#i had a lot of fun with mumbos design specifically and did this as a warmup | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

quaranmine · 2 years ago

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AO3 link and notes below the cut:

PEARL HAS APPEARED IN THE FIC!! Y’all, there were NOT supposed to be other characters than Scar and Grian (and briefly Mumbo) in this fic but she just snuck in. Also, my recommendation? Do not show up at anybody’s house uninvited for a vacation, it’s really rude to put that on someone else last minute. Like in some situations surprise visits are fun but I think a lot of the time…it’s just so stressful on the “host.” Pearl knows Grian well though, and she’s super worried about him, so her reasoning was that if she arranged it ahead of time he would have plenty of time to perfectly clean up his life and pretend nothing was wrong. Part of the reason she wanted to visit him was because she knew something was wrong. I think Grian’s friends and family, most of them in England but Pearl in Australia, have been worried for quite some time about how he’s doing, but living on a different continent is a great way to self-isolate.

Also I shouldn’t have to say this but don’t read anyone’s mail, even if it’s out. Pearl is allowed to be a little dysfunctional, as a treat…. hashtag god forbid women do anything. I don’t think it’s unreasonable for friends to ask for financial help from friends, or for friends to take it on themself to help out where possible and maybe slip you something. but girl there’s a time and place for it!!! LOL anyway you know that the woman who created a whole cleaning service in HC S9 would be happy to help Grian declutter in this situation too haha

As for architecture, there’s a bunch of different programs but the one I’ve been using as reference for this fic is a 5 year degree with around 2-3 years of apprenticeship/internship/field training. It is generally a pretty intense job to get. Grian did his whole degree in England plus part of the training, but finished the rest and got his license while in Colorado. He did not have his license very long at all in the beginning of the fic, which is partly why he was so resistant to taking off work to go with Mumbo–he was brand new and had to prove himself! Also, architecture work often includes compliance related things in addition to designs (from what I have read.) Grian got demoted after his stunt in the last chapter, so he mostly does things like “contact the electrical company to get power to this person’s house” or “call the county to get information about the local building codes” and so on. Mumbo is a mechanical engineer.

Did you know it actually didn’t snow til really late in the season in Denver in 1988? It’s an interesting juxtaposition for how early the snow was in Yellowstone that year. I’m not from Colorado but from what I googled most ski resorts have at least limited runs open by Thanksgiving so I think it’s reasonable for them to go together. Higher elevation places in the mountains likely did get snow by late November. Anyway, I like skiing. I went twice as a kid and it was a lot of fun but unfortunately now i'm cursed with knees that like to dislocate so i don’t dare go again and risk injury

Also yeah I’m not gonna list out specific numbers but the long distance (especially international) rates WERE atrocious then, and grian is just not getting paid as much as he used to on top of having to cover all the stuff Mumbo used to. It’s not sustainable in the long run, both financially and in that it’s far too easy for him to isolate from everyone who cares about him.

Finally, a lot of the little bits of day to day lookout information I have comes from the book Fire Season by Philip Connors, that I’ve been slowly reading while writing this fic. I think I’m around 160 pages into it? It’s a very interesting book, I recommend it. You will also get a lot of information about forest fire history and wildland firefighting in general. So much of my information about when fires are left to burn, when they’re suppressed, when they’re monitored, helicopters and smoke jumpers, Grian’s work schedules and days off, etc all comes from that book.

Oh, I finally mentioned Grian’s age in this. He’s 28, turning 29 in a few months.. That’s why he says he’s floundering on the cusp of his 30s. To be clear, I do not think there is anything terrible about being in your 30s. I do not think he is old. I do think, however, that he’s looking at a couple of fresh 21 year-olds doing a summer job in between semesters and thinking about how thoroughly he’s torched his own career and life (and how life has hurt him first) to end up where he is right now.

Cicadas! Yes, England does not have them (as far as I could tell through research.) This is shocking as a Texan, given they have been the staple summer background noise of my entire life. I would not know what to do without them doing their little calls nonstop. Also, I lied a bit in that second sentence–England DOES have a species of cicada, but it’s so endangered it hasn’t been seen for over a decade and only lives in a specific forest. RIP.

The Incandescence of a Dying Light (Chapter Six)

Someone’s worried about Grian, and the Forest Service comes to collect Mumbo’s bike.

Chapter Six: 8,724

<< Chapter Five | Masterpost | Chapter Seven >>

The other half of the fifth chapter! I hope you enjoy this 1988 sequence especially, I was looking forward to it a lot (and it single handedly made the chapter so long it had to be split in two!)

No real CWs this time. I personally think that if you have made it this far then I don’t really have to warn you about the themes of loss and grief anymore, but just in case: yep, still very present.

November 20, 1988

It’s about noon on a Sunday, and Grian is…not doing much, actually. He has a thousand things he needs to do, ranging from cleaning out the refrigerator to trying to change his car’s oil to looking into a part-time second job, but instead he’s lying on the couch trying to watch TV. Somewhere along the way he tuned out of the program and started staring at the ceiling instead, mentally tracing out the patterns in the spackle.

The man on the drones on and on in the background, until he’s just part of it. Grian can feel himself starting to drift to sleep.

Then the phone rings.

Grian startles awake and sits up, scowling at it in the kitchen. He hasn’t the faintest idea who is calling him, other than maybe a telemarketer, but do those people work on Sunday? Well, perhaps they do. Everyone is home then, afterall.

It rings twice more, so he gets up and answers the phone. “Hello?” he says.

“Griba!” shouts a voice on the other end of the line.

And–it’s a very familiar voice.

“Pearl?” Grian says, just the slightest bit baffled. “Is that you?”

“Hi!” she says. “How are you doing? Are you busy?”

“I’m fine,” he says. “How are you? What do you need?”

“Can’t I just call to say hi?” Pearl asks.

“Of course, but–”

“But the international rates?” Pearl says. Then she laughs. “Oh, shush, I know you were thinking about it.”

“Oh noooo,” Grian says. “I don’t care about that at all, we can talk as long as you like.”

It’s a lie. He was definitely thinking about the international rates, and then immediately feeling bad about it because Pearl is a friend. He puts friends before money, of course, it’s just…well, it was expensive. But worth it! Pearl is Pearl. But every minute on the phone eats into his checkbook, and it’s hard not to think about.

Pearl laughs again. “Well, I’m glad you don’t worry about that. Not that it matters anyway; this call is local.”

Local. Local?

“Huh?”

“Yeah, you were right Griba, I did need something when I called,” Pearl says. “Can you pick me up from the airport?”

Grian’s head is spinning. “You’re at the airport?” he says incredulously. “Like, in Colorado? In Denver? Right now?”

“Yep,” Pearl says. “And I need a ride. Well, I could go get a taxi somewhere. But I figured I’d ask my friend first. Are you busy?”

Yeah, busy falling asleep to daytime TV on the couch. “Um, no,” he says.

“Great! I’ll see you there!” Pearl says. “Wait, how long will it take? I don’t know where you live, actually. Ooh, this is exciting! I’ll finally get to see your place.”

“Um, give me like half an hour and I’ll be there,” Grian says slowly.

He and Pearl say their goodbyes for now, and after she hangs up he finds himself staring at the phone for several moments. What just happened? First of all, Pearl’s in Denver, apparently. Second of all, he did not know this was happening. Thirdly, his afternoon just got way more interesting.

He grabs his keys off the counter and makes his way downstairs.

»»———-　　———-««

When he arrives at the airport, in the long line of cars waiting to pick people up and drop them off at the terminal, he does not expect to see Pearl waiting outside for him. Yet he picks her out instantly, a familiar face in a crowd of strangers.

She’s bundled up in a black hoodie. The hood is up over her head, but he can see the long wavy tendrils of brown hair peeking out from behind it. Her hands are shoved in the hoodie’s pocket, and her nose is pink from the cold. When she exhales, he can see the faintest cloud of her breath.

He can hardly remember being so happy to see someone before. The second he sees her face, any doubt or mild annoyance at her unexpected stay just melts away.

He pulls his car up as close as he can to her, and throws it in park. She doesn’t know what car he’s driving, of course–she’s never visited him here. He leaps out and calls her name.

“Pearl!” he shouts.

She spins around and a grin breaks out on her face the moment she spots him. He races up to her on the curb and she throws her arms around him in a hug immediately. They cling to each other for a moment, before letting go.

“Oh, it’s been so long since I’ve seen you!” Pearl says.

“Oh, yeah,” Grian says. “A few years, right? Not since I’ve been here.”

“Ah!” Pearl squeaks. “I can’t wait to see it. I should’ve come for a visit so much sooner.”

Grian breathes a sigh, not of any annoyance or tiredness, but perhaps–of relief? Relief from what, he doesn’t quite know, but he’s so happy to see Pearl it’s like he can hardly speak. His breath clouds in front of him.

“Let’s get you in the car,” he says. “It’s so cold out here, why weren’t you waiting inside?”

“Well, it might be cold out here,” Pearl says, attempting to pick up her bag. Grian steals it out from under her grasp before she can, though, so she just trails after him to the car. “But it certainly isn’t cold at home. It’s kind of nice, actually. Anyway, I wasn’t out here waiting the entire time, I just walked out a few minutes before you came.”

“Well, don’t freeze on me before you even get here,” Grian says. He loads her things in the car, and they hop in. He starts to navigate out of the airport traffic. “How long was that flight?” he asks. “I mean, I assume you flew in from Sydney.”

“Ugh, it was never ending!” Pearl says. “It was like 12 or 13 hours, and that only got me to Los Angeles. Then I had a connection here.” She glances at the clock on his dashboard. “Did you know it’s almost the same time I left?”

“Huh?”

“Yeah. I left around noon on the 20th. Then I landed and now it’s around noon on the 20th again.”

“Wow.”

“It feels like I got put in a time vortex or something and they zapped a whole day from me. And then I woke up and I’m repeating the day again.”

Grian side eyes her in the passenger seat. “Are you, perhaps, a little tired?”

“Exhausted.”

He smiles just a little. “I bet you’re hungry too,” he says. “Let’s get lunch on our way back to my apartment.”

»»———-　　———-««

They get lunch, and it’s great. They talk about various, mostly mundane things about their lives over the past few years. They’ve kept in touch ever since graduating university together, even as their lives diverged on totally different paths on totally different continents. But that was mostly just letters and phone calls. It’s entirely different to be face to face again. It’s so much better to be face to face again.

Grian asks about her career in Australia. “So, have you designed the next Sydney Opera House yet?” he teases.

Pearl gasps in fake horror. “Of course not! There can’t be a ‘next’ Opera House, it’s iconic!”

“Eh,” Grian says. “I think you could come up with a cooler one.”

She rolls her eyes affectionately. “Alright, stop it.”

“I’m dead serious. I think you could make a better one.”

She laughs and shakes her head. “Seriously though, I mostly just do office buildings.”

“Hm, well that’s boring,” Grian says and takes a sip of his water. “We for sure don’t need any more of those.”

“That’s what most of the work is,” she says. “Lots of new development to work on! So what have you been up to? Any interesting projects lately?”

Grian hesitates a bit in replying. The answer is no, of course. Pearl’s aware of his job from some of their previous communication in the past three years, but now that they’re sitting here face to face she clearly wants to hear all about it without the constraints of a phone call or letter.

He just, well, has nothing to say. He hasn't even really received projects lately.

He and Mumbo came to Colorado a little over two years ago after Mumbo was offered an engineering job in Denver. Grian had figured he might as well dust off his completely unused dual citizenship and follow him here–it’s not like it was even a difficult process for him. It was the perfect sort of adventure to follow up five years of intense schooling, and an interesting place to put his new skills to test.

It had been that which enticed him to go with Mumbo. That, and the way his stomach had twisted when he thought about saying goodbye. They’d been inseparable for over a decade and Grian refused to accept a reality where his best friend lived so far away. Truthfully, Mumbo was a little apprehensive about moving to an entirely new country alone, so this had worked out perfectly.

Grian would go with him. They’d split an apartment and get settled in for a while and experience life in a new country. Grian would finish the rest of his architecture field training in Colorado and finally get his license. Mumbo would work on creating machines and learn about computers.

It was fine. It was fun. They had a good time–there were endless things to do, from skiing to hiking to rafting to biking.

Then Mumbo went missing, and Grian was just…still here, but missing everything that was worthwhile. He was struggling. Not showing up to work. Getting demoted.

“I haven’t really had anything interesting to work on,” he says finally. “There was this one house–way too massive, really, and the owner could never really decide what he wanted but he wasn’t so bad. But then I had to leave to…”

He trails off. Pearl glances at him and opens her mouth, but she rethinks it after a moment and shuts it again. She’s smart, and part of that intelligence is knowing when to not poke around.

“Mostly they just have me working on codes and compliance right now,” he finishes quietly.

It’s still an important part of the process, making sure that all of the projects are in alignment with local building codes. Sometimes it’s even frustrating, when he has to figure out things like getting a water line from whichever locality is closest for someone’s house perched high on a mountainside.

But he doesn’t have any of his own clients anymore. He does work for his coworker’s projects. He doesn’t do any drafting. He doesn’t touch any blueprints. He doesn’t design anything.

It’s not really the update that he wants to give Pearl. They met each other in university because they studied in the same architecture program. They spent long nights in the library together. He’s seen her rip up her papers in frustration when things weren’t working quite right, and she’s seen him start crying on the floor of her dorm room the night before a particularly major test. They graduated together.

It just doesn’t look good. Of course, he knows Pearl very well. She isn’t going to think anything less of him. It’s more, well, himself that he has to worry about.

Pearl purses her lips, and moves on. “Well,” she says, “that’s all very important. God knows we studied it enough. Don’t worry about projects, you’ll find some cool work soon.”

“As cool as office buildings?”

“With any luck, even better,” she says.

“How long are you staying?” he asks, realizing he still doesn’t know.

“Little over a week,” she responds. “I’m leaving next Monday.”

He frowns. “I probably have work, but maybe I can take off a morning to take you back to the airport–”

“I can survive in a taxi,” Pearl says. “Don’t worry about it.”

“Well, you asked me to pick you up this time.”

“Mm, well, I wanted to see you,” she says, “and I had a feeling you weren’t going to be busy.”

He hates that she’s right, but only just a little. He’s sort of glad he wasn’t busy so that he could see her, since she’s apparently decided to drop this entire trip on him with no notice whatsoever. It does not miss him that she could have done this basically any weekend in the last several months and landed on a day where he wasn’t busy.

“What are your plans for this week?” he asks.

“I want to see everything!” Pearl says, and stretches her arms wide to accommodate the words. She has to pull her arm back in quick, since she nearly smacks a waitress walking by. They both descend into laughter.

“Pearl,” Grian hisses, “we’re in public!”

“I’m sorry! I’m sorry!” she whispers. “I’m just so excited! I want to sightsee!”

Grian leans back in his chair and regards her with a critical eye. He’s smiling. “I don’t know if a week is enough to see everything,” he says.

“I am going to do my best,” she says, mock-serious.

It suddenly hits Grian. “Wait,” he groans. “I seriously have to work tomorrow. And Tuesday. I could ask off, but…” He winces as he trails off. “I kind of have a track record with my boss and I don’t think he really appreciates me calling out last minute.”

“That’s fine,” Pearl says. “What? I know I came here without telling you but it’s not like I wasn’t prepared to take care of myself. I’ll just see some things on my own.”

Grian nods. “I have a half-day on Wednesday,” he says, “but I think he’d be more amenable to letting me have that as a full day. Then Thursday’s off for Thanksgiving, and Friday too. Then of course the weekend.”

Pearl looks self-satisfied. “Good. I meant to plan it that way so you’d have a little time off.”

“So what do you want to do?” he asks. “One of them, I guess, since everything’s on the table.”

Pearl leans closer to him across the table. “Please,” she says. “I want to go skiing. I’ve never been skiing. Can we please go skiing? Please?”

Grian laughs again at the face she’s making. She’s so dead serious in her begging. “I’ll call around and see if any places are open. As you can see, we don’t have any snow around here right now. But further up into the actual mountains probably does.”

“Eee!” Pearl squeaks in excitement. “I’m so ready.”

“Oh?” Grian says. “I will literally bet you on how many times you fall.”

“I’ll take your money,” she says. “I’ll be the greatest first-time skier there ever was.”

“You will fall on your butt no less than a dozen times,” he shoots back.

They continue talking for a while, back and forth. Pearl tells him about various stories and adventures from Australia. She begs him to come visit–she came here, so now it’s his turn to come to her. Maybe next summer, when it’ll be cooler in Australia and hotter down here.

She’s obviously prepared for their trip and seeing him again, because she’s also brought photos to share with him. He looks through a few photos of what her house looks like, what a few buildings she’s worked on looks like, a picture of her by the ocean (she says he can keep that one, as long as she gets to go home with a photo of him), and even the two cats she has adopted.

They get the check–Grian pays for the whole thing without blinking–and head back to his apartment.

They’re discussing sleeping arrangements as they walk up Grian’s stairwell. He has his keys out already, and they clang a little step-by-step.

“I’ll sleep on the couch,” he declares. “End of story.”

“But,” she says, “I’ll feel so bad taking your bed from you.”

“You’re a guest!” he says. “I’m not letting you sleep for a week on the couch! You can take my bed.”

Neither of them mention that there’s a third option. Or really a fourth, because Pearl could always get a hotel room if it didn't work out, but she had asked to stay with him. She must have spent so much on flights already, it was the least he could do.

So there’s really only three options, and only two are being discussed. The apartment is a two bedroom. Mumbo’s room has sat empty for five months now, completely untouched. But that room isn’t up for grabs–it’s a time capsule, frozen from the moment he left it. Grian doesn’t mention it. Pearl is smart enough to not ask about it.

“Ugh, fine,” Pearl says, rolling her eyes. “I guess I’ll take your room. If you make me. I still feel like it’s weird though.”

Grian freezes on the top step, and Pearl nearly bumps into him. “Oh no,” he mumbles. “My apartment is–Pearl, listen, I didn’t know you were coming, so I didn’t really take a chance to clean up anything, so it’s definitely a little messy in here, and–”

She cuts him off, voice bright. “So what I’m hearing is the couch might be better than your room?”

“No, ugh, I’m just saying I’m sorry that this place looks so bad.” He sighs.

“I get it,” she says. “Don’t worry.”

“It’s not how I wanted it to be,” he says softly, and slots the key into the handle. “Just let me work on it, I’ll get it fixed up.”

They go into the apartment. Really, it isn’t that bad, but he’s embarrassed about it nonetheless. It isn’t filthy or grimy, it’s just cluttered. He’s always been a cluttered person. There’s stuff lying randomly about, like the somewhat muddy shoes by the door, the jackets shed across chairs, or the laundry basket of unfolded clothes sitting on a dining room chair. At least three random empty drinking glasses are sitting on the coffee table in the living room. And, well, he could have probably bothered to do the dishes from the last three days, but there’s only one of him and he doesn’t cook much, so really it isn’t very much even if it looks bad.

Everything in here would be so fast to clean up, but whenever he tries it feels like an insurmountable barrier. He does things a little at a time, so that it never gets too out of hand, but he can’t remember the last time it looked good. It’s just something that’s continually slipping further and further away. It feels like one day he’ll wake up and it will finally be completely out of control.

Pearl doesn’t say anything. She just walks in and drops her bags–which she had insisted on carrying since he insisted on paying for lunch–on the floor and puts her hands on her hips. “This is a cute place,” she says. “I like the lighting from the windows. And you’ve got a view of the mountains!”

“It’s cute when it’s clean,” he mutters. It’s like he knows how to be ashamed of how the place looks, but not how to do anything about it. He’s got the external motivation of another human being seeing it now though, and he’s itching to work and hide everything here.

Maybe it’s concerning that his main motivation after months on end is just so that he can hide. This thought does not cross his mind, because the sort of people who hide things from others are fantastic at hiding things from themselves, too.

“I saw your dorm room in university,” she reminds him. “You can’t seriously think I wasn’t prepared for your clutter.”

“This is worse,” Grian groans.

“Eh, not really,” Pearl says. “I think you’re doing well, all things considered.”

All things considered. Grian bites his lip. It’s nice that she thinks so. He isn’t sure where she got that impression, but if he can spend the rest of the week cultivating it then maybe she’ll stop worrying.

She walks over to the laundry basket on the chair. “Is this clean?” she asks.

“Yes, of course,” he responds, and he wants to add “I’m not that bad" to the end of the statement until he remembers the floor of his bedroom, which is exactly “that bad.”

“Great!” she says. And then she sits down. And starts folding it.

“What are you doing?” he asks, and snatches the basket away from her. “You’re a guest! You’re on vacation! Don’t be doing that?”

Pearl frowns. “Um,” she says. “Just helping?”

“I don’t need you to help,” he says, and it comes out a bit harsher than intended. “Just, like, go relax or something. Take a nap. I know you’re exhausted.”

A brief look of hurt flashes over her face, and vanishes almost as quickly as it arrives. “Grian?” she asks. “What do you think I’m here for?”

“To see me?” he says, confused.

“Yeah,” she says. “Of course it’s to see you, I missed you. But also to help.”

“I missed you too,” he says automatically, but when the rest of the sentence catches up to him he shakes his head. “I don’t need help.”

She raises an eyebrow. “You don’t? Then why can nobody get a hold of you, Grian? Why does your apartment look like this? Why do you deflect phone calls and make excuses? We’re all worried about you, you know. We don’t know what’s going on.”

“We?” Grian says. “You’re talking about me behind my back? Who’s we?”

“Well, we wouldn’t be talking behind your back if you talked to us,” Pearl replies, matter-of-fact. “And the ‘we’ is your friends. Your family, Grian.”

“I’m fine,” he snaps. “I’m sorry to have you worried but you don’t need to be.”

“You don’t get to try that on me,” Pearl says firmly. “I know you too well.”

“Maybe that’s why I don’t talk to you,” he says.

Pearl looks back at him, for a long time. He doesn’t return her eye contact, and instead begins to pick up the glasses from the coffee to take them into the kitchen. He knows looking at her will just make him sad. He also knows that he really, really wants to look back at her.

He misses her so hard it hurts. Mumbo hasn’t come back, but she did. She was never really missing, though–just separated far, far, away by circumstance.

She takes a deep breath. “Well. Maybe that’s why I didn’t tell you I was coming.”

He says nothing, and turns on the tap. It’ll take a moment for the water to heat up.

“You always try to hide,” she says. She picks up another item out of the basket and begins to fold it. “But you can’t hide if you didn’t expect me to come.”

She reads him like a book every time. It was a definite contributing factor to their friendship–they’d clicked fast and gotten very close in university. They understood each other well, and shared not only the same area of study but also the same ideas about pulling mischief on campus. There used to be a point in time where her reading him like a book served both of them well, but not today.

“I told you to stop folding that,” Grian says.

Pearl drops it with a huff. “No,” she says. “I’m not going to stop. You said I was the guest, right? Guests get to do what they want. And maybe I want to help you clean up.”

He finally turns to look at her. Her blue eyes are wide and just the slightest bit watery. He’s done that–he’s been the one to make her that worried. He turns back to the sink.

“Okay,” he says quietly, words almost lost in the water running into the sink. He says okay because he can’t imagine even trying to fight her on this. “We can work on it together.”

»»———-　　———-««

The cleaning goes well, up until it doesn’t.

“Grian, what is this?” Pearl says from the other room, loudly. She’s finished folding his things and has fortunately just left them all in the basket for him to put up himself, declining to go rifling through his dresser and closet. The next task she has taken upon herself has apparently been working through the clutter in the living room area, which is always a dangerous place.

Grian sticks his head around the corner from the kitchen. He’s finished doing the dishes, and is just drying them off now to put in the cabinet. “Let me see,” he says.

She turns around and Grian’s heart sinks immediately. She’s standing by his desk, the nice one by the window that he always liked to sit and draft at. She’s holding a few pieces of paper that Grian really didn’t mean to leave out. Because he definitely did leave them out–Pearl is nosy, and she’ll fly all the way across the world to drop in uninvited, but she isn’t the kind of person who goes through drawers.

But he did just say she was nosy. Nosy enough to read something he left out.

He drops the dish towel. “Give me those,” he says, and crosses the living room to the corner she’s in. He tries to snatch it out of her hand.

“Nope, not so fast,” she says, and holds them higher, squinting at them so she can read. Grian is, at this moment, extremely annoyed that she is so much taller than he is. He can’t quite grab them out of her hand.

“Pearl,” he whines.

“Shh, I’m reading.” Her eyes widen, and she looks back at Grian. He feels the slightest bit locked in her gaze’s intensity. It’s equal parts scrutinizing and empathetic. Like she feels bad for him, but is also a little disappointed. “Are these late notices?”

She files through them one by one. Grian cringes. He’d rather melt into the floor than be here. “Most of them are already paid,” he says feebly.

“Most of them?” she looks back at him. Her brows are knit up, and it creases her forehead.

“I, uh, get paid this week,” he says. This is another lie. He gets paid at the end of the month, but she doesn’t need to know that.

She doesn’t seem fully convinced, but she hands them back to him and he takes them from her so sharply he almost tears the paper. He puts them in the drawer and slams it shut. It rattles the whole desk.

“The top one was about your credit card payment,” she says slowly, as if she’s halfway between deciding whether to say something and not, but was already saying it before she could finish the debate.

Grian fixes her with a glare and she wilts under it, immediately looking away. He shoves his hands behind his back, because suddenly they seem shaky. His chest is tight, and his jaw is set, and–he’s angry. He’s so, so angry, and it feels like it’s burning him up, white-hot.

“Why did you read those?” he demands.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to find it, it was just laying on the desk–”

“You could have ignored it.”

Pearl crosses her arms. He’s activated her fight mode, and he rarely does well against her when she tries to be stubborn.

“I’m just worried about you,” she says.

Grian shakes his head. “I can’t with you right now,” he says. His tone is icy even while his whole body feels hot. “They were laying on the desk because I didn’t expect to have any guests.”

He turns away from her and walks partway across the living room floor toward the kitchen, and then whirls around again. “You’re just..showing up uninvited, messing with my stuff, reading my mail? Is that where we are now?” his voice cracks a little on the last time. “It’s the first time I’ve seen you in three years and this is where we’re at now?”

Pearl takes a breath. “I just wanted to help,” she says. It falls flat.

“It isn’t your business.”

“You never said you needed money.”

“Because it isn’t your business.” He enunciates every syllable clearly.

She runs a hand through her hair in a nervous, agitated gesture. “None of know what’s going on with you, Grian,” she says. “We didn’t know about this, so what else don’t we know about?”

He doesn’t answer.

“Okay, fine,” she says desperately. “This wasn’t my business. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have looked at it. But I meant what I said, okay? We don’t know anything about what’s going on with you!”

“There’s the ‘we’ again,” he says.

She shakes her head, incredulous. “Do I have to literally spell it out for you? Did you forget our names when you moved to America? It’s Jimmy, and Joel, and Martyn, and Netty, and Lizzie. It’s your mom. It’s Mumbo’s parents.” She pauses for just a moment, taking in a short, if slightly hysterical, breath. “It’s me.”

He doesn’t want to hear their names again. He misses them enough already.

“I’ve talked to them,” he says instead. Simple.

Pearl throws her arms in the air. “For hardly more than five minutes!”

“Well,” he says, with a bitter laugh, “you certainly know I don’t have the money for long-distance calls.”

“I guess I walked into that one,” she says. She stops, but there’s a funny look on her face that keeps Grian quiet. He’s still standing a few feet away from her after he walked off earlier. Her face scrunches up, like she’s trying not to cry, and after another moment she speaks softly: “Mumbo was my friend too, you know.”

It’s soft, but it still hits Grian like a ton of bricks.

She continues, and doesn’t look him in the eye. “I know he was your friend first, but I cared about him too. We all did.” Suddenly she’s crossing the floor toward him again, closing the distance he had put between them. “But it almost hurts just as bad to know you’re still out here alone. And that you aren’t okay.”

Grian swallows back against the lump that is rapidly forming in his throat. “I’m fine,” he whispers.

“I don’t believe you,” she says.

“I’m fine,” he insists.

“You need to go home to visit,” Pearl says. “Even just for the holidays. Please. Everybody’s worried about you.” She huffs a small little laugh. “They’re all worried and then they’re calling me because they think I know what’s going on. Because I always used to know what was going on with you. And then I have to tell them I don’t know either.”

Grian doesn’t respond.

“They’d be so happy, you know,” Pearl says. “To see you.”

“I’d never come back,” Grian mumbles. “If I went.”

“What?”

“They wouldn’t let me leave,” he says, stronger. “If I went home they wouldn’t let go.”

“Is that such a bad thing?” Pearl asks.

Grian shakes his head like he’s breaking free of her request. “I have to stay here, because Mumbo is here.”

Pearl blinks, and then sighs. “Okay. I still think you should visit, though.”

Her eyes drift away from his face and over to the hallway behind him, the one all the bedrooms and bathrooms break off of. She speaks again sharply. “The money problem, it’s because of Mumbo isn’t it? You used to split all of the rent and stuff because he was your roommate. But now it’s all on you.”

“Something like that,” Grian admits, and it feels like he’s speaking around a block sitting in his mouth.

Their apartment is nice. Not luxurious by any means, but still a decent place to live. His neighbor down the hall yells at him sometimes if he comes back home too late and their door used to slam unpredictably until the landlord finally fixed it months later, but isn’t that all just everyday woes of having an apartment?

The apartment is nice, but it was never meant to be paid for by one person. Well, maybe a well-paid person. It’s not like his landlord wouldn’t have rented it out to a single person if they could pay. But Grian had never planned to pay for it by himself. And while architecture could be a well-paying job, he was very much still at the entry level. He’d only barely gotten his license after years of schooling and on-site training.

And then he’d gotten demoted for not showing up. The demotion wasn’t in job duties only, as he’d discovered on his very next paycheck.

So now he does what he can. He pays the major, important things first. Sometimes they’re a little late, depending on if his check has hit his bank account yet, but it gets done. He starts to depend more and more on his credit card for other things. He pays his minimum payment every month but he doesn’t feel good about watching it accrue.

“I can help you pay it off-” Pearl starts to say.

“No,” Grian says. “You aren’t doing that.”

“I can help you pay it off,” Pearl repeats stubbornly. “But Griba, if you can’t afford this place by yourself, you need to just move to someplace else. Smaller. Cheaper.”

“You know I can’t do that,” he says.

She tilts her head, expression gentle in a way that makes him instinctively recoil. “You can’t keep living here if you can’t pay. This is bad.”

“It’s okay,” he says distantly. “It’s only temporary.”

Pearl pauses. She has a horrible look on her face, so Grian looks away from her instead. “Temporary?” she asks. The word is tentative.

“Until Mumbo gets back,” he says. He grabs her hand, and pulls it closer to him, feeling suddenly like it’s very important that she hears him and understands this. “I can’t leave,” he says earnestly. “All of his stuff his here. It’s his home too.”

Pearl’s eyes are wide. “I can help you pack it,” she says. “You don’t even have to mess with it, or look at it, I can do that for you.”

He drops her hand. “No,” he says, baffled. “I’m not moving anything of his out of here. When they find him, he deserves to actually come home. He can’t come back to a strange place!”

Pearl squeezes her eyes shut. “Griba, please,” she says. He notices all at once that she’s brought his nickname out these past few times, which is a fact that should be comforting but instead starts to set off alarm bells in his head.

“I’m not moving, and that’s final,” he says. “I’m not going to abandon him.”

“You’re not abandoning him, you’re just…”

“Just what?”

“Being smart.”

It hurts Grian. “He deserves to come home,” he bites. “I don’t care if it isn’t the smart thing to do, it’s the right thing to do.”

Pearl backs up. “Okay,” she says. “Okay.” She takes a deep breath and exhales long and slow. “You’ll stay. I’ll just help you then, yeah? Bills, cleaning, everything else…”

She turns away from him, and starts picking up various items once more to organize them. “I’ll just help,” she repeats.

She wanders around the room. She’s not getting much done, but she looks busy, inspecting everything around her for one more easy thing to do. Grian just stands in the middle of the room stock still, and both says and does nothing.

Pearl continues to busy herself for a few minutes before grinding to a halt again. “Griba?” she asks, and Grian turns to her again as an answer. “You do have other people to talk to, right? People who live here?”

It’s a valid question. It’s a hard question.

“Of course,” he says.

“Stop lying to me,” she pleads. “I already told you I know you too well.”

He swallows hard. “I have people,” he defends. “Had people.”

It’s just that–it was difficult, after Mumbo disappeared. The new friends that Grian and Mumbo had made, they had mostly made as a pair. They each knew a few people from work, but nobody to really hang out with. So most of the friends they met were people they met while doing an activity together some weekend or evening after work.

So the new friends missed Mumbo too, when they heard about what happened. But they didn’t know Grian the way Mumbo did, or the way Jimmy or Joel or Martyn or Netty or Lizzie or Pearl did. They knew Grian as one half of a pair who was missing his other half. And Grian didn’t know how to interact with them alone. He didn’t know how to go to them for help when they’d barely been in his life for a few months or a year or two.

There’s layers to friendships, everybody knows that. None of the people Grian had met in Colorado had made it to the layer where he could talk to him. They were nice people. They wanted to help. Grian didn’t know how to let them.

So he withdrew.

“You had people. But not anymore?” Pearl asks.

“I didn’t know them very well,” is all he says.

Her expression breaks again. Grian has to stop doing that. “But you know us and you still don’t talk to us.”

“I just want to be alone,” Grian says. “Please, it isn’t personal. I just want to be alone.”

“I guess you’ll have to suck it up,” Pearl says. “Because I’m staying here for a week. And I will drag you outside to go skiing with me. I’m going to make you leave this house and we’re going to have fun together. Because I think you need that. And so do I.”

He turns and stalks back into the kitchen. He’s flipping between so many emotions that he doesn’t know which to settle on, so he seeks out something to busy his hands with instead: the dishes on the counter that still have to be dried.

If he stays in the living room, he might start arguing with her more. He might say something that will make her not want to visit again.

He’s angry at Pearl. Furious, even. Offended. He could look past her coming unannounced to visit, but the whole thing seems like a plot now. She’s got ulterior motives. She’s purposefully trying to catch him unaware and sneak past all his guard walls. She’s snooping through his things–his mail. It makes his spine crawl to think about. She’s literally trying to get him to move, even though she’s barely been in the state of Colorado for three hours, and even though it means Grian would have to disturb Mumbo’s belongings.

And still there’s another part of him that just really, really wants to go skiing with her.

Because–he misses her. He cares about her. And he misses even the simplest things, like getting out of the house to go do something with a friend. It’s just the littlest piece of normalcy.

So he dries the dishes, and she finishes up in the living room. Then he goes to his bedroom and starts working there–without her, because he doesn’t want her in the room until he’s made it look nice. Safe, even. Clear of any items that could incriminate him in anything at all. The sheer irritation of the afternoon fuels him harder than anything in months, and he finishes the task even quicker than expected, his movements stiff and jerky with anger.

On one of his trips back and forth to put things back where they need to go, he spots her sitting at his desk. She looks a little sad, staring at the pattern of the wood grain instead of the pretty view outside. He ignores her and goes back to work.

They exist like this in silence, for a little over an hour.

Then Grian walks back into the living room, picks up the phone book from the shelf, and sits down at the table by the kitchen where the phone is.

Pearl whirls around and he can feel her watching him with intense eyes. “Griba, I…” she trails off. “I wanted to say I’m sorry again. I shouldn’t have pressed you like that. I shouldn’t have looked at your bills. And I shouldn’t have come here without telling you.”

Grian just nods slightly. “Yeah.” He flips through some more pages. He doesn’t say anything else to her, just continues on his search.

She cocks her head slightly. “What are you doing?” she asks.

“Trying to find a ski resort to call,” he says with a weak smile. “Because I still really want you to drag me out skiing with you.”

»»———-　　———-««

June 1989

It’s two days later when a pair of rangers come to collect Mumbo’s bike.

They ask him if he has everything he needs, or if he has any requests for supplies that they can pass on to the main office. So Grian takes the first opportunity to ask them about the Cloud Lake Trail, and if it was really closed last season.

It’s then that he realizes that these two probably aren’t actually rangers at all. They may be dressed in uniform, but they’re just a couple kids several years younger than Grian is. They want to be helpful so earnestly, and their disappointment is clear when they can’t answer his question.

They inform him that it’s their first season working here, so they’re not exactly sure about what the Cloud Lake Trail was like last year, but that it’s open right now if he’s interested in it! Grian realizes that they’re a couple of seasonal workers just like he is, except they’re on summer break from college and Grian’s floundering on the cusp of his 30s.

They’re friendly. Grian tries his best to match the energy, for the sake of politeness.

He asks them what the plan is about Mumbo’s case, and doesn’t really expect much. Apparently, there’s a bit of gossip about the case around the ranger’s office, so they do know a little. The plan seems to be to conduct a few aerial searches of the area the bike was found in with a helicopter. They also told him he could expect a more detailed phone call soon from the main office.

That’s a little amusing to Grian, given his tower does not have a phone line.

He bids them farewell at midday and watches them disappear into the woods. Then, he decides it’s about time for lunch. He takes an hour, locks up the cabin behind him, and heads to a rocky outcropping he knows nearby to the tower.

It’s a beautiful spot to sit and stay a while, and a good vantage point into a little valley. Grian sits on a boulder and finishes his lunch, and tries to think about things that aren’t so negative for once.

He’s so used to looking. Looking for fires, looking for helicopters, looking for storms, looking for lightning, looking for Mumbo. It’s what he’s good at, so he tries to challenge himself to look at something else for once.

A few feet from him, there’s a small stand of light purple flowers with narrow, silvery green leaves growing. They’re snagging their spot in the ground amidst the surrounding rock. One of the features of his tower is a somewhat excessive amount of posters left there from years past, most of which were fire, forest, rock, or plant related. Grian thinks he’s seen this little plant several times before. He’s watched it spread from just a few sprouts in May to coating the meadows in a wash of purple the past few weeks.

It’s a lupine. Growing alone, but steadily.

He looks more into the mini valley below. It’s not so much a vast sweeping valley as it is a wide little canyon for the stream that flows at the bottom. It’s fascinating to look at though. To think how long it might have taken for that little body of water to have carved it down like this. There’s some small rocky cliffs along the edges in some places, and he can see the darker parts of the rocks where the water pours off during a storm.

It’s as quiet as the forest can be. Which, in the summertime, isn’t very quiet at all. There’s cicadas buzzing all around him right now. That was something new for Grian ever since he moved–they didn’t have cicadas in England. But as loud as they are, it’s a pleasant background noise he’s become adjusted to.

He leans back on the rock and stares into the sky for a bit, watching the handful of clouds that there are today drift along. There’s a hawk or an eagle or something flying high up there too, gliding effortlessly along the air currents. He watches it for a while.

When Grian’s hour is up, he gathers his things, and walks back to the tower.

Scar calls him on the way.

“Are you there, G-man?” he asks.

Grian pulls out his radio from his pocket.

“Yeah,” he says. “I am. Some kids came and took Mumbo’s bike away earlier.”

“Yeah?” Scar says. “How was that? What did they say?”

“They didn’t know much,” Grian says. “A couple of seasonal workers. But it’s fine, I guess. I know the main office will be looking into this again. They told me there might be some aerial searches in the future. I just wish it was higher on the priority list, I guess.”

“Well, they have their priorities and we have ours,” Scar declares. “But I think I can shed a little light on it, maybe. I spent most of the morning on the phone.”

It’s kind, what Scar is doing for him. That Scar is helping him like this at all, not even accounting for spending time scouring his notes from the prior season or spending all morning on the phone. Grian needs to thank him, or convey his appreciation somehow, or apologize for snapping at him so much, but instead all he says is: “What did you find?”

“I wish I had better news,” Scar says.

Grian locks away the part of him that is always stabbed with instant anxiety over statements like that. He takes it, locks it away, and smooths it over. He’s walking on the trail back to the lookout right now, one foot in front of the other. He can handle just another conversation.

“Well, I seem to always be lacking in good news,” Grian jokes lightly. “So just give me what you got.”

“I talked to a friend in the main office, she’s really sweet. She went to pull the records for me.”

“They’re still on file? Good.”

“Everything’s on file, Grian,” Scar says. “The government will keep an old shoe for a decade if they think it’s a record, let alone anything that relates to an open case.”

Grian grimaces a little. “Well, go on then.”

“She found his backcountry permit information from last year. And…” Scar trails off for a bit. “He’s permitted for Cloud Lake Trail. He even had designated camping spots, she even told me which ones.”

“So the trail was open?” Grian says.

“Not exactly,” Scar says. “The trail was closed.”

“What?” Grian says. “They permitted him for a closed trail?”

“Apparently?” Scar says. “That’s what I got.”

“Why?”

“I wish I knew.”

“What else did she say? Who issued the permit?”

“She didn’t say anything else, so I don’t know. I’ve never worked in the main office. I don’t think she was even supposed to tell me that, honestly, but we’ve always got along pretty good since she started working here.”

“Right,” Grian says. “You’re not an information wizard…”

“I have no more information to give, unfortunately,” Scar says. “I am a wizard, though.”

“You are not a wizard.”

“I’m many things, Grian. You’re just a nonbeliever.”

Grian just shakes his head at that, leaving that thread of the conversation behind. There’s just so many questions that keep coming up.

“So we can agree he was on Cloud Lake,” Grian says. “Right? Regardless of all that, we can assume this right? He told me he was going there, his car was there, he was permitted for it, and someone said they saw him there. So he was there, right? We searched there, and he was there.”

But…

“It seems likely,” Scar says. “At one point, at least.”

“But then someone found his bike over on Pinnacles. How did it get there? Did he go there for some reason?”

“There isn’t an official trail that connects Cloud Lake and Pinnacles. It’s not a loop or a network or anything. Maybe he could have found a way between them or went on an unofficial side trail. There’s a lot of things that look like they could be a trail that aren’t really trails.”

“No,” Grian says. “He knows better than to take an unmarked trail. He said he was getting maps at the office when he got his permit too, so he would have known where the trails were. He wouldn’t have done that.”

“Grian.”

Just his name, the weight it holds, and nothing else.

Grian’s face crumples a bit. He doesn’t want to admit it. It hurts to admit it. “Okay, fine!” he cries. “Maybe he did go off-trail, maybe he did make a mistake, whatever. But it’s not his fault if something bad happened, okay? It isn’t.”

There’s another option to all of this that Grian hasn’t said out loud yet. He’s been thinking it off and on though for a long time, as he tries to fit these pieces into the larger puzzle. Nobody had any reason to think about foul play but him. There’s no evidence. But what other evidence do they have?

He went camping. He went missing. The search failed. Some of his belongings were found in the wrong place.

And that is, essentially, it.

“Do you think what happened to him…” he trails off. “Do you think it could have been someone else?”

Maybe Mumbo never did make a mistake. Maybe he was exactly where he was supposed to be, sans closed trail, and there was just something else that got in the way.

“Someone else?” Scar says, tentatively.

“Do you think someone out there might have taken him? Hurt him?” Grian is back at the base of his tower now, and he looks up at its spiraling staircase. He begins to take the steps one by one, watching as the horizon slowly inches into view as he climbs above the trees. “Did someone steal his bike? Is that why it’s somewhere else?”

“I…” Scar trails off. “I guess we don’t know if something like that happened. G, there’s a lot of ways someone can get in trouble back here.”

“And one of them could have been someone else,” Grian says. “Doesn’t this connect some of the dots, Scar? So much of this doesn’t make sense, but if someone else was involved, couldn’t that answer some of these questions?”

But the words hang heavier in the air now that he’s spoken to them.

If Mumbo had just gotten lost, or injured, or something else while alone in the woods, Grian has some hope of saving him. Mumbo is blindingly smart, with an engineer’s eye for designing devices and contraptions. He could be okay. He’s a little lost, but Grian can find him.

But if Mumbo’s incident was linked to another person, the odds in Grian’s mind plummet. If Mumbo ran into someone bad at some point during his trip, would he have escaped that confrontation? If someone had decided to hurt him, or take him, or rob him, or whatever–then Mumbo’s continued absence just looms more and more ominously.

Would he make it out of something like that? Would he survive it?

Grian reaches the top of his tower. If he looks straight through the windows of his cabin and out the other side, he can see Scar’s little cabin far in the distance.

“I’m sorry,” he says. “But I don’t think I want to talk about this anymore. Thank you for the new information though.”

He turns his radio off and goes inside. He spends the rest of his work day in silence, watching the smoke twist in the air.

<< Chapter Five | Masterpost | Chapter Seven >>

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spiderman616 · 3 years ago

Note

I wanna hear about why you love Zonic so much

@stillafanofsonic @lunasilverpelt 1. He is cool as fuck okay /j Cut bc this is LONG

No but in all seriousness. I only JUST started liking him recently. I don't care much for his pre-reveal characterization or design, because he kinda just looked like a shitty megaman oc with some generic mumbo jumbo about protecting the multiverse or whatever. And I guess it was a pretty cool moment when he DID take his helmet off, but it kinda just missed the mark for me. Idk why it just did The writers mostly used him, along with Naugus, Mammoth Mogul, echidnas, and racism to give Sonic and the gang (mostly sonic) shit to do while Eggman was being set up. While the others were more serious villains, the zones Zonic took Sonic (OR THE READERS!!!) to were mostly just silly, one-off parody zones. After Eggman's return, Sonic had his hands full, and I assume Zonic and the zone cops did too. But while we're here, can we talk about the very CONCEPT of zones?? In the games, they were just areas to go in. Which is completely fine. But the inclusion of the special zone and the Zone of Silence in SatAM indicated that zones could also be seperate dimensions or realities. Sonic had a few fun times in zones before any Zonic shit was revealed, like in Super Sonic vs. Hyper Knuckles, when he met Anti Sonic, or in that trippy zone with Al and Cal or whoever the fuck. And it's either been established or was common knowledge that those zones are either parallel universes such as Moebius/The Anti Zone, or pocket dimensions, like the Special Zone or Zone of Silence. The "COSMIC INTERSTATE" was just a gateway to Anti Sonic, but the IDEA that those zones are connected somehow was set up. Funnily enough, Zonic didn't even THINK to rear his ugly head (affectionate) during the Giant-Borg Crisis, so the Sonics solved the problem on their own. Although later down the line, he'd say he knew about all that and partook in some shenanigans with the Sonic Underground crew. The Cosmic Interstate would later be expanded into the concept of the No Zone, a zone that runs perpendicular to all other parallel ones, thereby intersecting and connecting all of them. This leads to the fact that every inhabitant of this zone is dedicated to preserving the multiverse, a group known as the Zone Cops. These motherfuckers never even took their sorry asses outside of their zone, however, leaving Zonic to do all their dirty work for them. How rude. He was involved with a lot of other miscellaneous shit over the years, which isn't really important, but I'll give a quick overview. He arrested Evil Sonic who then escaped jail after beating him up but then was promptly put back in jail. Mammoth Mogul tried to destroy every zone ever because he's cringe, so Zonic and Sonic teamed up to create the monstrosity known as Titan Tails. And then Anti/Evil Sonic was a little bitch and turned into Scourge, caused some mayhem, and was then beaten up by Sonic, who called Zonic out on his bullcrap, because the Eggman they have is not from their zone. Zonic comes and takes away Scourge, and says some vague ass shit about how he's "needed for the stability of your zone" or some shit. Which is why a lot of people dislike him actually, rather than just calling him mid. However, and this is encroaching headcanon territory, I think there's just enough clues to interpret for yourself. Chaos energy is extremely important in both the games AND in the comics, although in a more subtle way. So when Zonic says there "HAS to be a Sonic and an Eggman," he most likely means how the perpetual conflict that takes place between Sonic and Eggman sustains the natural chaos affinity of that specific zone, and when things get TOO chaotic, that's when the Zone Cops step in. He also says how the Zone Cops are fighting against Eggman N. so need to do a little bit of some zonal social distancing. He then calls Scourge a fucking loser or something and peaces out. Then the funny little jailbreak happens, and then reboot. Boom. A lot of character things here, but I won't go too into detail because I can't. I'm too dumb. Sorry :(

But now we need to go into personality, and a lot of VERY interesting concepts relating to zones imo. Zonic's usual personality is, like @burningdepths said, a lot more serious and focused than Sonic, due to the responsibility he has. It's also interesting to note that he rarely uses his super speed, if EVER, or if he even has it at all. (I like to think he does, just because. Well. He's a fucking sonic.) Sonic's speed obviously representing his freedom, contrasts with how Zonic is not free and can not be free. He's bound to his duty by some inexplicable rule, which creates conflict with the character of Sonic- ANY Sonic. Which are two very important things. (Also important- he DOES have Sonic's attitude and personality, just buried down a lot. IT does surface very rarely though.)

Starting with contrast: I always believed that every alternate zone version of a character starts the same, and is shaped into the person we see them as. This also means that nobody is BORN "good" or "evil". A bit of nature vs. nurture. A prime example of this is Scourge. What are common personality traits of a Sonic? Specifically in Archie, Sonic is a lot more of a dick. He has an ego and he's a little impatient. But he's still a hero at the end of the day, kind and respectful and fun and all that jazz, even though he does half the things he does just for the thrill of it. Archie's Sonic is a bit more grounded, although not by a lot, since he lives in a house with a family and friends and a team. He is also confirmed to be the embodiment of chaos, adding to the thing I said earlier about Eggman and him. Sonic is the way he is because the people he loved were taken away from him by Robotnik, and he wants to fight to get them back, and then keep them, as well as doing the same for others. The person he is today is a result of his character traits being molded by his situations.

Scourge, on the other hand, has been presented as what Sonic COULD be, if everything had went wrong. Unlike Sonic, Scourge had massive daddy issues, like all good villains do. The Great Peace also meant Moebius was weak and ripe for takeover. Since Kintobor is a big softie (I have no time nor energy to start on HIM), Scourge just waltzed in and took over. Good for him. He also committed murder. Now, WHY is he like this? Remember what I said about Sonic's character?? In for the thrill, has an ego?? (None of which are inherently bad, mind you) Well, so does Scourge. Sonic has mentioned that he used to be a bully, meaning that being a hero isn't a part of who he is. It's a product of who he came to be. Those character traits are present in Scourge as well. He came to find Sonic multiple times, because he was fucking bored. Even after powering up, he wanted to go test his powers against Sonic and Shadow. He is very obviously egotistical, and when taking over Moebius, referred to himself as a king. Not very humble. But in this case, he's a massive fucking dickwad, since there was no big bad to put him in his place, whether that be war or a mad scientist, and teach him to fight for the right cause with his friends.

Now Zonic, you can argue, is neither good nor bad. He is leaning a bit to the good side, seeing as most Sonics ARE good, but he's not a pure hero like the regular Sonic is. (credit to @id-f87 for some of these ideas too) Just like how the No Zone is perpendicular to the Prime and Anti Zones, Zonic's moral compass is perpendicular as well. He is technically a "good guy" at the end of the day, but not in the way Sonic is. That ego and thrill-seeking hasn't been toned down, rather redirected by the establishment that he was raised in. He's an Elite Cop, meaning he probably puts a lot of time and effort into all of that, and the multiverse is most likely no stranger to adventures. There's a lot to be said about the Zone Cops being a corrupt establishment and everything, but that's another discussion for another day. Zonic's brief conversation with Warden Zobotnik shows that he doesn't really care too much for minor rules, and if convinced that something is the right thing to do, would probably do it, regardless of what his orders are. Unlike Sonic, who isn't willing to cut any of his losses, Zonic seems more willing to make sacrifices for the "greater good," meaning that it is possible for him to end up against Sonic Prime. Like Sonic and Scourge, he seems prone to making rash decisions sometimes, and definitely has his fair share of mistakes, such as when he forgor to call Underground Sonic to fight Giant Borg. It does feel like he doesn't WANT to be a Zone Cop at times, but genuinely does not know any other option for himself. He pretty much represents the Zone Cops to other zones, (specifically the Prime zone, which might have to do with the fact he's a Sonic) and it's very hard to separate his personal identity to the identity of his bosses. Which is something I think can be explored, especially when his Zone Cop need to maintain order clashes with his own chaotic nature, outside of a workplace.

#zonic #zonic the zone cop #mario circuit lap 3 #taggging bc this is unglodly hours #luna must be out of her MIND #this is the character essay btw #baby park lap 3 #toad harbor lap 3 #waluigi pinball lap 3 #archie sonic #sth #sonic the hedgehog #sonic #anti sonic #evil sonic #scourge #scourge the hedgehog #is that alll??? idk

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strawberrylemonz · 4 years ago

Text

Innit an Adventure

An addition to the AU, lol. Instead of chat being in his head, like Techno’s, Tommy’s chat are ghosts that follow him around :)

This one is dedicated to @ivorylin for being very supportive of my first post regarding this au. This is also dedicated to @petrichormeraki for being poggers and enjoying the first part of this series, as well as inspiring it.

Part 1

Part 2 [CURRENT]

Part 3

--------

“Brother!!! Pog!!!”

“Big brother returns!”

“HE CALLED HIM STARCHILD, I’M GONNA SOB”

“I just woke up, what’s happening?”

“GOODBYE SBI, HELLO HERMIT GRIAN”

”HERMIT HOMIES HOURS”

“HOLY SHIT, HE’S OUR BROTHER”

“I was getting a snack, what’s up?”

“DJLFKNGON I’M GOANNA CRYSLK”

“BEST BROTHER EVER”

“I’m on the toilet, pog”

“I have tacos :)”

“BRGB SOBBING”

“GRIAN POGGGG”

“This makes me happy you didn’t do a double flip”

“ADIOS TECHNOBRO AND WILBRO, I ONLY KNOW BIG BRO G!!!”

“Anyone else have dust in their eyes?”

“CHAOS DUO RELATED POG”

Tommy let out a shaky breath as he rubbed his eyes. Chat was going crazy at the new news and, to be honest, he couldn’t blame them. If he was in their position, he’d be freaking out alongside them. Wanting to end both the silence that filled the cavern and the nonsense Chat was saying, Tommy let out a hoarse laugh before speaking.

“Chat really likes you, G.”

A smile formed on the teen’s face as his head bounced with the hefty laugh that came from Grian, whose chest began to rumble alongside the laughter. Finally lifting his head off his brother’s chest, Tommy allowed the remaining tears in his eyes to fall as he looked to Grian’s face. Grian smiled fondly back at Tommy, wiping away the tears from his little brother’s eyes.

“I suppose I should say hello to all of them. Is Chat similar to Techno’s voices?”

Concern flashed across Grian’s face as Tommy flinched at the mention of Technoblade. It was small, and could have been easily overlooked if Grian wasn’t watching his brother like a hawk. He made a mental note to ask about that later that night, when they were around the campfire.

“Nah, he’s just insane. Psychotic or some shit like that. I’m just really fucking cool and can see spirits and shit.”

Eyebrows from the crowd (shit, they were still there, weren’t they?) and Grian were raised as someone Stress half heartedly scolded Tommy for his language. Tommy just rolled his eyes, knowing that they only scolded him as a joke. They had all grown accustomed to his wording, and were worried when he didn’t slip in a few curses into his sentences.

“Spirits?”

“Yeah, spirits. I call em Chat most of the time, but they have different nicknames, and they all have individual names. Clara explained that it was one of the many side effects to her marking me as a ‘Starchild’ in her name. They are the spirits of the lands, from servers all around, or some shit like that. I can see them all, but they make the choice to stick with me or not.”

This was...news. Grian, who was still processing that he his baby brother was alive, sitting right in front of him, as well as the fact that Clara was real, could only stare. He wasn’t so sure how to feel about his brother being indifferent to all the spirits, but he suppose that it couldn’t be helped. Spending pretty much your entire life seeing spirits would make him indifferent to the spirits as well.

“So, Chat is...everywhere?”

“Basically, yeah”

Grian hummed as he proceeded to greet Chat, being polite to the beings he couldn’t see. Much to the annoyance of Tommy, Chat seemed to be loving Grian even more. Maybe a bit too much.

“HE’S SO POLITE”

“How thoughtful of him”

“HELOO HI GRI A N HWAHT’S UP BRO”

“Grian bro supremacy”

“GRIAN BRO SUPREMACY”

“HERMIT HOMIE WOOOOOO”

“BEST BRO POG”

“holY SHIT I’M IN LOV E ADKNVOD”

“THE RACCOON HAS A POG BROTHER WOOO”

“HI GRIAN HI”

“Rodent brothers??? pog?????”

“HELLOHELLOHELLOHENSLO”

“TELL HIM WE SAID HI, CHILD”

“Woah, woah, woah, woah, woah, calm down, calm down, calm down, calm down. Chat says hi, Grian. And, hey, I’m not a child, what the fuck!? I’m a big man!”

Impulse snickered as Mumbo walked over to the two brothers. Smiling down at them, he helped the two back to their feet. Grian smiled as he set a hand on Tommy’s shoulder, squeezing it slightly. Tommy, in turn, beamed with pride at his brother and his friends.

“Alright, we spent enough time being emotional and shit. Let’s get going, I have more cool shit to show you guys.”

Laughter filled the cavern as Tommy fixed his hair, his booming man child I’m not a child voice being drowned out as he led them back outside. Slightly huffing. He let out a yelp as he was nearly tackled to the ground from behind. Letting out undignified noises of protest, he turned to see the smug smile of Grian, who was ruffling his hair.

“Alright, big man, show us your land of paradise!”

Barking out a hearty laugh, Tommy ducked out from his brother’s hand before grabbing it, spinning a few times, and pulling him forward.

“Aw, look at them!”

“Wait, so Grian has two sections now?”

------

The traditional booth games in Tavern Town were fun. From balloon darts to milk bottles, to ladder climb and hoop toss, Tommy thought of it all. Unique designs decorated each booth, all holding an individual and unique look. Everything about the area was impressive.

“Where did buy get these for the games? I don’t think I’ve ever seen them in the main server.”

Tommy peered over to Doc, who was inspecting the prizes neatly strung up on all the booths. There were plushies of different types of mods, some familiar, others not. They came in all types of colors and sizes, and were overall impressive. Walking up beside Doc, Tommy just shrugged his shoulders, sheepishly rubbing the back of his neck.

“I didn’t buy them, I made them.”

Scar perked up, before jumping right into the conversation.

“You what? Toms, that’s impressive! I didn’t know you could sew.”

‘Fucking hell,’ Tommy thought to himself. He didn’t expect to get praise for his simple hobbies.

“Yeah, I sew. I’m actually pretty crafty, being resourceful and shit. I also knit and crochet. It’s not much, but it’s really fucking therapeutic and all that jazz.”

Before anyone else could comment, a dinging noise sounded at one of the booths. Turning to look at the cause of the commotion, they saw that Stress and Impulse had won a game together. Giving each other fist bumps, they watched as a screen popped up, giving them prize options to choose from. After receiving their prizes, they hurried over to Tommy with smiles painted on their faces.

“You bet we’re gonna win one of each plush here.”

A high pitched laughter erupted from Tommy, who was starting to enjoy his decision to hand make all the prizes in his park. Wiping away a tear of joy, the teen I’m eighteen, I’m a fucking man! You’re a child, Tommy beamed at his friends, who smiled warmly in return. Tommy’s joy seemed to increase as more booth alarms were set off, many more prizes coming off the shelves. By the time everyone was ready for the next land, they all had at least two plush toys each.

———

“This is delicious! You baked these?!”

The group was currently sitting in the seating area in the Dream SMP section of the park, more specifically, L’manburg. They had gotten pastries from the duplicate bakery that belonged to Niki. According to Tommy, it was an exact replica to the real thing. The pastries sold there were the same ones Niki sold back at L’manburg. Tommy had used the recipes and techniques that Niki had demistrated to both him and Tubbo to create the dishes.

“If you think these are good, you should taste Niki’s. I swear, her pastries were sent down from Heaven by Jesus himself. They taste fucking amazing, godly.”

Grian smiled as he nudged Tommy’s shoulder with his own. Popping another sweet cake in his mouth, Tommy quirked an eyebrow as he faced the older boy.

“You should teach me some of your hobbies, Starchild. We can do a hobby exchange.”

Tommy visibly brightened up as he wiped some frosting from around his mouth. Smiling, he nodded his head happily.

“Hell yeah! That sounds fuckin’ amazing!”

The group ate with content as they looked around their area. They had already seen the rest of the Dream server lands.

“It’s amazing that you’ve made all of this by yourself. You haven’t even showed us the rest of the park yet! Good job, for a child.”

“Hey! I’m not a fucking child! I’m turning 19 soon!”

“Oh yeah, I forgot you were an Aries.”

“What’s wrong with being an Aries?”

“Nothing is wrong with being an Aries, Tango.”

“Oh shut it, you Librarian.”

“Librarian?”

“Yeah, the worst sign.”

“First of all, kid, I’m a Gemini.”

------

The rides and games in the DSMP were very diverse and unique. Tommy had really put a lot of effort and time into every attraction, no matter how small. From things as small as a scavenger hunt through the Badlands, water themed adventures in El Rapids, to fast paced coasters in L’manburg.

“Scoot over, bandit child, I’m sharing this ride vehicle with you.”

“What the fuck, man?”

“Oh, don’t act surprised. I know you made it to where two people share a seat just so you can spend quality time with your brother.”

“Oh, fuck off, I didn’t even know you were my brother until an hour and a half ago.”

“Whatever helps you sleep at night.”

The first ride the group decided to board was dubbed A Home. Entering a little shack, everyone boarded their ride vehicles and waited for the ride to begin. While they waited for the vehicles to move, Tommy explained how he managed to use the latest mods that were added to the server to his advantage. He managed to fit different tracks to different rides in the same builds, as well as add animatronics. Just as he was about to receive yet another wave of praise, the ride began.

“It’s like looking at a younger version of you!”

“That’s kinda the point, genius.”

Grian’s statement, as obvious as it was, was true. As the vehicles left the shack and entered the caravan, and animatronic Tommy, merely 16 years of age, welcomed the riders as they witnessed the beginning of a new home, L’manburg. They kept comments to themselves when they saw, yet again, the replica of Tommy’s old base. The ride track took them through different areas of the DSMP, following the young Tommy as he searched for a home.

“-the citizenship of Wilbur Soot and Tommyinnit!!!”

“What?!”

“What does he mean revoked?!”

Before Tommy could reply, the vehicles lurched backwards, keeping the vehicles facing the stage at all times as the animatronics turned to take aim at the riders. It wasn’t until the red stone to the dirt entrance revealed the entry way to Pogtopia that the vehicles did a 180, moving forward into the entry way before going down the spiral steps into the ravine. Laughter filled the air as the group saw animatronics of Tommy, Wilbur and Techno conversing together, joking around and teasing each other. Suddenly, the ride vehicles fell down to the next part of the track, the prime path. As they raced through the tunnel, they witnessed an animatronic Tommy and Tubbo embracing and conversing, their cheerful voices free from worry. The group could only sit in awe as the scenes continued to change.

“-goodbye, Tommy.”

“What does he mean goodbye?!”

“Oh my fucking god, shut up!”

The vehicles suddenly raced through the Nether, coming out to an island far from DSMP. The sign at the entrance of the area welcomed the group to Logstedshire. There, they could see an unhappy Tommy staring out towards the ocean, listening to Chirp as he mumbled nonsense to Clara. And just as quickly as they came, they raced out of the sunny area and into the snow. They raced around the inside of Techno’s cottage before racing outside, towards an empty area. There, an animatronic Tommy yelled out in shock as an animatronic Technoblade pressed a button, turning around as a secret lair was revealed.

“Welcome home, Theseus!”

For the final time, the scene changed. They entered, backwards, into a portal, coming out to face a replica of the spawn to Hermitcraft. There, in wonderous glory, stood an animatronic Xisuma, welcoming the group to Hermitcraft. Then, the track dropped, leaving the riders back at the entrance to the ride.

“Holy shit.”

“Haha! Holy shit is right!”

———

The group quickly learned that Tommy spared no expense in all his attractions. As they explored the different lands, they really saw the individuality of every land. L’manburg had fun rides, including Nation’s Legacy, Blood’s Ballad, Wither’s Wrath, and Creator’s Cabin. Nation’s Legacy is an underground ride that worked like a turntable to tell the history of L’manburg, ending on a grim and looming hint to the possible destruction of the nation. When asked about the fate of L’manburg, Tommy admitted that he appeared in Hermitcraft before he could witness the possible doomsday, so he wasn’t entirely sure what had occured afterwards.

Blood’s Ballad is an interactive ride that used a special red stone technique. The ride vehicles could seat up eight passengers at a time, each using special gloves that allow them to interact with the special ride elements. The goal is to get the most points out of everyone in the ride vehicle. The ride took the group on a journey with Technoblade, the Blood God. The group racked up points training alongside him, as well as fighting all sorts of mobs. By the end of the ride, Tommy was sulking as Stress managed to gather the most points. Stress was enjoying the victory, smiling happily as “SUBSCRIBE TO TECHNOBLADE” boomed through the speakers.

Wither’s Wrath was more of a small scale ride to enjoy. There were only three ride vehicles, each shaped like a wither and able to hold three riders. Each rider sat in a wither skull. Grian smiled as he pulled Mumbo and Tommy into a a wither vehicle with him. As they strapped in, they were transported to a virtual world where the rules of the game were shared. The goal was to cause the most destruction in the virtual world than the other vehicles. Each player controlled their own skull, making it easier to gather points. At least, that was the case for-

“Fuck yeah! Team Kickass all the way! Check it Grian, Mumbo, we’re badass!”

Creator’s Cabin was simple enough. It was just a large cabin that held enchanted portraits of everyone who resided in the DSMP. The portraits could move within their frames. They could also interact with each other. When the group walked in, the portraits were chatting away with each other. Sam’s portrait seemed to be listening in on the conversation that the portraits of Tubbo, Tommy and Purpled were having, occasionally joining in when he saw fit. Fundy was chatting away with Eret and Niki, a bright smile on his face. Ranboo was timidly peeking over at the group with Tommy and Tubbo, obviously wanting to join in. The portraits of Quackity, Sapnap and Karl were deep in conversation, while the portrait of George was asleep sitting up.

“Hey, Tommy?”

“Yeah?”

“Why are there two portraits of Wilbur?”

“Oh, right. Grian, about Wilbur-”

“AHOY THERE! WHY DON’CHA BOARD ME SHIP AND CONQUER THE WATERS WITH ME?”

The group, aside from Tommy, jumped at the booming voice. Without hesitation, they all ran out to the water, searching for the source of the voice. There, out on the water, stood a lone animatronic. It was the animatronic of a petite woman, one with red curls dancing around as she swayed and spoke. Once more, her confident, melodic voice filled the air.

“JOIN ME ON MY QUEST TO RIDE THE WONDROUS WAVES OF THE SEAS”

With that, she raised her right arm, hoisting a sword into the air. On cue, she began to rise as a ship emerged from the sea below her. Once it was no longer submerged, the ship rocked a few times before settling. A banner unraveled and blew in the breeze, the name of the area now visible for all to see.

Sally de Mon’s Sea Voyage

“You like it? Creating the entrance for this ride was a fucking bastard. Kept me up all night and crap. Almost gave up completely on it.”

“It’s amazing! I was not expecting to see something like that!

“Hey, Tommy? Who’s Sally. I don’t think it was ever explained how you know her?”

“Really? I gotta fix that, then. Sally is my sister-in-law who-”

“I HAVE A SISTER-IN-LAW?!”

“Oh, shit...surprise?”

------

The Badlands was a fun, interactive section of the DSMP area. The various puzzles and mazes made it fun for all the participants. The muffin stand was also a fan favorite to the hermits.

El Rapids was a water-filled adventure. Because he wanted to play around with the word rapids, Tommy made several water-based rides and activities, his favorite being the log ride. They just seemed to be the perfect addition to the area, adding a way to cool down to balance all the water-free rides. It seemed as if Tommy had thought of every type of ride for every type of biome and scenario.

SMP Earth was another large section of the park. It also held the only other largest ride in the entire park, one that led the riders throughout the Antarctic Empire, as well as its surrounding cities and towns. The area for the empire was beautiful decorated in colors of all kind. Flowers and banners decorated the buildings and streets, brightening up the area. Classic activities, such as the sparing rings and archery, as well as the axe throws and parkour courses were set up. It all felt familiar to Grian, who couldn’t help but smile at his brother. Grabbing one of the fliers, he inspected it before shooting his brother a look of uncertainty.

“You didn’t”

“On the contrary, brother dearest, I did!”

“Did what? What did he do?”

Grian laughed as he showed the group what the flier said. It was decorated in beautiful, hand-drawn flowers. Golden lettering perfectly spelt out the message.

Floral Festival of Spring

Join us in the weeklong celebration of Spring! Enjoy the festivities with friends and family as you explore the traditions held within our grounds. Finally, enjoy the wondrous Floral Gala held on the final night of festivities. Dawn your greatest fabrics as you dance the night away, before enjoy a magnificent firework display.

Signed by his royal highness,

Prince Thomas Theseus Minecraft

“He used his full name and everything!”

“Your middle name is Theseus?”

“Your actual last name is Minecraft?”

“Did you actually write this? It’s worded and written so…formally.”

Huffing a bit, Tommy crossed his arms. Fixing his posture, he stood up, tall and proud, as he puffed out his chest. It took everyone every fiber in their bodies to not laugh at the sight of him.

“I can be very formal, thank you very much. I’m not a fucking idiot, I remember the formality lessons the teachers put me through. And I take the offense to that writing comment! Do you know how many attempts it took for me to be able to recreate the stupid fancy font used back at the empire? And another thing-”

Grian playfully hopped on Tommy’s shoulder, startling the younger brother to his usual stance. Ruffling his hair, he assured his brother with a laugh.

“Calm down, Toms. You know that we’re messing with you. You did amazingly. How many more flyers do you have? We’ll set them up in the Hub to be distributed across the main server. It’s been a while since I’ve attended a royal ball, so let’s make it grand!”

Laughing, Tommy had no choice but to agree with Grian. His smile faltered, however, once realization sunk in. The next activity for the group was the campfire. The secrets of his time at the Dream SMP that he kept for over 2 years would finally be revealed.

‘Better late than never to prepare the waterworks’, thought a very nervous Tommy.

#memories in the stars #memories in the stars au #tommyinnit #hermit!tommy au

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duckmumbo · 3 years ago

Note

trying to think of hermits who haven't been asked yet.... i don't think you've talked about impulse or pearl yet? can we get the rest of boatem?

You and me both anon sdksjfjks

ok I went through my blog and I have already done Xisuma, Mumbo and Scar, Etho, False, Grian, Zedaph, Impulse, Joe and Cleo, Ren, and now Pearl! Boy oh boy that’s a lot of hermits this has been so fun and I know I keep saying that but it’s true ok

First impression - I distinctly remember my first introduction to Pearl was Grian mentioning her in some of his hermitcraft eps and saying “my good friend Pearlescentmoon helped me with this design” like twice and I was like “wow his good friend that he’s mentioned more than once. I wonder if she’ll ever join hermitcraft.” Which first of all past me that’s not how it works ok second of all how did you guess that there was literally no talk of anyone else joining hermitcraft you weren’t even on hermitblr or in the fandom on any social media what. Also I went to her yt channel and the first thing I saw was the dragon video and I’m like ok. this is leagues above what I could ever build I am now a Big Fan.

Impression now - Pearl for most skrunkly in the server????? S o u p. If you were to compress and stretch her out like a spring she would make the whee noises she made with the trident. She is easily Most Noise hermit rn. I want to put her in a box and microwave it just to see what would happen. I want to put her on top of a lamp. I want to carry her in my pocket. She’s cousins with the moon. Pearl my beloved.

Favorite moment - think I have to go with the whee trident moment here. Or honestly any moment with soup. I love pearl sm.

Idea for a story - I had this thought a while ago and it is going to take me quite a few words so bear with me. So she said the moon in s8 is her cousin right. And I saw a post that said what if the moon in s9 is like her aunt or something. So i got to thinking what if all the moons from past seasons were related to her and they would tell her what the hermits were up to each season. This could be angsty if you want like watcher!grian with the s6 moon being like “PEARL YOU WILL NOT BELIEVE WHO JOINED THIS SEASON” and her being like “why would he join a bunch of strangers but not tell me he’s alive :(“ you could go comedy with pearl hearing all the shenanigans the hermits got up to from past season moons and immediately devising a master plan to get invited to hermitcraft that may or may not end with an entire server covered in glitter. You could go angsty but mostly awkward with pearl and the s8 moon seeing each other again at the yearly moon reunion. There’s so much potential here.

Random opinion - not really a pearl specific opinion but can I just say how glad I am that we’ve gone from characterizing pearl as the mom friend and only responsible one of the group (s8) to incredibly skrunkly now??? It’s really great and exactly what she deserves she literally tore down and rebuilt her entire starter base in s8 just because it was facing the wrong way. She had upside down creepers for pets. She was never the sane one in the group ok

Favorite relationship - listen. Sky siblings my beloved even though it’s mostly a fanon thing I think. But also soup squad my absolute top tier beloved

Favorite headcanon - this isn’t a headcanon that exists anywhere outside of my brain and the canvas I have where I’m working on the drawing but. Pearl with butterfly nebula wings. Need I say more?

#this was so many words #cannot believe I have so many thoughts about pearl #but at the same time I can #also it’s past midnight again nearing almost 1am I should really sleep haha whoops #answered #ask game #roy talks #pearl #hermitcraft #character asks

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singledarkshade · 4 years ago

Text

Draining The Swamp

Part Three

(Part One and Part Two.)

The band and crew along with John, Rip and Gideon piled into the hotel that Rip had found for them, with the police escort. It wasn’t a five-star hotel, but it was good enough for their needs that night.

“Alright everyone,” John took charge, “We will have to all double up in rooms, so I want no complaints. Pick a roommate,” he turned to Rip, “You can stick with me and I’ll put Gideon with Veronica. Although she already seems to have done that herself.”

Rip turned to where Gideon had her arms wrapped around Veronica’s and was talking to her as though they’d known one another for years.

It amazed him sometimes that despite the fact she couldn’t actually interact with people properly in real life, Gideon was incredible at ‘making friends’ during a case. She had this natural charm that people responded to and talked to her openly without realising it.

John quickly sorted out the rooms and started handing out keys, sending everyone away as soon as they had their key. Finally there were only two left.

“Veronica,” John took her arm moving her to one side while Gideon started to study the layout of the hotel, “I’ve asked Rip and Gideon to stick around to help us. Do you mind sharing with Gideon, since you two have hit it off and she doesn’t know anyone else in the crew?”

“Oh, that’s no problem,” Veronica smiled, glancing to where Gideon was ignoring them, “She is adorable.”

“That she is,” John smirked slightly, before realising Rip was standing at his side, “Thanks, love.” He grabbed her bag, John said, “Come on I’ll walk up with you.”

As John left with Veronica, Rip turned to Gideon, “I had Eve pack some things for us and send it to the station.”

“That was smart,” Gideon smiled as they started walking to where Harry and Kendra had set up.

Rip wrapped his arm around her, “John and I will be next door to you, so if you need anything then just bang on the wall. Okay?”

“Do you want me to keep an open phoneline instead?” she asked before her eyes lit up, “We can listen to each other sleep.”

Ignoring her, Rip opened the door and pushed her into the room where Harry and Kendra were waiting.

Gideon slid into the seat beside Kendra who smiled at her.

“You ordered this,” Harry handed two bags to Rip, an annoyed frown on his face, “And never use us as a baggage service again.”

Rip nodded and checked the bags before handing one to Gideon. Taking his seat, he waited while Harry joined them.

“Alright,” the older Detective said, “The hotel has been inspected, and it’s been discovered that the fire started in a bag belonging to one of the band.”

“Let me guess,” Rip said, “Veronica.”

Kendra nodded, “We think that there might have been some kind of timer, but something meant it went off before it was designed to.”

“Someone is really out to hurt her,” Gideon grimaced, “And I’m not sure why.”

Kendra turned to her, “What are you getting?”

Gideon sighed, “Nothing specific. But she’s sweet and loves being in the band. She is scared by what’s been happening but is determined not to let this ruin the end of the tour.”

“John asked that Gideon be Veronica’s roommate while we’re here,” Rip told them.

Harry nodded, “That’s good. It means we don’t have to worry she’s sharing a room with whoever is trying to harm her.”

“But it could put Gideon in harms way,” Kendra noted.

Gideon waved her away, “Rip and John are next door. We’ll be fine.”

Kendra frowned but knew that Rip would never put Gideon in danger, not that she wouldn’t do it herself.

“We’ll also be downstairs,” Harry added, rolling his eyes, “Since Captain West seems to like you two that he wastes our time babysitting you.”

Rip placed his hand over Gideon’s mouth before she could speak, “We appreciate it,” he took her arm, “We’ll check in later.”

Gideon frowned as Rip dragged her out the room, he was no fun sometimes. Annoying Harry until he got that furrowed brow and clenched teeth was one of her favourite hobbies.

“John messaged me,” Rip told her, “Once we drop off our bags, we’ll have dinner with him and Veronica.”

Gideon nodded.

“I don’t like this, Gideon,” he sighed as they stepped into the elevator, “There’s something we’re missing.”

Leaning against his arm, Gideon smiled, “We’ll work it out.”

“You know if anything happens to you,” Rip pulled her close and murmured in her hair, “It would destroy me.”

Wrapping her arms around him, Gideon breathed, “Rip, nothing is going to happen to me.” Pulling back she took his face in her hands, “I survived six months without you, okay barely but I managed without you. When we’re together, Rip we can do anything. With my brains, and my charm and your…” she smiled mischievously, “We can do anything.”

The doors opened and Rip hugged her close for a second before moving her into the corridor.

“Five minutes,” he said.

Gideon blew him a kiss before disappearing through the door and he shook his head.

She drove him crazy at times but he wouldn’t have her any other way.

*********************************************

Gideon slipped into her seat, smiling as Rip pushed it in. She loved how old fashioned he was at times. Mary had impressed manners on him from the moment she’d taken him in, and it always made Gideon smile when she watched women swoon at his chivalry.

“As much as I would love to eat with you,” Veronica smiled, “The rest of the band is over there.”

Gideon nodded in understanding, “I’ll meet you to head back up to the room.”

Grimacing slightly, Veronica nodded after John gave her a pointed look.

“Also,” John added, “Stay where the police can see you. None of you disappear or I will make the rest of this tour hell for you.”

Veronica nodded with a smile before she headed across the room, she settled in the chair beside Jordan who hugged her before the other two guys did.

“They care about her a lot,” Gideon mused softly, feeling Rip gently squeeze her hand.

John nodded, “Veronica is their little sister. The guys have been really worried about what’s been happening.”

Gideon mused for a moment, “Tell us about them.”

“Can’t you just…” John waved his hand near his head.

“It doesn’t work like that,” Gideon told him.

John nodded, “Well, how much do you know about the band.”

“Pretend we know nothing,” Rip said, taking a sip of water.

“Okay,” John shrugged, “Jordan, Max and Tony formed Swamp Things about four years ago. I heard them play in a pub two and half years ago, liked their sound and signed them.”

Rip mused for a moment, “Why did they bring Veronica in?”

“Jordan wrote a song that he felt needed a female voice,” John explained.

“Veronica was only meant to be on the demo,” Gideon spoke up.

John looked at her startled, “Yes.”

“Then why is she now in the band?” Rip asked.

“Because when she and Jordan sang together, it was magical,” John told them, “They blended together perfectly. Max and Tony demanded she be the one to sing it on the album, then the three of them persuaded her to join the band.”

“So,” Rip mused, “It was their decision.”

John nodded, “The guys love her. Jordan and Veronica have been writing together ever since. You’ve heard some of their stuff. Gideon was singing one of them this afternoon.”

“What about this time?” Gideon mused, “How is the singing split for the new album?”

John shrugged, “Some of Jordan, some with both of them but there are a few where just Veronica is singing solo.”

Rip mused for a moment, “I wonder if the accidents are to stop the album.”

“When I read about you both,” John spoke up, “I knew you’d be able to help. I’ve always believed in the supernatural. I mean your abilities are fascinating, Gideon. My house is reputedly haunted, not that I’ve got to spend much time there, but I would love to have you come and see what you can sense there.” Annoyance covered his face as his phone rang, “I swear,” John sighed, “I’m going to have one day where I don’t spend half of it on this bloody phone. Excuse me.”

When he left them alone, Gideon rolled her eyes, “I can’t believe you’re friends with someone who believes in that malarkey. Ghosts and voodoo mumbo jumbo”

“Says the fake psychic,” Rip replied amused before he moved them back to their case, “I take it we’re taking the band out of suspicion.”

“It seems unlikely any of them are behind these accidents,” Gideon mused, “But we should probably talk to them just in case.”

The waiter appeared for them to order, Rip somehow knew exactly what John wanted to eat which made Gideon frown annoyed. He on occasion ordered for her but it seemed odd.

“John told me what he wanted earlier,” Rip said, reading her mind as always, “He knew he might get called away.”

Appeased Gideon sat talking generally with Rip until Gideon noticed Jordan leave the table rubbing just behind his ear.

“I’ll be back in a minute,” Gideon told him.

“Gideon…”

She leaned over and kissed his cheek, “John’s coming back. Keep him company.”

She saw the annoyance filling his eyes, but he didn’t get a chance to say anything as she strolled away.

Gideon followed Jordan as he left the restaurant. At first she thought he was going to the restrooms, but he walked past them and continued towards the small reading room. Making sure she wasn’t seen, Gideon followed him. One good thing about her small stature meant she could hide easily.

Frowning Gideon watched the young man sit and wince, rubbing behind his ear. He was obviously in a lot of pain and Gideon frowned worriedly. Jordan pushed his hands through his hair angrily before she saw tears fill his eyes. He quickly shook it away and took some painkillers from his pockets. Jordan swallowed two and sat for another few minutes before he stood, took a slow deep breath, and left the room again, heading back to the restaurant.

“Where did you go?” Rip demanded when Gideon slipped back into her seat again.

“The Ladies,” she beamed, changing the subject as their first course was served, “Oh this looks good.”

Rip let out a small huff of annoyance but held his silence as they began to eat.

Dinner was quiet, although Gideon every so often kept making little noises as she thought things over. John kept looking over at her, but Rip had enough experience with her process that he just ignored her.

After dinner they took over the bar and the band along with the crew had a singalong, of anything and everything except their own songs. It was clear they did this on a regular basis as there was a rhythm to the songs they sang and the challenges that were set by the group. During the entire thing, Rip could see Gideon looking intently around the room. Every so often she would stare at Jordan who was in the centre of the group laughing along with everyone else.

Finally John called an end to the evening, sending them all packing to their room. Rip and John walked with Veronica and Gideon to their room.

“If you need anything,” John told the young woman, “Just let me know. I’m right next door. The police are also downstairs. Okay?”

Veronica nodded.

As she entered her room, Gideon followed. Her hand holding onto Rip’s until the final second.

Rip followed John into the hotel room they were sharing, and watched his friend drop onto his bed with a sigh.

“Hey, it’s like the old days,” Rip tried to lighten the mood.

John laughed slightly, “Except we’re older.”

“No wiser though,” Rip replied with a smile.

“All I need is to get through tomorrow’s concert and then hopefully I can get the band home with no more incidents,” John told him.

Rip reached over and clapped his friend’s shoulder, “Get some sleep.”

#fic #legends of tomorrow #rip hunter #gideon #john constantine #kendra saunders #harry wells #psych au #psych verse

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multiplegamestyles-blog · 6 years ago

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Top 5 Minecraft Redstone Contraptions

You know, I don’t really understand Redstone. I can make some simple contraptions, such as a Not Gate, or an Item Sorter. But I just can’t make a 3x3 piston door. I can barely remember how to make a double piston extender (not compact)!

But today I’ve decided to select the best five Redstone contraptions. IMO.

Now, before starting, I’m sure I’m not going to find every cool contraption in the world, but I’ll try my best to get the best.

They’ll be chosen using three criteria: creativity, usefulness, and complexity. This means that not only the most complex Redstone contraptions will be featured here, but the most useful ones as well.

Actually, most aren’t single contraptions, but genres. There’s a balance in this list between usefulness and craziness.

5 - 64kb Hard Drive

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This is definitely insane. A working 64 kilobytes hard drive inside Minecraft. This thing is massive, with 64 MILLION cubic meters of volume. Idk how long did it take to build this thing, and it certainly isn’t that useful. But you could save Minecraft’s Wikipedia page in it.

Maybe someday we’ll see a 1TB working computer inside Minecraft, but without proper Redstone components (transistors, capacitors, coils) we’re not going to see it anytime soon.

4 - Farms

Well, farms! It doesn’t matter which model or item, the farms are useful. There are some crazy ones though. But they’re essential if you want to have the most adventure without grinding.

3 - Super Smelters

Now, I don’t have a specific link for this one, but it is really useful. It’s the fastest way know in vanilla Minecraft of smelting stuff. There’s not a lot to talk about this one, so let’s move on.

2 - Item Sorters

Well, it’s kinda hard to pick only one, because there’s not really the best design, but only the one that suits your needs.

So I’ve provided you with a link to the one I like to use, but you also have a ton of other options, including ones that can store up to 93,312 items (1,458 stacks!)! For that one, you should visit Mumbo Jumbo’s youtube channel.

Use these with Super Smelters and you’ll have a super automatic system. Recommended.

Also, do you wonder why is it so high in the list? Well, that’s because you shouldn’t have any farms without organization, and any super smelters if you don’t have where to put your stuff.

1 - Colossus Walking Bot

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If you don’t think this is good, I don’t think you could even judge these machines. Look at the size of this thing! In all of the years that I’ve played Minecraft, I never saw anything like that.

If one had the resources to build a few of these things in a Minecraft server during a war, the guy would have definitely won the war.

Now, if you wish to have fun, keep an eye on my game at bit.ly/loegj, I’m gonna release it very soon. Also visit my Twitter, @igorvasiak_mgs where I post some cool stuff.

#minecraft #redstone #top 5 #the best #top best #top five #top5 #video games #games #pc games

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kitsunebellproductions · 6 years ago

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Thoughts on Voltron Season 7

SPOILERS, OBVIOUSLY! Things that annoyed/angered/saddened/frustrated me: *Kuron still being treated as though he was nothing more than some evil monster and convenient spare parts for Shiro. I am still nauseated by the whole thing. This poor precious baby boy deserved so much better. *Shiro’s hair -I mean come on, his fringe was pure white before but now it’s grey? What, did the whole process leach colour from the rest of his hair yet restore some to his fringe?! I will just assume it’s meant to be white but they felt this particular shade of white/grey worked best aesthetically with his outfits etc. *Too little Shiro for too many episodes. *Too much Keef. (Sorry, fandom has completely ruined this character for me, he’s not a bad character but I am repulsed by his mere name thanks to the toxicity in this fandom. I wish I could go back to the beginning of watching Voltron when he was just another decent character that I felt neither yay nor nay about, but it is what it is.) *That weird game show -if it was some magical space mage mumbo jumbo thingy that just transported their consciousness, why wasn’t Shiro there? And the whole ‘comedy family’ shtick with the Galra... I mean, it was a bit funny but... mostly weird tbh. The funniest parts were the commercials. *Way too little background/interaction with Shiro and Adam. *Also Adam’s design -like, why do you make an entirely new character that looks a lot like a mix of two other characters who are father and son (Matt and Sam)? You could have done literally anything to his design but you went safe and way too familiar? I mean holy moly did you see Kinkade? Fuck yeah what a gorgeous design, that is exactly what my hopeful heart pictured for Shiro’s boyfriend but nope. Give us generic floppy-hair glasses boy with a generic medium brown palette, it’s so fresh and new and interesting. Not. *Adam FUCKING DYING before Shiro even got back to Earth. You could have at least let the poor boy have a reunion with someone waiting for him on Earth before burying some more gays, but no. He must suffer. *Shiro getting like three seconds to mourn Adam.

*Speaking of burying your gays... (not to mention a delightful dash of the ‘evil lesbians’ trope): Ezor and Zethrid. Yayy on their relationship, nay on them being presumably killed off (I mean killing 3 out of 4 queer characters while keeping the straight characters safe is not a good way to show how queer friendly your show is. And no the ‘we had to show how dark and dangerous war is’ excuse doesn’t work when the only characters you kill are the queer ones. There were plenty of characters back on Earth we’d have felt just as deeply about -or more even- considering we’ve heard about the other paladins’ families back on Earth but we’d never heard of Adam until now. Just imagine if Veronica had died -that would have been intensely emotional and really had gone to show all that you wanted about the dangers of war -especially as I don’t doubt for a second that Lance would have gotten an entire episode at least to mourn her while Shiro got like three seconds. Because Shiro is apparently not allowed to mourn). *And isn’t it funny how the most alien-looking Galra women are the evil ones, while the ‘good’ ones look more or less like lavender-skinned human women (and are also very pretty, petite and with slender, ‘sexy’ bodies.) Like, seriously... *Not to mention how creepy it is that Keef’s Galra mom and the other ‘good’ Galra woman (Acxa, who for whatever reason the show tried to force some out-of-the-blue yucky heteromance together with Keef) look disturbingly much alike (and they look to be the same age too more or less. So sick and tired of the ‘hot young-looking mom’ trope in media but especially animated shows. And especially when the kids end up banging girls looking to be more or less the same age as their mom). *Shiro not reacting when Ezor and Zethrid went for Pidge -he’s consistently been shown to be very protective and self-sacrificing, yet here he barely bats an eye. I get it was a scene framed to lift Lance, but it felt extremely ooc for Shiro to not at least try to help. *Ezor and Zethrid’s relationship being honestly way more explicitly stated than Shiro and Adam’s (which was the relationship hailed as the big lgbtq+ rep for this season). No, they definitely didn’t need to get back together for Shiro to still be considered lgbtq+ rep -you don’t need a partner to be lgbtq+! But when you wave a specific relationship around as a big banner of glorious lgbtq+ rep to come and then barely even hint at it in the show... well... not so much of a rep then, is it? *Not showing Shiro in that worldwide message of ‘these are our beloved brave heroes from Earth’. Like, this boy was kidnapped by aliens, spent a year being tortured, brainwashed, cloned, dismembered, pretty much violated in every concievable way, then immediately after escaping (with a shitload of PTSD in the baggage) he was sent back out into space and chosen to lead some war against seemingly impossible odds, a war that really wasn’t his war to fight, a war he still fought bravely and selflessly despite his physical and mental issues, a war he died in, but meh I guess he wasn’t worthy of mention. (And I don’t know why Keef wasn’t mentioned either, but maybe being half Galra makes you too much alien to be considered part of the world you were born and grew up in *heavy sarcasm*). *Shiro’s bond with the Black Lion and his role as the Black Paladin being pretty much erased/retconned -it’s like Keef gets to sit his ass comfortably down in the seat Shiro shed blood sweat and tears for and struggled so hard for, easily just gliding along on what Shiro has paved the road for but without acknowledging the huge role Shiro had in it all. Shiro was the one who brought out the wings for Keef in the end of the last season because Keef was unable to do it himself, because Keef had never bonded with her the way Shiro did -Shiro and the Black Lion found and saved each other in so many ways, and the Black Lion loved Shiro so much she saved his ‘essence’ inside herself, yet now we’re supposed to just accept that Shiro is old news and no longer worthy of being considered part of the ‘mighty Paladins of Voltron’. Myeah, did not like the feeling I got of this saturating this entire season. Keef can still be a big hero -or even your new main character- without grinding Shiro down into the dirt on the way. *That arm... it’s so big and clumsy-looking it makes him look weirdly lopsided. The comically large arm works for Sendak, considering his ‘evil sadist who loves crushing people with his alien prosthetic’ shtick, but for Shiro it just looks too big to be practical. If it was intentionally meant to imply that Allura just grabbed a prosthetic modelled after someone bigger than Shiro and remade it, and that’s why it’s so big on Shiro, that’s fine. But it feels impractical for anything other than fighting evil alien generals. *Shiro not getting to fulfil his arc as the abused victim and underdog by overcoming and defeating the evils pushing him down, but instead being forced to take the backset to a character forced into a leadership role for what seems like nothing more than a desperate clinging to nostalgia. It is mindboggling that everything Shiro has worked so incredibly hard for, everything he’s struggled and fought for is being taken from him and he’s supposed to be satisfied with a consolation prize. Yeah, Shiro going full Magical Girl Princess was amazing but he didn’t even get to deliver the final blow in any fight -not even his personal fight with Sendak- because apparently Shiro is not allowed any victories at all. *The whole sense of Shiro being punished for choosing his life’s dream over becoming the obedient house wife of his ex -he had only a short few years left to fulfil his dreams, and yet he’s painted as the bad guy for ‘abandoning’ his boyfriend (who was the one that left Shiro, actually). Yes, Adam had the right to choose to not want to separate for so long -during what was likely the last few years Shiro had enough mobility to do all the fun things couples dream of doing together- he had the right to say ‘I’m sorry but I can’t put my life on hold, and I wasn’t really prepared to go straight to caring for someone with a debilitating disease without a few more years of fun in between, I want to break up’. That still doesn’t make Shiro’s choice to follow his dreams any less valid than Adam’s choice to not wait for him. I bet Adam had an exciting bucket list waiting to start ticking off as a consolation when Shiro was denied the role of pilot for the Kerberos mission -I doubt he’d expected Shiro to actually be allowed to go and that probably seriously stumped him- but it’s incredibly cruel and selfish (and ableist) to expect a person to sacrifice their last few years of being able to fulfil their dreams just so their able-bodied partner can fulfil their small dreams and wishes of things they want to do for the last few of that person’s fully mobile years. And yet everything about Shiro’s arc paints a very very grim and ableist story of ‘you chose your own dreams over bending to your partner’s will, now let us show you what a horrible decision that was by torturing you relentlessly throughout the rest of this series without ever letting up. You will never be allowed happiness again because this is your punishment.’ I agree with other people that the way Shiro’s been treated throughout this series -constantly tormented without ever getting a single break or getting a real chance to fight and overcome his demons- seems way too much like torture porn. *The feeling that Shiro’s Magical Girl Moment was only there to blind us to the fact that him being probably the only one able to transform the Atlas means he’ll be conveniently grounded next season, forced to stay on Earth to ‘protect his home’ while the rest of them get to go off being the ‘amazing Defenders of the Universe’, leaving both Shiro and his legacy behind, unsung. I hope I’m wrong, but I get an overwhelming feeling that Shiro is being pushed into the background because they never intended for him to be the hero of the series but by the time they realised that’s exactly what they’d created with him it was too late to take it back, so now they’re trying their hardest to push him back into some mentor/backseat role in a sneaky enough way that they hope people won’t notice because they’ll be dazzled by the shine of his ‘new role’. ... Things that made me happy/excited/pleased: *The animation level. I mean holy mamacita Shiro is so beautiful he glows in like every single frame. *HUNK. Love this big gentle boy and love that he got to show more of who he is and what he has to give this season. *Seeing the families we’ve heard so much of. Seeing them reunited. Seeing flashbacks to happier times with the families. *Pidge finally getting her entire family back together. *The designs of all the alien/Earth tech. Gorgeous. *The design of some of the new characters <3 *So many new Galra characters with faces and personalities even if we only saw them for a few seconds. *All the ‘Earth preparing for alien invasion’ scenes/episodes. *Finally getting to know more about Iverson and who he is as a person. *Sam and Colleen. *Shiro being the new Princess of the new Castle ship. *Shiro fucking transcending being the Princess and transforming the entire Castle ship Atlas into a new Voltron type battle robot. *The Atlas being this beefy paladin type knight on top but t h i c c femme legs on tippy toes/high heels on the bottom. 10/10 what a beauty. *White Lion Shiro... I mean, I’m certainly not the only one thinking it, right? *Just Shiro. Wow. What a strong, beautiful, good person who cares about everybody else above himself. Someone give this poor traumatised boy hero a fucking vacation with the softest bed surrounded by therapy animals. Perfect cinnamonroll too pure for this world. *Shiro fighting Sendak hand-to-hand on top of a fucking space ship free-falling (read: CRASHING) to Earth instead of trying to escape I mean this boy *Keef fucking anime-slicing Sendak in twaine for daring to try to hurt the person he loves like a brother (bloodless and nice for the young’uns of course, but still). *Hunk carrying Shiro. *@ anyone claiming Lance ‘never gets screentime or development’ -fuck you. Look at this brave, strong boy who started out as a self-centered antagonistic jerk yet has grown into such a good and mature person. I may loathe the Lance I see portrayed in the fandom, but in the show he’s still such a good character. *Coran, Coran, the gorgeous man <3 *The mice and Kosmo the space wolf for MVP *Kaltenecker, most chill character in the entire universe. *Shiro’s prosthetic not being attached -at first I was like ‘noooo’, but then I realised... fuck yeah this is exactly what people in fandom need to stop erasing disabled characters. It is way too common for people in fandoms to claim that a person having any kind of high-tech or magical prosthetic that makes their disability less visible (For example Edward Elric from Fullmetal Alchemist) isn’t actually disabled at all ‘because it’s like they have normal limbs’. Having a prosthetic arm that has a big void between itself and the shoulder attachment makes it impossible to ignore the fact that Shiro is missing a whole arm. (And maybe, just maybe, people will finally stop with the shitty ‘he’s got a full sleeve of tattoos instead of a missing arm in this AU fanfic because erasing disabilities is super cool’ trope.) *The entire Shiro/Atlas transformation scene -ugh so beautiful <3 ... Phew, that got long! (=A=;;) I’ve probably forgotten a lot of things -but it’s been a few days since I watched it so it isn’t as fresh in my mind as I’d have liked, however I don’t have the time to rewatch it right now to refresh my memory so it’ll have to do. These are just my personal thoughts -things I found negative might be things someone else found positive, and things I found positive might be things someone else found negative. This isn’t meant to be a debate or attack -just a way for me to put my thoughts down and remember them for the future. And one last thing -please remember to be kind to each other -and don’t go attacking cast or crew -most of them have no real say in what happens on the show anyway, and harrassing and threatening castmembers to the point where they’re scared to even show up at cons is not the way to make the higher-ups listen to your complaints -however legitimate they might be. Now I guess we’ll just have to brace ourselves for season 8...

#voltron spoilers #both negative and positive thoughts on this season #voltron season 7 #takashi shirogane

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littleyellowdevil-blog · 8 years ago

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Research: Collectables

Collectables are items that are placed in a game that can be picked up by the player. They are usually hidden or out of the way, forcing the player to go off the beaten path to collect them. Collectables serve different purposes in different types of games. Some require you to collect a specific number of them to proceed, others give you new abilities that help you and some are just there to be collected.

In this post I am looking at some games and comparing how they handle collectables. I aim to find the best type of collectable that will allow for fun gameplay and fit into our world.

Banjo-Kazooie

Banjo-Kazooie is a game that was made in 1998 for the Nintendo 64. It is an action, platformer game that has the player travel to various locations collecting items in order to get to the next location.

The game has a variety of different collectable items. These include;

Music Notes

Used to unlock doors in a specific level in the game.

Jiggys

These are puzzle pieces that are used to build the entrances to new areas. Each area needs a specific amount of puzzle pieces to unlock which means the player must search each area for enough pieces to progress.

Jinjos

These creatures are scattered around in groups of five per level. If you collect all five pieces then you get a Jiggy puzzle piece.

Honeycombs

If you pick one of these up then it will return some missing health back to the player.

Empty Honeycomb Pieces

Collecting two of these will increase the maximum health of the player.

Mumbo Tokens

Collecting these allow you to unlock different transformations from a specific character.

Golden Banjos

Gives the player an extra life.

As you can see, this game has a large amount of different collectables, more than I have shown. I also noticed that each item has a use and most are required to proceed in the game. Some items also give you new abilities that allow you to access new parts of levels to get more items, allowing the player to visit old levels to get things they could not the first time.

Assasin's Creed Unity

yea... Did you say you like collectables?

Assassin's Creed Unity Is a game released on Xbox One and PS4 in 2014. It is an action game that has the player complete missions on a large open world.

The game has a LOT of collectable items, so much so that it blocks out the map... This leads to players feeling overwhelmed and can take away from the experience. Some of these collectables give the player gold or new gear, but some only give informations and others are just there to give an achievement.

Artifacts

Artifacts are shield like objects that can be found on walls using eagle vision (a mode that can be activated to help see important targets). Each one you collect unlocks a new piece of armour or a new weapon, this depends on the artefact that you collect.

Chests

Chests come in different types. These are;

Standard Chests - White

Patriot's chests - Red

UPlay Chests - Blue

Ancestor Chests - Gold

Something to note, the Blue and Gold chests could only be opened using the companion app that could be got for free. This proves an issue for two reasons, first is the fact that some people might not have a phone that is compatible or have enough room. The second issue with this is that it takes the player away from the game which might put some more casual players off.

Cockades

The next type of collectable is Cockades. These are ribbons that you can collect that serve no purpose other than to get an achievement. This would not be an issue if there was only a few around the map... But there are 128. This can prove a simple but long task, however, when there is little to no reword it can prove too much to go through for most players.

Newspaper Clippings

The final main form of collectable are newspaper clippings. These are scattered around the map and simply serve to give the player an insight to events in the game world. While some players will find these interesting, a lot of casual players will learn to ignore these as they won't care for this information.

Comparing The Two

Looking at both games, its clear that they had very different intensions on how the collectables should impact gameplay. While Banjo-Kazooi focused on building their world around the idea of collectables, making them feel like part of the core game and not being a hassle to collect. Assassins Creed feels like they have been added for the sake of filling a space in the game, but I also see another side to this. They might have added these different styles of collectables in order to appeal to different audiences, with the Artifacts being for casual gamers, Cockades being for hard-core players who want achievements or a 'challenge', Newspaper clippings are for educational people and the chests are to advertise their game. This shows that while a game can be aimed at a specific audience, it can have elements to appeal to a wider audience.

From this I feel that its clear if we wish to have any form of collectables in our game, we must not only build them alongside our game, but must also think careful about the scope of our game and how this should affect the amount of collectables are in our game. If our game is going to be a small indie game, then we should only have one or two types of collectables with a few available per level. We must also decide if we want to appeal to any secondary audiences and if so who, how and whether collectables can be used to do this.

This choice to have collectables should also affect the design of the levels, as it might be a good idea to take inspiration from games like Banjo-Kazooi, that design levels to be returned to with new powers in order to collect more collectables. This would greatly benefit from a system of power ups throughout the game, which should be linked with the collectables, meaning that collectables could be used to get new powers that can be used to get new collectables and so on...

I have also been made aware by other members of the team that there was plans to have collectable photos that would unlock concept art. I believe that with a little change, this could be used to make a collectable system to progress to the next level, but still be used for game art. The player could be tasked to collect several pieces of a picture over the course of a level. Once collected they will make a full picture of a memory and this would allow the main character to leave the level behind and progress. It would also give a way for the player to collect game art without it getting in the way of gameplay.

References

Artifact Image - http://uk.ign.com/wikis/assassins-creed-5-unity/Belle_Epoque_-_Data_Harvest_%7E_Artifacts

Cockades Image - http://uk.ign.com/wikis/assassins-creed-5-unity/Cockades

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namecompatibility3-blog · 7 years ago

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Numerology - Does It Definitely Work?

numerology compatibility Including many other folks, several decades previously, My spouse and i was attracted to a lot of of the spiritual savoir and especially numerology.

Nevertheless numerology is probably the actual least acknowledged or grasped of the spiritual savoir it is currently making the most of a massive revival. Is definitely this resurrection due to be able to the current global troubles our society is up against, and can numerology guide in solving the difficulties many are feeling uneasy by?

numerology compatibility

In the incredibly basic connected with terms numerology is designed on the particular idea that everything inside universe is made right up of and is battling with numbers. Numerology has been recently very well documented through typically the eons associated with civilization as well as it is now presumed that Numerology is likely the most ancient science well-known to man.

In first Hebrew history the presentation regarding numbers was viewed as vital. Letters of often the Hebrew plan was primarily based on numbers. It turned out claimed that the relationship involving the notification and the actual number were equally interconnected with the cosmic allows. Later during the Central Ages some sort of numerical mysticism evolved from the particular coaching of Merkabah that is a new sect of Judaism. In that case in the 13th hundred years the German Kabbalists designed Gematria, a mystic mathematical interpretation of the Scriptures.

Information also exists about the make use of numerology tons of years ago throughout China, Rome, Japan and also Greece. The ancient Greeks have given us heaps of different technological and scientific records that becomes even a lot more specific as time innovations and is particularly the Greek thinker Pythagoras with whom many of us consumer credit for the modern-day day versions connected with Numerology. It is very accurate this Pythagoras did not necessarily invent numerology however the item was his studies which took numerology even to another amount. Hence the reason that explain why Pythagoras is credited together with being the father associated with numerology.

From the starting point of the twentieth centuries several mystics and editors have added their decryption to form what most of us have currently as current numerology.

non-e of this kind of answers the concern nevertheless - "Does advertised . do the job? "

Over these recent two decades I get immersed by myself in finding out what I can regarding the numbers and how many people can influence, influence or maybe assist my family in modifying my normal life.

I employed to spend hours drifting through hundreds of Treatment Gala's, being engrossed using the a variety of stalls. My partner and i have spent time observing with great anticipations even though people handed over all their hard earned cash to get tarot playing card readings, horoscopy charts etcetera.

I made use of to think that only might be there was one thing in what most of the friends thought was a lot of mumbo big.

One of those quite a few occasions I could see one gentleman who was accomplishing numerology readings from his / her clapboard top. We got speaking and it wasn't extended before I put invested with my very own laptop or computer numerology program. Now We had by now spent a long time researching our name, this date regarding birth, everywhere I enjoyed via just what I love to get in touch with my numerology bible.

You can ask, why, for precisely what reason have you wish to compare the a couple several systems of numerology. Very well my friend my very own aim was going to prove that will my so called type and this computer course will produce different value packs associated with.

For the initially sixth several months I acquired immense fun typing within everything I likely could possibly, each time becoming far more and more happy having the information that I actually made.

No, I may not prove either seemed to be wrong, the knowledge was typically the same and oh yeah thus accurate. You might in addition consult - why is actually this and so? Easy, an individual see, numbers have an impact on all of our every day existence mainly because based on name on birth along with the date involving birth the full information in relation to one's life is readily accessible. Things can change inside your life, yet a single thing will be constant, often the date of your respective birth.

Through the years the considerably more My spouse and i study numerology, the actual more My partner and i begin for you to understand how very large readings are. You find your own personal name does basically typically powerhouse of critical specifics of your life, your personal potential including your future. Numerology is a words in which allows you to develop the opposition of your own spiritual awareness. The idea parts doors in your mind and body that perhaps at that time you will not even learn exist.

Take into account you are generally living in a contemporary society where no matter what exactly type of employment anyone have, at some step you should deal with some others. The others can be your current boss, your friends, your own personal colleagues, other workers, administration officials, your partners, small business associates, and your friends and family. The list is usually almost endless. You may find this handling some people is definitely easy and with other individuals it is difficult. You actually have to treat as well as deal with everyone along with every problem differently consequently as to reach anything you all call a comfort and ease otherwise the relationship could be a tragedy. Not any matter what your motive for looking to make the impact on someone, numerology can go a longer way towards assisting you to throughout figuring out what would make anyone lean in your personal favor. Consulting the particular quantities does really work.

There are seen how businesses can also work effectively with numerology. Buying a business name is just one of the most essential areas in starting a profitable business. Often the name that is preferred can represent the impression and point of your own business and this is undoubtedly an image that must possibly be clearly offered to your current impending customers. A profitable business identify carries a powerful strength that can create good achievements! Yet it can certainly also be the lead to guiding a constant wrestle with middle-of-the-road effectiveness. Consequently whether you are commencing a whole new company or include an established party, you actually should really use typically the statistics to make your own personal business strong in addition to do away with the areas that could bring about disharmony.

Yes numerology does indeed really work. By means of using numerology with your regular life you can triumph over the majority of the obstacles that just simply often pop up with what you might seek advice from as a precise as well as scored way. Discover very simple and easy ways to help maximize your energy and lower your stress! You will probably learn a number of really wonderful details about your personal real, mental, emotional, and also 'intuitive' abilities! Why not find which of these usually are the most robust and smallest and what they will carry out for you! Uncover people secrets of your style, secrets and techniques that sometimes perhaps you do not recognize fully!

Why does numerology in fact work? Again the respond to is simple instructions Numerology is a very previous along with powerful science. The item has been formulated, superior and enhanced for longer than 5, 000 years by means of many of the greatest intellects and mathematicians in often the world and because connected with all the new enhancements in both mathematics in addition to numerology, readings and measurements can now be performed for you that had been definitely not possible before.

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breegullbeakreviews · 7 years ago

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Summary: Two years after Banjo and Kazooie defeated Grunty, her sisters come to set her skeletal corpse free. Seeking to drain the life force from the land to give herself a new body, the bear and bird set out on an adventure across the Isle o' Hags to stop the witch once again.

Overall: I could use a lot of fancy quotes here. “Size matters not”, “Brevity is the soul of wit”, and “It’s about the journey not the destination”. All of these in one way or another paint a picture of this game. It’s larger in scale, but not as tightly designed. It generally feels like tasks are drawn out to the point of feeling like busy work, and most importantly the tasks themselves just aren’t fun. If you still somehow like this game good for you, because once upon a time I did to, even more than the original. Those days are long gone. Banjo Tooie in my mind is a text book example of how not to handle a sequel. It’s worth looking at for that reason alone, but it’s not a game I’d recommend playing.

What follows after the break while organized is probably a jumbled mess. This review was written over several weeks in short bursts and as a result I may not get to something I said I would or in other cases I might repeat or contradict myself.

Controls: All of the controls of the original make the jump to the sequel. From the moment the game starts you have access to all of the moves from the original. The only notable change is that swimming and flying controls have been inverted from what they were. At least on XBLA.

As far as other controls go it’s incredibly hit and miss. The game introduces FPS segments that on XBLA finally have modern controls as opposed to the legacy controls of the N64. The biggest failure of the new controls is separated Banjo. Without Kazooie in his back pack all of the old crouch moves are open up to use. None of them are though. Instead one by one the entire right stick is taken over by the moves as if it was the C-buttons on the N64. What’s funny is that Kazooie doesn’t have that problem at all. Her separate move set doesn’t touch the right stick. They really dropped the ball hard on Banjo.

Gameplay: Banjo Tooie plays for the most part the same as the original. You collect Jiggies and Musical Notes just like the previous. Only difference is the purpose. Instead of spending Jiggies to open new worlds you’ll instead need a certain total to unlock a puzzle challenge to open the next. This forces you to unlock every levels in order. Musical Notes aren’t spent, but they also don’t open doors, at least not directly. Instead you’ll need a certain Note total to be able to learn moves from Jam-jars, Bottles brother. Mumbo Tokens are gone. Instead they are replaced with Globows. These magical creatures are two per world and a single one will be used to play as Mumbo or use Humba Wumba’s transformation in that world. Jinjos are still five per world, but collecting all 5 isn’t a guaranteed Jiggy. Each time you start a new game all of the Jinjos are shuffled and you get a Jiggy for collecting all of the ones of a single color.

Now you may be asking yourself “how can that work?” Don’t Jinjos reset when you leave a world along with your notes? Well not in this game because back tracking. Banjo Tooie is a series of interconnected worlds and its sense of place between them all is impressive from a design stand point. I however don’t find it to be fun. In fact in most cases it’s the opposite. Banjo Tooie has its simple backtracking like bringing a move back to open up a challenge, but that’s sadly the minority. Almost all challenges are massive multipart endeavors. Now Kazooie had these, but it was only in its final world. Here that shit starts at level three and just keep getting more complex. There are always single world challenges, but they’ve become the minority.

A massive interconnected world isn’t a bad idea on paper, but the issue is the level design itself. The worlds are big and empty. While each level has 100 Notes, Notes are collected in nests of five with a super special 20 note nest. This means despite much larger worlds there is 17 Notes to collect as opposed to 100, or even 200. There is a lot of dead space in these worlds. Baddies respawn, but even those are few and far between. They’re also less creative. Sure there is the occasional interesting foe, but for the most part they all function the same. The levels are also just a pain to navigate. They generally follow a ring shaped design like the original, but the challenges are inside rooms off to the side. I remember the rooms themselves well enough, but remembering which tunnel leads to which room I’ve never been able to pull off. It’s almost as if this game was designed to force you to look at maps in some sort of guide. Even the new warp pads aren’t enough to make this bearable.

New Moves: With every button combination on the N64 controller already used how do you grow the bear and birds move set? The answer is to make new contexts in which moves can be learned. The Bear and Bird’s new move set is almost entirely context sensitive maneuvers or modifications of the old moves. The duo gain a ledge grab, a modified beak buster, an underwater special switch hitting move, four new egg types, two new pairs of boots, first person egg aiming for land, air, and sea, first person shooting, melee while first person shooting, and splitting the pair up which offers even more moves for each.

You’ll note how repetitive a lot of that sounds. You learn 4 new ways to shoot eggs in the first person. Both of the new boots are used for vertical movement. The first is an extra powerful jump that makes it essentially a semi mobile spring shock pad. The other lets you climb walls

I’ll bring it up whenever it hits in the levels section, but these new moves create a series of gates. Because Banjo can’t do certain things, like fly for instance, you can’t go certain places without Kazooie. These sound fine on paper, but there is a gigantic issue with it in action, and that’s the back tracking. I’m going to make the controversial statement that DK64 did this better. In Tooie you must be switching to and from the combination of Banjo and Kazooie. The split pair can’t transform at Humba Wumba’s or let Mumbo go out for a run. You also can’t transform as Mumbo or ask Mumbo as a transformed duo. Without a centralized character swap point you end up spending most of your time switching characters, something that took seconds in DK64.

Other Differences: Foes respawn in this game unlike the original. This is because more often than not you’ll be treading over old ground with no real platforming or challenge to it so they need the façade of something interesting. Lives are also gone, but that wasn’t really that big an issue in the original. Banjo’s punches were replaced with a peck from Kazooie, but did anyone ever use the punches? Eggs and feathers are found in nests with their contents cycling every couple of seconds. With a total of five egg types this makes getting the type you want a huge pain in the ass while with feathers it kind of breaks the value of the golden feather and its invulnerability.

Story: If Tooie has one thing that hurts it as much as helps it it’s the story. Grunty is saved by her sisters and after two years of decay was left a skeleton. Boy who cried wolf tropes lead to Bottles getting caught in a blast from the presumed dead Witch killing him. Grunty heads to what I assume is her sisters’ lair where she plans to absorb all the life from the Isle o’hags to give herself a new body. The jump in effort isn’t massive, but the game has more cut scenes on both ends of it. Now why would this be a detriment to the game? Well its emphasis on Grunty being more of a character means that early on they drop her rhyming. That really sucks.

Music: One thing I can’t complain about is the music. Grant Kirkhope still nails it. The soundtrack is one I actually own on disk. I don’t know how many tracks here were carry over from Kazooie, but considering most of the levels were I’d assume the soundtrack was as well. The music is more of the same and in regards to music that can only be a good thing.

Worlds:

Spiral Mountain: Like in its predecessor, Spiral Mountain is a tutorial, but for the entire last games move set. You aren’t given a prompt to skip however, but aren’t required to go through the tutorial either. Instead you can just walk to the new found hole in the wall to start up the game’s first boss fight. Klungo, Grunty’s mistreated minion, waits to ambush you and serves as a road block to make sure you get the basics before jumping into the new stuff.

A few things will have you coming back later including Stop’n’swop or its sequel as well as Cheato, a Jinjo, and Roystien. Cheats instead of being hidden are unlocked by returning 5 Cheato Pages to Cheato in the entryway to Gruntilda’s lair. The rest are all hidden by new moves and exploration.

Isle o' Hags: Technically the entire game is set here, but this is all the less specific parts. This is what replaces Grunty’s lair, and despite being outdoors it feels and is a lot smaller. Every entryway to a world in the original was grand and bombastic and had a room all to itself. Here that applies to the first three. After that everything is shared and the grand entryways become more or less just doors. Level 4 being one of the most dull in the history of level entrances. It’s a hole in a boring wall with a sign and arrow.

Isle o’hags is also where you’ll learn all four new egg types. While two of these are pretty cool, the other two are pretty damn pointless. The Fire and Ice eggs are used very little. They’re mostly for the penultimate level with maybe two or three different use cases each outside of it. The Grenade and Clockwork Kazooie eggs are both explosives, the former working like a basic grenade and the latter dropping a tiny wind up bird that can slip in small holes to blow stuff up. Now to be fair the use cases for these aren’t super varied either, but these are used in more ways than just shoot this egg type in the hole. Grenades blowing up walls gets pretty old, but it’s at least different. Clockwork Kazooie eggs have the issue of being one of two small hole related entry methods that aren’t well differentiated between.

Now earlier I mentioned how there are no note doors, at least not directly. Instead moves are locked behind notes and world progression requires new moves. You need the Ledge grab to get to the second level so you’ll II need to find it in the first level. You need fire eggs to reach the third level. You need to be able to split the duo up to reach the fourth level which is found in the third. This cycle continues up until level 6 where you’ll learn the last move locking off areas. Of course to get that move you are also required to beat a boss but oh we will get to that level.

Mayahem Temple: Level one is fine. It’s backtracking is no worse than it for in Banjo Kazooie. You need Mumbo to open up the side two large side rooms which will lead to Humba Wumba. Only one Jiggy requires coming back later and it’s due to a move you get in the next world which is also used here to get a Jiggy back there. Oh yeah you’ll be doing things in worlds X, Y, and Z to get Jiggies in world A.

Its design is sort of ring like. You follow a main path up top around a central cliff with the titular temple atop it. Two large doors can be found that Mumbo will open once you reach him at the top. Most of the content is inside these side rooms which seems much more common in this game than the previous. Sadly a lot of this content feels repetitive. Twice you’ll sneak across noisy surfaces. Two Jiggies are in the temple FPS tutorial.

Humba Wumba turns Banjo into a living Stone statue that lets him compete in three progressively more complicated games of soccer for a single Jiggy. The Stoney can talk to other living stone statues that can help you get a few other Jiggies, but he doesn’t get that much use considering how big this level is.

Despite how small and barren the world feels it somehow still takes me an hour to beat, and I know what I’m doing. It’s just really drawn out. It’s the least offensive level but that’s not saying much.

Glitter Gulch Mine: This is as close as Banjo has gotten to a Western inspired world and it’s also a dropped level from Banjo Kazooie. Why it was dropped is pretty clear. It’s a labyrinthine mess. While Mayahem Temple has just two similar looking doors, this level has at least half a dozen. The level is so bad that they’ve got some of these rooms labeled so you don’t enter the wrong room. Most of your time will be spent trying to figure out where the hell that thing was again so you can do the challenge.

The design of the level follows a single mine-cart track between two rooms, a Train station and Fuel Depot. Between the two is various side tunnels and not enough notable land marks to make navigating it easy. Luckily not much will make you back track here. You’ll only need to come back for a single Jiggy and that’s it. You’ll need to hit several areas as Mumbo and Humba’s worst transformation ever to open things up for Banjo and Kazooie.

This world’s most notable move is the Bill Drill which is the modified beak buster. Holding Z or a Trigger instead of tapping it will make Kazooie drill the ground instead of slam into it. This can break rocks and later on loosen screws. Of all the moves in the game this one feels the most underused.

Now what is this awful transformation? A TNT blaster. You’ll use it to blast open TNT barrels blocking some doors and that’s it. Nothing else. While it can attack, it hurts Banjo to use. This quality right here puts it over others as the worst.

The Train Station is the most important part of this level as it’s required to get several Jiggies and more importantly properly enter the 6th level, but we will get to that. You need to defeat the boss in the engine to use the train. This form of connecting levels is pretty cool and the most creative part about having a truly connected world. It’s a shame it leads to glorified backtracking.

Now I can’t leave this level without talking about Canary Mary. Fuck here and I’ll talk about her in full when we get to Cloud Cuckooland. She is the worst part of this game and I will get to her in detail.

On the whole this is a cool theme ruined by an absolutely awful design.

Witchyworld: Another dropper in development Kazooie level, and its again easy to see why. While not a poorly organized mess, the issue is instead that you need to open up the park on a very specific order because of how the level is designed. The one exception is the Western area which can be done entirely by itself once you learn to split up. The other parts require Humba’s second worst transformation to open up access to Mumbo which lets you power up the rest of the Park so you can become that transformation again and open another thing.

Humba Wumba turns Banjo into a cash truck to pay for rides and open up special doors. Of all the things Banjo could turn into he turns into this. Sure you’re invulnerable, but you do nothing of interest. Instead of putting money around the park instead you need to waste the transformation for the level. Mumbo isn’t much better as he literally just powers up rides. Both of the last two times I’ve played this game I’ve forgotten to open a gate before switching to the shaman and had to double back to him.

As for the rest of the level the parts of the park are distinct. But somehow it’s all still boring. It can’t think of another video game amusement park without a Roller Coaster. It’s got a circus tent but no Roller Coaster. Maybe I’m beginning to harsh on this level but it’s just so underwhelming. It’s the closest in design to a classic Banjo level with a ring design, but what’s in the level is just not fun. Also another mini-game with three progressively harder stages leading to one Jiggy.

Jolly Roger’s Lagoon: What’s a water level without an air meter? Banjo Tooie seeks to answer that question. Jolly Roger’s Lagoon is a pirate styles town with an insanely deep lagoon. Most of the level is in that lagoon which poses a question of how the hell do you breathe that long. Well Mumbo for just this level hyper oxygenizes the water to remove that problem.

Above the water most challenges are simply finding all of the doubloons outside the multipart pool fixing challenge. Below the water the goal is to use underwater egg aiming to shoot things. That’s it. Pretty much everything is shooting targets while swimming. It’s all pretty boring. Water levels are hard to design, but that’s usually because they need to be built around how the game handles water. Can you swim and if so under water and for how long? Here the answer is forever but even then I still never got use to swimming and shooting.

This level idea is cool on paper, but outside the pirate town aesthetic on the surface it feels really bland. It’s a series of underwater tunnels with almost all of them being forgettable.

Terrydactyland: I use to think this level was everything wrong with this game. While I was wrong, it’s still terrible. While not as labyrinthine as Glitter Gultch Mine, it is still built into a series of caves, and it’s time to start talking about that train and how bad backtracking can be.

This world is a ring, but unlike Witchy World with four distinct side areas around a center, it’s instead Click Clock Woods with dozens of unmarked caves. Navigating this world without a map is a pain in the ass and it’s made worse by the amount of splitting up require here. You’ll be swapping back and forth between the duo as a whole and as individuals. Kazooie will learn to hatch eggs and Banio to carry people on his backpack outside Kazooie. Each of these is used a lot and generally over large distances which means plenty of time is spent wandering the boring landscape which is why I hated this level so much. You run across this level multiple times to accomplish a single task.

The Triceratops family is the most egregious example. First you’ll need to use the train to transport one missing family member home. You’ll also need to taxi pack a sick one to the train, take them out of the level to the hub where there Mumbo can cure its sickness. Why is this so bad? Because the final member of the family is also tied to a Mumbo pad, but since it’s not tied to Mumbo’s grow and shrink theme for the level it needs to be done elsewhere. All of this earns you a single Jiggy.

Overall this is a really boring level. Every tasks feels like it’s giving you the run around and the world is way too barren for that sort of design to work. Congratulations on finding a way to make dinosaurs boring.

Grunty Industries: This is the worst level in the game. Full stop. I hate everything about this level. It is the pinnacle of ridiculous backtracking. I was able to spend a full hour and a half in it with only two Jiggies to show for it. The world’s most interesting quality is how you get into it. Once you enter the world the door to the factory is locked. To get inside you’ll need to hit the switch to activate the train station inside the building and then ride the train in from another station. Everything else about this stage is terrible full stop.

First let’s talk about the enemies. This level has three unique to it. The first is a screaming worker. When they see you they scream and when they die they scream. It’s a loud and obnoxious scream that gets grating fast. Another enemy is an electric ball that comes out when you get spotted by a security camera. The cameras trigger another annoying sound in the form of the alarm. These all wouldn’t be so bad if they didn’t all respawn. The Poison Gas cans are fine, but that’s in comparison to the annoyingly loud competition.

Weldar is the world’s boos and he sucks. The giant welding torch tasks you with doing the same fight twice in a row: once with a normal floor and once with the floor electrified. You just run from him and then shoot a grenade egg into his mouth when he tries to suck you up, unfortunately this was really finicky for me. You’ll note I didn’t mention any fire, that’s because this fight against a welding torch doesn’t involve any fire at all. Now getting to this boss is the real kicker. To get here you need to have Mumbo temporarily break a super magnet so that he can swap back to Banjo and Kazooie so they can turn into a Washer Machine with Humba Wumba so they can press the switch all in a time limit. Then the way opens to the fight. This is a task that’s literally designed to highlight how awkwardly designed the character switching is. In fact this entire level is built to tasks you with playing with Mumbo as little as possible. His one other use just tasks you with switching back to Banjo and running back to where you used the spell to reach more of the floor.

The world itself consists of five floors that you’ll need to scale in order. Each floor has a warp pad, but not everyone can use the warp pads which brings me to one of the most notable examples of gating in the game. When the bear and bird become a washing machine they need to use the service elevator. This is because this transformation can’t jump for shit, and instead of building the level around that entirely, instead they make sure you can’t get to somewhere that you could get stuck.

All of the challenges here suck. I can’t think of one that doesn’t. Almost everything is just as tedious to get to as it is to accomplish. This goes both ways. Anything hidden behind a Mumbo EMP spell is really bad. The stuff that’s not bad is also just boring. At this point the point challenges are getting old, but they aren’t even close to done yet. Luckily this is the last use of the FPS combat until the end of the game, but it’s also the worst of it. I had to follow a Youtube video to find all the damn things because these maps suck so much.

Grunty Industries is a contender for the worst level I’ve ever played. I was able to spend a full hour and a half wandering around with only two Jiggies to show for it. It’s a nightmare to navigate and it puts on show the very worst qualities of its genre.

Hailfire Peaks: Hailfire Peaks is quite literally caught between two worlds. On the literal side it’s a hellish volcanic landscape with a frozen mountain side attached to it. On the metaphorical side it’s a level that looks while also being no fun to actually explore. In the penultimate world of ice and fire is where the game decides to use its ice and fire eggs the most, and also decides that it’s probably time to use some moves we forgot about. This is also half of a dropped Banjo Kazooie world. Remember when Gobi said he was heading to the fire world? Well this is what became of that concept.

Let’s start with the forgotten. Way back two years Banjo and Kazooie learned a lot of moves. Most of these have been augmented in some way for the sequel. One has not and as a result has not been used the entire game up until now, and to be fair it wasn’t used much in the original either. That move is the Wonder Wing. You’ll need it to jump through boiling water at one point. It feels super out of place because it of its location, but then again so does everything in this level.

Each side of the map has its own design issue. Let’s start with the fire side as it’s the one you start off on. The entire map is built around small ledges about the size of those found in Click Clock Woods. These are built around lakes of Lava and if built along the side of the mountain itself will have lava hands reaching out to grab you. As a result of this design pretty much every collectible or challenge is located indoors. Unlike Click Clock Woods where the massive heights and small platforms felt built up to, here it doesn’t because it lacks height. The whole side of the island feels small despite its size and it probably has to do with the fact that almost everything is built along the side of a wall with a camera that hides the height. The ice side fails because there is absolutely no threats. Alright there are a few yetis and a cave of icicle monsters, but compared to the other side it’s got nothing going for it. The upper part of the ice side has these foes, but the lower half has a coast line with freezing water, but that’s it. The layout also isn’t that hard to get around either. It’s just boring.

If you thought hopping back and forth between characters was done you’d be wrong. You’ll need to switch to Mumbo and back again to do the same spell on the same pad because you need to do one thing as Banjo and Kazooie first. The other notable example is a series of split up switches on the fire side and while not super difficult is not a bad idea for a challenge. If Banjo and Kazooie each had more variety in movement this could have been really cool. Instead it’s just mundane.

The boss battles of this world are really dull. Chilly Willy and Billy are dragons themed to their side’s respective element. As a result you just shoot the opposite elements egg type into cannons. The only thing that makes this any bit difficult is that you don’t have a lot of leg room and you aren’t locked to a 2d axis. This could have been a fight in Kirby 64. Beating both nets you a single Jiggy.

While this level doesn’t have a point challenge like almost every other level, it does have the return of the kickball tournament from Mayahem Temple. Inside the fireside’s coliseum you can open a gate to the inside of the Mayahem Temple Kickball stadium. Through it you can bring Stony Banjo. Instead of competing for the high score though instead you want the lowest score. While not a ground breaking change up, the idea of bringing back this mini-game and shaking it up for the late game is a cool idea. It’s just a shame that it doesn’t add anything but a rule change.

Overall this is a world I want to like more than I actually do. I have fond memories of it, but most of those weren’t from actually playing the level itself, but playing with toys and using the idea of these two opposite elements colliding as a cool setting. With better design this world could have been cool, but it sadly misses the mark.

Cloud Cuckooland: While not the worst level in the game, this level unfortunately carries with it the worst part of any Banjo game. It also serves as a starting point for a handful of new backtracking quests before you can wrap the game up 100%. On top of all of that the entire world is a colorful mess miles up in the sky on a series of floating platforms. It’s a strange final world.

If you’ve been doubling back and trying to wrap up worlds with new moves and what not you’ll notice you’ve still got quite a few challenges you can’t finish. That’s because the answer is in the clouds. While the count says there are only 10 Jiggies here, it might as well at least say 11, because Terrydactyland Land dropped one to this place. Finding a water source for the thirsty dinosaur is a matter of hitting a rock with a talon torpedo up in the clouds. I never even talked to the guy down there. Fixing the pool in Jolly Roger’s Lagoon also starts to end here as you can from way up high cool down the water in Hailfire Peak.

Mumbo gets the shaft here again, but in an interesting way. Technically you only have to be Mumbo once to use a rain dance to make a rainbow and water some seeds. In that regard he’s pretty useless. On the other hand he’s also the levels boss, or at least his evil doppelganger is. The Shaman has two huts on opposite sides of the island and while one holds the skull faced shaman everybody loves, the other holds what is sadly a super easy boss fight. People can beat it in 20 seconds or so using a grenade egg to interrupt the cut scene triggered on the first hit. Even without the trick he’s really easy.

Cloud Cuckooland is a series of floating and colorful platforms with a bunch of weird crap on them like cheese, a Trashcan, and a fitness obsessed aardvark. These are all surrounding a large floating mountain that is almost entirely hollow inside. This hollow interior is how you’ll get around as it’s full of holes. This is also where you get more gating. Banjo can’t use claw clamber or spring step boots so he can’t reach certain doors. Kazooie can’t climb and therefore can’t reach others. It wouldn’t be so bad if the tunnels were in some way labeled, but they aren’t. One of the easiest Jiggies in the game I just didn’t bother with because I couldn’t figure out what path I needed to take as solo Banjo to get to it.

And now we reach the end of the tale. This challenge is what made me stop collecting Jiggies and just head straight on to beat the game. I of course speak of the controller breaking queen Canary Mary. For those unaware, a type of artificial intelligence exists in games that is built so that it gets better if you start trouncing it. Mario Kart is known for it, but this is the most notorious example I can think of. In all four of Canary Mary’s races you simply have to tap a button to move. The goal is to beat Canary Mary, but since she has this AI, you need to wait until the last second to go full throttle. Now I won’t lie, I struggled on the two in Glitter Gulch mine as a kid. I aced them this go round. I tried the first race in the clouds three times and said “fuck it” to the rest of the game. The difficulty jump made here is insane. While in the mines you can keep a relatively slow pace for most of the race, here you need to have a fast pace almost the entire time, but that doesn’t work because that makes Mary kick it into overdrive. These races are notorious for how hard they are, but to me they are something everyone who wants to design video games should have to try if only to know not how to make a mini-game.

Cloud Cuckooland feels like the developers had a handful of ideas they couldn’t find a place for and as a result they made a trippy ass world where all of the strange stuff could fit. Sadly it mixes the confusing mess of tunnels Glitter Gulch Mine had with some of the gating of Grunty’s Industry. While the result isn’t as bad as latter, its theme doesn’t let it shine as much as the former.

Cauldron Keep: The end. This level actually has two puzzle challenges to it, though how they’re split shows something I didn’t know until recently, that this was supposed to be a full level. The Keep was supposed to have a full 10 Jiggies and 100 Musical Notes. Concept art exists for the level, but it was dropped to keep the game on track for its planned release date. As a result however this ends up just feeling like the last hour of the original with a lot less production value.

Entering the Keep involves a simple split up puzzle to open the drawbridge and power down the laser grid blocking the door. Heading inside triggers the third and final fight with Klungo where he’ll use the last of his three potion types. Once that’s done you enter the quiz show, and it really is a downgrade. The goal is to not have the least points for the first two rounds and hit a certain point total for the third. It’s entirely trivia and visual based though. No instant death questions. No re-doing challenges with tweaks. No visual flair. It’s a basic quiz show. It’s serviceable, but a serious downgrade from its predecessor. Once this fights done the character parade rolls and Bottles and King Jingaling are brought back from the dead.

Grunty however once again has escaped to the roof, and you’ll need 70 of the games 90 Jiggies to activate the final puzzle challenge to enter the final bout. The final is against a skeletal Grunty inside the H.A.G.1 drill tank. If it has one key issue it’s that when compared to its predecessor and even DK64 it misses the mark in one key way: it fails to incorporate everything you’ve learned. The actual fighting is the first person shooting while dodging is just the duo jumping over lasers. Banjo Kazooie’s final battle incorporated every move in your arsenal outside the spring shock, talon trot, and the boots. DK64 has you fight King K. Rool as all five members of the DK crew using all of their cool abilities in creative ways. Banjo and Kazooie never split up in this fight. You never use the drill bill. You never fly. The entire fight consist of just eggs, the clockwork kazooie egg in particular is used in the second half of the fight. Despite the massive tank this fight feels really small and leads to a weak finale.

Instead of killing off the sisters in the quiz show it would have been awesome to have both be phases in the fight that needed to be fought as just Banjo or Kazooie. Snooze packing against the fat one and something with the skinny one and Kazooie. I know it seems like this games end was rushed, but in an ideal world something like this could have let the game go out on a stronger note.

Characters: Banjo Kazooie in my opinion lives and dies on its characters. While the original isn’t super dialogue heavy, what was there was tight and clever and really painted a picture of the characters. Tooie grows the character list to an insane degree and a result has a lot more dialogue. Sadly it is nowhere near as good on average. Every level has a boss with dialogue. Almost every challenge has a new character giving the task.

Now why do these characters miss the mark more so than the original? I still can’t pinpoint exactly what the difference is. It may be how many fourth wall jokes there are. I know the ridiculous amount of that in Yooka Laylee was super annoying. Outside that I can’t quite pin-point it. It might just be that less is more, and this was a lot more than Kazooie.

Stop’n’Swap: if you want the details on this dropped and reworked feature go read my Banio Kazooie review. Just like the N64 and XBLA versions of Kazooie handle the feature differently, so does Tooie. On N64 since the items couldn’t be transferred, three of the eggs and the Ice key can be found hidden in the Isle o’hags and Spiral Mountain. These would unlock the Homing Eggs Cheat, Jinjo as a character in the multiplayer death match, a new but just as useless standing melee attack, and of course access to the Mega Glowbo to turn Kazooie into a Dragon.

In the XBLA version all of these rewards make the jump, but you need to get the eggs from Kazooie instead of in Tooie. The final three eggs that were never included bet you a theme for your 360, some Gamer Pics, and lastly the first Stop’n’Swop 2 item.

While most likely a throwaway joke, Stop’n’Swop 2 actually gives the XBLA version a few extra challenges to tackle. While most of these are just going to where the items were obtained in the N64 version of Tooie, the others task you with speed running the bosses. Getting a total time in the replays of under 15 minutes nets you one of these. The rest are all pretty basic. Use all the transformations. Die 40 times in replayed boss fights. It’s an interesting addition that may one day bear fruit, but for now it’s just another bit to do. I didn’t bother this time around but I did do it back in 2009 when the port released.

#video games #review #Banjo tooie #rare replay #xbla #n64

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corneliussteinbeck · 8 years ago

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GGS Spotlight: Yessica Martinez

Name: Yessica Martinez Age: 25 Location: Pittsburgh, PA

What does being a Girl Gone Strong mean to you? It’s more than just being physically strong. It’s about having a strong sense of self. This reminds me of something I read a long time ago, and it resonated with me. I’ll never forget: “Please, be proud of the pieces that make you you. Embrace the oddities and hold on to them with everything you have. These strange little quirks belong to us, and only us, and they are absolutely vital in creating the bigger picture that is who we are. Be proud of yourself, because if you are, it never matters who else is. Because when you are, the inevitability of other people believing in you and being proud too, is such an amazing bonus to the strength you already possess.”

When you know who you are, nothing or no one can really touch you. You become unstoppable. That is what being a Girl Gone Strong means to me.

How long have you been strength training, and how did you get started? I’ve been strength training since I was 18. Competitively lifting since I was 21. I had just graduated high school and my brother was training at a small gym called Idolmaker Physique and Performance in Miami, FL. This was not your typical local gym. They had a monolift, specialty bars, bands, chains, and an atmosphere that was unparalleled. I started training there to maintain athleticism. I played basketball and volleyball since I was young. At first, I was training for aesthetics. I wanted to lean out, look good, feel good. My strength and numbers kept increasing, and my trainer then, Randy Scoates, asked me if I wanted to powerlift. My reply was, “What’s powerlifting?” I started training with the guys, learning about technique and training methods, specifically the conjugate method, and just wanted to get strong. After that, I never looked back.

What does your typical workout look like? I train three to four days per week. My boyfriend, Casey Williams, is currently doing my programming. (He’s part of Elitefts and has the #6 all-time record in the 242-pound weight class with a 2088-pound total.)

Monday – Bench Wednesday – Deadlifts Thursday or Friday – Extra Assistance Saturday – Squats

Each lift varies. I’ll implement accommodating resistance in a two- to three-week wave. I’ll alternate bench with spoto presses or floor presses; conventional, deficits or block pulls with deadlifts; and implement specialty bars off a box with squats. Sounds like a lot of mumbo jumbo, but each week varies depending on how training was the week prior. After the main lifts, I’ll do supplemental work (assistance work that will help with the main movement I’m doing that day). On my extra assistance day, I’ll do bodybuilding-style training. Light-weight, high-volume sets. I guess I could describe this training method as a combination of 5/3/1, conjugate, and anything that I’ve learned along the way that specifically works for me.

Favorite Lift: Whichever is the most challenging and most frustrating. Each meet prep is different. Currently, it’s deadlifts. It’s about breaking that mental barrier. I psych myself out at times because I’m too frustrated. I know what I need to do; I know I’m strong enough. It’s just a matter of executing — connecting mind with body.

Most memorable PR: When I broke the 200-pound bench club. I believe we had a few of our Elitefts team members come in to train one weekend at the compound. We probably had some event or seminar going on. When I PR, it’s usually on a day when I have no agenda and let training take its own course. If it feels good, I keep going. I attempted 200 and missed. My teammate, Brandon Smitley, gave me a few technical cues, and next thing you know, I benched 205. I’ve been wanting that for years.

Top 5 songs on your training playlist:

Till I Collapse – Eminem

The Man Comes Around – Johnny Cash

Straight Outta Compton – NWA

Are You Gonna Go My Way – Lenny Kravitz

No Good – Kaleo

Top 3 things you must have with you at the gym or in your gym bag:

Elitefts Maverick Wrist wraps

Lifting Belt from Bob’s Belts

Adidas Olympic Shoes

Do you prefer to train alone or with others? Why? Preferably with others. Having training partners there for support and feedback makes a huge difference for me. It also creates an environment in which everyone has a common goal and everyone is accountable to one another. Seeing yourself improve is great but nothing compares to seeing others improve, too. To witness someone’s celebratory moment, having achieved something, especially when one couldn’t think it was possible, that really puts the icing on the cake for me.

Most embarrassing gym moment: (I’m laughing just thinking about it) It’s more funny than embarrassing. I was living in Miami and training at The Battleaxe Gym. My brother came to train one day, and he was floor pressing. Mind you, I’ve spotted guys with more than 400 pounds on the bar. While he was floor pressing, something tweaked and I couldn’t tell if he was stapled or wha,t but I panicked. Everyone at the gym was watching. As I grabbed the football bar, I couldn’t lift it and it was moving towards his face. My brother is a jokester, so he’s yelling, “Not my face!” all the while laughing. I vouched to never spot him again. He did not die under the iron, if you were wondering. Mike and Vinnie came to help.

Best compliment you’ve received lately: My co-workers recently described me as fearless.

Most recent compliment you gave someone else: That they have the ability to do anything. I try to recruit girls all the time to try out any strength sport. I like to turn hesitation into excitement. This compliment was not the most recent, but a gist of how I try to approach everyone I encounter.

Alaina had a background in lifting but eventually gave up because she didn’t want to put in the time. After five years of not touching a weight, she had the itch to lift again. When I first met her, she seemed hesitant and uncertain. I kept encouraging her that this is a “you vs. you” sport. What was the harm in competing and giving herself a base to work off of? You just need to put yourself out there. I told her to pick a meet and just train for it. Alaina ended up joining the IPA Federation and picked a meet. She went 9/9 on her first competition and PR’d on all her lifts. I reached out to congratulate her, and this is what she had to say: “I had lifters congratulating me on a perfect meet and telling me how amazing I did. To have incredibly experienced lifters compliment you is one of the best feelings in the world. I achieved my first powerlifting goal and that was to compete. Now, I’m going to work on an elite total! I’m definitely looking forward to stepping on the platform again.”

I think we’ve all been there where our mentality has hindered us from reaching our full potential. But once we break that mindset, it really is an invigorating feeling. Sometimes a little support and encouragement can ignite the passion and hunger we have inside us.

Favorite meal: Breakfast. Anything that involves bacon, avocado, potatoes, and French toast. And, coffee.

Favorite way to treat yourself: I consider dedicating a day to hanging out by myself a treat. Breakfast, coffee in hand, reflecting on the present moment, and an afternoon nail appointment. The nail salon is conveniently located in a mall, so it’s a two-for-one. But when it comes down to it, it’s the little things. Quality time with my fam bam. That’s a treat I don’t take for granted.

Favorite quote: “Do not let your fire go out, spark by irreplaceable spark, in the hopeless swamps of the approximate, the not-quite, the not-yet, the not-at-all. Do not let the hero in your soul perish, in the lonely frustration for the life you deserved but have never been able to reach. Check your road and the nature of your battle. The world you desired can be won. It exists. It is real, it is possible, it is yours.” — Ayn Rand

Favorite book: The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho

What inspires and motivates you? My vision. I have these thoughts about my time on this earth. The time I have with the people I love. The small interactions I’ve had with strangers. Questions I ask myself: Did I help someone? Did I make an impact? If I was gone, what did I leave behind? It motivates me to be a better person. To evolve. To grow. To learn. To give.

What do you do? I currently work for the sister store of Lululemon, Ivivva. I am a key leader which is equivalent to a manager role. It’s a very community-involved company, and that’s what I love about it. Our main focus is to connect with young girls, support, and get involved in their activities and pursuits. We offer dreams and goals workshops and complimentary athletic classes. Through these events girls get to connect and celebrate each other, pushing their boundaries, and knowing that falling and getting back up is all part of the journey. In my life, outside of work and training, I practice yoga weekly. I’ve grown to really appreciate it and find it challenging on many levels. I’ve also picked up an interest in photography and have a deep desire to design training apparel. I’m planning that in my vision and goals. My hobbies are to love on my dogs and take too many pictures of them. My boyfriend and I have two English mastiffs. They make us better humans — to not sweat the small stuff. For fun, I like to try different coffee shops and restaurants, and plan trips and places to visit.

Describe a typical day in your life: My work schedule varies each week. I either work at the store or out in the community. I wake up relatively early. Casey wakes up at 5 a.m. every day, so coffee is always made. I make breakfast which usually consists of egg whites and two slices of organic sprouted bread with grass-fed butter. Lunches are already prepped. We crock-pot everything and that gives us enough meals for most of the week. If my schedule permits, I’ll train either in the morning or at night. If I’m at the store, we plan our goals for the week to either make new connections, clientele, or plan events. If I’m in the community, I’ll sweat at a studio, stop in to visit girls who come to our store frequently and build relationships. It’s brand awareness but also partnering up with people in our community who share a common vision and goal. Days usually run long, so I’m home at 8 or 11 p.m. I attend to the wagging tails at the front door, head upstairs to shower, then go to bed. I try to get in six to eight hours of sleep. Days are structured which I love. It’s easier for me to get things done and eat my meals consistently.

Your next training goal: I gave myself two goals last year: Qualify for the Arnold in powerlifting and qualify for the Arnold in strongman. I want to be exceptional in both sports. I have a strong passion for both so why not? To do it simultaneously will be the challenge.

What are you most grateful for? Experiences.

Which three words that best describe you? Driven, perceptive and sassy.

What’s a risk you’ve taken recently, and how did it turn out? I was raised in Miami. I went to school there. My friends are there. I was working at an outpatient mental health facility. My degree was in psychology and social work, so gaining the experience I needed for my future was great. I was in a relationship. I had a cute, little efficiency. I was comfortable. Then, one year it hit me that I wasn’t happy with being comfortable. I didn’t want to settle. And if I wanted change, change had to happen. I ended a three-year relationship, I put in my notice at work, and I asked my brother to pick a date, and that would be the day I would move. It was sometime in December. I decided on Ohio because there was a support system there. Elitefts was there, and I had a few friends living there. Once I started packing my furniture and moved it into storage, that’s when it sunk in that everything was really happening.

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People thought I was crazy because, why would I leave Miami for winter? It’s different living there rather than taking a vacation there. I was scared, anxious, nervous. This was something completely out of my element. I like structure and this was the complete opposite. It’s been over a year now, and I’ve overcome some ups and downs. I defeated self-doubt because I came to terms with failure. That if it didn’t work out, at least I took a chance. Once that happened, I became more open. More understanding. That led to growth and opportunity. As I’m writing this, I can say that I’m in a good place. I share a home with the best person I know. Even though it could have gone the other way, the route that didn’t lead to this point, we took a chance.

What’s the coolest “side effect” you’ve noticed from strength training? Confidence — and nice delts.

How has lifting weights changed your life? It’s made me value lessons. We dedicate months of preparation for a few hours on the platform. Henry Rollins wrote: “When the Iron doesn’t want to come off the mat, it’s the kindest thing it can do for you. If it flew up and went through the ceiling, it wouldn’t teach you anything. That’s the way the Iron talks to you.” If we didn’t experience failure. If we didn’t experience pain. How could we ever truly appreciate success?

What do you want to say to other women who might be nervous or hesitant about strength training? There’s this misconception that you must be super strong or must know everything about training. I didn’t know what powerlifting was, and I tell people that all the time. If you have an interest in something, pursue it. What people don’t seem to realize is that starting is the easy part. The really hard part is when things don’t go your way. Stay the course. Don’t compare yourself. Don’t envy anyone. It’s about building yourself. Finding out what you’re capable of and where it may lead you. Once you’ve started, you’ll soon realize that it’s about building yourself and helping others. That it’s a privilege to train, not an obligation. You’re meant to have fun with it.

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