#i have now completed my one (1) edit per year and will be crawling back into my uninspired cave

[meanqueens]

"I want to see my sons again, and Helaena, my sweet girl..."

[n8thegr8]

My Avengers Academy Chapter 1: An Old Fashioned Notion

Not everyone is created equal. There are people in this world that are born with privileges and advantages that put them ahead of everyone else. There are people that are born with nothing and must climb their way out of oppression. These lessons of privilege should be taught to children with care and respect. To help them understand. These lessons should not, however, be taught to children with violence.

Peter Parker learned this lesson at the age of five. He laid there motionless; eyes widened as he looked towards the sky. He had bruises on his arms and legs, dirt stained his cheeks, and his head was pounding with pain. All he could do now was crawl into a ball and cry his eyes out.

It was supposed to be a fun day for him; his kindergarten cancelled all classes due to a nearby villain attack which cut out all the power on that grid. A day off of school is supposed to be a fun time for children. It was supposed to be fun for Peter. It was, at least in the beginning.

He had a playdate with his best friend in the world, Eugene “Flash” Thompson. He was so excited when his aunt dropped him off at his house; he couldn’t wait to play hero. Their playdates consisted mostly of watching old footage of battles between heroes and villains, and any live fights happening on the news. Today, however, was different. 

“Hey, Pete, wanna ditch this, and go to the playground? I’m getting kinda bored,” Flash said.

“Um, yeah! Let’s go tell your mom and-“

“Nah,” Flash said, “Let’s just go, we’ll be back before she knows anything.” This was unusual for Peter. Going to the park without any adult supervision? His Aunt May and Uncle Ben always told him to never go anywhere without an adult that he trusts. But, he trusts Flash. He wouldn’t let Peter get hurt right? Besides, Flash has this really cool quirk, if any bad people try to kidnap him, he’ll protect him. 

Peter agreed, and off they went. Getting out of the house was easy since Flash’s mom was sleeping on the couch in the living room with some sort of bottle in her hand. This usually happened when Peter had a playdate at Flash’s home; his mom was asleep most of the time, letting them have free reign of the house. Whenever Peter asked why his mom sleeps so much, Flash would say, “She just works a lot, okay? Stop asking.”

The journey to the park, however, was difficult because they had to stay out of sight, so no adult would see them and call their parents, or aunt and uncle in Peter’s case. They ran from bush to bush, and jumped fences to get to their destination. Eventually, they came to the wall that separated the park from the playground. It loomed over the two kids, and it cast a great shadow over them. To Peter, it was the highest wall he’d ever seen. 

Peter heard Flash chuckle. “This wall ain’t nothing to me.” Flash’s arms became covered in this black goop. The goop seemingly crawled up his arms and eventually to his hands, turning his small hands into big claws. Flash looked at Peter. “Lemme show you how a man climbs a wall.”

Flash stepped back five steps and then dashed towards the wall, jumped, and stuck to the wall, digging his claws into the concrete. Peter watched in awe as Flash effortlessly climbed up. Once Flash got to the top of the wall, he peered down and looked at Peter, flashing him a toothy grin. 

“Well, come on!” he exclaimed.

Peter stared at the wall. Noticing it’s craggily state, how long has this wall been standing? Before he was born? Before Auntie and Uncle were born? Before quirks?

“What are ya waiting for?!” yelled Flash, “Just climb the stupid thing!”

Jolted out of his thoughtful daze, Peter looked for his path to climb up the wall. 

“Come on, Peter!”

The more Flash shouted the more nervous he got. Finally, he found his path. Peter took five steps back and then sprinted towards the wall until-

“I AM IRON MAN AND IT IS TIME FOR YOU TO WAKE UP! I AM IRON MAN AND IT IS TIME FOR YOU TO WAKE UP!”

This phrase loudly repeated throughout Peter Parker’s bedroom, bouncing off the walls, and making his ear drums perform a drum solo. He let out a loud scream of confusion as he was rudely awakened by the pre-recorded message. He jolted from laying down comfortably to sitting up uncomfortably. Holding his head in discomfort, Peter groaned. “I hate that dream…” The alarm clock blared on his bedside table. Peter sighed as he clicked it off. It was a special alarm clock, a special edition Iron Man alarm clock, with a small figurine of the hero acting as the “turn off” button. Peter sighed once again and he flopped back on his bed. He took a moment to look around his room. He didn’t know why. It’s been the same for as long as he remembered. Plastered along the walls were memorabilia of his favorite heroes: Iron Man, Captain America, Thor, the Hulk, etc. Figurines of said heroes stood atop his shelves. His walls were a deep shade of blue. His bedsheets were red, but his blanket was Avengers-themed. He was fifteen-years-old, but his room was one of a twelve-year-old. Peter didn’t mind; he really liked heroes. He absentmindedly reached over to his bedside table, and grabbed his phone. The bright screen blinded him for a small moment. His eyes readjusted themselves, and he looked at his messages.

Wanda Maximoff :P (6:30 AM): Get out of bed sleepyhead. May made pancakes.

Pietro Maximoff (6:35 AM): Is my sister at your house? She’s not answering my texts. 

Pietro Maximoff (6:36 AM): Never mind lol I took a quick run around town and saw her in your kitchen lol

She’s downstairs? Peter thought. It wasn’t unusual for Wanda to be over before school started, but sometimes Peter questioned if she ever ate breakfast at home. “Your Aunt’s cooking is just too good!” she’d say. He had his doubts, of course. She always said that Pietro was cranky in the morning, so maybe that’s why she spends her mornings here.

“Peter! Breakfast is almost ready!”

Peter groaned as he heard his Aunt’s voice calling for him. “I’ll be down in a second!” he shouted back. 

“A second has passed!” he heard a shout from downstairs followed by a hearty laugh.

Oh, Ben, he thought. His Uncle really was a joker.

~A~

“How long have you been mastering the art of dad jokes, Mr. Parker?” Wanda asked inquisitively, “Because you need a lot more work.” 

Mr. Parker lowered his newspaper, took off his reading glasses, and gave a thoughtful look. Mr. Parker was wearing what he always wore: an ugly red sweater with aged blue jeans. “It’s my look!” he’d always say whenever he was questioned about his choice of apparel. “Well let’s see�� when Peter was born! His father hated whenever our dad joked with us, and I just knew that he wouldn’t do it for Peter. So I wasn’t going to let Peter live his life without the best form of humor.”

Wanda rolled her eyes. Highly subjective opinion he’s got there, she thought. She turned her gaze to Mrs. Parker who was just finishing cooking the last pancake. “Mrs. Parker, how do you live with this?”

“A strong will and wine, my dear,” she said, grabbing the plate of pancakes and bringing it to the table where Mr. Parker and Wanda sat, “A strong will and wine.” Mrs. Parker was also wearing what she normally wore. Underneath her cooking apron, was her usual yellow shirt and blue jeans. Unlike her husband, she knew fashion, which Wanda appreciated. 

“Oh please,” Mr. Parker said, “You love it; you know you do.”

Mrs. Parker chuckled as she put down the plate on the table. “No dear, I love you, not your jokes.”

Wanda let out a small laugh. “See, she’s the funny one here.”

“No one here appreciates my stellar comedy,” lamented Mr. Parker. 

“I do,” a fourth voice said. Wanda turned her head towards the stairs that led to the upper floor, only to see her best friend: Peter Parker. Peter looked like he crawled himself out of a grave. His eyes were droopy, heavy bags surrounding them. His skin was paler than normal and his hair was also more ruffled than normal as well.

“Ah, my hero,” joked Mr. Parker, “Jeez, son, you look like a zombie.”

“I always appreciate your jokes, Ben.” Even his voice was coarse. 

Wanda eyed her best friend and gave a cocky grin. “Did you even shower? I can smell you from here.” 

Wanda saw Peter roll his eyes at her. “Well, good morning to you too,” he said.

~A~

The ensuing breakfast was also per the usual for the Parker family. A lot of banter between Uncle Ben and Aunt May, but even more between Wanda and Peter. “Don’t pass out from being a geek when you meet Dr. Banner today.”

“And don’t try to pass out from boredom when he starts talking about the dangers of gamma radiation,” he retorted. However, Peter couldn’t deny his excitement. For the first field trip of the school year, his high school, Midtown High, was going to Avengers Tower to meet the heroes and watch a lecture from the Incredible Hulk himself, Bruce Banner, the fourth most popular hero in America. Eventually, the pair finished their breakfast. 

“Thank you so much, Mrs. Parker! The food was great as always,” Wanda said. She always said this after having a delicious course of Aunt May’s cooking, which at this point was every other day or so.

“Oh you’re always welcome here, dear,” said Aunt May, “Now go, you two are going to miss the train.”

The two said their goodbyes to the married couple and off they went out the front door and onto the sidewalk, where an impatient Pietro waited.

“Took you two long enough,” he said while tapping his foot incessantly. “Mom and dad missed you at breakfast, dear sister,” he said in a mocking tone.

“Well get back to me when dad can actually cook something worth a damn, dear brother,” she fired back.

Pietro shook his head in disappointment, his silver hair flowing side to side as he did. “Hey Pete, ready for the field trip?” he asked excitedly, a complete change in his composure. 

“Dude, you know it!” Peter exclaimed, high fiving Pietro. 

Wanda groaned. “I’m surrounded by geeks.”

The walk to the train station was yet again, per the usual for the life of Peter Parker. Talking to Pietro about the villain fight that was on the news the night before while Wanda playfully mocks them.

“So the paper is due Friday right?” Wanda asked.

“Yep,” responded Peter. 

“But does that mean 12:00 that morning or at 11:59 that night?” replied Pietro. 

“No, it’s du-“

 sudden explosion was heard. The trio stopped in their tracks and looked to where they heard the explosion. They see smoke in the direction they were looking. 

“That’s the station…” Peter said. 

“That explosion…” Pietro said. 

Peter turned to Pietro. “Which means…”

Wanda eyes widened in horror. “Oh God, please no.”

Peter and Pietro's eyes lit up. “Villain attack!” they both exclaimed. Then the two ran off in the direction of the station. 

“Hey, wait up you two!” Wanda exclaimed, running after the pair. 

When Peter, Pietro, and Wanda got to the station it was a sight to behold. On top of the tracks was a villain they’d never seen before. He was gigantic in size and was entirely made out of sand. He stood on the overpass and roared out, daring any hero to attack.

“A new villain?” Peter asked with extreme curiosity. 

“Yeah looks like it,” Pietro responded with eagerness, “He looks so cool!”

The villain reeled back his fist and punched a chunk out of a building. The crowd that was surrounding the scene screamed as debris threatened to crush them. That is until a blue and red blur flew in and destroyed all of the debris that dare harm the populace. It was the Avenger Captain Marvel, one of the strongest members of the team. 

“Oh Cap’s here? This’ll be done in no time,” mused Pietro. 

Peter swooned. “She’s so cool.”

Wanda huffed and crossed her arms, a small blush cascaded her cheeks. “She’s okay.”

The villain’s voice echoed and roared. “Get outta here pipsqueak, before I slaughter ya!”

Captain Marvel floated above the crowd, glowing with a golden light, her hair defying gravity as it floated upwards. Her very presence exerted the power she possessed. She looked back to the crowd. “Multiple Man, form a barrier!” she ordered.

“Alright people, don’t move past the clones y’hear?” multiple voices echoed.

The trio looked and saw the rescue hero Multiple Man! A new up and coming hero who could create a seemingly infinite amount of clones of himself. A sea of clones barred entrance to the battle. “They’re exact copies of him,” Peter whispered. “I gotta...” He reached into his book bag and took out a notebook and a cheap digital camera.

“And there he goes,” Wanda sighed.

He took his camera, aimed at one of the clones, and snapped a quick picture. Then, he opened his notebook. It had the number twelve written in sharpie pen on the cover. Peter opened it and flicked through the pages and pages of hero analysis until he found Multiple Man’s entry and feverishly wrote in his new finding.

“Oh, it warms my heart to see such an enthusiastic youth!” A laugh rang in Peter’s ears. He looked to his right and saw an older looking gentleman. Balding, but still has his white hair, a bushy mustache, and a cool pair of black sunglasses. 

A blush danced onto Peter’s face. “Ah, well it’s just a hobby of mine.”

The elderly gentleman chuckled. “Oh don’t try to fool me, young man! I know exactly what you are! A fanboy!”

Peter’s face was bright red from embarrassment. “I, well I-“

“Hey there’s nothing wrong with being a fanboy!” Pietro exclaimed, standing up for his friend.

The gentleman continue to chuckle. “Not at all, young man! Why when I was your ag-“

The villain roared once again. “Don’t you come near me!”

Captain Marvel flexed out her arm and pointed at the villain. “Flint Marko, you are under arrest for illegal quirk usage and destruction of property! Anything you say can and will be us- gah!” The heroine was suddenly cut off by a gigantic fist made out of sand punching her into a nearby building. 

“I ain’t going to jail!” the sand villain yelled as he reeled back his other giant fist, “And I’ll be sendin’ ya straight to hell!” The sand giant flung his fist into the building where Captain Marvel crashed into, but the attack was blocked by an invisible force field! Peter looked to the top of the building to his left, and standing there was the Invisible Woman, one third of the Future Foundation!

“Ah! It’s Susan Storm!” Peter heard Wanda squeal in delight. “She’s gonna kick this sand dude’s ass!”

“Nah, my money’s still on Cap,” replied Pietro, “She can probably bench press the continent if she wants to.”

Wanda groaned. “Not every problem can be solved by brute strength, dear brother,” she said in a mocking tone, “You need finesse and to think outside the box! Right, Pete?” She stood with her hands on her hips in a stance of confidence. However she got no response from her friend. “Pete?” When Wanda turned to face him, all she saw was him feverishly writing in his notebook. Deaf to the world around him.

“So Invisible Woman actually doesn’t disappear she just bends the light around her to make the illusion that she’s invisible so does that mean that she can’t see when she’s invisible or maybe the light is still hitting her eyes anyway so maybe she sees but you also have to consider…” Peter rambled on and on.

A moment of awkward silence fell upon Wanda, Pietro, and the gentleman as Peter muttered away. “Oh Pete.” Wanda sighed.

“Does your friend usually do this?” the gentleman asked.

Pietro scratched the back of his head in embarrassment. “Yeah, it’s hard for him to stop when he gets going.” Another crash was heard and the attention of the group was once again focused on the ensuing fight. 

“You ready, Sue?!” yelled Captain Marvel as she flew upwards towards the sky.

“The barrier’s up, Carol; turn this villain into glass!” yelled the Invisible Woman back as she flexed her arms out.

The sand villain tried to reach for the flying superhero but found himself unable to move past the invisible barrier that blocked his path. “Wh-what the hell is this?!” he screamed in terror. 

“This is the end of your villainy, Marko!” exclaimed Captain Marvel. 

The crowd went wild, this was the public’s favorite part in villain fights: when the hero triumphs over the villain and saves the day. “Come on, ma’am! Show us a flashy finish!” the older gentleman exclaimed.

“I told you so,” Pietro said as he bumped Wanda’s arm with his elbow.

Wanda shot a dirty look at her brother. “Oh, shut up,” she said. She put her hand on Peter’s shoulder who was still writing in his notebook. “Peter, it’s about to finish. You’re gonna wanna see this.”

Peter’s consciousness came reeling back into reality as he saw Captain Marvel floating in the sky. Her golden aura intensified as her hair stood straight up. Peter internally squealed as he knew what was coming, he quickly aimed his camera at the hero. It was Captain Marvel’s signature move! The golden aura stopped being an aura and started to be the color of Captain Marvel’s skin as her body stored energy. Her quirk: Binary Engine, allows her to store energy inside of her and release it at her will. She yelled out a battle cry and flexed her arms forward. “Binary Ignition!” A beam of golden energy erupted from her fists. If one were to ask the crowd what occurred that day, they would say that they felt the Earth shake beneath them as they saw the furious fiery energy hurdle itself towards the giant sand villain. With a loud scream of pain, the sand villain took the blast in his giant sandy chest. The extreme heat from the energy started to solidify the sand that it hit.

“No!” the villain roared, “I-I can’t move!” With the invisible barrier now closed fully around the villain, the extreme heat from the binary blast went to work. The heat was trapped and had nowhere to go, just like the villain. The villain was quickly calcified in glass, unable to move. A statue to the victory of heroes, the sand villain was. 

The crowd erupted in cheers and chants as Captain Marvel slowly descended back to the ground and the Invisible Woman followed suit. The heroes gave the all clear for the police to restrain the villain, a tall order given his size but the police always came prepared. 

Peter, on the other hand, was feverishly writing in his notebook about the intricacies of what he saw of Captain Marvel’s signature move. How much heat it truly produced being the main point of intrigue for him. “So for sand to turn into glass the sand has to be exposed to a temperature of 3,090 degrees Fahrenheit or 1,700 degrees Celsius which means that Captain Marvel’s energy output is far greater than what I initially calculated for her maybe…”

“He really likes to write doesn’t he?” the gentleman asked. 

Wanda sighed with a tinge of embarrassment. “Yeah, he really does,” she said. She then put on a big enthusiastic smile. “But, he’s going to be the best hero of all time. I just know it.”

“Wow, thanks, sis,” said Pietro.

The old man let out a light chuckle as he saw the two siblings bicker and Peter mutter and write in his notebook.

“... and you also have to consider the possibility that with enough stored power she can become a walking sun and that would be devastating for villains but maybe she can also solve any future energy crisis that the world will face and-“

“Hey, kid.” Peter felt a hand on his shoulder and turned to see the old man standing next to him. “You don’t let anybody tell you that you can’t be a hero, alright? If somebody doesn’t believe in you, prove them wrong. Think of heroism as the classic mask and spandex costumes, it doesn’t matter who’s behind the mask. Anybody can be a hero.”

Peter felt the warmth and kindness of the old man’s words. He flashed him a goofy grin. “Thank you, sir! I promise to become the world’s greatest hero.”

The old man returned with a big smile. “Excelsior, young man! Now go out there, and become the best hero that you can be!”

The trio thanked the gentleman for his time and walked up to the train platform as the police gave the all clear to enter the station. They got on their train and sat down. Peter glanced out the window and a small smile formed on his face. Across the river he saw the apple of his eye. Adorned with a stylistic “A” on its face, stood Avengers Tower, HQ of the Mighty Avengers, the most popular hero agency in the world. While Avengers Tower was the HQ for the agency, it was also a school, Avengers Academy, where teenagers learn to become heroes. The school only taught from sophomore year to senior year of high school. Apparently because there wasn’t enough material for a full four years of hero education. “Hey, guys?” Peter called out to his friends.

Pietro and Wanda snapped out of their individual dazes from the painfully normal train ride and turned to their friend, his face plastered with an even bigger smile. “What’s up, man?” Pietro asked. 

“Let’s apply to Avengers Academy,” Peter said. “Let’s be Avengers.”

Wanda’s face grew a soft smile. “Peter, you always say that,” she pointed out, “We’ve been wanting to be Avengers since we were kids!’”

“I think he just forgets that we made that pact years ago,” said Pietro, laughing as he did. 

Peter turned to his left to face him. “No, I didn’t forget! I just want to make sure,” he said with a hint of anxiety in his voice. Peter’s face went from cheerful to solemn. This usually happened to him after being excited about heroes and his dream to be one. Almost as if somebody completely different swapped places with him. He would go from raving about heroes and claiming he was going to be an Avenger one day one second, and then the next second he would become eerily quiet. His eyes would darken with sadness. His whole demeanor would shift. He became reclusive and antisocial. In his head he thought to himself,

They’ll be the ones going to AA… not me. There aren’t any quirkless heroes in the first place, why would I be the exception? 

Wanda noticed the drastic change in him. “Hey, hey, hey look at me,” she urged him. Peter turned to look at Wanda, and felt her hand on his shoulder. Her gaze met his. “You are going to be the best hero ever, okay? It doesn’t matter, okay? You’re already my hero.” She pointed to the red bandanna wrapped around her head as she said this. As Peter glanced at the accessory, he noticed how it wrapped down her cheek, under her chin, and was tied at the top of her head in a nice bow. Peter knew what she meant. 

It’s been five years and she still remembers. To him, helping her up and tying his bandana around her head to keep her jaw in place was just the normal thing to do when someone trips and falls on their chin in Physical Education class. 

He shot her a small, but genuine smile and said, “Okay.” Wanda shot a big smile back at him. As she did this his stomach became infested with butterflies and his face felt like it was lit aflame. He swore that he heard Pietro behind him groan and mutter, “Jeez, get a room.”

After yet another painfully average walk, they finally made it to their destination: Midtown High. Midtown High was just another average year 9-12 public high school located in Forest Hills, New York. Moderate in size, but gigantic in population. The school had trouble with too many students and not enough teachers to teach them. Cramped classrooms didn’t look good in the paper and it needed to be fixed. So to combat overpopulation and to promote transferring to other schools, there is a field trip to Avengers Tower for the freshman. If you want to tell kids to get out of your school, might as well tell them to be superheroes.

Unfortunately for Peter, the trio had to part ways for the time being since they all had separate homeroom classes. Peter sat in his classroom, and his gaze wandered around, looking at the 4x4 room that confined him. 25 desks filled the room in a semi-orderly fashion, Peter sitting near the back, which was unusual for him considering how studious he was. The floor was stained with age, under the coat of yellow was once a beautiful marble floor. The blackboard could never be truly cleaned as there were always remnants of past classes leaving their chalk footprint. Peter sighed and took a glance at the clock at the front of the class, however, he couldn’t make out the time with his bare eyes. He sighed once again, reached into his bag, and took out a container. He opened them and groaned as he was reminded that his glasses were ugly. Bright red covered the frame and the circular lenses felt as if they were half the size of his head. He put on his glasses, and the world suddenly became much clearer. He glanced at the clock again and saw it say it was 8:00 AM, right on the dot.

He groaned and let gravity claim his head. It made a nice and loud “bump” as it hit the desk. Peter knew what was coming. He counted down from fifty. He always comes in at 8:01 AM. Throughout the years of being bullied, Peter picked up a thing or two about personal quirks. At exactly 8:01 AM, he walked through the classroom door. His black hair stood in a spiky fashion, he wore a black muscle shirt, and baggy dark blue jeans. He was laughing as he entered the classroom, as if someone had told him a hilarious joke. Peter quickly stood up a book on his desk and opened it, creating a makeshift barrier between himself and the rest of the world. He fumbled with his glasses as he tried so desperately to put them back into their case. He lowered his head, below the book barrier. He didn’t want him to ruin today. It was supposed to be a happy day. He was going to Avengers Tower, he was going to see his heroes! 

The world went silent and all Peter could hear was the sound of shoes hitting the floor, and it was getting closer. Peter silently whimpered. Why did he have to come after him today? Wasn’t he tired of this? Making his life hell? The footsteps stopped right next to him.

Oh no. 

Pain was all Peter felt as his hair was being pulled back, forcing him to sit up straight. He felt every single strand of hair being unsuccessfully pulled from his scalp. He reluctantly opened his eyes, he had to face him now. All Peter saw was the black-haired kid smiling at him with a devious toothy smile.

“What do you want today, Flash?” Peter groaned, “Can you please let go of my hair?” Peter struggled as he grabbed the hand that had a fist full of his hair.

Flash gave a hearty laugh. “Aww, is Puny Parker all alone today? Is the quirkless wannabe sad that he can’t have his friends save him?”

He hated when Flash said that. It just reminded Peter of his true nature, that he was just normal. He doesn’t have the X-gene, he doesn’t have a quirk, he isn’t a mutant, he’s just human. Peter focused all of his might into digging his nails into Flash’s hand to make him let go. Suddenly, as he did that, Peter felt a gooey and slippery substance cover Flash’s hand, Peter squeezed but Flash didn’t let go. He only laughed.

“Oh Parker, did you piss off Venom?” he asked in a mocking tone. “Oh, is that right?” Flash said to no one in particular. Peter continued to thrash in pain as Flash kept his vice grip on his scalp. He felt like his hair was going to be pulled out, and his brain right with it. “Parker,” Flash said, his voice deepened, “Did you try to hurt me?” At this point, his voice became deep and twisted, almost demonic, as if two people were speaking in unison. 

Peter grunted as he continued to struggle. “Yeah, so what? Let me go, damn it!” He glanced up at Flash and saw that his neck and a portion of his face were covered in black goop. Peter’s gaze then went to Flash’s mouth, he was baring his teeth, but they were all razor sharp. Oh God, Peter thought.

He saw this before. This black goop. Flash pulled Peter closer to his face. He could practically smell him failing to brush his teeth properly that morning. “That wasn’t very smart of you, Parker,” Flash said.

“Christ, Flash! Just leave me alone!” Peter exclaimed. Peter then curled his free hand into a fist and swung it at Flash. Momentum was stopped as Peter’s arm was caught, not by Flash’s arm, but a mouth, a mouth with sharp teeth. It wasn’t Flash’s mouth, but it was the black goop’s. It was a macabre sight to say the least. The mouth shot itself from Flash’s abdomen and latched on to Peter’s fist. Peter didn’t feel any pain, however, but he did feel the sharp teeth prick his wrist as it held it in place. 

“Oh, Venom. You always know how to make me proud,” Flash said with a small chuckle. “Oh, that’s right! I didn’t feed you today, did I?” Peter’s eyes widened in horror. Flash gave a sinister smile. “Go wild.”

Peter shut his eyes as the word went into slow motion. Was Flash serious?! Was he going to let Venom devour his hand?! He could get suspended! Expelled even! He’d be charged with assault and battery and be tried as an adult! This is what perplexed Peter about Flash, he had great grades, was the school’s star quarterback, but he always did reckless activities that could have the potential of ruining his life. Even from a young age he was like this. Peter felt the terrifying mouth start to close on his fist, it was slow as if it was taunting him. As if it was letting his host enjoy the scene play out in front of him. He snapped back in reality, his gaze darted across the room, looking for someone, anyone to help him. His heart sunk as he saw the cruel reality; others had arrived by that time and they were all in their own groups, their own cliques, and they were watching the events unfold. They all just intently stared at the scene. No one dared make a move. Would anyone stand up and intervene? Peter closed his eyes, and braced for the pain that was to come. 

It happened. Peter felt the teeth rip and tear into his skin. He tried letting out a scream but more black goop shot out of Flash’s chest and onto his mouth, which muffled Peter’s scream for help. The mouth kept slowly clamping down, it wasn’t long until it was going to hit Peter’s bone. Peter started to hyperventilate. His chest rose and fell. Rose and fell. Over and over again. As he saw what was happening to his hand his mind raced. Why him? Why today? Today was supposed to be a good day. Why? Why? Why? Peter felt the sharp teeth graze the top of his carpal bone. He closed his eyes and whimpered. 

“That’s enough!” A voice pierced the unsettling air like a bullet. 

Peter glanced towards where the voice was shouted from, and there he saw Wanda and Pietro. Pietro had his hand on Flash’s shoulder, grasping it with an iron grip, and Wanda stood near Peter, grabbing his arm and pulling it out of the jaws of the beast. Peter looked at her eyes, her pupils were glowing a bright red. She looked at the lacerations on his wrist with a deep and sad look. She took in a deep breath and put her free hand over the wounds, and then the magic started. Red energy started to flow out of her hand and into Peter’s wounds. When the red energy entered the wounds, Peter felt an extreme warmth run up his arm. It felt odd, but it wasn’t strange to him; he had felt this many times before. When Wanda first got her quirk five years ago, she’d been the person to heal Peter’s scars and bruises he sustained from his run-ins with Flash. The reason why Uncle Ben and Aunt May didn’t know how bad Peter really had it was thanks to Wanda’s quirk. He looked down in embarrassment, he could already tell that she was worried about him. The day had just started and Peter was already hurt.

“You got a death wish, Maximoff?” Flash growled.

“Leave him alone, Thompson,” Pietro demanded. Peter looked at the two feuding teens. To him, it was as if two forces of nature collided. Pietro, a benevolent mountain standing tall no matter the condition, and Flash, a ravaging tornado destroying everything in its path. Two titans facing off against each other, and it’s all because of a quirkless boy. 

Flash scoffed and all of the black goop retreated back into his body, out of sight. He looked directly into Peter’s eyes. “You’re lucky your body guards came to rescue you, wallcrawler,” he said. He then went and sat in his seat at the other side of the room.

“Alright kids,” Peter’s teacher, Mr. Harrington said, “As you all know, today is the field trip to Avengers Tower.” Mr. Harrington was always an odd fellow, even in this world of superpowers. He was a tall lanky man, with brown hair and a bushy beard and moustache. Just by looking at him you can tell that he was a nerd in his youth. He wore brown suits to class, always had a neat tie on, and wore black dress pants. On his desk one could find memorabilia of the wonderful world of science. Globes, a model of the solar system, a Newton’s cradle, a map of the periodic table, etc. Peter liked Mr. Harrington; the appreciated his love of science, and even though Mr. Harrington gave the aura of a man who has been punched in the face one-too-many times, Peter related hard.

“Just so you all know, two students from different classes have requested to join ours for today.” Peter then took a glance at Pietro and Wanda who were sitting to the left and right of him respectively. As Peter looked at her, Wanda proudly showed him a small doodle of Flash being punched in the face by the Hulk. Peter smiled at the rough sketch. No matter how bad he felt, she could always make him laugh.

Peter’s gaze trailed back to his notebook in front of him. This was Peter’s Quirk Analysis book. It was open. The name Wanda Maximoff was written in the title section with neat handwriting. A picture of her was clipped on by a paper clip. Peter smiled at the photo he had taken last summer when they visited the planetarium. Her pose was odd, but unique. She had her fingertips touch one another, her legs spread and bent, her torso bent forward, and a big toothy smile plastered on her face as if she was saying, “Come at me, ya scoundrels!” She stood in front of a model of the planet Saturn. A small grin created itself on Peter’s face; that was a fun time for him.

Beside her picture were the words, “Quirk: Hex,” and below that were notes. Peter read these notes every so often. They were notes on Wanda’s Quirk. He came up with the name himself after seeing it in action so many times. Hex was one mystery of a power as it just showed up one day. For years people thought that Wanda was quirkless, until one day when she saved Peter from being Flash’s punching bag for the day. The memory flew through Peter’s mind like a bird through the sky. He remembered being pinned up to a tree, gazing into Flash’s eyes, which were filled with murderous intent. The next thing he remembered was Flash being lifted in the air by a mysterious red glow, and then seeing Wanda glowing with that same redness. This didn’t stop the bullying for her, however. Before she was being bullied for being a foreign quirkless girl, now she was being bullied for being a foriegn freak who got her quirk late. 

Peter had spent hours studying Wanda’s quirk. There was one conclusion that he came about, Hex was a sort of probability manipulation, similar to Dr. Strange’s quirk: Mystic Arts. Her power could bend the fabric of probability in her favor. He theorized she can probably cause a gun to backfire just by looking at it, but he’d rather not test it. She can also shoot out red energy bolts as projectiles, they don’t hurt much, but it still was a force of concussive energy. Her quirk also allowed her to “heal” people, however, this was contested by Peter. The only thing she had done to heal him was close his wounds; he still felt sore and achy afterwards. Maybe since she doesn’t know the intricate details of the human body, she doesn’t know how to heal someone fully, or maybe she was just scared of screwing it up. In the end, Hex was an amazing quirk in Peter’s eyes. He couldn’t wait to see her become a hero one day.

He turned the page and came across Pietro’s entry. His picture was a one-in-a-million shot that Peter took at one of Pietro’s soccer games during Physical Education class. Pietro’s pose was simply art, his left leg outstretched after kicking the ball, his right arm crossing his body as his left arm is outstretched, keeping him balanced, and all the while a big goofy smile that screamed, “Yeah, I’m the best!” Peter remembered how much he and Wanda were cheering for him that day. In the end, Pietro’s team won and got bragging rights for a whole year. 

Like Wanda’s entry, next to Pietro’s picture was the name of his quirk: Superspeed. It was fairly self explanatory, Pietro’s quirk allowed him to move at superhuman levels. He could outrun any car, train, plane… Well, maybe not a plane, Peter thought to himself. However, his quirk also granted him enhanced metabolism. Pietro was always fit, any scrape or bruise would be gone within minutes, and he had to eat a lot to keep up. Pietro always wanted to be a hero, and his quirk locked in his future to be one of the greatest heroes of all time. 

Peter's smile turned into a frown as he turned to the next page. The name in the title box was Eugene “Flash” Thompson, and below that were the words “Quirk: Symbiote.” Flash’s quirk was the scariest of them all, it was a living organism that was bonded to Flash’s body. Its base form was a black goop that would cover Flash if it felt like it or Flash was being threatened. In reality, the symbiote was always on Flash. It was Flash, and Flash was it. It also gave itself a name: Venom. Venom can form any weapon from itself, be an impenetrable shield for Flash, and can enhance Flash’s strength fivefold. Flash and Venom were one and the same, they talked to each other, and they looked out for each other. Sometimes Peter would see Flash mumbling to himself, when in actuality he was having a conversation with Venom.

However, Flash wasn’t the only person in the world with a symbiote. Symbiotes were a quirk that arrived late to the scene as they’ve only been around for the past 80 years or so. Nobody knew where the symbiote quirk came from, and some even theorized they were a failed experiment caused by the Weapon program that was never properly disposed of. Unfortunately for people with symbiotes, there was a dangerous stereotype connected to them: cannibalism. It’s no secret that people with symbiotes need to have a larger intake of food since they’re effectively eating for two, so naturally rumors started to spread about people with the symbiote quirk. This stereotype was derived from one entity, a villain named Carnage. 

The only symbiote that was able to leave its host and live on its own was one of the most dangerous villains alive. Its original host was a serial killer called Cleetus Cassidy, a cannibal with over 30 confirmed murders, most of them women and children. Cassidy was as messed up as a human could get. He truly believed that human life was meaningless, and he was doing his victims a favor by murdering them. Cleetus Cassidy’s religion was murder and cannibalism, and the symbiote believed as well. Eventually, the symbiote grew tired of Cassidy, and murdered him. Police found the gruesome corpse of Cassidy strung about the apartment, but Carnage was nowhere in sight. It escaped and bonded with a new host; It would continue this cycle for the next 26 years.

“Hey, uh, Pete?”

A voice pulled Peter out of his day dreaming, he looked around the room to see all the desks empty and Wanda and Pietro at the doorway of the classroom. Peter’s face turned red in embarrassment. 

“Oh, sorry!” he exclaimed as he gathered his belongings and joined the duo. 

At 200 Park Ave. in New York City sits a skyscraper unlike any other. It was a business center, R&D center, a laboratory, a Hero HQ, and an academy for young heroes-in-training. Adorned with a stylized “A”, Avengers Tower stands as a beacon of heroism. Peter Parker muttered these words to himself as he found himself standing outside the front door. He had so many questions to ask, but one stood out amongst all the others. A question he’s had since he could talk. A question on that day he would finally have answered. 

As he stood in front of the building in a daze, Wanda and Pietro stood by his side, they both gave him a big smile. “Avengers Assemble?” Wanda asked them. 

Pietro nodded. Peter looked Wanda in the eyes, and smiled as well. “Avengers Assemble.”

~A~

“Boss, there’s an emergency at Central Park. Reports say that Carnage has been spotted and is on the run.”

“Any heroes on patrol near there?”

“Negative, boss.”

“What about Carol?”

“Captain Marvel is currently with the Invisible Woman, they’re at the Raft making sure the villain they captured earlier is in proper custody.”

“... So you’re saying that I-“

“Boss, get off your ass and be a hero.”

“I don’t remember programming you with a potty mouth, Friday.”

“And I don’t remember asking for your opinion. The suit is at 100%.”

“How long will the charge last this time?”

“About two and a half hours, boss.”

“Heh, plenty of time.”

The shutters to the darkened room opened, revealing the city down below. A man clad in red and yellow armor walks out onto a balcony. 

“Time to be Iron Man.”

To be continued...

[ladylillianrose]

Seasons of Love a Max Richman/Zoey Clarke Fanfiction

A/N: Well guys we are almost at the end of this journey! Thank you all for reading and for all your comments! I can’t believe it’s almost over!

Per usual a big thank you to aubreyrichman for her edits!

As always the characters are not mine but belong to the amazing genius that is Austin Winsberg.

Summary: Christmas with the Clarke family

This month’s song is “What Are You Doing New Years Eve” by Nancy Wilson (Listen to it here https://youtu.be/uUK_P88g4Kg)

December 25 Christmas Day

November 26 Thanksgiving

October 31 Halloween

September 23 Max’s Birthday

August 12 Perseids Meteor Shower

July 4 Independence Day

June 21 Father’s Day

May 10 Mother’s Day

April 12 Easter

March 17 St. Patrick’s Day

February 14 Valentine’s Day

December 31-January 1 New Year’s Eve/New Year’s Day

December was always a flurry of activity in the Clarke household. Maggie outdid herself with the decorations as she did every year, making the house look like it came straight out of a holiday catalog. Zoey and Max were over almost everyday helping out with the decorating, baking, shopping and wrapping presents. 

The week before Christmas, they had celebrated the last night of Hanukkah together as a family. The celebration had been Maggie’s idea after Max's first Christmas with them. Max insisted she didn't need to go out of her way for him, that he was more than happy to be a part of their Christmas traditions. But Maggie was stubborn, so the next year Max had found himself in the kitchen teaching her how to make latkes and his grandmother's kugel recipe. It touched Max how much both Maggie and Mitch had done to make him feel like a part of the family.  

“Merry Christmas!” Zoey and Max shouted as they walked through the door, arms laden with gifts.

Maggie came over and hugged both of them, helping them place their gifts under the tree.

Peter eagerly began crawling his way towards the presents and the tree.

“Oh no you don’t sir,” David said as he scooped him up. “Last night he kept trying to get to the milk and cookies we left out. And now that those are gone, it’s all about the shiny lights and ornaments on the tree!” David explained, hugging Max and Zoey.

Emily joined them from the kitchen, “It’s his first Christmas honey.” She took Peter from his arms, “He’s just very excited.”

Zoey grinned at Peter, “Of course he’s excited, Auntie Zoey and Uncle Max brought all sorts of fun presents just for him!”

David shook his head at her, “I thought we said we weren’t going to go crazy with presents this year….”

“You said that, I said that I do what I want,” Zoey shrugged at him.

David looked at Max who held up his hands in defense, “Don’t look at me, man. I just do what she tells me, you know how determined she gets.”

Zoey laughed, “Oh, cause you weren’t the one insisting we get all of those baby science board books for him?”

Max feigned ignorance, “Nope, I have no idea how we ended up with the complete set of those.”

David shook his head smiling as he watched the two of them bantering. He was relieved that Zoey had finally found her happiness, she and Max were perfect for one another.

"Come on, let's get started!" Zoey said eagerly, dragging Max over to the sofa.

Max shook his head fondly at her eagerness, she was just as excited as Peter.

Zoey waited until everyone was seated to start passing out the gifts. Soon, everyone had a nice simple pile, though Peter's was three times the size of everyone else's. 

Peter stared up at his pile wide eyed, as he began playing with the shiny ribbons hanging off them.

Zoey glanced knowingly at Maggie.. "What? I'm Grandma, it's my job to spoil my grandson!" She defended herself.

They all took turns opening their presents, giving Peter a chance to play with his favorite present ….the wrapping paper and ribbons.

Zoey looked around the room, noticing that everyone else seemed to be done opening their gifts, apart from her and Max.

"So, who's next?" She asked.

Max nudged a small box into her hands. "You are, sweetheart."

Zoey looked at the tag, "You are my sun, my moon and all my stars. Love Always, Max."

She smiled at him as she unwrapped the gift, to reveal a small box that could only contain jewelry. She opened the box and gasped, inside was an exquisite white opal necklace. The stone was set in a circle surrounded by smaller stones that may or may not be diamonds.

Max took it from her hands as she lifted her hair so he could help her put it on. He dropped a kiss on her neck, "I wanted to give you the moon, but since that would cause all sorts of tide and gravitational issues, so I went with the next best thing."

Zoey glanced down at the most beautiful piece of jewelry she had ever owned. She turned, throwing her arms around Max and kissing him.

She pulled back her forehead resting on his, tears in her eyes. "I love it, I love you, it's perfect," she breathed.

Max grinned at her, dazed from her kiss. Zoey couldn't resist, she grabbed one of the stray bows and stuck it to Max's head. She saw out of the corner of her eye, Maggie sneakily taking pictures of them.

Max made a face at her, before taking the bow and sticking it to her head. He leaned over and kissed her again,  "Best Christmas gift ever." 

Zoey blushed as she felt the eyes of her family on them. 

"Your turn!" She said thrusting a large rectangular gift into Max's hands.

"For the man whose songs hold my whole heart. Love, Zoey."

Max peeled off the paper to reveal an album, "I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles), by The Proclaimers?" Max looked confused. 

Zoey smiled at him, "You sang me this song the night of Simon's engagement party," she began.

"I sang this to you?" Max interrupted, looking surprised.

Zoey nodded, "I could tell that you meant every word of it as you sang to me. That’s when I knew, when I realized that I loved you too. So, since then I've thought of it as our song."

Max pulled her to him, kissing her gently. "It's perfect. It will always be our song, whether I sing it out loud to you or not."

David and Emily looked confused at the exchange. "Max sings to you?" David asked.

Zoey blushed, "Umm yeah. He's big on singing to me, sometimes he plays piano too."

Max grinned, "What can I say, she just makes me feel like singing all the time."

David made a gagging motion, as Emily rolled her eyes at her husband. "Well, I think that's so sweet! You guys have your own special song. I wonder what ours would be," she said turning to David.

Zoey turned even redder and hid her face in Max's chest.

He leaned down and asked, "I take it they have a song?"

"You do not want to know…" Zoey mumbled trying to forget the last time she had heard Emily sing and the awkward conversation she had with her brother after.

Max chuckled, dropping a kiss on her head.

Once all the gifts were open they set to cleaning up the living room from all the discarded paper. Maggie turned on the stereo as she headed to the kitchen to begin preparing Christmas brunch. 

Once the floor was clear of debris,  Max offered his hand to Zoey. "May I have this dance?" Zoey smiled accepting his hand and being pulled into his arms.

The music played as they danced. Max began to sing along for her.

Maybe it's much

Too early in the game

Aah, but I thought

I'd ask you just the same

What are you doing New Year's

New Year's eve?

David chuckled, hearing Max.  "I assume we are all doing the same thing we do every New Year's Eve."

Zoey shook her head, making a rude gesture at David. She sighed contentedly and continued listening to Max as he sang.

Wonder whose arms

Will hold you good and tight

When it's exactly

Twelve o'clock that night

Welcoming in the New Year

New Year's eve

Maybe I'm crazy to suppose

I'd ever be the one you chose

Out of a thousand invitations

You received

Aah, but in case

I stand one little chance

Here comes

The jackpot question in advance

What are you doing,  New Year's?

New Year's Eve?

"I'm spending New Year's Eve with you, of course. There's no one's arms I'd rather be in," Zoey said honestly.

Max leaned down and kissed her softly. He had plans for New Year's Eve, and it couldn't come soon enough.

[theshijlegacy]

Rise of Skywalker ramblings

Saw RoS last night and loved it. 

I’d seen the mixed reviews and was a bit apprehensive going in, but was pleasantly surprised in a lot of ways.  It kept some of the spirit of TLJ that I liked while still delivering a lot of the “safer” Star Wars story that I expected.  Being part of a super enthusiastic opening night crowd is always fun too.  And it’s nice to see that I’m not the only person who liked the whole 7-8-9 trilogy!

Spoileriffic thoughts below.

--Rey Palpatine was one of the theories I’d kicked around, but it would have been nice if she really was nobody, like the Force doesn’t care who you’re related to. Timeline-wise she would have been better off as his great-granddaughter but I completely buy Sheev having lots of kids and/or having some later in life.

--I’d been running with the “Skywalker is the new name for Force user” theory for a while, but I’m OK with Rey adopting it as her last name.  She doesn’t have to be a Palpatine and the name of the family that saved the galaxy is continuing.

--HOLY CRAP FINN IS FORCE SENSITIVE.  I would love it if that was what he wanted to tell Rey.  (Best answer from Reddit: “I’m in love with Poe and don’t know how to tell him!”)

--Ben Solo didn’t make it to the end!  I was convinced he’d get a redemption arc and live happily ever after. Props to JJ/whoever for going in that direction, especially with the Jedi fadeout.

--The opening crawl getting right to "oh hey the emperor isn't really dead.” So happy they didn't drag out the “when-do-we-see/hear-the-emperor???” mystery

--Sheev Palpatine and his motherfucking contingencies for contingencies, plans-within-plans shit.  This guy was a thousand steps ahead of everyone else, all the time.  Got a glimpse of that in Empire’s End too.

--LOL the tank of Snoke clones.  Sheev loves his clones, in both canon and legends!

--Poe’s lightspeed skipping.  Poe being an ex-spice runner.  Poe and Zorii!  Poe in general.  Poe is great.

--Luke/Leia training flashback!!  Leia's lightsaber!!!!  Which she presumably built herself!!!!!

--3-way Finn/Poe/Rey hug.  And the sound of a thousand fanfics being composed…

--More First Order defectors who had been kidnapped as children.  (Also a plot point in Empire’s End, complete with a 6-year-old-ish Armitage Hux ordering around a group of kidnapped-and-brainwashed child recruits)

--Hux being the mole, not because he agrees with the resistance, but because he hates Kylo Ren.  I bet he was hatching a plan as soon as Snoke was killed.

--Force-healing onscreen!  And it wasn’t just “Force magic” (which I also would have been OK with), it was actual taking life from one to give to another.

--Rey was noticeably better at lightsaber fighting.  She was… not great in TFA.  Only slightly better in TLJ.  Her year of training really shows and I like that we’ve seen a pretty clear progression.

--Rey stopping that transport with some Kyle Katarn shit and Kylo trying to get it back and OH SHIT REY SHOT OUT FORCE LIGHTNING  

--Palpatine: GLADoS edition has been added to my recent “horrifying scene that works but really gives me the creeps” list (also includes flashback to Coulson resuscitation/brain surgery with him repeating “just let me die” on Agents of SHIELD, Brainy getting rebooted on Supergirl)

--Aside from his GLADoS-esque support arm complete with wires, I liked undead-Palpatine's look - missing fingers, whited-out eyes, and his transformation after he stole life from Rey & Kylo.  Especially the red-lined robes.

--Got serious Endgame vibes at the end with all the ships showing up. Husband unit also pointed out the parallel of “I am inevitable”/”I am Iron Man” and “I am all Sith”/”I am all Jedi”

--OMG ALL THE JEDI SPEAKING TO REY.  I didn’t recognize everything at first but I heard Obi-Wan (young & old), Yoda, Mace Windu, Ahsoka(!!!!!), and Anakin.  Per the credits, voices also included Qui-Gon(!), Luminara Unduli, Aayla Secura, Adi Gallia, and Kanan Jarrus(!!!!!).  Two notable absences: Cal Kestis and Ezra Bridger.  I can accept Cal’s fate as TBD since Fallen Order just came out, but this is really good news for Ezra.  I am now super super interested to see where these two have been.

--Kept the Rey/Kylo force-connection deal.  It weirded me out in TLJ but I’m really glad it was kept here.

--Wedge coming back for one last ride!  (and aging pretty well, wow)

--RIP Snap.  :-( I’d grown a bit attached to him after the Aftermath trilogy, but I think Norra and Brentin would have been proud.

-- ForceGhost!Luke has a new attitude; I guess being dead for a while tends to mellow you out.  I am still 100% OK with his character in this trilogy.

--Kylo not being as good at fighting after he dropped the dark-side allegiance – specifically the 6v1 fight against the Knights of Ren before he got the lightsaber.  Like he'd been into it so deep for so long he forgot how to fight without it.

--Han coming back one last time for some Ghost Dad Advice

--THANKS FOR NOT KILLING CHEWIE!!  I was seriously worried

--Rey fights herself!

--Where can I buy a replica of that Sith wayfinder?  I do like shiny force-user crystals/holocrons/etc

--Rey finally builds her own lightsaber!  And it’s yellow.

--TAKE THAT REYLOS: Oh you want a kiss huh?  There’s your kiss!  AND NOW HE’S DEAD.

--That whole scene.  Kylo staring at dead Rey.  Kylo force-healing Rey and bringing her back to life.  And now they’re staring at each other, and I’m thinking don’t kiss you idiots, don’t fucking do it.  FUCK they did.  I actually booed out loud.  (I will not deny being a little bit happy that Kylo died immediately after)

--All of the “are you happy Ep 7 & 8 haters???” stuff: Rey is super powerful because she’s Palpatine’s granddaughter, someone bringing up a “why don’t we Holdo this” argument and getting shot down with good reason, showing Leia’s Force powers with a flashback to being trained by Luke AND having her own lightsaber

--The urgent timeline got kind of.. muddled?  Forgotten?  They had 18 hours or 12 and still had time for all those spacejumps and Lando gathering friends from all over?

--A bit too on-the-nose with some of the ROTJ parallels.  Lando in disguise saving the day on a desert planet! Speeder bike chase!  Emperor taunting Our Hero while their friends are losing a huge battle outside!  A Skywalker dies so Our Hero can live!

--Also wondered if one of the writers played SWTOR: Emperor who really isn’t dead uses Super Mega Force Lightning and tries to jump into Our Hero’s body to take over their mind.

After chewing on this for a day, here’s my ranking of Skywalker/Palpatine saga films from best to worst:

5 > 8 > 9 > 4 > 7 > 6 > 3 > 2 > 1

And including Solo and Rogue One:

5 > Rogue One > 8 > 9 > 4 > 7 > 6 > 3 > Solo > 2 > 1

tbh I’m so far into the “inject all Star Wars content directly into my veins pls” territory that I can’t say I hate any of it, and even the cringiest prequel moments are leaps and bounds ahead of a lot of other junk I’ve watched/read/played.  So much about Star Wars is just FUN, and I will gladly handwave away most of my nitpicks (SpeedForce, I ain’t gotta explain shit) for the sake of enjoying the story.  Even the ridiculous stuff that I poke fun at is still a part of the whole mess; it can’t all be great or even good or OK and that is fine with me.  [NOTE: I have not watched the Holiday Special but the husband unit is weirdly enthusiastic about me doing so; it may happen yet this year.] 

I really like this comment from the A.V. Club.  More cynical than my overall take on the whole shebang but I totally know with where they’re coming from.  I don’t agree with all the responses but it’s a pretty good discussion.

[slushrottweiler]

Between the Lines - Part 1

How Varric Tethras fell in love with his editor: a story in letters.

Bioware wont let me romance the dwarf, so I’ll do it myself Read on Ao3

9:28 Dragon

To Ser Tethras,

As you have been informed, your previous editor has parted ways with Kirkwall Publishing, leaving the production of your popular serial, Hard in Hightown, on hiatus. I am writing to introduce myself as Serah Lawfield's replacement, and to inform you that we shall re-commence publishing your serial by the end of this month.

My name is Y/N Y/L/N, and I am very excited to begin working with you on developing your story. I have personally enjoyed reading your work, and believe we can work well together. Whilst I have looked over your previous edits with Lawfield, if you have any requests or person preferences for the editing process, please let me know and I shall attempt to adjust my process to suit you.

If I do not hear back from you within the next week, I shall begin edits on your most recent manuscript as per the in-house style manual.

Thank you again for choosing to work with Kirkwall Publishing. We are honoured to help share your stories.

Hope to hear from you soon, Regards Y/N Y/L/N Editor at Kirkwall Publishing

…...

Here is the information you requested on New editor. Had 3 men tail her. Notes are attached

(a collection of papers, written in three different hands. One page had scratchy drawings of flying books and quills in the margins.)

Y/N Y/L/N Employed at MP for approx 18 months. Human. Free-Marcher. Originally from starkhaven. Low-born. Educated.Young Resided above Hightown markets. Small apartment. Well kept. 6pin double key lock. Well-liked at MP. Professional. Friendly. Considered hardworking and talented. Has a rep for being good at dealing with difficult writers. Arrives late. Stays late. Takes her work home. Drinks 5-8 coffees a day. Strong ties to Coterie. More info incoming.

Coterie ties extend back years. Potential child recruit.

Currently information broker for Kirkwall faction Respected, feared. Background in smuggling and forgery. Negotiated trade deals with Carta.

Left home later than should have , looked tired but was smiling. Carrying large stack of manuscripts. Was greeted with smiles and waves at office. Two men rose to help her carry her things. Another woman brought her coffee without being asked. Wears slim-framed glasses when working. Nibbled on the end of her quill. Many messengers stop by her desk. Cannot all be publishing related. Some notes are placed directly into her bag. Some belligerent author just showed up. Did not interrupt until author started insulting other staff members. Only took her two minutes to calm him down. Author just left. Not only agreed to changes, but seems to think the changes are his idea. Stayed back late to finish work. Took home three manuscripts. Dead dropped letter exchange under lower left paved outside blooming rose. Added to Coterie watch list. Seems to have a preference for sitting on her windowsill at home to work. Doesn't wear pants at home. Legs for days.

……

(A letter, attached to a well-bound and heavily annotated copy of chapter 5 of Hard in Hightown)

To Ser Tethras,

Since you are, unfortunately, too busy to respond to my last message, I kept to my word and have completed a standard but thorough edit of the latest chapter of Hard in Hightown.

I have used industry standard mark ups, and left my annotations in the margins for your perusal. I have also included a detailed list of suggestion changes that I feel will help streamline the story and reduce unnecessary clutter. Whilst I thoroughly enjoyed your imagery, some of your metaphors boarded on purple prose and I felt best to remove to maintain the tension.

If you have any questions, or you would like to discuss my suggestions further, I would be happy to arrange a personal meet up at the location of your choice.

If all is well, please send your approved changes to the Kirkwall Publishing office byclose of business Friday.

Kind Regards, Y/N Y/L/N Editor at Kirkwall Publishing.

…….

(A note, hastily written and torn roughly from a notebook)

Dear Serah Y/N

You can bet your sweet Starkhaven ass I want to discuss your suggestions. I don't know how you've conned your other authors into dancing your jig, but I'm not about to rework my entire story to suit your whims.

Since you we're so generous as to offer to meet at a location I choose, I'll see you at the Hanged Man this evening. Unless, you've grown accustomed to life up in Hightown?

Yours reluctantly, V. Tethras

……

Mr. Tethras,

Looking forward to meeting you.

Y/N

……

(a note attached to the second draft of chapter 5 of Hard in Hightown)

As requested, here is the edited manuscript; well before Friday you may notice. All agreed upon changes have been made, and grammar corrected. No need to get all antsy over commas again.

V. Tethras.

P.S. where did you learn to play Diamondback like that? ….

Thank you for getting those edits back to me so promptly Tethras. I'm so glad you agree to cut those flashbacks in the middle, they dragged the whole pace to a crawl. The tension is just perfect now!

As for your enquiry about my gambling skills, I shall only state that I am a mystery and an enigma, one you cannot hope to solve. Bow before my beginners luck.

…….

Tone it down, you silver-tongued brat.

V.

……............................................................................................................

Ser Tethras,

I understand that you and your brother are knee deep in preparations for your Deep Roads expedition, but that does NOT excuse you from submitting your latest drafts on time.

If the latest draft of Chapter Eleven is not on my desk by tomorrow morning, I will come down there and drag it from your ink-stained fingers myself.

Sincerely,

Y/N Y/L/N

Editor at Kirkwall Publishing.

……

Why Silver, formal sign-off and everything. You are mad at me.

Would you forgive your favourite dwarf if I said I was assisting a young and devilishly handsome Fereldan refugee to turn his life around? And that, through working with this strapping lad, I am gathering a whole host of new ideas for later chapters, a perhaps… that second serial you’ve been asking for?

Your humble wordsmith,

V. Tethras

…….

Have the damn manuscript to me by next week.

You owe me V.

Silver

P.S. Stay out of trouble.

……

Dearest Silver,

Stay out of trouble? Why, I am an upstanding and law-abiding citizen of this fine city. I wouldn’t dream of creating trouble in our fair Kirkwall.

Hawke on the other hand…

You’ll break us out of prison, right?

……

(a letter attached to a manuscript, delivered within hours of close-of-business the following week.)

Chapter Eleven, as promised Silver.

And if my courier is as fast as she claims, with a good half-a-day to spare.

Now let me have a few solid nights of drinking before you bombard me with your inevitable critiques. After the week I’ve had. I deserve it.

Your favourite Dwarf,

V. Tethras

……

No rest for the wicked V.

…..

Slave driver.

……

You're the one sending (and likely paying) this young boy to run between my office and the Hanged Man to deliver scathing quips.

Are you so desperate to have the final word?

……

Well yes; but you keep responding, don't you?

…….....................................................................................................................

So I noticed you seem a bit fixated on my latest romance scene. There have to be at least twice as many notes on those pages than the rest of the manuscript combined (what do you have against the humble ellipses? Did it kill your father, insult your mother’s honour? Cheat you in cards?).

Something there must have really caught your attention.

……

If by caught my attention, you mean had me scoffing into my coffee, then yes -- there was plenty to work with.

I don’t know who you’re paying at the Blooming Rose, but no one has ever lasted that long, or had a woman orgasming that many times, without the aid of some very potent potions. Anyone who claims otherwise is better at lying than you are.

Try to be a bit more realistic when penning your explicit material.

Your readers aren’t that stupid.

By the way, I have no qualms with the ellipses. But they are not sugar V, don’t sprinkle them about like the scene is an Orlesian sweet.

……

Obviously you’ve never slept with a dwarf...

What we lack in size, we make up for in …  stamina.

Surely you’ve heard the saying... “Just the right height to give a human girl a good time.”

… V

P.S… sweet enough for you Silver?

…............................................................................................................................

                                             Kirkwall Publishing;                 in association with the Noble Literary Society of Kirkwall,

                                extend their cordial invitation to

                                          Ser Varric Tethras

                                                    to our

                                Annual Satinalia Award Ceremony

                               To be held at the De Launcet Estate                                              10th Harvestmere

                                    Dinner will be served at 6 bells                                  Award Ceremony to begin at 8 bells.

                           Please contact Kirkwall Publishing to RSVP.

( scribbled in the bottom corner of the invitation)

Yes you have to come! You won an award for Viper’s Nest

- Silver

……

My Dearest Silver,

I regret to inform you that I will be unable to attend this award shindig, as I will be busy doing literally anything else. As it if Satinalia and the entirety of Kirkwall will be pissed-up and cavorting around in masks, I’m sure no one will miss me.

Be a dear and collect my award for me. I want to send it to the Merchants Guild next time they try and involve Bartrand and me in their latest drivel. And when you finally grow tired of the snooty bastards up in Hightown, come join us at the Hanged Man. Hawke and I are having a little get together.

Yours, without regrets

Varric Tethras

……

Dear V.

Fine, but you better get your clever merchant hands on a bottle of the honey mead I like.

Try not to pass out before I get there.

- Silver

......

( a message, written on the back of a letter from the Merchants Guild and left on the beside of one Varric Tethras )

I stand correct. Dwarven stamina is a thing of beauty.

You still owe me 3 sovereigns.

Silver

……

Where the all of Thedas did you get that dress! That neckline should be illegal.

You can’t possibly have found it in a store, even I wouldn’t believe that kind of coincidence. Did you show a tailor my author portrait? You must have! Which means you had that outfit planned well before I rejected your precious awards night invite.

So you were planning to what, attend that ceremony with me dressed in a pin up version of my usual clothes? I don’t know whether to be flattered or insulted.

This is punishment for all those ellipses isn’t it?

Or were you just trying to catch my attention? I've been called a narcissist before, but never by intelligent company.

Your exceedingly bemused author,

V. Tethras

……

You didn’t seem to mind the dress last night, when I stopped by to deliver your award.

Or did it only cause offence once it landed on the floor of your room?

I didn’t think you noticed, you were very… distracted.

You’ll note my accurate and well placed use of an ellipses.

Your exceedingly well-dressed editor,

Silver

By the way; your pretty elven friend, the one who’s always sneaking into the Hightown gardens. Is she seeing anyone?

……

Hands of Silver. Hawke’s been making doe-eyes at Daisy since he saw her.

Furthermore, asking about my friends the day after you sleep with me! I feel so used.

Your tragically offended friend,

V. Tethras

……

As usual, you force me to repeat myself V.

You didn’t mind being used last night.

Your surprisingly flexible friend,

Silver

……

No fair, now you’ve got me thinking about humans and their long, bendy limbs.

You’d think all that leg of yours would get in the way.

Next time, remind me to hook them over my shoulders. I like the way it makes your back arch.

……

Tempting.

But you still need to send me the redraft of chapter eleven by next fortnight.

- Silver

[lostsummerdayz]

Lost Summer Archives - DJMAX Respect Review

by Nay Holland

Originally written: 01/26/18

Foreword: I was cleaning out my laptop and I came across an old review I wrote as a sample for an opportunity that sadly never took off. I wrote this review based off of the Asian version of the game as the NTSC version did not come out yet. A lot of content hadn’t come out yet, so expect a lot of things to be outdated here. Two years later and we now have both the NTSC PS4 and the Steam versions. Effing.... POP/STARS is in the Steam version! Time flies. Anyways, enjoy this for the first time seeing the light of day!

“Glory Days” are here again, indeed!

The year is 2009. I remember that hot Summer day, cashing in my final paycheck from my Summer job two weeks before senior year in high school, and immediately spending it on two things, a new PSP and DJMAX Fever. What fueled my purchase at the time, was that I wanted a game to play during my train rides to and from school and I’ve heard through word-of-mouth that this game would fulfill my button mashing needs. What kept me a fan for over eight years, was the music, the game play, and the overall love that the fans, developers, and composers have for the series.

Whether it was in the arcade with Technika, on a mobile device with Ray, or on the PC with Trilogy, the series proved a gateway to other rhythm games outside of DJMAX, yet I always found myself coming back to it. That was why the reveal of Respect was one of the main reasons for me to own a PS4, much like how I purchased that PSP with Fever eight summers ago. Since the release of Respect, it’s a purchase any fan of rhythm games, both new and old, will enjoy.

DJMAX, a franchise and a household name in the South Korean gaming industry since its humble beginnings as a PC game in 2004, had long since staked its claim as a driving force for rhythm games worldwide. For several years it had filled a void in the rhythm game scene with its Portable series.

The vibrant colors, intricate FMVs which played in the background, flashing effects, the various genres of music, and overall presentation featuring the eccentric announcer JC gave players an arcade experience at the palm of their hands, easily attracting newcomers to the game. The game play, being easy-to-learn yet sometimes unforgiving-to-master, serves as an addiction to keep playing. At some point, every single player of DJMAX have heard these taunting words echoed through their headphones any time you reach a Game Over.

YOU NEED MORE PRACTICE, NEVER GIVE IT UP!

Yet, far from discouraging, those words only fuel your resolve to keep playing, and playing, and playing, more and more, until you finally cleared that song that you have been stuck on for an hour. You come for the pleasing aesthetics and awesome music, but stay for the near masochistic game play until you conquer that roadblock and amp up the challenge, pushing yourself, and your blistering thumbs, to the limit.

Neowiz, formerly Pentavision, in this regard have giving fans both veterans to the frantic high-octane five-hundred notes per minute action, and beginners clearing charts at a reasonable crawl, enough content to last for years, if not potentially decades.

This was what Neowiz aimed for, with the release of DJMAX Respect in the Summer of 2017, a compilation of songs ranging from DJMAX Portable 1, Portable 2, and an entire soundtrack of new songs specifically made for Respect. The intent for Respect, however, is not meant to be just a “last hurrah” for the legendary franchise, but also as the title suggests, a Respect to the series and its fans.

Boasting the largest song list of any DJMAX game to date right out of the box with well over a hundred songs, Neowiz adds on to the already robust soundtrack with DLC ranging from their second PC game, Trilogy, to the “Metro Project” Portable games, including Clazziquai and Black Square, and their arcade flagship series, Technika.

At the time of this writing, the Trilogy and Clazziquai Edition DLC are available for purchase. Aside from their entire catalogue from their respect games, the DLC also added UI tweaks. This included entire overhaul to the user interface to reflect the games of the past. With every pack there is also a new song or two, exclusive to Respect, further empathizing Neowiz’s vision of respecting the legacy that they created, while also embracing the new.

The game play for DJMAX Respect follows the “if it isn’t broke, don’t fix it” formula as it does little to deviate away from its core game play. There are four modes, 4B[utton], 5B, 6B, and 8B. 4B utilizes the left and up buttons on the d-pad as well as triangle and circle buttons, 5B adds the option of using the right d-pad or the square button, 6B makes it a necessity to use both of those buttons, while 8B adds the shoulder buttons to the game play.

Certain quirks affected game play for the Portable series are fixed for Respect, with the addition of utilizing the two trigger buttons. For example, 8B in the PSP version utilized the L and R buttons, which are also the same buttons used to change the scroll speed in game. The only way to change the speed in 8B was to pause the game and do it from there. Since the trigger buttons are mapped to speed up and speed down, this means you can change your speed in all modes, including 8B, during game play.

Another quirk that was addressed was the utilization of the analog stick for certain charts that needed it. Now, instead of using the singular analog nub, you utilize both analog sticks for the PS4 controller, although this could be fine-tuned some more as there is no strategy in any of the analog notes. I’ve found myself simply holding the stick in any direction I pleased, rather than twirling the analog stick as it was a necessity in the Portable games.

Lastly, sticking to the “tried but true” formula, you must play through the game to unlock content, including songs, note skins, gear skins, and other elements. A personal problem I had with this, is that some of the unlocks you won’t see for a long time as you’d have to grind to unlock said songs through “achievements.”

There are milestones that you must complete within the game, ranging from how many songs of a specific difficulty you play, how many missions you cleared in Mission mode, and even how many times you missed a note. There are 24 different achievement categories in the game, each ranging from as little as five tiers for the more “challenging” tiers, to the average of ten tiers. After each tier cleared within a specific achievement, you unlock whatever is underneath that tier, then you move on to the next.

If there’s a specific song you are aiming for, you often find yourself grinding songs just enough time to unlock the song you want to play in Free Mode, otherwise the only chance you can get to play these songs are whenever they appear in Arcade Mode.

Thankfully the DLC packs all come with the songs readily available in both Arcade and Free mode so there isn’t any grinding, but, DJMAX has always been a series about grinding for content. You get the most out of your money this way as you won’t be able to unlock everything within the first couple of hours, but it is a game meant to be played in bursts, much like, again, how the original Portable games were.

At the current moment this game is only available to the Asian, Japanese, and the Korean market. All versions of the game are in English, making it highly import friendly. The great news is that there is a US release on the horizon as it was revealed during PSX 2017, so expect that release sometime during early 2018.

Regardless what region you pick this game up for, I highly recommend this game to anyone. It’s a grind fest, it’s brutal for the first time playing, and a PS4 controller isn’t a PSP so one would have to get use to the aerodynamics of the PS4 controller. With so much game play and content meant to last literally years, it’s a worthy investment and a proper sendoff to a franchise near and dear to me.

[eddycurrents]

The Crooked Man & Others: “The Crooked Man”

Words: Mike Mignola | Art: Richard Corben | Colours: Dave Stewart | Letters: Clem Robins

Originally published by Dark Horse in Hellboy: The Crooked Man #1-3 | July-September 2008

Collected in Hellboy - Volume 10: The Crooked Man & Others | Hellboy Library Edition - Volume 4 | Hellboy: Complete Short Stories - Volume 1

Plot Summary:

In 1958, Hellboy travels to the Appalachian Mountains where he and Tom Farrell try to weather a storm of witches to bury Farrell’s father on consecrated grounds and beat the devil.

Reading Notes:

(Note: Pagination is solely in reference to the story itself and is not indicative of anything found within the issues or collections.)

pg. 1 - I love that during this period of Hellboy stories, where Duncan Fegredo became Mignola’s stand-in for the tales set in the present, the main visuals for the past tales was Richard Corben. Corben is a master of horror and weird tales himself and the collaborations with Mignola, Dave Stewart, and Clem Robins on Hellboy legends were gorgeous. Here in the opening, he and Stewart wonderfully set the rich detail of the nature in this story.

pg. 3 - It’s kind of interesting as to how simple the set up is to get Hellboy into the story. Just checking in on a poor girl who’s been hexed.

pg. 5 - Tom Farrell is mostly a stand-in for Manly Wade Wellman’s character Silver John, a veteran with knowledge of the supernatural, albeit without lugging around a guitar. The little bits and pieces Mignola throws in of Hellboy’s past in passing conversation is nice.

pg. 6 - Chekhov’s church being set up here.

pg. 7 - More witch balls confirms their suspicions. I think these ones are pretty interesting, looking more like sea urchins. 

pg. 9 - The empty skin sure is creepy.

pg. 10 - I love the silence before Hellboy goes into asking Tom a question about his past.

pg. 11 - Never trust the naked girl luring you to the devil. Never. Though, to be fair, it’s interesting the parallels to Eve’s temptation of Adam, if Adam were a lustful fifteen year old boy. Sometimes, I wish, though, that they didn’t necessarily trade off a woman’s sexuality as a taboo.

pg. 13 - Corben’s design for the Crooked Man is amazing. Just creepy and frightening all in one. It’s also neat how Mignola weaves in some backstory for the area, building up the lore of the Appalachians by telling another tall tale within this narrative.

pg. 10-15 - I quite like how these flashbacks are presented. Other than the panels with the Crooked Man’s death, there’s really only a minor softening to the colours, but the indication of a flashback is through a simple rounding of the panel border’s corners.

pg. 16 - This raccoon is adorable. Sure, I know it’s Cora Fisher as an animal crawling back into her vacant skin, but adorable little raccoon.

pg. 17 - The death of her husband and her kids does at least make her sympathetic.

pg. 19 - Effie Kolb, on the other hand, just seems nasty.

pg. 22 - The bridle turning Tom’s father into a horse is a pretty neat trick. Horrifying, yeah, and debilitating for Tom to see him that way, but it’s a kind of evil of these witches and the devil that you didn’t necessarily expect. A way to drive a needle into Tom’s side in an unexpected fashion.

pg. 23 - A good set up for the quest up the mountain, and Hellboy’s inclusion.

pg. 24 - I like Tom’s intent on getting Cora free from her deal with the devil. These pretty much never work out, but it’s at least a nice sentiment.

pg. 25 - Tom’s father as a burden that he must carry himself is representative of one of the themes that often appear in these kinds of Americana tales, in that you have to own your own foibles and face the consequences. Lest things turn worse for you.

pg. 29 - This mixture of American folktale, history, and what I believe is largely Mignola’s own invention to give us another little side story is wonderful. It’s always impressive to see him embellish little details into the broader narrative. Also, Corben’s designs for these witches are terrifying.

pg. 30 - That they’re calling Cora by name just adds to the creep factor.

pg. 31 - That the passage of time seems to be affected by the presence of the devil and the evil that’s seeped into the land is interesting as well. That their presence could essentially fix darkness at noon is kind of neat.

pg. 33 - There’s a bit here that you can’t outrun fate, that you still have to pay for the evil that you’ve done.

pg. 35 - Hellboy versus these frogs and bugs makes my skin crawl, just showing how effective the storytelling is. Corben is a master at drawing these creepy crawlers.

pg. 38 - That’s some nightmare fuel. The vision overall, reinforcing the idea that the devil can’t set foot in a church put forth in the first part of the story, again seems to foreshadow something that might occur.

pg. 39 - Clem Robins’ font for Effie’s laughter has a nice haunting effect.

pg. 40 - Even with what they’ve faced so far, I love the feeling of dread that Corben and Stewart instill through the art, just through a simple moon shot.

pg. 42 - This is at least a little comfort. Despite her death, Cora still escaped the clutches of the devil.

pg. 44 - I think it’s interesting in a lot of horror and fantasy fiction that treats witches almost as though they’re a different class of being. That whatever it is that they become, they’re not quite human. At least, not any more. I suppose it could be a way to essentially other them, to make it all right when the heroes in the stories ultimately kill, burn, and/or destroy them utterly during the course of a story. Rather than thinking that someone can be redeemed of their wicked ways.

pg. 45 - Two neat things here: first, Corben’s designs for the witches are nice. Love the variety and detail among them. Second, I like the question of faith and belief in regards to whether or not magic will or will not work.

pg. 47 - The Crooked Man come to collect his due is an amazing visual.

pg. 48 - Wonderful little cut away on how to make a witch ball. This is both hilarious and frightening when you look at that cat closely.

pg. 49 - Just as there’s the idea common in folklore that the devil always tells the truth, there’s a certain logic and fairness to what the Crooked Man is saying. A deal was made, services were rendered, and now he’s here to collect on his end of the bargain. It is ultimately weighted unfairly in his favour, given that the immortal soul is a real quantity in Hellboy, but there’s the idea that he’s not really wrong planted here.

pg. 50 - The idea of a witch siege of a church is different.

pg. 52 - The witches essentially punking Hellboy is funny.

pg. 53 - The reverend not taking any guff from the Crooked Man is one hell of a mood. Also, trying to bribe him in order to get Tom out of the church and off the consecrated ground is really a tell.

pg. 55 - There’s a nice parallel to Job in the reverend’s temptation and acceptance of his tribulations.

pg. 56 - Taking a different approach of raising the dead within the consecrated ground is something new. The Crooked Man and the witches can’t seem to cross, but their magic does seem to still be able to cause things to manifest and change. Which kind of makes you wonder why they don’t just whip up some kind of spell that whisks Tom off to their clutches. You get the impression that maybe he has to willingly give up.

pg. 57-60 - I like that through this we still get an almost standard Hellboy fight sequence. It’s weird with the raised corpses from the church graveyard, but it looks great.

pg. 61 - Cute little young Hellboy. Also, the Crooked Man trying to get to Hellboy through his destiny is definitely going to wind up in a backlash.

pg. 63 - Consecrating a holy shovel sure does beat all.

pg. 65 - Defeating the devil with a shovel, that sure is something. I love how this panel of the strike basically just goes all white.

pg. 67 - Gorgeous panels from Corben and Stewart. Also, time appears to be working again.

pg. 68 - Interesting that despite fulfilling the quest of burying Tom’s father,  they realize that their job’s not done and they still have to really kill the Crooked Man.

Also, that Cora is still there is somewhat sad. You would hope that she’d have moved on.

pg. 69 - The appearance of a stately mansion in the middle of the Appalachians is weird. It just reinforces the idea that the Crooked Man, in life, lived one of opulence and extravagance.

pg. 70 - And his “true” appearance, hoarding his gold, is both pathetic and creepy.

pg. 72 - A humorous and fitting end to Effie Kolb.

Final Thoughts:

In part it was due to giving a lot of lead time to Duncan Fegredo in order to wrap up the present-day Arthurian trilogy in The Storm and The Fury without too incredibly long breaks in between issues, but I quite liked the somewhat parallel approach to the final three volumes of the original Hellboy series and the Plague of Frogs narrative cycle for BPRD. Both features two volumes that focused on the past before diving into the grand finales.

As per his introductory statements to this story, Mike Mignola wears the influence of Manly Wade Wellman on his sleeve. Not just through the feel of the Silver John stories, but the overall feel of his down home weird Americana within the Appalachians. More so than similar stories from Nathaniel Hawthorne, Ambrose Bierce, and Robert E Howard, Wellman’s stories exhibited a kind of matter-of-factness that’s missing from the others. The supernatural and oddities in the world are almost accepted as a given, something as normal as the sun rising, which carries over well into Hellboy stories since Mignola has developed a similar aesthetic. So witches running around as raccoons and devils who appear as a dead, greedy landowner that used to cause problems for the area.

d. emerson eddy has danced with the devil in the pale of the moonlight.

[thydungeon]

“Break”

In the fall of 2018, Stoic Studio held a short story fan fiction contest because they were publishing a compilation for The Banner Saga.

I really loved this game, but for whatever reason I didn’t play the second and third games until a week-long stretch in 2018 when Emily was out of the country. I stayed up until 5 am to finish the third game!

But then I saw the contest and I thought, “oh my god, this is perfect!” 

They didn’t pick my story, and I have never been sadder about any personal creation of mine. I spent a lot of time on the story and had a lot of help editing from Russell and Emily, overcoming elements of some fairly old-timey fears. Obviously, the hard truth is that I’m not that good of a writer, but I struggled for a long time with whether or not to really regret a series of design decisions. That is, I wrote the story that I wanted to, the way I wanted to, but I wonder if the following needed to be true:

Why did I write a story that features only varl and literally no humans (read: no women)? Why did I write a story that covers the scope of only violence, something I’ve never been comfortable writing? Why did I write a story with only original characters, so out of the way of the games? Why did I make the first 270 words in the style of an emotionless recounting of strategic and tactical failures? Why did I develop only one character, with essentially no emotional arc?

Regardless, I do like the piece. I think I wrote it reasonably well given the above handicaps (that, again, I chose because I wanted them). And now, reading it two years later, it’s pretty clear it’s “about” switching roles at my old job in the US; the feeling of losing your position and drifting away from people is/was a common theme in a lot of things I’ve written, so go figure lol

#

Since Russell is the only person who ever read this with the full context (having played the games), here are some background details:

1. The game takes place in a Norse/Nordic setting. The antagonist is a Jormungandr figure, all the main characters have Germanic-sounding names, it’s Viking age tech, and the world is snowy. 

2. Varl are like giant human-oxen hybrids; there are only so many of them because each one was literally created by a real, physical god who has since disappeared. Hence, the number of varl will never increase, only decrease (this doesn’t appear to have any kind of Krogan Effect, in case you’re wondering). The process of creation is apparently quite unpleasant and is one of the reasons they fear (and I mean really fear) fire. They share the world with humans, but generally do not intermingle.

3. Dredge are rock-like humanoids who communicate with vibrations and live underground. They fought a tremendous war (the “Second Great War”) against a combined human-varl alliance. Certain dredge who are very powerful are called Sundr and have English names that reference an attribute (canon Sundr include “Bellower” and “Raze”). I don’t remember if they are physiologically different from other dredge or just the classic video game “hero” unit.

4. Per the Wiki, “varl who are close knit enough to be family refer to each other as kendr.”

5. This is stretching my memory, but I believe the title is a play on the basic combat mechanic in the game series - your units can choose to attack an opponent’s armor or health. If you attack their health, your attack damage subtracts the opponent’s armor amount before dealing any health damage, but health damage reduces the opponent’s ability to do damage back. Get it? Breaking their armor? The story is about a breakout as well. Also, it wouldn’t be an early period (2015-2018) piece if it wasn’t about burnout, i.e. breaking down.

As for why I never posted this on Tumblr, it’s because, honestly, I thought Tumblr had a character limit on text posts? 

#

Grofheim burns.

The largest city in the north, the varl capital, lies in ruins after an avalanche of dredge like none had seen before. A few weeks earlier, a handful of reports from northern patrols suggested a massing of dredge in the abandoned, half-sunken city of Skrymirstead; further warbands detailed a sturdy garrison increasing in size with each sighting. A dozen leaders forged north with a host of five thousand to meet them but limped home a mess of several hundred. Survivors spoke of organized dredge armies moving like appendages of the Sundr. Concentrated force separated our army amid a blizzard and obliterated them.

Eager to see the army for ourselves, we awaited their arrival at the city's gate facing the Valkajokull. To our surprise, the dredge struck first from the south, having passed between the Varlsmarch and King’s Barrow hills, and only then advanced from Skrymirstead, placing a hammer against an anvil with Grofheim in between. In the days of old, we expected battles like these to slow to the crawl of a months-long siege, but this generation of dredge attacked with unique urgency. We saw Sundr everywhere: Driver, Rampage, Dread, others we remembered from ages past. The walls collapsed on the eighth day of battle, and dredge poured into the city. After only two weeks of fighting within the walls, their advance was nigh-unstoppable, and we had lost entire sectors of the city, guard towers and homes alike reduced to rubble. By the end of the third week, our encirclement was almost complete and only slivers of light in an ocean of dredge gave us hope for survival.

#

Shortly after the dredge breached the city walls, Jorundr and many of the remaining varl had rallied to a fortress in the center of the city. Harald, captain of the city patrols, and I, his right-hand man, joined them with a fraction of the varl we had led previously for years; all others had fallen either at the wall or in the ensuing crush. At the top of one of the fortress towers, we pored over a map resting on a rickety table. Wooden figurines shaped like varl and dredge littered the map’s surface. We used to play chess with the little pieces.

Light filtered into the spacious room from all sides, but it illuminated nothing of renown. A couple of spears leaned against the wall, and a handful of varl were resting, drinking water and munching on dwindling provisions. We looked a sorry lot, even more bruised and unwashed than the typical varl cohort. Harald could no longer grip his shield due to a mangled left arm, so we fastened them together, hoping the banded wood would hold. Fiery debris had caught me at the wall, covering my face in cuts. Outside, we could see the dredge burning heaps of fallen varl, challenging us to come out and avenge our dead.

I ran my finger across the map from our location to one of the gates. A few hours’ march stood between us and the world beyond the city walls. “We have less than five days holding out here. By that point, we’ll be surrounded, and they’ll start breaking us apart group by group. The fortress will hold for maybe two more days after that. What’s the plan, Harald?” I lifted my finger from the map and found myself biting the nail of my thumb unconsciously. The sharp taste of iron-flavored blood crusted underneath snapped me back into the moment.

Harald moved a pair of dredge pieces between us and the gate. “From what we gather, the dredge that breached the southern gate destroyed everything from Skyhorn west through the Varlsmarch, but they are now less than full strength.” He moved several other pieces above us on the map. “Jorundr did not move any troops from the northern wall to fend off the surprise attack in the south, so the dredge advance from Skrymirstead was not a total disaster. Still, that group is reportedly much larger, so a breakout that way is not possible.”

“Eamonn and his whole clan stayed at the western tower,” I said, pointing to an ornately decorated tower on the map. “Heard a rumor that Roland and his folks battled back to the wall, actually. Either group is probably a heap of bones by now, though.” Looking over the map, I realized that every painstaking detail on it had been rendered worthless by the dredge.

“I do not blame them,” said Harald. “From all of our experience, dredge grant no quarter, and some varl may be looking for revenge after hearing what happened in the blizzard.”

“I heard it might have been an accident,” said Ismail, one of the younger guards and a fixture of Harald’s patrols. “The leaders out in the wastes forgot to put out a watch as they slept, and the dredge caught them unawares, daylight and all.”

“With dredge, there is no such thing as an accident,” said Harald. “Whatever happened out there does not bode well for us here.” His eyes dimmed and I could see the truth beginning to settle.

“I know Jorundr’s been quiet about where the dredge are coming from, but what have you heard?” I asked. “Did some idiot kick over a hornet’s nest?”

“We only saw the dredge near Skrymirstead and nobody saw them coming from the east,” replied Harald. “It is no coincidence; something is driving them, and it must be more than memories of the second war.”

“We have a dozen ideas what it might be, but nothing with real evidence,” added Ismail. “Jorundr has been tight-lipped about it, but I think it’s because he doesn’t actually know. I’ve heard everything from new leadership among the dredge, a misunderstanding at the border, to some faening scheme by the Valka.”

“No need to gossip on my account, just curious,” I said, turning back to the map. “What’s left for us here?”

“It all depends on how many dredge are out there and if you want to be hopeful,” said Ismail. “Me, personally...I would rather not.”

“The southern walls have been entirely leveled, but that may work to our advantage,” said Harald. “If we can cut a path through the dredge between here and there, we can escape with no bottleneck to hinder our advance. But numbers are not on our side.”

“It’s always possible there is relief on the way, maybe runners found their way to pockets of varl beyond the city,” suggested Ismail. “Can’t change how many dredge are here, but it helps if there are more of us.”

“Now look who’s being optimistic,” I grumbled. “If they got past the forts without any trouble, then that means we’re the only varl for days in any direction. From here, we’ll have to write our own stories.”

“So then getting away is our only real choice,” said Ismail.

“If we all make a break that way to the south, they will pursue,” I said, moving varl pieces down the map and dredge pieces in pursuit. “And we won’t make three days out of Grofheim before they catch us. Some of us must split off to hold or divert them. If not, we’re faened as soon we’re free of the city. The only question is how many and where we put them.”

Harald knew this but remained quiet. He had a way of settling his gaze into an intensity that bordered almost on horror. I never thought to say anything about it after years and years, but over time I understood it as his way of focusing. We all knew that the number of varl who escaped Grofheim would be however many would fight the rest of the war. Vognir’s entourage, the varl in Strand, and any others scattered across the mountains would not be guaranteed to join in time, if ever.

“We estimate there are four thousand of us remaining in the city that can be readied to evacuate at once,” began Harald. “A tenth of that number should be the maximum committed to a diversion.”

“Do you think that’ll be enough?” Ismail asked. My instinct was that we needed a thousand, but I always used more force than necessary to get the job done. Either way, I was happy to let Harald make the assessment. He was always better with strategy.

“We need to make sure we have a force worth carrying into human lands,” said Harald. “We do not know what Jorundr has planned long-term, but we have to give him the best chance to... win.” He almost said ‘survive.’

“Fair enough, then. We hardly ever know what’s on his mind, but that’s never stopped us before. Who’s going?” I asked. Around the room, everybody stopped and looked at me and Harald like awaiting a death sentence. Varl lead long lives, but we are seldom fearless as we pretend before the moment of truth. It is the best trick we play on humans.

Harald looked at me and lowered the shield still wrapped around his arm. For the first time, I noticed the streaks of grey among black in his hair and beard, the weariness in his posture, the chips in his horns, and his tired, deep eyes. His teal tunic rested on top of bandage after bandage; it was caked with blood and pockmarked with cuts and tears.

“As good a time to go as any, right?” I joked to the room. No one said anything.

“Could you give us a minute?” Harald said to the others in the room. They quietly filed out. “I’m sorry to have announced it in front of the others, but at this point, I may be a liability with this,” continued Harald, gesturing to his arm and shield. “I trust you to handle this task. It may be the most important of our lives.”

“Harald, I understand,” I replied, smiling through. “I’ll take the remaining guards we have and hunt for volunteers. Do you need to speak to the other clans to set the plan in stone? Wouldn’t want to ruffle any feathers before we get rolling.”

“I did before I came up here,” said Harald, smiling back. I started to leave but turned back at the door.

“Harald...are we really leaving Grofheim?”

It was a ridiculous question, but it nagged me, and I needed to hear him to make it real: to leave our home, to abandon it to destruction. I was loath to leave everything behind forever: my home, our monuments, the legacy of centuries of varl.

“There is no other way,” replied Harald. “If we were going to stop them, it would have been before they reached the city.”

“We were so sure we would beat them in Skrymirstead and, failing that, here at the walls. What went wrong? The second war took years and years, we were there.”

Harald shrugged. I knew it was futile to ask, but I had become so used to him having an answer. “We will find out once we... regroup.”

I slung a hammer high on my shoulder. “Nothing to do, then. I’ll get your four hundred in the next two hours. In the meantime, I look forward to your plan for our friend down there.” I gestured to the window, where far below at the head of the black sea was a tall dredge dressed in red robes, holding a glaive in each hand. The varl in his vicinity either stood dazed in his presence or routed in cowardice. Harald peered below at the Sundr and I could feel the stress rising in him.

“This is it, this is how it happens,” he muttered, still facing down below. I never knew if he meant for me to hear it.

#

    I went to my makeshift quarters to pick up any remaining equipment. Sitting down on the bed, I dusted off my clothes and shook off stiff boots. The beautiful release of sleep had only found me once in seven days and I longed to just rest for a moment.

After floating down the river of a dream, I opened my eyes and sat up. As I slowly remembered the broken state of my body, I felt my left horn, jagged from days of shrapnel and glancing blows. I traced a line from the tip down to a matrix of scabs dotting everything from my left eye down to my right jaw.

It was time to take stock of everything before our final rush to the city walls. My boots were finally dry after a week trudging through snow; my armor had hardly any straps left to tighten, but I kept reinforcing it with bits and pieces of metal I scavenged; daggers and knives picked up along the way found homes in my belt. I still held onto a hammer I had picked up on the fourth day of fighting. The head had delicate twists and turns carved throughout, and the rune-covered haft was smooth from centuries of use. It sang every time it stung rock and crushed everything it touched.

Down in the courtyard, my remaining guards stood at attention, tired and injured but still eager to make their mark. Another couple hundred from across the city stood nearby, joining. I felt good knowing I would run with so many familiar faces, but I couldn’t shake the feeling of leading them all to a shallow grave.

Nevertheless, we moved over to one of the few gates in the area free of dredge; this exit was where we would perform our illusion. The dredge knew we were cornered and they would be expecting a breakout and a sacrificial diversion. The switch was simple: the initial attack would in fact be the vanguard making the escape. The diversionary force would be disguised as trying to escape, conspicuously filtering out from the side. Some of the worst mistakes we made during the second war had come from believing our enemies were incapable of strategy. Our lives now hinged on whether we had learned the lesson.

Harald emerged from inside the fort, shield still locked to his arm, spear resting on his shoulder. He had patched up the remaining cuts and bruises on his body and looked ready for battle (or as ready as he would ever be). Beyond the gate, we could see figures in the distance, working their way through houses.

“Where are we meeting you when this is all over?” I asked, forcing optimism to my voice.

“The old capital, across Burra Pass,” replied Harald. “A week away if we make haste. Once we break out, Jorundr will send scouts in all directions for help.”

“Look forward to seeing you there,” I said. “Are you ready? Four hundred of yours first, then four hundred of mine.”

“If all goes well, we should have a couple thousand outside the city by the time the dredge realize the game.” Harald gritted his teeth. “Not enough down the line without the menders or humans, but this gives us hope.”

“And the Sundr?”

“You’ll have to take your chances with them,” said Harald, shaking his head. “We cannot use the same tactics as when we had true armies during the wars. We had our hands full even then.”

“Captain, we’re made of flesh and bone.” I slumped while standing for the first time all week. Harald always had an answer, but was this the best he could offer me?

“I know... reports from across the city tell us that every Sundr we can name is here. My gut tells me if you see them, you should just run.”

I forced my face into agreement, but I couldn’t let it go. “How did this happen?”

Harald blinked and his mouth settled into a frown. “We will have more time to ask questions in Einartoft. For now, we just have to escape.”

His tone was final. He seemed prepared for, even unbothered by, our impending departure. Was this all he had to say after spending a hundred years together? Did it not trouble him that those years were spent defending a city now burning to the ground? But I looked into his unmoving eyes and realized my irritation was only immaturity. He knew every bit as much as I did that the world we had built was being undone. We had been colored and shaped by a duty to our home, a duty that we had chosen, a duty that was now sunsetting. Perhaps that spoke enough for both of us.

I felt the questions inside me slowly trickle to a halt. I stared at him, trying to force myself to remember the look of his calm, unshaken face. I could see the determination, the readiness to face our final hours. Varl are seldom fearless as we pretend before the moment of truth. It is the best trick we play on humans, but, finally, this was no trick. I realized I had been staring at him for perhaps a whole minute.

Thus ended my last interaction with Harald in Grofheim. I have a painting of him in my memory of that last scene before I turned to leave. It was in that moment that I knew Grofheim was gone.

#

The first gate opened and Harald’s four hundred varl rushed out. They pushed away from the gate, plowing through an initial wall of dredge. Once they cleared the first group, I could see a few grunts begin to give chase before the Sundr called them back to the fortress. We then clattered our way out through the side entrance. As expected, the wave of dredge charged in our direction, a contingent ten times our size, howling and humming as they slammed into us.

I swung wildly and tossed aside a dredge grunt. Another swing, another grunt. A third swing buried my hammer into the shield of a stoneguard, but a timely blow from a guardsman freed it again. With simultaneous strikes, we felled the stoneguard and pushed onward. As we nearly broke free of the circle, I could see the lone dredge from before, taller than any of us and shrouded in crimson robes: Dread. It planted both of its glaives into the ground and began shaking violently. We had heard stories of its powers, and I was hesitant to witness them firsthand. But then, I thought, if I could do it, perhaps end the battle immediately and save the lives of those around me--and slay a dredge legend... Stonesingers can be interrupted, one heavy strike would work.

As I neared, I swung back my hammer, twisted my hips, and stretched to meet him, hammer to Sundr. But before I could make contact, a vibration knocked me onto my back and everything around me disappeared.

I found myself floating in calm darkness for a moment before a great wall of flame surrounded me and began to close in. Memories of creation flooded my mind as the flames licked my clothes, but this was different, a perversion. The wall came closer and closer until every part of me was engulfed in flames. Links of chainmail resting on my skin branded themselves into flesh, while the skin itself peeled away and the nerve endings frayed into nothingness. An eternity passed. I saw my skeleton blackening in the deepest fires of the universe, and when the last bone disappeared into ashes, I felt suspended in nothingness. My voice was gone and the only thing I could feel was my mind trying to claw its way back to something tangible.

The hollowness subsided, and I found myself in the physical world, staring up at a sky of clouds and sun blurred together. The world was eerily quiet for that moment. The loud clanging and screams of battle gave way to dull thuds like the sound at a butcher’s. I looked back at Dread and saw it walking away with one glaive resting on a shoulder, the other at its side. It seemed so calm and pleased with its work, not even giving me a second glance.

As my senses sharpened, I saw peril everywhere. My companions were in the state of illusion that had captured me, now lying on the ground with vacant eyes while dredge bludgeoned them to death. I turned and saw one varl after another dying, eyes locked in a gaze into nothingness, not reacting to hammers crushing bone and rupturing viscera and muscle. We existed only like wheat waiting for the scythe. We weren’t even fighting. We weren’t anything.

The feeling of a weapon bearing down on me finally snapped me into action. I could almost see surprise in the grunt’s eyes as I batted away its strike. One swing from my hammer shattered its stone armor and a follow-up caved in its chest. As the light faded from its eyes, I took satisfaction in ensuring its final emotion was shock.

I turned and crushed another dredge, hammerhead vibrating from the point of contact down to my trembling hands. Rage boiled within me and I was ready to charge at Dread, ready to even the score. But my tunnel vision subsided and I realized the true danger to our mission. The Sundr was already leaving and there were plenty of other dredge to handle. The glory of battling a Sundr beckoned, but I knew I owed it to those around me to struggle a different way. I had to escape.

The situation was collapsing. The longer we lingered, the more enemies swarmed to fence us in. Before Dread arrived, we had been close to breaking free and dispersing, but now, we found ourselves surrounded. Neither vigor nor ferocity would save us. I spotted a solitary varl, covered in cuts and missing an arm, waving a red banner, trying to rally us to an alleyway. This was enough of a plan to survive: no glorious final stand, no victory of arms. Along with a few others snapped out of Dread’s illusion, I followed the banner and we began hacking through the crowd of dredge. The already injured varl was cut down as I arrived, but the rest of us barreled down the alleyway as the buildings on both sides began to collapse, supports chewed away by fire. I hated the thought of deserting those I led into the fray, but I decided I would see Harald again; I owed it to my kendr.

By the time we cleared the alley, only a couple dozen of us remained. I could still hear fighting from the other side of the rubble and the awful warping noise of Dread’s glaives. Thoughts of fire continued to race around in my head, but I was able to quell the fear. With the Sundr and its dredge on the other side of the fallen buildings, I assessed our state. So much for our plan: the diversion scattered and smeared into the streets. I could only hope Harald and the others had made their escape. I rallied those with me, a few brothers in arms for years, other newly made friends, mostly strangers in a dire situation, and we started moving toward the city gate to escape. At least there were no other Sundr in the vicinity, and the dredge we did see were not very interested in fighting us, some even running away on our approach. After we felt a safe distance from the violence, we rested in an empty temple dedicated to Hadrborg. It had already been in disrepair by the time the dredge attacked, but I felt the sadness of leaving behind yet another place that harkened to a golden age: lost glory, faded away.

“Where now?” asked Ismail. In the chaos of the breakout, I hadn’t realized he was with us. In fact, I was so sure he escaped with Harald. Selfishly, I was glad to have his shield and spear, but I also wished he were far away and safe.

“It’s another hour to the gate,” I replied. “We’ll need to run. There’s nothing left here for us.”

“Do you think Jorundr and the others escaped? Harald?”

“We can ask questions in Einartoft.” I don’t know how much I believed it now that I was peddling Harald’s words.

As we advanced toward the gate, we got an eerie feeling. The only sounds we could hear were the far-off city buildings crumbling in flames. There was no fighting. Was every other varl in the city already dead? Had the dredge caught Harald and ended all hope? In the long stretch between the final row of houses and the city gate, we saw a crowd of dredge gathered. It was small enough for us to directly engage but large enough that I knew most of us would not survive. And yet, beyond the dredge was a field of corpses, mostly dredge, and only a handful of varl--Harald and the others had broken through!

I exchanged glances with my surviving varl. This was no time for subtlety, and we were in no mood for anything of the sort so close to freedom. We charged.

In the ensuing chaos, I swung my hammer with the feeling that I was gliding into the end of days, with no caution left to spare. With swing after swing, I felt the vibration and resistance resonate throughout my body.

Chance blows may have broken a rib or two, but I felt immersed in my own world. By the time I stopped feeling the weight of the hammerhead against stone, I looked around and realized that I was entirely alone for the first time. Everybody was dead. I never saw Ismail go, or Stefan, or Jorgen, or Thorvald. We had so long to live and I had missed the opportunity to say good-bye all the same. We can ask questions in Einartoft. My final, anti-climactic words to them. The final event of my life in Grofheim. Over in minutes.

Looking up, I saw that the way out was laid bare. Slowly, I realized the only thing left was for me to leave. The gate loomed over me, silent. It struck me as a cruel joke that everything around it had been obliterated, but the gate itself was left unscathed. I had defended it after all.

Not a moment after I took my first step into the snow a mace swung down at me. My forearm flung up by reflex and I felt muscles bruise and bones crack. I stumbled backward and fell into the snow onto my knees. I looked up and saw a lone grunt before me and another figure in the distance. My hands reached furiously in the cold white, reaching and reaching before I saw I had dropped the hammer behind the grunt.

I inched away from the grunt, feeling the desperation and panic of one nearing his end. I could neither find the hammer nor even see it, but I remembered the knives and daggers on my belt and I hurled one at the grunt. A miss. I scrambled for a second knife and didn’t even aim. A thud. A scream, the kind I had heard a hundred times before. The figure in the distance began running toward us, and I rose and charged the grunt. Exhaustion permeated every fiber in my body. Muscle memory drove me to dodge the grunt’s clumsy swings. It was holding onto its side, clutching the embedded knife, as desperate to end the fight as I was. Finally, it committed too far on a downward swing and missed. I held down its mace with my boot and drove my remaining dagger into its face. It crumbled to the ground in a heap without even a whimper. One long exhale later, I gave the grunt’s head a forceful kick, yanking free the blade.

I hastily placed the dagger back into my belt and found my hammer a few steps away. Just as I turned to leave, a whizzing rock smacked one of my horns. I was stunned for a moment. When I recovered, the figure was close enough to see: a smaller dredge with a sling, something I had never seen before. With no shield for defense, I braced for another attack, but it never came. Instead, the dredge dropped the sling and ran to the dead grunt, cradling the body and touching it forehead to forehead, letting out a painful drone.

I knew what I had done. We always knew. Something in me wanted to stay at the gate forever, to die defending something like the grunt had. But I couldn’t bear to look at him and I couldn’t bear to look at her.

#

At last, I was clear of the city. I was alone. As I walked, the hills leading away from the city gave way to a snowy and steep incline. My legs forced me forward, following the trail Harald and the others had made as they fled, but each step up the hill resounded in my head. The ringing in my ears became unbearable. I turned around to look one final time and my heart cracked at the sight of the rising pillars of flame. Years and years walking the streets, patrolling the walls, drinking myself to sleep, growing camaraderie, watching the world go by. How could I forget what I had seen? How could I let it go? What future was waiting for us? But to live--to Einartoft!

[derkastellan]

Review & Playtest: Creep, Skrag, Creep! (DCC)

I have a comparatively long history with the Dungeon Crawl Classics (DCC) RPG, and when I wanted to ease my GM-ing burden recently, I convinced my group to dedicate half our sessions to playing premade modules for this game. The reasons were simple - hardly any publisher I know makes so many good, fun modules consistently as Goodman Games does, the system is also simple, and one of my players owned the core book without ever having played it.

I personally tend to believe that fantasy is best seen from a horror angle. I mean, look at the content of a typical monster manual! And the flavor text is probably the only thing worse than the pictures, usually adding gruesome details awaiting those tricked or bested by those critters. So I was happy when M. found me a funnel made by Goodman Games that I not only already owned, but that was designated as part of their new horror line.

I emphasize found, because navigating the online store I had relied on tags and not come over this one. Better clean that one up, Dark Lord... But the search did do its job. Another oddity is that Creep is apparently #5 in the new DCC Horror line, but the only other adventure I saw was Sinister of the Sempstress which supposedly #2. It seems the Halloween line has been rebranded, but I guess this rebranding will be only complete when the other modules in it will be reprinted. 

If this gives them a reason to release more of them than just once per year I’m all for it. Sadly, Creep is an ambitious module with many flaws, not living up to its potential... 

Lists for lists’ sake

What does this adventure have aplenty? Tables to roll on. Kinda pointless tables. Features that lead nowhere. Ill-designed tables.

Example #1: Rumor table. There are 12 rumors, so of course you roll a d12... per player character. This is a funnel! If you have, as intended, 12-16 PCs you get a good chance that most rumors are known. Just drop the exposition already - or is there value in not knowing this? A good share of the foreshadowing and telegraphing of upcoming down in this module is lost if nobody gets the ill or good omens from the rumor table...

Example #2: Quirky Personality Traits table. 14 entries, roll a d14... these vary between “annoying” (refuses to cooperate with a given other PC, being a smartass), game-impairing (fear of heights, fire, the dark, open water??), or actually seemingly useful (except not really). If you have 3-4 PCs, try keeping track of these. Funnels aren’t great role-playing opportunities - it’s hard enough to get players to name all of their PCs at times. Now you have suddenly 3 people in the group afraid of something rather common... the only positive impact on the game this typically has is probably that it sorts out “who does what” - a typical cause of delay in funnels since players have to chose who takes part in any action or who goes where. PCs afraid of heights probably don’t go into the crow’s nest. But most likely of all, this adds nothing to a good share of games.

Example #3: Ship’s Ledger. Lists crew manifest. Unfortunately unsuitable as a handout because it contains info the players don’t have, but is indicated to the judge to refer to when the PCs read the ledger in-game. (And not all NPCs have names. Great list.)

Example #4: Sailor Tattoos. You need to make a Luck check to determine whether you successfully render the tattoo in such quality that it conveys a positive effect in the adventure. No tattoo has an effect that has in-game use! No mechanics, zilch.This is the reward for wasting a turn in a game where every three turns a monster attack of increasing difficulty happens! Plus one tattoo makes no sense at all: “Black Dragon: Symbolizes that the sailor has sailed to the Black Sea of the Aghartan Underworld.” This sounds cool, but if you look at the “Journey to the Center of Aereth” adventures this is not only nigh-impossible to do, but also even harder to return from. A DCC-ism: It sounds metal badass, but signifies nothing.

Example #5: The Tacuinum Sanitates. This one takes the cake. It gives you a list of unspecific effects some ingredients have, assigns some of these effects spell equivalents, then leaves it to the Judge to decide what to actually do with it. No mechanics - except for the two (actually identical) applications of direct use in the adventure. A rather typical one for this adventure - a decent idea, poor execution. Decent because it adds some mildly magical treasure without making the PCs OP (as they likely will have to burn Luck to cast anything at all), but mostly just confusing, and if there are spell effects, the spells have no bearing on the adventure.

By the time I had read the adventure in full, I had gotten pretty annoyed with the misleading nature of all these lists crammed into the adventure.

Interesting story mechanic, partially broken

Creep, Skrag, Creep! is basically turning the story of the movie Alien into something suitable for a fantasy RPG. You have a creature you cannot truly beat or trap (which makes it less fair than the setup of Alien 3, thinking of it...). The creature will come at you every half hour of in-game time, try to take out two PCs, make off with their livers if it can, and come back again.

The time-tracking element works. But it conflicts with another element. Each room in the game has a description whether the beast will attack there. Some say it will not attack in that place. Some say it always will. It seemed intriguing enough when reading it, but fell apart in play.

My players went down first. None of the bottom half of the ship has a monster attack in it. Nor has the main deck or the crow’s nest. This limits the beasts’ attacks to the forecastle, poop deck, and 4 out 5 rooms accessible from main - and a timed attack in the rigging. My players basically had no chance encountering the creature as their given course through the decks took them a long time until finally somebody went into the crow’s nest.

Best part? The description of how the creature attacks the person in the rigging kind of violates DCC’s basic movement rules: "[T]he Creature will emerge from underwater, scale the hull, and then drag itself over the bulwark into the forecastle (area F-1). From there, the Creature will nimbly climb across the ropes to attack the PC clinging to the rigging.” Try adding all of that together and the creature travels a couple hundred feet - in what time? It moves 30′ and climbs 20′. Unless this was meant to be fair to the PC as it gives time to escape, it would be hard to run without violating the rules of movement.

So, many times no attack happens. Or it contradicts some other part. The creature is not terribly hard to fight - unless you insist on blocking players from taking part because there are not enough 5′ squares. But with minimal losses they dispatched it multiple times. It was more annoyance than horror. A few lucky rolls from the demonic pigs killed more PCs than the creature almost. So, in order to make it challenging putting the whole thing on the map with minis is probably your best bet. (Except the map accompanying the game is not suitable to be player-facing or to be a direct reference for drawing many areas of the ship. DCC maps look awesome but usually aren’t the most usable.)

The thing never got to harvest a liver through regular combat. It didn’t live long enough to do two PCs in and escape. But in one other (”scripted”) occasion it actually is enormously strong and hard to beat without burning Luck - it has a +6 Strength bonus in a comparative roll leading directly to death on failure. Essentially an undeclared trap. So, this was the time it was most threatening - basically a scripted thing, not combat. The story would have benefited (as a horror story) from crafting more such moments. Alas, there are none.

Instead the creature usually seemed not-so-threatening, a real problem for a horror story. Besides, the players vanquished it several times without truly making the connection it was the same creature after all. Also, some “creature ambush” notes are useless because they assume all PCs enter a place together. Some of these places do not have enough squares for all PCs to fit in there even if you ignore all the furniture in the flavor text. I know PCs consume less space outside of combat, but still this makes little sense. Seldom was the whole party in one location, half of it was on the main deck usually - rendering the ambush setups half-moot.

Ignoring the red flag

“This removes any doubt as to whether the players should attempt to flag down the pirates—a frequent source of playtester debate often ending in TPKs.“

My players, like apparently some playtesters, chose to get away from the pirates which would make the adventure unwinnable but good sense. Luckily for me (and them) they cast “dispel magic” on the creature and burnt enough luck to banish it (one of the described effects), ending the adventure in an unexpected, almost anti-climactic way. But hey, this was indeed a DCC thing to do. Burn through your luck and live by a crazy feat of daring.

If the adventure designer plans the solution to depend on a really desperate move he better foreshadow it accordingly. But every scrap the players read or hear in rumor makes them want to avoid the pirates. Why is it up to the GM running this one to make up for this problematic adventure design?

Conclusion

This is hardly the only thing that should have been cleaned up before publishing this one. Many things were poorly described which made me wonder if this was run by the author mostly - surely someone who knew how things are supposed to work and might have missed on spelling it all out. This leaves a lot of things for the person running the adventure to work out. Something I do not want in a published adventure. This should have been fixed in editing and playtesting, so I’m surprised that this never got caught.

What am I left with is the impression of an ambitious idea for a tightly run funnel poorly executed. Not devastatingly bad, but not up to what I expect of the series or its authors. Compare “Sour Spring Hollow”, a nasty little horror romp by Michael Curtis who resulted in my first funnel TPK. I’ve run it twice and played it once before that, and it always was a real meatgrinder that kept players urgently scrambling for a solution to their predicament. Both funnels share that they are confined to a tight location with the purpose of survival, with periodic events. 

Creep tried to give the feel of being stalked like in Alien but its written mechanics fail to do achieve that. It is probably much more exciting when experienced run directly by the author - or any judge who ignores how it is written and just goes with whatever feels right in a given situation. It goes without saying that no written mechanic can replace the intuition of a good GM, but it should run well enough as written to deliver a decent result, and if it can’t do that should give the GM guidelines how to run the monster in a convincing way instead. You don’t run Strahd in Ravenloft by mechanics, you get into how he rolls and the location. If the game had been written around ambushes and splitting the party, that would have probably worked a lot better, too.

As it stand this was my weakest funnel. I’ve run The Portal Under The Stars, Sour Spring Hollow, Sailors on the Starless Sea (adapted as funnel), Nebin Pendlebrook's Perilous Pantry, and Hole in the Sky, and this one seemed to be a letdown in comparison. I had higher expectations and wouldn’t recommend running it in its current form.

[prinzitravels-blog]

It has been such a long time since I wrote a blog post. I’ve missed it.

These are always moments for me to sit down and be truly reflective. I spend so much of my time doing science writing. I love it, but it’s cold…factual…to the point. It has taken me a long time to remove the “fluff” from my writing in order to meet my editor’s standards of science blogging, so it feels good to talk about travel again.

We aren’t on a large European trip this time. In fact, today was one of the most laid-back days we have had in a really long time. We decided to ease into my Spring PhD semester with a mountain getaway to Crested Butte, our favorite mountain town in Colorado. This is the town we spent half of our honeymoon in, and it has had our hearts ever since. After several weeks of a MAJOR holiday rush and travel to Las Vegas for our nephew Lane’s 21st birthday, we have been exhausted and ready for a week of relaxation.

2019 was a bitch. Other than the year that I nearly died from a blood infection, the year my dad died or the year my grandma died, this one was one of the worst. There were so many secret battles being fought on the home front. I promised myself not to go into 2020 clinging to all the negative things that happened in 2019, I am exceptionally excited for this new year, after all. Needless to say, 2019 was filled with all sorts of emotional loss, rifts in relationships I thought would never falter (there were several), sadness, exhaustion and misunderstandings. While I had more personal successes in 2019 than I have had in a while, my empathetic soul could not see past the actions and losses of others.

So, here’s to a fresh start.

But…it started a little rough.

Joey and I were about 3.5 hours into our 4 hour drive last night when we hit the town of Gunnison. We were on the final stretch of dark road making our way into Crested Butte when suddenly, a deer jutted out on to the highway and directly in front of my car. I was driving, and hit her at a solid 60 miles per hour. I am still shocked at my reaction; I didn’t swerve at all and did exactly what they always tell you to do…hit the deer…keep driving…slow down…pull over. I was shaking but managed to get the car over on the side of the road. It all happened so fast, Joey had been reading an e-mail on his phone and couldn’t figure out what we had hit. There was a big truck coming toward us in the oncoming lane, and he first thought something had launched off the truck and hit my Jeep. He got out of the car and immediately tried to take pictures of the damage to the front of the car and look down the road to see if he could see the deer. It was very dark, so we couldn’t see her in the road, but cars kept whizzing by us without swerving or stopping so we assume she ran down into the icy ditch beside us.

It looked like everything was reasonably in tact, so we continued driving the remaining few miles to our condo and got the car parked. We agreed to just settle in to our condo and assess the damage in the morning.

We could have spent the night frustrated about the bad start to our trip, the damage to the car, or how much we already have on our “to do” list when we get home. But we didn’t. I couldn’t get over the extreme gratitude I was feeling for how the situation played out. I feel so badly for the deer we hit, but these accidents don’t usually end well for the vehicle operators. I was so proud of myself for keeping so calm…that’s actually very unlike me in a situation like that.

I know it might sound cheesy, but I have been doing yoga religiously to help deal with the stress that comes with juggling a PhD program and struggles I feel as a truly (and deeply) empathetic person. It has helped bring me back to what is most important and how to let everything else go. This has helped me work through the selfish and hurtful things people have done to me in the last year, helped me balance priorities, helped me continuously love myself and helped me maintain calm. While I truly feel that Joey and I have proudly maintained a loving and healthy balance within a meaningful life we have built together, I feel like I am growing more by the day. I can’t help but wonder if all of this yogi-magic helped me out a bit last night.

We woke up this morning and made a delicious little breakfast in our condo. The sun was shining bright here today in Crested Butte, and we got out first look at the beautiful view from our small little deck! Gorgeous! The wind was whipping last night, but the morning proved to be calm and beautiful.

Our condo is situated in a small, private neighborhood 7 minutes outside of downtown Crested Butte. It’s quiet and far from ski traffic (although this town really doesn’t get a whole lot of that compared to our other resorts).

We went out and took a look at the car. Not too bad, actually. It’s bad, but we definitely got lucky. We can’t open the driver’s side door, so we have to crawl in from the passenger side any time we want to get in. The front left side is pretty messed up, but the damage just missed breaking any containers on the inside or interfering with the wheel.

  Joey spent the afternoon on the phone doing real-estate work and talking to the insurance company while I worked on my laptop. The view was great and the coffee was hot…

To add to the already-complicated-nature of this trip, Joey has come down with a terrible cold. He NEVER gets sick, so it’s very weird when he is…I almost don’t know what to do! He slept for quite a while today while I worked quietly on a large national survey I am building. It was actually great. The views were beautiful, I was relaxed and got a ton of important work done. No complaints! Vacations come in many forms!

Because JoeJoe isn’t feeling his best, we decided to venture out to Clark’s market (insert tiny mountain town grocery store here) for some food items and make dinner in the comfort of our little condo. What makes ANY sick person feel better? Soup and sandwiches of course! It totally hit the spot. We snuggled up, had our yummy dinner, drank lots of tea and binged some Netflix.

While this is probably the most uneventful travel blog post you will see from me all year, I think it highlights the beauty of doing nothing…and that’s totally the mood I am in right now. I am so grateful to be able to sit and write this today, to work from such a beautiful location, to have the freedom to relax as hard as we wanted today. It’s all so completely lovely and worthy of appreciation.

I’ll leave you with a quote that I think should carry us all into 2020. It’s going to be beautiful year (because we are going to make it one).

Happy 2020! The year of clear vision!

“Do not spoil what you have by desiring what you have not; remember that what you now have was once among the things you only hoped for.”

PS: If you’re interested in what this CRAZY spring semester looks like for me, here it is–

Intensive grant writing class (Jan-May)

Grant review class (Jan-May)

Clinical research seminars (class) (Jan-May)

IHQSE – a year long quality improvement program that is NOT a part of my PhD program. I am on an amazing team of individuals who will spend a year working on ways to improve quality and patient care at CHCO through the use of an intervention we design and execute. We will meet in person for intensive formal sessions every other Tuesday from 1-5 and should expect to have 5-10 hours of homework related to the program on off-weeks.

Writing for the American Society for Microbiology (and being edited by them) monthly

Working PRN at the CHCO micro lab

Designing a large nationwide study asking microbiology labs about how they manage endotracheal aspirate cultures. Analyzing these data and publishing them within the year.

Getting ready for the next big milestone in the PhD program: The comprehensive exam. I am still unsure if I will be ready, but if I am, it will be scheduled for May. This determines if I get to finish my program or not and if I am officially a PhD candidate.

Attending the ASM conference in Chicago in June

XO,

Ap

On Gratitude (2020) It has been such a long time since I wrote a blog post. I've missed it.

[strikerverse]

Dhamma 10 day Vipassana

A while ago I signed up for a meditation retreat (https://www.dhamma.org/), got approved to attend it, and have now just returned.

First, the logistics:

The retreat is 10 days long (+2 to account for arrival and departure days)

It is supposedly non-sectarian and non-religious

Every day starts at 4am and goes till 9pm

You meditate up to 10 hours a day, in stretches of 60 and 90 minutes

During the ten days, you don’t talk, read, or write, nor you do any heavy exercise (walking is OK)

Breakfast is at 6:30AM, lunch is at 11AM. At the lights out time at 9PM, you will not have eaten for 10 hours already

The course is completely free, donations are accepted only after you have finished the course

Keeping crazy hours, going off grid, minimising mental noise, and maxing out on meditation, looked to me like an excellent quadruple whammy to try out. I went in with very little expectations and then just let the process carry me.

To jump ahead a little, it was quite awesome, at times trippy, I learned a good few bits about myself as well as about my meditation and, at times, it was odd, annoying, and even infuriating, with the negative categories serving a meta game of extra holding-your-shit-together-ness.

The hardest part, of course, was to sit without fidgeting for long periods at a time. The longest back-to-back sessions were 90-60-90, with 15 minute breaks between them.

I feel quite ambivalent about the whole thing, however in the sum I think it was a strong net positive. Though if you are considering the course yourself, I would suggest doing some more softcore meditation first, e.g. using the headspace app or similar. Speaking of headspace: if you go through the 10 day trial and find out you’d like to try it out for longer, give me a shout and I’ll send you a code for a 30 day subscription.

Premises

The premises were top-notch. I had a private room with full control over a radiator, the meals were decent, the location was in countryside (an hour’s drive west of Gloucester in my case, but they have ~200 venues world-wide) with not much noise going on around, and the meditation hall (my first time to be in one) was spacious and appropriately lit/dimmed. You got a padded mat, and cushion on top of it to sit on, and there were also chairs for the ones who meditate that way, as well as people were bringing their own gear. Oh right, the total number of people was around 200 - way more than I'd have expected.

Oddities

The first thing to mention is that the meditation teacher is not an in-person human but rather a set of video and audio recordings made in 1991. The “assistant teacher” is essentially an iPad DJ, starting and stopping the tracks as per schedule. During the course he didn’t utter more than just a few “let’s take a short break” lines at the appointed times. So 99.5% of what you’ll hear, will be a recording made in the nineties.

The second oddity was the chanting. The teacher in the recording explains that these are not religious chantings, and that they are there to just put you in the right mood. For me they definitely did not do the job. If you can sit through five minutes of this, you’ll most likely be fine. The chanting happens three times a day during the core meditation sessions, three minutes in the beginning and three in the end, with the duration increasing quite a bit as the days went on. The coping mechanism I developed was to keep my eyes open during the chanting, as well as, not knowing Pali, imagining that the old man is reciting to me his shopping list.

The third oddity were the discourses—75 minute long sessions of recorded video playback each evening. If you can sit through 30 minutes of this without popping a vein, you’ll most likely be fine, too.

If you, just like me, can’t deal with either the discourses nor the chanting, you’ll still be fine, you’ll just be running the course on “hard” setting, making yourself more badass in the process.

Finally, the content itself while not necessarily sectarian or religious (a point the teacher insists on repeating), is not exactly secular either. At times stories are retold as “truths” and opinions/interpretations as “laws of nature”, all of which can be forgivable when you treat your teacher for what it is: a recording from nineteen-nineties of a grandpa explaining why it is important to eat cabbage five times a day and how that will allow you to reincarnate into a cave bat in your next life.

To sum it up:

There is chanting six times a day, at the start and end of the core meditation sessions

There are 75 minute long recorded “discourse” videos every evening

The content is not secular and can be described as mildly religious

The technique

For the first three days we were practicing just observing our breath. While the guidelines of the course suggest not to change anything, I did not see any real harm in counting the breaths to keep yourself focused: counting up to ten and then starting again. During these three days people will be making a lots of noise: fidgeting, sneezing, coughing, blowing noses, tooting, burping and, at times, giggling. Not because they wouldn’t be observing the “noble silence” but because some of them are very new to meditation

On day four, with much aplomb, vipassana is introduced, and it turns out to be your plain old body scanning. In the beginning the body scans are more meticulous and can take up to 20 minutes a sweep as you, in your mind, try to get a sense of each body part, but over days it becomes faster and more generic, up to doing a sweep in two breaths. With that also the mediation hall becomes a good deal quieter.

On day 10 “metta” is introduced, which is not a meditation technique, unless you consider “groaning nice words to push out your positive vibrations into the world” a technique, in which case by all means please go nuts with it.

Tripping balls

On day two I became hyperaware of noise (e.g. clattering of cutlery against dishes, shifting of chairs, birdsong)

Surprisingly quickly, the day-to-day mental echoes went away around day three

From around day four, my eyes started leaking randomly during meditation sessions due to what I’m guessing was just plain old relaxation

I started learning the exact duration of subjective time flow around day five, when I ramped down the daily meditation hours from full ~10 to about seven a day, skipping the two 90 minute optional blocks.

I had a mini breakthrough on day five when I gave up on my legs and became able to sit for 90 minutes without changing posture or fidgeting too much. The tracker in my watch started tracking my meditation sessions as “deep sleep”

On day 10 the noble silence was lifted and I found that (1) my voice had went up third of an octave and (2) I had suddenly become very thirsty. Ended up sitting in a corner, drinking water and humming to myself for the first hour.

The good, the bad, and the ugly

While there is a ton to be said about the unnecessity of the chanting, the datedness of the discourses, their shortcomings, the absence of explanation skills in the video-teacher, and the absolute lack of editing or revising an otherwise extremely ascetic and thought-through course, the practice was fantastic for focusing on yourself. The main point was also driven home rather clearly through the practice: that self-awareness and detachment (/equanimity) combined is a very powerful tool at the disposal of anyone. The clarity, or at least sense of clarity that came out if it, is quite intoxicating. I’ve definitely crawled out of the cave feeling stronger.

The good

The premises are excellent

The prolonged meditation + silence combo works and works really well

As it is completely no-strings-attached free, it fits all budgets

The bad

If your body gives out, you are faced with a choice between physical pain that is bit too intense to sink into vs mental boredom. A way to mitigate that would be to introduce an optional yoga session (yoga came around as means for people to meditate longer). The general dhamma policy is that yoga is ok, but that they don't have the premises, which has interestingly been the case for last 30 years

The course is ripe for a refresh—the original discourses were held at a very different time—meditation has now become more mainstream and has been successfully detached from spirituality, and so the topics the discourses address at times aren't relevant at all anymore, at least not in the western world

There was a weird gender thing going on where the course was run as two courses - the two groups were physically occupying different rooms - there was two of everything, the retreat space basically split in a left and right half, a "male course" and a "female course". I can only guess on the motivation but it feels like it would have to do with the situation of the still rather apalling state of womens rights in India. This is not India, however, and you could as well have gendered libraries. If one would like to go bit deeper on the gender front, the whole group was split in old male students, old female students, new male students, new female students. The four groups at times were given assignments one after the another, but the order always prevailed to be male->female.

The ugly

The chanting does very little for concentration and even less for setting the mood

The tone of all communication is prescriptive, lacking any explanations. It’s just “do this in this very specific way” without explaining the why

The teacher has a massive propensity towards extreme repetition. Extreme repetition. Addressing that and the verbal incontinence could allow reducing the evening courses from 75 minutes to 30, making them a great deal more palatable

[wickedbananas]

Should SEOs Care About Internal Links? - Whiteboard Friday

Posted by randfish

Internal links are one of those essential SEO items you have to get right to avoid getting them really wrong. Rand shares 18 tips to help inform your strategy, going into detail about their attributes, internal vs. external links, ideal link structures, and much, much more in this edition of Whiteboard Friday.

Click on the whiteboard image above to open a high-resolution version in a new tab!

Video Transcription

Howdy, Moz fans, and welcome to another edition of Whiteboard Friday. This week we're going to chat a little bit about internal links and internal link structures. Now, it is not the most exciting thing in the SEO world, but it's something that you have to get right and getting it wrong can actually cause lots of problems.

Attributes of internal links

So let's start by talking about some of the things that are true about internal links. Internal links, when I say that phrase, what I mean is a link that exists on a website, let's say ABC.com here, that is linking to a page on the same website, so over here, linking to another page on ABC.com. We'll do /A and /B. This is actually my shipping routes page. So you can see I'm linking from A to B with the anchor text "shipping routes."

The idea of an internal link is really initially to drive visitors from one place to another, to show them where they need to go to navigate from one spot on your site to another spot. They're different from internal links only in that, in the HTML code, you're pointing to the same fundamental root domain. In the initial early versions of the internet, that didn't matter all that much, but for SEO, it matters quite a bit because external links are treated very differently from internal links. That is not to say, however, that internal links have no power or no ability to change rankings, to change crawling patterns and to change how a search engine views your site. That's what we need to chat about.

1. Anchor text is something that can be considered. The search engines have generally minimized its importance, but it's certainly something that's in there for internal links.

2. The location on the page actually matters quite a bit, just as it does with external links. Internal links, it's almost more so in that navigation and footers specifically have attributes around internal links that can be problematic.

Those are essentially when Google in particular sees manipulation in the internal link structure, specifically things like you've stuffed anchor text into all of the internal links trying to get this shipping routes page ranking by putting a little link down here in the footer of every single page and then pointing over here trying to game and manipulate us, they hate that. In fact, there is an algorithmic penalty for that kind of stuff, and we can see it very directly.

We've actually run tests where we've observed that jamming this type of anchor text-rich links into footers or into navigation and then removing it gets a site indexed, well let's not say indexed, let's say ranking well and then ranking poorly when you do it. Google reverses that penalty pretty quickly too, which is nice. So if you are not ranking well and you're like, "Oh no, Rand, I've been doing a lot of that," maybe take it away. Your rankings might come right back. That's great.

3. The link target matters obviously from one place to another.

4. The importance of the linking page, this is actually a big one with internal links. So it is generally the case that if a page on your website has lots of external links pointing to it, it gains authority and it has more ability to sort of generate a little bit, not nearly as much as external links, but a little bit of ranking power and influence by linking to other pages. So if you have very well-linked two pages on your site, you should make sure to link out from those to pages on your site that a) need it and b) are actually useful for your users. That's another signal we'll talk about.

5. The relevance of the link, so pointing to my shipping routes page from a page about other types of shipping information, totally great. Pointing to it from my dog food page, well, it doesn't make great sense. Unless I'm talking about shipping routes of dog food specifically, it seems like it's lacking some of that context, and search engines can pick up on that as well.

6. The first link on the page. So this matters mostly in terms of the anchor text, just as it does for external links. Basically, if you are linking in a bunch of different places to this page from this one, Google will usually, at least in all of our experiments so far, count the first anchor text only. So if I have six different links to this and the first link says "Click here," "Click here" is the anchor text that Google is going to apply, not "Click here" and "shipping routes" and "shipping." Those subsequent links won't matter as much.

7. Then the type of link matters too. Obviously, I would recommend that you keep it in the HTML link format rather than trying to do something fancy with JavaScript. Even though Google can technically follow those, it looks to us like they're not treated with quite the same authority and ranking influence. Text is slightly, slightly better than images in our testing, although that testing is a few years old at this point. So maybe image links are treated exactly the same. Either way, do make sure you have that. If you're doing image links, by the way, remember that the alt attribute of that image is what becomes the anchor text of that link.

Internal versus external links

A. External links usually give more authority and ranking ability.

That shouldn't be surprising. An external link is like a vote from an independent, hopefully independent, hopefully editorially given website to your website saying, "This is a good place for you to go for this type of information." On your own site, it's like a vote for yourself, so engines don't treat it the same.

B. Anchor text of internal links generally have less influence.

So, as we mentioned, me pointing to my page with the phrase that I want to rank for isn't necessarily a bad thing, but I shouldn't do it in a manipulative way. I shouldn't do it in a way that's going to look spammy or sketchy to visitors, because if visitors stop clicking around my site or engaging with it or they bounce more, I will definitely lose ranking influence much faster than if I simply make those links credible and usable and useful to visitors. Besides, the anchor text of internal links is not as powerful anyway.

C. A lack of internal links can seriously hamper a page's ability to get crawled + ranked.

It is, however, the case that a lack of internal links, like an orphan page that doesn't have many internal or any internal links from the rest of its website, that can really hamper a page's ability to rank. Sometimes it will happen. External links will point to a page. You'll see that page in your analytics or in a report about your links from Moz or Ahrefs or Majestic, and then you go, "Oh my gosh, I'm not linking to that page at all from anywhere else on my site." That's a bad idea. Don't do that. That is definitely problematic.

D. It's still the case, by the way, that, broadly speaking, pages with more links on them will send less link value per link.

So, essentially, you remember the original PageRank formula from Google. It said basically like, "Oh, well, if there are five links, send one-fifth of the PageRank power to each of those, and if there are four links, send one-fourth." Obviously, one-fourth is bigger than one-fifth. So taking away that fifth link could mean that each of the four pages that you've linked to get a little bit more ranking authority and influence in the original PageRank algorithm. Look, PageRank is old, very, very old at this point, but at least the theories behind it are not completely gone. So it is the case that if you have a page with tons and tons of links on it, that tends to send out less authority and influence than a page with few links on it, which is why it can definitely pay to do some spring cleaning on your website and clear out any rubbish pages or rubbish links, ones that visitors don't want, that search engines don't want, that you don't care about. Clearing that up can actually have a positive influence. We've seen that on a number of websites where they've cleaned up their information architecture, whittled down their links to just the stuff that matters the most and the pages that matter the most, and then seen increased rankings across the board from all sorts of signals, positive signals, user engagement signals, link signals, context signals that help the engine them rank better.

E. Internal link flow (aka PR sculpting) is rarely effective, and usually has only mild effects... BUT a little of the right internal linking can go a long way.

Then finally, I do want to point out that what was previous called — you probably have heard of it in the SEO world — PageRank sculpting. This was a practice that I'd say from maybe 2003, 2002 to about 2008, 2009, had this life where there would be panel discussions about PageRank sculpting and all these examples of how to do it and software that would crawl your site and show you the ideal PageRank sculpting system to use and which pages to link to and not.

When PageRank was the dominant algorithm inside of Google's ranking system, yeah, it was the case that PageRank sculpting could have some real effect. These days, that is dramatically reduced. It's not entirely gone because of some of these other principles that we've talked about, just having lots of links on a page for no particularly good reason is generally bad and can have harmful effects and having few carefully chosen ones has good effects. But most of the time, internal linking, optimizing internal linking beyond a certain point is not very valuable, not a great value add.

But a little of what I'm calling the right internal linking, that's what we're going to talk about, can go a long way. For example, if you have those orphan pages or pages that are clearly the next step in a process or that users want and they cannot find them or engines can't find them through the link structure, it's bad. Fixing that can have a positive impact.

Ideal internal link structures

So ideally, in an internal linking structure system, you want something kind of like this. This is a very rough illustration here. But the homepage, which has maybe 100 links on it to internal pages. One hop away from that, you've got your 100 different pages of whatever it is, subcategories or category pages, places that can get folks deeper into your website. Then from there, each of those have maybe a maximum of 100 unique links, and they get you 2 hops away from a homepage, which takes you to 10,000 pages who do the same thing.

I. No page should be more than 3 link "hops" away from another (on most small-->medium sites).

Now, the idea behind this is that basically in one, two, three hops, three links away from the homepage and three links away from any page on the site, I can get to up to a million pages. So when you talk about, "How many clicks do I have to get? How far away is this in terms of link distance from any other page on the site?" a great internal linking structure should be able to get you there in three or fewer link hops. If it's a lot more, you might have an internal linking structure that's really creating sort of these long pathways of forcing you to click before you can ever reach something, and that is not ideal, which is why it can make very good sense to build smart categories and subcategories to help people get in there.

I'll give you the most basic example in the world, a traditional blog. In order to reach any post that was published two years ago, I've got to click Next, Next, Next, Next, Next, Next through all this pagination until I finally get there. Or if I've done a really good job with my categories and my subcategories, I can click on the category of that blog post and I can find it very quickly in a list of the last 50 blog posts in that particular category, great, or by author or by tag, however you're doing your navigation.

II. Pages should contain links that visitors will find relevant and useful.

If no one ever clicks on a link, that is a bad signal for your site, and it is a bad signal for Google as well. I don't just mean no one ever. Very, very few people ever and many of them who do click it click the back button because it wasn't what they wanted. That's also a bad sign.

III. Just as no two pages should be targeting the same keyword or searcher intent, likewise no two links should be using the same anchor text to point to different pages. Canonicalize!

For example, if over here I had a shipping routes link that pointed to this page and then another shipping routes link, same anchor text pointing to a separate page, page C, why am I doing that? Why am I creating competition between my own two pages? Why am I having two things that serve the same function or at least to visitors would appear to serve the same function and search engines too? I should canonicalize those. Canonicalize those links, canonicalize those pages. If a page is serving the same intent and keywords, keep it together.

IV. Limit use of the rel="nofollow" to UGC or specific untrusted external links. It won't help your internal link flow efforts for SEO.

Rel="nofollow" was sort of the classic way that people had been doing PageRank sculpting that we talked about earlier here. I would strongly recommend against using it for that purpose. Google said that they've put in some preventative measures so that rel="nofollow" links sort of do this leaking PageRank thing, as they call it. I wouldn't stress too much about that, but I certainly wouldn't use rel="nofollow."

What I would do is if I'm trying to do internal link sculpting, I would just do careful curation of the links and pages that I've got. That is the best way to help your internal link flow. That's things like...

V. Removing low-value content, low-engagement content and creating internal links that people actually do want. That is going to give you the best results.

VI. Don't orphan! Make sure pages that matter have links to (and from) them. Last, but not least, there should never be an orphan. There should never be a page with no links to it, and certainly there should never be a page that is well linked to that isn't linking back out to portions of your site that are of interest or value to visitors and to Google.

So following these practices, I think you can do some awesome internal link analysis, internal link optimization and help your SEO efforts and the value visitors get from your site. We'll see you again next week for another edition of Whiteboard Friday. Take care.

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[ukwebgeekz]

Maximise Your Online Presence with These 7 SEO Tips to Optimising Your Website

Landing on that sweet #1 spot is a huge challenge, especially if you operate in a crowded niche. But, with proper search engine optimisation, you will be able to start improving your rankings and get there eventually.

Optimising your site might seem like a lot of work and quite a daunting task, but the hardest part about it is figuring out where to start. So, for those of you who feel lost in what you should do to improve your site’s optimisation, I have prepared a short list of seven SEO tips to help you out.

The first thing you’re going to need is some kind of tool that allows you to track your metrics. Linkio has a pretty great compilation of the best SEO audit tools out there, so be sure to give them a visit.

Anyway, let’s jump into our first tip.

#1. Mobile-Friendliness Is a MUST

This is one of the very first things you need to ensure. An enormous amount of users prefer their mobile devices to browse the Web, and their percentage is still growing.

Whereas only a couple of years before mobile users were responsible for about one-third of all traffic, today their count is almost doubled. 

Mobile traffic is up by 222% in the last 7 years! ~ broadbandsearch.net 

66% is a lot to lose. But in addition to losing more than half of your traffic because of poor mobile optimization, Google will actually place a penalty on your site on top of that, cutting your traffic even further.

Why? Because Google knows most people use smartphones, and to help create a better experience for them, it favors sites that are properly optimized for them.

So, you absolutely need to ensure that your resource looks and performs flawlessly on all platforms and browsers.

#2. Upload a Sitemap

Every once in a while, Google’s bots come crawling through your site to index your pages. But the thing is: they aren’t perfect at it. Especially if you have dozens upon dozens of pages and some hidden from view.

Pages that you are editing, ones that aren’t ready to go live, etc. 

There is also a limited amount of pages they can index per visit. So, in order to get the most out of crawlers, it is advisable that you upload a .xml sitemap.

What is it? Essentially it’s a list of all your pages that are up for indexing. Formatting it properly is quite tricky, but you don’t actually have to do it on your own. 

If your site runs on WordPress, Yoast SEO is a great plugin. In addition to helping you optimize your site automatically, it can create sitemaps for you and notify Google each time something changes on your resource, so the bots always know when and what to index.

#3. Choose Keywords Wisely

Choosing proper keywords to rank for is a huge part of SEO. But which ones do you go for? 

Just picking the #1 keyword in your niche isn’t enough. Even though it might be the most popular one that people search for, there’s going to be a ton of competition. 

Try to implement a healthy mix of keywords with lots of variation and synonyms. Don’t be afraid to go for keywords that are ranking a little lower. 

Don’t be afraid to check which keywords your competitors are ranking for since you might find some real gems there. And, be sure to monitor every keyword’s ranking and keep an eye out for ones that are steadily growing in popularity since those are great contenders that can overtake the #1 spot if used properly.

Ahrefs has one of the best keyword rank trackers out there.

#4. Site Speed Matters

There are two reasons why you need to pay attention to your site speed. The first being that nobody likes to look at that annoying loading animation for longer than a split second and being too slow might cause a spike in your site’s click-off rate. 

The second one, though, is tied directly with Google. Every time your pages get indexed the bots actually take notice of how long it takes to load them and that information actually affects your ratings.

So, it is pretty important to stay fast. Use PageSpeed Insights to check your site speed and get a few tips on how to make it load faster all in the same place.

#5. Both Internal and External Links Are Amazing for SEO

You should make interlinking your own pages into a habit if you haven’t already. It’s great for two reasons: firstly, it helps direct your visitors through your content and might make them stay around for longer. 

And secondly, it helps Google’s bots crawl your site faster. After all, it is much easier to follow a link than to scan the entirety of your resource to find a page.

As for external links though, I’m sure you’re already aware of the benefits of link building. The more backlinks from high-authority websites you have, the more traffic they transfer to your own one.

Don’t be afraid to link to smaller websites too as it helps you build relationships, which usually turn out to be mutually beneficial.

#6. Take Advantage of Social Medias

Now, of course, boosting your organic traffic should always be your highest priority. But the amount of traffic you can be able to redirect, say, from Facebook is quite considerable.

By placing ads there you’ll be able to capture much more attention than from Google alone. If you setup up a Facebook pixel on your website it will help you re-target people at a later date with more specific adverts. It also causes a little bit of a snowball effect: someone shares a post of yours, then their friends see it, and so on. 

Besides, no successful website is complete without a social media page. Reposting other people’s content on Twitter is also a pretty nice way to get on someone’s radar. And while it has no direct effect on your SEO, it will definitely help during your link building campaign.

#7. Run Audits Often

Even when you’re nearing the finish of your SEO campaign (or at least running out of tasks to do), it’s important to remember that there’s no real end to SEO. Google constantly gets updated, your competition figures out new strategies, links get removed along with thousands of other factors that come into play when your rankings are determined.

So, your job is never over. That’s why you need to run audits of your site at least a few times a month. In fact, you can also run audits of your competitor’s sites to see what they’re up to.

A tool like SpyFu is a great way of peeking behind the curtains of any site to check what’s going on back there.

Good Luck With Your SEO!

Thank you for staying with me until the end and I hope my tips will come in handy during your own SEO campaign! 

Based in the North East of England UK Web GeekZ are innovators in the search engine optimisation industry and use tactics that work time and time again, give us a call if you would like to get more traffic or simply a new website design.

  UK WEB GEEKZ

5-7 Amity House, Coniscliffe Road, Darlington, County Durham, DL3 7EE 07906392955

info@ukwebgeekz.com

Article Source Here: Maximise Your Online Presence with These 7 SEO Tips to Optimising Your Website Originally Published By https://www.ukwebgeekz.com

[whittlebaggett8]

Dr. Shashi Tharoor on the Future of Indian Democracy

When India’s standard elections concluded in Could, the Indian Nationwide Congress was faced with a devastating defeat. The Narendra Modi-led Bharatiya Janata Party won 303 seats, marking a comfortable return to govt. In sharp distinction, the Congress mustered only 52 seats, approximately 1-sixth the BJP’s total.

A single of the couple of vivid places for the Congress was the re-election of Shashi Tharoor, a former global civil servant who has been serving as Member of Parliament in the Lok Sabha symbolizing Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, because 2009. While his bash as a complete underperformed when compared to the final elections, Tharoor beat the pattern, successful by just about 100,000 votes in 2019, compared to his profitable margin of just 15,000 in 2014.

Dr. Shashi Tharoor talked briefly with journalist Arun Budhathoki for The Diplomat about the election results and the upcoming of Indian politics, especially the destiny of the liberal, secular values espoused by the Congress.

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The excerpts underneath have been frivolously edited for clarity.

Initially of all congratulations to you for obtaining the hat-trick in your Lok Sabha constituency, Thiruvananthapuram. What does this gain mean for you provided the adversary that your bash, the Indian Congress, has faced in the new elections?

Thank you. I have been confused by the guidance of the folks of Thiruvananthapuram, which gave me a in close proximity to a person-lakh [100,000] the greater part I could scarcely have dreamed of. At the same time, the problem with the national photograph has undoubtedly created this an equally somber and bittersweet second. I really feel like a batsman who has scored a century even though his group has missing.

In which do you really feel India is heading below the management of the re-elected Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the up coming five yrs? Do you really feel it will be a hard time for spiritual minorities in India?

If the government’s monitor record in business is to be regarded, there is an understandable purpose for stress. It is now a perfectly documented reality that religious minorities have been systematically targeted in the very last 5 yrs. Just very last calendar year for instance, according to a report by Detest Criminal offense Watch,  spiritual loathe crimes in the nation achieved a 10 yr high in the place with members of spiritual minorities becoming the sufferer in 75 % of these instances. In the same way, it is also telling that out of 70 scenarios of cow-connected violence have been reported in the last 70 years, 97 per cent (68 out of 70) have transpired for the duration of the 1st four yrs of BJP rule and a the vast majority of these have happened in BJP-ruled states. A hundred and thirty 6 individuals have been injured in these assaults and 28 killed: 86 per cent of the victims had been, of training course, Muslim. Whilst one are not able to position all the blame on the federal government and hold them directly accountable for such regrettable scenarios, a single can surely and rightly criticize the government for not condemning these kinds of events vocally plenty of at the highest degrees or clamping down strongly on its perpetuators.

Now on the take note of which path the place is possible to head in, the rising amount of cases the place minorities have been focused suggests that we are at this time in the throes of a basic contestation amongst two thoughts of India. 1, of system, is the India that lots of like me imagine in, which is a pluralist and inclusive India, a single that celebrates our diversity of variances and believes that all Indians are equal. Then there is the challenge to this thought offered by all those (which includes the perpetrators of these crimes) who feel in a distorted and alienating concept of India, exactly where some Indians arrive 1st (as extensive as they think in a individual religion, converse a particular language, and adhere to the political doctrine of Hindutva) and other individuals come previous. Only time will convey to which plan will at last prevail and determine the way our country heads in.

Let’s discuss about the rise of Hindutva in India. Do you take into consideration it as an ideology or a distortion of tranquil Hindu faith?

As I have argued thoroughly in my ebook Why I Am a Hindu, Hindutva is a nakedly political doctrine, spawned out of the racial satisfaction concepts of muscular and cultural id that ended up preferred all over the earth in the 1920s. Whereas Hinduism, a extensive all-encompassing faith, is an inward-directed religion, concentrating on self-realization previously mentioned all and the union of the soul with the Absolute, Hindutva is an outward-directed concept, aimed at building social and cultural distinctions for a political objective. Hindutva is, in the chauvinistic and alienating concepts that it espouses, disconnected from the central assumptions and tenets of Hinduism, which, between numerous issues, areas a quality on the acceptance of our differences. And but, Hindutva piggy-backs on the religion, proclaiming to represent Hinduism, though it does not do so as a established of doctrines or precepts but as a cultural marker. Hindutva adopts the Hindu religion not as a way of trying to get the Divine but as a badge of worldly political identification. This has little to do with the Hinduism of its excellent proponents like Swami Vivekananda or of Adi Shankara—it is rather a 20th century idea, born of 20th century types of political considering that ended up currently beginning to be dangerously out of date in other places in the world when they were propounded in India. Parties professing to discuss of an whole men and women of “volk” were being discredited as nicely as destroyed in Europe in 1945. Sadly, seven many years later on, the idea prospers in India, in the name of Hindutva.

Will spiritual minorities, women, reduce caste people, and the LGBT community be in a position to are living peacefully for the following 5 a long time?

As a careful optimist, I would argue that the foundations of India’s democratic ethos stay essentially potent and we nonetheless have checks and balances in location to assure that no 1 community is unduly marginalized or specific. As in the last 5 several years, there will proceed to be troubles that current by themselves in the upcoming, but these will be satisfied in equal evaluate by sturdy voices from our political course, civil culture, judiciary, and the media, and all of these citizens in our state who believe in an inclusive and pluralist plan of India, 1 that welcomes our range and will resist any steps that make it possible for that foundation of our democracy to be undermined.

What about push flexibility and the right to dissent?

Admittedly, constitutionally-certain freedoms, such as that of no cost speech and freedom of the push, have confronted a collection of reversals in the previous five many years. Just about every of these particular person cases have been perfectly documented (including the arrests of four journalists just this very last week) but to cite one ranking, I consider it is surely worrying that India’s rank on the international Push Flexibility Index has fallen from 140th to 190th in the previous calendar year, below the Modi government’s check out. This is troubling for all of us given that a totally free and irreverent media and the ideal to air one’s opinion have been the cornerstone of Indian democracy given that its independence.  The realist in me understands that it is very likely that these worries may perhaps quite properly continue in the next 5 years and for that reason it is imperative that people of us who consider in an inclusive and tolerant India have to go on to almost everything in our energy to resist these forces of intolerance.

Most importantly, what about the challenges of economic expansion and unemployment?

I do hope that the new government will eventually see the wisdom in trying to find and employing comprehensive remedies to these troubles before it gets out of hand. In the last five several years, we have previously found our financial system grind to a crawl, unemployment get to a 45-calendar year substantial, common agrarian distress, and other worrying illustrations of the government’s shambolic financial management of the place. All of these require to be addressed by the new govt on a precedence foundation and I am sure that so lengthy as their financial wondering is seem and very well-intentioned, we in the Opposition will help their endeavors in the country’s interest.

The Indian Congress didn’t fare properly in the recent elections. What is your watch on it? Why have Indians resolved to vote for Modi?  

I believe the success make it very clear that there absolutely seem to be some basic concerns that we bought mistaken. It will definitely just take us some extremely solid introspection and a extensive assessment to the right way determine exactly what these concerns ended up.

For case in point, we had been (not unreasonably) persuaded that grave economic problems — this kind of as unemployment ranges hitting a 45-calendar year large, or the considerable agrarian distress that is forcing our farmers to contemplate suicide in document numbers, or even the disastrous impact of other measures like demonetization on the destiny of our smaller, medium, and micro enterprises — would perform a pivotal part in deciding the destiny of the election. After all, there is a perfectly-identified knowledge in believing that voters would cast their votes in accordance to their economic self-fascination. But this time the Indian voter did not do that, and we need to have to recognize why.

1 explanation is potentially the other facet executed the vital messaging much better they made the decision early that their “product” was Mr. Modi and they promoted him pretty very well. They constructed up the most remarkable personality cult in contemporary Indian political background, buttressed by larger-than-lifetime imagery, hundreds of countless numbers of social media warriors, an intimidated “mainstream” media, ubiquitous cameramen, and a slick publicity equipment that was switched on 24/7, all lubricated by 5,600 crore [56 billion] rupees of taxpayer resources relentlessly selling his every transfer. They also had fantastic success in internet marketing and making hype all around many of their flagship strategies. Perhaps we could have completed superior to make the reality of the flawed shipping of these techniques more apparent.

One more issue, possibly, is that we may perhaps have underestimated the influence of nationwide stability as an electoral subject matter (in the aftermath of the Pulwama assault and Balakot strike) on the psyche of the voter. This is perhaps additional accurate in the north than in south, the place I can explain to you centered on my private encounter that this issue did not get a great deal traction, whilst in the former, the BJP had good results in striving to change the election into a “khaki” referendum.

Yet another location wherever we could have done greater is most likely if we experienced released our party manifesto earlier and as a result given ourselves additional time to market thoughts like NYAY, which by layout and in terms of effects was practically nothing brief of groundbreaking. It seems that the core messaging around NYAY may well have only achieved about half the voters and possibly even the wrong half—mainly centered in urban regions and amongst qualified lessons, who would be shelling out for the plan, relatively than the bottom 20 per cent, primarily in rural India, who would come to be beneficiaries of it. Had the NYAY idea been unrolled even 6 months earlier, it may well have won above lots of voters.

Now all of this is centered on 20-20 hindsight. But we actually do require a comprehensive and systematic assessment of where by and what we got completely wrong.

What will be the subsequent system for your bash and on your own to preserve the democratic values of India?

With regard to the way forward I do feel there are a amount of crucial spots that the bash should retain in mind whilst acquiring its revival method. For just one, I do assume that the Congress is rightly accused of acquiring shed contact with the grassroots in numerous states and it is crucial for us to spend even a lot more consideration to the work at the booth level to make certain that the fundamentals of the get together stay sturdy. We will have to also come to a decision what we stand for and do greater to talk it effectively and consistently. The Congress has historically been the political embodiment of India’s pluralism and has been a sturdy and committed voice for the preservation of secularism as its fundamental reflection. We want to reaffirm our belief in these values and hold reiterating them at every single opportunity.

At the similar time, there are other places that we have to emphasis on, this sort of as becoming a solid and constructive opposition both of those inside of and outside Parliament. We will need to also examine pragmatic coalitions so as to bolster the anti- authorities place, though also doing our very best to wield leverage on the central authorities via the difficulty of middle-condition relations.

And transferring ahead, we will have to not make the miscalculation of permitting the BJP to monopolize the nationalist narrative. As the occasion that introduced independence to India and valiantly preserved it for a long time, and hence has vital encounter in safeguarding India’s nationwide pursuits, the Congress will have to proudly articulate its personal nationalism and continue to be vigilant on security and overseas plan issues that could be mishandled by the BJP governing administration.

And eventually, we should articulate a eyesight for the potential that embraces the aspirations of India’s vast majority – the young. A startling 40 % of voters this yr were beneath 35. They have to have to hear what we can do for them, specifically in areas exactly where the Modi government has so significantly unsuccessful them, like education and learning, ability development, and career development. We need to have to employ insurance policies in these areas in the states we rule and then advocate them at the middle. Younger Indians have to believe that we comprehend their aspirations and can be trusted to market them in govt.

Do you come to feel India has celebrated a populist leader who prefers Hindu religion and disregards the rights of religious minorities, in particular Muslims?

Probably its too early to inform. We do know, for occasion, that Narendra Modi has already designed a sequence of properly documented conciliatory messages following his victory which includes some directed especially at spiritual minorities. No matter if this represents genuine outreach or regardless of whether it is component of a recurring paradox that I have observed formerly, in which these kinds of statements are accompanied by other attempts by the same particular person to “soft-signal” his bigotry to his foundation, stays to be viewed.

Is India’s democracy dying?

I wouldn’t go to that extent. Right after all, we just lately and productive managed to carry out the largest democratic exercise in the environment, exactly where 900 million voters came together to determine who they would like to stand for them, in a way that was mainly cost-free and transparent. Performing exercises our franchise is the essential setting up-block of our democracy and the simple fact that we have managed to maintain performing so, indicates that Indian democracy is really much alive. That becoming reported, it is easy to understand to suggest that given the mother nature and monitor report of the country’s new political masters, there will be periods when the balance and foundations of our democratic ethos may arrive under risk in the upcoming. But if and when we get to that level, I am guaranteed that there will be formidable voices, which include that of my bash, that will do everything in our energy to resist any such endeavor.

India’s instant neighbors like Nepal feel uneasy with PM Modi owing to the financial blockade he imposed on 2015 and also for the reason that of his stance on the Hindu faith. What can we count on to occur amongst India and its shut neighbors in coming yrs?

I believe it would be unwise on the section of the federal government to antagonize its shut neighbors, like Nepal, with whom we have traditionally shared a extremely heat and fraternal relationship. I do imagine that the the latest blip in our relations was extremely regrettable and the federal government of India could have dealt with its grievances with Nepal employing significantly far more refined and professional-diplomacy actions. Only time will tell if the federal government will be much more thoughtful in its 2nd expression, but I hope that, with an experienced hand at the helm of its foreign affairs in the kind of S. Jaishankar, our place will be dependable and accommodative in its relations with its close neighbors.

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[pauldeckerus]

Capturing the Milky Way Over Yosemite National Park

Back in June of 2018, I was fortunate enough to make a 9-day trip to Yosemite National Park, California to capture the Milky Way galaxy over Half Dome. My entire trip revolved around capturing this image since I had captured nearly this same panorama two years prior during my first ever trip to the park in 2016.

It wasn’t until mid-2017 that I discovered that the panorama I had photographed in daylight in 2016 lined up perfectly with the Milky Way in May and early June. Immediately I knew that this pano was one that I would have to perfect, whatever I had to do in order to capture it with maximum detail.

Having improved my knowledge and technique for photographing the Milky Way and keeping clean foreground significantly since my 2016 trip, I knew that in order to keep the foreground free of noise I would have a few options.

I could photograph the scene in roughly five images in vertical orientation as single exposures and stack five or more frames per section.

I could blend the foreground from blue hour by photographing the foreground an hour after sunset using a little bit of atmospheric light to illuminate the foreground and then wait to photograph the Milky Way

I could photograph the foreground as single exposures and stack them under starlight, then track the sky to preserve the maximum sky detail and blend them back together.

Or finally I could photograph the foreground under starlight as long exposures at a higher aperture giving me more sharpness all the way through the image and use a low ISO to give me less noise. Then track the sky and blend them back together using a one image single exposure panorama beforehand with the alignment to use as reference.

After considering my options, I decided to go with the final method of capturing the foreground with longer exposures. This method would allow me to capture the foreground under natural starlight and maintain the natural colors and illumination of this time, and minimize the noise using a low ISO. This method also guaranteed I would have a sharp image throughout using a higher aperture and depth of field. I wanted to maximize the quality and resolution of this image to make it as large as possible for a potential future print.

Using the 45-megapixel Nikon D850 DSLR would give me an insanely large file that could be printed in large dimensions. The final panorama would be 27,500 pixels wide, and the final edit and crop was roughly a 350-megapixel image.

Original foreground panorama 500% crop RAW

Final Edit, 500% crop.

I would do this by setting my camera on my tripod in vertical orientation, making sure that my ball head was completely level, and waiting until I was under complete starlight.

Example of my Camera in vertical orientation during a trip to Death Valley, March 2018.

Having photographed the foreground panorama once before back in 2016, I knew that I would need 5 vertical images at 15mm to capture everything I needed, and having captured countless Milky Way panoramas, 4–5 images would give me a good view of our galaxy at 15 to 20mm.

In order to keep my exposures steady and keep my shutter open for long enough to capture all the light in a clean foreground image, I would need to use a shutter release remote so I wouldn’t bump the camera by pressing the shutter button. Using a remote would also allow me to program the exposure time for each frame.

Yosemite was a 1,000-mile trip one way for me from home (on the most boring stretch of road in the whole united states), so I planned my trip carefully ensuring I would be there during proper moon conditions, allowing me a window to photograph the sky without any moonlight.

Using the app PhotoPills, I carefully projected my alignment and opportunities to shoot the Milky Way while visiting the park. Once I had my plan together I started my preparations for a 9-day trip to make the most of my time there.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Derek Sturman (@dereksturmanphotography) on Dec 7, 2018 at 7:56am PST

Doing a little experimental time lapse here from Olmsted point in Yosemite during my first night in the park. Having come from Nevada I found myself entering Yosemite from what I would call the back of the park and being able to see new parts of it I didn’t see in 2016.

Now if you are familiar with any of the stories of how I captured any of my previous images, you will know that coming prepared has never been one of my strengths. However, for a trip 1,000 miles from home and camping out in the desert alone, I made sure to create a rigorous checklist of things I would need. In an attempt to stay on a budget I decided to pack all the food and water I would need and blow up an air mattress in the back of my vehicle so I would be able to sleep periodically for short periods while photographing some kind of night sky image.

Included on this list of things was sunscreen, bug spray, and a shutter remote (of course). I ended up stopping for the first night of the trip roughly halfway to my destination somewhere in the Nevada desert, where I had an incredible dark sky to photograph. Already almost 500 miles from home, I discovered that though I had packed 4 shutter remotes and a whole pack of AAA batteries, I had left this insert for my pack somewhere at home, leaving me without any reasonable way of triggering my camera’s shutter remotely. Sadly the Nikon Snap bridge app would only allow me to program 30″ exposures.

Too far to turn back, I began photographing just 30″ tracked images to use for later images and dug through my gear for any kind of remote I might have from the past. Sadly I didn’t find any remotes, but I did happen to have a cool little device my father (an avid programmer and electronic project enthusiast) had made using an Arduino programmed to do various exposure types. Luckily for me, this device connected to any 1/8″ audio jack and I happened to have a spare cord for that. Also fortunate for me was the fact that the device had a bulb option.

Sunset fades to Star light in Yosemite National Park.

Once inside the park I was greeted by the unbearable summer heat, walls of mosquitoes so thick you could use them as shade, and of course unbelievable crowds of people. Despite all of this the park was spectacular and seeing it again was just as jaw-dropping the second time as the first. Absolutely nothing about this park is boring.

Having felt that I was prepared, I brought a bottle some kind of all-in-one sunscreen bug repellent spray. Immediately upon visiting the park I needed both, as the early summer heat and pooling water in the valley attracted millions of mosquitoes and the heat was almost unbearable in direct sunlight.

My first night in the park I broke out in some kind of terrible rash. Something I had not experienced since I was very young. Hives covering my arms, neck, and body made for a very uncomfortable stay. Thinking I had some kind of mosquito bite that had initiated the rash, I began applying more of this bug spray sunscreen mix. The cause of my terrible full body rash was sadly unknown to me. So from day one I was a little irritable and had a hard time standing the conditions of the trip. Also unfortunate to my trip itinerary, I planned to stay a full 7 days and saw no need to buy new sunscreen or bug spray and assumed it was anything from some kind of plants in the area to something I was eating.

I had planned to do all my shooting in new locations and scouting first and save my Milky Way panorama over half dome from Glacier Point until the last two nights of my stay so I would force myself to endure the entire trip knowing I would not allow myself to give in a go home until I had completed that image. Reserving my final two nights, since the image would likely take several hours of shooting just to complete the pano for the foreground and several hours of shooting just for the sky.

Night sky over Yosemite National Park

When the time came to capture my panorama I went to Glacier point almost 6 hours early just to get a parking spot. The lot at the top of the road for the popular overlook is often heavily crowded and has very few actual parking stalls. When I arrived there weren’t any so I ended up driving in circles for about two hours waiting on an opportunity to park. Once I parked, I quickly began packing my gear to go watch the sunset and set up for my image.

In my excitement and hurry to finally get out to the spot and quickly dying sunlight, I managed to lock my keys inside my car. Having done this multiple times in the past I have a habit of checking for keys as I am walking away from my vehicle and realized I had locked them inside. I spent the next two to three hours trying to find a way to get into the car. I had no service in that area so I would have to hitch a ride with someone all the way down to where I would get service to call AAA. I actually went and found a sick and managed to pry the passenger side door open just a little and tried to slip thin sticks in and flip the lock switch. After seeing the apparent damage I was doing to the seal on the door I went to back pop out windows.

I noticed that these windows had a small latch that could be pressed out so that the windows could angle outwards but no open all the way. I figured if I could break this small plastic latch I could crawl in through this window and unlock the car. But after prying just a little too hard, I shattered the window and glass went all over me and the parking lot.

You can see the small black latch next to the seat belt in the left corner.

Needless to say, I missed the sunset. And once I was inside my car and covered in glass, I wasn’t in the most inspired mood, but after cleaning up the glass in the parking area as best I could, I moved out to my spot for the image.

I began by focusing on the foreground, and realized that once I had my camera set up in the proper position, the Arduino remote’s programmed bulb mode required me to hold the button down for the duration of the exposure. There was no programmable time setting in its programming, meaning I would need to sit and hold the button down until the exposure was done.

I’m not going to lie: it’s fortunate that only my good friend the Milky Way was there to hear what I said next. Interestingly enough, yelling to a large beautiful vista is actually quite therapeutic, but I was quickly distracted by the beauty of the Milky Way rising over the Yosemite Valley.

Glacier point provides one of the most amazing views of Yosemite. Looking head on half dome, you can see an insanely large vista. Waterfalls, peaks, and large cliff faces into forested valley’s. The scale of this place is simply indescribable.

Once the Milky Way started to appear I took a quick test exposure, f/2.8 ISO 12,800 30″ and focused on a bright star to make sure I was getting infinity focus throughout. In my f/28 image, it looked like most of the image was sharp so I decided just to increase my aperture slightly. I started out by trying an image at f/5 but after holding down the button for so long and seeing I made a mistake I decided to stop back down to f/3.2. Once the test exposure was complete I used Photopills exposure calculator to calculate the images exposure time needed if I were to use f/3.2 at ISO 800. I figured this would give me a clean foreground image without me losing too much time to each exposure before sunrise.

Single test exposure, f/2.8 ISO 12,800 30″

This gave me an exposure time of roughly 13 minutes per frame. So I set a thirteen-minute count down timer in Photopills and sat with my finger on the button until the alarm went off.

759″ exposure f/3.2 ISO 800

Unfortunately for me, I didn’t realize that the red light from the homemade remote was casting onto the rocks in front of me, so I photographed this first exposure a second time.

792″ Exposure f/3.2 ISO 800

Unfortunately, I had bumped my tripod or ball head somehow without noticing and the image had tilted slightly. Tired and irritated, I battled with the idea of using this image but ended up deciding to realign and try again.

759″ Exposure f/3.2 ISO 800

I finally had the first of five images correct. I carefully reviewed the image for noise and detail at 300% zoom.

759″ f/3.2 ISO 800, 500% crop

Aside from a few hot pixels from the long exposure and warm weather, and a little noise on the surface of the peaks the image looked sharp and mostly clean.

Third (middle) image of pano, 759″ ISO 800 f/3.2

The following two images went smooth, though my thumb was getting a little tired from holding down the button to keep the shutter open. That was until the fourth image.

Hikers head lamps and flash lights illuminate the Trail between Nevada and Vernal falls. 439″ f/3.2 ISO 800

I stopped this exposure early when I noticed some hikers with flashlights creating some trailing. This could have easily been cloned out in post but I didn’t want to risk it so I started over.

Finally, after a few more images I had the complete foreground merge. Due to technical problems, bumping my tripod during a couple and starting over, It was astronomical twilight shortly after completing the final image in the pano.

5 vertical image Stitch, Adobe LR. RAW

Once all the images had been stitched and the distortion corrected and image compositionally balanced this was the foreground result. Now all that was left was to photograph the sky! I returned the following night to set up my tracker from the location where I shot this pano, however using a tracker requires a clear view of Polaris, the northern star, to calibrate the tracking. Sadly I was unable to see Polaris from this location due to all the tree cover.

I began searching for nearby locations with absolutely clear horizons and discovered Taft point, an overlook just back down the glacier point road. This seemed like the closest sure-fire location with clear skies.

I quickly hiked out to the location during sunset and promptly set up my tracker to capture my sky panorama.

477″ tracked f/2.8 ISO 400 19mm

One of the single images tracked from Taft Point.

Taking several attempts to get the sky right and clean with as little foreground as possible I had my sky after shooting all night.

And once twilight hit I was so ready to be done with shower less, rash-ridden, mosquito-infested forests that I packed up and hiked straight to the car to start the long journey home. My image was finally captured and it was time to get back to the desktop and start putting the pieces together.

250″ f/2.8 ISO 800 Tracked

And with that my 9 day trip to the incredible Yosemite came to end, and after a long and boring drive through the deserts of Nevada, I would be able to review my images to see how I did.

“Galactic” Yosemite National Park, 2018

Thanks for reading! I hope something in this was beneficial to you, or maybe at least you won’t make some of the mistakes I have and never buy all-in-one bug spray and sunscreen…

P.S. If you’d like to learn more about photographing the Milky Way you can check out some of my one-on-one and group workshops hosted across the western United States on the techniques and tricks I use personally. Or if you would like to know how I post process my images, consider checking out my paid post processing Instructional courses for Adobe Photoshop.

About the author: Derek Sturman is a landscape and night photographer. The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author. You can find more of Sturman’s work on his website and Instagram. This article was also published here.

from Photography News https://petapixel.com/2019/01/11/capturing-the-milky-way-over-yosemite-national-park/

[sailorrrvenus]

Capturing the Milky Way Over Yosemite National Park

Back in June of 2018, I was fortunate enough to make a 9-day trip to Yosemite National Park, California to capture the Milky Way galaxy over Half Dome. My entire trip revolved around capturing this image since I had captured nearly this same panorama two years prior during my first ever trip to the park in 2016.

It wasn’t until mid-2017 that I discovered that the panorama I had photographed in daylight in 2016 lined up perfectly with the Milky Way in May and early June. Immediately I knew that this pano was one that I would have to perfect, whatever I had to do in order to capture it with maximum detail.

Having improved my knowledge and technique for photographing the Milky Way and keeping clean foreground significantly since my 2016 trip, I knew that in order to keep the foreground free of noise I would have a few options.

I could photograph the scene in roughly five images in vertical orientation as single exposures and stack five or more frames per section.

I could blend the foreground from blue hour by photographing the foreground an hour after sunset using a little bit of atmospheric light to illuminate the foreground and then wait to photograph the Milky Way

I could photograph the foreground as single exposures and stack them under starlight, then track the sky to preserve the maximum sky detail and blend them back together.

Or finally I could photograph the foreground under starlight as long exposures at a higher aperture giving me more sharpness all the way through the image and use a low ISO to give me less noise. Then track the sky and blend them back together using a one image single exposure panorama beforehand with the alignment to use as reference.

After considering my options, I decided to go with the final method of capturing the foreground with longer exposures. This method would allow me to capture the foreground under natural starlight and maintain the natural colors and illumination of this time, and minimize the noise using a low ISO. This method also guaranteed I would have a sharp image throughout using a higher aperture and depth of field. I wanted to maximize the quality and resolution of this image to make it as large as possible for a potential future print.

Using the 45-megapixel Nikon D850 DSLR would give me an insanely large file that could be printed in large dimensions. The final panorama would be 27,500 pixels wide, and the final edit and crop was roughly a 350-megapixel image.

Original foreground panorama 500% crop RAW

Final Edit, 500% crop.

I would do this by setting my camera on my tripod in vertical orientation, making sure that my ball head was completely level, and waiting until I was under complete starlight.

Example of my Camera in vertical orientation during a trip to Death Valley, March 2018.

Having photographed the foreground panorama once before back in 2016, I knew that I would need 5 vertical images at 15mm to capture everything I needed, and having captured countless Milky Way panoramas, 4–5 images would give me a good view of our galaxy at 15 to 20mm.

In order to keep my exposures steady and keep my shutter open for long enough to capture all the light in a clean foreground image, I would need to use a shutter release remote so I wouldn’t bump the camera by pressing the shutter button. Using a remote would also allow me to program the exposure time for each frame.

Yosemite was a 1,000-mile trip one way for me from home (on the most boring stretch of road in the whole united states), so I planned my trip carefully ensuring I would be there during proper moon conditions, allowing me a window to photograph the sky without any moonlight.

Using the app PhotoPills, I carefully projected my alignment and opportunities to shoot the Milky Way while visiting the park. Once I had my plan together I started my preparations for a 9-day trip to make the most of my time there.

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A post shared by Derek Sturman (@dereksturmanphotography) on Dec 7, 2018 at 7:56am PST

Doing a little experimental time lapse here from Olmsted point in Yosemite during my first night in the park. Having come from Nevada I found myself entering Yosemite from what I would call the back of the park and being able to see new parts of it I didn’t see in 2016.

Now if you are familiar with any of the stories of how I captured any of my previous images, you will know that coming prepared has never been one of my strengths. However, for a trip 1,000 miles from home and camping out in the desert alone, I made sure to create a rigorous checklist of things I would need. In an attempt to stay on a budget I decided to pack all the food and water I would need and blow up an air mattress in the back of my vehicle so I would be able to sleep periodically for short periods while photographing some kind of night sky image.

Included on this list of things was sunscreen, bug spray, and a shutter remote (of course). I ended up stopping for the first night of the trip roughly halfway to my destination somewhere in the Nevada desert, where I had an incredible dark sky to photograph. Already almost 500 miles from home, I discovered that though I had packed 4 shutter remotes and a whole pack of AAA batteries, I had left this insert for my pack somewhere at home, leaving me without any reasonable way of triggering my camera’s shutter remotely. Sadly the Nikon Snap bridge app would only allow me to program 30″ exposures.

Too far to turn back, I began photographing just 30″ tracked images to use for later images and dug through my gear for any kind of remote I might have from the past. Sadly I didn’t find any remotes, but I did happen to have a cool little device my father (an avid programmer and electronic project enthusiast) had made using an Arduino programmed to do various exposure types. Luckily for me, this device connected to any 1/8″ audio jack and I happened to have a spare cord for that. Also fortunate for me was the fact that the device had a bulb option.

Sunset fades to Star light in Yosemite National Park.

Once inside the park I was greeted by the unbearable summer heat, walls of mosquitoes so thick you could use them as shade, and of course unbelievable crowds of people. Despite all of this the park was spectacular and seeing it again was just as jaw-dropping the second time as the first. Absolutely nothing about this park is boring.

Having felt that I was prepared, I brought a bottle some kind of all-in-one sunscreen bug repellent spray. Immediately upon visiting the park I needed both, as the early summer heat and pooling water in the valley attracted millions of mosquitoes and the heat was almost unbearable in direct sunlight.

My first night in the park I broke out in some kind of terrible rash. Something I had not experienced since I was very young. Hives covering my arms, neck, and body made for a very uncomfortable stay. Thinking I had some kind of mosquito bite that had initiated the rash, I began applying more of this bug spray sunscreen mix. The cause of my terrible full body rash was sadly unknown to me. So from day one I was a little irritable and had a hard time standing the conditions of the trip. Also unfortunate to my trip itinerary, I planned to stay a full 7 days and saw no need to buy new sunscreen or bug spray and assumed it was anything from some kind of plants in the area to something I was eating.

I had planned to do all my shooting in new locations and scouting first and save my Milky Way panorama over half dome from Glacier Point until the last two nights of my stay so I would force myself to endure the entire trip knowing I would not allow myself to give in a go home until I had completed that image. Reserving my final two nights, since the image would likely take several hours of shooting just to complete the pano for the foreground and several hours of shooting just for the sky.

Night sky over Yosemite National Park

When the time came to capture my panorama I went to Glacier point almost 6 hours early just to get a parking spot. The lot at the top of the road for the popular overlook is often heavily crowded and has very few actual parking stalls. When I arrived there weren’t any so I ended up driving in circles for about two hours waiting on an opportunity to park. Once I parked, I quickly began packing my gear to go watch the sunset and set up for my image.

In my excitement and hurry to finally get out to the spot and quickly dying sunlight, I managed to lock my keys inside my car. Having done this multiple times in the past I have a habit of checking for keys as I am walking away from my vehicle and realized I had locked them inside. I spent the next two to three hours trying to find a way to get into the car. I had no service in that area so I would have to hitch a ride with someone all the way down to where I would get service to call AAA. I actually went and found a sick and managed to pry the passenger side door open just a little and tried to slip thin sticks in and flip the lock switch. After seeing the apparent damage I was doing to the seal on the door I went to back pop out windows.

I noticed that these windows had a small latch that could be pressed out so that the windows could angle outwards but no open all the way. I figured if I could break this small plastic latch I could crawl in through this window and unlock the car. But after prying just a little too hard, I shattered the window and glass went all over me and the parking lot.

You can see the small black latch next to the seat belt in the left corner.

Needless to say, I missed the sunset. And once I was inside my car and covered in glass, I wasn’t in the most inspired mood, but after cleaning up the glass in the parking area as best I could, I moved out to my spot for the image.

I began by focusing on the foreground, and realized that once I had my camera set up in the proper position, the Arduino remote’s programmed bulb mode required me to hold the button down for the duration of the exposure. There was no programmable time setting in its programming, meaning I would need to sit and hold the button down until the exposure was done.

I’m not going to lie: it’s fortunate that only my good friend the Milky Way was there to hear what I said next. Interestingly enough, yelling to a large beautiful vista is actually quite therapeutic, but I was quickly distracted by the beauty of the Milky Way rising over the Yosemite Valley.

Glacier point provides one of the most amazing views of Yosemite. Looking head on half dome, you can see an insanely large vista. Waterfalls, peaks, and large cliff faces into forested valley’s. The scale of this place is simply indescribable.

Once the Milky Way started to appear I took a quick test exposure, f/2.8 ISO 12,800 30″ and focused on a bright star to make sure I was getting infinity focus throughout. In my f/28 image, it looked like most of the image was sharp so I decided just to increase my aperture slightly. I started out by trying an image at f/5 but after holding down the button for so long and seeing I made a mistake I decided to stop back down to f/3.2. Once the test exposure was complete I used Photopills exposure calculator to calculate the images exposure time needed if I were to use f/3.2 at ISO 800. I figured this would give me a clean foreground image without me losing too much time to each exposure before sunrise.

Single test exposure, f/2.8 ISO 12,800 30″

This gave me an exposure time of roughly 13 minutes per frame. So I set a thirteen-minute count down timer in Photopills and sat with my finger on the button until the alarm went off.

759″ exposure f/3.2 ISO 800

Unfortunately for me, I didn’t realize that the red light from the homemade remote was casting onto the rocks in front of me, so I photographed this first exposure a second time.

792″ Exposure f/3.2 ISO 800

Unfortunately, I had bumped my tripod or ball head somehow without noticing and the image had tilted slightly. Tired and irritated, I battled with the idea of using this image but ended up deciding to realign and try again.

759″ Exposure f/3.2 ISO 800

I finally had the first of five images correct. I carefully reviewed the image for noise and detail at 300% zoom.

759″ f/3.2 ISO 800, 500% crop

Aside from a few hot pixels from the long exposure and warm weather, and a little noise on the surface of the peaks the image looked sharp and mostly clean.

Third (middle) image of pano, 759″ ISO 800 f/3.2

The following two images went smooth, though my thumb was getting a little tired from holding down the button to keep the shutter open. That was until the fourth image.

Hikers head lamps and flash lights illuminate the Trail between Nevada and Vernal falls. 439″ f/3.2 ISO 800

I stopped this exposure early when I noticed some hikers with flashlights creating some trailing. This could have easily been cloned out in post but I didn’t want to risk it so I started over.

Finally, after a few more images I had the complete foreground merge. Due to technical problems, bumping my tripod during a couple and starting over, It was astronomical twilight shortly after completing the final image in the pano.

5 vertical image Stitch, Adobe LR. RAW

Once all the images had been stitched and the distortion corrected and image compositionally balanced this was the foreground result. Now all that was left was to photograph the sky! I returned the following night to set up my tracker from the location where I shot this pano, however using a tracker requires a clear view of Polaris, the northern star, to calibrate the tracking. Sadly I was unable to see Polaris from this location due to all the tree cover.

I began searching for nearby locations with absolutely clear horizons and discovered Taft point, an overlook just back down the glacier point road. This seemed like the closest sure-fire location with clear skies.

I quickly hiked out to the location during sunset and promptly set up my tracker to capture my sky panorama.

477″ tracked f/2.8 ISO 400 19mm

One of the single images tracked from Taft Point.

Taking several attempts to get the sky right and clean with as little foreground as possible I had my sky after shooting all night.

And once twilight hit I was so ready to be done with shower less, rash-ridden, mosquito-infested forests that I packed up and hiked straight to the car to start the long journey home. My image was finally captured and it was time to get back to the desktop and start putting the pieces together.

250″ f/2.8 ISO 800 Tracked

And with that my 9 day trip to the incredible Yosemite came to end, and after a long and boring drive through the deserts of Nevada, I would be able to review my images to see how I did.

“Galactic” Yosemite National Park, 2018

Thanks for reading! I hope something in this was beneficial to you, or maybe at least you won’t make some of the mistakes I have and never buy all-in-one bug spray and sunscreen…

P.S. If you’d like to learn more about photographing the Milky Way you can check out some of my one-on-one and group workshops hosted across the western United States on the techniques and tricks I use personally. Or if you would like to know how I post process my images, consider checking out my paid post processing Instructional courses for Adobe Photoshop.

About the author: Derek Sturman is a landscape and night photographer. The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author. You can find more of Sturman’s work on his website and Instagram. This article was also published here.

source https://petapixel.com/2019/01/11/capturing-the-milky-way-over-yosemite-national-park/