#going with the post I made earlier… maybe due to emotions??? time got very delayed?

[greenfiend]

Just a little add on for this post on time stuff.

Sooooooo… basically… the Planck’s Constant number given to us in ST3 is the number established in 2014!!

This was obviously done on purpose, as it would just be a google search away for the writers to get the correct number for the time.

So now I have to ask:

Was Stranger Things 3 actually somehow set in the year 2014 (or later)?

[cheesy09]

[CN] Kiro’s Habitat Date

🌸 Warning: This post contains detailed spoilers for a date that hasn't been released on the EN server yet! 🌸

Note: In order to fully enjoy and appreciate this date, please read the date's corresponding birthday prequel here. (And maybe even Fulfilling Date and its corresponding birthday prequel if you haven't already~)

MC: You’re saying that the boathouse won’t be able to make it to Loveland City today?

??: Sorry, but due to sudden bad weather and low visibility, the transport ship isn’t able to travel.

MC: But according to our agreement, the boathouse should have arrived a week ago, and you clearly stated a few days ago that it would be delayed until yesterday at the latest.

??: I’m truly sorry. The loss caused by the delayed will be compensated according to the contract.

MC: I’m not asking for compensation...

I took a deep breath with complicated emotions and spoke again with the last bit of hope.

MC: Anyway, the boathouse can’t be transported tonight, right?

??: Yes.

MC: ......

After confirming the final arrival time of the boathouse, I hung up the phone and stepped on the gas pedal with complete disappointment.

Kiro was currently directing a remake of a classic film, which coincidently coincided with his birthday. Considering the fact that he would be busy with filming, I had made a birthday plan for him one and a half month ago - 

Smuggle Kiro’s boathouse from California to Loveland City, and pick him up from set to celebrate his birthday at the boathouse in the port after work ended.

Originally, the transport ship would have arrived in Loveland City a week ago, but the transportation process had been delayed again and again... and even today, it was still “on the way”. 

Thinking back to how I mysteriously asked him to look forward to his birthday surprise tonight before he left for work this morning, I couldn’t help but sigh repeatedly, not wanting to lose the reigns on his birthday.

MC: I’ll have to make other arrangements...

I was thinking about which restaurant to book when the car’s phone rang again. I pressed answer and glanced at the name on the screen, and my nerves jumped.

Kiro: Beautiful lady who’s coming to visit the set~ have you set off yet? The crew’s about to take their lunch break.

The energetic voice immediately filled the entire vehicle, dispelling my bad mood a bit.

MC: I’ll be there in about ten minutes~

Kiro: Got’cha! Also, I want to tell you something--

Kiro: In order to reveal my evening birthday surprise earlier, my shooting today was very efficient.

My smile froze at the corner of my mouth for an instant, and when I hesitated to say something, I heard “Director Kiro” from the other end of the phone.

Kiro: I have to hang up first. Savin will pick you up at the entrance of the studio. See you!

The second after he hung up the phone, I let out a sigh of relief and secretly encouraged myself in my heart.

I’ve got to make a perfect remedy plan and not let him down!

[PART 2]

As soon as I arrived at the entrance of the studio, Savin greeted me.

Savin: MC, the crew’s birthday preparations are all ready. As expected of your ideas, the kid will definitely love it.

MC: That’s fine, but my surprise tonight has changed...

I forced a smile and complained to him about the boathouse transportation.

MC: I just booked a few restaurants for Plan B, and I’ll go check the restaurant layout in the afternoon. If Kiro asks at that time, I’ll have to trouble you to cover for me.

Savin agreed without hesitation, and I confirmed the restaurant reservations again before walking to the set.

-

The shooting location was located in a villa, and the spacious area was packed with filming equipment. Among the many figures, the eyes of Kiro, who was talking to others, met mine almost telepathically. His blue pupils lit up for a moment, and he glanced at his watch.

Kiro: It’s lunch break, let’s rest!

Seeing everyone leaving the room one after another, I deliberately cupped my fists and walked over with a smile.

MC: You’ve worked hard, Director Kiro.

Kiro followed my example and bowed.

Kiro: Not hard at all. Welcome, Big Producer, MC. Your presence here has filled this small studio with splendor.

MC: Pfft-

Seeing that I couldn’t help laughing, Kiro quietly grabbed my finger and squeezed it.

MC: This seems to be my first visit to “Director Kiro’s” class.

Kiro: Shall I show you around then? I promise there are many things you won’t see in other studios.

Seeing his high spirits, I clapped my hands and followed his footsteps.

MC: Then please lead the way, Director Kiro~

-

Kiro: ...This sandbag is our decompression artifact. We come her to ‘bangbang!’, throw punches when the pressure is too much.

Kiro: This is the ‘blind box’, which contains a lot of candies and notes with various small challenges, which is our favorite activity during the break!

Kiro: And this...

He gleefully introduced to me various novel things until he led me to an empty room.

-

Large tracts of sunlight passed through the floor-to-ceiling windows and spread on the wooden floor, making it appear bright and comfortable.

Kiro: This is the highlight of this "set tour" - the performance training room for the cast and crew.

MC: Are you still doing actor training on the set?

Seeing me slightly surprised, Kiro seemed a little proud.

Kiro: Most of the crew are new actors. Training on set can not only allow them to effectively enter the performance state, but also relax and adjust the state when tired.

Kiro: You must remember that no matter what kind of work you do, your good condition comes first.

MC: [grinning] Being a member of your crew must be nice--

I felt sincerely. I walked in curiously and looked around, and found that there was only one high-end speaker in the entire room.

MC: It's so empty here. What kind of training are you doing?

Kiro: Many, including body movements and lines. But the most popular one is the imagination and sensitivity training.

Kiro: Do you still remember that I like to let myself go and do various imaginings during dance practice? That's a habit I retained because of this training.

MC: So that's it~ I thought acting classes were just about acting non-stop. I didn't expect such training.

Seeing my look of interest, he blinked.

Kiro: Want to try it?

Kiro: But first of all, taking one of my classes is very expensive.

MC: [teasing smile] Can a hot pot meal afford Director Kiro's class?

Kiro: A kiss from MC is enough.

Kiro: Close your eyes, focus on your breathing. Inhale, exhale... You are now in darkness and can only feel your own existence.

Following his words, I felt my heart slowly calm down.

Kiro: ...You see a bright light at the end of the darkness. Through the bright light, you come to a lush forest with colorful flowers blooming on the roadside. The fragrance of flowers and the warm sunshine make you feel comfortable. You continue walking deep into the forest and see your favorite person.

The corners of my mouth turned up unconsciously and I pictured that familiar figure in my mind. The golden sunshine outlined his delicate face, and his clear blue eyes were filled with bright colors.

The eyes in the picture were slightly bent, but the voice in my ears suddenly became happy.

Kiro: Question! Who did you see in your mind?

MC: Eh? Is there also a Q&A session?

Kiro: Hehe, I really can't fool Miss Chips.

I opened my eyes and saw Kiro with a successful smirk on his face. Just as I was about to joke with him, there was a sudden polite knock on the door.

??: Director, please take a look at this long shot.

A staff member pushed open the door a crack with unconcealed anticipation on his face.

Kiro: Right now?

Kiro slowly stood up in confusion.

Kiro: Strange, why are you working during lunch break today?

Staff member: Well... you did it in the past.

The other party's hesitant attitude moved my heart. I secretly glanced at my phone, and sure enough, I saw the text message Savin sent a minute ago.

Savin: The birthday celebrations are ready.

Kiro: ...All right. Miss Chips, I'm going to take a look. Just wait for me.

MC: I'll go with you!  

-{Cut to Studio}-

Without waiting for his reaction, I walked out of the room first and sat in front of the director's monitor as planned.

Kiro followed me with a face full of suspicion. When he saw everyone in the crew gathered there, he blinked even more doubtfully and slowly sat down next to me.

The black display screen in front of him immediately lit up, and a close-up of a cake appeared.

Then the scene gradually zoomed out, and a staff member entered the picture and made a big heart sign to the camera--

Staff member: Director Kiro, I wish you all the best~

Kiro's eyes immediately widened, and I continued to look at the screen with satisfaction.

The screen kept panning, and the crew members who came into the picture one after another performed cute poses and shouted their blessings to Kiro.

??: I wish Director Kiro will always be handsome!

??: Kiro, best wishes for you!

With a bright smile, I waited until the camera came in front of me and Kiro. I cleared my throat and solemnly turned to meet his eyes.

MC: Kiro, happy birthday!

[PART 3]

Kiro: I declare that this is the best gift I have received this year!

Kiro, after thanking everyone, he cut the cake and distributed it to the crew. When the crowd gradually dispersed, he stuffed a big mouthful of cake into my mouth while praising me.

Kiro: I can't even remember the last time I had a birthday on set. But what is certain is that this one is the most unforgettable one for me.

MC: So how did you celebrate your birthday on set?

Kiro: Just by eating cake and taking a photo~ After all, the crew had a packed schedule. Everything had to be kept simple, and occasionally, it'd even be missed.

MC: And the birthday?

The news that I saw on the internet the other day suddenly came to mind, and I nodded in understanding.

MC: I'll just say it. Some time ago, someone started spreading rumors online that you didn't celebrate your birthday on the set of "Three Kingdoms" because you were at odds with the crew.

Kiro: We were at odds??

Kiro opened his mouth wide, looking angry and dignified.

Kiro: The people on the "Three Kingdoms" crew were very kind to me! The seniors felt sorry for me for eating fat-reducing meals and often stuffed me with small deserts.

Kiro: And if they hadn't reminded me that day, I would have forgotten that I had a birthday. The director also gave me a special birthday gift.

MC: What did he give?

Kiro: I was still a newcomer at the time. After filming my scenes, I would go to a small corner where no one noticed and watch and learn. As a result, after I finished filming on my birthday, the director suddenly called me over--

Kiro crossed his legs and formed a deep "double eyelid" on his eyebrows.

Kiro: [In an exaggerated deep voice] "Is your life only about the studio?"

Kiro: "Don't hang around on the set, go celebrate your birthday. Eat a cake, make a wish, and meet your friends and family."

MC: So cool... so where did you go?

Kiro's expression paused almost imperceptibly, as if he went into a momentary trance.

The curve of his lips was still very moving, but his starry eyes flickered gently, as if he was quietly touching that past.

Then, he slowly leaned on my shoulder.

Kiro: I asked myself the same question at the time.

His eyes fell on the script in his hand, and his soft voice floated past my ears, like a cloud that didn't know its direction.

Kiro: I thought about it for a long time, but couldn't figure out the answer.

Kiro: So I just strolled along the street, passing by office buildings, parks, departments stores...

Kiro: Finally, I walked to a very busy street and sat down on a bench on the side of the road.

His tone became calmer and calmer, as if something very heavy had reappeared in its lightest form.

But my heart felt like it had been stabbed. At that time, Kiro had just returned to China, and as he was still unfamiliar with the place, he probably didn't have a lot of options to "have a good birthday".

I slipped my fingers between his and clasped his palm slowly and solemnly. Kiro raised his eyes and showed me a beautiful smile, as if relieved.

Kiro: I initially just wanted to take a break.

Kiro: But when I was sitting there, I saw many adults rushing back to their companies after eating, and children being picked up after school with big schoolbags on their backs...

Kiro: I watched them for a long time without realizing it.

No matter how relaxed his expression was, that lonely figure still appeared in front of me.

Unconsciously, there was a sourness at the tip of my nose. I shook his hand and deliberately relaxed my tone.

MC: Sounds like young Kiro was envious of how busy others were?

He also laughed when he heard this and nodded without concealment.

Kiro: I was very envious.

Kiro: I envied that they were spending another ordinary day, completing their menial tasks for the day in different places, and then going home to enjoy a warm meal.

Kiro: I was even more envious that they seemed to know exactly where they were going and what they were supposed to do.

He lowered his eyes again and his fine eyelashes cast a fine shadow on his cheeks, like an unsharpened blade, brushing across the tip of my heart.

Before I could say anything else, he had already raised his head and knitted his eyebrows together in an exaggerated manner, looking a little pitiful.

Kiro: Unlike me. I even took a sudden "short vacation" without a plan in mind, and could only eat the company's fat-reducing meals--

Kiro: Later, Savin found me and decided to give me a birthday present. I was even looking forward to a cake.

Kiro: As a result, that strict and stingy agent excused me on the grounds that I needed to control my weight while filming, and waited until filming was completed to treat me to a meal.

I was momentarily stunned and realized that he was deliberately trying to lighten the atmosphere, so I cooperated and helped him complain about Savin.

But after hearing Kiro's account of the past, an idea gradually emerged in my mind.

--Perhaps the best alternative was the birthday surprise I prepared for him this year.

[PART 4]

The lunch break ended quickly and Kiro got into shooting mode in full swing. While he wasn't paying attention, I quietly left the set.

When I returned, the entire sky was filled with darkness and there was a constant flow of traffic on the streets. It seemed that many people were rushing towards their homes.

There were only a few figures left in the villa, and everyone seemed to have called it a day. Kiro was sitting in a corner, looking at the script in his hand intently.

He raised his head when he heard the sound, and the moment he saw me, his shoulders slumped with a look of discontent on his face.

Kiro: Where have you been? Why didn't you answer the phone? Everyone's gone home. I've been waiting for you for a long time.

I walked up behind him and squeezed his shoulder.

MC: Sorry for the long wait. I had some things to deal with temporarily~

MC: As compensation for keeping you waiting, and as a reward for your hard work today, let me relieve your stress.

Kiro: Relieve my stress?

MC: That's right. Using the way you like~

I winked at him, took out my phone and clicked on a piano song, then reached out and gently touched his eyes.

MC: Now close your eyes and focus on your breathing. Inhale, exhale...

MC: You're in a colorful world, and besides yourself, you can also feel my presence.

Kiro: Pfft--

Kiro: This teacher isn't only suspected of selling what she has learned now, but is also a bit of an amateur.

MC: Don't question the teacher. This is my unique and innovative method.

MC: Anyway, please relax and give yourself to me wholeheartedly~

Kiro held back his laughter and cooperatively took deep breaths, gradually getting into it. I took his hand and walked cautiously towards the door.

-

MC: You and I are walking in a quiet alley.

MC: The sunshine now is warm and abundant, shining on the walls made of marshmallows, filling the alley with a sweet smell.

I led Kiro, who had his eyes tightly closed, all the way to the front of the car.

MC: We spotted a car parked at the end of the alley...

My brain suddenly shut down, and I couldn't speak any more.

Kiro: [smiling softly with eyes closed] A small car suspended in the air surrounded by stars?

MC: Yes, the star car.

I ignored the curvature of Kiro's mouth, slowly led him into the car and started the engine.

MC: Now we are going to take this star car and drive to a mysterious place.

MC: The sound of the giant trees swaying in the breeze drifts past our ears, and the clouds in the sky are also swaying. The distant horizon vaguely reveals a patchwork of valleys, and several white windmills are slowly turning their blades...

Along with the music, I work hard to weave every beautiful picture.

The starlight outside the car window flickered in front of me, but it seemed like I could really feel the gentleness of the sun. Sometimes I accidentally got stuck on my words, and Kiro would cooperate and pick up the next sentence without opening his eyes.

The vehicle drove around the corner and came to a familiar single-family house. After I parked the car, I helped Kiro down and walked to the door.

MC: I guess we've arrived at the terminal~

MC: To be precise, there is a door in front of you. The door is very ordinary, nothing special.

MC: But behind this door is my full heart for you... and an apology.

Kiro: Apology?

Seeing him tilting his head in confusion, I embarrassedly told him the entire story.

MC: There have been some changes in what I originally prepared for you, making it impossible for me to give it to you today.

MC: So I changed my plan and carefully prepared this surprised now. Hope it doesn't disappoint you.

After saying that, I took a deep breath, grabbed his hand and pushed open the door.

-

MC: Open your eyes now.

His long eyelashes fluttered and raised, and a warm courtyard was reflected in his clear eyes.

Large bouquets of colorful flowers were dotted on the grass in the garden, and a delicate and beautiful round table was clustered in the center.

The hot plate on the table was filled with a variety of dishes. The breeze spread the fragrance of rice, and the taste of happiness filled the entire courtyard.

MC: Welcome back to our home, Kiro.

Kiro: Did you... run home specially to make these for me in the afternoon?

He opened his eyes wide. There seemed to be stars dancing in his ocean-like eyes.

MC: I was a little pressed for time, so I don't know how it tastes~ And...

I opened the map on my phone and zoomed in on an area of the sea with my finger.

MC: The surprise I originally prepared for you is here - I transported your boathouse to Loveland City.

Kiro was stunned for a moment, then his eyebrows rose up high.

Kiro: You mean the boathouse in California?

I nodded and told him the story in detail.

MC: ...You're so busy now that you aren't even able to go to California even once a year. You probably miss it a lot.

MC: It's also very important to you. In addition to the meaning of home, it's more like an old friend from thousands of miles away. So I thought about bringing it back so that you could go to many places with it again.

Kiro: Miss Chips...

He suddenly hugged me in his arms and rubbed his fluffy blond hair against the crook of my neck.

Kiro: I've wanted to take the time to go to California with you to see it, but I couldn't find the right time.

Kiro: Thank you~ for bringing it to me.

He put slight distance between us and motioned to the food on the table with his eyes.

Kiro: What about these?

The lights in the courtyard fell on Kiro's eyes, reflecting my somewhat distressed and relieved expression.

MC: These... are actually my last minute ideas.

MC: When I heard what you said on set today, I felt very sad... and very regretful.

MC: I was thinking that, if I'd found you earlier, or been found by you, that Kiro wandering on the street wouldn't exist, right?

MC: Because he'd be like those children after school, knowing firmly where they should return to.

MC: So this meal isn't strictly a surprise.

MC: It's just a common meal that came late after many years.

I looked steadily at the quiet Kiro, his warm eyes tracing my brows, as if looking into the bottom of my heart.

Kiro: Miss Foolish Chips...

Kiro: I haven't finished what I said in the afternoon.

He sighed and put his arm around my shoulders again, the familiar warmth enveloping my entire body and filling my heart.

Kiro: In fact, after meeting you, I'm no longer hesitant.

Kiro: As long as you're always here, I'll be confident in whatever I do. This was also the reason why I chose the current script regardless of the controversy.

Kiro: I just simply wanted to do this, not caring about anyone else's opinions or evaluations.

Kiro: I don't need to prove to others that I'm a good actor or singer, nor do I need to find my own place and strive to be recognized by others.

Kiro: Because my place is right here.

Kiro: Right next to you.

Kiro: So don't feel bad or regretful. Today, I just want you to be happy.

MC: [blushing profusely] It's obviously your birthday, why do you want me to be happy?

I spoke sullenly in his arms, feeling a tremor in my skin touching his chest.

Kiro: My birthday is the oldest, so I have the final say.

Kiro: I want to give you half of every birthday blessing I receive today.

His deceitful tone was wrapped in a clear preference, which made me take a deep breath and stabilize my trembling heart.

MC: Okay, then we'll be happy together.

The breeze quietly picked up, making the bouquets of flowers and grass in the yard rustle.

That was also the voice in my heart.

Translation Masterlist: here

[dilftaroooo]

I read your last fic and 🥰🥰🥰

Do you have any hcs for Jotaro with a childhood friend reader that can ACTUALLY tell what he's thinking? Maybe they have a water based stand and actually travel to Egypt with him to kill DIO and he realizes his feelings for them along the way cause of how much they understand him?

oh man this will be a challenge. although i do love jotaro, he is a very complex character to write due to his stoic personality. i hope i get this right for you anon. (p.s. sorry for posting this so late. i wanted to post my asks in chronological order and this request happened to be the last request after another fic request i plan to write. my dumbass should've done this earlier since its just a hc and it'll be shorter)

warning: contains spoilers of jjba: stardust crusaders

jotaro with a childhood friend who understands him. (part 3!jotaro x gn!reader)

❧ it's outstanding to the crusaders that you're able to understand what it is jotaro is feeling towards a particular situation. his standoffish nature and lack of personality made it hard to communicate

❧ he was indifferent to literally everything that they've came across; that same blank stare was worn for any situation they had to endure. it was impossible to know what was going through his mind, he was an expertise at hiding his emotions

❧ if it wasn't for you, the things jotaro felt would have never been exchanged

❧ from his emotions to the things he liked and disliked down to his personal opinion; you knew all of it

❧ there was a time when you all settled in a restaurant in india and joseph offered some his food to you and jotaro, he hoped that jotaro would like it but joseph only frowned at his lack of reaction when he nibbled on the small treat

"oh come on now, grandson! ya' like it or not?" you only shook your head, as if he was asking you that question. "he doesn't like it, mr. joestar. it's too sweet." the others were shocked to see jotaro nod in agreement as he puts the bitten khaman on the dishplate. just how the fuck were you able to tell?

❧ jotaro was pretty impressed with you also (though he would never admit it ofc) but it was expected since you've know each other since grade school. you were the one who saw him gradually convert during the 11+ years you've been friends. you saw him go from adoring his mother and the others around him to treating everyone like shit and not even batting an eyelash and deep down, it wounded you

❧ he had a habit of balling up his emotions during dire moments - when holly developed a stand she couldn't control and fell ill, jotaro remained in his usual state; cool and collected. but you looked past that and saw the profound distress that he failed to reveal, the worries of his mother was clear to you. you and only you were able to see that

"jotaro.." you whispered to him as he looked at his mother through shaded turquoise eyes. he didn't bother sparing you a glace, already predicting the worried look in your eyes. "we'll save her. i know it." he responds with a delayed grunt before leaving the room, tilting his hat further down to cover his face. maybe then you won't be able to see the strained tear that feathered his eyelashes.

❧ during the span of your 50 day journey, the aftermath of the compelling battle with dio was where you got jotaro to break down.

he was doing it again - supressing his hurt, his anger, his apprehension. he stood glancing down at the souless body of his grandfather that rested on the stretcher, dead and immobile. he couldn't do anything but admit the death of his old man, nothing could be done. he tenses when he felt arms wrap around his torso. the warmth from another body was something he hasn't felt in so long - he last recalled the warm presence of his mother after he skimmed his knee, but that was eons ago.

"you're scared, jotaro. you're hurt. i can see that." you tighten your grip. "why must you bottle up your emotions? there's nothing wrong with showing how truly feel. everybody can be vulnerable once in a while, right?" you can feel him tremble under your touch. you couldn't help but cry. not just by jotaro's distress but by the loss of joseph. during this long journey, your bond grew tremendously. it was like losing your own grandfather. you don't know if you'd be able to recover after this adventure. not after the lives lost.

you were taken by surprise when you hear jotaro's soft whimpers. looking up you caught glace of his clenched teeth as if to hold back his tears but it was fruitless. his tears fell and cascaded down your chin.

"i'm sorry." he chokes with a restrained voice. his apology wasn't just for joseph. "i'm so fucking sorry." he hugs you back. you can tell it was genuine by the strength of his grip. you would've pushed him away to regain your breath if it wasn't for the grief the both of you were going through. choked sobs and sniffles filled the back of the ambulance.

❧ jotaro didn't mind the way you held his hand or the way you scooched closer to his face

❧ nor did he mind your soft lips make contact with his. he took that time to accept his true feelings for you - the love that grew in his heart over the years was strong. he deepened the kiss, never wanting the serene moment to end

❧ he's just glad that you were the one. the one he was destined to be with

[silverwhiteraven]

Wings of Broken White - Ch. 3

Tag List: @marichatmay

[ Posted on Ao3 ] [ Chapter 1 ] [ Chapter 2 ] [ Chapter 4 ]

[ Summary: Literal and Metaphorical dirt. ]

Hawkmoth had learned the lesson Monarch did not. Do not mix the positive power of a Blessing with negative emotions. Instead, enhance those negative emotions with the power of something else. Let his Champions be fueled by the opposite of a Blessing, something that haunts and feasts on darkness.

Give them Demons; give them an Akuma.

But still. He knew that he had to pick carefully what emotions he harnessed and the people behind them. Hawkmoth couldn’t afford to lose control of another Champion. And Gabriel refused to risk his son.

So he bided his time, researching and studying whatever he could. And while he waited, he built his public empire, funding his underground renovations and the care needed to keep his wife healthy.

Still alive, Emilie was kept that way in a chemically induced coma to prevent further deterioration. To the public, she was missing. In private, she was under the care of doctors from the world’s best medical center, Mayo Clinic.

Adrien would have been aware of her whereabouts were it not for the mistake and loss of control over Monarch’s Blessing. Gabriel had delayed telling his son the truth, and now there was no way to tell what would happen if he knew; what powers White Rose had truly gained beyond what was originally planned.

The thing is, Hawkmoth would have never surfaced if Gabriel could have prevented it. He was ready to let his wife go. But he still needed to find a way to remove the Blessing from Adrien, so he continued to use the Butterfly Miraculous, continued learning about it and the others.

But Adrien just had to go missing one early morning, barely before the sun had risen. Gabriel couldn't find him, neither could Adrien’s ever-present bodyguard. So in an act of desperation, Hawkmoth was brought to be. He then Akumatized the worried and protective bodyguard, granting him an ability to track down their shared ward.

This only furthered things along and also put them to a grinding stop.

The wielders of the Ladybug and Black Cat Miraculous arose to combat Hawkmoth’s Champion. Rather than admit why he was using the Butterfly in a dark way, he decided to reveal his last-ditch plan that he thought he would never bring himself to use, anyways.

He demanded their Miraculous. He was glad they refused, because he would not trust anyone so willing to give up such dangerous powers so easily instead of using them to protect.

So while plans to experiment with the use of Akumas were furthered, it was the mix of one Blessing and one Hero that halted everything.

Paris had very few albino citizens. It would be almost too easy to track down the potential civilian identities of Chat Blanc. But those white wings tipped in blue, so similar yet so contrasting to the black Starling wings of a younger Adrien? There was no way to deny such a similarity. And the Black Cat Miraculous itself would not change it’s own color scheme on a whim, either. Monarch himself had experimented with designs and color palettes, learning that only significant enchantments and magical interference could cause anything even a noticeable difference, not to mention such an extreme as turning Black to White.

The last nail in that theory's coffin was how Hawkmoth could feel the whispers of the Blessing influencing Chat Blanc. Certainly, it could have been a much older Blessing from a previous Butterfly Holder, but Gabriel highly doubted such coincidences could stack like this.

So, Gabriel accepted the facts. He felt heartbroken for his son that had to fight him, even if Chat Blanc didn’t know who he was fighting behind Hawkmoth’s mask. But he was so proud of him, too. Monarch’s Champion White Rose was doing what he was meant to; protect others from the harm of the Miraculous. And Gabriel’s son Adrien was free to be happy, as happy as he never was when inside the Agreste mansion, even when Emilie was still walking its halls. So Gabriel and Hawkmoth did nothing more than play his part as the fatherly villain.

He really didn’t mind how long it would take for it all to come to a close.

~*~*~*~*~*~

Despite her semi-disastrous first time as Ladybug, Marinette rather enjoyed the side-job.

Akuma’s were few and far between, and oftentimes could be talked down instead of fought head to head. Their abilities oftentimes got dangerous, yes, but Ladybug and Chat Blanc, not to mention the rest of Paris, were more than thankful that their Supervillain seemed to have at least some sort of moral code. He would prevent Akumatized villains from causing mass amounts of damage. Once, he had even taken back the powers and the Akuma that granted them, all because the Champion he had made was being unreasonably dangerous to innocent civilians.

Sometimes, she swore Hawkmoth would Akumatize students just so the whole district would have to let school out early due to the emergency. Maybe he had a soft spot for kids, maybe a child of his own? Either way, she appreciated the breaks.

Soon enough, a whole six months had passed since Hawkmoth first appeared.

The most recent attack had been earlier that evening. Marinette had to distract her Akumatized friend Nathaniel. He was akumatized because of Chloé. She had made fun of his art, at first. Then, to make things worse, she told him that he was right to have his and his boyfriend Marc’s hero-sonas to both be wingless, because the ones Nathaniel had were ‘wasted on his talentless existence’ and ‘if Marc wasn’t already wingless, then they would be utterly useless on him, too’. In general, it was a rather nasty scene.

Marinette had been quick to tell her to back off and leave Nathaniel and Marc alone. Adrien has sprung up right after her, telling Chloé not to talk to his friends like that, and even if she is his oldest friend he wasn't okay with her actions.

Marinette was proud of Adrien for standing up for others in the face of someone important to him. It was brave.

Unfortunately, their combined efforts didn’t prevent the Akumatization. Luckily, Evillustrator wasn’t a bad villain, he just really wanted to mess with Chloé with revenge-pranks.

Marinette got herself caught up in it by distracting him with other ideas. For example, using his power to create objects to set up a date with Marc. Chat Blanc had shown up part way into the setup of said date, and as a way to prevent Evillustrator from starting a fight, she had roped him into helping with the decoration ideas and music selection. He turned out to be a natural with romantic set-ups, and an even smoother talker, convincing Evillustrator to hand over his Akumatized item in exchange for them escorting Marc to the date’s location.

Marinette had managed to step away long enough while Blanc went to find Marc to transform into Ladybug, and called for her Lucky Charm just in case. It was nothing more than a red rose and she laughed happily to have a simple item with obvious intentions.

When Blanc returned, she showed herself and offered the rose to her partner, trying not to be flustered by her own romantic gesture. “Hold this for me, Kitty? I need to make sure their date goes well, and that means Nathaniel has to be here for it. Don’t want yours and Marinette's efforts to go to waste, now do we?”

Then, she took the Akumatized item from Blanc and broke it, purifying the butterfly within.

“What about the Lucky Charm?” Chat Blanc looked a tad confused. “As soon as you call for Miraculous Ladybug, everything Evillustrator made will disappear. Their date will go poof!”

Ladybug smiled knowingly. “Already thought that through. You hold on to that rose, okay? Or maybe let Nathaniel hold it? As long as I can find it again later, just make sure it’s safe. I’ll use Miraculous Ladybug long after their date is over, so nothing will get spoiled. Gotta go, Bug out!”

She returned to the scene as Marinette once more, finding a de-Akumatized Nathaniel on a successful date with Marc, and Chat Blanc still watching over them, happy for the couple. Satisfied, she made her way home, away from the setting sun.

Now, it was completely dark out and Marinette was drinking a thermos of hot chocolate on her balcony, wrapped in a warm blanket. The quiet night got interrupted by a shadow moving over the rooftops, followed by white boots lightly thumping onto her balcony. She sat up, surprised to see Chat Blanc still lurking about the city. He bowed theatrically with a gentle smile.

“Princess, what a lovely evening to see you! I presume I have found you safe and happy in your tower tonight?”

Marinette couldn't help but laugh. “You saw me maybe two hours ago, pretty-gryphlet, you know I’m perfectly fine.”

“True, but as your loyal, trustworthy, and handsome White Knight, I am obliged to check on you anyways.” He had bowed again and taken her hand, kissing the air above her knuckles ceremoniously. She had to fight back both her blush and her wing’s desire to flutter bashfully where they were hidden under the blanket.

“Silly gryphlet,” she smiled, before noticing his gloves were stained and had left some of it on her fingers. Then she noticed the dark spots on his boots and knees as well. She frowned in confusion, inspecting what was on her hand. “Why are you covered in dirt?”

“That dirty little secret,” he deflected the question easily with his pun and a cheeky smile, “I will explain soon. But first, I gotta ask, why do you call me ‘pretty Griflet’? I already know I look amazing, but is Griflet a reference to one of the knights of the Round Table? If so, I am honored to have such recognition.”

Marinette laughed and shook her head. “No, not a knight, a gryphon. You know, a mythological creature with the body of a lion and the wings of an eagle? You’re a cat, and you have wings, hence, gryphlet!” She explained proudly, before realizing how embarrassing it was to nickname one of the local Superheroes and retreated into her blanket.

Chat Blanc blinked owlishly at her explanation, but soon a smile bloomed on his face, and she could swear he was blushing under his mask.

“I like it,” he said softly, looking gentle and earnest.

“S-So anyways! Blanc Chat, I mean, Chat Blanc, I uh, You say were? Were saying? About the, uhm, dirt?” She turned away, grabbing her thermos to keep her hands busy.

“Oh! Right!” He brightened even more, his eyes starting to look like that of an excited kitten. “Come with me somewhere, Princess? I know it’s cold out so I won’t keep you long, but I wanted to show you something.”

She nodded, standing up and setting the thermos aside. Then she hesitated, once more remembering her wings. “I...Blanc, can you keep a secret for me?”

“Of course, what is it?” He looked curious and just so innocent. She couldn’t do it.

“Uh, never mind, next time, okay? I don’t think I’m ready. To say anything, I mean, not that I don’t want to see what you want to show me, but also I’m not ready to go yet for that either, wait, i meant-!” She closed her mouth with a snap, sucking in a breath and letting it out slowly. “What I mean is, let me just get something from my room real quick? I should really put on shoes and something warmer than pajamas. Then we can go!”

“Of course! I’ll be here when you’re done.” Oh Kwami, he was so patient with her, and understanding, too. Could he get any nicer, she wondered?

She fumbled her way back into her room, swiftly putting on a wing-binder, thick white leggings, and a warm long-sleeved baby blue dress. She remembered to grab some shoes, too. As she climbed back up to the balcony, she tried to ignore the fact that she had chosen to wear colors close to Chat Blanc’s. From the look on his face, he was probably trying not to think about it too much, either. “Ready, Marinette?”

“Ready. So uhm, how are we going to get there?” she shuffled on her feet, hands fidgeting.

He grabbed the thermos she had set down and put it into her hands, warming them, and subsequently her cheeks, too.

Politely he asked, “Permission to carry you?”

“Granted? Wait, carry? Like, on your back carry or- Woah!” He answered by sweeping her into a classic princess carry. “Uh, works, I guess, this does? I mean- Okay,” she finally squeaked out.

He chuckled and held her securely, but gentle. “Let’s not waste time. Hold on tight!”

She didn't scream dramatically when he jumped from her balcony, but she also won't admit she might have squeaked again from the unfamiliar feeling of jumping over rooftops while untransformed, let alone while being carried.

But the trip to their destination really was rather short, as only a couple minutes later he was setting her back down on her own two feet.

The rooftop was surrounded by decorative iron fencing. Candles, protected from the wind in glass jars, lined the top of the railing and between the bars. What really caught her eyes, however, where the Lily-of-the-Valley flowers spread around decoratively. She couldn't help but gape at them. The scene was gorgeous, and she wondered why Chat Blanc had brought her here. Did he do this? Was this why he was covered in dirt? She turned to him where he stood looking almost nervous for her reaction.

“Chat...It’s beautiful. Did you set this up? Did you get these flowers yourself?”

He perked up, glad to see she wasn’t reacting badly. “I did. I also learned I’m a really bad gardener,” he chuckled, and she smiled, amused. “And don’t worry, I didn’t steal any of this stuff, it was all mine already. Well, sort of. The candles were my Mother’s, and I use them sometimes. The flowers came from our yard- They would have died soon anyways, the brief warm spell this week made them bloom too early, so I thought I might as well put them to use. So, you like it, Marinette?”

She giggled and nodded, looking away shyly. “Why set all this up, anyways? Special night?”

He nodded, his own gaze shy as well. “Sort of? Ladybug trusted me with something. And earlier today, this amazing girl I know helped me take down an Akuma. So I wanted to prove I can be trusted with Ladybug’s thing, while also getting to show that amazing girl how much I appreciated her, even if it is only for a little bit. Here,” he stepped to the side, bringing Marinette’s curious gaze to a small table she hadn't noticed before.

It had a few more candles and flowers on it, but there was a delicate vase in the center. She quietly gasped as she noticed the red rose, Ladybug’s Lucky Charm, sitting in the vase. Chat Blanc plucked it from its place and held it out to her.

“For the most creative and wonderful Princess in all of Paris,” he smiled, bowing as he presented the rose. He chuckled sheepishly, then, “Well, you can’t keep it forever, because it is Ladybug’s, but I figured that if anyone was worthy of keeping it safe until she needed it, that person would be you.”

Dumbfounded and flustered into silence, Marinette accepted the rose with her free hand.

“Well, I guess I should take you back home now, huh?” He asked awkwardly.

“O-Oh, uh, sure,” she agreed, still distracted as she held the red rose close to her chest.

This time, she was prepared for him to lift her, and she stayed quiet on their way back to her balcony. This time, she noticed how warm he was and just how easy it was to trust him even as a civilian. She wouldn't admit to being sad when he set her down again, though.

“Until next time, Princess; I hope to see you again,” once more he took her hand and gave the air over her knuckles a kiss, but before he could let go, she clutched his fingers tight, pulling his attention up to her eyes.

“Uhm- It’s cold out, and I barely touched my hot chocolate anyways.” She turned his hand over and set her thermos into his palm. “Take it with you. You can return it, next time we meet.”

He beamed at her and nodded. “It’s a date,” he winked teasingly, and she giggled. “See you later, then. Have a goodnight, Princess.”

And just like that, he was gone, and Marinette was left a blushing mess on her balcony until Tikki finally came out and told her to go to bed.

In the morning, the red rose was still where she left it on her desk, proving the night before was no dream. Tikki then informed her that it had slushed a bit while she slept, so she should be careful when she goes outside.

Ladybug went off in the early morning to check on Evillustrator’s reactions, only to find that they had been washed away by the sleet. It seemed that just like all other forms of art, even the magical creations of an Akuma were susceptible to the natural elements when exposed long enough.

So that morning, Ladybug returned an intact Lucky Charm to Marinette’s room, and Marinette got to keep the gift of an everlasting red rose.

[ninjakasuga]

Sonal Celebration Week Submission: Reunion

In case Tumblr ate my direct submission to @boundforfreedomsonsal I’m also posting my submission myself with the Tumblr tagged. So finally the celebration is here, and here’s my first submission. Taking place around issue 50 of the Archie-series, this is my take on when Sonic woke Sally up. As well as my own fanfic head-canon injection where I personally feel after all the kerfuffle with Endgame, Sonic and Sally got their confessions out and started the road to being a couple there. Instead of the long, convoluted delayed process, we fans had to wait nearly ten years to see to fruition. 

REUNION:

 The only sound was the crunching of leaves under Sonic’s shoes after he slowed down upon reaching the memorial. His heart instantly ached at the sight of it, despite knowing from Doctor Quack that Sally wasn’t dead. However, the sight of her ‘viewing’ memorial and her body resting in the clear-view casket, just hammered home what was his reality until a few minutes ago. His heart was hammering in his chest. The closer he got, his brain reminding him of the water-fowl doctor’s words. ‘She’s alive, but in a coma. Her tenacious will-power probably saved her life as much as her getting medical attention quickly. However, while Sally’s body has mended, I have no clue if and when she will wake up.’ 

Sonic himself had been advised to stay in bed given how utterly fatigued he had been through the entire ‘Endgame’ fiasco as everyone was calling Sally’s seeming death, his frame-job, and Robotnik’s near victory which ended in his defeat. Shuddering Sonic looked at his hands, they still tingled from impacting on the fatso’s face, and by God, if the Ultimate Annihilator hadn’t taken out Robuttnik; he was ready to end him himself. A thought that scared him to the core, especially on how he still felt okay with the act if had taken Robotnik’s life.

Guess luck was looking out for him, and maybe, just maybe luck would hold out again.

As he reached the see-through casket, a disguised medical pod, his mind snapped back to the here and now. Sally looked so peaceful, so, very dead. He knew she wasn’t, but the brief flicker of thought made his heart jump, and his breathing increase for a moment. All the pent up emotions were wanting to spill out, but he held them in. Focusing back on his task, Sonic found the latches sealing the casket and input the combination code into the five buttons Doctor Quack had given him. After the code was inputted, a soft but potent ‘hiss’ sound could be heard as the casket was unsealed and could now be opened as he wished. Grasping the edge of the container, he pulls open the clear-top, which flipped open from the bottom before automatic hinges locked the canopy into place.

Looking down upon Sally’s form, he could now see clearly, she was breathing, but very shallowly. His gaze briefly went up to the clear-canopy of her viewing casket. He had to give kudos to Doctor Quack for installing some weird, trick into the thing that hid the fact Sally was breathing from anyone who came to pay their respects. If he hadn’t pulled out all the stops, Robotnik would have undoubted discovered the ruse and finished the job Snively set into motion through Drago and Hershey. Kneeling down, he reached out, softly touching her auburn hair, and gently began to caress it. Sally always had such soft hair, even when the humidity of the summer would frizzle it to heck, somehow she still kept it silky soft. Smiling Sonic trailed his hand down to her face, feeling those adorable cheek tufts, and very, very happy he could feel the warmth of her body under her fur. Another much-needed indicator she was alive, which helped set his still hammer-beating heart at ease to some degree.

As a soft breeze blew past him, the blue hedgehog stared at the Princess’ sleeping face, wishing her eyes would open. The last few days of thinking she had died weighed on him all the things he never got to say to her, the regrets of not having gotten to say such things to her. The denial of things to come, things he at the time felt he’d taken for granted that they would come in due time, only there was no time. Now, she was alive, but would she even wake up so he could make good on doing all those things he should have already said and made clear.

Life was too short, and thankfully he’d be given another chance, and if she’d only wake up, he’d make good on telling her everything he’d always felt. With a long sigh exhaling from his lips he looks down upon Sally’s peacefully, sleeping figure again as a stray thought crossed his mind.

“No way it’d work, just stupid story-book mumbo-jumbo…” He muttered to himself, but yet at the same time, what else did he have to lose? Stranger things have come true in his short life. Grasping the edges of the casket, Sonic leaned over, planting a soft kiss to Sally’s cheek, murmuring softly, almost pleadingly, hoping it might awaken her. “I love you, Sally, please come back to us, to me.” Pulling back from the kiss, he sat on his knees at her side, watching her, and unsurprised nothing happened. That’s what you get for putting hope in fairytale nonsense.

Just as Sonic was about to pick up Sally to take her back to the hospital, someplace less out in the open, he saw her eyebrows furrow and twitch. His breath caught in his throat as he saw more signs of Sally stirring awake. “Sal?” He asked quietly, hope slowly blooming into his tone. Her mouth opened and a low groan escaped, followed by her mouth smacking together as if she was trying to get rid of morning dry-ness of the throat. The cute ears on top of her head twitched, and her fingers began to move, unclasping from the pose she was placed in, and resting on the bottom of the casket. With a smooth, if slow motion, Sally pushed herself up into a sitting position; flinching as if the motion caused her a brief bout of pain. 

“Ahh…” Her voice was scratchy and parched, but clearly hers. Finally, her eyelids managed to force themselves open, and Sonic soon found those beautiful blue peepers looking into his own as Sally craned her head causing their gazes to meet at last. Her gaze turned to one of concern as she saw Sonic’s expression along with big-wet tears rolling down his cheeks.

“Sonic? Is that you? What’s wrong, are you okay-?” Sally’s words of confusion turned to concern and were soon interrupted as she found herself caught up in a big hug that threatened to expel the contents of her lungs as she found herself gasping for air.

“YOU’RE AWAKE!” Sonic cried, standing up fully with Sally in his arms, swinging her around as he both laughed and cried happily in pure, unadulterated joy.

“S-Sonic! A-air, can’t breathe!” Gasped the squirrel-munk as the blue hedgehog spun her around, adding a bit of dizziness to her lack of oxygen.

Realizing this, Sonic quickly sets her on her feet and lets go of her, but his hands instantly snatch hers and hold on. As if afraid letting go would allow her to disappear. “Sorry Sal! I just-I just…” His words trailed off as his voice broke. Unable to really say anything he just smiled at her. “J-just glad you’re back.”

Shaking her head, she gently pulls her hands from his and cups his face, looking concerned. “What happened Sonic? You never cry unless something big happened.”

Sniffling the hedgehog wiped his eyes, trying to dry his tears. “We all thought you were dead.”

Staring at him blankly, Sally couldn’t speak as it felt like a lump was in her throat, but she somehow managed after a few beats. “Dead?!” Her tone started off incredulous but as she looked about, one look at the memorial site told her Sonic wasn’t blowing things out of proportion. Putting a hand to her head, Sally wracked her brain and slowly recalled falling down the cut rope. “I fell, that’s right I fell, my rope was cut.”

With a nod, Sonic explained everything. Her near-death experience, his being framed for her murder, Robotnik’s plans, and all the little bits and pieces that fit into each puzzle-piece slot to make up the entire affair. Once Sonic finished, Sally stood staring briefly before moving closer and hugging him tightly.

“I’m so sorry Sonic, that you went through all that.”

Accepting the hug, Sonic fought the urge to squeeze her again and nuzzled against her face, unable to help himself. Luckily for him, Sally didn’t see to mind. “I’m just glad you’re alive, that’s all that matters.” Being able to hold her again alone made what he went through worth it alone. “We’ll catch ya’ up to speed. Gonna have lots to do especially as Buttnik’s gone for good.”

A soft smile formed on her beautiful face, as Sally exhaled gently. “I still can scarcely believe it. It-it’s really over isn’t it?” It was like a dream, and she prayed to whatever deity was listening this wasn’t the case. In fact, Sally reached down to her own wrist and pinched the skin under her fur. After a brief flash of pain, followed by a wince. Once nothing seemed to have changed, she let out a sound of relief. “I’m not dreaming am I?” “Not at all,” Sonic replied all smiles. “So the war’s over, we can stop fighting, well mostly.” With a nod and a shrug Sonic quipped. “Minus whatever under-bosses Buttnik left lying around Snotly, yeah we’re good.”

Both enjoy a much-needed chuckle, breaking the hug and just staring at one another. Recalling his earlier despair and regret for not ‘saying’ things to Sally, Sonic swallowed a hard lump in his throat and took her hands into his again. “Sally I gotta say something to you.”

Curious and intrigued, Sally grasped his hands, giving a friendly and assuring squeeze back. “Oh? What is it Sonic?”

It was now or never, he’d thought of this moment often. Of the various lines he could say, maybe even whip out his guitar and sing a rock-ballad; any and every avenue he’d entertained this moment in his brain for some time. Yet now; he couldn’t find any of his prior ideas truly worth their salt in conveying this moment.

So Sonic did what he did best, and improvised. “Sally I love you, I always have and I want you to know that!!” His words came out fast, yet were clear enough to be heard clearly despite the nervous-tick in his tone. Almost as soon as his confession came out, Sonic began to sweat and panic internally. Did he screw up by not being flowery, and all that mushy stuff girls were supposed to like? As this internal panic began to wreak his mind; he almost failed to take notice of Sally’s response.

The Princess’ eyes first went wide as her jaw began slack, staring at Sonic, to make sure she wasn’t dreaming. Did she hear Sonic correctly? “Say it again Sonic, please.” She begged, her own heart beating loudly in her ears.

Sally’s words snapped Sonic out of his initial panic, and upon seeing those beautiful baby-blues looking at him inquiringly, he nodded as he mustered his courage and confidence. “I love you Sally Acorn, I always have.” Lifting her hands he placed both on his chest, allowing her to feel his widely beating heart. He felt her fingers curl in his chest fur, a sensation that almost distracted him from talking it felt so nice. “I don’t know when, but...I just knew it, we’ve been together since we were in diapers. You’re my best friend and without you in my life, it would suck a lot.” Licking his lips, he fought back any nervous lumps trying to make talking difficult. “I love you, and I need you in my life Sal-I, I thought I lost you and I can’t… I can’t let a day go by without letting you know.”

Sonic again found himself worried he screwed up as Sally’s eyes misted over and Tears began to leak from them. “Sal? D-did I say something-MMMPH?!” Now it was his turn to be interrupted, as Sally pulled him close, her arms now firmly around his neck and her lips over his. Soon Sonic’s eyes slowly close and he returned the kiss; his own arms wrapping around her waist and held her close as their bodies almost seemed to shift and rub together perfectly. Slowly the kiss evolved, becoming much more explicit as each opened their mouths, letting their tongues intertwine as a surging heat-formed between them. Not a sexual one, that was there but not prominently, this was the heat between two hearts that had found their way to one another.

Soon the kiss ended, and both parted, staring at one another as they tried to catch their breath. Sally recovered first, smiling warmly at Sonic as she brought a hand up to cup his cheek. “I love you too Sonic Hedgehog, always since I can remember.” Like him, she kept her words simple, any prior ‘showy’ confession was pushed aside in lieu of simple, direct but heartfelt. “Whatever is coming over the horizon I want to meet it with you at my side.”

“And you mine.” He smiled widely, like her he now had tears of joy in his eye. The two lean forward, resting their foreheads together as they basked at the moment. Robotnik might be gone, but the war was not yet over; and who knows what threats may lay over the next hill or around the bend.

Whatever was to come, they would face it together, now and forever.

[unordinary-analysis]

Episode 167

Honorable mentions:

Going to ignore Blyke for this week until we have some more development

My analysis of episode 161 is very closely related to this one (give or take a few statements), so I suggest going and reading that, though you don’t have to :)

^^^ like very closely related

If you do read it though, not all of what I said I would like to discuss again in this post because either I am unsure about it or I have better ideas now. I might say something in this post that contradicts what I said in my post about episode 161. Do not consider episode 161 equal to this episode. Everything I say in this post is what I am currently thinking and is more important at the moment. BASICALLY: RELEVANCE>

TLDR at the end

I tried to make the quotes I used in this analysis as easy to read as possible, but there were a lot of parentheses in the quotes I used so whenever I wanted to explain what something meant or clarify something, I completely closed and reopened my quote. Sorry if I made things more difficult to understand. It’s a struggle.

Anyway, this is wordy on purpose and meant to be formatted formally because I really like that style of analysis as compared to my looser commentary type.

-

Parallels:

    Parallels are the best things. They’re phenomenal. And they create this easy way for readers to reflect on stories. And the one in this episode? Ooooooooo boy. I mean, it’s not exactly a new parallel, but it is the best and most important, recurring parallel in the entire plotline of UnOrdinary. And because of the way this parallel presents itself in this week’s episode, it will be discussed in the section below. This section just had to be included to acknowledge the great parallel work in this comic. Parallels are just such a great element and their use in UnOrdinary is extraordinary. Felt this needed to be said, repeatedly.

John:

    This section will be the main, and only section for this episode analysis (discluding the small bit above) because it is extremely important and deserves your full attention. The episode this week was obviously very John centered and put heavy emphasis on his unhealthy relationships with Cecile, Seraphina, e.t.c., and though things similar have been touched on in the past, this episode has been the most obvious, the most telling, about this theme. 

    In this episode, we are reminded, again, of John’s obsession with Seraphina. And I said something similar in my post about episode 165, but, until recently, this hasn’t really stood out to the extent that it should. John has always seemed ‘obsessed’ with Seraphina, but there has never really been proper focus on that, as there is more and more of now. In episode 165, Arlo was explaining to Seraphina his history with John and kept saying that John would work himself up into a rage on her behalf, which, yeah we all knew, but it had never been pointed out as something as extreme as what Arlo described it as, which allowed us to view the whole situation in a whole new light. In this episode, John’s obsession with Seraphina is even more obvious, him growing so overwhelmed with anxiety at the thought of Seraphina not siding with him. He gets violent with Cecile, who really had nothing to do with Seraphina’s actions, and then right after hitting her to the ground, grabs her, and demands that she tell him what Sera said about him. The intensity of the way the panels read is hard to replicate in words. The comic really puts effort (the colors, blurs, etc) into stressing the feeling and passion behind John’s actions and words, multiplying the impact of what he is doing, what he’s saying. John’s anger is meant to be an intense thing and has always been meant to. 

    Now, the surface level objective of this episode is to stress John’s obsession with Seraphina, as the comic has been touching on and doing for the past couple of episodes. We are working towards a confrontation of some sorts, there is no doubt. But another very standout thing in this episode, and what I teased on in the introductory section, are the flashbacks from John to his past at New Bostin. The images of Adrion and Claire keep plaguing him. They always have. I said in the beginning of this post that they are “recurring”. In episode 161, there were similar flashbacks to this episode, and John kept seeing Claire. Anyways, these flashbacks, though they’ve always been recurring, have been becoming more and more common as of recently. And as I kept repeating in my analysis of episode 161, it’s hinting at how John’s past has slowly been catching up with him, overtaking him. John has been running from his past for so long, but now it’s leaking into his new created personality. This is very important to what my main idea of this post is.

    The particular use of the parallels in this week’s episode is very interesting as a development from episode 161 because in ep 161, the images of Claire and New Bostin came in flashes as John’s subconscious saw similar images before him. In this episode, however, John doesn’t only get these split second flashbacks when he sees something that reminds him of his past, he is actively thinking about his past, which is such a huge leap. There is a major difference between being reminded of something because of a similar image and being reminded of something either because you experience a similar emotion (the beginning of this episode) or if you are seemingly unprompted by the current moment (the end of this episode). It is a sign that those images and thoughts are circulating around John’s head more and more (especially considering that there was a time when John would go months without experiencing a flashback). Again, this is teasing how John’s past is overwhelming him bit by bit. I keep repeating this and it’s for a reason. It. is. Important. John has been able to feel angry or passionate in the comic without reexperiencing his past before and the implication that that is no longer true is alarming. 

    I know I keep referring to the fact that John’s inner self, his past self, has been overwhelming and overtaking his new personality. I literally just said it. I’ve said it multiple times in both this post and in episode 161. And I’ve also just described the stark difference of John’s flashbacks in the earlier days of the comic until now. John rarely would get a flashback, only in nightmares or maybe an image every once in a while. Now, because the last few scenes where we got to see inside John’s head have included flashbacks, it’s safe to say that this is a very common occurrence now. This means that not only is the John of John’s past is overtaking him, but also that it has already made a huge amount of progress. I said in my analysis of episode 161, “His [John’s] evil half (symbolized by Joker) is interacting with, confronting, his better half (symbolized by Sera),” (referencing an earlier comment about how Sera represents the good in John), “. . . . -In both the image of Seraphina and the image of Claire, either John or Joker is standing above them, obviously a more powerful and evil force. And the fact that both are direct symbols of John implies that this [John’s evil side] is the side of John that is much more dominant.” The fact that there was sensible enough evidence in episode 161 that I felt I could tell that John’s dark side, his past self, was already greater than his better side means that currently, as we are now at episode 167, it is even greater. Assuming, of course, that the concept of it’s growth really is how I’ve described it to be.

    All of these statements lead up to the same conclusion: John now isn’t the John he tried to be (the cripple, the dreamer, the passive). The fabricated John has been the lesser percentage of John for at least (and likely greater than if we look at the rate of growth) seven episodes now, using my evidence. This means: 

John isn’t the John we know, isn’t the character we were introduced to in 2016. He has regressed back into the old John. The John of New Bostin who became king and went on a violent rampage, brutalizing, what was it, half of his class? We don’t know much about him other than that because John tried to hide from that side of himself for so long. And the idea of John not being who he tried to be is confusing as a concept when you realize that we don’t fully understand exactly who this ‘dark John’ or ‘past John’ is. And more importantly, we don’t know yet why he’s come back. I know that I’ve already said that the flashbacks to New Bostin have been evidence of the takeover, but why did they occur in the first place? Why couldn’t John maintain that illusion of the person he wanted to be?

    I’m going to be straightforward with this part. First of all, Seraphina actually unknowingly played a huge part in John’s fantasy. We know that he relied on her. We know that he trusted her. But recently, Seraphina has been spending less and less time with John. Because: obviously, she knows now that he is Joker and wants nothing to do with him. Seraphina’s (who, again, for John represents his improved, fake self) absence has strongly affected John’s mind and rationality. The second reason as to why John wasn’t able to continue pretending to be who he wanted is a little more simple. It’s because John’s fabricated self was just that, fabricated. A fake was never going to hold up against John’s true nature or his true mind. And we know that John’s false personality was just him avoiding his old self, as John has canonically said multiple times. Due to the extreme lengths that John went to to delay his past self from overtaking him, old John is coming back strong. 

    Here’s where things get more interesting for me and more closely related to the concept of the recurring parallel that I was talking about earlier. John’s past self has been slowly manifesting itself into the fabricated John’s mind through flashbacks of their past. And because nothing else seems to get fake John as responsive, I’m going to assume that this is the only way that the true John has been able to make progress towards overtaking John’s body, through unwanted flashbacks reminding John of the reality of himself.

    I’ve been very vague this whole analysis, not really using details from the actual episode (this episode: episode 167) to support anything that I’ve been saying, just using the general concepts, but here I want to talk about the flashbacks in particular and their contents. In this episode, the first flashback we get from John is after Cecile describes to him how Seraphina and Arlo have been meeting up and talking with each other. John instantly thinks of something that happened at New Bostin: his old errand boy, Adrion, is telling him that Claire has been meeting up with the jack. Not only that, but that Claire and the jack were gathering a crowd of students to attempt to take down John. Hold on to this because, obviously this mental association is going to impact John’s future actions. 

    The last flashback in this episode is when John is at home and rethinking his conversation with Cecile. We get the same images from John: his past self being warned that Claire and the jack were recruiting his enemies behind his back to take him down. But this time, after, we get the thought, “Sera… She wouldn’t… would she?” And the use of this particular scene in context of Seraphina and John’s relationship plus their current situation is very obvious about the message it is trying to convey.

The content of the flashbacks paired with John’s current situation suggests that John is relating what is happening to him now to his past, molding them together into this illusion. Because of the images of New Bostin appearing, John has convinced himself that he is in the same situations once again. This is big. This is huge. John’s flashbacks are making it so that John cannot separate the present from the past. He cannot exist at Wellston without his subconscious relating everything that is happening to what happened to John at New Bostin. He cannot tell the two apart, which is what I’ve been trying to express for this whole post and what I’d like to talk about. It caused the downfall of his attempt to reinvent himself and will cause the downfall of John in the future of the comic as both a leader, and as a friend.

    But there is another flashback in this episode that I want to point your attention to. It does not appear in the same form as the others. It is not an image. It actually occurs in John’s outburst at Seraphina. It was obviously something so unexpected from John for him to blame Seraphina’s problems on her. Seraphina hasn’t done anything to wrong John, correct? In fact, she is (or was), in a way, acting as his emotional crutch, helping him in creating that illusion of his fake self. And yet, we see this fit from John at her expense, dragging her down, blaming her. I’m here to say that this. Is. A. Flashback. You will see why later, but honestly, because I’ve labeled this as a flashback for you, I’m sure it’s clear what I’m trying to get at and it’s been clear, but just in case you don’t understand my main point:

    I keep saying that John cannot now separate his present from his past, but I haven’t exactly stressed what that means. This means that John also cannot separate people at Wellston from the people he knew at New Bostin. This episode’s flashbacks to Claire and situations revolving around her and the comparison to current events revolving around Seraphina, and especially the outburst by John at her; they all suggest that John doesn’t see Seraphina as her own person anymore, maybe that he never has (I’ll give John the benefit of the doubt though and say that for the majority of their friendship, he was able to view her in an unbiased and unaffected way).

        It’s become clear that John is, currently at least, viewing Seraphina as another Claire. And I think that I’ve become numb to that after literally days of being obsessed with that fact and sorting through my thoughts to write it down here. But I first thought of this the night episode 167 came out and it completely blew my mind because everything lines up. 

    And obviously, the outburst in this episode towards Seraphina was formed from pent up anger towards Claire when she betrayed John. It’s pretty obvious now after I’ve told you what I think, but to John, because Claire’s betrayal started in the same way that it is presented that Arlo and Seraphina are talking, John is automatically assuming that it is the exact same situation. And he is channeling all of his anger at Claire for betraying him at Seraphina because he thinks that she’ll do the same thing Claire did because obviously, he has trouble distinguishing Claire from Serpahina, has trouble realizing that just because Claire would do one thing, Serpahina could do something completely different.

This statement helps to clarify all of my previous statements of, ‘the parallels in this comic, and especially this episode are amazing.’ Before now, there hasn’t technically been a clear parallel, but this parallel? It is no doubt the most important in UnOrdinary. So if the praise had seemed a little bit unwarranted until now, I apologize. I just really love parallels.

    Anyways, the main idea of this whole post is that: John’s subconscious isn’t able to move past the events of New Boston, and while creating a whole new personality did help John pretend like he did for a while, it was only a temporary fix and is causing him to experience this fresh wave of trauma that wouldn’t have been as harsh if he didn’t run from it. John will never be free from the events of New Bostin and he will never be able to forget it. And: he will also never be able to move past being the person he was, the real him. Becoming his true self, the New Bostin John, is, and always was, unavoidable. And because his subconscious will never develop or evolve from New Bostin, because he can never move on, John is not able to completely distinguish between the past and the present, forever returning mentally to New Bostin. He is not able to fully view other people as separate from his past and automatically associates his friends and classmates with people he used to know, holding on to the biases from his past (ex. Hating on Seraphina because he associates her with Claire). John is also associating any current event with something that happened to him in the past, causing him to act disproportionately or irrationally when the situation does not call for it.

    Even shorter: John thinks Sera is Claire and is hardcore relating the current storyline to his past at New Bostin. And parallels are literal works of art. Good day.

Bit of a choppy ending, but I was never good at those.

[cosmosogler]

i’m not sure how to begin today. i was gonna start writing five minutes ago... but then i just kind of sat there and i’m not sure what to say. i’m so tired.

well i wrote a post here when i woke up. the dream bothered me all day though. i feel like it means something but i don’t know how to unpack it and i don’t got an individual therapist to talk about it with.

it’s so hard to condense those dreams into words, especially in 15 minutes. i dropped whole... i can’t call them “plot lines” but stuff that was important for understanding the dream in order to hurry up and get to the ending to try and summarize. 

like i left out that dad always has nightmares about sharks and alligators, and the last third of the dream (which was the only part he was in at all) was in an area of my dreams that always has a big ass shark living on the coast. i don’t know what it means. but i noticed it. i recognized the coast line while i was falling out of the sky.

and i left out most of the actual ending. which was, i discovered who was manufacturing the dimensional bombs as i traveled through forests and neighborhoods, becoming more and more disheveled. i wasn’t sure if they transported all of what they touched or just cut things off in a set radius. but i was cold. i found out where the leader was. i teleported into the airship chamber and found him in a crowded room surrounded by armed guards. i knew what would happen but i still did it. i was holding one of the bombs i’d plucked off the guns outside. i threw it at him. when it hung in the air for a second i set it on fire and exploded his whole head. the 100 guards leveled their guns at me. but i didn’t care. i woke up.

i think it was interesting that at the beginning of that part of the dream i was in a store for stuff to pamper yourself with and by the end of the dream i was shoeless and covered in dirt and rain and about to die.

it also seems to be about the first time i’ve ever killed someone easily in a dream. usually the “monster” is like, a guy with a gun or a rabid dog, and i only have my weak hands and arms and i don’t want to hurt them but i need to survive. this time i didn’t even care at all and also i could set things on fire with my mind.

anyway i got ready for school. i picked up snoopy’s cat food from the front office. my home package came later in the day but i won’t have time to retrieve it until maybe saturday. booked until then. and i don’t know how heavy it will be so i can’t just pop down and grab it in five minutes before i leave in the morning.

i felt... ill, today. not sure how to describe it. “crummy” i guess is an accurate word. the feeling didn’t go away at all over the course of the day. by the end of the day i was retching every time i coughed. keegan asked if i was ok. i said i just felt sick.

it wasn’t like a sore throat or runny nose or anything. i mean i still have coughing fits but it doesn’t feel like there’s anything to cough up. it was like my stomach was just uneasy. it was the kind of thing that was maybe supposed to stop happening after i got my gallbladder out? 

eating didn’t make me nauseous or anything but... ehh describing it in too much detail is weird. if i am reading this in the future it’s THAT feeling.

so that set the stage for everything i did today!!! 

in classical, first thing in the morning, there was a screeching noise that just... was present for the first 30 minutes of class. i was going to die. i was about ready to run out of the room and go out the front door of the building and cry. poor luis must have been tired of hearing me fidgeting and scratching out stuff in my notes and being indecisive about what color i wanted to use. 

i’m still taking notes with the four-color pen. i like it a lot but god it’s gonna be hard to read those notes because i had to scratch stuff out constantly because that noise was destroying my brain and my coordination and my ability to comprehend words and pictures. and also my patience.

half the class wasn’t there this morning. i think most, if not all, of them got out of that midterm at 10 when it ended. suzanne didn’t show up. she came for the next class and later she told me she had sat down to plink at her piano and ended up just wanting to be there for an hour. i gave her my notes even though they were messy from the distant but unceasing metal on rusted metal sound.

then we went to spaghetti day! i talked to suzanne about dreams the whole way there. she said she remembers basically every dream she has every night. it was such a, i guess, relief to meet someone who also remembers all their dreams??? it made me feel less, unique, i guess. mostly it was just REALLY nice to listen to someone else talk about how they dream about the same places over and over and remember stuff they did in previous dreams because they spent so much time remembering everything. we compared notes. 

i guess i was looking for an answer or some kind of context to put this dream in. i didn’t get that information here but i did really appreciate how open suzanne was about her dreams.

so we had spaghetti. i don’t remember what we talked about while we sat in the grass. we mostly gave the halava a running commentary when suzanne noticed they had changed up the recipe. she said they used to do that more often.

then i went to group therapy. we talked about the guy talking here next thursday. he who shall not be named. the racist guy. one interesting thing happened, besides me sharing my discomfort with how to approach the danger since i’m only tangentially affected by it. 

the interesting thing was that one member was telling a story about their experience with a very sketchy person earlier in the day. they were joking around and laughing and making a face that our therapist interpreted as “smiling.” she asked why the person was making so light of this kind of pretty scary situation.

i said��“no. i’ve spent a lot of time telling jokes about bad stuff, and that’s not a smile. that’s a grimace at best.” 

the person gave me a sort of look that i’m not sure how to describe. recognition? gratitude? embarrassment? maybe all of them.

i walked back to the physics building and went straight to e&m class. i took notes!!! the professor didn’t really make any sense though. but i found out suzanne works with one of my classmates so i asked her if it would be ok for us to maybe be introduced during their next meeting tomorrow. she said that was probably a good idea.

after that i bummed around in my office and worked on the new quantum assignment (due monday because god hates us). 

i showed harrison the card crusher video. i also realized while i was being sick in the bathroom that i don’t feel very comfortable... not laughing around some of my classmates. i guess i just fell into this really easy, natural pattern of telling horrible stories about my childhood and then pretending to laugh and be not upset. it’s something i did a lot at villanova too. 

the pattern is that almost every story i tell will contort itself in such a way that, in the last sentence or two, if it wasn’t already dark it will get there at light speed.

like one doozy i told yesterday when we were talking to rebika about child labor in the united states was that “oh yeah, my mom would take me to work with her when i was about ten. she’d tell me, ‘here, put this away. do this. do this. and do this.’ and she’d do that for eight hours. this happened a lot. but she wouldn’t take me out for ice cream afterward or let me keep any of the money. she’d just take me home and beat me.”

i... want to say it’s an exaggeration? but i feel like it’s kind of not. maybe some of the words aren’t quite accurate. like the beatings had mostly stopped by the time i was 10-12... more or less? but the emotional beatings never ended.

maybe i was a little older than 10 when she did actually start taking me there and forcing me to work all day. pretty sure i was 12 at that point because i was on The Forum and i’d have pretend conversations with my internet friends in my head while listening to one of the two albums i had on my ipod and removing staples for nine hours straight.

i guess i get some sort of satisfaction from the look of utter horror on harrison and jennica’s faces. 

at 6 we had a second round of quantum. classes normally go for 50 minutes but the professor decided to keep talking for another 20 minutes after that and my brain turned to mush about 8 minutes before he finally let us go. 

poor keegan couldn’t actually see the board because we were in a lecture hall instead of the classroom. i probably should have noticed that he had really bad vision. he just... never complained/bragged about it the way suzanne or jennica do. i offered to let him see my notes tomorrow morning because about halfway through the lecture my eyes stopped working. 

they felt dry and gunky and stopped focusing which was giving me a headache. like, there was a delay where i couldn’t see between looking up at the board and looking down at my notes.

i thought that things might improve since i am taking more frequent breaks and also biking home which requires ONLY long distance vision. maybe i should pick up some eye exercises.

then i was sick one more time and then i biked home. i went TURBO FAST. all the parts where i usually get tired i flew by. i mean, i was still tired and my legs burned, but i didn’t pant as much after getting up the hill and i forced myself to keep going.

then i made the rest of the tempeh tacos for dinner because i didn’t want the leftovers to go bad and waste the beautiful experience of tempeh tacos. my onion had gotten a pink spot though and i think it’s what was making the fridge/kitchen area smell funky. i need to learn how to preserve those better. 

they were still pretty good! i made the tempeh way better this time, texture-wise, and i didn’t drown everything in lime juice, but my body was just unhappy and i thought this would cheer me up but it didn’t really.

after that it was 8:40 so i just listened to some mbmbam clips and played a logic puzzle and read some real short fanfiction. now it’s 10:54 and i’m ending my journal entry late but i guess... i don’t want to sleep honestly.

i’ve got the follow-up appointment with the psychiatrist tomorrow so i’ll be talking to her for a while i think. i’ve got some notes compiled as i mentioned earlier. tomorrow i gotta teach for four hours though and i don’t know if i’m really up for that. i mean, i have to be up for it, but i don’t know if i’m really honestly up for it. which means i’ll just be tired tomorrow all day too.

something good about me. i can’t think of anything i ain’t said already. dang it. 

i think my comedic timing is pretty on point. yesterday harrison mentioned again how my sarcasm is virtually indistinguishable from my normal voice. i said something in reply... he started drawling something really obviously sarcastic and i cut him off.

“i’ve been doin this since before you were born! literally everything i say has a drop of sarcasm in it! GET! ON! MY! LEVEL!!! scrub.”

jennica died.

i’m glad someone thought it was funny. people seem to generally like my for real jokes. even the stupid puns. luis said today that “i think sammie is the only one who actually likes my nonsense” and i gave him a thumbs up. 

[piarou-neelix]

Surviving VidCon Europe 2017

So, I am slowly getting back to being alive again. So far since crawling out of my bed (for the second time today) at one pm, I have only tripped twice, bumped my head thrice, and spilled/dropped stuff (drink/bread/butter/washing-powder) four times. So yay! :D Now to try and put these past days into words. In only one word is easy: AMAZING. But there is so much more to say than just that it was probably the best weekend I have had in years. So many feelings to describe, so many emotions to be conveyed. And so many people to thank.

Let's start this tale at last Thursday, April 6th, 2017. Under an indecisive sky I waited for Johanna, the fellow Vidcon-volunteer, whom I had only talked to through Skype for an awkward half hour before that day, that was going to stay at my place for the coming nights. With a delay of five hours her bus from Vienna finally arrived at Sloterdijk, and I got to meet her at last in real life. And what luck I had in having her for a guest. Johanna is a young woman with a base state of happiness that is so heart-warming and mind-soothing to undergo and be around, it is almost unreal. That being coupled with a sharp mind and a smart wit made her one of my favorite people I know through the power of the internet almost immediately. The lively and intriguing conversation we had during our short walk through the woods in Castricum after dropping off her bags at my place was a confirmation of my first instincts. After the walk we cooked together, ate our prize, and then played two rounds of Kahuna before going to bed early-ish. Friday we got up at what felt early for me then, but was to become a blessed long sleep compared to the days after. ;) Following a typical Dutch breakfast with bread with 'hagelslag' we took the train to Amsterdam. We started the day with a tour of the more typical touristy locations so Johanna could check them off of her list, after which we went to the Vondelpark where an International Nerdfighter Meeting was organized by good soul Richard. It was the first time in years that I was at a Nerdfighter meeting where I knew less than seventy-five percent of the people. The sun was a bit unsure about it all (though managed to burn me nonetheless), but I think all had a great time. There was songs being sung, games being played, and friends being gained. Johanna, me, and several others had to leave the gathering for a while, because there was a volunteer-training scheduled at the RAI. Other than finally meeting Nick who was our coordinator, I didn't learn much there and then. But I did get to meet more of my fellow volunteers, which was cool. A whole bunch of them joined us at the pizza-place that evening, which made us a group of over 60 for a reservation of 20, but after splitting in two we still had food for all, spread out over two restaurants. All in all, a good day, filled with loads of nice people. Okay, I felt a bit tired from the somewhat too much walking I had done, and my forehead almost gave light from the sunburn, but I figured I would manage. Then again, Vidcon hadn't even started for real yet, for me. :D That happened on Saturday. And oh wow, did it start. So many people eager for an event they had been waiting for for months, if not years. Lines of fans waiting for a chance to meet, touch and take pictures with their heroes, whom they had so far only seen in digital form. And that sea of enthusiasm was compressed to a stream of roiling emotions in the meet-and-greet-wristband-distribution-line. My original shift was a bit over-staffed compared to the understaffed situation at this bottleneck of the first morning, so I was transferred to help out there. And thus I got a first glimpse of what this weekend would entail for me. Hard work, and loads of smiling faces filled with anticipation and joy. In an attempt to entertain the masses while they waited, and to keep myself awake as well, I did some frolicking and goofing around, doing impromptu little dances and pirouettes whenever I had the chance. But as time moved on, it became clear that the lines were filling way faster than we were clearing them, so an extra line was created, and the time for whimsical folly was over. I know for a fact that I was by far the worst wristband-attacher of all times, but looking down and me are not the best of friends. ;) As my shift ended, my neck and eyes were hurting, as well as my fingers. But still, I was filled with an overflowing sense of warmth and happiness just because I was helping people get the best days of their lives. After a short break, and catching the first half of The Vlogbrothers' Q&A, I started what eventually became my favorite shift of the weekend: The Vidcon Booth. Seriously, I was born to stamp passports-of-joy. Enticing people to just go that one more step to get not five, but ten stamps was such fun. Coming up with creative reasons why/how people earned the stamp for “Awesomeness” was the most energy-giving thing I have done in ages. Being on various selfies I had 'forced' people to take for yet another stamp, or just seeing the weird/cute/tender/beautiful selfies being taken right in front of me to earn that precious red blob of ink. Encouraging people to write or draw something on the wall, and then later realizing they had made a little piece of art. All that and more made it the best few hours of 'work' I have ever had. I went across the street for a quick Dirk-van-den-Broek sandwhich for dinner, and then it was time for the Saturday-evening featured-creator-show. Being blown away by the facial expressions and amazing voice of Carrie Hope Fletcher and the wonderful poetry of Savannah Brown made up for the somewhat cringe-worthy Max and Harvey performance. Matthew Patrick closed the night with words of power and honesty that made me want to hug him to make him feel better, and thank him for making so many others feel better. And then it was time for the trip home. The NS had decided to work on the tunnel between Amsterdam and home, so we (Johanna and I) were fearing a replacement bus-service was to be our lot, but luckily the whole weekend we managed to time our travels thus perfect that we could catch the rerouted intercity home. Five hours of sleep is a lot more than four-and-a-half, so we were quite happy with that, indeed. :D My Sunday shifts were a lot less exciting to me. I was room-monitor in the morning, and auditorium monitor in the afternoon. But to be fair, I don't know if I could have handled much else after I started the Vidcon-day with a tumble on the concrete floor. Both my knee and my shoulder were scuffed, and turned stiff quite rapidly. But hey, the show must go on, so I kept doing my utmost best to make everyone around me have the bestest of times at this first ever Vidcon Europe. The morning-shift I decided to be the outside-monitor, as that ensured me to have a quiet start of the day, and meant less walking around with the microphone. But the auditorium was too big to be handled by one mic-walker. And at that point my energy had been adequately replenished by the many awesome fellow volunteers. So I happily went were the panels wanted me to go. The two panels during which I had my shift were very interesting and I will certainly take some of their words with me. In between all of this, there were of course the meet&Greets I myself had the opportunity to have. On Saturday I got to hug Emma Blackery, and give her a bag of fizzy peaches, proving that not all forty year old followers of her are creepy af. Sunday in the afternoon I hugged Hank Green (@edwardspoonhands.tumblr.com this is what I meant when I said I still blame you: http://piarou-neelix.tumblr.com/post/153356577720/i-blame-you), and between my last shift and the volunteer-thank-you-party, I met Hannah Witton, whom I had already met almost exactly two years earlier in Amsterdam. After hugging her, it was straight to the Nedfighter-special event, but that was a bit too noisy for me, so I retreated to the volunteers' little safe-haven of calm and quiet next to registration, where I doled out my ever-present new addiction, Verkade Bites (seriously, don't eat them, or don't blame me). Then it was time for the aforementioned volunteer-thank-you-party, where I managed to grab a bite of food as well. I was amazed to realize I hadn't even met all volunteers yet that were in the room. And all were amazing, seriously. So much friendliness and warmth in one room was invigorating to the soul, and strengthened my already high trust and belief in humanity. A (not completely) surprise-visit by Hank Green, where we caught him in a circle of high-fives, and some completely unexpected gifts were nice unneeded bonuses to an already awesome event. It all ended with the logical end, the Sunday-evening featured-creator-show. We had missed the beginning due to our 'private' party, but saw most of it anyways. Dodie and Jon Cozart were, in my humble opinion, the stars of the evening, and Kwebbelkop surprised me with the way he filled his time on stage in a positive way, but all on stage were amazing this evening. Except maybe for the herring. ;) But as with all things, even the best of the best events have to end some time, and so it went here as well. After hugs and farewells Johanna and I took our leave of the Rai to once again travel to Castricum, and our much needed beds...

...for four hours of sleep. :( Johanna, adventurer as she is, had to go to her next big memory-in-the-making, and had to be at Schiphol at six in the morning. So after a short night, and a very weirdly quiet train-ride, it was time for me to say goodbye to my new friend (for now). She took the one train, that being her first step on the road to India and a new adventure, and I took the other back to Castricum again, and to another couple of hours of sleep. And then, it was all really over. But in my mind, the event will never end. My heart, head, and soul has been changed by all the wonderful people I have met during these past four days, the new friends I made, and the words I heard. Especially the awesome group of volunteers I will not soon forget. Once again I have seen the proof that the world of the interwebs is a powerful world indeed, and that it can do the most beautiful things, and knit the most awesome communities out of yarn from many different types of stories.

[charlesjening]

Let’s Talk About How CPA Canada Totally F*cked Up Last Week’s CFE

Many years ago in another lifetime, I dated this total loser. Now, I know what you’re thinking: “Adrienne, what the hell do your dubious dating choices have to do with accounting?” Bear with me, we’ll get there.

So, this loser. He was an adorable if grungy scamp with tattoos dotted across his body like scribbles on my middle school notebook covers and dirty blonde hair that managed to be both greasy and perfectly-coiffed at all times. Young me, not yet schooled in the fine art of red flags that subsequent years of dating would teach me, was weak to his charms despite the fact that he brought little to the table other than a killer smile and the occasional bottle of Remy, the latter of which impressed young me since I was too young then to buy my own and too lazy to stand outside of the liquor store waiting for some 30-year-old dorky sap to buy me one.

As I’m sure you can imagine by this point in the story, this guy came with more issues than National Geographic, not least of which being his attraction to substances — both licit and not. This generally wasn’t a problem as he was clever enough to weasel out of most predicaments his unfortunate choices got him into, and I clever enough to avoid him when he was on a bender. But every now and then, he’d find himself face-to-face with some cop who was sick of having to drag his drunk ass in every other week.

In one whiskey-and-who-knows-what-else-fueled incident I can recall, he called me from the drunk tank to inform me that A) I was a bitch for ditching him earlier in the evening, and B) he was in jail, possibly facing an actual charge for fighting or stealing or who the hell can remember, it doesn’t matter now. Given that I lacked both the bail money to get him out and the will to do a favor for someone who just called me a bitch, I let him sit there. A few short hours later, he was out. The time from arrest to his release couldn’t have been more than maybe three or four hours.

So why did I just tell this story? To put into perspective the fact that CPA Canada just treated the country’s future CPAs worse than police treated my loser ex-boyfriend who definitely deserved to be locked up for being an absolute waste of carbon.

Let’s get caught up on this, likely the worst professional examination debacle I think we’ve ever covered in our 10 years here on Going Concern. Because we’re a mostly American-based rag, I feel obligated to explain what the CFE (Common Final Examination) is and how it’s administered, if briefly. Unlike here in the good ole U. S. of A. where future CPAs can schedule exams with relative flexibility, Canadian accountants have to endure a three-day exam that is usually administered just once a year, though sometimes like next year they get lucky and have two chances. This year, the CFE started on Sept. 11 and, according to many reports, was already off to a bad start. But by Sept. 12, the shit had totally hit the fan.

9:15 in Vancouver on day 2 CFE. No one can load secure exam. from r/Accounting

On Monday, a tipster caught us up on the drama which we missed because A) we regrettably forget about our friends up north sometimes, and B) at least for me, I was too busy with Borderlands 3 to waste my time trolling r/accounting for something to write about last weekend and totally missed the complaining.

Hi there,

I am reporting on CPA Canada’s negligence in carrying out this year’s Common Final Examination (“CFE”) last week. This is a very important 3-day examination that prospective accountants must pass to obtain the professional licence to practice accounting in Canada.

There was a massive breach of integrity of the exam because of CPA Canada’s negligence to carry out their job properly. This resulted in many students (i.e. Edmonton location) where they were forced to sit inside the examination centre for 4 hours before the exam started. In other words, when the exam was supposed to start at 9AM, they started at 1PM. They were starved and asked to stay inside the examination centre.

Jesus, even my loser ex-boyfriend got a moldy bologna sandwich in the holding tank.

CPA Canada’s failure to administer the exam and treat candidates with the minimum of dignity while they waited to take what is quite possibly the most important test of their lives has been picked up by all sorts of media, including the Financial Post.

FP writes:

Another online poster, who spoke to the Financial Post on the condition that he would not be identified, described seeing people in Edmonton in emotional and physical distress on the second day of the exam, which was delayed for five hours, and which ultimately proceeded without access to a crucial digital handbook.

“Everyone was tired, exhausted and seemed in no shape to write” by the time the exam started, the poster said on Reddit, adding that a series of delays left the candidates in the examination room for about 12 hours and facing huge lineups for access to limited food and water.

“We study our butts off and stress for 8 weeks only to experience this?” the exam-writer wrote.

A statement we received from an anonymous collective consisting of Canadian Big 4 employees operating under the name Wayne Gretzky (LOL) details the CFE failures, disappointments, and plans to hold CPA Canada responsible. It also explains the situation far better than I can with far fewer tangents about greasy ex-boyfriends, so let’s check it out:

After a poorly administered examination took place last week, Chartered Professional Accountant (“CPA”) candidates across Canada are left to question the integrity and competency of their governing bodies. More than eight thousand CPA students wrote the annual Common Final Examination (“CFE”) from September 11, 2019 to September 13, 2019. The CFE is a three-day examination which requires students who have completed certain post-graduate programs to write four to five hours of simulated business cases each day, testing their competencies to be licensed as a CPA. The CFE is known to be one of the most challenging examinations to write—arguably on par with other professional examinations such as the bar exam for lawyers or qualification exam for doctors—with the majority of candidates sacrificing weeks of time off from work in order to prepare and perform at their best.

What students could not prepare for, however, was the myriad of unexpected technical and administrative issues during this year’s examination. These issues severely disrupted their ability to perform and compromised the validity of examination results. This is the first year that new examination software, called Surpass, was rolled out, and it appears that CPA Canada—the organization which governs the profession and administers the examination—had not adequately prepared themselves for the issues that would come along with this rollout.

This led a number of test centres across the country to delay the examination for up to five hours with limited access to food, drinks, and washrooms. It was likened to being held hostage, and those students ended up writing from 2PM to 7PM when they should have been writing from 9AM to 2PM. One student writes, “I came in that morning ready, […] but the fatigue from sitting and waiting for hours plus unnecessary stress resulted in what I believe to be a clear fail. I’m a good student, I studied like my life depended on it. In a normal exam condition, I’d have passed without any issue.”

In addition, some students were handicapped by being forced to write responses by hand as opposed to typing, with no access to reference material on their computers during the “open-book” examination. The examination was supposed to be written through the Surpass software, which saved typed responses and allowed students to view certain reference material, while locking down their computers from opening other applications. The software was ultimately used by only a fraction of students, and even so, these students faced slow response times and periodic glitches. There are also students falling in the last category of being told to write on Microsoft Word and access the internet for reference material, because the software did not work for the entire centre. To this point, one student wonders, “The test was going to be written at one point with three different groups having various resources […] How can you mark a test three different ways and make that fair?”

Not only are there issues in the fairness of marking, but students are convinced that examination results were also compromised due to the opportunities that opened up for cheating. A student from the West coast wrote, “Our start time was after when Eastern Canada [sic] would have finished their exam and there was no measure taken to ensure that there was no exam information leakage across the country.”

Indeed, some students from the Eastern time zones posted details about specific questions on social media despite having accepted a confidentiality agreement prior to the examination, and their posts benefitted users in the West who had unsupervised access to the internet during the delays.

The inappropriate handling of the situation by CPA Canada only made matters worse. Proctors appeared to not have been trained or communicated with properly because they made last-minute decisions and provided inconsistent instructions. One student recalls that “the staff in the room were very disorganized and clearly had no clue what to do.” To add on, another student expresses, “I’m mostly upset with the time it took to resolve the issues, and the lack of communication provided to the candidates.”

Social media sites such as Reddit were flooded with comments after each day, from students sharing their “disappointing”, “horrifying”, and “disastrous” experiences while expressing their thoughts surrounding the “lack of professionalism” by CPA Canada. The issues mentioned in this article make up only a small number of many more outlined by the accounts of hundreds of students. Even individuals who did not write the examination had something to say about the series of events: “As a mentor to a student, and a current CPA profession member, the way the CFE was handled and carried out this year was blatantly unacceptable. I’m ashamed of my profession for the way this was carried out. There is no excuse for this.”

The Surpass software mentioned in the statement was first used for last year’s exams and is supposed to offer “enhanced functionality and flexibility for examination writers and administrators.” It’s unclear at this point what part if any Surpass played in this debacle. That said, I’ve got a PDF of hundreds of candidate comments in front of me with countless complaints about the software, leading a reasonable person to assume it had a lot to do with last week’s drama. Since this is already running long and I know you guys, like me, have the attention span of a gnat, I’ll only share a choice few.

Surpass has been a nightmare. I wasn’t even able to upload my exam today. Day 1 they kept us for an extra hour after the exam due to technical difficulties with the software. We were advised not to use the cut function because it would freeze the software. The whole rollout of Surpass seems very poorly planned and basically exactly what they are teaching us not to do, as CPAs. I certainly expected better, considering the amount of money I paid to write the CFE.

And:

Surpass froze on me roughly 3 hours into the exam. A proctor took my computer and spent 30 minutes working on it without telling me what he was doing. I saw him with a back-up laptop and a USB key, so I assumed he was transferring my work, but when I asked him about it, he told me that the work I did was saved on the USB, and that I would have to finish the exam by hand.

And:

Please note that this is not the first time that there have been issues with the new software. I wrote my elective exam in December, 2018 and experienced the same issues (actually worse, because my computer crashed multiple times and I lost 20-30 minutes).

And my favorite comment of all:

As I said, the thing goes on for comment after comment. We’d be here all day and probably piss off our benevolent overlords at Accountingfly for all the server space we’d have to buy just to host every single complaint if I posted every single one. Let’s just say Surpass isn’t looking good at this point.

Like damn. As some of y’all know, I’m a day one Fallout 76 player and even Bethesda isn’t this bad when it comes to glitches, good Lord.

Oh hey, Mr Glitched Ghoul Guy

Of course CPA Canada was forced to make a statement, the entirety of which we’re including below because why not, this thing is already long as hell.

During the administration of the three-day Common Final Exam (CFE) there were technical delays resulting in a challenging exam writing experience for many students. We extend our sincere apologies to everyone who was affected as we know how much work goes into preparing and writing this important examination and how stressful it has been for our students.

In response to issues caused by technical problems with the CFE, CPA Canada is retaining a third-party expert to conduct an independent, comprehensive review. The mandate includes evaluating the integrity and reliability of the September 2019 examination process.

To inform our review, we are actively gathering information from students, proctors, and others to understand what happened and how it impacted the exam-writing experience. We are committed to maintaining the integrity of the profession and the Common Final Examination.

An independent board of examiners oversees the CFE evaluation process. Over many years, they have developed a robust system for taking into account extenuating circumstances that affect exam-writers. Given what occurred during this year’s exam, this CFE evaluation process will be supplemented by the third-party review.

We will proceed as quickly as possible, but our main priority is to provide the time necessary for a fair, accurate and equitable outcome.

At the same time, we are also immediately reviewing the technical issues that arose across the country and are working with our service providers to do everything possible to avoid a future reoccurrence.

We recognize what a difficult time this has been for many and we want to reassure exam-writers we have the people and processes in place to resolve the situation as quickly and effectively as possible.

Yeah, tell that to the poor bastards holed up in a gymnasium for hours on end last week.

This disaster comes just after CPA Canada released a likely multimillion-dollar advertising campaign on “The New Face” of Canada’s CPAs, making for an awkward discussion about CPA Canada’s priorities when they’re burning the future new faces this hard.

The post Let’s Talk About How CPA Canada Totally F*cked Up Last Week’s CFE appeared first on Going Concern.

republished from Going Concern

[alamante]

A storm that had raced across the Midwest earlier Thursday was rolling in with strong gusts that rocked the boats on the lake in southwestern Missouri.

“We got out of it and made it to the ramp. And I turned around and watched the other boat nose-dive, and my heart dropped,” passenger Kourtney Parker said.

Onlookers desperately tried to help as the duck boat began to sink in 40 feet of water. One group pulled an unconscious woman out of the water. An off-duty law enforcement officer dove into the choppy waters.

There were life jackets on the boat, but Stone County Sheriff Doug Rader said he doesn’t know whether people were wearing them.

Seventeen people, ranging in age from 1 to 70 years old, died. There were 11 members of one family on board — only two survived.

Investigators are now looking into questions about the accident, including the life jacket situation and what the crew knew about the incoming weather.

By late Friday morning, all 17 bodies had been recovered, US Coast Guard Lt. Cmdr. Tasha Sadowicz said.

The Coast Guard will conduct an investigation, said Sgt. Jason Pace of the Missouri State Highway Patrol, which is assisting. A team from the National Transportation Safety Board was to travel to the scene Friday.

The NTSB, on Twitter, sought the public’s help for photos or video of the sinking.

Severe storm hit Branson area

Jim Pattison Jr., president of the company that owns the duck boat tours, Ripley Entertainment Inc., said the ferocious squall “came out of nowhere.”

According to weather data, the storm traveled hundreds of miles at 55 mph before it hit the lake.

The area around Branson was placed under a severe thunderstorm warning shortly after 6:30 p.m. (7:30 p.m. ET), about half an hour before the boat sank.

Radar shows the first wind gusts arriving at the lake ahead of the storm, at 6:59 p.m.

There were reports of damage throughout Stone County, including trees down and structural damage, CNN meteorologist Taylor Ward said. The highest wind gust reported in the area was 63 mph.

The storm was part of the same upper-level weather system that spawned destructive tornadoes Thursday in Iowa, Missouri’s northern neighbor.

Authorities received the first 911 call about the sinking at 7:09 p.m., the sheriff said.

In July, the company operates tours that depart every 30 minutes from 8:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. A tour lasts about 70 minutes, with about half on land and half on water, the company’s website says.

A mechanical problem on another boat possibly led to a delay in the ill-fated craft beginning its tour.

‘Those poor people, oh no!’

Jennie Phillips-Hudson Carr, was on the nearby Showboat Branson Belle, a riverboat docked near the sinking ship.

Video she recorded shows at least three vessels on the lake, including the two Ride the Ducks boats rocking and tilting to the side as ripples turned into massive waves.

Strong winds whipped waves head-on onto the boats.

“Oh my God, those poor people, oh no!” someone says on the video as the water crashes into the smaller boats, and the one starts sinking.

“If there’s kids on there, those poor babies,” a female voice says.

The boat sank, wheels down, 40 feet down, and then rolled to an area 80 feet deep, Rader said.

Among those killed was the driver, Robert “Bob” Williams, said his widow, Judy Williams.

A second crew member — the boat’s captain, whose name wasn’t immediately released — was among the survivors and was taken to a hospital, Pattison said.

‘This should never end this way’

Ripley Entertainment said it recently acquired the boat company. The boat had a captain and a driver with a commercial license, he said.

“Obviously, we shouldn’t be out there in severe weather,” Pattison said. The company has been in operation for 47 years without any incident such as this, he said.

Asked whether the passengers and two crew members had time to put on life jackets, Pattison said, “We don’t know that yet.”

“People are supposed to be able to go out for an outing and have a good time. This should never end this way — there’s not much more you can say,” he said when asked whether he had a message for relatives of those who were aboard.

Showboat crew and passengers scrambled to help

Two passengers on the Showboat Branson Belle, Trent Behr and his girlfriend, Allison Lester, described what they saw when they appeared Friday on ABC’s “Good Morning America.”

Lester said the weather had been nice Thursday. But as she and Behr boarded the dinner boat cruise, “the wind really picked up bad and debris was flying everywhere,” she said.

As they toured the dinner boat, the couple looked out the window and saw the duck boats struggling in the water.

“It was maybe two minutes later, and we actually heard the captain say that the boat flipped or the boat is sinking,” Behr said.

Behr said that at one point, he and other passengers on the dinner boat helped pull an unconscious woman from the water. EMTs arrived before he could administer CPR, he said.

Among the rescuers was an off-duty sheriff’s deputy on the Branson Belle who “jumped in and helped,” said Rader, the Stone County sheriff.

Nearby passenger: Everything happened fast

Duck boats are amphibious vessels that travel on both land and water, and are popular among tourists in major cities. The boats’ history dates to World War II, when such vessels were a common sight due to their versatility.

In Branson, they are driven along city streets for part of the tour before the driver uses a ramp to enter the lake.

Pattison said he didn’t know when the doomed boat — or the one just in front of it — started the tour or entered the water.

Parker, who was on the duck boat in front, told CNN that both vessels had delayed their entry into the lake.

“We got toward the lake ramp, but our propeller quit working. So we had to wait 15 to 20 minutes for a backup bus, which set us back and that (other) boat, because we were in front of them, and they had to wait for us,” Parker said.

After the boats entered the water, she said, they “got about halfway across the lake, and then, bam, everything all happened so fast,” she said. “We were literally under water a couple times.”

Pattison said he believes it was calm when the boats went into the water.

“Partway through coming back is when … the waves picked up and then obviously swamped the boat,” he said Friday morning.

Driver was ‘the calmest spirit you could ever meet’

Williams, the driver, was a caring man who was friendly to everybody, his widow told CNN.

“He’d talk to anybody. He made an effect on many lives. He would give up his life for somebody,” she said in an emotional phone interview Friday. “That’s the kind of man Robert was, is.”

His grandson, Victor Richardson, told CNN: “He was a God-fearing man; he was very humble. He was the calmest spirit you could ever meet.”

Bob and Judy Williams were married for more than 30 years and lived in Branson, according to the grandson.

‘Our hearts are breaking’

Ride the Ducks Branson said it was deeply saddened and that the business would be closed “while we support the investigation, and to allow time to grieve for the families and the community.”

“Words cannot convey how profoundly our hearts are breaking,” it said in a statement on its website. “We will continue to do all we can to assist the families who were involved and the authorities as they continue with the search and rescue.”

Branson, a popular family vacation destination, is about 200 miles southeast of Kansas City, Missouri.

CNN’s Dakin Andone, Amanda Watts, Joe Sutton, Gianluca Mezzofiore, Judson Jones, Brandon Miller, Deanna Hackney, Marlena Baldacci and Sheena Jones contributed to this report.

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   The post 17 killed in Missouri duck boat sinking ranged in age from 1 to 70 appeared first on MySourceSpot.

[takenews-blog1]

These had been the largest tales in video video games in 2017

New Post has been published on https://takenews.net/these-had-been-the-largest-tales-in-video-video-games-in-2017/

These had been the largest tales in video video games in 2017

At Polygon, we write and browse 1000’s of stories tales every year. There’s a price in revisiting them, inspecting them not simply as stand-alone occasions however half of a complete. Collectively, these tales inform us about the place video games have been, the place they’re going, how the shape grows and stumbles — generally each without delay.

It takes time to essentially perceive what these tales have to show us. However I feel that an accumulation of 2017 information is already yielding helpful classes, presumably even revelations, about gaming’s future.

The only greatest occasion that established 2017’s significance was the launch of Nintendo’s Change. By no means earlier than have we seen a profitable house console that can also be a handheld.

Following the shambles of the Wii U, Nintendo confirmed huge dedication to wager once more on the idea of a pill console. This time, it discovered a method that the general public likes, even when the corporate tripped up by itself rush to market alongside the best way.

As we said in our evaluate, it’s “wholly not like the PlayStation four and Xbox One. The Change is absolutely its personal factor.’ How this shapes the responses of opponents stays to be seen. The final time Nintendo shook up gaming, with the Wii, each Sony and Microsoft shifted route, albeit with blended outcomes.

One other console arrived this yr, touted because the “strongest” the world has ever seen. The Xbox One X is undoubtedly a beast, one thing for the discerning, rich gamer. However it’s additionally a affirmation that the period of laborious generational resets is being changed by one thing extra nuanced. The PlayStation four Professional got here out final yr, however as we said in our evaluate, Microsoft has launched a superior package deal, albeit with a costlier price ticket. Not like the PS4 Professional, the Xbox One X has intensive backward compatibility options and a UHD Blu-ray participant. (Then once more, the cheaper Xbox One S has the identical options, too.)

It’s, after all, in Microsoft’s curiosity to take dangers. This era, it has been outgunned by Sony. The PS4 lately handed the 70 million gross sales mark.

Microsoft has been reticent about sharing gross sales numbers, nevertheless it’s positively properly behind, and the Xbox One might by no means get well. Sony took its personal threat late final yr with PlayStation VR, which has confirmed to be a gradual vendor and is at the moment on provide at a extremely enticing value.

Elsewhere on the VR entrance, Oculus introduced a brand new stand-alone headset, due for launch subsequent yr. Referred to as Oculus Go, it’s priced at $199. The present Rift acquired a value minimize this yr, to $399. We nonetheless haven’t heard the increase of afterburners within the VR sector, nevertheless it’s been a gradual, encouraging yr.

The launch of Nintendo’s SNES Traditional Version demonstrated, as soon as once more, that players are simply as enamored of the previous as we’re of the long run. The retro console launched within the fall, and it has been a extremely sought-after buy ever since. They made fairly good video games again within the ’90s.

If we had to decide on one single gaming story that stood out this yr, it’s the astounding success of PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds.

As we lately famous, it’s “a buggy, half-done mess, horribly optimized, crashes steadily and, at current, has only one playable map.” But it’s attracting superb numbers. It’s widespread to see round three million folks enjoying on Steam on the identical time. Nothing else comes shut.

PUBG took one thing that folks like — on this case, the capturing sport — and gave it a tweak. It’s a last-man-standing sport wherein 100 gamers battle each other in an ever-decreasing geographic space. Easy is finest.

This was additionally a yr wherein a Zelda and a Mario sport arrived, a blessed alignment that gave us two of probably the most good video games ever made. Nintendo’s Change success was propelled by these two video games, which progressed open-world role-playing and the platformer style, respectively.

Breath of the Wild can already lay declare to being maybe the very best sport ever made, a basic that gives one thing for everybody, and but retains a coherence that merges old-school Nintendo with real newness.

Tremendous Mario Odyssey returned us to the much-maligned style of 3D platforming in a manner we haven’t seen in years. It honored the world’s most well-known gaming mascot, whereas daring to put apart a few of his most well-worn tips.

Mario’s return appears to have prompted a resurgence of some outdated online game mascots. Sonic Mania took us again to the glory days of this most tortured of franchises.

Mega Man will quickly be making a comeback. Crash Bandicoot and Bubsy obtained new video games. Then there was Yooka-Laylee and A Hat in Time, which paid homage to the good platformers of the ’90s.

In 2017, some big-name video games turned out to be disappointments. Mass Impact: Andromeda regarded rushed at launch. It later emerged that a lot of the sport had been made in a single yr.

Center-earth: Shadow of Conflict did not seize the essence of the unique, with a defective loot field system (extra on that later) and a discomforting line round slavery.

Then again, Overwatch went from energy to energy. It was already six months outdated when the yr started and a serious success. And but it’s made huge strides ahead up to now 12 months, making greater than a billion and passing the 35 million gamers mark.

It’s acquired new heroes and maps, common updates and recent skins, in addition to esports and multiplayer occasions. Blizzard has demonstrated a capability to assist and promote a sport as a residing entity, whereas recognizing that it’s also a group, with a social and cultural function to play.

Indie builders provided new methods to attach with gamers at deep emotional layers. A few of the most rewarding video games of the yr included Rakuen, Tales Untold, Blackwood Crossing, Final Day of June, Every thing and Evening within the Woods. If you’d like a sport to essentially make you are feeling one thing, play certainly one of them.

Just like the canine that broke right into a butcher’s fridge, Digital Arts has an issue with moderation. Having coined a fortune from its sports activities video games’ Final Staff modes, the corporate proceeded to graft related “loot crates” onto different kinds of video games.

Loot packing containers energize in-game economies, providing corporations new methods to earn a living. They’re generally a enjoyable option to interact with video games. However EA’s Star Wars Battlefront 2 aggravated gamers, as a result of the sport felt prefer it was designed round its economic system and never the opposite manner round.

EA wasn’t the one firm to go too far with loot packing containers. However messing up a Star Wars sport launch made EA probably the most distinguished goal of blame.

The corporate was compelled to drag again its cynical microtransaction coverage, prompting a inventory value fall. Lawmakers are starting to take an curiosity within the difficulty.

It’s possible that this fiasco will result in extra smart implementations of loot packing containers. However latest occasions with video games like Future 2 show discouraging.

Sport corporations lastly ended a protracted labor dispute with voice actors, who went on strike over residual funds.

Video games retailer GameStop determined that it could be humorous to launch a industrial that made enjoyable of gouging pre-order techniques utilized by sport publishers and … sport retailers.

Sport discussion board NeoGAF went offline for some time after allegations of significant sexual misconduct had been leveled towards the positioning’s proprietor, Tyler Malka. Moderators left their posts. The location later returned, with Malka denying the allegations, however a lot of its viewers had left for a brand new discussion board referred to as ResetEra.

Polygon confronted controversy when the misconduct of certainly one of our video producers, Nick Robinson, got here to gentle. Polygon “parted methods” with Robinson quickly afterward, and he provided an apology for his actions.

Naughty Canine launched a violent trailer for subsequent yr’s The Final of Us 2, together with photographs of torture and gratuitous violence towards ladies.

Elsewhere, Oculus discovered itself in a nasty authorized battle with ZeniMax over the Rift’s mental property. In the long run, the courts discovered that Oculus (and its founder Palmer Luckey) had not abided by non-disclosure agreements. ZeniMax was awarded $500 million. Luckey later departed Oculus proprietor Fb.

A Pokémon Go pageant went badly when 1000’s of gamers confirmed up in Chicago hoping to search out uncommon Pokémon. They had been unable to play the sport resulting from server overloads.

Valve stepped in to repair Steam’s buying and selling card system, asserting that it might kill “pretend” video games from its on-line retail hub, which it mentioned had been getting used to generate buying and selling playing cards for the grey market, thus spinning fast and shady income. Silicon Echo, the corporate behind these video games, later withdrew from sport improvement.

In the meantime, the sport trade fielded some losses from the brand new Trump administration. Some corporations had been offended about Trump’s racist muslim ban, arguing that it impeded recruitment of key expertise.

The video games trade’s D.C.-based lobbying agency, the Leisure Software program Affiliation, was, maybe unsurprisingly, exultant about proposed tax cuts for firms. However the Worldwide Sport Builders Affiliation expressed concern that modifications to well being care regulation may have a adverse influence on indies.

Sport corporations are exhibiting their tooth on the subject of toxicity, a minimum of on these events when it impacts their merchandise. Epic filed a lawsuit towards cheaters in its extremely profitable sport Fortnite.

Niantic discovered new methods to disgrace Pokémon Go cheaters. The corporate introduced that Pokémon obtained via unofficial means would now be marked as such in-game, and would begin appearing weirdly, too.

Blizzard received an $eight million judgment towards an organization in Germany, which was taking advantage of a dishonest instrument.

Sure YouTubers had a nasty yr. Disney severed ties with PewDiePie after he made anti-Semitic “jokes” in his movies. PewDiePie later blamed the media.

Kinda Humorous co-founder Colin Moriarty give up the channel just a few days after making a drained Twitter gag about ladies. Kinda Humorous’s Greg Miller mentioned that he and his companion had been “shifting in two instructions.”

JonTron got here out in assist of anti-immigrant insurance policies. Within the aftermath, he misplaced 1000’s of subscribers and was minimize as a voice actor in Yooka-Laylee. He later mentioned that the feedback had been “a nasty look.”

However the greatest self-own of the yr got here from the loathsome Carl “Sargon of Akkad” Benjamin, who has spent years making a living spouting drivel about feminist media critic Anita Sarkeesian. Benjamin and allies confirmed as much as a Sarkeesian panel at VidCon in a transparent try to intimidate her. Sarkeesian was not intimidated. She referred to as him out as “a rubbish human.”

Zoe Quinn, a favourite goal of gaming’s misogynists, revealed a wonderful ebook on GamerGate. One memorable line: “On-line abuse is form of like discovering shit in your meals. It doesn’t a lot matter if it’s just a little turd or a complete shit sandwich.”

Gaming is eternally in flux. Yearly, issues come, and issues go.

This yr, we mentioned goodbye to Kinect, Microsoft’s motion-control gadget that by no means fairly lived as much as expectations. The corporate confirmed the top of producing, however warned that it would come again.

Corporations together with Runic, Visceral, CastAR, Mad Catz and Gazillion closed their doorways. Warner Bros. referred to as it a day on the Lego Dimensions sequence.

Peter Moore, a vigorous sport trade exec who performed as much as a picture of showmanship, moved on from Digital Arts to turn out to be chairman of one of many greatest soccer golf equipment on the planet.

But for many individuals of a sure age, the closure of Membership Penguin precipitated probably the most anguish. The browser-based MMO had been a much-loved diversion for hundreds of thousands of children within the final decade.

However then, that’s the best way issues roll in video games. Success is short-lived. Failure tends to be enduring. We’ll be doing all this once more subsequent yr. Needs to be enjoyable.

[itsyaboybigc-blog]

Post Mortem

Introduction

After about 9 weeks of recording and mixing, all I can say is, never again. I swore in my post mortem I’d never spend as much time in lab 2 again, but I think I doubled it this trimester. That being said, I think creatively I really achieved what I was hoping to, whether or not I achieved what I wanted in terms of my mixing remains to be seen. As usual, I will reflect on each song individually and compare to what I believe is a similar work, so here’s my reflection on “Warp”.

Prelude

It’s worth noting that due to me swamping between DAW’s that have different fade functions, I messed up the fades on Pro-tools doing my final batch fades and parts that are meant to be faded out are now audible and very obvious, including a guitar jack getting pulled out, so thank you Pro-tools for that.

Darkest Carnival

Certainly the heaviest and most “traditional” song on the EP. It begun with the intro guitar riffs which i thought had quite a sinister undertone to it and I thought it would be a good song to start the album off with and  build it up. I’m quite happy with the clean guitar tones I recorded for this track and the helix FX I used I think sound really nice, my only change to them is I’d like to maybe make the tone a bit warmer from the amp instead of having to EQ it in. Then the heavy guitars came in and my problems started. The initial tones I captured from the amp were okay but definitely had to much highs and I found the sounds too piercing, the only way I was able to salvage them was to record anther take using the Helix amps sims so I’d have complete control over the tone I was capturing, however I’m still not to thrilled with how it sounds and will likely re do it at a later date. I initially had a synth solo that would kind of transition the song into the more electronic direction the EP was heading but it honestly sounded terrible and I decided the best option was to do a super 80s heavy metal guitar solo, I regret not using a wah-pedal on it and going full Kirk Hammett but I quite like the tone I used. I used electronic drums for the intro and Battery sampled drums for the heavier parts, both were fairly easy to mix but getting Battery to sound like a real drum kit was a bit of a challenge. My Idea for this songs vocals comes from Katatonia’s song “Inside the City of Glass” where it has no singing but whispers that eeire play out in the quieter parts of the song. As I wanted to keep all the vocals for this song kind of different to the usual I had a whisper track run through a delay, two reverse delays delaying at different rates, a reverse reverb and a regular reverb. I think the result of this made a vocal track that really fit the sinister vibe of the song as few words are distinguishable but it’s still obviously someones voice which i really like. If I was to compare this to an existing track I’d compare it to “The Darkness Within” by Machinehead, the tones are crushing and defined yet not to piercing with the higher frequencies which I was really trying to do, but certainly did not achieve. I think the distorted guitar tones used in this track is what I was going for Over all I find this song to be the most lacklustre but I am quite happy with the cleans and the vocal parts.

The Forlorn

This song is where the album takes more of a turn towards the more obscure electronic/metal fusion. It starts out with a droney synth, electronic drums and lo-fi vocals and I’m really happy with how this turned out, except for the vocals which are most likely place holders for now. I was going for a sound similar to Nine Inch Nails’ new EP “Add Violence” and I think i got that vibe with out it being a ripoff. The song Then suddenly takes of into a heavy saw/square wave synth that I wanted to sound like the synth equivalent of a distorted guitar, form there guitars and lead synths are added to create a sort of build up. I was hoping to replace a vocal part with a lead synth that would kind of solo through out the whole song and I quite like how it sounded when it all came together. The guitars for this track took a bit of time and a second recording session but I think i managed to achieve my goal of having a heavy but dull sounding tone the chugs along in the background, but I’m not 100% happy with the lead tone and I’m not sure what I don’t like about it. Out of all four songs I think this one was the easiest to mix and I’m fairly happy with how it turned out.

Agony

This song was the first one I wrote earlier this year and kind of what started the idea for this project. the whole song was based around the two music box riffs and the creepy lead synth I think sound sort of like a human voice doing some sort of wailing. The crunching tone that plays through out most the song is actually a bass hitting power chords because I wanted to experiment with a bass taking more of a guitar roll and I think i’ll do it more often in metal as bass power chords sound very brutal. This is kind of similar to the previous song in the sense that it slowly builds up focusing around a lead vocal replacing synth, but was much harder to mix as I found it hard making a place for everything to be heard. As per what seemes to be the theme for this EP, the guitars caused me issues and were re-recorded. I wanted them to sit in the background and not stick out to much but finding the middle ground between typical guitar levels and not being heard at all took almost all the time I spent mixing this track. The drums were a simple 4 piece electronic kit and I’m really happy with how they sound, especially the crash which sounds like someone dropping a metal sheet in a massive cave or something. I wanted the vocals for this song to be as if its another instrument instead of the usual use of vocals being the focal point for the song, so I recorded some low pitched growling vocals with heavy reverb to sort of echo out in the middle of the mix just to really create the climax of the build up. I tried thinking of a song to compare this to but it’s probably the weirdest song I’ve every written and I’m not actually sure what it sounds like, probably more comparable to came sounds tracks where its just repetition with things being added and taken away to create and evolving song. 

Malevolencia

The final song and probably the song I spent the most time on. I wanted to finish the EP on a more mellow note as most metal albums have one song that’s more calm or acoustic than the rest. I was lucky enough to be able to work with my friend Tim Mead from Treehouses on this track and I am very happy with his spoken word parts. We got it all done in about an hour and he had so much lyrical content prepared I was able to pick and chose which lines I wanted. Tim is really professional in is approach to music and recording and  really puts a lot of emotion into his writing, I hope to work with him again soon in some other musical project. This First section of this song was really enjoyable to mix, the clean guitars came through really nice and worked well with the organs, it’s my first time working with an organ I think they sound great. The EQ sweep into the 8 strings it probably my favourite parts as it bring a rather mellow song into a heavier, dronier song. Also my first time working with an 8 string guitar and I look forward to working with them more as I found it really easy to mix them to sound heavy without actually needing to gain the amp that much, which removes all the high-end that gives me headaches. The second half of this song however was a right pain in the ass and as expected, was re-recorded. All the tones had so much high-end and it was painful to listen to, only on the last day did i realise I couldn’t actually hear the organs and brought all the guitars down to make the organs audible, this really saved the song for me as I was close to scrapping the whole end as it sounded awful.

Concluding Statement

I think this semester has been the most full on in terms of skills I’ve had to learn. recording and mixing guitars is certainly no walk in the park and I’m going to have to do a lot of research over the break before undertaking my final major project of a heavy metal album mixed in surround sound with lots of synths and string sections, I believe this semester’s project has prepared me well for this. I realise that this EP doesn’t really fit in anywhere and the songs are all quite different, but I’m happy with how it turned out and I like to think they all feel linked somehow in terms of the dark feel to the whole EP. I look forward to releasing Warp along with Eco on Bandcamp, however for now they will remain on soundcloud as the graphic artist has not yet finished the album artwork and I want to do more one more final mix on each track.

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These had been the largest tales in video video games in 2017

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These had been the largest tales in video video games in 2017

At Polygon, we write and browse 1000’s of stories tales every year. There’s a price in revisiting them, inspecting them not simply as stand-alone occasions however half of a complete. Collectively, these tales inform us about the place video games have been, the place they’re going, how the shape grows and stumbles — generally each without delay.

It takes time to essentially perceive what these tales have to show us. However I feel that an accumulation of 2017 information is already yielding helpful classes, presumably even revelations, about gaming’s future.

The only greatest occasion that established 2017’s significance was the launch of Nintendo’s Change. By no means earlier than have we seen a profitable house console that can also be a handheld.

Following the shambles of the Wii U, Nintendo confirmed huge dedication to wager once more on the idea of a pill console. This time, it discovered a method that the general public likes, even when the corporate tripped up by itself rush to market alongside the best way.

As we said in our evaluate, it’s “wholly not like the PlayStation four and Xbox One. The Change is absolutely its personal factor.’ How this shapes the responses of opponents stays to be seen. The final time Nintendo shook up gaming, with the Wii, each Sony and Microsoft shifted route, albeit with blended outcomes.

One other console arrived this yr, touted because the “strongest” the world has ever seen. The Xbox One X is undoubtedly a beast, one thing for the discerning, rich gamer. However it’s additionally a affirmation that the period of laborious generational resets is being changed by one thing extra nuanced. The PlayStation four Professional got here out final yr, however as we said in our evaluate, Microsoft has launched a superior package deal, albeit with a costlier price ticket. Not like the PS4 Professional, the Xbox One X has intensive backward compatibility options and a UHD Blu-ray participant. (Then once more, the cheaper Xbox One S has the identical options, too.)

It’s, after all, in Microsoft’s curiosity to take dangers. This era, it has been outgunned by Sony. The PS4 lately handed the 70 million gross sales mark.

Microsoft has been reticent about sharing gross sales numbers, nevertheless it’s positively properly behind, and the Xbox One might by no means get well. Sony took its personal threat late final yr with PlayStation VR, which has confirmed to be a gradual vendor and is at the moment on provide at a extremely enticing value.

Elsewhere on the VR entrance, Oculus introduced a brand new stand-alone headset, due for launch subsequent yr. Referred to as Oculus Go, it’s priced at $199. The present Rift acquired a value minimize this yr, to $399. We nonetheless haven’t heard the increase of afterburners within the VR sector, nevertheless it’s been a gradual, encouraging yr.

The launch of Nintendo’s SNES Traditional Version demonstrated, as soon as once more, that players are simply as enamored of the previous as we’re of the long run. The retro console launched within the fall, and it has been a extremely sought-after buy ever since. They made fairly good video games again within the ’90s.

If we had to decide on one single gaming story that stood out this yr, it’s the astounding success of PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds.

As we lately famous, it’s “a buggy, half-done mess, horribly optimized, crashes steadily and, at current, has only one playable map.” But it’s attracting superb numbers. It’s widespread to see round three million folks enjoying on Steam on the identical time. Nothing else comes shut.

PUBG took one thing that folks like — on this case, the capturing sport — and gave it a tweak. It’s a last-man-standing sport wherein 100 gamers battle each other in an ever-decreasing geographic space. Easy is finest.

This was additionally a yr wherein a Zelda and a Mario sport arrived, a blessed alignment that gave us two of probably the most good video games ever made. Nintendo’s Change success was propelled by these two video games, which progressed open-world role-playing and the platformer style, respectively.

Breath of the Wild can already lay declare to being maybe the very best sport ever made, a basic that gives one thing for everybody, and but retains a coherence that merges old-school Nintendo with real newness.

Tremendous Mario Odyssey returned us to the much-maligned style of 3D platforming in a manner we haven’t seen in years. It honored the world’s most well-known gaming mascot, whereas daring to put apart a few of his most well-worn tips.

Mario’s return appears to have prompted a resurgence of some outdated online game mascots. Sonic Mania took us again to the glory days of this most tortured of franchises.

Mega Man will quickly be making a comeback. Crash Bandicoot and Bubsy obtained new video games. Then there was Yooka-Laylee and A Hat in Time, which paid homage to the good platformers of the ’90s.

In 2017, some big-name video games turned out to be disappointments. Mass Impact: Andromeda regarded rushed at launch. It later emerged that a lot of the sport had been made in a single yr.

Center-earth: Shadow of Conflict did not seize the essence of the unique, with a defective loot field system (extra on that later) and a discomforting line round slavery.

Then again, Overwatch went from energy to energy. It was already six months outdated when the yr started and a serious success. And but it’s made huge strides ahead up to now 12 months, making greater than a billion and passing the 35 million gamers mark.

It’s acquired new heroes and maps, common updates and recent skins, in addition to esports and multiplayer occasions. Blizzard has demonstrated a capability to assist and promote a sport as a residing entity, whereas recognizing that it’s also a group, with a social and cultural function to play.

Indie builders provided new methods to attach with gamers at deep emotional layers. A few of the most rewarding video games of the yr included Rakuen, Tales Untold, Blackwood Crossing, Final Day of June, Every thing and Evening within the Woods. If you’d like a sport to essentially make you are feeling one thing, play certainly one of them.

Just like the canine that broke right into a butcher’s fridge, Digital Arts has an issue with moderation. Having coined a fortune from its sports activities video games’ Final Staff modes, the corporate proceeded to graft related “loot crates” onto different kinds of video games.

Loot packing containers energize in-game economies, providing corporations new methods to earn a living. They’re generally a enjoyable option to interact with video games. However EA’s Star Wars Battlefront 2 aggravated gamers, as a result of the sport felt prefer it was designed round its economic system and never the opposite manner round.

EA wasn’t the one firm to go too far with loot packing containers. However messing up a Star Wars sport launch made EA probably the most distinguished goal of blame.

The corporate was compelled to drag again its cynical microtransaction coverage, prompting a inventory value fall. Lawmakers are starting to take an curiosity within the difficulty.

It’s possible that this fiasco will result in extra smart implementations of loot packing containers. However latest occasions with video games like Future 2 show discouraging.

Sport corporations lastly ended a protracted labor dispute with voice actors, who went on strike over residual funds.

Video games retailer GameStop determined that it could be humorous to launch a industrial that made enjoyable of gouging pre-order techniques utilized by sport publishers and … sport retailers.

Sport discussion board NeoGAF went offline for some time after allegations of significant sexual misconduct had been leveled towards the positioning’s proprietor, Tyler Malka. Moderators left their posts. The location later returned, with Malka denying the allegations, however a lot of its viewers had left for a brand new discussion board referred to as ResetEra.

Polygon confronted controversy when the misconduct of certainly one of our video producers, Nick Robinson, got here to gentle. Polygon “parted methods” with Robinson quickly afterward, and he provided an apology for his actions.

Naughty Canine launched a violent trailer for subsequent yr’s The Final of Us 2, together with photographs of torture and gratuitous violence towards ladies.

Elsewhere, Oculus discovered itself in a nasty authorized battle with ZeniMax over the Rift’s mental property. In the long run, the courts discovered that Oculus (and its founder Palmer Luckey) had not abided by non-disclosure agreements. ZeniMax was awarded $500 million. Luckey later departed Oculus proprietor Fb.

A Pokémon Go pageant went badly when 1000’s of gamers confirmed up in Chicago hoping to search out uncommon Pokémon. They had been unable to play the sport resulting from server overloads.

Valve stepped in to repair Steam’s buying and selling card system, asserting that it might kill “pretend” video games from its on-line retail hub, which it mentioned had been getting used to generate buying and selling playing cards for the grey market, thus spinning fast and shady income. Silicon Echo, the corporate behind these video games, later withdrew from sport improvement.

In the meantime, the sport trade fielded some losses from the brand new Trump administration. Some corporations had been offended about Trump’s racist muslim ban, arguing that it impeded recruitment of key expertise.

The video games trade’s D.C.-based lobbying agency, the Leisure Software program Affiliation, was, maybe unsurprisingly, exultant about proposed tax cuts for firms. However the Worldwide Sport Builders Affiliation expressed concern that modifications to well being care regulation may have a adverse influence on indies.

Sport corporations are exhibiting their tooth on the subject of toxicity, a minimum of on these events when it impacts their merchandise. Epic filed a lawsuit towards cheaters in its extremely profitable sport Fortnite.

Niantic discovered new methods to disgrace Pokémon Go cheaters. The corporate introduced that Pokémon obtained via unofficial means would now be marked as such in-game, and would begin appearing weirdly, too.

Blizzard received an $eight million judgment towards an organization in Germany, which was taking advantage of a dishonest instrument.

Sure YouTubers had a nasty yr. Disney severed ties with PewDiePie after he made anti-Semitic “jokes” in his movies. PewDiePie later blamed the media.

Kinda Humorous co-founder Colin Moriarty give up the channel just a few days after making a drained Twitter gag about ladies. Kinda Humorous’s Greg Miller mentioned that he and his companion had been “shifting in two instructions.”

JonTron got here out in assist of anti-immigrant insurance policies. Within the aftermath, he misplaced 1000’s of subscribers and was minimize as a voice actor in Yooka-Laylee. He later mentioned that the feedback had been “a nasty look.”

However the greatest self-own of the yr got here from the loathsome Carl “Sargon of Akkad” Benjamin, who has spent years making a living spouting drivel about feminist media critic Anita Sarkeesian. Benjamin and allies confirmed as much as a Sarkeesian panel at VidCon in a transparent try to intimidate her. Sarkeesian was not intimidated. She referred to as him out as “a rubbish human.”

Zoe Quinn, a favourite goal of gaming’s misogynists, revealed a wonderful ebook on GamerGate. One memorable line: “On-line abuse is form of like discovering shit in your meals. It doesn’t a lot matter if it’s just a little turd or a complete shit sandwich.”

Gaming is eternally in flux. Yearly, issues come, and issues go.

This yr, we mentioned goodbye to Kinect, Microsoft’s motion-control gadget that by no means fairly lived as much as expectations. The corporate confirmed the top of producing, however warned that it would come again.

Corporations together with Runic, Visceral, CastAR, Mad Catz and Gazillion closed their doorways. Warner Bros. referred to as it a day on the Lego Dimensions sequence.

Peter Moore, a vigorous sport trade exec who performed as much as a picture of showmanship, moved on from Digital Arts to turn out to be chairman of one of many greatest soccer golf equipment on the planet.

But for many individuals of a sure age, the closure of Membership Penguin precipitated probably the most anguish. The browser-based MMO had been a much-loved diversion for hundreds of thousands of children within the final decade.

However then, that’s the best way issues roll in video games. Success is short-lived. Failure tends to be enduring. We’ll be doing all this once more subsequent yr. Needs to be enjoyable.