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that-lazy-snail · 1 year ago

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I have a lot of feelings about the Titan sub extravaganza and since tumblr is just shouting into a vaccume I think I'll share them below the cut if anyone wants to read lol.

1st: I knew they were dead the moment they said they were missing. Like Cameron said in interviews there's literally no way for them to completely lose contact without having no power AT ALL, and if you have no power in situations like that, your craft is gone and you're dead. It was genuinely the best thing that could have happened to them, coming up too fast as they were trying to do also probably would have killed them but in a much more horrible way, and granted you can survive bad cases of the bends (sometimes) but if you don't it's a really really horrible way to go. But also so is suffocating and hypothermia which was the case if they'd been stuck in there for days as the rescue team led you to believe is also a really horrible way to go. If I had to die catastrophically, honestly that's how I'd want to do it, you can't even feel pain or understand it.

2nd: I think it is sad, because I don't think people "deserve" to die, (particularly the 19 yo who most likely didn't want to be there/claimed he didn't want to be there) and they were probably afraid in their last moments because they heard the hull creaking and that's sad, but I also think it's ironic because you are taking a TOURISM trip to an EXTREMELY deep part of the ocean that is home to a MASS GRAVE. And they paid 250k to do it and weren't smart enough to check whether or not the sub they were in was a death trap (idk about you but I personally would be checking that 10 times over. I'm going into a highly highly pressurized space with no logical safety precautions? I'll pass). So they maybe kinda got what was coming to them, and eat the rich and all that, maybe don't voyer a mass grave.

3rd: I think the depth of the Titanic is the universes way of deterring people from going there, like we have museums that practically put you on the ship and give activities that simulate the sinking, you don't need to see the real thing. 100s of people died there tragically and suffered, let them rest. There is no good reason why civilians should be visiting the Titanic, not a single one, regardless of how much money you have.

4th: I was waiting 3 days for Cameron to comment on it, and I'm glad he did cause honestly I trust his expertise in this area maybe more than a single other person on the planet, and it's not cause I'm his fan, he's genuinely the most educated individual. I've had a passion/interest in ocean exploration since I was 11 so while I'm no expert, I do know that you can't make a sub out of carbon fiber and not die. I've also have been a fan of Cameron's exploration work in the challenger deep for over a decade by extension. I think it's funny that all these people didn't know that he was a director as his side hustle, because even tho I've been a fan of avatar since it came out (I was 9 at the time and didn't connect that it was him till I was like 16?), I always first and foremost knew him as the deepest human dive record holder for the Marianas trench. I'm glad to see the world is starting to share some of my respect for him as an academic 😂. Anyway, I'll always be kinda a Cameron fan probably more than most other white men, just cause clumbsy white man behavior aside he's a genuinely smart and well meaning individual, more than can be said for a lot of other multimillionaire directors...

5th: the media coverage of this was completely unnecessary and the rescue attempts were also unnecessary since everyone in the field knew they were dead, anyone with an engineering degree knew they were dead, anyone with common sense and the ability to do good research knew they were dead. The rescue was all for show and a waste of resources. I think it's horrrific what happened off the cost of Greece and I think the media SHOULD have covered that instead but I don't like hearing the comparison of "we should have sent our resources there" as there's a fairly large logistical difference between a submersible with a 3 day expiration date and a boat with a 30 minute one. That doesn't mean that there shouldn't have been more support/recovery efforts made for the immigrants, there SHOULD HAVE but it's not comparable in anything except media response and that it's in/on the ocean. I also think it's okay to care about both and the response to 5 billionaires dying at see can be joked about and made light of and sometimes that's good for the human condition, the death of people fleeing death and then tragically dying, cannot but it doesn't mean people don't/won't care, it just means they're not loud about it.

6th: and finally, I do think the Logitech controller is funny, and more seriously I think everyone's responses to this are valid, those people that are laughing at them, people who are upset, it's a hard thing to grapple with, at least it is for me

#Titan #titanic #titan submersible #Titan sub #titanic submersible #personal rant #My thoughts and opinions #Like who thought that sub was a good idea? Not me #People be stupid

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dehvastation · 6 months ago

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Nice Surprise Part 1 (With @DesolateBadass)

Dehv: ~ I sat back in the plane and crossed my arms. Looking at the only other person in the back with me. A human who looked like he wanted to piss his pants, despite the uniform he wore. Surely I wasn’t the worst he’d seen in battle? Maybe I was, and if that were the case, I sort of hoped it stayed that way. Because if he saw worse, it meant he was on the front line, and that sucked.

“You doing ok?”

I figured being nice might help, I could talk the hind legs off a donkey, so I wasn’t all that bothered about making this guy feel at home. His nod was all I got, but he was still all doe eyed and slack jawed.

Fuck this mission.

Wrath had pulled me into the office to tell me that he had a little problem, and while he was aware that there was other shit I could be doing, and that he’d ordered me to do, that now it had to wait. I was up for a mission, solo, that he needed urgent attention on.

Did I remember the Band of Bastards, yes, excellent, this was worse.

I had to go on a plane, at night, in the cargo hold and one single human to check I wasn’t sabotaging anything. Though, I was unsure of what he was meant to do if I started on a rampage, he looked about ready to melt into the metal. I was nearly 100% sure he wasn’t going to even remember he had a gun, let alone figure out how to get it up and fucking use it if I so much as sneezed in his general direction.

I rolled my eyes again at the lack of interaction and instead focused on my phone. I was going to Montana, to the arse end of nowhere. There’d been some attacks there, and they weren’t being done by humans. Or at least, didn’t appear to be humans. If it was a human then they were mimicking us quite nicely. If it wasn’t then I needed to scout out the area and check what was going on.

The BoB came out of nowhere to try and assassinate Wrath, and we weren’t having that happen again. As our world grew a bit bigger each year, we were growing as a Brotherhood. But it also meant we were shipped off to various places to check for potential threats. While Wrath was King, he didn’t have eyes everywhere.

The plane shuddered and I checked on the human guard, he twitched and I smiled slightly.

“Just turbulence, we’ll be landing shortly. Congrats on still being alive.”

His eyes went wide again and I rolled my own as I exhaled hard. They were exhausting. How the hell did I ever fit in with them, or run a business with them. I had no patience with it now.

Just get me the fuck off this damn plane.

I checked my phone clock and then my messages, seeing a few idiot replies from the Brotherhood. I was fortunate that I had unique relationships with them all, and I wasn’t taking that for granted. I quickly replied to them all, even taking a toothy selfie of myself with the guard in the background to send it to Rhage. The crying laughing emoji I got back made me snort.

Finally we landed, and just in time. I could tell that we were getting close to dawn from the tingle in my spine.

I grabbed my bag and slung it over my shoulder, hurrying through the private terminal to the closest hotel I could find. I paid cash for the day, knowing I’d be moving further into the sticks come the evening, and got into the room just as the first rays of sun started to peek over the horizon.

I breathed a sigh of relief, then shut myself in the bathroom for the day. It was a pain in the ass, but the curtains were not blackout here, and that meant that I needed solid walls between me and the sun. Uncomfortable, but I’d been in worse.

I unpacked the necessities I’d brought with me and got myself comfortable with my tablet propped up on top of the toilet lid. If Vishous had access to cameras and there had been any in here, the whole Brotherhood would be pissing themselves laughing at me huddled between the bog and the bath.

I just had to make it 10 hours and I’d be free again to roam.

Ten fucking hours. ~

Wilder: The loud blast of the ringtone waking me up from a dead sleep, silencing the call. I had been running myself ragged the past few days simply to distract myself. There was a lot going on and I felt the need to just sleep off a bit of stress. Liam and Cassie had finally started to embrace what they felt for each other and I couldn’t be happier for them. They were off on a camping trip to figure it all out and I encouraged them to go. This was a long time coming for them and the pair deserved a chance to get to know each other in this new light without interruptions.

We had Sage settling in and Jess rolling back into town. Not to mention a few other things that needed to be sorted out on top of everything. I was burning the candle at both ends, something I’d do just to keep me out of my head.

A second call came through and I knew I had to answer it. A tired groan escapes my lips, opening one eye to see Jackson’s face on the screen, swiping my finger to answer it. “You do know it’s…..Fucking six AM?” I pull the covers up over my head, the sun creeping in through the curtains of my room. Not ready to get up just yet. “What’s up, man?”

I listened to him state that another attack had happened. “Fucking hell. Alright, I’m up.” So much for a day off.

For the past two months there had been a string of ‘Animal attacks’ in Red Lodge. Everytime we went to the site of the scene the scent for sure wasn’t a wolf. These attacks weren’t coming from one of my pack members. I was extremely territorial and protective of the life my family had built for our pack and wasn't about to let anything jeopardize us or the locals. Whatever this threat was, we had to eliminate it to make sure our cover wasn’t blown.

I had already dealt with Sheriffs coming to the Shaw Wolf Sanctuary poking around. I had to show proof that there weren't any flaws in the perimeter fencing and that all ‘wolves’ were accounted for. There was only one way in and out of my pack lands that was gated and guarded 24/7.

Kneeling down next to the corpse, my gaze scanning his lifeless frame. We were excellent trackers but for whatever reason the scent of the attacker would disappear and it was unknown to us. “This makes three kills…” I trail off knowing the victim personally, sighing thinking about how devastated their family would be.

The breeze picks up and I inhale a deep breath. I knew every pack member's scent and I was frustrated to be at yet another deadend. “Whoever this is and whatever they are, they aren't staying here in town. It's like their scent simply vanishes. We have to up our patrols and find the pattern.” I state firmly as I try to connect the dots the best I could.

Every victim had two puncture marks on their neck, drained of blood. I had heard about Vampires, but they were never a real threat to us or my town. Nor did I really believe they were real. It felt as if this was almost deliberate to draw attention to my pack. My guess was if Vampires were a thing and we had never crossed paths before, they were probably just as confused to stumble onto us. “Ain’t no fucking way…” I mumble in disbelief.

I stood outside Whiskey Row just as the sun was setting. Watching the deep orange with pastel pinks paint the blue sky. Jackson, standing next to me. “Portal on the outskirts of town all set up?” I asked even if I could feel my pack members and where they were located, seeing Jackson nod out of the corner of my eye. “Good, there won’t be another attack on our fucking town.” My bright blue eyes shifted to a shade of midnight blue, geared up and ready for whatever the night brought us.

Dehv: ~ I groaned and rolled over, my hands stretching high above my head, and then scrubbing over tired eyes. That plane journey hadn’t been fun, my first time on one, and as light as I made of the situation, I didn’t like being out of my comfort zone.

“You a dust pile yet?”

I snorted and sent back the middle finger emoji to Rhage before I sat up, putting my phone down only to have it ring again. I checked who it was and saw Z’s name, which was like the sun setting and me not turning to dust. Z didn’t speak on the phone, so it was either a butt dial, a prank or an emergency.

“You ok, Z?” Figured I’d go with emergency.

“You there, safe, made it through the day?”

I ‘yepped’ them all and then he grunted and I heard rustling, then “This is important, we’ve had word of another attack the night you arrived.” I sat straighter at Wrath’s voice and nodded quietly to myself. “You’ll not have seen it yet as the sun is only just setting. Get on it. Into town, look around and check the surrounding farmland. They’ll be out when you are out, I want you safe. Do not get involved in confronting them, there might be more than one.”

I signed and nodded. My King was not one to mess with.

And he meant now.

I hung up, showered, changed, loaded up on hidden weapons and then checked outside, ensuring it was quiet before checking out and dematting a few miles further into the woods, disappearing and reappearing until I reached the edge of town.

I checked my watch and then tried to blend in. Uncertain as to why no one bat an eyelid at a tall ass male wandering around. I was used to people moving out the way, scurrying away, crossing the street. The people here seemed totally at ease. Which put me on edge.

I grabbed a map of the local area, and saw there were a few bars, restaurants, a little club as well as shops that would traditionally be open in the daytime. I wasn’t going to demat places, that would be too obvious if I just disappeared from one place and turned up somewhere else. But I also knew that wandering around was a sure fire way to alert whoever it was to my presence if they were out and about.

I started off checking out back alleys as I got to them, but there was nothing much I could see out of place beside the odd disgruntled human. I made sure to visit all the crime scenes as I passed to see if I could pick up anything that had been missed. But the forensic teams seem to have done their jobs remarkably well, for humans.

After a few hours I was starting to get hungry, and a little annoyed that nothing had turned up. The faster I found this fucker, the quicker I could pack my bags and go home. I’d taken a few minutes to check into a hotel in town earlier in the evening, so I felt a little safer once the sun went down. This one had blackout curtains. I looked around the local area I was standing in to find somewhere that seemed to be doing food, but wasn’t a restaurant, and wandered inside. Smiling at the lady at the till.

“Table for one, please.”

I thanked her and sat in the corner, facing the door. Poured a glass of water and then focused on the menu. My stomach rumbled just as she left, and I smiled at her, trying not to stick out like a sore thumb, but feeling totally out of place. I kept one eye on the door, and hopefully looked far more relaxed than I felt while deciding what to eat and drink. I needed to stock up in case shit went south and I didn’t get another chance before dawn. ~

Wilder: Heading into Whiskey Row with Jackson, I try my best to carry on with the night. It proved to be difficult as I focused on everything around me including scents. Human… human… I felt like a man being obsessed waiting for this uninvited guest to possibly make their way to Whiskey Row.

My phone vibrates with a call and I swipe my thumb over the screen. “Aren’t you working at the restaurant tonight?” I ask as I answer the call, hearing Amber turn on a blender. “Yes, and a very tall man just came in, never seen him before. He is pretty damn sexy though... But, I’m digressing. Table for one, sits in the corner like you tend to do facing the door.” I could hear her hushed tone and knew she was using the blender to block out our conversation from someone who she thought might have advanced hearing. A smirk tugs at my lips. It paid off to have some human’s know about us and be eyes in our town.

“Attagirl, whatever you do, don't be alone with them. Use your gift of gab, I'm on my way.” I motion Jackson over, pointing to my phone and mouthing Amber’s name.

That’s all it took for him to know where I was headed. Amber’s family was close to mine and she knew the truth about us being her grandfather was someone my father trusted. “Keep your distance. Got it?” Amber agrees and we hang up.

Doing as instructed, she cut the blender off and shook off her nerves. Waiting a bit to give me some time to get there before she heads over to your table. Her heart rate is calm for now, pouring you a glass of water. “So, you’re not from around here.” She bluntly states. “Welcome to town. Your first drink is on me.”

Hoping in the driver seat of my truck, I make the quick drive to the restaurant. I figured a new guy in town was worth checking out.

Dehv: ~ I checked over the menu while looking around me. Couples were obviously here on dates, some were just here with friends. It was quite busy considering the town wasn’t all that big. Caldwell was much bigger, but then I liked the way it felt. Everyone seemed friendly enough, and I tried my best to chill out and fit in. I wasn’t here for anyone in this place, I could tell they were all human. Which meant I was the one here protecting them, even if they weren’t aware of it.

I gave a glance around me, trying to see if I could catch someone’s eye, as I was ready to order. I noted people coming in and out, and then the girl who had seated me. She had been on the phone, likely taking orders. Did they do take out? I’d have to check, either way she looked competent. I smiled tight lipped when she approached and waited on the normal script that came from working front of house. The directness had my brows raising involuntarily.

“Thank you, I’ll just have a pint of coke, please. Could I also have the steak, medium. It’s lovely here. Really welcoming.”

I used my finger to point at the menu items, though I had no need, she wasn’t looking at the menu. Likely knew it off by heart. She took the menu but didn’t appear to be leaving. I frowned slightly, and then inclined my head. Waiting.

She looked around and then seemed to settle. “I’m not really meant to offer free drinks. But we don’t get too many new people coming by this way. So, why not? It’s just one. You sure you don’t want something stronger?”

I shook my head, checking her name badge before replying. “I’m good, thank you Amber. I am actually here to check a few things out. I hope not to be staying long. But I’d hate you to get in trouble, a coke would be lovely. But, if you’re going to get in trouble, please just add it to my tab.”

She smiled again and nodded, “Are you here for business?”

“In a fashion, yes. Looking for someone, the last place I knew they were was around here, so figured I’d drop by.” I hesitated and then relented and just went full stream ahead. “Though I have seen news of some terrible deaths recently. They close to figuring out who did it?”

She shook her head, her breath hitching just slightly, but not enough for me to think she was involved. “They are awful. No one from town that I know, and no suspects yet. It’s scary, could be any one of us. I’m grateful I have people to take me home, out late at night isn’t where you want to be. We’re a safe town, protected. But we are all worried. Hopefully whoever you’re here to find shows up quickly. And hopefully they figure out who is doing these horrible things soon.”

Protected? I made a mental note of that and nodded. “Thank you, I wish as much as you do that I find them quickly and we can get out of the town and back home. It was lovely to chat with you.”

She looked around, then exhaled and nodded. Patting her pad to show me that she had my order and then wandered over to the bar. Her smile lit up her face and I followed her gaze.

And, I watched a male walk in who didn’t walk like a human, but he wasn’t a vampire. His entire face and body were powerful, and while everyone seemed to know him and smiled when he entered, I got the sudden feeling I wasn’t the only predator in the room. ~

Wilder: When I arrived at the restaurant I walked in like I owned the place. In a small town like Red Lodge, everyone knew me and I upheld my family's legacy. I held a presence in this town and I’d keep it that way. My eyes scan the restaurant to spot the new man in town sitting at the corner table, making my way over to Amber. Well damn, she wasn't joking, you were hot. Taking in your features for a moment. The petite brunette throws her arms around me in a hug, giving her a squeeze back. Inhaling a breath to see if your scent matches the one from the sites of the kills. I could pinpoint the notes of your citrus body wash, arching a curious brow as it mixed with hits of lead and wood. It reminded me of a number two pencil.

“You good, sweetheart?” I asked Amber, pulling back to lock my gaze with hers seeing her nod. “I know that look, Wilder. Your eyes give you away.” She states and I shake my head. “I’ll fill you in later.”

I couldn’t bring myself to tell her about the most recent kill. She knew them personally as well and I knew she wouldn’t take it lightly. I knew within moments of being somewhat close to you that you weren’t human, but you weren't a wolf as well. Interesting… I thought to myself, letting Amber lead me to a table that gave me a perfect view of you. I knew you weren't the perpetrator, but you absolutely held my attention. Maybe you were working with them? In my eyes I knew nothing about you and would absolutely treat you as a threat until proven otherwise. Could I pretend to be friendly and rub elbows with the best of them? Fuck yeah I could if that means I’d get a better read on you.

Holding your gaze for a moment, subconsciously letting out a quiet territorial growl before glancing at Amber. “Be a sweetheart and get me my usual?” I flash her a smirk and she nods. An unspoken look between us stood for me telling her to use her gift of gab to get you talking so I can eavesdrop on the conversation. Leaning back into the chair, as she scampers off to grab your drink as well as mine. Watching her head over to you to drop off the coke. Amber sliding you a double shot of my favorite whiskey. “I know you declined a real drink, but this is on the tree that just walked in that looks like Thor. He owns Whiskey Row and if you’re looking for some entertainment while you're in town you should check it out.”

I tilt my glass towards you, figuring if I could tell you were not human then you knew the same about me. I wasn’t one to beat around the bush and if you were part of the attacks I’d make it damn clear you are fucking around in the wrong damn town. I had you in my sights, your scent committed to memory. What ever reason you were here, you absolutely stumbled into ‘Fuck around and find out’ territory. Listening to the two of you chat while I calmly took a sip from my glass.

Dehv: ~ I kept my eyes down on my phone until I noted movement, at which point I settled back in my seat, expecting my coke to have arrived. What was delivered wasn’t my coke. I glanced at the drink, then at Amber, then in the direction she had nodded towards. He was tall, probably at least as tall as me. Well, that answered that question from earlier.

Hard to stand out when they’re used to it.

I kept a neutral expression on my face, but tipped my head in his general direction. Male was built, and wasn’t human. I wasn’t able to tell what he was. As much as vampires had a whole lot going for them, sniffer dogs weren't one of them. Though I might have to speak to Wrath about getting someone to invent something, because knowing something and KNOWING something were entirely different things. I knew he belonged here, a quick check of my very relaxed waitress told me that, but he didn’t. She was 100% human, her blood would bleed red and she’d die in seconds if I drank from her like I might my own kind.

He looked like he’d do some damage in a fight and I’d be waking up with a few newly healed bones. Though, he also looked like some kind of Norse God, so Thor was about on the money. I wondered who the hell his parents were to get a son that looked like that, and were there more of them? Because Scibe help their parents feeding multiples growing up.

My gaze shifted as Amber started chatting, asking about where I’d come from, why I was here, if I was meeting someone locally, if she could help with recommendations of other places to go if I was trying out all the local places to eat. I chatted away, giving away as much as I could without just blurting out that I was a vampire sent to investigate our own kind killing humans, and if necessary call in the big guns to take them out. Nope, this is when being an architect came in handy, cover story and ready made business already created for the inevitable check ups.

However, I kept the Hulk in my peripheral and putting two and two together wondered if he wasn’t just as intrigued by me as I was by him. Not human, not vampire. I’d met Vishous’ Uncle, and I’d briefly seen his Mum, which is basically like these humans seeing their creator and extended family. We had ghosts, though not as you’d see them on TV. But no fairies, no ghouls, no elves or orcs. So what the fuck was the dude sitting over a few tables.

“I’m sorry, I missed the question.” I was busy in my head and missed the poor girl’s latest query. She shook her head as if she’d forgotten and it was fine I’d missed it, and I smiled as an idea popped into my head. “Actually, could I get my dinner to come to a different table when it’s ready?”

She looked confused as I stood and grabbed my phone and jacket, heading over to sit across from the mystery male. I hoped he wasn’t about to stab me or shoot me. Though, I’d give as good as I got with my weapons, I hoped he cared for the humans enough in here for him not to want them to get caught in the crossfire.

I could see her panic, but I smiled and nodded to give as much reassurance as I could before holding my hand out for the male, “Evening, I’m Dehv. I don’t believe we’ve met yet. Mind if I join you to eat? My dinner shouldn’t be long in coming out, but please do also order so I’m not eating alone while we talk.” ~ #NiceSurprise #Pt1

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nbmsports · 1 year ago

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Nelly Cheboi, who creates computer labs for Kenyan schoolchildren, is CNN's Hero of the Year

CNN — Nelly Cheboi, who in 2019 quit a lucrative software engineering job in Chicago to create computer labs for Kenyan schoolchildren, is the 2022 CNN Hero of the Year. Online voters selected her from among this year’s Top 10 CNN Heroes. Cheboi’s nonprofit, TechLit Africa, has provided thousands of students across rural Kenya with access to donated, upcycled computers — and the chance at a brighter future. Cheboi accepted the award with her mother, who she said “worked really hard to educate us.” At the beginning of her acceptance speech, Cheboi and her mother sang a song onstage that she explained had a special meaning when she was growing up. As CNN Hero of the Year, Cheboi will receive $100,000 to expand her work. She and the other top 10 CNN Heroes honored at Sunday’s gala all receive a $10,000 cash award and, for the first time, additional grants, organizational training and support from The Elevate Prize Foundation through a new collaboration with CNN Heroes. Nelly will also be named an Elevate Prize winner, which comes with a $300,000 grant and additional support worth $200,000 for her nonprofit. Cheboi grew up in poverty in Mogotio, a rural township in Kenya. “I know the pain of poverty,” said Cheboi, 29. “I never forgot what it was like with my stomach churning because of hunger at night.” A hard-working student, Cheboi received a full scholarship to Augustana College in Illinois in 2012. She began her studies there with almost no experience with computers, handwriting papers and struggling to transcribe them onto a laptop. Everything changed in her junior year, though, when Cheboi took a programming course required for her mathematics major. “When I discovered computer science, I just fell in love with it. I knew that this is something that I wanted to do as my career, and also bring it to my community,” she told CNN. Many basic computer skills were still a steep learning curve, however. Cheboi remembers having to practice touch-typing for six months before she could pass a coding interview. Touch-typing is a skill that is now a core part of the TechLit curriculum. “I feel so accomplished seeing kids that are 7 years old touch-typing, knowing that I just learned how to touch-type less than five years ago,” she said. Once she had begun working in the software industry, Cheboi soon realized the extent of which computers were being thrown away as companies upgraded their technology infrastructure. “We have kids here (in Kenya) — myself included, back in the day — who don’t even know what a computer is,” she said. So, in 2018, she began transporting donated computers back to Kenya — in her personal luggage, handling customs fees and taxes herself. “At one point, I was bringing 44 computers, and I paid more for the luggage than I did for the air ticket,” she said. A year later, she co-founded TechLit Africa with a fellow software engineer after both quit their jobs. The nonprofit accepts computer donations from companies, universities and individuals. The hardware is wiped and refurbished before it’s shipped to Kenya. There, it’s distributed to partner schools in rural communities, where students ages 4 to 12 receive daily classes and frequent opportunities to learn from professionals, gaining skills that will help improve their education and better prepare them for future jobs. “We have people who own a specific skill coming in and are just inspiring the kids (with) music production, video production, coding, personal branding,” Cheboi said. “They can go from doing a remote class with NASA on education to music production.” The organization currently serves 10 schools; within the next year, Cheboi hopes to be partnered with 100 more. “My hope is that when the first TechLit kids graduate high school, they’re able to get a job online because they will know how to code, they will know how to do graphic design, they will know how to do marketing,” Cheboi said. “The world is your oyster when you are educated. By bringing the resources, by bringing these skills, we are opening up the world to them.” Read the full article

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isaacathom · 2 years ago

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my gm for my dnd game and i talk fairly often, and they have just given me. a gift. a nugget of knowledge. which cannot be paid off until the end of the arc, which is several months away

so its not a spoiler, is the critical bit. its not any plot information. but it was two specific things.

the first is that, if naielle acquires The Fucky Sword, she can combine it with a Multiplaner Navigation Crystal she already has to make it's plane shift ability more precise.

the second is that, once the arc is complete, there will be a year-ish timeskip and (hopefully) a few mini sessions about what some pcs are doing in that gap

so. if naielle has the sword. and has the ability to be more specific with its teleportation, this opens up a very specific and personally fulfilling option-

teleporting back to her fiancee

now this wouldn't be effortless. the gm did say that naielle would have to first teleport to a plane that isn't one of the material ones, bc otherwise naielle could teleport directly from her fleet to xistina's ship (because theyre technically on different material planes). and because the sword recharges the planeshift ability on a long rest, this is all going to take a minimum of ~4 days (jade sea > non-mat > yerovera > non-mat > jade sea)

so very first, she has to request a decent amount of shore leave from her commander. he would grant it, most likely, though i believe she is technically capable of granting herself shore leave as the shipmaster of a vessel. nevertheless, she would ask the Commodore, and be granted her time. except, of course, she's not just like. getting off the boat and strolling the city. she's planeshifting off somewhere. and she would probably say that, though not explicitly lay out her intentions. whether that changes his mind isnt clear.

the issue, of course, with all this is that it also makes her uncontactable by diplomat's pouch, which has been the primary method of communication between ships and officers for the fleet. so , if they need her, they'll just have to do a Sending or smth. or, and this would be a joke, just really care about Naielle's wellbeing and hope that the message gets to her by the same power-of-love method that naielle and xistina has been able to communicate up to now. it is... unlikely that anyone in the fleet would be able to muster up the adequate level of love on the first go. that shits complicated.

she would go to the astral sea. why there specifically? its the realm of her patron, and she figures she can find somewhere safe to wait out the long rest with her patron's protection, so long as she can justify the whole trip to it. that could be a whole fucking Event in and of itself, bc the only time shes been there was in a mindflayer boat, and shes going on her own two feet this time. yikes!

assume that goes well. she then plane shifts down to xistina. this could go two ways - either she gets lucky and literally appears on the ship (which would probably IMMEDIATELY get her tackled bc ??? we're in a war??), or she lands in the water off the ships side and has to yell for help (comedy). either way, she ends up on the deck, and bam. hi xistina. so this was all a bit of a mess. can your men please not kill me.

at that point all bets are off as to what happens. likely outcomes have naielle participating in a battle because haha yea there is a war, perfect timing. but really, unclear. but it would be very fun.

and then like. well. some options.

naielle has wedding rings, which are intended as the pairs to the two's engagement rings. she has them on her. she first proposed to xistina two decades ago. well, now that we are actually physically in the same place... 👉👈 mawwiage? so that would be fun. naielle would 100% try to go for it once the two are alone.

and then theres the bit that would be very 🥺. which is that, okay, the battle is won, the two retire to the captains quarters. for the first time in two decades, they are together, able to hold each other. they can fall asleep in each others arms.

except

the sword, which enabled naielle to even come here? prevents anyone in the room with her from gaining the benefits of a short or long rest.

xistina can fall asleep. but she would wake up unrefreshed. and naielle would know this.

naielle would be lying there, xistina in her arms, something shes been dreaming of for two decades,

and she would have to slowly disentangle herself from her love

and THATS the fucking shit! thats what im about!!! thats that fucking bittersweet shit!!!

#dnd stuff #naielle has some small nuggets of tragedy in her life and shes been trying hard not to think about them #and if this scenario were to play out as written that would fucking devastate her. so close. yet so far #iconic shit. i love naielle #this all relies on her getting the sword and that hasnt been confirmed but this does slightly bump the sword up for me #like ooh. hadnt even though about trying to teleport back to xistina. naielle didnt think about that yet either #but. well. give her time. she still has to talk to dashel and that'd probably be the 'AH. FUCK YEAH' moment #that she then has to bottle and hold onto for later :)

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probably-haven · 3 years ago

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Hello!! After seeing what you wrote about xiaoven fics I went to see what things you usually write and omg, your archon Venti headcanons????? I am absolutely in love. So if it isn't annoying, could you talk about xiaoven or Venti or Xiao or whatever ship or character you like? I don't care what you are going to say, I just want to know more about your thoughts ^^

I- is this... bestie, this is essentially a free ramble pass- kerujsgheskdfug. Trust me when I say that in no way is this, and in no way will it ever be annoying in the slightest- i literally- lets just say rambling off thoughts is kind of my specialty, especially when provided a topic to branch off of because otherwise I'm just- really indecisive about it so- iujskdh yeah- 100% definitely down to talk about Venti, Xiao, and/or Xiaoven XD. Also, yes- it may have been awhile since i last posted one(cuz again, indecisive about which direction to take part 5), but the Archon War Era Venti headcanons are still without a doubt my favorite posts I've made. It's just such an interesting topic with such endless potential that so few people actually think about or consider or even realize is there, so i always just get really psyched whenever i see someone interact with them lol.

.... this ended up being a bit of a mess: warning in advance

Anyway! onto the actual content!

- You see the thing about Xiaoven is that there's a lot of different ways that it could end up working out, and just personally my favorite way of portraying Xiaoven in my mind is as an unlabeled relationship because if anyone in genshin would give off that vibe its these two. And a number of other reasons.

- Firstly, I heavily headcanon Venti as being an aroace polyplatonic or perhaps heavily demiromantic. However, regardless of this I just don't think that Venti is really the kind of person to worry about how he should label his feelings, thinking it's silly to try to put them in one box or the other, especially with feelings and emotions being as fluid as they are in general. Plus it fits his whole God of Freedom vibe. I just- dont think he's the biggest fan of labels or social categorization in general.

- And secondly on the hand of Xiao... his defense mechanisms are very much ingrained in his personality. It's probably hard enough for him to not go into fight or flight(the answer is fight) at the slightest affection at first, at the slightest feeling of vulnerability. Even further down the line, with his fierce dedication to Liyue, I cant help but get the vibe that the moment he recognized that he was falling for Venti he would begin avoiding him, not only to avoid distraction from his duty, but to avoid corrupting him or losing him in general like he has with like basically every other person he gets close with(even believing that the cycle had repeated once more when he first heard of Morax's death)... now imagine Venti tryna slap a label on their relationship and tell me Xiao would have a positive reaction.

- The thing with Xiaoven.... honestly, i feel like theres more ways that it can go wrong than it can go right, but if they do manage to make their relationship work out, it's just simply beautiful in all terms of the word.

- Lets talk about killing. - During the Archon War, both were forced to kill a large number of people and gods alike- Venti out of a need to remain alive to protect Mondstadt, it's freedom, and the nameless bard's legacy by extent- and Xiao out of servitude to the god that was once his master

..... actually- break here- ive talked a lot about Venti on this blog but I havent actually spoken about Xiao all that much- so i should probably do that a bit first... do note though that my characterization of Xiao is pretty flexible actually- this is just- the possible characterization of him that i tend to favor as being the most- uh- "realistically complex"

Theres a line I saw this one time in a certain story: "He is a trained weapon. That's what he is, was, and always will be. You cannot change that so stop trying." And i just- think its a really interesting concept- that applies pretty well to Xiao now that i actually think about it. - the concept behind it is this: After spending more than a vast majority of his life killing or otherwise in battle, it's become a part of who he is, a normalcy that after centuries and centuries would be near impossible to get rid of or reverse, and even if it was possible, with his karmic debt constantly eating away at him its unlikely he has enough time left for that to happen. - it sounds like a cruel thing to say about him- but in context it's actually pretty layered and i think about it a lot. It's not as much a "he's a killer lol, that his whole personality" its more of a "The centuries of trauma he experienced have conditioned him into a constantly alert and battle ready mindset while also shaping his dehumanizing inferior-in-worth-but-superior-in-capability view of himself that would have likely been necessary to get through those time, and at this point he's been under that conditioning for long enough that it's essentially ingrained itself in his personality."

- the main idea is- it's a part of who he is, that needs to be accepted as who he is because its not something that he can just up and change. It's not all he is of course but his constant battle mode, as though always waiting to be ambushed or to be granted a new target to eradicate.

a couple character story quotes:

-"His past of service under the evil god had rid Xiao of his innocence and gentleness. All that remained within him was the means to kill and the weight of his sins. The only way he could be of service to mortals was in combat." -"Xiao does not feel any hatred. Having lived for over two thousand years, no single karmic debt constitutes anything more than a fleeting memory. No grudge can last a thousand years; nor is any debt so great that it cannot be paid off in this time. Xiao has spent many long years alone. But his battles have never been in vain." -"where did Xiao have to return to? He was merely leaving the battlefield." -"since Xiao wages a constant war against dark forces powerful enough to devour Liyue in its entirety, any bystanders who witness him in the heat of battle are likely to end up as collateral damage." -"The war he fights can never be won, and will never come to an end." -"Because ultimately, the one with whom Xiao wrestles is himself."

i feel like at some point this very nearly did consume his whole personality, almost turning him into nothing more than a being of slaughter under Morax's control, devoid of any "humanity" at all, consumed and corrupted by his karmic debt like his fellow yakshas before him. - until he experienced a moment of clarity- a song in the wind, the peaceful melody of a dihua flute. - and pulled back from the border of something he wouldnt have been able to return from, there a was a shift in his mind- a concept grown unfamiliar enough with time that it took him a great time to identify what it was; a curiosity. Something that there was no place for on the battlefield, something that by all means should have been completely useless to Xiao, and yet he held onto that curiosity, slowly regaining over time, a sense of who he was and who he could choose to be with each song that the wind chose to carry towards him every once in a blue moon.

and eventually that curiousity turned to longing. Longing "for a day to come when he will wear the mask and dance — not to conquer demons, but to the tune of that flute amid a sea of flowers"

...... uh- heh- if you couldn’t tell already i have a tendency to make my characterizations/analyses of characters more serious that i probably should.

to summarize: Xiao is constantly toeing the line between his ingrained nature and his humanity- almost as though still trying to decide how much of that humanity he deserves to have, how much he is allowed to have, and how much is safe to have.

^looking back after writing this, i think the best way to explain it is that this is the view that i keep in mind/the lense that i tend to most enjoy looking through and refering back to while examining and/or analyzing his character, actions, story, lines, and overall personality.

idk- i kinda got off track but i just think its a really interesting interpretation to think about because it has some really interesting implications ig- it’s not the full extent of how i view him of course, but i kinda got ahead of myself and its long enough as is so ill just elaborate as i go- Lol i actually have in progress playlists for both him and venti and just- vibes- i could ramble about the playlists alone for hours explaining everything... It’s probably a problem- uh- ill keep going now lol.

anyways! stepping off the angst path for a brief break! Brought to you by their lines in the snow: both waiting for it to get thick enough, Venti for the purpose of a snowball fight and Xiao for the purpose of a tasty and nutritious breakfast.

but its actually something of note that Xiao doesnt actually need to eat so anything he does eat is usually out of obligation or enjoyment- so like.... snow.... like i dont blame him, but of all things- an adeptus who refuses to eat basically anything but almond tofu looks at the freezing-cold-floor-water that yeeted itself from above and decided at some point- damn- that seems more edible than basically ever single actually edible thing ever.... im gonna eat it- like- im glad if eating snow makes him happy but- at the same time...

He probably convinces Venti to eat snow too though and Venti wouldnt even resist I mean he’s wind and has probably consumed worse things in his time so- 2 anemo cryptids with glowing tattoos sitting in Dragonspine monching snow in the dead of night is an amusing thought to me.

- kay, now back to more serious-toned thoughts

One of the things about the ship that i really like is the different contradicting parallels between them:

A lot of how i view Xiao’s character is someone formed largely by the things he cant control and who was forced to accept that accepted that and learned to thrive in it as much as he can. Venti on the other hand is surrounded by things he cant control and is ever adapting to control as much as he can while embracing whatever he cant as being part of the unpredictability of the world, seeing beauty in it.

both of them have lost people and do what they do to honor their memory: Xiao continues to do what the Yakshas once did And Venti chooses to do what his friend couldn’t

Xiao’s power coming from himself and Venti’s from others And both seem to appear to use their power for their own gain while truly helping others behind the scenes

both have killed a lot of people during the archon war Xiao views it as another necessary event out of his control and Venti would likely view it as a tragedy he chose to enact himself

and this is where we meet out balance

Xiao- contrary to how i think a lot of people view him as thinking of himself as a monster- seems canonically to have accepted this as part of his duty, as long as those he killed are not mortals. I dont think he enjoys it no- but someone has to do it and he’s just accepted that its a part of his duty Venti on the other hand-

See the beauty of the ship- as someone with an angst-centric mind- is this- these are two of the most traumatized mfers in the game

Xiao is by far the one who needs the most help and who can serve to benefit most from the ship- but he is nowhere near self aware enough to recognize that there’s anything wrong or unhealthy about his mindset in the slightest-

whereas you have the contrast with Venti who sorted through most of his trauma with the nameless bard alone during the archon war and while the result appears more healthy- is still really not- but he’s not self aware of that either because i mean- who’s going to tell him? nobody even knows.

however- venti is aware enough to notice flaws in Xiao’s mindset and “Venti” enough to want to help them through it-

Xiao- while not aware enough to recognize the flaws in Venti’s mindset, can recognize where it contrasts with his own, and is blunt enough to point it out- and then it’s out there to be mulled over-

they’re so similar and yet so different and a feel just conversing between the two of them, being in each others precense, just being exposed to two mindsets that are so very different could do both of them a whole lot of good.

GEEE THAT BIT OF RAMBLING HAD LITTLE TO NO DIRECTION AT ALL- LET ME-- LET ME MAKE THIS START MAKING SENSE- WITH... DYNAMICS OR SOMETHING

I don’t think Xiao needs to sleep really- and i dont think that sleeping would do anything except make him uneasy at first- he’d probably just get nightmares after all he’s been through- but with Venti he would soon learn that it doesn’t have to be that way, lulled into the first peaceful sleep he’s had in... as long as he can remember.

anywho back to not making sense cuz im fickle and i think most questions about ships are best displayed through character interactions so like- a possible exchange thats cliche but cliches exist for a reason

Xiao: Why do you try so hard to help me, it isn’t easy. I know that much Venti, with the most adoring expression: Because you’re worth it, obviously Xiao: But surely there are others more deserving of- Venti: No Xiao, everyone is just as deserving as the next person, you included Xiao: Then why me above others? Venti: ehe, cuz ur my warrior of course [O//////O oh shit, hes right] Xiao: My contract is with Morax alone [gay panic but in broody yaksha]

it’s kinda difficult cuz neither of them really address their feelings. I mean Venti does but he does it very indirectly and its rare that he ever does it with like- genuine directness- even spilling his backstory was in the form of a song- and told in the third person- so a lot of their interactions would often have some deeper meaning, especially with Venti being the bard he is.

I come up with a lot of- errant thoughts about Xiaoven- but this is making me realize that a true analysis of their ship is rather difficult because it just encompasses so many dynamics so its hard to settle on just one and not go rambling about who knows what bouncing from one end of the ship to the other- Because you truly can and thats the beauty of it

within one moment you can be having a heartfelt conversation about the archon war the impact of lost friends and times past, and the next moment Venti is trying to forcefeed Xiao an apple while Xiao screams about disrespecting the adepti and its just- so lovely

so while they have picnics with nothing but apples, dandelion wine, and almond tofu they can sit down and talk about the dreams Xiao once devoured, and the dandelion wine and apple cider that the first Ragnvindir invented from the plants that never could have grown in Old Mond. The foods that tasted of familiarity, or of the grilled ticker fish Pervases always used to eat, foods that tasted of friends and frankly family that had since passed, glaze lilies and cecilias and qingxin flowers scattered in the surroundings and woven into Xiao’s neat braids and Venti’s now messy ones, rebraided by the steady and inexperienced hands of one unused to gentle action.

and then of course Venti steals Xiao’s tofu once the mood becomes too grim and replaces it with a bottle of wine that Xiao refers to as “vile poison,” a remark that fatally wounds Venti as he collapses on the floor, proclaiming how he can only be healed by a Yaksha’s kiss. Xiao ignores this of course and simply takes back his tofu with a slight smile on his face, but as Venti persists he soundlessly places a kiss on his own palm before intertwining their fingers and pulling him back up from where he was dramatically sprawled on the floor, grumbling about how such action was “unbecoming of an archon.” A sign of affection only Xiao would ever know about. But Venti is literally wind and I hc his senses work differently anyways so he definitely knows- plus Xiao’s face is red as the blood of his enemies and the way he is pointedly not looking at Venti at all really speaks volumes anyways.

-Venti playing epic battle music whenever Xiao goes into fights in what looks like a ridiculously extra performance to anyone else but is actually doing wonders to keep Xiao’s karma at bay

-Venti preaches the practice of “kissing wounds better” and Xiao is unfamiliar with this medical treatment but views it as unnecessary regardless because adepti have accelerated healing, doesn’t mean he’s going to stop him though.

-Messages whispered on the wind

-Venti’s 1000 year sleep- an accident, not a fun time for the yaksha, and not a fun time for Venti once he woke up. Venti is actually more afraid of restful sleep than Xiao is, hence the sleeping in trees thing, but when Xiao is there, he can sleep restfully with faith that Xiao wont let another millennia slip through his fingertips.

- Xiao tends to make excuses when doing things that aren’t necessary to his duty, like in his birthday voice line “Have this, it’s a butterfly i made from leaves... Okay. Take it. It’s an adepti amulet -- it staves off evil” because at the current point in his progress it helps him to feel like he’s allowed to do these things. Not wanting to put him off from progress, Venti never comments on his excuse but never fails to whisper a quick reminder of how proud he is of how far Xiao had come.

- Xiao’s karma saddens Venti greatly- not only because of how it effects Xiao but also because its a reminder that as much as Venti tries to honor the memory of those he’s killed, there will always be those who resent him for it, and when he took the option of living away from them, he truly can’t blame them. - And when he gets too wrapped up in thoughts, whether around this topic or similar ones or otherwise, eventually, he’ll hear the sound of a flute on the wind. It’s not divine by any means, but as his own wind connects him to the source, he gets the sentiment all the same. “What impact does one individual’s remaining wrath have on the present. You have done much to help the living in the present” the unspoken idea that Xiao has included himself in that statement, because now, with Venti’s help he’s beginning to learn just how to experience living for himself.

- Venti’s form and Xiao’s mask are off limit topics though because if either mentions it the other will counter with the opposite and the mood will turn immediately bitter at the idea that both know that what they’re doing is destructive but neither are willing to change

- Venti who has different tells for negative feelings than most people because as much as he likes to pretend it is- this form isnt his, and Xiao who is able to identify those

- many fanfics and headcanons have Venti recognizing when Xiao is uncomfortable and getting him out of those situations. I see that and I love it but i raise you: - Venti taking Xiao to Mondstadt, careful that he doesn’t get to the point that he’s uncomfortable. And nothing goes wrong exactly, but Xiao notices the the way Venti’s cape is blowing in the wind, the way he’s holding his weight, barely on his feet so much as floating on the wind, connected with the ground only for the sake of appearance, all the while he looks just as happy go lucky as ever. And without a word, he grabs his hand and teleports them both out of Mondstadt. - turns out it was just a slight thing that reminded him of the archon war (cuz i will die on the hill of him having more tragic backstory than just Decarabian), and he of course gives a sincere if not flustered thanks to Xiao, because he’s really not used to people noticing.

- Venti trying to vent sneakily through fictional stories and Xiao is just like “Didn’t that basically happen to you” and Venti is just like “<_< shit”

- Venti once said affectionally that he wished he had met Xiao sooner and Xiao immediately and seriously shot it down by saying “If you had, I would have been forced to kill you” and both of them now stay up at night wondering who would have won that fight, not sure which result would have hurt more. (because honestly I have no idea who would win in that fight and that terrifies me- I like to think it would have been one of those legends that end with “and the fight persists to this day” or something along those lines)

- “How long have you been together?” “Adepti have no need for-” “1000+ years T^T how dare you deny our love” “O///O our...? ...useless”

- its disney- let me explain- i have this- i have this headcanon inspired by watching too many animatics- - so venti has a human form that isnt his- which he would have had to get used to moving in- and he’s a bard- - uh- anyway- as a third degree black belt in mixed martial arts, i can speak as an authority on this(not really an authority since i havent gone since quarantine but lets pretend). We have a thing referred to as the big three(most things do), and those things are martial arts, gymnastics, and dance. The idea is that they reflect really well off of each other and the best in any one category are good in all three. Timing, balance, form, discipline, technique, hand-eye coordination, grace, ease of motion, they all play a part- anyway-

- Venti taking Xiao’s prowess in martial arts and acrobatics and teaching him how to dance, and as someone who’s extremely skilled in the first two, the third comes easy to him, almost naturally. And it’s delicate and beautiful and lovely and it isn’t hurting anyone. And Venti points all these things out and more and despite how much Xiao insists that he feels ridiculous he truly does enjoy it and it goes a long way towards helping him form more healthy views of himself and his worth. - Verr Goldett walked in on him once and made a joke about performing at the inn. unfortunately Venti was there and agreed on Xiao’s behalf before he could protest and- and it wasn’t as bad as Xiao thought it would be... he still wouldn’t do it again though without reason, but with good enough reasoning he could probably be convinced.

- anyways point is he likes dancing to Venti’s songs and i just think that’s really cute - just picture the idea that all the animatics you see actually have the potential to be canon- ugh

- venti tries holding something out of Xiao’s reach since he’s taller and Xiao just fucking teleports

- both need their space but when they dont, all they have to do is speak the other’s name and they’ll be there.

- and because i just had to.... love languages

- lets start with Xiao- i don’t think he’d view acts of service or quailty time as a love language tbh, and he blunt but really bad with words so affirmation is out, leaving gift giving and physical touch. However, he seems to view most material things as meaningless so- - Xiao who’s love language is in his fleeting touches, something he’s only recently grown comfortable with because of Venti, and now is giving back, which he knows he doesn’t have to do, but that he want’s to, though he’ll still continue to make excuses for each one. “you were shivering” “The inn is high up, you could have fallen..... I said what I said, you’d question an adeptus?”

- and as easy as it is to say words of affirmation for Venti- he does that for everyone- i want to say his is actually acts of service - its the acts of service that let him see just how much Xiao has progressed afterall, from teaching him to dance, to playing another song on the flute, to supplying him with the almond tofu he seems to enjoy so much. Every little thing he does helps Xiao to grow and he couldn’t be happier about that.

- of course most of my headcanons for the ship do take place latter into the relationship because- y’know the less serious unhealthy vibes allow for greater range of thought, but i do still love to think about the serious implications so i kinda hopped back and forth. So sorry about how messy it is btw, i kinda- got carried away- it kinda got some kind of structure near the end tho so- maybe it’s okay. anyway- back to... lol something, we’ll see where thought forests lead.

#genshin impact #genshin xiao #genshin venti #xiao #venti #xiaoven #genshin analysis #genshin headcanons #xiaoven headcanons #xiaoven analysis #this is a mess i really shouldnt be putting all these tags but oh well #oh wow the grammar and spelling here is truly repulsive #sorry to all my english teachers i have failed you all

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murasaki-murasame · 3 years ago

Text

Thoughts on Higurashi Sotsu Ep11

Studio Passione: “We paid good money to animate Rika’s festival dance, and by god you’re gonna ENJOY IT!”

Anyway, thoughts under the cut, plus Umineko spoilers.

I know I talked about my theories for how this episode would be paced out last week, but I’m genuinely amazed that they managed to stretch the rest of this loop out into the entire episode, lol. It’s almost impressive how they managed to pad out half an episode or less worth of content into a full episode.

It kinda doesn’t even give me that much to talk about, yet again, which is kinda awkward, but either way this basically proves that I was totally right about my interpretation of the whole Keiichi scene, so I feel kinda pleased about that.

Long story short, the scene we saw in Gou was just an illusion depicting the story that Satoko told Ooishi about what happened, after she set the crime scene up to make it fit her version of events. I guess there’s still a non-zero chance that there’s some extra layer of mystery going on there, but at this point I really doubt it. I think that’s basically all that was going on.

I think this is going to be one of the more polarizing parts of Sotsu for people, depending on how they feel about the way that this is tying itself in to Umineko. This is the sort of storytelling device that’s basically never been used before in Higurashi, but is integral to how Umineko is set up, so it’s one of those times where it becomes undeniable that this is meant to bridge the two series, and is drawing inspiration and ideas from both of them, instead of this just staying within the boundaries of Higurashi alone.

With how this arc feels like a point of no return in the transition between the two stories, I really like how the first thing Satoko does when she accepts that she’s a witch is to start bringing Umineko-style narrative trickery into Higurashi for the first time. I think it’s a neat way to show how she’s starting to ascend beyond the game-board itself and is operating with a different set of rules. Obviously people aren’t gonna like that if they don’t like the idea of this being tied to Umineko, but I think that ship has long since sailed at this point, lol.

And honestly, even without relying on knowledge from Umineko, I think they did a fine job of having that scene in Gou seem weird and suspicious right from the get-go. For one thing, we were also told in Gou that Keiichi had no memory of what happened, and everyone else in that scene was dead, so it’s not that hard to start guessing that we were shown a false version of events.

I think I said this last week, but the confirmation that this is literally just Umineko Logic 101 really makes me wonder if Ryukishi is doing it this way in part to ‘prepare’ people for what to expect from Umineko. There’s still the possibility that we’ll get a full on remake after this, but even if it’s as simple as this basically ending on the note of ‘go back and read the Umineko VN’, he might still be trying to give people an idea of what to expect from it so they don’t get turned off by ep2.

This is getting more into theory territory, but if we keep going down this rabbit hole of transitioning into Umineko logic and narrative structure, I wonder if the entirety of Gou/Sotsu is going to end up being contextualized as a set of forgeries, in the same way as it worked in Umineko. Something along the lines of Satoko ‘seeing Rika’s loops’ being a metaphor for her being given manuscripts to read by Featherine based on Rika’s account of events, and then the Gou/Sotsu loops being forgeries made in collaboration between Featherine and Satoko, and presented to Rika as a new mystery to read and solve. At the very least, this could arguably justify stuff like how everything seems to go in the way Satoko wants, regardless of how reckless she gets.

I’m not 100% confident in that, but it’d definitely continue the trend of this being a blend of Higurashi and Umineko’s writing styles. I think it’d also provide a more comprehensive non-magical interpretation for what’s going on than just ‘Satoko fell asleep in the shrine and just dreamed all of this’, or whatever.

I also don’t really think that’d contradict the whole idea of Satoko being Lambda, though. Looking at it through this whole lens, it’d be sorta like how Ange goes through her own whole character arc in the process of reading Featherine’s forgeries, and basically ends up becoming a witch by the end of it. So the whole narrative arc of Satoko venting out her anger at Rika by trapping her in a new set of loops and slowly becoming a witch would still be intact, and still for all intents and purposes lead to her becoming Lambda.

There’s also various ways this could be tied into the whole deal with Lambda being Takano’s benefactor in Higurashi. Considering how Lambda never actually plays a part in Higurashi itself and is never mentioned by Takano, it could be as simple as ‘Satoko reads Featherine’s manuscript version of Higurashi and ends up relating a lot to Takano and wants her to succeed’, which gets morphed into her granting Takano her blessing of certainty. Either way I think that the whole timeline of events is weird and nebulous and isn’t really intended to make logical sense.

Anyway, probably the most surprising part of the episode was the reveal at the very end that the next arc won’t be called something like Nekoakashi, but instead it’ll be Kagurashi. I’m not really sure how much to read into that, though. It could just be as simple as them speeding through the Nekodamashi stuff, and most of Kagurashi will be the aftermath of that, so they gave it a unique name. Or it could be a completely new arc that does something totally different. Lots of people have suggested the idea of it being an arc all about Eua and Hanyuu and their backstory, which would be one way of doing something entirely different to a Nekodamashi answer arc, but who knows. I don’t think the final scene of this episode necessarily proves that the next arc will be about those two, though.

But on the topic of those two, at this point I think it’s probably safe to say that Hanyuu is effectively meant to be Eua’s piece in this game, and that they probably have a similar relationship to Bern and Erika, going by how much Eua seems to look down on Hanyuu. Although it’s not exactly clear if this Hanyuu is the same person as the Hanyuu from the VN, or if she’s like a clone of her that Eua created after Hanyuu disappeared or whatever after Matsuribayashi.

Either way, I’m not entirely sure how they’d even approach an arc focused on those two. It’s not like Umineko really explained Featherine’s backstory, unless Sotsu is going to straight up introduce Ikuko/Tohya, which I guess could tie into my above theory about this being a forgery. On the other hand, I guess they could maybe do something like the Hanyuu backstory arc from the Higurashi console ports, but that wouldn’t really feel relevant to Sotsu’s story at this point.

Really the big question is just if the entire story will wrap up in four more episodes, or if there’ll be some sort of third season or whatever to wrap things up. Considering that this entire episode was just about wrapping up this loop, and we haven’t even gotten into anything from Nekodamashi, it at least feels like we’re running out of ways they could pull off an ending with just the next arc. But it’s not impossible. The simplest way to handle it would be to spend one episode at most on skimming through the next set of loops so we can get back to the cliffhanger from Gou, and then continuing from there, but if my theory about the overarching structure of the story is correct, then there might not even be that much to show after the cliffhanger, and the continuation of it might just happen in the meta world [or the ‘real world’], not the world of that loop itself. It’s also possible that, if this does lead into some kind of Umineko remake, the ending won’t even be particularly conclusive, and will just be continued in that series instead.

Even with how the pacing has gone thus far, I’m not really sure how confident I am in the idea that we might get another entire season out of this. Maybe we might get another nine episodes to fill Sotsu out to 24 episodes total, but I don’t know if we really need another full cour or two after the next arc. At the very least it’d feel kinda agonizing to have to wait even longer for ANOTHER full season to see how things actually end, lol.

There’s still the whole question mark of how the OP and the key visual for Sotsu depict Rika and Satoko as teenagers, and the other club members in different outfits to the ones from Satokowashi, but who even knows how that all might play into the story at this point. I still think we might get a Saikoroshi-style arc where Satoko loses her game and is banished to a world where Rika doesn’t exist and her relationship with the club members is totally different, but I’m not even sure what the whole point of that kinda development might be, or how long it’d take to get through.

At this point I think the best thing to do would be to just go all in with the Umineko stuff and have this end with the birth of Bern and Lambda and their whole love-hate relationship of mutual torture, even if it means leaving things kind of inconclusive, and without Satoko getting much punishment for her crimes. I think it’d be much worse if they just drag this out for even longer only to end it on the note of this whole conflict being neatly resolved and everything looping back to square one like nothing ever happened.

I guess we’ll just have to see how the next few episodes go, lol.

#murasaki rambles #higurashi #higurashi sotsu #petition to replace the OP and ED with Rika's festival dance

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serpenteve · 4 years ago

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I have been meaning to get this off my chest for a while, but...well. First, I am 100% "ship and let ship" type of person, and I'm also a big multishipper myself. But a certain percentage of M*lina fans have been getting to me because M*l is so very much like an ex who I will call Dave. We were friends, though I was taken for granted and overlooked tho i had low self esteem, so it didn't bother me at the time, and I crushed on him big time. Any scrap of his attention had me floating on cloud 9. Eventually I kinda gave up, got a good job, and started hanging out with a new man in our friend group. I guess Dave got jealous or was angry I no longer gave him constant attention because he then swooped right away in and asked me out. I said yes because i thought it was a dream come true but it was actually a nightmare. He didn't hit me but the emotional stuff...gaslighting, berating me, tearing me down, jealous my job was better than his and my salary higher, hated if I paid any attention to others, never wanted to talk about me only him, controlling, manipulating me so I always thought I was in the wrong and the one causing all the problems in the relationship, I apologized for something every day it felt like. I'm fine now, I left his bitch ass, but it shook me when I read the books because it was so like M*l! And I honest to god don't mind M*lina shippers, but the ones that act as if it is a purely healthy relationship kinda bother me because clearly it isn't...there are thousands of Daves and M*ls out there everywhere, it is not the worst abuse but it is abuse, and it worries me that people think it is acceptable or normal or say "he was just a dumb teenager he didn't know any better" because that is not an excuse, consistent patterns are behaviors that don't magically go away overnight you know? It doesn't need to be the worst blatant abuse to still be toxic/abuse. I adore our girl Alina but it makes me sad because that is my fantasy "what if" if I had stayed (ok that sounds a bit dramatic but that was my first thought haha) sorry for the long rambling, but like I said I just was thinking about all this for a few days and had to get it off my chest. I love your blog and thanks for reading !

I'm so so sorry you went through that 😔 No one deserved to be treated that way and I'm glad you are out of that relationship! Thank you so much for sharing because so much of your experience reminds me a lot of my own.

I grew up in a very cult-ish environment where it was basically expected that the highest role a woman could achieve was a wife and mother. The men were deeply insecure and felt 'emasculated' if their partners dare succeed at anything so they made it their job to constantly tear them down, gaslight them, and shame them for having goals and interests that didn't revolve around a guy. If you were unmarried, you couldn't be seen talking to another guy alone because then people would start talking shit about how you were obviously a whore and your future prospects were ruined 🙄 It was like living in a puritanical Victorian novel where your only value as a woman was to be somebody else's trophy.

I don't mind people shipping M*lina and after watching the show's version of the characters, I would also be a show!M*lina shipper because I really like how Archie has played him and the changes they made to his character. Hopefully, he will still be likable in Season 2, especially since the second book is where most of the problems emerged in full force.

However, people claiming that book!M*l and show!M*l are the same character literally triggers my fight or flight response 😂There was a time I actually considered blocking the ship tag because it's not a great place to be when you've been in a real-life relationship with an asshole like book!M*l and see a bunch of posts from people claiming he's such a great guy. If Alina was a real-life friend and I saw her being treated the way book!M*l treats her, I'd tell her to 👏🏽 DUMP 👏🏽HIS 👏🏽 ASS so fast and cuss him out for being a toxic asshole. No one deserves to put up with the crap Alina did in the books. It's like she did not know that relationships don't have to be that hard and miserable. If she had been allowed to explore other healthier relationships (and I'm not sure she really ever had that option), I can't imagine she'd have settled for M*l.

#censoring the tag because i dont want m*linas to find this fml #cw: abuse #cw: gaslighting #viv answers #anti mal

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raven-at-the-writing-desk · 4 years ago

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Diary of the Writing Raven; Birds of a Feather

For the 1100+ follower milestone, here is the next part of the cursed raven’s story!

This time, we revisit entries in Miss Raven’s diary. A familiar face assumes prominence on the stage--what role will he play in this story of ours?

Part 1 l Part 2 l Part 3 l Part 4

Day 47

I feel like I am being watched.

Uncle says I am just nervous and excited from the ceremony yesterday.

I am not so sure.

Day 48

I ran into that weirdo again today.

The weirdo is named Rook Hunt. He also calls himself the Hunter of Love...? I do not understand what that means.

He said that he will not be fooled again by Mon-sure Mastermind’s tricks again. He said he knows I am a bird, and he will chase me to the ends of Twisted Wonderland to see me in flight.

...Scary.

He shouts many strange words and chases me around. I managed to narrowly miss him by diving into the bushes. He was distracted by some students with animal ears--and I was able to run all the way home safely.

I suppose it is good to be curious, but...Mister Rook is too curious...!!

Why couldn’t I have run into Mister Jade instead?

Day 51

Uwaaah, I saw a very pretty upperclassman today! He had golden hair, violet at the ends.

The pretty upperclassman snapped at Mister Rook and told him to stop scaring me.

I am thankful, but...it seems like that upperclassman was scanning me all over. Judging me silently. I wanted to disappear into my clothes.

Before we part, he tells me that my ponytails are not symmetrical. He adjusts it for me and sends me off.

Mister Rook’s friends are strange people, too.

Day 56

Another run-in with Mister Rook. They seem to happen every day now, though they are not always...eventful.

He says I am too formal, and that I can just call him “Rook”.

He would not stop pestering me until I agreed.

He gave me a toothy grin when I, at last, relented.

What a troublesome man.

Day 57

Ever since I tried Flounder’s Blue, I have been sampling new foods and drinks.

Today, I got a cup of caw-fee.

Silly me, though...I tripped and spilled it all over a Savanaclaw student. He was so angry. He threatened to gobble me up.

I was trembling and sobbing when the Savanaclaw student yelped. Rook had a tight grip on his trail and kept tugging it, saying weird things until he scurried off.

I thank him.

Day 60

It feels like I see Rook around every corner. He does not always approach--sometimes, he is just content with watching from a distance, or he gives a small wave.

Jade has noticed too.

He asks if Rook makes me feel unsafe..

Rather than feel unsafe, I am a little curious as to why Rook is...well, Rook. He is certainly an odd fellow, but when I think back to a few days ago, I can’t help but think he has a good heart.

I do not think he means any harm.

So I tell Jade I am fine.

Day 66

Rook smelled funny today.

He says there was an accident in the Science Club, so he will reek of tomato and basil for a few days. That hunting trip he was planning is cancelled; the smell will alert too many animals of his presence.

I tell him that he reminds me of the pasta served at the Mostro Lounge, and he laughs.

How he is able to stay so cheery is a wonder to me--but it is not a bad thing, I suppose.

Day 72

Rook tells me of a carny-vale in the nearby town, and says I must experience it for myself. I was curious, so I followed.

There are so many bright sounds and sights. It smells like something fried and sweet.

We ride the spinning tea cups and the carousel. They make me feel like I’m flying once more.

I’m no good at any of the game booths, but Rook is. He has impeccable aim and strength. The game booth runners cry and beg him to not run them out of business.

Rook just smiles and asks them for their best prizes. He has no use for most of them, so he dumps his prizes onto me with a part on the head.

My arms are too full to hold any food, so Rook helps feed me. He stuffs funnel cake, cotton candy, and candied apple into my mouth.

The last thing we do for the day is the ferris wheel. We go up and up against the sunset.

In the dying light of day, I realize something.

Rook has very pretty eyes, too.

Day 80

The pretty upperclassman came up and introduced himself.

Vil Schoenheit, Pomefiore’s dorm leader.

The queen.

He remarks that my pigtails are not asymmetrical today, and that I am a fast learner.

“You must be, little Shetland potato,” Vil comments, “if you are to deal with my huntsman.”

Day 84

...Rook was carrying a Pomefiore boy over his shoulder, like a sack of potatoes.

He says that it’s his job to capture runaways, in service of his queen.

...I wonder how much he gets paid to do this?

Day 85

I told Rook about my hiking trip with Jade!

He seemed very interested, listening intently and nodding while I spoke.

Rook says that he, too, is a fan of the great outdoors, and that we should go on a camping trip together sometime.

I look forward to it.

Day 90

Today is the promised camping trip with Rook.

The weather is getting chillier, so he reminds me to dress warm. He will take care of the rest of the preparations. After all, he has had much more experience with these sorts of things.

I’m still cold, even when I show up in three layers. Rook tuts and throws his jacket over me, despite my protests.

He guides me through the forest, pointing out tiny things I would not have noticed on my own. That bunny’s burrow, those squirrels storing nuts for the upcoming winter, the rustle of the leaves, the trickle of water, how the sunlight filters through the trees...

Rook has such a poetic way of speaking.

He reminds me of a prince in a fairy tale.

Day 94

Rook told me that he has noticed that my speech has improved. He is proud, puffing up like a proud father. He spouts some nonsense about how “mon petit oiseau” (he helped me with the spelling) is becoming such a refined young lady.

I told him that his own manner of speech is far prettier than mine.

Rook just laughed and offered to help me improve more and more, if I wish.

I should pay a visit to Pomefiore, he said, and the queen will welcome me with open arms.

Day 95

Pomefiore is...beautiful. Violet tapestries, crimson curtains, and gold decorations dripping from every available crevice. And everyone is just as beautiful as their surroundings, skin like glass and eyes set in jewel-colored shadows.

I expected nothing less of the oldest dormitory at Night Raven College. The castle is steeped in years of history.

I was offered tea and a three tiered stand of snacks. Vil introduced me to a boy named Epel, who squirmed in his seat with discomfort.

He made us hold our tea cups all funny and barked at us to exchange words. Rook stands at his queen’s side and just...smiles at us as we suffer.

After that, Vil shepherded us to a large table, where two sets of cutlery were laid out.

I’m drilled for hours on end, until I can differentiate the several different variants of spoons, forks, and knives. Epel, too.

I am told to return every few days, to join Epel for his lessons. “It would do him some good to have someone to go through the motions with,” Vil insists. “It gives him some much needed...’encouragement’.”

More lessons for me.

...Somehow, I feel like Rook has me caught in a snare.

Day 100

Vil quips that we are learning ballroom dancing today.

I do not see the practical use of such a skill, but he will not take no for an answer.

Epel and I mutter apologies as we link hands and step on each other’s feet. Then the queen has us take turns spinning around with Rook.

He is very graceful on his feet--far more than myself or Epel. I’m nervous when my turn comes up, but Rook reassures me that it will be fine.

His arms form a cage to keep me from stumbling.

He clicks his tongue and says I need more practice.

Day 102

We focused on the arts today. Vil was busy with modeling (?) and told us that Rook would be our instructor. He says that the arts are his best subject, so please leave everything to him.

Rook shows us fruit bowls and pictures of scenery (he says he took the photographs himself)! Then he sets out canvases and paint sets and tells us to follow his lead.

His voice is a soft murmur as he beats his paintbrush against a blank canvas, breathing color into an otherwise lifeless world.

I do my best to do as he says.

Rook glances over--and he tells me, through a blinding smile, that my painting needs some work.

I have to agree.

Day 110

Epel is with friends today.

Rook takes this opportunity to grant me a language and writing lesson. He knows that I like writing, so now is as good of a time as any.

Rook hovers over me at a desk and suggests ways to make my writing sound...fancier.

I practice writing sentences like...

You are the light of my life, the lark’s birdsong in the still morning.

You are as lovely as the petals of a rose, lush and delicate and breathtakingly beautiful.

You are the moon and the starlight, twinkling in the depths of the darkness and guiding me to salvation.

I ask him what the point of these phrases were--and Rook answers, “For when you wish to woo whomever has captured your heart!” He makes it sound so easy.

He teaches me a few basic phrases of his flowery language, too.

I tell him merci.

Day 117

The queen puts books on my head and tells me to walk without dropping any of them.

Rook holds my hand and helps me keep balance.

It is warm, and comforting and supportive, just like Jade’s.

Then Vil whips out a pair of odd shoes, with stick-like things instead of a flat sole. He calls them heels and urges me to put them on.

I fall on my face, and Rook has to help me up.

On my second attempt, he catches me. He tells me I have the grace of a newborn fawn--that is to say, none at all.

Still, I feel safe in his arms.

Day 133

It is cold, and snowy.

Rook drags me outside anyway. He says exercise will do my frail little body some good.

But...no matter what I activity I do, I am miserable at it. Snowshoeing, ice skating, sledding. I am horrible at all of them, and more.

We settle for building a snowman.

I try to make it look cute.

Day 140

The cruise ship is boring. The beach is boring. It’s mostly older folks like Uncle sipping on tropical drinks and sunbathing.

I wish I had someone to talk to.

Of course, Jade would be nice and set my heart at ease...but Rook would be able to make even something as mundane as this fun.

I can already hear him shouting in my head about the clear blue waters, and the amber sunlight, and the snow white sand.

Look at me, I’m beginning to speak nonsense.

Well, nonsense it may be, but it is interesting nevertheless.

Rook is...interesting.

Day 149

There are lots of seagulls here.

...They remind me of Rook.

I am not quite sure why.

Maybe it is the incessant cawing.

Though...that is charming, in its own unique way.

Day 155

Rook brought back a souvenir from his home land--a bright blue feather on a beaded necklace. He says it is similar to the one the young prince of his country wears.

It turns out, he is from the Afterglow Savannah! What a surprise; I thought he would be from the Land of Pyroxene.

He regales me with stories of his adventures, of the many hunts he embarked on and his trophies.

His eyes are like emeralds, shining with excitement.

Day 167

I saw a play with Rook.

It told the story of two lovers whose families detested one another. The actors all speak quite frivolously, just like Rook. I can see why he would like this kind of thing.

My favorite part...it was the balcony scene.

The male lead cannot stand to be apart from the female lead, and so he sneaks into her garden at night. He summons her to the balcony and makes a vow that he will, no matter what, find a way to be with her.

...The play ends with death.

I cried a little, and Rook let me lean against his shoulder until I stopped.

Day 170

I penned a little story based on the play.

This one has a happy ending.

I want to put some hope into the world.

Day 185 (Continued)

I asked Rook if he was excited for Valentine’s Day, if he was expecting any gifts.

He gave me a mysterious smile in response and said, “Ah, that is for me to know and for you to find out, mon petit oiseau.”

I wonder what he means by that.

Day 186 (Continued)

I will give Rook some chocolate, too!

As thanks for being my friend.

Day 197 (Continued)

I made little heart-shaped bon-bons for Rook.

Perfect for the Hunter of Love.

Day 198 (Continued)

I want to curl up and die, diary.

Rook saw me crying today, under the shade of the great apple tree that towers in the school courtyard.

He asked me what was wrong, a concerned look on his face.

I snapped at him, told him to leave me be.

...But rather than bombard me with questions or annoy me with overly embellished words...

...Rook sat next to me silently. He held my hand until I stopped crying.

Then I spilled everything. I don’t know why I did. I...I guess I wanted someone to know of my story.

Starting with my arrival at Night Raven College. Ending with Jade’s betrayal.

I told Rook the tale through my tears and disgusting sobbing. It was absolutely pathetic, but...he listened patiently.

When I finished, he told me something.

“Mon petit oiseau, I would never lie to you.”

And I believe him.

Day 200

I cried again.

Stupid Leeches.

Day 202

I am scared of Jade.

I say as much to Rook.

He makes a joke about sharpening a harpoon and going eel hunting.

...At least, I think it is a joke.

Day 215

Rook now greets me as soon as my classes let out. His smile and laugh are reassuring to see.

He makes sure I get home safely, and without being accosted.

I cannot say merci enough.

Day 227

...It is ironic.

The man I once ran from is now the one I willingly go to for shelter, and the man I once went to for shelter is now the one I run from.

What a strange reversal of fortune.

Day 228

I feel eyes on me again.

...Leeches, most likely.

Day 230

Tomorrow is another day.

I will stay at Rook’s side.

It is the only place I feel safe beyond Uncle’s attic.

Day 231

I can trust him.

I can trust Rook.

He will tell an ugly truth right off the bat.

He values honesty, integrity--like me.

And birds of a feather must flock together.

#Rook Hunt #Jade Leech #Dire Crowley #Epel Felmier #Vil Schoenheit #twst #disney twisted wonderland #twisted wonderland #angst #PLEASE STOP READING A PERSON'S DIARY #Tale of the Cursed Raven #Raven Crowley #twst oc #twisted wonderland oc

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popculturebuffet · 4 years ago

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Top 12 Three Caballeros Moments: Ride of the Three Caballeros Epilogue!

Salduos Amigos...and Adios, as this is the FINAL part of my 20 part look at those happy amigos, those snappy chappies in matching serapes, those birds of the feather, THE THREE CABALLEROS, THE RIDE OF THE THREE CABALLEROS! Yes after 19 other articles, all paid for by megafan and patron of the blog @weirdkev27, it’s time to bid our boys a fond farewell. And what a ride i’ts been... we’ve had trips to Bahia, animaton sequences requiring a LOT of 1940′s cocaine ,Jose reinacting the plot of “Come a LIttle Bit Closer” by jay and the americans but ironcially not in the Badman Jose roll,, a less happy reunion where Donald went full vanilla ice for a few moments, Panchito giving us his long and storied family history in song form, Donald needing a vacation after his girlfriend punched him in the face and instead getting eaten by a giant snake, FLAMENCO MASTER HORACE HORSECOLLAR, Soccer with super cars, and our heroes having a warm and fun reunion and having to admit their lives didn’t turn out so good while Dewey jacaksses around in the subplot.

And all of this lead into their very own series where our heroes met a goddess and wayne knight all in the same day, defeated THE MIGHTY MINOTAUR, got into a giant robot fight on the fucking moon, meeting the roman gods who live on and tend to the norse world tree for some reason, preventing a stupidly started lava apocalypse, going to goblin jail via song, meeting some literal dead presidents, chasing a bear around a fancy rich people town, getting into the ch-ch-chalk zone, fighting a wrestling match against the respresntive of the god of death, dying and coming back to life as a result of said wrestling match, going to camelot to train with king arthrus’ self helf book, going to a yeti spa and finally returning for one last battle with an evil wizard, his pet monkeybatdonkeyrat, and wayne knight, and have to put up with Donald’s shrill abusive ex girlfriend through about half of it. All in all good stuff and i’ll always be greatful for kevn funding this and giving me the chance to both finally watch legend and in general cover these wonderful characters. While i’m sure Panchito and Jose wil lbe back for the big finale of Ducktales, I’m gonna miss these guys and hope they get another shot at the big time one day.

But Kevin had a great idea, one I decided to do for free since this thing cost 100 dollars together as it was a movie, and 20 episodes of television, so it was a LOT to do. Fun but a lot of work. A top 12 list of the best moments from across the works covered for this retrospective. From the movie to the series, these are the best of the best moments of the best boys around. So without further adeu join me under the cut as I throw one hell of an after party for one hell of a ride.

12. The Cold Blooded Penguin (The Three Caballeros (Movie) )

This one is low because it doesn’t exactly involve the boys at all as this was a short in their movie. But what can I say, I love penguins, especially Opus.

And the charming tale of a pengy named Pablo who has trouble with the cold and wants to head off for warmer climates just never ceases to entertain me. It’s adorable, pretty funny and just a nice little start to the film every time I watch it. Especially his friends with the sleepy, depressed eyebrows. Really relate to them, especially the tall one with a ponch, aka me as a penguin. Not much else to say hence why it’s so low, but I really enjoyed this short and can’t help but put Pablo on the list.. and wish he’d gotten a nod in Legend, but then again given we weren’t given a second season they were probably just saving him.

11. Charon’s Fabulous Cruise (Legend of the Three Caballeros) Another Cabs free entry but I Just love this concept: Charon, ferryman of the river sticks.. deciding since he’s not getting as many customers to turn it into a cruise ship complete with add. IT’s low both because it dosen’t involve the boys and it dosen’t take up much of it’s episode.. but damn if it ain’t funny. And Jim Cummings just brings his all to it.. granted HE always does, the man’s a legend for a reason, but dosne’t make his performance any less lovely. WIsh we got a second season just so we could see this guy again among other reasons.

10. You Don’t Get a Vacation You Take it (Legend of the Three Caballeros) Wayne Knight as Sheldgoose.. was easily one of the best parts of Legend of the Three Caballeros. While the show itself was fairly high quality it’s other main villain Feldrake eventually fell into just calling Sheldgoose a moron and hitting him as his only character. IN contrast while at first apperance Sheldgoose was just a rich asshole with hair that looks like a bad toupe but apparently is his actual hair and what he choose to go with and a hell of a moustache.. and while that’s all true, he’s also cunning and manipultive, often making Feldrake’s plans work simply by using clever manipulations. He’s funny, enaging and the sadest part of no second season is not getting more of this guy. Hopefully he’ll show up in another.. even the comics using him without Wayne Knight’s Dulect Tones would be nice. He’s a good villian and would fit just as well in the classic comics being either a snooty nuisance to donald in some way, or being a rival fro scrooge, also being rich but his family having earned it by stealing from others. But for now what we got ain’t bad and hte best example of just what sheldgoose is capable of is also his first bit of contirbuting more than as a set of hands for feldrake, phrasing. His vilian song. Yes Wayne Knight FINALLY gets a villian song. Your very welcome.

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The song is just fun, a Luau type song with a sinster undercurrent and wayne knight just having a hell of a time, alternating between speaking and singing> It’s low on this list because i’ts an OKAY song, i’ve seen better villian songs, I just really liked this one, and because it dosen’t exactly involved the boys, but I still hold to my convictions in putting this one on here.

9. Panchito Romero Miguel Junipero Francisco Quintero González (House of Mouse) Only House of Mouse entry, and suprisingly it’s not Donald squeaking “And i’m donald duck!” , which has been burned into my brain for a few decades. No it’s the groups OTHER song in there second apperance on the show Not So Goofy, sung by the incomprable Rob Pauslen. While I sitll think he was easily the worst Jose of the bunch, and that the roll never should’ve been given to a white man to begin with, credit where it’s do: he wasn’t a have bad panchito. He only voiced everyone’s faviorite rooster, suck it Foghorn Leghorn, once, for a song, likely to capatalize on the fact Paulsen was famed for Yakko’s World and other songs where he sang a lot at once, but boy did he make a meal of it. Observe.

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The song is lightly hampered by the fact it also uses his version of Jose which is probably the worst work i’ve heard from Rob. And given it’s the only roll i’ve heard of his that wasn’t very good and he’s still VERY CLEARLY trying his best, that says a lot to the guy’s quality. And im not saying all this to avoid backlash, I stand by what I say and how I say it.. i’m saying it because I truly love and respect the guy this just was not his best work. This song however is Rob on full blast, using his ablitlity to talk fast no matter the voice to give us one heck of a lively performance and name for Panchito, one that was reused for Ride of the Three Cabs though sadly minus the song, as I would’ve LOVED to hear Jamie Camill belt this one out. But the lively animation and liveleir performance earn this one a spot.

8. Baia, Donald (The Three Caballeros) For this one i’m squishing three different but related parts of the movie together: The “Have you been to Baia, Donald” song, the train trip there and the awesome musical number at the end. But all three flow together as one great sequence with the frist two serviing as a fun prelude for a fun sequence as Donald and Jose try to woo a lady named Yaya, played by Aurora Miranda, and get into a big and fun dance number that for the time is AMAZINGLY blended with the live action work. The song is an utter ear worm, the seqeunce is fun and it lacks some of the creepiness Donald’s later session of flirting had and the colors are vibrant as hell. Wonderful, beautiful stuff. It’s really hard to talk about as not a lot happens in it other than a fun bit of song and dance.. but sometimes tha’ts just waht you need: a bunch of actors, two of which were animated, moving and groving to a heckuva beat.

7. I Love You Guys (Legend of the Three Caballeros) This was just a very sweet moment but one I treasure. The Cabs beat a giant horrifying rage beast.. by genuinely apoologizing to donald, telling him they love him then having a group hug. After a full episode before this of them just kinda ignoring what he cared about, Xandra and the boys genuine apologies and Donald genuinely telling them “I love you guys” and realizing for the first time in his life he’s genuinely loved and appricated. It just feels so fucking nice. Shame they didn’t you know.. end the Daisy plot with him realizing he dind’t need or or that he wasn’t angsiting over a selfish goldigger in the first place but hey, you take what you can get sometimes and the getting is good here.

6. The Cabs Song .. in Comic Form! (The Three Caballeros Ride Again!)

Another fairly quick one to talk about but one’s that damn impressive. The Three Cabs ride again is a wonderful story that reunites our birds of a feather for an adventure in mexico.. and one of it’s two best moments, the other one way further up from Don Rosa’s classic, seriously check it out it’s good, is when the boys, to distract their enemy for the story, play their classic song. Musical numbers.. are hard to pull off in comics. As Linkara, comic critic and one of my inspirations check him out on youtube he’s really fantastic, has mentioned quite a bit not having the sound to go with it is an uphill battle. But i’m not as against this as he is.. as long as you can convey the ENERGY of said song and perofrmance in the page. As long as you got that, you can pull it off and boy oh boy oh boy did Rosa ever. While it’s only about a page and a half long it’s just a fun, wonderful litlte sequence, from the crowd that has no reaction til lthe end when our big bad clubs them with the guitar, to our heroes swipining tablecoths to seve as serape to Donald falling outside, it’s one of the highlights of an alreayd impressive story.

5. Jam Session (Ducktales, The Town Where Everyone Was Nice!)

Only one Ducktales moment but it’s a keeper to be sure and now I HAVE seen Legend... I can say as I did there Jamie Camil REALLY shoudlv’e been kept as Panchito but “The Town Where Everyone Was Nice”.. really was still ag reat version of the characters and still kept them true. It wasn’t AS good as the Legend versions.. but honestly that’s fine. Not every version HAS to be good as the others and they were still wella cted, wonderfully animated and the story was great. And the moment that shows it off best is the boys quite moment after lunch, where they remincse, have fun, think about old times.. then hear a radio and slowly but surely have a fun dance number together, playing like old times. It’s this moment that makes me REALLY question why people hated this so much, as this one tiny moment captures the cabs chemistry and comrander in just two short minutes, Donald getting angry, Jose defusing int with a dance then him joining in, the three just jamming iwth whatever’s on hand and jose magically playing the fluit with his umbrella. I’ts all just so charming I love it. The end version of the three cabs IS really awesome, it just didn’t make the cut. Still liked it though.. but this.. this is better. Sometimes less is more you know?

4. The Three Cablleros Song (The Three Caballeros (Movie) ) Look you knew this was coming, I knew this was coming, we all knew this was coming. But the song is no less awesome, with fluid animation, wonderful vocals and lyrics, and an unberably catchy tune. It’s iconic to the characters, having popped up in four different renditions during this retrsopective, all of them pretty damn good, but no one tops the original. Even the two more dated bits, some latin baby and Panchito having a gun solo, somehow don’t hamper what’s otherwise an iconic moment. It’s fun, it’s fancy free, and it establishes the boys dynamic perfectly, one that as we’ve seen would last a few lifetimes and probably will last forever.

3. We Say So! (The Three Caballeros Ride Again) While Ride again is a VERY good story, it’s best moment is ironiclaly it’s end despite leaving you wanting more and more. After a fun adventure and a laugh over it being for nothing really, our friends return to Jose’s job at a night club, which his manager, who understandably has issues with Jose choosing wooing ladies over actually doing his job sometimes, only gives him back because it’s a big night but needs a big act. The first touching moment here is the fact the boys pitch in without being asked because hteir friend needs them. But the real moment is what happens after: The Triplets return from the hotel, still bemoaning as they did ealrier in the story that Donald has no friends and assume when they see him on stage and see him crash off it that he incited a riot.. only for his friends to assure him he’s a very fine fellow and they say so.. and in an instnat the boys realize donald DOES have friends.. and the best friends a duck can ask for. And after a lifetime of being spat on and barely winning.. Donald gets an unquestioned victory, stnading proudly with his friends for a packed house who still want more while his nephews look on proudly. I say so.. and what I say is that this moment is one of Rosa’s finest and one of the most touching thigns the man’s ever written.

2. This is Just Where I Came In (The Legend of the Three Caballeros) The Legend of the Three Cabs was excellent and it ended on one hell of a high. After a heck of a fight via callbacks that barely didnt’ make the list, our heroes rush in to stop Feldrake. their sorcerer nemisis, from reviving.. only for it to be too late. He’s back in full and soon warps reality around him leaving the boys hometown of the New Quackmore insitute as a series of rubble, buildings and people clinging desperatly to both floating in a hell of a starry backdrop, the only chance to stop this from happenign to the world resting in our heroes. And it’s so we catch up with where the seires began: our three heros decked out in truly awesome armor, though why Panchtio’s is roman I have no idea, fighting a giant and mosnterious felldrake and while his deisgn in that form is eh, his threat is palpable and the fight is goregous and pitch perfect.. and only gets better when we catch up, as Xandra swoops in to save htem from the cliffhanger the series started with. It only isn’t up top because of tow reasons; I like the first moment better.. and the boys do fall in a magic pool of amulet juice and emerge with powers due to a character we just meet when they do so. It’s a bit of a cop out.. but even with it being a cop out and a dues ex machina of the HIGHEST order.. it dosen’t stop it form being awesome when our heroes emerge merged with thier amulets energies, in their signutre colors and whoop felldrakes ass with a revivied Xandra’s help and then nearly reseal feldrake before his being resealed, but in Sheldgoose, resotres everything and our heroes get a WELL earned bout of praise from the town and a fancy mansion and in donald’s case a new job. A specatuclar, tense and gorgeous finale to a wonderful series.

1. Ride Em, Vaquero! (The Magificent 7 (Minus 4) Caballeros) Look I know it sounds like a bit of a downgrade to go from a battle for the fate of the world to our heroes fighting a spoiled prince and a giant anaconda just to make it out alive.. but frankly this battle is more tense, has all boys showing off even better, and has a climax so awesome even saving the unvierse with suddenly gained magic powers can’t top it. For the setting our heroes end up trapped in a lost city with the bad guy of the comic, Don Rosa’s second to last and his second of only two cabs stories, prepared to get away. But then Donald snaps, spurred on bya ll the shit he had to put up with back home,and TACKLES the fucking guy in his boat getting into one hell of a scrap. And if that wasn’t enough, what brings this to true glory is a giant Anaconda who shoed up earlier, popping up.. leading to Donald fighting our big bad.. WHILE BEING TANGLED UP IN A FUCKING PYTHON.

What truly clinches this as the best of the best for me though is Jose and Panchito’s actions, with Jose fighting the guy off off donlad, and actually having his umbrella WORK this time, and while the bad guy gets the raft from our heroes.. he falls off a cliff. So how do our heroes escape.. simple .. PANCHITO LASSOS THE FLEEING SNAKE AND THEY RIDE IT OUT AS SEEN ABOVE THROUGH A POND FULL OF DANGEROUS CREATURES WHO ALL STARE IN AWE AT THE SIGHT OR FLEE. You.. you just can’t top that. The awesomness, the teamwork, the sheer balls on panchito..i t’s all just so beauitful and sums up what the boys are about: Deft teamwork, camradire.. and doing utterly insane shit as only best friends can.

So with that.. this ride has come to an end. As I said before and will say again, it’s been fun, easily the biggest project i’ve done so far, and easily one of my faviorites. I love these guys and geninely hope we see them again real soon. So before I go, i’d like to say some thank yous. I”d like to thank ALL of the talented people involved in the making of the original film, as there are way too many to mention as it was a package movie but without you lovely and mostly deceased people we’d never have these wonderful guys. I’d like to thank Don Rosa for bringing the boys back and better than ever and beautifully so AND returning to them again. I’d like to thank Henry Gilroy and Phil Walsh, who wrote the first and second house of mouse cabs episodes for bringing the boys back to the screen, as well as series creators Robert Gainway and Tony Craig and the MASSIVE pile of storyboarders for both episode. I’d like to thank the people behind mickey and the roadster racers, while your episodes were not very good I am glad the boys got more screentime, i’d like thank Frank Angrones and Matt Youngberg for their wonderful versions of the boys and total respect to their legacy, and i’d REALLY like to thank Matt Danner for giving us a wonderful series and finally giving the boys a starring roll again.

I’d also like to thank the MANY voice actors who voiced these wonderful characters, your beautiful all of you. To Donald’s voice actors for this retrospective i’d like to thank Clarence Nash, you absolute legend may you rest in peace, Tony Anselmo, may you keep on living please god we’ve lost a lot of good people lately don’t be one of them, and even Daniel Ross, who might not be the best Donald but he’s one of only five and you can’t take that way from him.

For Jose i’d like to thank Jose Olivara, without you I don’t think we would’ve even gotten to the Cablleros as a group, Rob Paulsen, you tried your best and your still a winner in my heart, Eric Bauza, you genuinely were the best, and Bernardo Del Paula, who gave Bauza a run for his money and I hope returns in the role in the future.

And finally for Panchito we have Joaquin Grey, again wouldn’t of had the rest without you man nice job, Carlos Alarzqaui, did the job and did it well, Rob Paulsen, gave us one hell of a song, Jamie Camill, the best around no one’s ever going to keep him down, Arturo Del Purto who while I prefer jamie.. still was excellent and I wouldn’t be mad if he returned again.

And last but not least I’d like to sincerly thank @weirdkev27. These reviews have GENUINELY helped me finacially since i’ts hard for me to find a job since I cannot drive and have a disablity, and thanks to htem i’ve been able to live comfortably and thanks to you in general i’ve been able to do what I love and get paid for it. You got me to do this wonderful restrospective, have been a genine support to the blog and a treasure to work with. Thanks man, your the best. So with that, it’s time to ride off into the sunset. If the cabs get another apperance outside of ducktales, I will pick this up again... and wether it’s in a year or ten you bet your bottom peso they’ll be back. Who says so? I says so.

#the three caballeros #the three cablleros ride again #don rosa #jose carioca #donald duck #panchito romero miguel junipero francisco quintero gonzalez #panchito pistoles #ducktales #the legend of the three caballeros #house of mouse #xandra goddess of adventure #charon #wayne knight #baron von sheldgoose #lord feldrake #duck comics #disney ducks #disney #disney plus

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starkerintheparker · 5 years ago

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starker reclist - canon based fics

Hi Starker fam! To celebrate my 900 followers I decided to finally start posting my humble and very personal reclist. I’ve been planning to do it for a while now but it got way bigger than I anticipated so I decided to split it in 4 parts and will share the first one today. I’ve been around for less than a year and there’s a lot I haven’t read yet so my plan is to update this list as I go.

Under the cut is part I, solely is dedicated to canon-based fics. I’m a sucker for angst so most of my recs feature guilty!Tony, miscommunication, porn with feels and all that jazz. Hopefully you’ll be able to find something interesting according to your preferences. Oh and don’t forget to leave kudos, comments and spread the love for these authors :) Cheers!

Last updated: 2020/04/18. All new fics added will be marked with ***

• 10 Ways to Woo Your Boo by @darker-soft-starker (NR, 6k, completed)

Summary: By twenty-one Peter Parker had graduated college, scored himself a post-grad job and was a full-fledged member of the Avengers. He had his own apartment, paid his own bills and juggled his time between being a superhero and working enough to cover his rent. So long as Peter was armed with his ID, he was a full-fledged adult in the eyes of the law. Perhaps foolishly, he’d assumed it would make him an adult in the eyes of everybody else too. Keen to be seen as worthy of Tony's heart, Peter enlists the help of his friends and the internet in courting his former mentor.

Review: We all love Ash’s fantastic AUs but this lovely canon-based fic may be one of my favorite works by her. I will never know how she manages the fine balance between angst, humor and romance, I just know it hits me good and takes my breath away. Oblivious!Tony and Peter being a bisexual disaster at wooing, what do you mean this wasn’t in the movies? Sounds canon to me.

• 100-Point Restoration by Destina (T, 8k, completed)

Summary: Tony needs a happiness upgrade; Peter wants Tony. These goals might be compatible. (This story is set roughly five years post-Homecoming).

Review: I just realized this was the first Starker fic I’ve read, and it was back in 2017! I didn’t ship Starker at the time but this author must have done something right because for some reason I couldn’t take my eyes away. This fic is gorgeous. Tony’s voice is amazing, his dynamics with Peter are spot-on and organic - but nothing’s better than watching their feelings unfold, like a soft and warm humming just awaiting for disclosure.

• adult supervision by doveslayer (M, 20k, on hiatus)

Summary: Peter Parker should not keep drunk-dialing Tony Stark after midnight. But more pressingly, Tony Stark should not keep answering. In which Tony tries to convince himself he's doing nothing wrong. warning: underage!Peter tho pretty vanilla imo

Review: My favorite “everything is happening while nothing is happening” fic. Their voices are spot on, the dialogues are clever, and you can almost touch the tension with your fingertips. It’s been a year since the last update but even if this fic never gets finished I promise the read will have been worthy!

• Attached by @paspleurer (E, 7k, completed)

Summary: Tony gets it, he really does. As far as rebounds go, sleeping with your childhood hero isn't half bad. And if what Peter wants is this— just sex, with no strings attached— then Tony will give him this.

Review: Pleurer and Learned Foot have seduced me with the rebound trope. This is a lovely Tony POV with the good old pining + miscommunication combo, plus enthusiastic sex and sweet domesticity. What else could I ask for?

• Covet by RTC anonymous (E, 34k, completed)

Summary: Peter has a new boyfriend. Tony starts drinking again, for unrelated reasons.

Review: I read this fic when I was still warily lurking around the Starker fandom and it blew me away. The sexual tension is so palpable you can almost taste it. There is jealous, guity Tony failing at mentoring and a vulnerable, smitten Peter Parker trying to make sense out of it. RTC anon is a religion.

• Ephemeron by @ramblings-from-elsinore (E)

Summary: "Being around Ned, Peter's reminded how out of place he is. For Ned, the second ever appearance of aliens over Manhattan is the stuff of excited hallway chatter, of where were you when—? Ned’s world wasn’t blown apart and stitched back together. Because Ned doesn’t remember. No one does, except the ones who were there, who fought." AKA, "Tony's relationship with Peter may be unconventional, but they’re unconventional people who have had some pretty fucking unconventional experiences." In which Tony can't stop touching Peter to make sure he's real, and Peter dreams of being in Tony's arms and not disappearing.

Review: I started reading this fic before I joined the fandom and man, what a way to get pulled into this ship. Brace yourself for hardcore guilty!Tony being all over the place plus unhealthy codependency and touch deprivation, all the good things. Reading this is a spiritual experience but fair warning: this is not a happy story, at least not for a long while, so please mind the tags.

• Expiration Date by @learned-foot (E, 12k, completed)

Summary: Tony knows exactly what this is. First big breakup, go for a fling with a completely inappropriate person. It’s basically a cliché. He kind of thought Peter was better than that, but apparently being brilliant and one of the bravest people on the face of the planet doesn’t mean he’s immune from being a stupid college student who makes stupid college student mistakes. AKA Tony is sure this is just a fling, and he deals with that about as well as you’d expect.

Review: Ahh my beloved rebound trope and my first rec (out of many) by LF! Between a pining, insecure Tony making all the wrong decisions and a young and confident Peter unwilling to let him go, this fic makes your heart ache in the best ways. Good thing LF only works with happy endings!

• From Thy Bounty by @ibby-writes and feyrelay (E, 31k, completed)

Summary: Tony’s eyes are always dark, but now there's almost no iris left. He looks hollowed out. There’s something terribly hungry there, despite the feast they've filled themselves on.

Review: I’ve lost count of how many times I reread this insanely hot and ridiculously well written fic. Besides the A+++ characterization, there is delicious food porn foreplay followed by a breathtaking cat and mouse game that culminates with no less than 13.5k of intense and unapologetic sex with feels, my favorite kind. Enjoy the meal! ;D

***Gift of Choice by tuesday (E, 12k, completed)

Summary: Tony Stark had a thing about giving Peter stuff.

Review: This is my favorite fic by tuesday and the PERFECT rendition of our beloved sugar daddy trope. Great pacing, amazing dialogues and a breathtaking build up that makes you both smile and sweat in anticipation. They’re so in love I almost can’t handle when they finally get together. Sexy, hot and very sweet.

• here is my hand, my heart by belatrix (E, 16k, completed)

Summary: Mostly, Tony had tried not to look. He still does. Try, that is. It’s just― it’s getting a little bit harder every day.

Review: I have a HUGE soft spot for this beautiful masterpiece, because it was the fic that finally made me join the Starker fandom. I’ve reread it so many times and it never fails to amaze me. Through an atmospheric non-linear narrative, this shows a guilt-ridden Tony Stark trying and failing to resist one determined Peter Parker who won’t take bullshit for an answer. Hot, and angsty, and breathtaking.

• I know that you got Daddy Issues (And I do too) by feyrelay (E)

Summary: The one where Peter’s blue balls save the world. Because, yeah? That meandering, blooming thing between him and Mr. Stark? That relationship that continues to be maddeningly legal, platonic, and above-board, but still somehow haunts Peter’s wildest wet-dreams? That might just be the key to Strange’s endgame.

Review: This fic is a love letter to those who appreciate an angsty and nuanced slow burn like me. Possibly the best character study I’ve ever read combined with a clever, well researched and intricated plot. Reading this will make you fall even more in love with Tony and Peter as individuals, before wanting them to be better together. Make sure to also check all related fics under the tag DIEU (Daddy Issues Extended Universe) - the Starker verse we fucking deserve.

• if I am the river, you are the ocean by sadonsundays (E, 7k, completed)

Summary: The one where Tony can't sleep and Peter can't stop his hands from shaking.

Review: This is a gorgeous recovery fic, painful and heartbreaking, yes, but still very gentle as Tony and Peter’s relationship quietly unfolds. Pepper is an absolute treat which was refreshing to me. I just love the quiet and angsty undertone that guides their journey until they finally find home in each other.

if you’d grant my love a pardon by belatrix (M, 2.5k, completed)

Summary: The first time, it goes something like this: “No,” Tony says, but it’s tired, half-hearted, not quite a denial.

Review: One of the reasons why I love this ship is that there’s always room for angst, even when they’re already together. This lovely yet heartbreaking fic mirrors Tony’s fragile heart as he realizes that as much as he should, he just can’t let go of Peter, not quite yet. Belatrix writes guilty!Tony’s headspace like nobody else and I just can’t recommend her writing enough.

• in the light of a dying star by @areiton (M, 6k, completed) fix-it

Summary: Extremis isn't a guarantee. That's what Pepper told him, as they took him off the bloody, dusty field. It was just a chance. A desperate gamble.

Review: I’m so glad I read this right after Endgame because this is the fix-it Tony and we all deserved, this fic is so comforting and beautiful. I really love the quiet, ethereal atmosphere and how it shapes our perception of time and character development. Peter is beautifully written and their get together made my heart ache in peace.

• In the Morning by @cagestark (M, 6k, completed)

Summary: Peter's pretty stressed. He isn't understanding physics despite all the extra time he is spending with Bruce. And underneath it all, something is wrong with Mr. Stark.

Review: Heart wrenching and painfully honest fic, where Tony is a jealous mess and Peter is his usual earnest, sweet and good self. They meet in the middle, and it’s quiet, beautiful and sad.

• Kiss Me by @ironspi

Summary: Five times Peter and Tony almost kiss and one time they did.

Review: This fic was such a lovely surprise! It begins unpretentious and it builds up to quality pining and unresolved sexual tension. Chapter 4 is particularly awesome, so charged and intimate. Kudos to the author for exploring Peter taking the lead and making Tony melt in his arms.

• Landslide by spqr (M, 8k, completed) fix-it

Summary: Peter jumps into the quantum realm with his heart in his throat. He steps out in 2018, on the edge of a lake he still has nightmares about. A hundred yards away over the water, the lights in the lakehouse are on.

Review: Morally ambiguous characters + angsty time travel? Count me in. This fic has a very interesting (and darker) take on Peter post-Thanos, in his raw and desperate grief over Tony. Bonus points for amazing dialogues and a fix-it plot so clever and believable I’m surprised I didn’t see it on screen.

• lean on me now by @areiton (G, 9k, on hiatus)

Summary: He’s so tired, and he hurts, the kind of screaming pain he’s struggling to ignore now, and he wants to go home. But he can do this. He can sit and watch, and keep them safe. A wry smile tugs at his lips because he knows how ridiculous that sounds--a kid keeping Avengers safe.

Review: One of the best canon divergence fics I’ve ever read. It’s quiet, angsty and Peter’s voice is simply amazing. My heart breaks for Tony, but I’m so here for Peter & Rhodey’s brOTP, the fandom deserves more of it.

• noticing by @areiton (NR, 2k, completed)

Summary: “You deserve to be happy,” Rhodey tells Tony once, when Tony is drinking and conflicted and Peter is sleeping unaware on the couch. Tony watches him, eyes bright.

Review: How could I ever resist seeing Tony and Peter’s relationship development through Rhodey’s protective and thoughtful gaze? Any Tony stan should read this fic because this is the kind of love, friendship and support he deserves. Reading this put my mind at rest, knowing Tony’s cared for, and safe.

• Obvious by @learned-foot (M, 14k, completed)

Summary: When Peter wakes up, several things become very clear all at once: he’s underground somewhere unpleasant, something is messing with his powers, and his entire body hurts. A lot.

Review: WHUMP WHUMP WHUMP *victory dance* god this one is brutal, but we can trust LF to bring on full angst with an intriguing plot and A+++ characterization. I’m so here for protective!Tony doing whatever it takes to keep Peter safe, including all the confusion and heartbreak his problematic decisions may bring.

• Permission by @cagestark (E, 16k, completed)

Summary: During drinks with the Avengers, Peter admits that he enjoys orgasms more when someone is giving him permission, though since he's single, there isn't anyone in his life to offer it. Generous Tony offers to offer it.

Review: This fic is unique and so very hot, but don’t let the smutty summary fool you. There is also tenderness and FEELS in capital letters. Despite their arrangement, pining!Tony is so vulnerable and so completely in love with Peter it kinda breaks my heart a little, but thankfully Cage is a big fan of happy endings like me, so we’re all safe in her hands.

***Post-Endgame NYE by @darker-soft-starker (M, completed)

Summary: Five years after the events of endgame Tony is resurrected. Months after that, he's still trying to find equilibrium

Review: Hands down the loveliest ‘flirting on a bench’ I’ve ever seen, and my top favorite NYE Starker fic. I love to see Tony facing an existential crisis while he navigates his new life post-resurrection, including the violent realization of ‘oh no, Peter’s an attractive adult now’. Gentle and gorgeous get together, kudos at Morgan for being a little devil and playing matchmaking.

• Proxy by @cagestark (E, 11k, completed)

Summary: Peter wants to know if Mr. Stark knows, like, anybody who’d be willing to make out with him. Things escalate from there.

Review: I have such a big soft spot for this fic because “by proxy” is one of my favorite tropes and Cage explored it masterfully. Again, this is pining!Tony at his best and Cage just has this ability to transform what once started as a sexy little thing into this soft and gentle love story, the kind that gives you butterflies in the stomach.

• Radar by @intoxicatelou (M)

Summary: Peter could say that he’s officially approached desperation, but he wants this, wants Tony, and he’s willing to do everything it takes. Or the one in which Peter tries to become Tony's celebrity crush from 2009 in order to seduce him.

Review: This is one of my favorites self-indulgent fics, I just can’t resist the good old “Peter’s seduction handbook” trope and intoxicatelou delivers it beautifully. This story is sweet, super fun and relatable af. There’s A+ pining, Peter being a bisexual disaster and MJ being the queen we all stan, shocking absolutely no one.

• Revelations by RTC anonymous (E, 127k, completed)

Summary: “I still don’t get it,” Ned says. “How you just... keep being ordinary in spite of all the craziness you’ve lived through. You were in space. You helped Iron Man save the universe. And nobody knows it was you.” His tone softens, becomes almost sad. As though he realizes that what he’s saying is so completely alien to him that he will never be able to understand this part of Peter’s life. “Peter, don’t you want people to know you for who you are?” An AU where they get the Gauntlet off of Thanos that first time, on Titan.

Review: I feel like I don’t need to justify this choice – almost everyone in the fandom has either heard of or read this masterpiece, it’s safe to say this fic is part of the Starker Training Wheels Protocol lol. If you have just arrived or is just exploring the fandom and enjoys slow burns I suggest you start right hee because it doesn’t get any better than this. There’s A+++ characterization, breathtaking pining, insane sexual tension and a very satisfying ending if I may say so. Definitely among my top 3 Starker fics. RTC anon, wherever you are, please know you are loved and appreciated. I’ll literally build an altar for you.

• Reversal by @learned-foot (E, 4k, completed)

Summary: Sometimes, Tony is the one who needs to be praised.

Review: For once Peter makes Tony just lie down and take 😊 the fucking 😊 praise 😊. I feel like I’ve been waiting for this fic all my life. This is the praise kink Tony (and we all) deserve, genuine, gentle and powerful. If you’re a big sap for their love like I am, you’re in for an emotional ride because this is overwhelmingly sweet to the point it brings tears to your eyes. LF is such a gift to this fandom.

• Settling by @cagestark (E, 5k, completed)

Summary: Peter really wants to be taller than Tony. Heels help.

Review: One of my favorites by Cage, I still remember how happy and giggly I felt when I first read it. There is A+++ characterization, amazing dialogue, Avengers domesticity, praise kink, the hottest blow job and my favorite Starker first kiss. Oh, did I mention Peter in heels and Tony loving every moment of it? You’re welcome :D

• Stipulations by RTC anonymous (E, 70k, completed)

Summary: Peter Parker’s long term dream recently went from ‘get into MIT’ to ‘afford going to MIT’. As the time approaches, it’s dawning on him that he won’t be able to pay his tuition and afford the move to Cambridge all at once: he’s out of money, his secrets are beginning to pile up, and desperation has started creeping in... And then one night, he saves Tony Stark’s life.

Review: Another fandom classic by our irreplaceable RTC anon, this fic is SO GOOD I keep coming back to it and just recently I realized I’ve built all my personal Starker headcanons out of it, lol. A+++ characterization and hot, delicious pining is a given with this author, but I’m really here for that senses-dialed-to-11 trope, and RTC delivers it masterfully.

• subtle by @areiton (T, 1k, completed)

Summary: Peter is not subtle. He wears his emotion, his excitement, like a flag waved bright red and teasing for a bull—impossible to go unnoticed, impossible to ignore. It’s adorable and it’s Peter, and it’s—in hindsight—why Tony misses the context clues.

Review: This fic is like reading poetry, a balm to the heart. Peter wears Tony’s colors and by the time Tony finally gets the context clues they fall together in the gentlest, softest way.

• Take it slow by tuesday (E, 13k, completed)

Summary: There were a ton of reasons dating Peter was a bad idea. Tony loved bad ideas. He was going to do it anyway. In which Tony thinks they're dating, and then they're dating undercover.

Review: This fic is so endearing it’s basically impossible not to cheer for these two, despite their usual infuriating communication issues, lol. But I promise all the angst and wait are worth it, because there’s nothing more satisfying than seeing how they (finally!) get to be on the same page.

• the record spins on the trails we blaze by @darker-soft-starker (NR, 5k, completed)

Summary: Years after the events of Homecoming, Peter thought all of the bad memories were well and truly behind him. After all, so much has happened since then - and he's happy now. Everything is kinda perfect.Turns out nothing stays buried.

Review: Hell yes! I agree HoCo’s events were particularly traumatizing and this trope is not as explored as it should be. To put it simply, this fic is something I didn’t know that I needed and Ash delivered it beautifully. It’s incredibly gentle, cathartic and honest, not to mention the lovely domesticity and understanding between the characters that will make your heart swell.

• Under Someone Else by @learned-foot (M, 7k, completed)

Summary: Peter realizes he’s just a rebound. And he’s okay with that, really. Or at least, that’s what he keeps telling himself.

Review: FEELS, FEELS EVERYWHERE. It’s so hard to choose a favorite fic by LF but this is the first that comes to mind because it introduced me to the amazing rebound trope. It’s so refreshing to see this ship’s potential for angst and miscommunication playing into the “fuck first, talk later” scenario. Warning for vulnerable boys being idiots and breaking our hearts but P.P.P.S they do eventually get their shit together and it’s glorious!

• Up for Anything by tuesday (E, 8k, completed)

Summary: When it came to Tony Stark, Peter would take what he could get. In which Peter believes he's just a rebound. (Not Endgame compliant.)

Review: Of course there’s yet another gorgeous rebound rec because I can’t get enough of this trope. Honestly, LF and Tuesday writing for each other have provided some of the best fics this fandom has, God bless them. This is another treat featuring pining!Peter and the usual “I can’t communicate properly how much I fucking love you”, but there’s also bantering, delicious dirty talk and so much affection that you’ll read it all with the biggest smile on your face.

#starker #reclist #peter parker x tony stark

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fyeahkarenchen · 4 years ago

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Figure Skaters Make Special Delivery to Paralympian Tatyana McFadden

Tatyana McFadden was getting anxious. Her racing chair was broken and a replacement was stuck in Japan for six months because of pandemic restrictions on international shipping. Finally, her chair arrived via FigEx. That’s U.S. Figure Skating Express. The American team flew home from the World Team Trophy in Japan last week with silver medals and a cardboard box containing McFadden’s new carbon racing frame. “We all felt like we were a part of bringing some precious cargo home,” said team captain Jason Brown. They posed for a photo with the box at Tokyo’s Narita Airport, beaming behind their masks. “I was like, ‘Please get a picture of everybody,’” said McFadden, “because I’m so grateful for them, that they took this in and they’re going to be bringing it back to the U.S. - because I’m out of options and I need this wheelchair.” McFadden posted the photo on Instagram, writing, “When we say we are one team we are really one team.” She thanked the U.S. Figure Skating team and each of the athletes, adding, “International shipping has been tough during this time but you all made it happen.”

Brown said when their flight arrived in San Francisco and they went to baggage claim, “The thing we all were waiting for was this box. ‘OK, is it going to come out?’” It did, and then team leader Lorin Ferrell made sure it was shipped to McFadden in Florida, where she is training for the Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020, which begin in August. It was a belated birthday present for McFadden, who turned 32 on April 21. The winner of 17 Paralympic medals – seven of them gold – averages about 115 miles a week in training, or as her mother, Deborah said, “The distance she runs is equivalent to running back and forth across the United States twice at least in a year. And that’s just the training; that doesn’t count her competitions.” The wear and tear puts a lot of stress on the frame and weakens it in the middle. “So that’s why you really should get a new frame within eight months to a year,” McFadden said. “I’ve been long overdue. You want to have the perfect chair going into the Games.” McFadden, who runs distances on the track from 100 meters to 5,000 meters in the T54 category and also competes in marathons on the road, expected to pick up a new chair in February 2020 after competing in one of the marathon majors in Japan. Then covid hit and the race was cancelled. As the calendar turned from 2020 to 2021, McFadden had to do some emergency repair with epoxy glue. She also was forced to switch to an aluminum frame, which is not as light as the carbon frame. Deborah worked the phones, trying all the angles. Even though the whole package weighed only about 15 pounds, that was still more than the shipping restrictions allowed. “I said to the wheelchair company, ‘Can you break it down into little teeny tiny parts?’” she said. “Which of course, they can’t.” “There’s nobody to blame,” said her daughter, who won six medals in Rio, including four golds. “I’m running out of options. We’re four months away from the Games. We just went to Plan B.” The U.S. figure skating team to the rescue. McFadden reached out to Sherrice Fox, the director of U.S. Paralympic Track and Field, and said, “I need help. What can we do? Is there anybody that’s going over – like, anybody?” The USA diving team was scheduled to compete in a world cup in Tokyo starting April 18, but that was postponed. Another dead end. Then Fox told McFadden that the U.S. figure skating team was not only heading to Japan, they were already on the plane. However, with quarantines tight and sporting events held in a bubble, McFadden worried there might be problems. U.S. Figure Skating enlisted the help of the Japanese figure skating association. After the box holding the frame was shipped from the manufacturer to Osaka, it was allowed to come into the athletes’ hotel. The team carried it to the airport and, and, as a bonus, Deborah said the $200 excess baggage fee was the lowest amount she’d ever paid getting the chair into the U.S.

Brown said that he and his teammates – Nathan Chen, Bradie Tennell, Karen Chen, Alexa Knierim, Brandon Frazier, Kaitlin Hawayek and Jean-Luc Baker – were honored to take on the mission. “The U.S. skating team was so fortunate to have the opportunity to compete in Japan last week,” Brown said. “We know how rare travel is right now – and competition. We all struggled this year in a different way. “We are so thrilled, so excited, that we could be a very small part of getting her equipment. There are so many things that we take for granted, so it was really, really cool to help each other out in this moment.” Brown won a bronze medal in Sochi in 2014 in the team figure skating event while McFadden won a silver in cross-country skiing. And while McFadden kept up with figure skaters during the World Team Trophy, they now feel a connection to her. Said Brown, “We will all be cheering on Tatyana so loudly and proudly in Tokyo.” In this case, everybody wins. “We all have one goal – we want to be on Team USA,” McFadden said. “We want to compete for ourselves; we want to compete for our country, for our family and the world, and there’s no difference between Olympians and Paralympians. We’re trying to win medals and we are just one large team.” Thanks to the new chair, McFadden can focus on training for her fifth straight summer Paralympic team and her quest to win six gold medals. Her mother said that when she arrives in Tokyo, the manufacturer has promised to have another racing chair waiting that she can use as a backup and then take home. But for now, Deborah said, “Figure skating – they are the heroes.”

#karen chen #jason brown #alexa scimeca knierim #brandon frazier #jean luc baker #kaitlin hawayek #bradie tennell #nathan chen #tatyana mcfadden #team usa #WTT 2021 #off ice #season: 2020 2021 #photos #news

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janiedean · 5 years ago

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Just seen a post like "y r reylos upset? they kissed. I have a ship where they don't even meet" and I was ready to go "I Don't Know How To Explain To You That knowingly shipping a crackship and seeing a ship that's been set up since the beginning get turned into some emotionally manipulative little trick by hacks who dgaf abt the characters and only want to cash in on every single part of the fandom are very different things." But I gave up. Not worth the effort.

it’s not, but... honestly?

this thing is... like... I don’t want to say mildly worrying me, but... it is. (beware the next post won’t probably make much sense but bear with me this thing isn’t sitting well with me lmao)

I mean, like, let’s get it out of the way that I didn’t care for reylo either way until tlj and post-tlj I was like ‘oh okay they’re definitely the romance of the trilogy fine sounds nice I’ll be here being happy for them when they inevitably kiss’, because it’s like.. star... wars. I mean. sw is like the one franchise that until five days ago I’d have cashed in on being the ONE thing that would always end up cheesy/hopeful/not disappointing you know, so... I didn’t even consider that there was another way it could end. because it’s goddamn sw, redemption stories with happy endings are the damned brand.

so like... the fact that the thing was obviously set up and they tore it to shreds along with everything else in the movie is bad. like, bad. but people who didn’t realize how fucking insulting it was just... don’t seem to get that the moment you go watch movies whose brand is making you feel better about things and they turn into calvinism central NO HAPPINESS ALLOWED and they don’t even do it with sense - bc rots made no fucking sense at any point ever and that’s outside reylo - it just... makes you feel betrayed? like, again: in 2015 when I came out of the cinema the only thing I banked on was poe dameron not dying and I couldn’t care either way about kylo ren, but like - tlj made me care. as it was supposed to be. I was supposed to care about kylo ren’s pull to the light and guess what I did because that movie wanted me to, and it wanted me to do 2+2 and realize that he and rey were soulmates and fine I was down with that because I like myself a nice love story.

and then like... you give it to me, like that, and the moment you have the character who has had a shitty life, has been groomed since he was born if not before by Worst Person In The Galaxy if the new canon wants me to buy that - or by snoke but it’s the same -, is an abuse victim and is 100% sure that everyone hates him and no one understands him or wants to understand him, you make that character related to one of the most iconic ones in the franchise to the point that you tried to make han every other member of the trio tbh, you actually have that character taking his life in his hands after talking to han and like embrace what he always wanted to be and show that he’s actually happy with it (like ffs guys it’s also probs because adam driver is an excellent actor but you can see the ben solo vs kylo ren difference in the span of five seconds, and you’re supposed to root for ben solo to win ffs), have him actually win, have him being happy for the first time in the entire canon and then you kill him a second later with rey in tears over it except that then we forget to give him a funeral........... like.......... sorry but I feel robbed because as lowkey as my effort on banking on ben solo’s redemption was because I was sure it was coming and I took it for granted it still felt like they were being unnecessarily cruel. like, they could have killed him in ten other ways that wouldn’t make you feel like someone stabbed you in the kidney as another anon put it. but no, let’s give people the prospect of HEY THEY’LL BE HAPPY just to tear it away from them ten seconds later. like, what the fuck? that’s not what anyone signed up for.

especially when the entire thing was obviously set up for the happy ending. like, if you actually misread the audience so much that you think star wars audience wants grimdark when it’s a movie marketed at children then you don’t deserve the money you’re most likely getting paid.

like, again: as someone who wasn’t even diehard reylo or whatever even if I absolutely shipped it, I felt like these assholes took my money and punched me in the kidney since rey palpatine was a thing and the moment he died I about screamed fuck you out loud... along with most of the entire room which was screaming fuck you, because guess what, not a single person in that room actually was banking on the ben solo redemption to fail and each single person in the room was clapping when they kissed because we were fucking waiting for it already, and like......... obviously ppl shipping it are upset. they were given an unsatisfactory movie up until then that didn’t give the characters justice but which could have still been more or less decent if it saved the spirit of the entire thing... which it didn’t because sw is not fucking calvinist central and hasn’t ever been until now. and then they were given canon after being the target of the vilest shit (guys seriously I unfollowed antireylo people way before shipping reylo myself bc that crap was out of line for shipping fictional stuff)... just to have them take it away by killing the one character that was there to show you that there’s always hope for you to do the right thing?

like, let’s be fucking real: the message is that if you fucked up and want to be better it won’t ever be enough because sorry but you’ll never get another good start and if you care about someone who fucked up and want to help them be better it’s wasted time because people who want to do better can’t actually live and have a chance to keep on doing it.

and sorry but fuck that message with a chainsaw. the beautiful thing about this ship imvho was that in tlj it made it overtly clear how rey helped him out of being a genuinely nice person who listened to someone who thought no one ever would and at the same time kylo/ben couldn’t believe that someone actually said that he wouldn’t be alone either bc the two of them are extremely lonely people and feel that acutely....... and they even threw in the soul bond to make it extra obvious. it was a hopeful story because you had girl who never had anyone who was also innately good who could put her prejudices aside to see that someone who also went dark side because he thought no one loved him and then kept on being abused his entire life actually had good inside them and wanted to help him see that instead of writing him off as a lost cause. like. that was a good romance. nothing exceedingly new under the sun, but in sw it was pretty fresh and a good spin compared to the two other main love stories of the trilogy. also, anakin/padme was what it was and han/leia was immensely better but hey someone decided to kill off the entire original trio so whatever... and if these two ended well they’d have been a constant improvement, never mind the symbolism - you had anakin who was a no one and married a space princess but ended up tragically because he went to the dark side and she could do nothing for him, then anakin’s daughter who was a space princess and married han who is also technically a no one since he didn’t even have a surname on his home planet, and if rey/ben had actually not.. had that ending you’d have closed the circle with space prince descended from both anakin and leia being brought back from the dark side with the help of another no one and finally the damned skywalker line would have gotten one 100% happy ending because it was supposed to be the ending.

like.

that’s something that thematically made so much sense I didn’t even think they wouldn’t do it.

and they did. and guess what of course people are pissed. because this movie about ignored themes, its own canon (from tfa and tlj) and didn’t accomplish one single thing except chewie getting his damned medal.

which, while something we all hoped would happen at some point, is hardly the one thing you should accomplish in a star wars movie supposed to end the goddamned cycle and which eventually ended up being prequel-level if not worse. because I mean, objectively I think the phantom menace was actually a better movie, and I would rewatch this over 2 and 3 just because the cgi in this movie didn’t hurt my eyes, but as bad as lucas got with the prequels, he never did a single character as dirty as disney did all the characters here. no, not even padme, and he did do padme dirty.

tldr: if people don’t get why you’d be pissed at how this movie ended idk what to tell them... but shit if it’s not worrying me that people apparently can’t get that it was a disaster on each single level it could have been. peace.

#reylo #ben solo #rey #tros spoilers for ts #janie writes meta #i guess #otp: you're not alone; neither are you #i... don't even know waht i'm saying here but i'm angry haha #star wars for ts #sw negativity #Anonymous #ask post

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1863-project · 4 years ago

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I’m at the end of my first-ever Omega Ruby run, and I’ve honestly had a great time getting to know Hoenn. I just have to evolve some Pokemon and catch the Regis and Deoxys before I move along (I’m waiting to trade with folks to finish the Dex properly, but I can do that at any point), but I think it’s worth doing a retrospective on the characters and Pokemon I met along the way.

As a region, Hoenn is unique in that it has a LOT of water routes. You spend a large portion of the second half of the game traveling via Surf. The Azumarill in my party, Pikablue, ended the game knowing Waterfall, Surf, and Dive (it also carries Play Rough), and it was one of the most crucial members of my party for transport purposes.

When I won the Hoenn League, the team May (named ‘Hatshepsut’ in my playthrough because we love cool historical figures in this house) had with her was her evolved starter, a Blaziken named Cluck You, along with Pikablue the Azumarill, Pangaea the Groudon, Charles II the Shiftry, Friendo the Latios, and the team anchor, Bastet the overleveled Skitty. I beat Steven because Bastet dodged a Zen Headbutt from Metagross and gave me the time I needed to revive both Blaziken and Groudon in the back, and their fire moves handled the rest. Bastet went on to become the first party member to reach level 100, way ahead of everyone else. She was absolutely incredible and I love her. Her final moveset: Heal Bell (surprisingly useful, especially in Doubles), Thunder, Ice Beam, and Play Rough. She’s a Dragon Slayer.

As soon as I got my hands on the Eon Flute I started running around to check every Mirage location that came up in the hopes that it would be a Mirage Cave. I knew that was where Tynamo was, and I needed Eelektross to complete the Submas team I was building (the other nine members are in SwSh at the moment; Eelektross will hopefully someday join them). On November 30th, my persistence paid off, and I went and caught three Tynamos so I could have the entire evolutionary line in my National Dex in Pokemon HOME. As it turns out, Eelektross still hasn’t been added to HOME because Third Rail has become a vital member of my party in postgame and I love him and he loves me. (I’m just Emmet, really.) The Eon Flute is also really nice in that using it allows you to literally fly in real time over the entire region, and I prefer doing that to using Fly because it’s just so aesthetically nice. Friendo just swoops down and picks me up, and we have a nice time exploring together. It’s especially pretty at night when everything is all lit up. It’s a lovely little feature exclusive to Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire, and it’s so great.

Character-wise, Hoenn has produced some notables. Magma and Aqua are two of the most beloved villain teams in the entire franchise, and the reboots gave them so much more personality and gave the leaders and admins some excellent updated designs. (Years ago, when the remakes were first released, my dash was filled to the brim with Hardenshipping.) I had OR, so I had Magma to contend with, and one of the single most entertaining things in the entire game is Maxie’s losing animation. It’s perfect, it suits his character so well, and it’s just really funny. Also, shout-out to the Team Magma grunt that I met in the Extremely Obvious Hideout who told me how proud he was of kicking his soda habit whilst standing next to the vending machines. I love that guy. In terms of reformation, Magma and Aqua come around very easily when they realize that they’ve had a very bad idea - they ultimately were well-intentioned but made a really horrible mistake and set out to set things right (with the player’s help, of course). It ultimately makes both teams very likeable.

In terms of other characters, not every Gym Leader from Hoenn is a complete standout, but a few are very, very popular. Flannery is a perfect time capsule of 2003 fashion and I love that so much, and I don’t think I need to say much about Wallace. He’s just Wallace. He’s so freaking entertaining. Steven is also a very popular Champion, and he plays a pretty big role in the plot, so you see a lot of him throughout the game. (He and Wallace are also a very popular ship, with Originshipping - named for the Cave of Origin which Wallace has to grant you access to - actually being referenced in Pokemon Masters on, of all days, Valentine’s Day. Make of this what you will, but I’m here for it.) The Gym Leaders all received redesigns as well, with a lot of them benefiting greatly from it - I like Roxanne’s new school uniform so much better than her old one, for example, and once again, Wallace outshines everyone with an ensemble that would go wonderfully at the Coney Island Mermaid Parade. I wish we got to know the Gym Leaders a bit more as people, because they don’t get to stand out as characters as much. Galar actually did this very well by allowing us a lot of interactions with the Leaders outside the Gyms and as teammates and rivals in the Galarian Star Tournament. A big part of the reason Wallace is so popular as a Gym Leader here is that you see him outside the Gym multiple times and can even compete with him in Contests. You get to know him as a person more and not just as the eighth Gym Leader, and it makes him a much more interesting character.

In short, here’s how the League stacks up for me:

Roxanne: Benefited massively from her character redesign, which gives her a lot more personality. Would like to see her and Steven interact since they’re apparently friends, which I imagine revolves around going out and licking rocks together or whatever geologists do with their geologist friends.

Brawly: He still isn’t very distinct. He’s a surfer who trains Fighting-types, which is a bit of a subversion since you’d expect Water-types from someone like that, but nothing about him really pops for me.

Wattson: Gives off Grandpa Vibes. Wattson actually gets a lot of expository development via his work on New Mauville and Sea Mauville, where you find out he halted the projects to protect the Pokemon ecosystems in both locations. A lot of employees were angry about this and he was even investigated briefly for stopping the projects, even being called a traitor to the company (which appeared to overwork its employees and prevent them from unionizing), but it was apparently evidently clear that he did things out of environmental concerns, and the employees were able to find work on other projects elsewhere. This actually slots nicely into the themes of the game involving environmentalism and how to ensure the livelihoods of people and nature both.

Flannery: Time capsule from 2003! I was, of course, around in 2003 (I turned 14), and Flannery was at the peak of fashion back then. Flares were in, and I miss that trend so much. For that alone, she’s one of my favorite Gym Leaders in this generation, but I also appreciate that she’s shown trying to find her footing and figure out who she is instead of pretending to be someone else. There’s a certain performative aspect to being a Gym Leader, but it needs to come naturally from them and be an extension of their own personality, not be artificial. I would, however, love to know who her grandfather is. It’s still never been confirmed. (As a side note, a lot of people headcanon her to be Kabu’s niece, since he’s from Hoenn, which is cute.)

Norman: A Dad. More specifically, the player character’s dad. There’s really nothing that stands out about him except for that damn Slaking, which gives a lot of people trouble. I did, however, appreciate the conversation he had with Wally’s father as Wally and the player character departed together, because I’m actually pretty close to my own father (who I’m very similar to in many aspects). I’m 31 years old and I still get emotional every time my parents tell me they’re proud of me. Notably, Norman is the only player character father we have ever seen in Pokemon, though, which is odd.

Winona: In-game, she doesn’t feel like she has much of a personality, although she goes off on aesthetics pretty well. It just weirds me out that that’s her hair coming out from under the helmet and not wings attached to it. She could have been really cool but she gets the short end of the development stick.

Tate and Liza: The two of them intentionally playing up the ‘weird twins’ angle by completing each other’s sentences actually comes across really cutely because they’re kids. You can also run into them in the Lilycove Department Store being children and buying toys, a good reminder that they’re still very young and evidently very skilled for their ages. Battle-wise, my Azumarill knew Surf by this point so I ended things quickly because I’m into Doubles as it is and like using spread moves when I can.

Wallace: I’ve discussed him a lot above, so I don’t need to say much else, but he really is the most notable Gym Leader in the region, and not just because he’s the last one you face. He has a lot of personality and development, you meet him outside the Gym several times, his niece Lisia is also out and about in the game and the family resemblance is notable, and you find an old magazine in Sea Mauville featuring a woman on the cover who looks like Lisia - likely Wallace’s older sister, Lisia’s mother. The entire family gets more development than a lot of the other Gym Leaders in this region.

Sidney: The first member of the Elite Four you face...I’d actually like to know more about him. He seems like an interesting person, and I personally enjoy Dark-types myself so I always appreciate seeing Dark-type users not being portrayed as evil. His upbeat nature is nice, and it’s a pleasant surprise to run into him at the Battle Resort, even if he was only there to track down Steven.

Phoebe: I love how much her appearance contrasts with her Pokemon typing. She’s a Ghost-type trainer and you’d never guess that from her outfit! Her grandmother is the old woman on Mt. Pyre, which is why Phoebe has an affinity for Ghost-Types, and I’d love to see more interactions involving them together. You can run into Phoebe on Mt. Pyre after you beat the League and talk to her briefly - she was likely visiting her grandmother - but sadly she doesn’t get much development outside of that.

Glacia: An Ice-type trainer who we learn next to nothing about. Glacia is mentioned outside of the context of the Elite Four by an NPC in the Mauville Food Court who says she was slurping down ramen so intensely that she broke a sweat, but that’s all we know about her aside from that she’s originally from a different region, and she tells us that herself. Not very memorable.

Drake: Yet another Dragon trainer late in the game, and not one of the more notable ones. Lance and Clair are remembered for being cousins and for being the first Dragon trainers you really come across in the series, and later Dragon-type trainers like Iris (who becomes Champion of Unova in B2W2) and Raihan are carried by their personalities and distinct looks. Drake is just an old sea captain with Dragon-types, and he doesn’t really jump out at me much either.

Steven: A major player in the plot - one of the most active Champions we’ve had in the franchise - and a perpetually popular character. I never minded running into Steven out and about in Hoenn, even if it meant I’d have to listen to an infodump about rocks, and his Champion battle was actually fairly difficult for the team I brought in despite having two team members with Fire-type attacks to handle the Steel. As I mentioned above, it was my Skitty that made the decisive dodge to allow me to bring in the team member I needed to deliver the final blow, meaning this is now the second time in my life I’ve beaten the Champion with an unevolved house cat. (Rick Pratt the Purrloin is a vital member of my beloved Young Ones Galar Championship Team.) Overall, Steven’s a very likeable Champion, and I did enjoy the little detail of the rocks on display in his home - he has them labeled so you can see where he found them, and they’re from every region featured in the games up to that point.

Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire also have the Delta Episode, which features Rayquaza (which you’re forced to catch) and a character named Zinnia, who isn’t in RSE at all and is new to ORAS. Besides being named after my favorite flower, Zinnia’s personality is actually very interesting because although she comes across as cheery it’s clear she feels the weight of a massive responsibility and that the cheeriness is covering a lot of pain. Her Whismur named Aster is evidently named after someone important to her who is no longer around, and it’s never revealed in-game who the original Aster was. Whoever Aster was, though, Zinnia misses her deeply. In a 2015 interview, Ohmori Shigeru stated that the original Aster was the person who held the position of Lorekeeper before Zinnia, but we don’t know anything more than that - a shame, really, because that makes for some interesting backstory.

Overall, I had a lovely time in Hoenn, and I’ll be moving on to Kalos in the next few weeks once I finish up this Dex business first. I just wish I got to get to know so many of the characters I’ve met a little better, but I adore the team I put together and I’m super proud of them and all they’ve accomplished.

#Pokemon #Omega Ruby #ORAS #Hoenn #Hoenn Retrospective

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nationalparkposters · 4 years ago

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Re-discovering America, the Park-to-Park Highway Series – Part 4 of 4

Re-discovering America, the Park-to-Park Highway Series – Part 4 of 4: After visiting Yosemite, General Grant and Sequoia National Parks, the Park-To-Park Highway group left the mountain climate behind them and headed into warmer weather. They continued on to Bakersfield on October 19th, where they were met by the automobile Club of California, and one other surprise visitor, who had emerged from his hospital bed. The great pathfinder, Anton Westgard. His desire to see through the tour temporarily outweighed his illness, but unfortunately, he could only rejoin the tour as far as Los Angeles. As the group moved west, Westgard traveled south to San Diego, where his health continued to decline. He would not rejoin the tour. The Auto Club of Southern California had hosted them during their stay in Los Angeles, and when the group left, they traveled on what today is the famous Route 66. Traveling now in desert conditions dotted with Joshua trees, they journeyed to the next park on the list. Zion National Park With the intensely dry heat of the Mohave Desert being a constant companion, the Park-to-Park tour group's resolve was beginning to wane. Dust was an ever-present fixture on the road and it permeated everything, from their clothes to the engines of their automobiles. Their journey continued north, and after 4,000 miles of travel, a 500-mile trip to Zion National Park seemed not only impossible, but unbearable. What's more, they simply had no time to spare. But what they did not realize was the beautiful other-worldly sights they would miss at Zion. With its sheer sandstone cliffs and green oasis in the desert, they could not fathom the scenery unless they saw it with their own eyes. Located on the edge of the Colorado Plateau, the rock that was pushed up over millions of years started to erode away, leaving a unique landscape with colorful rock formations and a desert river at the bottom, forming a ribbon of green in the middle of an arid land. Oblivious to Zion's wonders, the party soldiered on. Grand Canyon National Park Even though Zion was bypassed, the group could not have anticipated the spectacular vistas they were about to experience. On October 26th, the caravan crossed the border into Arizona, arriving at El Tovar Hotel at the south rim of the Grand Canyon. They were not prepared for the truly awe-inspiring sight of endless miles of steep cliffs and colorful strada, made possible by the eroding force of the Colorado River. At some points, the Canyon is a mile deep; the result of millions of years of erosion and a perfect recording of the Earth's history. The unbelievable spectacle of seeing the Grand Canyon for their first time has been known to leave some visitors so overcome that they simply faint, or sink down to their knees, crying with joy and wonder. Varying from 4 to 8 miles wide, the Grand Canyon stretches for 277 miles. Previously set aside by past presidents as first a forest, and then a game reserve, it wasn't until 1919 that Congress made it a national park. In 1902, the first automobile came to the Grand Canyon from Flagstaff along a stagecoach route. Back then, that journey took 4 days. Construction of Rim Road began in 1908. The tour group spent 3 days at the Canyon. On October 30th, they traveled on to Flagstaff. They continued east, stopping by Petrified Forest National Monument. By now it was November and winter was catching up. With the weather becoming a deterrent, they had to shift their itinerary and ship the cars up to Pueblo, Colorado. The trip had become too cumbersome for some and a few of the members left the tour to catch a train back home. The remainder of the group took a train to Durango. Mesa Verde National Park Despite the inclement weather, Steven Mathers joined the rest of the group for the final push to Mesa Verde. It was the only park on their journey to feature man-made structures, where the Pueblo people built their homes and sacred spaces 900 years ago. In a mysterious move, these ancient citizens abandoned their home and when the Europeans discovered it several centuries later, it became jeopardized when early tourists took delicate artifacts; some even vandalizing the area. It was then a group of ladies who realized they had to do something about it. Around the 1890's they began advocating for Mesa Verde to become a protected national park, and in 1906, their efforts paid off. Not only did they protect the cliff dwellings, but they commissioned the building of wells, trails, and eventually roads. When Steven Mather and company arrived at the park on November 6th, 1920, only one major road had been built so far, the Knife Edge Trail. Back in 1917, Horace Albright described this road as “one of the most disreputable, dangerous, fearsome bits of slippery rotted misery I ever had the misfortune to travel.” This, of course, gave the Park-to-Park tour a renewed sense of their mission to preach the gospel of good roads. Home Again, Home Again After touring the last park on their grand circle tour, they headed back to Denver to attend a convention to further discuss the creation of good roads. But before that, they held their last meeting in Pueblo at the Congress Hotel. Then, on November 9th, the tour drove up South Broadway into Denver after 76 days of almost constant travel which saw them being escorted by 60 automobiles and a welcome banquet. The group was able to show the world that visiting these national parks could be possible on passable roads going from park to park. Seven of the original 12 members completed the entire tour. Anton Westgard was one of the more notable figures not in attendance that day. Alas, he had to remain in San Diego, as late-stage syphilis ravaged his body. He succumbed to the disease on April 3, 1921. He was 66 years old. Later that year, Congress began the process of getting good paved roads to link the parks together, eventually creating the Park to Park Highway. It was a direct result of the enthusiasm that this tour created. These roads provided a whole new scale of American tourism. It opened the door to the concept that the almighty road trip is part of the American dream of adventure, freedom, and exploration. Mathers, Westgard, and the entire Park-to-Park team literally paved the way for the Great American Road Trip, and of re-discovering the amazing beauty of the American West. Click here to read Part 1 of the Park-to-Park Highway series... or Click here to read Part 3 of the Park-to-Park Highway series... Meet Rob Decker, Creator of National Park Posters Photographer and graphic artist Rob Decker studied photography with Ansel Adams in Yosemite National Park during the summer of 1979 when he was just 19. It was an experience solidified his love of photography and our National Parks. Now he is on a journey to photograph and create iconic WPA-style posters of all our major national parks as we celebrate the next 100 years of the National Park Service. "I feel it's important to protect America's special places, and to connect people with nature. And it's up to all of us to pitch in. Perhaps more importantly, we need to inspire the next generation of park stewards. I'm trying to make a difference by giving back to the amazing organizations that support our National Parks. I donate 10% of annual profits, so when you buy one of these original works, you're helping these trusts, conservancies and associations, too." Click here to meet the artist, Rob Decker. 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