#Operation Swansong

[ethaneldritch]

Here's an infodump about my (currently unnamed) animatronic idol ocs...'cause I'm definitely not procrastinating my forty other way overdue creative projects:

The four idols were themed after Sanguine (fire), Phlegmatic (air), Choleric (earth), and Melancholic (water…if you squint). Yes, I mixed up the temperaments with their associated elements but realized it too far into the design process to be willing to change it.

S was the leader, for multiple reasons:

His assigned personality was strong enough to warrant leadership but amicable enough to remain appealing. He was friendly and outgoing, and a natural at commanding the stage.

He was the only one built with full-body movement, with the most fine-tuned mobility and balance out of the four. The other three were planned to eventually follow suit with complete rebuilds, but this obviously never came to fruition.

Due to frequently being center stage, he was designed to be the most visually appealing. He was the tallest and most detailed, also having the most outfits produced, many of which contained special effects (his fiery "demon lord" motif lent itself well to transforming costumes and pyrotechnic tricks, though the latter was not realized to be a serious safety hazard until too late).

Contributing to his air theming, P's color scheme was modeled after the intense gradients that often appear on tornado radar scans.

He was designed as the "sweet" and "cute"-looking one of the four, but surprisingly sung the lowest register. He was also the one most frequently assigned the more "aggressive" songs, which contributed to the strong dichotomy of his appearance.

P was uniquely equipped with a revolutionary levitation system, which unfortunately did not see much use on stage, as it was installed only a few months before Operation Swansong was put into effect.

While P and C have rudimentary full-body movement (at least compared to S's near-acrobatic mobility), M is the only one without any lower body movement whatsoever. He was never finished, and thus only ever appears in one outfit: a floor-length black drape hides the lack of articulated legs, while a long white coat makes the somber choice look intentional.

C, while themed around the element of "earth", was not originally designed with plant life in mind. His outfits focused more on brass metals and earthy tones to imply stones and caves, with a notable exception being his signature costume from the "Blissful Heatstroke" concert, which was themed after planetary bodies like Mars and Pluto.

[ewingstan]

Interesting. I'm guessing that Damsel regards all the clones as her siblings, rather than all the slaughterhouse nine. Wonder if Swansong sees it the same way.

I almost want Victoria to have been right. Riley having secretly made a bunch of young Jack clones that are running around would be a neat twist. Just imagine the little guys. Riding on Riley's horrible spider-bots. Getting shoo'd out of the operating room. Bonesaw putting up their murder plans on the fridge door. D'awww.

I do kind of like the idea of "person x raised horribly by person y now has to take care of a bunch of person y's clones." Would match Ward's themes in an interesting way. I guess that's kinda what the Striders' situation ended up being, but still.

[savrenim]

Tagged by @coslyons

RULES: make a new post with the names of all the files in your WIP folder, regardless of how non-descriptive or ridiculous. Let people send you an ask with the title that most intrigues them, and then post a little snippet or tell them something about it! and then tag as many people as you have WIPs.

List of WIPs:

7th time loop

a buried and a burning flame

as if it must be pure

axioms of set theory

invading hell for the pomegranates

it feels more like a memory

killing horizons

lesbian hadestown in space

mordechai malus

shade of the morning sun

standing on the edge face up

strangeside7

operation swansong

trash novel

the crane and the knife

the heart and the heartless

the numanok files

we raise it up

when there's blood in the water

this is....... yeah also an ungodly number. half are fanfic half are originals I need to get my shit together and finish, like, any of them. not tagging twenty people but @ink-splotch @doctorcakeray @redjayson @improbabledragon y'all are friends that I know vaguely write

[moorheadthanyoucanhandle]

DOES A BEAR SNORT IN THE WOODS?

Now playing in the multiplexes:

Cocaine Bear--This shocker has at least as much right to claim "true story" status for itself as Fargo or The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. There really was a Cocaine Bear: back in 1985, an American black bear was found dead in the Chattahoochee National Forest in northern Georgia, just south of the Tennessee line. The poor creature had OD'd, having ingested more than 30 kilos of cocaine, valued at tens of millions of dollars.

The stuff had been dropped from an airplane by a smuggler who then died himself in a parachuting mishap. The unfortunate ursine, dubbed "Pablo Eskobear," was stuffed by a taxidermist and ended up on display in a shopping mall in Kentucky, where it reportedly still stands.

The movie, directed by Elizabeth Banks from a script by Jimmy Warden, is set in 1985 and uses some real place names and at least one real person's name (the smuggler's). But it's still a load of gleeful b.s., a highly entertaining sick joke. Unlike the real animal, the movie's bear--arguably the newest addition to the stable of Universal Monsters--turns into a drug-crazed spree killer, mauling and dismembering hikers and park personnel, as well as the drug traffickers that enter the forest in search of the lost product.

Cocaine Bear is as violent and gory as any big-studio movie you're likely to see. But it isn't scary, and isn't meant to be; the splatter is played entirely for gruesomely slapstick laughs. Indeed, the exuberance with which the blood and brains and guts fly is the central recurring and escalating gag.

Except for a single mom (Keri Russell), searching the woods for her daughter and the daughter's friend, most of the major characters are scoundrels or cretins or both, though not necessarily unlikable scoundrels and cretins. All of them are broadly played caricatures, so Banks invites us to leave our empathy at the door, take a cathartic break from compassion and hoot at the horrors which befall them. I indulged, and so did the audience with which I saw the film.

The title character, generated through some reasonably seamless combination of virtual and practical effects, has a guileless personality that contrasts with the bloody mayhem. Indeed, you're more likely to feel for the blameless beast than for most of the humans.

The cast is nonetheless excellent, even if most of them are not employing ten percent of their talent. I've long thought that Russell is one of the more underrated and underutilized lead actresses now in movies. I also don't understand why Alden Ehrenreich hasn't become a bigger deal; he's comically muddled yet sympathetic as an elaborately bereaved drug operative. So is O'Shea Jackson as his weary partner, Aaron Holliday as a dimwit would-be mugger they encounter, and Isiah Whitlock, Jr. as a cranky detective.

The film was one of the last in which the late Ray Liotta appeared. He's in his usual strong form as Ehrenreich's father, the heartless local boss of the drug dealers. It's not a rich enough role to be a worthy swansong, but it's a good performance, and the film is dedicated to him. The great Margo Martindale nails every line and facial expression as a hard-up park ranger trying to get the attention of a naturalist (Jesse Tyler Ferguson). Maybe the best of all are Brooklyn Prince and Christian Convery as the two kids, who get across a genuine affection behind their mild, familiar ragging and posing and their dares of each other. They, along with Russell, offer us somebody to unambiguously root for.

Banks has a lot of fun evoking '80s-movie atmosphere, not only with the costumes and cars and posters and overheard pop songs but with her direction. From the full opening credit sequence to the leisurely camera movement to the driving synthesizer score by Mark Mothersbaugh, the film is as much a throwback to the decade in which it's set as last year's Top Gun: Maverick, and the response to both of those films suggests that maybe today's audiences wouldn't object to a return to that style.

[candy-floss-crazy]

Another in a long line of distinguished British Marquees, that are now sadly defunct. Foden trucks was a major British heavy goods vehicle builder for almost 120 years, and a major presence on the British funfair scene. Edwin Foden started out apprenticed to Plant & Hancock, a maker of agricultural equipment. Leaving for a spell at Crewe Railway Works he returned to Plant & Hancock at the age of 19, eventually becoming a partner in the business. On the retirement of its proprietor George Hancock in 1887 the company name was changed to Edwin Foden Sons & Co. Ltd. Initially building industrial engines, small steam engines and traction engines. The firm moved from traction engines into Steam Lorries when restrictions governing road transport were eased in 1896 which allowed speeds over 12mph, and removed the requirements for a man to walk in front of the vehicle with a red flag. E.R.F. By 1930, Edwin's son, E.R. Foden left the company after a disagreement over the future direction of road transport, he feeling that the future lay in Diesel engined lorries. He founded the rival firm of ERF, (his initials) another firm favourite on British fairgrounds and subject of an additional article at a future time. Foden eventually realised he had been right thereafter rapidly switching to diesel production with the launch of the Foden F1. By 1948 Foden were producing a range of vehicles including buses. Launching their own 2 stroke diesel engine which powered many of their heavy models. They also began offering Gardner diesel engines as an option. By 1958 glass reinforced plastic cabs were introduced, leading to the first mass produced tilting cab in 1962. It was this combination of rugged construction, Gardner Diesel engine and rot proof cab which led to the Foden range becoming a major force on British fairgrounds. Most vehicles used in the industry were purchased used, and the cab being rust proof was a major plus point. This, along with the Gardner engine which had a legendary reputation for reliability, and the tough build quality was a perfect combination for vehicles expected to have a hard life on the funfair circuit. Micky Mouse Cab One of the most popular of the early Foden's was the Micky Mouse Cab. So called due to its resemblance to the cartoon character. Foden Trucks S108 Probably the most widely used type of Foden trucks on British fairgrounds was the 8 wheel S108. The usual rugged build quality, Gardner engines, now putting out upto 350HP and plastic cab. Eventually with the downturn in the truck market, and economic woes in general, Foden fell into receivership in 1980. Subsequently being bought by the huge American firm Paccar, who manufactured amongst others, Kenworth and Peterbilt. The Daf Cab Years, Foden Alpha After Paccar took over Leyland trucks in 1998, Foden use of the GRP cabs was stopped. Being switched to the steel cabs used on Paccar's other European marquee, DAF. Which were being produced by Leyland for DAF. Sadly the Alpha was to be Foden's swansong. In 2005 Paccar announced that production was to cease. Ostensibly to allow the Leyland factory to concentrate on increasing DAF production. The final vehicle to roll off the production line being an 8 wheeler. Which was delivered to the British Commercial Vehicle Museum Our Trio Of Foden's The trio of Foden's we operated while still attending traditional funfairs. Read the full article

[therpgconnoisseur]

I admit the more i play the game the more i find that Swansong specifically strikes a sort of mid point between the V5 book and older vibes in terms of aesthetics at least, its growing on me i admit.

I never found the ventrue tower particularly outlandish, nothing in there seems like a violation of the masquerade waiting to happen by design like the archives in swansong for example.

I think my initial discomfort came from the masked servants all around, not that theyre necessarily implausible for a prince to have but certainly on the bold side of thing. This comes from the notion that every retainer aware of kindred was a potential danger to the masquerade (and some might say a violation of the masquerade itself by definition) i always had a very distinct impression that even princes had single digit retainers while doing a lot of the logistical work through carefully kept unaware regular mortals. It varies by domain but i felt that was the standards, that was the impression that LaCroix gave me at least, and he wasnt a particularly competent prince but his operation seemed to be less liable to be found.

The whole blood trade plotline is fine on its own as far as its utility (control the blood supply control the vampires) but it clashes when everyone is supposed to be MORE paranoid than ever before about the masquerade, rather than being slightly more iron fisted about having individual kindred be careful on their hunts. Funnily enough it feel like something that would have worked better in the 80s/90s, where the logistics of being found out would have been less harsh.

Im liking swansong enough that im heavily taking from it for my own game set in boston set decades before it (late 80s) this is not a complain on the game rather than the game made me go back to thinking what i didnt like about V5 when it first came out and other vampire fiction that both wants to have a very "on top of their shit" vampire society that can have the liberty of being very on the nose vampires while also being supposedly deathly afraid of being found out.

I liked Quentin King holding court in an abandoned dilapidated mansion, Calebros in the sewers, LaCroix in the old theater, Lodin being such a control freak that he embraced like 12 kindred rather than make ghouls. The Indignity of the ancient powerful predators having to scurry to gather in the shadows because for all their power theyre still afraid of the mortal masses and they bend to their unconscious whims much more than theyd like to admit. Its an unstated discomfort, its the recruitment tool of the sabbat, not having to pretend they are "less" than they think they are.

Incoherent ramble incoming

I don't know if this might be some kind of influence from the larp community (larp simply hasnt been something i had the chance to have contact with) but been getting back into vtm lately, for some inspiration i decided to play Swansong (i like the game but very damn its crash prone 7.5/10 or something) and im getting a vibe from both it and the V5 that im calling Runway: the Masquerade.

What i mean by this is not just that everyone is dressed in the highest of fashion but the environments feel very much like high fashion, everything feels very new and ever so slightly removed from reality, very few characters feel their age and, most importantly i think, vampire existence seems a bit too comfortable.

i dont wanna be "back in my day" about it especially because i know vampire media that dirty and messy is still being made but vtm seems to have put aside inspirations like near dark, the night flyer or salems lot in favor of ironically enough Underworld.

Its funny that everyone got very concerned about the masquerade and the Second Inquisition (am i the only one that finds the name silly?) but also theyre nor concerned enough to not have tons of non ghoul mortals servants aware of vampires, archive rooms detailing vampire activities in plain english and just a lot other possible security points of failure?

im being nitpicky i know, and it ultimately comes down to personal taste but my boyfriend put it very well i think by drawing a comparison to that thing in JJBA where they go "anyone here could be a stand user" and then they look over a crows and dont notice the 7 feet tall guy in fetish gear.

To compare to bloodlines, a lot of the vampires are dressed very plainly a lot of the places they inhabit are very normal looking and they have somewhat minimalist staffs, this things still exists in runway the masquerade but it seems (to me) like the balance between the Maximilian Strauss of the world of darkness (guy who gets a tailor to make him the most vampire coded outfit ever) and the Isaac Abrams (guy who looks like he has money but normal otherwise) shifted in favor of the former as the paranoia over maintaining the masquerade rose (at least in the text) and that is giving me a bit of cognitive dissonance or whatever

[aoitakumi8148]

The Swansong operatives & Things going sideways.

[yesterdanereviews]

King of the Carnival (1955)

Film review #471

Director: Franklin Adreon

SYNOPSIS: A counterfeiting operation to flood the United States with fake money leads to treasury agents Art Kerr and Jim Haynes to investigate a circus in connection with the operation. Art asks acrobat Bert King to aid them in putting a stop to the counterfeiting, and to unmask the villain responsible...

THOUGHTS/ANALYSIS: King of the Carnival is a 1955 film serial and the last serial made by Republic Pictures. As the other two serial producing companies (Universal and Columbia) has already stopped producing them, King of the Carnival stands as the final serial, and the end of the format as a whole. The serial is set in a circus, where Bert King performs as an acrobat (The title "King" of the carnival refers to Bert, and is something that Republic Pictures also did with the lead character in King of the Royal Mounted). When agents of the U.S. treasury Art Kerr and Jim Haynes arrive on the scene investigating a counterfeit operation they believe is connected to the circus, Art asks his old friend Bert to aid them in unravelling the sinister plot. The villain's plot centres around the production of counterfeit money and flooding the U.S. with it, so that the currency is devalued and other countries lose confidence in it. If that sounds like a dull and boring set-up, that's because it is. There's nothing else to this story other than this bizarre plot that doesn't really make sense: surely it would take a huge operation to destroy a currency like the U.S. dollar, and the serial just has one guy working in a sunken boat. Such an intangible plot never connects with the viewers, and will be sure to bore. The plot does have this similar theme of many post-war serials, in that foreign powers attempt to sabotage the U.S. in some way, marking the onset of the cold war. However, the serial format never returned to it's peak popularity like it had during the war. The circus element of the story is a bit more unique, but a lot of the action scenes are footage taken from the earlier serial Daredevils of the Red Circle, which wasn't too great itself.

The characters are a typical and uninteresting bunch. You have the male leads, a single female character who is also an acrobat at the circle (although you never see her doing any of the stunts because the footage taken from Daredevils of the Red Circle had no female performers). The villain "Zorn" has no real presence and just gives orders to his henchmen to do the dirty work. It is revealed that someone at the circus is actually the leader of the counterfeiting operation, setting up a mystery villain reveal at the end, but you probably won't care as it makes no real difference to the plot.

When this serial was released in 1955, the world of cinema and media in general had moved on from the fifteen or twenty years before when the serial was so popular. However, King of the Carnival could easily have been made at the height of the format's popularity, and still be pretty poor. It takes no advantages of any advances in technology and the evolution of cinema, and just ends up being another cut-and-paste job that many of the serials are. At this time too, obviously televisions were appearing in people's homes, and the idea of going to the theatre every week to watch a new instalment was fast becoming outdated when you could just tune in to an ongoing series from your television at home. The serial format never really tried to change or adapt to the times; the companies that made them clearly just saw that their time was up, and focused on feature films. Not that I can really blame them, as the introduction of TV made the format redundant. Going back to King of the Carnival, it feels very much like a poor production that is well aware of it's fate. The 'circus' is clearly just a set with cloths draped all over them to give the illusion if it being a big tent, and the cliffhangers lack any form of imagination or suspense, especially when viewers had been seeing these same ones for over twenty years. Overall, King of the Carnival is a poor swansong for the serial format, accentuating their worst elements such as low budget, repetition, and one-dimensional characters, while not providing any imaginative settings, devices etc. that some of the more popular serials did. The serial format had very much run its course, perhaps many years before King of the Carnival was released, and it is a stark reminder of all of it's worst elements.

[theintentioncraft]

To continue supporting content makers, this tag game is meant to show the entire process of making creative content: this can be for any creation.

RULES - When your work is tagged, show the process of its creation from planning to posting, then tag up to 5 people with a specific link to one of their creative works you’d like to see the process of. Use the tag #showyourprocess so we can find yours.

I've been tagged by @lordbelacqua (thank you Dea! <3) to talk about Backlead aka: that one Masriel fic I wrote where I got massively carried away...

Rambling/essay under the cut - fair warning, it's a long one!

Okay so first of all just a little disclaimer that Backlead did not follow my usual writing process - the idea was 110% borne out of self-indulgence and it was also both my first foray into HDM fanfic and my return to fanfic as a whole after a long hiatus from writing, so for me this was really a chance to just get back into the swing of things. Everything from Heavenly Guard through to Swansong and all of my current WIPs follow a more structured process and I'm happy to discuss any of them in a separate post!

PLANNING: I tend to find with my fics that I either have a nice little timeline of events planned out pre-writing or I have a very specific event in my head and I just take that and see how things unravel from there and Backlead was 100% the latter.

All I had in my head initially was the ballroom dance scene and so a lot of my admittedly-minimal planning was around the technicalities of that particular section, as well as some of the more general details e.g Marisa's outfit, the setting of the ball, etc. Planning the dance was the most fun part because it was a chance for me to put a lot of my dance knowledge to good use and think up something that fits the back-and-forth way in which Marisa and Asriel frequently navigate their encounters. In a way though I'm actually very glad that a lot of this fic Just Happened instead of being planned out, sometimes it's nice to just run away with an idea!

MUSIC: This gets its own section because this is one of the most important things in my process. Every single fic I write is written to various pieces of music that just help me to put myself in the right headspace for whatever I'm writing at the time - sometimes its just a single piece of music (I wrote Swansong in one hour with just one track from the Unforgotten - a TV show in the UK for those of you not familiar with it - soundtrack on repeat) and sometimes its entire playlists. I do love geeking out about my music choices for fic writing so happy to talk more in a separate post about music for some of my other fics if anyone's curious!

For Backlead I found a couple of playlist-vids from the lovely raviolae on youtube that really worked wonders for my writing. This comes with a disclaimer that I did not necessarily attribute any of these specific songs to either dance scene and I wanted to leave that open for people's imagination - but it's still brilliant vibes for thinking about two once-lovers-now-enemies trying to one-up each other whilst ignoring how much they still find each other attractive.

The two playlist-vids in question are here: you're stuck on the dance floor with your rival and find out they're an annoyingly good dancer and you're dancing with your rival and both of you want to lead

WRITING: First step every time is to figure out who's POV I'm going to cover because that makes a major difference in the way I'm going to write. Characterisation is the big thing for me and there's nothing I love more than to really get inside a character's head and basically think like them, and figure out what makes them tick and how they'll react to the story I'm putting them in. With my initial idea for Backlead being basically about the subtle power dynamics of a ballroom dance, Marisa felt like the natural go-to for this one and I found it much easier in this instance to write in her headspace than in Asriel's.

I wrote this fic in a very out-of-order fashion. The first dance (the slower, waltz-style dance) was the first part I finished, then I did as hinted at above get very carried away and move onto the section in the hallway, then I went right to the start and covered the entire section leading up to that first dance. Then I revisited the hallway scene because I wanted to rework it (the initial version was planned to be more explicit and involved less dialogue - but I wasn't comfortable with writing out the former at that time and the latter got changed by way of me having a sudden burst of dialogue-themed inspiration). The second, more set piece style dance came last in terms of the 'major events' that I wrote purely because I spent a lot of time racking with my dance knowledge to try and make it work in a way that didn't feel forced.

My final major writing stage is to write the 'transitions' between each major part - small pieces where nothing particularly noteworthy happens but it helps the fic to flow from one conversation/event to the next and also sometimes allows me to sneak in a bit of characterisation that I couldn't fit in elsewhere.

Along the way I often leave sentences half-finished with a bracket indicator so I know to go back to it later or I make little notes if I've added something in that needs explaining earlier in the fic, and I make sure to sort those parts out before I jump to the self review/beta reader stage. A couple of examples are below:

Although sometimes this method does also annoy future me too 😂:

SELF REVIEW/BETA REVIEW: Whenever I finish a fic, it gets put away for a day or two and I stop thinking about it completely - if I'm using a beta reader (usually @thatlavanderbard but I sometimes enlist help from friends on discord), I'll send them a copy of my draft at this point so they can start going through and leaving comments for me to work on, but the idea is that when I go back to my work a few days later I'm looking at it with semi-fresh eyes and can properly sift through each sentence to make sure things make sense.

When I'm self-reviewing I generally tend to follow this order of operations: spelling/grammar check (via docs') -> flow check (making sure any deliberate time skips/POV changes/etc in my fic flow smoothly from one part to the next) -> address beta reader comments (because they almost always pick up on things I myself would've picked up on anyway) -> general detailed final read through to make sure I'm happy with every single line and it all makes sense.

Backlead didn't get a full beta read because I had hit a point with it where I just wanted it up ASAP and my impatience got the better of me, but the rest of the above self-review stages still happened and I still spent a fair few evenings going through it properly and also running the occasional sentence or two by some helpful discord friends if I didn't like the way it flowed but couldn't quite figure out how to remedy it!

POSTING: First step was to reset my AO3 password because I forgot it yet again whoops

On a more serious note this part is pretty straightforward - once I'm ready to post a new fic I generally just go on autopilot for this part of the process (other than when I get to 'additional tags' and immediately get brain freeze...). As soon as it's up on AO3 I swing by here to make a post about it, then swing by discord to drop the link to friends who may be interested in reading it and then I normally nervously scuttle away from my notifications for a while out of fear that people hate it lmao.

That last part was especially true for Backlead because of it being my first trip into HDM fanfic and I always get extra nervous when posting my first fanfic for a new show/game/etc. Thankfully I got quite a few nice comments both on here and on discord that provided good motivation to stick around and post a few more things!

I always panic when asked to tag people lmao but I'll tag @fortheloveofwii for any part of the Onward, Onward series, @lyracordelia for any chapter in Hiraeth or the fic as a whole, and @glassrunner for this absolutely gorgeous gifset of beautiful game soundtracks. Please don't feel like you have to do this if you don't want to though!

[kiltonfernandes]

Resenha: Carcass - Torn Arteries

Since Black Sabbath laid the foundations of the genre forty years ago, a plethora of bands and sub-genres emerged that have been solidifying heavy metal as one of the most imposing buildings in contemporary music. However, from this myriad of bands, only a handful manage to make a lasting impression, either for their artistic relevance or commercial success. British pathologists Carcass are part of this narrow niche for the former reason. Not only were they one of the pioneers of the grindcore genre alongside their fellow countrymen Napalm Death (coining the term goregrind in the process), but they also subsequently played a key role in the emergence of melodic death metal in the mid-nineties through their 1993 release - Heartwork. Personally, despite loving both sides of the band, I've always felt more drawn to their heavier stuff, namely Symphonies of Sickness and Necroticism: Descanting the Insalubrious, two iconic releases within the genre.

Personal tastes aside, it is indisputable that Carcass will go down in history as one of the most influential extreme metal collectives of the 20th century, on par with legends like Death, Morbid Angel or Bathory, just to name a few; being equally undeniable that the reason behind their success story was the strong chemistry between the clinical trio Jeff Walker, Ken Owen, and former Napalm Death Bill Steer, with the latter being responsible for some of extreme metal's most iconic post-mortem riffs. Without belittling Michael Amott, who would prove to be instrumental in the band's turn towards more melodic territories, the synergy present in the original triumvirate has always been the gravitational center of Carcass' music between 1986 and 1996, and its driving force; and were it not for Ken's cerebral hemorrhage in 1999 (which left him in a coma for several months, subsequently making it impossible for him to play drums at the highest level), the trio would still be intact on 2013's long-awaited return to the operating table - Surgical Steel.

Keeping the same backbone, which includes drummer Daniel Wilding, but recording as a quartet with the addition of guitarist Tom Draper, Carcass are back in business under an album title taken from an eighties Ken Owen demo - Torn Arteries. Originally slated to come out in 2020, being postponed due to the pandemic, the lads' seventh full-length release promises to be polarizing both aesthetically and musically. Something that is hardly new in the band's stylistic journey as they have never released the same album twice, each one being a product of its time (for better or worse). But in this particular case, the unexpected yet unintentional vegan artwork coupled with a rather different musical direction from Surgical Steel is sure to spark a perfect storm among the hardcore fanbase, a bit like Swansong in the nineties. It took me a couple of extra spins myself to digest Torn Arteries accordingly; not because of its complexity or originality, but for being different from what I expected. Songs like 'The Devil Rides Out', 'Flesh Ripping Torment Limited' or even 'In God We Trust' step out of the band's template, or at least deviate from the formula I would expect to hear. And I loved it. I admire an artist who doesn't play it safe, who isn't afraid to explore new territory instead of going around in circles, like most veteran heavy metal bands. The Gojira-esque groovy moments on 'In God We Trust' and 'Flesh Ripping Torment Limited' or the latter's ballad-ish solo, which wouldn't seem out of place on a Thin Lizzy album, are something of a breath of fresh air; as is the super catchy 'The Devil Rides Out' which, in addition to presenting a remarkable fluidity, features the most inspired guitars on the album.

These elements of surprise caught me off guard. I was expecting ‘Surgical Steel 2.0’ or something like that; but instead, the British pathologists decided to shift down a gear and deliver a more mature work, much like a team of experienced surgeons. The title track, 'Eleanor Rigor Mortis', and 'Dance of IXTAB' mirror some of that creative maturity, as opposed to the old acquaintance 'Under the Scalpel Blade' or 'Kelly's Meat Emporium' which are closer to Carcass’ trademark sound. However, despite this apparent dichotomy, the band's DNA is omnipresent, whether in the groove that sprouts everywhere or in the blasty segments that evoke the band's most irreverent era.

[buffyversefanfiction]

Buffy: Chaos Bleeds (Twisted Remix)

Warning: I do not own the rights to the television show Buffy the Vampire Slayer, its spin-off series Angel, its dark horse comics continuation series, or any of the characters created by Joss Whedon and others in the Buffyverse. 15 years +, Mild to Strong Violence, Sexual References. F/F, F/M, M/M, Other +

LEVEL EIGHT HERE

Level 9 - The Initiative 

Xander, Dawn, Faith and Giles may have found their way out of Sunnydale 2.0 with some unexpected additions but there were still many people still to face the shadow demon’s many challenges and next up was Spike who had an unexpected companion in Buffy and Angel’s lovechild Tristan Summers. Spike knew instantly where Tristan and he had wound up after exiting their portal when they found themselves in an elevator within the initiative, the place that had treated him like a Guinea pig and implanted him with a chip in his head which led to the peroxide blonde haired vampire’s very unexpected redemption. Although this place was another worldly version of the initiative the moment the vampire and the male slayer found themselves within the elevator Spike instantly felt like he was back within the very same place he was briefly captured. “I get elevators can be triggering for claustrophobics and such but I kind of expected the shadow demon’s challenge to be a little bit more creative than this.” Tristan said to Spike, while still holding the shadowsong blade in his right hand, the light from the mystical sword lighting up the dark and damp elevator. “I mean the thing lived inside of me long enough to pick out something far worse than this!” “This is not just some elevator…outside those doors is the initiative the very place which shoved a chip inside my head!” Spike replied to the male slayer. “Oh, I get it, so this is your challenge, and I am just a long for the ride.” Tristan realized, before noticing Spike was nervous about walking through those doors. “Look I know we are not exactly the best team, but I got you on this one!” “Do not blood pity me kid,” Spike snapped before charging ahead, as the doors open and walked into the corridors of the initiative. “You just make sure that lamp shade blade cuts as good as a normal sword if we go up against anything which we will more than likely have to do to get the hell out of here!” “Well that teaches me for trying to be kind to Spike of all people.” Tristan mumbled to himself as he quickly followed the vampire into the initiative.

Tristan knew the shadow demon would put him through a few challenges before the shadow demon would allow him to leave, if the shadow demon would allow him to leave which he doubted highly when he put into consideration that he was the only equipped with the weapon that could potentially kill the powerful demon, whose capture led to the creation of the slayer line, but never did he think one of those challenges would be having to be alongside the vampire Spike. He did not quite understand what it was about Spike that rubbed him up the wrong way, maybe it was the fact the vampire helped Mandi escape him a long time ago or that Spike was his mother Buffy’s on/off lover but one thing he knew for certain is that he’d rather be in hell than be tortured by Spike’s company. “You could have just waited in the elevator while I handled this one you know.” Spike complained to Tristan, as the two of them continued walking through a large hallway within the initiative. “Sure, so you could find the next portal to god knows where and leave me behind.” Tristan replied to the peroxide blonde haired vampire. “I think I’ll stick to your side no matter how torturous it might be until we get the hell of out Sunnydale.” “If we do not wind up killing each other first.” Spike stated, as the two walked through another set of electronic bunker style sliding doors to find themselves within the main operations room of the initiative where they were shocked to find Adam stood there waiting for them both. “I’m going to guess you’re some kind of demon/robot hybrid?” Tristan guessed, aiming his question towards Adam. “Actually, he’s a bit of everything made by a mad scientist who went by the name of Professor Maggie Smith.” Spike answered the male slayer. “My name is Adam; you must be the son of Buffy Summers it was be a great pleasure tearing you apart and sending the pieces of you back to your mother.” Adam greeted Tristan chillingly before turning to Spike. “As for you, killing you in order to get another shot at Buffy is going to be very fulfilling.” Adam charged at them both without hesitation as Tristan sped his way towards the enhanced cyborg, swinging the shadowsong blade in Adam’s direction, who dodged the attack of the blade before grabbing the hand of Tristan and applying enough pressure until Tristan dropped the shining blade on the ground. He then punched the male slayer repeatedly in the stomach before throwing him with force across the room causing Tristan to hit the ground with force, as Spike took the opportunity to run at Adam before punching him across the face to which the cyborg did not even so much as flinch much to Spike’s dismay. Adam deliver a series of punches from both of his hands across Spike’s face before kicking the peroxide vampire in the gut and causing him to fall to the ground, just in time for the cyborg to turn his attention back to Tristan who was slowly getting back on his feet. “It took a lot for your mother to beat me the last time,” Adam boasted as he began slowly walking towards a now fully standing Tristan, while Spike began getting back onto his feet. “I can already tell you are nowhere near as strong as here; you may as well give in to your impending death now!” “Here’s the thing see once you die once or twice, it loses its edge.” Tristan replied to the modern-day version Frankenstein’s monster. “I see you have your mother’s awful sense of wit,” Adam told the male slayer before punching him across the face and picking up his body, lifting it until Tristan was above him as he tightened his grip on the slayer, planning to break him in half. “I wonder if you bleed like her.” Spike knew there was little time to save Tristan and so he acted fast as he ran over to where the swansong blade was laid on the ground causing the surface beneath it to shine with the blade’s luminous glow before he tried to lift it up only for the handle to burn the vampire. “Son of a bitch!” Spike shouted, before covering his hand with a part of his jacket, picking up the blade by it is handle, then shouted towards Buffy’s son. “Catch!” Spike launched the swansong blade towards Adam and Tristan, Adam’s hands too busy holding Tristan above him to catch it, as Tristan managed to free a hand to catch the blade and quickly launched it through the top of Adam’s head, pushing harder and further through the cyborg’s skull until Adam fell to the ground, with Tristan falling on top of the human made monster. Tristan quickly climbed off the enhanced cyborg, getting back onto his feet before looking at Adam to see he was now completely lifeless much to both Tristan and Spike’s relief. “I thought the thing would at least injure him did not think it was powerful enough to kill the bastard!” Spike admitted as he walked over to Tristan, surprised by Adam’s death. “Yeah well this thing is powerful enough to hurt the shadow demon somehow…figures it would kill the wannabe monster of Frankenstein.” Tristan replied before he bent over, grabbed the handle of the swansong blade, and pulled it out of Adam’s skull slowly. “Why does that thing not burn you? Has it got something against vampires or something?” Spike wondered as Tristan began using Adam’s trousers to wipe the blood off the swansong blade. “I have no idea…I am still working this thing out myself.” Tristan responded, as he began looking at the swansong blade, which he was holding in his hand once more.

Trips down memory lane were never particularly good in anyone’s case particularly the ones that you wish you had no memory of in the first place but for Spike, going back to the very place that began his redemption story proved rather awarding to him. The initiative installed a chip inside his brains to which years later they removed following Spike’s soul being restored and therefore his redemption truly began, so because of that very reason the initiative did not hold power over him in fact he realized he had come to a place in his life where he would consider himself somewhat thankful to them. “Big blue portal, can only mean we have somewhere else to be.” Tristan stated as he and Spike stood within the main operations room within the initiative, Tristan holding the shadowsong blade in his hand firmly, the two of them standing in front of a large, blue, other world like portal. “Here is hoping it is home, wherever that is these days…” “Somehow I doubt defeating commander cyborg was the only mission we had before we get back to a world that makes a little bit more sense than this freakshow.” Spike replied to the male slayer, cautious about walking into another portal. “Perhaps you are right but if we hope for the best who knows we may be separated this time around.” Tristan teased the vampire, hiding the fact that he too was nervous about where the portal would lead. “Well that’s bloody nice is it, you know you are just like your mother not even thanking me for saving your rotten life just straight to the insults!” Spike snapped before taking a huff and storming his way into the portal, the vampire disappearing into the portal before the portal itself disappeared too. “Something tells me that is not a good sign!” Tristan mumbled to himself, realizing wherever Spike was going that he was not going with the vampire.

LEVEL 9 = COMPLETED

SPIKE = CHARACTER UNLOCKED

[savrenim]

oooh it's tough trying to choose one WIP to ask about! but I'm going to go with operation swansong (or 7th time loop if someone already chose that one)

operation swansong was asked and an excerpt is EXTREMELY hard to pick when. I haven't even fully decided on character names.

7th time loop is a crossover fic between '7th Time Loop: The Villainess Enjoys a Carefree Life Married to Her Worst Enemy!' and SVSSS bc I took one look at that name and went ".........okay I wonder if that would be a funny svsss crossover" and watched the first episode and went "GODDAMN THAT WOULD BE A PERFECT SVSSS CROSSOVER"

it's..... extremely unfinished like this is the only written beginning part

Shen Yuan listened to the advancing demon forces and prepared himself to die. Again.  It wasn't like he didn't know it was coming. He'd joined the Bai Zhan allegiance for a reason. He tightened his grip on [sword name]; a rare honor that a rogue cultivator would be allowed to draw a sword from Wan Jian peak. Honestly, he hadn't expected to see [sword name] again since the fifth— sixth?— time he died,

and it's low on my list of priorities but it's also REALLY fun so we'll see I guess?

[candy-floss-crazy]

Another in a long line of distinguished British Marquees, that are now sadly defunct. Foden trucks was a major British heavy goods vehicle builder for almost 120 years, and a major presence on the British funfair scene. Edwin Foden started out apprenticed to Plant & Hancock, a maker of agricultural equipment. Leaving for a spell at Crewe Railway Works he returned to Plant & Hancock at the age of 19, eventually becoming a partner in the business. On the retirement of its proprietor George Hancock in 1887 the company name was changed to Edwin Foden Sons & Co. Ltd. Initially building industrial engines, small steam engines and traction engines. The firm moved from traction engines into Steam Lorries when restrictions governing road transport were eased in 1896 which allowed speeds over 12mph, and removed the requirements for a man to walk in front of the vehicle with a red flag. E.R.F. By 1930, Edwin's son, E.R. Foden left the company after a disagreement over the future direction of road transport, he feeling that the future lay in Diesel engined lorries. He founded the rival firm of ERF, (his initials) another firm favourite on British fairgrounds and subject of an additional article at a future time. Foden eventually realised he had been right thereafter rapidly switching to diesel production with the launch of the Foden F1. By 1948 Foden were producing a range of vehicles including buses. Launching their own 2 stroke diesel engine which powered many of their heavy models. They also began offering Gardner diesel engines as an option. By 1958 glass reinforced plastic cabs were introduced, leading to the first mass produced tilting cab in 1962. It was this combination of rugged construction, Gardner Diesel engine and rot proof cab which led to the Foden range becoming a major force on British fairgrounds. Most vehicles used in the industry were purchased used, and the cab being rust proof was a major plus point. This, along with the Gardner engine which had a legendary reputation for reliability, and the tough build quality was a perfect combination for vehicles expected to have a hard life on the funfair circuit. Micky Mouse Cab One of the most popular of the early Foden's was the Micky Mouse Cab. So called due to its resemblance to the cartoon character. Foden Trucks S108 Probably the most widely used type of Foden trucks on British fairgrounds was the 8 wheel S108. The usual rugged build quality, Gardner engines, now putting out upto 350HP and plastic cab. Eventually with the downturn in the truck market, and economic woes in general, Foden fell into receivership in 1980. Subsequently being bought by the huge American firm Paccar, who manufactured amongst others, Kenworth and Peterbilt. The Daf Cab Years, Foden Alpha After Paccar took over Leyland trucks in 1998, Foden use of the GRP cabs was stopped. Being switched to the steel cabs used on Paccar's other European marquee, DAF. Which were being produced by Leyland for DAF. Sadly the Alpha was to be Foden's swansong. In 2005 Paccar announced that production was to cease. Ostensibly to allow the Leyland factory to concentrate on increasing DAF production. The final vehicle to roll off the production line being an 8 wheeler. Which was delivered to the British Commercial Vehicle Museum Our Trio Of Foden's The trio of Foden's we operated while still attending traditional funfairs. Read the full article

[mondoholic]

Josh Homme spoke to Kyuss World Radio about the 25th anniversary of KYUSS's final album, "…And The Circus Leaves Town". The Californian four-piece split three months following the LP's release, resulting in it being less critically and commercially successful when compared to the two KYUSS albums which helped birth the stoner rock movement — 1992's "Blues For The Red Sun" and 1994's "Welcome To Sky Valley".

"I'm not good at keeping memorabilia and I'm not too nostalgic because I guess it makes me feel a little sad sometimes," Josh said. "And I feel like there's such a huge pile of things to do. And sometimes I feel like when I look at a picture or something, I go, 'Man, it'll never be that. That's only where it was.' So I tend to focus forward.

"Hearing that [the album] is 25 years old, that makes me happy. It makes me a little bit proud that I got to do something that long ago, and I'm not dead yet. [Laughs]"

Asked if he had an inkling that "…And The Circus Leaves Town" would turn out to be KYUSS's swansong when he chose the LP title, Homme said: "I think the way Brant [Bjork, drums] left [after] 'Sky Valley' was a real shock, and it was very much like the rug being pulled out from under you. Because I didn't really understand [why he was leaving], and he was never able to make it really clear. Because I think it's difficult, too — when you're young like that, it's difficult to say, 'I need to go this direction.' When he left, he had our manager tell us that he was leaving, so we didn't really get to speak to Brant. And one of the things that he had said was, 'I think the band should be over.' And I really loved Brant. And I think that was a difficult moment to hear your friend was gone and he wasn't explaining why and that he thought it should be over.

"One aspect that I always agreed with is that bands, especially at that time, I was adamant that bands shouldn't go on too long," he continued. "At the time, I really felt like you do your best work, and when you realize you've done your best work, that's when you should explode the band — to preserve it is to destroy it; that you end [the band] at the absolute apex of your creativity as a group of people. And for me, personally, and I probably should have shared this, but in my gut, I was, like, 'We'll do one more record, and it'll be everything we have.' And so when I suggested that title, I think I knew that that was it, or I felt that it was coming to a close. It just felt very sort of Edgar Allan Poe, or it felt like 'Something Wicked This Way Comes', which is one of the [most] beautiful I've ever seen for a book. It's just got this beautiful ominous darkness to it. And so '…And The Circus Leaves Town' just felt timeless, and it's over, and you watch the exit on the horizon."

In March 2012, Homme and ex-KYUSS bassist Scott Reeder filed a federal lawsuit against Bjork and ex-KYUSS singer John Garcia over their involvement in the band KYUSS LIVES!, alleging "trademark infringement and consumer fraud." Five months later, a judge ruled that Garcia and Bjork could not release any recordings under the name KYUSS LIVES! and warned them that future concerts under the KYUSS LIVES! mark "might continue to subject them to liability for trademark infringement."

Asked if there is any scenario under which he would consider taking part in a KYUSS reunion of some kind, Homme told Kyuss World Radio: "My philosophy has always been, never do a reunion, never do a sequel. It's not what it was; it's what it is. And that's kind of how I've felt. A legacy that involves having been at the epicenter of a scene that got created, it's so fragile; it's like an ice sculpture. And I don't wanna be a blow dryer on that thing. That being said, I was in full support of KYUSS LIVES! and I would go to the shows and I told them as much, until what Brant and, unfortunately, what John tried to do. And that was terrible."

Elaborating on the breakdown of his relationship with Bjork and Garcia, Homme said: "All you have to do is show each other respect and say, 'Hey, we wanna do this, and we wanna talk about it.' Once Scott Reeder told me they were wanting to put out an album, I said, 'Let's sit down and talk.' So Scott and I went and talked to John and Brant. Sorry, it wasn't Brant — it was just John, because the band as it is, Brant had quit, so he wasn't part of that, what it was when it stopped, [which was] me and Scott and John. So I said, 'This is a discussion for me and you and John.' So I went and talked. And I said, 'We should find out a way for you guys to continue that's respectful.' You don't trample on what the legacy is and that you kind of let everyone understand what's going on moving forward. And the name they chose was a little unfortunate, 'cause it's actually literally saying KYUSS is alive again, which wasn't my favorite thing, but I was, like, 'Who cares?' But unbeknownst to me and Scott during that meeting, they'd already applied for a trademark to steal the name away. So I'm sitting there talking to these guys in good faith, and their managers, and they'd already applied, and you have, like, 20 days to object to the application. So the notion that I'm sitting there talking in good faith about how they could continue, and meanwhile, at that exact moment, in another room somewhere, they're applying to take the trademark for the name KYUSS so we wouldn't own it anymore, so John and Brant would own it. And so John had felt like he was robbing himself for something, and that's just not right — I don't play that way. And it also meant that they couldn't be trusted to be honest. 'Cause I'm sitting in a room, and instead of telling you that, it's like being stabbed in the back, essentially. There was no choice but to actually take action, because you can't sit down and say, 'Let's talk about this,' because now you told me that I may say something to you with my right hand, but my left hand might be stabbing you in the back. It's made it impossible to trust what was going on. And Scott and I both were, like, 'Jesus.' And it was only three people — me and John and Scott. It was, like, 'John, what are you doing? You are allowing you and Brant to take the name from you and me and Scott.'"

Homme continued: "I suppose at the end of the day, they didn't need a blessing [to play KYUSS music], but I was giving it to 'em. I want those guys to do well. And they were playing KYUSS music for a generation that had only heard of it and never heard it. I didn't see the harm in that. But trying to usurp it and take it away was just like dirty pool. The problem with all that stuff is that in a lawsuit or something like that, everyone loses; everyone looks bad. People that have loved KYUSS for so long go, 'Fuck these guys.' And that's terrible. That's why I say it's so fragile. That's why I say I've always wanted to err on the side of don't finger bang the ice sculpture; it's gonna break. If you don't touch it, it's just classic. But you don't punctuate the end of a band with a lawsuit. Those things are tragic, and they're awful. And then they lost, because, of course, you lose when you do things like that. But that damage is awful.

"But to be honest with you, and to answer your question, there have been times I thought it cannot end that way, and the only real way to end it correctly now would be to play," he explained. "And because they sort of perverted the punctuation and they knocked the wing off this beautiful dragon that's an ice sculpture, and the only way to put the motherfucking wing back on would be to [play again].

"I have thought about this, especially in the last few years, to do something special, and even to make up for that mistake of Brant and, unfortunately, John, to make up for it. [I thought we should] play and give all the money away. Like, play for the fans — cover your costs and make it five bucks. Figure out a way to be, like, this is how the punctuation will end the sentence of this band. Because it was never about money — it never was about money. It never was about fame, and when it felt like that was the move they were making, I was so sad."

After KYUSS split in 1995, Homme went on to form QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE.

In a May 2012 interview with RolllingStone.com, Bjork stated about Homme and Reeder's lawsuit, "They don't want to mention that they trademarked the name KYUSS after I left the band, assuring that I had no rights in KYUSS's future. They're both accusing John and I of doing something that they actually did themselves. Their inner conflict is this: both Josh and Scott want control and money from KYUSS LIVES!, but they don't want to participate and they ultimately don't want us to exist. The double standard is unbelievable."

He added, "Josh and I were the creative force within the band and after the completion of our second record, 'Blues For The Red Sun', we developed an opposing view on how the band should exist and operate. In 1992, Josh discovered publishing, which is the financial revenue stream for songwriting. After that, he wanted to write all the songs. As a drummer, I couldn't make him play my songs. I wasn't going to compromise my heart and soul and play drums for Josh to make money in a band I started. So I left the band. I was a confused, angry and sad 19-year-old idealist who sacrificed my love of my band for what I believed in. Two and a half years later, Josh would break up the band after John confronted him about the same thing; his need to control the band for personal gain."