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pudding-parade · 2 years ago

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Louisiana by MURPHTHESURF

"But Pudding," you say, "why do I need another swamp world when I have Twinbrook?" To which I say, "Because this one is better."

It's an unpopulated 1024x1024 world, with about 60 total lots, fairly evenly split between residential and community lots. It has a lot of spawners, particularly rock/gem ones, but it has all of them except the Island Paradise and Into the Future ones. Despite the name of the world, I don't think it particularly looks like Louisiana, other than it has lots of water/wetlands. There are lots of fog emitters. You can almost smell the methane.

The lots are either EA lots (possibly edited; I'm not familiar enough with them to judge) or ones that the creator downloaded from other creators and then placed in the world. In particular, many of the lots were created by ruthless_kk, who creates very nice, very detailed, cc-free lots. The creator has meshed the lots together pretty well, so that the world feels cohesive even though the lots came from many different sources. And the scenery that the creator built is lovely.

The world has no CC. As far as I can tell, the Store content that it has is mostly in the lots created by ruthless_kk, and it's all just decorative stuff, so if you don't have it, it's probably not a big deal. Beyond that, I'm pretty sure it requires all EPs except Into the Future. It also needs the Town Life stuff pack because it uses the gym lot from that pack, so if you don't have that pack, that lot will have the wrong windows, and the equipment will be replaced with base game stuff, etc. If you don't have that pack and don't want to fix the lot, you could just plunk down a different gym instead.

There's more pics and info behind the cut, but first: As usual, the title of this post is a link to the world's incredibly useless Exchange page. If you'd rather not deal with the Exchange/the launcher/sims3packs, I have upload a .world file here. If you download the .world file it goes in your game install files under GameData - Shared - NonPackaged - Worlds.

First up, some Edit Town/map view pics of the world. Each set shows roughly half of the world.

Basically, one half is the more "urban" part and the other half is more rural. So, you can have your sim live in one of the Late Night apartments in the city part. Or they can live in a nice little farm like this one...

...which is set up as a winery. Or they can live in lovely Victorian/Second Empire house like the one in the pic above the cut, of which there are several in the world. Or they can live in...

...a swamp shack, complete with its own dumpster and a bayou "beach" in the back. Or they can live in...

...an ultra-modern place? Yeah, there are two such lots and while they are very nice lots, I don't think they fit in all that well. If I was playing the world I'd replace them. But, if you like ultra-modern houses, there you are.

The world doesn't have an abundance of houses, but the houses that it has are all fully furnished and ready to go, and there are definitely enough of them to get you started. There are a number of empty lots, particularly in two areas of the world that are somewhat unfinished. There are also areas where it would be easy to add new lots. All of which you might want to do because the world has only two lots that are starter-priced, and the swamp shack above is not one of them. The lot on the right side of this pic is one of them:

So, if you aren't as liberal with the free real estate cheat as I am, you might need more starter lots. But if you are liberal with free real estate, here are a few more of your options:

And here are a few non-EA community lots:

This is a dive bar with a junkyard theme, complete with junk piles in back. (There is an actual junkyard, too.) It has a professional bar, seating, and shuffleboard. Other entertainment in the world includes a a disco, a fusion lounge, and a dance club. It does have the "event center" from Showtime but no other Showtime venues, so those would need to be added if you want to play the Showtime careers.

This is a nectary, though it's designated as a small park. It has all the grape plants, a little place for weddings, nectar sales, a nectar-making machine, and a "restaurant" with a food register and a buffet table. I'm pretty sure this lot is placed backwards, though, because the back of it faces the road. I don't know if this was done deliberately, but I think it would look better flipped around.

This is a little comic shop, in a more unfinished section of the city part of the world. It has the science objects from University Life on the top floor.

Other community lots in the world are:

Festival (the Sunset Valley one)

A Chinese garden

A fire station

A gym

A consignment shop

A small resort

A salon

Several parks/fishing spots, including the butterfly dome from Bridgeport

So, there are some common lot types missing -- a beach, a library, a public pool, etc. -- but since there are a good number of empty lots in the world, these could be added, whether you build them yourself or plop down EA or downloaded ones.

Overall, this is a nice world. Parts of it are unfinished with some empty lots placed but not much else. There are some lots that have community designations but are empty. (For instance, there's a lot designated as a public pool, but it's empty.) But the scenery is quite beautiful, and if you need a smallish, ready-to-play world, this might be one for you, especially if you happen to like Victorian-style houses.

We'll finish off with some more scenery pics, because it's a pretty world.

#sims 3 #sims 3 pictures #world overview #world overview wednesday #sims 3 scenery

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oonajaeadira · 2 years ago

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Hi lovely! Hope you're doing swell!

I'm coming in hot with an unsolicited Pats question for you - because I literally cannot think about anything but how BAD he has it for Preciosa - so I hope you don't mind.

I've been wondering about his other clients. What is he like with them and how does it compare to what he's like with his #favoriteclient ? Do any of them notice anything different in the way he is with them since he's started letting himself get closer to Miss Thursday? And while I'm here... Do any of them ever communicate with Shell after she sends them to his door, or is that a hard line she doesn't cross?

Hello, bby. Thank you for coming in hot. It is so very cold outside right now that I live for any kind of heat. ANY.

I recognize that you sent this ask before the great "Let's Try This" thing they've started up, but it still applies. The short answer is, it doesn't change much in the way you'd think, but so much more in other ways. And the long answer is down below.

And while I have YOU *huggle*...Shell gets her fair share of gift baskets and special perks, some mysterious VIP treatments and really grand bouquets. But once she's sent a potential client his way and they've been accepted and treated, if they ever run into her again to thank her, well. She generally just gives them a sly little half smile and tells them, "That sure sound's wonderful, hon, but I'm sure I don't have any idea what you're talking about."

Speaking of other clients...

Kiss and Tell: It's Still About You (GTTT PATS)

FANDOM: Calls - Apple TV (PATS is a character from ep. 3. “Pedro Across the Street.” This is not RPF.)

As with all of my PATS installments, warnings abound for explicit content.

He can feel his eyebrows pulling together at the blue and purple blemish that’s interrupting the precious dimples in his client’s thigh. His fingers trace around it for a moment before he circles the table to her other side to the bruise he noticed on her knee a few minutes ago...and a couple near her elbow. These have more green in them, further along in healing.

Running his hands over her soft, bare belly, pushing gently to move and work the holding muscles there, he watches her face. Jaw relaxed. Eyelashes feathering over the apples of her cheeks. She’s got nice, ample breasts and he’s gentle as he works his oiled hands around them. She doesn’t flinch, just relaxes into his touch, total trust.

That’s a good sign. Still. Just to make sure he asks, “You feel safe at home?”

“Hmm?” Her mermaid blue eyes drift open in wakening confusion.

“You have some pretty heavy bruises today and I noticed a few on you last time. Just wanna check in.”

Smiling and letting her eyes drift closed, she melts herself back into the table. “Eh. I’m just a danger to myself. I bruise easily and have no idea where half of them come from half the time. I’m a walking billboard for the Klutz Lifestyle.”

“Okay…” his voice isn’t as confident as his hands, but he has to trust her.

“But thank you,” she laughs lightly, punctuating her self-condescending remarks, “Really. I promise you, Mitch questions them too. He keeps threatening to make me a suit out of bubble wrap and duct tape. I told him gray’s not my color.”

This makes him chuckle as he dips his fingers between her legs. “Looks like you’re good and ready for hour two. Wanna move on over to the bed?” Holding her hand as if she’s a princess descending a carriage, he guides her, taking note of her hazy, relaxed smile. “Sounds like you’ve got yourself a good husband.”

“Yeah. He’s playing online with his buddies tonight. Sends his love. And his thanks. He likes the things you teach me.”

“On your stomach, legs together. Gonna try something new. Show you a few ways to take care of those knees when they’re bruised.”

As she slides onto the sheets, he takes note of the bruise on her thigh so he won’t grab it accidentally when he’s in his throes, pushing gently at her skin and curves, sweeping her pink and green hair off her back, just making a final check to make sure he didn’t miss any other sore spots. He runs his hand lightly down to pat her soft ass, bringing forth the most satisfying jiggle from below and her pillow-muffled giggle from above.

Sliding a condom out of the bedside table-drawer, he prepares it and sheathes himself as he explains, “My girlfriend gets mystery bruises too. Happens when she’s in a hurry. Instead of slowing down, she just keeps moving and says ‘that’ll leave a bruise’ out loud. Says it helps stick the moment in her brain so when she finds the bruise later she’ll remember where it came from. If she slows down for a second then it’s in the forefront of her mind so she can grab something cold to ice it as soon as possible. Cuts down on the severity and the duration of the bruise. I recommend trying it.” Rolling the condom down to his base, he mounts the bed and straddles her legs, pulling her cheeks apart and exposing her more sensitive parts, blowing gently and smiling when she clenches. “After you recognize the pattern of how you’re getting hurt, you can start protecting and correcting your actions. I’m not a doctor, but I might also recommend talking to one about getting more sun and more vitamin K. Water’s your friend. I’ll mark your chart.”

She giggles low and pleasingly in her throat. “I didn’t know you had a girlfriend. Is that new?”

“Relatively.”

“Does she know you do this?”

He lines himself up, her breath hitching a beat as he slides his tip around her opening. This one’s a talker, loves chatter in bed, but he always likes to see what can throw her off her game. “She’s very aware.”

“Mmmmm. That’s nice. She must be pretty cool. Lucky you.”

Without answering, he slides in and she gives him a silken moan. When she turns her head to the side, he can just make out her smile through her splayed hair. The client is happy. Melting. She clearly feels better than when she came in. And she’ll go home to her husband and show him these techniques and they’ll enjoy them. She’s come so far since her first session months ago. He did that. Does that. Is doing it. It makes him rock hard. He’s so fucking good at this and he knows it.

And you know it. You know it and you don’t ask him not to.

He refrains from speaking further about you. There are private lines he doesn’t cross for the good of everyone. It’s fitting for some of his more trusted clients to know he has his own attachments and that everything is open and honest; that they themselves and their sessions aren’t a cause of any possible trouble. But they don’t need to know anything about him or about you beyond that. You are his treasure, his alone. He’s going to keep your understanding and your trust like a jewel tucked in close to the chest, handle you preciously, take joy in your generosity.

He does not answer the client. Not out loud. But as he takes in her satisfaction and triumphs in his own skills, he closes his eyes and angles his chin to the ceiling, sighing a silent prayer, “You have no fucking idea.” _____

Your phone rings as you’re putting a load of laundry into the dryer.

“Hey there, loverboy. I thought you had a client tonight.”

“I do. She’s sleeping. What are you up to?”

There’s a confidence in his voice as he speaks that sparks something in your core, an easy, non-apologetic tone, a man talking to his girl with nothing to hide. It’s not exactly easy yet, knowing he is intimate with so many others, but he doesn’t speak about them with regret or shame, only the professional respect and demeanor you’ve spent so many months admiring, and that helps immensely.

It’s the first time he’s called you immediately after a session though. And you find that you like it. A lot. Just because he was servicing someone doesn’t mean he’s not thinking of you.

“Laundry. Not as fulfilling as your evening. But hey, clean sheets are always very relaxing.”

“Sounds nice. Those the floral ones?”

“Uh..” How did he…oh. That time he took care of you when you were sick. He must have seen them then. “Yeah.”

“Hmm.” He’s silent for a moment, you can tell he’s gearing up to ask you something. You’ve learned to wait, although it’s still hard to anticipate the best case scenario. “I…don’t mean to invite myself over, but would you mind if I mess them up a little this weekend?”

And you laugh. Another win for the best case scenario. “I mean, you could mess them up a lot this weekend if you wanted.”

“Yeah? There a time that works best? Or should I just pull in the welcome mat and have my neighbor watch for packages?”

And you smile, remembering that it’s only been a couple of days since your first weekend together, wandering his house in nothing but togas made of rumpled sheets, spending much of it wound up in his arms, on your back, curled up napping on the couch with the tv on, sipping coffee sitting side by side on his kitchen counter….

“I’d tell you to pack a bag, but you’re not really going to need clothes. This time you’re mine, loverboy.”

______

MASTERLIST

SERIES MASTERLIST

#good things take time #pedro across the street #calls fanfiction #21

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chuck-e-cheese-anime-faces · 1 year ago

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I wouldnt have thought that at all because i only ever associate that specific synth instrument with arthur background music and also just pre schooler shows in general by extension because of arthur (all his fault.).

Because i used to always consider it a preschool show even though it can be but isnt necessarily its just always played alongside all linds of primarily pre school shows or so i remember kids in preschool always said i was too old for those shows by the age of 5 i think that was it but either way i always took it to heart and was able to put it in practice when i remembered using directv for the first time when we got it installed which i think was around the same time. Well actually, it was directv with tivo i think because i remember the living room and parents room having both having tivo but the channel numbers were the same as directv even tho i thought tivo was just a separate cable provided. But it would make sense if it wss just a company tht like, attached itself to other cable providers to provide a service (digitally automatic tv recording easy to access, navigate to favorite shows, prioritize recording w the 1-3 thumbs up/down system, as well as to even mark which shows and even individual episodes you liked or hated so when ur navigating channel guide you can be like "Oh shit that episode was a really good one, either someone else may have put that rating there to passively reccomend it, or i saw this show/episoslde before and i liked it!!" Or "aw yeah. Theres a bad ep of power puff girls on in a couple hours, myst be one with the rowdyruff boys or that episode with that gross fucking kid who kept trying to kiss them god i fucking hate that episode so much jesus christ but if it was tbat one it would probly have 3 thumbs down and that one only has 1."

Anyways pls dont get the wrong idea tivo is not one of my special interests or current hyperfixations at least not rn im just reminiscing and thinking back to how clearly i rmemeber it and i also really really liked how the interface looked w the calming green backgrounds and the very 2000s sorta like..chic sorta style in a way like idk how to explain it its like the kinda interface i would see on the tv at a pretty new and expensive hotel and the sfx were fun too tivo was fucking awesome)

Anyway i would know immediately which channels were ones like both est and pst channels of nickelodeon and also nicktoons which i watched the shit out of which kind of sorta was something tht in a way kiiinda made me a 90s kid which i TECHNICALLY am but not rlly cuz i was alive in the 90s for like 9 months cuz i was born in 99 (huh thats a lotta 9s in that sentence). But i hated preschool shows for a while kinda partially becuase i didnt really like, allow myself to enjoy them, so as u can imagine the channel noggin that lied between the nick feeds and nicktoons was like a little hurdle to jump over to get to the good shit. And yeah that channel had no goddamn thing for me like til some time noon or afternoon they became "The N" which was a bunch of mostly degrassi teen shows that were heavily if not all live action so i did not care for them at all because i just wanted my goddamn toooooooons.

Speakin o toonami, which was on cartoon network, for a time i kinda hated the cartoon network for like, no clear reason tbh. All the way up until at least age 10 or 11. I think it was cuz i associated it with my first cousin once removed (it thats what you call a cousins kid) who i had jind of a rough relationship with because he was just 2 years younger than me and overall i didnt have a good start with him as he was a baby / toddler like i remember him sorta antagonizing me for fun i think as a thing toddlers can do but i really hated it like i dostinctly remember this one night when the family was hangin out at someplace we were sitting on the couch and yells something and then just throws his fuckin bottle at me and it hurt like hell and cried and on top of that he got a lot more stuff he wanted than me like i remember my cousin (his dad) just one time told me they get him whatever he wants and for that i also resented him because i had been taught not to be spoiled so i felt jealous and so i was kinda short with him growing up and i feel bad for it but it was really not necessarily anyones fault it had to do with our situations tbh and it was so long ago when we didnt know as much about many things. Anyways he watched cartoon network a lot and i think i jjst realized THATs why i started not likeing cartoon network a lot because i rmemeber before then i did watch it a lot i loved dexter and the powerpuff girls (first ever crushes for me im pretty sure) and id get to see some scooby doo where are you before mom would drive me to school from place where we were, id be having shredded tuna for breakfast a lot of days because i really liked it.

But yeah i think it just so happened to be righf around the same time when i was getting to know my first cousin once removed or "nephew" as i would refer to him because they always referred to us as uncle and nephew fsr maybe its cuz it sojnded cooler to them than first cousin once removed. Anyways yeah right around then i just started not liking shit like dexter and even powerpuff girls, powerpuff girls in particular might have also been because kids at my school would call it a girls show for girls fhat could have also played into that but i also just do remember being heavily disillusioned and just not liking cartoon network, somehow i couldnt really see exactly why for a while, but i think thats gotta be it. The same kinda happened with toon disney, which i also would watch, and eventually disney in general. Like i just started arvitrarily hating everything disney for good long while, and i think from there i just would have some continuous brand hatred. I rememver like, the big 3 i hated were disney (which idk if i mentioned but now that i think abt it i think i also associated tht with my "nephew" because they werent a HUGE disney family but they did go to disney a lot and had a lot of disney stuff so they were at least good fond of disney, toon disney also may factor into this the inital hatred because i think i associate it with nephew and remmeber one night when me n him watched it at other cousins house (so his ant btw) and i remember it not going well maybe.), cartoon network, and starting later than those, or at least later than disney general hatred, was toaster strudel hate because i saw commercials of them dissing pop tarts and acting like the superior breakfast toaster pastry and because of that there was a long time i just fucking hated toaster strudels and just pilsbury in general befause thats the company that made them, all because they had to diss the shit out of pop tarts, a breakfast pastry that i wasnt even huge on before i saw those toaster strudel commercials. I think it was because of like, how mean i perceived these commercials to be, cuz i hadnt seen commercials take the shit outta other products like that. Like i think i saw poptarts as some kinda downtrodden friend who got hurt by toaster strudels. Later felt the same about sega when i saw a lot of sega v nintendo ads on youtube late 2000s because they were being mean and i didnt like it. Also object sympathy n shit too.

Okay i derailed the fuck out of that but basically what i was originally trying to get at was that i always considered pbs kids a preschool channel. It might actually be because even though shows like arthur were kinda targeted older kids than toddler and preschool, it would air on the same channel and block as shows like sesame street which were kinda primarily targeted at toddler and preschool kids. And for years because of all that whenever i heard about anyone watching arthur any older than 6 or so i found it strange ljke "was i tbe only one that thought this???" And i mean i think it was i dont remember anyone sayin this other than the preschool kids. Another thing tho, i rmemeber at age 5 or 6 i was old enough to not use a booster seat in tbe car anymore and the day i turned that age i wanted to get rid of it because in my mind i was TOO old for it as soon as i could not have it. Even though later on via tht PSA tht were disney cinderella themed about booster seats said all kids need a booster seat til theyre 4'9" to stay safe but i always ignored that shit and so did my and probbably other parents cuz the kids wouldnt wanna go back into a booster seat and feel even younger and thus less independent or whatever. But the thing is, i watched shit like spongebob a lot after the preschool shows even though IT was on the same channel as all the nick jr shows but thing is that was separated in its own block, so i could better separate it from the rest of the programming on the network. To this day it always feels weird when ppl say blues clues n dora are "Nickelodeon" shows and not Nick Jr shows to me its like saying full house and george lopez and glenn martin dds are nickelodeon shows ykwis.

Anyways im sad that i set up this arbitrary age limit for myself for watching shows i deemed "preschool" shows, whether it be because o shit the preschool peeps told me or becuase the car seat age or both (probly both some way) but i was sad to not have actually enjoyed those shows a little longer amd kinda just convinced myself to hate relatively kinda early on or at least it seems earlier than other peeps ive heard from, but this goes ESPECIALLY so for arthur becuas that show was p good and had a lot of messages for older kids. But if there was a separate NAMED block on the channel specifically for shit like sesame street and caillou and teletubbies then i think i would not have necessarily considered pbs kids a preschool network because thats not rlly what it was, just what i had known it for. If they followed nickelodeons steps w the nick jr shit then i couldve watched it longer but also i shouldna been believein such silly shit about age limits to watch thems kids shows in the first place.

So yeah this synth instrument always just feels like arthur to me and hard to think of it as anything else sometimes because thats where i first heard it and for a long long time never really heard it anywhere else. So i didnt feel this scene was very homoerotic like RIGHT off the top of my head, i mean i did get that feelin but not immediately. I guess when i saw it i was just like oh thats nice moment and kinda innocent and friendly, like a preschool show is.

the 4kids dub for one piece is a mess for a number of reasons but literally what the fuck was this music they added in here

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aggressiveglockenspiel · 3 years ago

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okay so i had already watched grian, scar + zed’s recent episodes, so mumbo’s ep 30 didn’t give me much new information, but it did allow me to think over theories i already had pending:

mumbo said he “traded souls” with grian when he recapped, does that mean that grian has mumbo’s soul and mumbo has grian’s now? if that “trade” turned mumbo human again (or as human as he can get with The Waffle), does that now mean that grian has mumbo’s potato/golden carrot/pork soul? and if that is the case, then why hasn’t grian changed to reflect that? perhaps may i bring to the table Shapeshifter!Grian, with his trademark ‘thing’ being the waffle? (what i am just trying to get at here is. Not Quite Human Grian)

i am so glad that mumbo brought up the “moon is getting closer” thing, because that is what i was ALSO thinking. the moon is getting closer an closer with each installment and i haven’t been keeping up with evil x lore but... seems a little Odd if you ask me. time for the alien arc of hermitcraft season 8! /hj

mumbo just really lives up to his “killsalot” name with the “spear” thing, huh. i think that porkboy transformation may have affected him permanently

scar is being affected by our beloved eldritch boatem hole. discuss.

okay but seriously - i love the little thing of flying past people and punching them as a sign of friendship, but also consider the way that a lot of boatem have been just randomly punching the others recently, and not just in fly-bys, usually in an out of the blue moment that appears a bit out of character and without any meaning. from my knowledge, scar has done it to both grian (when blowing up the ‘buy at boatem’ boat with tango) and mumbo (this ep), and grian did it to mumbo before he rated his trees )and thus signed his soul away)

it was pearl’s company sportshorse (pearlescent moove out of the way) was the one that tried to push mumbo into the boatem hole in his ep 28 (which was the final thing that made me go: yep, the boatem hole is a definitely living eldritch being). it was also pearl’s sportshorse that got trapped in the garage door when mumbo tried to get his out to get to scar. there’s definitely a connection there between that horse trying to kill mumbo via the boatem hole and that same horse getting trapped/almost killed by one of mumbo’s contraptions. i’m not saying it’s mumbo doing anything, i just saying there’s a connection there...

(sidenotes: i also do a-level english and tbh... yeah it would take me a little while to properly name an adjective akjfndkjhfsd)

so Yeah my littol boatem lore brain is going rabid over this....... give me Lore

#okay wow sorry for the Long Post #i just had a lot to say obviously LMAO #sighs i just love the boatem crew so much #boatem lore is just so interesting #boatem lore my beloved #jessjamie thoughts #lore rambles #boatem crew #boatem hole #boatem #hermitcraft #hermitblr #mumbo jumbo #mumbo #grian #goodtimeswithscar

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violethowler · 4 years ago

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A Guide to the Galaxy Garrison

Last Updated: 05/28/2023

To go along with my meta last year piecing together every known detail about the timeline of Voltron: Legendary Defender, I’m now going to attempt to do the same with everything we know about the Galaxy Garrison and how it operates.

Part I: Location and Jurisdiction

When looking at what we know about the Galaxy Garrison, one of the first and most important things to take into account is the scope and jurisdiction of its operations.

Because Voltron is an American show and the main Garrison base is located in the US (Keith’s Blue Lion Search Board shows a map of the Grand Canyon National Park in Arizona), most fanfic that I’ve seen portrays the Garrison as an American space agency with bases all over the world much like how the US military has installations in other countries IRL.

But as far as official VLD canon, very little information is given in the show itself.

However, the EPs have provided enough info about the Earth of VLD that we can start to fill in some of the gaps:

In two separate interviews with Inverse.com following the release of Seasons 6 and 7, the showrunners have described Earth as one that is more progressive, peaceful and united, where things like war and international conflict are a distant memory.

Here is their post-Season 6 interview [01]:

“We discussed an Earth where borders weren’t a thing anymore,” Montgomery tells Inverse. “Everyone travels freely. We like this idea of a much more peaceful Earth where countries are open.”

“We never dove deep into it, but we had conversations about how we see the world in the time of Voltron,” adds Dos Santos. “Earth stands united. Inner Earth fighting and borders, all these B.S. constructions we come up with, are a thing of the past.”

And here’s the post-Season 7 one [02]:

As they told Inverse last time in regards to Lance’s Cuban heritage, Earth has become so progressive and open that welcoming space aliens is no big deal. “We tried to set up a world that is, hopefully a little further along than the one we currently reside in,” says Montgomery. “Minds are a little more open.”

Sure, there’s still some hard-nosed skepticism — the character of Admiral Sanda is meant to represent those views — but Earth, in the world of Voltron, has gotten over things like differences.

“There is a generational peace that can be hand between aliens and Earth. Humans being a peace-loving race. If there’s evil aliens, yeah they’ll fight back, but we have so much crap happening in the real world we didn’t want to go far too into it in this show.”

A throwaway line about a “World War III” may have more impact than viewers may assume. “We didn’t work out the logistics of World War III in the writer’s room, we kept it nice and nebulous,” Dos Santos says, “We knew it was something that happened and led to everybody on the planet realizing war sucks. We’re one Earth.”

Dos Santos’ comment about how World War III “led to everybody on the planet realizing war sucks. We’re one Earth” indicates that Earth in VLD is heavily demilitarized. Combined with the fact that no one at the Garrison ever considers the possibility of coordinating or asking for help from other military organizations, and this all implies that in addition to being a space exploration program, the Galaxy Garrison also functions as Earth’s primary defense force in the event of First Contact with hostile alien life.

This is nothing new for stories set in space, as Starfleet has similar dual roles of exploration and defense in the Star Trek franchise [03]. And during Sendak’s invasion in The Last Stand: Part 2, Veronica is shown attempting to contact bases on the east coast of the US as well as Russia, China, India, and “all of western Europe.” Combined with the fact that the Garrison clearly recruits from multiple countries (see: Lance being from Cuba), and Voltron shows us without saying a word that the Garrison is an organization with international reach and jurisdiction.

Part II: Internal Hierarchy

Now that we’ve laid out the Garrison’s affiliation and jurisdiction, let’s take a look at how the Garrison is organized internally. In this section, I will be breaking down the specific hierarchy of the different ranks and positions within the Garrison.

The leadership of the Garrison is laid out subtly in The Last Stand: Part 1, when Sanda tells Sam that “the Joint Chiefs are eager to hear what you have to tell us.”

In real life, the Joint Chiefs of Staff are the body of the most senior uniformed leaders within the US Department of Defense who advise the President, the Secretary of Defense, and other US agencies on military matters [04].

In the future of VLD, Sanda’s use of the name indicates that the Joint Chiefs of the Garrison serve as the overseeing body for the entire organization, and likely have a similar advisory relationship with Earth’s civilian government. This is supported by the fact that Sanda mentions having to report Shiro’s illness to “Flight Command” in A Little Adventure, indicating the existence of an outside body that provides oversight for Garrison missions.

Sanda’s reference to Galaxy Garrison’s Joint Chiefs as “us” indicates that Sanda herself is considered part of this body. The lack of any reference to senior officers of equal or greater rank with the authority to overrule her decision to keep the imminent Galra invasion secret from the people of Earth indicates that as the Admiral, Sanda is the highest person within the Garrison’s hierarchy and head of Galaxy Garrison.

The fact that no one mentions a headquarters to contact during The Last Stand: Part 2, and Part 1 depicts Sanda having an office at the Arizona facility indicates that the Garrison base we see on the show is the organization’s main headquarters. However, Shiro’s comments about Iverson “calling in the big guns” and Admiral Sanda showing up to convince Sam to remove him from the Kerberos mission indicate that Sanda is not normally involved in day to day operations like preparations for the Kerberos mission.

Iverson’s mention of Sanda having wartime authorization in The Last Stand: Part 2 helps support the indication that while Sanda and the Joint Chiefs oversee the Garrison as a whole, Iverson is the one in charge of the day to day operations at the Arizona base.

The exact ranks for the other officers present during Sam Holt’s debriefing with the Joint Chiefs of the Garrison is unknown, but from tracking how Shiro’s uniform is shown to change from 2 stripes to 4 over the course of his on-screen career, we can determine that the number of stripes on the shoulders of Garrison uniforms correspond to different tiers of rank.

Every officer present at the debriefing in The Last Stand: Part 1 except for Admiral Sanda has 3 stripes on the shoulders of their uniform.

The only other character with more than 3 stripes besides Admiral Sanda is Shiro, who is only seen wearing 4 stripes on his organic shoulder in his uniform as Captain of the IGF Atlas. In real life naval ranks, Captain is higher than Commander but lower than Admiral [05]. Since Sam and Iverson are both specifically identified as commanders at other points in the series, this indicates that all of the Joint chiefs of the Garrison hold the rank of Commander.

The Last Stand: Part 1 also identifies that Shiro held the rank of Lieutenant on the Kerberos mission, and his mission photo when Pidge sees the crew declared missing during the flashback in Tears of the Balmera shows him with three stripes on his uniform. However, the flashbacks in A Little Adventure show his uniform with two stripes until the scene where Sam argues with Sanda to allow him to pilot the Kerberos mission. This indicates that Shiro received his third stripe (and was submitted for consideration to be on the Kerberos team) when he was promoted to Lieutenant.

In real life, Admirals are considered what’s known as Flag Officers. Captains and Commanders are classified as Senior Officers, while Lieutenants and lower are Junior Officers [05]. But given that Shiro’s promotion to Lieutenant coincided with that third stripe, Voltron’s future Earth most likely considers Lieutenants Senior Officers instead, while Shiro having the same number of stripes as a Captain that Sanda had as an Admiral points to the rank of Captain being considered a Flag Officer in VLD’s time period. This is supported by Lance referring to Shiro - still a lieutenant at the time - as “the Senior Officer” when the Paladins prepare to enter the wormhole to Arus in The Rise of Voltron.

Below the rank of Lieutenant, the hierarchy of the Garrison, especially concerning those who graduated from the cadet program, remains murky.

The sole example of the MFE pilots being referred to by a specific title comes from Day 47 in Season 8, where Rizavi and Kinkade are referred to as Lieutenants by another Atlas crew member and Kinkade himself. However, the MFE pilots still only wear two stripes on their uniforms in both Seasons 7 and 8.

There is a chance, given that Day 47 was created as a result of the WEP-mandated changes to Season 7 that resulted in the creation of The Feud, that this is an error. I did a whole meta last year outlining how those changes to Season 7 affected the pacing of the Earth arc and caused continuity issues within the episodes themselves, so this could possibly be another example of the inconsistencies created as a result of WEP’s meddling with Season 7.

However in real life naval ranks, there is a ranking known as Lieutenant, Junior Grade [06] that ranks below a full Lieutenant but higher than Ensign, which is the lowest commissioned officer rank in real-world militaries [07]. Officers with the rank of Lieutenant, Junior Grade in real life are still addressed as Lieutenant, except for formal situations where they are addressed by their full rank. So the MFE pilots all holding the rank of Lieutenant, Junior Grade in Season 8 and still only having two stripes on their uniforms would be consistent with the pattern we’ve established thus far.

But again, the accuracy of the MFE pilots having that rank is questionable, on account of the continuity errors present in the episode (Rizavi refers to Shiro as Commander in the same scene she’s addressed as Lieutenant), and the fact that the formal way that Kinkade introduces his video recording means he’d be more likely to use the full rank if Lieutenant, Junior Grade was his actual title.

Plus, the Garrison’s ranking system appears to be greatly simplified from real world naval ranks, even compared to fictional space forces like Starfleet. There’s no mention of any Commodores, Lieutenant Commanders, or any other types of Admirals aside from Sanda. It would make sense, given the apparent demilitarization of Earth, for their primary defense force to reduce the number of titles to account for their limited size compared to real-world militaries. Because even with the manpower, they don’t have as many vessels as a real military.

So the Lieutenant Junior Grade title might not actually exist in the Garrison Hierarchy, and the MFE Pilots are all Ensigns in Season 8. But since there’s also nothing in Season 7 or the rest of Season 8 that says otherwise, you can always pick whichever of the two ranks you think the MFEs have according to your own preference or interpretation, and the same applies to Shiro’s rank during his visit to Keith’s high school.

Another potential point of confusion that I feel warrants preemptively clearing up is why Admiral Sanda refers to the MFE pilots as cadets despite Iverson indicating that they’ve already graduated from the cadet program.

In real life, recruits joining with a four-year college degree are eligible to join the US Navy directly at the rank of Ensign. And in fictional settings such as (again) Star Trek, Ensign is the first rank assigned to officers who graduate from Starfleet academy [08]. Given that the Garrison is obviously shown to teach advanced science courses to high school-aged students, the MFE pilots in Season 7 are all most likely Ensigns in the Garrison.

But when Sanda refuses to send them out against Sendak’s invasion, neither Sam Holt nor Commander Iverson contradict her reference to the MFE pilots as Cadets. Sam’s counterargument isn’t that the MFEs aren’t Cadets anymore, but that the Paladins are also cadets too.

Given that Shiro appeared to have been enrolled in a 2-year extended study program following his own graduation from the cadet program, and that Sendak's invasion occurred 1-2 years after their graduation, it's likely that the MFE pilots were enrolled in that program as well. And if the invasion occurred before they had finished that program, it would make sense for Sanda to refer to them as cadets since they were still considered students even after graduating from the cadet program.

Now, let’s talk about the hierarchy of the cadet program, since unlike the rankings for the graduated officers, those are much easier to figure out.

The only time we ever see one stripe on each shoulder for the Garrison uniforms is with the first year cadets in A Little Adventure. However, just like Shiro switching from two stripes to three when he becomes a Lieutenant, we see Keith switch from one stripe to two over the course of the flashbacks in that episode.

Those flashbacks show Keith’s whole class training in the simulators as a group - even Hunk, who switched out of the pilot track to become an engineer at some point. There’s no mention of the Fighter Pilot versus Cargo Pilot divide in this training session, which indicates to me that most students entering their first year at the Garrison take the same general courses, and receive their second stripe after being assigned to a more specialized education track based on a combination of their grades and interest.

This would explain why Pidge was able to enroll in the communications track and immediately start out with two stripes in her first year at the Garrison without having to take piloting classes with the other first year students.

It would also fit with how many JRTOC programs at US high schools in real life give cadets (students) in their program some sort of Junior rank to prepare them for the structure of military life should they enlist after graduation. Because despite being a cadet, the flashbacks in Tears of the Balmera specifically have Pidge referred to as the Communications Officer of her, Lance, and Hunk’s squad.

During Pidge’s flashbacks in Tears of the Balmera and Reunion, no mention is made of her being expelled by Iverson when she gets caught snooping, nor does she mention enrolling while Matt is gone in S4E02 Reunion. She does, however, mention that it’s going to be tough going through middle school while Matt is gone. This indicates that the Garrison’s cadet program is a 4-year program that serves as an equivalent to a high school education. Meanwhile, Shiro’s promotion to Lieutenant appears to have occurred after the completion of an additional 2-year program.

After graduation, there does not appear to be any minimum number of years served required for officers to be promoted to higher rank, as is the case in real life [09]. This is supported by the fact that as of Season 7, Shiro holds the second-highest known rank at the Garrison within less than a decade of graduating the cadet program and is younger than many of the people directly under him without any older Garrison officers making a fuss or raising any objections about his younger age.

Part III: Roles and Uniforms

Now that we’ve settled the specific matter of how the different titles within the Garrison are ranked, that now leaves the question of how the different branches of the Garrison are organized.

Based on roles and appearances of different characters in the series from main characters to background extras, outside of the central command staff and staff teams like the janitors and cooks at Garrison bases, there appear to be six core branches of Galaxy Garrison’s exploration and defense forces:

Communications: First shown in the communications room at the Arizona base during Sendak’s invasion. Comm specialists monitor and maintain communication networks for both ground and space operations. Based on Veronica having 3 stripes on her uniform and every other officer in the war room during Sendak’s invasion having 2, Analyst is the title for senior communications officers.

Engineering: First shown in The Last Stand: Part 1 as Sam describes his Altean pod being salvaged for parts.

Science: First shown in The Last Stand: Part 1 studying the crystal powering Sam’s pod and developing a new laser rifle for use in defending Earth.

Security: First shown in The Rise of Voltron patrolling the Arizona campus to enforce curfew and standing guard outside the quarantine tent when Shiro crash lands.

Medical: First shown in The Rise of Voltron, where Pidge identifies the people keeping Shiro in quarantine as Med Techs.

Flight: First shown in The Rise of Voltron. Confirmed in the same episode to be split into Fighter and Cargo pilot divisions. Season 7 shows pilots do atmospheric flight in addition to manned space missions.

This number of branches fits perfectly with the hexagon imagery we see surrounding the Garrison such as the design of its logo and the structure of its particle barrier.

Four of these six branches have their own specialized uniforms as shown in The Rise of Voltron and The Last Stand: Part 1. But the uniforms for pilots and communications officers is where things start to get murky.

Non-cadet communications officers are all shown wearing the same gray-green uniform as the command staff - with a specialized variant for analysts like Veronica - while we’ve seen examples of pilots in both that uniform and the orange and white jackets worn by all the cadets.

The explanation that made the most sense to me was that the gray uniforms corresponded to those who were considered part of Garrison faculty - the people who in one capacity or another were responsible for managing and operating a base and its programs. This would explain why Adam and Shiro would be wearing the gray uniforms while the only other named pilots - the MFEs, who were not faculty - wore the orange ones, since Adam mentions teaching classes, and we see Shiro assisting with simulator drills for Keith’s class in A Little Adventure.

The only Garrison graduate outside of the MFEs to be shown in the orange uniform was Matt, who based on Reunion was the communications officer for the Kerberos mission. Based on my timeline notes, the Kerberos mission would have launched within less than a month of his graduation from the cadet program, and all appearances of him with the orange uniform were obviously set pre-launch. So it’s likely that either Matt was still attending classes while the mission was being prepared and thus still wore the cadet uniform, or the Garrison was waiting to give him the uniform when the mission returned to Earth.

What kept throwing a wrench into this theory was the scenes aboard the Atlas in Season 8. For all of the season, everyone aboard the ship - including Commanders like Iverson and Sam - wear the orange and white uniforms regardless of rank or position. But in Day 47 and The Grudge, we see groups of Atlas crew members wearing the old gray uniforms in a handful of shots.

Trying to figure out an explanation for why those officers weren’t wearing the same uniform type as every other crew member was an exercise in futility, because every theory I came up with either didn’t fit with the earlier seasons or was contradicted by Season 8 itself. Which is what helped me finally figure a way out of the box I’d thought myself into.

Like I briefly mentioned earlier, Day 47 and the Atlas scenes in The Grudge only exist to compensate for changes made to Season 7 by order of the IP holder while production of Season 8 was already in progress. I already mentioned my meta from last year about how the changes made as a result of the revisions to Season 7 created continuity errors, but another thing that clued me in to the fact that the presence of the gray uniforms aboard the Atlas is that we never see these people anywhere outside of those two episodes.

Every character aboard the Atlas in every other episode of Season 8 aside from the Altean Robeast pilots is shown wearing the exact same orange and white uniform regardless of position or rank. The only exceptions to this rule are the Voltron Paladins, who instead of orange wear uniforms color coded to match their individual armor.

If these officers weren’t just added as background filler for the new material created from the changes to Season 7, why would they be different when not even a high-ranking Commander gets to keep their grey uniform aboard the Atlas? Since the only anomaly in my main theories originates from material that did not exist when Seasons 7 and 8 were being animated initially, it’s safe to disregard those examples for the purposes of analyzing the Garrison’s structure.

With that confusion eliminated, my theory that the gray uniform is given to those who are part of a Garrison base’s administrative faculty still holds up. Shiro and Adam having teaching roles on the Garrison staff makes sense when you take into account that in real life, people enrolled in a Masters degree program will typically work as a teaching assistant in exchange for financial aid [10]. This fits with Shiro being referred to by the showrunners in 2016 interviews as an “older student”, and I discussed in further detail the evidence toward him being in the Garrison equivalent of a Grad student program in my timeline notes.

Part IV: The Finished Guide

So now that I’ve laid out all the details I’ve found and my thought process as I connect all the dots, allow me to present a complete summary of what we know about the Galaxy Garrison:

They are a multinational space exploration agency that doubles as a defense force to protect Earth from potentially hostile incursions by extraterrestrial life.

They have at least six bases on at least three continents in at least five countries:

The main headquarters in Arizona, near Grand Canyon National Park

A base on the East Coast of North America (country not specified)

At least one base in Russia

At least one base in China

At least one base in India

Multiple bases in western Europe

Galaxy Garrison is led by the Joint Chiefs, a council led by an Admiral and no more than 11 Commanders. Known members of the Joint Chiefs at the time of Season 1 include

Admiral Sanda

Commander Sablan (grey-haired officer with glasses and a sash; voiced by Neil Kaplan, name given in credits for non-US dubs of Season 7)

There is a body referred to as Flight Command that implicitly provides oversight for Garrison activities.

Each Garrison base is run by at least one Commander.

Commander Iverson is in charge of the Arizona base

No other base Commanders are identified in series.

The officers of the Garrison’s command structure are ranked as follows

Admiral (4 stripes on shoulder)

Captain (4 stripes on shoulder)

Commander (3 stripes on shoulder)

Lieutenant (3 stripes on shoulder)

The following Junior Officer ranks are named according to real-world naval rankings but the exact names and whether it actually is two separate ranks instead of one are not confirmed:

Lieutenant Junior Grade (2 stripes if it exists)

Ensign (2 stripes if it exists)

Potential ranks that might exist (or can be used in fanfic) based on real-world naval rankings include:

Fleet Admiral (Highest possible naval rank)

Vice Admiral (Lower than Admiral; Higher than Rear Admiral)

Rear Admiral (Higher than Commodore; Lower than Vice Admiral)

Commodore (Higher than Captain; Lower than Rear Admiral)

Lieutenant Commander (Higher than Lieutenant; Lower than Commander)

Outside of the central command structure and a base’s administrative faculty, the Garrison is divided into six core branches:

Flight

Engineering

Communications

Security

Medicine

Science

The Engineering, Security, Medical, and Science branches all have unique uniforms and attire specialized for their respective positions. Communications officers wear the gray uniform of the base’s faculty with specialized variants for senior officers of the branch. Pilots who are not part of the base’s faculty wear the same orange and white uniform as cadets outside of missions, while pilots who continue their education in pursuit of the Garrison equivalent of a master’s degree are permitted to wear the gray uniform of Garrison faculty.

Following the liberation of Earth, all crew members serving aboard the IGF Atlas wear the same uniform regardless of rank or position that combines the colors and styles of both the orange and gray Garrison uniforms.

The Garrison's cadet program is a trade school that functions as an equivalent to a high school education, and graduates who wish to continue their studies may enroll in a 2-year program for further training and education.

All students start training in general courses in their first year before branching out into specialized tracks according to grades and interest in subsequent years. This is to ensure that officers can assist outside their specialty when the situation requires it.

Upon graduating from the cadet program, there are no further age requirements for promotion to a higher position, nor is there any minimum length of time required to spend at a given rank before being promoted to a senior level.

Sources:

[01] With Cuba, Netflix's 'Voltron' Envisions a Future Earth Without Borders; Eric Franciso; June 20, 2018. https://www.inverse.com/article/46174-voltron-legendary-defender-season-6-lance-is-cuban-borderless-earth

[02] The Ending of 'Voltron' Season 7, Explained by the Showrunners; Eric Francisco; August 10, 2018. https://www.inverse.com/article/47977-voltron-legendary-defender-season-7-netflix-ending-explained-by-showrunners-interview

[03] Wikipedia - Starfleet. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starfleet

[04] Wikipedia - Joint Cheifs of Staff. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joint_Chiefs_of_Staff

[05] U.S. Navy Ranks List - Lowest to Highest

https://www.federalpay.org/military/navy/ranks

[06] Lieutenant Junior Grade - Military Ranks

https://www.military-ranks.org/navy/lieutenant-junior-grade

[07] US History: Rank of Ensign in Revolutionary Army, Michael Troy, October 10, 2011. https://web.archive.org/web/20130629023405/http://en.allexperts.com/q/U-S-History-672/2011/10/rank-ensign-revolutionary-army.htm

[08] Ensign - Memory Alpha https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Ensign

[09] The Balance Careers - Military Commissioned Officer Promotions

https://www.thebalancecareers.com/military-commissioned-officer-promotions-4055887

[10] ThoughtCo - What is an Assistantship?

https://www.thoughtco.com/what-is-an-assistantship-1685091

#voltron legendary defender #voltron meta #vld meta #galaxy garrison

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liam-93-productions · 4 years ago

Link

It is known to all that after the sonorous “hiatus” that the guys from One Direction decided to take in 2016, its members decided to experience new horizons as solo artists, Liam Payne being one of them. Since then, the Briton has gradually reaped his own trail of success. A new stage in his professional career that has come hand in hand with his debut album as a solo artist, 'LP1'.

A new record project composed of 17 songs where the artist once again demonstrated his talent for music and composition. Songs with which he has managed to position himself at the top of the charts worldwide. Liam Payne is synonymous of success, so it is not surprising that great music stars such as J Balvin, Rita Ora or Zedd, among others, have chosen him for heart-stopping musical collaborations. Therefore, we will review some of the best collaborations that Liam Payne has launched so far in this new stage of his career as a solo artist. Without a doubt, a real delight for the ears. Are you ready? Let us begin!

STRIP THAT DOWN feat. Quavo

The song with which the British artist decided to kick off the new stage of his professional career was 'Strip That Down'. A song that came with the hand of rapper Quavo and that quickly managed to position him in the musical trends of 2017. A song where Liam surprised all his fans by immersing himself in a completely different musical genre than he used to in his band, One Direction. ‘Strip That Down’ is a subject that hooks from the first verses, a situation similar to what happens with his official video clip. An audiovisual of almost 4 minutes that has achieved record figures by having more than 341 million views.

FAMILIAR feat. J Balvin

Seeing Liam Payne singing in Spanish has undoubtedly been one of the greatest wishes of all his Spanish fans. A wish that he was listened to by the British and made a reality, at least by singing a few verses, on his theme ‘Familiar’. A song that caused a sensation, especially when it was revealed that the artist with whom Liam had collaborated was J Balvin himself. A song where he delves into the Latin rhythm and in which the 27-year-old gives everything, also in the official video clip, including hip movement. In addition, it is worth remembering an important fact, and that is that the first time that Liam Payne sang this song on stage was in Madrid in 2018, in honor of all his Spanish fans. An impossible date to forget.

MIDNIGHT feat. Alesso

2020 will always be a year remembered for the global confinement to which all countries had to submit. For this reason, and to make the quarantine much more enjoyable, the Briton surprised all his followers with the premiere of a new single, 'Midnight'. A collaboration with DJ Alesso who managed to put a bit of rhythm and joy in such difficult times. A song that came along with his official video clip, also recorded in full confinement with each artist from his home, and that quickly became a success.

FOR YOU feat. Rita Ora

When it comes to star collaborations, what better company than Rita Ora. Both artists were part of the official soundtrack of the film ‘Fifty Shades Freed’. The last installment of the saga that managed to cross borders due to its enormous success, and with which both Liam and Rita showed that not only do they have a lot of chemistry in the video clip, but that their united voices are a real delight. Without a doubt, 'For You' has become one of the favorite singles for Valentine's Day.

LIVE FOREVER feat. Cheat Codes

One of the collaborations that are part of the tracklist of his debut album as a solo artist is 'Live Forever'. A song made with the American group Cheat Codes and with which Liam has once again experimented with new musical genres, always with his special pop essence, but with electronic touches. But, if the song is another level, the video clip is not far behind. From slow motion images, cliff jumps, the beach and Liam Payne through the air, are some of the elements that make up an audiovisual of heart attack. Without a doubt, a single with not ending up dancing is a challenge.

FIRST TIME feat. French Montana

Before his first album was released, the Briton released a compilation EP made up of several previously unreleased songs, including 'First Time'. A song in collaboration with French Montana where the British artist brings out the most romantic side of him with verses that have surely caused more than a sigh. A song with a soft rhythm and that stands out for the high notes with which Liam has once again left his fans stunned.

STACK IT UP feat. A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie

If Liam has shown something with his songs, it is that he is capable of making us change our mood from one second to another, of making us sing and dance without realizing it. And it seems that the lively and danceable songs are one of the strengths of his musical style, proof of this, 'Stack It Up'. A song with rhythms very similar to those of his debut single, ‘Strip That Down’, and that comes from the hand of the rapper A Boogie wit da Hoodie. A song that hooks you and with which it is inevitable to end up singing at the top of your lungs: “So I stack it up, man, I gotta work for it. Yeah, I got money on my mind”.

GET LOW feat. Zedd

Over the last few years Zedd has become one of the best-known DJs on the music scene, which is why the announcement of a collaboration with one of the most beloved British artists, Liam Payne, was a bombshell. Adjective that fits perfectly to the song they did together, 'Get Low'. A very danceable single where they combine pop rhythm with techno. A single that everyone likes, proof of this, its video clip. An audiovisual where both artists, microphone and piano keyboard in hand, roam the streets of London singing the song. Proof that, 'Get Low' manages to make children and young people not so young, dance and sing.

NAUGHTY LIST feat. Dixie D’Amelio

Christmas isn't Christmas if Liam doesn't release his annual Christmas single. Songs to which the artist manages to apply a special and unique touch to one of the most special and beautiful times of the year. ‘Naughty List’ was his last Christmas song, a song in collaboration with Dixie D’Amelio with which the British wanted to break with the typical canons of Christmas songs and his sentimental style. ‘Naughty list’ is a playful track, just like the official music video for it. An audiovisual that has a scenography where there is no lack of a gigantic Christmas tree, lights, glitter and cheerful colors.Without a doubt, one more song with which Liam Payne has not disappointed anyone.

POLAROID feat. Jonas Blue and Lennon Stella

Happy, danceable songs that provide very good vibes are some of the adjectives that best define Liam Payne's repertoire of musical collaborations. Style to which is added ‘Polaroid’, a song with Jonas Blue and Lennon Stella that has become one of the most popular of the past year. And it is no wonder, the three artists demonstrated the good harmony and good vibes that exist between them, something that has been perfectly reflected in the single. A hymn to love at first sight that with its lyrics manages to tell a unique story worthy of a movie. One more song with which Liam Payne has once again shown that there is no musical genre that can resist him.

#liam payne #happy fm #press mention #lp1 #21.02.2021

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argumentl · 4 years ago

Text

The Freedom of Expression Ep 25 - Installation of statue kneeling in apology to comfort women statue.

K: Hi, this is Dir en grey's Kaoru starting this week's episode of The Freedom of Expression. Joe san, Tasai san, welcome. Well, this show..im sure the viewers will realise this, but this show has a super low budget.

J, T: Hahaha

J: You're admitting that? Finally?

T: You noticed slightly.

K: Um, we usually record three episodes at once, but for the first one, it takes ages to get the recording started.

T: Hahaha

K: Like, (*imitates trying to fix equipment*) 'Huhh?', 'Oh, come on!'

J: Thats right.

K: They can't get the setup sorted at all, and we three are always just sat here waiting.

J: Yeah, I mean, its getting there, but it does take a while.

K: I mean, look at this! There isn't even a mic stand! You have to place it directly on the desk, and its fallen over how many times since just then!?

J: Its a rare sight these days.

T: For sure.

K: Well, anyway, this kind of analogue is what we have..

J: Yes, yes...let's get on with it and put our hearts into it.

K: Yes, lets do it. Um, also, today..we're recoding this on August 2nd..

J: Yes, and..

K: Tomorrow! Well, really its only in about ten more hours. Well, its on here too...(*gestures to board set up on the desk featuring new single info*)...Dir en grey's new single "Ochita koto no aru sora" will be released.

J: Congratulations

K: Well, its a digital release...(*mic falls over*) ..Look!

J: Oh, that. That was quick!

T: Amazing, it happened like magic!

K: Hahaha

J: Its like it was trying to.

K: Its because I touched the desk. Anyway, the single will have been released. I'd like everyone to listen if they can.

J: But its the first digital release for Dir, right?

K: Yeah, the first digital only release.

J: Digital only, yeah...as a result of the effect of corona.

K: Well, when we first announced it, stores were trying to implement self-restraint and stuff, so people wouldn't be able to order copies in store, and we didn't know how long this would go on. There would be people who would have to go directly to the store to pick it up, so in order to get it to everyone who wanted to hear it, we thought we should release it digitally. So its only digital.

J: Is this like a message from the band that you are still gonna release material even in times like these?

K: Yeah, like, we could have waited until we were able to release it with packaging, like postponed it without announcing it, and just released it after everything had calmed down, but as a band, we thought that keeping active, and making new material will give is that link to the future. So we decided to release.

J: The message is just recieving the song, right? I think its really important that the band stays active, so thats the basic message, right? Of course we want everyone to have a good listen to the song.

T: It was cool.

K: Oh, did you listen already?

J: I've listened too.

K: Oh, thank you.

T: The B-side was also cool.

K: Thank you. Ok, well, for today's theme, can I ask you Joe?

J: Yes, well its this news, it appeared in the news at the end of July. In the north east of South Korea, in the province of Gangwon-do, there is a place called Pyeongchang. Its been reported that in the S.Korean Botanical Garden there, a statue seemingly imitating Prime minister Abe kneeling in apology in front of a comfort women statue, has been installed. So, this has become news. After this was reported, Chief Cabinet Secretary Suga said at a press conference on the 28th of July, 'We have not confirmed any actual connection', as well as, 'Its unforgivable in terms of diplomatic relations', and other such strong comments. On the other hand, the S.Korean foreign ministry made the general statement that, 'There is a need to consider international relations in terms of foreign leaders'. They do not support the installation of the statue, but did not outline any specific counter-measures against it. Appearing as a commentator on a TV talk show, lawyer Hideki Yashiro pointed out his opinion that as it gets publicity, being in the Botanical Gardens where the public are free to enter, the statue cannot be viewed in the same way as a private garden installation. He pointed out that failing to intervene when an action to damage diplomatic relations takes place in such a facility, is seen as if its the state's own view, and that the government refusing get involved due to the land being privately owned is unforgivable. Well, this really is 'Freedom of Expression'. The owner of the Garden used his own money to make the statue, but internationally it can been seen as quite offensive. This has become quite a talking point in Japan and online, and similarly, it also has in S.Korea too. Those who think that Japan should be made to apologize, and those who think this is bad timing and could end up worsening relations futher. Even in S.Korea people are split about it in this way. This is the news.

T: I see

J: This is a difficult issue, isn't it.

T: It is difficult.

J: In what way should we consider this issue? How do you see this news, Kaoru?

K: Hmm, its extraordinary isn't it?

T: Absolutely...but this place Pyeongchang, it was in the news during the Pyeongchang Olympics. There were those 'Bullet Men' statues put up all over, depicting the perfect male form. It became news, like, is this art? What is this? So, this is also in Pyeongchang, so I wondered whether its just Pyeongchang culture or something?

J: Saying like, Pyeongchang makes a lot of statues?

T: Yeah.???*1

J: I see. But the head of this garden created this with his own money, surely there isn't much of a sense of it being art. Persisting with creating this message and putting it in the botanical gardens, doesn't necessarily mean it was made by the state, and I think it would be quite difficult for them to order the removal of the statue. Saying 'You have to remove it', even though it was built with private money, would be quite difficult. But on the Japanese side, Suga san was saying in regards to diplomatic relations 'Why are they deliberately making our country's Abe kneel in submission like that? Well, Suga has said that if this is true, it would have a severe effect on Japanese/S. Korean relations. He's making quite strong comments about this, but I think this may be a performance on Suga's part to maintain support for the increasingly unpopular Abe administration, by criticising S.Korea. He's moving away from freedom of expression to try and maintain his own popularity. So when you ask 'what is the core of this problem?', as soon as it blows up like this online, it becomes difficult to tell. There was a similar occurrence at the Aichi Triennale, and it also blew up online then too. Before you could really get to the bottom of the question of freedom of expresion, it kept on blowning up into completely different issues.

T: Yeah.

J: First it was all about Tsuda Daisuke's blonde hair.... This type of thing came up at this kind of time again, and I somehow thought it would've been better if a proper debate had been able to take place. Well, because there various ways to feel about this.

T: But in the end, I think this will end up hurting S.Korea, cause I know there are various opinions about this, but if they really want Abe or Japan to apologize, if they do it in this way, it may cause a gap to open up between the two sides. I don't think they've thought about it that far.

J: I see.

T: Conversely, it won't end up with any national benefit to the S.Korean people. It seems like it might hold back progress.

K: Well, but..

Kami: Uh..Isn't this quite subtle?

J: Mm, whats your view, Kami?

Kami: In my view, well, Japan and S.Korea don't have a great relationship, do they?

J: Yeh, they don't. Relations are continuing to worsen.

Kami: Because state promises were not kept, thats natural. I agree, that promises should be kept, that goes without saying. But the kneeling statue is probably Abe, right?

T: Well, yeh.

Kami: I think Abe has a lot to apologize for to the Japanese people too.

T: I see

J: Ahh

Kami: But no-one gets angry about that. Breaking promises is sickening, but like, its probably Abe kneeling on the ground right? If this was the Emporor, the symbol of Japan, that would be really bad, wouldn't it? It would be making a fool of all Japanese.

T: I see

Kami: But its Abe, isn't it? Haha.

J: You're really coming down from above today aren't you, Kami?

K: He's really emphasising this, isn't he?

J: He is.

Kami: But all those lies about the Sakura Party, giving money to his friends, using tax money to do it...

T: I see, I see.

Kami: Doing that type of thing, really, he should apologize for it to the Japanese people, I think.

T: I see.

K: But I bet if Kami was invited to the Sakura Party, he would go.

J: He would.

K: He'd recieve money and stuff..he'd go.

Kami: Of course I'd go.

J, K, T: Hahaha

Kami: I'd do the V-sign and get a photo together.

J: Kami, you're trivial!

Kami: Yep, I'd soon be won over.

J: You change a lot, don't you, Kami?

Kami: I'm affable.

K: Affable? haha

J: Such positive thinking, right? haha.

Kami: I'd want to give off a favourable impression.

J: He has quite a way with words, being able to express that in an affable way.

T: Affable, haha.

J: They do say that these kind of fence-sitters are unprincipled. He said he was affable! Next time Im asked, I'll say Im affable.

*mic falls off desk* Ahh, eventually!..The mic just naturally falling here. Essentially, I think he does have things to apologize for to his citizens. And Suga san at the press conference, for sure, there is the problem of how this case will affect international relations, but in regards to the anger of the citizens of this country, he should apologize for things that are slightly different. He should make time for it.

T: Well, there is that too.

J: I started to want to say that. Kami's anger is also quite right.

K: Oh yeh, as for our conversation, I just wanted to go back to what we spoke about previously, in our live broadcast before, we wanted people to ask things to Kami.

J: What was all that?

K: I think we talked about it.

J: What were the questions?

K: What were they?

J: Oh, is it this? *points to a section in his notes*

K: Ah, can I ask?

J: Questions for Kami.

Kami: I'll slip up if im put on the spot too much.

K: Oh, please slip up.

J: We want to see you slipping up.

Kami: Ahh.

K: Q) Kami, how can you become a god?

Kami: A god? Thats easy.

J: Do you have to study?

Kami: Use a voice changer.

J, K, T: Hehehe

J: How do you respond to that?

Kami: Yeh, of course the timing of your jokes is important.

K: We kinda already knew that.

J: Well, yeah. I feel bad that we couldn't get this point rolling more.

K: But the viewers probably found it interesting. They'll be wondering what a voice changer is...

Kami: No, they are not in the position of a god.

J: For sure, they may wonder about why a voice changer..But some people might be like, Ahh, I see.

K: Well, they'll probably be drawn into it. Like, 'I just have to change my voice?'

J: Yeh, yeh, yeh.

K: Ok, well I'd like to finish here for today. Please subscribe.

J: Please do.

K: Ah, also, please check out the new single. Thank you very much.

J: Please excuse us.

T: Thank you.

*1 Couldn't catch.

* Sakaura Party refers to a dubious annual Spring party Abe used to invite all his cronies to.

This is a touchy subject, so do please let me know if you think I've gotten anything wrong.

#the freedom of expression #tfoe #dir en grey #薫 #kaoru

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steve0discusses · 4 years ago

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Yugioh Ep 32 S4: Most Disturbing Kid’s Show Award Goes to This Episode

I often talk about how wonderfully effed up Yugioh is. What a freakin delight, how effed up this kid’s show is, somehow still remaining a Y7 kid’s show, despite everything it tries to do to get pulled off the air.

Y’all this was a filler season and it didn’t even have Bakura in it so...why did it go so edge? Don’t get me wrong, I’m thankful for how many levels of “OK THERE, KID’S SHOW” it was.

But what the hell was that, Yugioh?

Anyway we start off completely normal in this foggy ass graveyard--Halloweens in this season so I’m down for this. Halloween is also...cancelled...this year, so at least I can celebrate it somewhat in a Yugioh episode. Then again, can you imagine how many people would be dressed up as sexy Covid?

So I don’t really talk about the card game mechanics on here, and (full disclosure to any new people) I don’t know how to play this game. But, considering that this card doesn’t usually send you to distant graveyard memories IRL, lets get into it.

We’ve clarified before that Card Graveyard is a place--like an actual place--but that it isn’t the same place that the cards vibe in within the Puzzle necklace. It’s a separate place, but ALSO not the same place as the Shadow Realm, either. Card Graveyard is just...some other third place we never talk about.

TBQH I think the people who make this show have kinda forgotten how many random pocket dimensions we’ve made that are basically the equivalent of hell (including California, PS), and are just like “no one will write a blog about it and list them all in one place, we’ll be fine.”

We’ve only seen Tristan bum out here once in like S1 and he spent most of his time running away from the Grim Reaper. But, if you remember correctly, the Grim Reaper is currently hanging out and living his best life haunting some park in Japan, so now instead of the Grim Reaper it has...this?

So is this a memory stored within the card graveyard, or did Dartz literally take Raphael to the card graveyard and tell him this was a real ass graveyard?

We’ll never know! It gets very vague from here on out!

(read more under the cut)

First off, I’d like to welcome our new guest star--the Rain--there’s a lot of rain in this episode, and we animate it by just making all of our characters glow. This comes through fine in animation, but in caps I just want you to know that no one has gone super Saiyan, they’re just...wet.

PS get a gander at Raphael’s baby boy mutton chop mustache. They somehow got longer with time? And also, when soaked his hair is just as spiky. Everyone on this show has unparalleled hair gel. The real heart of the cards.

Anyway, Dartz shows Raphael a bunch of gravestones and is like “Get it???”

and me, the audience, was like “no???”

The headstones, by the by, aren’t...normal, either, they have Orichalcos symbols on them instead of words. So like...it sort of infers that his family was taken by Orichalcos, too. I mentioned before that it sorta feels like Dartz caused the whole shipwreck to munch up a bunch of yummy souls, and maybe he did in the Japanese version--cuz like...

...why else do all these headstones have Orichalcos symbols on this graveyard that you can only access through a card god like Dartz or Yami?

Just throwing that deep lore out there, and the fact that Raphael can’t really see it or understand is either because that didn’t happen or...Dartz totally killed his family, right? And that makes this relationship between the two of them extremely effed up?

This is a great show for kids with separation anxiety.

Which is...somewhat convincing of a motive for Raphael. He gives Raphael a way to move on from his trauma in the past, and it’s not a GREAT way to move on--but it’s falls in line with things Dartz has done with his other card generals by offering false redemption.

Like Mai needed to move on from her insane jealousy, so Orichalcos was her way to prove she was better than Joey Wheeler (which, honestly, no one needed proof of). Alister needed to move on from his dead brother, so Orichalcos was his way to get revenge. Valon also had a backstory but a bunch of it got deleted in the English version apparently so...

And Rex and Weevil needed...cards? I guess? I think they just needed a ride, mostly. And Orichalcos can give you a ride. It’s not like we had Uber in 2003 and clearly they were not fit for Caltrain.

And like Gurimo.............existed...?

Anyways, they’re looking for justice that they can see. Justice for their pain. To make that pain worth something for more than just suffering. A system where this type of thing can’t happen anymore. But the thing about justice is that...eh...it’s probably not done through cards that kill people.

OH OK, KID’S SHOW.

Mmmmm take in that burying up your grave imagery. Again, this show is rated Y7 for 7 year olds, and I think that’s amazing.

Anyway, this is symbolism that is so heavy handed that it really needs no explanation, so he’s just gonna dig dig dig for...days I guess? Relive his trauma over and over again? Dig up that past like you’re a popular artist on twitter and you gotta make all of your followers relive that time you got called out because you offended a hell ton of people?

(Which is so many people on art twitter right now, ps, you don’t even know which one I’m talking about because It’s SO MANY of them. Art twitter during Quarantine is like watching the fall of Rome but it’s freakin Art Twitter. Everyone’s the freakin worst and just poopin all over themselves as they roll all the way down the steps.)

But I want to know. Who’s grave this is? It has a slightly different meaning if it were his family’s or his own. I guess I’ll have to save it for the fanfiction.

And so to add another level of spook, Raphael’s card mom shows up and kinda just stands there with a sad face?

Raphael’s reaction to seeing his card just alive and hanging out was “I’ll get to you in a sec, I gotta do some unforgivable evil, first.“

WHERE DID THEY GO?

These two shots are like nearly back to back. They’re just GONE. No explanation.

And yes I’m gonna talk about the outfit because it makes no freakin sense, even for a Yugioh card. Granted, this was a show made in Japan, for kids, with a budget that had a limit. A lot of people get involved with these productions, many aren’t artists or historians versed in American History, just basic ass business people. That be TV.

But her outfit looks waaay too modern. Like she’s gonna go to a musical festival, drop acid and climb on top of a statue and take a bunch of instagram selfies and regret all of them 4 years later. If these are Atlantean cards, this is not an Atlantis outfit to match with Dartz, who has been dressed vaguely medieval. So whyyyyy would this girl be dressed more like a vague old western costume bought at a discount so she could vogue in front of installation art at Burning Man in 2008?

Anyway, I won’t even get into the bird that is slowly devouring her face as a stand in for a headdress or wtv. Just a lot of stuff happening here and I just wanna say, Yugioh did it so you won’t need to. Just delete that desire. Yugioh already did it so you are now free from wanting to draw...anything like this problematic situation on your own OCs.

And then Yugioh predicts exactly how I’d feel about this outfit.

And she then lights ON FIRE and falls dead into the grave he just buried for her.

And in case you were like “kinda on the nose there, Yugioh, that got DARK” she climbs out of his own grave with a spooky ass face and no more coconuts to share with her bros and he’s like...

Rapheal’s reaction was like...Ya OK I can get used to this, and Yami is just pointing at the scene desperately trying to follow Raphael’s brain waves.

And like, this is YAMI.

Yami just walked through Yugi Hell earlier today. He’s seen some stuff. He’s already undug his own grave this morning in a more poetic card sort of way. But Raphael’s memories of literally digging up his family’s graves with his bare hands because Dartz told him to was...stuff he didn’t want to see today. (especially since it’s super suggested Dartz was the one who...murdered them in the first place, like I know it’s a reach but...it just feels like we were supposed to reach that conclusion)

But whether or not Dartz put the bodies here or gave Raphael a bunch of phoney graves, Raphael is still essentially siding with the guy who ruined the only thing he has left of his family--this paper card mom--and turned it into an undead evil Mom. And it just had...no freakin impact on Raphael at all.

Like what?

He just murdered your card mom. This is fine?

Card shenanigans continue and Raphael eventually realizes what he should have realized like 10 years ago when he was digging up graves and killing card Mom’s. That maybe it’s a bad idea. So Raphael decides to sacrifice his remaining monsters to “free” them from the graveyard and basically commits suicide. There’s no other way to say it, really. He kills himself.

But wait, right when you figure this episode will end like every other Orichalcos fight before it...They decide not to.

Like an angel from heaven, our drunk ass looking music concert reject descends from the clouds, along with all of Raphael's dead family members!

Yeah.

I REALLY didn’t expect them to show up. This was so much content it’s like...an entire season of any other TV show. I say that a lot with Yugioh but these episodes really like to just jam-pack it in there.

And here I thought I’d actually have to take them off the Death Count one day. Here I thought 4 kids would do something to like...prevent this many dead kids, but I was wrong.

Everyone’s HELLA DEAD.

it’s both vindicating to actually say that, despite 4kids, these kids absolutely died, but also disturbing because even Raphael is like “ah, the hallucinations today are really swell, right?”

NO, GHOST CHILD.

DON’T TELL ME THAT.

And I’ve been over before how “heart of the cards” is a catch-all phrase that can mean literally anything in this show, and it’s not the first time that cards have kept someone’s spirit around. No word on his family members if they are thrilled to be trapped in a Pharaoh situation, or whether they only occasionally drop from the heavens, or whether they have actually been the spirit that was within each of these cards the whole time. I don’t know.

And so the card family “cures” one of the most evil people on this show.

He’s fine now. This guy murdered the hell out of Yugi, our main character, but don’t think nor worry about it. This isn’t the show to worry about such things.

This show has Marik.

Bro and I were talking Star Wars the other day, and mostly about the Kylo Ren arc and how a lot of people happened to dislike that particular ending. Mostly about how there is a difference between your character being redeemed and being forgiven. I think this children’s show wants to redeem Raphael, but honestly, much like Kylo Ren--he’s just forgiven. And that’s fine. You don’t need to have your characters redeemed. We can stop at forgiveness.

And also, Yami forgives him immediately because he knows he can’t throw a single damn stone, his house is made out of 2 mm of extremely problematic glass.

Man, RIP Weevil, right?

Weevil who just pretended to rip up a card that could have been Yugi and got tossed off the freakin Caltrain? Raphael got off so freakin lucky and I am boggled he’s still alive. He freakin killed Yugi!

The injustice to Weevil right now, omg. Not like I enjoy Weevil. I super don’t enjoy that character. But DAMN. Yami murdered Weevil for even mentioning Yugi. Just feels like there’s a bit of a hypocritical line here in how the justice is dished out and...that tracks for a Pharaoh so I’ll just let it go.

And also, looking at that sunshine and I’m pretty sure they’ve been up over 48 straight hours. No one’s slept since Yugi died, right? I mean Yami is fine. We know from Bakura that puzzle people don’t need to sleep, or eat, or have blood in their body. But like Seto really needs to get Mokuba to bed.

(Although I am 85% positive that Mokuba is still part Noah Kaiba so it is...also unlikely that kid sleeps anymore, just leaving Mokuba’s future therapist so much to unpack.)

The GALL of this show right now.

Of all the generals--they saved RAPHAEL? Arguably the worst one?

I would take even Alister. I would take even Weevil.

Raphael?

I mean if he ends up as the next Duke Devlin, just driving us around for the final season of this show I guess I’ll accept this but, damn.

Raphael?

Are you sure, Yugioh???????????????????????????????????

Can’t we just let that guy die? He’s basically dead already, Yugioh. This guy does NOT want to be alive anymore. Literally everyone he cares about is super dead and now he doesn’t even have Card mom because she sacrificed herself to save his soul. This GUY.

I can’t believe Mai is dead but we still have Raphael.

The same disappointment when I watch British Bake off, man, they just...sometimes they save people and I’m like...no man...that one can’t bake. Just because they pulled something off last second does not mean they get to the semifinals. Raphael can’t bake.

Anyway, the episode attempts to end on a cliffhanger but like.

Just want to reiterate how common and boring Earthquakes usually are to a Californian. This was the most normal thing in this episode.

Man.

Freakin Raphael.

Anyway, if you just got here and is like “I don’t know who the hell Raphael even is,” Yeah, I know, I didn’t think twice about the dude until like just now, but if it’s because you’ve never seen my recaps before, I’ll direct you to the link to read these in Chrono order:

https://steve0discusses.tumblr.com/tagged/yugioh/chrono

Anyway, stay safe and have a very happy and safe Halloween alone eating your own carmel dipped apple slices.

#yugioh #ygo #recap #photo recap #yami muto #seto kaiba #raphael #weird redemption arc #tristan taylor #tea gardner #mokuba kaiba #joey wheeler #'s still a corpse #someone digs up their own grave at some point #it gets very dark for a character I have literally no interest in #and then like they're cured? freakin #this one was like for the Raphael fans in the house #shout out to you guys I know you must exist or else why is this episode even here?

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prongsmydeer · 4 years ago

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Ayesha Liveblogs Oh My Ghost (2018) Ep. 9-16

Part 2 of this post because tumblr would not let me save anymore either because of the numerous images I’m commenting on or because of how many times I use the word H*rny

Kaopoon is frustrated bc Real Jiw is now vibing with her new BF Sun while she is sitting sadly on a swing set [Alexa play Sadness and Sorrow]

Backtracking to the other kind of drama: Lieutenant Murder is finally going to murder someone on screen (specifically his fellow police officer) because Lieutenant Murder jumped him for getting too close to solving Nammoon's hit-and-run case, which is at this point obvious he committed)

I love when Sun and Jiw flirt through their apartment wall

Jiw and Sun are dating now but the remaining point of contention is how much Horny Ghost just wants them to sleep together instead of getting to know each other to which Sun thinks “Jiw do u only want me for my body 😔?”

I can't believe that Lieutenant Murder's tragic backstory is that he was an orphan oh my god. Adoption is normal!! Murder is not!!

Lieutenant Murder was possessed by an evil spirit????? (After the first time he tried to murder????) WHAT WHAT WHAT

Sous Chef Rain is yelling at the restaurant staff bc of forgetting his birthday, bc he is, truly, a perennial pain in the ass

They are all out for Rain's birthday except for Sun bc of his and Jiw (Kaopoon)'s sex fight and so he is very anxious about his girlfriend being out with The Guys without him

Also Study-Abroad Win is handsome to the point of distraction AND nice where is his romance? Where is the justice for the male models of the world

Sun's Mom does not know he is Dating and Housing his employee possessed by a Horny Ghost He Thinks is One Facet of Her Personality

Presented without commentary:

Win has been politely pretending not to notice that Sun and Jiw are in a relationship and now I'm thinking he will get a romance and it will be Ida, to wrap up most of the loose ends of this relationship pentagon. Based on no other reason than that they are both single

Dkjhgkjgh lmao @ Sun going to his whole staff: “WHO WANTS TO GO TO THE MARKET?” and then saying no to everyone one by one except his girlfriend

Kaopoon is making Sun help her dad install a restaurant hose in the middle of their work day hahaha

FINALLY PROOF THAT LIEUTENANT MURDER IS A MURDERER. Warning for murder related description, there was a flashback where it showed a still body (face obscured) wearing Kaopoon's outfit on his bathroom floor

They really hammered home the ‘he is a murderer’ thing, he has a bag full of evidence of his crime

In more lighthearted news, Sun's rice intolerance is psychosomatic bc his mum never cooked rice for him and it's Sad Boy Hours

Sun and Kaopoon!Jiw seem like they're finally ready to have sex (they've talked out their feelings and are going away together) but there are FIVE MORE EPS and the murder stuff still lingers so I wonder what other madness this show will unleash on me

Actually, six more eps!! Ahhhh that's so much time

Oh how the tables have turned now Kaopoon is the one too in love with Sun too have sex (bc she will go to the afterlife if she does -- But if she doesn't she'll be an evil spirit so... stuck between a rock and hard-on)

I have been suspecting for a while tho that the sex will not change anything. She will probably have to solve her murder to pass on

You know what that is? Growth!!

Now they are back to the weird energy of Sun going “Now that we are in love I would like to have sex,” and Kaopoon!Jiw going “Sex????? Never heard of it!!”

Against Kaopoon's credit, she has not informed Jiw that their relationship has progressed this much. She's just like "yeah things are normal" bc she wants to spend as much time with Sun while she has the chance

Win and Kaopoon!Jiw are just being good bros and Sun, in tandem with the sex-back-and-forth, is jealous of their dynamic

Kaopoon has begun to solve her own murder!!! Unfortunately the first thing she did was point out inconsistent evidence to Lieutenant Parin, who extremely Murdered Her

I feel so happy for Jiw when she gets to experience normal boyfriend moments with Sun like these cheesy matching necklaces. <3 Why does Jiw's life have to be so complicated?

Kaopoon is... spiritually breaking up with Jiw, so she can end the messiness of her involvement with Sun

Ehkjehrrk Jiw is back to living her own life and a spirit just tried to grab at her and she just whacked their hand off and said, "Don't bother me now!" so she could keep cooking, love that for her

The employee-boss affair's out of the bag!!

They also keep cutting to Lieutenant Murder with his knife ready to go after Jiw for Knowing Too Much kjhgkhgjh so I guess the last four-and-a-half eps will dedicated to crime-fighting

Auntie Pu is kind of my favourite character on this show bc she goes from Ghost Nemesis to Ghost Mom all while having Sun's mom as her BFF and Sugar Mama

Hahahaha all the other restaurant staff (minus Win, who is chill) are sucking up to Jiw now bc she's dating Sun

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH Jiw felt guilty about dating Sun when half the things he loves are things that Kaopoon did and now the Horny Ghost is out of the bag

I can only assume, bc he thinks she's bipolar, he will assume this is product of a hallucination

Reservations on the commentary on bipolar disorder aside, what DO u do when the person you love tells you that they can see ghosts and key relationship moments you had together were the product of them being possessed by a ghost

Sun now believes in ghosts but he's very upset about the romantic implications of this knowledge

“I think the reason I haven’t been reincarnated... isn’t the fact I’ve never slept with a man after all” HORNY GHOST CONFIRMED FOR DETECTIVE GHOST. VINNNNNDICATION!!!!!

Awww the restaurant staff are all surrounding Chef with support in his time of romantic woe

“But I want the two people I care about the most to be happy” I want Win to date Sun AND Jiw he's so good to them

AYYYYYYY Sun found out that Jiw made the recipes for the blog he liked (and called his soulmate) and now he's visiting her grandma bc he truly is in love with both Jiw AND Kaopoon

Sun said, “I acknowledge this is a complicated situation but I'm willing to work through the ghost thing and figure out how we feel about each other”

Cutting back to Lieutenant Murder, he has just meowed at his coworker threateningly in response to being investigated (for attacking that same coworker!!)

Lieutenant Murder wears this same stupid outfit every time he's gonna do a crime recently and can I just say: I hate it

WHAT'S HE GONNA DO, KILL EVERYONE WHO KNOWS SOMETHING ABOUT ONE OF HIS MANY CRIMES?? THAT'S A LOT OF PEOPLE! AUNTIE PU! JIW! THE FORESENICS ANALYST! ALMOST-SUN? HE CAN'T EVEN KILL KAOPOON BC HE ALREADY KILLED HER AND SHE'S A GHOST!!!!!!!!!!!

“Chef, is something wrong?” Jiw asked, after telling Sun that his brother-in-law is a murderer who also probably hit his sister with a car

Sun said, “Pls don't be a murderer I love u bro” and Parin said “My life of crime is very important to me”

This is Kaopoon possessing Auntie Pu so that Kaopoon, Jiw and Sun can be a crime-fighting trio, love that for them

There are SO MANY crimes going on right now I cannot even begin to describe but just know Lieutenant Murder is responsible for all of them

So Jiw has been kidnapped (GUESS WHO) and Sun is investigating every school in the area and Kaopoon has a network of ghosts looking for her while Jiw tries to find a way to communicate her location. The Crime-Fighting Trio Continues!!!

You'd think more people would notice what a creep this guy is considering that he is literally DIGGING A GRAVE for the woman trapped in his cupboard!!

Poor Nammoon she has no idea her husband is possessed by a murderous ghost. Which like, to be clear, he did try to murder before the ghost possessed him sooooooooooooo

“You're a good person,” said Nammoon, to a man who has committed at least three murders with a fourth on the go

Sun rescued Jiw via high speed car chase and now Auntie Pu and Kaopoon have taken Sun's car to chase Parin and GET HIS ASS

Also Jiw got 2 attack Parin which I think she deserved to get to do

Oh yikes it's possible she fatally injured him which doesn't bode well for the psychological implications of this whole ordeal

Nope I was wrong the ghost-busting continues

Well I don't know what's more perturbing, the resolution of that fight or the fact that there is still one more episode of 1 HOUR left jhfkjhkfjh this better be a happy filler ep where Jiw and Sun get married omg

HORNY GHOST SHOW REALLY MAKING ME TEARY-EYED ON THE LAST EP

The entire restaurant staff is a collective of morons who love Jiw for who she is

Jiw won a cooking scholarship and gets to study abroad in Europe for two years so it's Sad Boy Hours with Sun again

THEY GOT A SECOND DOG THIS IS THE BEST THING THAT'S HAPPENED ON THIS SHOW

SCREAM NOW AUNTIE PU IS A RICH AND FAMOUS GHOSTBUSTER MEDIUM

Sun has expanded his restaurant business, leaving Rain in charge, and so they have been sent a new employee Summer, who I guess is everyone's new Pain in the Ass just for fun kgjhkjhkgh

He was merely a plot device to prove the Chef Boys are Bros 4 lyf

In a weird turn of events Parin is still alive with amnesia???? Even if all of what he did as an adult was ghost possession stuff.... he did still try to attack a baby as a teen. That's a thing he did! Are we forgetting this????? I guess!!!

GET SOME THERAPY NAMMOON!!

BACK TO THE DOGS:

Sun is strumming a guitar woefully because he misses Jiw:

SHE'S BACK AND THE JIW SUPPORT SQUAD IS THRIVING:

Sun is presumably somewhere sadly shaking a tambourine

IT'S FINALLY HAPPY BOY HOURS

#ayesha says things #ayesha liveblogs oh my ghost #liveblogging #oh my ghost 2018 #thai television #television #long post

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melien · 5 years ago

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Simmer - Get to Know

Thank you for tagging me @cloudberry-sims and @aestheicpixels! I love being tagged in these, even though I usually take ages to do them. Generally, I’m certain that anyone can do tags regardless of whether they were tagged or not, but I mostly do the ones that I was tagged in, unless there’s something super cool around that I really want to do. I guess it’s because I have way less time to devote to simblr now.

Your name: Regina. I go by Mel on the internet and I highkey enjoy the contrast between my fancy first name and my rather simple nickname

Languages you speak: My first languages are Ukrainian and Russian, and I'd also say Polish (I don't speak it on a regular basis but I used to go to Polish school for the first seven years of my education, and my mom's side of family is Polish so I know the language very well). Then there's English, of course, which I've been studying since very young age, and German, which I have some basic knowledge of. I used to study Spanish too but my knowledge of it is even more limited

Are you a mermaid: Nah, I'm more of an alien 👽

Your play style: For a long time I almost exclusively did legacies and some side projects branching from them. But - spoilers - I want to try a completely new blogging style and pay more attention to stories, sim making whenever I feel like it, and maybe some gameplay reminiscent of my ts2 uberhood, because it brings me SO much joy. All this stuff isn't as pressuring as legacies and is much better for my mental health. More on that soon.

Your selfsim picture:

Stories or gameplay, builds, lookbooks, edits or cc: I'm really into storytelling, but sometimes I just like fun gameplay.

Your favorite age state: Well... I guess toddlers, teens and YAs.

Your favorite season: I just have summer on most of the time in game. In real life, that's probably my favourite season as well, though I like all of them in their own way.

Your favorite holiday: New Year's Day I guess

How was your day: It’s just getting started, but yesterday was nice for me in terms of simming, because I finished my CAS BPR and did some essential scenes in the Lilygreen legacy to end my queue on a positive note

Your favorite career: I enjoy playing with musicians

Your favorite aspiration: If I'm honest, I rarely fulfill them. I'm a kinda laid back sims player who doesn't go to great lengths for all the game challenges and sees the game more like a creative outlet

Your favorite EP, SP or GP: Into the Future ❤

How old is your simblr: It will turn seven this year!

Have you woohooed: I bought some 30 diamond scenes on Choices, does this count?

Your favorite skill: I don't know honestly, I rarely make my sims develop skills

The size of your mods folder: 8.48 GB (ts3) and 10.9 GB (ts2). I’m actually shocked because I was pretty sure ts3 one was bigger. It’s also funny because my ts2 game runs super smoothly while ts3... not so much, and note that it’s hairs that take up 90% of the folder

Your 3 favorite mods: Master Controller, Pose Player, and Time/Weather change mod

Your interests (other than sims): I love drawing, writing poetry and prose, spending time with friends, volunteering, travelling, photography. I'm very passionate about teaching English and I'm pretty sure I could land a teacher job soon which I'm super excited about

Your favorite sim (picture if possible): I'll go with my fiery queen Claret Dawn Twinkle 🔥

Which Sims games you have played (including mobile games): I've played all the four parts, even though I only touched ts1 a few times and it kept crashing anyway, so it's not as nostalgic for me as for many players. For me a “nostalgic” and special game is ts2, and the one that helps me express my creativity in the best way is ts3, so I love them both. I don't like ts4 that much but it has good sides and I can play it once in a while when I have a craving. As for other games, for me everything basically started with ts2 Life Stories! I'm still not over that Naomi choice where you have to give up your wealth or she dies. Also, I played sims mobile once but deleted it quickly because it was just too much sims for me and I didn't want to become addicted (for this reason I hardly ever install any games on my phone)

Propose a crazy scheme: Let's, I don't know, be nice, understanding and helpful to each other? Crazy, right? 😂

Best part of simblr: Creative and kind people who inspire me every day

Worst part of simblr: Unfortunately, there are also toxic people who crave drama and you can't escape them even in such a wholesome community

What other games you play: I'm not much of a gamer, but I do have some nonsims favourites. I love Undertale and Deltarune very dearly, and I'm also very much into Choices (my current jams are Blades of Light and Shadow and Bloodbound). Pretty sure I've played more good games but they're escaping my mind now.

Other websites or accounts (origin, twitter etc..): I have a Twitter, where I talk a lot about the game, my plans, my fandoms and completely random stuff. I'm semi-active there because it's not as lively as it used to be, so you're welcome to follow if you have a sims twitter too, I definitely need more people to interact with!

Are you single: Yeah and I don’t really mind it, even though I wouldn’t want to stay this way forever. On a related note, this question and the woohoo one stick out among the others in a kinda weird way

#text post #saviorhide #personal

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sagehaleyofficial · 5 years ago

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HERE’S WHAT YOU MISSED THIS WEEK (1.8-1.14.20):

NEW MUSIC:

· Record Store Day went on social media to unveil its 2020 date, which is set for April 18th. Last year, a special edition turntable manufactured by Crosley Radio was available at select record stores.

· Green Day took to social media to share a GIF announcing their new track “Oh, Yeah” will be released later this month. Additionally, they also confirmed a rumored tracklist that was anonymously sent to a fan earlier this month.

· Spanish Love Songs announced the release date of their third studio album, Brave Faces Everyone, on February 7th via Pure Noise Records. The band also released a new single “Kick” with an accompanying music video.

· New Found Glory announced that they are looking to include fans in filming a new music video. Recently, guitarist Chad Gilbert took to Instagram to tease that the band have been working on a new album, which will follow up their 2017 release, Makes Me Sick.

· Silverstein announced a release date for their next studio album, A Beautiful Place to Drown. They also dropped their latest single off the LP, “Infinite,” featuring Underoath and The Almost musician Aaron Gillespie.

· In a very recent interview, Senses Fail vocalist Buddy Nielsen revealed what he thinks will be the title of the band’s eighth album, calling it Hell is in Your Head. The frontman also talked about the relationships between this new album and their 2006 record, Still Searching.

· Evanescence dropped a music video for their cover of Fleetwood Mac’s song “The Chain,” which was featured on the soundtrack for the video game Gears of War 5. Singer Amy Lee also lent her vocals to the game’s launch trailer just prior.

· The 1975 announced the debut of a new song titled “Me & You Together Song,” set to drop this Thursday. Their fourth studio album, Notes on a Conditional Form, was then pushed back from its original release date on February 21st to sometime in April.

· Halsey took inspiration from country music in her latest single “You Should Be Sad” off her upcoming album Manic, dropping this Friday. She revealed on Twitter that the track was inspired by some of her favorite female artists of the genre, namely Carrie Underwood.

· Creeper announced the release date for their upcoming album, Sex, Death and the Infinite Void, along with a brief tour in the UK. The band teased fans on Twitter prior to the announcement by posting a series of periods and short videos.

· PVRIS dropped a haunting acoustic version of their song “Hallucinations,” originally the title track of the band’s latest EP. Singer Lynn Gunn also shared it on her own Twitter feed, saying “It’s chill.”

· The upcoming film Birds of Prey is getting its own soundtrack, appropriately titled Birds of Prey: The Album. The soundtrack features Halsey, K. Flay, a collab by Megan Thee Stallion and Normani, and more internationally-acclaimed female artists.

· Paramore frontwoman Hayley Williams teased what could potentially be a lyric from her upcoming solo project debut, Petals for Armor, releasing January 22nd. Clues of the new project surfaced on Instagram and city streets with a release date for some time this month.

· A recent video shows Halsey in the studio with Bring Me the Horizon’s Oli Sykes and Jordan Fish. It appears that the video is referencing her new song for the Birds of Prey soundtrack titled “Experiment on Me.”

· Alexisonfire dropped a new single titled “Season of the Flood,” which marks their third new song in 10 years and premiered on BBC1’s Rock Show. Last year, the band dropped two singles, “Complicit” and “Familiar Drugs.”

· Point North’s new song, titled “Into the Dark,” just dropped, featuring current tour mate and Sleeping with Sirens‘ singer, Kellin Quinn. The bands are currently on tour with Set It Off and Belmont.

TOUR ANNOUNCEMENTS:

· Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival announced the lineup for the festival’s 2020 dates. This year’s headliners include Tool, Lizzo, Tame Impala, Miley Cyrus, Bassnectar, Flume, Oysterhead, Lana Del Rey and Vampire Weekend.

· The Almost frontman Aaron Gillespie recruited his Underoath bandmate Tim McTague to join him on stage during a show at the Orpheum in Tampa. Gillespie shared photos of the evening, touching on the “unnecessary friction” at The Almost’s formation in 2005.

· In anticipation of their upcoming release Father of All… next month, Green Day announced that they want to host a wild party at a fan’s house. In a video posted to Instagram, Billie Joe Armstrong talked about wanting to play in one very lucky fan’s backyard in California.

· Halsey announced the dates for the North American installment of her Manic World Tour. It was also announced that CHVRCHES, Omar Apollo, blackbear and PVRIS will all join her on select dates of this tour.

· Circa Survive announced that Polyphia and Gouge Away will join them on their Blue Sky Noise 10-year anniversary tour. The band took to social media to announce the supporting cast for the tour.

· Billie Eilish, Gwen Stefani with Blake Shelton, Aerosmith and Lizzo will all take the stage at this year’s Grammy Awards on January 26th. R&B songstress Alicia Keys will again host the ceremony.

· Post Malone was announced to headline the “Bootsy on the Water” pop-up event at one of this year’s Super Bowl kick-off parties in Florida. Fans have the opportunity to see the rapper live, but tickets range from a hefty $1,000 to $150,000.

· The Maine announced their second edition of 8123 Day to celebrate their 13th anniversary as a band. The event will offer fans fun opportunities such as an online scavenger hunt, contests, new merchandise and more.

· My Chemical Romance’s return show grossed nearly $1,500,000, making history as the highest-grossing show at the venue ever. A Paradigm agent, Matt Galle, spoke with Variety last December about how everything came together.

· Joe Rogan, Jim Jefferies and Whitney Cummings are joining forces to appear at Stand Up for Australian Fires, the Australia wildfires benefit show taking place on January 26th. Proceeds from the show, co-produced by Kevin Lyman and Joe Sib, will go to Wildlife Warriors.

· After announcing their first full U.S. headlining run last month, Sleep On It finally announced the opening acts for the “Pride and Disastour.” The band’s upcoming tour, which kicks off at the end of February, will be supported by Bearings, Between You and Me and Neverkept.

· Sleeping with Sirens revealed a stacked co-headlining run with the Amity Affliction kicking off in April. The tour will begin April 15th in Reno, Nevada, and conclude May 23rd in Milwaukee with support from Stray from the Path and UnityTX.

OTHER NEWS:

· The Maine drummer Pat Kirch married his longtime partner Shacara Nemetz, with his bandmates, family and friends in attendance at the ceremony. Last September, the couple also announced they were expecting their first child together.

· One talented drummer took on the challenge of combining 50 My Chemical Romance songs in 10 minutes. The fan in question, Sage Duvall, is a member of Florida-based indie band Raggy Monster and impressively recorded it all in one take without the use of a click track.

· Bad Religion announced the release of their new book, “DO WHAT YOU WANT: The Story of Bad Religion,” which is set to drop on August 20th by Hachette Books. The autobiography is a deep examination of the band’s four decades in rock music.

· Music IP investment company Hipgnosis Songs acquired 157 songs from alternative icon Tom DeLonge‘s catalog. “All the Small Things” and more Blink-182 hits were reportedly acquired.

· Ice Nine Kills joined numerous musicians in fundraising to help put an end to the Australian wildfires plaguing the country. The band is selling a T-shirt featuring a kangaroo dressed as horror icon Freddy Krueger, with all proceeds going towards Australia’s relief efforts.

· The upcoming film Birds of Prey revealed its second official trailer, which may reveal what happens to Jared Leto‘s Joker character. Recently, lead actress Margot Robbie, who plays Harley Quinn, confirmed that Leto would not be in the film.

· Featuring a red, black and white color palette, Vans’ latest “I Heart” shoe collection recently hit their online store. The line showcases the phrase “I heart boys, I heart girls” in a continuous pattern.

· Neil Peart, iconic drummer and lyrical voice of legendary Canadian prog-rock act Rush, has passed away. Rolling Stone reported that Peart had succumbed to aggressive brain cancer at age 67 after a brave three-and-a-half-year-long battle.

· The Umbrella Academy fans were surprised last week when the comic series appeared as a question on the game show Jeopardy!. The show is currently hosting its “The Greatest of All Time” tournament, which has three record-breaking former contestants playing.

· Blink-182 joined the relief effort toward stopping the Australian bushfires by releasing a new merch collection. Proceeds from the shirts will go towards Australia Zoo, which is giving medical help and rehabilitating to sick, injured and displaced wildlife in the country.

· Blink-182 drummer Travis Barker is partnering with Barrett-Jackson to sell a few of his vehicles to the highest bidder. There will be three cars up for sale – a 1941 Cadillac 62 Series convertible, a 1960 Cadillac Coupe Deville and a 1972 Chevrolet K5 Blazer.

___

Check in next Tuesday for more “Posi Talk with Sage Haley,” only at @sagehaleyofficial!

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vernonfielding · 5 years ago

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They say it’s lonely at the top

What’s that? We don’t have a trailer from NBC yet? Maybe you want to read some weird Jorm-POV B99 fanfic instead?? (ie Here is story No. 9 of my Season 7 Countdown Project!)

Summary: “Hey, everyone, just want to introduce you to our new assistant manager, Larry Sherbet.”

Taylor, manager of the Fun Zone, needs to hire a new assistant – but does he go with the known stoner or the new guy with the unbelievable resume? Takes place during Coral Palms Part 1. (Read on AO3.)

Taylor’s plucking disgustedly at the front of his shirt, muttering to himself about what jerks pre-schoolers can be, as he ducks into his office and closes the door behind him. The purple slushee is sticky and icy cold through the thin blue polo, and he quickly shucks his shirt and trashes it – he knows from experience that it’s already ruined. Fun Zone slushees eat right through the polyester blend.

He pulls the tub of disinfectant wipes out of the bottom drawer of his file cabinet and starts to clean himself up. It’s barely 11, they’ve only been open an hour, and already he’s fielded complaints about: gum in the ball pit; a feral possum growling at players on the eighth hole; the French fries tasting suspiciously like weed; and a child using toilet water to wash his hands in the restroom because the sink that Greg recommended they install is broken again (probably because someone shoved a hot dog down the drain yesterday).

It’s too much for one man, Taylor thinks to himself, as he tosses the wad of used wipes into the trash, on top of his shirt. He needs an assistant.

Taylor grabs a new polo out of the top drawer of his file cabinet and tugs it over his head as he drops into his desk chair, which wobbles precariously under his weight. He steadies himself on the desk, and his hand lands on a slip of paper – on Greg Stickney’s resume.

Greg’s was the first resume Taylor had ever seen for a job at the Fun Zone, and Taylor had been impressed. It’s even typed up, with his name and phone number on the top and a list of previous jobs, mostly a lot of retail stuff, just like Taylor. Greg was a good hire. He comes to work when he’s supposed to, he doesn’t smack the kids when they swear at him, and he hasn’t spit in the food even once, as far as Taylor knows.

But he just can’t shake the image of Greg in that Count Bluntula T-shirt. He knew something was funny about that guy – he was always so calm and laid-back, but also really hard to read, like if Matthew McConaughey were a robot. But he couldn’t pin it down until he saw the shirt and everything clicked. Now he worries that a full-time stoner would be a bigger problem than no assistant manager at all.

Still, he can’t keep doing this alone. Taylor slumps in his chair and scratches at his chin. Maybe he should give the guy a shot.

A knock on his door startles him, and Carly pops her head in. “Hey, some guy’s out here about a job.”

They’re not technically hiring – he was given orders from the owner to promote the assistant from the current staff – but before Taylor can tell Carly to send him away, the door swings open further and reveals a man with a wide, welcoming smile and gloriously frosted blond tips in his hair.

“Hey,” the man says, stepping forward and thrusting out a hand to shake. “I’m Larry. Larry Sherbet. I understand you might be looking for an assistant manager.”

+++

Larry is perfect. He, too, has a resume, and it’s even more impressive that Greg’s.

“You were a pilot?” Taylor says, reading over his work experience.

Larry nods and gives him another big grin. He’s sitting on a folding chair that Taylor usually keeps wedged between the file cabinet and the table with security cameras. He can’t remember the last time anyone actually sat in it.

“Yeah, remember that plane that hit a bird in New York? Pilot had to land in the Hudson?”

Taylor nods, then frowns. “I think so?”

“That was me,” Larry says, kicking his feet out in front of him and leaning back in the chair, hands clasped behind his head. “I saved like 300 people.”

“Wasn’t that guy super old?”

Larry rubs at his chin. “Shaved the mustache last year. It took off like 10 years.”

Taylor squints at him, and he can kind of see it. Larry looks like he’s in his late 20s, maybe early 30s, but he could be 60 – Taylor’s always been bad with ages.

“And it says here,” Taylor says, pointing at the next line, “that you took down a surfer bank robbery ring. That’s so dope, man. Isn’t there a TV show, or like a movie like that?”

“Point Break,” Larry says, smirking at him. “They based the movie off me. Had to retire from the FBI after that. Cover blown and all, you know how it is.”

He shrugs, like “what’re you gonna do?” and Taylor respects the guy’s no regrets attitude.

Taylor hates to ask the next question, but: “Aren’t you a little over-qualified for this position?”

For the first time, the grin slips off Larry’s face, and he eases forward in his chair, eyes darting to the office door, and beckons Taylor toward him. It’s all very conspiratorial and Taylor’s loving it. He leans over his desk and raises an inquisitive eyebrow.

“You can’t tell anyone what I’m about to say to you,” Larry says, his voice low and serious and seductive.

A chill runs up Taylor’s spine and he swallows thickly, nods. “I won’t.”

Larry looks toward the door again and licks his lips. When he turns back to Taylor, they lock eyes, and Taylor holds his breath.

“I’m in witness protection,” Larry says. “I tangled with a mob boss and now I have to lie low until the feds catch him, or until I lose my freakin’ mind in this dump-hole state and run away with my girlfriend to Bermuda. Is Bermuda nice this time of year?”

“I think Bermuda’s nice any time of year,” Taylor says.

“Anyway,” Larry says, “I just need a job to keep my cover, and I don’t want to sell ATVs because those things’ll kill you and I don’t need more blood on my hands, you know?”

Taylor does not know.

“So-” Taylor says.

“To recap,” Larry interrupts, and holds up a hand, counting out on his fingers: “Witness protection, running from the mob, need a job.”

Taylor leans back in his chair and crosses his arms over his chest. Beyond his office door, he can hear a child sob-screaming and a woman shouting profanities at whoever’s behind the snack counter. Taylor glances at the two resumes now sitting on his desk, side by side.

“You’re full of shit, Larry,” Taylor says, as he stands up. He grins and thrusts out a hand. “And I dig it. How’d you like to be my new assistant manager?”

“I would like nothing better,” Larry says. They shake on it.

They’re going to be best friends now. Taylor’s sure of it. He throws an arm around Larry’s shoulder and leads him outside to meet the staff.

End Notes:

Title is from Feed the Beast (Bash Brothers).

I like writing outside perspectives of the main characters and the idea of writing “Jorm” was too much fun! (Might there be an Akiva one sometime this month? Only time will tell.)

I toggled back and forth between writing Taylor as really dumb or just really not giving a shit, but I feel like that could apply to a lot of the random characters in the Florida eps. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

#b99 fic #b99 season 7 countdown project #jake peralta #larry sherbet #missing scene #coral palms #fun zone #jorma taccone

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kinetic-elaboration · 5 years ago

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April 15: Limetown S2

Finished listening to Limetown today. Then I read a lot of reddit posts about it. Now I have a lot of thoughts but also I desire to go to sleep because it was supremely hard to get up this morning and I’d like to finish work at a reasonable time tomorrow.

I liked S2 more than a lot of other people seemed to, but I think that’s pretty understandable. I mean first off anyone participating in a subreddit about Limetown is, or was at one time, a huge Limetown fan and huge fans of anything are going to be more critical of what they love because they’re more invested. This is especially true when talking about new installments of anything, because the new has to live up to whatever original installment created that intense love in the first place. I’ve gotten increasingly critical of everything I’ve ever been A Fan of, so I get it. With Limetown, I’m much more of a casual listener, but I needed to hear others’ opinions and interpretations, so I went to the Internet.

Plus, the frankly ridiculous wait between seasons means that S2 could never have lived up to S1. S1 becomes legendary by the mere passage of time. S2 would have been a letdown even if it hadn’t been farmed out to new people to write and produce and even if it hadn’t been surrounded by drama and controversy.

And, finally, that finale was bonkers, and I think it’s hard not to finish and not immediately think....okay, and? What am I supposed to think of THAT? And that can eclipse what came before and make it harder to judge the season as a whole.

All that said, I did like it as a whole. I thought the first four episodes were solid and episode five had certain things that were very good, even if I’m unsure how to feel about other parts.

A few specific thoughts (may or may not be coherent):

I was a bit surprised by how much lone-wolf activity there was--I really thought from the end of S1 that Lia was taken by some kind of Organization, not just One Guy. Similarly, for some reason I thought Charley was being held by some Group of some sort, not just, again, One Guy. (I’m not 100% convinced that the first bit of confusion isn’t a plot hole though.)

I liked the back story of the Bridge and I didn’t find it a let down at all. Halifax and the Bridge were probably my favorite eps of the season. But I also think perhaps I’m more into the whole ‘ramification of the tech’ angle than others?

Speaking of ranking eps and comparing seasons, I wouldn’t put anything in S2 above Scarecrow, but I think Halifax and the Bridge and probably Bordeaux were better than Winona.

I did ship Daniel and Emil. And I’m not convinced I wasn’t supposed to.

It’s canonically true that Emil is Lia’s father, right? Like I find it weird that people continue to refer to them as niece and uncle when it was confirmed they are not. I kind of called that, only in that I didn’t understand how an estranged niece would be so important to him. Also... there’s always a surprise father lol. Always.

I’m on the fence about how much of a plot hole it was that Emil didn’t know that Cleo was fake based on his own knowledge of Limetown. I see the argument... but even in small communities, not every one actually knows everyone else? I don’t know. More importantly than the simple logistics, though, I think obsessing about what he would or wouldn’t have known misses the point. (See below.)

I felt a little bit cheated by the twist with Charley playing Emil, only because I felt like it was so late in the game for that, and I’d put too much into her story, all of a sudden, to have it just as suddenly taken away. It seemed a little too much like ‘psych, it’s all fake though!’ Which I think is what other people got from it too, especially when coupled with her last speech and then what I’ll refer to as the Lia Coda.

But. Having only listened to it once. I do get, I think, what they were trying to do.

First, and most importantly, I think they were really getting at Emil’s hubris, a hubris that’s been created by his ability. Which is why I think it might be missing the point to say that ‘well he would have known he didn’t know a Cleo.’ Yeah, if he had to think critically. But he doesn’t because he assumes that he can just read the truth in someone’s brain, because that’s how it’s always been.

So what I’m saying is that if you think of the theme or point of the series as ‘what would having this ability, mindreading, do to people?’ and all of the different eps and character backstories and story lines as being variations on that theme--what would it do to a community, what would it do to a marriage, what would it do to children--well here is another one: it’s created a blind spot in Emil, an exploitable weakness out of what he thought was his strength.

I guess what I’m saying is I do think that’s interesting. I felt like I had other thoughts on it but... can’t remember.

Um, I think it helped me see what kind of person Charley is. Maybe this is me and my desire to empathize with literally every character but, just having her be the POV character for so long, I was giving her a lot of benefits of the doubt. And then, you know, I felt bad for the lamp, so to speak. So obviously I felt played but, having been played, I felt I’d learned something. I’m not convinced that ‘playing the audience’ wasn’t a purposeful part of that twist, is what I mean.

I definitely could have done without Charley’s little speech at the end, both in terms of form and substance.

It becomes slightly more tenable to me when paired with the Lia Coda BUT... it’s way too late for me to get into that lol. In short I will say I think it’s easy to conflate the character who speaks last with the author and the last opinion given as the Right Opinion, the Message, the Lesson. But it’s not necessarily so. Maybe Charley was supposed to be fucking annoying. And part of the purpose or perhaps even the central purpose of the Coda was to point this out to the listener.

I also have not read the book and know only what’s on the four corners of the podcast, so to speak, so I didn’t know what Lia’s power was supposed to be. I thought she and her mom were, like Sylvia, immune to the mindreading. So that might also have affected the way I read the Coda. But again, not going into it rn. Especially because I have a half-formed Wild Theory about it that I’m not even sure if I like myself.

#the year 2020 #2020: fandom thoughts

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plounce · 6 years ago

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do you have any molly or widomauk fic recs? You have good characterization taste & I miss him and need to recover from seeing caleb/nott/molly as a relationship tag

well after that gutpunch of a closing line, here are my offerings:

… under a cut because there are a LOT. rifled through my bookmarks and subscriptions for this. hope you like these! my ultimate personal faves are bolded. newer additions are starred.

massive widomauk indulgence (oneshots & completed fics)

take your kid gloves off - oh this is SUCH a fave!! teacher au. really good mature emotions… still has the pining that makes fic great but it doesn’t feel soap opera-y as some do. read this please.

my only sunshine - soulmate au! i can be very picky about soulmate aus but this one really agreed with me. follows canon where it can. this was great!! very tender and sweet and hurts at the right parts and is so good at the right parts

twisters chasing storms - written in the week between ep 25 and ep 26. beau centric with side wm. the remaining members of the m9 have to deal with doing what they must to get them back. kind of dark but just like. oof. i reread this a bunch. really good character work in this. (violence warning)

Caleb, huddled on the cart over Molly’s books, says what Beau has been thinking all along: “Jester and Fjord and Yasha were not terrible. This—” and he gestures around at all of them, “—is a terrible combination.”

“That’s slander,” says Molly. “I’m a good person. And—you know, you’re—you’re not all great, sure, but you do good things. I like you.”

The rest of them look at him.

“Okay, that was weak,” he admits.

any clever ideas? - molly and caleb make out in the evening nip in order to dissuade cree from talking with molly. it is SO GOOD and just. rules. it hits those trope buttons perfectly. i LOVE this one

strictly ballroom - UNDERCOVER AT A FANCY DRESS BALL… DANCING… PINING… JEALOUSY… this is SUCH an indulgent fave and i just enjoy it so much. this is a FUN read. THIS is what i enjoy fic for

discover us safely destroyed - an interesting character study from the zadash arc

our early days - pre relationship. figuring each other out and being tender and protective. taking care of each other. (violence warning)

the crossroads - caleb falls in battle and has a conversation in limbo (without knowing he’s in limbo). very bittersweet and so like… OOF

hopscotch - a lot of the m9 body swap. good character stuff. the differences in molly and caleb’s brains in terms of memory capabilities is… ouch! ouch!! it’s really good. “you’re my friends. i trust you.”

let’s dance - this one is an older one one, and cute! dancing!

comfort walks softly on little cat feet - h/c. an older one, and very sweet.

strange light - a good coda to the cali ep, which was hard to find. measured characterizations with some molly details i adore - his love of theatrics, and keeping copies of lucien’s wanted posters that he’s torn down and using them for kindling.

a street cat named frumpkin - a cute little modern au with side wm! hooray for kitties.

familiar comfort - frumpkin pov. implied wm. really super excellent. i LOVE frumpkin pov stuff

until you set your old heart free - modern with magic… established relationship… molly gets rezzed and returns home… ohhhhhhhh. oh my heart

take me back into your arms - molly gets rezzed! tam lin setup! hell yeah! power of love babey!!

kiss me once, kiss me twice - a series for kiss prompts!! so sweet. this one has some really heartwarming modern au installments that i just adore

something new for me and you - this one recently wrapped up! a good multichapter, probably the peak modern urban au in the tag. very detailed and has some very good themes about like… feeling love and feeling deserving of relationships and having to grapple with being bond to the people you’re close to. ALSO has background claysol which you KNOW i’m a BIG SUCKER for. very charming!

*indelible - modern au! tattoo parlor stuff, which can be very hit or miss for me, but this was such a sweet, lovely au with a lot of like. recovery stuff in it? for both of them. very nice.

*meet me in the woods - OOF this has such such delicious piiiining… yearning! molly Noticing caleb’s hands and the two of them slowly growing closer. it was such a sweet read and i enjoyed the whole thing like a soft blanket.

*boats and birds - i love this! such a great snapshot of molly (swinging from the ropes on the ball eater, and being a bit reckless & unlucky in his circus tricks - that’s my bitch!), and such a lovely, telling interaction between him and caleb. i loved that “did you just tell a joke? well, it was a good one” bit, and i love fics that revisit it with a bit more future tenderness. this is the line that won me completely over to this fic:

Because Molly is an idiot and likes to pretend that he has a chance of breaking through the ten layers of trauma Caleb wears like a second skin to find the person underneath and convince him he’s worth something, he takes a minute to appreciate the view.

*matryoshka - immediate fixit after molly’s death, which rules. molly’s ghost gets to carpool in caleb’s body before they rez him. i think this scenario was written enjoyably but with appropriate weight as well, which could be very hard to find. pre-relationship, which i always enjoy - i love me some people meandering towards feelings. it also has some very interesting lucien theory tidbits sprinkled in, which i enjoy.

*cat magnet - molly gets turned into a cat for a hot minute and cuddles up to caleb. short and fun and not weird (thank goodness).

*devil’s tongue - i’m always a bit bashful/hesitant about reccing explicit stuff, but this one has such excellent and caring characterization that i feel correct in putting it on this list. the best explicit ship fics always have an element of knowing that the characters aren’t losing their personalities once they get in bed, and this one has both characters as like. people. the d/s stuff does not overwhelm the characters or the fic and is very light - you see that these are real people in an equal relationship trying to help each other feel good (and i’m a judgmental bastard about fic, so you can take my word on this). AND it has some linguistic stuff about infernal as the actual plot, which i can be a sucker for.

*a thin line - molly gets injured, caleb sews him up, they dance around a conversation before actually Talking About Stuff and becoming closer. excellently written h/c. this is an early wdmk fic, but actually writes the characters pretty well in hindsight! op rules. it’s interesting to see what the author manages to get right, and the backstory elements they made up are still engaging and consistent for the molly & caleb they have written.

*heartfrost - molly lives au, taking place around ep 72. molly is resistant to fire, so he’s vulnerable to cold. he has a bad time with that, and with grieving for yasha as well. caleb takes care of him. this was just sweet h/c whump, and reading molly getting his feelings validated by caleb was *kisses fingers* very good.

*limerence - caleb accidentally casts a spell that makes everyone who sees him fall in love with him - except the party lesbians and… molly, for some reason. isn’t it strange that a love spell doesn’t alter molly’s behavior towards caleb??? synopsis aside - i really enjoy how this fic took the fact that molly canonically wouldn’t pursue caleb because he sees caleb isn’t in a good place to have that; molly’s respect for consent with regards to relationships shines through here and agh i love him. also, i am beau in this fic.

**VWOOP! (every time a bell rings, a tiefling gets their wings) - a really interesting take on the soulmate au involving true name stuff (the author has some notes at the end about “true names” which made me :) about the concept in terms of identity and meaning, so dw about deadname snarls yk). wings! soulmates! friends with benefits that accidentally evolve into feelings!

**the fool, reversed - i’m a hack who loves to see molly slotted into present canon just for fun. this one has him being abducted with yasha by obann, and in dealing with the trauma afterward accidentally discovering his incorporeality bloodhunter powers. good stuff.

**the skin beneath the facade - this one is so self indulgent and i love it. fake dating at a fancy party! kissing! POISON! A CAT! fun fun fun read.

WIPs that i am subscribed to and really enjoy, and are good reads already:

the prophet of tortham - LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE THIS ONE… god i just love it. molly scrambling to be the best scammer he can and rolling miracuously well, while trying to solve a mystery! very perceptive caleb and perfectly slow burn widomauk. it’s an au where molly pretends to be an actual fortuneteller to a lord that the rest of the m9 work for. i’ve been adoring this one so far, such a great molly.

there’s a ghost in my lungs - vague future canon! the m9 finds molly again, but the empire put a bunch of stuff in his head and the gang seeks to cure him, all while getting tangled up in a town plot and festivals. very good widomauk pining. side note: the “winter soldier au” tag has nothing to do with marvel at all besides the basic premise of what’s up with molly, but for the vast majority of the fic he is himself (changed somewhat after what he’s gone through, but his wonderful self). i’ve been keeping up with this one for a long time and i’ve been loving it.

Caleb blinks, as if coming out of a Frumpkin trance. Beau knows better, though, she’s seen him staring at Molly like Molly’s a lighthouse in the dark, and he’s a man paddling desperately back to shore.

we circle by night - a far-flung-future caleb travels back in time and accidentally averts molly’s death! and there’s a splintered timeline. slow burn widomauk starts kindling but caleb’s dealing with uh… pretending he’s not an older and higher-level wizard inside a canon age caleb body. VERY good. love it.

fractured moonlight on the sea - molly is a selkie and doesn’t know it!! i looooooove this so far and can’t wait for more, this is such good like… pining for stuff you don’t know, romantically and sealwise.

map to alexandria - modern music au! very good writing of like. human emotions. very good relationship themes. this is my good buddy mauve @phantomsteed‘s fave fic!

the gay and wondrous life of caleb widogast - this is a modern with magic childhood friends road trip au! it is also fjollygast, and i really enjoyed it. extremely good and well-written pining and relationship drama, that luckily has been resolved. from what i’ve detectived, it seems like it’s been put on permanent hiatus after canon has diverged a lot from what the author was working from. but it stopped at a very good point and is a fave. extremely delicious pining.

wilderswans’ 30 day nsfw challenge - this is such a great series with a lot of character work and like… stuff about intimacy and it’s really good and tender! early relationship. really sweet and well-written!

**the names that make us - soulmate au! with twists and turns. starts out as bren/lucien and will become caleb/molly. looking forward to it.

molly focused:

true north - molly and yasha relationship stuff… i love them. platonic soulmates. a grand adventure!

visions in lightning, voices in thunder - yasha and molly again, but this time more of a snapshot. implied wm and by. yasha’s aasimarness interacts with ukatoa’s dreams in a nasty and cool way. this one has a line that alwaaaaaays gets me right in the gut

“I’d keep an eye on him, if I were you. There’s still some sharp edges to him.”

Molly chuckled. “I’m well acquainted with sharp edges.”

Yes, and you cut yourself on them all the time, Yasha thought to herself. If he cuts you, will you bleed for him?

also if you haven’t… you should read my high school au oneshot where beau and molly are siblings ;) if you want some numbers to back my self promotion it is the 9th highest kudos’d wm fic on ao3 atm… AND it’s a oneshot. blue gatorade rights

OH and as an edit: here’s my more serious in tone wdmk fic, canticle. it is very good and self indulgent. molly character study and repressed pining. ep 25/6 divergent au, as one does. inspired by twisters chasing storms, recced above.

#robcr #critical role #widomauk #mollymauk tealeaf #caleb widogast #Anonymous #chirps #critical role fanfiction #reclist

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itsbenedict · 5 years ago

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Kingdoms and Koopas: Ep. 8

K&K is a Fate Accelerated campaign set in the Mario universe, which I’m running for three players:

Bee @thebeeskneesocks, playing Kandace Koopa

Jovian @jovian12, playing Cozmo Naut

Malky @sleepdepravity, playing Dr. Chevy Chain

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Previously on Kingdoms and Koopas, the party won a go-kart race on Rainbow Road, foiling Rawk Hawk and Dr. Moneybags’ nefarious plans to fix the competition. The problem was what happened immediately after their victory- the prize was brought out, and turned out not to be the Music Key they were after. Kandace then checked in the direction the real deal’s magical signature was coming from...

...and bumped into a giant invisible spaceship that promptly started invading the planet. Which they will now be infiltrating.

As soon as Opal dispels the UFO’s invisibility, a whole lot of things happen. First is, as mentioned previously, a bunch of people in the audience take off their Toad disguises, revealing themselves as alien bunnies and X-Nauts. Who start taking hostages. But then, well- the main thing they do with the hostages is force them to face the UFO, as if it weren’t attention-getting enough.

A screen shows up, broadcasting a swirly pattern, beginning to mass-hypnotize everyone. This could be quite bad, but thankfully, Princess Opal knows a spell to make people immune to hypnosis. Less thankfully, the spell takes the form of a cone that emits from her broom-staff-wand thing, and so she isn’t caught in the effect of her own spell. (Neither is Chevy, who’s still separated from the other two.)

Chevy, thankfully, makes a very good roll to resist- so good, in fact, that not only does she not get hypnotized, but she hears the orders being hypnotically transmitted to her, without having to obey them. (She’s supposed to report to the ship and assist “the wounded” somewhere on the ship, and has a codephrase, “Hail Tatanga”, to prove she’s brainwashed so she can get inside.)

Princess Opal, however, is caught in the hypnosis, and immediately flies into the ship, to be used for some nefarious purpose!

So, okay- in a rare fit of heroism, Chevy decides that, yes, she is going to actually get involved on purpose, taking advantage of the failed hypnotism to sneak aboard. The party works out and then executes on a plan.

While Chevy rides a handy-dandy X-Naut claw drone up to the ship (they’re being deployed everywhere to carry newly-hypnotized help on board), Cozmo and Kandace take a different route up. Cozmo, see, is already an X-Naut, so he doesn’t actually need a disguise or anything to get aboard. He pretends to take Kandace hostage, pretending to fly her broom up to the ship while Kandace secretly pilots the broom backwards. It’s a tricky roll, but they pull it off. Cozmo is able to bluff past the airlock security, and they’re in.

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The problem, is, they’re both “in” at two different points. Let me give you a rundown on the layout of this ship.

The Orbital Doom Casa is divided into eleven distinct sections- two floors of five rooms each, plus a lower floor containing a single chamber. The two floors are each laid out sort of like a Simon game. Like, uh, this:

Four rooms around the edge, plus a central hub. In this case, Chevy has been taken up to the lower floor’s Simon Yellow, and Kandace and Cozmo entered a different airlock at Simon Blue.

Kandace and Cozmo have arrived at Space Storage Space, a general-purpose supply depot for the ship. Everything’s locked behind alarmed glass cases, though, so they’ll need a passcode to get in. Cozmo might know the passcode, but it’s possible- indeed, likely- that they’ve changed it since the moon fortress days, and getting it wrong could set off an alarm. Since there’s nothing in there they need right now, they decide to go to the yellow area to meet up with Chevy.

Simon Yellow is the X-Production Chamber. Cozmo recognizes a lot of the equipment in the room- this is where new X-Nauts are decanted from mysterious chemical space soup. However, the X-Tubes are currently lying empty, and new equipment has been set up along the far wall (the same wall containing a door to Simon Green, marked “Bunny Ranch”.) This new equipment... it seems to be an array of brainwashing helmets, and a line of hypnotized racing fans are queuing up to be more permanently brainwashed. As victims come out from under the brainwashing helmets, they put on X-Naut uniforms and proceed to whatever their next task is.

Chevy has been taken to the back of the line, but like shell she’s gonna stick around to get helmeted. Instead, Cozmo and Kandace provide a distraction- Cozmo, after all, hasn’t been in the organization in years, and so the X-Scientists on duty have some pointed questions about where in the heck he’s been. This causes trouble for his lies- for instance, this ship doesn’t have brig (why would they need a brig when they have a brainwashing room?) and how come he doesn’t know that? He manages to string together some excuses about doing reconnaissance planetside, and he bluffs well enough that they forget the holes in his story.

The team, finally reunited, heads upstairs to the BarraX (a feat which is difficult but not impossible for Chevy, who is no fan of stairs.) There, they find “the wounded” Chevy was supposed to be treating- which amounts to one X-Naut (Wipe Naut, pronounced Wipe Nowt) who broke his leg skateboarding. Chevy plays it straight and attempts to set his leg using a skateboard as a splint, but, uh, fails. Because skateboards aren’t very good splints. As a stopgap measure to cover her failure, she uses a tongue depressor as a splint, which isn’t great but should at least stop the bone from setting wrong.

Anyway, they don’t have time to mess around with medicine- they need to find the Music Key and rescue Princess Opal! Kandace cajoles her shadow, Carbonado, into sneaking around and gathering some intel- apparently, the ship’s hypnotist is at the lowest level of the ship. Before they can do that, though... it’s getting tiresome having to bluff past every X-Naut they meet, so they decide to go downstairs and get some disguises.

Chevy acts as an obstruction for Kandace to hide behind as she filches an X-Naut uniform from the X-Production Chamber, and then the party is sent to the Space Storage Space to get some X-Naut logo stickers for Chevy- since, well, they don’t exactly have uniforms that fit chain chomps.

At the SSS, they meet the attendant on duty- one Nauti Naut, who both talks like a pirate and is very naughty. As Kandace fights Chevy to see how many stickers she can stick to her, Nauti interrogates Cozmo about where he’s been- Nauti, after all, is one of the old generation, moonbase survivors. Her thing was... constant attempts at mutiny. Which she’s still up to, not having yet been fired because she’s a decent employee when she’s not actively executing said ineffectual mutinies.

From Nauti, they learn that this ship is run by an alliance of three leaders: The Supreme Leader (that’s the severed head of Grodus, still up and kicking), the Supreme Master (some weirdo), and the Supreme Hypnotist (some mysterious weirdo)- plus the new supercomputer, TEC-CC, who’s helping coordinate them.

The plan, currently, is to track down the Supreme Hypnotist first, to cancel the hypnotism and release Princess Opal. The problem with that is that the Hypno-chamber is only accessible via an elevator from the bridge or the power core, and those two areas can only be accessed with a keycard. Their plan to get a keycard is to talk to (and bluff past) TEC-CC, who can print them.

So they head through the X-Production chamber, upstairs to the BarraX, and then into Simon-Green-2, the TEC-CC Server Room. And as they enter- and before they’re noticed- they overhear an incriminating conversation between TEC-CC and... someone. Someone with an unmistakable voice.

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This nefarious bowling pin is unsubtly plotting with TEC-CC to get rid of the Supreme Leader and Supreme Hypnotist, ensuring the spoils of the invasion are a two-way split instead of a four-way split.

Unfortunately, after this, Chevy crit-fails her stealth roll, and unstealth-rolls into a server rack, causing a loud noise that gets Orbulon’s attention.

Chevy, cornered, decides to come clean to Orbulon, mostly: they’re here to sabotage the Supreme Hypnotist and get rid of his influence, which is just fine by Orbulon. In fact, he gives them a codephrase they can use to command the Alien Bunnies on his authority, and a keycard they can use to access the power core (and through there, the hypno-chamber)!

The cost of this, of course, is that now Orbulon knows they’re there and it’ll make it that much harder to stop the entire invasion, even if they can deal with Grodus and whoever the hypnotist is.

Still! No matter! They head straight to the power core, where...

Well, there are several things in the power core.

There’s a couple Yux guards, for one thing- but there’s also the power core itself, which happens to be the Music Key! They’re using it to power the ship!

Princess Opal is also there. She’s there because she’s draped over the shoulder of a giant robot, being piloted by a small (and highly mysterious) purple spaceman.

Now, there’s no reason a fight needs to happen- after all, the party is there to obtain the Music Key, right? Tatanga is about to install the new, more powerful power core he just hypnotized, and he doesn’t need that old thing anymore. They can just have it! Wow, that was easy.

...But, yeah, no, they’re going to rescue the princess. FIGHT!

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Cozmo starts off by firing a firework at one of the Yux guards- but that just breaks its Mini-Yux shield, of course. Kandace follows up with a fireball to the Pagosu’s legs- yeah, it’s got legs now, it was inefficient to use flaming thruster jets to get about a spaceship with a limited oxygen supply and flammable components. It’s a good hit, but then the Pagosu fires a couple missiles that blast Kandace and Cozmo real good.

Conveniently, Nauti Naut is there and manages to finish off the undefended Yux, leaving just the one plus Tatanga. Chevy, meanwhile, anchors herself to the central stalactite-spike thingy of the power core, gearing up to start swinging around the room like a wrecking ball.

The remaining Yux attacks, but Kandace and Cozmo team up with another firework and one of them standard Magikoopa playstation-button blasts to clear it out of the way. It’s just the main boss, now! The party take a few more missile hits, but Chevy manages to huck a scalpel at one of the leg joints, restricting the Pagosu’s movement.

Cozmo tries to capitalize by firing a firework right at the cockpit- but Tatanga uses Opal as a human shield, and he’s forced to let the attack go wide. Kandace decides that’s enough of that- she weaves past his defenses and snags Opal right off his shoulder.

Unfortunately, Opal is still hypnotized. Tatanga simply orders her to return to his side, and she starts floating back to him. That said, he’s momentarily deprived of his meatshield, which gives Chevy an opening to set up a combo attack with Nauti Naut. Nauti throws an anchor up into the air, and Chevy smacks it full-force with her built-up momentum, straight into the Pagosu’s armor. It cracks it, leaving Tatanga off-balance.

Meanwhile, Cozmo is setting up- he’s running up the walls of this cool twisted-gravity chamber, and kicking off to do a flying drop-kick! He goes, not for Tatanga, but for the scalpel Chevy drove into his leg joint earlier!

With a successful kick, Cozmo severs the leg entirely, toppling the Pagosu.

Rather than attack, Kandace now tries to cure Opal. She just saw the spell Opal used to make her immune to hypnosis- surely, she can make it work! It’s a tough roll, and she spends all the boosts she can to make it work, and... she succeeds! She can now counter hypnosis! (With, as is specified in her magic-learning stunt, some kind of troublesome side-effect I have yet to inform anyone of.)

Finally, with Pagosu on the floor, Chevy lets loose, flinging herself off the spike and colliding with the cockpit full-force. The Pagosu is destroyed, and it doesn’t take much after that for the team to gang up on the mysterious spaceman within. He’s knocked right out!

So hey, they’re done, right? They rescued the princess, and the Music Key is right there, and...

...well, they’re still inside a spaceship that’s currently full of aliens invading the planet, and they can’t take the Music Key without making it fall out of the sky and crushing the innocents beneath, and Orbulon knows they’re there, and...

Yeah, this one’s gonna be tough.

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#kingdoms and koopas #mario #benedict art

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