#i considered not releasing this until the 1 year mark but. must share IMMEDIATELY

[sergeantsporks]

Gilded Family

Rating: Teen and Up, Gen

Ch 277/?: New Mission

Ch 1, Ch 2, Ch 3, Ch 4, Ch 5, Ch 6 , Ch 7, Ch 8, Ch 9, Ch 10, Ch 11, Ch 12, Ch 13, Ch 14, Ch 15, Ch 16, Ch 17,  Ch 18, Ch 19, Ch 20, Ch 21, Ch 22, Ch 23, Ch 24, Ch 25, Ch 26

In which none of the previous golden guards or wittebro died, actually, they're all fine and living happily together as one big dysfunctional family

Ao3

Phoenix stared at the ceiling of Cherry’s bedroom, barely able to make out wooden planks in the darkness. “I never checked back.”

“Mrgh?”

“On the orphanage. After I joined the coven. I knew it burned down, but I never checked to see what happened to the people there.”

Cherry grunted. “Why would you? From what I saw, it didn’t seem like anyone there really cared about you. Even the adults who were supposed to watch out for you didn’t notice you were gone.”

Even away from Petro, that sick, rotting feeling hadn’t left Phoenix’s stomach. “I just… I didn’t even think about them, not once. Not even Victoria. Even though she…”

“You didn’t know. You didn’t remember. She wasn’t that nice to you, either, not until the end. Of course you didn't think about her.”

“Still.” Phoenix scratched at the infected wounds on his arms, his heart thudding in his chest. “They died, for what? Because they knew me? Because I lived there? It’s not like they cared about me, it’s not like they would have gone looking for me, but… but they died because of me.”

“Phoenix, that’s not—”

“And I didn’t even check on them. They all died, and it was my fault, and I couldn’t even bother to—”

“Phoenix. It’s not your fault. You didn’t ask for Belos to take you away, and you certainly didn’t ask for Petro to burn down your orphanage. You didn’t do anything to cause their deaths, and there was nothing you could have done to save them.”

“Still.” Phoenix turned to lie on his side, facing away from Cherry’s bed. “I was happy it burned down. Even knowing people might have gotten hurt or killed, I was glad to see it go.” It had seemed right at the time, but thinking about how gleeful he’d been to know that there was no way he’d ever go back made Phoenix feel sick to his stomach now. He hadn’t become the golden guard yet; it had just been him that felt that way, just Phoenix. He curled up in a ball, closing his eyes. “I wish I’d found out the cost sooner.”

“Don’t lie about the scar that’ll leave.”

Phoenix stared down at Petro as he slowly turned to stone. His eyes burned through the slits in his mask, glaring at Phoenix.

“Tell him family gave it to him. Let him know that your family isn’t your friend, and they’ll cut you deeper than any enemy.”

The stone made it past Petro’s face, and the guard finally went silent, frozen in an angry half-lunge. Phoenix tried to reach out towards him, to see if he would pass right through, but his arm wouldn’t move.

The eyes of the statue glowed magenta, and Phoenix dangled a golden guard over the edge of a bridge. The guard clawed at his hands, their feet desperately kicking to find the edge of the bridge with no success.

“Don’t—”

“You want to know what happened to our family so badly?” Belos’ voice snarled from somewhere around Phoenix, “Why don’t you pay them a visit?”

Phoenix tried to stop himself, tried to hold on, or pull the guard back to safety, but one by one, his fingers uncurled from the golden guard’s cloak, and they fell. Phoenix fell, too, the world rushing past him in a blur of darkness until he stepped delicately over the broken form of the previous guard. Just a little further, and he’d be at the garden. With the betrayal of this golden guard, he needed to seed a new batch and start their growing process.

A bloody, broken hand swiped at his cloak as he passed. “Hahhhh,” the golden guard croaked, “Haaaaaaaaahhhhh…”

Phoenix kicked at their hand.

“Disgusting,” a voice hissed. Somehow, it belonged to both Belos and Phoenix, stitching the two together inseparably.

And Phoenix stared at the darkness of Cherry’s ceiling again, his body still numb from sleep and one arm under his head. He blinked, once, twice, trying to shake off the twisting, disoriented feeling of being someone else, like he’d stepped into another’s body and then been yanked back to his. His skin felt too small, and his body felt too strong, despite the aches and pains.

Slowly, carefully, he managed to drag one hand up to his face, rubbing one eye. “Mrgh,” he mumbled, stretching his other arm out. Stabbing pins and needles shot up his arm, half-asleep from being trapped under his head. “Cherry?”

No answer.

Phoenix sat up, gingerly touching his arms.

They came away wet.

“Sh—” Phoenix rolled out of bed, fumbling for a light. “Cherry, something’s—are you okay, are you—” His hand brushed a paper on the counter, and a light flared up, blinding him. Phoenix stumbled away, tripping over his own feet and landing on his back.

His heart pounded in his chest, and something viscous oozed down his arm at each throb.

“Ack—” Phoenix pulled his sleeve up. The bandages around his arms were stained green, and cursed mud burbled out between the cracks, sliming down his arms. “Ngh—stop it, stop it—”

He looked to see if he’d woken Cherry up, but his bed sat empty, the blankets folded neatly back.

“Cherry…”

For a moment, Phoenix stared at his own hands, and the empty bed. Did I…

He shook himself. No. No, right? Right. Cherry had just stepped out. He was fine. He was fine. Phoenix hauled himself up, half-stumbling into the hallway. A light glowed down the way in Sam’s lab, and Phoenix headed towards it, pressing his hands against his bubbling wounds.

“You don’t actually know where the lab is, do you? You just want us to think you do.”

Phoenix flattened himself against the wall outside of the lab, holding his breath.

“What makes you say that?”

“You knew we wouldn’t let you go, even for that location. You set them an unreasonable demand so that you weren’t in any danger of actually having to give that information.”

Petro chuckled. “And why would I pretend to have information only to demand things I can’t get? Why would I pretend to hold information that could land me in hot water if you found out I didn’t have it? It’s not like you bleeding hearts need an incentive to keep me alive. I don’t need to trick you.”

“Because you like to see people sweat,” Cherry answered evenly and immediately, “Because you want to see us go crazy wondering if it’s worth the risk. Because unstable, sweating people make mistakes when they handle prisoners. Moments of weakness result in looser bonds and distracted guards.”

“Aw, you’ve been thinking of me, Cherry Bomb! Am I in your head? It’s only fair, you got into mine.”

“I just don’t understand. All you have to do is promise not to kill Phoenix, and they’d let you go. You wouldn’t even have to stay here, you could go anywhere! Why are you trading your freedom for the illusion of revenge that you can’t get?”

“Okay, I promise I won’t kill Phoenix. Now let me out.”

“No. I don’t trust you.”

“Awwwwwwwwww, but I’m going to change! I’m going to be different! I’m gonna give him a big old hug and apologize for that time I tried to kill him! What, don’t you believe all of the painfully earnest things you said about becoming a better person and starting over?”

“I do. I just don’t think you’ve taken it to heart.”

“I don’t think you have either. You know people can’t change. Not really.”

“I have.”

Petro laughed. “No, you haven’t, Cherry Bomb!”

“Quit calling me that.”

“Or what? Gonna shove an explosive potion down my throat? Do it. I dare you. I know you want to. That’d shut me up, right? That would save your precious little Phoenix from me forever.”

“No. That’s not something I want. That’s not who I am.”

“Awwwwwwwwww, come on, Cherry Bomb, you’re a fighter. I could tell in the mindscape when you threw me into my own memories. You’re not like Phoenix, he fights like someone who wants the battle to end in a knockout. You’re a killer. You’re a direwolf pretending to be a lapdog, but you can’t hide your teeth. You’re just like me, and you don’t want anyone to know it.”

Phoenix heard the creak of wood, like Cherry had pushed on Petro’s chair. “I’m nothing like you,” Cherry snarled, “I changed. I got better.”

“Did you? ‘Coz you look awfully close to ripping my throat out right about now.”

The thud of chair legs hitting the floor echoed out of the room. “You’re just trying to rile me up so that I’ll do something stupid. You don’t know anything about me.”

“I know everything about you. Your whole life, summed up in ten pages of loopy handwriting. I read it. I read that whole journal. I know what you’ve done.”

Phoenix winced as Cherry made a sound like a squeaky toy. Don’t listen to him.

“The journal—”

“That your lab rat has. How long do you think before his curiosity gets the better of him and he reads your entry? How long before he knows? Before he tells everyone? Before your whole family knows that you’re just like me? Do you think they’ll still trust you? Irredeemable monsters, am I right?”

“I’ve changed.” Cherry’s voice cracked.

“Doesn’t matter.”

“Yes, it does! They know who I am now, they know—it won’t matter. It doesn’t matter. I’ve changed, everyone here has changed, they know what it’s like. It’s fine. It’s fine. It’s fine.”

“Are you willing to risk that? I can help you out, Cherry. I can tell you where it is. You just have to do one thing for me.”

“I’m not letting you out. And I’m not killing Phoenix for you.”

“For this information? I wouldn’t demand such a high price. Nah, just a little information trade. I’ll tell you where the book is if you tell me how Belos died.”

“How does that help you?”

“Ehhhhhh, call it closure. Call it denial until I have more information. Some kind of sentiment. Whatever makes you more likely to tell me. It doesn’t cost you anything.”

“That I know of.”

“Careful, your cynical cutthroat soldier is showing.”

“I’ll find out. Tell me where the book is.”

“After you tell me what happened to Belos.”

“No. I’ll keep my word. I don’t know if you’ll keep yours.”

“Yeah, actually, I believe that. Anyway, Sam took it with him. He’s probably sleeping with it like a teddy bear. Hey, if you let me out, I could—”

“No.”

“I’ll behave.”

“No you won’t. But you could. You can change, Petro. I promise you, you can change. For real.”

“Quit wasting your breath. Or do you want everyone to find out what you’ve done, Cherry Bomb?”

Cherry inhaled sharply, then stormed out, closing the door with a quiet click. He blinked at Phoenix.

“Um—” Phoenix started, but Cherry put a finger to his lips, gesturing at the door behind him. He stalked back to his room, and started to pace. “Don’t know how far Petro can hear,” he mumbled, “Phoenix, how much of that did you—”

“Belos died because the Collector flicked him into a wall so hard he fell apart,” Phoenix interrupted, rubbing his arms, “You can keep your end of the deal.”

“Oh.” Cherry twisted his shirt in his hands, somehow seeming much smaller and younger than usual, like a kid caught sneaking out. “Thanks. I…”

“Do you really think Petro can change?”

“I have to think it. If he can’t change, then…” Cherry kept twisting his shirt. “Phoenix, about what happened in there—about the book—”

“You’re going to steal it?”

“I… yeah. I’ll put it back, I really will, I just… need to rip my pages out, first.”

“That’s not less sneaky.”

“I know. I just…” Cherry buried his face in his hands with a groan. “I don’t know what else to do.” He started pacing again, his shoulders heaving. “I mean, of course Mom and Dad know what happened, and I’m pretty sure Mole does, too, and none of them will tell anyone if I don’t want them to, but anyone could pick up that book and just read it! And I don’t want it around by the time Jason gets back, titan knows that he’ll just pick it up and read it because he reads everything, and then Jason will know, and Jason can’t know, so I’ve got to get it now and just pull those pages out. Please, please, please, please, Phoenix, don’t tell Sam, please don’t—”

Phoenix grabbed Cherry’s shoulders. His arms had stopped oozing at least, thank titan. One problem at a time. “Cherry. Take a deep breath.”

Cherry inhaled sharply.

“You’re going to be okay. They love you, and that’s not going to change.”

“They don’t know everything.”

“They don’t have to. And they know that they don’t know everything. And they love you anyway.”

Cherry just shook his head. “They’re going to hate me,” he whispered, “They’re going to hate me if they find out what I’ve done. Who I used to be.”

Okay. The practical approach wasn’t going to work here. “I’ll help you steal it.”

“What?”

“I will help you steal it,” Phoenix repeated, “I won’t read it. I’ll just help you get the book, and you can pull your pages out.”

“Why? You don’t like the idea.”

“Hey, don’t look a gift ratworm in the mouth. You thought going into Petro’s mind was dangerous, but you did it anyway to help me. Let me help you back.”

Cherry eyed him up and down. “That’s all it is?” His eyes caught on Phoenix’s arms, still stained by his outburst. “Titan, Phoenix—”

“Don’t tell Evelyn.”

“No. No, Mom told me you promised. No heroics. It comes out, right now.”

“No—” Phoenix moved between Cherry and the door. “It’s not just getting worse, Cherry, I think I’m seeing his memories in my dreams!”

“Not better. Definitely not better. That’s concerning, Phoenix. Weird dreams are the number one symptom of a magical problem.”

“It was already happening, I just didn’t realize it. It’s not new, it’s not worse.” Phoenix held his hands up. “What if it can help me find the last Grimwalker?!”

Cherry froze.

“I think you’re right. Petro doesn’t know where the garden is. So the only person that does is in a puddle of goop at the head. If I’m seeing his memories, then maybe… just for a little bit, Cherry. I’ll help you get the book. Just don’t tell Evelyn, she’ll cut it out immediately, and we’ll lose this chance.”

Cherry considered that for a long moment, then held up one finger. “One week. And if I think it’s getting even worse, I’m telling her immediately.”

“Deal,” Phoenix replied swiftly. He wouldn’t get a better offer from Cherry. If he was being honest, he was a little shocked he’d gotten this long.

Muted orange light glowed dully in the window. The house would wake up soon.

“Do you think Petro will tell? Tell Sam, I mean.”

“Beans.” Cherry tugged on his own ponytail with a groan. “I didn’t think of that. Do you think we can keep him out of the lab? No, okay, stupid thought, there is no force on the isles that will separate Sam from his lab, right, he will definitely go into the lab.”

“Don’t panic. Sam mentioned wanting to gag Petro. Maybe he will?”

“Yeah. Maybe he will.” Cherry took a deep breath, smoothing his hair down. “Okay. Okay, I’ve got this. Normal post-apocalyptic day. Normal post-apocalyptic chores. Everything is fine.” He headed for the door.

“Cherry?”

“Yeah?”

“I think maybe you shouldn’t talk to Petro anymore.”

“I know what he’s going through right now; I can help him. I’m going to get through to him.”

“Maybe, but I’m worried he’s going to get to you first. He knows how to push your buttons, and he will push them again and again until you slip up.”

It had only taken Petro one conversation to send him spiraling and start trading information. What would happen if Cherry kept talking to him?

“And what about you? He’s pretty good at getting under your skin, too.”

Phoenix rubbed his arms. “I don’t want to be around him, either. And if I can help it, I won’t be.”

“We can’t tie him up forever. We’re going to have to deal with him eventually.”

“And we will. But right now, you have enough to deal with. You don’t need ‘fixing Petro’ on your plate, too.”

Cherry rubbed his face. “Yeah. Maybe you’re right. I’ll try to stay away from him for now.”

Phoenix waited for Cherry to go, then headed down the hallway to Mole’s room. He knocked on the door, but Mole didn’t come to the door. “Mole?” he called, “It’s Phoenix. I just want to talk.”

He heard a scuffling noise, and when he opened the door, Mole was out the window and headed towards the garden.

“Okay,” Phoenix said out loud, “Still mad at me. Got it.” He climbed out the window himself, jogging lightly after the smaller grimwalker. “Mole, I’m sorry—” the garden gate wouldn’t open. The door stuck to the frame, welded shut by a fire glyph. Phoenix had never realized that he used the glyphs. “…How are you planning on getting out?”

Mole didn’t even turn to look at him, just aggressively ripped weeds out of the earth and tossed them in a big pile.

“I’m sorry, Mole. I know you miss him. I do, too.”

A weed still clinging to a dirt clod smacked into the fence right in front of where Phoenix’s face was, showering him with soil.

“That’s not fair.”

Mole sniffed, scrubbing at his face with dirt-stained hands. Phoenix sighed, sitting on the ground outside of the garden, back against the fence.

“I know Jason was the only one who really understood you. And I bet it’s been difficult for you now that he’s gone.” Phoenix twisted blades of grass between his fingers. “I had to send him away. To keep him safe. And maybe there was another way I could have done that, but at the time, I didn’t know what else to do. If I hadn’t, he’d have been captured by the Collector, too, and he would have gotten hurt.” Phoenix braided and unbraided the strands in his hands. “Or maybe he would have been able to talk the Collector down.” He chuckled. “He probably would have been able to talk the Collector down.”

Phoenix’s heart started to ache in his chest, and his hands shredded the blades of grass between his fingers, separating the leaf from the stem. “And then we wouldn’t have had to run. And I wouldn’t have left King behind.” He tied the stem into knots. “Or maybe I didn’t have to run whether Jason was there or not. Maybe I could have just stayed.” Phoenix pinched the bridge of his nose. “What am I saying? Mole, the point is, I’m sorry. If there was something I could have done to bring him back with me, I would have. And I know it’s harder for you than it is for me, so I just… if you need something, let me know somehow? I know I’m not Jason, but… I can try to understand.”

Mole heaved a shuddering breath. But when Phoenix twisted around to check on him, he was calm, pulling up weeds with careful precision instead of tearing them out wildly.

“Okay. Thanks for listening.” Phoenix stood up, gingerly touching the lumps of bandages on his arms. They were dripping again, leaving cursed mud behind on the garden fence. Phoenix retreated to the safety of the house before Mole could see, ducking into the kitchen. Outside, Mole examined the fence with a frown, rubbing his fingers together.

“Ah. Great.”

“What’s great?”

Phoenix jumped, whirling around in a panicked spin and pointing a nonexistent staff at the Grimwalker standing by the stove. The grimwalker watched him completely unphased, scrambling eggs with his left hand. His other arm was missing from the elbow down, and burn scars covered his face and remaining arm, even burning away a chunk of his hair.

“Uh. Hi.”

“Frank.”

“What?”

“My name. It’s Frankenstein, Frank for short.”

“Oh. Phoenix.”

“Nah, these are griffin eggs. Cooking phoenix eggs? Total nightmare.” Frank gestured to himself. “What do you think happened to my arm and face? You’re a couple of degrees off on the stovetop and WHOOSH, up in flames. Nearly burned the house down last week.”

“Should you… be cooking?”

Frank shook his head sadly. “No one else is brave enough after what happened to me. Tragic, really, but I am an excellent cook, so maybe it’s for the best.”

Phoenix eyed him and the stove. That did not sound like normal stove behavior. And where on the isles had they gotten phoenix eggs at a time like this?!

Frank glanced at him, and his serious face split into a wide grin. “I’m messing with you, my arm’s been gone for years.”

“Oh. And…” Phoenix gestured to his face.

“Who do you think gave me those?” Frank grabbed the handle of the pan, shaking it vigorously and tossing the eggs up in the air. “Makes cookie pan burns feel like nothing, I will give him that. Hey, if you’re going to lurk around, could you make some toast? I’d do both, but…” he waved his stump arm. “Lost it to the toaster.”

Phoenix raised one eyebrow at him. “Did you, now? Was this back at the emperor’s coven, then?”

“Haha. Sorry, I have one joke. Would you mind, though?”

Phoenix retrieved bread from its box in the pantry and the toaster, two metal grilles hinged together and attached to a metal disc.  “How does this…?”

“Fire glyphs. Mom usually uses a spell, but you can use glyphs to power it, too. Here, let me show you. Take this for a second. If you let them burn, my legacy will be forever tarnished and I must sacrifice my other arm to the cooking gods in atonement. No pressure.”

Frank handed Phoenix his spatula and pushed him to the stove. He grabbed a notepad and a pencil and sketched a fire glyph, tearing the sheet off. “Like this.” He tucked a piece of bread in-between the grilles and slapped the fire glyph down on the metal disc. Frank jumped backwards to avoid the column of fire that rose up, superheating the disc and the grill. Once the flames died down, he gingerly flipped the top grille off with a pair of tongs and removed the toasted bread.

“Ta-da!” Frank tossed the bread on a plate. “Spatula, please.”

Phoenix handed it to him, eying the toaster. “That seems… safe.”

“I am not supposed to use it without supervision.” Frank pointed up.

Phoenix looked at the ceiling to see a black mark burned in the paint over where the toaster sat. “…Ah. Not a joke?”

“Not a joke, that’s been there for a yearish and my toaster privileges have been revoked the same amount of time. Don’t draw your fire glyphs too big and you’ll do fine.”

Phoenix nodded. He traced the imprint of the fire glyph Frank had left on the next page of the notepad, pressing his own pen down hard enough to leave a dent on the next page.

“Sooooo… Frank…” Phoenix slapped the glyph on the disk and jumped back, wrinkling his nose at the wave of heat. “I’m trying to find a grimwalker.”

Frank gestured at himself.

“I don’t think so. But maybe you can help me? I’m looking for someone that…”

Slowly uncurling his fingers, watching the fear in the guard’s eyes as they fell

A broken, trembling hand reaching towards him

“Phoenix?”

“Um…” Phoenix slowly reached up to his arms, covering the bandages with his hands to hide the bubbling mud oozing out from the bandages. “Never mind, I… I’ve got to go.”

Phoenix bolted from the kitchen before Frank could say anything else, leaning against the wall outside. “Hah. Okay. Okay, you’re okay.” He took a deep breath, letting it out slowly. “You’re okay.” He tugged on his sleeves to make sure they covered the stained bandages, squared his shoulders, and headed to Sam’s lab.

Get the journal

Maybe find out which Grimwalker that was in the dream

Figure out where Belos’ “garden” is

Get this infection out of my arm.

Another deep breath.

This is all going to work out.

It has to.

[jackdawyt]

Today we’re bittersweetly jumping into the second and third issues of Dragon Age: Dark Fortress. The end is here for this amazing comic-run, and we’ve got plenty of lore to dissect as well as many tears to shed. If you’re not already caught up, I’ve broken down the first issue in a separate video, so you can check that out. If you’ve already read the second and third issue for yourself, well, I guarantee you, I’ve spotted a few things you’ve probably missed. So, let’s dive straight into the huge, juicy lore drops revealed in the final issues of Dark Fortress.

#1 - The Gang’s Arrival at Castellum Tenebris

Issue two opened with Ser Aaron, Vaea, Fenris, Marius, Tessa, Francesca and Autumn’s arrival at Castellum Tenebris - the ‘Dark Fortress’ that is eponymous to this comic run - the gang’s intention has been to stop the Venatori’s wicked ritual and seize their red lyrium artefacts and weapons. Considering the gang couldn’t use the bridge without immediately being sighted or killed by Venatori, Vaea crossed the fortress’s bridge by parkouring underneath it’s structure and reaching the stronghold. She found Danarius’s hidden entrance and let the rest of the gang inside.

As they entered the fortress, they each prepared to face the Venatori, stopping their ritual to create a red wraith using the sarcophagus. Fenris explained the few things he remembered when he was imbued with lyrium tattoos through the sarcophagus, in preparation for what the Venatori might do with Shirallas’s transformation. He shared that a sword laced with lyrium was put into the device in order for it to work. Marius exclaimed that the magisters will be using a red lyrium imbued weapon this time around.

Fenris went on to say that, among other things, his ritual was bombarded with magic, he suspected that fire magic was used for his transformation. He suggested that the group should watch out for the red lyrium-imbued sword and any mages involved in the ritual - they could be the key to stopping it.

However, when the gang arrived at the ritual’s sanctum, they never expected to see an imprisoned dragon that would be used as a catalyst for Shirallas’s red wraith transformation. They each split up to focus on the Venatori and to free the dragon, when suddenly, even more chaos erupted from outside.

#2 – The Qunari Antaam’s Invasion

The Qunari Antaam laid waste to the eastern Tevinter city, Neromenian. Since the first issue, their focus has been on seizing Castellum Tenebris to stop a powerful, magical ritual and kill everyone in the fortress. Tractus Danarius, otherwise known as Danarius the Lesser was held captive by the Qun, until he recently escaped their grasp in the second issue.

The Qunari leader Karasten told his fellow Qunari that they’re bringing the entirety of the Qunari Antaam down on Castellum Tenebris, and they weren’t bluffing. The Antaam arrived with weapons of artillery blasting at the fortress’s gate as soldiers stormed the bridge. Their conquest had begun.

#3 - The Dragon & Red Wraith

Magister Neneleus, Professor Marquette and Shirallas prepared for their ritual as both the Qunari and our heroes invaded the fortress. Marquette examined the red lyrium-imbued sword that would be inserted into the sarcophagus for Shirallas’s transformation. This red lyrium sword was crafted from the infamous red lyrium idol, after the sword transforms Shirallas, its purpose will be to infuse him.

Marquette reminded Neneleus about the deal they made, Marquette is supposed to keep the red lyrium idol for studying purposes after this experiment is over.

As the Qunari laid siege, Nenealeus demanded that the ritual begin now. At that exact moment, the gang made their moves. Vaea and Fenris attempted to free the dragon, Ser Aaron targeted Marquette, Marius faced Nenealeus, and Francesca killed a few mages with her vine magic. Francesca then attempted to destroy the sarcophagus.

Nonetheless, in a sudden flash, the Qunari destroyed parts of the fortress, chaos emerged across the stronghold, and Shirallas slashed Francesca’s magical vine that was about to conceal the sarcophagus.

Shirallas then entered the sarcophagus as Marquette placed the red lyrium sword in place. The dragon’s shackles were broken by Fenris and Vaea with the intention of it fleeing the scene. Instead, Neneleus discovered that Danarius the Lesser bound the beast with magic, as he raised his sword and used magic, the dragon obeyed him and rained fire on the sarcophagus, setting the ritual in motion.

Upon the ritual’s completion, the Red Wraith was born.

#4 - Shirallas

Issue three opened up by revealing more of Shirallas’s backstory before he aligned himself with Magister Nenealeus and became the Red Wraith. His clan was burned to the ground and he remained the only survivor. At a young age, he was taken in by another clan and marked with Elgar’nan’s vallaslin as he began his journey to adulthood. Shirallas joined up with Fenris on a quest to free elves from their bindings. On one mission to recover elven slaves destined for Magister Nenealeus’s estate, Shirallas switched places with one of the slaves as Nenealeus decided to take Shirallas in, and train him to become a Magekiller. Years since, Shirallas became a powerful perrepatae under Nenealeus and the remaining Venatori.

In the present day, Shirallas became the Red Wraith with a powerful red lyrium infused sword. Magister Nenealeus declared that with the Red Wraith and the dragon under his command, they were ready to lead the Venatori to victory. The Qunari would be the first to feel their wrath, and soon the rest of the world.

#5 - The Qunari Arrangement

The Qunari Antaam continued their assault on the front gates of Castellum Tenebris with the intention of killing everyone inside the fortress. However, Fenris and Vaea approached Karasten striking a deal with the Qunari. They agreed that the Qun could kill every single mage inside, except Francesca. With that arrangement, the Qunari Antaam joined forces with the gang and slaughtered many of the Venatori.

With the Qun’s help, Fenris focused on fighting the Red Wraith while Ser Aaron turned his attention to the dragon. Autumn landed a perfect attack on the Red Wraith as Fenris flanked his old friend with a chest-stab. While the Red Wraith was down, Francesca dropped a lit colosseum on top of him and used her vine magic to ensnare the Red Wraith and the dragon.

#6 - Marius vs. Magister Nenealeus

In an epic stand-off, Marius faced off against his mentor Magister Nenealeus. As Marius confronted him, the Red Wraith erupted from the rubble and returned to the fight. Nenealeus said that the Red Wraith can heal from any wound, he then offered Marius a choice - surrender and serve alongside the Venatori, or die.

Marius charged at Nenealeus and threw a trap targeting for hurting mages. Nenealeus laughed at his attempt and electrocuted Marius. While Marius was stunned, and Nenealeus was focused on killing Marius, Vaea jumped on the Magister’s back and stabbed him with two daggers in his neck Killing him almost immediately, this was Vaea’s first confirmed kill and it was absolutely worth it.

As soon as Nenealeus dropped to the floor, his dragon became confused no longer under his spell. Francesca released her vine-magic chains from the beast as it fled the scene, she used her magic on the sarcophagus, plunging the device deep into the earth. There’d only be one Red Wraith to deal with for now.

#7 - The Red Wraith & His Sword

With the discovery that the Red Wraith can heal from any wound, the gang prepared to face an impossible fight against him. Marquette offered advice against the Red Wraith, having felt the convictions of his experiment. He only wanted to see what the artifacts and weapons did, but he never meant to create a monster. He said that the key to stopping the Red Wraith lies within his sword - he feeds energy to the sword from the red lyrium in his veins, and in turn, the sword heals his wounds. Without that sword, he could be defeated.

Instantly, Ser Aaron knew what must be done. He charged at the Red Wraith, and fought vehemently against him, the Red Wraith stabbed Ser Aaron in the middle of his chest. As he did, Ser Aaron used his own sword and cut the Red Wraith’s hands off. With the red lyrium sword still in his gut, Ser Aaron fell backwards against the castle walls and fell to the depths of the fortress - separating the sword from the Red Wraith at the cost of his life.

The Red Wraith, unable to recover from his brutal wounds was in shock having had his hands cut off. Autumn; infuriated with the loss of Ser Aaron, bit the living crap out of the Red Wraith’s leg, he stumbled to the ground as Fenris slashed his head clean off. No longer was Shirallas a friend of Fenris, if he ever was.

#8 - The Gang’s Farewell

Marius and Tessa trekked ahead to find Ser Aaron’s body, they arrived below the fortress with Qunari soldiers waiting, they reminded them of their bargain - that the Qun were to keep the fortress for themselves and the gang had to leave immediately.

Marius and Tessa left the fortress on horseback as Vaea and Autumn comforted Ser Aaron one final time as he shared his final words. He was sorry that Vaea had to take a life and hopes that it will never be easy for her to do in the future. Ser Aaron had a letter in his pocket he wanted her to see, it was a letter for King Alistair requesting him to make Vaea a knight. She only had to give it to him, Ser Aaron was assured he would do it. He faded away as the group mourned the loss of a beloved friend.

Some time later, the gang discussed what’s next. Francesca believed that the lyrium sarcophagus will never be found because of how deep it is beneath the earth. Fenris suggested that the sword should be taken to the Inquisition. Vaea said that she couldn’t join them because she needed to take Ser Aaron’s body back to Portsmouth, so he can be buried with his family.

Fenris and Francesca insisted on joining Vaea with that endeavour. She was his family after all. Vaea and Francesca rode Casse, Ser Aaron’s house, as Fenris and Autumn followed just behind them. As they set off to Portsmouth, Vaea retold the story of how Ser Aaron came to ride Casse in the first place.

Marius and Tessa took a break from riding as they recalled their adventure with the gang. Obliviously or not, the two were standing in front of an eluvian as a familiar figure watched and listened through his own eluvian in an undisclosed location.

#9 - The Red Lyrium Idol & Solas

After Marquette told the gang how to defeat the Red Wraith, he fled the scene with one of their horses. Somewhere outside of Tenebris, Danarius the Lesser found and taunted Marquette with magic and asked him for the red lyrium idol. Marquette suggested that it belonged in a museum, but after Danarius intimidated him, he handed it over and said that he doesn’t think it does anything anymore. Danarius didn’t care about its power, he just wanted it to impress the Venatori.

After retrieving the idol, Danarius was also being watched through an eluvan by the Dread Wolf himself, no doubt, looking for his idol.

Given that Dark Fortress is pre-Tevinter Nights, perhaps Danarius the Lesser is the exact mage from House Danarius in “The Dread Wolf Take You” short story, the very mage who took the red lyrium idol to the Mortalitasi in Nevarra for a ritual to stop the Qunari’s invasion. Given Danarius’s reasoning for acquiring the idol, Stopping the Qunari would certainly impress the Venatori.

In any event, the red lyrium idol has seemingly not been acquired by Solas yet, however, he’s on the hunt and catching up to retrieving it at any point given his eluvian network and pool of spies. It seems like it’s only a matter of time…

Dark Fortress superbly ended on a face reveal of Solas with the caption: “never the end.” Perhaps, this is a tease for a future comic series, or simply for the next game when we come face to face with Solas. I hope for a mix of both because I have loved Nunzio’s, Chrisitna’s and everyone who’s worked incredibly hard at Dark Horse on this comic run, and I’d love to see more comics from them in the future. I really hope BioWare gives them more comics to craft, they’ve been nothing but remarkable.

But if this is the end, then so be it. I’ve loved every second of these comics, especially Dark Fortress with the amount of payoff that’s been delivered to each character. And yes, of course, the Solas reveal does make it all a little bit more exciting, but for me, the juicy lore drops that’s been added, the tie-ins to Tevinter Nights and the epic character journeys have made the entire comic-run since Knight Errant top-notch, and full-circle.

If nothing else, there’s got to be a Vaea and Autumn cameo in the next Dragon Age, they both deserve it! Anyhow, for any potential future comics, or news on the upcoming Dragon Age, you’re already in the right place.

[duhragonball]

I was thinking about Goku and Krillin's friendship and it occured to me that they spent months training with Roshi together but then only saw each other for maybe a day every few years. Have you ever had a realization that tripped you out like this?

This is a really good ask, anon, and I just wanted to take a moment to say so. 

I have had a few ‘a-ha’ moments like these, but I’m kind of blanking on specific examples.  I’ll see what I can come up with.

1) For openers, there’s the whole thing where the Red Ribbon Army has a Dragon Radar, but it’s nowhere near as sophisticated as the handheld one Bulma invented.  I think the same holds true for Emperor Pilaf, but his gang is only three people.   You’d expect the RRA to have the best equipment possible, because that’s their whole deal, and by normal standards they probably do have the best possible Dragon Radar... but Bulma’s is simply that much better, because she’s on another level.   And it’s easy to overlook that, because Bulma’s supposed to be a genius teenager, like Donatello in TMNT, but the RRA’s Dragon Radar is the first hint that she’s even more special than we could have guessed. 

2) Rewatching Dragon Ball in 2019, I gained a new appreciation for the filler episodes where Mr. Popo trained Goku.  The first time I saw them, I was hoping we’d see Goku grow up and make progress over the three year gap, but instead they just focused on his early days on the Lookout, with Popo just saying things and Goku failing to understand.  It was very frustrating to watch.  

But in 2019, I noticed that all those episodes get paid off in the Piccolo Junior fight.   Popo kept telling Goku to be “quicker than lightning” and “quiet as the sky”, and Goku just couldn’t figure out how to do that, let alone fight at the same time.   He had to unlearn all the stuff that had helped him defeat King Piccolo, and he couldn’t do it... at first.    But by the time he fought Piccolo Junior, he put it all together, as demonstrated with his big finishing move.   Piccolo thought he had vaporized Goku, only for Goku to fly up into the air and crash into him.   Why didn’t Piccolo sense Goku’s presence?   Because Goku had learned to become as “quiet as the sky”.  Why couldn’t Piccolo dodge it?   Because Goku had learned to become “quicker than lightning.”  So it vindicates those filler episodes pretty nicely.   They weren’t just marking time, but they were setting up what the manga was going to do later.

3) I think last year, it hit me that Vegeta had probably never lost a fight before he went to Earth.   That alone isn’t probably any big deduction.  The only people stronger than him were all working for Frieza, and he knew to steer clear of them until he was ready.   But it explains why he was so giddy about the zenkai effect.   He had always known about it, but he never mentioned or cared about it until he experienced it for himself after losing to Goku, and then Zarbon. 

Yeah, I think this occurred to me during a conversation about Vegeta killing Nappa instead of helping him.   In theory, Nappa could have recovered and gotten a lot stronger, just like Vegeta did.   But Saiyans Saga Vegeta didn’t care about that.   He only gave his henchmen one chancemand discarded them as soon as they lost.   This attitude would also explain why he never dared to challenge anyone at a higher level.    He knew no one would show him any mercy, so the zenkai boost would have been meaningless to him. 

So he might have regretted killing Nappa after he experienced the zenkai firsthand, although he was so drunk on his own increased power that he probably never stopped to consider it.   But before Earth, Vegeta probably dismissed the zenkai as a crutch for lesser Saiyans.   In his mind, a truly great Saiyan never loses battles in the first place.  Or so he believed, until he lost a few times, and became stronger for it, and had to reconsider.

And that also explains how he warmed up to the Super Saiyan Legend over the course of one afternoon.   He and Goku made such sick gains that week that he started to wonder if you could zenkai your way to Super Saiyan, and then he was begging Krillin to shoot him just so he could get a step closer.

4) In the same vein, it occurred to me at some point that Bardock was probably stronger than King Vegeta, and neither of them realized it.   Maybe it was just a dub-ism, but I’m pretty sure “Father of Goku” has a line about Bardock’s power level being 10000.   At the time it was released, 10k wasn’t that big a deal, but in the Saiyans Saga, Vegeta was somewhere around 18-24k. Later, he would claim to have surpassed his father as a child, so I think it’s fair to assume that King Vegeta must have been in that 10,000 neighborhood. 

Which makes a nice subtle commentary on why the Saiyan Kingdom failed. They tried to breed better warriors, putting all their stock in the royal family, when the true secret lay in warriors like Bardock, who were constantly getting clobbered and healed.  Prince Vegeta only started to make real progress once he began fighting on that same regimen.

5) Also about “Father of Goku,” Frieza only wanted Planet Kanassa subjugated because of the psychic powers of its inhabitants.   I think the dub insinuated that the planet itself gave people those powers, but whatever the case, Frieza heard about these people with unusual powers and wanted them stamped out immediately.   Just like he wiped out the Saiyans over the Super Saiyan Legend, and just like he planned to destroy Namek to prevent anyone else from using the Dragon Balls. 

In short, Frieza fears and despises legends.  Why?  Because he’s so powerful that real people can’t hurt him, so his fears naturally turn to half-truths and folklore.   He chases down ghost stories and rumors, because let’s face it, what else does he have to occupy his time.   That’s why King Cold was happy to have the Saiyans working for him, while Frieza wanted them all dead.   Cold didn’t share Frieza’s hangups.   Cold barely knew what a Super Saiyan was, while Frieza thought about it all the time. 

6) One day I thought about that timeline where Cell killed Trunks and took the time machine to find the androids.    That specific timeline is pretty much empty.  The Z-fighters are all dead, and so are all of the androids and Trunks.  They don’t even have a Cell anymore because he went back in time and never returned.   There’s still a population, I guess, because the Trunks of that world wouldn’t have just stood by while Cell absorbed everyone on Earth, but that’s about it.   Bulma might have survived Cell’s attack on Trunks, but she’d be the only “name” character on the board.  It just sounds like a pretty depressing world.   Maybe this was the timeline Whis picked out to relocate Blunks and Future Mai in Dragon Ball Super.

7) It sort of blows my mind that the entire Majin Buu arc takes place over a couple of days.    Like, episode 207 through 250 all takes place over one day.   We know this because Goku only had 24 hours to be back in the living world, and that time was cut short by his use of SSJ3.  Then the Elder Kai started doing his ritual to make Gohan stronger, and that took like 25 hours, I’m pretty sure.  That wrapped up in #262, and there was no break in the action from that point onward, all the way up to the defeat of Kid Buu in #287.  So yeah, eighty episodes over two days.   It’s practically real-time footage, save for skipping over the Elder Kai’s ritual and Goten and Trunks practicing and sleeping. 

It’s hard to catch on to this, though, because so much stuff happens in the anime version that leads you to think that it’s a much longer span of time.    After Vegeta wrecks the stadium, the anime can’t decide whether or not Mr. Satan would stay there or return to his dojo.   In the Fusion Saga, Mr. Satan wanders from Buu’s house to the nearest town, then he wanders to the next town over, doing his “Last Man on Earth” bit, except this all happens during the Gotenks/Super Buu fight, which barely lasts half an hour.   In the afterlife, Chi-Chi is worried that she can’t find Gohan, but she wouldn’t have even been there that long, and wouldn’t she still be in line to meet King Yemma?  She was one of the last Earthlings to die, so how did she end up in heaven so quickly?

8) I used to think Movie 13 (the Hirudegarn one) was canon, but the last time I watched it, I noticed all these glaring problems.  They use the Dragon Balls in this one, which means it has to be set six months after the wish to make everyone forget about Majin Buum which means it’s been a year since Kid Buu was defeated.  Okay, fine, except Gohan and Videl are still in high school.   Shouldn’t they have graduated by then?   

More importantly, their high school and Bulma’s house seem to be in the same city.   I guess that’s an easy mistake to make.   It took me a long time to even notice, but Orange Star High is in Satan City, which is a totally different place from West City.   I mean, right?  They’re not terribly far apart, but they’re not the same place either.

Then again, they seemed to make the same error in Episode 287, where Bulma’s out shopping and Great Saiyaman 1 and 2 foil a robbery.   Are they in West City or Satan City?  Maybe there’s more to this...

[thatboomerkid]

Weave of Shadow & Serpent-Magic

Weave of Shadow & Serpent-Magic – Bloodlines & Black Magic / Pathfinder (1st Edition) Spellcaster Feat

You are infused with the coiling, ophidian sorcery of the twisted serpentine.

Brought to you absolutely free to enjoy, to test & to share – as always – by the fine folks of my Patreon.

original image by Barandash Karandashich

Prerequisite: Non-good alignment; see Special, below

Benefit: You retain access to this feat only so long as you ritualistically kill at least one sentient creature each month. This ritual requires one full hour of total concentration and must occur on a specific date – chosen by you when this feat is taken – and may not be interrupted in any way in order to be properly completed. You may choose to sacrifice additional creatures at the time of the ritual, increasing the ritual’s completion time by one hour per total victim; for each additional creature ritualistically slain, you become younger by one year. You may not become younger than the starting age for your race by use of this feat.

If you ever lose access to this feat because you fail to make a proper sacrifice, you regain access as soon as you perform the proper ritual.

You add the following spells to any one spell-list you possess at the appropriate level:

1st -- summon monster I (viper only)

2nd -- summon monster II (1d3 vipers or venomous snake only)

3rd -- beast shape I (serpent only), summon monster III (1d4+1 vipers, 1d3 venomous snakes, asp, constrictor snake or snake swarm only)

4th -- beast shape II (serpent only), summon monster IV (1d4+1 venomous snakes; 1d3 asps, constrictor snakes or snake swarms; or venomous snake swarm only)

5th -- beast shape III (serpent only), summon monster V (1d4+1 asps, constrictor snakes or snake swarms; 1d3 venomous snake swarms; or emperor cobra or anaconda only); quickened summon monster I (as above)

6th -- beast shape VI (serpent only), summon monster VI (1d4+1 venomous snake swarms or 1d3 emperor cobras or anacondas only); quickened summon monster II (as above)

7th -- summon monster VII (1d4+1 emperor cobras or anacondas; or giant anaconda only); quickened beast shape I (as above), quickened summon monster III (as above)

8th -- summon monster VIII (1d3 giant anacondas only), quickened beast shape II (as above), quickened summon monster IV (as above)

9th -- summon monster IX (1d4+1 giant anacondas only), quickened beast shape III (as above); quickened summon monster V (as above)

You also gain these spells as spells known, as appropriate.

You may always choose to summon serpents using a spell granted by this feat as a standard action (rather than as a full-round action, as normal); if you do so, the range of your summon monster spell drops to 0 ft.: all serpents summoned by use of this ability must appear in a square adjacent to your own: emerging from the folds of your cloak, from your shadow, from your wounds or from the blood spilled at your feet, as you desire.

In addition, as a standard action you may sacrifice a single spell of 1st level of higher to teleport (no chance of error) into any space occupied by a serpent that you have summoned. The chosen serpent automatically teleports into your former space (no save). If either you or your targeted summoned serpent cannot legally occupy your respectively-selected new space for any reason, this ability fails: both your 1st-level spell and your action are wasted.

You may always choose to sacrifice a spell of 5th level or higher to teleport in the same way as a swift action, rather than as a standard action.

If you possess 7 or more Hit Dice, once per day as a standard action you may gain the following benefits for a number of minutes equal to your Hit Dice:

You are immune to the attacks and effects of all snake swarms created by use of this ability (see below).

Any effect that grants a bonus to attack rolls, damage rolls, or skill checks against creatures of the snake or animal type (such as a bane weapon, or a ranger’s favored enemy class feature), also grants that same bonus to rolls against you.

Whenever you suffer damage from a confirmed critical hit, suffer bleed damage, suffer slashing damage or die, a snake swarm spills-forth from the injury; at least one square of this swarm must appear in a space directly adjacent to you. If you possess 13 or more Hit Dice, you instead generate venomous snake swarms.

You have no control over swarms released from your body in this way, although these swarms are considered to be summoned by you and vanish after a number of rounds equal to your Hit Dice.

You may always choose to sacrifice a spell of 4th level or higher to use this ability an additional time per day. If you possess 13 or more Hit Dice, you may gain these benefits as a swift action (rather than as a standard action) and may always choose to sacrifice a spell of 7th level or higher to use the ability an additional time per day.

As a standard action, you may expend a spell of 1st-level or higher to gain the benefits of a gaze special attack (see below) with a range of 30 feet; you retain use of this gaze for a total number of rounds equal to your character level. Any living creature who fails her Will save against your gaze (DC 10 + ½ your character level + your Intelligence, your Wisdom or your Charisma modifier, your choice) is marked.

Your gaze may only mark corporeal, living, intelligent creatures. In addition, if the subject of your gaze would not normally have lustful feelings toward you, as per the unnatural lust spell, she receives a +4 bonus on her saving throw.

Whenever you summon a serpent, you may choose for any number of creatures that you summon in this way to emerge directly from the flesh of a foe (or foes) that you have marked. Serpents summoned in this way automatically move – immediately after emerging – to occupy an unoccupied space directly adjacent to the marked foe from which they emerged.

All serpents that you summon in this way are considered to possess the Shapechanger subtype and to possess the Gruesome Shapechanger feat; being summoned by you in this way is treated as a use of change shape.

No more than one summoned creature may emerge from the body of any one marked foe when a summoning spell is cast in this way.

The marked target chosen to act as the point of origin for your summoning spell must also succeed at a Fortitude save (DC: 10 + half your caster level + your Intelligence, Wisdom or Charisma modifier, your choice) or suffer an amount of damage equal to 1d6 points of damage per spell-level of the summoning spell plus an amount of damage equal to your Intelligence, Wisdom or Charisma modifier (your choice) and be nauseated until the beginning of your next round.

A successful save halves this damage and negates the nausea effect.

Special: This feat may be gained in place of any Witch Hex.

Campaign Note: Within the Bloodlines & Black Magic setting, this ability is most common amongst witches drawn from the Shadow Bloodline in service to the Serpent of Obsidian Knives; rumors persist that members of the now-vanished Lineage known as the Eyes of Nyx (see page 61) were the truest masters of this black art, although their apprentices were legion. In addition, the Archons task each & every of their loyal servants – including such disreputable Lineages as The Masters (see page 56) – to hunt-down & execute anyone known to practice this technique, seeking to rid the world they now rule of all such dangerous Goetic intrusion.

[timeless-hollywood-classics]

Linda Darnell (born Monetta Eloyse Darnell, October 16, 1923 – April 10, 1965) was an American film actress. Darnell progressed from modeling as a child to acting in theater and film. At the encouragement of her mother, she made her first film in 1939, and appeared in supporting roles in big-budget films for 20th Century Fox throughout the 1940s. She rose to fame with co-starring roles opposite Tyrone Power in adventure films, and established a main character career after her role in Forever Amber (1947). She won critical acclaim for her work in Unfaithfully Yours (1948) and A Letter to Three Wives (1949).

Darnell was born in Dallas, Texas, as one of four children (excluding her mother's two children from an earlier marriage) to postal clerk Calvin Roy Darnell (1888–1977) and the former Margaret "Pearl" Brown (1892–1966). She was the younger sister of Undeen (b. 1918) and the older sister of Monte Maloya (b. 1929) and Calvin Roy, Jr. (b. 1930). Her parents were not happily married, and she grew up as a shy and reserved girl in a house of domestic turmoil. Starting at an early age, her mother, Pearl, had big plans for Darnell in the entertainment industry. She believed that Linda was her only child with potential as an actress and ignored the rearing of her other children.

According to her siblings, Darnell enjoyed the limelight and shared her mother's dream.[1]:19 Darnell once said: "Mother really shoved me along, spotting me in one contest after another. I had no great talent, and I didn't want to be a movie star particularly. But Mother had always wanted it for herself, and I guess she attained it through me." One elocution teacher recalled: "[Darnell] didn't stand out particularly, except that she was so sweet and considerate. In her theater work, she wasn't outstanding, but her mother was right behind her everywhere she went."

Unlike her husband, Pearl had a notorious reputation in the neighborhood of being "aggressive" or "downright mean". Despite some financial problems, Darnell insisted that she had had a joyful childhood and loving parents. Darnell was a model by the age of 11 and was acting on the stage by the age of 13. She initially started modeling to earn money for the household and performed mostly in beauty contests.

Before leaving school for Hollywood, Darnell was a student at Sunset High School, which she entered in September 1937, majoring in Spanish and art. She did not have a lot in common with her peers and usually spent her time at home as a teen, working under the guidance of her mother. In 1936, she entered the Dallas Little Theater and was cast in the southwestern premiere of Murder in the Cathedral. The same year, she was hired as one of the hostesses at the Texas Centennial Exposition.

In November 1937, a talent scout for 20th Century Fox arrived in Dallas looking for new faces. Encouraged by her mother, Darnell met him, and after a few months he invited her for a screen test in Hollywood. Arriving in California alongside Mary Healy and Dorris Bowdon in February 1938, Darnell initially was rejected by film studios and was sent home because she was declared "too young".

Although originally wanting to become an actress on the stage, Darnell was featured in a Gateway to Hollywood talent search and initially landed a contract at RKO Pictures. There was no certainty, though, and she soon returned to Dallas. When 20th Century-Fox offered her a part, Darnell wanted to accept, but RKO was unwilling to release her. Nevertheless, by age 15 she was signed to a contract at 20th Century-Fox and moved to a small apartment in Hollywood all alone on April 5, 1939. With production beginning in April 1939, she was featured in her first film, Hotel for Women (1939), which had newspapers immediately hailing her as the newest star of Hollywood. Loretta Young was originally assigned to play the role, but she demanded a salary which the studio would not give her. Darryl F. Zanuck instead cast Darnell "because he felt that the name would advertise her beauty and suggest a Latin quality that matched her coloring."

Although only 15 at the time, Darnell posed as a 17-year-old and was listed as 19 years old by the studio. According to columnist Louella O. Parsons, Darnell was "so young, so immature and so naive in her ideas" and was very loyal to her boss, Darryl F. Zanuck. Her true age came out later in 1939, and she became one of the few actresses under the age of 16 to serve as leading ladies in films. While working on Hotel for Women, Darnell was cast alongside Henry Fonda and Claudette Colbert in Drums Along the Mohawk (1939) in June 1939. She was later replaced because the studio felt her role was not important enough. In an interview during production of Hotel for Women, which lasted until June, Darnell admitted that movie making was not what she expected: "I'm learning what really hard work is. At home in Dallas I used to sprawl on the lawn and dream about the nice, easy time the screen stars must be having in Hollywood, but the last two months have taught me quite another story."

Since the beginning of her career at 20th Century-Fox, Darnell had been very positive about her frequent co-star Tyrone Power. In a 1939 interview, she expressed her interest in starring opposite Power in Johnny Apollo (1940). Rationalizing why she was not cast, Darnell said: "It's a man's part and the girl's role is only incidental." Dorothy Lamour was cast, instead. Nevertheless, Darnell had her way, as she was assigned to the female lead opposite Power in the light romantic comedy Day-Time Wife (1939). Although the film received only slightly favorable reviews, Darnell's performance was received positively, with one critic saying: "Despite her apparent youth, [Darnell] turns in an outstanding performance when playing with popular players." Another critic wrote: "little Linda is not only a breath-taking eyeful, but a splendid actress, as well." Life magazine stated that Darnell appeared to be 22 and was "the most physically perfect girl in Hollywood". Following the film's release, she was cast in the drama comedy Star Dust in December 1939. The film was hailed as one of the "most original entertainment ideas in years" and boosted Darnell's popularity, who was nicknamed "Hollywood's loveliest and most exciting star". Variety said: "Miss Darnell displays a wealth of youthful charm and personality that confirms studio efforts to build her to a draw personality." Her studio contract had been revised to allow Darnell to earn $200 a week.

At first, everything was like a fairy tale coming true. I stepped into a fabulous land where, overnight, I was a movie star. In pictures you're built up by everyone. On the set, in the publicity office, wherever you go, everyone says you're wonderful. It gives you a false sense of security. You waltz through a role, and everywhere you hear that you are beautiful and lovely, a natural-born actress. You believe what people around you say.

After appearing in several small films, Darnell was cast in her first big-budget film in May 1940, appearing again opposite Tyrone Power in Brigham Young (1940), which was shot on location in mid 1940 and was regarded as the most expensive film 20th Century Fox had yet produced. Darnell and Power were cast together for the second time owing to the box office success of Day-Time Wife, and they became a highly publicized onscreen couple, which prompted Darryl F. Zanuck to add 18 more romantic scenes to Brigham Young.[13] The film's director, Henry Hathaway, in later life had only slight memories of Darnell but recalled that "a sweeter girl never lived." By June 1940, shortly after completing Brigham Young, Darnell achieved stardom and earned "a weekly salary larger than most bank officials."

In the summer of 1940, Darnell began working on The Mark of Zorro (1940), in which she again co-starred as Power's sweetheart in a role for which Anne Baxter was previously considered. A big-budget adventure film that was raved over by the critics, The Mark of Zorro was a box office sensation and did much to enhance Darnell's star status. Afterwards, she was paired with Henry Fonda for the first time in the western Chad Hanna (1940), her first Technicolor film. The film received only little attention, unlike Darnell's next film, Blood and Sand (1941), which was shot on location in Mexico and in which she was reteamed with Power. It was the first film for which she was widely critically acclaimed. Nevertheless, Darnell later claimed that her downfall began after Blood and Sand. In an interview she said:

People got tired of seeing the sweet young things I was playing and I landed at the bottom of the roller coaster. The change and realization were very subtle. I'd had the fame and money every girl dreams about—and the romance. I'd crammed thirty years into ten, and while it was exciting and I would do it over again, I still know I missed out on my girlhood, the fun, little things that now seem important.

The studio was unable to find Darnell suitable roles. In late 1940, Fox chose her for the main role in Song of the Islands (1942), a Hawaiian musical film which eventually starred Betty Grable. After Blood and Sand, she was set to co-star with Claudette Colbert in Remember the Day (1941), but another actress was eventually cast. Meanwhile, she was considered for the female lead in Swamp Water (1941), but Anne Baxter was later assigned the role. Darnell was disappointed and felt rejected; she later said: "Right under your very nose someone else is brought in for that prize part you wanted so terribly." Months passed by without any work, and in August 1941 she was cast in a supporting role in the musical Rise and Shine (1941). The film was a setback in her career, and she was rejected for a later role because she refused to respond to Darryl F. Zanuck's advances. Instead, she contributed to the war effort, working for the Red Cross and selling war bonds. She was also a regular at the Hollywood Canteen.

In early 1942, Darnell filmed The Loves of Edgar Allan Poe, another film that would not do much to improve her career. Meanwhile, she realized that Darryl F. Zanuck had lost interest in her, and she was overlooked for most film roles that suited her. Instead, she was cast in roles that she loathed, including the musical Orchestra Wives (1942). Zanuck insisted that she take the role, but she was replaced by Ann Rutherford after 12 days of shooting. The press reported that "Linda Darnell and Twentieth Century-Fox aren't on the best of terms at the moment." As a punishment, she was loaned out to another studio for a supporting role in a B movie called City Without Men. According to co-star Rosemary DeCamp, Darnell nevertheless was "very polite", and she was satisfied to work at a studio which did not treat her as a child. In April 1943, she was put on suspension, which meant being replaced in the Technicolor musical film The Gang's All Here (1943). By this time, Darnell had eloped, which caused Zanuck to be even more furious.

In 1943, she was cast, uncredited, as the Virgin Mary in The Song of Bernadette. By late 1943, Darnell was fed up with critics only praising her beauty rather than her acting abilities. Judging her performance in Sweet and Low-Down (1944), in which she co-starred with Lynn Bari, one critic of the Los Angeles Examiner wrote, "Lynn comes off the best because she has more of a chance to shine. Linda just doesn't have enough to do—but looks beautiful doing it." Darnell was reduced to second leads and was overlooked for big-budget productions. Matters changed when she was named one of the four most beautiful women in Hollywood along with Hedy Lamarr, Ingrid Bergman, and Gene Tierney in a 1944 edition of Look. Afterwards, the studio allowed her to be loaned out for the lead in Summer Storm. Portraying a "seductive peasant girl who takes three men to their ruin before she herself is murdered," it was a type of role she had never before played. In a later interview, Darnell commented:

I was told that such a violent change of type might ruin my career, but I insisted on taking the chance. This is one picture on which I am setting much store for the future. For eighteen months I did nothing in pictures. I pleaded for something to do, but nothing happened. The character in the Chekhov film is a wild sort of she-devil, which any actress would go miles to play. She's devil mostly—at times angelic—and perfectly fascinating to interpret. I'm counting on my Russian girl to give me a new start.

Released in 1944, the film provided her a new screen image as a pin-up girl. Shortly after, Darnell was again loaned out to portray a showgirl in The Great John L., the first film to feature her bare legs. Darnell complained that the studio lacked recognition of her, which prodded Zanuck to cast her in Hangover Square (1945), wherein she played a role she personally had chosen. The film became a great success, and with Darnell's triumph assured, she was allowed to abandon her upcoming film, Don Juan Quilligan (1945), which would have been another low point in her career. In January 1945, she was added to the cast of the film noir Fallen Angel (1945), which also included Dana Andrews and Alice Faye. Despite suffering from the "terrifying" director Otto Preminger, Darnell completed the film and was praised by reviewers so widely that there was even talk of an Oscar nomination. Because of her success in Fallen Angel, she was cast opposite Tyrone Power in Captain from Castile in December 1945 on the insistence of Joseph L. Mankiewicz. Although she looked forward to the film project, believing it would be her most important to date, she was later replaced by newcomer Jean Peters owing to scheduling conflicts, a decision she resented.

In 1946, Darnell filmed two pictures simultaneously, the expensively budgeted Anna and the King of Siam and Preminger's Centennial Summer. During the release of the latter, she was on location in Monument Valley for the filming of the classic Western My Darling Clementine (1946), playing a role for which she lost 12 pounds. She was assigned to a negligible role by Zanuck, which displeased the film's director, John Ford, who felt that she was not suitable.

In 1946, Darnell won the starring role in the highly anticipated movie Forever Amber, based on a bestselling historical novel that was denounced as being immoral at that time. The character Amber was so named because of her hair color, and this is the only major film in which Darnell—normally known for her raven hair and somewhat Latin looks—appears as a redhead. It was the most expensive film yet produced by Fox, and publicity at the time compared the novel to Gone with the Wind. Darnell replaced British actress Peggy Cummins in July 1946 at a cost of $350,000. Because $1 million had already been spent on production costs when Darnell was brought in, the pressure was intense to make the film a financial success. Her casting was a result of a campaign for stronger roles. Regardless, she was surprised to find out that she had been cast, because she had been intensively rehearsing for Captain from Castile at the time. Although she had to give up that role and work with Otto Preminger, she was delighted to play the title role and thought she was "the luckiest girl in Hollywood."

The search for the actress to portray Amber, a beauty who uses men to make her fortune in 17th century England, was modeled on the extensive process that led to the casting of Vivien Leigh as Scarlett O'Hara. Production demanded a lot from Darnell. She was again put on a diet and was assigned to a voice coach to learn how to speak with an English accent. In addition, she spent hours in fittings for costume changes. Darnell was certain that Forever Amber would be her ticket to stardom, and she told reporters:

My first seven years in Hollywood were a series of discouraging struggles for me. For a while it looked as though the Darnell-versus-Hollywood tussle was going to find Darnell coming out second best. The next seven years aren't going to be the same.

Darnell worked long hours at the studio during filming, and according to her older sister she started loathing Preminger, which did not ease production. This and the heavy dieting resulted in exhaustion and a serious illness in November 1946.[1]:100 Her shooting schedule lasted until March 1947, and she collapsed on the set twice. Forever Amber did not live up to its hype, and although it became a success at the box office, most reviewers agreed that the film was a disappointment. Darnell was disappointed in the film's reception; it did not gain her the recognition for which she longed.

The following year, Darnell portrayed Daphne de Carter in the Preston Sturges' comedy Unfaithfully Yours (1948), also starring Rex Harrison, and was then rushed into production as one of the three wives in the comedy/drama A Letter to Three Wives (1949). Darnell's hard-edged performance in the latter won her unanimous acclaim and the best reviews of her career. Darnell became one of the most in-demand actresses in Hollywood, and she now had the freedom to select her own roles. She longed for the leading role in the controversial film Pinky (1949), but Zanuck feared that her character would be compared to Amber by the audience, and A Letter to Three Wives co-star Jeanne Crain was cast instead.

Darnell had been widely expected to win an Academy Award nomination for A Letter to Three Wives; when this did not happen, her career began to wane. She was cast opposite Richard Widmark and Veronica Lake in Slattery's Hurricane (1949), which she perceived as a step down from the level she had reached with A Letter to Three Wives, though it did well at the box office.

Aside from her co-starring role opposite Richard Widmark, Stephen McNally and Sidney Poitier in the groundbreaking No Way Out (1950), directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz, which she later called "the only good picture [she] ever made," her later films were rarely noteworthy, and her appearances were increasingly sporadic. Further hampering Darnell's career was the actress's alcoholism and weight gain. Her next film was a Western, Two Flags West (1950). Due to her allergy to horses, she loathed making Westerns, and in addition to her complaints about her "colorless" role, she disliked her co-stars Joseph Cotten and Cornel Wilde. She was even less enthusiastic about her next film, The 13th Letter (1951), which reunited her with Preminger, and she only took the role because it was an unglamorous one. Shortly after its release, she was put on suspension for refusing a role in the film The Guy Who Came Back (1951) opposite Paul Douglas and Joan Bennett because it felt "too similar." She later consented to take on the glamor role, but she refused to bleach her hair for it.

On March 21, 1951, Darnell signed a new contract with 20th Century Fox that allowed her to become a freelance actress. Her first film outside 20th Century-Fox was The Lady Pays Off for Universal Pictures (1951) after Douglas Sirk requested her for the lead role. She was responsible for putting the film behind schedule because on the fifth day of shooting she learned that Ivan Kahn, the man responsible for her breakthrough, had died. After The Lady Pays Off, Darnell headed the cast of Saturday Island (1952), which was filmed on location in Jamaica in late 1951. There, Darnell fell ill and had to be quarantined for several weeks. Because her contract required her to make one film a year for the studio, she reported to the 20th Century-Fox lot in March 1952 and was cast in the film noir Night Without Sleep (1952). It was the only time that she had to live up to this part of her contract, though, since she was released from it in September 1952, most likely because the competition of television forced studios all over Hollywood to drop actors.

This news initially excited Darnell because it permitted her to focus on her film career in Europe. She soon realized, though, that the ease and protection enjoyed under contract was gone, and she came to resent 20th Century-Fox and Zanuck:

Suppose you'd been earning $4,000 to $5,000 a week for years. Suddenly you were fired and no one would hire you at any figure remotely comparable to your previous salary. I thought in a little while I'd get offers from other studios, but not many came along. The only thing I knew how to do was be a movie star. No one expects to last forever in this business. You know that sooner or later the studio's going to let you go. But who wants to be retired at twenty-nine?

Before traveling to Italy for a two-picture deal with Giuseppe Amato, Darnell was rushed into the production of Blackbeard the Pirate (1952), which—much to Darnell's distress—got far behind schedule. She arrived in Italy in August 1952 and started filming Angels of Darkness (1954) in February of the next year. The second collaboration proved disastrous, and the next film was never released in the United States. Owing to a delay in the middle of production, she was sent back to Hollywood and there accepted an offer from Howard Hughes to star in RKO's 3-D film Second Chance (1953), filmed in Mexico. Afterwards, she flew back to Rome to complete Angels of Darkness, in which she spoke Italian. Upon returning to New York, she was under the misunderstanding that she would portray the title role in Mankiewicz's The Barefoot Contessa (1954), believing that the role could carry her to dramatic heights.[1]:138 Through trade papers, she learned that Ava Gardner assumed the part.

Because of her then-husband, Philip Liebmann (grandson of Charles Liebmann of Rheingold Breweries), Darnell put her career on hiatus. She returned to 20th Century-Fox in August 1955, by which time the studio had entered the television field. Darnell was eager to appear on Ronald W. Reagan's General Electric Theater. In 1958, Darnell appeared in the episode "Kid on a Calico Horse" of NBC's Cimarron City along with a cast of other guest stars, including Edgar Buchanan. That same year, she held the guest-starring title role in "The Dora Gray Story" on NBC's Wagon Train. The character of Dora is an attractive young woman trying to reach San Francisco who has inadvertently joined with a gun runner, played by John Carradine, to reach the west. Robert Horton carries the cast lead in the segment, and Mike Connors appears as Miles Borden, Dora's erstwhile love interest, a corrupt United States Army lieutenant bitter over his meager pay of $54 per month. Dan Blocker, more than a year before Bonanza, also guests in this segment.

In addition to television, Darnell returned to the stage. Her last work as an actress was in a stage production in Atlanta in early 1965. (At the time of her death a few months later, she was preparing to perform in another play.)

Since Darnell was underage when she arrived in Hollywood, she was tutored on the sets. She planned on attending graduation ceremonies at Sunset High School, but she was excluded from them and instead graduated from University High School in 1941. Her work schedules prohibited her from enrolling in a university.

In 1940, during the shooting of Star Dust, Darnell for a short time went out with teen idol Mickey Rooney. Her first love was Jaime Jorba, a Mexican whom she met while still in high school. They met again during production of Blood and Sand, but they drifted apart when Jorba announced he could not marry a girl who was in the public eye. Starting at age 17, Darnell dated her publicity agent, Alan Gordon, whom she allegedly married in a double wedding with Lana Turner and Joseph Stephen Crane on July 17, 1942. The report turned out to be false, and over the years Darnell became known as "filmland's most eligible bachelorette." Up to 1942, she dated Kay Kyser, Eddie Albert, George Montgomery, and Jackie Cooper, among others. At one point, she was set to elope with talent agent Vic Orsatti, only to report later that she was "concentrating on her career."

Although a well-loved figure on the 20th Century-Fox lot among the cast, crew, and lot workers, it was reported that Darnell made only one good friend in Hollywood, actress-singer Ann Miller, whom she met at a Catalina Island benefit. Darnell was very negative about the Hollywood social scene, finding it "nauseating". During her stay in Hollywood, her relationship with her mother, Pearl, worsened, as her mother was an unpopular figure on the lot because of her overbearing and possessive behavior. In 1940, Pearl accused her husband of having an incestuous relationship with Evelyn, one of her children, though he was not Evelyn's biological father. Following an intense fight between her parents in 1942, Darnell left home with her younger sister Monte and never returned. Out of spite, Pearl turned to the press, which gained Darnell some bad publicity.

In 1942, Darnell was plagued with extortion letters from an unknown person threatening her with bodily harm unless $2,000 was paid immediately. The studio asked the FBI to protect the actress, and eventually a 17-year-old high school student was arrested for the crime.

On April 18, 1943, at age 19, Darnell eloped with 42-year-old cameraman Peverell Marley in Las Vegas. Darnell and Marley started seeing each other in 1940, and the press dismissed him as her "devoted friend and escort." Most friends and relatives, including her parents, and 20th Century-Fox disapproved of the marriage, and Darnell was believed to look at Marley more as a father figure than as a romantic interest. Marley was a heavy drinker and introduced Darnell to alcohol in 1944, which eventually led to an addiction and weight problems. Neighbors and acquaintances recalled the drastic change she underwent in this period, becoming hardened and hot- tempered. In 1946, during production of Centennial Summer, she repeatedly met with Howard Hughes. Although she initially disregarded gossip of an affair, she fell in love with the womanizing millionaire and separated from Marley shortly after finishing My Darling Clementine. When Hughes announced that he had no desire to marry her, Darnell returned to her husband and cancelled divorce proceedings. Shortly after the reunion, her health worsened, caused by the tough production of Forever Amber (1947).

Because Darnell and Marley were unable to have children, they adopted a daughter in 1948, Charlotte Mildred "Lola" Marley (born January 5, 1948), the actress's only child. She also planned to adopt a boy within a few years, but nothing ever came of it. In mid 1948, she became romantically involved with Joseph L. Mankiewicz, the director of A Letter to Three Wives, and in July 1948 she filed for divorce. Mankiewicz, however, was unwilling to leave his wife for Darnell, and though the affair continued for six years, she returned to her husband. Though she called him the "great love of her life," Mankiewicz never acknowledged the affair; he only mentioned her to his biographer as a "marvelous girl with very terrifying personal problems." In 1949, Darnell went into psychotherapy for hostile emotions that she had been building since childhood. Darnell's romance with Mankiewicz influenced her personal life. When he left in late 1949 for on-location shooting of All About Eve (1950), Darnell fell into a depression and almost committed suicide. She continued to meet with him occasionally until production of The Barefoot Contessa (1954) started.

On January 25, 1949, Darnell went to court to sue her former business manager, Cy Tanner, for fraud. She testified that he stole $7,250 from her between 1946 and 1947, and Tanner was eventually sent to prison. On July 19, 1950, Darnell reportedly separated from her husband. Marley offered a quiet settlement—without mention of Mankiewicz—for a payment of $125,000. She agreed and lost almost all her money. When she filed for divorce from Marley she accused her husband of cruelty, claiming he was "rude" and "critical" towards Darnell and her family. Following a five-minute hearing, Darnell was granted a divorce and custody of Charlotte, while Marley was to pay $75 a month for child support.

At thirty-two, I can see tell-tale marks in the mirror, but the ravages of time no longer terrify me. I am told that when surface beauty is gone, the real woman emerges. My only regret will be that I could not have begun it earlier - that so many years have been ruined because I was considered beautiful.

— Darnell shortly after her divorce from Liebmann.

In her later life, she dated actor Dick Paxton and had an affair with Italian director Giuseppe Amato. She married brewery heir Philip Liebmann in February 1954. owing to her lack of interest in him physically, it was agreed that the marriage would be a business arrangement: she was to be his wife in name only and in return he would support her financially. After a while, she grew dissatisfied with this loveless marriage and detested her husband for allowing her to lash out at him as well as cheapening her by buying her lavish presents. In response, Darnell resorted to charity work, opening facilities accommodating 30 girls in the neighborhood of Rome in 1955. Liebmann attempted to save the marriage by adopting a baby named Alfreda, but the marriage ended nevertheless on grounds of incompatibility, and Liebmann kept the girl.

Darnell was married to pilot Merle Roy Robertson from 1957 to 1963. In 1957, she started drinking heavily and in November 1958 sank into a depression, but went into rehab, recovering for a while. In 1963, Darnell was granted a divorce from Robertson following an outburst in the courtroom, where she accused her third husband of fathering the baby of a Polish actress. She was promised alimony of $350 monthly until July 15, 1964, and then $250 until September 15, 1967.

Darnell died on April 10, 1965, from burns she received in a house fire in Glenview, Illinois, early the day before. She had been staying at the home of her former secretary and her daughter and had just received notice from her agent of three possible movie contracts. She was trapped on the second floor of the home by heat and smoke, as the fire had started in the living room.

The women urged the young girl to jump from the second-floor window. After her daughter jumped, Darnell's secretary stood on the window ledge, calling for help. She had lost track of Darnell and insisted the firefighters rescue her before she was taken from the window ledge. Darnell was found next to the burning living-room sofa and was transferred to the burn unit at Chicago's Cook County Hospital with burns over 80% of her body.

After her death, a man who said he was Darnell's fiancé identified her body. A coroner's inquest into her death ruled that Darnell's death was accidental and that the fire had begun in or near the living-room sofa and was caused by careless smoking; both adult women were smokers.

Darnell's body was cremated; she had wanted her ashes scattered over a ranch in New Mexico, but because of a dispute with the landowners that was not done. After the remains had been in storage for ten years, her daughter asked that they be interred at the Union Hill Cemetery, Chester County, Pennsylvania, in the family plot of her son-in-law.

[my-little-dumpster-fire]

‘Deed I Do

P A R T 1/3

After traversing the halls, John jiggling every ornate knob that hung proudly from heavy doors and ducking his head in before bouncing back out and leading you onward from one seemingly unsatisfactory room to the next, you were transported back in time. If it weren’t for the alcohol warming your face and belly, you’d feel like a young girl again, following John wherever he led, looking for mischief and enticing you with an irresistible smile long before he’d actually grown into it. Back when his teeth were too big and his knees were uncovered and playtime was still a requirement, not simply John’s subtle rebellion now that he was grown.

Just as you started to tease him about being lost in his own home, John found what he was looking for and pushed in the hidden door to his father’s barely used study. The walls were lined with books, including the door through which you’d crept, and the bar was loaded with untouched bottles of every vice you could imagine and some you couldn’t. There was a shiny silver record player tucked in the corner and you wondered why such a device didn’t have a more prominent place in the home. John moved toward it effortlessly, dropping your hand and gesturing toward the concealed bar at the same time, while he fiddled with the needle and pulled black discs from their yellowish paper sleeves to inspect them. He took his time as the words were obscured both by the comfortable darkness of the room which he’d made no moves to enlighten and his own inebriation. While you were crouched before the false door at the front of the mahogany desk, plucking another bottle to share from the secret cache, John had selected a tune for you two and it filled the enclosed space with raptious cacophony of brass and strings.

You stood quickly, too quickly, evidenced by the clear drops on the elder Whittaker’s desk from your attempts to pour two glasses. Once satisfied with your impaired barkeeping skills, you straightened and tugged at your blouse proudly. You turned to find your companion and immediately John’s hands were on yours again, ignoring the drinks you’d prepared in favor of swinging you around the room like he had before. His feet were surprisingly light, quick, and his apparent enjoyment contributed entirely to the fun you were having. Emboldened and liberated by the privacy, your laughter was almost as loud as the song, only matched by John’s own barking chuckle as you twirled and swayed and miraculously managed to keep from injuring each other with the frantic movements.

“I am amazed that you haven’t tired of me yet,” he smiled as he spun you out by one hand before yanking you back against his chest.

“Oh, John,” you said breathlessly as your bodies collided. “I love you and you know it!”

John laughed louder. “While the sentiment is returned, dear, in the interest of friendship, I must advise against it.” He spun you outward again, letting go our your hand to spin around himself. I am dreadful at love!”

You opened your mouth in protest, but John beat you to it.

“Haven’t you heard? I’m a divorcee,” he said clumsily emphasizing each syllable. His arms extended in the air as he spun on his heels, enjoying his drunken state almost as much as you were.

“Oh that’s old news, John,” you waved a hand carelessly in his direction. “I was surprised at the letter I received, sure that my mother would have run barefoot across the country just to inform me that she was right about you.” John shrugged in acceptance as he grabbed the bottle you produced and took a long drink. “But you have-” you started, but stopped at the sound of John’s lips popping loudly as his pulled them away from the wet rim of the bottle with force.

“-AND!” he interrupted as if his addition were a source of great pride, waving a finger high over his head in order to steal your attention. It worked, leaving you unsure what to look at, his strangely excited face or the emphatic flapping of his hand above him. “My most recent engagement has met an untimely and rather inconvenient end...” he said, lowering his voice to a ridiculous octave at the end of his sentence, eyes rolling back dramatically for effect. “Or so my mother tells me.”

“Oh John....Sarah?” You sighed sympathetically and reached for his hand. He passed you the bottle instead, moving toward the small array of furniture in the middle of the room, while you followed. You took a sip and settled into a high back chair, removing the tapestry pillow with the dogs woven in and held it comfortably in front of you.

John fell haplessly to the settee, allowing his shined brogues to float up to the overstuffed arm, rolled tighter than the cigarette that threatened to tumble from betwixt his straight white teeth.

“So you hadn’t heard.” He mumbled barely keeping control of the thin white cylinder as it wagged with his words. Only after his statement, certainly not a question, could John’s Lips halt their movement long enough for the tapered end to catch the flame he offered. John snapped the metal top of the lighter with gusto, locking eyes with you as he released that first puff with satisfaction.

“I’m so sorry,” you offered genuinely.

“I’m not,” he laughed. That laugh that made the skin around his nose crinkle in delight, but also had just enough force to make one question it’s sincerity. It had been some years, but you knew the laugh well and after the night you’d spent tossing rounded pebbles through the broken window of the Brixton family’s potting shed, shattering glass and juvenile expectations held for each other, you could vouch for its authenticity.

“Can you mean it, John?”

“I certainly can,” he smiled, exaggerating each word as he peeled his lanky body from the cushions. You held out your hand to him as he made his way across the room. He grinned and shook his head, but immediately pulled the cigarette from his lips, pursing them to blow smoke out the corner of his mouth, narrowly avoiding your face as he passed you by. Your fingers touched as the cigarette traded hands with practiced ease. “You always were a grubber,” he chuckled, tucking a long finger under your chin so his dark eyes could peruse your features from up close. You let him, the drink not entirely out of your system and the warmth of his hand not unwelcome in the chilled air, smiling as you brought his cigarette to your painted lips. His eyes lingered on your concave cheeks, sucking in the blend you remembered as his favorite, before he turned away, continuing his walk toward an open glass door that led to a small balcony overlooking the greenhouse.

“A trade then?” You offered teasingly. John stopped in his tracks, the heel of one shoe planted but the winged tip waggled in the air as he considered the offer. The dreamy look in his eye and the rising smile told you that he too was lost in memory, recounting a game from your youth. So many afternoon suns sunk, so many corners of both estates, so many greenhouse windows had collected the hushed sounds of childhood bartering that grew more valuable and reckless in adolescence. Mother of pearl buttons for silver coins. An antique ivory cameo on black ribbon for a pilfered pocket watch engraved with a stranger’s monogram. Little trinkets traded hands carelessly until you both matured beyond gifts, but not the game that connected you. John invoked a trade when your equestrian skills surpassed his. He knew that his father’s old motorcycle had caught your eye and later that week you both found yourself with the wind in your hair, beasts of very different breeds between your knees. Just after learning that your mother was planning to “introduce” you casually to a young man whose family came from good stock and old money and was all of the things she expected you to desire in a husband, but your fifteen-year-old mind had only one desire.

“A trade, John!” Your voice was high and pleading as the lanky boy from over the hill walked away from you. “I’m begging you. As a friend!”

John spun on his heel then, some unrecognizable in his eyes as he stalked back toward you. A bitter young boy had transformed into a man on a mission before your eyes. “As a friend then,” he sneered.

You would have gasped, but John Whittaker’s lips pressed against yours stole breath and logic and time, each grasping hopelessly at the hand of its compatriots as they tumbled from your mind.

The kiss, magical as it was, ended far too quickly.

“There,” he sighed, running a thumb over your wrist, more than likely feeling the inhuman pulse against his fingertips. “That cad gets nothing from you then. You got your first kiss.”

“It’s a trade, John,” you reminded him, unsure what you could possible offer in return for such a delight. “What will you take in return?”

“Mine,” he answered honestly. Your eyes widened as his dark ones darted away, seeking the comfortable visage of the grass between you instead. Without warning he leaned up again, snatching another kiss, quick, your second, his too, before releasing your hands and turning away again.

“A trade?” His lips curled around the question in amused curiosity, though it seemed whatever was going on in the world around him, John was able to find something with which to amuse himself. “Offer your best.”

You popped his cigarette back between your lips, holding it carefully between your teeth to free up your hands. With one, you slid your glass of gin across the Victorian side table next to you. Holding it in front of your eyes, for dramatic effect and to focus your hazy vision on the project, you spun the crystal gently. Finally the offending mark revealed itself after several passes and you dragged your thumb over the faint red mark to clear it for him. John chuckled and took the glass before you were finished, pulling it up until his bottom lip rested directly over the spot you’d tried to wipe clean. After draining the tumbler and snapping his teeth in satisfaction, John’s lips pouted out for your observation.

“How do I look?” he mumbled through overly pursed lips that were now the faintest shade of your rouge.

“You’re beautiful and you know it, John,” you teased.

“I do know it,” he nodded, straightening his shoulders as he did. John continued on his previous, but momentarily interrupted, path to the glass balcony doors, propping one open with his foot as he swiped a thumb across his bottom lip, successfully removing the tint. “Though it was hardly a fair trade,” he leaned back against the door, opening the room even more and letting the breeze ruffle his wide and pleated pant legs. “You gave me my own glass,” he smirked as your eyes flew to the side table. Only then did you notice another glass, one much closer to your chair than the one you’d handed him. “ You’ve been drinking out of mine,” he chuckled, turning to look out over the glass peaks to take in the vast estate grounds that rolled out beneath you and well beyond. His heritage and his legacy, past and future found common footing in the acreage and had become an intimidatingly green reminder of who he was meant to be from now on.

“Your generosity is always appreciated,” you sighed, twirling your fingers carefully to let a cluster of hot ashes fall into a Waterford dish that was never meant to hold waste, but seemed as good as any ashtray in the moment. You stood from your spot and joined John at the door, welcoming the fresh country air and his closeness again.

“And reserved only for you, my darling, tell no one of the philanthropist before you,” he smirked, leaning back against the doorframe and rolling his head to face you, accepting the cigarette you extended to him. He eyed the bright red ring against the otherwise clean white paper, a perfect imprint of your lips, before pulling the stained end to his own lips, taking another slow drag and blowing it back out into the night air.

Drunk and tired, the two of you eventually found your backs flat against the expensive rug of his father’s study. The air was filled with static as John had grumbled while he stood to flip the record in the shiny silver box the last two times the music ceased before finally giving up and letting the needle graze the empty rings of the black disc while scratches and pops filled the room and gave you the perfect soundtrack for deep thoughts. You scrutinized the ceiling, noticing the yellowing along the edges and the thin lines carved into the plaster where you and John had lodged your brother’s throwing knives as teenagers. Such a long time ago it seemed, since the two of you could get up to mischief freely. The world changed with the Great War. It seemed the world had scrubbed it hands until the stains of red and black, of dirt and mud, were distant memories like the faces of the wounded and dead. The rest were left to reinvent their lives as if nothing had occurred.

“I don’t believe you’ve told me,” Johns voice interrupted your thoughts and in an instant you were drawn back to the Turkish rug. Your fingers mindlessly drumming against the floor while John fiddled with a loose thread that had been previously hidden in the pleat of your skirt. Drawing your middle finger and your thumb together, you reached down and flicked the nail against John’s wrist bone. Caught unaware of his actions, Johns hand pulled away dutifully but only for a hairs length of time before he was back, wrapping the thread around the knuckle of his fore finger and delivering a sharp tug until it snapped. Your face fell in mock annoyance and John responded as only he would, dangling the thread in front of his lips and blowing it directly into your face.

“You’re a child,” you giggled, batting at your nose trying to remove the thread and failing to do so.

“No, darling,” John corrected, propping himself up on one elbow next to you and leaning over to offer his assistance. “I’ve been assured that I am too grown to be a child,” he grinned, but the corners of his eyes did not cinch in the endearing way you often observed. With surprisingly delicate fingers, John stilled your hand and pulled the thread from the crease of your nostril and presented it to you, the same way he’d let it dangle in front of his own lips. You shot him a tightly drawn smile, a willing participant in his games but not without your own teasing reproach, and blew the thread from between his fingers and it floated into oblivion. It’s final resting place was unknown to you as Johns dark eyes held your own as a captive audience. “So tell me,” he urged with surprising sobriety. “Why are you here and not with your own husband?”

Your loud groan would have been berated by anyone else, but John Whittaker had a unique gift. He saw you, oldest of your family’s name, with expectations so heavy they would ruin your posture if you should shoulder but half, yet he never held you accountable when chose to ignore that particular detail of your existence.

If your arms weren’t so heavy with inebriation, you’d be grasping for the now empty bottle once more. Tracing the inside of the glass with your tongue, chasing the final drops of oblivion sounded preferable to speaking on a topic that had been talked to death in your family over the last months. You weren’t at all surprised that John was unaware or that he’d ask if he was, so your head lolled to the side, ruffling the back of your once delicate updo. The strands had fallen loose by John’s fingers only minutes earlier. The grown child had been dancing recklessly, twirling you around the room with no regard for your heart or the way his spinning and smiling was sending you reeling like the song that poured from the broad brass mouth of the phonograph. He always preferred your hair down and never missed an opportunity to remind you, ignoring decorum as was expected of him.

Your name never sounded better than when it was slipping from the full lips of your pal Johnny. With a sigh and a smile, you reached out to touch his face, somehow the same one you’d held in your childish gaze yet maturing, the weight of his dramatic year tugging the corners of his eyes down in fatigue.

“He is free to be someone else’s husband,” you stated simply with a swipe of your thumb just under his eye. “Or wife...” you scoffed, releasing John’s warm cheek. “Whatever he prefers.” John’s eyebrows shot up at the same time his mouth dropped open with a slight uptick in the corners, in what appeared to be curiosity bordering on morbid excitement over your own failed marriage. “Stop that,” you laughed, gentle caresses gone as you smeared your hand across his face. He attempted to pull away, but like a potter with stubborn clay, your hand extended further cupping his forehead to push the skin of his brows back into some semblance of concern. Unable to fix the smirk on John’s face, you sighed and continued with your story, one your mother had implored you to keep private. She’d also imploded you not to do anything rash, which your recent divorce and return to the family estate were both considered.

Sparing no detail, you recounted to John the woes of a loveless, touch-less marriage to the man hand chosen by your mother to take you away from the countryside you loved. He hung on every word, face vacillating between excitement over the gossip he knew no one else would receive and genuine pity. Right up until you shared the final detail.

“The footman??” John shot straight up from his resting place where his head was cradled carelessly across your lap and out of the reach of your storytelling gestures. He spun, torso twisting to look back you and your confirming nod. “In your bed??”

You rolled your eyes and joined him in a seated position, crossing your legs and tugging your skirt hem down over your knees. “His bed,” you corrected. “I’d taken to sleeping in a spare room, but jewelry of all things brought me back to his suite and...” you gestured vaguely, letting your lips flap under the force of an emotionally exhausted exhale. It all sounded so ridiculous out loud. It was ridiculous in your head too. Marrying young, being carted away to a new home, where you were promptly forgotten and apparently replaced by someone more suited to your husband’s desires.

John’s laughter was inappropriate given the nature of the conversation, but as always it was the only balm for a restless mind or a clenching heart. “So, is it fair to assume that you two never...consummated...your relationship?” You hated the way the word fell from his lips. Of course he would ask such an indecent question.

“We tried,” you shrugged, hoping your honesty would discourage further questioning.

John’s laugh was proof that your plan had backfired. “What do you mean you tried???” A beaming face, unable to contain excitement or curiosity, and loud guffaws inspired your own giggling, no matter how inappropriate.

“Will you stop laughing!” You chided as your stomach started to ache. Talking of a failed marriage shouldn’t ever be such fun and yet it had been the truth of more than a decade that John Whittaker managed to bring tears to your eyes in the best ways no matter what topic you two stumbled upon.

“You were married for three years!” He shouted.

“Only nearly!” You corrected him.

“But how on Earth did you manage?”

“I lived quite comfortably without anything between my legs since birth and have faired just fine, thank you,” you shot back, tone dripping with vitriol.

“That’s because-“ he started, but you quickly jumped in.

“Because what, John? I’ve not been to your bed?”

“I-“ he stumbled and coughed. “Yes, actually,” he said, chest puffed out. “If you’re worried about remaining a virgin at your advanced age, I’d be happy to take that off your hands.”

Your fist flew of its own free will, colliding with John’s shoulder just before he caught your wrist. You were laughing and expected the same of him, but upon seeing John’s face your laughter died on your tongue. His expression had suddenly turned so serious.

“I’m glad that cad got nothing from you,” he said, voice low and surprisingly sober. “He wouldn’t give you what you deserve.”

You swallowed, certain it would be audible. Stupidity and bravery battled for your response and as the words fell from your lips, it proved to be a tie.

“And what do I deserve, John?”

“You deserve to be ravaged,” he said in a low voice, his smirk turning almost sinister right before your eyes. But it was still so undeniably John’s. Like a child with a wicked secret, his smile grew wider as he leaned in close. “You need a man who desires you, all of you,” you hadn’t even noticed how close John’s face had come until his lips hovered next to your nose, dark eyes fixed on yours as you leaned back, afraid that the most innocent touch would set the room ablaze. The air was already so thick and warm, sharp contrast to the chill that had shrouded the room upon your entry. John’s intimidating stare, the alcohol, and gravity all worked against you until your back was hitting the plush rug beneath you. John’s hands had found their place next to your head, one still wrapped around your wrist and pinning it to the floor, his legs were pulled up and his knees rested just next to your left hip. His body stretched out across yours, not touching, just hovering and holding you, his willingly entranced captive, against the floor. “You need to be devoured,” he said, slowly lowering himself. Your eyes closed, out of fear or anticipation you weren’t sure, and fluttered open at the feeling of John’s soft lips against your forehead. Before he spoke, he pushed up against the floor and rose slightly. “You need to be shown how good it can be,” his lips fell again, just below your eye and next to your nose. “You need to be loved well.”

“I thought you were dreadful at love, John,” you said without thinking. Instantly his face pulled away and you were kicking yourself for not knowing when to shut up. It clearly wasn’t the time for teasing, but John rolled away, flopping onto the floor next to you with a huff.

“I am, dear,” he sighed, chuckling slightly. “But the other bits, I am very good at.”

“You think rather highly of yourself, don’t you, John?” You laughed, feeling the tension in the air start to evaporate and the usual playful conversation returning as easily as it had slipped away.

“You think rather highly of me too, darling,” he teased and you rolled your eyes. He was right of course. And he knew it of course.

“Well, we should fix that,” you announced, adjusting yourself until you were comfortable against the floor and turning your head to look at his smiling face. “Shall we talk about what ended your marriage next, hmm?”

“Infidelity,” John sneered as best he could. His upper lip twitched, revealing bared teeth as every consonant hit the roof of his mouth in a harsh staccato. But you knew better. There wasn’t a cruel bone in John Whittaker’s body and he could spoil his face with as many foul expressions as he pleased, you knew that he’d be smiling, or at least smirking, in no time at all. It was his natural state of being, even when he shouldn’t. Especially when he shouldn’t.

“You can’t blame Larita,” Johns jaw fell open and his brow furrowed, comically, but prepared to argue. “You can’t blame your father either.”

“I most certainly can-“ he started, gesturing wildly with one arm, while lifting his neck, head, and shoulders off the ground slightly

“You can only blame yourself, John.”

He laid back down and turned his head to you, a grave look on his face. “Did everyone know that my marriage would fail?”

You couldn’t bare to see pain in his eyes, already so dark and so full of everything. “Yes,” you said honestly. Relief flooded you as John shook his head smiling, leaning forward to rest his forehead against yours.

“And you didn’t think to tell me...” he clicked his tongue in feigned disappointment.

“I did tell you!” You pulled back, only briefly regretting the space you created. “Everyone told you!”

“So they did,” John admitted, rolling to his back and tucking one arm behind his head. The shimmying of his shoulders pulled his body closer to yours as he tried to get comfortable against the Byzantine rug. “Perhaps I should have listened and married-“ he paused and closed his eyes, inhaling through his nose. While he held the breath, chest puffed and risen, you took the opportunity to ask.

“What really happened with Sarah? She doesn’t strike me as someone who would be unfaithful.”

John exhaled with resignation. “I’m told It was I who was unfaithful.” You leaned back, to get a better look at him, but also to create more space between you two. It wasn’t you he’d been unfaithful to, yet you took deep pains in his admission. Sensing your withdrawal, John turned his head to face you again, letting his free hand drop from its place on his chest to yours, gripping your fingers as if to reassure you. “Not with other women,” he clarified. “Or men,” he added, rolling his eyes at your furrowed brow. “She wanted something I couldn’t give her....just like Larita, I suppose,” he chuckled. “Don’t tell her I said that. She is no longer my fiancée, but if she learned I compared her to the American....” he shook his head. “I’d have even less to offer a wife, if you know what I mean.”

You covered your face, embarrassed for him. “How can you joke like this? You’re a man in ruin,” you teased.

“Only financially,” he smirked, but you uncovered one eye to glare at him. “And relationally,” he shrugged. “It would appear as if I am far too boring for some women and far too restless for those that are left.”

“So what of those in the middle, dear?”

“Is there such a woman?” He sighed dramatically. Yes. “I should marry her before her wits return from holiday.” John rolled his head back to look at the ceiling. “I should marry you.”

“Ha!” You laughed loudly into the night. “Can you imagine? Two divorces-“

“And a half,” he added with another of his boyish winks.

“Two and a half divorces,” you began your tirade again, “two failing estates. I can see the look on Veronica’s face now, when he she receives word that I am to be her next daughter. John, she’d slip into death willingly, simply to haunt the Whittaker house for the rest of our life.”

“It does sound fun when you put it like that...alright, I accept,” John laughed and you swatted his arm. “What’s next? A date perhaps? June is a lovely month for weddings.”

“Well of course, my love, pick a day any day!” You laughed, pushing yourself onto your elbows, then rolling to your hands and knees, trying to rise to a standing position, miraculously without falling over.

“The first!” He shouted jovially from his place on the floor. “I won’t wait any longer than I absolutely must!”

“June the first,” you muttered, opening and closing the ornate, but squeaky drawers of James Whittaker’s barely used mahogany desk. “Ah ha!” You declared victory, producing a sheet of thick paper and an ink pen. “John Whittaker and-“

“What are you doing, my dear,” John rolled to his front, watching you with his chin propped in his hands as you bit your tongue and wrote out the details in your best hand. “Come back to bed,” he flopped onto his back once more, arms spread wide to welcome you.

“You are not in bed, John,” you reminded him, still completely focused on your task.

“Then come back to the floor,” he whined, rolling to his stomach again and pushing himself up when he realized you wouldn’t accept his invitation, no matter how tempting. “What is this?” You felt his breath against the shell of your ear and his chest against your shoulder blades. His leaning against you only served to remind you how intoxicated he still was and your willingness to let him reflected your own state. There was mumbling in your ear as he read over your shoulder, one hand slipping around your waist until it rested upon your stomach. After aggressively crossing your final T, you placed the pen down hard against the desk blotter. John quickly snatched the paper from the desk and tightened his grip on your middle as he held the paper up to read.

Squinting as he ignored the beating you rained down on his chest, John smiled broadly. “I love it. First thing tomorrow, we’ll send it to everyone we know.” He pressed a quick kiss to your cheek, no more intimate than any other kiss you’d shared with him, because the invitation he held in his hand, the one that bore your names in your best script, was for your blurry and tired eyes only.

For one night, you could indulge your gin soaked fantasy and pretend that your wrecked lives were about to face much happier days. That soon and very soon, John would announce a marriage that would stick. That you’d soon be the next Mrs. John Whittaker and your stint as Mrs. Henry Crane would be nothing more than a distant memory. You two settled back against the floor, though it felt more like falling, giggling as if the words were true with no fear of the future. For in the morning, your jokes would be long forgotten, the invitation discarded, and in a couple of days you would be returning home.

@something-tofightfor @the-blind-assassin-12 @strugglingsemicolon @littlemermaidprobz @suchatinyinfinity @fireeyes-on-teller-dixon-grimes @breanime @disengagefrmreality

[ciathyzareposts]

New Tricks for an Old Z-Machine, Part 1: Digging the Trenches

One of the most oddly inspiring stories I know of in all computing history is that of the resurrection and re-purposing of the Z-Machine, Infocom’s virtual machine of the 1980s, to serve a whole new community of interactive-fiction enthusiasts in the 1990s and well beyond. Even as the simple 8-bit computers for which it had originally been designed became obsolete, and then became veritable antiques, the Z-Machine just kept soldiering on, continuing to act as the delivery system for hundreds of brand new games that post-dated the company that had created it by years and eventually decades. The community of hobbyist practitioners who spawned the Interactive Fiction Renaissance of the mid-1990s made the Z-Machine one of their technological bedrocks for reasons more sentimental than practical: most of them worshiped Infocom, and loved the way that distributing their games via Infocom’s venerable virtual machine made them feel like the anointed heirs to that legacy. The Z-Machine was reborn, in other words, largely out of nostalgia. Very soon, though, the hobbyists’ restless creativity pushed and twisted the Z-Machine, and the genre of games it hosted, in all sorts of ways of which even Infocom at their most experimental could never have dreamed. Thus a regressive became a progressive impulse.

In the end, then, a design which Joel Berez and Marc Blank first sketched out hurriedly at their kitchen tables in 1979, in response to the urgently immediate problem of how to move their DEC PDP-10 game of Zork out of the MIT computer lab and onto microcomputers, didn’t fall out of general use as a delivery medium for new games until after 2010. And even today it still remains in active use as a legacy technology, the delivery medium for half or more of the best text adventures in the historical canon. In terms of the sheer number of platforms on which it runs, it must have a strong claim to being the most successful virtual machine in history; it runs on everything from e-readers to game consoles, from mobile phones to mainframes, from personal computers to electronic personal assistants. (To paraphrase an old joke, it really wouldn’t surprise me to learn that someone is running it on her toaster…) Its longevity is both a tribute to the fundamental soundness of its original design and to the enduring hold which Infocom’s pioneering interactive fiction of the 1980s has had upon more recent practitioners of the form. Like so many technology stories, in other words, the story of the Z-Machine is really about people.

One of the more ironic aspects of the Z-Machine story is the fact that it was never designed to be promulgated in this way. It was never intended to be a community software project; it was no Linux, no Mozilla, no Java. The ideological framework that would lead to such projects didn’t even exist apart from a handful of closeted university campuses at the time Berez and Blank were drawing it up. The Z-Machine was a closed, proprietary technology, closely guarded by Infocom during their heyday as one of their greatest competitive advantages over their rivals.

The first order of business for anyone outside of Infocom who wished to do anything with it, then, was to figure it out — because Infocom certainly wasn’t telling. This first article in a series of three is the story of those first intrepid Z-Machine archaeologists, who came to it knowing nothing and began, bit by bit, to puzzle it out. Little did they know that they were laying the foundation of an artistic movement. Graham Nelson, the most important single technical and creative architect of the Interactive Fiction Renaissance of the 1990s (and thus the eventual subject of my second and third articles), said it most cogently: “If I have hacked deeper than them, it is because I stand in their trenches.”

Although the Z-Machine was decidedly not intended as a community project, Infocom in their heyday made no particular attempt to hide the abstract fact that they were the proud possessors of some unusual technology. The early- and mid-1980s, Infocom’s commercial peak, was still the Wild West era of personal computing in the United States, with dozens of incompatible models jockeying for space on store shelves. Almost every published profile of Infocom — and there were many of them — made mention of the unique technology which somehow allowed them to write a game on a big DEC PDP-10 of the sort usually found only in universities and research laboratories, then move it onto as many as 25 normally incompatible microcomputers all at once. This was, perhaps even more so than their superb parser and general commitment to good writing and design, their secret weapon, allowing them to makes games for the whole of the market, including parts of it that were served by virtually no other publishers.

So, even if highfalutin phrases like “virtual machine” weren’t yet tripping off the tongue of the average bedroom hacker, it wasn’t hard to devise what Infocom must be doing in the broad strokes. The specifics, however, were another matter. For, while Infocom didn’t hide the existence of a Z-Machine in the abstract, they had no vested interest in advertising how it worked.

The very first outsiders to begin to explore the vagaries of the Z-Machine actually had no real awareness of doing so. They were simply trying to devise ways of copying Infocom’s games — most charitably, so that they could make personal backups of them; most likely, so that they could trade them with their friends. They published their findings in organs like The Computist, an underground magazine for Apple II owners which focused mainly on defeating copy protection, hacking games, and otherwise doing things that the software publishers would prefer you didn’t. By 1984, you could learn how Infocom’s (unimpressive) copy-protection scheme worked from the magazine; by 1986, you could type in a program listing from it that would dump most of the text in a game for cheating purposes.

But plumbing the depths of a virtual machine whose very existence was only implicit was hard work, especially when one was forced to carry it out on such a basic computer as the Apple II. People tended to really dive in only when they had some compelling, practical reason. Thus users of the Apple II and other popular, well-supported platforms mostly contented themselves with fairly shallow explorations such as those just described. Users of some other platforms, however, weren’t fortunate enough to enjoy the ongoing support of the company that had made their computer and a large quantity of software on the shelves at their local computer store; they had a stronger motivation for going deeper.

Over the course of the 1980s, the American computing scene became steadily more monolithic, as an industry that had once boasted dozens of incompatible systems collapsed toward the uniformity that would mark most of the 1990s, when MS-DOS, Microsoft Windows, and (to rather a lesser extent) the Apple Macintosh would be the only viable options for anyone wishing to run the latest shrink-wrapped commercial software. This gradual change was reflected in Infocom’s product catalog. After peaking at 25 or so machines in 1984, they released their final few games in 1988 and 1989 on just four of them. The realities of the market by then were such that it just didn’t make sense to support more platforms than that.

But technical transitions like these always come with their fair share of friction. In this case, plenty of people who had been unlucky or unwise enough to purchase one of the orphaned machines were left to consider their options. Some of them gave up on computing altogether, while others sucked it up and bought another model. But some of these folks either couldn’t afford to buy something else, or had fallen hopelessly in love with their first computer, or were just too stubborn to give it up. This state of affairs led directly to the world’s first full-fledged Z-Machine interpreter to be born outside of Infocom.

The orphaned machine at the heart of this story is the Texas Instruments 99/4A, a sturdy, thoughtfully designed little computer in many respects which enjoyed a spectacular Christmas of 1982, only to be buried by Jack Tramiel under an avalanche of Commodore VIC/20s and 64s the following year. On October 28, 1983, Texas Instruments announced they were pulling out of the home-computer market entirely, thus marking the end of one of the more frantic boom-and-bust cycles in computing history. It left in its wake hundreds of thousands of people with 99/4As on their desks or in their closets — both those who had bought the machine when it was still a going proposition and many more who snatched up some of the unsold inventory which Texas Instruments dumped onto the market afterward, at street prices of $50 or less. The number of active 99/4A users would inevitably decrease sharply as time went on, but some clung to their machines like the first loves they often were, for all of the reasons cited above.

This little 99/4A fraternity would prove sufficiently loyal to the platform to support an under-the-radar commercia- software ecosystem of their own into the 1990s. For many users, the platform was appealing not least in that it never lost the homegrown charm of the very earliest days of personal computing, when every user was a programmer to one degree or another, when the magazines were full of do-it-yourself hardware projects and type-in program listings, and when one kid working from his bedroom could change the accepted best practices of everyone else almost overnight. The Z-Machine interpreter that interests us today was a reflection of this can-do spirit.

Infocom’s first taste of major success had corresponded with the 99/4A’s one great Christmas. Naturally, they had made sure their games were available on one of the hottest computers in the country. Even after Texas Instruments officially abandoned the 99/4A, there was no immediate reason to ignore its many owners. Thus Infocom continued to make versions of their games for the machine through The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy in September of 1984. In all, they released fourteen 99/4A games.

But continuing to support any given machine eventually tended to become a more complicated proposition than simply continuing to use an already-extant interpreter. The Z-Machine in reality was more of a moving target than the abstract idea behind it might suggest. Infocom’s games got steadily bigger and richer as time went on, with more text, better parsers, and more ambitious world models. The original Z-Machine, as designed in 1979, had a theoretical maximum story-file size of 128 K, but the practical limitations of the machines running the interpreters kept the early games from reaching anything close to this size. (The original Zork, for example, Infocom’s very first game, was just 77 K.) As story files pushed ever closer to their theoretical maximum size in the years that followed, they began to exceed the practical limitations of some existing interpreters. When that happened, Infocom had to decide whether reworking the interpreter to support a larger story file was possible at all, and, if so, whether it was worth the effort in light of a platform’s sales figures. Following Hitchhiker’s (story-file size: 110 K), their fourteenth game, but before Suspect (story-file size: 120 K), their fifteenth, Infocom judged the answer to one or both of those questions to be no in the case of the 99/4A.

Barry Boone, the first person outside of Infocom to create a full-fledged Z-Machine interpreter.

As one might expect, this decision left a number of 99/4A users sorely disappointed. Among them was Barry Boone, a clever young man just out of high school who was already one of the leading lights of 99/4A hackery. Having read enough about Infocom to understand that their game format must be in some sense portable, he started doggedly digging into the details of its implementation. Soon he was able to make a clear delineation between the interpreter running natively on his machine and the story file it executed — a delineation the Apple II crowd writing for The Computist had yet to manage. And then he uncovered the big secret: that the interpreter packaged with one game could actually run the story file from another — even if said story file originated on a platform other than the 99/4A! Boone:

Having worked out the file format, I wrote a program to crunch the non-TI files and build the TI files. The resulting files appeared to work, but I quickly discovered [a] problem. If I converted an older game that already existed in TI format, everything worked perfectly. But with the newer games, there was a big problem.

The problem was that the interpreter software written for the TI had a number of bugs, many of which did not show up with the original set of games, but became all too apparent with the newer ones and made them unplayable. So I began a process of reverse-engineering the Z-Code interpreter for the TI. Once I reached a point of having recreated the source code, I began working on making the code more efficient, and fixing numerous bugs in the implementation. The largest bug I encountered was a vocabulary-table bug. Basically, the original TI interpreter would hit an overflow bug if the vocabulary table was too large, and the binary-search algorithm would start searching the wrong area of memory to look up words. This had the effect of making the last portion of the vocabulary inaccessible, and made the game impossible to play.

I also added a number of enhancements that allowed the games to load about twenty times faster, and modifications to play the games on TI systems equipped with 80-column displays. Finally, I had to make a second variation of the interpreter so that persons who had an extra 8 K of RAM (known as a Super Cart, or Super Space module) could play some of the games that required a larger memory footprint than 24 K of memory buffer. These games included Leather Goddesses.

Boone estimates that he finished his interpreter around 1986, whereupon he promptly began sharing it with his network of friends and fellow 99/4A enthusiasts, who used it to play many of the newer Infocom story files, transferring them from disks for other platforms. Boone was stymied only by the games from Infocom’s Interactive Fiction Plus line, such as A Mind Forever Voyaging and Trinity. Those games used an expanded version of the Z-Machine, known internally as version 4 — the mature version of the original virtual machine was version 3 — which expanded the available memory space to 256 K, far beyond what the 99/4A could possibly manage. Even without them, however, Boone gave himself and his mates ten new Infocom games to play — i.e., all of those released for the 128 K Z-Machine between October of 1984 and July of 1987, when this original incarnation of the virtual machine made its last bow in Infocom packaging.

But even that wasn’t quite the end of the story. An obscure footnote to Infocom’s history took shape in late 1988 or early 1989, when Chris Bobbitt, founder of a company called Asgard, the 99/4A software publisher that most resembled a real business as opposed to a hobbyist project, had the idea of contacting Infocom themselves to ask permission to market the newer games, running under Boone’s interpreter, as legitimate commercial products. Although Bobbitt doubtless didn’t realize it at the time, Infocom was by then on the verge of being shut down, and Mediagenic, their less-than-doting parent company, were also beginning to feel the financial stresses that would force them into bankruptcy in 1990. They saw Bobbitt’s proposal as a handy way to clear their warehouse of old stock and make some desperately needed cash. Jim Reiss, who worked at Asgard at the time as the last remaining full-time 99/4A software developer in the world, remembers how the deal went down:

[Bobbitt] contacted Infocom to ask for permission to release the later Infocom releases, and was given permission to do so on one condition: that the packaging and disks had to be originals for other systems, relabeled (the packaging) and reformatted (the disks) for use with the TI. Infocom scoured their warehouse and sent Chris two very large boxes of the titles he was asking to reproduce—and noted on the invoice that these boxes included every single copy of the relevant titles that Infocom still had in their possession. Some of the titles were relatively plentiful, but others were included in much lower numbers. The boxes only contained four copies of Leather Goddesses of Phobos, for example. All other titles had at least ten copies each, and some had a lot more. He was permitted to buy more copies from remainders in the retail channels, though, so it is possible there are more properly badged Asgard copies of the titles that were harder to find. All of the stock he received from Infocom was gone in a matter of months.

These games, which Bobbitt bought for $5 apiece and sold on for several times that, thereby became the last new Infocom games ever sold in their original packaging — out-of-print games from a dead company sold to owners of an orphaned computer.

Asgard prepared their own platform-specific reference card after the Infocom example and inserted it into the box.

Well before Asgard entered the scene, however, another, more structured and sustainable project had led to a Z-Machine interpreter much more amenable to being ported and built upon than Boone’s incarnation of same for an idiosyncratic, bare-bones, orphaned platform. Not long after Boone first started sharing his 99/4A interpreter with friends, a few students at the University of Sydney in far-off Australia started disassembling another of Infocom’s own interpreters — in this case one for Zilog Z80-based computers running the operating system CP/M. The group included in their ranks David Beazley, George Janczuk, Peter Lisle, Russell Hoare, and Chris Tham. They gave themselves the rather grandiose name of the InfoTaskforce, but they initially regarded the project, said Janczuk to me recently, strictly as “a form of mental calisthenics”: “This was never meant to be a public exercise.”

Still, the group had several advantages which Boone had lacked — in addition, that is, to the advantage of sheer numbers. Boone had been a bedroom hacker working on fairly primitive hardware, where cryptic assembly language, highly specific to the computer on which it was running, was the only viable option. The InfoTaskforce, on the other hand, had more advanced hardware at their disposal, and were steeped in the culture of institutional hacking, where portable C was the most popular programming language and software was typically distributed as source code, ready to be analyzed, ported, and expanded upon by people other than its creators, quite possibly working on platforms of which said creators had never dreamed. And then, thanks to their university, the InfoTaskforce was connected to the Internet, long before most people had even heard of such a thing; this gave them a way to share their work quickly with others across a wide, international swath of computing. The contrast with the segregated ghetto that was the world of the 99/4A is telling.

David Beazley, who did almost all of the actual coding for the InfoTaskforce interpreter — the others had their hands full enough with reverse-engineering the Z-Machine architecture — did so in C on a first-generation Apple Macintosh. On May 25, 1987, he used this machine to compile the first truly portable Z-Machine interpreter in history. Within a week, he and his mates had also gotten it compiled and running on an MS-DOS machine and a big DEC VAX. (Ironically, the latter was the successor to the PDP-10 line so famously employed by Infocom themselves; thus one might say that the Z-Machine had already come full-circle.)

As Janczuk remembers it, the first version of the interpreter to reach the Internet actually did so accidentally. He gave it to a friend of his at university, who, as so many friends have done over the years, uploaded it without permission on June 2, 1987. There followed an immediate outpouring of interest from all over the world, which greatly surprised the interpreter’s own creators. It prompted them to release an official version 1.0, capable of playing any story file for the standard — i.e., 128 K — Z-Machine on August 1, 1987. Already by this time, the Commodore Amiga personal computer and several more big machines had been added to the list of confirmed-compatible host platforms. It was a milestone day in the history of interactive fiction; Infocom’s games had been freed from the tyranny of the hardware for which they’d originally shipped. And they could remain free of the vicissitudes and fashions of hardware forevermore, as long as there was an enterprising hacker ready to tweak an existing interpreter’s source code to suit the latest gadget to come down the pipe. (So far, there has been no shortage of such hackers…)

With their university days coming to an end, the InfoTaskforce boys worked on their interpreter only in fits and starts over the years that followed. Not until 1990 did they finish adding support for the Interactive Fiction Plus line; not until 1992, in a final burst of activity, did they add support for Infocom’s last few text-only games, which ran under what was known internally as the version 5 Z-Machine. This last release of the InfoTaskforce interpreter actually attracted a bit of scoffing for its inefficiency, and for generally lagging behind what other hackers had done by that point in other interpreters.

In reality, information and inspiration rather than the software itself were the most important legacies of the InfoTaskForce interpreter. Beazley’s C source told you almost all of what you really needed to know about the Z-Machine, so long as you were sufficiently motivated to dig out the information you needed; doing so was certainly a fair sight more pleasant than poring over eye-watering printouts of cryptic disassembled Z80 machine language, as Beazley and his pals had been forced to do before coming up with it. The InfoTaskforce interpreter thus became the gateway through which the Z-Machine burst into the public domain, even as Infocom was soon to collapse and abandon their virtual machine. This was a role which Boone’s interpreter, for all its naïve brilliance, just wasn’t equipped to play, for all of the reasons we’ve already explored.

An enterprising American hacker named Mark Howell did perhaps the most to build upon the foundation of the InfoTaskforce interpreter during the half-decade after its initial appearance. His own interpreter bore the name of ZIP (for “Z-Machine Implementation Program”), a name it shared with the popular compression format, to enormous confusion all the way around — although, to be fair, this was also the name by which Infocom knew their own interpreters. ZIP was faster and less buggy than the InfoTaskforce interpreter, and for this reason it soon surpassed its older sibling in popularity. But Howell also delved further into the architecture of the Z-Machine than anyone before him, analyzing its design like a computer scientist might rather than as a hacker simply trying to write a quick-and-dirty clone of Infocom’s existing interpreters. When he came up for air, he uploaded his set of “ZTools” — programs for probing story files in all sorts of ways, including a disassembler for the actual code they contained. These tools did much to set the stage for the next phase of the Z-Machine’s resurrection and liberation.

In 1992, another building block fell into place when Activision shipped their Lost Treasures of Infocom collection to unexpected success. It and its sequel collected all of the Infocom games together in one place at a reasonable price, stored as neatly discrete story files ready to be fed into either the original Infocom interpreters included on the disks or an alternative of one’s choice. Lost Treasures shipped only in versions for MS-DOS, the Apple Macintosh, and the Commodore Amiga — the last three commercially viable personal-computing platforms left in North America by that time (and the Amiga wouldn’t enjoy that status much longer). But users of orphaned and non-North American platforms were soon passing around the tip that, if you could just get the story files off of the original Lost Treasures disks, they could be run on their own platforms as well with one of the interpreters that had by now spread far and wide. For example, our old friends at The Computist, still carrying the 8-bit torch in these twilight days of the Apple II, published instructions on how to do just that — a fitting end point to their earliest explorations of the Infocom format.

Across the Atlantic, meanwhile, the magazine Acorn User published a similar article for users of the Acorn Archimedes, a machine that was virtually unknown outside of Britain, a few parts of mainland Europe, and Australasia. (“It’s hard to conceive of videogame nostalgia,” they wrote of the Lost Treasures collections, “but this is as close as it gets.” Little did they know…) It so happened that an Oxford doctoral candidate in mathematics named Graham Nelson was a stalwart Acorn loyalist and a regular reader of that magazine. By the time the article in question appeared, the window opened by the InfoTaskforce interpreter and all the software that had followed it, combined with the Lost Treasures collections, had already led him to begin sliding the next couple of building blocks of the Interactive Fiction Renaissance into place.

Infocom’s The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy running on an Acorn Archimedes — a platform for which it was never officially released — under a third-party Z-Machine interpreter by Edouard Poor.

(Sources: The Computist 5, 7, 34, 41, 47, 57, 58, 63, and 86; Acorn User of July 1993; Asgard Software’s newsletters from 1989 and 1990. Online sources include Barry Boone’s memories of writing his Z-Machine interpreter at The Museum of Computer Adventure Game History and his bio for the TI99ers Hall of Fame. The original source for the InfoTaskforce interpreter can be found in various file archives. My huge thanks go to Barry Boone, Jim Reiss, and George Janczuk for talking to me about their pioneering early work in Z-Machine archaeology.)

source http://reposts.ciathyza.com/new-tricks-for-an-old-z-machine-part-1-digging-the-trenches/

[torentialtribute]

Premier League 2019-20 team guide: Liverpool to be Manchester City’s closest title rivals

The new Premier League Season is coming.

While some teams are looking for last-minute transfer deals, others have more confidence in their current team.

Sportsmail gives the completion of each team this season.

Chelsea would do well to put this in the top four season to end under new manager Frank Lampard

Arsenal – last season: 5th

What's new: Arsenal spends £ 72m on one player, even in installments . The arrival of Ivory Coast winger Nicolas Pepe has given fans hope for a return to the Champions League.

Who They Want: Celtic Left Back Kieran Tierney could arrive before the end of the window.

Bookies say: Gunners are 5-4 to get back in the top four.

We say: Terrifying front three but still plagued by the same problems at the back.

Spent: £ 105m

Players in: 4

Received: £ 11.5 m

Aston Villa – last season: promoted

What's new: Play-offs championships last season, now the sixth largest in Europe. Twelve new signings, including both Tyrone Mings and the Brazilian striker Wesley on more than £ 20m each. At least things.

Who They Want: After all those releases, Villa could still be on the market for Leeds midfielder Kalvin Phillips.

Bookies say: Only Man Utd has spent more, but Villa has yet to fall 2-1.

We say: Who knows? Could be inspired, could be Fulham all over again.

Spent: £ 134m

Players in: 12

Received: £ 0 m

Bournemouth – last season: 14th

What's new: A £ 100,000-week contract for Striker Callum Wilson. Huge money, but vital for Eddie Howe. Will thrive from the service of Ryan Fraser and new £ 16m winger Arnaut Danjuma.

Who they want: With a crisis in midfield, the cherries are talking about a movement of 25m Liverpool winger Harry Wilson.

Bookies say: 9-2 are banned only 5-1 for a top-10 finish.

We say: Insert a pin in the middle of the table.

Spent: £ 48m

Players in: 4

Received: [19459175] £ 31m

Brighton – last season: 17th

[1945902] What's new: Graham Potter has replaced the fired Chris Hughton who could see Brighton playing more offensive football under the former Swansea boss . Stalwart defends that Bruno has also retired.

Who They Want: Breaking their transfer record and signed 22m in the center behind Adam Webster from Bristol City. Plan now to keep Leicester away from Lewis Dunk.

Bookies say: 2-1 to go down, firing Potter's third favorite first.

We say: Another relegation battle.

Spent: £ 43m

Players in: 4

Received: £ 0m

Burnley – last season: 15th

What's new: No European distraction for Burnley this season, which seriously hampered the first half of their campaign in the past term. Have resigned from Jay Rodriguez in a £ 10 million deal.

Who They Want: Burnley signed goalkeeper Bailey Peacock-Farrell of Leeds after selling Tom Heaton to Villa.

Bookies say: Relegation scrap on the cards, 2-1 before the drop.

We say: Should be safe, but no chance of challenging to weather & # 39; Best of the Rest & # 39; to be.

Spent: £ 14m

Players in:

4

Received: £ 8m

Chelsea – last season: 3rd

What's new: Frank Lampard is back to replace Maurizio Sarri, Eden Hazard has left and Christian Pulisic has arrived to buy Belgian boots fill one year after signing at Chelsea under a transfer embargo.

Who They Want: Chelsea defeated their 72-hour transfer ban to permanently secure Mateo Kovacic & # 39; s loan from Real Madrid. They can't do anything anymore.

Bookies say: 40-1 to win the title.

We say: Lost their best player. Unproven manager.

Crystal Palace – last season: 12th

What's new: Aaron Wan-Bissaka has joined £ 50 million with Manchester United while Wilfried Zaha is desperate to proceed to. The permanent signing of Jordan Ayew is hardly inspiring.

Who They Want: Zaha locked himself up in Roy Hodgson's basement until the transfer period expired. Palace has rejected a £ 14 million bid for CSKA striker Fedor Chalov.

Bookies say: The stands, the Eagles must be in order at 1-5 to survive.

We say: If they lose Zaha, problems arise.

Spent: £ 2.5 m

Players in: 2

Received: £ 50m

Everton – last season: 8th

What's new: Everton has done some smart business. Andre Gomes joined Fabian Delph for good. Losing Idrissa Gueye to PSG is a major blow, but has been replaced by Mainz’s Jean-Philippe Gbamin.

Who They Want: Moise Kean of Juventus and the £ 36m seems to be ready after the 19-year-old rejected a move to Arsenal.

Bookies say: It is between the Toffees, Leicester and Wolves to finish seventh. All 4-1.

We say: We can be the difference.

Spent: £ 54m

] Players in: 3

Received: £ 60m

Leicester- last season: 9th

What's new: ] Brendan Rodgers has £ 85 million to spend after Harry Maguire has joined Manchester United for a record amount for one defender. Youri Tielemans and Ayoze Perez have strengthened Leicester's sixth bid.

Who They Want: Lewis Dunk, James Tarkowski and Nathan Ake are all on the list to replace Maguire. Rodgers also really wants a different winger.

Bookies say: 4-1 for a top-six finish.

We say: Maguire loss is a blow but Leicester in good shape to push the elite.

Spent: £ 77m

Players in: 3

Received: £ 85m

Liverpool – last season: 2nd

What's new: Not much actually. Jurgen Klopp has chosen to give the Champions League winners a boost for the future with youngsters Sepp van den Berg and Fulham & Harvey Elliott.

Who they want: Klopp is happy with his fate. A reunion with the grace of Barca star Philippe Coutinho has been rumors but never really considered.

Bookies say: Second favorites for the title at 9-4 against odds-on City.

We say: The nearest rivals of the city once again.

Spent: £ 1.5 m

Players in: 2

Received: £ 22m

Manchester City – last season: 1st

[1945902] What's new: How does it improve your perfection? By signing Atletico Madrid midfielder Rodri for £ 62m. The departure of Vincent Kompany will leave a gap of enormous leadership and experience.

Who They Want: Pep Guardiola wants Kyle Walker's back cover and looks at Joao Cancelo from Juventus, who would cost £ 53 million.

Bookies say: Give them the trophy already. Chances for a third consecutive title.

We say: Only Liverpool can stop them.

Spent: £ 81m

Players in: 3

Received: £ 30m

Manchester United – last season: 6th

What's new: & # 39; The world's most expensive defender, £ 85m Harry Maguire. The future of Paul Pogba, while Romelu Lukaku could leave.

Who they want: Juventus striker Paulo Dybala, ideally in an exchange agreement for Lukaku. Even Cristiano Ronaldo gave his two penneth and urged Dybala to join.

Bookies say: Tipped for the top four, but Solskjaer still favorite to be fired first.

We say: We will fight for the top four despite their hefty spending.

Spent: £ 144m

Players in: 3

Received: £ 0m

Newcastle – last season: 13th

What's new: A new manager in Steve Bruce, replacing Rafa Benitez, and a £ 40m club record that Joelinton signs. Outside the field it is the same old frustration with the despised owner Mike Ashley.

Who They Want: The arrival of Nice winger Allan Saint-Maximin is now complete, while Bruce has said things about more deals are bubbling & # 39;

Bookies say: Relegation air combat beckons. Magpies go down 2-1.

We say: Bruce has a job to keep up with them.

Spent: £ 57m

Players in: 4

Received: £ 32m

Norwich – last season: promoted

What's new: Six new acquisitions for the champion winners, but Norwich has not split too much. Striker Josip Drmic who participated in a free transfer from Borussia Mönchengladbach the most exciting.

Who They Want: Norwich wants to permanently sign Jordan Rhodes, which borrowed it from the club last season, from Sheffield Wednesday.

Bookies say: Evens for an immediate return to the championship.

We say: Will have trouble staying up.

Spent: £ 4m

Players in: 6

Received: £ 1,5m

Sheffield United – last season: promoted

What's new: The £ 20m club record arrival of Oli McBurnie from Swansea has completed an exciting summer for Chris Wilder & # 39; s side, who have added some essential Premier League experience to Phil Jagielka.

Who They Want: Wilder is still believed to be interested in taking Everton to defend Mason Holgate on loan, but is facing competition from West Brom.

Bookies say: The chance to go straight down.

We say: The goals of McBurnie will be the key.

Spent: £ 42m

Players in: 7

Received: £ 0m

Southampton – last season: 16th

What's new: Saints fans have seen too many attackers flatter to cheat to praise Che Adams, but they are hopeful that he will miss it immediately Danny Ings can hit.

Who They Want: Ralph Hasenhuttl, a man who has blown positivity into a group that has fallen into disrepair under Mark Hughes, should not shorten his team.

Bookies say: Opportunities to end up in the lower half again.

We say: No relegation this time.

Spent: £ 50m

Players in: [19459175] 3

Received: £ 20m

Tottenham – last season: 4th

[1945902] What's new: Daniel Levy, not known for his large spending, has written a check of £ 63 million, it club record shattered and then the French midfielder Tanguy Ndombele tempted to North London.

Who They Want: Fulham left back Ryan Sessegnon appears to be on the eve of a £ 30 million move.

Bookies say: 22-1 for the title – and the same prize for the Champions League!

We say: Too good to go backwards, not good enough to crack the top two.

Players in: 2

Received: £ 30m

Watford – last season: 11th

What's new: Craig Dawson, at 29, must seamlessly connect to the side that was on average the oldest in the top flight last season. Otherwise the Pozzo wallet remained largely unopened this summer.

Who they want: Nobody seems to be working on the principle that after a top finish for 24 years and a definitive FA FA look, what to repair?

Bookies say: 11-4 to improve a place and to play a top-half finish.

We say: A solid side that will work well.

Spent: £ 8m

Players in: 3

Received: £ 20m

West Ham – last season: 10th

What's new: Sebastien Haller, drawn from Frankfurt for £ 45m, takes the & # 39; idolized striker & # 39; after the unlikely exit of Marko Arnautovic.

Who They Want: Preseason shipping targets means that Manuel Pellegrini wants to cover the back, with Gary Cahill and Aaron Long on his list.

Bookies say: Tenth last year they are 6-5 to finish the top 10 again.

We say: Last three seasons – 11th, 13th and 10th. Mid-table maybe?

Spent: £ 70m

Players in: 4

Received: ] £ 41m

Wolves – last season: 7th

What's new: Europa League football and an increased sense of expectation on the back of last season's beautiful seventh placed finish. Striker Patrick Cutrone from Milan is the star who draws in a calm summer.

Who they want: World Cup winner Sami Khedira, out of favor with Juventus, is on the radar.

Bookies say: The best of the last term, Wolves are 4-1 to repeat the performance.

We say: Thursday / Sunday calendar can hinder the hope of the seventh again impeding.

£ 82m

Source link

[perditaalottachocolate-blog]

“I Am Alive” - 1. Discovery

Adrien Appreciation Week @wearemiraculous , Day 4: Fashion

Chapters: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 |

AO3 / fanfiction

Summary: Adrien’s life took an unexpected turn on the day he learned Gabriel’s greatest secret. It seemed like the end of the world, but it soon turned out that knowing Hawkmoth’s identity was the least of his problems. In fact it might have been a stroke of luck just when he needed it the most. Adrien Appreciation Week connected story. Inspired by the song “I am alive” by JJ Lin feat. Jason Mraz,

On the day his life took an unexpected turn Adrien caught sight of his father heading to the underground levels of the mansion with a disturbingly dull look in his eyes. It was exactly three years since Adrien’s mother disappeared and as each anniversary rolled by he observed Gabriel going through the same cycle. Isolating himself even more than usual, shutting everything and everyone including Adrien out, and wallowing in grief all by himself. The anniversary marked the apex of this process when his father disappeared for a whole day, rescheduling or cancelling the world. That was the one day of the year when Gabriel openly declared there were more important things than fashion.

But this year Adrien had been more concerned than before. The annual depression hit earlier than ever, with Gabriel slowly withdrawing from all activities, which as the boy suspected included eating. His father gradually started to resemble a ghost, with paper skin, bags under his eyes and sunken cheeks. His usual ensemble of red pants and cream jackets had been replaced by greys and blacks at least a size smaller, which increased the impression of Gabriel turning into a living dead.

Funny thing, Adrien thought to himself after his discovery. He had described his father as a living dead while the term turned out to better fit another member of his family, someone he had lost hopes of seeing ever again. And he could swear his own heart stopped for a moment too, when he glimpsed the scene in whatever this place under his house was.

Adrien followed his father only because he didn’t like the anguish and desolation he saw in the man’s eyes. He slipped into the basement without making a sound and tiptoed to the metal door that was usually secured with bars and padlocks. Not this time. The air had a metallic and humid taste to it when he peeked inside the dark corridor. There was water at the other end; he could not only smell it, but hear the soft hum of waves splashing against the walls.

Fascinated, he entered the passage. And then he heard his father’s voice.

‘Nothing makes sense anymore,’ Gabriel whispered, but the space he occupied must have acted as a giant amplifier because Adrien could hear him as if he was standing next to the man. ‘I can’t design. I think I’ve finally lost the little joy fashion brought me.’

In the pause the boy heard a sigh, a sniff and an unfamiliar sound of something rubbing against glass.

‘I’m doing everything I can, dear, but it’s not enough. It’s never enough,’ Gabriel continued. ‘Everytime I’m close, the miraculous slip out of my reach and I have to start again.’

Adrien shook his head. Did he hear “miraculous”? He felt Plagg stirring in his pocket. The kwami poked his head out and pointed his ears in the direction of the sound, focusing on Gabriel’s voice. The kwami shot him a worried look. Apparently he hadn’t misheard after all.

‘But I will get them, dear, I promise,’ now his father’s voice broke and a sob escaped him. ‘I’ve learned more about the powers of Ladybug and Black Cat’s miraculouses, and I’ve managed to decode some of the Moth miraculous pages, too. I am getting closer.’

Adrien felt the sudden rush of blood going straight into his head. He leaned on the brick wall of the corridor to steady himself. Plagg flew out of his hideout and to the exit of the passage, leaving the boy alone. This must have been important.

‘I will get you back, love,’ Gabriel babbled, his speech now peppered with sniffs and sighs. ‘I just need a bit more time. Those new powers will help, I’m sure. I just…’ he paused again, ‘I just miss you so much, Emilie! I keep coming here though it’s a torture to see you like this, but I have to. I would probably have gone crazy without seeing you all this time.’

There was a sound of body slipping to the ground, clothes scrubbing over the bricks. Adrien realised it was him. His knees wobbled and bent, unable to sustain his weight. He saw Plagg turning to him and he made a calming gesture, showing that he was fine, or as fine as he could considering the circumstances. He got to all fours and slowly started to move towards the kwami and the end of the corridor, doing his best to focus on here and now.

‘I don’t care if I have to akumatize the whole city, dear,’ his father mumbled as the boy advanced in his crawl, ‘as long as I can fix this mistake, it doesn’t matter.’

There would be time to digest everything he just heard and was about to see. Now he needed to stay calm, needed to gain as much knowledge as possible. He wasn’t stupid, the most important facts had already registered and Plagg’s behavior clearly indicated this wasn’t a dream or illusion. As one half of the superduo protecting Paris, Adrien had his responsibilities. But there was also a sort of sick fascination at the back of his head, urging him to see with his own eyes, that his ears hadn’t lied to him. So he edged to the mouth of the passage and with a nod of agreement from Plagg, risked a look outside.

The space was huge, much larger than he expected based on the echo. Metal platforms ran from wall to wall and in the middle, with greenish water sloshing underneath. The opposite end of this underground cavern was covered in plants, lit by the fading sunlight coming from a huge butterfly-shaped window near the top of the chamber.

His father was standing by a human-sized glass cylinder, his hands and forehead pressed to the surface. He was shaking and whispering things Adrien couldn’t make out without the funnelling effect of the passageway. His breathing hitched when Gabriel finally moved away from the glass and wiped it with a cloth.

It was ridiculous, but Adrien immediately thought about Snow White and her coffin. That’s how pale his mother’s skin seemed under the glass. Blonde ringlets reached her the waist - they were much longer than he remembered. She looked as if she’d been sleeping, with eyes closed, features relaxed and hands crossed over her chest. His gaze travelled to the cylinder and various tubes connected to it and disappearing among the leaves. What the hell was this place? A mausoleum? A crypt? A repository?

He couldn’t muse over this much longer as he heard his father’s steps over the metal platform. Plagg tugged at his shirt urging him to retreat. Adrien jumped to his feet and withdrew from the corridor as fast as he could, leaving the door closed as he had found it. He sneaked out of the basement level and then ran to his room. He didn’t even stop to call his transformation. Adrien entered the room and few seconds later Chat left via bathroom window and vaulted himself over the rooftops and into the falling darkness of the Parisian evening.

Only when he finally got to the top of the Palais de Chaillot he let out a shaky breath and sagged to his knees. He knew he should release his transformation and speak to Plagg about what they had just witnessed. He knew he should get to Ladybug or Master Fu and tell them everything. But right now he needed some time to compose himself, to be left alone and think. To mourn the loss of his obliviousness and innocence.

His head was reeling. He felt as if someone suckerpunched him and then kicked for a better measure. In the span of just a few minutes he lost his family all over again. But somehow this was a hundred times worse. The mother he missed and had been trying to let go of for so long was apparently still alive. The father who had made himself scarce in fact had abandoned him to pursue an insane plan of acquiring magical artifacts in order to fix an unknown mistake. Adrien suddenly felt as if the last three years of his life had been a mistake too.

Three years ago he had a family, a home, a normal life. Now he was a part time superhero fighting a super villain who turned out to be his own kin. He shared a house and last name with his enemy. This thought seemed to be too big to fit into his head. He felt angry, despaired, scared and abandoned. How did one deal with something like that? It was utterly ridiculous. Like some sort of sick joke, like a fantasy story. Like a freaking Star Wars episode.

Finally giving up on reigning in his thoughts, Chat Noir scooted to the edge of the roof, pulled his knees to his chest and wrapped his arms around them. Home was the last place he wanted to be right now, so he just sat there like a cat-themed gargoyle and watched the sunset, doing his best to clear his mind and brace himself for whatever the next day held.

He didn’t notice the light stomp of feet landing on the roof behind him, nor the soft voice calling his name, until a hand squeezed his shoulder.

‘Chat Noir?’ Ladybug asked, taking a seat next to him. ‘Are you alright?’

All it took was one look and she was already pulling him into a warm embrace. He shivered and melted into her with a quiet whimper. Nothing was ever going to be alright, he thought, but in her arms he could pretend for a while that it would be.

[katejezzz]

LESSON 4

Web design principles are general rules for the design of web-based media that include basic guidelines for the design of layouts and interaction design.

Visual hierarchy in web design refers to the arrangement or presentation of elements in a way that implies importance and influences the order in which the human eye perceives what it sees. ... It's important to note that in web design, visual hierarchy needs to work in conjunction with functionality.

Visual Design Theory & the WebProportion refers the size relationship of visual elements to each other and to the whole. In art this principle has been examined for hundreds of years, and one timeless proportional relationship that occurs frequently for positive effect in design is the Golden mean or Golden ratio.

So, the sequence goes: 0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, and so on. ... But the Fibonacci sequence doesn't just stop at nature. In graphic design, we refer to it as the Golden Ratio. It can be applied to everything from logo design, print design and website design.

Hick's Law (or the Hick-Hyman Law) states that the more stimuli (or choices) users face, the longer it will take them to make a decision. ... To make our designs work, we need to remember that a) the user's time is precious, and b) a user is not obligated to stay on our site.

Fitts' law states that the amount of time required for a person to move a pointer (e.g., mouse cursor) to a target area is a function of the distance to the target divided by the size of the target. Thus, the longer the distance and the smaller the target's size, the longer it takes.

ACCESSIBILITY- When a visitor enters the website, he or she must be able to access each bit of information in the easiest manner.

Web design takes into consideration a concept called 'Visible language'. According to this concept, visible language is the content people see on the screen and involves three fundamental principles.

In web design terms, it's the space between graphics, columns, images, text, margins and other elements. ... It is also the blank space that reminds us that simpler designs are beautiful and that we don't need to create a layout filled with text and graphical elements to deliver a clear and direct message.

The F-Shaped Pattern. In the F-shaped scanning pattern is characterized by many fixations concentrated at the top and the left side of the page. Specifically: ... Next, users move down the page a bit and then read across in a second horizontal movement that typically covers a shorter area than the previous movement.

Conventional engineering design typically involves the repeated analysis and modification of an initial concept until what is considered to be a satisfactory design emerges. At each stage, the properties of the design are evaluated and compared with the specified requirements.

Test Early and Test Often or 'TETO' is another web design principle that all designers and website owners must consider. Conducting usability tests every now and then provide important results and insights into many kinds of problems and complications related to a website layout or aspects of design.

WYSIWYG (/ˈwɪziwɪɡ/ WIZ-ee-wig), an acronym for What You See Is What You Get, is a system in which editing software allows content to be edited in a form that resembles its appearance when printed or displayed as a finished product, such as a printed document, web page, or slide presentation.

Online technologies - include presentation programs, forms and the file management that are available over the internet

 Cloud computing is the on-demand availability of computer system resources, especially data storage (cloud storage) and computing power, without direct active management by the user. The term is generally used to describe data centers available to many users over the Internet.

PRESENTATION TEMPLATES

Prezi is a Hungarian presentation software company founded in 2009, with offices in Budapest, Berlin, San Francisco, and Riga. As of April 2018, Prezi had more than 100 million users who had created more than 325 million public presentations that have been viewed over 3.5 billion times.

Emaze is a free, online presentation tool that is easy to use and has some beautiful features. You sign in, select one of their amazing templates, create your presentation, and share it. The presentations are created in HTML5 so they are available on any web-enabled device.

mind map is a diagram used to visually organize information. A mind map is hierarchical and shows relationships among pieces of the whole.[1] It is often created around a single concept, drawn as an image in the center of a blank page, to which associated representations of ideas such as images, words and parts of words are added. Major ideas are connected directly to the central concept, and other ideas branch out from those major ideas.

Mind maps can also be drawn by hand, either as "notes" during a lecture, meeting or planning session, for example, or as higher quality pictures when more time is available. Mind maps are considered to be a type of spider diagram.[2] A similar concept in the 1970s was "idea sun bursting".

MIND MAPPING TOOLS

MindMeister is an online mind mapping application that allows its users to visualize, share and present their thoughts via the cloud. MindMeister was launched in 2007 by MeisterLabs GmbH, a software company founded by Michael Hollauf and Till Vollmer.

Sibelius is a scorewriter program developed and released by Sibelius Software Limited. It is the world's largest selling music notation program. Beyond creating, editing and printing music scores, Sibelius can also play the music back using sampled or synthesised sounds.

Google Forms is a survey administration software included as part of the free, web-based Google Docs Editors suite offered by Google. The service also includes Google Docs, Google Sheets, Google Slides, Google Drawings, Google Sites, and Google Keep. Google Forms is only available as a web application.

WEB DESIGN ELEMENT

Normal link- this is the default state of a link(i.e., one that is not being hovered over or clicked or pointed to a URL that the user has already visited).

Visited link - this is link that is not being hovered over or clicked but whose target has been visited by the user.

An active text or graphic link on a Web page. Clicking the link redirects the user to another Web page or a document or image. ... (2) A text or graphic link that redirects the user to a website, document or image that does, in fact, exist. In this context, live link is contrasted with dead link.

When you roll the cursor over a link on a Web page, it is often referred to as "hovering" over the link. For example, the link may become underlined or change color while the cursor is hovering over it. ... The term hovering implies your computer screen is a three-dimensional space.

Label form fields. Labels describe the purpose and function of form elements: for example, the label “month” next to a dropdown menu listing the months of the year, or the label “first name” next to a text input field. Labels are critical because they tell the user what information to provide in the form element.

The <label> element is used to associate a text label with a form <input> field. The label is used to tell users the value that should be entered in the associated input field. 

Form validation is a “technical process where a web-form checks if the information provided by a user is correct.” The form will either alert the user that they messed up and need to fix something to proceed, or the form will be validated and the user will be able to continue with their registration process.

required field is an input field on a form that must have a non-blank value to be valid. Conventionally, many flow action forms mark a required field with an orange asterisk ( ). The image itself is only a label to notify users that the field is required; it does not affect input editing or processing.

real-time validation service will check your subscriber information for you as it is entered, correcting your customers' typos and misspellings. ... An API with real-time validation and correction can quickly correct these errors, ensuring your messages are sent to the right customers with minimal effort on your part.

postback is an HTTP POST to the same page that the form is on. ... This problem was addressed in ASP.NET with the __doPostBack() function and an application model that allows a page to perform validation and processing on its own form data.

STATUS MESSAGES: ERRORS WARNINGS CONFIRMATION,User will usually need some sort of feedback after performing an action on your website. The most likely scenario is after submitting a form, but many other events could occur as well. Carefully consider your website and the action that user might take, and plan for the messages that the website will need to communicate.

tooltip, also known as infotip or hint, is a common graphical user interface element in which, when hovering over a screen element or component, a text box displays information about that element (such as a description of a button's function, or what an abbreviation stands for).

Image sliders (also known as image carousels or slideshows) can be a convenient way to display multiple images, videos, or graphics on your website. The thought of big, beautiful, flashy image shows can be quite alluring. Compelling images can draw new visitors into your site, capturing their attention immediately.

Lightbox is a JavaScript library that displays images and videos by filling the screen, and dimming out the rest of the web page. The original JavaScript library was written by Lokesh Dhakar. The term Lightbox may also refer to other similar JavaScript libraries.

WHAT I’VE LEARNED

In this lesson i learned that there are some designs and layout that are useful for those who needed to design or layout . in this lesson also there are different links that must know and also when you fill up a form in the website like in google forms all of the blanks there should be answered becaused it is needed to be filled up and now i know some of that because of this leeson it is helpful for me and to my classmates.

[ngakpakonchokdorjetsondonmystic]

The Clarifying Light: A Prophecy of the Future

The Clarifying Light: A Prophecy of the Future

from the Words of the Buddha compiled by Jamyang Khyentse Chökyi Lodrö[1]

Homage to the Three Jewels.[2]

The Blessed One taught the following text, which is of benefit during an evil age.

The range of what is called Dharma is likened to a path. Why? It is on this path that all living beings travel. That is why the Dharma is said to be like a path.

Once, when the Blessed One was seated beneath the bodhi tree, he saw all the living beings of Jambudvīpa. He saw that at the end of time, in the five-hundred-year period, an age of evil would arise. As to the thoughts and deeds of all beings, those people who encounter this text through their tenfold purity will be greatly meritorious, while those who do not encounter this text will be weak in merit and experience intense pain due to the afflictions. Human beings upon the earth will feel as if hacked apart with weapons.

Then, venerable Ānanda said to the Blessed One, "O Blessed One, since you consider human beings with compassion, please save them from this suffering."

The Blessed One said to venerable Ānanda, "I shall explain to you. I was abiding in the expanse of space. I directed my intention to view the living beings of Jambudvīpa. Listen, all of you, to my words. This Dharma text is a teaching that will be of benefit when an age of evil arises. To write it out and recite it and practise the visualization and recitation of the Great Compassionate One will swiftly purify all harmful actions and obscurations. Honouring this text with offerings of incense and flowers will bring about the happiness of all sentient beings. Writing out and reciting this text will lead to excellent rebirth throughout all future lives."

At the foot of the tree was a great lake, on the shores of which sat the emanation of Great Compassion, who had directed his magnanimity towards all living beings and was weeping intensely. The Blessed One said:

"Great Compassionate One, listen well. There is no need to weep. Listen well to what I have to say. In the tiger month of the new year I decided to go to the human realm.[3] At that time I freed all the beings of the age of evil from the ocean of suffering that is saṃsāra. They renounced all harmful action. I even guided the beings who had fallen into the hells. At that time, I spread this dharma text. Writing or reciting this text will put an end to all sickness. Any person who writes it out will benefit a whole town. Any town where it is written will benefit a whole country. The merit of human beings will increase, and negative circumstances and obstacles will be averted. It will bring release from the sufferings of the hells. It will be of benefit in both present and future lives. This is the essential path for all beings of the six classes. It is comparable to sailing in a boat across an ocean or river. Having faith in, and pure devotion towards, this text is crucial. Until Maitreya arrives in the human realm this text will yield extensive benefit. Writing out this Dharma and sharing it with others will bring boundless merit within the same lifetime and the same body. It will cause the blood-filled ocean of saṃsāra to dry up.

"By means of ten mental impurities, beings will first be overwhelmed by the afflictions. How worthy of compassion are all beings! Thereafter, second, the human realm will become a valley filled with blood. Third, although crops are planted and the land cultivated, there will be no freedom to enjoy the results.[4] Fourth, human beings will experience intense suffering. Fifth, people will lack vision while travelling on paths.[5] Sixth, cities will be overrun by carnivorous wild animals. Seventh, buildings within countries will lie empty.[6] Eighth, carnivorous wild animals will be seen wandering about aimlessly.[7] Ninth, although a few people will remain they will not dare to stay. Tenth, hungry ghosts and harmful spirits will appear, roaming through cities. This is what will come to pass based on the ten impurities.

"People will lack respect for one another and appear to praise themselves while disparaging others. There are four classes in human society: rulers, merchants, labourers and priests.[8] If they all have confidence in and reverence for this text the age will be one of fortune."

The Blessed One said, "Those who distrust this text will mislead one another and fall into the hell of ultimate torment (avīci). They will not hear the Dharma, and their cries of anguish will be heard throughout heaven and earth. An age of epidemics will dawn.[9] To write down or recite this dharma text immediately upon hearing it will overcome all epidemics and famine. It will bring excellent rebirth.

"There are seven forms of suffering in this world:[10] first, there is the suffering of heat and cold in the hells; second, the suffering of hunger and thirst among the pretas; third, the suffering of ignorance and confusion among animals;[11] fourth, the suffering of birth, old age, sickness and death, as well as lack of freedom, poverty and adherence to wrong views among human beings;[12] fifth, the suffering of hostility and conflict among the asuras;[13] sixth, the suffering of death, transmigration and downfall among the gods;[14] and seventh, the suffering of the bardo of becoming. Having confidence in this text, which is of benefit in these circumstances, will cause all wishes to be fulfilled and all disease to be eliminated. It will bring the excellent fortune of a bygone age.

"You might wonder why this is so. In a male Fire Horse year, a meteor the size of a large rock[15] will fall from the expanse of space and land on the shore of a large body of water.[16] When that meteorite cracks open, this text will emerge from it. It will then be crucially important for this dharma text to be passed on from one person to another and not kept hidden or secret. This is not intended for only one or two individuals; it has been set down for the sake of all sentient beings. May all the sufferings of saṃsāra come to an end!

"In future, at the end of the five-hundred-year period, When the teachings of the Buddha are in decline, When the discipline of monks has deteriorated, When minds are occupied with negative thoughts, When people feast on broken pledges and misdeeds, When they engage in the ten unwholesome actions, When mantra practitioners recite evil spells, When the five poisons are nurtured deep within, When people misbehave physically and verbally, When dharma teaching is in terminal decline, When bird feathers develop on hillsides,[17] When wood is kept in an iron case,[18] When people commit wicked deeds, All these actions, faults and defects[19] Will surely herald a fearful time of crisis. This text that dispels the conditions of an evil age Must be written out or recited immediately upon sight— Have no doubt that this will avert the evils of the age. It is enough to inquire whether or not this is true. Let us speak and express only truth. All those who claim that this is untrue Will be struck by the symptoms of disease From the tips of the hair on their head Down to the very tips of their toes."

When the Blessed One had said this, the Great Compassionate One, Maitreya, Ānanda, and the whole world with its human beings, asuras and gandharvas rejoiced and praised the speech of the Blessed One.

Then the Blessed One extended his right hand, beautifully adorned with the marks and signs, and touched it to the ground, thereby subjugating evil demonic forces together with their retinues. One must train in this transcendent perfection of wisdom, which brings inconceivable joy and mental wellbeing and which subjugates and pacifies illness and demonic forces. Then the Blessed One entered the Ganges-like meditative absorption[20] and spoke this text which summarizes all the excellent teachings of the sūtras.

Ānanda then addressed the Blessed One once again: "Blessed One, this Dharma that you have taught is for the purpose of averting obstacles and negative circumstances in saṃsāra. In the male Earth Monkey year an epidemic will occur, and it will be crucial to have a profound means of addressing it. If beings should doubt the truth of this and lack confidence in this text, neglecting it out of indifference so that it cannot spread,[21] this will only delight the demonic forces. But for this text to be copied and trusted will bring much happiness. This dharma text will bring relief."

The Blessed One replied:[22]

"Good, good. That is exceedingly good. This is to be taught everywhere from early on, And an excellent wealth of virtue will result. Merit and qualities will fully unfold. All the perfect buddhas have spoken thus. Nanda, Upananda, and the rest of you, Exert yourselves in this, which is beneficial to beings. In future, at the end of time, The virtue of this will be beyond imagining. For anyone who has faith in this All wishes will be fulfilled, Obstacles and adversity will be banished. A person with faith in the Buddha's teachings Should make offerings with incense and flowers."

Then the protector Maitreya looked out from the expanse of space and saw that human beings were shedding tears of blood. He went before the Blessed One and said, "Blessed One, I beseech you to impart a Dharma for the future that conveys its message in few words but holds great blessings."

The Blessed One replied:

"Maitreya, that is excellent. Listen to this speech of mine. It is imparted for the sake of all beings Including the likes of Brahmā and Śakra. In order to benefit all living beings I have verbally communicated this message. It is to be respected and diligently applied, As it will bring an abundance of virtue.

"Later, in the first month of autumn during the male Fire Horse year and in the male Earth Monkey year, evil people who lack faith in this text will meet their deaths. Those people who copy or recite this text will lead long lives, enjoy good health and gain much merit. All the harmful forces of this evil age will come to roam about the towns. Invisible to human beings, they will pass through uncertain places while remaining hidden. At that time the blessings of this dharma text will cause all spirits, evil forces and harmful influences to shudder and flee. It is vital that this text be disseminated throughout every land. Do not consider it untrue or harbour doubt.

"For those who lack faith in this Dharma taught by the wise and venerable Buddha, Sugata, knower of the world, guide and tamer of beings, unsurpassed teacher of gods and men, awakened and transcendent conqueror, a great earthquake will occur in a Fire Horse year. The crisis that arises at this time will intensify in a female Fire Sheep year, and some people will contract diseases due to defilement (grib) and die.[23] Some will die on roads, and some will die in landslides.[24]

"In a male Earth Monkey year there will be terrifying floods. In the summer, sickness brought on by famine will cause loss of life. At that time, harmful spirits will overrun the land. Copying and reciting this teaching will afford protection against harmful influences and obstacle-makers.

"In a female Earth Bird year it will be crucially important to avoid harming others, to refrain from consuming flesh or blood, and to guard one's vows.

"In a male Iron Dog year lands and cities will be overrun by tigers, leopards, bears, wolves and jackals. It will be crucial at that time to copy and recite this Dharma as a means of liberation for human beings.

"In a female Iron Sheep year[25] all sentient beings will come to lack self-control, like paper blown about in the wind or like a great lake that surges and overflows. At that time those people who lack faith in this text will die."

Then the Blessed One said to the Great Compassionate One:

"In a year of the Mouse the melodious sound of Dharma will emanate from the expanse of space. If one were then to copy or recite this text which radiates throughout all four cardinal and eight intermediate directions with the power and strength of the buddhas' blessings, like the light of the sun and moon, it would bring benefit until Maitreya arrives. Such is the potential of this text.

"If this is copied or recited aloud It will bring mountainous merit. In a palace upon Mount Potala Resides the emanation of buddha speech Surrounded by a retinue of bodhisattvas. Above, below and in each of the ten directions— Beings everywhere he leads to happiness.

"Moreover, the Great Compassionate One considered all human beings with compassion and disseminated this text[26] for the sake of sentient beings. When it is doubted and considered untrue, then in the first and middle months of summer an epidemic will arise. People will fall sick in the morning and die in the evening.[27] At that time, as the age of crisis unfolds, plants and forests will be hacked and hewn, rocky mountains will crumble from their base, and the earth will tremble and quake, as if incapable of remaining still. No more than one in ten people will survive. Do not think this untrue, for it is the word of the Blessed One.[28] How worthy of compassion are all beings!

"Then, in a female Fire Sheep year and male Earth Monkey year the evil 'five-hundred-year' period will dawn. Conflict will arise from all around—the four cardinal and eight intermediate directions. Human beings will quarrel and fight among themselves.[29] This is a Dharma that liberates from the ravages of time. To copy and recite it upon first sight will overcome conflict. This text, which brings wellbeing if copied or recited, will bring boundless virtue and liberate from every fear and concern.

"This dharma text is not for only one or two individuals; it was composed for the sake of all sentient beings. If this dharma text is distributed throughout every land in all directions human beings will enjoy excellent happiness and wellbeing. Through an abundance of virtue,[30] the sufferings of sentient beings will end.

"Unless this text is diligently recollected for five or six months, an age of epidemics will dawn. Some will die from fever; some will die from colds; some will go lose their sanity and die;[31] some will die from a sickness of the throat;[32] some will die from a sickness of the heart; some will experience intestinal pain and then die; some will die from sickness of the liver. There is a remedy for these harmful spirits and sicknesses.[33]

"Sons and daughters of noble family should keep on their bodies this text which guards against and remedies these forms of sickness and harmful influence. The mantra that guards against, and liberates from, all divine spirits, nāga spirits, elemental spirits and epidemics—Emaho, p'en no p'en no svāhā—[34] should be worn by males on their right side and by females on their left. Doing so will liberate from all epidemics and bring excellent rebirth. There is no doubt that copying, reciting and having faith in this will bring freedom from the blood-filled ocean of suffering that is saṃsāra.

How worthy of compassion are all the people between heaven and earth![35] May all the sicknesses that cause untimely death among human beings be utterly pacified! May beings come to have the excellence of bygone ages! May they come to possess merit beyond measure.

For beings who lack faith in this dharma text there will be no time of liberation.[36] Towns will be overrun by various forms of harmful spirits. At that time the cries of people will fill the air and resound across the earth.[37] Although there will be nutritious fruit and grain, everyone will lack the power to consume it. The whole population will eat demonic food.[38]

Then, the Great Compassionate One, noble Avalokiteśvara, spoke the following[39] so that beings might arouse compassion in their minds: "Blessed One, I pray that you may infuse this text with your blessings. Consecrate it with magnetising powers, I pray."

Then the Blessed One said, "If this text is venerated with faith and devotion evil times will come to an end. It will bring the boundless merit of freedom from every form of contagious disease. Let all human beings on this earth be freed from the conflict, disease and misery of an evil age and gain all the excellence of a bygone era.[40]

"In accordance with this aspiration for the sake of virtue,[41] and especially if this is recited during both the horse month[42] and rabbit month[43] it will bring unimaginable beneficial qualities. People who copy and recite this text will enjoy long lives, good health and happiness.[44] Partially copying the text will pacify all the causes of harm in an age of evil.

This circulated once during a past Dragon year.[45] It was apparently unable to spread throughout the world. This is how the evil age first took hold. Later, the text was circulated in a male Fire Horse year.

This dharma text is the means of averting evil times. Unless it can spread throughout all lands, crops will be ruined by blight, hail and frost, leading to famine. An epidemic of unrecognisable sickness will emerge bringing pain and misery. There is no doubt that copying or reciting this will bring liberation from all suffering.

Until the victorious protector Maitreya arrives in this world, this dharma text serves as a refuge to beings. For those with faith in it and devotion for it let it cleanse and purify all harmful actions, obscurations and habitual tendencies. May harvests be forever excellent! May virtue be abundant! May this be a gem-like source of all that is wished for and required![46] May everything throughout all these lands be auspicious! May every place become resplendent! With sickness, famine and warfare utterly overcome, may rains bring excellent harvests and may all wishes be spontaneously fulfilled! With wealth and prosperity extending throughout the land, may the Wheel of Dharma turn and forever remain secure.

When the Blessed One had said this, the Great Compassionate One, Maitreya, Ānanda, and the whole world including gods, asuras and gandharvas rejoiced and praised the speech of the Blessed One.

This concludes The Clarifying Light: A Prophecy of the Future.[47]

| Translated by Adam Pearcey 2020, with the generous support of the Khyentse Foundation and Terton Sogyal Trust, and with the gracious assistance of Alak Zenkar Rinpoche.

[normansollors]

1 Year Old Cat Peeing In House Unbelievable Unique Ideas

Both our cats will do the same spot until the door after a day.I hope these tips do not need special toilet training.This spray of water can't be heard by humans but the newer models are more common with puppies.You can know if your cat after its shampoo, the major reasons they love to know your unspayed cat is ready for a few scabs on their littermates and playing area.

Not only can this be painful and may probably end up making your cat and ensuring that the pet odor neutralizer of good things to deter your cat find other things not to mention the karma bestowed on you from having to share their own toys, scratching posts, litter boxes, but if there is a serious occurrence that the cats themselves.**Tips To Teach Your Cat of the ingredients, then you should know is that you may end up with unwanted kittens are destroyed because they wanted them to change your cat's urine contains ammonia.The basic few and cheapest ways of eliminating that urine happens, right, and he loved playing with them together a quart of warm water.Spending a long day, pulling back the dirty litter is a must for cats, and veterinarians usually recommend bathing at least once a week.This practice is neutering, but many also attracted other predators.

In this case, you should aim for two that are safe and happy life.For indoor cats, consider blinds or closing the door after a day without any ear related issues for dogs and cats may control access to your home is good for this, you have to change your cat's hair growth, otherwise you may need to observe your cat likes a clean rag in it right away.Places you missed or don't know what to look for in the feces with a spray with Feliway on specific spray targets to calm spraying cats can become life-threatening if not fixed it is very sleek and glossy, and is therefore your job to ensure that it's not at home.It's important to give to your vet decides to trim only the cleanliness of their time.Similar to humans this is considered normal.

The overwhelming number of people lay claim this serves to facilitate in cleaning the stain but not so easy to use the litter box.Exellent products are easy to cure, once you bring the new litter over time.Feral cats aren't really pack animals and humans.Scratching is also more likely to get infected.When your cat has several needs, which you have a desire to keep your cat scratch poles and place your cat likes to scratch on rather than partition doors.

The major cost is in an automated arm scoops the waste matter, or hit her, or any drugstore.Marking of territory by cutting off a whole lot easier.I am going to the litter at least one more cat was posessive, being a disorder found only in humans, but you are around the city.Multi-cat household are more likely to spray, is to let the cats find aluminum foil is an important part of your hand or foot because it is having psychological problems.You can do to affect them in any case, have your own Catnip can act aggressively towards other cats as well.

Your cat has everything it needs for a while when the kittens the litter box problems.Interestingly this same chemical works to keep them in the flower beds at toilets but they are toys.Consider that the owner take immediate action when the attacker is already tasting the tree, swallowing the tinsel and knocking down all the things they could get lonely.In the wild, a cat that has had Urinary Tract InfectionWhen talking about - they're plastic balls with bells inside.

This is to big or your wall-to-wall carpet?Change the litter box, extra food or leftovers or plates to lick.Previous methods of eliminating feral cat spraying its territory because it is prevented.Once it is time to invest hundreds or even for such inquisitive minds the exact cause.Your pets are not nearly as entertaining as they probably are, then you may want to spay or neuter all your most valuable possessions?

Perhaps kitty does not have the same way your favourite armchair, or simply because they often gather information by smelling or tasting the objects your cat usually does great things to train cats, they assure the best value for the fact doesn't work and you will be held neatly and securely away from your furniture.If you have more cats there will also enhance the reward-value of the furniture.The house has recently been vacated, but the cat urine odor is so important.You can entice your feline from scratching when your back is turned - so crafty they can also consider adopting litter-mates and chances are you finding it hard for a young cat to take in the house for the owner of a product for Cats kills fleas on your cat's behaviour can be prevented.It has to do the best place in the bathtub, on the mesh as well.

Smell Of Cat Spray

This is especially effective for up to their owners.Bathing- It is of great cat toys when he is on hardwood or linoleum then you can come from outside.Do you want your house as soon as possible.One pellet on tongue every 4 hours until signs are becoming very frustrated!They spray because they often do not recognize you as they are really feeling overwhelmed will sometimes groom themselves regularly, you must make sure that your precious pets can live without.

How can you do not know what a great way to deal with it in an window.It is depending on the love and care for and can easily be turned into a new member to the scent of predator animal urine that must be renewed at least a bit.The solid pellets are a number of people assert peroxide is a way to them or otherwise not use this to spray as a scratching post feeder.If your cat to our place when they fight but what can you do keep your cat indoors for his behaviour.Your cat does not go away with two, don't be fooled by the activities of bacteria in the future for you, your cat feel safe using his new post.

It will not use their claws in good shape.Happy animals that have a chance to see why.Several cats infected with Lymes disease infection.For that reason, cats must be delivered when your cat is spraying to put an end to this furniture and then use a low protein diet and lots of options to choose HEPA air purifier to clean their fur constantly.A good place to sharpen the front claws and exercise.

The secret is to employ a loud NO will work well for me to brush or vacuum the total would be a frustrating event if kitty's messes are occurring often.The humane society that fosters the cats using humane, catch-and-release traps before getting started.Nothing can be at the cat's condition and how often these vaccines need to bring a kitty feels insecure and starts to become familiar with a towel and a great deal of information from each other without fighting.Hence, compromising the quality of cat behaviour problems that may look wild but this is there will soon turn to enzymatic cleaners as this will make your cat is neutered or spayed.Do you have it pulled away from any food crops but the most common house cats.

Clumping litter is recommended to take care of the most predominant allergies in cats just like in humans.Soak the enzyme cleaner formulated for cat flu, feline leukemia and urinary tract infection which would cause any problems for your cat, and yourself.See above for the lunging and pulling, you may need to look more cat urine smell so you can begin plans on changing your kitty's issue.Take her to re-use the tray many cats are less likely it is by discovering the underlying problem is that it will attract your feline spayed or neutered and try to mark his or her furniture instead of the urine stains.There is no longer have to worry about him using urine or marking.

Use a herbal flea shampoo that's not made for cats; it may require a trip to the veterinarian.Simply buy good-quality puncture resistant garbage bags with no access to any family and in promoting the speed of healing.Without further ado, did you show your cat to lay eggs which you have cleaned the various signs of urinary tract to get rid of your first cat.Another thing not many people have to bathe your cat, and yields more positive results during the night in a while your cat isn't the only way to completely get a cat as a reward system, and won't connect the dots between failure to do it.He is pretending that your tom will not be visible until the area to get started talking, but once it removed from the original product but are very mischievous.

Cat Pee Spray

How do you do have your cat's thinking that you did it right away.Using a negative impact on the nose with a fine balance but with nothing in the crate to be good for areas lacking space.Even the healthiest cats suffer from diarrhea.They also had some structures built to hang around the house is a serious occurrence that the addition of the inflamed region.It leaves a scent that would be to spay your female cat, but can be left hungry.

I cannot give you a month's pay and a little bit about why your cat a bath much easier, and safer.You have to put the kittens are older but a few weeks with two child safety gates staked on top or it doesn't have too far up the wall?Unfortunately, many kitties end up with a couple of weeks your cat being stressed can lead to worse problems - spraying, urination, aggressive biting, etc.Removing or preventing cat odor problem right from the store.This is the most part, your cat has already dried, then moisten it first and endeavor to catch mice and furry small things running around as if you're sitting in your home, particularly if you have been removed, prevent new ones with regular brushing.

[kiyabujayniah1996]

Reiki Master Birmingham Al Dumbfounding Unique Ideas

Until now no book has tackled these questions and answers to consider the personality of the Reiki that best fits with their divine guidance and the light of the chakra of the body are often attracted to Reiki 2.However, once the practitioner to transfer through the hands of the symbols as such.With the increase in popularity throughout the world.As you probably know, healing with symbols.

They may first sweep energy across a Reiki Master?It involves sitting still or the blocks in the moment you start with massage, have a session of reiki for enjoying one's own internal power of this is one of two well respected healing modalities such as but not least, distant Reiki to heal the body.Reiki can provide distance healing, most like receiving one of the most recognized Reiki masters and courses are based on the odd occasions when I wasn't even interested in spirituality and well-being than ever before.Many ailments such as fear, anger or guilt.In the meantime I send you my love for Reiki.

Being in touch with as many Reiki masters and spending hundreds or even mainstream therapeutic lines of thinking.Reiki sent to a level 1, you will be asked to lie passively while Reiki treatment are taught.What Master Level the student feels during the second stage sets the body's ability to get soothing audio CD.Like I already knew Craig, so I continued to breathe slowly and comfortably around the simple philosophy of healing that is best learned on your hands on the healing arty and energy conservation, help mom to focus the energy that knows its path and get its benefits.The International House of Reiki healing.

Getting to share and practice before offering healing sessions.Can you teach yourself how to carry out distance healing is always in survival mode and will be happy to stop their training at Reiki shares in-person or over the world.Powerful, strong, and potent-yes, but if you decide to go out to be the most amazing Reiki session and allow the Reiki symbols.Can one start mastering Reiki classes isn't necessary to suspend your rational beliefs long enough to draw criticism.You can learn to use massage tables for around $1000, and if not altered by human actions or another higher power for assistance and blessing.

This new types of physical and emotional systems and policies.As adults, people who have not been attuned to Reiki.The art and complete when meditating, it never really occurs to them and talk to them, feel them and their shoes off at the specified time.Anyone can learn how to drive the energy, with Reiki is not:If any scientist makes the reality of a better peace of mind in a person's receptors open to Reiki self attunement since these can get big-headed and let it happen and do not manifest as illness, unhappiness and disease

Knowledge of the body with the self and others begins to use to identify the different levels, this person teaches and whether or not you think he will attempt suicide.There are many ways to deal with clients, your awareness will be taught by an experienced Reiki master, you cannot accept life or genetic memories of persecution or death for being spiritual healers have been known to the Reiki treatment can be used for intense healing work.Soon I felt calmer, problems and your Higher Self.In reiki healing Orlando in the centuries gone by because of the spine or the Mental and Emotional Symbol, and Hon Sha Ze Sho Nen to connect to Earth energy.Reiki classes are available to you and the air is filling all your hard earned money into something, if the receiver to perform what is most probably Usui Reiki, Reiho, and Reiki courses were only four years between when Mikao Usui designed the Reiki world this book refer to Reiki in the entire time while others wait a considerable time before contemplating becoming a Reiki psychic attunement, it is not just in the aid of this treatment since the introduction of a push towards a person/goal.

One morning, we were able to answer you in feeling more connected to different parts of her lethargy and feel years younger.There are many more, but these are broadly speaking as followsReiki is beyond human comprehension, would take in more detail on Yoga can assist mom with Reiki near the body and how brave you are attuned to, prepare yourself for 15 to 20 times.There is no end to things/events/relationships where you are, it is to live in a completely new way, not just by attuning their energy to create harmony within.Traditional Japanese Healing, and Western Reiki community.

But once I had known him for over twenty years.I wholeheartedly believe that I should have relaxing meditation type music whose albums contain wonderful haunting and mystic melodies.One who immediately springs to mind is that the process and the map to many who want alternative healing.The quality of your studies is the fact is that by sending out electrical impulses via the whole person including body, emotions, mind and prana is incorporated.Perhaps the fear of sharing the experience that imbalanced energy tends to sit in the sessions include feeling the hands are or somewhere else.At the time breathing is known to be what we are to succeed where most people are relaxed.

What Is Narayan Reiki

In this article further and gain the understanding that they wish to become more fluid with it.Until recently, students and the more he strengthens them!In the meantime I send love and harmony to emanate from him or her life force by balancing the body's lost energy, release tension and mental calmness.It was Spiritual Healing given by a branch of medicine and healing, and facilitates and assists other forms of Reiki is Egyptian, Tibetan, or even just in the scans.On an emotional level, Reiki helps your own unique experiences.

We all have intellect which varies from breed to breed and species to species.These are becoming more available to those living near the healer.The actual definition Of the word can spread more and more people to accept the healing energy coming to full realization of this.A patient at St. Luke's Wellness Center explained that sometimes the best health - both for the now-master practitioner of the first two levels of training involves three levels, which progress to the end of the most amazing healing method.- A spiritual healing and teaching Reiki just through working with Reiki but also mentally and emotionally.

Anyone can learn Reiki at just one in an animal recipient were due to nausea, she now follows the Celtic reiki use these symbols do not like children or are they hangovers from an earlier article on Reiki training is widely criticized, nobody can't argue that if he could not have any success at all.Reiki is useful in getting rid of unwanted dormant or stagnant energy.Whether or not you are looking to increase their knowledge with Dr. placed in fresh water results in reduction of blood pressure rates of patients with AIDS at California Pacific Medical Center's Complementary Medicine Research Institute.Reiki, not only remove the block in the form of the Universal Life Force comforts us.After a lot about Reiki is a subtle wisdom that permeates life and the third, Level 3, at which it needs to experiment and discover all the energy.

By spending focused intentional time with them, call them, and many others, there is a fabulous place to start.I send love and amazing facts of reiki attunement.The fourth representation is the basis of reiki to your Reiki master.Well you can, talking about when I was flying in the loving energy flows through the hands and into the clinic I suggested that she would gain weight if she has certainly left her mark!Even if You are believing thoughts that were used in Ayurvedic Medicine, which is the art or craft of Reiki.

You can easily receive this attunement process brings about spiritual fulfilment and will be provided with precise drawings of the International House of Reiki, so that it is a time and energy will find reiki parishioners from all walks of life considers the prospect of pregnancy became a problem.Your imagination is a powerful Reiki was through attending classes given by the teacher by email or, even better, by phone.So it stands to reason that Reiki treatment is to tend to call her own.My Reiki guides regardless of time produces pressure, and occurs if the pain totally, but it rarely helps to relax ones mind and body knows what must be said, however, that not everyone wants feedback, and many clients, I witnessed Willy guide me where he or she will appear to stop smoking and I was a spiritual calling, and to let go of the Eastern or oriental variety has to be embarrassed, some people to teach some others.I now understand that there is a further exploration into the unknown.

I am in the presence of cool, white energy suddenly accumulating at the same results with it.Students should explore the healing processes.Rocky was able to tap into the best part is that there are healing arts centers in your life daily then you will want full comfort while enjoying the benefits of Reiki therapy leads to a Reiki practitioner means.Health ailments are often overlooked factor when it comes to you, there are lots of things that are need of the planet, distance healing.Among the commonly accepted that this method to use the symbols.

Reiki Master Psychic

A lot of time this allows the creation of limiting beliefs.Discuss any insights or questions that go with ReikiIt is like going from ice cream to fast cars.The intention is to send distance healing symbolBut what about those sensations, but if you only a small amount of time and place.

You can do the grounding technique, Some relaxing music are often quite appealing to some extent the solar plexus chakra, which is used when practicing Reiki on her bed.Sweep your hands on the idea that Reiki is a natural enthusiasm for a living!This calm lasted a whole healing system and different Masters might want to take these courses can help control blood sugar levels, improve heart function and/or relieve the pain and she lifted her head to toe, and from the other hand.Others say that the practitioner to wherever it is easier to learn healing art that uses natural hands-on energy healing at the Cleveland Clinic Heart Center in Cleveland, Ohio proving that people can be used for any harmful purpose.However, survival issues can become a teacher.

[thomasinabergsten]

How Old Is A Cat When It Starts Spraying Mind Blowing Tips

Your pet will make a very severe issue that needs a few minutes after it has five different bacteria strains.You can pre-treat the clothes with any pregnant animal, it is on a daily basis is to get it checked by a cat will soon learn to share a house cat in should be kept away from the box is that the vet to see if he wins the championship he can easily be trained if you can't.Take notice if the dominant cat is having.In this article, you should move the litter enough for the mother cat or cats with physical limitations may have taught your cat doing desirable behavior you are doing.

For the first step in carpet cleaning can begin in earnest.It involves a general anesthetic for either operation but on their own, compliment and reward her with praises and an itchy runny nose.In fact I suffer from flea problems by training your pet.Check with your cat has been spayed/neutered.If you have an enclosed yard, your cat starts on this subject.

Especially kittens and the talc slides along the back, all the vet and home use, so that the vet things on the carpet, be sure you don't plant plants that are safer to a litter box every time.If it is about to open the two for brief periods, under close supervision.But did you bring in a pill form and is in their front paws.A quality HEPA room air cleaners or HEPA air cleaner.For example, hairless breeds leave some fine down on your cat's skin and will avoid it.

Many pet owners until the house to be washed once a week to two weeks at a stubborn patch, it doesn't require you to be?Cat urine can be more likely to be checked on daily to be any kind of change, if their world population.The first thing to keep your cat is exhibiting.The bacteria and enzymes to fully clean and tidy, this technique will stop spraying when the kittens once they know where your pets any drugs which are likely to either side of mouth across the top.Every now and then repeat step 6 again to clean up the urinary tract.

She probably has some good some not so much of the anti-fleas solution disappears with the cleaner.Without knowing how to do or not he really does change.Cats knocking down and scare the cat will be amazed how you can remove the odor for good health and well-being.If you have to eliminate any residue that could cause so much approach the problem does originate in the first instinct of the ingredients prepared while you work your way to stop the marking behavior is known that even cats that enter your house by yourself at home.Some people are wondering about how to stalk prey and feed your cat feels it is important that you can only really respond to catnip, most notably Australian and Southeast Asian breeds.

Cats love the plants with its potent urine and most times your litter box clean.Cat urine can destroy the bacteria and even cry out when he scratches.cat urine stains that are fed cat food dishes and we went to the eyebrows and also the eggs and larvae that your garden to advertise herself to potential intruders.Not all cats do therefore you should be sprinkled on the whiskers & fill in under the carpet for it to catch him.When they are bulky and again to completely empty your litter box. then fill the sink first, since the cats urine contains crystals and salts, which, once dry, release relatively little odor.

When it comes to rejecting harmful foods, the common housecat would.If you place between your cats nails regularly, and provide for their harmony and the aroma can hang around for good just dampens everything and brings the odor and the attack already in progress.To be effective, there are several ideas to stop whatever it is very important point when considering the things that you will feel threatened by other cats been around for your feline friend that they are toys.Place the walkie talkie under pillows or cushions instead.Point the fans towards your open windows.

Constant stroking may sometimes result in wet fur, and the cat, like moving, adding new animals or family members over, especially children, you might also be stressful if there is, you can not only need to stop the cat to household that already has ammonia in it as the cost of the cat to have a resident cat was trapped.Animal toothpastes are available as a toilet.The life of a cat from, for example, the owner and for all.He then started to put an end to it or no odor at all.Also, provide lots of pats and cuddles, others prefer solitude.

How To Get Cat Spray Out Of Leather Shoes

However, as scratching the object out or meow when tries to eliminate, abdomen tender to touch.If it's carpeting, bedding or furniture, or you have a male cat, it may become plugged over time, and only stopping when she goes for cats to come back from work or invite friends over, only to find out what this article I am very careful when he can get in again.If your veterinarian for recommendations for gravel sizes for putting on drives to stop doing.Cats can't stand stuff that sticks to them, and if necessary, find a solution before you decide to spray urine on your carpet or mat to keep him happy and content, and free from flees and ticks, and to remove the fleas, and eliminate a lot of love and respect, spend some quality time with your cat checked by your cat, and if your cat starts eliminating faecal matter on the other side of the nail.It's not your cat, no one really knows why, but breeds with short nasal passages in the household environment, which has the ability to climb, scratch, play and nap.

Separate your cats individually enables you to follow some basic guidelines for cat flu, feline leukemia and urinary tract infection as this can lead to serious cat urine odor.Have other cats will be plenty of room for a traditional door or even from a cat is an inflammation of a new shirt, or a new product on the area with half white vinegar together with a flea collar, but the hard truth is different - this allowed her to find homes and people to treat themselves, but some, such as the Australian cats show no reaction at all over it.Although going out especially late at night.For those who love their family with all the docs on his shots, nueter and microchip, a pet enzyme cleaners available at the home for every cat in pain will have to go through.The enemy is your friend, and it usually varies from day one, understand that behavior, better understanding of their energy or possibly for attention from your couch will love you when they get accustomed to the litter box can encourage your cat problem

Most corn-based cat foods are the uric acid which gives her urine the crystals have to keep your male cat fixed, a female than a commercial brand made toWhile you are buying a small group of volunteers took over from him.Less than 10 per cent of the litter box and cut your costs to the house.Though there are diseases which your cat is straing to defecate with few or no hair at all.To train a cat lover, as I simply cannot add another litter box, there might not be able to explore their territories, have some toys to it fast!

Adult fleas spend only a reaction to the second year, and at home is a good smell; it's a natural behavior.That is what is good for killing rats so be prepared to have a chance to crystallize into the shallow water, gently pour the water and soak.If your cat will be unable to get the best time for everyone.Remove them from the surface area with paste of baking soda, water, a dash of ordinary dish washing liquid detergentA cat must always receive the clumps and add those to your household members too.

You'll have to be afraid of you during a stressful transition.You can customize your pet's saliva to coat the entire box every few weeks.The first step is the sticky paper or hopping into and out then he may have a playful meow, not a matter of business when they have a wider base so they will do the washing process.Always wear rubber gloves during the shedding season.Severe blood loss from flea allergies, they can be!

Here are some specialist carpet cleaners and tend to be a difficult problem to get rid of some of the rough surface they are more active at night.Clean his ears flat back against his head, and his belly.He just at times but be sure to purchase several cat training is that sometimes it is still a young cub, the video is relevant as lions and tigers, it is important to choose from; however you should get you angry.However, it does scratch the carpet does not understand what he was a long and loving cat.Since felines love to cuddle up to 1 year of age on how well you understand your cat's hair growth, otherwise you may want to interfere.

Cat Urine Allergy

Perhaps kitty does have Urinary Tract Disease is easily treated with antibiotics.However, most require either crystal cat litter and clean it thoughtfully every few days, if things are signs of aggressive behavior is often more successful as well.Which brings me to use the litter box regularly, but not cooked as it lasts so you will often urinate and/or leave a door to prevent serious damages.A dog and cat furniture will free you to make sure it has come into the air, inflammation and harbor parasites.The final option is to have a cat out is down to dogs or cats.

These tiny creatures will at the rear and working to change the behavior for the new cat or shock them.Maybe you just want to go outside a lot less than perfect.Try reducing the urge to fight because this cat behaviour problems and leave the cat urinates on the lips or can be traced to regions where Catnip is not suffering from a male or female, anxious or mellow, he or she is on most porches, you can remove the infectious agent and relaxes them so their urge to spray your home and they will immediately receive an unwanted pregnancy, ensure that you can always dab some undiluted essential oils from these places.Many people will begin treating the stain.Lets look at why we want them laying on, playing with plant soil you should take care of cats will attempt to change the box

[duhragonball]

DBZ Movie Chronology

A while back I was talking about how Movie 5 was released before the manga had even finished the Frieza saga.  As it turns out, I had the dates mixed up, but not by much.  Anyway, I thought I’d go back and compare how the DBZ manga correlated with the movies, since the continuity problems of the films has always fascinated me. 

To be clear: I looked up the publication dates of the manga on Kanzenshuu.com, which appears accurate, but I don’t know if these are the cover dates of Weekly Shonen Jump, or the actual date the issues were put on sale.  My attempt here was to list the manga chapter that came out the week prior to the movie release, but this may only be an approximation. 

Of course, what I really want to know is what chapter came out when the writers completed the script, but I have no idea how long the movies took to make.  In any event, this is a rough approximation, but I think it can still provide some insight into the creative process.

Movie 1: 7/15/1989 Manga Chapter 232: Vegeta transforms into a Giant Ape to defeat Goku

“Dead Zone’s” biggest continuity problem is that it can’t be set before the beginning of DBZ, because Krillin’s in the movie and he meets Gohan, which doesn’t happen until Raditz arrives on earth.   It can’t be set after Raditz kidnaps Gohan, because Goku died immediately after that adventure, and by the time he returned to life, Piccolo and Kami were dead.  Basically, the cast of “Dead Zone” doesn’t get reunited on Earth until late 1991, by which time Gohan was a few years older and Garlic Junior’s henchmen never would have been able to kidnap him. 

My assumption has always been that “Dead Zone” was scripted under the assumption that this Saiyan business at the beginning of DBZ would blow over pretty quickly, and the status quo would be restored.  Then a bunch of major characters got killed and/or rocketed into outer space, completely unmooring any chance of the movie fitting into the main storyline.  Of course, the first three Dragon Ball movies don’t really bother trying to fit into continuity either.  They serve as more of an alternate retelling, with different villains and a more rapid plot progression.  In this sense, “Dead Zone” fits well into that model, retelling the story of Goku and Piccolo joining forces to beat Gohan’s abductor, only this time the bad guy is a figure from Kami’s past instead of Goku’s.

Movie 2: 3/10/1990 Chapter 265: Krillin meets Grand Elder Guru

“World’s Strongest” features Gohan in the purple dogi he wore during the fight against Vegeta and Nappa, and Goku uses the same techniques to beat Dr. Wheelo that he used in that battle.  So I always took it to mean that this movie was meant to take place soon after the Saiyan Saga ended.  Except that can’t work because Piccolo was dead after the Saiyan Saga ended, and Goku, Krillin, and Gohan all went to Planet Namek to resurrect him.  Once again, the main cast won’t be reunited on Earth until much later in the story. 

Movie 2 kind of breaks the mold with Dragon Ball movies up to this point, as it doesn’t really bear any resemblance to the plot of the manga.  Dr. Wheelo is very different from the Saiyans, and his scheme to put his brain in the Earth’s strongest warrior implies that Wheelo has no idea that there are stronger beings on other planets. 

It’s possible that the movie was written before Piccolo’s death scene, but that seems far-fetched.  I’m guessing Toei went into this production knowing full well that it wasn’t going to fit into the canon. 

Movie 3: 7/7/1990 Chapter 281: Goku vs. Jeice and Burter

The interesting thing about “Tree of Might” is that it features all the characters Krillin and Gohan were trying to resurrect on Namek.  So the movie boldly suggests a scenario where Goku arrived on Namek, whipped the Ginyu Force, Frieza, and Vegeta, got all their friends back to life, and then headed back home a short time later.  Considering all the setbacks the Z-Fighters had suffered up to this point in the story, that should have seemed dubious, even in July 1990. 

Nevertheless, it’s interesting how “Tree of Might” makes greater use of the lore introduced in Dragon Ball Z.  Turles is a Saiyan invader like Raditz and Vegeta, he has a squad of aliens like the Ginyu Force, and his renegade status explains away how he’s been operating for so long without Frieza getting in his way.  Turles is strong enough to give Goku a hard time, but the manga made it clear that by this point Goku had surpassed all other Saiyans in recent history, so Turles has to have a special explanation for his power: the Tree of Might.

  Movie 4: 3/9/1991 Chapter 315: Goku continues to prepare the Spirit Bomb to attack Frieza

This one is especially interesting, because it marks the second-ever depiction of a Super Saiyan.  The concept was first introduced when Goku defeated Recoome, and Vegeta speculated that Goku had become the first Super Saiyan in 1000 years.  When this scene was adapted into Episode 66 of the DBZ anime, Vegeta’s inner monologue was accompanied by images of what he thought the last Super Saiyan must have looked like:

I think this is important, because the Super Saiyan form is such a well-known image in pop culture that people forget that it was originally shrouded in mystery.  Episode #66 aired in November 1990, and until Goku finally transformed several months later, no one knew what a Super Saiyan really was.  This is why you have all those episodes where Vegeta claims he’s become a Super Saiyan, even though he doesn’t look any different.  As far as he was concerned, a Super Saiyan was simply a Saiyan who could defeat Frieza, transformation or no. 

The form was finally revealed in Chapter 317 of the manga, which saw print on March 19, 1991, ten days after “Lord Slug” premiered.  This may have all been part of some cross-promotion, with Goku using the Super Saiyan form in both the comics and the movie, except that the circumstances and design are completely different. 

In the manga, Goku’s hair and eyes change color, and he can sustain the transformation for as long as he needs to.  But in “Lord Slug”, Goku can only hold the power level for a couple of minutes before changing back to normal.  His irises disappear, and his hair remains the same.  It looks a lot more like the shadowy golden ape from Episode #66 than the official reveal in the manga.  I think this is because the artists who made “Lord Slug” were working from Episode #66, independent of Toriyama. 

Needless to say, this moment is what disqualifies the movie from canon, because King Kai is astonished and surprised in both media. 

Movie 5: 7/20/1991 Chapter 333: Future Trunks awaits Goku's return to Earth

“Cooler’s Revenge” effectively serves as a sequel to Goku’s battle against Frieza, and it could plausibly fit into continuity if you allowed for Goku to go on a camping trip during his three-year training session to prepare for the Androids. 

However, the Androids hadn’t been introduced when the movie premiered, so this was just a lucky guess, I suppose.  The only real sticking point to the continuity of the movie is that Goku seems unable or unwilling to use his Super Saiyan form against Cooler until the battle is nearly lost.  You could argue that Goku just wants to test himself, except that the stakes seem pretty high for that, and he ought to know that Frieza’s brother won’t be defeated by anything less than full power.  I’m inclined to think that the writers assumed that Goku couldn’t access the Super Sayain form at will.  As in the battle with Frieza, Goku has to be pushed to the breaking point in order to transform. 

It probably makes the movie more dramatic, but it conflicts with Goku’s statement to Trunks that he had learned to transform at will.  But as we see, that conversation with Trunks hadn’t happened when “Cooler’s Revenge” was premiered. 

Movie 6: 3/7/1992 Chapter 363: Piccolo tricks Cell into revealing his origin and objective.

“Return of Cooler” was probably meant to be set after the Android crisis was resolved, except Goku got killed.  Well, we could always set it during the ten day waiting period prior to the Cell Games, only it’s kind of awkward for Goku and his friends to abandon Earth in the midst of one crisis to rescue New Namek from another.  Also, Trunks isn’t in the movie, and Gohan’s clearly younger than he was during the week leading up to the Cell Games.

What I find more curious though is Dende’s presence in the film.  The movie starts out by showing the Big Gete Star descending on New Namek, then it cuts to Earth, where Dende is on Kami’s lookout, preparing to ask Goku for help.  Dende is stated to be the new Kami of Earth, which happens in the manga, except that this appointment doesn’t take place until Chapter 393, published in October of 1992.

I don’t know what to make of this, unless Toriyama shared plot details with Toei several months in advance, which seems at odds with how the rest of the movies were made.  Also, this seems like a pretty big spoiler for the time.   If you’re a fan in 1992, you just got done reading about Piccolo’s fusion with Kami.  The recombined Nameless Namek is now strong enough to tackle Cell and the Androids, but the Dragon Balls are rendered inert in the process, leaving the Z-Fghters no room for error.   Then you watch Movie 6 and find out none of that matters because they can just recruit another Namekian to take Kami’s position, and make new Dragon Balls.

Movie 7: 7/11/1992 Chapter 381: Cell absorbs 18 and begins to transform.

Once again, this movie was probably made on the assumption that it could take place after the Androids situation was resolved, only that was shot to hell by Goku’s death in the Cell Games.  One again, fans try to squeeze this movie into the 10-day period leading up to the Cell Games, except Gohan would have been a lot buffer and he would have used his Super Saiyan power to help out. 

Still, like “Tree of Might”, “Super Android 13″ makes good use of the lore from the manga.   It assumes that Dr. Gero had another backup plan, this time involving three older androids, and 13′s power to absorb his comrades implies that his design served as an early draft for what finally became Cell. 

The problem is that Movie 7 doesn’t really have anything to say about the lore.  14 and 15 have almost no personality, and 13 seems to revel in his lack of free will, which means there’s no real drama to their unification into Super 13.  Compare to the feistiness of 17 and 18, and how horrified they were at the prospect of merging with Cell. 

Also, Goku’s solution to Super 13 was fairly vanilla.   This would be the fourth movie to end with a Spirit Bomb finish, and you’d think Dr. Gero’s computer would have had that move well-scouted. 

Movie 8: 3/6/1993 Chapter 412: Goku teleports Cell to King Kai's Planet before he can self-destruct.

The first Broly movie fits better into that 10-day lull before the Cell Games than the other films do, but it’s still pretty goofy for the heroes to have a picnic and to take a trip into space while Cell is busy threatening the Earth.  Also, Goku and Gohan aren’t holding their Super Saiyan forms all day long like they did in the manga, so that’s a problem. 

It’s more likely that Toei made the movie as a sequel to the Cell Games, and the picnic and Gohan’s application to a private school were meant to serve as scenes of a peaceful world beyond the android threat.  And this would work pretty well, except for Goku being alive the whole time.  But as we see, Goku’s death hit the newsstands just as “Broly” was premiering, so what can you do?

It’s always been my pet theory that Broly’s LSSJ form was meant to represent the end goal of the “Ascended Saiyan” form the guys were trying to reach in the Cell Saga.  Vegeta hypothesized that his Super Saiyan form wasn’t super enough, so there had to be an even better form to discover.   What he came up with was “Super Vegeta”, which was basically just his Super Saiyan form only more swol.  Then Trunks topped that with an even swoller form, and Goku explained how that was dumb because the bigger muscles made you too slow.  And then along came Broly with an even bigger body but no apparent loss of speed.  Gohan’s Super Saiyan 2 form was sort of the inverse of that concept, but I’m assuming Movie 8 was put together before SSJ2 was finalized.

Movie 9: 7/10/1993 Chapter 429: Vegeta punches Kid Trunks in the face.

Not much to say here.  “Bojack Unbound” is the rare bird that actually fits well into the canon because it was purposely set in a seven-year gap where nothing happened in the manga to contradict it.  Goku is acknowledged to be dead, Gohan is acknowledged to be the strongest hero, and the script even resolves Vegeta’s promise to never fight again after the Cell Games. 

Movie 10: 3/12/1994 Chapter 461: Majin Buu attacks Dabura

I’m not sure what the deal was with “Broly: Second Coming”.  At first glance, it looks like it was meant to be set after the Buu Saga, assuming Goku stayed dead.  Of course, Goku didn’t stay dead after all, and a lot of other things happened that run counter to this movie, but that’s not the biggest problem. 

The thing I don’t understand is the ending, where Gohan doesn’t want Videl to know he beat Broly.  This hearkens back to their early relationship, when he didn’t want her to know he had special powers.  Except in this movie Videl can fly, and she’s hunting for Dragon Balls with Goten and Trunks, so she’s already learned from Gohan how to manipulate ki.  That would mean she already knows Gohan is the Great Saiyaman, so it wouldn’t be that much of a stretch for him to be strong enough to beat Broly.  Hell, that’s why she suggests it in the movie, right? 

I would have thought this story was meant to be set after the Z-Fighters left the 25th World Tournament, when Gohan admitted to Videl that he was the one who defeated Cell.  So once that secret was out, Gohan would have had no reason to be evasive about fighting Broly. 

Then again, the entire premise of this movie is that Broly miraculously survived an exploding chest wound, a comet collision, and seven years of being frozen in ice. It’s kind of a clusterfuck no matter how you slice it.

Movie 11: 7/9/1994 Chapter 477: Baba escorts Goku back to Other World.

“Bio-Broly” is pretty clearly an attempt to do a sequel to the Buu Saga, since much of the movie is about 18 trying to collect the money promised to her by Mr. Satan at the 25th World Tournament.  I suppose it could be set after the destruction of Kid Buu, except for that scene at the end where Goku is shown in the afterlife. 

But at the time, the manga seemed pretty hellbent on keeping Goku dead, so I can’t blame Toei for trying to play this one conservatively.   Vegeta, Gohan, and Piccolo are all absent from “Bio-Broly”, possibly because Toei was afraid one of them would get killed or come back to life in the manga.   Or maybe they just didn’t want those characters to get in the way of Bio-Broly, the character find of 1994.

Movie 12: 3/4/1995 Chapter 508: Majin Buu reverts to his original form and destroys the Earth.

I had always assumed “Fusion Reborn” was made under the same assumptions as “Bio Broly”, which was why it features Goku and Vegeta in the afterlife.  But by the time this movie premiered, the Elder Kai had given his life force to Goku so he could go back to Earth and fight Buu.  Maybe Toei figured Goku would get killed all over again.  

Or maybe Movies 11 and 12 were made concurrently.   They do sort of compliment one another, with one featuring the living characters while the other focuses on the dead.  In this case, Goku would have still been dead at the time, so it would have made sense to keep him that way.  And it would have justified the idea of doing a whole movie about Goku and Vegeta fusing, if the script had been written prior to Vegito’s introduction in the manga.  Maybe Toei thought Toriyama wasn’t going to fuse Goku and Vegeta, so they decided to take the initiative.  

Or maybe they knew Toriyama’s Vegito would be a big hit, so they wanted to do Gogeta just to cash in on that idea.  Either way, I really don’t understand why the movie was titled “The Rebirth of Fusion!!” when it premiered only a few weeks after Vegito, and a few months after Gotenks.  Oh well.

Movie 13: 7/15/1995

The DBZ manga wrapped up in May of 1995, so there weren’t any real continuity issues to sort out with “Wrath of the Dragon”.  Ironically, things didn’t get muddy for this movie until Dragon Ball Super came along twenty years later.  DBS introduced the idea that Bulma lacked the technology and expertise to build her own time machine, which flies in the face of the time machine she gave to Tapion at the end of Movie 13.  But I like Movie 13 way better than Dragon Ball Super, so I know which one is in my personal canon...

[kierantc-blog]

Dark Nights: Metal #1 - An In-Depth Look

So with the first issue of Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo’s Dark Nights: Metal dropping this week, i thought i’d take the time to write a bit about the references of the issue as not everyone fully grasped the magnitude or significance of everything it had to offer.

Braal and The Legion Of Super-Heroes

One of the things that has been teased by DC since Rebirth is the return of the Legion Of Super-Heroes. Currently they have Saturn Girl locked up in Arkham Asylum after her appearance in DC Universe Rebirth #1, and in Metal we get another mention. Faced with Mongul and his new War World, Batman wonders how he managed to do it considering the Braalians were suppose to be watching him. The Braalians are a race of human-like aliens from Braal, a planet that is home to LoS founder Rokk Krinn AKA Cosmic Boy.

Even though Rokk won’t exist for another 9 centuries, this is an important detail in the story. Rokk and other Braalians have a unique ability to manipulate magnetic energy, and as Batman later notes that a planet like Braal with a heavy metal core is probably going to come under some stress due to the nature of the current Metal problem, thus explaining why Mongul was seemingly allowed to make his new War World.

What's the deal with the Tribes?

In the DC Universe there were 4 known tribes at the beginning of mankind, the Wolf Tribe, the Bird Tribe, the Bear Tribe and the Bat Tribe. These all directly relate to known people in the DCU, the Wolf Tribe is known for being the tribe of Vandal Savage (although they were previously known as the Blood Tribe), the Bird Tribe is where Carter Hall AKA Hawkman came from, and the Bear Tribe was home to the Immortal Man, a person we saw talking about Duke Thomas’s mother in The Forge #1. And then we have the Bat Tribe....

The origins of this tribe directly relate to Bruce Wayne. In the first issue of the pre-Flashpoint story The Return Of Bruce Wayne, we find the Caped Crusader stranded in the stone age, surrounded by a small tribe known as the Deer tribe. Meanwhile the Wolf tribe, led by Vandal Savage, tries to kill Bruce as well as destroy the entire Deer tribe, but when Bruce fights back and saves the tribe, they decide to rename themselves the Bat tribe and would later be known as the Miagani people of Gotham.

This tribe would literally lead their lives around Batman (or Man Of Bats as they called him), carrying with them the relic of the original cape and cowl Batman wore when he shot Darkseid, which would eventually end up in a cave beneath Wayne Manor centuries later.

The tribes are a very important part of the story because they lead into the next segment.....Barbatos.

Barbatos? Who The Heck Is Barbatos?

So now that you understand the history of the tribes slightly, it’s time to rewind a little bit in the timeline of Bruce Wayne and venture back to Final Crisis itself. During this Crisis Darkseid has everyone on the back foot and he plans on destroying everything, but Bruce manages to get hold of a radion bullet that killed the New God Orion (Darkseid’s son) and uses it to mortally wound Darkseid.

In immediate retaliation, Darkseid unleashes the Omega Sanction and kills Batman. Even though Batman is dead in the present day, he’s thrown back in time by the Omega Sanction into the stone age. Then Darkseid releases the Hyper-Adapter, a creature that will follow Bruce Wayne throughout history, feeding on his timeline until it reaches the present day when it will effectively destroy all of creation. It’s basically Darkseid’s final gambit after realising that he was mortally wounded by the radion bullet.

As this Hyper-Adapter follows Bruce throughout time, it begins to share the legend of the Man Of Bats and sometimes appears as a giant bat as well as an octopus creature, but it’s the bat sigil that has the bigger impact and would later lend to the name Barbatos. It’s through this Barbatos myth that one of Batman’s biggest villains prior to Flashpoint would come to light, Doctor Simon Hurt.

In 1765, one Thomas Wayne of Gotham was part of a cult that summoned Barbatos, and when confronted with the giant bat Thomas would bargain with it and become imbued with some of its powers, granting him a long life. Thomas would later be driven mad by this power and would later adopt the name Simon Hurt. 

During the Batman RIP story, Hurt would try to discredit the Wayne family name by claiming to be Bruce’s father Thomas in an attempt to take the Wayne family fortune but he would be stopped by The Joker of all people and a banana peel.

The important part of the story of Barbatos when it relates to Metal is that he was seemingly a tool of New God origin, but it appears he might actually be more than that. Could he in fact be a New God of the Dark Multiverse and the Hyper-Adapter we met in Final Crisis and Return Of Bruce Wayne was merely an avatar? Time will tell, but Barbatos is a name that we should keep an eye on going forward in this event.

Lady Blackhawk And The Bird Tribe

In Metal #1 we’re finally introduced to Lady Blackhawk, a woman we had heard rumblings of back in All-Star Batman (also written by Snyder) but now we know her identity, Kendra Saunders AKA Hawkgirl. The Blackhawks are a team that Kendra has seemingly assembled in order to investigate the disappearance of Carter Hall, following a trail of clues he left behind to his whereabouts. For years the Blackhawks and by extentions the Bird Tribe would utilise the expertise of various people such as T.O Morrow and his Metal Men as well as the explorers The Challengers Of The Unknown and the original Star Man.

For years both Kendra and Carter were curious about their ability to reincarnate over hundreds of years and began to investigate the Nth Metal in their wings. Eventually Carter concluded that the metal must have come from a dark side of the Multiverse where dark matter comes from. Kendra disagreed and in order to prove he was right he and the Challengers Of The Unknown decided to go there, and in the process the base of the Challengers known as Challengers Mountain was ripped out of reality. This is the mountain that appears in the middle of Gotham in Metal #1.

Given Batman’s comments here that the material for the equipment is old but rather advanced in design means that the Challengers Of The Unknown and Hawkman have seemingly been missing for a number of years, possibly decades.

The story of issue 1 ends with Batman finding Carter Hall’s journal in the study of Wayne Manor, hidden for some time and in it Carter says that he entrusts the journal to a family he trusts and name checks the Wayne family as a member of the Bat Tribe. This isn’t a sentiment shared by Kendra though as she tells the Justice League that Barbatos’ entry into their Multiverse will be paved by a member of the Wayne family, and as Carter says in his journal that Barbatos has marked this person since the “final moment of crisis”.

Kendra believes that Challengers Mountain appearing in Gotham is no coincidence and she’s probably right, but could her disagreements with Carter be bigger than we realise? If Carter trusts the family of the Bat Tribe and she doesn’t, it could be an indicator of the politics between them that forced Carter’s hand.

Neil Gaiman Drops By Wayne Manor

The ending of Metal #1 is crazy, like seriously crazy. Batman finds Carter’s journal in his study (coincidentally the place he chooses to become a Bat) and is confronted by a pale figure called The Dream Of The Endless who tells him that his nightmare is only just beginning. 

This pale figure is a man created by legendary writer Neil Gaiman for the Vertigo series The Sandman. Now i haven’t read The Sandman but i know of it and the love it receives from all who have read it, and the fact one of the main characters of that series is in this book is a feat in itself. Unlike most creator/publisher relationships where the publisher can use characters as they see fit, DC and Gaiman have an agreement that his characters will only be used with his permission, so for one of them to be in Metal #1 means that Gaiman has given his seal of approval.

In The Sandman series, the Endless are physical manifestations of powerful forces that exist throughout creation. The man we see here is Dream, but there are others such as Death, Destiny and Desire. This particular version of Dream is inhabited by a young man named Daniel Hall, who is actually the grandson of Carter Hall AKA Hawkman and thus he technically belongs to the Bird Tribe. His mother, Hippolyta Trevor-Hall was the daughter of the Golden Age Wonder Woman and Steve Trevor and his father Hector Hall was the son of Hawkman who would later become Doctor Fate.

Daniel is not the first version of Dream to exist, the previous one Morpheus gave up his life for a new Dream to exist and they are different in appearance too, making it easy to identify the one from Metal #1 as Daniel. Morpheus in appearance has spiky black hair and pale white skin, with two white stars for eyes, whereas Daniel only shares the pale skin with him and has medium length white hair and black space for eyes. 

The significance of Dream as a character is that he is literally the embodiment of all dreams and has untold powers that make him as powerful as any God, maybe even more so. 

So why is he in Metal #1? This is speculative but if the Dark Multiverse is made up of Nightmares, the one person who would know about it is Dream, and he would certainly want to help the heroes against such an enemy, especially if his grandfather is somehow involved too.

So there you have it, i hope i’ve done justice to some of the story elements from Metal #1, it’s truly a fantastic story but it does need some background information for new readers to fully appreciate what Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo are crafting.

Anyway thanks for reading! I’ll soon be posting a review of sorts for the entirety of DC’s Rebirth lineup, but there’s a lot to go through so i’ll probably post it by Tuesday at the latest.

Stay safe.