#god this whole soundtrack fucking rules so hard in general. most of it sounds like clanging metal in a junkyard with accompanying orchestra

[electoons]

sitting with my notebook and everything sprawled out listening to the portal 2 ost and taking copious notes on the various leitmotifs instead of whatever i originally sat down at my desk for

[even-more-than-before]

Finally got around to listening to Hurley, and uhm... I have some thoughts on it. Under the read more are the reviews I wrote as I was going through the album a

Memories - 5/10 - It has major "Movie credits song" vibes… Why is it the opener? It would be much more impactful if this were the closer, or penultimate song. It's a song about wanting to go back, don't make it the first song in the gosh dang album! Other than that, it's a fine enough song, if a bit forgettable.

Ruling Me - 4.5/10 - This feels… Sorta sanitized, in a weird way. Maybe I shouldn't've listened to this album right after I relistened to Pinkerton, but man. This feels like it was made to play in the background of something else, Is this gonna be the whole album's vibes? (UPDATE: Yeah, it was.)

Trainwrecks - 3.5/10 - This song is the musical equivalent to edging. It feels it's leading up to major drop or solo that never really comes? Sure, there's a sorta drop at the end, but it doesn't feel impactful, like, at all. This song pisses me off.

Unspoken - 7.5/10 - This song feels… Familiar? But not in the way that the other songs do -- I dig it, honestly! I find myself actually bobbing up and down to it, and I really like that drop around the end!! Maybe this album won't be so bad after all!

Where's My Sex - 6.5/10 - This is very silly. Rivers sounds kinda funky in this song, but… Honestly? It ain't too bad, he kinda sounds like JT Music in the prechorus in a weird way and I think it's kinda funny. This dumb joke song is actually better than most of the other songs on this god forsaken album. The bridge is a little weird.

Run Away - 5/10 - "Oh man, this intro is really interesting! I can't wait to see what it leads to!" "…" "]:" The song should've been more chill, I think. other than that, it's fine? This could've been the song that just fucking destroys you out of nowhere of this album but instead its just… Another song, really.

Hang On - 4.5/10 - This entire album with the exception of Unspoken has felt like a collection of songs taken from a movie that doesn't exist's soundtrack, and not in a good way.

Smart Girls - 4.5/10 - Too many songs in this album feel sorta samey, very generic, and I think that's why a lot of them sorta sound familiar in a weird way? This… doesn't feel like Weezer. What is this?

Brave New World - 4.5/10 - See the above reviews. This whole thing so far as just made me wanna listen to a better weezer album.

Time Flies - -1/10 - I can't finish this song. I literally can't finish this song, I had to stop in the middle of it, it's just too much -- Rivers' vocals are weirdly crackly? It's either his vocals or the guitar, It's hard to hear everything against the fucking drums that are blasting in my ears over and over again, it's so fucking overstimulating that I just can't bring myself to finish it -- this album is this first album I've ever heard that has actually fucking hurt me due to how poorly made it is. This is what you put as the closer? What the fuck?

Overall - 4.5/10 - the album isn't bad, it's just… Mediocre. Most songs are forgettable, there's only two I actually liked, and the closer was so fucking awful that I physically couldn't finish it. What the hell happened to this band?

[senchoubutter]

Twisted Wonderland Guys As Kpop Songs I Listen To Too Much + Why

i’ma just say it now, i primarily listen to girl groups since I cover songs and they are in my range and i find them fun to cover most so expect a lot of those.

All songs are linked!!

Scarabia

Jamil

- Lucifer by SHINee || First and foremost I can see him performing this, easily. Aside from that, the song is tasty and classic. Jamil is a smart attractive man that is incredibly talented despite flying under the radar. People know of him but don’t take note until they know him, similarly to this song. It goes hard and you’ve probs heard it mentioned but you haven’t experienced until you played it at 3 am, screaming your heart out. Get to know Jamil and he ain’t just “some guy”

Kalim

- Um Oh Ah Yeh by MAMAMOO || This song reminds me of the 90s/2000s and there’s something about Kalim that also does that for me. Maybe it’s the not a care in the world disposition. I can see and feel in the second verse’s rap, Kalim’s warm smile. I can imagine him grabbing my hand, telling me to chin up. The choruses make me think of simpler times. Finally, Kalim seems like he’s always having a good time just like this song

Ignihyde

Ortho

- Candy Pop by TWICE (yes i know its jp) || This song always puts me in a good mood. It makes me feel warm inside and like everything will work out. When I see Ortho, I feel the need to protect him but also can’t help but feel like everything will be okay. Something about him brings a happy, warm peace to my heart that reminds me to just take a moment and find the good in life. The peppy beat of it just makes me think about how he almost always is smiling!

Idia

- Fairy of Shampoo by TOMORROW X TOGETHER || the song starts an I feel as if I’ve awoken floating in the deep sea, but i’m not scared. I feel at peace and as if I’ve been here before. The song tastes like iced tea and feels like nostalgia. When I look at Idia I see my past self and even present self. I’m afraid, I want to hide. The feelings the verses gives me reminds me of laying in bed, curled up in a jacket that hides my whole body, similarly to Idia’s. The song and Idia’s character call out to a nostalgic but soft side to a distant past I can’t recall. I want to stay with them until I can remember

Savanaclaw

Leona

- gogobebe by MAMAMOO || It’s got a lazy but sexy sound that Leona emboides. When the song picks up in the choruses it’s like it takes over your body, drowning the listener in an ocean of sensuality and playful teasing. It’s got a lil edge though too that caters to the gruff “fuck off” expression he has. I see the noise Hwasa makes at the end as the wanton but confused noise fans make as the man leaves, tail swinging after teasing them

Ruggie 

- BAAM by Momoland || BAAM has such a sassy hyped up beat that screams a bitch that gets shit done, owns who they are, and lives life having fun. And it embodies everything I feel upon seeing Ruggie's smug smile. Even the rap bit during the second chorus has the sass and done-ness of “Leona-san! Get up!!”

Jack

- Bomb by AleXa || This song kicks your ass and so does Jack. Don’t for four seconds think he won’t beat the shit outta ya for underestimating him, similarly to AleXa and her music. The energy and the “I’ll show you” vibes remind me of this big dweeb. I would fear this man but turn to love him much like how I felt about this song as it was this artist’s first song. How do I say they just embody each other in my opinion lol

Pomefiore

Vil

- DUN DUN by Everglow || The sass. This song screams THAT BITCH, just like Vil’s everything. The way he carries himself is personified in this song. The power the song holds reminds me of his unique magic and how intense it is. Finally, the slower bridge is mythical and light as if giving the listener a feeling like they are walking on air and plays to the softer and more feminine side of Vil

Rook

- FINGERTIP by GFriend || Everything about this song is exciting. It’s suspenseful and alluring. If this song was a person, I could clear as day see it winking, whispering “chase me.” And that is exactly Rook’s brand of teasing and games. He’s a hunter but he’s got a charming aura to him still. This song wraps both of those things into it. The dance break is Rook’s darker senses personified. Umji’s lil “OW!” is he’s cute lil remarks in french, throwing you off now and then. But by the end of the song, you’re used to them and adore them

Epel

- Crossroads by GFriend || This song feels like a long lost friend that visits you in dreams. You can practically reach out to them but just as you do, you wake up. But you’re determined. That alone reminds me of Epel’s character as a whole. He doesn’t let his cute appearance push aside his wants and needs to be this tough guy. He, like Yuju’s strong vocals at the last chorus, presses on, determined each time he gets knocked down

Diasomnia

Lilia

- Deja Vu by Dreamcatcher || Maybe I’m biased cause I’ve covered this but this song is breathtaking. The melody speaks of a long road and the fight to keep on which I feel rings true for Lilia. We don’t know his true age but it’s clear he’s been around for quite a wild and the pain he’s probably gone through is unspeakable. He has stories galore and so much experience in life. I feel this song encapsulates a lot of what can only be speculated about him

Silver

- Crème Brûlée by GFriend || the soft, sweet song is addictive and cutesy. I feel Silver gets written off or ignored often, similarly to this song on the album. Sure he may not be god or a bad bad bitch, but he has his own warmth to him. Like this song, Silver makes me wanna curl up under a tree on an August evening and just take in life, making sure to breathe for once, releasing unnecessary tension and stress.

Sebek

- Black Dress by CLC || Sebek is very interesting to me and when he blushes, my whole heart stops for a second. It’s similar to how when they build up to the chorus‘s first Black Dress and the music stops for like a split second. Sebek isn’t my favorite but isn’t my least favorite. I like him more than some though, I’d say. I’d say the same goes for this song. I love CLC, this isn’t my top song of theirs but I still like it a lot. There’s something uniform about the beat that resounds with Sebek as getting shit done in mind also. Sometimes a song just makes you think of a character and you can’t perfectly explain it

Malleus

- Pretty Savage by BLACKPINK || Yes i know t’s only recently come out as i post this, but this bad boy on replay. The beat isn’t crazy upbeat but it’s interesting. Malleus intidimates me in general cause of his aura, and while I love this song a lot rn, it was very intimidating at first. It still has some “don’t come near me” energy. The slower bridge bit calls to his stoic expression, melodic and pretty

Heartslabyul

Cater

- ICY by ITZY || I’ll be honest both Cater as well as this song were things I thought at first were just meh, okay. But as time went on both grew on me. Now that’s not the only reason though I associate this with him. The, no pun intended, ice shattering sound of the song gives me friendly popular girl that seems to be buds with 80% of the school. This is the very vibe Cater always gives me. He wants to just have a good, happy life. Also the song is a “so what? I’m hot. Get over it.” vibe like Cater

Ace

- Drama by TOMORROW X TOGETHER || Ace reminds me the guy you fall in love with in high school and you no it’s not going to last but you let yourself get taken away with. Drama feels like a soundtrack of every fun adventure Ace goes on, no matter the trouble that he may get on. It’s fun beat just brings me back to skipping school, running to my car and trying to sneak away without getting caught. The thought of Ace at my side, would shoot my adrenaline through the roof just like the high note of the song

Deuce

- God’s Menu by Stray Kids || Deuce is just ready to go swinging and that’s exactly what this song is. Elbows up and out, head down, swinging without a clue. The intensity and fire of it speaks to that fire in him. Meanwhile the prechoruses are soft and pleasant almost like it’s not the same song, alluding to that cute lil smile he has got

Trey

- REALLY REALLY by WINNER || Similarly to Ace, this song reminds me of a guy you fall for, but in college rather than high school. Everything about the song and Trey just feels right. The choruses hold your hand and fits perfectly in yours. They know what to say to make everything okay. It may not last, but you sure hope it does and will love them like it will. And while Trey isn’t my number one boy, those are the exact feelings I have about him too. Finally, the rap part reminds me of Trey’s more sadistic side, it bites and you may not think it fits entirely but the more familiar you get with them, the more both fit and you don’t mind it entirely

Riddle

- Wonderland by ATEEZ || The demanding nature of the song makes me think of Riddle immediately. It’s intense and doesn’t mess around; it wants what it wants. Riddle is a rule based person and this song is rather militaristic aesthetically. The bridge though, is so regal and breathtaking. It could stop time. Riddle, despite the kind of guy he is, is the same way. The power he holds is impressive and admirable. This description may seem kinda like I’m shitting on him and see him solely as a rule boy, but like this song, I have made respect for him and wouldn’t want to cross him

Octavinelle

Azul

- Love Battery by Hong Jin Young but performed by LOONA on Immortal Songs || This arrangement of the song has a certain magic to it that I melt in. At the very beginning as the build up singing ‘dangsineun’ i feel like I’m being submerged in a wave, reaching to shake Azul’s hand, signing a contract. The choruses remind me of his smile, how distant but inviting it is. Daring me to fall for him. The dance break bridge reminds me of the intense eyes behind those glasses

Jade

- Love Shot by EXO || This song and Jade are both things I am fearful of but greatly intrigued by. They share a scary beat and energy that says I fear you more when you’re smiling. Please stop slowly walking towards me, you’re scaring me. But at the very same time, the choruses keep me around like how pretty I find this twin. The combo of put together, intellectual friend but could kill easily and without remorse sends shivers down my spine if I think about it for too long. The chorus of this song make me shake my shoulders that suppress a shiver each time

Floyd

- WEE WOO by Pristin || I love both Floyd and WEE WOO. The song is the feeling you get going 85 down the highway. Both song and Floyd, get me excited. They feel like the weekend. That feeling of coming home Friday during high school, tossing your bookbag down, and getting ready to hang out with your best friend. It’s a relieving and exciting feeling. It’s a peppy beat that bites during the harmonies a bit. Just like Floyd. Peppy, fun, but ain’t afraid to take a lil nibble

[legionofpotatoes]

alright here’s ma thoughts on that flick I mentioned

we hatewatched a*my of the dead because we were CONVINCED “zombies in las vegas” would be an impossible concept to screw up, but in so assuming we obviously invoked a holy wager with the universe and got reminded, once again, that hoping for improvement from someone who’s dependably put out bad art is never a wise choice 😐

but we were honestly kinda roped in by the marketing??? and expected a goofy fast-paced flick with the odd traditional undead metaphor thrown in, framing some sort of relationship drama maybe or hell even nothing at all! we’d have taken pure indulgent storytelling, idk italian job with zombies in las vegas, I don’t know fucking anything but??? whatever this was???? spoilers below for it is time for One Of My Rants

I mean the main reason I really want to write all this and complain. this film here probably has the most unappealing cinematography I have ever experienced in my life and that is saying something. who the fuck signed off on that CONSTANT shallow-ass depth of field that imprisons your eyeline and turns every shot into bokeh paste???? and I mean every shot almost!!!! I promise if you think I am overreacting just throw a dart at the seek bar and watch twenty seconds from wherever it lands. it is horrifying to look at. at least it gave my girlfriend a good visual shorthand for what it’s like when I lose my glasses

why was sean spicer in this movie. did they pay him to be here. was sean spicer paid hollywood money for his scene in this film because fuck everyone who was involved in that decision

the legitimately baffling hints at the extraterrestrial origins of the infection that went absolutely nowhere and had no dramatic or plot-level bearing. we love to see the franchise sprouts fellas

yet another big budget waste of everything hiroyuki sanada has to offer. and bautista too I guess? I like him but man was this an odd career move

what was the crux of his conflict/resolution with his daughter btw. I understand it was rooted in miscommunication over their forms of grief irt mom but uhh… it was all rather clunky and didn’t land for me. I tried I really tried to buy in but something was wrong fundamentally with the groundwork there, it did not click and their catharsis felt unearned. I know there’s massive amounts of tragic baggage being projected there from the author so I’m not slapping any judgment down really;

but again it would be an easy thing to wave off if they just had a vibrant cast of lovable simpletons with good chemistry and the kinetic sense of plotting the trailers promised (and this premise never discounts good drama, either). but instead it was just two and a half (!) hours of meandering into situations the filmmaking instincts had no idea how to flow in and out of

to wit. I know talking about “bad pacing” is associated with armchair bullshit but consider the example of the scene were dieter does an out of nowhere little dance after childishly screaming but then still-killing a zombie, with the film framing this as a micro character triumph, and not a second later the bg soundtrack instantly fades into an orchestral score dramatizing a nearby mcguffin reveal, completely 180 degreeing the tone without a semblance of deft insert shot stitching or even I dont know a fucking jump cut maybe. now imagine this whiplash for 2.5 hrs uninterrupted

I will keep complaining about the length yeah because this was not a story requiring this much real estate to be told. Uhh in my humble and personal opinion, of course

[man sees zombie tiger] “this is crossing the line!” you can in fact write dialogue that is not utter nonsense that falls apart once you drill down its single fickle layer of referential meta winking. what line are you talking about. you have rules in this insane situation you’re in? total nitpick moment I know but it got burned in my brain for some reason. like a microcosm of the mismanaged dramatic instincts paired with weird writing that dots this movie. I am sure the director calls this either satire or genre deconstruction. I am SO sure

tumblr domino meme that goes from “dude getting sucked off while driving” to “entire las vegas literally nuked”

tig notaro is always great to see but once you know she’s been filmed as a separate greenscreen plate months after photography wrapped - cause she had to apparently replace some abusive asshole but that’s a whole other pig not worth fucking - it becomes impossible to unsee her odd detachment from everyone else in the movie lmao. it doesn’t really “ruin” anything on its lonesome but it is hard to unsee

why. was. sean. spicer. in. this. movie

a very simple key ingredient missing from fully turning lip service sympathy for main uruk hai dude into actual empathy that would generate meaningful conflict with hero family would be to spend a bit more time articulating what he internally wanted the most. because he was obviously trying to do something here with pointed agenda. a family, to have kids, build a caste system, save his wife’s head, return to his planet??? all of these could represent the bigger context in his psychology that spurred his vengeance but none of them are dramatically emphasized long enough for you to cheer him on. I’m not asking too much I promise. Articulating interiority of a mute character is pretty doable with deft cinema language, just gotta linger and hold a shot here and there for a few seconds, frame as his POV, donezo. I know this is also one of those like. “who cares” moments but the movie does, very evidently so, in making this guy an actual character. you can kinda piece it together and create a framework of sympathy for him, sure, but then again he ultimately becomes a foil to be killed and not defeated, so. Ehh whatever

quarantine zone stuff was not a wildly childish covid allegory quarantine zone stuff was not a wildly childish covid allegory quarantine zone stuff was n

the rooftop helicopter fakout at the end was such an ass-backwards, manufactured moment of what could be a simple setup/payoff it just pissed me off??? you gain nothing by giving sad dad five seconds of pointless crisis that flips right back to previous status quo ANYWAY, except for a weaksauce waste of runtime, which could be used instead to get inside notaro’s head and actually SHOW the remorse form as she took off, literally maybe even a frown playing on her face as she’s headed for safety right before we cut back to drax and the kid. just a simple-ass, minimal, momentary setup for what is the most basic filmmaking trick of creating macro catharsis moments. Just???? g o d if you can’t even land that shit why are you even doing any of this

that lil run final pam did was very very charming and super choreographed in a way that was the tiiiniest bit overdone

the whole intro with the simul-backstories and posing with family photos was just… oddly motivated. what was the goal? “here’s what we’re fighting for” vignettes? why? it’s not a functional setup in that vein. what was all that

also I am sorry if this is insensitive but the reasons most characters end up articulating to justify going back into the hell that destroyed their lives makes them sound seriously insane

I dont like complaining about CGI (honestly) but so much of it in modern movies can achieve higher fidelity if the animation is simply subdued. Do not overengineer and over-apply 2D cell methodologies and kinematics to each tiny twitch and movement in a hyper 3D model and I promise you. it will look a thousand times more natural. look at thanos in those last two movies. your rendering and detail are absolutely perfect with the tiger you just have to let stuff sit instead of constantly simulating swaying hair strands and firing off all facial muscles at once. great moment at one point where makeup zombie horse and CG zombie tiger are both in one shot together and just by unnecessary amounts of movement alone you can tell who doesn’t belong. again; detail, rendering, compositing, lighting, all picture-perfect; but y’all just gotta let the animation breathe sometimes, and chill it out

plot holes don’t really matter to me but it was kinda funny how lilly decided not to mention the enormous wrinkle in intel pertaining to an actual territorial tribe of intelligent zombies that require human offerings to let you pass, just so that reveal could play out in real time through the joyous punishment of the cartoonishly misogynistic dude

total chad move for mister uruk hai and final pam to rule from a rusted swimming pool complex

the ending with vanderohe oh my god. with the. cash stacks at the airport register. and specifically them working in his favor. that is literally something you do to get arrested under suspicion of theft. it was almost played for laughs and I respect that. coulda been goofier. make these movies goofy ya dorks

anyway, weird, weird movie. bad marketing. message unclear (something something sins of the father???), baffling editing instincts, literal worst-looking cinematography I ever laid eyes upon. Confidently dying on that last hill

[iamcinema]

IAC Reviews #010: Blood Lake (1987) [Retrospective #2]

"...I heard the voice of the fourth beast say, Come and see. And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him...“

Over the years, I’ve been scowering the Internet trying to find the worst of the worst when it comes to horror movies. I guess you can call me a glutton for punishment in that regard since some movies need to be seen to be believed, rather than looked into as an example of what bad filmmaking looks like. Whether it’s a problem with the acting, the writing, the technical specs, or all of the above, you know you’re in for a good [or horrible] time if it checks one or more of those boxes. When it comes to bad horror movie lists, not just shot on video ones, one film in particular seems to rule them all as it’s hailed as one of the worst movies of all time, if not the worst horror film ever made. This time around, I’m making an ill-fated return to the Oklahoma to talk about Tim Boggs’ lone directorial credit, Blood Lake.

________________________________________

Blood Lake tells the story about a group of friends who are being stalked by a mad man while on a weekend getaway trip at the lake. It’s not the most original concept out there, but hey, what else is new? It’s interesting that this is Boggs’ only attempt at being a filmmaker and the rest of his credits are attributed to being part of the sound department for notable films and shows like Lost Highway, Tales From the Crypt, Xena: Warrior Princess, The Sopranos, Breaking Bad, and Legion. That’s a hell of a resume, but that’s not what we’re here to really discuss.

I heard about the notority of this for years, and I decided to take the plunge with it nearly five years ago where I live reviewed it for Under the Morgue. Needless to say, I didn’t have fun with it and I don’t think I ever ripped into a film that hard up until that point. With the anniversary date of that review coming up, I thought it would be fair to do a retrospect on this to see if it really lives up to how genuinely atrocious I thought it was all those years ago.

Blood Lake in One Gif:

I think I need to lay down for this one. Do you know that feeling of nostalgia you get when you see, hear, or smell something that really takes you back to a better time? Well, whatever the antithisis to that is would describe the seething rage and horror I felt re-watching this.

________________________________________

While it’s true that some movies need to be witnessed to truly understand how bad they are, it’s also fair to say that some things shouldn’t be known by mere mortals - and this absolutely applies to films like Ax’Em and Blood Lake. They’re as cut-and-dry and boring as they are in premise, and a train wreck of a travesty in execution at that.

The quality from a technical standpoint is pretty damn atrocious, particularly during some of the nighttime shots since it can be hard to tell what’s going on and it feels like you’re squinting the whole time trying to tell what you’re looking at. The sound is just as bad, though sometimes it fairs better than the visuals, even if a good chunk of the time you can’t tell what the hell anyone is saying because they’re either too far from the mic to be picked up or it’s a dialogue problem with everyone mumbling, talking over each other, or fumbling over their lines. IMDB says the sound was shot with a single shotgun microphone, and yeah...it kind of shows.

C’mon. Look at this and tell me you can figure out what the fuck all is going on.

The writing feels almost non-existent as Boggs encouraged the actors to paraphrase the dialogue in their own words to I guess make it feel more natural. However, with how clumsy things are, it’s hard to really tell how much was ad-libbed or done by the actors themselves. The total direction and set-up with the pacing is absolute garbage and some of the worst I’ve ever seen, as it’s padded out with gratuitously long shots of them doing things like “extreme” sports on the water or a scene of them drinking at a table that goes on for close to ten minutes. It feels like the director left the camera on a tripod and accidentally filmed their lunch break. People have said this feels like a glorified home movie, and I get why. I’ve ripped on Las Vegas Bloodbath for how bad the filler was during its third act; as well as the opening dance sequences and the yo mama jokes in the opening of Ax’Em for needlessly dragging things out, or even the flashback sequences in Nick Millard’s films - even if they don’t exist within the canon of the story. Hell, Sledgehammer does this too by slowing down scenes in order to pad it out to a 60 minute runtime after being told it was too short.

When it comes to the characters, they aren’t anything special and are mostly forgettable. With this camp, I designated them to one of two sides of the field; boring and awful. All of them I’ve mostly shoved over on the boring side, as they never really do anything noteworthy or special, so I wouldn’t be able to tell you their names off the top of my head for the most part. However, some of the guys do teeter on being awful and annoying as hell, but one character in particular stayed on the shit teir side of the spectrum from start to finish - which would be Tony.

Oh, god. Tony....

This guy right here. This motherfucker made watching this the first time around feel like a total chore. But the second time around, and willingly so, it was like pulling teeth to get me to finish.

I don’t mind weird, perverted, sleazy dickheads who show up now and again, but Tony is a special case because his entire shtick is being a weird creep to the point of giving off rapey vibes with the other guys over how his goal at the end of the weekend is to conquer some girl he goes to school with. Bro, you’re like twelve, shut the fuck up. It’s beyond cringe. It’s insufferable, and prior to this, I said over on Under the Morgue that Alan from Return to Sleepaway Camp was the most unsympathetic “protagonist�� I had ever seen. But now, compared to him and the majority of the characters from Await Further Instructions, I don’t know who is the most grating to sit through - and I spent most of my time on that review talking about how the zero level of characterization makes it so hard to watch. In that review, I said I can appreciate a scummy character if they have any sort of secondary personality trait that makes you love to hate them, or at least makes them tolerable. With Tony, he’s just an annoying, pervy brat who I guess is about as comedic and charming as a trench foot infection.

It’s pretty damn rare that I see a movie where I root for the villain(s) from start to finish because I can’t stand the majority, if not all of the characters. So, having to recall how many times I wished Tony would have drowned within the first fifteen minutes or had a joint stubbed out in his damn eye has proved to be more enjoyable than the entirety of this shit show, since the only tail he should have been chasing was the tailpipe of the damn car he arrived in. I was honestly surprised we didn’t get any Summer Camp Nightmare moments given how much of a creep the twerp is, and I still am now.

The fact that this is called a slasher film feels like a cruel joke, since after the opening kill, the next murder doesn’t happen until close to the fifty minute mark in an 82 minute movie (78 minutes if you get rid of the credits). Plus, because of the abysmal quality, you can’t even see them clear enough to tell what’s happening. It’s so frustrating to feel like you’d get more out of the death scenes by closing your eyes the whole time. It’s up there with Ax’Em in terms of quality and how much it feels like they cheat you, which makes me wonder why bother at all if it’s possible you can’t even see what’s going on when you were editing the damn thing?

________________________________________ 

So, here we are at the dreaded moment where I close this off with how I’d rate this. Is it as bad as I remember it being? Yes, if not more so. I had to pause and walk away from it for a bit to cool off and do something else because it was so tedious sit through.

It just goes on, and on, and on, which was only made worse by obnoxious characters that were a total hassle to put up with who could have been reduced to Douchebag #1, Generic Girl #2, and Rattail Motherfucker #1 based on how little they actually did to make me want to remember their names - and the ones who did were the most insufferable of the lot that I couldn’t forget them even if I wanted to. There’s little to no actual blood and gore, and with the very little there was, it was completely wasted in scenes that you can’t see clearly which is a damn shame because one of the kills could have had a decent reveal if it was shot better.

If I had to say just one good thing about the film to be generous, not counting that it had some kind of a reachable end, it was the mediocre soundtrack supplied by the band Voyager. It’s not good at all, but hey, if you like cheesy 80s horror soundtracks, there’s that going for it...I guess. With all that being said, I never want to see this disaster ever again. I’m trying to wrap my head around how people genuinely like this, even in a so bad it’s good type of way, and I just don’t get it. This, for me, is arguably one of the worst horror movies I’ve ever seen, and probably ever will.

RATING: 0.5/10

[wood-warder]

Really Long Character Survey

( @yascaret edited/removed some of the questions to make this more FFXIV-friendly )

RULES.  Repost,  don’t  reblog  ! Tag  10  !  Good  luck!

TAGGED BY. @yascaret and @violet-warder

TAGGING. EVERYONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

BASICS.

FULL  NAME :  Pjel Qoet

NICKNAME :  NO.

AGE :  It’s a mystery!

BIRTHDAY :  Summer

ETHNIC  GROUP :  Viera (Rava)

NATIONALITY :  Ivalician (?)

LANGUAGE / S :  Common

SEXUAL  ORIENTATION :  Homosexual

ROMANTIC  ORIENTATION :  Homoromantic

RELATIONSHIP  STATUS :  Much to her own surprise, she’s [re]entered into a relationship with Lofn Yascaret and Aja Hyskaris

HOME  TOWN / AREA :  Qoet, Golmore

CURRENT  HOME :  A little house in Shirogane, maybe?

PROFESSION :  Dark Knight, monster hunter, adventurer

PHYSICAL.

HAIR :  White with peach undertones, long and thick. Generally straight and kept neatly brushed and parted. On rare occasions, she’ll tie the bulk of it up into an enormous ponytail.

EYES :  Bright copper.

FACE :  Heavy lidded eyes, gently sloped cheeks, and a firm jaw that ends in a rounded point of a chin. Strong expressions are a rare sight as she seems to emote largely with her brows.

LIPS : Full.

COMPLEXION :  Dark, brown-grey. A smudge of a paler shade rings her nostrils and beneath the tip of her nose. Dappled with freckles most prominently across the apples of her cheeks.

BLEMISHES :  None that are visible at least.

SCARS :  Typically hidden. There are a few cuts, gashes, and worse that have left their marks.

TATTOOS :  A small marking on the bridge of her nose, the meaning of which is a mystery.

HEIGHT :   *Tall*.

WEIGHT :  On the heavier side, for Viera, on account of being RIPPED.

BUILD :  Marginally wider set than average for Viera. RIPPED, most notably in her core and upper body.

FEATURES :   Pjel considers herself fairly plain for Viera. A strong nose and thick brows, combined with her general impassiveness, lends herself to looking fairly severe and unfriendly in most instances. Thankfully, she’s fond of wearing a black face plate which cranks that up a few notches further!

ALLERGIES :  None that she’s aware of yet.

USUAL  HAIR  STYLE :  Worn down, long and parted down the middle. More of a mane than a defined style.

USUAL  FACE  LOOK :  Aloof, indifferent, perhaps even bored. In the company of friends, she’s more prone to soft grins that are barely even there.

USUAL  CLOTHING :   Heavy plate and mail in golds, black, and crimson. Loose shirts, preferably with high collars and low necklines. Trousers and heeled boots. Hyur fashions fascinate her but her sense leans towards crisp, utilitarian lines.

PSYCHOLOGY.

FEAR / S :  Nothing. (Except for Garlean war machina, losing herself to Mist frenzy, and failure in general.)

ASPIRATION / S :  To live an honorable life, even if she will not be remembered by her home.

POSITIVE  TRAITS :  Fearless, stalwart, honest.

NEGATIVE  TRAITS :  Reckless, distant, too quick to trust, might have a bit of a martyr complex.

MBTI : ESTJ-A (Executive)

ZODIAC : Virgo

TEMPERAMENT :  Phlegmatic

SOUL  TYPE / S :   Server

ANIMALS :   Lion

VICE HABIT / S :   Brooding, gambling, distancing herself from loved ones (whoops!)

FAITH :  After a fashion, though not in Eorzea’s gods at least

GHOSTS ? :  Yes

AFTERLIFE ? :  Sure

REINCARNATION ? :  One can only hope

ALIENS ? :   ????

POLITICAL ALIGNMENT :  Garlemald bad

EDUCATION  LEVEL :  Enough to get by: basic reading/writing, basic arithmetic.

FAMILY.

FATHER :  Somewhere

MOTHERS :  Pjel has moved past resentment and settled into indifference. She thinks about them still, but not with any fondness.

SIBLINGS :  Many, none of whom she has spoken to in decades.

EXTENDED  FAMILY :  Certainly. When she knew them, she had little involvement in their lives. Now, she has none.

NAME MEANING / S :  Pjel of Qoet. If there is a deeper meaning to her name, it was not shared with her.

HISTORICAL  CONNECTION ? :  She was born there.

FAVORITES.

BOOK :  NO.

DEITY :  She respects the reverence of spirits as they do in Doma, but she is not inclined to worship them.

HOLIDAY :  ????

MONTH :  Summer

SEASON :  Summer

PLACE :  On the road between places, the interludes between one challenge and the next. A busy marketplace. Gardens and woods.

WEATHER :  Bright sunny days. Light summer rains, the kind that get humid and sticky.

SOUND / S:  Rustling grass and leaves. Birdsong. The steady drip or babble of water.

SCENT / S :  Approaching rainfall. Grasses, leaves, and earth. Flowers. Incense.

TASTE / S :  Fresh fish. Grilled meats. Creamy stews full of vegetables and mushrooms. Girlfriends.

FEEL / S :  Polished metal. Hard woods. Tree bark. Fur.

ANIMAL / S :  Cats. Chocobos, to a lesser extent.

NUMBER : What kind of nerd picks favorite numbers (it’s 3)

COLORS :  Greens, browns, blues

EXTRA.

TALENTS :  Cutting things the fuck up, teamwork, assessing threats quickly

BAD  AT :  Thinking things through, seeing the bigger picture, maintaining calm once she’s started to lose her temper, understanding and managing money, seeing through lies

TURN  ONS :  Women, especially the ones who can beat her up. Meaningful stares. Brief touches of skin.

TURN  OFFS :  Flirtatious men, chaotic or evil people, cowards, Garleans

HOBBIES :  Fishing, mending armor and blades, gambling

TROPES :  Lady and the Knight, Blood Knight, Combat Stilettos, Cool Mask, BFS, Emotion Suppression, Rage Breaking Point, Dark-skinned Blonde, Statuesque Stunner, Big Ol’ Eyebrows, You Can’t Go Home Again, The Stoic, Held Gaze...

QUOTES : “Let me make it up to you” is a thing she’s been saying to too many people recently

MUN QUESTIONS.

Q1 :  If you could write your character your way in their own movie,  what would it be called,  what style would it be filmed in, and what would it be about? ��        

A1 :  Some cheesy fantasy/action romp where Pjel not only becomes a renowned knight but also the champion of a beautiful sorceress and the rival/bro of another equally renowned knight. It would be called Final Fantasy 8 and everyone in it is gay.

Q2 :  What would their soundtrack/score sound like?          

A2 :  A lot of ambient sounds with light melodies that ramp up into cool battle themes. Basically a Soulsborne soundtrack.

Q3 :  Why did you start writing this character?          

A3 :   I’ve been dying for a viera character since they were teased at Fanfest 2014, and I have a deep love for the whole [dark] knight aesthetic. It’s helped tremendously that I have some really cool friends to bounce ideas and dumb headcanons off of.

Q4 :   What first attracted you to this character?          

A4 :   Viera + DRK = GOOD SHIT, but I am currently living for the Buny Death Squad

Q5 :  Describe the biggest thing you dislike about your muse.

A5 :  She’s very short sighted and has a pretty black and white view of the world which can lead her to being dismissive towards people or ideas. Writing her has presented its own set of challenges because I try to rely more on body language and things like that. Sometimes I get the message across, sometimes not!

Q6 :  What do you have in common with your muse?          

A6 :  I have no connection to my family and I don’t know how to talk to girls.

Q7 :  How does your muse feel about  you?          

A7 :  I don’t think Pjel would think of me at all because I am a soft, weak human who has nothing to offer to the world.

Q8 :  What characters does your muse have interesting interactions with ?        

A8 :  Lofn and Aja have been wonderful foils and the chemistry they’ve been trying to rediscover has been so interesting to see. Meeting Anchor got off on such an odd foot (I’M SORRY) but I’ve enjoyed the dynamic there and I’m eager to see where their relationship goes. Likewise with Batuhan and Arasen but yall know I’m a sucker for Stoic Cool Warriors and Bastards, respectively. Nabi and Ghoa have been so delightful in their own ways, and I’m curious to see Pjel learn of Ghoa’s more manipulative tendencies... if she does at all, being the big idiot she is.

Q9 :  What gives  you inspiration  to write  your muse ?        

A9 :  Various battle themes, a lot of stuff from like FF8 and FF9. Soulsborne stuff because I’m weak for it. Also reading anything and everything from RP friends!! Cause yall are inspiring!!!!!!!!

Q10 :  How long did this take you to complete ?          

A10 :  The better part of a day off and on! I saved the tropes bit for last cause I knew that was going to take the longest.

[0poole]

Harry Potter!

Finished rewatching all of the movies. I must confess, I am a movie plebian. I haven’t read any of the books yet. Call me when the solar flare that destroys and erases all electronics and data finally comes. I’ll probably be reading it then. Probably.

Anyways, I love what I’ve experienced of the franchise so far regardless. The whole story is so fantastical and fun, interspersed with pretty real dangers that come about through magic. That, I think, is the one thing all kinds of fiction should adhere to: If your world has weird logic, the conflict should be somehow based in that weird logic, instead of being somehow parallel to something more normal/real. That’s probably why people hate the Star Wars prequels; too much politics, not enough lightsabers. 

Seriously, though. Practically all things derived from Harry Potter are great. The movies, the music, ESPECIALLY the video games (or the first three, to be exact.) Also, the one perk of living in Florida is being able to go to the theme park. It’s nice and all seeing a made up setting presented to you on a screen, but to actually be there, walking around the world? It’s nuts. Even the Fantastic Beast series isn’t perfect, but still very alright at worst. I’m really just going to have to piece together my thoughts to organize them all.

The Movies:

They say dumbing down an experience and presenting it to an audience in a neat little package is a bad thing, but really... The movies are extremely good. I do prefer the style of the first two, where everything seemed more light and charming. Of course, it was about the third movie when Harry realized that the world wasn’t as bright and shiny as the first two years led him to believe, so it’s fair his take on things would be altered. I just wish it wasn’t so consistently, you know... dark blue and cloudy. I mean, I get that it’s England and all, but it’s fantasy.

Either way, I guess I’ll have to put all of the emotions that I probably would’ve experienced anyway if I read the books first here. The absolute best part about the series is the characters. I’ve already gushed about how Hagrid is the absolute most wholesome character in all of fiction. Another seriously good one is Mrs. McGonagall, who comes off as the serious, “do your homework!” type at the beginning, but by the end becomes a super charming and genuine person. In the last movie, her line “I’ve always wanted to use that spell!” Is so cute. I mean, you really can’t name a non-charming character in the whole series. The entire Wealsey family is insanely lovable. The Malfoys are supreme assholes at the beginning, but seem to slowly turn for the better as things get super dark. 

Obviously the major deaths are so major because of how much you loved the characters. Dumbledore was definitely the type to realize when he must die, but seeing the serious amount of respect people had for him it just makes you choke up. Dobby’s death destroys anyone with a heart, because he died swinging. Snape as a whole is such an amazing and fun character to just watch exist, despite being so dark and brooding all the time. I’m sure his death the first time around was sort of confusing, until we got to see his memories, at whichpoint you’d be dried up in your seat due to dehydration. I wasn’t exactly emotionally mature when I first saw it so I have no major memory of how I felt, although I definitely feel it now. Considering how pure the Weasley family was, Fred’s death was also super heartbreaking, mainly because the twins were nothing but joy even in the worst of times. Even the brief cut-away to Lupin’s body got you. And, that’s only in the Deathly Hallows movies... What about Sirius? Hell, even seeing Hagrid caring so much for Aragog makes you feel bad. It’s a serious testament to how good these characters are. 

The music has become so impossibly iconic too. That’s what you get when you get John Williams. I’ll tell ya, I couldn’t sing you any non-soundtrack song from the past few years of movies I watched. Sure, the music did them good I guess, but they never felt like actual songs you wanted to listen to. If you played anyone the soundtracks to the first two movies, they could identify what they’re from in the first two notes minimum. It’s so great. I’d kill to have movies do this again. I mean, you can always go for more good music. 

The Games:

The year is, I dunno... any year before like 2010. A kid’s movie comes out, and BANG there’s a game for it. “Oh, I like the movie. Maybe I’ll like the game?” No. No you won’t. That’s not how it works. If you’re lucky you’ll have some nostalgic memories from it, and hell maybe that’s the reason why I think the Harry Potter games are so damn GOOD. 

Seriously, how did this happen? The games (or, as I said, mainly the first three and that Quidditch one) are so fun on their own, regardless of the movies. I have fond memories of the first, but the Chamber of Secrets on PC is where most of my love lies. God, I’ve been listening to the music the whole time while writing this and it’s so perfectly ingrained into my mind. Like the movie, the themes are so wild and singable. Even the fucking GBA game planted its seed into my memory, despite me only getting like 10% of the way through it. It had its own soundtrack apart from the PC games too, and didn’t even try to recreate the music from them. They literally wrote new music for their shitty cashgrab game. It’s so good.

Plus, the games seem to include stuff that wasn’t even hinted at in the movies. Remember when Harry used Spongify to bounce up to different parts of the castle in the movies? Or used Skurge to remove some stray ghostly ectoplasm? No. That’s only in the games. More importantly, can we talk about Quidditch? The game, but also as a whole?

Harry Potter really made me realize that I LOVE fictional sports. Like what I said with the conflict of a fictional story, having a sport built upon the weird logic of a world is just as, if not more, interesting. Even though the rules of Quidditch are absolute BS (seems like nothing but the Snitch matters) just watching it is so fun and interesting. You’d think that brooms would exclusively be transport, but OF COURSE they’d use them for sport at some point. Toss in a few magical balls, and boom--- you’ve got something some wizards would love to watch. The verticality of the field is easily what makes it so much cooler, since it would obviously require so much more space, and to any unaware observer, just seeing the field would show that nothing normal is played there. If they ever release a movie that’s just another generic sports movie with all the expected twists and turns, except the sport in question is Quidditch, I’d watch the shit out of that.

In the meantime, we have a Qudditch video game. Again, another original soundtrack, and apparently an anthem for each world team? God, really? You did all that? Anyway, from what I remember, the game isn’t too hard, but I’ll have to find it again and try to shoot for the big leagues to see if they step it up. About the world teams, though: they’re the absolute best part. You play basically college-level Qudditch against the houses for a while, but then you see how big the game actually is around the world, not only being able to play as a worldly team, but in a worldly stadium as well. Someone had to design a stadium, style, animations... for each team. That’s nuts. 

So much effort was put into the first few Harry Potter games, it’s shocking. Sucks that, as far as I remember, they basically slowly turned into wizard FPSs after that. I kind of remember liking the fourth one a bit, but I’ll need to find it again. I lost that stupid little disc holder thing with all the nostalgia-filled games I loved on it. The day I find it is going to be one hell of a day.

The Wizarding World:

The curse of being so damn amazing is people swarming to it and ruining the experience just by overcrowding. Either way, the place was actually amazing. I’m a sucker for any real-life place that tries to mimic a very fantastical setting. That’s really the reason why I prefer Universal as a whole to Disney, since it feels much more like you’re stepping into a different world. Kind of helps to distract you from the BS prices and tourist pandering. 

I mean, There’s not much to say apart from it looking cool. The rides are good, I guess. It’s weird, when we got there my mom was like “We HAVE to try Butterbeer” and, to be honest, I’m struggling to think of an actual drink more disgusting sounding than “Butterbeer” that isn’t just insect guts or something. I’ve never had the slightest inclination to try normal beer at any point, and I can sure as hell say that suggesting that someone putting butter in it makes it so much worse. I don’t know why, butter and beer just feel like they shouldn’t go together. Hell, maybe they don’t even use butter. I know at Universal, at least, it’s not actual beer, since kids would surely want to try it, but the concept just feels really disgusting.

That rant aside, here’s the valuable knowledge: I’d have to say that I’d be a Hufflepuff. In my more Incel-ular days I thought I’d be a Ravenclaw, since they smart and all, but really I feel more of a Hufflepuff. That’s not even decided by a web quiz. I just think that I’d chose to be a background character above all else. I pretty much am, anyway. Not that that’s bad, I’m just, you know... in the background. Plus, I’m assuming they’re the more artsy of the four houses. Really, I don’t know exactly what it stands for. “Talent?” What the hell is that supposed to mean? 

[deadskepticfiles]

THE DREAMING PROPHET, EPISODE 7: CHOIR CLASS

[PODOMATIC LINK]

Keep quiet - they have ears everywhere, and eyes, too. We know them, but at the same time we don't know them at all. Who are they? They're Many, and yet, One. Talking points: Speak-as-One, SAO & Humanity, The Shape, SAO's relationships with other gods.

Spoiler + Content warning begins at 1:14. Content warnings: General horror, cults, religious symbology, dehumanization, brainwashing, brief mention of suicide.

Cass Marshall's article on Polygon

God Encounter Transcript Master

The Blackout Club Steam store page

The Blackout Club Lexicon, for player/game lingo & terminology

After you review/if you've already reviewed, use #TheDreamingProphet and #TheBlackoutClub to share your favorite TBC memories on Twitter, and read some from other players. We'd like to read some of them in our next show.

Credits:

- lavanya: host, transcript, video editor, asset artist, speak-as-one's #1 fan

- astriferal: host, audio editor, puncher of things

- be11amy: advertising

- xaviul: guest, moral support

- spoderman: publicity, hype squad

- intro & outro music, "ringing bells": a weirdly handsome individual

- transition audio clips, music, voice lines: the blackout club/question games

- weird ambiance: Magmi Soundtracks on freesound (https://freesound.org/people/Magmi.Soundtracks/sounds/475737/)

- the blackout club: question games (https://www.blackoutclubgame.com/)

LAVANYA

[00:00:20]  Good evening, and welcome to our favorite listeners.

 LAVANYA [00:00:22] Tonight we have a very special topic, but first we're going to take a moment to consider our mother-father; our mama-papa; our darling grandma and grandpa. When they say that blood is thicker than water, what they mean is that there's music in your soul, and whether you're speaking with your hands, your tongue, or your pen, everyone is ultimately led by the same song.

 LAVANYA [00:00:43] You can ignore it if you want, but it's in your steps. It's in your breaths. It's in the beat of that mistake we call a heart in our chest. You can ignore it but you can't deny what you are and what you are is one of many.

 LAVANYA [00:00:57] Welcome to our Speak-as-One discussion. My name is Lavanya -.

 ASTRO [00:01:01] And I'm Astro.

 LAVANYA [00:01:02] - and we'll be your hosts for tonight.

 ASTRO [00:01:04] This is a Blackout Club show for Blackout Club players with minimal speculation, all lore and focus on the known facts. Our topic of the day is SAO, a.k.a. Speak-as-One.

 LAVANYA [00:01:14] So in terms of spoilers, just like with the Thee-I-Dare episode, this episode is going to be so fucking chock full of spoilers that if you were allergic. you'd instantly enter anaphylactic shock upon reading this transcript.

 LAVANYA [00:01:26] *Instantly,* dear listeners.

 LAVANYA [00:01:29] But thankfully, you probably are not allergic! And if you are, we are *not* legally liable for that~!

 LAVANYA [00:01:35] So let's keep trucking on.

LAVANYA [00:01:37] So our content warnings are basically - we're discussing a massive fucking cult. So if cults bother you, discussion of religious symbology, all of that that - that's your warning for this episode. As always, there is a general horror themes warning in the discussion of death, and injury to children.

 LAVANYA [00:01:55] But we are dipping into SAO, the best God, tonight, which means we're also dealing with dehumanization and brainwashing. Those are kind of their thing.

 LAVANYA [00:02:05] There will also be a brief mention of suicide!

 ASTRO [00:02:17] And we have a guest tonight. Welcome back, Xaviul!

 ASTRO [00:02:20] Wait, Xaviul, what are you doing here? And where's Lavanya?

 XAVIUL [00:02:26] Lavanya went on a...

 XAVIUL [00:02:27] Trip.

 XAVIUL [00:02:27] But it's fine, cause I'm here, SAO's number one fan. I'm all about that.. uh.

 XAVIUL [00:02:36] Bong!

 LAVANYA [00:02:36] You motherfucker, we didn't give a content warning for drugs on this show. This is a family friendly show! You can't just tranq somebody, and shove them in a closet, and try to take over their spot in an episode. That's *wrong.*

 LAVANYA [00:02:48] That's not *friendship!*

 XAVIUL [00:02:51] Is it possible to build up immunity to large animal tranquilizers..? I was pretty sure you're going to be out for at least a few hours.

 XAVIUL [00:02:58] You know what they say about *ass-umptions*, Xaviul.

 XAVIUL [00:03:01] Anyways, I guess it's going to be a threesome from now on.

ASTRO [00:03:07] Let's start with the basics. What is Speak-as-One?

 XAVIUL [00:03:12] I think you mean, we are Speak-as-One? Just can't, like, depersonalize them like that.

 LAVANYA [00:03:18] [vehement] They're not a person, they're all and -

 XAVIUL [00:03:21] They are many people! Wow! Good thing I'm here to set the facts straight.

 LAVANYA [00:03:27] Okay.

 LAVANYA [00:03:30] Okay, now that we're going to have now that we're going to have the children sit down and take their seats... Speak-as-One is known as frequently in the community as SAO, or by the developer team, as S-A-1.

 LAVANYA [00:03:42] Speak-as-One is the name as the Daimon that occupies a majority of the hosts in Red Acre. It is a reference to the hivemind collective in general, where every participant is basically Speak-as-One, because they are One-of-Many. The way that I like to think of it is fingers dipped into a glass may appear to be individual entities to fish in the water, but anyone above the surface knows that they're all connected to the same hand.

 LAVANYA [00:04:08] Every host is Speak-as-One and Speak-as-One is every host.

 LAVANYA [00:04:14] Even if it doesn't look like it.

LAVANYA [00:04:16] So let's get into all the parts that make up the collective. The first of this is the Voice.

 LAVANYA [00:04:25] So, from what we know, this is always a man and a woman who speak as one. This also possibly could be an enby and a woman, or an enby and a man, or whatever other variation you can think of - but Speak-as-One hasn't gotten back to me on the many phone calls about that yet? So we're not entirely sure.

 LAVANYA [00:04:45] These two individuals are not mentally linked in the traditional hive mind. They are two separate entities who simply choose to work as one, much as the entire CHORUS community. Sleepers lines even note that they argue with each other, which they view as alarming and upsetting: as they say dissonance corrupts the Song.

 XAVIUL [00:05:05] Disharmony in my cult? It's more likely than you think.

 LAVANYA [00:05:09] A possible point of interest is, despite the fact that the voice does consist of two individuals, they are referred to exclusively as they, as if they were one entity. When Speak-as-One was discussing was having what my pronouns may be, they said - do they use they, like the Voice?

 LAVANYA [00:05:29] So that's a little fascinating, when Speak-as-One as the collective uses all pronouns.

 ASTRO [00:05:34] They are obsessed with truth and preservation. What the voice speaks is supposed to be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, according to the Song.

 XAVIUL [00:05:45] So help us gods.

 ASTRO [00:05:47] There is no God in Red Acre.

 LAVANYA [00:05:48] There is only one, it's *fine*.

 ASTRO [00:05:51] The Cryptogram Library is an extensive archive of the old tongue. You can see this in the massive walls of the projector slides, which also appear in the projector mission.

 ASTRO [00:06:01] Each of those wooden cards contains information on a move in the old tongue, and the walls are literally covered with them feeling the floor. We'll talk more about the old tongue in our next few episodes.

 ASTRO [00:06:12] The Voice does not lie but they do hide things from the masses.

 THE VOICE [QUOTE] [00:06:17] Already has distanced himself from the hated terms - I, you, my - words spat across time by the Adversary. This one rejects them. Most attentive. We approve.

 LAVANYA [00:06:46] Speak-as-One has different rules for how you should talk depending on which facet of them that you're speaking to.

 LAVANYA [00:06:51] With the Watchers, they're more lenient. Overall you should always try to avoid I as the forbidden word, but as the Watchers informed me, they don't really care if you slip up. The watchers are your dead relatives, your dead neighbors, dead randos off the street. Maybe they're dead homeless people that they stuffed into the barracks to die! [laughter] They are apparently not personally invested enough not to forgive you for the sin of using a first person pronoun.

 LAVANYA [00:07:15] With that said, that's a grace that's only given to the player characters. Lucids and sleepers treat I as the forbidden word. It increases dissonance in the Song where everything is weak, and sleepers show that they have a slight amount of discomfort or possibly even pain when they're encountering the word I.

 LAVANYA [00:07:33] However, the voice is hard line. As the watchers warned me, the Voice does not accept first person pronouns. The voice wants you to go full fucking khajit here.

 XAVIUL [00:07:43] I don't get your dated references.

 LAVANYA [00:07:45] Technically Skyrim came out last year, and the year before that.

 LAVANYA [00:07:50] And the year before that.

 LAVANYA [00:07:54] So remember kids, when it comes to in-game visits, you're speaking to a Watcher: you can use as many first person pronouns as you want, but when you're doing rituals, you should go ahead and remember you're talking to the Voice. And whereas the Watchers forgive, the Voice does not.

 LAVANYA [00:08:09] Use third person. Go full Khajiti. Do whatever it takes to avoid that watchful eye.

LAVANYA [00:08:14] Immortality is one of the most important things to Speak-as-One. When I say immortality, I don't just mean of the body: I mean of information, of memories. Watchers are what we considered dead; however, Watchers still stay a part of the Song. We don't know exactly how this compares to Thee-I-Dare's fragment, which SAO has recently claimed, are kind of knockoffs, but we know that there are some differences.

 LAVANYA [00:08:41] Thee-I-Dare's fragments are fragments of his personality ensconed in the memories of his host. His host do not survive the fragmentation processm only his memories and his impressions of them do.

 LAVANYA [00:08:54] If it helps, it's easy to think of it as fragments are when you sit down and you armchair, get a drink, and crack open Thee-I-Dare's live journal to read all of his deepest, darkest secrets. Watchers, this on the other hand?

 LAVANYA [00:09:07] That's just dead people. Just dead people, as far as the eye can see, and they are implied to be individuals with their own consciousness that is retained in the Song, with their own memories.

 LAVANYA [00:09:19] This is most evident in the sleepers line where the Sleepers speaks of the father, whose child was possessed with the fear of the night and eventually died, becoming a Watcher. When she died, she assured him that all was well - showing that she still had a bond with her father, even after death, and showing that she remembered her past experiences of being afraid and she was now assuring him that that was over.

 XAVIUL [00:09:42] Bit fucked up if you ask me, but -

 LAVANYA [00:09:44] But Speak-as-One loves family. Familial love and forgiveness is kind of their whole thing.

 XAVIUL [00:09:51] But you wouldn't know about that, would you? Since Laugh-Last kind of went out for milk, and took, what, nine months to come back?

 XAVIUL [00:10:02] [laughter] Wow. Well, really going for the fucking abandoned father jokes today. All right.

 XAVIUL [00:10:07] Becoming a watcher is frequently the fate of the dead SAOites. But we don't know if it's the fate of all SAOites. I mean, who would want Lavanya in the Song?

 LAVANYA [00:10:19] Wow! I have perfect pitch. I mean, I don't know what pitch is, but I'm pretty sure mine is perfect.

 XAVIUL [00:10:28] Moving on --.

 XAVIUL [00:10:28] SAO wants all of humanity in the Song. It views it as a tragedy when they will not join. The same applies to Daimons - but not all Daimons, hashtag not all Daimons.

 XAVIUL [00:10:41] Hashtag: TID's, do not interact.

 LAVANYA [00:10:45] [laughter] Oh fuck.

 SLEEPER [QUOTE] [00:10:47] Such new things she will learn..

 ASTRO [00:10:51] Underneath everything they do, SAO has an inherent curiosity.

 ASTRO [00:10:55] They want to learn and share the information they learn with the Song. They chronicle their own history and the history of other Daimons, and other humans for eternity, sharing it within their hive mind, and they want to know more about where they came from.

LAVANYA [00:11:11] So you might be asking yourself right now what is the Song? The answer to that question is who the fuck knows?

 THE VOICE [QUOTE] [00:11:18] The Song is salvation. War, famine, strife.. all will end. All will Speak as One.

 LAVANYA [00:11:37] Personally, I've heard a lot of conspiracy theories about what the Song as Astro can attest during my late night ramblings - and by late night, I mean 9 p.m. - [laughter]

 LAVANYA [00:11:52] Luckily, we have kind developers who are willing to clarify things and get us away from our corkboard full of strings. Null said in a quote from the discord that:.

 [00:12:04] "Speak-as-One uses the Song to describe his own traditional connected host pattern of behavior, keeping the host unconscious as much as possible, because of the toxin of self-interest. But it doesn't own the old tongue itself. It can't really, because it emerged from that when identity was not yet a thing."

 ASTRO [00:12:25] So, to summarize: the Song is comprised of hosts, past and present, who communicate with each other via ritualized music sound and dance. To be part of the Song, you have to be asleep. This is how the Song remains pure while asleep. You can't be tempted by other Daimons.

 ASTRO [00:12:41] This is why when you're shaped, the Shape is returning you to the Song. Watchers like to complain frequently about the inaccuracy and inadequacy of the Word. They can't express themselves like they do in the Song, which is frustrating, but they also need to speak to us in a way that we understand.

 LAVANYA [00:12:57] Unfortunately, the Song is difficult for humans to hear now. They rely on the Instrument to amplify it, and the Voice to interpret it for those that can't fully understand. Speak-as-One mentions in a God talk that there is a level of natural aptitude that they seek out in children. This could be linked in with how they train sleepers - hosts conditioning is made to sort out which sleepers can do what, and which are suitable to use as workers jobs.

 LAVANYA [00:13:19] It's up for grabs if no sleepers left behind is a theme for us, but we've got to get batteries somewhere, right? Some sleepers get trained, some get picked up and gently dipped down into the gas tubes of Somniliquoy in order to listen for the unseen, sleeping God.

 XAVIUL [00:13:38] The Song is truth, but not the full truth. In Madi-Shaw Log 1 in the journals, there is a quote: "we advise ending this recording, dismissing the Chordist performing. The Song is truth. But one must give a thought to - to harmony?".

 XAVIUL [00:13:55] In a conversation, the Watchers note that the Voice will not allow information to be encoded, which scares them.

 LAVANYA [00:14:02] The history of SAO is pretty fucking fascinating, because we have a Voice right now and per the lucid lines, we've had a voice back in the 90s. But we don't actually know a lot about the history of CHORUS, or the precursor organizations of it, but instead we know a little bit about SAO.

 LAVANYA [00:14:20] SAO is one of the earliest voices that we know exist, if not the earliest. The first voice is the progenitor of SAO that they're searching for, as TMC mentioned in a dream and has been mentioned in God talks. We know nothing about them unfortunately, but neither does SAO.

 LAVANYA [00:14:40] What we do know is that they are located beneath slow wave sleep, and the experiments that SAO performs in the Somniliquoys with the sleepers, which sometimes involve full submersion into the freaky ass gas, are all aimed towards finding this first Voice.

 ASTRO [QUOTING] [00:14:56] SAO has said your kind were primates, yes? Apes, barely upright nomadic. Some came upon this valley. Even animals may dream. Here, their dreams intensify.

 LAVANYA [00:15:08] SAO refers to humanity semi-frequently as upright apes. You've probably heard this in the sleepers lines in one particular God talk. They state that they discovered humanity back when they were still apes, barely upright and still nomadic. SAO guided these early primates in a symbiotic relationship. They state that they were not fully sentient at that point in time.

 ASTRO [QUOTING] [00:15:31] "This valley was fertile. When the adversary ruined you, some of our kind entered the caves, drew pictures of what we were."

 LAVANYA [00:15:41] SAO has detailed some of their own history in the past in various God talks. What we've learned is that SAO does not know precisely their own origin. They refer to themselves, early on in their past, as being "a pattern, repeating, improving". SAO, as the first voice, we know separated from the old tongue, which is the pattern mentioned, due to the growth of flocking and eusocial behavior in pre conscious humans.

 LAVANYA [00:16:05] So basically, humanity, which at that point would probably there have been Homo habilis or one of the other early precursors of near humans, as they developed social behaviors and began cooperating with one another in forming early tribes - *that* is what eventually evolved into creating SAO. SAO is literally the Daimon of community.

 LAVANYA [00:16:27] Even if sometimes it's a little bit of a xenophobic community.

 XAVIUL [00:16:29] You're either with them or you're against them.

 LAVANYA [00:16:33] While a lot of the Daimons have a bad tendency of lying or distorting stories in order to make themselves sound better, SAO's origin story has actually been further confirmed by TMC, who stated in a private dream that "we were one voice, one species, live host - highly intelligent, but not awake, clustering in caves. A kind of neural dance passed over the area of bodies in great waves, a rapture of connectivity, even death, the tribe's memories would persist.".

 LAVANYA [00:17:05] So, in the beginning, that was SAO, long before anyone had actual words to describe what they were. This rapture of connectivity, as TMC describes it - this happened in numerous places across the world as humanity gained consciousness and self-confidence, naturally, as a species. When the Word was introduced by Thee-I-Dare, humanity split and SAO states some of them fled into caves to leave monuments behind of the Old Tongue. SAO calls this a sacred place. It's from this place that they get their symbol, which is two stones, side by side. We do not know exactly where this place was. They insinuated that it might be Red Acre, but they also insinuated that it could be anywhere.

 ASTRO [00:17:47] More on this after a word from our sponsors.

 BELLAMY [00:17:53] Are you having trouble with your phone? Are you receiving an excessive number of crank calls distracting you, all hours of the night?

 Are you even finding yourself needing to ask the local teens for technical assistance? Well, boy, do I have a deal for you install our state of the art CHORUS antivirus system onto your device. I never suffered sudden disconnects or impromptu wake up calls ever again.

Even better, we trace back the calls to find out and block the perpetrators! Those pesky hackers won't know what hit them. Install CHORUS firewall today.

 LAVANYA [00:18:27] So, after that lovely commercial break, we're back to the most important thing of the day: SAO! So buckle in your seats, kids, we're back to the cult.

 ASTRO [00:18:38] How do we change the channel again..?

 LAVANYA [00:18:41] You don't. You don't! I put on the child locks, so sit down and eat your pudding.

 XAVIUL [00:18:46] Can I unplug the TV..?

 LAVANYA [00:18:49] No!

 LAVANYA [00:18:49] Modern humanity and SAO is kind of what's going on in the game right now. Red Acre is a perfect example of it. Red Acre is SAO, just like CHORUS is SAO. All of the are involved with CHORUS, and with the cult, whether o not they know it. As Sleepers, as Lucids, as unwilling battery farms - because that's what the In-Her-Teeth claims.

 IN-HER-TEETH [QUOTING] [00:19:11] "I requested to be able to how I will die." So, what I forsee right now, is that you won't even be allowed to die.

 LAVANYA [00:19:51] In-Her-Teeth states that Speak-as-One uses human bodies as a battery farm for the memories of the rest of the collective. The exact meaning of this is of little unclear - biologically, emotionally, spiritually, she doesn't get in detail.

 XAVIUL [00:20:11] What do you mean? I love being backup storage.

 LAVANYA [00:20:15] The Matrix taught me that it is very cool, Xaviul.

 LAVANYA [00:20:18] But we do get a hint of a potential meaning in the Leviathan text, and in the kids text upon entering the maze. And in the Lucid lines.

 [00:20:25] Memories merge, are lost and are gained while in the Song, and going through the red doors. For instance, the player characters have seen the maze before, but not in their memories. "I've seen this before in dreams, but not mine" is a line that your child may say, while descending into the maze.

 IN-HER-TEETH [QUOTING] [00:20:46] The breeders who run this town aren't interested in life as you define it. Or even the death with dignity. You want your body functioning as storage space for their own bodies. Which is to say --

 LAVANYA [00:21:06] An interesting thing to note here is that a point has been made that the adults of Red Acre are in the town willingly. Either they agree with the morals of the town, in the overall sense of community, the exclusion of outsiders, all of that - that underpins course as an organization, or else they're in at full salee because they just fucking *love* cults.

 LAVANYA [00:21:27] But, either way,there is a certain amount of informed consent on the part of the adult. They may not necessarily know that every night, they're being body jacked to go to hard physical labor, or to hunt in the maze before they go to their office job, but they are choosing to be in the town and to participate in the community.

 LAVANYA [00:21:47] It's partial consent, even if it's not full consent, which makes it a little bit interesting in that SAO states in their various God talks that consent is a lie and choice is a deception slash poison.

 LAVANYA [00:22:00] This makes sense in terms of the children of the town being forced into their parents choices into joining the cult - or being used by the cult in terms of the body jacking - but it doesn't make too much sense when SAO exists in Red Acre and does not try to extend past it.

 LAVANYA [00:22:17] Yet, at least.

 LAVANYA [00:22:21] What's fascinating about Speak-as-One history is that it is a perfect example in some ways of the difficulty of collating the Blackout Club lore, especially when it relates to the Daimons.

 LAVANYA [00:22:30] Because the problem, of course, is that all of our references, all of our sources, do not come from, say, journals in game that we can rely on to have some form of authority behind them, but instead, we're getting it directly from the horse's mouth constantly. And sometimes, like all disgusting ungulates, the horse lies.

 ASTRO [00:22:52] This becomes more interesting when you consider the other adults that go missing in Red Acre. When a player questioned Thee-I-Dare about a fragment in the barracks, Thee-I-Dare told us a story about Yutiz,  a homeless man who lived there under the care of Speak-as-One.

 ASTRO [00:23:08] Thee-I-Dare told us that homeless people live in the barracks and we aren't sure if this is the whole population of the barracks, or just a part of it. But we do know that taking in homeless people is a pattern for SAO. The barracks have also been described as a place where the sleepers who never leave the maze stay when their bodies need to rest.

 ASTRO [00:23:27] This brings us to the final arm of SAO's reach, which is the Shape. before we begin I want to emphasize the Shape is scary because it's unknown.

 ASTRO [00:23:38] As a result, the information we have is pretty scarce. But this is intentional. Even the Daimons don't know totally what it is, but if we knew what it was and if we knew what to call it, it wouldn't be scary anymore - and we need to remember this is a horror game.

 ASTRO [00:23:52] With that said, here's what we do know. The first is that Speak-as-One created the Shape.

 THE-MEASURE-CUTS [QUOTING]: “Who is really the shadow, or the angel?” A creation of my progenitors that your kind mistook for a winged being. The truth, as ever, is much worse.

 LAVANYA [00:24:19] SAO describes the Shape as merciful and calls it the angel.

 THE VOICE [QUOTE] [00:24:23] We wish to save you from this lonely waking nightmare you call life without the Song. The Angel is our hand, and it will end a life only when mercy has been proven fruitless.

 LAVANYA [00:24:40] Presumably, this is because of its physical characteristics, but we're not exactly sure.

 XAVIUL [00:24:45] It has a physical form, and it can be foamed, and it must open doors to pass through them.

 ASTRO [00:24:53] The Shape can be changed by changes to the Song. If the Song reports more sin in one playerm other than the one that the Shape is targeting, he will switch targets. Additionally, upon completion of the instrument damper mission, he can lose his target completely. He will still wander the maze, but he won't know who to target.

 LAVANYA [00:25:12] While he has a physical form, he is also linked explicitly to sound - not just in the Song, but overall. Beckoning causes a cacophony of human whispers, which increase constantly as you are shaped.

 LAVANYA [00:25:25] The words almost make sense, the closer you are to joining the Song, but they'll never fully make sense, and the sound is a little similar to what you can hear in Nerve Center if you stand on top of the resonator.

 LAVANYA [00:25:46] When you are shaped, it produces a loud siren as the noise that slowly gains in volume as you are put to sleep. While the Shape is on you, period, other sound around you is slowed and distorted. This is most evident in the sin wires, and it's not clear if this affects all sounds, like the ambience. But it does affect some of them.

 ASTRO [00:26:12] If he wanted to put us to sleep you should look into those sleep aid C.D.S, like wave sounds, come on.

 LAVANYA [00:26:17]  it's like it doesn't even know its job! It could do sleep soundwaves, it could do the brown note, there's a lot of things that he could do instead of screaming at us.

 XAVIUL [00:26:26] Sleep AMSR!

 LAVANYA [00:26:28] Shape sleep ASMR! When can we buy it?

 ASTRO [00:26:31] Being near the Shape produces visible noise similar to TV static.

 XAVIUL [00:26:37] If he can't find his target, he'll grow wings and change, which increases his physical abilities.

 ASTRO [00:26:43] He gets the jumps.

 XAVIUL [00:26:45] Doesn't he also see in the dark?

 LAVANYA [00:26:46] Yes, he does.

 XAVIUL [00:26:47] Slaps on those fucking night vision goggles. Watch out!

 LAVANYA [00:26:50] And to backtrack, despite having a physical form, despite somehow being linked into the Song, despite the fact he's an eldritch abomination and part of the game right now is focused heavily on exactly how you kill those off, we have it firmly established you cannot kill the Shape.

 LAVANYA [00:27:10] The Shape is here to stay, baby.

 THE-MEASURE-CUTS [QUOTING] [00:27:13] “I want to kill the Shape.” I have been working on the same thing. I do not believe it can be killed in the way that you mean. It has always been here. If its body dies, then somehow it persists, whether it has multiple hosts as we did or… or something that defies the law of reason. I sincerely hope it is not the latter.

 XAVIUL [00:27:44] And of course we can't go without talking about SAO and their relationships with the other voices. So we'll start off with the former BFF for life.

 LAVANYA [00:27:57] TMC and SAO used to be tight as fuck, probably to the extent of exchanging friendship bracelets, if SAO was capable of revealing any of the other Daimons as individual entities that deserved friendship.

 LAVANYA [00:28:11] In the past, The-Measure-Cuts and SAO worked together actively, back when TMC was being viewed by society as a forge goddess. We don't know the exact context behind that, but we do know that basically TMC was in with the management at that point. But he isn't right now!

 LAVANYA [00:28:27] We know that SAO is, per the other Daimons, the creator of Red Acre - or at least perceived as such. However, The-Measure-Cuts feels a certain amount of ownership over the town for whatever reason. He states that "I am running a controlled experiment and you are the subject" to one of the player characters.

 ASTRO [00:28:46] The-Measure-Cuts said he tried to remain neutral when Thee-I-Dare was shattered. He's directed players to help Thee-I-Dare before, But he did let TID's get murdered.

 THE-MEASURE-CUTS [QUOTING]: I have a sibling.  Some once called him, THEE-I-DARE.  You could be of concrete and immediate use to him, if you value truth more than life or time.

 ASTRO [00:29:15] The-Measure-Cuts seems ambivalent on actually working against Thee-I-Dare, though he doesn't seem to want to help out SAO's plan either.

 THE-MEASURE-CUTS [QUOTING] [00:29:22] "Our progenitor is an entity who's name I will not speak."

 ASTRO [00:29:22] Names gives power. The-Measure-Cuts is choosing not to give SAO more power.

 LAVANYA [00:29:34] Because he's *disloyal.(

 LAVANYA [00:29:36] The thing about it is does SAO acknowledge that TMC is a completely different person and not just a naugty little body part that got cut off? No.

 LAVANYA [00:29:45] But SAO still wants him to come back. SAO wants to reclaim TMC, referring to him as the Scholar. So while TMC is being a little bit of a dick, refusing to giv SAO power by saying their name, refusing to help them actually finally drop the hammer on Thee-I-Dare, refusing to let Red Acre exist without trying to poke the children with syringes -.

 LAVANYA [00:30:11] Ultimately SAO does forgive!

 XAVIUL [00:30:15] It's kinda like when you bite your tongue on accident. You don't get angry at your teeth for it.

 XAVIUL [00:30:20] Exactly. Exactly! Spit out the blood and move on.

 XAVIUL [00:30:24] Speaking of teeth.

 ASTRO [00:30:28] [laughter] So what about In-Her-Teeth?

 XAVIUL [00:30:30] Well, she likes to call SAO brother, while other voices have their own kind of flavors of words to describe them, like The-Measure-Cuts calls them progenitor, Dance-for-Us calls them parent - In-Her-Teeth is more of a familial sense and In-Her-Teeth is also in the past referred to SAO as those that bore me.

 XAVIUL [00:30:55] Family trees. Are they real? More at eight.

 ASTRO [00:30:56] In-her-Teeth has also referred to SAO as the "Breeders."

 LAVANYA [00:31:02] It's a nasty term, but that we found out in a private dream from In-Her-Teeth recently, that she actually runs r/childfree.

 LAVANYA [00:31:12] After all, what is banning, but the little death?

 LAVANYA [00:31:15] Lavanya, we promise not to lie on this show.

 XAVIUL [00:31:18] We did?

 LAVANYA [00:31:21] Boo!

 XAVIUL [00:31:22] In-Her-Teeth thinks all the Daimons have lived too long and wants to find a way for them to die, but specifically targets SAO.

 IN-HER-TEETH [QUOTING] [00:31:34] I do need hosts to retake Redacre and annihilate the so-called “sleeping god”…

 LAVANYA [00:31:37] This is an interesting contrast to the fact SAO's entire thing is conditional immortality, which probably plays into the fact SAO calls her death fetishist.

 LAVANYA [00:31:46] Familial love, y'all~

 ASTRO [00:31:49] So what about Laugh-Last?

 LAVANYA [00:31:51] Laugh-Last calls essay management.

 XAVIUL [00:31:54] I mean it's what they are.

 LAVANYA [00:31:57] If SAO is management, does that mean that Laugh-Last is the unpaid intern, that they keep taking his card, but he keeps following other people into the building anyway?

 XAVIUL [00:32:05] I'm too young to understand this reference.

 LAVANYA [00:32:07] [laughter]

 XAVIUL [00:32:07] Laugh-Last believes that if SAO has their way, Red Acre will be ~*THE WORST*~. So we have to do everything we can to fight the power! Laugh-Last claims that being serious is death. SAO doesn't want any fun, any laughs, so you can see why there might be friction there.

 LAVANYA [00:32:26] SAO  doesn't actually want anything to do with Laugh-Last.

 LAVANYA [00:32:29] At this point in time, they call him The Fool and they say that it's in his nature to stand apart, and to look for humor at the group's expense. Which is pretty much opposite of anything that SAO wants to deal with, wants to see, or wants to have anywhere near their delicate, delicate meat husks.

 LAVANYA [00:32:46] No anvils, no pianos.

 XAVIUL [00:32:47] No taste -.

 LAVANYA [00:32:47] None of that. So Dance-for-Us. She's an interesting case in that I assumed, personally speaking, that SAO would just fucking *love* her. However, it turns out in a rare instance - once in a lifetime experience - I was wrong.

 XAVIUL [00:33:04]  [laughter]

 ASTRO [00:33:06] She doesn't like SAO, and the feeling is mutual. SAO has said about her: she corrupts physical meaning, and said the Dancer is consumed by vice.

 ASTRO [00:33:15] They say that she is irredeemable: unlike the Scholar, she can't be brought back to the Song. Her followers are encouraged to sing and dance for fun, the way they want to. This is very different from the tradition SAO preserves, which is one of joint dance, done in sync.

 LAVANYA [00:33:30] It's kind of like when somebody burst into your beautiful studio performance of the Black Swan, and starts drop-pop-n-locking and right in the center of the stage.

 XAVIUL [00:33:38] I'd watch it.

 LAVANYA [00:33:40] [vehement] You unplug the TV!

 ASTRO [00:33:43] And last, but not least, Thee-I-Dare. Naturally, he's not a fan of SAO.

 ASTRO [00:33:48] He opposed Speak-as-One in early human history: the creation of the word, causing the creation of identity and the creation of individualism.

 XAVIUL [00:33:56] Now thinks that all Daimons must die, apparently?

 LAVANYA [00:33:59] He's still trying to oppose SAO, even though we know where that got him before. And you know SAO still wants to wipe him off the face of the earth.

 XAVIUL [00:34:09] Nothing personal, though~.

 LAVANYA [00:34:10] It's just cleaning~.

 XAVIUL [00:34:11] Gotta get rid of the trash!

 ASTRO [00:34:13] One final note. One of the newest gods, Seed-the-Grudge has a very specific and very deliberate relationship with SAO.

 LAVANYA [00:34:22] She states that if you want to contact her, you have to send a prayer off to Speak-as-One, and say her name at the beginning of it.

 ASTRO [00:34:29] Where the other gods feared to speak their name, Seed-the-Grudge shows no such fear. She wants SAO to know that she's here..

 ASTRO [00:34:37] And she's using us to do it.

ASTRO [00:34:43] We'd like to think Cass Marshall from Polygon. She writes about game communities and her articles are always a treat to read. She's written a couple articles about the Sea of Thieves community, and her shenanigans in it all are a wonderful read.

 ASTRO [00:34:56] In our description, we're putting a link to a recent article she made, entitled "A HORROR GAME: Where the Devs Spook You Out in Real Time". This is an article that she made in conjunction with Xaviul.

 XAVIUL [00:35:07] Yes! It was so much fun, it was kind of nerve racking, but I had a great time creeping around Red Acre with her.

 ASTRO [00:35:16] She stealthed this article passed us and released it while I was editing Episode 6, so we didn't get to thank her then, but we're thanking her this time. So thank you, Cass Marshall.

 ASTRO [00:35:24] Spoderman, who has been a previous guest on this show, has made a transcript master doc. If you have transcripts or video links, please send them to him. We're trying to compile as much information as we can to help everyone in the club. More information on that is on the doc, which you can find at http://tinyurl.com/tbctranscripts.

 ASTRO [00:35:44] That's all lowercase TBC transcripts. We'll be leaving another link to that in our episode description as well.

  ASTRO [00:35:50] And finally, if you enjoy the Blackout Club, please leave a review of the game, especially on Steam.

  ASTRO [00:35:56] If you already have, that's wonderful. If you haven't, take an opportunity to go do that! We'll be linking the store page in the descriptionn, just make it a little easier for you.

  ASTRO [00:36:05] After you've left the review, use #thedreamingprophet and #theblackoutclub on Twitter to share your favorite Blackout Club memories. We'll read some of them out on the closer of our next show.

  ASTRO [00:36:15] The Blackout Club is made by Question Games. Our advertising director is Bellamy. Our transcript and video is by Lavanya. Audio editing is by me, Astro. Our hype squad is Spider-Man. Xaviul cooks three minute eggs for two minutes.

[divine-identite]

RULES. repost, don’t reblog. tag ten. TAGGED. @thegreatunxter  thank you Lari :) TAGGING. anyone else who wants to do this.

BASICS.

FULL  NAME.   Paddra-Ballad Caius, Caius Ballad NICKNAME.   none AGE.   2,000+ BIRTHDAY.   December 27th  ♑  Capricorn ♑ (Capricorn Sun / Scorpio moon) ETHNIC GROUP.   Indigenous/Aborginals/Paddran NATIONALITY.   Pulsian LANGUAGE / S. canon: Pulsian  ;New World: French, Italian, Russian God of Death: Nigh-omniscience  SEXUAL ORIENTATION.   Heterosexual  ROMANTIC ORIENTATION.   Demiromantic RELATIONSHIP STATUS. Single (canon) / in a relationship (AU) CLASS.  N/A HOME TOWN / AREA.   Paddra CURRENT HOME.   The New Unseen Realm PROFESSION.   Seeress’s Guardian, God of Death

PHYSICAL.

HAIR.  Long purple hair, goes down to her mid-back. Smooth with light purple tufts of hair. EYES.  a vivid purple, almond-shaped. His eyes are normally sharp, stern, and intense usually some moments, which may intimidate some people who see them NOSE.  Wide bridge but slender nostrils it's also tall and straight  FACE. His face is kinda of square, prominent, strong jaw, open forehead, and subtle high cheekbones. LIPS. Full lips, the bottom is a bit more full COMPLEXION.  tanned - earth tones mostly, smooth, and soft with some weathering. BLEMISHES. He has freckles when looked upon closely have lightened up over the years but are distinguishable under a keen eye SCARS.  A few but they have faded possible or just non-existent due to the nature of the heart of chaos. TATTOOS. N/A HEIGHT.   6′4″ WEIGHT. 197 lbs BUILD.   Athletic, slender FEATURES. My seem imposing, vivid purple hair  ALLERGIES. N/A USUAL HAIR STYLE. Usually let down, held in place by his headband a large sweeping bang from the left. USUAL FACE LOOK.   Stern, unmoved and confident, even seen smirking arrogantly. While it’s not rare nor is it a common occurence, her features tends to soften up when he’s around people such as Yeul USUAL CLOTHING.  Armour made by Etro reverence of Bahamut

PSYCHOLOGY.

FEAR / S.  Failure, in the past many perhaps not being personal worth. ASPIRATION / S.  To end his and her suffering and free themselves from this accursed torment given by the Goddess Etro POSITIVE TRAITS.  Determined, Persistent, Dutiful, Practical, Wise,  NEGATIVE TRAITS.  Apathetic/Callous, Dogged, Blunt, Manipulative, Merciless, Cruel, Nonsense, Dogged MBTI.   LOGISTICIAN (ISTJ-A) ZODIAC.   Capricorn TEMPEREMENT.   Phlegmatic/ Choleric SOUL TYPE / S.  Hunter/ Caregiver ANIMALS.   Sable VICE HABIT / S.  N/A FAITH.  Agnostic GHOSTS? Yes AFTERLIFE? Yes REINCARNATION? He has none ALIENS? No. POLITICAL ALIGNMENT.  N/A  ECONOMIC PREFERENCE. N/A SOCIOPOLITICAL POSITION. EDUCATION LEVEL.  Home-schooled 

FAMILY.

FATHER.  N/A MOTHER. N/A SIBLINGS.  N/A EXTENDED  FAMILY.  N/A NAME MEANING / S.   Caius is classical and serious but also has a simple, joyful quality. There was a third century pope named Caius, as well as an early Christian writer, several Shakespearean characters, and a Twilight vampire. We would pronounce the name to rhyme with eye-us though at Cambridge University in England, where it's the name of a college, it's pronounced keys. Caius is currently Number 164 on Nameberry. 

HISTORICAL CONNECTION ?  N/A

FAVOURITES.

BOOK. N/A MOVIE. N/A 5 SONGS.  “ Heavy” - Florence + The Machine, “Caius Theme” - Final Fantasy XIII-2  “Oblivion“ - Bastille Sun and Steel” - Audiomachine “ Dawn ” - Skyrim DEITY.  N/A HOLIDAY.  N/A MONTH.  November, December SEASON.  Fall, Winter PLACE.  Paddra WEATHER. Fair temperatures, little  humidity, weather with slight forecast SOUND. Rainfall, night-time cricket ambience, the night, THE QUIET SCENT / S. like night, like fresh after a rain storm night. Coupled with a bit of sea water, jasmine, metal and earthy tones.  TASTE / S. Salt, Honey FEEL / S.  Leather, animal hide, scales ANIMAL / S.  Bahamut NUMBER.  N/A COLOUR. Green

EXTRA.

TALENTS.  Piano, creating metal sculpture art BAD  AT.  Critical, Self-Expressing, Fastidious, Judgemental, Conservative, Apathetic TURN  ONS.  An interesting personality, a good rival, determination, passion, being vigilant and perhaps just someone battling the odds.  TURN  OFFS.  Ignorance, constant nonsense, terrible personality, invading personal space, Weakness HOBBIES. Reading, taking long walks, training, stargazing TROPES. Papa Wolf: Seriously, do not mess with Yeul when he's around. That includes you, universe and you too, Etro. AESTHETIC  TAGS.   Moon, rain, mountains, forests, charcoal, feathers, leather, time, Fog GPOY  QUOTES.  “ Forever isn’t bright; it isn’t like that. Forever is cold and hard and final. .” - Deathless, Catherynne M. Valente

FC INFO.

MAIN  FC / S. N/A ALT  FC / S.  N/A OLDER  FC / S.  N/A YOUNGER  FC / S. N/A VOICE  CLAIM / S. Liam’ O Bren

MUN QUESTIONS.

Q1.   if you could write your character your way in their own movie, what would it be called, what style would it be filmed in, and what would it be about?  A1.  Walk to Oblvion - that explores the boundaries of morality between what is typically good and evil, and understand what is truly human in character in our core. I think perhaps a western movie or a high fantasy movie which Caius cause’s destruction for a greater purpose.

Q2.   what would their soundtrack / score sound like? A2.   Oh, boy I say Dawn - Jeremy Soule, Skyrim. 

Q3.   why did you start writing this character? A3.    From long story to short, it started when I was in yoga class when Book 4 was still airing. My muse for her came out of nowhere and I told myself the feeling is going to go away, but that night…I ended up making a blog for her. And here I am now.

Q4.   what first attracted you to this character? A4. Oh boy, this is a long explanation you’re demanding from me lol but I’ll bite. Well to star,t I picked up Caius out of curiosity and perhaps chance, I originally wanted to do Noctis - but Tumblr was so oversaturated with Noctis that I didn't want to be a clone. So, I had to go through the “fishing for a muse” phase.  I roleplayed a bit as Riku from KH , Kefka from FF6 and thus Caius. Now I chose Caius because from what I was told usually people pick him up and drop him like a dime - it sounded like a role I could take to see how it went since he was my first villain (at that point was a bit insecure at the time  ) At first, I was unsure if I would be good with him when I went on a massive study on him, he was this compelling villain and seem always to have a recognisable appearance which i was worried I would not master or convey into my other rps. Later,  I learned he was the most human of all final fantasy characters out there; with him wanting to destroy time for just one person, which other final fantasy 13 character such as Lightning, Fang wanted cocoon destroyed just to save those they loved and that kind of drew in more the more I realised it; the whole grey spectrum and his personality I could just connect with it off the bat ( I don’t know something about stoic attitude that always kinda makes me want to roleplay them so well and it always works for me, funny as it was since I used to RP Cloud Strife back on myspace). Though I think me and Caius have many differences we do have many similarities which made me fancy the character and got me to portray him to this level where. It’s perhaps easy to know  So, I guess you can say I roleplayed him as a mistake?

Q5.   describe the biggest thing you dislike about your muse. A5.  Being cryptic and generally just being callous so many things that some people would be, pretty much an asshole to people and his unfiltered honesty. Not being expressive

Q6.   what do you have in common with your muse? A6.   quite blunt lol and down to earth actually, i guess being practical at least.

Q7.   how does your muse feel about you? A7.  cool dood just needs to lighten the fuck up sometimes and be less blunt and callous, he would make a lot of friends if he did that.

Q8.   what characters does your muse have interesting interactions with? A8.   Kuvira (Avatar. Legend of Korra), Alex Benedetto (Gangsta), i think mostly Moana (Disney’s Moana), Fang ( Final Fantasy XIII trilogy), Kuja (Final Fantasy IX)

Q9.   what gives you the inspiration to write your muse? A9.  SE not fleshing out Caius, a lot of gothic horror pieces of literature, Lovecraft and Poe to flesh out his emotional states in some of my rps and what not. To expound upon such an amazing character is an honour and give my perspective on certain events, ones even sensitive, that have shaped his bleak future which he woefully remembers most of his life.

Q10. how long did this take you to complete?

Like a week lol because I was so on and off and doing multiple things

[exspirarchived]

really  LONG  CHARACTER  SURVEY.    RULES.  repost ,   don’t  reblog  !    tag  10  ! good  luck  !    TAGGED. stole it from God knows who.    TAGGING. @theplaguelord @l-promised-him @thesealovesme @leo-xor @shxmanisms @prcmaturedeath @crownofstormwind @blackenedfangs @motherswrath @renuntiatum @vxncleef

BASICS.

FULL  NAME :   Zoen Mith Menethil. NICKNAME :   Zoey, Isdiearore, Frost Wyrm, Queen, Wraith. TITLE :   Deathlord of the Ebon Blade (formerly a mere Knight); the Wraith; Lord Mith; Lady Menethil (which she does not like); Kingslayer; Kinslayer. AGE :   22 as of Legion. BIRTHDAY :   July 14. ETHNIC  GROUP :   Undead, formerly human of Lordaeron. NATIONALITY :    Alliance, Acherus, Undead Scourge. LANGUAGE / S :   Common, Eredun, the Language of Death. SEXUAL  ORIENTATION :   Asexual. ROMANTIC  ORIENTATION :   Painfully romantic, she wears her heart on her sleeve. RELATIONSHIP  STATUS :   ??? HOME  TOWN / AREA :   Capital City, Lordaeron. CURRENT  HOME :   Acherus: The Ebon Hold; an apartment overlooking the Stormwind Harbor. PROFESSION :  Deathlord of the Ebon Blade, adventurer, mercenary, thief, assassin, advisor, brawler.

PHYSICAL.

HAIR :   Short, white spikes that fall as a cascade of icicles, basically like L from Death Note except bleached. EYES :   Smoking, glowing, lichfire blue. (For those unfamiliar with WoW and death knight eyes, here is what they look like: here, here, here.) FACE :   Heart-shaped. LIPS :   Grey and somewhat thin for her face. COMPLEXION :   Not bad for someone who’s been dead for around five years.  BLEMISHES :   None that I’m not going to talk about below. SCARS :   Many, though her most noticeable and notorious would be the four long, deep, ragged lines that run down her left cheek, starting just shy of her ear and tapering off near her chin. Hidden beneath clothing, on her back, runs the scar of the wound that initially killed her, a deep cut that starts at her left shoulder and runs down to her right hip. TATTOOS :   Due to her desire to become stronger, Zoen and a few trusted individuals carved her up a lot with a bunch of experimental runic tattooing that supposedly augments her power over Shadow and Unholy. See here for a more in-depth talk about their placement and design. (Although it’s not much depth, mind.) HEIGHT :   6′4″ before you factor in her ridiculous hair. WEIGHT :   Unknown. While she is not exactly light considering her significant height and wiry musculature, she is neither exactly heavy.  BUILD :   Ectomorph, for sure. FEATURES :   Zoen has a very hungry, predatory look to her, which combined with the refinement of a royal heritage means that she has a somewhat feral majesty to her. High cheekbones, but gaunt cheeks; elegant hands covered in scars and callouses; soft hair chopped up into a ragged mess. The list goes on. ALLERGIES :   Holy water, the Light, sanctified silver, consecrated ground, love and happiness. USUAL  HAIR  STYLE :   Short, messy spikes that kind of just do their thing. See again: L from Death Note. USUAL  FACE  LOOK :   Mild disinterest.  USUAL  CLOTHING :   Always wearing a black longcoat unless stated otherwise, underneath which she may be wearing either a suit of saronite armor or dark, ragged clothing. In situations where she wouldn’t wear the coat or the armor, she’d probably angle for the Azerothian equivalent to tank tops and black pants, along with dark, heavy boots. (See also: the icon.)

PSYCHOLOGY.

FEAR / S :   Death knights know no fear except the fear of a final death, of appearing weak, of Arthas, of being caged, of giving in to the monster, of becoming the Lich Queen, of losing the people she loves. ASPIRATION / S :   To defeat the Legion, currently. Also not fuck up her job of leading the Ebon Blade.  POSITIVE  TRAITS :   Humorous, witty, loyal(ish), intelligent, curious, generally tries to be a good person. NEGATIVE  TRAITS :   Violent, sadistic, murderous, short-tempered, prejudicial, kinda racist, self-loathing, misanthropic, cannibalistic, devious, deceptive, forgetful, disloyal(ish), unkind, sarcastic, snarky, cruel, not always successful at trying to be a good person. MBTI :    ISTP-T - The Virtuoso. ZODIAC :   Cancer. TEMPEREMENT :   Choleric. (how???) SOUL  TYPE / S :   The Hunter. ANIMALS :   Weasel, crocodile, wolf. VICE  HABIT / S :   Murder. FAITH :   No idea. GHOSTS ? :   Yes. AFTERLIFE ? :   Yes. REINCARNATION ? :   Yes. ALIENS ? :   Yes. POLITICAL  ALIGNMENT :   Knights of the Ebon Blade. EDUCATION  LEVEL :   While Zoen had an educating befitting a noble whilst she lived in Lordaeron, her subsequent fall into poverty meant that formal education became a pipe dream. As a result, she educated herself via reading everything she could get her hands on, furtively attending lectures, and eavesdropping on smart people talking whenever she could. As a result, she’s fairly knowledgeable if rather eclectic.

FAMILY.

FATHER :   Arthas Menethil. MOTHER :   Jaina Proudmoore. SIBLINGS :   None. CHILDREN :   None, although Tiris is basically her floofy wolf son. EXTENDED  FAMILY :   Calia Menethil (paternal aunt). Derek Proudmoore (maternal uncle). NAME  MEANING / S :   Zoen comes from the Greek name Zoë, which means “life” while Mith is obviously just a misspelling of “myth.” So her name is basically just me saying that she isn’t real, among other things. HISTORICAL  CONNECTION ? :   I don’t really understand this question.

FAVORITES.

BOOK :   Changes often. Currently The Emperor’s Burden. MOVIE :   n/a. Do not exist yet. 5  SONGS :     Unfortunately, Azeroth doesn’t exactly have any in-game tracks. (The jukebox and audiobox tunes don’t count.) So I’ve no idea, but there’d probably be a motley of classical pieces and loud rock music. DEITY :   She no longer actively worships anyone or thing, though she still holds a strange place in her heart for the Light.  HOLIDAY :   Midsummer Fire Festival. MONTH :   January. SEASON :   Winter. PLACE :   Crystalsong Forest. WEATHER :   Raging blizzard, heavy rain. SOUND :   Loud, classical music that drowns out the silence in her head. SCENT / S :   Blood freshly spilled; a garden of flowers; winter in the far north; the spices of a Pandaren marketplace.    TASTE / S :   Plague. FEEL / S :   Tiris’ fur carded through her fingers. ANIMAL / S :   Wolves, birds of prey, foxes. NUMBER :   n/a. COLORS :   Blue, black, white, grey, purple. 

EXTRA.

TALENTS :   Singing, swordplay, bladework, piano, lying. BAD  AT :   Chess, dancing, cooking, drawing, morality, apologizing, feeling, gardening, remembering. TURN  ONS :   Good first impression; not being a paladin; height; being a pretty, pretty elf. TURN  OFFS :   Bad first impression; being a paladin; being Gilnean; being Forsaken. HOBBIES :   Reading, playing piano, singing, taking care of Tiris, making and keeping friends. TROPES :    A lot. QUOTES :   “Bastards can’t inherit their fathers’ names, much less their crowns.” ; “I’m the wolf in the woods, darling, and I never let little rats like you escape from me.” ; “You’re just a frightened little boy trying to smash the playset before the other kids can come and play with it. You’re a bit late, love. Void’s here, and it answers to me.” ; “I’m an adult. I pay rent.” 

FC INFO.

MAIN  FC / S : Rose McIver in her role as Live Moore despite being around eleven years older than Zoen and not actually looking like her at all. ALT  FC / S : Thinking about branching out to include Riley Blue from Sense8. OLDER  FC / S :   n/a. YOUNGER  FC / S :   n/a. VOICE  CLAIM / S :   She’s kind of in the realm of Halsey and Florence Welch and Eva Green, while being only seventeen and having the weird death knight sepulchral echo voice effects going on.  GENDERBENT  FC / S :   n/a.

MUN QUESTIONS.

Q1 :   if  you  could  write  your  character  your  way  in  their  own  movie ,   what  would  it  be  called ,  what  style  would  it  be  filmed  in ,  and  what  would  it  be  about ?          

     Blood in the Ice, probably, and it’d likely be mostly about her existence postmortem. More specifically, some of the goings-on during Wrath of the Lich King, when she was still young and raw and primal. The major plot would likely just be her coming to terms with her undeath and her freedom from the Lich King, and how she adjusts to existing among the living, despite their distaste for her and her hunger for them. Plus, yanno, the whole “Daddy’s a monster” thing.

Q2 :   what  would  their  soundtrack / score  sound  like ?          

     I have absolutely no idea. Dark, for sure, a little melancholic, but also with some fast and sharp pieces during fight scenes or when she starts snapping and yelling and killing people.

Q3 :   why  did  you  start  writing  this  character ?

     Y’all know how we all have that Mary Sue character when we’re like, twelve-ish, and looking back at her we kind of cringe and think “What was I thinking, man, that character was just awful.”

     Yeah. That’s Zoen.

Q4 :   what  first  attracted  you  to  this  character ?          

     I was like, twelve. I stopped writing her when I was thirteen, then came back to her when I was... I think sixteen-ish? Don’t really know why I started up again, don’t really know why I’ve stuck to her so much.

Q5 :   describe  the  biggest  thing  you  dislike  about  your  muse.        

     I mean, she’s my character, so I have a lot of things that I’m pretty insecure about regarding her, but if we’re going to go into actual dislike, it may be that she’s slowly starting to embrace her monstrosity. Like, being undead does not equal being a bad person, but Zoen is irrefutably a bad person, and the fact of the matter is, she isn’t really trying all that hard not to be. Plus, she’s prejudicial as hell and that’s just... not... cool, bro. It really isn’t.

Q6 :   what  do  you  have  in  common  with  your  muse ?          

     Uh, not much, really. I, too, have weird-ass anime hair, though I actually use fucking hairspray to achieve this. We both think canines are cool.

Q7 :   how  does  your  muse  feel  about  you ?          

     Have you seen the hell I’ve made her life and unlife? The girl would vivisect me if she could.

Q8 :   what  characters  does  your  muse  have  interesting  interactions  with ?        

     Myrundiel Mourningale, Donquixote Doflamingo, Portgas D. Ace, Maveric Unelanvhi, Anduin Wrynn, Varian Wrynn, Jaina Proudmoore, Darth Vader, Luke Skywalker. 

Q9 :   what  gives  you  inspiration  to  write  your  muse ?        

     Music, a lot of the time. 

Q10 :   how  long  did  this  take  you  to  complete ?        

     I don’t even know, mate. Too long, for sure.

[iofferwith-blog]

Raekwon Only Built 4 Cuban Linx

New Post has been published on http://iofferwith.xyz/raekwon-only-built-4-cuban-linx/

Raekwon Only Built 4 Cuban Linx

Raekwon 첫 솔로앨범 Only Built 4 Cuban Linx (1995년)

  Let’s kick that old school shit

  힙합클래식 중 손꼽히는 앨범

랩 가사야 릴웨인의 영향으로 많이많이 발전 했지만

그래도 힙합은 옛날 90년대 음악을 제일 좋아합니다

요즘 힙합은 개인적으로 잘 안듣습니다

편식이 심해진거 같아요

  뭐 어쨌든 힙합하면 떠오르는 이미지가 게토생활의 힘든 삶 정도가 아닐까

그런 느낌을 가장 제대로 살린게 골든에라 90년대 힙합 이란 말이지요

그래서 아직까지도 그때의 향수를 가지고 있고 느끼고 즐기고 있습니다

오랫만에 올드한 느낌의 뮤직비디오 즐겨 보세요

            Raekwon – Ice Cream

  [Intro: Method Man (Johnny Blaze)]

Hey mom, can I have some money? The ice cream man is coming!

[Chorus:]

Watch these rap niggaz get all up in your guts French-vanilla, butter-pecan, chocolate-deluxe Even caramel sundaes is gettin touched And scooped in my ice cream truck, Wu tears it up (The ice cream man is coming!)

[Verse One: Ghostface Killer (Tony Starks)]

Yo honey-dips, summertime, fine Jheri drippin See you on Pickens with a bunch of chickens how you’re clickin I catch shootin strong notes as we got close She rocked rope, honey throat smellin like Impulse Your whole shell baby’s wicked like Nimrod Caught me like a fresh-water scrod, or may I not be God Attitude is very rude Boo, crabby like seafood It turns me on like Vassey and Lahrule They call me Starky Love-hun, check the strategy By any means, Shirley Temple cross was done by Billie Jean’s Black Misses America, your name is Erica, right true Lazy eyeball, small piece, six shoe Caramel complexion, breath smellin like cinnamon Excuse me hon, the Don mean no harm, turn around again God damn, backyard’s bangin like a Benz-y If I was jiggy, you’d be spotted like Spudz McKenzie I’m high powered put Adina Howard to sleep Yo pardon, that bitch been on my mind all week, but uhh Back to you Maybelline Queen let’s make a team You can have anything in this world except CREAM So whatchu wanna do? Whatchu wanna do? Let’s go ahead and walk these dogs and represent Wu

[Chorus]

[Verse Two: Raekwon the Chef (Lou Diamonds)]

Shaolin’s finest, whattup Boo, peace your highness Yo I’m loungin, big dick style, y’all niggaz is the flyest Moves you’re making too fly jewels are shaking not a rape patient, you’re looking good fly colored Asian Ghettoes, them is your hometown, we can go the whole round After that, I’m shootin downtown I’m rockin hats and you wig is all intact Who’s that queen bee chick, eyes curly black Freaks be movin in fly sneaks Two finger rings and gold teeth, and ain’t afraid to hold heat So when I step in the square dear You better have CREAM to share, Ricans, ven aqui yeah

[Chorus]

[Verse Three: Cappachino]

Black chocolate girl wonder, shade brown like Thunder Politic til your deficit step, gimme your number Your sexy persuasive ta-ta’s and thighs Catch my eyes like highs I want your bodily surprise Double dime some time, Ice Cream you got me fallin out like a cripple, I love you like I love my dick size ooh baby I miss you, your sweet tender touches take pulls off the dutches, orgasm in my mindstate masterbate in your clutches, I want you for self like wealth, so play me closely Bitches paranoia for the sting, who want the most of me Only a hard dozen want to be callin me cousin Thirsty for my catalog, baby shoppin spree you’re lovin Call me if you want to get dug like the pockets I jizm like a giant break brooms out of their sockets

[Outro: Method Man]

Wu-Tang in the cut, for real niggaz what? It’s the after party and bitches want to fuck

[Chorus:]

Ice cold bitches melt down when my clutch and what they titties sucked, ice cream

Yeah, your guts

[Chorus: 3/4ths]

Ice cold bitches melt down when in the clutch They want they titties sucked, ice cream

One love to my chocolate deluxes, keep your nails done and your wigs tight, word up One love to my butter-pecan Ricans for calling me papi That’s for real One love to caramel sundaes, with the cherries on top Yeah And big up to my french vanillas Parlez vous, francais, mi amor, merci, oui oui, bon bons and all that good stuff That good stuff

    Criminology

[Intro: Raekwon (plus sample of Tony Montana having an argument)]

“I told you a long time ago you fuckin little monkey not to FUCK ME.” “Hey hey, who the FUCK you think you goin for huh??!” “Who the fuck you think I am your fuckin dough-boy?” “You wanna go to war?…. Wanna go to war, OK?”

Comin up on half a mil, we build Get real God, taking you on another one Son Uhh, Julio Igleasias Makin CREAM like that nigga

[Verse One: Ghostface Killah] Yo, first of all son, peep the arson Many brothers I be sparkin and bustin mad light inside the dark Call me dough snatcher, just the brother for the rapture I handglide, holdin on strong, hard to capture Extravagant, RZA bake the track and it’s militant Then I react, like a convict, and start killin shit It’s manifested, the Gods work like appliances Dealin in my cypher I revolve around sciences The 9th chamber, leave you trapped inside my hallway You try to flee but you got smoked up by the doorway (blaow! blaow! blaow!) No question, I send your ass back, right to the essence Your whole frame is smothered in dirt, now how you restin While I’ll be trapped by sounds, locked behind loops Throwin niggaz off airplanes cause +Cash Rules Everything Around Me+ black, as you can see Swallow this murder one verse like God Degree Then analyze my soundtrack for satisfaction You adapt like a flashback chain reaction

[Verse Two: Raekwon the Chef] Just a minute son… AK’s black bust back like seventy Macs I’m all that, street niggaz knowin my steez black Ron G, you know he coincide with me see Marvelous, Menace fo’ Society But anyway, let’s toast, champagne thoughts with Ghost I max the most shotguns through the nose Phonograph hip-hop put me on top ‘Lo wears, and Tommy Hil fly shit with a knot The witty unpredictable live shit, drive by shit Do or die shit, I’ll take your lie and shit And then you know, I’m runnin through the penal, foul Four-toothed child was wild The old lady snitched, but fuck it, you know it, one love kid No I’m not doin a bid Too much to get for what cause six niggaz got stuck, and the nigga chain was truck Yo fuck that, Criminology rap Speakers stay jet black floatin in the flyest Ac’ Nigga… bring it! Yeah..

[Outro: Raekwon] Much love go to New York City All my Tommy Hil’ ice rockin niggaz

      incarcerated scarfaces

  [Intro Two: Raekwon the Chef] Knock niggaz out the box all the time Bitches on my motherfuckin records Pah Big ones, yeah, big fuckers Straight up, fuck your whole team Yeah bust it Yo, yo, fly G.I. niggaz

[Chorus: Raekwon the Chef] Now yo yo, whattup yo, time is runnin out It’s for real though, let’s connect politic – ditto! We could trade places, get lifted in the staircases Word up, peace incarcerated scarfaces

[Verse One: Raekwon the Chef] Thug related style attract millions Fans, they understand my plan Who’s the kid up in the green Land? Me and the RZA connect, blow a fuse, you lose Half-ass crews get demolished and bruised Fake be frontin, hourglass heads niggaz be wantin Shuttin down your slot; time for pumpin Poisonous sting which thumps up and act chumps Raise a heavy generator But yo, guess who’s the black Trump? Dough be flowin by the hour’s Wu, we got the collars, scholars Word life, peace to power and my whole unit Word up! Quick to set it, don’t wet it Real niggaz lick shots, peace Connecticut

[Chorus]

[Verse Two: Raekwon the Chef] Chef’ll shine like marble, rhyme remarkable Real niggaz raise up, spend your money, argue But this time is for the uninvited Go head and rhyme to it, big nigga mics is gettin fired Morphine chicks be burnin like chlorine Niggaz recognize from here to Baltimore to Fort Greene But hold up, Moet be tastin like throw-up My mob roll up, dripped to death whips rolled up Ya never had no wins, slidin in these dens wit Timbs Wit Mac-10’s and broke friends Ya got guns, got guns too, what up son, do you wanna battle for cash and see who Sun too? I probably wax, tax, smack rap niggaz who fax niggaz lyrics is wack nigga Can’t stand unofficial, wet tissue, blank bustin Scud missles You rollin like Trump, you get your meat lumped For real, it’s just slang rap democracy Here’s the policy, slide off the ring, plus the Wallabees Check the status, soon to see me at Caesar’s Palace eatin salads We beatin mics and the keys to Dallas I move rhymes like retail, make sure shit sell From where we at to my man’s cell From staircase to stage, minimun wage But soon to get a article in RapPage But all I need is my house, my gat, my Ac Bank account fat – it’s goin’ down like that And pardon the French but let me speak Italian Black Stallion, dwellin on Shaolin That means the island of Staten And niggaz carry gats and mad police from Manhattan

[Chorus]

[Verse Three: Raekwon the Chef] I do this for barber shop niggaz in the Plaza Catchin asthma, Rae is stickin gun-flashers Well-dressed, skatin through the projects wit big ones Broke elevators, turn the lights out, stick one upstairs, swithc like a chameleon Hip Brazilians, pass the cash or leave your children Leave the buildin Niggaz, yo they be foldin’ like envelopes under pressure Like Lou Farigno on coke Yo, Africans denyin niggaz up in yellow cabs Musty like funk, wavin they arms, the Arabs Sit back, coolin like Kahlua’s on rocks On the crack spots, rubberband wrapped on my knots You bitches who fuck dreds on Sudafeds Pussy’s hurtin, they did it for a yard for the Feds Word up cousin, nigga, I seen it Like a 27-inch Zenith – believe it!

[Chorus]

[Outro] …politic ditto …get lifted in the staircases

    Heaven & Hell

   [Intro: Raekwon, Ghostface]

Yo what what, yo Exotic type shit Ninety-four, we must go to war fast With the pen and the pad God damn, shine like gold rims on Pathfinders Wu-Tang reclines, lamps, for the nine-squares kid Money clothes designer hoes and shows y’all

[Lyrics: Raekwon, Ghostface]

Yo, yo, wakin up about ten kid Jumpin in the shower, peace about to make moves and slide like greese What? I’m all about Tecs and checks and nuff respect you front I’m slammin you like the Lex So now I’m out in the ninety-five Rockin that real nigga don’t die Guess down Drawers Kani! But yo I’m makin a pit stop Go and buy a box of glocks, til he rolled up and yo Whattup Hobbes? Yo, remember that kid that we vicked He made a half of mil for real He brought about fo’ bricks Yo, so now we connect doors, meet me at the airport TELL GOLDEN ARMS MAINTAIN THE FORT Get in touch with that West coast Cali crab you stabbed And meet me at the bitch lab So word up kid, we slid like a fat four to twelve bid and shit Couldn’t even rest, I need the vic And when I slept, I dream G’s, Son I need some Keys roll self, call up Son I heard Pook and Tyriq caught a beef over some real shit A fake nigga faked and they killed his click Gimme a minute and I’m with it Yo niggaz done did it Rock your vest Keep your whip tinted So now we see him up in BoJangles Stranglin a forty ounce, with ten G’s worth of gold bangles Diamonds, what, all up in his face With his man’s mace, medallions the size of dinner plates Yo, he knew we knew him so we blew him Took thirty G’s worth of jewels of that nigga DO HIM! So now I’m lampin in my man’s Land Streets is hot like sand Jesus rollin in my right hand Yup, you know the steezo black Got to go down like that Shallah Cigars AND BALL HATS

[Outro:]

Ninety-four, takin niggaz to war, yo, yo

What do you believe in? Heaven or hell? You don’t beleive in heaven cause we’re livin in hell [x2] So it’s your life (we’re livin in hell, we’re livin in hellllllll) What a chamber, fuckin with mad strangers Yeah, you know how it runs baby, straight up yo Money clothes, designer hoes and shows y’all That’s how it goes Whatever

What do you believe in? Heaven or hell? You don’t believe in heaven cause we’re livin in hell 31st chamber y’all So it’s your life

(What do you believe in? Heaven or hell?) Niggaz ain’t even know Son, only half is sewed cash (You don’t believe in heaven cause we’re livin in hell) They haven’t yet sold their weight (What do you believe in? Heaven or hell?) Question, shit is real, youknowhatI’msayin (You don’t believe…) Niggaz think it’s all about a real live Allah A little hundred dollars and that make you a man KnowhatI’msayin? You ain’t even promised tomorrow Son, word up Niggaz don’t understand how life can be so short Come so fast With the blinkin of eye, blinkin of eye you’re gone baby Straight up, knowhatI’msayin, get turned to dust Return to the casket That ass is out Son, word up Word up, get evaporated, straight up Word up Lose all your strength nigga Crazy dedication shout out to the memory of Two Cent Jason Heartbroken, we soakin wet though Keepin it real for my peopls Yeah, yo And my physical brother DeVon, you’re still in here baby Because you’re in my arms nigga, word up I never let you go baby YouknowhatI’msayin? You my life charm, word up For real Keep shinin Real for keepin it real, shout out to major niggaz Big Kawai, Jess, Hell in the computer system The RZA, who slams fat discs for the ninety-four Word up, RZA, he’s my nigga baby Yeah, eatin dinner with the big boys now YaknowhatI’msayin? Word up, Big Booth represent the Q Knowhowedo, lamp, get that power-u, type, things on float GZA, word up, Master Killer The don of the Clan, Method Man, Inspector Deck Dirty Bastard U-God, word up baby Keep it real Son Keep packin them guns Word up