#he finally made a change that will ACTUALLY actively kill the bird app

[keeterz]

Welp Twitter might actually be exploding for real :/

Sigh

what's up Tumblr gang

Time to start over orz

[soft-boi-eli]

Hello Hello!

I just wanted to say I love your fics!

ALSO!

Could I request a CC!SBI X Gn! Insomniac Reader! Where the reader is an insomniac (Obviously-) but is somehow a pro at MC!

Like they are basically god at the game! They also REALLY enjoy horror games! They don’t get scared easily and LOVE horror movies! They basically love anything horror/creepy-

ANYWAYS!!

The reader lives off of ramen and Monster energy drinks (For fun-)! They have a Twitch (Which has about 18 mil followers and 14 mil subs!) and a YouTube channel (Which has 20 mil followers!)

They mainly play horror games (Obviously-) and MC!

You can do headcanons or scenarios/images with the SBI! Maybe like playing a horror game together or MC? OR! Maybe some things they do together? Or when they meet up? Or-to many ideas Nightmare-

ANYWAYS!

I don’t really care! And don’t worry about taking too long on it!

ALSO!

Maybe we could be friends? Only if you want too!

Remember to eat, drink, and get enough sleep!

<3

Yes. I lovesthese ideas and I'm gonna choose headcannons due to they are a bit easierfor me to write.

And yes I'm perfectly fine with being your friend! I'm actually happy to make friends on this app so yeah!

Pronouns:nonbinary

Tw: cussing. Insomia, mentions of horror movies. Mention of horror games. Fluff.

SBI with a horror streamer friend head cannons.

*Ahem* tommy wanted to paly a game with you so you choose a game that didn't look like horror until the middle. He screamed at the jump scare and it made both of your chats so happy.

When phil decides to play with you there is literally a silence after a jump scare. Everyone thought he had a heart attack and honestly so did you until he spoke up about accidently hitting his mute button when he jumped.

Wilbur. He's a bit better then tommy but more scared then phil would be. Any little noise won't get him but when it starts to get noticeable the noiseless to him. The jump scare, he'd fall out of his seat and stay on the ground for a bit. You ask if he's good and he literally doesn't answer. He's dead. You killed him. Congrats.

Techno. He'd handle them a bit better then everyone else. Not as good as you but heisnt very paranoid. He literally runs at the noises trying to get jumpscared. While you run after him telling him to stop because if he doesn't then you'd lose and die. And technoblade never dies.

If you all play together both tommy and wilbur pussy out. Techno last the longest and phil the second longest. While you remain the ruler of horror games.

Now how you all met was dream invited you to the dream smp to add to the chaos. Needless to say it got extremely chaotic due to you being on almost 24 hours. You first ran into techno. He seemed confused and skeptical.

You both found eachothers love for potatoes. You set up camp quote close to techno but not too close.

Phil popped in when he needed something for a build and noticed a new name. Talked to you in chat and asked to join your VC. You both found each other talking for a bit.

Wilbur was next. Wilbur got curious over the new person and just hoppedinto the same VC as you techno and phil. He was quick to realize that you were a famous youtuber. Mainly for your horror videos and your extreme Parkcore skills.

In minecraft that is.

Tommy noticing that all of you were in the same VC joined in with shouting. He was low key jealous that everyone was obsessed with you. Then he saw why.

You literally cracked jokes at his shouting.

"Is that an angry pomeranian? Nah nah. It's an angry child. Even better an angry blonde!" - you.

He was shocked and immediately started joking and laughing with you. He wasn't fully angry for long.

Now about your diet. When they heard that you had only eaten ramen and drank angry drinks they were concerned. You lived quite close to techno so when you guys met up he was shocked that you looked as healthy as you did.

He hated the fact that you literally didn't eat anything else.

You told him occasionally you have something other then ramen but you were just too lazy to really cook anything and that you didn't feel like burning the house down.

One month phil, tommy, wilbur, and techno decided to organize a month long sleep over so that they could celebrate your birthday. Phil being quote the father figure cooked different, but easy dinners every night just so you didn't eat only ramen that day.

When they actually arrived though you got a text from Phil asking about your address in your dms. Not think much of it you just sent him your location.

You were going to take a small nap. Just to bost your energy before you went and streamed later that night.

As you were sleeping there was a car heading to your house.

Phil, wilbur, tommy, and techno were all just existing in the car. And when they arrived to your house they didn't expect to actually see a clean house.

You woke to a loud knock.

When you opened the door in your half dazed state you expected a package. But to see four people standing on your porch.

You nearly jumped out of your skin.

You were stuck there blinking at them.

Finally snapping out of it you let them in. Confused on why in the ever loving fuck they were here.

Phil explained they were here to celebrate your 21st birthday and they were here for a month.

You stared at them for a while. Confused on what to do since you haven't had people over in almost 2 years.

But you got use to it.

So when you got done streaming and smelled something other then ramen you were thrown off guard. Like what was that. I haven't smelled that in years.

But after the second day you got use to it too.

For your birthday phil literally made a feast.

Like he found your favorite food other then ramen and cooked it. With that he prepared everything you could dream of.

Your sleeping habits. Let's dig into those.

I'm in no place to talk as right now it's 3:05 in the morning. And here I am.

But when they are over they don't let you stay up till no 3-4 in the morning. They all know the importance of sleep.

But there are those nights where no once can sleep and it results in a late night stream. And streaming for hours none the less.

The amount of accidental all nighters everyone has pulled was immense. But that's what happens with jet lag, adhd, and insomnia.

Literally you get tired randomly. Sleep for only 3 hours. Wake up. Drink coffee, energy drinks, highly caffeinated tea. And don't sleep till late at night.

Pillow forts.

It's a must and it happens. Horror movies, pillow forts, and snacks. Like you all are in this massive fort, watching horror movies, one by one you all are falling asleep. You and techno were the last up due to technos active mind and your body not letting you sleep.

You two literally just vide there, changing the movies from horror to some silly animated movies, like how to train your dragon, frozen, Luca, and many others.

You two pull an all nighter and it's actually a bet to see how long anyone else takes to notice.

You bet an hour. Techno says all day.

You won. Philza notices the worse eye bags under both you and technos eyes and immediately starts scolding.

He is papa bird and he won't let anyone of his children neglect their needs.

"Did you even drink water at all? You guys should of been sleeping not binge watching horror movies all night!" -philza

You could only offer a smirk, along with a laugh.

"I think we did I just can't fully remember. Also we were watching animated films. Not horror. Surprised you didn't wake up to let it go." - you.

You turn to techno.

"You owe me 15 bucks pig boy!"-you again.

Handing you the money he rolls his eyes. "Yeha yeah. Rub it in." -techno.

Ah yeah they found a horror game that you were scared of surprisingly. It was actually surprisingly you hadn't played it yet.

Outlast.

You had been holding off that game until you finished your other one but here you were. Bored out of your mind.

So you decided fuck it.

That game teriffed the shit out of you. It was so good though.

When you screamed they all came rushing up due to the fact that you never scream.

They say you out of your chair, on the floor, blinking. They thought you were hurt.

But you sat up and looked at your computer.

"Damn. That was actually really good." When you looked behind you and found the boys all staring you smiled and waved.

"You need something?"-you

"You screamed. We heard a thud. We thought you fuckin died!" -tommy.

"No I'm alive. My soul almost divorced my body but it's still quite here."-you

That day made highlights.

The popular y/n actually got jump scared. The one person who never screamed at horror games screamed.

When they left you were sad yes but they were still your best friends. Ready to talk when ever you want.

Sometimes I think that you guys talk all through out the night. Them forgetting that you were actually in a different time zone.

Sometimes they pop into your streams, be it MC, horror, you just talking to your fans, or even the once in the blue moon, cheerful games.

They just pop in and start talking to you. And you talk back like they were there since the beginning.

Phil is now one of your moderators too. Along with tommy, wilbur, and techno. When they pop in they make sure no one picks on you.

And since you are now close to the SBI. You are now part of it.

You didn't choose the fans did. But they are your new family. No matter what.

Even if they disagree with your eating habit.

Or energy drink addiction.

Or insomnia.

Or you mainly playing horror games.

Or you basically living in your streaming room.

Or even the nearly 24 hour streams.

I could go on but I'm not gonna.

I'm tired. But I can sleep. 2 days and I get to have a tour of my new school.

And it took so long to finally get into it.

We have been going through a huge hassle even before school started to get me enrolled.

And then we had to get me into this program.

But now on Monday I get to go in. Get a tour. Then start either Tuesday or Wednesday.

Anyway hope you liked. It's now 3:50 and it's no proof read I'm sorry

[sayaberry]

finished magireco s3 and while i liveblogged it on my twitter i tried to summarize my thoughts here if you didn’t want to scroll through that (spoilers under the cut obvs)

the good:

they actively fixed the hospital tiro backstory so it not only flows better (ex: instead of alina showing up randomly when ui was turning into a witch she showed up bc she was hunting down kyubey bc he kept info from her) but it actually makes more sense now

animation was solid as per usual

speaking of animation the new transformations? great

i liked how even after remembering the whole truth touka and nemu still went ahead with their plan in order to save ui/iroha specifically, i think this was more in character for them compared to in game where they stopped the entire plan once they remembered

the mifuyu scene was really well done and thematically perfect for her character, as she is based on the bird catcher from galactic railroad, so what better way to showcase that by her saving the “birds” (magical girls) she lured into her “net” (magius) by “turning them into candy” (purifying them/giving them hope)

the stuff with mitama as well was really good too

OH and the rena/kaede stuff was great i love how rena finally found the words to tell kaede what she means to her (only took 3 seasons lol)

SPIN OFF CAMEOS I ACTUALLY YELLED SEEING TART AND KAZUMI

kuroe’s witch design is cool

i liked the speech iroha had with her doppel about hope (although i do wish anime iroha had more of game iroha’s development carried over as its less impactful, i don’t think its bad which is why im putting it here but i think it could've been better if she had it tbh)

i got my karin cameo :)

“NEO DOROTHY MOTHERFUCKER”

i was so absolutely right about godoka cameo-ing wow

the bad:

kuroe im so fucking sorry but im also not very surprised you got done dirty for what was ultimately sub-par character development for iroha

no seriously why was kuroe even THERE?? was her character only there for this moment of angst for iroha?? if so then wowww

why is momoko dead. no actually why tho. mifuyu i understand that i saw coming from like s1 but momoko??? why

why did alina’s plan change. like what was the point

i cannot believe they went ahead and killed the hospital trio, like touka and nemu i get BUT also ui?? wow

they kept holy alina (well. kinda) but no magical artist ost my biggest F

homura gets so screwed over in the end like actually tho im making another post about this (edit: i made the post here)

the ???:

touka is just like that bc she doom scrolls on twitter too much, incredible writing decision

“I AM THE RAGE OF MAGICAL GIRLS” bby ur 12 with a god complex

i find it extremely funny how now every spin off has been acknowledged before different story (excluding comedy spin offs and wraith arc for obvs reasons) what kinda monkey paw bs is this

given the final shots of the show im assuming that the anime is supposed to be the ‘bad’ end while the game timeline is the ‘true/good’ end? if this was the intention then props to shaft for having the balls to try and execute it (prob couldve been done better considering all the jp fans i saw giving out magireco app download links LMAO)

what the hell is going on with iroha at the end of the series no actually tho (EDIT: NEARLY 2 MONTHS LATER HERE IT IS)

[uomo-accattivante]

Fantastic (but long) article about Theater of War’s recent productions, including Oedipus the King and Antigone in Ferguson, featuring Oscar Isaac. The following are excerpts. The full article is viewable via the source link below:

Excerpt:

“Children of Thebes, why are you here?” Oscar Isaac asked. His face filled the monitor on my dining table. (It was my partner’s turn to use the desk.) We were a couple of months into lockdown, just past seven in the evening, and a few straggling cheers for essential workers came in through the window. Isaac was looking smoldery with a quarantine beard, a gold chain, an Airpod, and a black T-shirt. His display name was set to “Oedipus.”

Isaac was one of several famous actors performing Sophocles’ “Oedipus the King” from their homes, in the first virtual performance by Theater of War Productions: a group that got its start in 2008, staging Sophocles’ “Ajax” and “Philoctetes” for U.S. military audiences and, beginning in 2009, on military installations around the world, including in Kuwait, Qatar, and Guantánamo Bay, with a focus on combat trauma. After each dramatic reading, a panel made up of people in active service, veterans, military spouses, and/or psychiatrists would describe how the play resonated with their experiences of war, before opening up the discussion to the audience. Since its founding, Theater of War Productions has addressed different kinds of trauma. It has produced Euripides’ “The Bacchae” in rural communities affected by the opioid crisis, “The Madness of Heracles” in neighborhoods afflicted by gun violence and gang wars, and Aeschylus’ “Prometheus Bound” in prisons. “Antigone in Ferguson,” which focusses on crises between communities and law enforcement, was motivated by an analogy between Oedipus’ son’s unburied body and that of Michael Brown, left on the street for roughly four hours after Brown was killed by police; it was originally performed at Michael Brown’s high school.

Now, with trauma roving the globe more contagiously than ever, Theater of War Productions had traded its site-specific approach for Zoom. The app was configured in a way I hadn’t seen before. There were no buttons to change between gallery and speaker view, which alternated seemingly by themselves. You were in a “meeting,” but one you were powerless to control, proceeding by itself, with the inexorability of fate. There was no way to view the other audience members, and not even the group’s founder and director, Bryan Doerries, knew how numerous they were. Later, Zoom told him that it had been fifteen thousand. This is roughly the seating capacity of the theatre of Dionysus, where “Oedipus the King” is believed to have premièred, around 429 B.C. Those viewers, like us, were in the middle of a pandemic: in their case, the Plague of Athens.

The original audience would have known Oedipus’ story from Greek mythology: how an oracle had predicted that Laius, the king of Thebes, would be killed by his own son, who would then sleep with his mother; how the queen, Jocasta, gave birth to a boy, and Laius pierced and bound the child’s ankles, and ordered a shepherd to leave him on a mountainside. The shepherd took pity on the maimed baby, Oedipus (“swollen foot”), and gave him to a Corinthian servant, who handed him off to the king and queen of Corinth, who raised him as their son. Years later, Oedipus killed Laius at a crossroads, without knowing who he was. Then he saved Thebes from a Sphinx, became the king of Thebes, had four children with Jocasta, and lived happily for many years.

That’s where Sophocles picks up the story. Everyone would have known where things were headed—the truth would come out, and Oedipus would blind himself—but not how they would get there. How Sophocles got there was by drawing on contemporary events, on something that was in everyone’s mind, though it doesn’t appear in the original myth: a plague.

In the opening scene, Thebes is in the grip of a terrible epidemic. Oedipus’ subjects come to the palace, imploring him to save the city, describing the scene of pestilence and panic, the screaming and the corpses in the street. Something about the way Isaac voiced Oedipus’ response—“Children. I am sorry. I know”—made me feel a kind of longing. It was a degree of compassion conspicuous by its absence in the current Administration. I never think of myself as someone who wants or needs “leadership,” yet I found myself thinking, We would be better off with Oedipus. “I would be a weak leader if I did not follow the gods’ orders,” Isaac continued, subverting the masculine norm of never asking for advice. He had already sent for the best information out there, from the Delphic Oracle.

Soon, Oedipus’ brother-in-law, Creon—John Turturro, in a book-lined study—was doing his best to soft-pedal some weird news from Delphi. Apparently, the oracle said that the plague wouldn’t end until the people of Thebes expelled Laius’ killer: a person who was somehow still in the city, even though Laius had died many years earlier on an out-of-town trip. Oedipus called in the blind prophet, Tiresias, played by Jeffrey Wright, whose eyes were invisible behind a circular glare in his eyeglasses.

Reading “Oedipus” in the past, I had always been exasperated by Tiresias, by his cryptic lamentations—“I will never reveal the riddles within me, or the evil in you”—and the way he seemed incapable of transmitting useful information. Spoken by a Black actor in America in 2020, the line made a sickening kind of sense. How do you tell the voice of power that the problem is in him, really baked in there, going back generations? “Feel free to spew all of your vitriol and rage in my direction,” Tiresias said, like someone who knew he was in for a tweetstorm.

Oedipus accused Tiresias of treachery, calling out his disability. He cast suspicion on foreigners, and touted his own “wealth, power, unsurpassed skill.” He decried fake news: “It’s all a scam—you know nothing about interpreting birds.” He elaborated a deep-state scenario: Creon had “hatched a secret plan to expel me from office,” eliciting slanderous prophecies from supposedly disinterested agencies. It was, in short, a coup, designed to subvert the democratic will of the people of Thebes.

Frances McDormand appeared next, in the role of Jocasta. Wearing no visible makeup, speaking from what looked like a cabin somewhere with wood-panelled walls, she resembled the ghost of some frontierswoman. I realized, when I saw her, that I had never tried to picture Jocasta: not her appearance, or her attitude. What was her deal? How had she felt about Laius maiming their baby? How had she felt about being offered as a bride to whomever defeated the Sphinx? What did she think of Oedipus when she met him? Did it never seem weird to her that he was her son’s age, and had horrible scars on his ankles? How did they get along, those two?

When you’re reading the play, you don’t have to answer such questions. You can entertain multiple possibilities without settling on one. But actors have to make decisions and stick to them. One decision that had been made in this case: Oedipus really liked her. “Since I have more respect for you, my dear, than anyone else in the world,” Isaac said, with such warmth in “my dear.” I was reminded of the fact that Euripides wrote a version of “Oedipus”—lost to posterity, like the majority of Greek tragedies—that some scholars suggest foregrounds the loving relationshipbetween Oedipus and Jocasta.

Jocasta’s immediate task was to defuse the potentially murderous argument between her husband and her brother. She took one of the few rhetorical angles available to a woman: why, such grown men ought to be ashamed of themselves, carrying on so when there was a plague going on. And yet, listening to the lines that McDormand chose to emphasize, it was clear that, in the guise of adult rationality and spreading peace, what she was actually doing was silencing and trivializing. “Come inside,” she said, “and we’ll settle this thing in private. And both of you quit making something out of nothing.” It was the voice of denial, and, through the play, you could hear it spread from character to character.

By this point in the performance, I found myself spinning into a kind of cognitive overdrive, toggling between the text and the performance, between the historical context, the current context, and the “universal” themes. No matter how many times you see it pulled off, the magic trick is always a surprise: how a text that is hundreds or thousands of years old turns out to be about the thing that’s happening to you, however modern and unprecedented you thought it was.

Excerpt:

The riddle of the Sphinx plays out in the plot of “Oedipus,” particularly in a scene near the end where the truth finally comes out. Two key figures from Oedipus’ infancy are brought in for questioning: the Theban shepherd, who was supposed to kill baby Oedipus but didn’t; and the Corinthian messenger to whom he handed off the maimed child. The Theban shepherd is walking proof that the Sphinx’s riddle is hard, because that man can’t recognize anyone: not the Corinthian, whom he last saw as a young man, and certainly not Oedipus, a baby with whom he’d had a passing acquaintance decades earlier. “It all took place so long ago,” he grumbles. “Why on earth would you ask me?”

“Because,” the Corinthian (David Strathairn) explained genially on Zoom, “this man whom you are now looking at was once that child.”

This, for me, was the scene with the catharsis in it. At a certain point, the shepherd (Frankie Faison) clearly understood everything, but would not or could not admit it. Oedipus, now determined to learn the truth at all costs, resorted to enhanced interrogation. “Bend back his arms until they snap,” Isaac said icily; in another window, Faison screamed in highly realistic agony. Faison was a personification of psychological resistance: the mechanism a mind develops to protect itself from an unbearable truth. Those invisible guardsmen had to nearly kill him before he would admit who had given him the baby: “It was Laius’s child, or so people said. Your wife could tell you more.”

Tears glinted in Isaac’s eyes as he delivered the next line, which I suddenly understood to be the most devastating in the whole play: “Did . . . she . . . give it to you?” How had I never fully realized, never felt, how painful it would have been for Oedipus to realize that his parents hadn’t loved him?

Excerpt:

If we borrow the terms of Greek drama, 2020 might be viewed as the year of anagnorisis: tragic recognition. On August 9th, the sixth anniversary of the shooting of Michael Brown, I watched the Theater of War Productions put on a Zoom production of “Antigone in Ferguson”: an adaptation of Sophocles’ “Oedipus” narrative sequel, with the chorus represented by a demographically and ideologically diverse gospel choir. Oscar Isaac was back, this time as Creon, Oedipus’ successor as king. He started out as a bullying inquisitor (“I will have your extremities removed one by one until you reveal the criminal’s name”), ordering Antigone (Tracie Thoms) to be buried alive, insulting everyone who criticized him, and accusing Tiresias of corruption. But then Tiresias, with the help of the chorus, persuaded Creon to reconsider. In a sustained gospel number, the Thebans, armed with picks and shovels, led by their king, rushed to free Antigone.

“Antigone” being a tragedy, they got there too late, resulting in multiple deaths, and in Isaac’s once again totally losing his shit. It was almost the same performance he gave in “Oedipus,” and yet, where Oedipus begins the play written into a corner, between walls that keep closing in, Creon seems to have just a little more room to maneuver. His misfortune—like that of Antigone and her brother—feels less irreversible. I first saw “Antigone in Ferguson” live, last year, and, in the discussion afterward, the subject of fate—inevitably—came up. I remember how Doerries gently led the audience to view “Antigone” as an illustration of how easily everything might happen differently, and how people’s minds can change. I remember the energy that spread through the room that night, in talk about prison reform and the urgency of collective change.

###

Again, the full article is accessible via the source link below:

[hanalwayssolo]

In The Line of Duty

A/N: Timely for Iggy’s name day! So. Slightly departing from the usual structure in which I write my stories, so this may seem a bit... weird? Fragmented? So I kind of not recommend reading this via Tumblr mobile bc that app murders the formatting lmao

Tagging them pals! @blindedstarlight @valkyrieofardyn @bleucommelhiver @gowithme @noboomoon @emmydots @lazarustrashpit @raspberryandechinacea @hanatsuki89 @mp938368 @boo-dangy @animakupo

(Links in AO3) Alternate Universes in Which You and I Belong Together: Noctis | Gladio | Prompto | Ignis | Nyx | Cor | Ravus | Ardyn

Ignis breezes through the freeway, his Aston Martin almost flying through the rainy night. He is never one to drive like a madman, but this is a desperate time that certainly calls for this very desperate measure. He spares a glance at the rearview mirror. A shabby white Mitsubishi and a gaudy yellow Volvo still remain in close pursuit. Looks like the flock of paparazzi back from Maagho’s really is a persistent lot. In the passenger seat, you sit in an unsettling silence.

Fuck these bastards, he mutters under his breath.

Speed limits be damned. His fingers tighten around the steering wheel. Ignis revs the engine and zips past the steady traffic.

“Let’s get you back to your flat, alright?” he offers kindly.

You say nothing.

Suddenly, Ignis finds himself missing your chatty, teasing antics. That silly smile of yours. By this time, you should have been pleading him to let you go someplace else—anywhere but your place—while annoying him to death with your usual smartass quips. You never do.

Months before, Ignis had been perfectly convinced you were the most insufferable human he has ever come across. Funny how he now thinks otherwise. Even funnier that he now cares. Because it’s not his business to care. His job was never to look nor to listen.

But at this point, you have made him break every single rule in his book.

The first thing Ignis notices when he meets you is your eyes.

Something about your strong and striking gaze makes him wonder why someone like him is even employed at your service. One look from you, he is pretty certain you are completely capable on your own in terms of sending anyone who dares cross your path—may it be troublesome paparazzi, or overzealous fans and haters alike—to run with their tails between their legs. Your composure and confidence says just as much. Seems to him that you’re the type of person who does not need anyone’s protection, let alone a bodyguard.

Which is a sentiment you made very clear that morning in the luxurious luster of Hotel St. Regis’s lobby.

“I’m afraid Aranea here has wasted your time—” you tell Ignis as you set your cup of coffee back on the table, sharply turning your attention to the silver-haired woman who is sitting across from you— “but like I said, I can take care of myself just fine—”

“Really?” Aranea scoffs, casting you a challenging glare. “And by taking care of yourself, do you mean going around punching paparazzi square in the face and breaking their camera as you please?”

You shrug. “Well, that fella fucking deserved it—”

“Whether they deserved it or not isn’t the fucking point, you idiot. Do you have any idea how Cor had to shell out his own money to keep that incident from going out to the press?” Aranea sighs in resignation. “Look, this is more than just taking care of yourself. This is about—”

“—my career, my image, and my reputation, blah blah blah. Yes, you don’t need to do all of Cor’s spiel—I get it.”

Aranea raises an eyebrow. “Do you really? ‘Cause if you really did, we wouldn’t be having this conversation and Ignis wouldn’t be the fourth replacement in the span of six fucking months.”

You fall silent. Though Ignis is compelled to say something, he knows very well not to provide his thoughts, unsolicited or otherwise. That’s never in his job description. He had been trained to keep his mouth shut, and he is going to do just that. Besides, what would he know? Such is the world of glitz and glamour that is show business, and Ignis has never been tasked with handling celebrity clientele before. If anything, among his peers, it was either Gladio or Nyx who gets paired with the high profile A-listers. Clarus’s directive for him came as a strange surprise, the initial briefing of his task even stranger. All throughout his fifteen years of service in the Lucian Security Bureau, people frequently assigned to Ignis were government big shots, business moguls, and upper echelons of society who have been targets of terror and violence.

However, in your case… Ignis could see that you fit in neither the former nor the latter. At least for now, that’s what he thinks.

You spread your elbows over the table, eyeing Aranea with a wicked smile all over your face. “You know what would be better, Ari?”

“Don’t call me that—”

“You could pass as both my handler and bodyguard, don’t you think?

Aranea looks at Ignis, then back at you. “Does that come with a raise?”

You lean back against your seat. “Nope.”

“Didn’t think so.” Aranea exhales a derisive laugh. “Then I suppose we leave Ignis to do that job for all our sakes. Anyway, we better get going—” from her satchel, she pulls out a sleek-looking tablet— “you have to be ready for your four p.m. table read and a seven p.m. interview Dino of Meteor Publishing.” To Ignis, she says, “I assume you’ve already been briefed by your superior about all your responsibilities?”

Ignis sits up straighter and nods. “Yes.”

“Good. It’s pretty simple actually, but the past bodyguards can’t seem to do it.” Aranea smiles, clapping Ignis by the shoulder as she narrows her eyes on you. “Just don’t let this moron out of your sight, and we’ll all be fine.”

The first thing you notice about Ignis is his eyes.

Never mind the scar that cruised the left side of his face, that tiny slash over his right eyebrow, or even the one on the bridge of his nose. He didn’t even need to look at you directly for you to marvel at how fiercely green his eyes are, like the colour of a bright summer’s day. However, back in the lobby with Aranea, there is no warmth in his silences nor in his clinical concentration; there is only a crippling coldness. One look at him and you could already surmise that he’s had his fair share of danger in his profession. Though he is lean and lithe unlike your past bodyguards who all seem to be built out of heavier materials, you cannot shake the feeling that Ignis might have killed a man with his bare hands.

Still, you don’t really need someone like Ignis. You never needed someone like him. A bodyguard should have been the least of your concerns. Besides, you have enough people monitoring your every move that getting a fucking bodyguard is as insane as it’s going to get. Cor often reminds you that this is all for your safety, and that as your manager, he only wants to keep you safe. Aranea chastises you that you’re overreacting, and that you’re still free as a bird. Except you’re as free as any bird locked in a cage that they might as well just lock you up in prison.

And in the first few hours that Ignis has started following you around, the fact that he hardly spares you a moment for a decent conversation—except for his courteously clipped responses like “Let me know if you need anything else,” or “I’ll be right outside your door”—prison seems like a more amiable place to be.

By his second week, Ignis finally understands how unpredictable you can be.

Okay, maybe he does not understand it quite fully. He has to admit, though: he admires the elaborate effort you put into your juvenile pranks. It comes in the strangest of ways and in the oddest of days: from your attempts to lock him up inside your trailer, down to that crafty disguise to sneak out of the film set, all of which he had seen you fail miserably time and again. Out of all your many crimes, petty they may be, hopping in the backseat of someone else’s car to escape him from an after party still takes the cake. He had to forcefully “borrow” a stranger’s motorcycle just to chase you down, which he managed to do in less than an hour. Not an impressive feat for someone his calibre, but at least he got you home in one piece—and without Cor or Aranea even knowing.

What fuels your sheer determination to drive him off his wits, Ignis does not know. The only thing he knows for sure is that you’re one bloody piece of work.

“Can’t say I didn’t warn ya, Specs,” Gladio reminds Ignis one sordid afternoon back in the Lucian Security Bureau HQ. In the saintly cleanliness that is his cubicle, he finds Gladio lounging on his seat together with Nyx, as if they had been expecting his unlikely visit. The air-conditioned hustle remains the same, the glass panels and all the white walls still as stark bright as Ignis remembers it to be. He really has been away for far too long that he finds himself missing that familiar scent of ink and paper, and even the faces of these two troublemakers.

“So how’s your new post treatin’ you?” Nyx breezily asks. His tone is not of concern, but a knowing amusement that Ignis can easily recognize. “The look on your face says you’re either in need of a stiff drink or to get laid.”

“Or could be both,” Gladio adds.

Actively ignoring the smug looks on his friends’ faces, Ignis does not answer them, but instead, he asks: “Aren’t the both of you supposed to be somewhere else?”

“Could ask you the same thing,” Gladio snaps back. He picks up Ignis’s tin of mints on his table and pops one on his mouth.

Nyx loops an arm around Ignis. “Y’know, celebrities can be a pain, so if you’re here to request Clarus for a reassignment, we promise not to judge.”

Ignis looks at Nyx for a brief moment. A reassignment. How come he never thought of that? Sure, you can be annoying and a menace to his daily routine, but Ignis suddenly finds it strange that he has never considered the prospect of requesting for a change in client. Maybe he has his brand of patience to thank for, or his unworldly forbearance in the years that he has spent in this profession.

But then—as if by seeing Nyx and Gladio after such a long time of being away—he realizes that maybe, you’re not that bad. Even in your reckless and determined attempts of making his life a living hell, you also make an effort to make conversation. Not that it’s anything special. He has been wired to being strictly on someone’s beck and call that most of his past clients do not even bother to look at him in the eye. Most of them see him as a weapon, a blade to be wielded against their enemies. Small wonder Ignis himself often forgets that he is a living and breathing person. He can barely remember having a life outside this job. He can barely remember the last time someone apart from Gladio and Nyx asking him anything about his hobbies or other interests or even about his family.

But you do. You try. Even on the first few days when Ignis didn’t know how to respond. It’s just that he doesn’t know how to. He fears that you might have interpreted that as indifference, and he regrets to have responded to you as such. He thought you would have given up by now, seeing how he had acted so callously, but you have the persistence of a honey badger that you use on him to get him to talk, or to even to smile a little.

Nyx looks at Ignis, this time with a genuine hint of concern. Ignis has not realized that he had been quiet for some time.

But he has realized that you have grown so much on him, which is such an disturbing thought to entertain.

“I think a reassignment is highly unnecessary,” Ignis says finally—almost to himself and not to Nyx and Gladio—as he takes his leave. 

By his second week, you finally understand how Ignis can be so predictable.

There’s the matter of his morning routine. He follows it too religiously that you start to notice the little things. He wakes up as early as six a.m.—on the dot, not even a minute late—to work out at the back of your trailer. Three sets of push ups, squats, crunches, all in that order. Seven-thirty a.m., he wraps up, takes a shower, grabs a nice cup of coffee with some of the film crew. He likes his coffee strong and black, no sugar. How you know all of this like the same way you know all of your lines is beyond you.

But maybe he’s not too predictable. Not entirely.

You still have not seen him smile, despite the significant progress in the conversation department. And by significant, you mean that his answers have finally upgraded from one-word responses to lengthy sentences. Considering all the stupid shit you pulled on him, it’s almost a wonder that he even indulges you from time to time by answering any of your random questions.

Though in the process, you have learned a handful of tidbits about his life. For one, you find out that he happens to be an excellent cook. Once, he has shared with you how he wanted to build a restaurant of his own, and that it is only a matter of time before he could pursue that dream. Hearing him confide something that personal throws you off guard, but somehow, you feel quite relieved. You also learn that he has never seen any of your films, nor is he even aware of your awards and accolades—which, frankly, is the most gratifying thing you have ever heard in your life. You have also learned that he has not forgiven you for making him chase you all throughout the city. Which is fair. If that had happened with any of your previous bodyguards, they would not even bother sparing you another word even if you are the last person on this planet, and they would most certainly quit their job the next day.

But Ignis is different. A good kind of different.

Nevertheless, what you now find unfair is that you have never seen him smile. Unfair because he has seen yours a countless times at this point—fake ones on set included. He even gets a bonus because he has also seen you laugh at the most ridiculous things. Ignis, however, seems to be programmed with a limited range of emotions. You have not seen his face look anything but blank or bored, too surly or too serious.

It is only when you suddenly fall sick in the middle of filming that you find a new expression on his face.

Right after the director screams “Cut!” you wobble outside the set, past the cameramen, past the make up artists, past Aranea who’s probably busy handling your next schedule. When Ignis hurries by your side, you could barely focus your eyes. Your mouth tastes like acid. The world is spinning out of control.

Ignis presses the back of his hand to your forehead. “You’re burning up. I’m calling a doctor—”

“No, don’t.” You weakly wave a hand. “I’ll be fine by morning. Don’t tell Aranea. I just need to sleep, that’s all.”

Ignis walks you back to your trailer, looping your arm around his neck, and his around your waist. Your cheek momentarily rests against his chest, and you can feel his warm breath fanning over your head. You try your best not to retch on his shirt. Perhaps it’s the fever talking, but all you could think about is how this shirt looks perfect on him and you do not want to ruin it with your vomit.

Which is why out of your delirious haze, you say out of the blue: “Have I ever told you that you look so good in black?”

Ignis tilts his head. He hesitates for a moment, and then says, “I’m afraid not.”

“Well, now you know. I like your black dress shirt. You look so dapper in it.” And there goes your filter straight out the window.

“Thank you. It’s… nothing special.” He sounds unsure. Or is that embarrassment? Either way, you’re too sick to even look at his face to see his reaction.

Ignis guides you straight to your bed. You toss yourself so gracelessly against the mattress, and you gather the sheets to bundle up for warmth. A wave of nausea threatens to lurch out of your mouth. As far as you’re concerned, the inside of your trailer should not be this freezing cold.

“I’ll get you something to eat,” Ignis says, and as he prepares to drift to the kitchen, you grab for his hand.

“Please stay for a minute. Tell me a story.” You sound like a five-year-old.

He sits on the edge of the bed. “What kind of story?” His voice is gentler than usual. It is jarring, to say the least.

You pull yourself up, your arm brushing against his. “Like, is it possible that you’re a gremlin? ‘Cause how come it’s so hard to—” you thumb the corners of his mouth to make him smile— “see you do this?”

You can feel his face tremble a little in your touch. He looks at you strangely. You know he’s about to say something, but you are ill-prepared to what happens next.

Ignis starts to laugh.

You can’t believe this is what you have been missing for the last couple of days. What you have been missing your entire life. You have only known him for two weeks, but now, it’s like looking at a completely different person. He’s all lit up, his laughter radiating like the sun, bright and warm and blinding. His eyes disappear behind his smile lines, and his mouth curves to exhibit his perfect teeth and that illegally gorgeous smile. Your heart is pounding and you are certain that this is not your fever doing the talking anymore.

“I can assure you, I’m not a gremlin,” he says, wiping his eye with his hand.

“Good to know,” you say, sinking back to your pillows. “But I swear—I will make you laugh like that again when I get better,” you say confidently. And as you drift to deep sleep, the sound of his laughter is the last thing you hear.

The third month arrives and Ignis sees you a little differently.

Different in a way that your smile is now a bullet to his heart. Your laughter, a drug. Your kiss, a secret he would forever keep. Not only have you grown on him, but you have made a home inside his body. His mind, your temple. You have seduced his empty heart, and now it is beating only for you.

But if there’s anything Ignis knows by now, it’s that good things always come to an end. They always do. And he knows better. He knows you aren’t for him, and he isn’t for you.

The third month sweeps you off your feet as Aranea enters your trailer with a new man in tow. At first, you think he is one of the new actors with the way he carries himself with an air of confidence, but you immediately recognize the logo on his jacket.

The first thing that leaves your mouth is: “Where’s Ignis?”

Aranea’s mouth twists. She hesitates, then says, “Ignis quit. Told me he found a new job. Nyx here would be his replacement.”

Your heart plummets. The expression on your face might have been so fucking obvious because Aranea casts you a worried glance, and so does this Nyx. He looks slightly uncomfortable with the way you skate your narrowed eyes at him, as if he has no right to be in your breathing space. As if he has no right at all to ever replace Ignis.

“I can see that you’re upset with this change,” Nyx begins to say, quickly regaining his charming composure, “but by 'quit,' it means he has left to pursue a different career path. Doesn’t mean he left you—I mean, for another client, that is.”

A simmering silence. Aranea and Nyx are watching you with growing alarm. You don’t know why, but something in you breaks.

You force yourself to smile, but it’s not very convincing. Some actor you are. And in the most modulated voice you could muster, you say, “Good for him then.” To Nyx, you say, “Do send him my regards when you see him around.”

As soon as Ignis pulls over your apartment building, you climb out of his car, weaving past another throng of paparazzi. Someone yells “Congrats on another blockbuster! Is this your new boyfriend?” and a couple of other things that only grates your ears. Ignis is quick to follow, and he shields you with his body as he leads you inside the lobby. Probably his force of habit, but it only unearths a memory of a good time that has already hollowed you out.

When the two of you reach the front door of your apartment, he finally breaks the silence. “I’m assuming you have Nyx trapped in some dark alley?”

“No, not really,” you say flatly. “He actually let me go on my own. Cooler than my previous bodyguard, if you ask me.”

“How convenient.”

“So, sous chef to the illustrious Weskham Armaugh, huh.”

“Indeed.”

“Now, care to explain to me why you really left without even saying a word? Especially to me?” There is a tremor that breaks your voice, and his smile slowly creases to a frown. “Is that it? Was that your grand plan? Make me fall in love with you and then just go up and leave—”

“I beg your pardon?” Ignis looks mystified, as if you have said something completely ludicrous. He stares at you for a long, scalding moment. “What did you just say?”

You scoff. “Are you kidding me right now? I said…”

The realization dawns on you in a slow unravel. Before you can even formulate an explanation, Ignis steals your breath away with a kiss. You have done this before in the confines of your trailer, but this time is different. This time, the feeling is no longer secret.

“You have absolutely no idea how I’ve wanted to do that this time around,” he says with a smile. And when he tells you I love you, he does not mean I love you regardless of or I love you despite, but rather I love you just because I do.

[indiepoptime]

STRAY KIDS SUPERHERO AU

i started this when i didn’t have wifi or a sketchbook and thus my phone’s notes app was the only thing i had to entertain myself. i didn’t get very far, but decided to finish because we got a fandom name recently (hello fellow stays!!!) and also our boys are coming back so soon and i’m E X C I T E D as hell

anyways i’ll keep one before the cut as a teaser and the rest under it so this post doesnt get too long. this isn’t in age order like i usually do it because....idk. it felt right to do chan first.

hope y’all enjoy this one as much as my day6 one from a bit back!! 

Bang Chan/Chan:

—the batman type of superhero who everyone thinks has some insane power/ability but really is just a normal dude armed with his smarts, charisma, and a small collection of taser guns

—is one of the only members without a secret identity (he barely has a costume. it’s literally a black onesie at best; he wears what he can change into fast) but the members still spy on him because they think he’s lying about not having powers

—works from home in graphic design so that he has the flexibility to do both daytime and nighttime shifts as a hero (we see his priorities here—he still doesn’t get enough sleep)

—doesn’t kill and actively tries to rehabilitate his opponents while he fights them

—villains hate him because they find him irritating, except the ones who he’s managed to actually reform (who, to be fair, still find him irritating but don’t hate him because he’s made their lives better) and who are now grudgingly his “allies” through a variety of physical and figurative debts

—the of-age members have a drinking game where they’ll take a shot after work every time chan ends a battle by calling to a villain by name and taking them out to ice cream/boba/fries (still in costume)

—won’t shut up about how much he loves his team to the point where he’s on probation for public appearances because he’ll inevitably give away a member’s identity. regardless, he’s the undisputed leader and every single member trusts him with their secret identity if they have one

Woojin:

—student with a part-time job as a barista and also as a superhero

—running joke is that he didn’t mean to be on a superhero team, but chan joined his chill study club and turned it into a vigilante club without him realizing what was happening until it was too late

—he just goes with the jokes, but secretly can’t remember how he was pulled into this whole superhero mess either. the thought concerns him a little (but not that much)

—speedster who complains about his “slowness” anyways, leading to his being called either the grandpa or the bear (perpetual hibernation; the members joke that one day he will actually sleep through his own life) of the team

—hard-carries the team in a silent, un-flashy way—a lot of his work in battle is done speeding from place to place, stealing weapons, changing the position of mines and traps

—complains about the members a lot, but genuinely views himself as their personal guardian and would gladly sacrifice his life for them even if he’s somewhat clumsy about it

—the members still give him shit about the one time he rammed into a glass door at the speed of sound and shattered it all over himself (thank god for armored suits) to save jeongin from what he thought was a villain but was actually just a large bird/tree/telephone pole (the story’s gotten muddled over the years)

Lee Know/Minho:

—a professional dancer who’s been in the industry for years, though he’s only recently come out of the shadows as a backing dancer and into the spotlight as a solo act; the development of his powers over fire and electricity have allowed him to put on some pretty impressive performances

—woojin meets him one day in his coffee shop and, after recognizing him from his dancing, asks him about his powers and advertises his club to him. after a few drops by the shop, minho decides to pay the club a visit and essentially adopts all the members as his unspoken proteges

—his fighting style is a mixture of dance and martial arts, which he learned when he was younger, plus a few neat tricks with fire that allow him to hover and propel/flip in the air

—“why are you afraid of heights—you literally fly!”

—“IT’S DIFFERENT OK”

—he’s by far the most popular member with the public, most of whom have not quite made the connection between the graceful fire dancer on stage and the aggressive but also elegant fighter that he becomes in battle. a few of his fans have obviously connected the dots, but are fiercely loyal to his brand and consider it their little secret

—nevertheless, he’s not at all afraid of losing his secret identity and simply keeps it because he can

—he tells the members that he’s already a celeb anyways, so it doesn’t really matter, and happily posts little hints to his identities on all of his social media (he’s got sites for Nightstriker (his superhero name—as pretentious as possible) and himself) while the other members stare on in shock

Changbin:

—rich as h e c k; the one facet of batman that chan lacks

—an amateur graphic novelist with a passion for collecting things: he’s got at least 200 stuffed animals, boxes upon boxes of antique marbles, and enough superhero suits (that he had custom-made depending on his mood and age) to last a small lifetime

—he’s wanted to be a superhero since he was very small, since he spent a lot of his youth reading books and comics, but didn’t develop powers until later in life so he turned to novel-writing as a way to become a hero in fantasy

—when he was 17, his power over shadow finally started to manifest, catching him off guard. at first he could only do small things like blind people or turn the lights off without moving, but eventually he learned that he could literally control people’s bodies by manipulating their shadows

—he went to woojin’s club out of fear, afraid that his powers were too dark to control, and that he couldn’t be the hero he wanted to be if he couldn’t control them

—the other members but especially minho took him under their wing and showed him that there were multiple sides to his power that he could harness in order to achieve balance: the darkness of shadow, but also the light around it

—once changbin gains control over his powers, he considers it his debt to shower the other members with ridiculously luxurious items from home. he’s never quite known what to do with all of his wealth, most of it inherited, so he just keeps buying stuff for the people who helped him

—minho’s not sure what to do with the fancy gold-lined bidet that suddenly appears in his backstage bathroom, but he goes with it

Han/Jisung:

—a childhood friend of changbin’s who re-entered his life when he needed an illustrator to help him with his graphic novels

—equipped with a raging imagination since he was very young, jisung’s powers actually manifest while he’s working on one of changbin’s comics: he accidentally imagines one of the monsters from its pages into being

—changbin and him end up having to fight it and, after changbin helps a stunned jisung defeat the monster with his darkness powers (which jisung previously didn’t know existed), he offers to take his friend to woojin’s club to help him control his newfound abilities

—like minho took changbin under his wing, chan takes it upon himself to help jisung reign in his wayward imagination and bend it to his will. as someone who has to remain calm at all times and evaluate the situation to take advantage of it because of his lack of powers, chan is in a unique position to help jisung concentrate

—once jisung is able to handle his abilities at least to a certain extent, he excitedly provides the club with their own building, furnished with plush furniture and a frighteningly large sunflower lamp in the living room. he refuses to compromise on both the lamp and the building’s fuchsia walls and insists that if they want something different they’ll have to buy it, which changbin immediately does

—his favorite weapon in battle is a giant yellow hammer that he created, which he’s happily named j.won to foreshadow his impending victories. his members are tired and have basically given up on him

Hyunjin:

—if minho’s fame as a celebrity dancer is discounted, then hyunjin would win as the most popular member simply because he’s STELLAR at hiding his identity and everyone is curious as hell

—literally has no clue how popular he is and doesn’t believe it when the other members tell him

—everyone thinks he’s significantly older than he actually is because he has a very dark costume that covers his entire body and a green jeweled mask that covers his face (the jewels came from changbin; the green was hyunjin’s idea)

—his power is poison, and he’s damn good at using it. not only can he erode/poison an enemy by touching them, forcing them to grow progressively weaker throughout a battle; he can also use words to poison: his power allows him to discover his enemy’s worst fear and use it to weaken them

—like changbin, he came to the club out of fear, but not because he was worried that his power would overcome him, but because he worried that controlling and using it made him a bad person

—under the guidance of chan and changbin, he learns to limit his powers and use them to curb evil/violence without crossing the line himself

—when he first came to the club, he was attached to changbin at the hip because he felt a kindred spirit in him, but eventually he would start to absorb the joy of some of the other members, especially jisung and felix (who were usually around changbin anyway)

Felix:

—having come from abroad and found himself both directionless and moneyless, felix turns to stealing in order to provide for himself. he breaks into changbin’s home thinking that he and his family aren’t there, only to find changbin wrestling himself into one of his many superhero suits (the family outing, while true for the rest of his family, was a distraction for changbin to change)

—after the shock of that first meeting, changbin “invites” (more like grudgingly accepts) his intruder into his home and offers him a full meal, as well as a free shower and some nice clothes before going out on his mission

—somewhere down the line changbin realizes that he’s adopted a younger brother somehow? and it’s actually kind of nice?? once felix is cleaned up and not stealing, he’s very smiley and cute and follows changbin around the house everywhere offering to help

—eventually, changbin isn’t able to keep felix from coming along with him to one of his club meetings, wherein felix gains a bucketload of new role models

—chan is SO COOL, especially because he doesn’t have powers, and because felix thinks that he also doesn’t have powers, he spends every meeting trying to get chan to teach him stuff

—eventually, the team takes felix aside to try to figure out if he DOES have any powers (since, changbin insists, if he’s gonna keep coming with me we gotta keep him NOT DEAD. I HAVE BROTHERLY DUTIES)

—it doesn’t take them long to discover that felix definitely does have powers, and that they were kind of obvious: he can turn himself intangible at will, and he does it unconsciously. it’s how he’s been getting into houses undetected

—woojin takes him as his apprentice, since his powers are fairly similar (SO COOL, says felix)

—jisung calls him Filly Pryde and insists that this should be his superhero name when he goes public—the rest of the team wants to die in that instant

Seungmin:

—the only member of the team who actually came to the club on his own free will and wasn’t brought in by another member

—was a HUGE fan of the superhero team before he joined; he followed all of their public appearances and kept newspaper cuts of their battles in his room, as well as identity graphs where he’s hunted down info about all of the members and tried to figure out who they actually were

—when he joins, woojin comes to the apartment that he shares with his mom and sister and seungmin is a frenzy of COVER UP EVERYTHING THEY CAN’T KNOW THAT I KNOW hi im seungmin

—while hyunjin trained himself because he HAD to, seungmin built up his seemingly useless power to make it into a superhero-worthy skill. he can control paper, but has trained himself to have limited control over different types of trees (those that are made to make paper, which he’s taught himself to recognize on sight)

—he’s also extremely skilled at using paper folding/origami as a weapon using speed and the angle of the edge of the paper. basically paper-cuts on steroids

—changbin makes the mistake of hazarding a joke about seungmin’s ability when they first meet, before seungmin almost saws his nose off (and also berates him with hundreds of embarrassing incidents from past fights that seungmin somehow still remembers)

—he and minho have a bomb combo move that involves minho lighting trains of paper knives on fire and it is, in felix’s words, the best thing on this good earth

I.N/Jeongin:

—seungmin’s protege

—jeongin’s power is the most obvious of the whole team’s: he’s got 4-foot angel wings that are probably still growing. when they first sprouted, he was almost beat nonsensical before seungmin paper-cut his bullies into near delirium and then told jeongin that his wings were the most awesome thing he’d ever seen

—seungmin then brought jeongin home, made him a variety of beautiful paper capes and shawls to hide his folded wings, and then went to the club to have jisung make him a bag whose straps could fit his wings through them, as well as fabric copies of the paper designs

—after a while, jisung began to question who he was making these extravagant gifts for, and had woojin & chan ask seungmin to bring his protege to the club

—afraid that his team would think jeongin was either too young or ill-prepared to be a superhero, seungmin spent an entire night preparing a 20-slide ppt presentation complete with images and research for his case, as well as a few days training jeongin in basic battle skills

—he needn’t have been worried though; chan falls in love with jeongin instantly and forces the rest of the team to accept him as well, which doesn’t take much forcing at all once the kid smiles

—“WHAT IS THAT PEST??!” demands a villain, gesturing at a flying jeongin

—“THAT’S OUR BABY!” chan yells back

[elysiumrp]

Congratulations VEE! You have been accepted as Jasper Pitzen. Please go through the checklist and send in your account within 24 hours. If you need more time, make sure you send a message to the main.

When it comes to a character that has so many possible ways to develop them, it’s always a strange thing when it takes a while for an application to come in for them. But there’s always a reason – the right person has to come along, and here you are. Jasper is a pivotal person to the supernatural movement, both by being somewhat of a spokesperson for them and being the first to do what he is doing. It’s always exciting to allow a person to take on the challenge of a character they aren’t used to, but both of us feel you have the chops to do so. How you described the emotions he has, beyond just being in front of a crowd and behind closed doors, it’ll be a great addition to the character development already happening. It’s the determination you show that won us over, how you grasped how he is despite Jasper not being in your comfort zone and still wanting to play him. We’re here to become better writers, and with your determination, we hope this is the place will do that for you. Welcome to Elysium!!

OOC INFO

Name: Vee Age: 23 Timezone: EST Preferred Pronouns: She / Her  Previous RP Experience: [RFP] Activity Level: About a 4. I work long hours during the week from the afternoons until early the next morning (sometimes weekends) and will have to queue replies in my free time as I won’t have access to a computer. Any asks/IMs that I might receive will be answered a day later, and I may have to plan ahead of time for events in order to participate in them (depending on the duration of them). I know I’ll be working on July 4th, so I will not be around for the beginning of the event taking place that day. Anything Else: N / A

IC INFO

Character Name: Jasper Pitzen  Why did you choose this character:

I’m going to be honest and say it: I chose Jasper out of fear. Yep, I really did. When choosing characters, I usually play it safe and go with a personality type I feel comfortable writing. Time and time again I wind up playing the same character and it’s hard to tell if I’ve actually been growing as a writer. After a while, writing was beginning to lose its enjoyment for me. I felt stuck. I tend to shy away from super-serious political or government-related type characters as I feel I don’t have the knowledge to write them convincingly–research or not. They intimidate me. Now, I’m taking a chance with this app, conquering that fear the best way I can. It’s like that saying: “you won’t know until you try,” right?

To get down to specifics, I found the contrast between the younger “party-animal” Jasper (pun intended?) with the current straight-laced activist to be very interesting. I love symbolism and foreshadowing, so those two aspects of his life give me ample room to play around a little; I get to see how deep into Jasper’s character I can go in order to breathe life into him.

Additionally, Jasper is a character who’s out in the public eye constantly, so being careful with his words is a given. That allows me to put more thought (than usual) in what I’m typing out, to make sure things make sense for the questions that may arise. Jasper’s so different from myself that the extra effort needed to make him appear polished is very crucial to me.

Describe your plan for them:

As soon as I read Jasper’s bio and connections with the other characters, I saw him as this heartless, teasing, snobby rich kid who slides on a nice face for the cameras, but isn’t above threatening another supernatural to change their ways in order to make himself look better. With words that form riddles as well as threats, Jasper has more at stake and tends to lash out because of it. He’s not a villain…though that depends on who you ask. I love that duality about him; the way his character carries so many interpretations and how he’s each and every one of them when the situation calls for it. There’s so much negativity surrounding his character from the other supernaturals that there has to more to it than “he took my job” or “he can’t be trusted.” Jasper’s actually full of self-hatred and heart that he tries to hide for the sake of staying strong for his community. And that’s something what I want to focus on down the road.

Jasper seems to be so put together that I want to see him have a breakdown. Whether it’s from losing a part of the freedom he’s working so hard to gain or getting close enough to another and losing them, I want him to feel that raw emotion he’s been pushing aside since the day his wolf gene was triggered. I want him doing something really uncharacteristic, like seeking help from another in tears.

Furthermore, throughout the course of the story, I plan on having Jasper struggling to make allies of the other characters as he’s trying to understand their dislike of him. He wants them all registered with the database system, believing his work representing them is doing them a service; it’s possible that he’s tangling the web further. I want to have him questioning his identity, his self-confidence, and what it means to be a leader. Are his motives pure or clouded over with ulterior ones? Could that change over time? If possible, I’d really love to explore that.

Describe your character’s feelings and reactions to the initial reveal of the supernatural world:

Jasper was in complete shock. As he was just coming back to everything, just getting used to hiding the supernatural side of himself, he’s suddenly pushed out into the open. Before Jasper has a chance to fully self-identify as being a werewolf and adjust to the new life in a densely-populated area as New York City, he’s alone for the first time against a world he doesn’t recognize. He chose to fade into the background as he’s done for the past few years, but that plan was ruined when he was chosen to be on the Council. Unsure of what to do with the status and reluctant to take the power, Jasper finally decides that standing out with others at his side was more likely to save his life than to go about things alone with a greater risk of being killed. There is strength in numbers; it is that strength that built the Jasper Pitzen the Council needed.

Describe your character’s feelings and reactions to the current state of the world, and how it impacts them as an individual:

When the supernatural community lost the Council again, Jasper felt as though he left with it. He clung to the Council as part of the identity he was still searching for in the time that had elapsed. He spent days moping on the couch in his apartment or the stools in various bars, watching as the same people he fought to protect run past the city limits. He began to hear whispers of an uprising on darkened streets from those who supported the Council and demanded freedom. Wanting to feel that same passion he felt within the Council, Jasper joined what is the beginning of the Resistance in hopes of saving his people. Being thrust into the spotlight because of his disappearance and now because of his previously-hidden identity had left Jasper enjoying it more than he ought to. He’s having a piece of the life he could’ve had if his inner wolf never forced him to leave. It’s as if he’s playing the part of the bachelor again, kissing up to audiences purely for entertainment. He knows he has a job to do in promoting equality, but there’s a fine line between the two that he doesn’t mind crossing from time to time.

Para Sample:

“…and that’s my goal. World peace. An innocent little wish–something said by a child at the end of a holiday movie–but its meaning has grown immensely as of late; this isn’t something to make light of. We need to act on it now. Think about it. With all the violence going on in these times, would you want the children of our future harboring such seeds of hatred? Wouldn’t it be more beneficial to pass on wisdom and love? My question to you is this: How would you like to be remembered?”

The roar of applause from the studio audience brought a grin to Jasper’s face. He snuggled deeper into the cushions of the chair he sat on, posture perfect, the very definition of confidence. The daytime host beside him nodded in approval and for a moment, everything was glorious. It was if answering that question ended the battles between supernaturals and humans. The sky would offer rays of gold, the birds would sing Pit-zen! Pit-zen…the credits would start rolling—

“And now questions from our viewers at home!” The sing-song voice of the host ended the applause, along with Jasper’s illusion. She tossed the cards in her hands over her shoulder, pulling out a new set from underneath her chair’s cushion.

Jasper’s eyes widened and his mouth fell open.

What the hell?!

The supernatural spokesman recovered quickly, however, motioning the host closer so he could whisper in her ear, “We never agreed to this!”

“My show, my rules!” The host sat back in her chair while Jasper tried masking his anger. She flipped through a few cards before landing on one with a satisfied hum. “Okay, so werewolves have lots of fur, correct? How often do you shave? And do you shave everything?”

The audience roared once more.Jasper lowered his head into his hands.

Damn those curious humans!

Ever since the supernatural world had been exposed, questions were thrown as quickly as punches. Humans who were pro-supernatural—or curious in general—wanted to know more about the lives living alongside their own. And since Jasper Pitzen was front-and-center fighting for supernatural equality, he was the target of such nonsense. He had left the show’s studio later that day to find “Pitzen is the pits” smeared on the side of his limousine in dog shit. When he arrived at his apartment complex, a woman walking her dog asked if he could translate her dog’s barking for her. To which Jasper replied “may you and your dog have a fantastic day!” He finally made it to his room’s door, where another bag of dog food was waiting for him.

Shit!

And then there was the press conference. Oh, God. The press conference. Supernatural lovers and haters alike crowded the entrance of the building. It was there that a man asked if Jasper could hear his boyfriend cheating on him from the other side of the city (as if the area around them wasn’t loud enough), some people threw trash at him, a handful of people wanted autographs (Jasper even signed someone’s ass!), and a group of women wanted him to bite them.

“Bite them.” Jasper had told his bodyguard, “They wanted me to bite them. This isn’t some teen werewolf drama on TV. This is real life. The bite is a curse.”

What made matters worse was that Jasper didn’t get flak from the humans, but from his peers and other supernaturals as well. They laughed at him, asking him random werewolf questions they already knew the answers to just to get a reaction. It amazed Jasper how they acted as if their lives weren’t on the line, as if this was one big joke. Fighting for equality was never easy; these added obstacles made things much harder.

Was anyone actually listening to him if they were laughing?

As much as Jasper loved the celebrity treatment, was it hurting his chances of repealing the very laws that bound him to a life of scrutiny? Were the humans slowly seeing him as an equal?

Some days Jasper wanted to go back to his life of partying, doing lines of cocaine and sleeping with as many people his king-sized bed could hold. Instead he was subjected to moments of sitting on the floor in the fetal position, rocking back and forth as the tears kept flowing, wishing everything would just stop.

But the world doesn’t stop for anyone. Not even Jasper Pitzen.

Any questions/concerns/things you’d like to change: (siblings to add, pronouns, sexuality you’d like to specify, personality, face claim, history, etc., etc.)

As much as I read the plot/everything on Jasper, it’ll probably take me some time to catch up on everything that has happened so far and really let it soak in.

[athleisure-aesthetic]

Ugh I did the thing again where I was busy all week and forgot to post on here. So here’s a lightning fast recap of my workouts from the past week, if you care at all. I actually think I worked out (ish, except Friday kinda) every day which is a first in a while. Bless.

Tues Mar 21 Abs and shopping. I went home after work to get my car so that I could drive to trainings the next two days, but went out to Target as soon as I got home, cause duh. Stupid idea to try on like real clothes tho, my self-conscious ass was like ohhhhh no way you need to tighten up those saddle bags and that back fat before you get any of this. So. I got a crop sweatshirt and athletic leggings, felt bad about myself but hadn’t had dinner, so I went to Wawa. Woof.

3x each 15 reps straight leg raises 15 reps roll ups leaning camel x 45s bird dogs x 45s 60 reps heal touches plank 35s, 40s, 45s 10 reps assisted push up 40 reps russian twists 8# alternating superman 1 min 15 reps single leg pulses

Wed Mar 22 Run on the trail after this horrific training class in which I was literally the only student for an all day session. And I had to go back the next day 😩 went to Marshall’s before my run to see if I could find any cold weather gear bc I only had my sweatshirt, gloves, wool earwarmers, and thin leggings. Didn’t find any of that, but got those AMAZING NEON PINK LEGGINGS IN THAT ONE PICTURE and some other ones too. You know me, can’t stay away from that athleisure ish.

It was hella freezing and took me so long to warm up once I started on the trail. Fortunately it was so picturesque and my music was bangin so. I survived.

2.78 mi 9'55" min / mi

Thurs Mar 23 6 x 200m sprints on the trail. Bless up, convinced my instructor to finish early bc tbh he was not really all that helpful once I started following the book that was included, so I went to the mall and got some more athleisure (deh), cheap sunglasses, athletic ear warmers for $.50 each, a VERY cute lightweight rain jacket, and (!!!!!) these black leather slip-on sneakers I’ve been looking for for like 6 months. I just caved and got the name brand ones but stILl omg I’m so excited about them I finally found them.

Started the sprints in the cotton leggins I was wearing, then after like maybe 9 or 10 strides I was like oh FUCk no they suddenly lost all their elasticity and I was having to pull them up for my life. So after completely embarrassing myself hoisting those mothereffers up for my first sprint, I jumped in the car and changed into spandex pants, then zoomed back to the trail start and actually did my workout. Good thing my house is only 8 minutes away from that part of the trail.

I think I may have mis-read what my Nike app was telling me to do, but I’m pretty sure it said to do 6 x 200m sprints with 4:45 min in between. So that’s essentially what I did, I sprinted for the 200m and ran / jogged in between. Although the app only recorded the distance for the sprints, I wanna say I did a little more than the day before, since I went further on the trail. I hate that you can’t go back and check what it told you to do; you only see how you actually ran according to the app. Lame af. Though I was proud, I increased my sprint speed at almost every length except the 3rd.

0.77mi 6'59" min / mi (lol can’t believe I actually ran a mile faster than that at one point in my life holy shit)

Fri Mar 24 No real workout here, since I had to leave work early to take the train back to le Nova for Palooza. I scarfed down a Snap pizza (the classic spot) right before the show, and somehow stayed away from the dangers of late night college food. Though I did get all my steps in my showing one of our friends’ home friend around campus, and apparently that little tour counted for a nice brisk walk. Obvi the Snovas killed it, as a great opener for what my friends and I dubbed AcaWeekend. Saturday they’d be competing at ICCA regional semifinals #pitchperfect for the first time ever, which was so exciting. Palooza the day before was just their warmup, but fortunately we got to see two new songs from them. It kinda sucked for them though bc they went first out of the seven groups and the sound guys always need a few groups to warm up before they actually refine the balance, and they just sounded muddled. Womp. Oh well. Everyone knows they’re/we’re the best anyway. Proud alum.

Sat Mar 25 Run in the morning before the day’s festivities. This was a quick workout before most of the humans who stayed in my apartment became humans, a brief mile ish to the waterfront and back. I realized I’d been wearing a blueish shirt and black leggings in literally all of my pics lately so I spiced it up with these fun stripey ones. Lol.

We adventured to brunch, where I had a yummy spinach and goat cheese salad with fig dressing, and wandered around the city for the afternoon before we had to head to semis. I splurged on Hunger Burger at RTM because I told myself that this was my indulgence for the weekend, and I wasn’t going to be drinking anymore for the next few months (it’s not like I do it that often anyway, I just want to try it to see how it helps my training/weight loss, if at all), so I got a specialty thin mint shake. Woops. Honestly, it was so worth it though, and I didn’t even end up eating most of the fries anyway, so it wasn’t the worst I could’ve done.

At semis, there were literally so many good groups and we were all like oh shit how are they going to stack up?? But Snovas SLAYED even better than they did last time and ENDED UP IN THIRD PLACE WHICH IS THE CRAZIEST BEST HONOR WE’VE EVER GOTTEN AND IT’S JUST SO COOL!!!!! A cappella is the shit, guys, I swear. I’m so proud of those kiddos, and they get to submit a wildcard video for a chance at Finals in NYC which is like legitimately insane. They’re somewhere in the top 18-27 groups in the country right now, and coming from a school where we legit don’t have music majors and a joke of a music activities staff / support, this coulD NOT be cooler. They murdered it. And so did all the other groups at semis, like damn. We weren’t even sure anything was gonna happen for them, but they clearly did some things right. Ugh so obvi we celebrated when we got back to Philly, going to a few bars and ending up at Frankford, where we got some amazing soft pretzels and other snacks. Best day ever.

1.26 mi 9'21" min / mi

1.32 mi 10'03" min / mi

Sun Mar 26 Long ish run and relaxing. Got up and was worried about the weather forecast for Monday because I was supposed to be doing my long run for next week then, and it was going to be torrentially downpouring all day, so I was hoping to switch my days because the weather was decent enough that I could’ve done it on Sunday. But then I updated my app and A, it changed my schedule for this week anyway, and B, I remember I could’ve moved it anyway if I wanted to. So instead I went and did that 5K Sunday challenge thing that it introduced. And I ran back from there, so it actually was closer to the 5 miles I had wanted to do anyway. So ya.

I felt a little subconscious in these leggings because, though they are a spectacularly bright and amazing color, they also show my cellulite on the back of my legs… but I thought, fuck it, people will see me, and if they give me a look, I’ll just push harder and show them that cellulite means nothing if you’re fast and capable and strong. So. I used it to empower me, I guess.

Spent the rest of the day relaxing and watching ICCA videos, still hyped up on the Snovas victory. Legit it’s still coming to me in waves, it’s actually incredible.

3.11 mi 9'41" min / mi

1.53 mi 9'44" min /mi

Mon Mar 27 Full body circuit and a benchmark run. Work is starting to bore me so much lol on Monday I think I may have done approximately 2 work related things all day, otherwise I was just distracted. I decided to do a NTC workout and then my benchmark, so I chose Body Flexor 2.0, which worked a lot of different areas and was pretty fun. Then I ran on the treadmill for my benchmark for the first time, which was weird knowing my exact speed at certain times and being able to force myself to a certain pace. If I have to do it that way again, next time I’ll just cover the numbers and just focus on how it feels to push hard. The picture up there is me literally dying because of how sweaty I was. Plus fun leggings from Marshall’s.

1.54 mi 9'49" min / mi

Tues Mar 28 Abs / some arms, plus 20 minutes on the elliptical. I was an idiot today, and not only forgot a hair tie after my shower, but I left my phone at home, which I realized too late in the elevator on the way to work. Nice. So I had to go without both all day, though Kelly let me borrow a hair tie so I could work out thank GoD cause I was looking at using a legit rubber band, which would’ve been awful. The moves I chose for abs today ended up also working my arms a lot, which was nice to combo them. Because I didn’t have my phone, I just kind of had to make up my elliptical workout, which was meh but whatever. Next time I’ll be prepared. That’s definitely not my favorite type of cardio anyway.

Tonight I made these AMAZING baked zucchini fries, I probably could’ve eaten like 90 million in one sitting they were so crunchy and good. My sweet potato fries didn’t turn out so good (I actually burned the shit out of them, but I’m going to attempt to eat them tomorrow for lunch anyway 🙃) but I’m happy I’m trying new things in the kitchen, even if it’s taking me like 3 hours each time lolol.

I’m down a few pounds from last week, though, which is kind of nice! A little affirmation after working hard every day.

3x each 15 reps dumbbell side bends alt. sides 8# 15 reps twisting core stabilizers alt. sides 8# 15 reps bow extensions alt. sides 8# 15 reps woodchops 8# 10 reps windmills 5# 40 reps russian twists 8# 30 s plank 7 reps full extension inch worms 15 reps in-&-outs

Wooooof I’m going to try to post more often now that I’m all caught up. Lol it may last for a day but you know. #Goals.

[aion-rsa]

How Batwoman Takes on Policing and Social Issues

https://ift.tt/31NtgS3

Police brutality has gone from a niche concern – one most white people considered impolite to bring up at dinner parties – to a compulsory national conversation. It’s long overdue, which has left many playing catch-up, especially white folks and popular media. As David Dennis Jr. pointed out in his excellent Twitter thread (seriously, go read it!) superhero shows have an especially tall order, given that they rely on portraying lawlessness and a fictionalized criminality that the hero can then clamp down on. But that image is out of touch with reality and can send damaging messages.

We’ve long discussed this problematic aspect of the genre in our reviews and features, whether it’s Barry Allen’s personal private prison kept in the basement of STAR Labs or Oliver Queen’s incredibly short-lived interest in reforming the prison industrial complex…before he went right back to adding more people to it. But Batwoman has taken a different tack that other comic book shows could learn from. 

Batwoman has, to greater and lesser degrees, explored gentrification, corruption of police and the legal system, police brutality/the lawlessness of privatized law enforcement, and the wrongful conviction of a Black man. The show is not perfect, and it must be stated that no other show is doing quite what HBO’s Watchmen did in terms of exploring this country’s legacy of race, anti-Black violence, and policing. But Batwoman is a superhero show that spent the last year actively engaging with questions like “was that an appropriate use of force?” and “isn’t this a gross violation of the civil rights of the people of Gotham City?”

In the Gotham of Batwoman, a private security firm called The Crows operates with near-impunity within the city, keeping the incredibly well-heeled secure while everyone else hopes for the best. Gated community is an understatement, and frankly, the firm is closer to a mercenary paramilitary operation.

By the end of the season, The Crows have expanded their reach through an app that’s available to all Gothamites, even those who aren’t clients, so anyone can call in the mercenaries if they see big bad Alice and her brother Mouse, or Batwoman, whom Crows head honcho Jake Kane views as equally villainous. It’s easy to imagine the Crows’ app going the way of SketchFactor in DC and other IRL safety apps, which quickly turned into racial and socioeconomic maps, with white and upper class folks flagging anything that made them uncomfortable – namely, Black neighborhoods.

Read more

TV

Replacing Kate Kane on Batwoman Season 2 is a Terrible Idea

By Lacy Baugher

Sophie Moore, a high-ranking agent with the Crows, continually pushes back against their use of force and in several circumstances when the Crows overstep the rights of citizens, to the point where she is sidelined, suspended, and eventually kicked off the Crows. She questions her mentor Jacob Kane in his vendetta against Batwoman – for whom there is no arrest warrant, the shoot-to-kill order on Alice that comes and goes throughout the season, and the extreme blanket use of surveillance on average citizens. If you’re worried about police breaking the law or the militarization of the police, try the privatization of a police force on for size. While the writing on Batwoman clearly raises concerns throughout the season, Sophie and Kate are among the only people able to effectively check the Crows’ power, largely due to their personal and professional relationships with Jake Kane. 

One of the show’s greatest assets has been the willingness of its writing and its hero to give the supposed villain of any given episode – who is often disenfranchised in some way that turns out to be connected to how they have lashed out at the system – the benefit of the doubt. It’s a benefit that our legal system is based on, but one that we know many people do not get – and one that the Crows don’t often give to suspects. Some so-called villains have turned out to be innocent people manipulated by others, or victims of systems that eroded their humanity.

For example, the season finale deconstructed the media and law enforcement trope of the giant invincible Black man, using the show’s own gossip host (voiced with juicy irony by longtime Batwoman comic fan Rachel Maddow) to introduce a suspect with barely-coded language. The show goes on to deconstruct that narrative, introducing the audience to his brother, who worries about his sibling who was nothing like the man described on TV. Gotham’s professional football league used him for entertainment and several people in positions of power abused their privilege to do serious harm, in this case irreparable CTE that turned a gentle man into someone who literally couldn’t feel pain, yet another harmful stereotype of Black folks that has caused harm from slavery to the medical field.

Gotham’s actual police force is so incompetent as to be a non-factor. They only come up in maybe a handful of episodes, but they feature prominently in one of the season’s best arcs: the wrongful conviction for Lucius Fox’s murder. His father’s murder was a defining moment in Luke Fox’s life. 

Normally the calm, logical, emotionally removed man behind the comms and tech on Team Bat, we watched Luke put together the pieces and realize that a fellow Black man had been set up to take the fall for his father’s death and then pursue the real killer. This wasn’t a clunky after school special one-and-done story so the creators can check a box. The arc was allowed to breathe over many episodes, giving actor Camrus Johnson the space to show the complex and often-changing swirl of emotions his character was experiencing. 

Read more

TV

Batwoman Showrunner Addresses Kate Kane Season 2 Departure

By Kayti Burt

Nothing about the writing or the performance was straightforward or easy. It’s the kind of ambitious writing and gnarled injustice that real people actually face, the sort of thing that we actually need real heroes for. It was a high point of Camrus Johnson’s excellent, season-long performance.

It’s worth noting that simply having the male lead – number two on the call sheet, Batwoman’s professional other half – played by a Black man, makes a big difference. But while other Arrowverse shows have had prominent Black characters – John Diggle on Arrow and Iris and Joe West on The Flash come to mind – Batwoman is different. For one, the writing has made explicit that Luke and Kate are partners, whereas for all that he came to eventually love and respect them, Oliver fought Diggle and Felicity every step of the way, and The Flash has always felt like a lead singer with a backing band. Even then, there’s a hierarchy, and a quick spin around the internet will produce ample evidence that neither Iris West-Allen nor Candice Patton have received the kind of treatment that a show’s leading lady would normally expect. 

At the root of this is the writers’ room. Batwoman is written by a diverse group of people that represents the issues discussed on the show. It includes queer folks, women, and BIPOC. Actors can do their best to convey the work with skill, sensitivity, and depth. But talent behind the scenes needs to be diverse as well, otherwise they’re still going to be talking about Grandma Esther’s noodles. 

While there’s a lot we don’t know about Batwoman season 2, namely the LGBTQ actor who will play the new lead and how they will be written in to pick up the threads from last season, I hope Batwoman will continue working with “villains” who are more complicated than we’re used to seeing on shows with tights. 

I also hope they’re able to portray more of the income inequality that showrunner Caroline Dries discussed in an interview with Den of Geek earlier this season. “One thing we had in Gotham City is this idea of the ‘us-versus-them’ in the districts where people are protected and then other districts where they’re left to their own devices because they can’t afford private security.”

Dries told us that, unfortunately, this wasn’t as emphasized as she would have liked, due to the limitations as production.

“In a perfect world, you’d have a bird’s eye view of the city and you would actually be able to see districts,” Dries said. There were some references to this earlier in the season with checkpoints between neighborhoods, but as the season went on, Dries said those little bridge scenes were the first to get cut due to time and money. Fortunately, it sounds like it will still be part of season 2, and likely more pronounced.

“If I had all the time in the world and all the money in the world, I would have been able to dramatize that disparity better and the segregation a little bit better, visually,” Dries said. “But we’re going to continue to keep that alive, especially now as we’ve seen the Crows sort of becoming more heightened in their power and becoming more authoritarian and scarier.”

Read more

Movies

DC FanDome to Reveal DCEU, Arrowverse, and More DC Universe Secrets

By Jim Dandy

Moreover, homelessness has been part of the show’s narrative since the very first teaser, but Batwoman has yet to engage with the issue of economic inequality or with actual people experiencing homelessness as individuals, rather than as an abstract concept. Even if it’s simply by having Mary, Luke, or the mysterious “Ryan Wilder” develop a relationship with someone who sleeps rough outside Wayne Tower or their apartment building, or if Mary’s clinic starts back up again and a character or two is differentiated that way, it would be nice to see humanity and individualism, rather than a monolith.

Finally, while it’s not an issue involving our carceral systems, it must be said that Batwoman has provided the space for Meagan Tandy’s Sophie to have a truly lovely storyline about her sexuality. While Kate Kane/Batwoman has basically always been out and accepted, that’s not everyone’s story. Not everyone has accepting parents and a family fortune to fall back on if they’re kicked out of the military. Sophie’s journey as a queer Black woman has been allowed to progress at her own pace, allowing the character to unpack what it means for her relationship (she starts the series married to a man), her identity, and her family as she explores who she is and what that means to her. Not everyone’s path is the same, nor do they have to express it the same way. While it’s great for people to see Kate Kane as a role model, I imagine there are far more people who can relate to Sophie Moore.

As television reorients itself around a long overdue reprioritization of Black lives, the landscape will shift, in some cases dramatically, as with the cancellation of long-running show Cops. But for other shows, like Batwoman, there’s an opportunity to continue pushing even further forward on the very social issues that once caused trolls to review-bomb the show with so much online hate. Heading into season 2, as the social and cultural landscape shifts, Batwoman should continue Kate Kane’s legacy of fighting injustice intersectionally, centering the marginalized while upending comic book tropes about law and order. 

The post How Batwoman Takes on Policing and Social Issues appeared first on Den of Geek.

from Den of Geek https://ift.tt/2Z09TUa

[thatsnotcanonpodcasts]

Gaming Hotels, Money & Nebula

Hello, welcome, and G’day, we are so happy to have you join us again for our latest episode. When we say episode we don’t mean Buck having a rant and all that; just thought we should clarify that up front. Now we have a bumper episode this week with lots of stuff for you to enjoy.

            First up we have Professor bringing us news about Atari’s plan to open a chain of hotels. They have announced that they will be themed and focus on developing E-sports functionality. But we wonder is it going to be presented with the old style timber/brown laminate like we used to see on the old Atari? Guarantee that it won’t be the first option for the honeymoon market, although, any ladies who think that would be cool let us know that we are wrong once again. Following this Professor has the ESA’s environmentally unfriendly stance against the right to repair and modify your machines/consoles. BOO HISS!!! How lame can these idiots be, I mean, don’t they realise that advancements in technology have come about by people looking under the hood and figuring out ways to do things better?

            Next up we have DJ talking about IDW losing money and what they are planning to do about it. Apparently they have announced they are struggling in various markets with the material they are presently distributing. Of course the solution would be to develop new material, breathe new life into the company instead of just pumping out more of the same thing. But, no, they are hoping that their partnership with Netflix will save them. Then DJ brings us news on the critic’s reviews on Birds of Prey for us to laugh at and make fun of. Seriously, does anyone actually take them serious anymore? Buck suggests that if Rotten Tomatoes give a film a bad rating it must be good, and if it is good then stay away. What do you think, does that sound like a good approach to use?

            Then Buck has the latest on the Spitzer Space Telescope, which has just retired. After being on mission since 2003 it has provided heaps of data for scientist, with the first images and data being of the Tarantula Nebula. In homage to its origins the last images and data developed by Spitzer were also of the Tarantula Nebula. Which honestly is a hotbed of activity, with the explosion of a supernova that was first discovered in 1987 (interestingly called 1987a) and still sweeping through space creating some awesome images. Also there is a collection of 40 massive stars at least 50 times the size of our sun all in a tiny area together. If this isn’t enough for you Buck also brings us news of the latest evolution of robot tanks. Before anyone gets all Terminator Judgement Day on us, they are not all armed and those that are still need a person involved to fire on a target. But for those who are looking for an alternative to a trailer that hitches to your car, we might have a solution for you.

            We hope you enjoy this bumper episode this week. As normal we have the usual shout outs, remembrances, birthdays, and special events. Let us know what you think, make requests if you have a topic you are interested in having us dig into. Or just drop us a line and we will give you a special shout out. As always, remember to take care of yourselves, look out for each other and stay hydrated.

Atari’s new idea : Gaming Hotels - https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2020-01-27-atari-to-open-gaming-hotels-in-at-least-eight-us-cities

ESA’s stance on Right To Repair - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KAVp1WVq-1Q&feature=youtu.be

IDW loses money…a lot of money - https://www.bleedingcool.com/2020/01/25/idw-loses-17-1-million-in-2019-projects-profitability-in-2021/

Early reviews of Birds of Prey have arrived…. - https://boundingintocomics.com/2020/01/27/early-audience-reviews-for-margot-robbies-birds-of-prey-arrive/

The Tarantula Nebula - https://phys.org/news/2020-01-tarantula-nebula-web-mystery-spitzer.html

Robot Tank…now with no firepower - https://www.bbc.com/news/business-50387954

Games Played

Professor

– Steamworld  - http://imageform.se/game/steamworld-dig/

Rating: 3.5/5

Buck

– Thunder Run: War of Clans - https://www.facebook.com/ThunderRunWarOfClans/?epa=SEARCH_BOX

Rating: 3/5

DJ – DNP

Other topics discussed

Niagara Falls' real-life Mario Kart track

- https://dailyhive.com/toronto/niagara-falls-real-life-mario-kart-track-opening-june-2018?fbclid=IwAR32kb9QxDvcX-YzQGY0G9GGRDlYfkpqRU2fH2Kee96JtqNXo_r5YrDl1Jw

Nintendo wins legal battle against one of Tokyo's real-life 'Mario Kart' tours

- https://www.engadget.com/2020/01/29/nintendo-tokyo-mario-kart-legal-win/

Final Fantasy VII cafes

- https://soranews24.com/2020/01/25/final-fantasy-vii-cafes-are-opening-in-tokyo-and-osaka-to-celebrate-legendary-games-remake/

OutRun (arcade game released by Sega in September 1986.)

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Out_Run

Mario Bros. (platform game published and developed for arcades by Nintendo in 1983.)

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mario_Bros.

The Verge PC Build (Reuploaded) by Ext_Nation

- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UZ4viTwfFxA

Louis Rossmann - Why I don't use Apple products

- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sfrYOWlKJ_g

JerryRigEverything (American YouTuber and tech reviewer. He has gained fame and popularity for his technology reviews including smartphones, watches, apps and much more.)

- https://www.youtube.com/user/JerryRigEverything

- https://youtube.fandom.com/wiki/JerryRigEverything

Every Console In One Box - The Origin Big O by Unbox Therapy

- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ErQQc6cUSTA

Star Trek (comic book series by IDW Publishing, based on the Star Trekscience fiction entertainment franchise created by Gene Roddenberry.)

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Trek_(IDW_Publishing)

Captain Marvel (2019 American superhero film based on the Marvel Comics character Carol Danvers.)

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Captain_Marvel_(film)

Punisher (A fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The Punisher made his first appearance in The Amazing Spider-Man #129.)

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Punisher

Spiderman 3 (2007 American superhero film based on the fictional Marvel Comics character Spider-Man.)

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spider-Man_3

Dexter (American television crimedramamystery series that aired on Showtime from October 1, 2006, to September 22, 2013)

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dexter_(TV_series)

Snakes on a Plane (At one point, the film was given the title Pacific Air Flight 121, only to have it changed back to the working title at Samuel Jackson's request.)

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snakes_on_a_Plane#Production

Black hole (A black hole is a region of spacetime exhibiting gravitational acceleration so strong that nothing—no particles or even electromagnetic radiation such as light—can escape from it.)

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_hole

The Amazing World of Gumball (British-American surreal comedy animated television series created by Ben Bocquelet for Cartoon Network.)

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Amazing_World_of_Gumball

Cartoon Network - The Amazing World of Gumball | The Meaning Of Life

- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oZspV3ser1Q

Tarantula (The spider originally bearing the name "tarantula" was Lycosa tarantula, a species of wolf spider native to Mediterranean Europe. The name derived from that of the southern Italian town of Taranto.)

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tarantula#Etymology

RoboCop (1987) - It's Only a Glitch (Dick's boardroom demonstration of the Enforcement Droid 209 goes awry when the droid opens fire on Kinney.

- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TstteJ1eIZg

Law Abidding Citizen (2009) - Weaponized bomb disposal robot kills people

- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SrK-UojUTNw

Remote controlled weapon station (A remote controlled weapon station (RCWS), or remote weapon station (RWS), also known as a remote weapon system, (RWS) is a remotely operated weaponized system often equipped with fire-control system for light and medium-caliber weapons which can be installed on ground combat vehicle or sea- and air-based combat platforms.)

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Remote_controlled_weapon_station

Common Remotely Operated Weapon Station (CROWS) (a remote weapon station systems used by the US military on its armored vehicles and ships. It allows weapon operators to engage targets without leaving the protection of their vehicle.)

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CROWS

In Flanders Fields by John McCrae

- https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/47380/in-flanders-fields

Dulce Et Decorum Est (poem written by Wilfred Owen during World War I, and published posthumously in 1920)

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dulce_et_Decorum_est

Podcast Nine and Three-Quarters (TNC Podcast)

- https://thatsnotcanon.com/nineandthreequarterspodcast

Shout Outs

-  26 January 2020 – Kobe Bryant died – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Kobe_Bryant

On January 26, 2020, a Sikorsky S-76B helicopter crashed in Calabasas, California, around 30 miles (48 kilometers) northwest of Los Angeles, en route to Camarillo, California. It was carrying former basketball player Kobe Bryant, his daughter Gianna, six family friends including baseball coach John Altobelli and his wife and daughter, and the pilot. All on board were killed.

-  26 January 2020 – Australian of the Year 2020 awarded to eye surgeon James Muecke - https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-01-25/australian-of-year-awards-2020-announced-in-canberra/11901006

Dr Muecke was honoured in a ceremony in Canberra. In 2000 he co-founded Vision Myanmar at the South Australian Institute of Ophthalmology and later co-founded Sight For All, a social impact organisation aiming to create a world where everyone can see. More recently Dr Muecke's work has specifically focused on preventing the leading cause of blindness in adults — type 2 diabetes. When accepting the award from Prime Minister Scott Morrison, Dr Muecke said he viewed type 2 diabetes — something that impacts nearly one in every 10 Australians — as a "looming catastrophe for our health system".

- 28 January 1958 – Lego patents its First Bricks - https://www.nationalgeographic.org/thisday/jan28/lego-patents-its-first-bricks/

The Lego Group, with headquarters in Billund, Denmark, patented its design for interlocking plastic bricks. The design was so stable that those bricks can still be used with Lego sets created today. Today, the Lego Group, based in Denmark, is worth more than a billion dollars.

Remembrances

-  26 January 2020 – Louis Nirenberg -https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Nirenberg

Canadian-American mathematician, considered one of the most outstanding mathematicians of the 20th century. He made fundamental contributions to linear and nonlinear partial differential equations (PDEs) and their application to complex analysis and geometry. His contributions include the Gagliardo–Nirenberg interpolation inequality, which is important in the solution of the elliptic partial differential equations that arise in many areas of mathematics, and the formalization of the bounded mean oscillation known as John–Nirenberg space, which is used to study the behaviour of both elastic materials and games of chance known as martingales. He died at the age of 94 in New York.

- 28 January 1918 – Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_McCrae

Canadian poet, physician, author, artist and soldier during World War I, and a surgeon during the Second Battle of Ypres, in Belgium. He is best known for writing the famous war memorial poem "In Flanders Fields". McCrae died of pneumonia near the end of the war. "In Flanders Fields" appeared anonymously in Punch on December 8, 1915, but in the index to that year McCrae was named as the author. The verses swiftly became one of the most popular poems of the war, used in countless fund-raising campaigns and frequently translated. He died from pneumonia with "extensive pneumococcus meningitis" at the age of 45 in Boulogne-sur-Mer.

- 28 January 1996 – Jerry Siegel - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camillo_Golgi

Jerome Siegel who also used pseudonyms including Joe Carter and Jerry Ess was an American comic book writer. His most famous creation was Superman, which he created in collaboration with his friend Joe Shuster. Siegel and Shuster had been developing the Superman story and character since 1933, hoping to sell it as a syndicated newspaper comic-strip. But after years of fruitless soliciting to the syndicates, Siegel and Shuster agreed to publish Superman in a comic book. In March 1938, they sold all rights to Superman to the comic-book publisher Detective Comics, Inc., another forerunner of DC, for $130 ($2,361 when adjusted for inflation). Siegel and Shuster later regretted their decision to sell Superman after he became an astonishing success. DC Comics now owned the character and reaped the royalties. Nevertheless, DC Comics retained Siegel and Shuster as the principal writer and artist for the Superman comics, and they were well-paid because they were popular with the readers. He died from a heart attack at the age of 81 in Los Angeles,California.

Famous Birthdays

- 28 January 1611 – Johannes Hevelius - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johannes_Hevelius 

A councillor and mayor of Danzig (Gdańsk), Kingdom of Poland. As an astronomer, he gained a reputation as "the founder of lunar topography", and described ten new constellations, seven of which are still used by astronomers. He discovered four comets, in 1652, 1661, 1672 and 1677. These discoveries led to his thesis that such bodies revolve around the Sun in parabolic paths. He was born in Danzig,Pomeranian Voivodeship.

- 28 January 1912 – Jackson Pollack – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jackson_Pollock

American painter and a major figure in the abstract expressionist movement. He was widely noticed for his technique of pouring or splashing liquid household paint onto a horizontal surface ('drip technique'), enabling him to view and paint his canvases from all angles. It was also called 'action painting', since he used the force of his whole body to paint, often in a frenetic dancing style. This extreme form of abstraction divided the critics: some praised the immediacy and fluency of the creation, while others derided the random effects. He was born in Cody Wyoming.

-  28 January 1966 –  Seiji Mizushima - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seiji_Mizushima 

Japanese anime storyboard artist and director. He has directed such series as Shaman King, Fullmetal Alchemist, Mobile Suit Gundam 00, Un-Go, and Concrete Revolutio. He also directed anime films such as Fullmetal Alchemist: Conqueror of Shamballa and Mobile Suit Gundam 00 the Movie: Awakening of the Trailblazer. He was born in Fuchū, Tokyo.

Events of Interest

- 28 January 1887 - The first digging work on the Eiffel Tower started - https://www.toureiffel.paris/en/the-monument/history

It took two years, two months, and five days after construction began. The pieces of iron are connected by 2.5 million rivets. They were put in place by between 150 and 300 workers who were employed to build the structure. The structure may be named after Gustave Eiffel, but it was actually his senior engineers, Maurice Koechlin and Emile Nouguier, who designed the building.

-  21 January 1981 - The World Land Speed Record on a public road is broken by Rudolf Caracciola in the Mercedes-Benz W195 at a speed of 432.7 kilometres per hour (268.9 mph). - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercedes-Benz_W125_Rekordwagen

The streamlined car was derived from the 1937 open-wheel race car Mercedes-Benz W125 Formel-Rennwagen, of which also a streamlined version was raced at the non-championship Avusrennen in Berlin. The main difference to the Grand Prix race car, which had to adhere to the 750 kg (1,653 lb) limit, was the engine. While the GP car had the 8-cylinder inline M125, which was rather tall, the record car was fitted with a V12 engine that was lower, which reduced drag. It remained the fastest ever officially timed speed on a public road until broken on 5 November 2017 by Koenigsegg in an Agera RS driven by Niklas Lilja, achieving 445.6 km/h (276.9 mph) on a closed highway in Nevada.

- 28 January 1896 – Walter Arnold of East Peckham, Kent, becomes the first person to be convicted of speeding. He was fined oneshilling, plus costs, for speeding at 8 mph (13 km/h), thereby exceeding the contemporary speed limit of 2 mph (3.2 km/h).  - https://www.historic-uk.com/HistoryUK/HistoryofBritain/Walter-Arnold-Worlds-First-Speeding-Ticket/

The London Daily News detailed the four counts, also known as “informations”, on which Walter Arnold faced charges at Tunbridge Wells court. Arnold’s vehicle was described several times in the newspaper court report as a “horseless carriage”, and the case clearly raised some interesting philosophical as well as legal points for the bench. The first count, which reads oddly now, was for using a “locomotive without a horse,” the next for having fewer than three persons “in charge of the same”, indicating the enduring influence of horse-drawn and steam locomotion when it came to legislating the new vehicles. Next came the actual speeding charge, for driving at more than two miles per hour, and finally, a charge for not having his name and address on the vehicle. The case may have had an influence on the changes to legislation shortly afterwards. The fearsome machines no longer needed a minimum of three people to control them.

Intro

Artist – Goblins from Mars

Song Title – Super Mario - Overworld Theme (GFM Trap Remix)

Song Link - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-GNMe6kF0j0&index=4&list=PLHmTsVREU3Ar1AJWkimkl6Pux3R5PB-QJ

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[rbeatz]

Alon Mor – Long Awaited Journey

Music is storytelling. Alon Mor is one of the best storytellers I’ve heard in a long time. He is not a DJ or a producer. He is a modern day composer. I’m already on a tirade of looking out for new artists to blow up in 2018. Alon More makes that list for me. His newest album is Long Awaited Journey. It’s an album putting a new school touch on old school styles, with visions of leading full orchestras, changing the definition of “live” sets, and creating a fully immersive audiovisual experience that will trigger and activate all the human senses. And the release of his new album has been causing a stir amongst all sorts of artists across varying genres. Exhibit a, enter Kill The Noise, Rezz, and Herobust.

I’ve put the album ahead of my journey with it, so you can read along while listening to the album. The way I suggest you listen to this is in isolation or group of individuals down for a musical journy. The audio journey requires focus. Sit back, pour yourself a glass of wine or two, sit back and listen. If you have good headphones, I suggest you use them. Try and imagine a visual scenario wherever the music is taking you. For example, start off on a ship sailing the 7 seas, and let the music create the rest of the story. It’s also good for working and studying!

Here’s where this album took my story. I wrote this entire story while I was listening. I added some general musical comments of mine in bigger font, under the song titles. I stopped doing those because I got so engrained in the story of my journey with Long Awaited Journey.

  El Despertar

Such a beautiful build, both in harmony and melody. The melody starts off bright then turns ominous. Super wide ambiance that sounds tangible. A lot of his sounds sound like you can feel them with your fingers.

My story starts on a boat. I just woke up and walked outside. The whole world is in front of me, I have my crew around me, and I’m noticing all the beauty around me. Soon, I see dark clouds forming in the distance. I head down, get some breakfast, and notice the thunder is getting louder in the meanwhile.

Mania

The contrast between light and dark on this track is apparent. Maybe the title is an ode to bipolar mania. On the sound side of things, the drums sound like war drums during some dark periods in time.

I’m happily eating breakfast. A crew member aggressively approaches me and starts yelling. It’s early, so my head is a bit fuzzy and I can’t quite comprehend. I make a confused face, and he continues yelling at me. All of a sudden…BOOM! We’re hit and everything starts collapsing around the crew and me. Then, everything freezes. Myself and the crew are suspended in midair. We start thinking about how unreal this feels, being suspended in midair. This entire phenomenon is starting to become supernatural, and there’s as a green aurora all around us. ZIP – we start moving upwards. Ahhhhhhh! All I think is that we’re in a blackhole, or some sort of alien mechanism hurling us towards another dimension. I blackout and quickly wake up in a lush, green field surrounded by my crew. It’s beautiful all around me: trees with fruits hanging, birds chirping, the sun, apps that I grow to love, free money everywhere, healthy McDonals, and hills for miles away. In the distance, there is one building that we can see. It’s a castle. We start walking towards it because, why not?

Presudeos

Let this song build for the first 3 minutes. WOW – that sound design is unreal. It actually feels like slime.

The journey is long, and most of us are slightly confused as to where we’ve landed. No one is lost, I’m still here with the crew. No directions were given after the abrupt blackhole, so we played the card we were handed, and walked towards the only sign of civilization that we could see. The grass is less green as we get closer and closer to the castle. We notice the atrocity and keep walking.  We hear a horn coming from the castle. A sign of humanity. Night approaches, and silence creeps in. Luminescent eyes start appearing, and we realize we’re not alone. The ground starts turning to a waterbed like substance. Most of us trip and slide into the pockets because it’s really hard to walk on waterbeds. “This is not the world we came from,” I thought. Mammal like creatures seem to be flying around us. Like, way too big to have wings and glide through the air. Not harming us (thank god), just passing by. The ground has really taken it’s tole on me, as I continue struggling trying to walk on a waterbed. I look around, and see that the others have given up, They are just lying there. I follow suite.  Then this strange looking giant beaver starts jumping up and down on the ground, causing more and more chaos. The beaver leaves, and I can finally relax a bit.

The night is somewhat peaceful with an ambiance you can feel on your skin. I fall asleep – for a bit. Still unsettled at the current situation. I jolt awake, to another giant beaver jumping around on the waterbed-like ground. This time it’s a MUCH bigger beaver, so some of us are flung throughout the kingdom. I am flung closest to the castle, where the ground is more stable and the sky is bright. It seems to be morning, and the castle is surrounded by a village, operating like normal. My anxiety rises as I approach the castle. I am comforted by the festive scene around me; I see a crying old lady. Looked sad, but decided not to mettle in her personal life. I continue moving towards the castle.

Encore

As I approach the castle doors, I am met by a giant butterfly who can speak my language. The animal was quite spectacular looking; colors I hadn’t seen before. The butterfly assures me not to worry, and starts asking me about myself. I was told not to worry, and that all questions would be answered shortly. I continue probing because I don’t know where I am, so I’m freakin out a bit. The butterfly seems annoyed at my probing. The butterfly starts acting a bit more dismissive, but I still felt I should continue following. We reach the castle gates, and we pause. “Just a second,” says the butterfly.

Holly’s Necklace

Super creepy distorted voices along with driving synths and heavy percussion.

A woman comes out of the smaller castle, she say’s her name is Holly and says “Let’s do something crazy tonight.” I’m all in at this point, I guess. I AM here, so I might as well make the best of it.  She leads me to her car, and we head off. We’re driving along a highway, not speaking. Each time I ask for an explanation, she just repeats the same thing, “Don’t worry, you’ll be fine, you’ll understand soon.” She asks me if I like going fast. I reply, “kinda.” She puts the petal to the metal, my body jerks forward, the seatbelt locks, and we start bursting along this highway at 200 MPH. There’s nothing I can concentrate on aside from, “dam, we’re going fast.” She slows down, and we finally reach an exit that lead to a massive opening. The sign reads, “Terrain Park.” We don’t exit the car. I’m getting the sense this is a terrain park for cars. AHHHHHHHH we start going off jumps, hitting, loop-de-loops, grinding on trucks, jumping over houses. The terrain park finally ends and we continue driving along.

Late Night Skyline

My heart continues to thump after that insane experience. Holly continues driving, ignoring my strong desire to understand, “why?” I’m a prisoner in another dimension at this point, so I’m not certain what I can trust. Holly seems powerful, and listening to her seems like the right thing to do…for now. We finally park and get out of the car.

We reach a maze, and Holly runs through the entrance. I follow her because I love mazes too. The whole maze situation is another layer of confusion in this already confusing place. We’re walking through the maze, and it’s getting late. The ground is getting that waterbed feel. Not only do I have to traverse this maze, but there’s also another layer of the wobbling ground. The ground begins to sink more and more, like REALLY DEEP. Much deeper than the last waterbed depth. Tt’s impossible to move. I start sinking deep into the meshy earth. I give up and sink in. Holly grabs me, and pulls me back up. Coming up was a slow rewinding effect, it felt similar to the blackhole. We’re back to normal, continuing our walk through the maze. She stopped me when we got to this orange circular object and said, “Don’t hit the gleblegorfs, or else you sink.” I didn’t know I hit one in the first place, I must have missed it. This made me trust her more. We continue onward. As we walked, I saw more gleblegorfs, and there were vines growing over, through, and around the maze, moving in random directions, disrupting our path to the final. We finally get out, a sense of euphoria sinks in. I’m so tired, so I pass out and go to sleep. Holly allows it.

Early Morning Winds

I wake up on the side of the highway for some reason. Holly has set up breakfast outside the car with a canopy and everything. “Wow, this place seems normal when convenient,” I thought. We begin eating Grapefuits and hard-boiled eggs. YUM! It was my first meal for an entire day, so I wasn’t picky. I was famished, in fact. I can’t concentrate on anything else, aside from the enjoyment of food. I get full and we continue to sit there to let the meal digest. I start to worry about the fact that I just went to another dimension. It’s never happened to me, and I always though I’d be ripped to shreds rather than treated nicely. I start thinking about my family, and if I’d ever see them again, Holly says “Hey, your family is safe and they’ll see you again.” That made me feel better, and it made me trust her more. We get back in the car and drive off.

The Midelar

I’m going to have to mark this as one of my favorite songs in 2018. This song is so freakin’ good. Reminds me of when I was obsessed with Maggot Bain by Funkadelic. Both 10 minutes of a freakin emotional journey; however, Midelar’s sound production is unlike anything I’ve heard before. The sounds are sending me tingling frequencies, reminding me of ASMR.

Holly starts talking to me about something she’s done, something she created. She wanted to get my opinion on it. She keeps mentioning “what she’s done” and worries if she can “look back and smile.” I asked her, “what did you do?” She says, “I’ll show you.” She takes me to these enormous doors. The sign reads, “My Masterpiece.” We drive in, and the place is one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever seen. Layers upon layers of rolling mountains, with different color flowers, trees, wildlife flourishing everywhere, and two enormous lakes with what seemed to be a pathway leading between them.

We pass through the walkway between two lakes. It’s getting fairly thin, and the water looks super dark, creatures swimming underneath. They looked big. We finally get across, and were on what appears to be a mountainous-lake area. It’s beautiful around me, and big. Then I notice something enormous coming through the ground.

An physical entity that I couldn’t even describe the shape of, made from the buildings, lakes, and animals surrounding the earth around us. It started taking a more familiar giant human form to help me visualize a bit more. A giant human made of the earth. Gravity was muuuch different here. The size along I couldn’t handle, but the sounds it was making and the parts that made it whole where unlike anything I’ve ever seen, felt, and, most importantly to finish the sound metaphor, heard.

It began to walked away, towards a sunset, taking the threat away of this monstrosity attacking us. It was the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen, moving in a fluid manner towards one of the lakes. I had to take a second to breath for a bit; not knowing what I was looking at. Though, I knew it was the most beautiful thing I ever sensed. The creature started heading towards the water.

The giant earth monster jumped in and started swimming. The noise it made while swimming was immense.  It got out, and sat along the lake shore, drying off, looking out towards the sun.

Holly asked me, “So, what do you think?” I responded, “ughhhhhhhh, what’s the highest score I can give?” She was happy, and all of a sudden, she seemed more confident. A sparkle in her eye and smile on her face that could only be pride. And it was well deserved. Look at that thing!

Tyche’s Singing

We continue staring at Holly’s creation. The size and presence was undeniable. I still couldn’t believe it. It was time for Holly to show us more. She asked me if I knew what this was? Why we are here? Why are we doing the things we’re doing? Making me feel utterly confused and uncertain, I felt like she was getting a bit too philosophical. Searching for an answer that might be be there. She came back, feeling there might be AN answer, but it’s more about where you’re going next. There was more she wanted to show me.

Molly brought me to a house along the lake. She let me rest a bit, and eventually woke me up. She told me she wanted to get crazy tonight. I was like “UGHHHHHH again?” implying I was quite crazed out for the day. But I was totally down and trusting of where she’d take me next. I completely trusted her at this point.

Los Recuerdos

We start walking through a field. It’s raining, so we can’t see far. It stops raining, and the fog clears. There was a magical entrance way with a variety of trees with fruits galore. Communities of people creatures I’ve never seen before dancing all over the place, THRIVING and having fun. It was like a music festival meets a petting zoo with independent animals and they sky was filled with docile aquarium creatures. We start enjoying ourselves, dancing, eating anything we desired, all the creatures had the friendliest demeanor. The music was unlike anything I heard and the visual storytelling was unlike anything I witnessed. There were so many extracurricular activities, even Holly throws down a killer set with her enormous earth creation. It was pure joy. The floor started getting wobbly again, but I wasn’t scared.

The night came to a close. The acts finished up, and we leave. It’s sad that the fun came to an end. We quickly start reminiscing, remembering again how GREAT that night was. We started reminiscing and sharing crazy videos we took, n pics n moments n stuff. We start driving again. We drive for quite sometime. A thought started creeping in. A thought that that this magical journey was about to end. Sadness, realization, what is life, depressed, you just wanna sleep and not do things. AHHHHHHHH I HAVE RESPONSIBILITIES . Eh whatever, that’s life I guess. Just gotta be happy, buuuuuut what if I hopped off that bridge?!?! I point to a bridge. Think for a second, things get really dark – no resolution! “Few that got dark at the end,” the narrator thought to himself.

Halpfire Harmonies

We show up to the place where it all began. It’s a bittersweet goodbye. A rumbling: “Ahhhhhh I’m getting sucked back up through the blackhole.” “Ahhhh why is time travel such a hassle!?!? Huge buildup scene of me getting sucked back to reality. Things go quiet again. I’m stuck, waiting for the blackhole’s next move. Holly appears and says, “dreams and reality are the same thing.” I land back on my boat with the crew around me looking just as puzzled. Holly’s voice in the distance shouts, “Go and live your long awaited journey, go on without me.” I get the sense of pure and utter confusion of what just happened, distress that it’s over, and resolve that it’s past. A grand finale to one of the craziest, most immense journeys I’ve been on. I take a breath and understand that I have another one to be on. I head home.

That was pretty fun, I must say. It makes me appreciate the album in its entirety, and it’s fun to do if you like to tell stories or create things

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