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hunted-moth · 2 years ago

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Forest Of Dreams PT5: New Friends

Neytiri x FemReader

Wordcount // 3k

Summary // When Jake is caught giving information to Quaritch, it results in them relocating

Warning // Language, seeds of betrayal, smoking, but mostly just fluff

A/N //This is just y/n getting herself familiar with Home Tree and stuff idk it's short btw

Speaking Na’vi

‘Thoughts’

*whispering*

*mini time skip, like a small location change

“She said there's like a spiral in the center of the tree, adding a base support, so if you want to hit it you're gonna need heavy-duty stuff�� Jake tried to describe what you told him the best he could “Umm she also said that there was also like base columns, a few in fact and that they build upon it to so its probably more enforced to” he added more to the description

“Hmm, we’ll need accurate scans of it, talk to your sister about getting some” Quaritch stated. these little meeting has been going on for about a week, ever since you got back from your first expedition, it's how Selfridge found out in fact.

Of course, Jake thought it was for the greater good anyway. Didn't affect him at all so why care, plus he could get money out of this, to support him and you when you get back home, he could help with any debts you have and get his legs back as per his, and Quaritch's agreement.

“And that's all I got for you Sir” Jake turned his body to face his superior “That’ll do son, thank you. Take care now tell your sister to stay safe out there” Jake went to back out from the conversation as the meeting went onto a different subject

But throughout this interaction, they didn't see that someone was listening in on them. Before they could notice, they were gone

As Jake was leaving Quaritch stopped him “Oh and Jake, dont be afraid to snoop in her diaries log things, to get as much information as possible, in fact just send them to me” Quaritch placed his hand on his shoulder before letting him go

“Umm Grace, I've got some news for you” Grace looked up from her desk “You're not gonna like it though” She looked at him confused “Did someone die?” Max’s face grimaced at the response

“No, but your gonna want him dead,” Grace put her papers down, giving her full attention to Max “I just saw Jake and Quaritch talking, about home tree” If looks could kill Max would be at the crematorium by now “now let's think about this, if we get rid of Jake Y/n might get mad and drop the whole thing and go back to being a normal geologist” ”

Grace seemed to think about it for a second, then sighed “Then what do we do?” she began to light a cigarette from the sudden stress “Let's go off base, take away Jake's direct line to Y/n” She took her first puff

“Well what if they do video calls” she countered “Just take Jake with you where ever you go, you could still use him as a security escort on your expeditions” She took a long drag of her cigarette, before exhaling it “Hmm you make a good point Max, but where should we go is the question” max seemed to think for a moment “what about site 26, dont think it's in use right now”

She nodded her head “Yeah that’ll do, go and fetch the trio, I'm sure Norm will be excited” Grace grinned a little

As you and Jake walked into the lab with some clothes packed, you could see some lab techs pack stuff like supplies and food.

“So where are we going,” Jake asked “Getting out of heck out of dodge, not about to let Selfridge and Quaritch micro-manage us” When Grace mentioned Selfriged you looked around out of guilt, as did Jake but you didn't notice it

“There's a mobile link up at site 26 we can work out of, way up in the mountains” She walked away to pack some other thing, Norm popped his head up when he heard the news, you can't blame him though, cause you were excited to.

“The Hallelujah mountains?” he walked over to her “That’s right,” he turned to you both “Are you serious!” you asked Grace with eyes so full of excitement “Yep” it was a simple word but it brought joy to you and Norms little life

Jake looked confused and looked to Norm and you for answers “The legendary floating mountains of pandora, how have you not heard of them?” you rolled your eyes “Tits as he says, floating mountains caused by the UBH-310, unobtanium, natural magnetic forces”

you explained “And guess which profession figured that out, that's right geologist!” you had a stupid smirk on your face while you pointed to your self “You act as if you discovered it” Grace butted in your conversation “Can I not feel a little pride for my profession” you sulked at her comment, it made Jake smirk though enjoying your little act as you all walked away to head out

[LOCATION- FLOATING MOUNTAINS/SITE 26]

The Sampson flew over the Pandora forest, but instead of trying to get down there, Trudy flew you all upwards. Grace, Jake, and Norm's avatars were in the main body while the rest of you were in the cab, Norm next to Trudy this time

“Were getting close” Grace told the three of you “Yeah my instruments are going crazy” she pointed to the dials and stabilizer of the Sampson which were, in fact, going crazy “Yep, we're in the flux vortex now kiddos” You looked out a window to see nothing but clouds “yep, were VFR from now on”

Norm looked at her “whats VFR?” she cracked a smile “means gotta see where your going” Norm looked confused “Can't see anything” “Ain’t that a bitch”, he was right, all you could see were more clouds, thicker and denser than before, they were like a storm cloud

But the more you flew into the clouds, the more you could see the floating mountains. Your mouth was agape, you had seen photos, even videos, but to see it in real life, it's indescribably beautiful.

“Ha, you should see your faces”

In the distance, you could see the site. There were two cabin-like structures that were connected by a bridge. after the Sampson landed you helped Jake get out of the aircraft. “You want me to carry you” you smirked, you thought he would decline the offer due to his pride

“Yeah go ahead,” he said with a smirk on his face, so you lifted him over your shoulder, you stumbled a bit but gained your balanced once again and walked to the cabin with both your bags on your other shoulder. Norm was nice enough to grab his wheelchair and hurried to get in front to ready his chair

While Grace was inside, Norm helped set up Jake's chair, you plopped him in it. He was the first to go through the airlock door, then you, Norm, and finally Trudy. As you all gathered around Grace came back “Welcome to camp”

Trudy put her stuff down before grabbing something from the fridge. You saw some photos on it, you saw Grace and other na’vi children you assumed it was her students, two of which you recognized, the girl who hung around you and-

“Neytiri?” you looked closer at the photos with her in them, “Oh, your girlfriend” You rolled your eyes and grabbed a photo of her and of another girl, they were holding each other like they knew one another deeply.

“Hey Grace, was Neytiri a student of yours right?”, she looked up at you and noticed you and Jake staring at the photos “Yes, she was my brightest student, took to it like breathing” you continuity looking at the photo, “who's this girl?” Grace looked sad for a moment “That's her older sister” You looked up at her “I didn't know she had a sister, where is she?” Grace looked at Jake for a split second, “why don’t you ask her yourself” She walked off to her bed after that, she looked upset

You looked back at the photo one last time before putting it back.

Grace had a bed to herself while you and Trudy shared a bunk, the same case with Jake and Norm.

Grace leads the three of you to the back. “Ok Y/n, you’ll be on the left at the end, unit one or as I like to call it, Beulah, she's the least glitchy. Jake, you’ll be in the one on the right next to her, you'll use it when Norm and I go out for samples, Norm-” She turned her direction to Norm as she explained their pod situation

You turned to Jake, “You know how to work these? Told Neytiri id to be late today, though dont know if she gonna wait this long haha”

[LOCATION- HOMETREE]

You awoke in the hammock again, you looked around to see no one around you, which was expected as it was about midday when your avatar woke up. You ventured down to the base where the other clan members were to find Neytiri.

As you walked you felt a tug on your tail, you looked over to see a girl, the same girl who always came up to you, god you had to learn her name! “Hey kid, ya need something?” you turned around and started walking backward slowly

“No, well yes, I came to give you this dream walker” She gave you what you assumed was an armband. It was very simple, as it was just woven with some leather and beads, but still very pretty “It so you dont look so bland, dream walker”

“Oh wow, you made this”, she looked at you and shrugged her shoulders “Yes, is it bad?” her shoulders were tense “What! no, I love it! It's very pretty!” She smiled up at you. She was about to say something else when she was interrupted by someone “Sälau” you knew that voice and you didn't like that voice

“Hello Tsu’tey, nice bumping into ya” You turned around to face him “It is not nice” he snarled then he noticed the girl “Sälau, where have you been? I’ve been looking for you, you're late for lessons” she looked down and kicked the dirt “sorry Tsu’tey, it's just that Dream walker took so long waking up, and I had something to give her” she argued back at him

you got the low down of the conversation but still couldn't fully grasp it. But you saw Neytiri walking towards you and proceeded to exit and conversation “Ahh Neytiri, just the girl I was looking for” walked towards her with outstretched arms

“Look sorry I was late, we had to do some sky people stuff that involved me being there” you tried to explain your self “It is fine, just try not to be late again” you nodded “So what's on the agenda today”

“Follow me” She waked around Tsu’tey and Sälau back to the spiral. “Bye kid see ya later” You ruffled her hair on your way passed her, she giggled at the contact while Tsu’tey rolled his eyes walking away.

You were leaping from branch to branch while going up the spiral to what you assumed was the top of home tree. As you got there you looked down to see the beautiful landscape below you, “*Woah*, hey Neytiri why are-” Instead of finishing your question, your ears tuned in on the rustles in the leaves and different screeches

You looked to Neytiri, seeing her make some calls as the rustling got louder and closer. You could see what looked like wings and tails moving around in the branches. You looked closer when all of a sudden something came flying out

You freaked out and moved back falling on your ass while Neytiri looked calm when the creature landed, it looked towards you, it had a piercing gaze. Its colors were beautiful greens and yellows “Holy hell-” “dont look in her eye, she will become aggressive” It was like she could feel that you were focusing on the banshee

While your eyes were closed, you could hear the banshee chirp at Neytiri, opening your eyes you could see the banshee eat a piece of meat “Ikran is not horse, once Tsaheylu is made” she held her queue to the ikran making Tsaheylu with her “ikran will only fly with one hunter in the whole life” she went around it and mounted her ikran

“Oh so like a pet, it stays with you” You looked up at her from below “Till the end huh?” her ikran let out a mighty screech “Yes, like pet” She gave hers a pet before resuming the lesson “To become taronyu, hunter, you must choose ikran, and he must choose you “alright, when do I choose?”

“When you are ready” she let out a command and she and Ikran dived down into the sky. You watch as they descended, they looked Graceful, almost like a butterfly, just following the wind where ever it took them.

[LOCATION- HOME TREE MEAL]

You and Neytiri sat down for lunch, today was fruit and some meat on a stick. You almost felt guilty eating the meat as it was a Tapirus a cute animal you would see roaming around the village, but damn was it good, it tasted like a pig to you

As you and Neytiri were reviewing what you were learning you felt a tap on your shoulder, you looked to see that girl from before “Can I sit with you two?” her English was a little stiff but still understandable

“Yes, you may sit” Your Na’vi was also stiff and very basic, You moved to make more room for her “Thank you, dream walker” She smiled and sat to your left “I have a name, not Dreamwalker” She looked up “Yes, I too have a name, it's not ‘kid’ ” she looked forward and began to eat her food

You looked to Neytiri, who shrugged her shoulders, you went back to English so you could greet yourself properly “Well, what is it? My name Y/n, Y/n sully” She looked up before answering “My name is Sälau te Voik Erok’ite, it is nice to meet you!” she looked to you to see if she said the introduction right

You smiled down at her, “Well it's nice to meet you Sälau” She smiled back and continued eating. “So how did training with Tsu’tey go Sälau?” she stopped to think “It went fine, we worked on my shooting”, “oh so your training to be a hunter too huh, I bet that's fun”

She looked down, lowering her food a bit “Yes it is fun, but also, umm” she tried to find the word for it “Boring?” she perked up “Yes! Very boring, I’d want to weave more than hunt”, you looked intrigued “you like weaving huh?”

“Yes I like it very much, Grace even taught me the Earth way!” she held up her wrist to show you a bright green and purple woven bracelet “me and my friend having same bracelets, but he has an armband one”

When she said that she seemed to remember something and gasped “YOU NEVER PLAYED WITH US!” you looked at her confused, her yelling seemed to get Neytiris attention as well, “You said you would play with us but you never did! After we eat we play!” you looked to Neytir to see if she was fine with it, she nodded her head

“Sure kid, what do you want to play?” you took the last bite of your meat “I want to play an earth game!” she looked up at you with excitement “Hmm,” you thought “how about hid and seek” “no, I already know that one, I good at it anyway” she waved you off

‘hmm common Y/n! Think what games could you play you berated yourself, till an idea came to your mind, “How about hopscotch? Ever play that?”, she looked at you confused “hop-scoot?” she butcher the word a little bit “Yeah hopscotch, it's a fun game I used to play as a kid”

“Ok, we play hopscotch after lunch when you are done” You looked to see that you were practically done “Well it looks like we're just waiting on you kid” She looked to see she barely touched her food while you were done “What no way” and she started eating faster while practically scarfing it down like a wolf

You and Sälau went over to an open area, you grabbed a stick to make the hopscotch grid, then grabbed a small rock, and presented yourself to them

“Ok so, how you play is that you throw this rock into a box” you acted out the instruction, it landing on two “and you go through the entire course however many times the rock lands” You hooped through it, but your foot landed on the line near six

“But if you land on a line or your other foot touches the ground, your out, and the next person has to go” You looked to Neytiri and Sälau to see if they understood “You guys can read numbers right?” you didn't even think to make sure the knew

“We do, just a bit tricky” Neytiri answered, both she and Sälau were Graces' best students “Yes, I loved counting” Sälau shot her hand up, “I want to go first!” she ran to the course, grabbed the rock, and threw it, it landed on three

“Remember, dont let your other foot touch the ground and go through it three times” She nods her head and started to hop, she did well till she got to six on her second run. She leaned her body forward too much and fell over scraping her chin

“Haha, you ok kid?” she popped up “Yes I'm fine!” she grinned, dirt staining her face “But I lost” She looked down with a pout “its ok kid, you'll get it next time,” you looked to Neytiri, “so I guess that means it's your turn”

She looked at you with wide eyes “What? I never agreed to this” you smirked “Oh common, it'll be fun, you not about the wimp out on us now are ya?” you threw your arm around her shoulder, and Sälau pipped up “Yeah Neytiri, join us PLEASE” she grabbed her hand hanging off of it

were you two peer pressuring the chief's daughter, yes, yes you were. But you just wanted to have fun and you could tell she did too. She looked between the two of you, giving her your best puppy dog eyes. “Fine, I will play the sky baby game”, she bent down to grab the rock and threw it, it landed on eight, and you and Sälau high fived in victory, you had to show her how tho

Neytiri only got to five on her third try, and both you and Sälau sighed in her defeat “Is it your turn Y/n?” Sälau looked up at you “Hmm, I guess it is” You took the rock from Neytiri and it landed on 5 this time. You hopped over it, you almost had a slip-up, to which you could hear Sälau pray for your downfall

But sadly her prayers were answered as you fell on your ass, you only got to four rounds before you lost your balance and fell backward, Sälau laughed while pointing at you, and Neytiri held her hand up to hide her amusement. You got off and went to hand the rock to Sälau before you heard yelling in the distance

“Sälau, where were you? We've been looking for you. Why didn't you eat with us? Come it is time for chores” an older male Navi came up to you three and went straight to Sälau “Sorry papa, I was just playing with Neytiri and the dream walker” the man tutted at the girl

“Come, your mother was very saddened you didn't eat with us” he held out his hand for her to grab “Why do you like this dream walker so much?” she shrugged her shoulders with a sad face “I dont know, I think she interesting, and she plays with us, the other older kids just shoo us away” she was playing with her tail at his point as they both walked away, you looked in between the two, you concluded that it was the girl's father by hearing the na’vi word for father

“Why dont you say goodbye to dream walker for today and get started on your chores” You understood the word ‘bye’, you were sad to know she had to leave, you could tell that she didn't like that, but she turned around to face you “I have to go, Y/n, I will see you tomorrow” you looked down at her “yeah, no worries ill play with you tomorrow, maybe you can bring your friends over to play to” she popped her head up and nodded

She turned to her father and took his hand again and off they went, you looked to Neytiri “So, what else are we doing today”

[LOCATION- SITE 26]

Your pod opened, and you were met with darkness and distant snoring you could recognize as Jake. when you walked through to the main common area you could see Grace working “So how was today?” your head looked to her, as you sat down after you got some dinner “Well, I played a game with a village kid I’ve kinda befriended, and Neytiri showed me her banshee. And also some language lessons as usual.”

you “She still swatting at you?” you chuckled a bit “Yeah, my avatar has a small bruise on her thigh” Grace laughed a bit before telling you to do a vlog and get to bed

You woke up earlier than normal and saw that Jake was up as well. You walked over to him with confusion on your face

“The hell you doing up so early?” he seemed to flench at your voice “Umm, co-couldn't sleep well last night” he had a quiver to his voice “You alright man? Ya look pale” You leaned over his chair to look at his face, he couldn't look you in the eyes, instead directing them to the window

“Yeah I'm fine, had a nightmare i guess” You looked concerned at those words “About what?” he finally looked you in your eyes “About losing you again, I dont know, just want to know how your doing in the village if you know what i mean” you looked at him with sympathy “no yeah I get a whatcha mean man, you know what I’ll see if I can get you three to visit, that be cool right?” again his eyes went to the window

“Yeah that be nice”

You got up and went to make breakfast so you could make you get there as soon as possible, For some reason feeling more ambitious today.

Next // PT 6 Dear Diary

Previous // PT 4 New Kid in Town

Taglist // @msboucles

// Masterlist //

A/N // man this is short and kinda shit in my opinion lol i dont like this chapter except for the hopscotch scene but overall this is a filler chapter with some important seeds planted. I'm really excited to write the next chapter cause after that Y/n gets her Ikran

Oh also if you want to be added to a tag list let me know I can totally make that happen :D

#neytiri x y/n #neytiri x reader #neytiri x avatar reader #neytiri te tskaha mo'at'ite #avatar x reader #jake sully #norm spellman #grace augustine #avatar 2009 #james cameron avatar #avatar fanfiction #wlw fanfic #gay aliens #fanfic

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baohouse · 2 years ago

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Personal framework for running a global engineering team

Five months in being Director of Engineering for a fintech startup, overseeing a small team that spans south Asia and North America, I'm building a global engineering culture that produces a high-quality technology product. Greatest challenge I've ever faced. What is helping me?

1. Being a systems thinker.

As a child my uncle would go to a used computer store, Weird Stuff, in Silicon Valley and bring home junk. I would take apart and rebuild computers. At the same time, on weekends, I would help mom look after our garden filled with abundant fruit trees.

Looking after a garden helped me practice managing micro-ecologies. I played a lot of video games growing up, notably SimCity, Civilization, and SimEarth. It was fun to explore different ways of managing complex systems (cities, nations, planet).

2. Understanding culture via ethnic studies.

I became interested in understanding my Vietnamese heritage while entering college. I became involved in Vietnamese student organizing at the school, regional, and continental level, especially organizing conferences.

I took a course in Native American Studies and Asian American Studies to help compare. What was important was to have a statistical and anecdotal view of culture. Traits can manifest by many, or by few who still see themselves part of the group.

Also important was tweaking or implementing new cultural practices. A big focus during my time as a student organizer—credit which goes to my peers—was building social cohesion among people in different geographies via group activities, e.g. scavenger hunt, trò chơi lớn.

Sometimes it failed. Other times it succeeded. Either way, a lesson learned: utilize one's upbringing, or design a way to introduce people into a new practice. Which segues into...

3. Practice marketing and product development.

I practiced asking/answering: What do people do? Is there something (a product) that exists to fulfill their needs? How can it be improved? I practiced via student community organizing, and continued having joined many tech startups.

At every startup company, we created a tech product (I developed my software engineering skills), and had to test and validate its viability. And in the context of a startup, I learned product development processes such as Agile methodology.

Culture is a product too, e.g. instituting a mentorship program, or Vietnamese New Year festival. They're not software, but it benefits from asking the same questions. Can't just do things just cuz it's always been done that way. Why do it? Otherwise people flock to alternatives.

4. Study leadership.

One way to approach it is learning the levels of leadership. The first person you lead is yourself. And then you learn to lead peers/groups, then organizations, then communities, societies, etc.

For each level one had to learn different skills. Level 1 (self) you learn self-awareness and self-love. Level 2 (peers) you learn empathy, chit chat, paired activities (hanging out; dates). Level 3 (group) you learn things like conflict resolution mediation.

Learning and practice never ends. Just because I practiced how to do it with peers my age, as time goes on, you just end up practicing with people of different backgrounds: age, origin, beliefs, life circumstances, disabilities, etc.

5. Learning and applying industrialization.

So it's one thing to learn how to create products. It's another matter to make it accessible at scale. I'll watch videos on how things are built such as how Coca-Cola Company makes soda. Or how McDonald's churn out burgers quickly.

It helps to be a systems thinker, to really identify where things get slow. When I played SimCity, I loved identifying and clearing out traffic bottlenecks. It also helps to understand lifecycles (thanks high school biology), because a lot of problems come down to timing issues.

Now... I don't have a formal training in industrial processes like Six Sigma or Toyota Production System. But it's definitely something I'm interested in. Why? Because I like to model after good practices that already exist. Which segues into...

6. Leverage partnerships and external inspirations.

An important lesson I learned while organizing in the Vietnamese nonprofit community is: if you can't do it yourself, partner with someone who can. Build their work into your flow. Or model their process.

I worked with nonprofits, so I only had shoestring budgets or volunteer hours to work with. My mentees created youth development programs by inviting staff of other nonprofits to participate. DIY is cool, but if it's not an option, collaborate.

Or if limited resources, introduce an abbreviated form. Set a goal for each team member to learn and apply one new thing each month to steer the team towards a framework. Sometimes it's about introducing terminology, because words shape our reality and the way we do things.

Sorry this is so long; really this is a brain dump. I need it because I needed to create my own personal framework for how I am running the engineering team.

#leadership

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theghostpinesmusic · 9 months ago

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youtube

Wow, so I fell a little bit out of doing these jam posts for a few weeks...but it was for a good reason. Basically, the reason is that I haven't been watching as many jam shows as usual. Orebolo, which is Goose's three-man acoustic side project, played three shows at the Capitol Theater leading up to and over the Super Bowl weekend, and I decided to watch all three of them live.

I love Orebolo a lot, but they tend not to "jam" songs out, per se, because it doesn't fit the acoustic format quite as well, so there weren't any real "highlights" from those shows to share in the way I normally share here. If you're interested in what an acoustic Goose-adjacent trio sounds like, though, this might be a good start for you. I will not be writing 5,000 words about it.

After watching three nights of Orebolo in a row, I took most of last week off, though I did take my first step into Phish's summer 2023 tour, on the heels of rekindling my romance with their music earlier this year by watching their recent New Year's Eve run. I decided to start mid-tour, at the beginning of a seven-night run at Madison Square Garden (because the only places you can see Phish these days are New York City and Mexico, but I digress), with 7/28/23. And it was glorious. This was almost certainly the best Phish show I've ever seen via webcast (i.e., not in person at the venue). It totally blew me away for pretty much the entire show, and the only reason I'm focusing on the "Split Open and Melt" from the second set is because that's all the official YouTube channel shared from the show.

Let me geek out on a macro level briefly, though, before we zoom in to the micro level.

The show (and run) opens with "Evening Song," a short, weird little ditty from the band's most recent album, Sigma Oasis. While most "people" (by which I mean terminally-online fans of the band) have shat on this song since the first time it was played, I love it for what it is and, for a band that has had to continually reinvent their ability to surprise their fans for forty years without the effort to surprise itself becoming a parody, this is a neat, subversive opener call.

The following version of "A Wave Of Hope" is twenty of my favorite minutes of Phish improvisation since COVID. The following jam, out of a great cover of The Talking Heads' "Cities," is a perfect sister piece. We're not even halfway through the first set at this point and I could go home happy. The bluegrass of rare cover "The Old Home Place" segues neatly into a bombasstic (see what I did there?) version of "Free," then we finally get a breather, if a poignant one, with a gorgeous rendition of "Brian and Robert." "Stash" comes next, and even though it stays within the box, it's a really well-played version, with the band gelling wonderfully even if they aren't launching for deep space. "My Soul," a song I feel like I haven't heard in at least ten years, ends the set.

"More," a catchy, hopeful, Beta-Band-ish tune that also catches a ton of hate from "fans" for being any and all of those things, opens the second set. I'll be honest and say that this, like "Evening Song," really only works as a song choice with the right context, but man, that context is present on 7/28, as the brief pop-ish tune leads into a head-spinning near-hour of music that goes: "Ruby Waves" -> "Plasma" > "Simple" > "Mountains In The Mist." I won't weigh in on each of these individually, as the point of this post is ostensibly to talk about what happens after, but suffice to say that the jamming during each of the first three tunes gets more and more jaw-dropping weird and deep until, at one point in the "Simple," I reached that state of jam-listening bliss that I only really manage to get to via Phish shows: where I am simultaneously having the absolute best time listening and can no longer follow the beat of the song. That this suite of tunes lands in "Mist," which is hands-down my favorite Phish ballad, is just perfect setlist-building.

As a fan who loves this band to death but has also found their setlist-building a bit suspect since, uh, 2009, I fully expected this amazing set to end with a few short, tossed-off, supposedly celebratory tunes that nonetheless served more to kill the glorious vibe than anything else. This has, in my opinion, often been the band's way at least up through 2019. They've broken this habit a bit since COVID, though, and fortunately this set ended up serving as a great example of this improvement: post "Mist," instead of "Number Line" or "Show of Life," they immediately launch into "Split Open and Melt," a song whose composition has basically demanded that it be a consistently good, crazy, evil jam vehicle for the band since...1993?

And now we arrive at the point where, admittedly with the help of some mind-altering substances, music melted my entire skeleton and shot it into space.

I've written a lot already, so I'll spare you the song history and blow-by-blow regarding the composed part of the song. Suffice to say it is, to my mind, one of Phish's Phishiest compositions: it includes a little of everything that makes their original songs both great and so weird you might just give up partway through, and knowing that in all likelihood they are going to Summon The Aliens in a few minutes makes listening through it even more fun.

The improv starts at 4:35, and was also the point that, in the moment, I thought to myself "If I'd have known they were going to play 'Split Open and Melt,' I would have taken slightly fewer drugs tonight."

Mike and Fishman continue the rhythm of the song's outro for a bit early on, but Trey and Page immediately depart from it, both playing interlocking but dissonant-sounding melody lines. At 5:05, we are thirty seconds in and there are already multiple, incompatible rhythms happening. I lack the musical knowledge to really describe what's happening here in a technical sense, but Trey is using loops, Page's organ playing gets downright evil, and it feels like my brain is being pulled in two directions at once, but I like it, it makes going insane seem fun.

The laser light rods do not help.

I have a recurring note I sometimes include in my setlists when I'm watching shows as a fun little inside joke (just for myself, because I don't know how to make friends and this is how I cope), and it's to note times when Fishman is particularly bonkers on the drums. The note is "What the fuck is Fishman." The section of this jam that starts at 6:40, when the camera starts zooming in on him, was one of those moments. This is one of those times that, if it was still the 2010s, I would shout "I can't even!"

By 7:20, we have realized that the aliens aren't coming down to Earth because they've been here all along.

Trey asserts himself a bit more directly shortly after this, but only to scare us even more. I'm amazed at the crowd shot at 8:50: these people still look like they're having fun. I'm not sure if my psyche could survive experiencing this from the front row.

By 9:30, one of Trey's droning, heavy, looped riffs has come to dominate the space for me, making this whole thing into a demented mantra, a siren song that melts the wax in your ears and transfixes you while it eats you. Trey decides to play with the octave shifter here because why the fuck not.

Between Page's synths and Trey's completely distorted guitar, there's almost a glimpse of a melody at 10:10, something that almost sounds like "What's The Use?", but it's swallowed quickly by the whirlpool of sonic mayhem and crushed.

You have the sense of an eternal, ageless eye opening and looking at you, incomprehensibly. Are those ghosts wailing? Are you dead?

Nah, it's just a Phish show.

I will say that I honestly worried for anyone in the audience and on psychedelics at 11:20. The combination of the lights and the music are the stuff of nightmares, and I'm watching this with a relatively intact grip on reality.

Now, I of course love Phish jams, and the weirder the better, but I'll admit that when I was watching this for the first time "live," the moment at 12:35 when Fishman returns to the "Split Open and Melt" outro beat, I felt the relief of a man who'd been tossed overboard in a storm and had just found a life preserver to grab onto.

Shortly, everyone follows Fishman's lead and heads back into the song proper, but I love how some of the loops and distortion continue in the background for a bit, a reminder of our narrow escape from The Darkness.

The song's goofy ending, at 13:52, seems especially incongruous here, and made me laugh a lot.

Well, I hope you survived that listen. I had a lot more fun writing a bit more creatively about it and less technically than I usually do, but it felt appropriate for this particular jam.

While I've been off doing other stuff, Goose put out a second jam with their new drummer, so I'll probably cover that next. Maybe tomorrow! Cheers!

#phish #jams #jam bands #music #live music #videos #trey anastasio #tour journal #writing #Youtube

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