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arkus-rhapsode · 2 years ago

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Rating Fire Emblem Engage Casual Outfits

So FE Engage gave us FE characters in personalized casual wear. Which I think FE fan artist have dreamt up for a long time. So I’m gonna look through everyone of them and tell you what I think.

First up is the Alears

I gotta be honest their casual clothes just don't took that different from their standard outfits. I think Female Alear's looks better in the sense it does feel more loose and casual while Male Alear's is pretty layered.

So Male Alear I'm giving a 5/10 and for Female 6/10

Following that we have Vander

I love how Vander's definition of casual is three piece suit, monocle, dinning jacket, and an ascot that puts Miles Edgeworth to shame. I think it works so well though for him

Vander: 8/10

Gonna lump these Clanne and Framme together given how similar, yet distinct they look.

Both are a shorts + jacket combo with how each of them wear it fitting their personalities, Clanne's being more straight and fitted while Framme's is baggy and left open. Between the two, I think Framme wears it better especially knowing how they look underneath, the hat itself also just brings her whole look together. Clanne's is still good but its much more generic

Clanne: 6/10 Framme: 7/10

Alfred

I honestly expected Alfred to look like he was always in a tracksuit, but I guess that wasn't princely enough. Not personally a fan of how the patterns on his shoulders are designed because it only works if he's keeping his arms at his sides full time. Also what is this yugioh double belt non sense and is that a whip at his side?

Alfred: 3/10

Now for his sister, Celine

You remember Celine's normal outfit of the huge cumbersome dress? Well what if we paired that down into a breezy summer dress? The lighter pastles really work for her, with my only complaint being the cloth wrapped around her legs. If you want stockings, wear stockings. If you don't, don't.

Celine: 7/10

Next is Boucheron

Boucheron is a simple bulky boy so this makes sense. Pants, undershirt and collared shirt with some nifty design near the collar. Works for him but doesn't try anything

Boucheron: 5/10

Now for Etie

Etie's casual outfit is like Alear's in that it looks way too close to their combat on. Just has different shoes and pulled her shirt down. Its not bad. And I do like her green and orange. But its just not much different for me.

Etie: 5/10

Louis

I appreciate seeing an armor knight out of his armor. Plus is more turquoise color is nice and funky. Anyway very fitting for a butler type like him. I especially like the spats shoes most of all.

Louis: 7/10

Next up is Chloe

It is perfectly Disney princess for her. Yet also has the charm of a village girl. Really like the the embroidery plus the shoulders being covered with the neck exposed. The pumps feel a bit much for her though.

Chloe: 8/10

Jean

Speaking of cute, school boy Jean. Went from a Ghibli character to a protag in a young boy's school series. I personally love seeing Jean not only loses his hat, but also see him wearing his glasses. The blue and green darker colors pair so well with the white being not over powering and bringing it all together.

Jean: 9/10

On to Brodia with its first prince, Diamant

Diamant here looking like he came off another RPG. Look at this man he is strapped while just casually standing around. I will say though I do quite like the burgundy vest and the tanned shirt. With the fur lined cuffs of the jack being just the right amount of classy yet practical. Sadly is knee stocks and his ankle boots feel weirdly disconnected.

Diamant: 6/10

On to his brother, Alcryst

Alcryst here takes Diamant's whole outfit and I think improves on it in nearly every way. First of all losing some of the unnecessary belts and while the red vest blended more with the browns, Alcryst's blue waist coat not only adds some need visual pop but also a really neat embroidery. He ditches Diamant's knee stocks plus ankle boots for some actual knee-high boots and it looks much better. I also like how the jacket does highlight the difference of his physique, hanging a bit more loose given he's not as bulky as Diamant. The only negative I have is the white gloves. Why? Who do you think you are? Hubert? Its just clashes in the worst way and really only exists to oppose Diamant's gloves. But overall its tight.

Alcryst: 10/10

To the retainers! First is Amber

Y'know you to this point I could see all these casual outfits fitting a fantasy euro setting. Amber's however legit looks like he's some guy on the north east school football team. With his letterman jacket and wool cardigan. However, I must admit, I appreciate the commitment to the alpaca branding. And yes the wool does look comfy.

Amber: 5/10

Jade

We have another armor knight out of their armor and once again its great. Jade's simple look really fits her personality with the single dress shirt supported by a midriff tighter does make her seem much more skinnier than you'd think she'd be, but still makes her upper body look strong. Also that hair un obscured by her helmet is just nice.

Jade: 7/10

Now for Citrinne

Citrinne was a welcomed surprise. I had assumed her being super rich meant her casual outfit would be something ornate and high society, but instead she goes the opposite. Probably because her standard outfit is already a gown her casual clothes really feel like a step towards an actual streetware look. They keep her dress's basic elements like the brown with gold tips and shorten it up to her thighs, then add on some black leggings which her her a really tall yet shapely figure accented by these red heels. But the thing I like most of all is her coat. She had white in her design already with her boa, but now there's much more white with this nice over jacket. The fur neckline is also great, giving her both a cozy feeling yet also a damn she's rich vibe. Really does capture Citrinne of being a girl of wealth but not flaunting it in everyway intentionally.

Citrinne: 10/10

Now for her partner, Lapis

Talk about cute. While Chloe blended the princess/commoner girl feel well, Lapis really does look like a girl from the country side. Seeing her go from her armor to this more breezy dress is a delight but the thing I like most is her shoes. A common observation of women wearing casual ware in JRPGs is they only seem to wear heels or boots, but Lapis goes with what I'd actually think someone from her background would, mary janes.

Lapis 8/10

Its time to get Sappy with Yunaka

Once again, another banger outfit. Yunaka going from her body suit to this more knee length dress and small sweater and dress shirt just feels perfectly on brand for her when she's not on duty. I especially like the slight color difference between her sweater and dress. Its just a well balance outfit. Not a big fan of the platform boots though.

Yunaka: 9/10

Now this one was tough, just like Saphir herself

Saphir and her docksider outfit is just chef's kiss. Design wise its not particularly that unique, but what brings it together is emphasis on Saphir's muscular frame. Muscle shirt plus the fingerless guantlets is just great. Seeing a muscular older lady of color, what could go wrong? Well probably the fact that she's not actually old she's only 35! Yeah, really. Anyway, this is about grading fashion and while I love Saphir's design, can't say her outfit isn't what I'd have expected it to be.

Saphir: 6/10

On to Solm with its future queen, Timerra

Timerra is once again a simple one, but it feels like it has more personality to it. I don't just say that about the color. But the wavy dress plus the loose croptop with holder sports bra look actually gives her a real ethnically unique look that doesn't feel like it falls into some sexualized amazonia/nubian woman feel that is kinda common for people to associate with poc women in fantasy. In my personal taste its a little too colorful for me, but I still like it.

Timerra: 8/10

Now onto her brother, Fogado

So fun fact I first saw him on the Somniel in this outfit when he was playing guitar by the campsite and I recall clearly what went through my mind at that moment; "This man gets it". Like the black shirt and pants pulled to expose his shoulders and his calves would already be enough, but top it off with a chic yet colorful scarf is beautiful. The cyan belt are a but off, though I'd say it was to help break up the black and give his upper body some more definition.

Fogado: 9/10

Merrin

Speaking of great fashion, we have Merrin and man everything about this works. The white undershirt length reaching her lap, the tighter shirt that makes it up to her collar without exposing any cleavage or pushing it up, her short jacket with the fur tips, and those banging high heeled boots tipped with gold that emphasize but ass kicking and fashion. It's all great. Such a shame about the tail. It's almost so ridiculous I want to give it a pass, but seeing her without it just looks much better.

Merrin: 9/10

Panette

Panette going in her goth girl halloween outfit. Jokes aside I actually like this one more than her regular fit. But... its like Amber's as it feels a bit more out there for the setting, The rainbow stitches are really nice though.

Panette: 5/10

Bunet

Bunet here feels like a fresher Boucheron. Like right down to the color pallet. But the apron coat paired with the ascot really does give him a fine look. I will say, while it fits for his chef persona... There's just too much material in the back for me.

Bunet: 5/10

On to Pandreo

What do priests wear when not in their raiments? Well fuck boy style if Pandreo is to be believed. I kid of course, I appreciate the restraint to not go full frat bro with his outfit. The half tucked shirt and the sneakers without socks though was not helping exactly. But they classy him up with coat and scarf. Its good and fits his personality.

Pandreo: 7/10

Seadall

Okay scratch what I said about Pandreo being the fuck boy. This man is definitely a fuck boy. He has a damn titty window! But once again, not too different from Seadall's normal outfit. It looks like he took the piece of clothing he usually wears around his waist and started wearing it. This also really makes his color scheme seem altered going from primarily red and black to a purple and black fit.

Seadall: 4/10

To we make our way to Elusia, starting with their new Queen Ivy

Okay just full on elegant goth girl and I love it. Yes even the commitment to her headdress. The dark purple overall with just the uneven furnishes really makes this all come together.

Ivy: 10/10

Hortensia

On the complete opposite end of the spectrum we have Hortensia. While you'd expect her to go for cute as it is her personality, she really does actually make it different from say some standard moe fit. The fiery pink plus the black with hints of blue give it a real stand out quality. With the gloves and the patterned leggings build on it in a good way making this almost pop punk princess look. The biggest knock against this for me are the up turned pointy shoes. That's just a yikes from me.

Hortensia: 8/10

Zelkov

Look at this steampunk Specer's gifts man and his Nomura belts. Look, I like Zelkov, really do. And I like how straight to the point this fit his for him. Ditches his long cloak and now we got his tight leather vest with way too many buckles and his tight leather pants with more buckles. Its impractical and yet kinda raw.

Zelkov: 7/10

Kagetsu

Overall, I like the Japanese rep with Kagetsu's fit. The looser feeling really fits his personality and covering up his usually exposed arms with this more brighter off white is also a good choice. But I just can't sign off on the onigiri pants. I can't. It looks like he's wearing pajamas.

Kagetsu: 4/10

Next up to the certified cutie (he told me he was himself) Rosado

Okay maybe I should take back my Spencer's gifts comment on Zelkov and apply it to Rosado because man he looks like he just walked out of there with a bag of dark lights. I had though maybe Rosado would got for something more frilly given how they decorate their wyvern, but this dark emo princess actually still fits. Yeah even the weirdly mistmatch stocking/sock and two different slippers, I think its fitting for Rosado. I think their hair is also kinda tying it together.

Rosado: 6/10

Onto his elegant partner, Goldmary

Goldmary has a lot of the same energy to her casual fit as Lapis does. Which is fitting given the similar backgrounds. She actually looks like a girl from the countryside and has a rustic charm to her. However, seeing her got from her usual peacocking armor to this more down to earth fit really gives this more wholesome vibe to her. And once again, the shoes just feel so right. Flat boots ankle boots just add to the country feel and love it.

Goldmary: 8/10

Next up Anna-I mean, Lady Anna

Anna honestly pretty cute all bundled up. Which is funny as she looks the most like she's from Elusia compared to everyone else from there given its a... winter country. But yes its child-like and I think it works for the game's interpretation of Anna.

Anna: 7/10

Coming up on the end, we have Lindon

Lindon traded his sage robes... for more sage robes. Given he's the oldest human on the cast, I didn't think he's have like a foxy grandpa look to him, but like Etie and Boucheroun it doesn't feel that much different from his combat outfit.

Lindon: 5/10

Now onto our rep from the villains, first with Veyle

So here we have Veyle. Honestly dressing the evil mind controlled her in a pure white outfit makes sense and I do get the girlishness they want to invoke with her almost school girl like dress. But there's a few little things about this that just don't work for me like gloves seems to have changed from being up the forearm to being wrist length. I would've kept the gloves as is. Then there's the shoes. I like we gave Veyle some shoes but I feel like sandals fit more with her shoeless previous look than these slip-on heels. Also she still has on her ankle cuffs. which feels a tad wrong. The lace is really nice though

Veyle: 6/10

Last but not least, we have Mauvier

Like I said, love to see armor knights out of their armor and Mauvier seems the most casual of all. His outfit is basic while fitting his strong frame. With the biggest flourish being his vest and its ornate coloring. I think its the right amount of color the mixes with his darker colors.

Mauvier: 8/10

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frosted-night · 4 years ago

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Jack Frost Designs Review

Yes it’s finally his time. This is going to include his book designs including previous incarnations in said books. There are more movie concept designs than book so, let’s dig in shall we?

This was in fact the first ever Jack Joyce designed while he came up with The Guardians Of Childhood. He even comes with his own backstory! (Which was cut. Sorry Joyce posts walls of text so it’s a girthy read.)

So instead of a young mischievous trickster, we got a much more depressing story of Jack. (Jack by default is sad obviously) but this one... It kind of hits differently and almost reminds me of the story he crafted for Pitch. A dad who tried to defend his family but through tragic events was ripped from them and changed completely. Design wise, he’s a lot more tree than snow. There doesn’t exist a colored version of this so we’ll never know if he sported winter and dull dead leaf colors rather than grassy greens.This Jack has a weird presence to him, I can’t put my finger on it. Rating: 6/10 He’s really neat! Just a little too Autumn feeling rather than a blend of both Autumn and Winter.

Nightlight feels like the baby evolution if Jack was a pokemon and that's what I’m gonna stick with. Below is a more recent version of him colored.

In all honesty that one is easier on the eyes proportion wise because sometimes Joyce has ‘interesting’ anatomy choices but we aint going into that today. It’s interesting how his hair somehow looks shorter and longer than Jack’s at the same time. Could be because the longer strands float seamlessly but star boy hair physics what can ya do. It’s a little hard to tell what is his skin and what is his armor, so that is a casuality in making a character only have one or two colors in their color scheme. I love other artist’s depictions of Nightlight but the canon one feels a little weak color wise. Rating: 5/10 Sorry, get some better LEDs and then come back.

Here we have a book Jack but I can’t entirely recall if this was used in the books or not. I digress. This design looks like him still wearing very Nightlight-esque armor/clothing and slowly growing into his new persona as Jack Frost. The intricacies are hard to make out but we’ll work with it. This one is very interesting to me because he very much looks like an older teen close to young adult. His hair looks very fluffy too. Not many complaints about this one but not much praise either.

Rating: 6/10 Not great but doesn’t stand out that much.

Remember when I said Joyce had ‘interesting’ anatomy decisions? Jack looks like he has half a head here and it bothers me GREATLY. This is the adult Jack design he went with. Supposedly he likes the opera and he sure looks it. This! Exists!! Kind of wish it didn’t. The outfit is nice but it just doesn’t fit Jack as a whole. This just screams to me that it’s someone else with a similar-ish hairstyle.

Rating: 3/10 Guess he’d be the...Phantom Of The Opera. (I’ll go home and so should he.)

And finally the final Jack. This is the one that almost exactly resembles the Jack we got in the movies(Probably because it was made after the movie but w/e) but just add a cape on him. I can’t really tell if hes got a hoodie and a cape, or just a cloak+hood on top of a sweatshirt. It isn’t too important because my thoughts on this one are obvious. Rating: 10/10 Edna Mode would have a field day with you boy.

MOVIE DESIGN TIME

Joyce claims this is a design he drafted when Leonardo DiCaprio was considered to voice Jack and I can kind of see that with how his face is drawn here. This Jack looks a lot more like a warrior and less of that trickster look. I can’t say I’m a fan of the weird antenna his hood has but his sword is really cool looking.

Rating: 4/10 Nice bow and sword but it can’t save your fashion choices.

This looks like a lanky 11-13 year old who would put rocks or slugs in my shoes and relish in my disgust. He has the exact look of a snot nose kid and I’m unsure how to feel about it.

His various hairstyles drafted here sort of make him softer looking or just more of a snot nose, no in between. Maybe even an Anime Protagonist.

The top right one almost looks like Hiccup from How To Train Your Dragon if you squint. It’ll be a little hard to rate them all as one individual but why not.

Rating: 5/10 I don’t hate them but they aren’t my cup of tea.

AH- IS THAT A FUCKIN GREMLIN?

Oh wait no it isn’t he looks like a 10 year old. Whatever don’t feed him after midnight. The staff’s design of not being shaped like a G is an interesting tidbit but the whole design looks like he’s really young or like a troll etc. This Jack looks like he thinks girls have cooties uses outdated slang.

Rating: 4/10 This is me being generous.

It honestly looks like he hiked his pants up all the way to his chest. A late teen with horrid fashion choices once again. Not many other thoughts here.

Rating: 2/10 Get a sweater on or something.

This is one is very interesting looking to me. His clothes looked a lot more leather based and very human-like. The tatters, tears and frays all make him look like he was a victim of an accident that never changed his clothes. It makes me wonder if this Jack had the same death as the final movie Jack or something else entirely. Either way, this one looks like hes a mid to late teen which really adds to my intrigue.

This was another image that greatly resembled the design so I included it here. It almost looks like his skin is blue here which is pretty neat to me at least. He’s also got leaf motifs here, which from the first Jack design Joyce made, we can see a pattern here.

Rating: 8 /10 I was originally weirded out by his head but now its not so bad.

This Jack is definitely dressed more like a nature boy rather than him having human influenced fashion and it’s an appealing touch. The tiny leaf sprouting from his staff is also kind of cute since the designers seemed to want to put leafs somewhere on his designs. His hairstyle is also very cute but it reminds me of Sasuke Uchiha in a sense. (Not a setback for me at least)

Rating: 7/10 13 year old Jack is going thru a phase.

I thought this Jack didn’t show up again in story boards but I was wrong!

They look a little different from each other but just similar enough to pair together, so bare with me. The first one obviously has looser pants, slightly longer sleeves and got his leaf motif going. This second Jack is a VERY green. It gives the impression that this Jack made his clothes out of plants and natural materials. Again I’m not wholly sure if greens fit his color scheme but they sure went for it for a while. I can’t say I’m a fan of it because it heavily reminds me of Peter Pan.

However a very similar looking Jack could be found in this storyboard. It doesn’t look as green as the other storyboards made it out to be and looks more like dead grass. Which is a pretty nice touch.

Rating: 5/10 I don’t hate it but it just doesn’t vibe yknow.

Speaking of a vibe...hoo this certainly has one. This Jack isn’t old but certainly doesn’t look very young, maybe in the 20-30 range, thats just me. He has facial features that remind me of Pitch but resembles the Jack Frost of Santa Clause 3

That being said, I wondered if him looking similar to Pitch was in the storyline of them being brothers.(Which was a scrapped thing, who knew.) He’s a bit more menacing in this design but certainly seems like he relishes in his work.

Rating: 4/10 I’d make it a lower score but I gotta give it props

NOW THIS JACK IS KINDA INTERESTING. This one looks like he’s 16 and going through a grunge phase. He’s gonna play Nirvana loudly and not turn it down even if you tell him too. His staff itself has mini icicles hanging off of it and leafs look stuck to his shirt. Did you glue or staple those on Jack? His hair also looks much longer than his other designs and I kind of dig it( Shut up I’m bias.) I’m not wholly sure why else this design has stuck with me but it just has something about it that I just love. I wish there was a full body drawing of it.

(He also kinda has the same hair as the Jack Frost in Runescape but I wont go on about that hoo hoo)

Rating: 9/10 *Bad Boy by Cascada plays in the distance*

This one definitely feels like middleschooler trying to be in a band. His sticks just resemble drumsticks to me what can I say. I’m a big fan of his shoes and his color scheme screams a hibernating tree in winter. His hair also looks like it’s covered in frost rather than it being wholly white, which is very neat!! He looks like he wants to fight but has slight hesitance. Overall a very balanced Jack.

Rating: 8/10 He’s ready for band practice

Not many thoughts here, I just found these tiny Jack designs cute. His hoodie being a jacket instead just adds to the charm of this one.

No talk to him he angy.

Rating: 6/10 fun sized boi

Now this Jack resembles the one earlier that dressed entirely in leather brown colors, however he clearly is different than that one. I’m gonna say it, he looks like a zombie or undead in this design and its pretty fucking gnarly. I don’t know whats going on with his hair but I’m gonna assume it’s just the wind making it look like that. He just has the vibe that he was once human but was turned into something else entirely. It isnt in uncanny territory but borders that. This version of Jack meeting Pitch and the others would have been *very* interesting. Rating: 7/10 Eat a twinkie Jack you’ll feel better.

The final design! I can’t complain much about this one. The way his staff subtly has a G shape and a hexagon(his signature shape) is a wonderful touch. Additionally, the way the frost is gathered mostly where his hand is such an intricate detail. His signature hoodie is iconic at this point so I can’t bad mouth that either.(I can’t anyway because there's no complaints from me here.) Although, I never understood the leather straps that his pants had or their functions. I couldn’t find any colonial outfits that resembled Jack’s pants so its a total mystery to me at least.

And I can’t go on about this design until I mention the snowflake pattern in his eyes

Pure beauty. It’s at a hue of blue that almost looks impossible to have, combined with the electric blue color of the snowflake in his eyes. The amount of detail in this movie amazes me to this day. Rating: One Great Blizzard <3/10

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heliads · 4 years ago

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Curiosities

You feel that life can be divided up into a select set of curiosities- rules by which you live and breathe, that explain away everything in your life as a mutant. You’re doing fine until a certain boy named Peter Maximoff throws everything into disarray.

masterlist

If you try hard enough, everything that happens to you can be sorted out into a list of curiosities. You’re not sure how long you’d been thinking about it this way, but it made enough sense if you really thought about it. Your life was different, ever-changing, and if you kept it locked away within the list of curiosities, you could get a handle on it long enough to peek through the chest of memories that would otherwise fly open and swallow you whole.

Curiosity #1: You were a mutant.

This in itself was relatively easy to explain. When you were about ten, maybe twelve, you started to show the first signs of your power. A faint stirring in the shade in the corner of the room, the fact that you were never afraid of the dark. You waved to your shadow with your left hand, it responded by moving the ankle on its right. By the time you were about fourteen, your powers had fully come into being: you were able to control the shadows. You could bring them into existence, spooling black fog around your fingers and forcing it to your will.

Curiosity #2: Even among mutants, you were an outcast.

You had come to Professor Xavier’s school when the building itself was fairly uninhabited. Xavier understood you; but then again, he was able to look past the dark furrow of your brow and into the sunny spaces of your head; he could tell that you didn’t wish to hurt anybody. None of the other students shared that same gift, except perhaps Jean, but she didn’t particularly wish to go probing into your skull.

When the school was still new and lacking in students, you were able to grow and flourish as a mutant. The Professor taught you how to use your powers himself, and you had full reign over the grounds. Then, more students started to appear, and they took up more and more of Xavier’s time. Before long, he barely saw you at all.

The other students didn’t know what to make of you. They could understand mutants with cool, interesting powers, like Storm with her weather manipulation or Mystique with her ability to change forms. Furry, blue teachers were acceptable; you were not. They were afraid of how you could control the shadows, how you seemed part darkness yourself. They drew away from you, huddling in the hallways and not making eye contact when you walked by. Slowly, a hated nickname surfaced: Suffocator. They were terrified that you would reach out a hand, call the darkness to you, make it cover their mouth and nose and choke out all air from their desperate lungs. You hated it, but it didn’t matter. Suffocator you were, and suffocator you would always be.

One night, a few of the mutants your age were bored and wanted to throw a party. Someone, maybe Jubilee, had heard of this thing called a masquerade party on one of her trips to the mall or somewhere outside of the school. She was desperate to try it out, and so Xavier’s School had posters everywhere across campus advertising the party.

When you first heard of it, you weren’t planning on going. Nobody wanted you there, not the girl who lurked in the shadows and didn’t speak to anyone. Then you realized that everyone would be wearing a mask and intentionally disguising their identity- nobody would know who you were. It almost seemed too good to be true.

A few days later, the day of the masquerade party arrived. You had donned a sapphire blue mask, one that shimmered like the lake just outside the school when the sun crossed its waves. The glittering, twinkling sea would hide your face from those who would otherwise distrust you. You had glanced at yourself in the mirror before you went; you did not look like yourself. You smiled in satisfaction, and headed out.

The party was being held in one of the empty halls of the school, and you blended in seamlessly with the other mutants. You talked and laughed with them, and they had no idea that they were speaking with the girl they’d avoided just a few hours earlier. You found yourself smiling and having more fun than you’d had in months.

Then, you became aware of one student heading towards you. Tall, overbearing Natalie: she had always hated you for some unknown reason. She glanced once at the group of friends you were speaking with, then folded her arms across her chest. “Do you know who you’re talking to?” She said, and the group looked from her to you and shook their heads. Natalie donned a gleeful smirk. “That’s Y/N. I’m not sure you really want to be spending that much time with her.”

The group of mutants cast you fearful looks once they realize it’s you, and start to walk away. Natalie is the only one who remains, and she crosses the final few feet to stand in front of you. Her voice comes in a loud hiss that seems to echo around the room. “Suffocator.”

A blur of silver flashes around you, and then a boy suddenly appears in front of you. “Those are strong words for someone who can’t even figure out empathy. I mean, come on- yesterday someone was crying in front of you and it took you half an hour to figure out they were sad.” Natalie draws back, angry. “Rude, Maximoff! Hasn’t Xavier told you not to make fun of people’s powers? Empathy is hard.” The silver-haired boy laughs. “Not making fun of people’s powers? I think you’re the one who needs to work on that, not me.”

Natalie rolls her eyes, trying to hide her annoyance at the fact that she’s losing this argument. “Whatever. I’m bored of this already.” She stomps away to hang out with her other friends, leaving you to stare at the boy who’d suddenly come to your defense. Of all the mutants, why would it be Peter?

Curiosity #3: Peter Maximoff.

Nobody at Xavier’s school trusted you. Nobody, it seemed, except for Peter. Ever since that day, he’d been relentless in his task to befriend you. You’re not sure why- everyone else had given up on you long ago. It’s not like you didn’t want friends, or that you were that strange a person. You were like everyone else: happy, laughing, friendly. It’s just the threat of your powers, so strange and unnatural, that forced everyone else away.

But not him. No, Peter refused to let your powers daunt him in the slightest. He’d be there after class, walking nonchalantly beside you. It didn’t seem like a friendship borne of pity- no, he teased you and made the same jokes as he would with everyone else. He even called you Suffocator once, that dreaded nickname, although it didn’t have that same barb as it did before. Maybe that’s because the other students used it as a knife to stab at you before running away. Instead, Peter tossed it like a paper plane, letting it float through the air as the two of you laughed from a joke. He didn’t want anything more than friendship, and so the two of you hung out after class, fighting mock battles with your powers and enjoying the time to be two simple teenagers in the otherwise strange world of mutants.

Curiosity #4: The quiet.

You’re not sure when you notice the silence at first. It’s just another day, ordinary in its dullness. You’re in the back of the grounds, away from the large groups of people in an attempt to study for a test you have later. You look up, once, fishing for a sticky note to mark the end of the chapter, but your eyes stay searching even after your hands close around the pad of paper.

You can’t hear anything. Well, that’s not entirely true. The birds still chirp, although with odd hesitation, as if afraid to sing too loudly. The wind still rustles the trees, but slowly, as if trying not to be noticed. The everlasting din of the students, though, that is gone. You push your books into your bag, standing up quietly. Even the zip of your backpack seems to echo in the silence.

This is strange. What happened to make the air so tense, the students shut their mouths for once to stand together in quiet? You sling your backpack over your shoulder, heading quickly to the front of the school to see what the fuss (or lack of, rather) is about.

There’s nothing at the front of the school, either. In fact, there aren’t that many people there. The only mutants out are Jean, Peter, Storm, Scott, and Nightcrawler. You watch as Jean presses her fingers to her temples, sending out a message that you only now pick up in your head. Go inside now. Don’t look out. Get the Professor. It echoes on a loop inside your brain, appearing only now that you’re close enough to the sender.

You glance around you, searching for some trouble that would cause Jean to send out such a message. Then, you see it- three large armored trucks headed your way, military logos emblazoned on the sides. This sort of thing happens every few years or so- some military higher-up decides that the mutants are too dangerous to be kept alive, and they attempt to round up everyone at the school. Xavier is usually there to put a stop to it, but today he’s out in some big city doing official business, so he’s not here to protect you. In fact, the only ones here to protect you are yourselves.

You watch as the trucks roll closer. Once they reach the gate, they stop, and soldiers start to stream out of it. Storm shouts over to Jean. “Are we doing anything about this?” Jean nods, her hair flicking out behind her like tongues of flame. “We’re stopping them. They want a fight, I can hear it. That’s just what they’ll get.” She says, and the mutants around her prepare themselves for a battle.

Curiosity #5: You stay to fight.

Why are you still here? Jean told everyone who wasn’t one of Xavier’s hand picked team to go inside, and yet you’re still cracking your knuckles out in front of the school just like everyone else. Maybe it’s because you want a taste for just how much damage your powers can deal out, or maybe it’s because you finally have a chance to prove yourself to be a hero, to fight like the others and make a name for yourself as someone who’s in it to protect the other students, even if they wouldn’t protect her. Regardless of the reason, the outcome stays the same. You’re here to fight.

When the men start running forward, you realize with sickening dread that they’ve brought guns, and dangerous ones at that. You’re not sure why they thought they’d need military grade rifles at a school, but they’re out and loaded nonetheless. They raise them towards you, launching a volley of bullets, but you throw up your arms and a wall of shadow appears in between the mutants and the guns, blocking the bullets and forcing them to the ground.

Jean turns to you, amazed. “Actually, I think it would be better if you stayed with us.” You grin slightly at that, turning your attention back to the soldiers. You and the other mutants fight in unison, powers working together as fluidly as a well oiled machine. You seem to compliment them, understanding their hurried motions as if you’d been working with them your entire life.

Before you know it, the soldiers are hurrying back to the armored trucks, gesturing frantically at the drivers to get them out of here before they are killed by a bunch of kids with magic powers. The mutants look happily amongst yourselves, proud that you’d managed to defend the school against the soldiers. Together, you’d protected everyone here.

The night is starting to grow late, and everyone is out on the grounds in celebration. It’s not everyday that a bunch of teenagers fight back against the military and win, you know. You idle near a group of mutants, red plastic cup in hand just like them. Something feels odd, and it takes you a moment to notice what it is. Nobody’s scared of you. There aren’t any students huddled together, looking at you through nervous eyes that flick away when you catch sight of them. No pointed fingers, no hushed whispers. Maybe you’ve finally been accepted as one of them.

Jean approaches from across the field, stopping at a group of mutants only a few feet away from you. She leans towards Storm, tapping her on the shoulder. “Scott, Peter, Kurt, and I are hanging out in another corner of the woods. You know, victory party and all that? Come with us.” Her voice is a low whisper, but you can’t help smiling at it. You wait for her to nod at you, to ask you the same question, but strangely enough, she just slings an arm around Storm’s shoulder and the two of them walk away into the woods, leaving you behind.

She saw you. You know she saw you- her eyes glanced over you before they left. Her eyes weren’t glinting with hatred, some ill-concealed malice or anything. This wasn’t a plot to intentionally leave you out, she just didn’t see you as someone to invite, even though you’d been a key part of that victory group she seems so keen to celebrate. The realization hits you like a ton of bricks- no matter how hard you try, how many times you fight to protect them, they will never see you as a friend. All because they don’t understand your powers.

Dazedly, you leave the grounds where the rest of the mutants are celebrating. You find some quiet corner of the woods, a place that’s tucked away where nobody will notice you. The ‘victory party’ is on the opposite side of the grounds, so you know that you don’t have to fear anyone accidentally stumbling across you.

You slide to the ground, leaning back against the sturdy trunk of one of the many trees that stand tall and proud around the school’s forest. You cover your face in your hands, feeling all of your emotions finally catch up with you. You wish you could prove yourself in some way, that your powers may physically be dark but that you weren’t a monster, but it doesn’t matter how hard you try. You’ll never be anything more than a villain to them.

Silent tears course down your cheeks. You don’t think you’ve ever felt more alone than this night, even when things seemed impossible. No matter how bad things were before, this night manages to take the cake. There’s a cracking sound behind you, and you wipe your tears away hurriedly as you realize someone’s walking up to you.

“What are you doing all alone? Don’t you know we’re celebrating?” It’s Peter. Of course it is. You turn to face him, hoping the darkness will obscure the puffiness in your eyes. “Guess I was just tired.” You plaster on a smile, praying that he’ll get bored and go rejoin the others, but no such luck. He plops down in the grass next to you, arms stretched back behind him.

“Why aren’t you with Jean and the rest?” He says, and you frown at him. “What do you mean?” You ask. Peter furrows his brow. “You know, the victory party. You were there when the soldiers attacked, and you saved our skins like a dozen times over. Why aren’t you with them?” You look at him, willing him to be observant for just this once. “I just didn’t feel like going.” Peter rolls his eyes. “Oh, come on. Stop being your dramatic little self and just come on. The rest will be happy to see you.”

He extends an arm as if to drag you there himself. You sigh frustratedly. “Fine, Peter. I’m not being dramatic. I know there’s a party, and I also know that they very much do not want me there. I was there when Jean asked Storm to hang out with Scott, Kurt, and the rest. She knew I was there, she saw me, and she didn’t ask the same of me.” Your voice breaks off. “It’s pretty obvious that no one here wants me to be there. Hell, no one here wants me to be at this school at all, and the only one who can’t see that is you.”

Peter’s silent for a second, and you curse inwardly. Now you’ve gone and made Peter, the one person who’s been here for you, feel bad about himself. You wouldn’t be surprised if he just gets up and leaves now. But he doesn’t. In fact, a smile flashes across his face. “That’s because they’re idiots.” You look at him, confused. “What?” He laughs. “They’re idiots, and you’re an idiot for listening to them.”

He gestures absentmindedly at you. “Y/N, you’ve got one of the coolest powers I’ve ever seen, and for what, so you can be sad about it? Are you really telling me you’d rather be an empath than control the shadows? That’s like, the neatest thing ever.” His words, spoken with such conviction, bring a laugh to your face as well. Peter’s eyes light up when he sees it. “See, there you go. Come on, let’s have some fun. We don’t need them if they’re being weird.”

Your laugh dies off quietly as you look back at him. “Why are you doing this? Why are you taking the time to make me feel better? You make fun of your own friends and rob convenience stores when you’re bored. Since when has Quicksilver gone this far out of his way to make somebody laugh?” Peter smiles at you, then leans forward. His lips are on yours, suddenly, his hand gently cupped against your cheek. Just as you’ve realized what’s happening, he’s back in his spot a few feet away again. He smirks at you. “That’s why.”

You laugh in spite of yourself. “That’s why. Well, I guess that’s an acceptable reason.” Peter smiles. “Only acceptable? That’s not the best thing I’ve heard, but I suppose it’ll be okay for now.” He stands up, offering a hand to you. You take it. “So, are you coming with me or not? I intend to cause all sorts of chaos.” You look over at him, laughter dancing in your eyes. “Of course I am.”

Curiosity #6: Peter Maximoff loves you. And you love him.

peter maximoff tag list @amourtentiaa

#peter maximoff #peter maximoff imagine #peter maximoff x reader #peter maximoff imagines #peter maximoff oneshot #quicksilver #quicksilver imagine #quicksilver x reader #quicksilver imagines #quicksilver oneshot #xmen #xmen imagine #xmen x reader #xmen imagines #xmen oneshot #xmen peter maximoff

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caernua · 4 years ago

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omg pls do. girl help we're dying out here

THE LADIES HAVE SPOKEN

huge disclaimer: i am barely qualified to make a tutorial, i have not actually made that many gifs using blending so i don’t know if this is the right way but! it’s giffing! there hardly is a right way and i am simply going through my process.

so i’m just gonna explain how i’m creating his gif:

1. first of all, i made the two primary gifs i was going to use for this:

^this is important. it’s so much easier to make gifs like these when you plan them out according to the scenes you intend to choose. make sure there is room for you to insert the second gif and decide what part of the gif can be covered. i chose this shot of havi cause i mostly wanted her face and her axe to be visible, her armor i can do without! so that was the section i decided to place the second gif.

2. next, i’m adding the second gif to the psd, selecting “add vector mask” below the layers menu, and resizing it, which is much easier to do if you set the opacity lower so that you can get a better idea of what it’s going to look like.

3. TIME TO ERASE! when i start to blend, the first thing i do is get rid of the hard edges. it’s honestly embarrassing how many times i’ve completed a gif like this only to realize i did not... get rid... of the hard edge. as in, the straight line from the second gif was there the whole time! so i just select the default soft brush, about 60%-70% and go in over the edges of the second gif.

4. now, this is my favorite part. the rest of the blending i prefer to do by using art brushes at low opacity (20%-30%), because it gives them a much more textured, artistic look. i use this set of free brushes and i usually don’t use the same ones, but this particular gif was made using the sampled brush 10.

5. you can definitely stop there but i didn’t! o shit let’s add another gif! i just wanted this one to be an overlay of sorts, so i just used a random scenic shot of asgard from the same scene.

6. i added it on top of the other smart objects, set it to screen and left it at 39% opacity. after this i also added the coloring. you can stop here! but i’m just gonna go across the additional steps i went through to make the final product.

6. oh no more gifs!! this is completely unnecessary, but i did not care <3 i wanted there to be some more clouds and lighting in the background (i thought it was gonna be a motiv throughout the gifset. it was not), so i downloaded footage from pexels (you can find good footage there and it’s copyright free so we can all sleep at night <3)

7. again. i added it on top of the smart objects, set it to overlay, 100% opacity.

8. this is completely just a coloring issue and not a blending one, but i didn’t like how dark the clouds in the upper part of the gif were, so i duplicated the layer of the lightning gif, set it to normal, 100% opacity, used a hue/saturation layer to make it more blue and went in an erased most of it so only the upper part was left. i’m guessing this sounds really complicated at this point jgflgf but what i did was just take the clouds from the lightning gif to cover the top of the psd!

some other additions:

step 1 is not always necessary. planning the gifs on a certain layout is very helpful but you can blend two scenes together without organizing it this way.

remember that you can use the brush to restore the layer mask, don’t hesitate to use it if you feel like you’ve erased too much. it’s a lot of trial and error.

it helps every once in a while to check the icon of the layer mask in the layers menu.

it seems insignificant but it can help you spot hard edges or other stuff that might need to be fixed!

this really goes for giffing in general, but don’t hesitate to scrap everything and start from the beginning. if you feel there’s no way to blend two scenes successfully, scrap it and try again, maybe with different scenes, different resolutions, different blending techniques. that’s all ♡♡♡

#this took way longer than expected dfghdfkj g i'm sorry #ps help #there's other content creators here who make crazier shit but i hope i helped a bit ♡♡♡#asks #eivor-basim

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muses-darling · 5 years ago

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Fire & Fury - A Star Wars AU - Ch.5 Indebted

Kit was startled from his meditation as the torpedoes hit. He groggily shook his head clearing it of the sensation before his fingers darted to the buttons, it was no use, there was no getting out of whatever he had gotten into. His eyes looked to the ship that had fired, one of an ominous design. No further time to examine as another shot sent his interceptor spinning and falling to the planet below crashing through the atmosphere and landing with a skid Kit was jostled about.

When he came too his mind raced to take in all of his surroundings. Sith stood at the ready but none made any movements towards him save a pair.

Struggling with the belts of the chair that had become jammed in the crash Kit felt himself in the force being kept from moving by one of them.

The other neared him stopping and taking hold of his face making him look at them. Then the sound of an igniting lightsaber and the restraining belts fell away from him. Darth Ceres sighed using the force to render Kit unconscious as she took him away Darth Lykaios carrying Kit as they swiftly boarded their craft.

________________________________________________________________

Ben lay there now shivering it was cold, how cold he didn’t know but he swore he felt it deep in his bones now as his teeth chattered and his muscles spasmed in an attempt to warm him. A sound of falling rocks jerked his attention to the source. “Harper?”

“BEN!”

“HARPER!”

More rocks scattered and his sister’s face filled the hole illuminated by her lightsaber. “BEN!” She moved into the space crawling in. “Master Crowley in here!”

Crowley joined them using the force to help Ben sit up. “You’ve gotten terribly chilled.” He pulled off his jedi cloak wrapping Ben in it. “Come on let’s get you out of here.”

After much examination and a very long slow trek they made it back to the ship as the light of the morning came. Entering the ship they were greeted by a very sleep deprived Aziraphale who made hot cocoa for Ben.

“What where you thinking wandering so far from the ship?”

“I was gathering the pieces that fell off in our landing when I looked up I was no where near the ship and i got lost.” Ben said over the rim of his cocoa mug.

“Just don’t ever do that again!” Harper said angrily before wrapping her arms around Ben. “I can’t lose you too.” She said into his ear as she held him.

Ben held her close. “Of course not Harper.”

________________________________________________________________

They sat aboard what was clearly a luxury vessel that had been re-purposed into a research vessel. The four of them all sat in chairs not saying anything but neither was their host who stood looking between all of them an almost excited child-like expression on his face as he chewed his thumb thoughtfully.

Alucard was the first to break the silence. “So-”

“You owe me. All of you owe me big, they were going to execute you like criminals the whole lot of you. Foolish, absolutely foolish, trying to pull what you four tried to pull. Such amazing skills and that is all you could come up with?” He shook his head. “Absolutely foolish.”

“Skills like do you have need of these skills?” Layla asked. “I smell a paycheck.”

“By paycheck meaning you get to leave with your lives? Yes.” Grim smiled. “It cost a pretty penny. The one you robbed wanted to make an example of you all and I had to pay him not too.”

“Why?” Nikki asked.

“Yeah I’m with her why?” Layla asked.

“Because I need your skills. and you lot need to pay me back with them.”

“So great we work for you now.” Alucard sighed. “What kind of work is it that you need us to do?”

“I need to get my wife back.”

“Listen buddy we don’t exactly do the whole repairing marriages thing that isn’t our skill set.” Layla frowned.

“Not that kind of ‘get her back’ I’m afraid.” Grim frowned. “She’s been captured you see. I should have been more careful of who I was working with. Next thing I know she’s been captured and sold to the Hutts. You lot are criminals yes? You can blend in, and you can get her out, safe and sound back to me and I will let you go free. Consider what you owe me non existent should you do this for me.”

“If not? I just want to know what you would do.”

"Trade the lot of you for her, apparently you stole from the Hutts and owe them. Thing is they don’t know that yet, unless I allow that information out.” He gestured to the man that Honey had robbed who was clearly yelling profanities from the glass. Grim chuckled. “So as you can see I’m treating you lot better than I treat him. He’s in league with the Hutts so I like him much, much less than the lot of you.”

“Well I say we do it.” Alucard smiled. “Clear our debts and maybe get out of it alive and do a good thing.”

“Yeah, I’m in.”

“Me too.”

“Honey you’ve been strangely quiet” Alucard looked at her.

Honey looked at him. “I agreed before he even told us what he was going to have us do. He’s crazy, I like crazy. Besides you were saying we should try something new. So here is something new.”

“Great!” Grim rubbed his hands together. “August see our guests have everything they need. We reach Nal Hutta in a few hours.”

August smiled. “Great the sooner we rescue my sister the better.”

________________________________________________________________

Hades found his way through the stars back to Korriban, there had to still be some Sith still loyal to him? He landed and smiled as he was greeted by one of the apprentices. “Much has happened.” He informed them. “Make ready our army impostors have come to infiltrate our ranks.”

“The Republic Fleet has been spotted amassing they are likely to mount an attack on us soon. Your presence has been requested for a council meeting.” Darth Ashe informed him ignoring his rather unregal state.

Hades didn’t want to delay in finding Kit but he was unprepared, this battle needed him. The only way to free up the resources needed was to fight as he needed all he could to get his beloved safe, safe from those of Hades’ past that would seek to hurt those closest to himself. Hades entered his quarters taking a moment to appreciate the familiarity and comfort of his personal space. All was organized, neat, and in it’s place. Chaos was all well and good but there was nothing like organization. Organization kept things together, and with organization one could still form chaos. Organized Chaos. Hades thrived on organized chaos. After removing the stench of imprisonment he adorned his armor selecting his armament. Stopping he looked to the old mask he once wore a hand running over it a soft smile on his face before he picked it up holding it to the light then put it on. He had become soft in letting in Kit, he had lost his edge. The man that Kit had fallen in love with was Hades, but Kit didn’t need Hades, Kit needed Ignis. Ignis was just as much Hades as Hades was Ignis. The darkside flowed through him, wrapped him in itself.

Ignis reached out and harnessed it, the rage reheating the dormant fires of his being. Hades was soft and the armor of Ignis would shield him and Kit both. He had lost his way it was time to return to who he was for the love he bore Kit, he just hoped that he wouldn’t be lost in it all. He just needed to wear the mask not fully become the man. He had worked so hard, Kit had helped him there was no need to go back completely. Kit had taught him so much about the part that lay between the two sides of the force the grey middle. He need only step into the darker side of things. Pulling up the hood he looked at himself how long since he had last wore these things? He hardly recognized the masked person that stood in his visage.

Entering the throne room he looked to a familiar face, “Are we all here?”

“Yes.” Darth Ashe nodded looking to the Sith Lords in attendance, it would be a few days time of planning and plotting but soon, soon the Republic would be brought to it’s knees.

“Good, it is time to bring an end to this.” Hades would have smiled but thanks to the mask he didn’t have to pretend joy beyond his voice. If they met on the battlefield he could easily cut the impostors down, end the war and then retire away to a peaceful backwater planet spending the rest of his days with the only one who mattered most to himself. If done correctly they could lead them there and possibly he could end this war. The Impostors would have to obey the order it hopefully would buy time for Kit to stay out of their clutches. For peace to be at long last obtained

________________________________________________________________

The test had come back positive that was all the reassurance that Darth Ceres needed as she looked over the blonde curls the man that lay before her was not too much different from the child so long ago. Those curls had bounced as the child ran up to her holding up a flower slightly crushed in the small hand an offering of love from one so young. Such sweetness would never have lasted so long though. Once he was of age he would have become a sith like his parents. “What further news?”

“They have made a council, to find a way strike the final blow on the Republic.” Lord Lykaios smiled nearing her looking over the boy, their boy.

“Lord Ignis?”

“He arrived on Korriban earlier this morning.”

“Excellent, once the battle has begun we will dispatch of him or better our son will. Either way soon the Empire will be ours, and Lord Ignis dead.”

Kit sat up as he came too. “Ignis!” He gasped.

Ceres smiled as she reached out and brushed a strand from his face. “Cannot hurt you or keep you from me my dearest boy.”

Kit looked to her, “Who?”

“Forgive me,” A terrible tender smile came to her face. Feigned kindness. “My name is Demeter, and Kit I am your Mother.”

#Ch.5 Fire and Fury #SeaCoastCity SWAU #SW:F&F

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gunterfan1992 · 7 years ago

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Episode Review: ‘Come Along with Me’ (S10E13-16)

Airdate: September 3, 2018

Story by: Ashley Burch, Kent Osborne, Adam Muto, Jack Pendarvis, Julia Pott, Pendleton Ward & Steve Wolfhard

Storyboarded by: Tom Herpich, Steve Wolfhard, Seo Kim, Somvilay Xayaphone, Hanna K. Nyström, Aleks Sennwald, Sam Alden & Graham Falk

Directed by: Cole Sanchez & Diana Lafyatis (supervising), Sandra Lee (art)

In August of 2012, I had just moved into a university dormitory to begin my second year as an undergraduate. On one of the last days of the month (the date escapes me), I was relaxing in the hall recreation room with my roommate. To my left sat another friend, watching something intently on his laptop.

His focus was remarkable, and so I was intrigued. “What are you watching?” I asked.

He glanced over and responded, “Adventure Time!”

I’d heard of the show, and seen a few clips. At the time, I was taken aback by its combination of high brow and low brow sensibilities. But I saw how much joy it gave my friend, I put down my guard and decided to give it a watch.

He tilted the screen towards my face, and what was I greeted to? Why a geometric space-god with a flaming blue sword attacking a green individual in a bright yellow jacket. Suddenly, a boy and his dog were in the picture. What was going on?

As it turns out, I was watching season four’s “Sons of Mars”, one of the show’s wackiest episodes. In time, I was enthralled by the bright colors and the silly jokes. There was Abraham Lincoln. There was death. By the end of it, I was won over.

I still think fondly of that day (as readers of this blog might be able to attest), for it was then that I was introduced to my favorite show, Adventure Time.

For years, it seemed like Adventure Time was just an omnipresent facet of popular culture. From t-shirts to Happy Meal toys, Finn and Jake were everyone, blending into what Marshall McLuhan would call the “beaten paths of impercience.” When we all learned that the show was ending in late 2016, it was sad, but because there were dozens of episodes left to air, this reality never really hit me.

But this week, it finally hit me. The end was nigh.

At 5 pm today, I sat nervously on my couch as the intro started, and we were off to the races.

The episode opens 1000 years after the lives of Finn and Jake. We are greeted to two new heroes: Shermy (voiced by Sean Giambrone) and Beth (voiced by Willows Smith). The two are heavily implied to be Finn and Jake reincarnated, and the latter is likely a descendant of Jake himself. After an encounter with the Prizeball Guardian (last seen in “Grabyles 1000+”), the two discover Finn’s robot-arm. They decide to journey to Mount Cragdor (where the Enchiridion was once kept) to find the all-knowing King of Ooo.

Once our new heroes make the journey and reach the top of the mountain, we the audience learn that the King of Ooo is not our favorite charlatan, but rather BMO. After Shermy and Beth present our little robot with Finn’s arm, BMO begins to tell the story of the “Great Gum War”:

1000 years prior (that is, during the show’s normal timeline), Princess Bubblegum and her Uncle Gumbald had each amassed armies to take one another down. Just before the battles are to commence, Finn devises a plan to stop any blood shed: He calls one last meeting between the Candy Kingdom and Gumbaldia, and then, using the magic, nightmare-inducing potion given to him by Nightmare Princesss in “Orb”, he knocks everyone into a subconscious world, where he hopes that they will make nice.

Everything goes a bit haywire, but in the end, Bubblegum and Gumbald realize that their is no real reason for them to fight one another: they each want different things, and are rightfully ticked off at one another, but through dialogue they can likely work things out. Finn and Fern, too, realize that they share the exact same fears that they have locked in their collective “Vault”. Putting aside their differences, they team up and kill the grass-curse spider that has held Fern a prisoner for so long.

At this point, our heroes (and villains) wake up and decide to make amends. Gumbald, however, is tripped by Aunt Lolly, and after being splashed with dum-dum juice, reverts back to Punchy. Lolly, however, vows to maintain the peace with the Candy Kingdom.

Just then, King Man crashes out of the sky and reveals that he, Betty, and an unconscious Maja donked up in a major way. He and Betty were trying to use magic to summon the primordial space demon/god Golb so as to undo the magic of the Ice King’s crown. However, their magic was too effective, and they accidentally summoned Golb to this plane of existence.

Golb begins to use his chaos magic, mutating candy kingdom and Gumbaldia citizens alike into grotesque monsters. Ice King is summoned by King Man and told to try and stop Betty from completing her ritual, but in the commotion (which sees Maja literally explode) they, along with Finn, are accidentally swallowed by Golb, where they start to get digested.

Things start to go downhill fast. Golb’s monsters are extremely effectively, and decimate Bubblegum’s forces and those of her ragtag allies. As Bubblegum is standing on a rock, one of the Golb-monsters lunges at her and seemingly crushes her!

Marceline turns around and seeing the death of her past paramour, loses it. Unleashing both the beast and magic girl inside her, our favorite vampire turns into the Dark Cloud, last seen in Stakes and absolutely wails on the Golb-monster, tearing it to bits. She is absolutely furious that her best friend has been smooshed.

But luckily, it turns out that Bubblegum’s advanced battle armor had a handy shield, and she was saved from any danger. Marceline is overjoyed, and flies into the candy monarch’s armies, weeping tears of joy. The two hug.

And then comes the Bubbline kiss.

As Marceline and Bubblegum were holding each other close after the latter was very nearly squished, I knew it was now or never.

I was on the edge of my seat, as a tearful Marceline tells PB: “Even back when we weren’t talking, I was so afraid that something bad would happen to you and I wouldn’t be there to protect you and... I don’t want to lose you again!”

There’s some cute back and forth, and then the two quietly, effortlessly kiss.

The debate online as to whether or not the two were in a relationship has raged on- and offline since “What Was Missing” first aired years ago. As the two’s friendship evolved over the years, I came to believe that a romantic relationship was the next logical step for both the characters and the show itself to explore. Marceline and Bubblegum are unique in that they are two strong, intelligent, and emotionally complex female characters who often spend time exclusively with each other; the two ace the Bechdel test, a fairly rare occurrence in modern media.

It’s a bummer that the show waited until the very end of the series to canonize their relationship, but perhaps that makes it all the more rewarding? We have worked towards this culmination, and now we have a fully-acknowledged lesbian relationship between two major cartoon characters! How ground-breaking! Furthermore, regardless of when this canonization happened, the confirmation that Marceline and Bubblegum are “more than just friends” will inevitably help to undo some of the erasure that queer communities have faced since the dawn of media (if not time).

To sum up my feelings, let me just leave you with a (heavily) modified quote from Virginia Woolf:

“‘Marceline liked Bubblegum...’ Do not start. Do not blush. Let us admit in the privacy of our own society that these things sometimes happen. Sometimes half-demon vampires do like sentient pieces of Bubblegum.”

(Of course, I am curious as to what their future holds. We seem them together snuggling in the epilogue, but they are not around one thousand years in the future. This is, honestly, the biggest question that will bug me about the finale!)

Despite taking a literal pounding from Marceline, Golb’s evil creatures pull themselves back together and march towards the Tree Fort. Jake gives chase, but is not able to reach them in time: they smash Finn and Jake’s beloved home, and seriously injure poor BMO.

Jake is beside himself! His house is gone! But then, BMO comes over to him, and lovingly calms him down. BMO points out that Finn and Jake have long been a parent to the little robot, and now it is time for BMO to be the parent. And then, BMO begins to sing a tune “for his son Jake”, entitled “Time Adventure”.

"Time Adventure", written by storyboard artist extraordinaire Rebecca Sugar herself, encapsulates the best of the series: it's sad but uplifting. Melodic but rough-around-the-edges. It celebrates the wonders of life while also admitting that we can't really see all there is to it. Some people online criticized it for being too obvious (yes, the song’s title is just a flipping of the show's title), but in some way, I find that it's the most poetic and philosophical thing that its ever done.

When I was 11, I had my first real panic attack. I was out with my family when I was struck by a thought that has not left my head since: I'm going to die. Not that I can die, or that death might hurt. No. I am going. to. die; presumably, my consciousness will disconnect and I will not exist. I want to believe in an afterlife, but it’s an idea that seems oh so very hard to accept when faced with what we know about nature (but that’s a whole ‘nother discussion). These revelations horrified me, and it has taken years to really process what death actually means—and I’m still not there. None of us really are.

But as I’ve aged, I've been comforted by some rather Stoic ideas, like the idea that what will be will be and we should not stress about things that we simply cannot change. I also like the idea that we are all part of the cosmos, and while we will die, we don’t cease to exist: we just merge back into where we came from.

These musings are adjacent to another comforting idea: the fourth-dimensional view of time that BMO sings about:

Time is an illusion That helps things make sense So we're always living In the present tense ... Singing, will happen Happening happened [...] And will happen Again and again 'Cause you and I will always be back then

It’s true. Perhaps my “arrow-of-time consciousness” will be blasted into nothingness once I die, but I’m not ceasing to be. I eternally am. What happened is happening will happen. “Time is an illusion/That helps things make sense.” While this idea might not extinguish a fear of death, it’s a nice thought. And just like Adventure Time, when you combine enough nice thoughts, you often get something beautiful.

And beauty is all that was really needed for our heroes. It turns out that Golb is a creature of chaos, meaning that the only weapon that the citizens of Ooo can effectively use is concordance—harmony in music. It might seem a little silly that “beating the baddie with music” is how Golb’s minions are defeated, but considering the sort of magical role that music has played in the show, it’s not too much of the stretch. It also remains me of how the show used (and subverted) “defeating a baddie with heart” to great effect did in Stakes.

BMO (who hilariously declares, “My art is a weapon!”) is joined by Marceline and Bubblegum, and soon by Jake and the rest of the crew. Their combined harmonizing weakens Golb, allowing Finn and Simon to escape from his belly. However, Betty decides to remain behind. She realizes that the singing has also reset the ice crown’s phantasmal magic. Putting it on, she wishes for the power to ensure Simon’s safety, which entails her transforming (in a stunning sequence that IndieWire writer Eric Kohn refers to as “straight out of Don Hertzfeldt”) into Golb him(her?)self. Golb promptly leaves this reality, dropping the crown onto the ground. Gunter grabs it, and—despite Jake’s warnings that the naughty penguin will wish to become Orgalorg once again—Gunter merely wishes to turn into the Ice King (or, “Ice Thing”).

Finn and Jake return to the ruins of their tree fort, where they plant Fern’s seed. A new tree immediately sprouts from the ground, with the Finnsword embedded within it. Bubblegum arrives on the scene and thanks Finn for directly disobeying her. She gives him an appreciative kiss on the cheek and then muses that he is getting taller.

We cut back to Ooo 1000+, where BMO wraps up the story. Shermy and Beth still have questions (just like the audience!) about ‘Phil’ and Jake, and Marceline and Bubblegum. BMO shrugs these questions off, saying, “You know, they kept living their lives.”

Shermy and Beth set out to find the “Ferntree” to verify BMO’s story; they eventually realize that the large tree reaching up to the heavens near their stomping grounds is almost certainly it.

We cut back to Finn and Jake, who are sitting around the Music Hole from the episode of the same name. The hole tells our heroes that she has a new song for them, and she begins to sing “Come Along with Me” (which every Adventure Time fan knows is the show’s closing number).

While the Music Hole sings, we see Shermy and Beth climb to the top of the tree. We are also greeted to a montage of what happened to all our friends in Ooo:

Lumpy Space Princess is crowned a bonafide princess (or perhaps even a queen)

Ice Thing and Turtle Princess get married

TV becomes a private detection (just like his grandparents!)

Sweet Pea graduates from school and eventually becomes a super-huge hero, who carries Finn's Nightosphere-sword

Aunt Lolly and Bubblegum seemingly make up and learn to love each other as family members

Lemongrab gets one of Jermaine’s paintings to hang above his bed, which brings him peace

BMO blasts Moe's harddrive into space with the help of Banana Man

Flame Princess and NETPR get popular and perform at Hamburger Hills Cemetery to a huge crowd

Magic Man is the happy King of Mars

Simon spends quality time with Marceline and Bubblegum, and seems to try and summon Betty back using Prismo’s wish magic (sadly, it doesn’t work)

Marceline and Bubblegum, meanwhile, are shown snuggling on the couch in the former’s house; it is implied that they are raising Peppermint Butler, who once again is showing an interest in the dark arts

Humans return to Ooo, and Finn is likely reunited with his (digital mother)

We also see what the Jiggler, Tiffany, the Crabbit, Susan Strong/Kara and Freida, the Candy Kingdom citizens, Tree Trunks and Lemonhope are up to

The episode ends with Shermy and Beth finding the Finnsword in the Ferntree. After Beth pulls the sword from the (metaphorical) stone, Shermy holds it up, just like the show’s title card.

So now let’s talk about what worked and what didn’t. The last half of the finale, if I do say so, was wonderful. Nothing to complain about here: we got arc resolutions, emotionally touching moments, and a nice sense of closure. In regards to this latter point, I specifically like how the show gave use an ending but emphasized that this finale was not really the full-stop end of the characters that we know and love—it was just the end of the story that we’re privy to. As BMO says, everyone kept living their lives and the world kept on spinning. That’s a very nice way to end a show like this, and it feeds into the existential ideals of Adventure Time: there is no grand, overarching story that has to have some big punctuation at the end. Finn and Jake are heroes, but long after they’re gone, the world will still be here, and there will be other great heroes to take their place.

With all this said, I must admit that the finale’s first half is something of a missed opportunity. Opening with Shermy and Beth was a totally inspired move (and the new intro is gorgeously animated, courtesy of Science SARU Studios), but I believe the show lingered on their introduction for just a little too long. Likewise, the weird trippy nightmare portion of the finale was about 15 minutes too long. We did not really need 1/4 of the episode to be devoted to wacky dream imagery that both “King Worm” and “Orb” did more effectively. And given that the show chose to linger on these sections—sections that, in the grand scheme of things, are not super essential—the final portions of the episode came across as a bit rushed. The storylines are all satisfying, but it would’ve been nice if we had gotten a little bit more focus on Betty, Simon, and Finn, or Simon and Marceline, rather than Bubblegum and Gumbald’s wacky nightmares.

And speaking of Gumbald, his ending was a total cop-out. I’m not too torn up about this, given that he was never the main baddie in this episode (that was Golb), but his deciding to make peace and then accidentally reverting to Punchy was contrived and anticlimactic. To go back to a criticism I had of “Gumbaldia”, if the show had been given just a little more time to flesh his character and motivations out, I think his role in the finale would’ve been much better served.

But like I said, I wasn’t too torn up about this, because the main focus of this episode was on Golb and the horrors that such a being could unleash upon Ooo. And the show did this wonderfully. Indeed, it was quite exciting that the show finally had a villain that Finn couldn’t just punch a lot until it died (remember, he beat the Lich this way). Golb was, arguably, invincible. It was only the extremely broken magic of the ice crown could do anything.

Speaking of satisfying, “Come Along With Me” also gives Fern an excellent conclusion. The poor grass-doppelgänger was never evil, just confused. By finally coming to terms with his existential crisis of a life, he and Finn were able to patch things up. Sadly, this came at the expense of his dying (the scene in which Finn and Fern kill the grass-curse spider was quite fun). But even in death, there is life, and Fern’s demise allows a new tree to replace the old tree fort. How sweet is that?

Finn coming to terms with his disability was also a nice touch. As I mentioned in my review of Islands, Adventure Time seems to have a somewhat pessimistic view of technology. With this episode, Finn loses his robot arm once and for all, and instead of having PB build him a new one or dabbling in arm-magicks, he decides to let it all be. This is a very important lesson for the show to emphasize. Finn is still Finn with or without his arm. By constantly trying to ‘fix’ himself, Finn was trying to fill a hole that didn’t need to be filled. After experiencing all this Golb biz, it seems that Finn has come to terms with his essence and who he is as a person. And arm or no arm, he is still Finn.

But as satisfying as I found the episode to be overall, I still have some lingering questions! What happened to the Candy Kingdom that resulted in it getting totally razed in the future? Why was the Prizeball Guardian built? What happened to Marceline and Bubblegum, given that they, in their own ways, can evade death in various ways? These of course are questions that will likely never be answered, and they certainly can be filled in in the minds of fans, but these quandaries are probably going to bother me for awhile! (Heck, I just want to know what Marceline and Bubblegum’s future looks like: I don’t really care too much about that other jazz!)

As I write this, I’m both happy and heartbroken: I’m happy because my favorite show of all time has just aired perhaps the most satisfying finale that I have ever seen. I’m heartbroken because the story is now over.

But hold on.

Like BMO and Co. sing in “Time Adventure”, just because the story is over from my point of view does not mean it has slipped away into the ether of oblivion.

It’s comforting to think that in the fourth-dimensional view of existence, I still am in that rec room with my friends, watching “Sons of Mars” for the first time. In a way, I’m eternally laughing and smiling at the jokes. I’m eternally still realizing what a wonderful program Adventure Time really is.

And in that way, it’s true what they say: the fun will never end.

Final Grade:

Season Grade: Were this a standard season, I would probably have been a little harder on it. The Gum War, having been developed two or so episodes, really came out of nowhere and needed more time to be properly developed. It also seems a little odd that the series finale is at least partially focused on an antagonist who was only introduced this season. But these issues were not the fault of the production staff; they were problems with the show being cancelled by the network and the staff having to tidy-up everything before it was all over. Muto et al. honestly did the best they can with the hands they were dealt. And make no mistake, the result is pretty good, even if things are rushed. Yes, there is a lot to love about season 10. It’s got humor and heart, action and adventure, and plenty of romance! It’s not my favorite season by any means (that’s a tie between season 4 and 7), but its episodes are definitely in the upper-tier of the series, as far as quality goes.

Series Grade: Do I even need to say this?

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icameheretowinry · 7 years ago

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FMA Live Action Review

As promised!

Hey there! As I’m sure with everyone else in this crazy fandom, I recently watched the Fullmetal Alchemist live action film that premiered on Netflix last week; albeit after waiting two hours for it to download over shoddy hotel wifi so I could experience it offline in the back of a car on a twisty mountain road. Long story… *ahem* Anyway, since I heard that there would be a live action adaptation last year, I’ve been rightly freaking out to see it, so you best believe I took my time, and watched this film like a hawk (see what I did there??) XD Below the cut you’ll find my reviews of characterizations, plot, costumes, cinematography, CGI, music, and a couple of other things I found interesting, or particularly enjoyed. Please keep in mind that I’m not a film critic, but I just wanted to share my observations. I hope you enjoy! Feel free to comment as well! This is LONG btw heh :D

Characterizations:

Edward Elric (Ryôsuke Yamada)

All in all, I found live action Ed’s character to be one of the best in the entire film. Yamada’s interpretation of our favorite angry red bean captured some of the best nuances of Ed’s character. His passion for their quest, sadness, regret, anger, and occasional goofiness were all there. He didn’t just look like Ed, he more or less acted like him too. Yamada’s Ed was emotionally reactive when the situation demanded it (his horrified reaction to Nina being one of the best instances - don’t worry, I’ll be spending time on that arc a bit later on), yet the viewer didn’t lose out on his tender smiles to Winry, or his immense respect for Hughes. While live action Ed’s open displays of sadness, which often had him on the verge of tears or actually crying, were a huge departure from Brotherhood and manga Ed, they felt appropriate within the shortened time frame of the film, and in response to modifications made to canon plot. However, while I did enjoy live action Ed’s character as a whole, he was not without significant flaws. His frenzy of seemingly uncontrollable anger after Al accuses him of fabricating his memories, his over-the top-horrified yelling when learning the main ingredient for philosophers’ stones, and near helplessness when confronted with a roadblock in their quest all felt very out of place. Well, not so much out of place as immature, which gave me serious fma03 vibes.

Alphonse Elric (Atom Mizuishi)

I’ll be talking strictly about live action Al’s character in this section. Comments on his CGI armor will come later. For starters, the biggest flaw in Al’s character was his very limited screen time. While this was. I’m assuming, most likely due to the difficulty in animating his armor, for a story that centers on the quest of two brothers, Al came across more as a background character than a true protagonist. In the few scenes we see a lot of him, Mizuishi did a brilliant job of letting his personality shine through. We see his passion for alchemy when he gets carried away trying to explain it to the citizens of Liore. We see his kind and gentle nature during his interactions with Nina. We see his frustration when he accuses Ed of fabricating his memories (although the rest of that scene was one of the most poorly done in the film - I’ll be touching on that later.) We even get to see some of that sassy nature we all know and love when he asks if his body is taller than Ed. It’s a huge shame we didn’t get to see more of that.

Winry Rockbell (Tsubasa Honda)

As the character I relate to most to in the entire series, I was incredibly excited to see how Winry’s big and dynamic personality would play out in a live action film. As much as it pains me to say, I was thoroughly disappointed. Honda’s renditions of Winry’s impassioned outbursts felt overdone and awkward. The flexibility of imagery in the animated series and manga (such as the running gag of her hitting Ed over the head with a wrench) don’t translate in a live action environment. Without that additional comedic heft, Honda’s Winry came across as obnoxious. Even her tearful lamentations to Al about how much Ed cared about him seemed childish and forced. A majority of her screen time was spent as Ed’s side kick, or as a hostage at the end of film. Hell, the only indication that she’s Ed’s automail mechanic (other than it being said) is prancing around with a toolbox, and dinging up Al with a comically giant wrench. (Which why on earth was she bringing that to Lab 5 in the first place???) Also, Netflix translated her line at the end of the Marcoh arc as, “I’ll clean up the mess.” GURL THAT MESS IS A HUMAN BEING. To abandon all formality, just uuuugggghhhh. The only moment I truly loved her character was when she was on the train alone with Ed before they found Marcoh. That’s the Winry I know, and I wish I could’ve seen more of her.

Roy Mustang (Dean Fujioka)

Live action Roy, let’s be real, is everything I’ve dreamed of. While at times, he’s a bit of an ass, Fujioka does an unbelievable job of beautifully delivering many aspects of his character. It’s obvious that he respects and cares for Ed, especially during the aftermath of the Nina arc. He also trusts Ed enough to go after Envy, and doesn’t give him shit for swooping in to save his ass from Lust. He pushes himself to the limit for those he cares about, even taking a hit from Lust for Riza, and is hellbent on avenging the death of his best friend. Like Ed, he’s emotionally reactive when the situation presents itself, and his ruthlessness is unwavering, and amazing to watch. While I felt that some of the condensation of plot hurt the development of some characters, this doesn’t seem to apply as much to Roy. He was vulnerable, caring, angry, vengeful, and collected all at once. It was beautiful!

Riza Hawkeye (Misako Renbutsu)

Sadly, Riza’s character was another major disappointment. I don’t recall her saying more than two full sentences until she told Ed of Hughes’ murder over halfway through the film despite appearing with Roy in the first fifteen minutes. While he carries on full conversations with other characters, she may as well have blended into the wallpaper. I didn’t even really see glimpses of the badass sharpshooter until the last half hour. Outside the numerous Royai moments, which I will discuss later, that one scene of her directing the assault on the puppet soldiers did a pretty damn good job of redeeming her character in my eyes more so than Winry’s one solid scene. When Renbutsu’s Riza actually had lines and something to do, she was utterly on point and badass. Bottom line, I wanted MORE.

Maes Hughes (Ryûta Satô)

Next to Lust, live action Hughes was one of my favorites in the entire film. Did I need to see more of this man? YES. Did I need to see him die for the fourth time? GOOD LORD NO. From the first moment he comes bursting into Mustang’s office saying, “Yo!” and saluting, I was d o n e. His care and respect for Ed, Al, Winry, and of course, Gracia is beautiful (he also ships edwin just so ya know.) While Satô truely does an exemplarily job of portraying Hughes’ character, I will thank the plot of this film for giving me more things to cry about. Hughes openly involving himself in Ed’s research, his conversation with Mustang in the garden, and *sighes* t h a t s c e n e. Just Envy appearing as Roy by the phone booth, turning into Gracia to stop his attack, and them back to Roy to kill him. His BEST FRIEND seeming to kill him. AND THIS IS IN TWO DIFFERENT SCENES. But what really got to me was that unlike the manga/Brotherhood, Roy and Hughes spoke while he was dying. Roy knew what was going on, and could only listen, and then, he was accused of carrying it out himself. My angsty heart thanks the creators.

Gracia Hughes (Natsuki Harada)

While she only had a few lines, Harada’s Gracia was sweet, caring, and perfectly in character. The absence of Elicia was disappointing, but the fact that she was expecting a child made Hughes’ death just as tragic. Also, you could totally tell that when Ed and Winry were over for dinner that she shipped it!

Shou Tucker (Yô Ôizumi)

My basic reaction to live action Tucker was, “Thanks. I hate it.” Ôzumi’s interpretation of the worst human ever was a morbid delight. The sadist monster thinly veiled by an awkwardly brilliant researcher and single father was incredible. Of the diverse cast of villains in the film, he proved to be vastly more interesting and dynamic than General Hakuro could ever be. From taking Barry’s place in canon to put the idea into Al’s head that he was artificial, to figuring out how to activate and use philosophers’ stones, this is the most horrifying rendition of Tucker yet, even giving cimera!Tucker a run for his money. To top it off, his desire to crush the Elric’s dreams of ever getting their bodies back has no grounding in reality, other than for his own entertainment. As in canon, his demise was gruesome, rightly deserved, and satisfying to watch.

Nina Tucker & Alexander

I’m grouping these two together because… well… I’M SORRY OK. Anyway, the little girl who played Nina and the very floofy Alexander gave us all the ingredients to once again fall into the deepest pit of despair at the end of their arc. We got Alexander jumping on Ed. We got Nina happily playing for the first time in ages and admitting so to Al and Winry. We even got her being supportive of her father is the sweetest little conversation ever. And then… I wanted to chuck my phone out the window.

Lust (Yasuko Matuyuki)

You’re not going to believe me, but live action Lust was my favorite character in the entire film. I don’t know if it was the graceful way she carried herself, the sultry nature beautifully entwined in her dialogue, or the look of bliss on her face as she was being consumed by flame, but sweet jesus, it was PERFECT. Of all the characters in this film, she was the only one that felt as though she was plucked straight from the manga. Matuyuki did her research, because I was more than blown away by her rendition of Lust. In role that threatened flatness due to the even nature of the character’s personality, Matuyuki let viewers both fear her as a villain, yet fall in love with her at the same time. Just BRAVO.

Envy (Kanata Hongô)

Can I say enough good things about the live action homunculi? Hongô’s take on Envy was spectacular! They’re snarky attitude, disdain of humans, and cunning personality were all there. Although we missed seeing our favorite full-scale garbage lizard, little was left out. However, the character truly suffered due to plot changes. My biggest complaint was that they die without revealing they killed Hughes, or admitting their jealously of humans. Had Hongô had the time frame to do those scenes, we would’ve really been in for a treat!

Gluttony (Shinji Uchiyama)

Uchiyama’s representation of Gluttony, like the other homunculi in the film, was fantastic. His baby-like appearence, clipped sentences, and lumbering gait were all spot on. While I had a good laugh watching him waddle after Amestrian soldiers with an obviously fake set of teeth strapped to himself, his performance was rightly terrifying, as it should’ve been.

Dr. Marcoh (Jun Kunimura)

Despite largely being a character of convenience in the film, live action Marcoh garnered a lot of sympathy from me in the few minutes he was on screen. We saw a man paranoid and terrified of being used, yet still attempting to do good by running a local hospital under an assumed name (although not a very good one lmao). His warning to Ed about the nature of the philosopher’s stone felt genuine, and his quickly manifested respect for Ed during their conversation never felt forced. His ensuing change of heart in providing information on Lab 5 was also appropriate. Despite being on screen for less than fifteen minutes, his death was sudden, tragic, and heartbreaking.

Father Cornello (Kenjirô Ishimaru)

Live action Cornello, like Trisha Elric, was a minor role that was successful in how close it stuck to canon. While the manner in which his fraudulent teachings were exposed was different, his open disdain for the Elric brothers, thirst for power, and generally unsavory personality were faithfully represented by Ishimaru. He met the same gruesome end, and his downfall was just as satisfying to watch as in the manga and animated series.

Maria Ross (Natsuna Watanabe)

While her role was relatively minor, Watanabe’s Ross was pretty solid. Her insights into the Hughes’ and Ed’s research of Lab 5 were insightful, and I adored that Hughes referred to her as a good friend. There needs to be more fanfiction of that people! Additionally, her transition from Ross to Envy’s character was subtle and unnerving. While I was slightly disappointed to see “her” role as Hughes’ shooter taken away, the fact that we still had an scene with Envy as her was awesome.

Trisha Elric & Young Elric brothers

For the .2 seconds Trisha was on screen, she seemed to perfectly personify her canon counterpart. Even the Anime Mom Hair™ was on point. That’s really all there is to say. On the other hand, the boys who played little Al and Ed did a spectacular job! Their sadness, determination, and child-like innocence were spot on, as well as their sibling dynamic. Little Ed took the leadership role, and calmed Al when he had doubts. Also, the raw emotion they were able to summon during the human transmutation scene was downright incredible for actors so young, especially when the bulk of that scene relied on CGI.

General Hakuro/Halcrow (Fumiyo Kohinata)

To be honest, I didn’t even remember that Hakuro/Halcrow was a canon character. Upon further research, he played a minor role in Brotherhood/manga, and a slightly less minor role in fma03. He was never a villain, but simply a superior officer jealous of Roy Mustang’s rapid ascent to power in the military following the Ishvalan war. Don’t get me wrong, I am ALL FOR taking minor characters with unverified pasts and giving them a larger role. While this film does really throw canon out the window (which I will also discuss later), shoving a sniveling rival of Mustang’s into the villain seat felt like a copout. In a canon universe known for its dynamic and interesting villains, Hakuro’s appearances were painfully convenient. Surprise! I’m going to ask Mustang to introduce the Elric’s to Tucker. Surprise! I walk in just as Ross and Hughes as researching Lab 5 and the philosopher’s stone. Surprise! I’m actually the puppet master and will TAKE OVER THE WORLD. Please. He’s like a goddamn Disney villain, except to the undead, a nice snack.

Plot:

I’m just going to come right out and say that I honestly had more issues with character representation in the film, than I did with changes to plot. I really struggled with the adjustments during the first hour of the film, but once I gave in and just accepted that canon was more or less going to be thrown out the window, I finally started to enjoy myself. Below, instead of going over the plot as a whole (I’ve already burned enough ink on this review as it is, so to speak), I’m going to touch on a few plot points I particularly loved, and other that that should’ve been left on the metaphorical cutting room floor. *cracks knuckles* Let’s do this!

Plot Points I Enjoyed

The first real dialogue between Ed and Roy in his office after the Liore incident was damn solid. It had all the element fans could wish for: Ed’s nearly unbridled passion for getting Al’s body back (SO in character), Roy’s cold demeanor, yet obvious concern for their safety, and finally, the grand entrance of Maes Hughes yelling “Yo!” with a his ridiculous salute that filled my heart with rainbows and added ten years onto my lifespan.

That little moment where Hughes and Garcia were just as big of EdWin shippers are you are. ;)

Like I’ve mentioned before, the conversation between Ed and Winry on the train to find Marcoh was my singular favorite moment of her. Winry was so sweet, adorable, and genuinely supportive of Ed, and his smiles towards her made me blush on her behalf. Just letting their two personalties and pasts bounces off each other in that scene worked perfectly.

ROY TAKING THE HIT FOR RIZA????

RIZA HOLDING ROY UP IN LAB 5????

RIZA LOOKING ALL CONCERNED DOWN AT HER BLOODY HANDS AND THINKING OF ROY DURING THE ASSULT ON THE PUPPET SOLDIERS???

HER SPRINTING AWAY TO SEE IF HE WAS OK???

*ahem* I will also arguably say that Hughes’ death scene was much more tragic in the live action than the other three (why tho) versions of this scene. Make Roy the shooter?? Broke my damn heart into a million pieces, but effective and perfect for my angsty heart?? YES.

Lust’s death scene was beautifully animated. Actually, every scene with her was excellent. Her ruthless, nonchalant attitude was incredible.

Ed’s conversation with Marcoh was ripped straight from the manga I noticed. I’m sincerely glad that some moments weren’t messed with. The little tidbits of powerful, straight-up canon are what held this film together. SPEAKING OF…

I’m not going to lie and say that the best scene in the movie was the reveal of Nina’s fate. It was perfectly dark, stuck to canon, and the emotion was raw and real. Although chimera!Nina’s CGI was a bit iffy, the voice acting ended me. Plus, the additional emotional turmoil Al was going through with Tucker’s claim that his memories were fabricated, plus Ed just having just witnessed the death of Marcoh made this moment a triple whammy in the feels department. Who knew the series could get darker? I LOVED it.

Plot Points I Didn’t Enjoy

In general, I didn’t like how the characters were aged up. The time gap between the Elric’s as little kids trying human transmutation and their current quest feel like too much of a massive time gap. I wish they would’ve honestly used younger actors.

What was with the entire Elric house being ripped apart in an electrical tornado when they tried human transmutation? I know they don’t show them burning down their house, but that was a bit much in the drama department.

Why is Hughes a captain??? It really doesn’t make much sense that he was demoted for the movie.

The award for second worst moment in the movie goes to the scene where Ed faces Truth for the first time and loses his limbs. Why is it a dream sequence? Why is he an adult? I get that that would be a very emotionally raw scene for the young actors to play, but I think it would’ve been incredibly more effective, such as in Brotherhood, to watch. If they couldn’t participate, it honestly would’ve been better to give an explanation and leave the scene out entirely (even though I adored Truth’s performance in that scene).

The biggest offender in this film that legitimately made me cringe, was the scene with the Golden Trio in what they thought was Lab 5. Why was Winry there? Why did Ed throw a complete temper tantrum that lead to him destroying his left hand on Al’s armor? WHERE DID SHE GET THAT GIGANTIC WRENCH??? XD That scene was an absolute train wreck. Ed and Al were being stupidly selfish and immature, Winry was randomly there and beating Al up with this stupidly large wrench and then crying. I cried too wondering where the wheels fell off the wagon…

Costumes:

Like I am no film critic, my knowledge of fashion and costume design is limited, but I couldn’t resist commenting on this aspect of the film. One word: AMAZING. I can’t say enough good things. The Amestrian uniforms were well done, as well as appeared easy to move in. For example, the scene where Riza took off running to find Roy near the end of the film exhibited this perfectly. Dramatic, but functional. I dig it! Winry’s yellow sundress was also a highlight for me, especially during the lighthearted EdWin scene on the train on their way to find Marcoh. In Brotherhood, her fashion choices were a bit on the somber side, so seeing her in bright, warm colors really reflected the kind nature of her character. Finally, I actually loved Ed’s outfit? By some fashion miracle, he actually looked pretty damn cool. I remember a post where someone likened his fashion sense to someone who robbed Hot Topic in the dark. Not here, my friends. Not here. Who doesn’t want that black jacket of his? Let’s be real. Also, bonus points for putting baby Ed in red at the beginning of the film!

CGI:

While I remember lots of fans being concerned over the quality of the CGI in the live action, I must say that I was quite impressed! The time, effort, and budget really paid off. While some of the sequences felt a bit video game-y (read: the chimeras Cornello summons at the beginning of the film and the rendition of chimera!Nina), the alchemy animations felt on par with the nature of the story. While the massive stone pillars and human transmutation scene in Lab 5 were impressive, one of my favorite moments was when Ed used alchemy to quickly fix his clothes after the chimera attack in Liore. After the dramatic reveal of Ed’s automail limbs, the action was incredibly subtle, but beautifully animated. Now, don’t even get me started on Al’s armor! As I mentioned before, it was a shame that we didn’t see more of him on screen, but when he was there, the CGI was a pleasure to watch. While the fight scenes were solid in execution, I loved as natural (well, as a soul bounded to armor can be lol) he looked in the environment of the film. For example, when Winry embraced him after they first reunited, he seemed just as substantial as any other character. As a final note, I will admit that Truth’s animation was my favorite. That wispy, nearly intangible figure coupled with that oddly omnipresent narration was specular to watch!

Cinematography:

CGI aside, the live action actually had some fairly solid filmmaking behind it. While the shooting of difficult scenes in general was pretty tight (see the fight sequences in Liore as a prime example), the use of lighting changes and slow motion shots were usually well-utilized and a pleasure to watch. Homunculi appear? The lighting gets darker. On the other hand, light-hearted scenes, such those when Ed and Winry are together, were lit warmly. In Lab 5, the ominous nature of the scene was highlighted by the blood-red light emanating from the philosophers’ stones. As for the slow motion shots, I was a little worried when the first was used strictly for comedic effect during the Liore battle sequence, but damn did it bring me to my knees during the showdown between Roy and Lust. That vengeful expression on Roy’s face illuminated by flame, coupled with Lust’s near smile at the acceptance of her death was just BEAUTIFUL. We catch both the hero twisted by revenge, and the villain finally at peace. I had to pause and take a break after that one.

Music:

Did anyone else notice the music?! Kitasato’s themes for this film are just wonderful. The upbeat notes during the Liore sequences gave me some serious Fairy Tail vibes (which is always a good thing!) and the dramatic flairs during the Lab 5 arc perfectly piggybacked off the ominous lighting and unnerving dialogue. While MISIA’s op for the film is a departure from normally high-energy ops of Brotherhood that we all know and love, the vocal work and synthesized strings work together harmoniously.

Misc:

This section is just pretty much for additional details I enjoyed about the film!

I loved that the Liore arc was filmed in Volterra, Italy. As I was watching the beginning of the film, I kept thinking how familiar the scenery looked. When I finally searched filming locations, I was blown away! I was just there this summer, and it’s such a beautiful city. If possible, I love it more now that I know it was a filming location!!

For some reason, the conversation between Ed and Roy after what happened to Nina really stuck with me. I don’t know, just Roy’s line: “How long are you going to let yourself be miserable?” was super poignant (more or less along those lines). While Roy never said anything like that to Ed in Brotherhood/manga to my knowledge, I felt the line was truly in line with his character.

I can’t believe Roy’s dumb black coat made it into this movie XD

Conclusion:

I figure that after rambling for so long, I should probably wrap this up! In short, I thought that the Fullmetal Alchemist live action was a solid film. While it did have significant flaws, it did, bottom line, give me more content and further interpretation of characters I positively love. It did a great job of breaking my heart all over again in the best possible way. Was it a faithful representation of the manga as promised? Not at all. Yet again, neither was fma03, Conqueror of Shamballa, or The Sacred Star of Milos. Look at this film like an awesome piece of fma fanfiction? Now we’re talking. If there’s more of this in the cards, BRING IT ON.

#fma #fma brotherhood #fma live action #my review #this took SO LONG #nikki speaks

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lightrivals · 7 years ago

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someone on twitter was like “au where the portal closed before tony made it” which is probably an entire trope of it’s own but i had to Input My Own Theories 5.5 years after the fact bc i’ve never really done much thought outside him falling into a role reversal au. so yeah this is just a what if au rant/drabble thing.

So, Tony’s suit dies, the radiation from the explosion is starting to reach him and the breath in his throat is the last he thinks he’ll ever taste. On the other side of the portal is the exploding Chitauri mothership, along with The Other. The Other spots Tony in the confusing haze of the atomic bomb and takes Tony in, figuring he’d be a better replacement to get more Infinity Stones after Loki’s failed invasion where he lost two.

Tony wakes up on the desolate space rock moon, freaks out because his armor is dead, but he’s still in it and moving as if it wasn’t. He later finds out he’s been recruited by Thanos and kept alive to help Thanos with his mission to make the universe the way he sees it should be. Tony isn’t all that keen on being this Titan’s lackey, especially given he sent Loki over to subjugate Tony’s world and that could mean he’d try to shape Tony to do the same to someone else. He would never willingly work with Thanos, and over the next year when he’s trapped in his floating cell in the middle of nowhere, left alone with his thoughts while also slowly and surely being conditioned to believe he can’t live unless he submits, he meets some of the rest of Thanos’ slowly growing team. Including the Titan’s “children.”

One of his children, Gamora, manages to escape and it makes Tony’s resolve to the same grow stronger and stronger. He doesn’t know how she did it, but now that he knows it’s possible, whatever hope was leaving him from the horrors he faced every day lost in space with aliens warping him for their whims is coming back full force.

Thanos decides after two years or so Tony is conditioned enough to go out and retrieve some mysterious Orb from ancient ruins across space in another galaxy. Tony takes the chance, decides he can pull some tricks with his armor when he gets weapons and such to defend himself when retrieving the Orb and eventually escape Thanos’ grasp. Peter Quill gets the Orb first and then basically it’s GOTG but with Tony instead of Ronan, though Ronan is still one of Thanos’ henchmen, just not used for this particular stone stealing scheme.

Tony runs into Gamora again, fate is really great that way, and by the time he’s up against Rocket, Groot, Drax, Peter, and Gamora, all five of these ragtag creatures, he realizes that he’s been trying to save his own hide so much, he hasn’t considered anyone else. So in the end, he gives the Orb--the power stone--to the Guardians, Peter uses it as per the movie, and then Gamora is the one who lets Tony join the team. Gamora could sympathize with him and also kill him so easily if he tried anything, but she could also see that Thanos’ influence wasn’t hovering over him anymore.

The Guardians, now with a renegade Tony in tow, go off doing pick up missions and such about the galaxy. Rocket steals batteries and the events of GOTG2 kick off, with Tony in tow. After that, Tony and Peter decide they should head on back to Earth, probably drop Tony off back in his world and for Peter to try to reconcile with his history again. On the way over, the Guardians still do pick ups across planets and worlds Tony would have never imagined, and he slowly heals the wounds isolation, desolation, and emotional torture Thanos had pressed on him over the past few years. Tony and Rocket work on making Tony’s arc reactor more sustainable in space and less breakable, Tony gets lots of info about spaceships from Peter and redesigns his armor’s HUD interface to better adapt to the different approaches to technology this other galaxy has developed. Since Tony’s not even in the same galaxy as Jarvis, he rebuilds Jarvis as a new AI system named Friday for the space-resistant suits he builds while they all travel about the Milano. Drax and Peter help him test it out a lot.

Tony’s content and happy here, bonding with these aliens and building a family as they fight together and grow together. They aren’t without their arguments, Tony and Gamora happens, Peter gets jealous about it in the weirdest way (Tony can’t tell who the other man is more jealous of, which is exciting in it’s own way), Rocket and Tony have conflicting personalities at times and Baby Groot is a fucking pain in the ass as a teenager. But through all the arguments, all the moments Tony blasts off into the sky with anger, Peter frustratedly pulls out his guns to shoot some floura into smithereens, or Drax spends insanely too long sharpening knifes with serious death threats on his tongue, they come back together and forgive one another. Tony almost never wants to leave but he knows he has unfinished business back home.

It’s 3 years after Tony joins the Guardians when they finally reach Earth. Tony’s excited (and nervous, Mantis points out) to return home, wonders how long it’s actually been because keep track of Earth time while on planets that move faster and slower than Earth has been hard. Peter is extremely enthusiastic about the arrival, landing the ship with Rocket off in some abandoned farmland further upstate. Tony steps out onto Earth for the first time in 5 years and falls to his knees with joy. He’s finally home, he’s got to find Pepper and Rhodey and Happy, he’s got to find the Avengers, too, if Fury kept that alive after the invasion.

So, with Peter and Gamora in tow while the other less humanoid creatures stay at the ship, Tony makes his way into the city. There’s a statue memorial for him up in Central Park, Stark Tower is refurbished in it’s glory, the city is almost the same but still missing his signature mark of existence. He wonders for a moment why no one on the street recognizes him. He’s dressed in odd clothing, didn’t bother trying to steal some more Earth fashions, and his hair is long enough for a small ponytail, but his signature goatee stayed with him the entire time, and 5 years is a lot but not enough to make him unrecognizable.

He runs into Pepper at the tower and she dismisses him pretty quickly, tired probably from cosplayers claiming they’re Tony Stark so they can take over his company or some shit. DNA testing would prove otherwise, but apparently cloning technology has come a long way. Tony sneaks his way into his tower anyway, finds out Jarvis has enacted a death protocol, which means he’s inaccessible from every location but the Malibu mansion. Tony hears about the Avengers compound upstate and finds himself mildly surprised that they’re doing well without him.

When he meets them, they don’t believe he’s Tony either. It kind of stings to see in unfamiliarity in their eyes. Sure, he only knew them for a couple days but they were a team that could have been more, and well, they are more, but they’re more without him. Don’t even subconsciously want him given they literally don’t accept any proof he offers. Gamora being green skinned doesn’t help his case, but Steve does at least give him some clothes to change into so he doesn’t stick out like a sore thumb.

Later, the Milano goes west to Malibu to crack the code that will unlock Jarvis. Tony doesn’t need Jarvis again when he’s got Friday, he doesn’t need the unfinished suits and prototypes stored in files and half-hashed out on tables in the lab. But they make him feel more human--being back he’s realized how he has a slight accent, some blend from all the alien languages he’s heard and picked up over the years. It sounds wrong when he’s on Earth but up in space, it feels normal, it sounds like him.

Tony just wants to be himself again back on Earth and first things first he needs Jarvis back. As soon as he can wake up Jarvis, he can prove that he’s the real Tony and finally get to talk to the Avengers and tell them everything he knows. Thanos will be coming, he’s not going to let Tony get away unscathed, and knowing Tony’s from Earth, he’s definitely gonna come back here. Tony needs to let the Avengers know, get them to prepare for this situation, to assemble appropriately. This is bigger than the enemies they’ve dealt with since, this is something they need Tony’s help with, but he can only get their trust if he can prove who he is.

He wonders as his plans to unlock Jarvis keep getting thwarted, as the Guardians are later spotted on the World Council watch list and Stephen Strange deems them a dangerous threat. He wonders why the Avengers are trying so hard to indirectly keep the truth hidden. He wonders maybe if he made it through the portal they would have been kinder to him, maybe they could have been the family he has with the Guardians.

But it wasn’t for him to know and maybe Tony simply isn’t going to be as human as he wants to be anymore. Surprisingly, as the Guardians agree to leave Earth in case of more threats following them, Tony isn’t too upset about that.

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azems-familiar · 7 years ago

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follow me (and i will bring you home) chapter 5

decided to split this chapter in half so that it stays around the same length as the others have been. hope you guys enjoy (if there are people reading this fic over here :P)!

“He has betrayed us,” the black-cloaked man murmurs, his voice only slightly distorted by the voice modulator in his black and silver helmet.

The statement is met with nods of agreement, from the other five members of the circle. “There can only be one punishment for such a severe offense,” another, a woman, says.

“Are we certain the offense has been committed?” The figure who asks this question immediately falls back, quieting, as five silver and black helmets swivel around to stare at them.

“We are certain,” the original speaker says, and then looks around the entire circle. “Are we in agreement?” A pause. “Very well. Judgement has been given. Justice must be upheld.”

Just minutes later, a sleek black ship streaks into the stars and disappears.

[=|=]

Krydn is a small planet on the edge of its star system, largely overlooked by the majority of the galaxy. The small, cool world is mostly covered in coniferous forests, scattered with small logging settlements and a few larger cities. It’s a neutral planet, technically, but in actuality too small and poor to be of much note to either side. The First Order has a token presence there (consisting mainly of a few squadrons of stormtroopers in the main cities), but rarely actually does anything, so if they can abandon (or better yet: destroy) Snoke’s ship somewhere in one of the cities and lay low for a few days, it should accomplish the dual purposes of throwing the First Order off their trail (the Resistance is small, and trapped, and low on defenses; there are plenty of resources to send after the two of them) and giving them a chance to plan the next move.

And maybe talk about a few things. There are still a lot of important questions left unspoken.

Ben brings the small black shuttle down in a clearing in the forest, not far from the city. It’s the middle of the night on this side of the world, which helps immensely for hiding, but not so much for hiking through a dark, unfamiliar forest. He shudders, just imagining the trek, and then sighs. It’s not like there’s much choice…

“We’re a bit conspicuous,” Rey says as he leaves the cockpit after powering the ship down. “Are you sure this is the best idea?”

“It’s a terrible idea,” he says, giving her a look (surely she’s realized that by now?). “And it’s the only idea. We stand out anyway.” He gestures to the lightsaber hanging on her hip.

Rey nods resignation and presses the switch to open the door. It hisses open, and immediately a cold gust of wind blows into the ship, damp with rain.

Ben groans. Of course, rain, just what he needs to make this day even worse.

But then Rey steps out, into the weather, childlike wonder written across her features, the pain of her blaster burn fading into the background as she lifts her hands and laughs, and he abruptly revises his opinion. Rain, he thinks, might just be one of the greatest things in the universe.

(Anything that makes Rey laugh has to be one of the wonders of the galaxy.)

He wraps his cloak around his shoulders and steps out into the darkness of the forest. With how utterly unprepared they are, the two of them are almost more likely to die out here than they are to die at the hands of the First Order, he realizes, looking around at his surroundings. In fact, who knows what kinds of wild animals are lurking in the underbrush, just waiting to leap on two unwary humans idiotic to stumble around at night, has he mentioned it’s dark out yet--

There’s a hiss and a hum, and suddenly the nearby tree trunks glow with reflected blue light. He spins, staring at Rey in shock--what is she thinking-- only to see an almost-smirk on her lips. “Lightsabers,” she says, just barely emphasizing the first syllable, and it clicks; he starts to smile at the quick thinking, only to abruptly frown instead.

Why didn’t he think of that?

He pulls out his own lightsaber and lights the blade. The crimson isn’t as effective as the blue, but it’s definitely better than nothing, and it frees his mind to think about contingency plans. “If someone gets suspicious, we’ll kill them,” he offers after a moment.

It makes perfect sense to him, but Rey presses her lips together and frowns in obvious disapproval. “I don’t want to kill anyone,” she murmurs after a moment.

Fair enough, although a little strange. “I’ll kill them,” he says, revising the previous statement. It’s not the most perfect solution, and could draw more attention than either of them would really like, but…

“Ben,” she starts, exasperated, “you can’t just go around killing people.”

He looks over at her, frowns. “Why not?” It should be interesting to hear what she has to say…

“You just… can’t.” She lets out a sigh. “It’s wrong, Ben.”

“The Resistance kills people,” he points out. “Stormtroopers are people--mostly. TIE fighter pilots are people.” He pauses. “The Praetorian guards were people.” He thinks. He never actually saw what was under the red plastoid armor, after all.

She sighs, again. “That’s different, though.” She walks on in silence, for a few minutes, obviously searching for something to say; after long enough without her continuing, he decides to take advantage of the quiet.

“Is it?”

“Yes!” Her hazel eyes flash as she jerks her head up to stare at him, reflecting the blue and red light of their lightsabers. “If the Resistance stopped shooting down TIE fighters, would the First Order stop shooting down X-wings?”

“Of course not,” he says, frowning a little.

She smiles triumphantly. “That’s the difference.”

Ben blinks. “No,” he corrects her, shaking his head. “That’s an unrealistic attempt at finding a difference.” She stops walking, turning and facing him, confusion replacing the triumph, and he follows her example, stopping and turning to look down at her. “Was killing Snoke wrong?”

“No!” she spits out, disgusted. “Snoke was a filthy, evil--”

“Spare me the adjectives,” he interrupts. “Killing is okay as long as the person being killed is evil or wrong.” He arches an eyebrow. “Skywalker is evil and wrong, but if I killed him, you would consider me evil.”

“Luke isn’t evil,” she snaps, gritting her teeth. “Snoke was.”

“It depends on your perspective.” He shrugs, smirks a little. “Morality is a vague, arbitrary concept with zero constants.” He pauses, then adds, “Almost as useless as the Jedi Code.”

And then he turns and keeps walking.

“I don’t follow the Jedi Code, Ben,” she calls after him, her voice quiet but pitched to carry.

And that is unexpected enough to stop him in his tracks. He stops walking, debating over what to say, and turns around, slowly. “What do you follow?”

It’s her turn to shrug. “Myself,” she says, and then, with a rueful half-smile, “Morality.”

The ability to mindtrick someone, Ben reflects, is extremely useful.

Of course, he’s pretty sure that Rey, with her old-school (and frankly ridiculous) opinions on morality, doesn’t exactly approve of mindtricking, but really, what alternative do they have? He can’t access the credits he has without alerting the First Order, and she’s a scavenger from Jakku. (Not to mention that the First Order probably flagged any account she might have.) The only way they’re going to survive on this planet, not to mention find another ship and get off Krydn, is by threats, stealing, and using the Force. And he has zero intention of staying here any longer than necessary.

They’ve already spent three days hiding out in the basement of an abandoned building, surviving on stolen food and bundling up in (also stolen) blankets at night while attempting to sleep. It’s been fairly quiet and peaceful.

And it’s driving him mad.

The problem is, there’s nothing to do; they can’t really walk around without attracting attention, after all. Even if they left their lightsabers behind (which is unthinkable--he refuses to risk his lightsaber getting stolen just to try and blend in), their clothing obviously marks them as offworlders. Offworlders aren’t a common enough occurrence, even in the cities, to protect them; both he and Rey agreed early on that they needed to stay out of sight as much as possible.

But if he doesn’t get out and do something, he’s going to go insane.

That settles it. Ben gets to his feet, grabbing his cloak and tossing it on over his shoulders, and turns to Rey. “Come on.”

“What are you doing?” she asks, following his example and pulling on the light blue hooded poncho he’d found for her.

“Going for a walk.” He extends a hand. “Let’s go.”

“I thought we were hiding,” she says, but she takes his hand and follows him out of the old building. If he prods at the bond, he can tell she’s just as bored and frustrated as he is at the forced inactivity, even though it’s the smartest decision.

This, on the other hand, isn’t an incredibly smart course of action, but what’s really going to happen? Their lightsabers are both hidden, and they aren’t all that suspicious-looking…

Okay, it’s a bad idea.

But even if it comes down to a fight, two Force-users with lightsabers have the obvious advantage, and nothing permanently harmful can come of it. He’s sure. Besides, they need to get offworld soon. Rey’s blaster wound isn’t healing well in this environment, and he’s not about to sacrifice her health for the sake of secrecy.

They wander down the street for a while (not touching, but close together), mostly silent, except when Rey notices something particularly interesting. It’s… nice, actually.

And then, as they pass by the mouth of a dark, dirty alleyway, he realizes that they’re surrounded by a circle of people dressed in layered rags, and they all are focused on him and Rey with a predatory gleam in their eyes.

He touches Rey’s elbow with one hand, casually, and lets a hint of [warning] slip through the bond, feeling her tense in preparation for a fight. It makes sense, really, it does; they’re offworlders with good-quality clothes, and this is a poor planet, of course they’d be the targets of an attempted mugging. He should’ve thought about that before deciding to go for a walk.

The circle suddenly stops walking, the men in front of them effectively blocking their path forward. “Excuse me,” Rey tries, but the men don’t move.

“Give us your credits,” the man in the middle (the ringleader?) says in lieu of a response, with a threatening glare.

“You don’t want to do that,” Ben says, answering the threat with a warning of his own (not using the Force, not yet, it’s hard to mindtrick this many people at once), his hand drifting down towards his belt.

“Just give us the credits, and nothing will happen,” the man says, gritting his teeth. Again, he directs the statement at Rey, maybe thinking her to be the more easily frightened of the two (he has no idea how wrong he is).

“No,” Rey says, frowning. “We don’t even have any--”

In a simultaneous motion too fluid to be unpracticed, every single member of the circle pulls out a concealed blaster and aims. “I said, hand over the kriffing money,” the leader snaps, almost desperately, but his blaster doesn’t waver.

[now,] Ben thinks, with enough emphasis to be sure the word crosses the bond.

At the same instant, they both pull out their lightsabers and spin to stand back-to-back. The blades activate almost perfectly in sync, humming loudly.

One of the younger men in the circle swears and fires his blaster; acting purely on instinct, Rey snaps her lightsaber up and deflects the blaster bolt right back where it came from, destroying the blaster. The would-be muggers scatter, leaving them alone, but Ben’s excitement is short-lived.

On a building across the street, a security camera is pointed directly at the two of them.

[=|=]

Poe Dameron is prepping the X-wing to take off again when BB-8 lets out a series of urgent, excited beeps. The pilot freezes, the words registering, and whips his head around to stare at the droid.

“You found her? Where?”

The planet isn’t one he’s ever heard of, but he recognizes the coordinates--not terribly far from his current location. A few hours in hyperspace, which isn’t bad at all.

Wasting no time, Poe starts up the X-wing and takes off, entering the coordinates into the autopilot and making the jump into hyperspace.

“I’m coming for you, Rey,” he says, and clenches his hands around the X-wing’s controls.

On his wrist, the beacon is a steady, comforting blue.

[=|=]

“The traitor has been located,” the black-clad woman says to the man in the pilot’s seat. Her cloak and helmet have been removed, although they are not far away, within easy reach in the main bay of the shuttle. She holds out a datapad for the pilot’s perusal. “He was foolish enough to allow himself to be seen on camera. This is the location we have traced the camera to.”

“Excellent,” the man piloting the ship says. There is a trace of a smile on his bare face. “Ready the others. We will arrive in just a few hours.”

Beside him, the woman smiles--but it is not a warm expression. It is, rather, cold and sharp-edged, cruel and cutting, ruthless and eager. “Excellent,” she agrees, her razor-sharp smile widening. “Justice will be swift.”

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theseadagiodays · 5 years ago

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May 11, 2020

Sanctuaries

My favorite refuge: The view from the summit of my backyard park

I’ve been thinking a lot about sanctuaries lately. Defined as “a place of refuge or safety; a nature reserve; or a holy place,” the meaning of the word is entirely interpretable by each individual.

Recently, the term has proliferated in reference to US cities who claim they will protect migrants from a certain unnameable leader’s xenophobic policies. Unthinkably, this same buffoon has even threathened to withhold coronavirus relief funding to such cities if they continue to harbor “unwanted” residents.

It seems, for every sanctuary, there exist forces who want to threaten them. This is as true of religious persecution around the world, as it is with safe houses for women escaping violence.

In our Lullaby Project, Instruments of Change works quite intimately with this population. Through this time, we’ve been fortunate to continue supporting single mothers to write original songs about their hopes and dreams for their children. What we’ve learned from them is that, ironically, while many of us have struggled to self-isolate at home, these women have never felt safer, with the prospect of being found, or of unwelcomed visits from their abusers temporarily lifted.

In Women Rock, another program that we’ve shifted to digital engagement through Google Classroom, our participants have written a secular choral hymn identifying nature as the sanctuary that has provided them the most solace during this time. A verse from their song, Hidden Symphonies is below.

Listen to the silence

Morning bird calls at play

Soul refreshing music

Through isolation days

It is interesting that more and more evidence suggests people rarely catch the virus while outdoors (https://globalnews.ca/news/6906508/coronavirus-outdoors-parks-closed/). Intuitively, this resonates with me, as someone who has always found sanctuary staying active outdoors. So, while experts stress that social distancing in public parks is still necessary, simply sharing these wild places six feet away from strangers has been a blessing.

Art has always been another refuge for many. And it’s no wonder some artists have been turning to nature as their canvas. The Swiss artist, Saype’s work is perhaps the most ambitious example. His stunning ephemeral piece, Beyond Crisis, made with biodegradable spray paint, is designed to fade naturally as the grass grows, in much the same way we all hope this virus will eventually disappear once nature takes its course (with ample cooperation from humans).

https://twistedsifter.com/2020/05/giant-biodegradable-artwork-of-hope-appears-atop-swiss-hillside/

And finally, another creative community, in Sag Harbour, NY, has found an inventive way to share their work while galleries are closed. Barns, front yards, and back gardens have become museum walls for dozens of installations that locals are welcome to view, as safely distant drive-bys. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/11/arts/design/drive-by-art-long-island.html?action=click&module=Well&pgtype=Homepage&section=Art%20%20Design

Paintings by Darius Yektai; Diane Blell’s “Table for Two Separate tables”; Erik Fischl’s “Young Dancers Dancing”

May 12, 2020

Daily Delights

I have also been trying to hone my lens for finding a different kind of art in nature. With time to slow down and stay close to home, I have paid much closer attention to the little wonders that surround me. I began the practice of doing this shortly before self-isolation, when I learned about Ross Gay’s poetic essays collected in his book Daily Delights. https://www.amazon.ca/Book-Delights-Essays-Ross-Gay/dp/1616207922

As if prophetically, NPR featured him on my favorite podcast This American Life, in late January. https://www.thisamericanlife.org/692/the-show-of-delights

And this reminder, to savor life’s small pleasures was exactly the armor I needed for this period. Since February, I’ve kept my own daily delights journal. And here are just a few snapshots that have made the cut since quarantine began.

Baby ducks, Hula hoops, Elderly couple park bench massage, Backyard swing

May 13, 2020

Radio Days

While so much has changed about my daily rhythms, of late, there are a few pillars that I’ve kept in place to give my life some necessary scaffolding, in order to maintain a sense of familiarity and grounding.

One of these is the ritual that my partner and I have had for years, of listening to This American Life every weekend. Ira Glass’s strangely pleasing-though-nasally drone has accompanied hundreds of our road trips to mountains, lakes and forests, as we’ve sought weekend adventure. But for now, living room listenting has had to suffice.

On May 4th, the show just happened to be honored with the first ever Pulitzer Prize for audio journalism. So, that’s a well-earned feather in a podcast’s cap. But, awards or not, their carefully curated slices of life never fail to amuse and inspire.

Interestingly, I think more and more people are turning to podcasts, perhaps as an antidote to screen fatigue, and also because it seems to align with the nostalgia for days past that is so alive right now. So, I wanted to suggest a few podcasts that might particularly resonate at the moment.

If it’s a longing for “other” that’s calling you, there is an incredible website called Radio Garden that lets you travel anywhere in the world, to sonically “drop-in” to whatever environment intrigues you (http://radio.garden/listen/alpha-boys-school-radio/ijKUlByg). For a real time sense of what moves people across the globe, you can experience the music, stories, and language of cultures from Antanarivo to Zagreb, with just a spin of their online globe and a simple click. Here, you can access literally thousands of radio stations. However, in my experience, their interface works best on a Chrome rather than Safari browser.

Early in quarantine, when I was in sorest need of a good laugh, This American Life put together an episode on fiascos that really helped bring levity at a time when we all began to feel our world fall apart. https://www.thisamericanlife.org/699/fiasco

And speaking of when things fall apart, Buddhist nun Pema Chodron’s book of the same name has served as a sort of bible for many westerners, as they’ve turned to the ancient Tibetan tradition in which she was ordained. Another podcast favorite of mine is Krista Tippet’s On Being. And her most recent May 7thepisode featured herself and musician/meditator Devandra Banhart alternatively reading passages from this sage book, while reflecting on its relevance for the times.

https://onbeing.org/programs/devendra-banhart-when-things-fall-apart/

May 14. 2020

Finding Bliss

Ai Weiwei’s 2010 “Grapes”, with a coincidental resemblance to the coronavirus

Interviewed about how he’s responding to the virus, Ai Weiwei replied, “I never create anything. I just try to cope with the situation at hand.” We all need coping tools and strategies for those times when things fall apart. Ai Weiwei’s plainspoken answer sounds almost religious, the way he describes art as his salve. And this makes sense to me. But for many years, faith in an actual religion never did. Raised as a half-Catholic, half-Jewish Unitarian, I only attended services until I was about 11, when Sunday youth orchestra rehearsals took their place. So, I never fully understood the role of weekly church service until we travelled to India, for 10-days of Dalai Lama teachings. This annual offering, which he made for 30 years, was an even greater gift than we expected, given that these Kalichakra teachings ceased just after our 2007 trip, unbeknowst to us. Every day, for 5 hours, 1,000s of seekers flocked to the grounds of his Dharamsala temple, and listened by radio simulcast, in 1 of 17 native tongues, to his special blend of humor and clarity. Each day, we all left bubbling to the rim with reaffirmed intention to be our best selves. The coffeeshops, all over town, were a twitter with armchair philosophy between strangers trying to understand and integrate his words. Uncanny kindnesses abounded. And you could feel our resolve get ever more reinforced with each return to his daily talks. However, it’s only once we left Dharmasala, with equally grand intentions to “remember”, that I recognized the role of these daily infusions. Because with each passing day, best behaviors, careful speech, and pure thoughts deterioritated, if only a little at a time.

Note the curly-haired, golden-sweatered sore thumb in this sea of burgundy-robed monks...

So, while that did not instill in me a renewed church-going tradition, I have found my own ways to be “reminded.” They’ve just come in different forms.

For Geoff, it’s long runs and bike rides that serve as his spiritual medicine. And for me, it’s a panoply of things. Sometimes its communion with nature. Other times yoga. Writing. Handstand therapy. Or even what my favorite yoga teacher likes to call “Hammock Enlightenment.”

Eoin Finn is an artist of the highest order. Good living is his canvas. The body is his brush. And bliss is his paint. He calls his teaching Blissology, and spreads his backbends, heart-openers, and ocean loving vibes from Indonesia to Byron Bay.

He and his family have been quarantining in Bali, since they were leading teacher trainings there, just before global travel nearly shut down. And fortunately, he continues to extend his generous spirit through free weekly livestream Stay Om yoga classes, on Facebook. If you happen to miss his 5 pm Sunday classes, the videos remain online to follow any time. So, I hope some of you take the opportunity to worship the DUDE (Delight in Universal Divine Energy) with him some time. I promise there will be plenty more acronymns and puns where that one came from. Plus, a good dose of deep stretches for your limbs and soul.

https://www.facebook.com/blissarmy/?__tn__=%2Cd%2CP-R&eid=ARD502BDBWegIvZPmn6ec9pFCtdEPtRnELt_iabxb0_c5Mmnzq3UPiAddV8fEanrbJLeSOhgYWdeQOlu

May 15. 2020

Birthday Bash

Those who know me are aware of the special challenges birthdays pose for my creativity. I relish the quest for the perfect homemade card, surprise gift, Bitmoji or GIF for a friend or family member. And I love throwing a good bash. I am also aware of the undue pressure this has caused my partner, over the years, to come up with a reciprocal gesture or party idea. But given the added constraints of a quarantine, Geoff went over and above the call of duty this year to produce!

While the novelty of Zoom parties had already worn off, he still managed to find a brilliant way for my loved ones to send serial video messages throughout the day, with the bonus of a clever twist. I’m not quite sure how he found the time, in his manic 70-hour work weeks, to put this together. But, 43 clues later, I was delivered a personalized crossword puzzle, with each hint related to the messenger. He really outdid himself this time, and I could not feel more grateful.

Meanwhile, unsure if he had anything up his sleeve, I got up to my own fun messying my hands to make this Covid Pinata. I confess, I borrowed the idea from an article I saw online, but just couldn’t resist.

And last night, of course with proper social distancing, we took great delight in beating the crap out of this brutal virus with a couple of friends.

0 notes

sevensity · 8 years ago

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Hiya! Can I request RFA/Saeran+MC going grocery shopping together? Could you also include which aisle they would spend the longest time in? I hope that's not too much >.< Have a lovely day~

Here ya go! Grocery shopping is nice because there’s a lot of food and I’m quite fond of that stuff.

YOOᔕᑌᑎG:

Ok but this boy knows what’s up

He’s been to the grocery store so many times, he canprobably finish all his shopping with his eyes closed (or at least one of themclosed if you know what I mean hahahhaha sorry)

He’s like those moms who are into super couponing probablybecause his own mom was too

He has a whole binder full of coupons waiting to beused, and he’s categorized them all according to types and %off.

Even if you’ve been grocery shopping before, goingwith Yoosung is a whole other deal

Jeez is it intense

Though who knew browsing the vegetable aisle with this boy byyour side would prove to be such an enlightening experience?

Unless you tell him you already know most of the stuff he’s saying, Yoosung will not hesitate to stop in front of every single thing and tell you about its various uses in cooking, or just life in general

And by every single thing I mean every single damn thing, even if it’s considered elementary knowledge

“This is a banana—“

“I know Yoosung,I know.”

He’ll also teach you really simple recipes while youload up your cart with food

“If you have trouble sleeping, heat up some milk andsprinkle some powdered nutmeg into it!” actually very comforting imo

“For really brown bananas, if you don’t want to eatthem or can’t use them at the moment, put them in the freezer and you can makeyummy banana bread with them later!”

“If you ever slice apples and want to prevent themfrom turning brown, just dip them in a bit of lemon juice!”

Thank you Yoosung Sensei

Every time you go grocery shopping together, you knowyou’ll return home feeling like you just took an intensive nutrition class

Spends longest time in:

Literally everywhere????

The only aisle he doesn’t really visit is the liquor aisle, but other than that he’ll spend the same amount of time in each place. Occasionally he will steer clear of the milk section after remembering some, ah, unpleasant memories

ᘔEᑎ:

Okay so he’s not quite a dolt when it comes to grocery shopping that’s for sure, like he knows about the basics, and of course he’s a beer expert

Though he is nowhere close to being on Yoosung’s Godly Grocery level

and Zen will never admit that he doesn’t know jack shit about what he buys most of the time

He’ll try to seem knowledgeable just for you, and he does want you to eat healthy (”Fruits and vegetable ares good for the skin! Though my skin is already amazing enough.” thank you zen that makes me feel so much better about myself)

But he’s not sure what to do with 90% of the stuff he puts in your cart

When you guys go home, he’ll sneak a phone call to Yoosung, list all the items that he bought, and Yoosung in turn will teach him a few possible recipes

Tbh usually such a phone call would sound like some shady drug dealing cuz it starts all like:

“Hey, Yoosung,” Zen casts a wary eye around before whispering, “I’ve got new goods. Can you hook me up with some plans?”

But it’s okay, you’ll relax once you hear them talking about the properties of lettuce

“Zen, let me get this straight. You bought a whole octopus…without actually knowing how to cook it?!”

“Uh, yeah.”

“WHY?!”

“Well, I can’t be her knight in shining armor if I don’t know how to deal with a mere octopus!”

When Seven hears about this, he’s all like “move aside fabled evil dragon, the princess in the tower is now guarded by a wriggling, squishy octopus. How will Zen slay the mighty beast?”

Spends longest time in:

Cosmetics aisle! And I mean spends a loooooooooooooOOOng time. He wants you to try stuff on. Then he wants you to give him a makeover. Then he wants to take pictures. Then he finds new products to try. The infernal cycle begins again.

ᒍᗩEᕼEE:

She never really had any time to go grocery shopping before, and soshe would just buy her meals from the convenience store

So the first time you went shopping together, oh boy was this girl lost

Although she knows all the fruits and vegetables and different types of meat, so the basics, she just doesn’t know what to buy because there are so many choices??

She just wants to buy everything and try it all

And so she does

You’re zooming around all the aisles, and soon each of you have your own cart chock full of food

In the end, two end up buying too much and invite Yoosung over to help y’all cook

“Okay, I get that you wanted to buy a lot to get variety, but that does not explain why you had to buy 10 packs of meat and a total of 5 types of squash,” says Yoosung, mildly exasperated.

Spends the longest time in:

The bakery section! She likes to look at their desserts to get inspiration, and will sometimes by those that catch her fancy. Although she also does spend a lot of time in the coffee section, however, there usually isn’t a lot of variety so she tends to be a bit disappointed.

ᒍᑌᗰIᑎ:

h a H

Jumin Han grocery shopping?

“Why go to the grocery store when the grocery store could come to you?”

babe PLS

“If you really want to make food yourself, why don’t you just order the ingredients online?”

Because grocery shopping is fun? sometimes

If you’re so insistent about going to the store, he’s 100% down to open one someplace in the building just for you.

Once you turn down all his extravagant ideas and manage to drag his fine ass to the store, Jumin is frowning.

Just like Yoosung, he’ll stop in front of every product there is. But this time, he’ll talk about them from a business perspective.

“If a watermelon costs this much for one pound, then for it to be of a profitable price, the amount of edible watermelon must be equal to—”

“Jumin we’ve been standing here for ten minutes.”

He’ll still occasionally stop to calculate the price per consumable unit though

Mutters to himself the whole time

But he proves to be immensely useful

You’re comparing two types of dumplings, different companies, slightly different prices

“Jumin, which one comes out to be the best buy?”

Hoooooooh he’ll go all out

He compares approximate size of dumplings, nutritional values, price per unit, reputability of manufacturer, you name it

So when you go grocery shopping, always bring yourself a Jumin Han to buy the best products in the store

Also because this rich boy is really cute when he wanders around, a little crease between his eyebrows, whispering equations to himself under his breath as he trails behind you like a little kid

Spends longest time in:

Pet food aisle, duhh. Would never dare feed Elly ‘commoner cat food’, though he’ll consider it if you make some brand suggestions. On a side note I feel like Jumin has tried Elly’s food before, especially if it’s something she seems to really like. “Maybe I can replicate this taste but make it something safe for humans to eat?”

ᔕᗩEYOᑌᑎG:

asifdj;aslkdfjaslk;gja;lkdgj

cOme ON iT’S SAYOUNG WE ALREADY KNOW IT’LL BE A MESS

First of all, you guys are never both walking. Either you’re in the cart and he pushes, or the other way around.

Here’s the thing though, he’s not so much in the cart as under it

I saw a picture of this but I can’t find it… you know how there’s usually a rack beneath the cart? Yeah, he just lies down on that.

If you leave him under the cart and wander too far away, he will yell “MArcO!” until you answer “polo” in an equally loud manner

This has gotten you kicked out more than a couple of times

“What do you mean soda and chips aren’t enough to sustain the human body?”

“What’s a vegetable?”

It’s like, he knows of the stuff, but he’s never seen any in person

“Wow…that’s…is that really an orange? In flesh????”

“This is edible?” he says, holding a pack of shrimp in his hands

While in the frozen food section: “I wonder what would happen if we blended a pizza, and then used that pizza to make pizza sauce for another pizza? Like…pizzaception.”

you guys actually tried doing that but regretted it because that shit was disgusting

Food puns

He will try to be more serious if you tell him, but why would you?

Saeyoung makes grocery shopping seem like an adventure

Spends longest time in:

I mean when he’s under the cart he doesn’t really have a choice so he’ll chill there and contemplate whether or not he should lick the floor while you get the food. However, if he’s the one pushing you, you bet he’ll head straight to the snack section. That’s his turf. Will glower at those who dare approach his precious chips. “So um Saeyoung are we just gonna wait around here and chase people away all day or…?”

ᔕᗩEᖇᗩᑎ:

He’s the type of kid that has absolutely no idea about anything

He’ll point at a cabbage and call it a cucumber

He says carrots grow on trees

You get a lot of stares because he calls everything by the wrong name with so much confidence

The baby is super proud of himself and you don’t have the heart to tell him he’s wrong

That changes when Yoosung goes shopping with him once though. Yoosung almost cried when Saeran asked him what this weird, round white thing was called (answer: an oinion. HAH SAERAN IS LIKE AN ONION, HE HAS LAYERS HAHAHAHAHHA I’M SO FUNNY)

Yoosung lowkey kidnaps Saeran and they have a study session together where Saeran learns about the marvelous world of fresh produce

But once you go back to the store together after he studied hard, it’s so precious

Saeran correctly identifies most of the stuff, but after every time he names something, he’ll glance at you, as if waiting for your approval

once you give him a tiny nod, a smile playing around your lips, his eyes will just light the fuck up and ;sdfja;lskdfjaslkdfja the baby bean is gonna blush a lil’ because w oW he did it???

Saeran reverts back to a toddler when y’all go to the store, you better hold his hand or he’ll wander off and get lost in another dimension

Spends longest time in:

ya, the ice cream section. you can get ice cream on a stick?? w h at???? a pre made ice cream cone???? w HA t??? I CAN BUY TWO LITERS BUCKETS OF ICE CREAM??? W H AT?!??!??!?! It’s a Saeran heaven and half the bill goes to his own, full cart of ice cream.

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motorcyclegear101 · 6 years ago

Text

Best Motorcycle Boots For Walking

Our top 5 picks for the best motorcycle boots for walking

Icon Superduty 5 Motorcycle Boots

TCX X-Blend Waterproof Boots

Alpinestars Newland GTX

Alpinestars Roam 2

Alpinestars Corozal Adventure Drystar

Check out our top five motorcycle boots for walking. We have chosen the most comfortable motorcycle boots and put them all in one place so you don’t have to. Watch our in-depth video reviews so you can choose the right motorcycle boot for you.

These are my favorite Street and commuting motorcycle boots. I’m going to start with my picks that tend towards form and then slowly work into more functional Footwear. The first boot we will look at is the Icon Superduty 5.

Icon Superduty 5 Motorcycle Boots

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This is the $200 Icon Super Duty and it’s probably my first choice for a commuter shoe. Something that I can use to ride to work in the morning and then around the office all day.

It’s a pretty legitimate motorcycle boot, full leather upper and steel shank soul and armor plating on both the pointy bits of your ankle. It’s A really solid toe box, really solid heel counter but at the same time, it’s a very practical working shoe. I think this boot is probably the BEST AND most comfortable motorcycle boot for walking.

The tread pattern underneath is soft on the footpeg interface but everywhere else, it’s grippy enough and the style is excellent. That’s probably because Icon ripped off the Timberland shoe company.

I think this is a stunning looking shoe, especially in brown or weak colorways look phenomenal under a pair of jeans. I ordered the black one because I wanted to see if there’s any magic in it there’s not really, to be honest, I would probably order one of the other colorways if I was to do it again.

When it comes to sizing I wear an eleven and a half in pretty much everything and this 11 and a half is spot on. To tie the boot up you just tie up the laces exactly like you learned in grade school and then snap the positive lock buckle across the top.

The buckle does a really good job of snugging up the entire shoe and I think it’s going to last a long time. It’s made from aluminum, I put mine through 15,000 riding kilometers last season and a ton of hiking kilometers and I have no reason to assume that it’s going to give out anytime soon.

They take a while to break in but once they do they are very comfortable and they’re very solid. Ikon do not market these as waterproof so they’re definitely not going to guarantee what I’m about to say but, the Super Duty 4 is probably going to keep you dry.

If I spray some waterproof leather protector on to the boot and stay away from the big puddles, yeah I trust these through the rainy ride. The one thing that I do hate about the Super Duty is the shifter panel. When I have my jeans rolled over the buckle the only thing that gives away the motorcycle boot are these stupid rubber nubs.

If it wasn’t for them you wouldn’t be able to tell this from a regular shoe, and it’s annoying too because these actually do nothing to help me shift geat. For $300 I could get another multi-purpose shoe which is the TCX X-blend waterproof boot.

TCX X-Blend Waterproof Boots

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I think this is better than the Super Duty in every way except for one, and I’ll get to that.

The excellent is CE rated so it has ankle heel and toe armoring, it’s full leather construction just like the icon Super Duty although this one does come up a little bit higher around the calf so you get the extra slide protection that does come with that.

There’s a fully waterproof lining inside the boot that’s the big way that the TCX is going to sink the icon, and yet somehow this manages to achieve the same weight as its Super Duty. It’s basically eight hundred and forty grams, because of that it feels very nimble on the foot.

Out of the box I would say that this shoe is more comfortable to wear, it’s easier to walk in and it doesn’t look as clunky as the Icon Super Duty.

It’s more of a classic vintage style and kudos to TCX because this shifter panel is subtle enough that it doesn’t stand out.

I’m not in love with the laces and the only thing that they really in danger is my pride. If the laces do catch on the motorcycle I’m probably not going to notice until I get to the next stoplight, then try to put my foot down and then topple over and one of the lamest and most public crashes known to exist.

The one thing that attracts me from this shoe is the comfort of the boot. The leather is incredibly supple right out of the box and the ankle is squishy, the heel and toe cup seem to move with my foot and that really scares me.

I prefer a stiffer boot when it’s new. Give me a firmer soul, give me thicker leather, give me stiffer armoring because I know that all of that is going to break in over time and when it does, I’m going to have a shoe that’s comfortable and safe.

I don’t mind putting in the saddle time to get a shoe feeling like this eventually, but when it feels like this out of the box it feels this good, I’m skeptical that TCX kind of sacrificing too much in terms of safety.

I like the Xblunt, it’s meant to blend style and protection and it definitely succeeds, I mean no it’s not the exact blend that I would want.

Personally I like a little bit more oomph from a motorcycle boot but, if you’re less concerned with protection than I am this is an excellent choice.

I’ve picked two commuter boots that function well and look good, but what if I don’t care that much about appearances? Maybe I ride on the street just for fun, maybe I commute 200 kilometers a day which basically makes me a tourER. If that’s the case I want Alpinestars Newland GTX.

Alpinestars Newland GTX

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GTX stands for gore-tex so I know that this is going to be the most waterproof boot that we’ve seen. Gore-tex is like solid gold for motorcyclists, we’re willing to pay a lot for guaranteed dryness. You normally see this material come into play sort of around the four or five hundred dollar mark.

The New Line GTX though is only two hundred and ninety dollars right now so how is it so cheap?

Obviously you save some of that money by getting a half-length boot, and we also save on the closure system. The new land issues the fancy aqua guard zippers and the buckles for this good old velcro, it does make me feel a little bit like a kindergartner to do up my boot with velcro but, I don’t really have a legitimate complaint because it does work.

The biggest cost-saving move was probably cutting off the gore-tex liner a good three inches below the top of the boot. I definitely want a waterproof pant that’s going to come down below this point otherwise I’m going to have water leaking in through the top.

I have loved wearing these boots, mainly because they’re versatile. More than anything else on my list the new land is worn when it’s cold outside and cool when it’s hot.

It also has the accordion stretch fabric on the front and back, though she gives me totally unrestricted ankle movements this is pretty much equal in walking comfort to the X-Blend. Plus it comes in about 100 grams lighter.

I’ll run through the usual goodies to close us off.

Ankle protection baked into both sides, heel counter, toe box, reflective strip on the rear, two mesh vents which are the first of the day and CE certification.

It has full-grain leather all-around and a steel shank, It’s a hybrid somewhere between walking and riding. On that note, it’s the same exact sole that we see on the Alpine stars Rome 2 waterproof boot.

Alpinestars Roam 2 WP Boots

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When I want to know what a boot is for, I look at the bottom of it. This boot has a tech touring sole just like the Newland and so that means that the Rome 2 is meant for heavy street use and serious commuting, touring that kind of thing.

Three big differences from the Newland boot. Obviously it comes up higher so I’m getting the extra slide protection and the shin armory that comes with that territory.

This is probably the most protective boot on my list and that’s why I see it on sports tours all the time. The second big difference is the waterproof membrane, this is good stuff so it’s not gore-tex. There’s no lifetime guarantee of dryness on the Roam 2.

Of course, having said that this guy does receive a ton of positive reviews, specifically referencing its waterproofing, so it’s probably one of the better non-gore-tex options out there. It also comes in about $60 cheaper than the Newland again, probably because it’s not gore-tex.

The third big difference is the chassis, it’s synthetic leather here rather than the real cow so I am lacking a little bit of that breathability. To be honestthough I don’t care because of the waterproof membrane wasn’t that breathable, to begin with.

Other than that the Rome 2 runs the same stats as the Newlens, CE approvable, toe-heel, and ankle armor and reflective insert. Just like the Newlands I normally wear an eleven and a half but I find that the ten and a half are the better fit for me.

Alpinestars Corozal Adventure Drystar

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If you’re looking for a new pair of comfortable adventure boots in the sub $300 range, the core assaults from Alpinestars are going to carry over a ton of features from their off-road series as well as their street series. Combine it together to make one awesome off-road on-road package ready to go out of the box.

The core of the boot is a very tall boot with tons of protection. they’ve also got the Belize which stops about midway up the boot so if you want a boot that’s a little bit shorter you can get those in the Belize style boots.

They’re very very similar to these but if you want the full-on protection of an off-road boot with the comfort of a street boot the Corozal is the only way to go.

These things are 15 inches from the floor all the way up to the top of these boots they are serious and they’re serious about protection but they’re also serious about comfort.

The leather TPU all mixed together to make an awesome package, the leather is going to be in all the areas where we want to flex, bend, move and stay comfortable. The TPU which is just a fancy name for plastic is going to be in all the areas that we want extra protection we’re not as worried about movement and we want some serious impact resistance.

Bottom to top we’ll start here we’ve got leather all the way around the bottom of the boot, that’s going to make sure that your foot can move around, it’s going to break in just like your favorite pair of tennis shoes.

This boot is not going to flex like your favorite pair of tennis shoes, we’ll go over the soul and that Flexi blade later but it is going to flex a bit, it’s probably going to flex more than your typical off-road boot but not quite as much as a full street boot. This one’s going to be a compromise in between the two.

As we work our way up the boot you’re going to notice that this has two buckles on it, those buckles do ratchet, they do adjust and they are quick release so you can get the things on and off real fast.

You’ve just got a couple of clips you can adjust those the very first time, once you do that you’re going to be good to go. As we come all the way up the shin you’re going to see a massive TPU shin plate, this is just like what you’re going to find in Alpinestars off-road boots.

It comes with impact resistance, it adds a little bit of style Plus if you come in contact with anything off-road that’s going to be there to keep old Mr. shin nice and happy.

At the very top, you’ve got a large velcro panel, again that’s quick, easy in and out so it allows you a bit of adjustment around the calf depending on what type of socks you’re wearing. If they come all the way up it’s definitely going to let you get into a comfortable position.

If we look back around on the front of the boot you’re going to see that this leather changes a couple of times as it goes up the boot. The reason for that on the front of the boot you want it to flex a little bit to be comfortable for the rider, but you also want that heavy-duty protection and abrasion resistance.

As we work our way up the front of the boot you’re going to have this TPU covering up a lot of the leather, so to make sure that these things are extra comfortable and you can articulate that ankle the way you need to front to back, they’ve actually changed over to almost like a micro-suede type material and then a much softer more supple leather.

You will see that it goes black as well as brown all the way around and what that does is allow for more bending and flexing without additional bunching, it’s nice that they’re adding in those comfort features to make sure that these things are good to go for the long haul.

You will see the same thing on the back, the black leather with almost an accordion look to it as it bends that’s going to fold in on itself. It’s much more supple so it’s going to bend very and that’s going to continue all the way up the back, the chances of that being one of your key impact areas pretty slim.

If you look at the inner side of the boot you’re going to notice a few transitions. What you’ve got is a heat press texture and the reason that’s there is whenever you get in inclement weather, this leather can be quite slippery against the frame of the bike. It can let your foot move around a little bit so this texture will help you grip on to the bike and keep your foot from sliding around on that footpeg.

If it gets damp whenever you’re out riding, chances are if you’re an adventure writer you’re probably going to be riding into some nasty mucky stuff so it’s nice to have that on there.

In the toe boxes on the front of the boot, you’re going to notice that there is a symmetrical TPU on both of them. Only one of these is going to be utilized that’s going to be the one on the left of the boot. That is actually there to reduce any of the wear coming from that gear shifter.

Mile after mile after mile especially in technical stuff you’re probably going to be switching gears a whole lot, so this is going to help reduce any of that premature wear which could cause that boot to start to get uncomfortable.

Just to keep things symmetrical and keep the aesthetics going nice and smooth they just added one on the right-hand side as well, it doesn’t look too out of place still definitely fits in with the whole adventure setup.

Last thing I want to look at on the outside of the boot we’ve got hard toe boxes right up in the front if you tried it would be hard to push down on that leather, but if you wrap around to the side it requires a lot less pressure to cave that leather right in.

The reason that’s like that is that there’s a hard plastic casing underneath the leather on the inside of the boot, that’s for some serious impact resistance. If you’re in an adventure scenario, you happen to step off the bike and kick a rock you want something there protecting you. Similar to like steel-toed boots somebody would wear in an industrial environment these are going to flex a little bit more but still deflect a lot of that impact to the rest of the boot.

You’re going to see the same thing right around back on the heel, that heel cup you want to make sure it has tons of impact resistance as well so it gives you the support you need and it HAS that TPU liner there on the back as well.

And last but not least, on the outside, we’ve got the flexible blade. I don’t know where they came up with the name for it but its job is to make sure that we have movement front to back but, we do not have any movement side to side. It’s there to reduce any type of ankle injury.

You definitely want the mobility to be able to walk off of the bike and get around. If you’re on a technical section or you have to walk the bike around a trail, or an obstacle you want to be able to do that and you want to be able to move that ankle back and forth.

But, if you get into an accident you don’t want to roll that ankle so what this does is allow movement front to back. You will see that plastic moving within the casing on the top, what that’s going to allow is that full range motion front to back, but it’s going to limit it side to side. Once you start to roll to the side it’s going to catch on those casters on the inside and make sure that stops that rolling motion which could cause an ankle injury.

At the bottom, you can see the soles on these are a little bit more aggressive than your typical street boot but not so aggressive that they look like a real off-road motocross-style boot. We’ve got some large lugs on the sole AND that’s going to help you walk around in those nasty mucky conditions.

We’ve also got siping on every single one of those lugs, that’s going to help you get that traction in that really nasty stuff. We’ve also got a section basically where the heel goes all the way up almost to the pad on the ball of your foot.

Underneath we’ve got a shank that runs from front all the way to back and that’s going to provide a tremendous amount of support underneath. It limits the range that you can bend these boots, the soles on these boots do not bend a whole lot but it’s like that for a reason.

These are a boot made to be on a motorcycle that the rider is going to be standing up and positioning themselves for technical riding a lot so just like your off-road boots they’re not going to bend a whole lot. The same thing here on your adventure boots, they plan on you spending a lot of time standing on the pegs

They’ve got that shank in there to minimize any of that pressure transferring through to your arch and that nice flat area so you can move around on the peg and get into the position you need to maintain your balance and really get through those obstacles as quickly as possible.

The last thing we want to look at is the opening and on the inside, we’ve got a padded liner all the way around the inside. Underneath that padded liner, you have that dry star waterproof barrier that stuff is waterproof but it’s also breathable.

It will allow the sweat to evacuate out because the molecules in that moisture evaporating are smaller than a water droplet, but those water droplets aren’t going to get through that barrier that’s three layers thick. It’s going to be waterproof but it’s also going to keep your feet from sweating as much as it would with just a standard waterproof liner.

we’ve also got that nice cushioning all the way around, all the way down the backside to provide comfort. A nice wide opening so it’s going to be easy to get on and off.

Overall a great adventure-style boots but definitely on the taller end of the spectrum. If you wanted a shorter variation of a very similar boot you can go with Belize boot, if not, stick with these corals. These things are going to give you the protection you need for the serious adventure riders.

You can get these in brown or black, as far as the sizing goes a pair of size 9 fit on my feet but they were quite snug. If I bought the size 10 they’re going to be wide enough and I should be able to wear the thicker Motocross off-road style socks.

I’m going to go ahead and say these fit true to size so whatever size you normally wear go ahead and order them up and they should fit just perfect.

That’s it for my list of comfortable motorcycle boots for walking and thank you guys very much for reading.

The post Best Motorcycle Boots For Walking appeared first on Motorcycle Gear 101.

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fashiontrendin-blog · 7 years ago

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3 Makeup Enthusiasts on Why They Wear a Full Face

https://fashion-trendin.com/3-makeup-enthusiasts-on-why-they-wear-a-full-face/

3 Makeup Enthusiasts on Why They Wear a Full Face

A good portion of my mornings are spent trying to figure out a weather-appropriate and commuter-friendly outfit that communicates whatever nuanced (or not) version of my personality I want to project. I can leave the house in “jeans and a T-shirt” and be fine, but I feel at my best and most ready to charge forward into the exciting or terrifying unknown when I’m head-to-toe dressed. I’m sure we all have our version of this. Maybe for you, it’s washing your hair or brewing a pot of coffee.

For many women, it’s putting on makeup.

With Duality Month in mind, I spoke to three women who wear a full face of makeup every single day: liner, eyelashes, shadow — the works. In the same way a fully considered outfit makes me feel put together and confident, makeup, to these women, is like a coat of armor. We spoke about this coat of armor (two of them said makeup made them feel like a superhero): what it’s like to put it on and what it’s like to take it off. Below, they explain how wearing makeup makes them feel while revealing who they are as two different versions of themselves.

Zena Hanna, 31

When did you get into makeup?

I was in my early twenties. In high school and college, I didn’t really think about it. My mom wasn’t a full-face-of-makeup type of woman. She had perfect skin and for her it was all about the skincare — still is. My sister never wore any makeup either, so for me, a natural face was the only thing I knew.

Honestly, I started wearing full coverage foundation because I had a lot of facial hair and it made me super insecure. I’m Middle Eastern, so it was just something that ran in my genes! I felt like my facial hair was so bad that I’d wear turtlenecks and just cake on makeup because I was embarrassed by it. I’ve since done laser and my confidence has definitely gotten a boost.

What’s your relationship like with makeup today?

I love it. I love the femininity that surrounds it; I love the connection to other women when we talk about makeup or beauty tips. Also, makeup just makes me feel put-together.

I was talking to a friend of mine who’s a tattoo artist. She’s always decked out in the coolest jewelry, rings on rings, a septum piercing — and no makeup. (She looks beautiful. We all do. There’s no such thing as an ugly woman.) She thinks it’s funny that I don’t do my nails, don’t wear jewelry, none of those things — but that I do wear makeup, and feel weird without it. I was like, “Yeah, but what if you left the house without your jewelry on?” And she was like, “Yeah, I would feel weird.” That’s part of her identity and look. Whether it’s makeup or jewelry or clothes or shoes, it’s just another form of self-expression.

Tell me about your daily makeup routine.

I put on SPF tinted under-eye cream, then NARS foundation. I try to just use one drop because I don’t want to have a caked-on look. It’s full-coverage and it does a pretty good job. Then I blend it all together.

A friend of mine who works at L’Oréal gifted me the eyeshadow palette I used today, but I never normally wear eyeshadow; I just put bronzer on my eyelids. Then I put on my eyeliner that I’ve been using for I don’t even know how many years. It’s NYX. I never wear mascara because I hate taking it off. Then I do bronzer — right under my cheekbones and blend it in. Just one streak of the bronzer shade from Kat Von D’s contouring kit. (I couldn’t be bothered with the full-contour thing for very long.) After bronzer, a touch of blush, and then highlighter. I just got the Rihanna Fenty highlighter. It’s amazing. Then I mix it all together.

I always put on red lipstick for events, but then I would eat and it would come off and I’d be too lazy to put it back on. But then I went to the Glossier store and I got Generation Z in Zip. It literally feels like Chapstick, stays on and it’s super bright. My whole routine takes me five to seven minutes, and I try to keep it as low-maintenance as I can.

When do you go totally bare-faced?

At the beach. And even then, if there’s a tinted something, I’ll put it on because I want an even skin tone. If it’s the weekend and I’m just going somewhere local, I’ll leave it. When I travel I don’t wear as much makeup. Especially if it’s somewhere hot.

Makeup on or off, you’re still you. What would you say to someone who argues otherwise?

I think we have the freedom to do whatever the hell we want. You’re not wearing a mask [when you put on makeup]; you’re still very much visible to the entire world. If you feel like you want to hide, then you can address that in your own way with makeup too. But if makeup is someone’s [form of] self-expression, then let them do that. They’re not harming anybody.

Wearing red lipstick makes me feel really feminine. I feel sexy, and I don’t otherwise feel sexy all the time. If you don’t want to wear it, that’s great. You don’t have to. It’s amazing and commendable that you feel completely comfortable as you are in your own skin. That’s awesome and that’s something that we can all aspire to, but we also don’t have to.

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Follow Zena on Instagram @itszenahanna

Ty Lazauskas, 25

When did you get into makeup?

I grew up listening to David Bowie, and then the mid-2000s, the mall-emo thing happened. I got into this type of makeup when I bought my first My Chemical Romance album. Back in 2005, dramatic eyeliner was a big deal, and I saw people of all genders rocking makeup on MTV. It destigmatized the idea of makeup for me, and I HAD to have weird makeup like the glam bands and MySpace scene queens). I distinctly remember when I told my mom I couldn’t go to the eighth grade dance because I couldn’t find red eyeliner anywhere. I did crazy dramatic stuff and got sent to the principal’s office all the time. I was just like, “I’m going to wear bigger and bigger makeup until they don’t let me into class.”

What’s your relationship with makeup today?

I suffer from chronic illness, so waking up in the morning and seeing how tired I look bums me out. But when I put on makeup, I feel like I’m putting on dramatic face paint to deal with my day. I don’t really have a lot of control over how my body looks because chronic pain took that away from me, but I do have control over how much I put on my face or how I do my hair. Makeup makes me feel invincible, and like I can be out in the world and people will see as I want to be seen. It just makes me feel like a superhero, I guess. It helps me cover up how tired and painful my life is.

One of my best friends recently told me that skincare and makeup is witchy, and it’s so true. It sounds dramatic, but sometimes in the morning I’ll light a candle while I’m doing makeup and it feels ritualistic, in a way. I’m looking at my own face for 30 minutes and watching it transform from tired to fabulous and I really enjoy the process. Sometimes, when I’m really tired, I don’t, but I would say that 90% of the time I really enjoy the time it takes [to do my makeup]. I know there are shortcuts, but I don’t want to take them.

Tell me about your daily makeup routine.

I wake up at 5 a.m. every day and it takes me 20 to 30 minutes to do my makeup. Sometimes I’ll see something new on Instagram and I’ll try it. I got really into the last season of America’s Next Top Model and there was a girl who had fishtail eyebrows and I was doing that for a while so that would add five or ten minutes.

I usually start with foundation, then I do a contour every day. This is my everyday makeup. Then I put on two to three different types of eyeliner. Then I bake, which is when you press loose powder under your eye in a triangle. It helps keep your under-eye makeup in place and stops any eyeshadow that may fall from rubbing in. Then I do brows last, while I’m waiting for my mascara to dry. I don’t do lipstick every day just because I drink a lot of coffee. My coworkers will look in the dishwasher and be like “Okay, Ty, we know you’ve had four cups of coffee today because there are four cups with purple lipstick on them.” So I’ve cooled it with the lipstick. It’s 20 to 30 minutes start to finish.

I used to work in a doctor’s offices, and they would make passing comments about unprofessional makeup — but then I just got a new job. In my office now… nobody really cares. They’re all really sweet artistic people so they don’t really care what I wear or what I do, so I’m really lucky in that regard. My makeup is only a pain at work when we’re shooting on a rooftop in the summer and by the end of the day it’s a little melty.

When do you not wear makeup?

I think more people in my life have seen me naked than barefaced. Like, I think there are people who I consider to be best friends of mine who’ve seen me without makeup twice. But if they do, it’s usually at my place and we’re doing face masks or something. It just rarely happens. Even if I’m going to get groceries, I am done up. One of my best friends who’s a tattoo artist, she painted this quote for me and stuck it on a wall at her tattoo shop that says, “If you’re going to run into your ex, be wearing black lipstick.”

I’ve taken one picture of myself without makeup on, ever. So for this shoot, it was weird to be around people I’m just meeting and take everything off. Because of my illness, without makeup on, I’m more likely to hear people say that I look sick or tired, so when I am not wearing a full face of makeup, I feel more vulnerable. I won’t leave the house until I have makeup on. I would honestly rather go to the grocery store in my underwear than go to the grocery store without makeup on.

It’s kind of like David Bowie. He was never on stage without a getup. I just won’t leave the house until I have makeup on. I would honestly rather go to the grocery store in my underwear than go to the grocery store without makeup on.

Makeup on or off, you’re still you. What would you say to someone who argues otherwise?

Makeup makes me a different person in the same way that wearing business clothes might make someone a different person than they are at home in pajamas. People are more confident when they wear their favorite outfit or nice underwear.

It’s like the saying, “Confidence comes from within”: If I don’t personally think I look my best, I’m less likely put myself out there. I’m less likely to talk to strangers or engage with people when I don’t have makeup on. And I don’t think that means I’m two-faced. I think everyone has things like that. Confidence ebbs and flows throughout the day. For me, makeup is a booster. Something my therapist says all the time is, “We have no control over the things we feel, but we can control how we react to them.” And I feel that makeup helps me react to things better. It helps me be more deliberate. It effects how I engage in conversations with people and who I choose to talk to.

What’s it like when you take your makeup off? What’s the literal process like, and what’s it like emotionally?

When I’m lazy, I’ll just use a face cleanser and I’ll still have half my eyeliner on and just say fuck it. But I try to have a pretty exhaustive skincare routine because as I said before, skincare is witchy and I’m really into it. I try to do the two-step method where I do an oil cleanser and then a foaming cleanser because it’s the best way to get rid of makeup. And then when I’m feeling it, I like to do a face mask afterwards. Sometimes I do three face masks. And then after it all comes off and I put moisturizer on, I feel like a fresh new person. The feeling of wearing makeup is second only to how it feels to put on a shit ton of moisturizer and go to bed. I just feel like, “I’ll be so beautiful in the morning!” It’s just the promise of a beautiful tomorrow — I feel like rarely that’s the case, but it feels that way.

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Follow Ty on Instagram @sp_aceghost

LaShell Kao, 35

When did you get into makeup?

High school is when I started to wear makeup, but I started wearing a full face within the last couple of years.

What’s your relationship like with makeup now?

I don’t want to say it gives me confidence, because that sounds like I don’t have confidence without makeup, and I don’t think that’s the case. But it just prepares me for what’s happening. It gets me ready. Did you ever see Breakfast at Tiffany’s? When Audrey Hepburn’s character says, “A girl doesn’t read this sort of thing without her lipstick” at the end in the cab — I feel that way. If I’m about to meet someone and I’m terrified, I check my lipstick and just make sure everything’s in place.

I think I’m the same person with or without makeup on. Who am I with my makeup on? I want to say a superhero but I feel like that sounds kind of cheesy. That is kind of how I feel. That’s the first thing that comes to my mind.

Tell me about your daily makeup routine.

I wash my face, then put on sunblock, primer, and foundation. I wear Makeup Forever because it matches my skin tone. And then I contour. Then I use an eyeshadow palette to do the look I want depending on how I feel and what I’m doing. Sometimes on weekends, if I don’t have anything to do, I’ll test out new looks. The false eyelashes are recent. I saw people complete their looks with eyelashes on YouTube and thought it looked amazing. The first few times I felt ridiculous, and then it took so long to do and it was a pain in the butt, but now, I pop them on quickly and I feel kind of weird without them. Now that it’s getting really hot though, I may have to stop.

I know a lot of people who don’t like the process of putting makeup on. I really, really do. I sit down, I have everything laid out. It’s very ritualistic. And I won’t leave the house without having done my makeup done. I’ll go to the store or something like that [without it on], but if I’m going anywhere else, I will not leave the house without it.

I wake up at 4:50 a.m., but that’s just so I don’t have to rush. I have to be at work by 8. I can do my makeup in about 40 minutes. I once saw a girl on the train do her entire face of makeup and I thought it was amazing. For me though, it’s very private. I don’t even like putting lipstick on in front of people. It’s a private thing to me.

What’s it like when you take your makeup off? What’s the literal process like, and what’s it like emotionally? So when do you not wear makeup?

Honestly, as soon as I get home, I take it off. I just take a shower and wash it all away. In my house, I’m barefaced all the time. I kind of feel like: Okay, we’re done with this day and it all goes down the drain. I wash my hair and everything and I just let it go. I’m happy to take it off at the end of the day. Not that it’s a burden, but at the end of the day, I’m happy that it’s done.

Makeup on or off, it’s still you, but what would you say to someone who says otherwise?

I do have a fear that someone will say, “You wear makeup because you have low self-esteem,” or something like that. But that’s not the case. It’s just fun. That’s it. It’s like art. We wear clothes to make us feel better. Our faces are kind of the same.

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Follow LaShell on Instagram @dottie_hills

Photographed by Grace Rivera.

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historicbrewer · 7 years ago

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Brewing In Period

I have been trying to brew as accurately as I can using tools and techniques from the middle ages and into early colonial America. From some of my research I have found that there are not many differences between advances in brewing from the middle ages into the 1700s, although one big difference is the availability of cast iron in colonial America.

Picture 1. This is my set up when I do demos for local historic societies as well as my demos and brewing for a medieval society I belong to called the SCA. One of my passions is examining brewing equipment and how it changed during these time periods. From my research and from talking to metalsmiths and potters, really the only viable pots for brewing in the middle ages was copper, copper/metal blends such as lead and nickel, and earthen ware. The reason for this is that the metalsmiths in Europe could not “cast Iron’ into large pots and most of the steel being produced was being used for weapons and armor. There is some evidence of iron being pieced and bolted together but according to some scholars, these pieces leaked terribly. Although cast Iron pots were not being used in Europe there is evidence of its use in the Orient during the middle ages.

As far as clay goes it probably was not used often to brew beer for a few reasons. First of all it takes very special clay to be used near or in fire. Also, since most of the medieval recipes we have found are being made in large quantities, (i.e. hogsheads and barrels), it is unlikely that beer was brewed in pottery because large pottery vessels were not successfully made in Europe because they broke or cracked when heated. Some clay vessels may have been used to store beer but according to most potters, large vessels used near heat were almost impossible to make.

The recipe I used for this batch was 10lbs of 6 row (Which I have 4 archeological references of its use in the middle ages), I used Tettnang hops, which was grown in Germany and there is some evidence of its use during the middle ages, water from the site, and I did pitch an American Ale yeast because that is what I had on hand. I would have preferred using English ale yeast and plan to do that next time I brew. The site I brewed at is the Colonial Plantation at Ridley Creek State Park. The kitchen I used and that part of the building was built around the 1790′ s. The hearth is amazing and puts off an incredible amount of heat. I pull excellent boils using that kitchen. As you can see in picture 2 I used an 8 gallon copper kettle for the main boil and a 6 quarts clay cauldron in which I boiled a small ale I took from the main batch.

Picture 3 and 4 Here is a picture of my 7 gallon copper mash tun and a 5 gallon bucket to collect the wort. A small mash tun like this was not common if ever used at all but it is the closest thing I can use to make small batches in a period fashion. This set up could have been used by a tavern owner who brewed his own beer but there is evidence of alewives and commoners using a communal brewing set up that could hold large batches and then the community would take their brew back to their homes. Some large estates may have had these large brew houses on site but it is commonly believed that there were communal brewing set ups in villages and towns. I believe that when cast Iron was more common later in the colonial era it was easier to make beer in the homes like so many tales we have heard told.

Since there is no use of thermometers in the middle ages as of yet I use my senses to tell when the proper mash temperature is. When I see the first haze of steam over the surface of the wort and when I can dip my thumb into the wort and its just about too hot to keep in is when I know the temperature is right for the mash. I did use a thermometer to measure this temperature in the past and found it ranged from 135-160 degree. Remember we do not want boiling water over the grain for it can give off flavors and scorch it. I let this steep for a time (Usually 1-2 hours) and then begin the sparge by pulling up the stick from the hole in the mash tun slightly letting the wort through and trying to keep the grain in the tun. I added more hot water over the grain bed using the same method I used for the original.

(Picture 5) I collect the wort and put it back in the brew pot, bringing it to a boil and adding my first hop addition. (1oz at first boil 1 oz. last 5 minutes). I let boil for a time (1-2 hours), added my last hop addition and let cool. Take notice I placed the clay pot on the side. The potter who made this 13th century replica, told me it would be ok right on the fire. I put it on the fire and when I lifted it off, two of the three legs had come off. So when you use clay do not put it on the fire but use indirect heat. You may not get a good boil but you may save your pot. I let this cool over night. I then added my US05 Safeale Yeast and stir the wort. (Please note there is no such thing as a hydrometer in the middle ages. There is evidence of brewers floating an egg to check to see if fermentation is done but I almost always use a hydrometer for two reasons. First and foremost for safety. When you bottle beer, the gases have no way to escape and you literally create glass grenades. Secondly, I like to know how well my mash went in collecting the sugars. In this experiment I got 7.5% ABV for my primary batch but only 2.8% ABV for my small ale. My demo ran a bit long and they were wrapping up so I had to cut short the mash and brew time. I believe I could have gotten another percent or two if I had the time.

I let these batches ferment in plastic buckets this time. I do have some barrels but I was not comfortable using them yet because I wanted these batches to turn out and see how it tastes as well as have a better chance for a cleaner product. In the future I plan to use barrels and clay fermenters so that the entire process is in period.

I have never tried 6 row beer and I was pleasantly surprised by the flavor profile of these ales. A bit more grainy then 2 row and I had an incredible smoke flavor profile. The small ale was very pleasant and light. These beers are ok tasting and drinkable. Not bad for a very basic period recipe and almost entirely period brewing.

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