#daybreak mona version

[asoulofatlantis]

Finally, instead of pretending that we do not know... Falcom makes a joke of it that we do in fact know XD They've learned their lesson with how they failed with the likes of Azure Siegfried ^^'

Falcom is known for reusing old ideas but I think they certainly did way better with copying this whole mask-ordeal than they did when copying Kloes "not royaltie at all" - acts over to Musse. They do not hide here that the same trick was used, while with Musse no one really ever mentioned that she just copied Kloe to get away with her plans. And I also like the idea of making it two sisters in dept here, instead of two very close friends on a lot of pressure here. It is still a reused idea, but they certainly tried harder this time to make it still somewhat more unique and surprising.

This sentence did not make much sense back then at all... and makes so much more sense nowadays...

Van has a "don't touch Agnes" - rule and most enemies love to push that button ^^' (Which leads to their demise because that usually summons Grendel...)

You've already got a shitload of Kai Spoilers from me at this point, so what is one more? (BTW... I did say I wanted to see what Daybreak has in store for me after watching Kai, so if you did come here not expecting spoilers, joke is on you!) Because someone Data-Mined Kai no Kiseki... and for whatever reason Falcom hide some Spoilers in there. Like the Identity of the Masked people who have not been revealed to us yet - and it makes no sense to me whatsoever to do that in Kais Data, if it wasn't needed there at all, but what the hell do I know about how programming works? So in any case. They did reveal there that Mare is in fact the Holy beast of the Time-Septerion. I am honestly not sure how this all works yet, but it puts one thing into question: HOW ON EARTH IS IT POSSIBLE TO INTERFERE WITH A HOLY BEAST LIKE THAT?! My only explanation would be that whatever caused Mare to be in this Hollow-Core-State has been binding her powers or something. The Genesis and Agnes as rightful heir has been resonating with her, for obvious enough reasons but it didn't manage to release her full powers? The question also obviously is how she became a Hollowcore and what happened to her actual body? Not to mention obviously also, how the hell get Marduk their Hands on her? SO. MANY. QUESTIONS! (And here we are waiting like two years for an answer...)

Poor Girl. It has been her job to gather the Genesis to ultimately fulfill her final mission but the cost was high. Every Genesis did cost at least one life, as far as I can remember and as we know from Kuro 2 that wasn't even the end of it all. Ultimativly, it had to be done. If not we would literally ALL be back to point Zero. But the price for saving our timeline was high. And so is the pressure on my poor girl.

Well... at least through that whole journey, "die Kleene" was never really alone. I am very grateful for that. Her time might run out eventually, but I think Van and the others, despite all the ordeals, helped her to make the best out of it.

I really can not blame the guy. Not one of his assistants has even asked if he wants or can afford another part-timer. I know its a running-gag and its supposed to be because Van by himself would likely not say yes, because of who he is and how he thinks... but it still is a bit mean sometimes and at this point gets kind of obnoxious.

To be fair... all the people studying under Epsteins Disciples are bit... uh... special ^^' (I do not even exclude my dear Tita here...)

Who or what even is Aldra? O.o I am glad to hear that ZCF are doing good and all... but who is that even that they are working with? ^^'

They did mention it here that the Calvardian revolution has been only 100 years ago but when it came up in Kai that Sheena Dirke was still alive when Judiths Grandmother was still a child it sounded absolutely ridicioulus to me because I was sure that happened like 1000 years ago or so ^^' Which makes no sense given circumstances but I wasn't the only one surprised. The whole chat was like: "What? She was still alive back then? O.O" So I guess that is one again an Information we totally discarded...

Now here is an interesting fact about Kai: The masked woman who took of her mask right at the end was first believed to be Agnes mother, do to a simular Hair- and Skincolor. The Data-Mining revealed that it was Sheena Dirke tho, probably in a younger state then when she met Domenique tho. HOWEVER the game makes a big point out of Van mentioning that Agnes Mother and Grandmother basically look just like her... I would not fully agree with that but what if Agnes is related to Sheena Dirke? She might not exactly be her great-great-grandmother but some sister of her great-great-grandmother maybe? I mean, we needed the name "Claudel" apparently but... I don't know... things seems odd here. The game made a huge point out of not showing Sheenas older face, even tho we have seen her younger face in pictures before. Like there were trying to hide something we would not have paid attention to before.

I am just fishing for answers here... but... giving everything we know it certainly is not out of the question ^^'

I'd say XD Not just that her biological family lives there, she also is close to the SSS and she has been living there for a while herself. Going to Crossbell would not be educational, it would be like going home XD

No one would do it like the society XD Heck, to this day no one even gets how the society survived with those kind of "rules" ^^'

I found it quiet funny that Marduks high in development came ultimately from finding her and she had no idea about it until close to the end of Kai.

[visionaxry]

TOP 10 TV SHOWS I watched in 2021

I’m like two months late with this wrap-up but here we go!

1.     Genera+ion (2021) on HBO MAX

it’s about a group of gen z kids exploring their identity and finding family amongst friends.

my favorite show ever! “genera+ion” is the kind of story i dreamed of for years but never expected to actually get. 

“genera+ion” went there and did that. multiple poc and queer characters! the different povs storytelling! the found family trope! teenagers talking and looking like teenagers! it’s not overdramatized, there’s no unnecessary trauma dumping, and no sexualizing teenagers. it is refreshing, relatable, and authentic. this is the best show recipe for me.

it was unfairly canceled by hbo max, but I believe it still works as a stand alone story and is worth checking out.  

2.     Daybreak (2019) on NETFLIX

it’s a post-apocalyptic reality where all adults had turned into zombies and the teenagers are left to fend for themselves. the main character sets on a quest to find his girlfriend with the help of his sidekicks, while trying to avoid getting eaten.

it’s a shame I overlooked this show when it first came out because it turned out to be a perfect fit for me. I’m usually not a fan of dystopian stories BUT this show has my favorite type of humor and way of storytelling. I’m talking breaking the fourth wall, insertion of animated scenes, absurdity and chaos all around.

I must admit, the main character wasn’t that compelling to me (perhaps that’s the reason why I didn’t pick up the show when it was premiering). same goes for his love interest. although I did like the unmasking of the manic pixie dream girl archetype. [slight spoilers] for most of the show the audience sees Sam and their relationship only from Josh’s perspective. but Josh turns out to be an unreliable narrator, when Sam becomes an actual person instead of the idiolized version created in josh’s head. I don’t think we get to see shows exposing their main male characters as “the nice guy” very often, so that’s the part of their story arc that I liked. [spoilers over]

for the most part I was much more invested in the secondary characters (wesley, turbo, kj, eli & mona lisa are my favorite). and I think the cast really is an ensemble, even though there’s a designated main character. other characters also get to exist on their own and even take over the narration.  

i also much preferred the love story ivolving secondary characters. it came as a huge plot-twist surprise, and embodied some of my favorite tropes.

I watched this show twice and it goes on my all time favorites list for sure, along with genera+ion.

3.     I know what you did last summer (2021) on AMAZON PRIME

if you’ve seen the 1997 cult classic you already know the premise. a group of friends cover up a murder, and a year later start getting threats from an anonymous who claims to “know what they did last summer”. however, apart from the familiar concept, the show is quite different from the movie, with a new setting and new characters.

most reviews i’ve seen of this show were negative, but I LOVED IT. I don’t want to spoil anything, so I’ll just say that the plot twists, and all the clues, and foreshadowings worked for me, and the finale gave me everything I wanted. it was so twisted and toxic and didn’t shy away from it, but it was also funny and entertaining. plus, I’m obsessed with the sapphic love storyline and the characters involved in it (almost as obsessed as they’re with each other but I’m not that unhealthy).

I feel like I can’t rationally explain why I love this show so much, maybe the writers and I are just on the same wavelength. I think if you’re gen z and you like messy characters (and thrillers, duh) you have a higher chance of enjoying this series.

4.     Young royals (2021) on NETFLIX

it’s a series about a swedish prince struggling to balance the matters of the heart with the responsibility of the crown, after his parents sent him off to a boarding school.

this show manages to stay relatable and grounded even though we’re following a literal royal in a prestigious school. it’s real, vulnerable, and cleverly written. and it’s a beautiful heartbreaking love story. it’s been compared to “skam” so if you’re a fan of it (and good television), this one’s for you.

5.     Betty (2020) on HBO MAX

a remake of the 2018 movie skate kitchen. it follows a diverse group of young women navigating the predominantly male oriented world of skateboarding.

it’s always great to see stories about strong female friendships, and this one also feels like a “found family” trope (which I love! and I mean, who doesn’t?). it feels very real as well, like we’re just watching people’s lives without them being overdramatized. it’s beautifully styled, and it makes you want to learn how to skate.

6.     Cruel summer (2021) on FREEFORM, HULU & AMAZON PRIME

the action simultaneously takes place over 3 summers during the 90s. after it-girl kate mysteriously goes missing, another girl takes her place as the popular one, along with her friends and boyfriend. the narrative switches between two girls, while we try to uncover who’s telling the truth about what happened.

i’ve seen people compare it to “pretty little liars”. it doesn’t give me the same feeling, but I guess it does have similar themes. like, a popular girl disappears, only this one isn’t the embodiment of evil, there’s a teacher-student relationship but here it’s not treated like something romantic or desirable, and the lying - which is a big part of both shows - but here the build-up actually pays off.

some of the acting and dialogue can be a bit awkward, but olivia holt’s performance makes up for all of it. she carried this show. this is by far her best acting performance (with “cloak&dagger” being second).

7.     The lying game (2011) on AMAZON PRIME 

Emma finds out she has an identical twin sister Sutton, from whom she was separated at birth. Sutton asks Emma to take her place for a couple days to go look for their birth mother. However, things get messy when Emma discovers that Sutton has more secrets than she led on.

this might seem like an outlier on this list, being made over a decade ago and all. however, this is the third show with an “identity theft” theme here, so it’s very on brand for me.

as gen z, the only nostalgia I get is for the 2010s and back then I used to watch a ton of teen dramas that nobody cared about: “the secret circle”, “twisted”, “switched at birth”, “make it or break it”, “10 things I hate about you”, etc. the only show that escaped my attention was “the lying game”. I decided to fix that.

I missed the vibe of those shows that I used to watch as a kid. if you’re like me, you will enjoy this. just don’t come in expecting great writing, thought-out storylines, or high-level production. it’s full of missed opportunities, unanswered questions, cartoonish villains, and characters that come, disappear, and are never brought up again. (if anything, this show is like “pretty little liars”!) but it also has entertaining love storyline(s), and a likeable cast of characters. not counting Sutton of course, she’s a disaster. I know this is based on a book, but I feel like the success of “the vampire diaries” inspired the show’s twin sisters. the actress looks like Nina Dobrev, and they went with the nice sister vs evil sister. only here the mean one is underdeveloped to the point of her being completely unsympathetic. she just becomes an annoying villain with no real motive.

beware! the show leaves off on a cliffhanger so don’t look forward to getting the mystery solved, just enjoy the ride of a 2011 teen messy drama.

8.     Shadow & bone (2021) on NETFLIX

based on the worldwide bestselling Grishaverse novels, “shadow and bone” follows an orphan Alina Starkov in a fantasy world full of magic, darkness and danger.

not being a fantasy fan, I was pleasantly surprised with how much I enjoyed this. I don’t have anything negative to say. it seems like a great book adaptation. the level of production that went into this is incredible, the world-building and the characters are captivating. i’m looking forward to season 2.

9.     Chucky (2021) on SYFY

the continuation of the “child’s play” movie franchise. a Chucky doll turns up at a suburban yard sale, and thus begins a series of horrifying murders in the town of Hackensack.

this show turned a bit too cheesy and far-fetched for my taste by the end. but i’ve been told that it kept the same tone from the movies (i’ve never seen one, this was my first introduction to chucky), so that must be good for the original fans. overall, I still enjoyed it. it’s gay, campy, and very disturbing. it’s also always great to see teenagers playing teenagers. safe to say, i’m never buying a vintage doll.

10.     The girl in the woods (2021) on PEACOCK

Tasha and Nolan meet a mysterious girl who escaped from a colony that guards a secret door in the woods.

so, i’m not into watching scary stuff, which you probably wouldn’t think looking at this list. but somehow, despite being very creepy, this show manages to feel warm and safe. most of it comes from the relationships between the three main characters. this series also has the best portrayal of a non-binary character that i’ve ever seen. they get to explore their identity and face the issues that come with it, without it coming off as a trauma story. also, they’re the best effing character. 

it’s a cute short thriller. bonus point, it has Sofia Bryant from “I am not okay with it”.

 phew! this was fun! and here’s top 4 worst shows I watched last year: 1. bridgerton 2. ginny and georgia 3. one of us is lying 4. gossip girl (2021)

[forasecondtherewedwon]

Garden-Variety Monsters

Fandom: Daybreak Rating: T Word Count: 3836

Summary: For the first time in her life, Angelica has a best friend, so maybe the end of the world isn't really the end of the world.

In the minutes following the nuclear launch and coup, Angelica thinks Josh’s behaviour is almost as unbelievable as Sam’s. She’s sitting there on a throne, twirling a scythe or some shit, and the second their little group of loyal Daybreakers splits off from the horde of Jocks, Josh is all, She got carried away. She’s just making a point. She’s only trying to keep the peace.

Angelica is grateful that Wesley calls bullshit so she doesn’t have to.

“Keep the peace?” Wes echoes.

He sounds angry, shocked. She thinks the second thing is more than a little naïve; hasn’t Josh proven so many fucking times that he’s all Team Sam! no matter what? Of course he’s defending her now. He’s mooning hard enough to attract werewolves, which Angelica thinks could definitely be out there, considering the other animal mutations she’s seen.

“Yeah, man,” Josh says with a casual shrug as they go straggling across the parking lot to the relative safety of the mall. “Half the kids back there have shoulder pads for brains and rage issues that are no longer being directed into regularly scheduled sports. If they don’t have somebody in charge of them, they’re unpredictable and dangerous. Sam’s just, you know, managing the emotional climate. She’s helping.”

“Oh, she’s helping?” Wes echoes again.

Josh looks annoyed and tries to walk faster to shake them off, but Wes takes quick steps and leans in, getting his face in front of Josh’s while Angelica and Ms. Crumble are still scampering to keep up.

“That wasn’t sweet Sam doing one big act of kindness back there,” Wes says. “That was a takeover.”

“No,” Josh counters when he can’t avoid them, “what Principal Burr did to Turbo was a takeover. Invasion… violence…”

“I might not have actually seen Sam stab anyone, but it sure looked like she was getting comfortable with that blade in her hand,” Angelica points out.

“Guys. Sam’s not taking over from Burr. She didn’t even kill Burr, I did.”

“But that’s her genius! How is it that Sam’s the only one who came out of this without getting her hands dirty? Besides freeing Burr, but even that she played off as being for the greater good.” Angelica rolls her eyes at the phony humanitarian impulse.

“Her hands—” Ms. Crumble cuts in with wide eyes. “—were so clean!” She displays her own, grimy from digging through garbage and handling that finger of Josh’s she almost ate.

“She let us go, didn’t she?” Josh demands. “Unless I’m hallucinating, we aren’t locked in cages at the Hoyle-Some cereal factory right now.”

Ms. Crumble examines their surroundings with frantic, suspicious jerks of her head, but Angelica absentmindedly catches her hand in her own and tows her along.

“Not yet we aren’t,” she mutters.

“Things can change,” Wes adds, tagging in to talk their dumbass friend back to common sense. “We don’t know what Sam’s plans are, but I think it’s safe to assume she’s got ’em. That transition was way too smooth. Did you see Mona Lisa climb right up there beside her? Mona has a goddamn sixth sense for power dynamics. How many regimes has she been part of since the bomb? How many times was she either the right hand or in the inner circle? Every time, Josh. She’s not gonna suddenly make herself vulnerable by backing a weak candidate.”

“Maybe she just likes Sam, ok?” Josh blurts, spinning to face them while the rest of their group throws side-eye and trickles around them to slip through the main entrance. “Everybody likes Sam!”

Angelica lets out a noisy growl of frustration, but the same hand tethering her to Crumble keeps her from taking the necessary steps forward and booting Josh in the dick.

“YOU JUST WATCHED THE DICTATOR VERSION OF A CHANGING OF THE GUARD, YOU DELUSIONAL, LOVESICK FUCK!” She catches her breath while Josh is still too surprised by her volume to rally a comeback. “We’re safe here until Sam remembers how much she loves the mall. Our oasis is temporary. Our freedom is temporary.”

“But—”

“So what if Sam didn’t kill Baron Triumph?!” Angelica says. “She’s just a different kind of bad news. What do you know about women, Josh? Not a fucking thing.”

“That’s not true,” Josh argues, jabbing a finger at her. “I’m very… attuned. I’ve had two girlfriends!”

“Have you? They must not be anyone I know, because I only know about the two girls you screwed and then immediately screwed things up with.”

Her friend’s face darkens and he says a bunch of other dumb shit until Wes shoves him through the mall doors and propels him away to cool off. Ms. Crumble gets her fingers accidentally snarled in Angelica’s hair trying to comfort her when she starts to cry. Not because she’s worried about their tribe falling apart again, but because she’s dealing with all of this while experiencing her first menstrual cramps.

So, yeah, firing a nuclear missile doesn’t bring instant peace and a couple heroic deeds doesn’t cure stupid.

—

In the days following the nuclear launch and coup, Josh dials back the asshole and the Cheermazons now rolling with the Daybreakers post lookouts who spot scouts. They can only be Sam’s.

Now that they have to leave the mall, Eli’s dumb signs are no longer a nuisance. In fact, several people make more (which is hard, since Eli has his name everywhere, even on the ceilings of the women’s bathrooms). They want him to be in death as he was in life: infuriatingly unavoidable. Angelica writes Eli’s name above the swoosh of every pair of picked-over Nikes left in the shoe stores’ displays while Ms. Crumble gnaws on the sneakers’ leather tongues. The inbound jocks can wear these, but as fast as they run, they’ll never keep up with this Cardashyan.

In Angelica’s opinion, the toughest thing to say goodbye to is the air conditioning. Since they can’t take that with them, the Daybreakers pack up everything else. Although it isn’t very coordinated, they eventually hit up the luggage and department stores to grab suitcases. Then, everyone’s stuffing them full and wheeling them around, plastic wheels brrrclik-ing on scuffed tiles. The place looks like an airport, she thinks, though she’s never actually been inside one, never invited to jet off with her mom and leave her tutors, her slime empire, and the heavy feeling of neglect behind.

Ms. Crumble’s still too absentminded to be in charge of a piece of luggage, so Angelica tosses into her own suitcase all the doll heads her friend doesn’t want to wear out of the mall on her fingers. They’re filthy and stinky and Angelica wanted to quarantine them in a Ziploc bag so they wouldn’t roll around against her clothing haul (it would suck ass to be one of the teenagers, competing for sizes; Angelica gets first and only pick of whatever she wants), but Crumble panicked, saying they would suffocate. Angelia sighed and gave in.

She still watches everyone. She’s gotten a lot better about that after being captured by the fucking golf team (humiliating), and then again when Burr’s goons blew the bejesus out of the Cheermazon’s sun salutations. She’s supposed to be the brains—that’s what Wesley keeps telling her—though, when the day comes, Angelica’s going to be glad to share that position with a recovered Ms. Crumble. Wrangling these dipshits is exhausting work.

So Angelica watches. She watches Daybreakers raid the depths of the food court freezers for Dippin’ Dots and chunks of ice they can use for cold water on the way to wherever they go next. She watches Wes have the don’t be a jealous boyfriend talk with Turbo over and over and over. She watches Josh sidle up to KJ, offering to give her a hand with her suitcase, and KJ completely icing him out. (Delighting Angelica, who knows Josh had it coming after the way he dropped KJ flat the second he found out Sam was alive.)

Although Ms. Crumble remains her favourite (and, yeah, that includes Josh, because he’s executed more dick moves than even a kid with five real, non-mannequin fingers can count on one hand), Angelica feels less and less that they are an island of two with a couple swimmers paddling just offshore. She sticks with Crumble, but watches the new Daybreakers expansion pack—their merging of tribes—stay intact, even as they undertake their move away from the mall’s creature comforts. Angelica anticipates whiners and defectors. She sees scared kids who are kinder to each other than what she really thought possible anymore.

“So, which way?” she asks Josh in the parking lot, suitcase handle in her grip.

For all his flaws, they kinda already established him as their leader, so Angelica’s trying to treat him as such in front of the others instead of engaging in another round of bitching him the fuck out. He narrows his eyes back at her like he knows her deference is superficial.

“I say we cling to the borderlands,” Josh announces loudly, looking from Angelica to the rest of their group. “We avoid remnants of the other tribes, and hopefully Sam’s people, if they have plans to claim the old clan territories as their own.”

In her peripherals, Angelica sees Victoria signing. She turns her head back to Josh for the translation, but he’s rolling his eyes, probably gearing up to be an asshole again.

Sure enough, Sulky McSulk Face goes, “I’m not translating that.”

“What’d she say?” Angelica demands.

“I don’t—”

Ms. Crumble marches up and flicks Josh hard in the forehead with her strong, black nails.

“Your opinion is not more important than anyone else’s. Do not censor Victoria, Mr. Wheeler.” Crumble’s smile is scarily pleasant as she flattens her palm and waves it towards the assemblage of Daybreakers. “Share with the class.”

Josh huffs like a petulant child (and he used to call Angelica the brat—that’s rich).

“She said, ‘Finally, a good fucking idea from Josh.’” He then turns to glare at Victoria, signing rapidly alongside his words. “What’s that supposed to mean? I have good ideas all the time! Who’ve you been hanging out with that made you think…”

His words trail off and his hands slowly lower as he shifts his gaze to Angelica. She quickly leans into Ms. Crumble’s side while her friend unhinges her mutated jaw, just a teeny bit. They practiced this intimidation technique and it’s pretty damn satisfying to watch Josh flinch back. Angelica knows he’s reliving the time he went throat-fishing for keys.

Josh clears his throat, but he’s obviously lost his original train of thought. Thankfully, Wes steps forward, nudging Josh aside.

“Ok, people, borderlands! We’ve all survived this long, so I don’t want to catch anybody doing something stupid. No wandering off down the side streets to be Ghoulie chow. No stopping to tie your damn shoes or anything without a buddy. Oh, and I hope you peed before we left because it’s too late now and we’re not gonna wait for you. Let’s roll out.”

On the move, there’s one other thing they steer clear of: the location of Eli’s murder. Angelica tries not to think about it, but, logically, she knows Josh wouldn’t have buried Eli. There wasn’t time. Josh seems to care enough about their tribe’s morale (and his own mental health… and, Angelica can tell, Eli’s right to be respected more in death than that loveable, backstabbing little shit was in life) to spare them the sight of this particular mutilated corpse—when god and Ghoulie mall Santa know they’ve all seen their fair share. That makes her like him a little bit more.

But, one hand dragging the suitcase and the other around Ms. Crumble’s waist while she gleefully snatches flies out of the air, Angelica doesn’t plan to tell him.

—

In the weeks and months following the nuclear launch and coup, they move more than once. They bounce from Josh’s warehouse of an apartment to a funeral home, back to Josh’s apartment, to a community theatre with a mutant bat infestation, back to Josh’s apartment, to—finally, improbably—an old folks’ home.

Sometimes Sam’s people follow them. Sometimes they hassle them, because those big dorks still have rage issues and Cheermazon reconnaissance has taught the Daybreakers that Sam’s no longer running American Ninja Idol, so their bloodlust isn’t being slaked the way it used to be. But after a few weeks of pestering (nothing they can’t solve with Turbo growling while threateningly brandishing a pistol—which the Jocks don’t know is full of fucking princess-party confetti), the sightings end.

It’s during their fourth move, and it’s weird. Half of the Daybreakers are still at the theatre, hunting for useful supplies between the feather boas and rubber prop knives, the rest kicking back at Josh’s while he shrieks at anybody who goes near his big jar of Nutella. (Thinks he’s one wily sonofabitch, but Angelica knows he’s been sharing it with KJ, out on the balcony, at night, when the rest of them have crashed. KJ’s slowly coming back around to Josh—Angelica puts this down to lack of other viable prospects to attend to her lady urges, but she can’t help once again being in favour of their relationship.) The Cheermazons have civilized the Daybreakers, training them into rotating patrols, and it’s not strange when a week goes by without spotting a Jock, but then they just never do. They never see them.

Wes leads a small contingent of Daybreakers to check out the situation over at the mall, then the school, then the factory. It’s Angelica’s feeling that calling this minor project a ‘quest’ is blowing it way out of proportion, but those losers can do what they want.

They return with news that Sam’s people have disappeared southwest over the Hollywood Hills and suddenly, for the first time, they kind of realize they can stop surviving and start living.

“Why would she go that way?” Josh asks aloud.

Angelica sees KJ give him a weary look and he waves his hands frantically, backpedaling.

“No, it’s not like that,” he tells her. “I’m not pining for her.”

Angelica coughs, “Liar,” into her fist. Disturbing the shit every once in a while keeps Eli’s memory alive.

Josh glares at her.

“I just don’t get why Sam would go. She was the big fish in a small pond here. She had muscle, she had territory… she seemed to be happy enough.”

“Yeah, but Sam’s ambitious,” Wes says, pushing forward. “She wasn’t gonna get something and then just be content with it.”

“I bet she fucks them over when they get out there,” Angelica pipes up. “Sam’ll find something better and leave their sorry asses. She doesn’t know what she wants.”

Ms. Crumble cocks her head.

“Maybe she just wants to swim in the ocean,” she says. “I miss swimming.”

“Same,” Wes says.

“So do I,” Josh agrees.

Angelica frowns thoughtfully.

“I don’t know how to swim.”

While everyone else present is getting nostalgic over backyard pools and childhood swimming lessons, Ms. Crumble bends to whisper in Angelica’s ear that she’ll teach her to swim. Angelica beams.

And that’s how they decide that their next headquarters—their next home—is going to be someplace with a pool. The old folks’ home isn’t really what anybody had in mind, but it’s decent in several ways. No Ghoulies (Angelica figures the old people probably melted when the bomb hit), memory foam beds and lots of them, cupboard upon cupboard of boardgames, and, most importantly, the indoor pool. There’s a ‘therapeutic’ hot tub too and Angelica makes sure to ask Josh if he feels medically revitalized the morning after she accidentally walks in on him and KJ using the water for something other than soothing old bones. Though there was definitely boning.

At the back of the facility, there’s a greenhouse, and Angelica finds herself spending a significant amount of time there. Through the glass wall, she can watch Victoria leading the morning sign language class, or cheer Wesley on through his after-lunch routine of swinging his sword around. (Apparently, there a point to it, but what impresses Angelica is just that it looks cool as fuck.) Mostly, the greenhouse is her and Ms. Crumble’s quiet place. Crumble scours the home’s equipment until she’s able to rig stuff to test the soil. Angelica devotes herself wholeheartedly to studying the mutated plants her friend removes. It’s a lot of just poking around and hoping nothing squirts, like, acid into her eyes, until Crumble suggests that, with her intelligence and enthusiasm, Angelica would make a really good doctor.

She sighs, because she has to, but her friend is right: their community needs a healthcare professional, not a narcotics queenpin.

They do their experiments and they have long talks and they don’t brush their hair or scrub under their nails unless someone really, really gets on their dick about it. They are two brilliant beasts and Angelica can tell that Crumble is steadily becoming more focused and less erratically aggressive.

Some unspecial afternoon, while they’re watching KJ build a halfpipe and Josh stare at her adoringly, Angelica has an idea about accelerating Ms. Crumble’s recovery.

“What helped you before?” she asks.

“You did,” her friend answers immediately. “That was an easy one. Ask me something harder.”

But Angelica’s thinking.

“If what helped you was being around me and Josh and Wes… being around people… maybe you should spend time around more people instead of just hanging out in here with me.”

“But I like hanging out with you.”

“You still would,” Angelica promises, “but how do you feel about… teaching again?”

“Teaching? Teaching the Daybreakers? But what would they want me to teach them? How to dumpster dive?”

“No. This wouldn’t be people trying to get Ghoulie skills by treating you like some wacko. You could teach biology.”

Ms. Crumble looks wary.

“Would anybody want that? Burr went back to being a principal and everyone hated him.”

“Yeah,” Angelica says, “but they hated him because he ate some golf kid’s limbs and then he poisoned everybody. And then he tried to blow everything up. You’re not gonna do that.”

“That’s true.”

“Sam was growing fruit for them. Back at the school, when Turbo was in charge. She figured out how to clean the soil and she was growing fruit.”

“I taught her that.”

“I know you did. Imagine if everybody learned it. And they’d be paying attention this time, because they’re tired of either starving or eating crap out of vending machines,” Angelica emphasizes.

“We could have a sustainable food source,” Crumble says, her face lighting up.

“Yeah.”

“Maybe I’ll do it.”

Angelica smiles.

“Ok.”

Ms. Crumble does do it. For a few days, Angelica watches her watching the kids in Victoria’s ASL class, absorbing their eagerness, their punctuality. These aren’t the lazy students she’s used to—these Daybreakers want to learn, they want skills. Once she’s convinced, she holds her first class in the greenhouse. For future lessons, they go outside, or into the industrial kitchen.

Angelica quits thinking about trying to save Ms. Crumble. Ms. Crumble is not her mother, because she’s dirty and wild and here. She encourages her though; even if teaching doesn’t make her better (maybe she can never fully get better after what Burr did to her), it clearly makes her happy. Crumble sings in her sleep more often and she’s ecstatic when she discovers the very usefully-mutated, extra-large earthworms in the garden outside. The name this species ‘girthworms’ and when the boys hear the name, they’re insufferable, because of course they are.

She surprises Angelica by inquiring about improving her oral hygiene, shyly flashing her inky teeth. That’s how Angelica knows that Ms. Crumble is still healing. When she and Wes have to switch Crumble to teeth-whitening strips because she keeps chewing and swallowing the toothbrushes they find for her, Angelica comprehends that it’s still going to be a process.

One evening, Angelica’s sitting outside on the grass, cleaning mud out of her Heelys, when Victoria taps her on the shoulder to get her attention.

“It’s been a year,” she signs.

“What do you mean?” Angelica signs back. Slowly, because she’s not yet good enough at ASL to both go fast and make sense.

“Since the bomb.”

“Oh shit.”

Alright. That Angelica signs quickly. She asked Victoria to teach her the swear words first.

Angelica realizes the days have gone by a lot faster in the last six months than in the six months before that. Life is safer. Life has patterns and goals and a building that they all come home to at the end of the day. At the moment, her projects include manufacturing pharmaceuticals to ease people’s painful periods and working towards a new method of birth control. People are still trying their luck with expired condoms—from the drugstore, not the old folks’ home (barf)—and Ms. Crumble’s lectures about the potential terror of mutant radiation babies are only doing so much to dull the rampant horniness of these teens.

Tomorrow, she’s planning to start sessions with Turbo. He isn’t optimistic, but they’re going to see if anything can be done to help him speak again without pain. He and Wes recently got engaged, because why the fuck not, and he wants to be able to say the vows he’s been agonizing over at his wedding.

“Are you coming in for dinner?” Victoria wonders.

Angelica shakes her head and signs that she’ll just grab something later.

Victoria returns to the house.

A few minutes later, Angelica hears a swish in the grass. Their lawnmower ran out of gas three weeks ago and there’s a team working on retrofitting an electric motor, so until then, the yard is more like a meadow. It’s nice, natural, and Angelica has already learned to recognize the noises associated with her closest friend weaving through the tall, wispy blades. She closes her eyes. She knows this sound better than she remembers the face of her mother.

“Hi,” Crumble says.

Angelica opens her eyes and looks up.

“Hey. Victoria told me about dinner, if you’re here to get me to come in.”

Ms. Crumble shakes her head and folds her black skirt under her as she takes a seat next to Angelica. They’re their own little crop circle.

“Are you sure you want to stay?” Angelica checks. “It’ll be dark soon.”

With a mischievous smile, Crumble presents the flashlight she brought out with her.

“I have this. Do you need me to shine it on your shoes so you can see what you’re doing?”

The sky is dimming to a murky purply-blue, night not far off, but Angelica tosses her Heelys aside and takes the flashlight from her friend.

“No,” she says, grinning as she clicks it on and holds the beam under her chin to throw her features and their shadows into frightening relief. “Let’s be monsters.”

[lookslikezombiesatbest]

an opinion on the daybreak characters because no one asked :)

Hi! Again, no one asked about this but idc so whatevs.

Josh

okay so he was fine, pretty funny at times and he seemed like a very real teenager. The sex scene with him and Sam was funny and accurate for how much adults say that your first time will be pretty awkward. I also really liked how basically the whole mission for the first season (find sam, conquer the world together) was pretty much all in vain, it’s a good segue into the second season that is obviously coming. Plus blah blah blah he played young sam in supernatural which I used to watch religiously so yeah

Sam Dean

k so i know shes supposed to be the main love interest but she was really pretentious to me. like she was the trope of the dream girl who was super philosophical and “idk the real me but everybody else acts like they do so I’m gonna complain about it” it just got very old very quick and she was crazy unfair to josh about it who was just insecure and wanted to love her. I do agree that josh shouldve been cooler about her not being a virgin and her arc where she became queen of the jocks was definitely cool tho and I cant wait to see how that’s gonna go down in s2

Angelica

okay. so. ik everyone loves her and I definitely love her as a character and the concept of a genius 10 year old in the apocalypse while having personal conflicts of her own with her parents and never feeling like she belongs, but the really fucked with my interest in her when they made her swear so much. Like, im all for swearing and know that if youre mature enough to handle it, you should say it but with her it was just ‘let’s put swears in for the hell of it’ it just got annoying having to listen to all of her insults that made no sense but were just there for comedic shock value of ‘hey there’s a child saying these things woah lol’. So again, loved her character and the actress behind her was really good as was the concept, it was just the dialogue that really made me not like it.

Ms. crumble

So this is crazy biased because i absolutely love Krysta Rodriguez, Broadway star, but i really loved her character. She was played beautifully and she was wonderfully random with her quirks and sayings and overall look as a character and i was very excited when we got an episode dedicated to what happened to her and im really excited to see her more in s2. Plus i loved the bond she had with angelica and they had a lot of chemistry that really worked well with that portrayal of angelicas own mother figure

Wesley

GIVE IT UP FOR MY MANS okay so i love wesley. He was absolutely amazing as a character and really was just so dope. His love for being a samurai was a wonderful trait that added to both his comedy and his really great survival skills. Like i felt like he had a reason to be there. Loved his relationship with turbo and overall just love him. That’s all i have to say and yeah

Turbo

I really loved his arc and i felt like i could still root for him when he was evil just because it was fun and i could root for him when he wasn’t evil because he changed so much and i was so proud of him. So yeah he was just a good character overall and i loved his episode and his arc

Mona lisa

She was a really good side character and absolutely gorgeous. She was crazy and crazy funny and i really hope to see more of her in s2 just because she was so entertaining and i want more of her backstory

Principal Burr

So in the ferris bueller version of the apocalypse, ferris bueller plays the antagonist. I loved him. He was perfectly sociopathic and just genuinely played perfectly. The twist of him being baron triumph and not hoyles was honestly not expected even tho they gave us every clue lmao. Perfect villain quite honestly

K so that’s it. I know i didn’t include smaller characters like KJ just because she wasn’t there as much but hopefully we learn more about her and the other daybreakers as we through the series. Overall the first season was pretty good, some of the dialogue was a little yikes and i feel like it’s trying to be a little toooo woke? If that’s possible??  And some of the dialogue was...not it. But the cinematography was great, characters were overall pretty good, it was really fun and crazy and random, which is what i really love in zombie media (the reason i love zombieland so much is that it’s wild and doesnt take itself seriously) so if youre looking for just some lighthearted zombie fun with crazy characters and really dope ass costumes, you should definitely watch this. And ignore some of the cringe dialogue cuz it gets better.

Also it has a lot of representation that is like, meant to be there. Like i wasn’t confused with certain characters being gay or Muslim or deaf (all of which are represented without it being weird!) although due to me not being any of those things, it’s up to those who are can only decide if they’re represented correctly but i really enjoyed seeing them on the screen! 

[celtfather]

Lunasa #579

Lúnasa performing at IrishFest Atlanta this year. They play traditional Irish music with inspiring arrangements. They’ll tell you their Celtic Story today on this instrumental episode of the Irish & Celtic Music Podcast.

The Carroll Sisters, The Here & Now, Meerrant, Ogham, Kennedy's Kitchen, Old Man Flanagan's Ghost, SeeD, Cíana, Lúnasa, CLARE SANDS, Sharon Shannon, Drumspyder, Runa

VOTE IN THE CELTIC TOP 20 FOR 2022

This is our way of finding the best songs and artists each year. You can vote for as many songs and tunes that inspire you in each episode. Your vote helps me create next year's Best Celtic music of 2022 episode.  Vote Now!

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THIS WEEK IN CELTIC MUSIC

0:02 - Intro: Colin Grant Adams

0:11 - The Carroll Sisters "Jig Storm" from Daybreak

4:47 - WELCOME

6:15 - The Here & Now "Little Monster" from Ladybird

9:40 - Meerrant "To Carolan" from Fells

13:16 - Ogham "Doctor O'Neill's" from The Gold Ring

16:10 - Kennedy's Kitchen "Sleeping Under the Tables Set" from A Pocket Full of Lint and Victims of Irish Music

20:37 - FEEDBACK

25:07 - Jared Bogle “The Green Fields of Glentown / The Earl's Chair (Reels)” from The Old Road Home

29:01 - Cíana "An Dro Set" from Rubicon

32:22 - SeeD "Twig" from FAE

35:49 - STORY OF LUNASA AND THE LAST PINT

39:37 - Lúnasa "The Last Pint (New Version of Aibreann)" from The Story So Far

43:59 - THANKS

45:23 - CLARE SANDS "The Malecón Reel" from The Basement Sessions EP

49:13 - Sharon Shannon "Björn Again Polka" from Out The Gap

52:28 - Drumspyder "The Braes of Tullymet" from Sunne and Mona

56:15 - CLOSING

57:07 - Runa "The Star of Munster Set" from Live

The Irish & Celtic Music Podcast was produced by Marc Gunn, The Celtfather. The show was edited by Mitchell Petersen with Graphics by Miranda Nelson Designs.

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WELCOME CELTOPHILE TO CELTIC MUSIC

* Helping you celebrate Celtic culture through music. I am Marc Gunn. I’m an Atlanta  -  based musician and podcaster. You can find a link to all of the artists in the shownotes, along with show times and chapters for each song when you visit our website at celticmusicpodcast.com. If you hear music you love, please email artists to let them know you heard them on the Irish and Celtic Music Podcast.

I was putting together this week’s show when I realized the show was very instrumental heavy. Until very recently, the Celtic supergroup, Lúnasa, played entirely instrumental music. So I figured why not just make this episode another fully instrumental episode of great Celtic music.

Lúnasa is also performing at IrishFest Atlanta next weekend. The Irish & Celtic Music Podcast is a proud sponsor of this year’s festival.

Tickets are now on sale for the festival. You can see a list of performance times and workshops on the festival website at IrishFestAtlanta.org.

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WHAT’S NEW IN IRISH & CELTIC MUSIC: BEST OF 2022

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TRAVEL WITH CELTIC INVASION VACATIONS

Every year, I take a small group of Celtic music fans on the relaxing adventure of a lifetime. We don't see everything. Instead, we stay in one area. We get to know the region through its culture, history, and legends. You can join us with an auditory and visual adventure through podcasts and videos. Learn more about the invasion at http://celticinvasion.com/

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I WANT YOUR FEEDBACK

What are you doing today while listening to the podcast? You can send a written comment along with a picture of what you're doing while listening.

Email a voicemail message to celticpodcast@gmail.com

Fletch emailed: "Hi Marc, I have no idea if you're ever played anything by CastleBay but they're a friend of a friend so I figured I should let you know. Thanks!"

Shel O'Toole emailed: "Hi Marc, As I was listening to the Jigs and Reels of Ireland #576 I was inspired to share the episode with the session I attend at the Munster Arms Hotel in Ballarat.   The session plays some great tunes and some of today’s tunes would certainly be embraced.  I only got to write down the name of one tune that I loved: Hector the Hero by Celtic Grass.

I have a 15 minute floorpspot at a Folk night at Creswick tonight.  I find listening to your show helps calm my nerves and focus on my musicality.  It’s off to rehearse a few songs for me now.  Enjoy your weekend. Sliantè"

Kinnfolk replied to the Celtic Music Magazine request for more bands: "Hi Marc! I got some bands for ya, here they are:

The BorderCollies

The Crossjacks

Wild Blue Yonder

Celtic Machinations

Runa

Have a great day!"

Check out this episode!

[lexiherrick]

“A couple who can travel together, can stay together.”

You’ll hear some variation of this statement a number of times when you start to embark on adventures with your significant other. It’s pretty cliche, but it does make sense.

Going on adventures as a couple often requires you to tap in various dimensions of your relationship. You’re so far out of your comfort zones that it’s needed. You have to compromise, think outside the box, be patient and have each others’ backs. Why? Traveling can get a little crazy. You get lost (more than once), you’re often surrounded by people who don’t speak the same language, you’re jet lagged, you’re both completely unfamiliar with your surroundings and you’re trying to fit a lifetime’s worth of experiences into a week or two. But, it’s also exhilarating, refreshing and can completely overwhelm you with immense gratitude and appreciation for this world. All of those emotions together are an experience unlike any other.

Traveling is always surprising, but that’s what makes it so phenomenally special. That’s also why experiencing it with someone you really care about makes the journey even more incredible. You meet amazing people together, you taste new foods, you marvel at breath-taking sites, you analyze artistic masterpieces and you let the wonders of this world change you, and change your hearts.

So, without further ado, here is a list of 50 travel adventures to go on together, and 50 new opportunities to discover invigorating experiences with someone you love.

Couples Bucket List:

 Scuba dive in Sipadan Island, Malaysia, where you’ll discover the most breathtaking underwater wildlife in the world.

See the Eiffel Tower lights sparkle at night in Paris. They’ll twinkle every hour, on the hour from sundown to midnight every night.

Take a cooking class together in Tuscany, Italy.

Hike the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu in Peru.

Visit a floating market in Bangkok, Thailand.

Walk along the Charles Bridge, and have a beer in Old Time Square in Prague, Czech Republic.

Marvel at the The Last Judgment by Michelangelo on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in Vatican City.

Stay in a Bungalow on the clear blue waters of Bora Bora.

Soak in the atmosphere in the Red Square in Moscow, Russia.

Go wine tasting in the fabulous vineyards of Napa Valley, California.

See a film at an Open Air Cinema in Santorini, Greece.

Check out the fish market, gum wall and OG Starbucks in Seattle, Washington.

Walk through the beautiful fields of tulips at the Keukenhof Gardens in Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

Relax in the thermal baths of Budapest, Hungary.

Watch the sunrise in the Grand Canyon.

Sunbathe on the French Riviera in Menton, France.

Go on a romantic river cruise in Sicily, Italy.

Check out the Northern Lights in Iceland.

Walk the Berlin Wall in Berlin, Germany.

Stand in the lights of Times Square in New York City.

Hear Big Ben ring in London, England.

Experience the Great Wall of China in Beijing.

Explore the natural wonder of the Galapagos in Ecuador. Interact with some of the most unique species in the world all in one place.

Walk in a winter wonderland through the ice castles of Midway, Utah.

Take a goofy photo in front of the Leaning Tower of Pisa in Italy.

Indulge in tours filled with tapas, paella and Sangria in Madrid, Spain.

Live like the stars for a week, and check out Hollywood in Los Angeles, California.

Paddle board around the Burj Al Arab in Dubai.

Visit one of Rome’s most historical and enduring icons at the The Roman Colosseum in Italy.

Feel the mist and magic of Niagara Falls.

Stand in awe at the wonder of the Cliffs of Moher in County Clare, Ireland.

Stroll down the jazz-filled streets of New Orleans, Louisiana.

Witness the power of the Taj Mahal right before daybreak in Arga, India.

Explore Plitvice Lakes National Park in Croatia.

Travel back in time with the Mayan ruins of Chichen Itza in the Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico

Go snorkeling in the Great Barrier Reef in Australia.

Immerse yourself in US History and politics by walking through the numerous free Museums in Washington, DC.

Experience one of the most amazing 7 Wonders of the Ancient World by gazing up at the Great Pyramid of Giza in Egypt.

Go for a canoe ride in the Amazon Jungle in Ecuador, the largest and most well-known jungle in the world.

Pose in front of the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, California.

Take the Aerial Cableway up the Table Mountain in Cape Town, South Africa.

Sink your teeth in to a traditional Philly Cheese Steak in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Smile at the Mona Lisa at the Louvre Art Museum in Paris, France.

Tour the historic quarters, gardens and beaches of Lisbon, Portugal.

Stand at the feet of the Christ the Redeemer in Rio de Janeiro, Peru.

Take in the magnificent sites of the Yellowstone National Park.

Ride the Star Ferry from Tsim Sha Tsui pier in Hong Kong.

Hang with Mickey and Minnie where dreams come true in Disney World, Orlando, Florida.

Visit the mountains of British Columbia and the Canadian Arctic tundra to view Canada’s famous and iconic bears.

Spend a portion of your time on each of these trips talking to the locals, embracing the culture and diversifying your perspectives. Open your hearts to the multi-dimensional human experience, and let these travels not only strengthen the love you have for each other, but the love you have for the world you live in.

Want to cross of these bucket list items together? Below is a Pinnable and Printable version to keep track!

Here are also some cheesy photos of my boyfriend and I going on some of these adventures together. Here’s to getting to the end of this list along with you all.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

  Safe travels!

  50 Travel Stops For the Ultimate Couples Bucket List Around the World "A couple who can travel together, can stay together." You'll hear some variation of this statement a number of times when you start to embark on adventures with your significant other.

[caveartfair]

What Billionaire Collectors Would Pay for the “Priceless” Art in U.S. Museums

Paul Cézanne, The Large Bathers (Les Grandes baigneuses), 1895-1906. Courtesy of the Barnes Foundation, Philadelphia.

It has been reported that the $450 million price of the rediscovered Leonardo da Vinci, Salvator Mundi (c. 1500), was due to a vanity war between the Saudi royal family and the de facto ruler of the United Arab Emirates, who both mistakenly thought they were bidding against their art-collecting Gulf rival, the Qatari royal family. That a Russian oligarch had consigned the picture expecting to sell it at a loss (in order to bolster his court case against a Swiss freeport-owning art dealer), but unexpectedly reaped a $300 million gain, reveals an interesting truth: The highest segment of the market is often more about the rivalry and whims of a tiny group of billionaires than it is about the actual art.

The picture ultimately found its way to the Louvre Abu Dhabi after the Saudis reportedly flipped it for a mega-yacht, so I guess you can score one for the museum-going public. But museum officials I know are still annoyed by the whole saga. For them, art is supposed to exist beyond economics. Don’t believe me? If you get a chance to meet a curator, ask how much one of her museum’s great pictures is worth. You’ll get either an unsatisfying “priceless” or “incalculable,” or a remember-the-good-old-days talk about how art has become commoditized. But of course, no picture is priceless.

So what are the masterpieces lining museums’ walls worth to the people who could actually afford them? As a thought experiment, I asked several of the world’s great collectors and dealers (our clients) which pictures in U.S. museums they most want to own, and how much they would pay to own them. The pictures that came up again and again shared three characteristics: historical significance, celebrity, and contemporary appeal.

Historical significance is really a matter of influence. University of Chicago economist David Galenson, who studies the art market, told me that “pictures that have the greatest influence on the practice of other artists and the culture at large become canonized and sell for the highest prices.”

Celebrity is even simpler. Some works are famous for being famous. Pictures like Andrew Wyeth’s Christina’s World (1948) at MoMA or Maxfield Parrish’s Daybreak (1922) attain a level of populist appeal that far outstrips their art historical influence. Some celebrity works are also significant. For collectors, owning a celebrity work delivers a jolt of status.

Contemporary appeal is a function of whatever is in vogue among the world’s 50 largest collectors. The preferences of this .000000007% of the world’s population drive prices at the highest end of the market. Genres go in and out of favor. Late 19th-century millionaires wanted academic realists, early 20th-century robber barons favored Dutch and Italian masters, 1980s Japanese tycoons acquired Post-Impressionists. George Wachter, the Americas chairman of Sotheby’s, said today’s collectors “want an in-your-face, immediacy and intensity. Brash is in.”

The 10 pictures in U.S. museums I believe would make the highest price in my dystopian auction scenario (think the Bolshevik sale of Hermitage masterworks in the 1930s) rate highly across these three areas.

$1.2 billion—Pablo Picasso, Les Demoiselles d’Avignon (1907)

Museum of Modern Art, New York City

Pablo Picasso, Les Demoiselles d'Avignon, 1907. © Estate of Pablo Picasso / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photo via Wikimedia Commons.

It’s hard to convey how badly top collectors want to own this painting. Hands down, it wins the “If You Could Own One Painting” game amongst billionaires. And why not? It’s the most important (and most frequently referenced in textbooks) painting by the most important artist of the 20th century. It’s the musical equivalent of having sole ownership of Mozart’s “Symphony No. 41.” Art historian Miles Unger called it “the cultural equivalent of Lenin pulling into the Finland station in 1917.” I see it as the fulfillment of the modernist project, started in 1863 by Édouard Manet with Luncheon on the Grass (the 19th century’s most significant and valuable picture), to eliminate linear perspective and flatten the body. Given its perfect mix of significance, celebrity, and contemporary appeal, it’s the ultimate cultural trophy. This is a conservative estimate. The painting is exponentially more valuable than Picasso’s other grand statements, his Blue Period La Vie (1903) at the Cleveland Institute of Art and his Rose Period Family of Saltimbanques (1905) at the National Gallery of Art. Picasso’s current auction record for 1955’s Les femmes d’Alger (Version ‘O’), which sold for $179 million at Christie’s in 2015, isn’t in the same universe as what this picture would bring.

$1 billion—Vincent van Gogh, The Starry Night (1889)

Museum of Modern Art, New York City

Vincent van Gogh, The Starry Night, 1889. Photo via Wikimedia Commons.

It’s a celebrity with intellectual depth—strangely familiar upon first glance with a friendly façade that conceals a tortured soul. Like the Mona Lisa, the picture is plagued by a permanent arch of iPhone-wielding selfie-takers who come to prove they’ve seen the picture rather than to actually see it. While van Gogh’s sunflowers and self-portraits may have more directly influenced art history, TheStarry Night has become the most iconic image of our most mythologized artist. Bidding would be global and fierce. One Asian billionaire told me that he’d liquidate his global empire to own the painting.

$700 million—Henri Matisse, The Joy of Life (1906)

Barnes Foundation, Philadelphia

After a century hiding in a poorly lit second-floor corner of Alfred Barnes’s collection in Merion, Pennsylvania, the picture now hangs in a poorly lit second-floor corner of the newly opened (and far superior) space in downtown Philadelphia. Less well known than Matisse’s Dance I (1909) at MoMA or Woman with a Hat (1905) at SFMOMA, it is far more significant. It’s Fauvism’s grand statement, the picture that launched the 20th century, tormenting Picasso’s imagination and driving him towards Cubism. Bidding would be less broad than for others, but the right connoisseurs would drive the price of this work well into the $700 million range.

$650 million—Georges Seurat, A Sunday Afternoon on La Grande Jatte (1884)

Art Institute of Chicago

Georges Seurat, A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte, 1884-1886. Photo via Wikimedia Commons.

This is a massive work painted with an even bigger mission: to put modern art on a scientific footing. It’s almost a cliché to say it, but Seurat did for color what Einstein did for time and space. He introduced relativity by demonstrating that the relationship among colors, not the colors themselves, can create a visual impression. Like a three-star Michelin rating, La Grande Jatte is the rare picture worth a special journey to experience in person. A pillar of Chicago’s cultural identity, it possesses economic utility in addition to its cultural significance. Bidding from Asia and the Middle East would be aggressive.

$500 million—Paul Cézanne, The Large Bathers (1900–06) and The Card Players (1892)

Philadelphia Museum of Art and the Barnes Foundation, Philadelphia

Paul Cézanne, The Card Players (Les Joueurs de cartes), 1890–1892. Courtesy of the Barnes Foundation, Philadelphia

Cézanne’s two great pictures are equally momentous, but for different reasons. The Large Bathers is one of his most influential pictures, laying the groundwork for Fauvism, Cubism, and every other “ism” throughout the 20th century, while The Card Players has become a celebrity in its own right, an early archetype of modern alienation and disaffection (if updated today, he might depict a family hypnotized by their iPhones). A smaller version of The Card Players sold in 2011 to the Qatari royal family for a reported $250 million. Both paintings would stoke total warfare in the auction room.

$450 million—Jackson Pollock, Number 1, 1950 (Lavender Mist) (1950)

National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

Jackson Pollock, Number 1, 1950 (Lavender Mist), 1950. © 2018 The Pollock-Krasner Foundation / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photo by Phil Roeder, via Flickr.

European culture never quite recovered from Pollock’s American-ness. His American aggression, his American scale, even his American death (mangled in automotive steel) breathed new energy into high art and shifted its epicenter from Paris to New York, where it has remained ever since. The atmospheric Lavender Mist is Jack the Dripper at his pinnacle, his mythologized process of intuition, chance, and control at its most poetic. Pollock’s works have already gone for $200 million in the private market, and this is his most sought-after work among collectors.

$400 million—Henri Matisse, The Red Studio (1911)

Museum of Modern Art, New York City

It’s impossible to overstate this painting’s art historical influence. The canvas is so consistently mined by artists, from Mark Rothko to Frank Stella, that its pure color and simplicity no longer shock us. Perhaps a cliché to say, but its color would attract intense Chinese bidding. I’d also expect Middle Eastern collectors to make a run, given the traditional Islamic influences in the work, which stemmed from Matisse’s time in Muslim Spain.

$350 million—Johannes Vermeer, Woman Holding a Balance (c. 1664)

National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

Johannes Vermeer, Woman Holding a Balance, c. 1664. Courtesy of the National Gallery of Art.

The once-forgotten Vermeer has staged one of the greatest comebacks in art history. Peter Schjeldahl in The New Yorker noted that he has “displaced Raphael,” whose Alba Madonna (c. 1510) once held the record for most expensive picture, “as Europe’s cynosure of artistic perfection.” Perhaps we want what we can’t have: Only one Vermeer has appeared at auction in the last 90 years, a third-rate reattribution that sold for $30 million in 2004. This picture, a subtle image of temperance and contemplative reasoning, is the perfect Vermeer, and has a slight edge over the more contemporary-feeling Girl with the Red Hat (c. 1665).

$350 million—Willem de Kooning, Excavation (1950),

Art Institute of Chicago

He’s been called America’s answer to Picasso, and Excavation is his most important work. Hurried, slashing, yet balanced, de Kooning takes up Cubism’s challenge, dissolving the body without losing the figure. With his Interchanged (1955) selling for $300 million privately according to the New York Times, this estimate may be conservative.

$350 million—Leonardo da Vinci, Ginevra de’ Benci (c. 1478)

National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

Leonardo da Vinci, Ginevra de’ Benci [obverse], c. 1474/1478. Courtesy of the National Gallery of Art.

We’re in the midst of Leonardo mania, and not even the dazed, uneven face of Ginevra de’ Benci can escape it. Purchased in 1967 by D.C.’s National Gallery for a then-record price of $5 million from the Prince of Liechtenstein, it’s the sole Leonardo painting in the Western Hemisphere. A trial run for future greatness, this portrait of a young Florentine previews the elusive smile, smoky skin, and hallucinatory background of a more celebrated portrait he’d one day paint. Still, it would be a stretch to expect Salvator Mundi-level folly for this work.

from Artsy News

[asoulofatlantis]

Now here is the thing... Marielle came here to actually find out what Dingo is after - AND to be with him, as she said herself, but that is not the point here - but Dingo is after A (short for Almata) and obviously does not want to drag Marielle into this, as it is very dangerous (as proven later when he meets his untimely end...) so he shock her off, which made her run around aimlessly in order to find him. That lead to her witnessing how Shaheena was kidnapped and naturally she tried to help her and got kidnapped too. In a sense, if Dingo had NOT avoided her, she would likely be in less trouble now.

HOWEVER... were is her luck now, huh? I mean, the only luck she always seems to have is that Dingo comes running as her knight in shining armor XD

He tries so hard to be like Olivert but this scene is one of the many reasons why he will always fail in the end. The fandom does not call him "discount prince Olivert" for nothing. He is a cheap excuse of a prince then can NEVER even come close to what Olivert is. He would have handled a situation like that totally differently even with all the things that come into play here.

A mistake Olivert never would have made. But here is the difference. Olivert traveled around incognito to see the world and met the people there, to learn about them and understand them. This guy travels around as a high and mighty prince, his bodyguard ever at the ready (something Olivert often avoided even tho it did somewhat endanger him...) and judges people by their employer and whatever else seems to be amiss at first glance. He doesn't care about learning about people or the world or get out of his comfort-zone as prince and this not just makes him someone who will NEVER archive Oliverts greatness, but also shows his princley arrogance which would put him more on the same level as Cedric at this point - he grows over the curse of the Calvard-Arc of course, but as of right now, he perfectly shoes that as much as he tries, he will never have much in common with Olivert aside from a title and the fact that he somewhat does not act very princely from time to time - but even here Olivert beats him by a mile XD

Honestly, I do not wish to get back to the shipping-war or anything but... thinking of the fact that Elaine and Van knew each other since childhood and yet Agnes, who knows him barely a few weeks, is so much better in understanding him and reading him and knowing how his personality works. I totally get that with Elaine, her emotions are putting the breaks on, on some of the things she surely could see if she wasn't blinded by those emotions, but considering that Agnes is 8 years younger and thus lacks the maturity and experience Elaine has, it still is putting into question if Agnes isn't the better one for Van, simply because of how easy it is for her to understand him compared to Elaine.

*achem* I am sorry for that, but this is something the game makes sure you see and understand time and time again.

BACK to that discount prince... he snapped his finger to get his bodyguard into action, like she is a cheap servent. Olivert would never do this with Mueller. He doesn't see them as his bodyguard. He is as much his friend as he is part of his family and he never would have to fight on command.

"The lakeys", huh? Olivert would never look down on Vans assistance. Prince Sharid has only himself to blame for the fact that Olivert is so beloved within the fandom and he get called "discount prince Olivert" not people do not even care to give him the courtesy to kill him by his own name. After this first impression, he well deserved to be treated like that.

Fie... sweethearts... I know your Bracer job tells you to stop them... but couldn't you not have called Van first to mop the floor with that discount bodyguard/assistant, first? Just so I can actually stick my tongue out at them? XD

Awwwww. He is actually relieved. Isn'tr that cute? ♥

(WHY FALCOM?! YOU HAD A PERFECTLY FINE SIDE-SHIP IN WHAT IS OTHERWISE A SHIPPING-HELL. SO WHY DID YOU TAKE IT AWAY FROM ME?! T.T)

Never a dull moment in this game XD Seriously tho, we just came back from saving two kidnapped woman. Now we are searching for another missing one. Its almost a bit ridiculous at this point. Tho obviously the timing was perfect for this, so I get it... it just sounds a bit... you know... like all we do is save Damsels in distress ^^' (And it is usually not a thing Falcom does. Our girls usually are doing just fine without our help... but I guess it does serve a purpose here.)

Yesterday I had a talk with someone about character development and I think Director Gotti here has come a long way too. He started out as that pervert and its not like he lost that part EVER BUT this man who thinks everything is about sexappeal planned in Kai on making a film about the losses of what happened in Creil and he wanted it to be serious and give the dead people some justice with that film. Obviously, this scene with Shaheena already showed that this man is more than just sex, action and big boobies, but I think that last scene with him in Kai was the moment you realized what an amazing person he actually is and how far he has come over those 3 games.

Lets me tell you that I did not talk to many NPCs this time, while in my playthrough with the spreadsheet I did and last time it was easy breezy to see those Orbal Hookahs were the problem, this time... I hardly noticed anyone having them to begin with. So technically, there is some use to speaking to more NPCs. (But this game would never end if you do that XD)

Not at all! I need some "spirit of class 7" with me today - actually, every day, but I get that you are busy XD

You could clearly hear that the mans throat was cut in the way he screamed and so Van decided to NOT bring Agnes along, this time. She has seen enough people who were cruelly murdered for a lifetime at this point. Especially for a seemingly innocent 16-year-old girl. It also part of Van being protective of her. He losens up in that regard in Kuro 2 tho, as you could clearly see by then that she had grown enough to see what needs to be seen and has proven that she deserves to stand by his side, if that is what she wanted, no matter the situation. (Vans little "I am doing that all on my lonesome" - gigs aside XD)

Because MY Bracers (unlike people like Elaine...) usually say "Screw the rules, we have people to save!" XD And THAT is why I love them... and don't like Elaine. Because if your highest priority is saving civilians then that is what comes even after the question if the faster and best way to save them is legal or not.

I still stand with what I said last time, it was a rookie-mistake of Fie to let her go alone. BUT in her defence (not sure if I WOULD defend her if she wasn't part of Class7 tho XD) it was a loooooong and hard day. The drive to Tarbad takes a while and she just arrived when she already head out again into the fucking desert to stop the discount prince from doing something stupid with our Van. And right after that, all hell broke lose and then we were in that underground dungeon and... you know... give my poor girl a break! HOWEVER... it still was a rookie mistake XD

Didn't he say he only ALMOST smoked that stuff?

I need to take a short break to eat...

[asoulofatlantis]

I said it before and I say it again, I would give A LOT to see ALL of our male protagonists get "the glare" from their girls after being inside the nightclub XD I mean, if Falcom FINALLY sees the light and adds Ries to the next game (which really is so necessary for so many Kevin-related reasons) she already has the chance to do that. But what wouldn't I give for Joshua, Lloyd and Rean to be in this situation as well. (While I can not really see Joshua go into a nightclub for any other reason but Bracer-Bussiness I could see Rean and Lloyd being dumb enough to get killed by their girls for a guys-night-out XD)

I wish I could just focus on what we are here for... but I've committed to the 4SPGs at this point, so I might as well finish them...

Looks like the Police AND the Bracers are really bad at their jobs. This fake officer here was handed to them yesterday and so was his green haired brother, who pretended to be a bracer. I just got that one to the Bracers last night in fact. How can they be already free again?

Their brother "bailed them out" which still begs into question how that is even possible as these guys are wanted in Edith. Who on earth would allow them to get bailed out?

Honey... I had to break it to you but you actually do ^^'

Okay, now that I found some dancer I think this will be it for today.

[asoulofatlantis]

So after some not-so-great time with the newest Sims 4 expansion pack (Life and Death...) and now that I have mostly recovered from my infection (here is to hoping I didn't catch the C-Sickness while my Dad took me along to buy some stuff for Halloween the other day [he didn't know he had it then]...) I guess it is time to return to Daybreak. Not so happily I have to admit, as the game just... isn't as fun as I would need it to be, but we have to get through it somehow.

Sacred ground, huh? And you though Rean had it bad with his love for hotsprings ^^'

BTW... the game was fooling us quite nicely with Risette here. I remember that at some point I was wondering if she was a robot or had at least some robotic parts (like an arm or leg) or something but I assumed you would see joints, like with Lapis and that for sure she would not be able to go into the water like that so easily if that were the case so I dropped that line of thinking very quickly.

I do like tho that Lapis new body also looks completely human at this point. Its really nice. I mean if we have the technique, why not use it for everyone who has non-human parts? Hell, I am pretty sure we could make Georges wish come true and give Victor a completely human looking arm at this point too.

I mean... despite the technical advancement we have in Trails these days, I agree with a big part of the fandom the the technical advancements jumps between the Arcs are often quite unrealistic. But I guess they found quite a nice answer for why Marduks jump in particular was so big in Kai. I like that they bothered to at least find an excuse here.

Its called Genes guys! There is nothing you can do about the size of your boobies! (Which is funny because technically speaking, neither Millium nor Altina should have Genes that defy their proportions. They were never meant to grow like that anyway and yet... huh...)

Think about it! If we knew then what we know now and killed that freaking bastard right here Kuros/Daysbreaks deathcount would be so much lower, its shipcount one ship higher (because we wouldn't lose Dingo) and maybe we could have even skipped on some parts of Kuro 2 and this whole Arc would be so much nicer and...

Van? My dear favorite Spriggan... if in loop 2000 you accidentally bump into this guy... please kill him!

How much luck can she truly have if the man she loves gets blown up in a way that not even a body to mourn will be left? Thats not luck, for sure! (Yes, you could call it luck that she managed to get her tearfull goodbye in the end, despite the bodyless part and I GUESS that IF we manage to avoid all the shit happening in this game in loop 2000 (please Aidios! Have mercy on my pure-player-heart and grand my wishes!) it would also be a shitload of luck to this time be able to have her lovestory... but IF that is going to happen remains to be seen so. I still stand with what I said at first, which is that losing Dingo the way she did is anything BUT luck. (Then again, seeing how she follows him around like this I guess it somewhat IS luck that she did not follow him on that fateful day...)

So he is 27... which means that he is younger than Olivert. If my math works correctly, Olivert should have been around Agates age in Sky which means he should be 30 by now which still makes him younger than me tho XD By quite a few years to boot. *achem* I am sorry, but my birthday draws near and I am leaving the "mid thirty" part and enter the "late thirties" part at that point and its frustrating me quite a bit ^^'

(To be honest, while I do not mind at all playing characters that are younger then me - in fact, I do believe it makes me feel younger myself, so its a good thing - it does depress me a bit that 20 years ago, when I was watching Animes, I was around the same age as the characters, now I am basically the same age as some of their mothers XD)

You know... we had dirty magazines since Crossbell - if I remember correctly - but Calvard really takes the cake with the whole half nakedly poledancing-gig. I wonder what we get in the next arc. Pornos? I would not be surprised at this point - obviously we would not really see them, just get a mention here and there.

Suddenly Ouroboros XD

... I... I can not even say how much I want to strangle NISA right now. They gave Lucrecy a French accent. French! WHY?! Why would they do that? And she sounds so... urg! NO! Why?

ALSO Harvoods voice should be much deeper and more hoarse. It totally takes the edge off of him that he sounds like... this.

It seems odd that she managed to keep that gig a secret from her sister, given how every man in Tharbad must have already seen her on the pole and given how they make money by dancing on the streets its obvious that some of them must have noticed already who she is and there is no way in hell nobody made a comment about it.

You know... if you ever meet Alisa... let her give you the same lesson she gave Rean about Head-Pats. I am pretty sure, just like him, you will learn nothing from it, but at least someone DID warn you XD

People always (rightfully so) say Alisa overreacted after the whole incident with Claire, but look at Judiths reaction to her misunderstanding Vans intention with Saara ^^'

Well first at all: You are NOT allowed to speak in Adios name. You might be friends with some holy shitty saint or whatever but that doesn't make you a Grahlsritter or anything and secondly, Van will end up in Gehenna either way, he is literally a devil XD

Now about that... where have you been when he broke my poor Agnes heart? (Jokes on me, she wanted her heart to be broken...)

[asoulofatlantis]

I will definitely not do any unnecessary side-missions in Kuro 2 when that one is out, that much is for sure... or so I say... I mean there are some side-characters that would occasionally give us side-missions I am really invested in at this point...

Jaeger are always a good addition to a team, I tell you XD (Especially if they are a little girl and people totally underestimate them ^^')

I've decided to not do most of the optional sidemissions anymore this time. I will regret that near the end, but its better than way for now. I guess I will make an extra save now to just start here after finished all of the sidemissions so far already.

Nah... I have come so far... I think I have to finish it completely now...

I've heard she gets back together with him in Kai (not sure if she is dumping him here or the next game, to be honest but I remember that she does...) and people are still complaining about the fact that the girl doesn't even get a name, but only gets called Nates Girlfriend. And its basically liked what happened to Shera in Riveri, were people kept calling her Oliverts wife all the time - the translation from NIS actually nerved that one a bit... but this time its not like they can come up with a random name for a character Falcom didn't feel the need to find a name for. HOWEVER it is always weird that often we have really strong and amazing independent female characters and hardly ever any true damsels in distress that need saving and yet we get the girls with partners reduced to "Ys Girlfriend" or "Xs wife" like the moment you are together with a man, you are worth shit. I guess japan kinda rolls that way... but it still feels always out of place in games were woman are usually considered strong and self-sufficient.

I couldn't even remember that we were ever told about it, which is because of the fact that it happens so casually that it doesn't feel like anything worth keeping in mind. I mean... why should we care about the fact that the oasis dried up once about 20 years ago? That happened when even Rean was still small so why bother? THEN AGAIN tho, it does sound odd when you think how full the Oasis is now. But it still seems so insignificant ^^'

Oh it WAS a miracle, alright...

I think that the Devil inside him did not like for him to turn into Grendel...

So here is what we know... or actually don't know: Mare is a special Hollow-Core that despite that couldn't do shit until Agnes Genesis reacted to her wish to protect Van. With Agnes Genesis activating Mare was able to materialize and Grand Van the ability to become Grendel. And one would assume that Van and only Van can do this as no one else in the ASO has been transforming no matter how tough the situation. "Dingos" Version of Grendel in Kuro 2 kind of put a questionmark behind Van being the only one. HOWEVER he still needed some sort of "Mare replacement" (Lapis turned into some sort of Mare copy in that case) to become the Crimson Grendel. Now in Kai Rene needed nothing more than the Genesis to freely and without any Mare turn into Grendel like it was nothing. Already putting Vans transformation and Mares role in it into question, because Van has a Demon inside of him it might have made him more "fitting" for the Grendel transformation and Dingo was kinda, sorta somehow some sort of Undead or something like this which still might have made his body more "fitting" for the transformation. As far as we know, there is no such thing with Rene tho. ALSO here in this scene, we see that the Devil inside Van kind of fucks with his transformation so it seems even more unlikely that the devil inside him is the cause for him being the only one in the group being able to transform. Having Mare as some possible... I don't know... holy beast or something as a Hollow Core is also out of the question as the sole reason here, because once again, Rene does not have any of this in Kai. So... any idea why only specific people can turn into Grendel but some of them need more "help" than others to transform?

This is the scene were we get that "accidental" Flashback for in Kai in Kevins route. I feel like they didn't place it there for fun and I am pretty sure it was not just there to focus on the Van & Agnes moment either. So what was that reminder for?

The again... Mare specifically mentioned she was not responsible for that transformation in that scene. Not sure if we saw that part in the flashback tho. But if we did it could be helpful for whatever comes after Kai... because there is no more Agnes to cause Van to transform into Grendel and we might still need that transformation to get us some happy ending. So IF Vans Devil could cause a transformation himself, that could be helpful in the future. Not tho, if it causes Van that much pain tho...

Hm... still not sure about the intention behind the original scene and the reason for the flashback...

We could have seen that scene because of Risette too. I think I do remember that part was in the flashback as well. But... why? That makes even less sense in the current context of things.

Urg. Kai really doesn't answer shit...

Then again she comes from a time were we made it past 1209 and the technology there was really advanced back then. So... maybe she still somehow could be the key to things? Or this whole flashback was intended for Kevin to see to figure something out eventually with whatever he saw? Not that we know how much any of them will remember... I mean we will come back to some thing because otherwise it wouldn't make any sense. Like the blond woman in the end of Kai who took her mask of? The game made clear Marielle saw and likely also identified her, that would be worth shit if all memories were gone. So why specifically show us that? Also! That might sound unimportant and it may very well be, but the game takes the time to show you that Mint recoded Emilia kissing Crow and Rean but that one was worth shit too because she couldn't send it to anyone because of the Embargo so we never got anything out of it and with Rean seemingly not knowing about it it wasn't for him getting anxiety about certainly girls reactions to this either. So no way in hell they just mention that for fun. Ka Fai also told Rean what he needs to help fix things... that would also be worth shit if he doesn't remember it.

Speaking of which... everyone is so pissed at Lloyd because he asked for "no spoilers" from Ishmelga Rean and when shit happened that theoretically could be avoided with the information Lloyd could have gotten that moment - once again, its much more complicated then that, but that is not my point here - but look at how many people were aware of what was going to happen and also kept to themselves? Despite the water-steeling (and that will be a future problem with the 2000 loop is the last one...) Hamilton wanted Greamheart to succeed. Obviously Yun Ka Fai also knew a shitton about what was going on. So why on earth did no one even think about asking the Heroes of Zemuria for their help? Rean probably could have piloted that Excalibur way better than Emilia and his experience in Combat might have also helped (not that I wanted to see him getting killed again, mind you... but my point still stands!) obviously we could not have asked our Shady church for help, but the Bracers for example could have easily helped taking care of the monsters that came to Calvard after the space-fight started. And so on! Honestly, Lloyd might have been stupid for avoiding necessary information but at least he did not have it but not used it, like certain other people did! I mean Ka Fai knew how to deal with that thingy in space it seems but he decided to run from Rean until it was too late. Why?!

Seriously tho, I thought playing Kuro 1/Daybreak would clear some things up for me, but it just confuses me more the deeper I get into the story...

Risettes first name was obviously a direct hint to the whole "reset" thingy. Making you wonder if "Twinings" is also hinting at something. Not to mention that I am a bit wary about the fact that MARduk starts with the same letters as MARe does. I can not make head or tails of any of this tho...

I never fully got why Agnes had so many problems with Risette, even tho Elaine was always the bigger threat and many other girls are also into Van that she doesn't react to at all. What was it about Risette that bothered her so much? (Then again, Elaines biggest ick was Shizuna and everyone else was usually treated with her mature nature most of the time and all that while it never felt like Van has any kind of romantic interest in Shizuna to begin with...)

On another note: Maybe Twinings stand for two (as in TWINs) looops intervINING if you get me.

Well in any case... the treadmill and the bathtub are calling for me and then my weekend will be over already once again. What a pain...

[asoulofatlantis]

After those non-optional missions yesterday drained me so much I am thinking about skipping almost all optional missions as this point so that I can, like in Trails in the Sky, just get a better pacing and feel less bored. HOWEVER the issue is, that in this game, for once, it actually has some real benefits to do the side-missions AND also has a really rewarding moment close to the end of the game that is worth doing them for. So it is really hard for me to decide what to do at this point.

The reason I do not drink alcohol is because I hate the way people are when they are drunk or even just tipsy. I never wanted to be like them and I am proud that at my age, I can proudly say I never in my life have been drunk or tipsy or really have drank any alcohol to begin with. And I always like to see people who also have learned a valuable lesson from watching people being drunk.

Anyway, I like it that Fie gets tired here, l because we started out with her taking naps basically everywhere all the time but that vanished when she got older and busier, which in itself is a sign that her mental health got better, because prioritizing other things over extended sleep (not the necessary sleep, mind you) are signs of a good mental health compared to people who are depressend and spend more time with sleep than their body needs. HOWEVER I think with Fie it was not just her lack of Friends and Family and a real goal in the beginning of Cold Steel, but also some character trait. Some people just tend to sleep more or like to take naps more often and she seemed to be one of them. So that every now and then Fie is mentioning that she needs a nap is a nice way to make sure we know that she still likes to take occasional naps.

Oh! That is the one with the Ghost sister. I would feel bad not doing it. Which is another issue here. I do know most of the sidemissions do to me doing ALMOST (I regret that part deeply... because If I had done ALL of them, I would feel less pressured to do all of them now...) all of them with the spreadsheet back in the day... and thus there are missions among them were I would feel bad if I would not do them, because I know whats at stake here...

A minor connection, huh? I wonder...

I still do not understand why Falcom dropped that ship all of a sudden. It made perfect sense and was fine a fine sideship.

IF there will ever be a new protagonist in whatever is coming next for Trails (plenty of rumors going on lately that the next Saga-Will be the last and instead of including new characters, will focus on whatever story of the already existing ones are left to finish... and then there was that rumor about Shizuna being the next protagonist... and so on) I wonder if we keep the headpats still going or if we finally move on from that XD

I feel like one of the reasons Renne has shown up in every Saga so far, is to make us see every little progress she has made since we fist met her. From the girl who wanted to gut us like a fish, to the girl who saved her little brother even tho she was so jealous of him, to the girl that had finally found a family and a home where she could belong to that very girl standing here now who has gathered enough strength through the people she loves to stand tall on her own in a foreign country. She is probably THE character that has grown the most over the progress of the series.

One of the reasons I never felt happy with the idea of Van and Elaine was that everyone seemed to have understood Vans true character and what he is REALLY doing as a Spriggan but her of all people. She was so blinded by the hurt he had caused her, that she failed to see, what Agnes saw in less than a day. She wants so badly to go back to the old days that she doesn't see that Van has changed and not for the worse, but for the better. He found himself. And slowly but surely, thanks to Agnes meddling I have to add and that is something he himself admits in Kai too - he also found a way to live a life that he feels happy and comfortable with., despite all the circumstances that make it harder for him. And all that would not have been possible without him becoming a Spriggan either. Elaine taking like a whole game to finally understand what everyone else seems to see so easily always left me with the feeling that she and Van would not end up happy. And yes, maybe its just because they just don't fit my taste in ships. But you have to admit that its questionable at best that even Renne understands Van better at this point than Elaine does.

I always found it lovely how naive Feri was and compared to that Aaron is a pervert and Agnes a bit... uh... skeptical in the direction of "dirty" if you get me XD

Yeah... makes you wonder where all this water comes from... *achem*

Seriously tho, knowing what we know now, its almost frustrating what they do with their water resources. They do not know that this water is stolen from the future of course, but they had problems with their water-supply at some point. Should they not have tried to conserve water instead of wasting it after their city was about to be ruined just a while ago do to almost running out of water?

Nice detail tho, how they point that out so innocently and you as the player thing nothing of it...

Tho I sometimes wonder if they really do know what they are doing at Falcom, because in a recent interview with Kondo he made it very clear that right now they did not really know how to end the Calvard-Arc OR the Trails-Series as a whole for that matter. So they might not have planned as much ahead as we always thought. They just... are very good at making it work somehow ^^'

Okay, time for a break.

[asoulofatlantis]

Lets try that again...

I wasn't even aware that really did bring her along. Why was she back home then, when the tragedy happened? (Man... I hope we did not start the 2000th loop at the beginning of Daybreak just for everything to still happen the way it did. I want those kids to be happy! I want Dingo to be alive and have a chance with Marielle and I do wish for Aida, Fie and Ferie to be able to be "sisters" together. So do not listen to those stupid idiots who want those people to stay dead! Please use the chance and save them all!)

I usually prefer to take the answers that give me more grey and chaos points for multiple reasons (I drove it that far last time, that when the time came to chose my partners for the death game, I couldn't even chose the bracer guild because my Law points were that freaking low XD) but this time I want the thief to be honest so I decide to chose what I want. Not to mention, I am aiming for Shizuna as my partner this time, and Grey points are easier to get than the chaos points.

That is one of the sidequests that I remembered VERY clearly. Because it was the first one in that game that really shook me to the core. The girl send us to find her missing boyfriend and in a Trails game, you would expect to find the guy and get a happy ending and even tho the Sidemissions in Kuro/Daybreak have a lot of unexpected and sometimes rather dark twists and turns, most of them end up relatively... uh... "happy" so to speak. In this one tho... well... her boyfriend was in some sort of gang and wanted to get out of it to be with her, to get out he had to do one last mission - a suicide mission that he would not survive, so we found out he is dead. And if that wasn't hard enough he left a letter for her telling her he left her, so she wouldn't think he died because of her and you know have the choice between telling the truth and giving the letter and the letter gives you massive grey points and the truth more law points than I want but... I really wanted her to know the truth and she will get the truth this time for sure - I can not remember whish decision I ended up making last time, because I do know once or twice I chose the choice I was more comfortable with rather than the one that would give me less law points...

Totally just asking because it could be a scoop... not because I am jealous or anything of course XD (Ah... it sucks so much that this ship sunk in such an awful way, when it could have sailed so beautifully...)

The things with thise games side-mission is that... a lot of them are mandatory and not optional and if you want to do them all this takes A LOT of time either way. In this chapter the missions also took longer than in the first two chapters. And while I do believe so far Daybreak had the best side-missions with its twists and turns and how interesting they are... but I still think the pacing gets ruined here by how many there are and how long they take.

I am so glad that my boy Lechter stayed at Erebonias intelligence division, his potential would be so wasted anywhere else. It IS a bit upsetting tho that we do not get to know who he is working with these days...

I totally forgot about that. Everyone thought that Sheena Dirke looked familiar. Back then I thought of Paulette first... then Nina... but these days... I am not so sure anymore. The thing is, I assumed that Sheena was some sort of Immortal, yes, we said that most of them in Erebonia came about do to the curse, but we do have a lot of curse-like-circumstances in Calvard as well from time to time so I thought it was possible. HOWEVER we did see the old age Sheena Dirke tho (only from behind of course) in Kai its unlikely that she is still alive and we have meet her. There is still that thing that Dreichels soul was Reborn and Osborne at least somewhat resembled him, but its not like he really looked too much like him either, so Sheenas soul being reborn doesn't make much sense either. Although then it could actually be Nina... I think. How old is Nina again? ANYWAY... not sure why they would hide part of her face in Kai tho, given that we have seen her younger face as a statue and flashback-pcitures. Makes no sense, right? For a while I thought that she is actually like he mother of the girl Epstein adopted (Agnes Grandmother) as we've had that they said their faces all really look alike so hiding Sheenas face to not point that out would make sense theoretically... put then it wouldn't because we have seen her younger face before already. I... am actually a bit lost here. Its likely Nina... but... then again... some people assume the one at the end of Kai, who took off her mask and said something along the lines that it was sad that it had to end like this was Sheena Dirke, likely in her younger years and it wouldn't make much sense to assume that the "real" Sheena would be there, if her rebirthed or whatever version - which I would assume to be Nina at the moment - would be there already. Then again, the woman we thought was Aida is assumed to be a version of Feri at that point and that also doesn't make any sense given that everyone else in that roaster of masked people is actually dead while Feri isn't and... gee... were back to the "Kai raises more questions than it answers" - part. And that is why I found the idea REALLY frustrating that we have to wait at least two years to get the next game. Also with Kai possible coming out in the west earlier than expected it might very likely be possible that Kai comes out before the next Trails-Game comes out in japan and while that means we would have FINALLY catched up to them, it also means we will play Kai basically "blind" in the sense that we do not have access to any future games to somewhat put some light on all the questions we have and somehow this sucks!

*Achem* Moving on... tho it is frustrating how many questions that were raised in the first game were NOT answered in the third installment either.

Seriously, the Bracers have all the hot and/or cool Ladys XD

Van just said he said its up to Agnes to decide if she wants to stay or leave but when she did try to quit at the end of Kai he pretty much told her that he is the boss and makes the decisions here. Tho that might just have been a desperate attempt to get things right as much as possible before it was impossible to do that at all.

You know... Greamheart did a very good job in fooling us. Looked like a Präsident who wanted to rule Zemuria, rolled out the big Panzersoldats and stuff, seemed like he didn't care much about Agnes at all. Looked like a threat we eventually have to face. But in the end... he was just a doting father who wanted to protect his daughter so damn badly, after already losing his wife to the cause and while doing that, he still actually managed to protect Calvard and worked together with the great Tech-Firms of Zemuria while at it. I kind of wanna applauded him for fooling us so badly.

Osborne weirdly enough did both a better and a worse job at it, if you think about it. We knew Osborne was a dangerous man ever since Trails in the Sky and his Guest-Appearance in Crossbell didn't make it any better. That he is a force you don't want to cross was pretty clear already in the early days of Cold Steel and it only got worse throughout the later Days of the Erebonian-Saga. Until his very last moments, he led us to believe that he was an awful man. Power-hungry to the core and not giving a damn about anyone or anything but getting even more power by all means necessary. While all the while... he just wanted to save Erebonia and Zemuria as a whole from Ishmelga who this whole time, even without a heart, he managed to keep in check instead of losing himself to his control, even tho that manace was hunting his very soul since his previous life. He made a fool out of all of us until the very end. And while Greamheart also seemed like he had very egoistic goals in mind - what in some sense is not even untrue - he never really struck one as dangerous. You expected him to turn out as evil and bad as can be any minute now... but he never really truly was. So it was just us connecting all the dots wrong, while he actually didn't do anything wrong to begin with - as opposed to what Osborne did to archive his goal. As fathers... they both kind of sucked at first and ended up loving their children so damn much despite that. HOWEVER I always felt like the first impression that Osborne left us with when it came to Rean was that he just didn't care. Didn't give a damn. Used him even and forced him to do things he hate. Just to in the end, turn out to be a very loving father that just wanted to protect his son and when you looked cle enough you could see and feel the times he actually did secretly show that he did indeed love Rean. Greamheart looked like he didn't care much about Agnes most of the time, only about his appearance in the public eye. BUT when it came down to it, he did occasionally show he did care, not even really trying to hide it.

So I do think Falcom did a good job here reusing their old ideas but changing them enough to feel different, without making it seem forced or weird. That wasn't always the case as we all know. Musse copying Kloe in a way felt really like them just being to lazy to come up with a more original storyline for her. And the Estelle and Joshua - situation copy they did in Kuro 2 required Swin to be so darn out of character that it almost didn't feel rewarding to reach this satisfying conclusion for that ship. However... it does not feel like a sheep rip-off, when it comes to how Greamheart did things, and that is a very good thing.

Anyway... I am not in the mood for Vans night out right now. So lets handle this tomorrow.

[asoulofatlantis]

I have no motivation whatsoever to play this game. Its not like its bad or anything, but just like when I played it the first time, I can not seem to make myself feel more at home in Calvard or between the ASO. I just can not seem to really fully enjoy the journey.

Daybreak two also got an official release date now and I found myself saying "Urg" as a reaction, because this game sucked so much. Daybreak 1 is at least a relatively good game, despite my lack of joy while playing, but Kuro 2 was mostly a load of bull that I am not looking forward to at all.

Also.... there are so many games out there right now that I want to play or need to finish that I feel a bit overwhelmed and nothing feels like its the right game to play at the moment ^^'

But... I do what I have to do.

Oh look! Its discount OIivert! (I really like that joke and I think it fits Sharids role to a T, so I will keep making it.) And his discount bodyguard is with him. They do not make an absolutely good first impression here in this chapter, that much I can tell you.

I mean we COULD certainly argue that Oliverts first impression in Sky was... interesting and not certainly the best either, to be fair. BUT still a lot better than Sharids.

If you look at the popularity of Game of Thrones and the likes, I guess he isn't exactly wrong ^^' (I love it that they beeped the world "fucking" XD)

If they did use the voice actor from the original Persona 3 again, could they not have told them to sound at least A BIT different when he voices a different character?

Killikas voice sounds so... hoarse and manly... I don't like it ^^' BUT what else is new? XD

XD Okay, that one was a funny little joke. Killika kind of hinted at "catching up" with someone and we switched over to Zin sneezing XD

O-Okay... I didn't exspect him to know exactly were that sneeze came from. Guess she... does that a lot? ^^' Or is it intuition?

Ah... I loved moments like these in Daybreak. Were you can not decide if you feel happy to see Fie or if you feel so homesick now you go back to replaying Cold Steel 3 for the thousands time XD It feels good to hear her original voice actor tho. Gives me some peace of mind for once.

Poor Van. Even his favorite assistant (who is in love with him to boot) isn't thinking that he is cool XD

I am sorry I feek a bit restless right now. I also think I have to tone down talking to the NPCs... its sometimes really boring and takes too much time. So I take a little break for now.

[asoulofatlantis]

I guess I've said that before when I played this game for the first time, but compared to Almata, Ourobors feels like childsplay ^^' I mean all those years we've been told what a big ass thread Ouroboros is and we did face people like Wiseman and Monsters like McBurn... and they do hire people like Shirley who didn't get the nickname "bloody Shirley" for only breaking peoples noses, if you get me. HOWEVER... can you remember the end of Cold Steel 3 when the Couragous was blown up? Not just that at this point we also knew that people like Vita, the Steelmaden and some others from Ouroboros weren't so bad, we also had Campanella of all people, Duvalie and even Shirley being absolutely against blowing the ship up and thus killing the people inside. One can say about Ouroboros what you want but we basically never got out of a fight with them with anyone dying. (The losses we had in CS3 were entirely on the Gnomes card) They dop meddle a lot for people who are supposed to be observed, but exceptions like Wiseman and Harwood aside... they usually don't kill. The two newest members that we met in Kai geniounly looked like they were just having a good time fooling around with our Team of big as Heroes and even the Professor, this insane bastard, ended up actually on... more or less the good side (I did not show you this, because the translation was wonky at best but he did plead to help Gramhearts cause after finally finding the answer he has been searching for...) and most of Ouroboroses members, despite darkness in their hearts do actually will help our cause if it is within their capabilities. No one from Ouroboros, not even the hardcore ones like Harwood, would come swooping in crushing the bones of the people they have just killed. Heck, even people like Heiyue that we learned to fear in Crossbell would not do that. I am not even sure the red constellation would do that - tho with the right amount of money they might... - but playing this game really put into perspective how soft and weak and... well... "soft" the all so mighty dangerous Ouroboros actually is.

Don't worry, Aaron! I kill them for you later XD (It sucks so much that us killing them isn't canon. Falcom is just too soft!)

Elaine can be really scary XD But Aaron had it coming, trying to call her old. She should be around Vans age, right? So 24? How is that old? I am 35 and would prefer not to be called old, thank you very much XD

Not sure if I should call him an asshole or a sick bastard... maybe both.

As shocking as all that was, we should not forget that at the end of the day, Heiyuu too is the mafia. Underestimating what they are capable off and willing too do, is a grave mistake.

Vans sensing-powers are amazing and appearantly work differently from Reans. Which leave me to the question if Reans would have sensed those guys? But I am not sure about it. While he surely overall got a shitload stronger, his senses didn't see Shizuna and Kinkaid coming back when we were under the observatory in Kai. So its really hard to say. I wish we could test that out in the next game ^^'

Sucks to be you, old man ;P

As you guys know... I am German and sometimes when I hear what NIS is doing with our words I could strangle them. Mond, is our word for Moon and I can tell you it is pronounced VERY differently from the way Gien just said it. Its a clear and full O not a washed away o that's barely audible.

She should just let go of that "guy in Crossbell" and move on from him so she can find true happiness. In fact, at this point. All of the Ladys in our harems should. But that is Falcoms call and they do not have the backbone to do that.

HOWEVER... I found it funny that Van knows stuff like this. Its not like working with Rixia automatically gives you in insight on her lovelife or something.

And thus I FINALLY finished chapter two and end my playthrough for today here.

[asoulofatlantis]

I love it when they give us pictures of them as kids. Rean and my favorite Reise Arnor Twins were the most adorable little baby I have ever seen ♥ Aaron, Ashen... and... uh... what was the name of her little brother again? Well, in any case, they are all 3 very cute too. Cao.... looked like he was already troublesome in his younger years XD

What is it with boys that they always get their buds in trouble with the Ladys by making unnecessary comments? ^^'

I would usually be afraid of the double glare but Rean just got a triple glare out in Kai and if by any chance Mints recording of these scene with Emilia survives all that timeline bullshit he is up for A LOT more. So... I guess Van still has a lot to learn if he wants to keep up with the harem-king and the glares he is receiving XD

You all know we've been through some shit in Erebonia but compared to that Calvard is hell! I always wondered if the fact that Osborne was the way he was and the Railway police as well as the intelligence-division kept such a tight leash on everyone, somehow actually kept some sort of order in Erebonia. Something that isn't possible in Calvard because our president prefers to put his money, time and focus into dreams that get us crushed and his daughter... uh... "erased" instead of putting his focus on getting some more control. (Now do not get me wrong. Without him, loop 2000 would have started at the year Zero and with minor changes here and there that might as well be a world were my Rean wouldn't even have been born or were the Stigma-Trick didn't work and Joshua killed Estelle and than himself nad that Monster Wiseman is still alive or... lets not get even any deeper into that. But I do get that what he did, was not for naught, but I feel a bit like he had the wrong priorities...)

Some curse twisting facts and emotions and putting the knive were it hurts is all god and well, but watch Ashen worry for her Friend Aaron like this and tell me it made any sense to you that in Kuro 2 she want on and poisoned him because she believed he killed Cao. As much as she loves the man, never in hell would she go for her best friend's throat like that. Kuro 2 was a load of bull and if anything, Daybreak just proves that.

And if you know that he talks about the red constellation and the shit they pulled in Crossbell, then you know how bad Almata really is.

And I have to but the breaks on again...