”

Murmurs of “good mornings” echoed around the room, but no one looked him in the eye. They were trying hard to pretend that everything was normal and that they hadn’t just been talking about him in his absence. It was sweet, if a little useless. Best to not stick around so they could all relax again.

Filling up one of the rarely used thermoses with fresh coffee, he headed for the back door. “I’ll see you guys later.”

Just before he could escape, Sehun called out to him. “Are you going to run with us tonight?”

Junmyeon almost whined. There was so much hope in the youngest member’s voice and he was about to crush it.

“I can’t. I’ve got… other things I’ve got to take care of.” It was a complete lie, but Junmyeon couldn’t chance shifting while his focus was so disorganized. His wolf was strong these days and only his human logic was keeping it at bay. In his other form… there was too great a chance of the wolf taking over completely and he’d shoot off running from the rest of the pack, following his instincts until they led to you. That would be the second least okay thing for him to do.

Today was another day with you in class. Again, you sat all the way in the back. Too far. Too far away from him.

Focus, Junmyeon.

Why did this class have to only be an hour and a half long? As much as it was torture for him, it was also soothing. He knew you were close and he knew you were safe. Not that much could actually happen to you around here. There were no more threats of witches or hybrids as of late. The only difficulties recently were the mates themselves. Really just the inconvenience of them.

Not that you were inconvenient! Not in the slightest!

It was just the situations. Nothing could just be easy in his life, could it?

He nearly laughed at himself, trying to defend his thoughts against an imaginary version of you in head.

The next day, Junmyeon gave up. He still hadn’t been able to come with any solid plan on how to approach you. No one in the pack yet knew about his mate and, well, he figured it was time to tell them anyway.

All the way home, Junmyeon went over how he would approach the subject with his brothers. He could already hear Jongdae and Baekhyun’s laughter ringing in his ears. They were going to have a field day. But Junmyeon was at the end of his rope. He couldn’t just approach you and say, “Hi, I know I’m your teacher, but I’m a werewolf and you’re my mate. Want to go out on a date and get to know each other?”

He banged his head up against the steering wheel. Why was this so hard?

Sighing, he finally got out of the car, bracing himself for the circus to come.

But no one was home.

Concerned, he called Chanyeol, who answered after two rings.

“Hey, hyung!”

“Hey, Chanyeol,” Junmyeon continued to roam the house, scanning for any form of life, “where is everyone?”

“We’re getting pizza!” Chanyeol replied, clearly chowing down on a mouthful of food. “We were going to ask you to come along, but you’d been so busy lately we didn’t think you’d be up for it.”

Junmyeon tried not feel left out. He had been both absent and constantly turning down their offers the past week so he couldn't blame them. Still, pizza sounded really good at the moment.

“Are all of you there?” he asked.

“Everyone but Kris. I sent him a text, but he hasn’t responded.”

“Okay,” Junmyeon sighed, “make sure you all make it home safe.”

“Always do. I think we’ll be heading home here soon.”

“Alright. See ya then.”

With nothing else to do, Junmyeon went upstairs to his room to take a shower. Usually he kept his showers short and conservative, but, being the only one home, he gave himself extra time, letting the water pellet his back and warm his skin. The dotting pattern against his muscles felt good, relieving just the smallest amount of stress.

He felt better after getting out of the shower even if his thoughts were still bouncing around chaotically. Slipping into a simple pair of sweatpants and a tank top, it felt nice to shed the put together appearance of the professor and to just be a guy - a regular guy with no issues, no hidden secrets, and no facade to keep in tact.

Heading back down the stairs, it seemed one person had come home. Junmyeon caught the tail end of Kris’ call for anyone who might be around.

“No one’s home,” he answered, entering the kitchen. In front of Kris he didn’t feel the need to keep up the happy face. “They all went out for pizza a few hours ago. Chanyeol said he texted you.”

Kris pulled out his phone and frowned at the screen. He just shrugged, turning his attention back to Junmyeon after slipping the phone back into his pocket. “What’s going on with you?”

Now faced with the chance to answer, he didn’t know how to let it out. Instead, he just shuffled his bare feet over to the breakfast booth and collapsed down in it, sighing.

His fellow leader sat down across from him. “Junmyeon?”

Looking up, that’s when Junmyeon finally noticed the familiar conflicted look in Kris’ own eye. “You don’t look much better.”

Kris scoffed. “Yeah. I just got the surprise of my life today.”

Junmyeon raised an eyebrow. “Oh, yeah? I bet I can beat it with what happened to me last week.”

That just made Kris smirk as he leaned back in the chair. “Really? Fine. We’ll say it at the same time and see who wins.”

Junmyeon couldn’t believe he was laughing at the moment, but the situation was too hilarious not to. “Alright. Deal.”

Kris held a hand up along with three fingers that went down with the numbers. “Three. Two. One.”

“I found my mate.” “I found my mate.”

Junmyeon felt his jaw drop. That was not what he was expecting from Kris. Far from it. “Well,” he gulped, “this is quite the development.

“Yeah,” Kris half-laughed, half-scoffed, “you got that right.”

Before either of them could elaborate on their confessions, tell-tale stomps echoed off the floor and walls and ten young wolves came clopping into the kitchen.

At first, they were all normal, putting each other in choke holds and dodging punches as they loudly and happily chatted about nothing. Then they all noticed the not-so-cheerful looks on their alphas’ faces and the silence was immediate.

Pushing his way to the front, Minseok looked at them back and forth. “Anything you guys want to share?”

Being quicker than him, Kris waved at Junmyeon. “You first.”

Traitor. Junmyeon dropped his face into his folded arms on the table and groaned.

“Junmyeon?” Sehun called out. “You said that everything was fine.”

And there’s the guilt trip.

Sitting back up, Junmyeon looked to them. “Technically, everything is fine. It's just….”

“Junmyeon found his mate,” Kris finished for him.

Junmyeon shot him a dirty look.

“Shouldn’t you be happier about that?” Chanyeol asked innocently.

“Yes, well,” he cleared his throat. “It’s complicated.”

“Isn’t it always?” Tao snorted.

“Maybe we can help?” Yixing offered.

Exhaling deeply, Junmyeon shook his head. “I’m not sure exactly how you’d be able to help. You see… she’s….” Junmyeon braced himself for the worst. “She’s one of my students.”

At first, there was nothing but stunned silence. And then the howling hit.

It was loud and thunderous, coming from only four of the members, but their volume was enough to make up for the rest of the quiet, open-mouthed pack.

Jongdae and Baekhyun were holding onto each other as they struggled to breathe. Chanyeol was doing his usual full body laugh, at first slapping Kyungsoo on the shoulder before earning a death glare and moving on to Tao, who was giving off his signature high cackle. Even Kris was struggling a bit with holding back his laughter, lips pressed together and avoiding Junmyeon’s gaze.

Feeling a bit like a child, Junmyeon pointed to Kris. “He found his mate, too.”

Once again, silence over took the room.

“Kris?” Luhan gasped. “Are you serious?”

The other alpha shifted uncomfortably in his seat. “Yeah….”

That really shocked the pack. Junmyeon had wanted to find his mate, but Kris had made it very clear that he was perfectly fine on his own. There was a running bet that Kris would be dead last in finding his mate. Looks like some people would be paying up here soon.

Tao frowned. “Who is she?”

“She’s….” Kris stared down at his folded hands on the table, “an old childhood friend.”

“How is that possible?” Baekhyun asked. “Wouldn’t you have known she was your mate back then and never have- ow!”

Kyungsoo had elbowed Baekhyun before he could finish that train of thought. A few other members shot Baekhyun dirty looks out of the corners of their eyes. Better to keep those memories in the past where they belonged.

“You don’t feel the mate pull until after you’ve shifted for the first time,” Junmyeon explained. “Considering Kris moved here before he ever had his first transformation, I’m assuming she was from your hometown?”

Kris nodded, still keeping his gaze down.

“Wow,” Minseok mused, “so Kris has it really easy, huh?”

“Not exactly,” Kris countered. He tapped his index finger on the table. “She’s engaged.”

Junmyeon nearly choked. “W-what?”

“Yup.”

Junmyeon now didn’t seem to be in that bad of a situation anymore. At least you seemed to be on your own. Granted, he wasn’t completely sure about that, but there wasn’t a ring on your finger, at least.

“I’m suddenly thankful for the witches,” Jongdae commented.

“At least Lanie was just stubborn,” Chanyeol added.

“Good luck with that, ge-ge,” Tao saluted. “Better you than me!” He disappeared up the stairs, still laughing to himself. Kris definitely wasn’t going to let that slide.

It didn’t take long for the others to disperse, murmuring clearly among themselves. A majority of the boys headed out the back door to go for a run, not bothering to invite the two of them along. Junmyeon didn’t stop them either. Luhan and Minseok were going with them so they shouldn’t get into too much trouble. Hopefully.

A hiker had spotted the group from afar just a few weeks ago. Nothing to worry about really, but Junmyeon preferred for them to go completely unseen.

“Life’s pretty screwed up, isn’t it?” Kris chuckled.

Junmyeon nodded in agreement. “I just wish it would be nice to us for once.”

“You need to stop freaking out,” Gemma chastised for the millionth time. “He’s just your teacher.”

“Her teacher that is smoking hot and makes her heart thump,” Cam snickered.

From your spot on the couch, you threw a pillow at Cam. It was a pathetic throw and she blocked it with her arm easily.

Tomorrow was the first time you’d have to hand in a paper for class and Professor Kim apparently wasn’t very uptodate on the twenty-first century. While every other teacher had students hand in papers through the school’s site electronically, Professor Kim insisted on them being hand delivered on paper... in class.

The paper was written, printed, and carefully placed inside your bag for the next day, but you were still freaking out. You were going to have to walk up to him and somehow hand in the paper without turning red or freaking out in any way. Any visible way, that is.

“I don’t get why you’re making such a big deal out of this,” Gemma added, flopping down sideways on the matching gray loveseat. “Plenty of students have had a crush on Professor Kim. It’s nothing new.”

“I know,” you groaned. “I just- I can’t explain it. I just freak out whenever he’s near.”

“Look, (y/n),” Cam was suddenly serious, giving you a pitiful look, “I get that ever since freshman year you think all guys are scum-”

“That is not true!” you countered. “I know that there are nice guys out there! One relationship with a jerk has not made me think that all men are horrible. I just realized that having a relationship is a big distraction. My grades tanked and I was barely able to save them before the end of the semester. It wasn’t worth it. I refuse to get any more attachments like that. I’ll love you guys forever, but I don’t need anyone else trying to convince me to stay.”

“We love you, too, but you are still blowing this little crush out of proportion,” Gemma laughed. “Just hand the damn paper in and leave it at that.”

You opened your mouth to argue, but stopped. Maybe you really were blowing this up more than it was. Crushes were fine to have. Your heart could use the exercise, the occasional rise in beats per minute. Wasn’t that kind of blood pumping good for you?

Why were you freaking out like this? Why couldn’t you just be normal?

The next morning, you were completely calm going into class. Okay, “completely” was a bit of a stretch, you were much better than you had been last night. Walking into class, you even took the brave step to sit more towards the middle of the lecture hall, more in the line of Professor Kim’s eyesight.

Yes, you could do this.

Professor Kim also noticed your new seat, his eyes flickering towards you every few minutes. It sent your heart into a frenzy, but you simply repeated to yourself that it meant nothing and you just needed to focus on the lecture.

You made it to the end of class, very proud of yourself indeed. Almost right after you were all dismissed, your phone rang.

“Hello?”

“Hey!” Cam greeted on the other end of the phone. “Have you seen my my packet for biology?”

Your mind now on a single track, you packed up your things and headed out of the hall. “No, I don’t think so.”

“Are you sure?” she whined. “I can’t find it and the last thing I remember was printing it off on our printer last night, but now I can’t find it.”

Outside, you stopped, wedging the phone between your ear and shoulder as you looked through your bag for any sign of Cam’s packet. Then you saw your paper.

“Shit!”

“What is it?” Cam asked.

You whimpered. “I forgot to turn in my paper! I’m sorry, Cam, but I’ll look for your packet a little more in a bit, I have to catch Professor Kim!”

Hanging up, you didn’t give Cam a chance to say goodbye as you ran back to the lecture hall. It was completely empty of students or the professor alike. Groaning, you pulled out your syllabus to get Professor Kim’s office number before taking off in that direction. Hopefully, he’d still accept the paper since now it was technically late.

The door was shut when you arrived, but the light was on, shining through the cracks around the frame. Lifting your hand to knock, you froze when you heard voices inside.

“I hardly need your style of expertise, Baekhyun,” Professor Kim grumbled. The name sounded familiar to you, although you couldn’t place where it’d be from in your consciousness.

“Okay, fine,” the one you assumed was Baekhyun huffed. “Moving on, are you going to run with us tonight?”

“Yes, I’ll be there tonight.”

“Good. It’s about time you started stretching your paws again.”

Paws? What the heck was that supposed to mean?

“My paws are just fine, thank you. But I have missed running with you guys.”

“Of course you have,” Baekhyun scoffed. “Us wolves have to stick together. Isolating yourself isn’t in our nature.”

You swallowed back a gasp. W-wolves? Their nature?

There was no way he was alluding to what you thought he was… right?

People who could turn into wolves didn’t exist. Those were just stories. A section of your class that you would be covering in a few weeks. A fairytale, folklore. There was no such thing as werewolves. And your professor certainly wasn’t one.

“As a leader of the pack,” Professor Kim chuckled, “I think I understand that a little better than anyone.”

Your heart was about to jump out of your chest. Needing to get out of there and find a rational explanation for what you just heard, you shoved your paper into the mail slot next to the door and took off down the hall.

What the hell was going on at this college?

#exo #exo fanfiction #exo fanfic #exo wolf au #exo wolf!au #exo werewolf au #exo werewolf!au #exo supernatural au #exo scenarios #exo series #junmyeon x reader #kim junmyeon #suho #Charming Instruction #untamed wolf universe

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pixelgrotto · 8 years ago

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RIP Archie’s Sonic the Hedgehog comic (1992-2017) After 25 years and nearly 300 issues, Archie’s long-running Sonic the Hedgehog comic was officially cancelled earlier this week. The writing’s been on the wall for a while now, since the comic went on a forced hiatus several months ago and none of the creators were allowed to publicly discuss it due to ongoing negotiations between Archie and Sega. But this Thursday, the book’s final fate was declared, and it looks like the Freedom Fighters - who once announced that they could handle anything - couldn’t quite beat the threat of cancellation. A lot of people dunk on the Archie Sonic comic for being overly convoluted, going through some pretty low points or appealing primarily to furries, and all of these things are kinda true, except for maybe the furry one. But warts and all, Archie Sonic is a glorious beast of monstrously complex proportions. First of all, let the fact that Sonic holds the record for having the longest-running North American comic for a licensed character sink in. Seriously, this series ran from 1992 to 2017 and nearly reached 300 freaking issues. In a time when most comics from Marvel and DC can barely reach double digits before either being renumbered to generate a temporary boost in sales or flat-out cancelled, Sonic the Hedgehog kept chugging along, stealthily reinventing itself from its original status as a slapdash funny book to an ongoing saga that manifested lore so deep that it warranted the release of an entire encyclopedia to help people keep everything straight.

What’s even more interesting is that Archie Sonic became the one place where you could still see characters carried over from the DiC Saturday morning Sonic cartoon show, which was produced in 1993. The show, affectionately dubbed SatAM by everyone who watched it back in the day, frankly doesn’t hold up that well and is a good example of nostalgia goggles at work. It had an incredible theme song, though (SONIC! HE CAN REALLY MOVE! SONIC! HE’S GOT AN ATTITUDE! SONIC! HE’S THE FAAAASTEST THING ALIVE), and the show did do an admirable job of developing a backstory for a mascot who, at the time, had no characterization other than the fact that he was fast and collected rings. SatAM fixed this by putting Sonic in the surprisingly dark world of Mobius, a place ruled by Dr. Robotnik, a dictator who had “roboticized” the population by turning them into droids. It also gave the hedgepig a variety of characters to play off of, like Princess Sally, Antoine the cowardly French fox, Bunnie the half-roboticized rabbit and Rotor the walrus. Along with Tails, this lot was collectively referred to as the Knothole Freedom Fighters. Archie Sonic got its start telling stories with the Freedom Fighters while they were still on air, and even after the show was cancelled, the comic continued using them, essentially turning itself into season three of the cartoon. As the decades passed, the SatAM characters and story threads evolved and changed in wondrously unexpected ways - Sonic and Sally fell in love, the original Dr. Robotnik was killed and replaced with a robotic version of himself from an alternate dimension, Bunnie and Antoine got married and Mobius was revealed to be a future version of Earth that was attacked by the Xorda, aliens who had unleashed gene bombs on the planet, mutating the wildlife into anthropomorphic animals. (This was my goddamn favorite batshit crazy bit of Sonic comic lore ever.) Furthermore, the comic increasingly began introducing more elements from the actual Sonic video games, which had finally developed deeper stories of their own thanks to the advancement of technology. So you had stuff like Sonic and the Freedom Fighters teaming up to fight Perfect Chaos and meeting Silver the Hedgehog and Blaze the Cat. It was an unusual, unique combination of Western and Eastern concepts melding together in one pictorial arena, and it made Archie Sonic feel special.

Speaking of the games, the book was also special because it damn well carried Sonic’s presence in North America during the years when the blue guy wasn’t starring in many video games (the Sega Saturn era) and couldn’t star in any decent video games (the Sonic ‘06 era). Even when Sega was releasing shovelware that damaged the brand, Archie Sonic kept pumping out issues, and its sheer determination to keep going won it legions of dedicated fans. Many of these people, including myself, got stuck on the comic at a young age and stayed long-term. I personally started picking up issues in 1994 or 1995, so basically only three or so years after the book was out. I think I was seven years old. A few years later, I got a subscription and had the comic delivered to my mailbox every month. (I still remember my first issue - it was number 41, when Sonic, Sally and that douchebag skunk Geoffrey St. John went to the Zone of Silence to rescue King Acorn.) The subscription continued until I was in college, and only ended around my junior year, when I forgot to renew it because I was too busy applying to go abroad after graduation.

In short, I subscribed to a periodical about a damn blue hedgehog for a large majority of my life. Even when I stopped regularly reading around issue 180, I always kept abreast of the book’s developments (like that crossover with MEGAMAN!) and told myself that I’d eventually catch up on the stories I missed, likely in the excellent Sonic Select and Sonic Archives trade paperbacks that Archie was publishing. And there were tons of others like me. The Archie Sonic community is such a vibrant one, filled with 90s kids who grew up on this book and even older folks like the crazy Dan Drazen, a 60-something librarian who wrote the most detailed (and overly picky) online reviews of every issue. Many of these fans went on to work for the comic at one point or another, like the incredible Dawn Best and fan favorite Ian Flynn, who swooped in as a writer in the late 2000s and saved the book when it was suffering from a spell of plodding stories. For a lot of us, Archie Sonic was the preferred Sonic canon, and we got pissed when Sega pulled awful jump the shark moments outta their butts - like having Sonic hook up with human princesses in his broken 2006 game - when there was a wealth of solid lore in this weird little comic coming out in America that they always seemed content to ignore.

In fact, the only time Sega really paid close attention to the book was when Ken Penders launched a lawsuit against it, which may have been a contributor to its eventual cancellation. People better than me have already scripted lengthy writeups about Mr. Penders, and I encourage you to read this extremely in-depth take on the whole fiasco, which is a bizarre tale of copyright arguments and delusions of grandeur worthy of any John Grisham novel. But in a nutshell, Ken was a former writer who helped guide Archie Sonic away from simple gag strips and into the realm of full-on adventure tales. His control over the book was major until he was fired, and a few years later, he went on a vehement quest to prove that he owned all characters he had created while working for Archie, including series mainstays like Julie-Su, Knuckles the Echidna’s girlfriend. He ended up suing Archie multiple times and won on legal loopholes, which prompted him to start attacking the book’s current team while declaring that a buttload of barely-related story concepts were his. He also tried suing Sega when Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood came out, claiming that the enemies in the game were too similar to ones he had whipped up. Archie eventually had to come up with a plot device to kill off (trap in another dimension, really) all of the characters he had created during his tenure, and eventually they instituted a full reboot to wipe continuity clean and remove all traces of the lawsuit from history. Unfortunately, the legal issues did some pretty heavy damage to Archie’s relationship with Sega, who were reportedly pissed that the American comic company had let things get so screwed up. And I don’t blame them. To the Sonic fan community, Ken Penders is largely loathed as a megalomaniac who sabotaged a long-running comic for personal gain. But he doesn’t deserve all of the blame, and he did put out some good stories in the day before going bonkers. Archie’s also at fault, both due to their not-so-great freelancer deals as well as their incompetence at handling lawsuits. (At one point the company even fired their entire legal team and hired new attorneys, yeesh.) In recent years, Archie also seems to be terrible at handling their finances, even though they’re currently spearheading Riverdale, a successful show on the CW that’s made all of their high school characters into hot, emo Millennials. (I call it the “Archie Sex Show” in my head.) I’ve heard rumors that company management wants to streamline their output to ONLY focus on Riverdale-related stuff, and seeing as how the Ken Penders business was a tremendous waste of time that ripped some large holes in their relationship with Sega, it only makes sense that both companies would decide to part ways. So where do we go from here? Well, it was suddenly announced today that IDW Publishing would be the ones picking up the Sonic license for a relaunch of the book in 2018. IDW’s a fit place for Sonic, since they currently publish the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles…which Archie once owned the license for. (Funny how these things go in circles, eh?) Unfortunately, I have a feeling that the current arc that was going on in the Archie books - a charming retelling of the Sonic CD story - is going to go unfinished, and I’m also fearful that we’ll be saying goodbye to the DiC Freedom Fighters. I’d LOVE to be proven wrong, and it would warm my heart to see Princess Sally, Bunnie Rabbot, Antoine, Rotor and Nicole survive a change in publishers. But since Sega’s never “officially” acknowledged those characters in a game (except for Sonic Spinball, which was made by an American studio and doesn’t really count) they’re likely going to be classified as expendable cannon fodder that are no longer relevant. There is some hope, though. Perhaps a miracle will occur and IDW will have the good sense to re-hire guys like Ian Flynn or maintain some semblance of the continuity that an entire generation knows and loves. Until the day we know for sure arrives, I’ll just have to re-read my old issues, revel in the glory of covers drawn by SPAZ, laugh at insane crossovers like the time Sonic met Spawn, and remember an era when a hedgehog with attitude and his Knothole friends kicked Dr. Robotnik’s butt and brought me twenty plus years of wonderful adventures. For Mobius! For freedom!

The header image of the Archie Sonic cast was drawn by darkspeeds and found on Deviantart. The cover images are just a few of my favorites from the days when I was subscribed to the book, and were taken from Comic Vine and Cover Browser.

#pixel grotto #musings #video games #sonic the hedgehog #sonic #archie #archie sonic

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internetbasic9 · 7 years ago

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Nature Deborah Eisenberg Returns With Tart and Spiky Stories in ‘Your Duck Is My Duck’

Nature Deborah Eisenberg Returns With Tart and Spiky Stories in ‘Your Duck Is My Duck’ Nature Deborah Eisenberg Returns With Tart and Spiky Stories in ‘Your Duck Is My Duck’ https://ift.tt/2DBDpXJ

Nature

Books of The Times

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CreditCreditAlessandra Montalto/The New York Times

In a classic Deborah Eisenberg short story, “Holy Week,” a travel writer visiting an unnamed country in Central America complacently compiles adjectives as he reviews a restaurant: “relaxed,” “intimate,” “romantic.”

This being Eisenberg, things take a turn. A very different set of words are required to actually summon the day; let’s say, “anxiety,” “empire” and “guns.” These might be the same words we would compile to describe a visit to the world of Eisenberg. You might add “insomnia” to the list and, for her dedicated readers, “patience.”

Eisenberg is a writer of legendary exactitude, and slowness. The first story she wrote, “Days,” took three years to complete. She now averages a story a year. Her new collection of six stories, “Your Duck Is My Duck,” is her first book of new material since 2006.

She is always worth the wait. The new book is cannily constructed, and so instantly absorbing that it feels like an abduction. The stories themselves are simple and calmly recounted — a writer is taken up by wealthy patrons and bears witness to their disastrous marriage, a man attends his uncle’s funeral, another takes up a dog-walking gig.

But the sentences are wild, full of breakneck swerves; leaps in time, space and point of view; all kinds of syntactic fireworks. The title story begins: “Way back — oh, not all that long ago, actually, just a couple of years, but back before I’d gotten a glimpse of the gears and levers and pulleys that dredge the future up from the earth’s core to its surface — I was going to a lot of parties.” It’s a beautifully seasoned sentence — well-stuffed, tart and unexpected — but it also suggests Eisenberg’s preoccupying theme: how power conceals itself.

“The wars in the East were hidden behind a thicket of language: patriotism, democracy, loyalty, freedom — the words bounced around, changing purpose, as if they were made out of some funny plastic,” she wrote in her best-known story, “Twilight of the Superheroes,” set on Sept. 11 and included as the title story of her 2006 collection. “What did they actually refer to? It seemed that they all might refer to money.”

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Deborah EisenbergCreditDiana Michener

The stories in the new book take place in the present day, many of them in New York. The subways are a mess. The news — “like a magical substance in a fairy tale — was producing perpetually increasing awfulness from rock-bottom bad.” One story begins with an epigraph by Donald J. Trump: “I know words. I have the best words.”

At the best of times, Eisenberg’s characters are a frantic sort. Here we meet them in full, majestic swivet. “I’m hurtling through time, strapped to an explosive device, my life,” the narrator of the title story tells her therapist. “Plus, it’s beginning to look like a photo finish — me first, or the world.”

Each story is spikily distinct, but themes echo and chime. Many of the plots hinge on a death. Character types reappear. Beautiful, disappointed women cruelly visit their sorrows on their daughters; elderly women and recent college graduates strike up unlikely friendships.

“Yes, I had nightmares — children do,” the narrator in an old story, “All Around Atlantis,” recalls. “After all, it takes some time to get used to being alive. And how else, except in the clarity of dreams, are you supposed to see the world all around you that’s hidden by the light of day?” The ambiguous gift of Eisenberg’s characters is that they never become fully acclimated to our planet, to its beauty or horror. (Or mundanity, for that matter. Even the smallest activity remains monstrously difficult: “I began to unpack, but there was the issue of putting things wherever.”)

In the early work, her characters existed in a state of elegant alienation, a kind of anomie one review described uncharitably (but indelibly) as a 1980s “cocaine-and-radicchio brand of trendiness.” The later work is about emerging from isolation and complacency, about larger questions of what it means to live an ethical life — and, as Eisenberg has said, whether such a thing is even possible for an American. These stories emerge from the ashes of the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan, out of despoliation and environmental plunder.

The title of the book comes from a Zen riddle. A Zen master, his disciple and a duck are trapped in a bottle. The master’s lesson, as recounted a bit drunkenly by the host of a dinner party, is: “It’s not my duck, it’s not my bottle, it’s not my problem.” Many of the characters exist on the precipice of this realization — they are queasy about their good fortune, heartsick at the way “money moves across the globe at the speed of thought, at the speed of poison in water, but when will these people” — refugees — ”be allowed outside the wire enclosures?” Always they are unsure what to do: “I was exhausted, though still wide awake, as I was so often — wide awake and thinking about things I couldn’t do anything about. Couldn’t do anything about. Couldn’t do anything about.”

On the face of it, “Your Duck Is My Duck” could be regarded as a politically mild book for Eisenberg. The world intrudes only at the margins — tumult is hinted at in unnamed countries, glimpses of unspecified migrants. But these are stories of painful awakenings and refusals of innocence. This book offers no palliatives to its characters or to its readers — no plan of action. But it is a compass.

A version of this article appears in print on

, on Page

of the New York edition

with the headline:

Stories a Long Time Coming, and Worth the Wait

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