#instead. Scifi Succession Style

[notedchampagne]

im on chapter 6 of babel right now so no spoilers, however im musing out loud on babel v baru v tlt:

i see more commonalities between babel and baru cormorant instead of baru and tlt. casting aside the writing styles and any possible queer representation, babel and baru are stories that are deeply steeped in grief and inner turmoil (from the main characters) from the active colonization and racism happening around them. i cant place my finger on Why tlt is different in this regard but it might be the fact that its held in a more scifi-fantasy future? the colonization in it isnt an active force pressing in on the characters but instead the system that everyone in the empire is perpetuating AS a result of johns OWN imperialist upbringing + ruling.

i love how all three books acknowledge that the characters working to climb the ladder / gain a living advantage usually come with an academic success, specifically for the colonist's purposes

[astoundingbeyondbelief]

Kaiju Week in Review (December 11-17, 2022)

After the success of last year's Pacific Rim Ultimate Omnibus, Legendary Comics has launched a Kickstarter for a MonsterVerse Omnibus collecting Godzilla: Awakening, Skull Island: The Birth of Kong, Godzilla: Aftershock, Godzilla Dominion, and Kingdom Kong. It blasted past its funding goal on the first day. The Omnibus will eventually make it to retail, but naturally the Kickstarter rewards include some exclusives, like a slipcase and a different cover, as well as higher-tier bonuses like enamel pins and the ability to get drawn into the comics.

The biggest draw if you've already bought the five comics above is the debut of "Call to Action", written by Brian Buccellato and illustrated by Zid. Logline: "[S]et during the events of Godzilla vs. Kong, a Naval fighter pilot with a personal attachment to Godzilla is put to the test when his squadron is called upon to intercept the King of the Monsters." Well, I'm a sucker for mining drama out of incredibly minor characters, and Zid's the best artist these MonsterVerse comics have seen. If access to that story's all you care about, consider the $15 tier, which nets you a PDF of the Omnibus. K-D-M, who's proven to be a reliable source, is also saying that a number of the minor Titans (Na Kika, Amhuluk, Tiamat, and perhaps others) will receive Monarch bios as well. Those have been delightful sources of lore in the past.

Speaking of comics, @mekagojira3k published the first issue of his self-adaptation of All Your Ruins on WebToon. Read it immediately, it's gnarly as shit! There's a kaiju with crosses on its back taunting a mysterious masked figure and what I'm choosing to interpret as a nod to the Age of Giant Condor!

I couldn't wait for the Week in Review to post about this, but it merits repeating: The Asylum is celebrating its 25th anniversary with a Destroy All Monsters-style epic called 2025 Armageddon. (Insert scare quotes around "epic" if you wish.) Most exciting to me is the return of Mega Shark, whose series inexplicably ended in 2015 just as it and the Kaiju Renaissance were finding their stride. It's also playing in five fairly random theaters across the country until the 22nd (sorry, should've gotten this post out faster). The rest of us will have to hold off until the VOD release on the 23rd.

After it placed second in the last two Movie Monster Series fan polls, Bandai has thrown up its hands and given Super Mechagodzilla a vinyl, just in time for the 30th anniversary of Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla II next year. January 31st is the release date for that one. They also announced a third poll, this time allowing fan submissions to determine the 10 nominees instead of making the shortlist in a smoke-filled room themselves. Yes, that means Zilla, Bagan, and the Giant Condor are theoretically on the table (but no Godzilla incarnations allowed). All's you need is a Godzilla Store account to nominate a kaiju and eventually vote.

Finally, for you Dagahra fans out there, his first figure in ages is coming soon from the Kaiju Out of the Laws line. Shame those are so expensive.

Here's the teaser for the Kaiju No. 8 anime—and yes, it's going to be part of the Toho kaiju canon. I got caught up with the manga earlier this year and found it pretty enjoyable. An older protagonist is unusual for this type of story, and I like how he's constantly drawing on his experience cleaning up kajiu corpses after taking on the more glamorous work of fighting them. You also gotta admire the boldness of calling a metamorphosing character Kafka.

SciFi Japan has a first look at a film due next year called Kaiju: Island of Fire. The production company is based in Japan, but there's a lot of Hollywood talent in this one, including writer/director Andrew L. Phillips, who has a background in stunt acting. Inspired by 3Y Films, they've also brought back some veteran kaiju actors: Kent Gilbert (the swishy ship commander in Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah), Chuck Wilson (the Futurian Wilson in same), Inge Murata (every Japanese kaiju movie that's needed a German since Monster X Strikes Back), and Tomoko Ai (Katsura Mafune in Terror of Mechagodzilla). No story details yet, although you can probably guess the setting. I like the suit design of what is presumably the anti-kaiju team too, at least from the back.

[volixia669]

So apparently twitter folks are doing a, “Sell Snyderverse to Netflix” thing and 1. I’m begging people to understand how corporate IP works and 2. I’m begging fans of Superhero movies to watch more films.

I say this as someone who enjoys comics, superheroes, and even some of the films btw. In fact, it’s because I love these characters and worlds so much that I’m just kinda in disbelief there’s so much hype for Snyder’s work. (Not to say I agree with how whats his face is taking DC either, but that’s a different matter)

But right, first, corporate IP.

Zack Snyder was a director who had various ideas for how a DC film verse could work, as DC/Warner Brothers was trying to copy the success Marvel had with the MCU. He does not own the characters within that verse. He can play with them, and people can identify the characters as Snyder’s take on them, but he does not own them, or the movies he made. DC/Warner Brothers does.

Now, could they sell the rights to Snyder’s take on the verse to Netflix? Eh? It’s complicated. Primarily because it requires differentiating Snyder’s version of the characters from what DC owns, and that brings into question if DC owns the takes that other writers have done, and it’s a whole mess and a half.

That said, they could potentially license the characters to Netflix, and Snyder could make films that way. However, given how DC didn’t want to give Neil Gaiman John Constantine for Sandman, a character Gaiman HAS written for btw, because of a seemingly now canned live action show, that seems HIGHLY unlikely.

Also, none of this makes sense for either Netflix or DC/WarnerBrothers/HBO. Netflix is just asking to lose money with all their “reducing password sharing” nonsense, and while they’ve spent a good chunk of money on other IP, the cost to license the fucking Justice League would be astronomical.  And they’re definitely not going to sell the rights to their blockbuster movies to Netflix. Turn them into tax write offs? Sure. Nix them from streaming platforms? Absolutely. But sell the rights to something that would also include toy & other merchandise sales? Never.

And now the second, extremely inflammatory, point.

Please watch more movies.

And this isn’t me being pretentious. I’m not even saying it has to be good movies. I love a good Rifftrax myself, and I regularly watch random scifi schlock I find on Hulu or whatever.

But like, the more you broaden your horizons, the more film you consume, the better you’ll be able to recognize certain tropes, understand certain styles, and may even find there are films you enjoy outside of the mega franchises.

Personally I find Zack Snyder movies to be fairly...mid. They’re flashy, sure, and can have decent moments. But his takes on the DC characters just...don’t even feel like the characters to me, which is a failing in itself, and overall, his use of lighting, CGI, and pacing are meh.

His films are popcorn films, and that’s fine. But by watching a wide variety of films, both popcorn & deeply innovating, it’s easier to understand where the flaws are. It’s also easier to appreciate films by other, smaller, studios and directors who don’t have the budgets he does.

Because y’know what? This megamonopoly corporate monster that has consumed the film industry is stifling creativity. It favors bland, mediocre, by the book films, while directors of marginalized genders, races, and/or sexualities are left by the wayside unless they manage to come into some once in a lifetime opportunity. So many stories are being ignored as corporations believe they won’t make a profit.

So maybe instead of demanding Snyder get a fifth chance to make more DC films, demand more funding be given to indie film studios. Demand to hear more from marginalized people. Demand these streaming platforms stop removing items in a bid to avoid paying residuals, and demand there be better protections for those working on their content.

And yes. Watch more films.

[asleepinawell]

Book Recs

I was gonna do one of these at the end of the year, but I’ve somehow managed to read 26 books this year already (12 novellas, 14 novels), almost all featuring queer authors and/or characters so this is already a long list.

Note: There’s a few on here I was kind of meh about, but in most of those cases it was a ‘book might be good but it’s not for me so i’ll mention it to put it on people’s radar anyway’ type of thing. Insert the usual necessary tumblr disclaimer about all of this being only my opinion and your opinions are valid too etc etc.

In order of when I read them:

Princess Floralinda and the Forty-Flight Tower by Tamsyn Muir - Fantasy novella from the author of gideon the ninth that’s a twist on the classic princess trapped in a tower waiting for a prince story. Quite fun. (novella)

The Monster of Elendhaven by Jennifer Giesbrecht - Dark fantasy about revenge and magic. m/m couple but like I said it’s pretty dark and twisted all around so definitely not a happy queer romantic story. My opinion was interesting premise that could have been executed better and probably should have been a full novel to embellish on the world building potential. (novella)

A Memory Called Empire & A Desolation Called Peace - Arkady Martine - Probably tied with murderbot as the best things I read this year. Scifi, f/f couple, wonderfully done exploration of what it means to fall in love with a culture that is destroying your own. More of the many queer anti-imperialist books that have come out recently and certainly some of the best. The second one is a direct continuation of the first. (2 novels)

The Tyrant Baru Cormorant - Seth Dickinson - This is the third in the Baru Cormorant series (The Masquerade) and was my favorite so far. The second and third book were originally one book that got split I believe and the second book didn’t stand alone as well (though was still great), but the third book really made up for that. Dark fantasy world starring a queer woc whose country and culture is destroyed by the imperial forces of that world colonizing and assimilating them. She vows revenge and decides to work her way up within her enemy’s ranks to enact it from within and bring an empire to ruins. Really really fascinating study of so many different aspects of our own world and the systems which enable and allow bigotry and how bigoted and violent narratives are used to control minorities. This is definitely a darker series and I was particularly impressed with some of the commentary on the racism prevalent in non-intersectional feminism as depicted through a fantasy world. Can’t wait for the last one to come out! (3 novels, 1 forthcoming)

The Murderbot Diaries - Martha Wells - There’s six of them--5 novella and a novel--and the first is All Systems Red. Told from the point of view of a self-aware droid/android that is rented out by a corporation to provide protection in a dystopian capitalist hellhole future that isn’t that unlike our current capitalist dystopia but is in space. Muderbot hacked the chip that controlled it and instead of going rogue just wants to be left alone to watch its favorite tv shows. Murderbot is painfully relatable and the books are both funny and poignant. Highly recommended. (5 novellas and a novel).

Winter’s Orbit - Everina Maxwell - This was a m/m romance novel with a scifi backdrop of royal intrigue. Generally I’m more into scifi with a queer relationship in the background than vice versa, so it wasn’t my favorite, BUT I think it was still well written and someone looking for more of the romance angle would enjoy it. Has all your favorite romance tropes in it, especially the yearning. (novel)

The Divine Cities - Robert Jackson Bennett - Three book series. I’m very conflicted about this one. Set in a fantasy world where an enslaved nation overthrew the country enslaving them and now rules over them. It’s a story of what happens after the triumphant victory and within that it’s also a murder mystery tied into the dying magic of the conquered nation. It also has a six foot something naked oily viking man fist fight a cthulhu in a frozen river. The second book was by far my favorite, mostly due to the main character being brilliant. My conflict comes from the fact I don’t feel like the story treated its women and queer characters well. Like it had really great characters but it didn’t do great by them overall. That and the third book didn’t live up to the first two. But still definitely worth a read, can’t stress enough how cool some of the world building was. (3 novels)

Into the Drowning Deep - Mira Grant - This might be the only one on here I disliked. It’s got a doomed boat voyage and creepy underwater terror and monsters and a super diverse cast of characters, but I just didn’t enjoy the writing style. While having a diverse cast is great, there were a lot of moments where it felt like characters were pausing to explain things about themselves that felt like a tumblr post rather than a normal conversation you might have while actively being hunted by monsters. I also bounced off all the characters. But a lot of people seem to have liked it so if you’re into horror and want a book with a f/f main couple then maybe you’ll enjoy it. (novel)

Dead Djinn Universe - P. Djèlí Clark - Around the early 1900′s, a man in Egypt discovers a way to access another world and bring Djinn and mysterious clockwork beings called Angels through. As a result, Egypt tells the British to get fucked and Cairo becomes one of the most powerful cities in the world. So Egypt, magic, djinn, a steampunk-ish vibe, oh and the main character is a butch queer woman who enjoys wearing dapper suits and looking fabulous while she investigates supernatural events. Her girlfriend is also mysterious and badass. And she has a cat. There’s three novella (one of which technically might be considered a short story) and then the first novel. You should absolutely read the novellas first (A Dead Djinn in Cairo, The Angel of Khan el-Khalili, The Haunting of Tram Car 015). Super fun and imaginative series. (3 novellas and a novel, more forthcoming)

River of Teeth & Taste of Marrow - Sarah Gailey - From the book description

“In the early 20th Century, the United States government concocted a plan to import hippopotamuses into the marshlands of Louisiana to be bred and slaughtered as an alternative meat source. This is true. Other true things about hippos: they are savage, they are fast, and their jaws can snap a man in two. This was a terrible plan.”

Queer hippo riders!!!! Very much a western but with hippos. Main couple included a non-binary character. Loved the first one. The second one I was more meh about due to one of the characters I was supposed to like having obnoxious man pain that a woman had to take the brunt of the whole time. Also there were less hippos. But queer hippo riders! Definitely read the first one, and they’re both novellas so no reason not to read the second as well. (2 novellas)

A Psalm for the Wild-Built - Becky Chambers - I may be the only person who hasn’t read the long way to a small angry planet at this point, but I did grab her new novella and I loved it. It made me want to go sit out in the woods and feel peaceful. The world it’s set in feels like a peaceful post-apocalypse...or diverted apocalypse maybe. Humans built robots and robots gained sentience, but instead of rebelling they just up and left and went into the wilderness with a promise that the humans wouldn’t follow them.The remaining human society reshaped itself into something new and peaceful. It’s the story of a monk who leaves their habitual monking duties to go be a tea monk and then later wanders into the wilderness and becomes the first human in ages to meet a robot. Very sad there’s no fan art yet. (novella, more forthcoming)

The March North - Graydon Saunders - This was such a weird book that I’m not sure how to explain it. The prose style is hard to get used to and I suspect a lot of people will bounce off it in the first chapter. There’s no third person pronouns used at all and important events get mentioned once in passing and if you blink you’ll miss them. Set on a world where magic is extremely common to the point that rivers sometimes run with blood or fire and the local weeds are something out of a horror movie and most of the world is run by powerful sorcerer dictators, one country banded together (with the help of a few powerful sorcerers who were tired of all the bullshit) to form a free country where powerful sorcerers wouldn’t rule and the small magics of every day folks could be combined to work together. The story revolves around a Captain of the military force on the border who one day has three very powerful sorcerers sent to them by the main government with the hint that just maybe there’s about to be a big invasion (there is) with the implication of take these guys and go deal with this. The world building is extremely complex and very cool...when you can actually understand what the fuck is going on. There is also a murder sheep named Eustace who breathes fire and eats just about everything and is a Very Good Boy and belongs to the most terrifying sorcerer in the world who appears as a little old grandma with knitting. It had one of the most epic badass and wonderfully grotesque battles I’ve ever read. But yeah, it is not what I would call easy reading. Opinions may vary wildly. I did also read the second one (A Succession of Bad Days) in the series which was easier to follow and had a lot more details about the world, but overall I was more meh about it despite some cool aspects. The chapters and chapters of the extreme details of building a house that made up half the novel just weren’t my thing. (novels).

The Space Between Worlds - Micaiah Johnson - In this world parallels universes exist and we’ve discovered how to travel between them, but the catch is you can only go to worlds where the ‘you’ there is already dead. This turns into an uncomfortable look at who would be the people most likely to have died on many worlds and how things like class and race would fit into that and what we would actually use this ability for (if you guessed stealing resources and the stock market you’d be correct). The main character is a queer woc who travels between worlds with the assistance of her handler (another queer woc) who she has the hots for. She accidentally stumbles on a whole lot of mess and conspiracy and gets swept up in that. Really enjoyed it. (novel)

Witchmark - C.L. Polk - Fantasy world reminiscent of Victorian England (I think?) where a young man with magical gifts runs away from his powerful family to avoid being exploited by them. He joins the army and fights in a war and comes home to try and live a quiet life as a doctor, but a murder pulls him into a larger mystery that upturns his life. Also he’s extremely gay and there’s a prevalent m/m romance. This one was a fun-but-not-mind-blowing one for me. (novel, 2 more in the series I haven’t read)

The Priory of the Orange Tree - Samantha Shannon - This was one of those that everyone loved but I couldn’t get into for some reason. I tried twice and only got about halfway through the second time. It’s got dragons and queer ladies and fantasy world and all the things I like, but I wasn’t that invested in the main story (which included the f/f couple) and was more interested in the smaller story about a woman trying to become a dragon rider. There are few things that beat out a lady and her dragon friend story for me and that was the storyline that felt neglected and took a different turn right when we got to the part I’d been waiting for. But, I know a lot of people whose reading opinions I respect who loved it, and if you like epic fantasy with dragons and queens and treachery and pirates and queer characters then I’d say you should definitely give it a try. (novel)

Bonus: I didn’t read these series this year, but if you haven’t read them yet, you should.

Imperial Radch (Ancillary Justice) - Ann Leckie - Spaceship AI stuck in a human body out for revenge for their former captain, but that summary does not come close to doing it justice. Another one examining imperialism and also gender and race.(3 novels)

Kushiel's Legacy Series - Jacqueline Carey - This is two series, six books total, and starts with Kushiel's Dart. Alternate universe Renaissance-y Europe in a fantastical world where sex isn't shameful and sex workers are respected and prized. Lots of political intrigue and mystery. A lot of BDSM and kinky stuff too (the main character is a sexual masochist, oh and also bi!). I first read this series when I was fifteen or sixteen and it definitely made a big impression on me. Same author also wrote the Santa Olivia series which I’d also recommend. (6 novels)

The Locked Tomb (Gideon the Ninth) - Tamsyn Muir - I mean, if you follow me, you know. If you don’t follow me you still probably know. I’d have felt remiss to have left them off though. Lesbian Necormancers in Space. Memes! Skeletons! Biceps! Go read them. (2 novels, 2 forthcoming, 1 short story)

Books On My To Read List:

Fireheart Tiger - Aliette de Bodard

The Order of the Pure Moon Reflected in Water - Zen Cho

Black Sun - Rebecca Roanhorse

This Is How You Lose the TIme War - Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone

Ninefox Gambit - Yoon Ha Lee

Also, if anyone has any recs for scifi/fantasy books starring queer men (not necessarily having to do with a queer relationship) and written by queer men I’d love them. There’s a lot written by women, and some of them are great, but I’d love to read a story about queer men from their own perspective.

[fanfiction-funtime]

Self insert oc: Alexander Vodka

AKA: Eis Cay'zar

Author of fate

A writer from Schneznaya who was driven from his home for his anti-Tsaritsa paper.

_____________________

Physical description:

A chubby fellow in a 1950's style noir trenchcoat and hat, some would even say he looks like he jumped right out of a noir comic book and into reality. He has brown hair and green eyes, a cowboy mustache, and a pointed beard like some kind of comic book supervillain genius.

He often acts confidently and even a bit egotistical when in places he's recognized and famous in, however in newer places he often seems distant and shys away from almost all contact.

Noone knows where his vision is, but they know he has one because of the cold aura that surrounds him.

At night he'll often trade his outfit for one more reminiscent of demons or vampires.

_____________________

Abilities:

Weapon type: Catalyst

Basic attack-truth: uses his catalyst to shoot a short burst of up to 3 ice shards, can attack in fast succession.

"Truth hurts, especially in bursts"

Charged attack-Bifrost: Alexander quickly makes an ice clone behind the enemy and fires 6 shots, this can increase to 3 clones if charged enough(times: 1 for 1 second, 2 for 2 seconds, and 3 for 2.5 seconds)

"I hate crowds, best company has always been myself"

Elemental ability-ice wall: creates an aura of sheer cold around himself that will damage enemies the more they stay in it, and apply the normal sheer cold to them. Does not affect party.

"My therapist said I put up walls because of trauma, but I couldn't hear them through the wall I had just built"

Elemental burst-a story to be told: Alexander takes out his book and opens to a random page, then randomly summons ice sculptures of one of 8 beings:

"Aster": this summon looks like the flatwoods monster, it surrounds the party in a swirl of ice blades that deal 2X damage as the character for 10 seconds.

"Who needs brawn, when you got brain"

"Ultimate foe": a demonic, pointy being of shadow. Will independently deal 25000 damage to three random foes.

"Meet my penultimate friend"

"Beethoven": a sculpture reminiscent of a ww1 zombie general, calls down a barrage of ice bombs that deal 5000 damage to enemies hit for 7 seconds.

"Good scifi doesn't predict, it prevents"

"Sorrows Joy": an angelic, faceless, robot like humanoid that spawns 25 angel shaped traps that freeze enemies around the character.

"With any luck, you're the only real one I've made"

"Death rider and the magic prince": two statues, one of a mummy like Schneznayan mystic of ancient barbarian times and the other an elven cavalry knight from the myths of mondstadt. The knight gives the party a 45% boost to speed and attack while moving, and the Schneznayan gives +10% damage bonus to elemental skills and +55% damage bonus to Catalyst.

"Feel the wrath of honor long passed"

"Zero point and Lion queen": a knightly man of spiked armor and a golden ottoman warrior woman whose golden chain completely obscures her head. Your enemies become inflicted with pyro and you are surrounded by thorn bushes that deal continuous damage of 1000 for 10 seconds.

"Walk down the way on a moonlit day"

The traveler: a child in a red straight jacket, his binds become undone after 4 seconds at which point all enemies take 10,000 X Alexander's level of damage.

"I uh,wont have to pay any copyrights will I?"

"Giota": a child in pyjamas who looks ready to sleep, this summon is very rare. It fully restores all party members and gives a 200% boost to both defense and damage of your characters.

"This fella's been with me since I was a kid"

"If it is a soldier's duty to escape the confines of a prison, is it not every person's duty to escape reality if even for a moment? A wise man said that, pray that I may one day be like him."

Passive-part the wasteland: Alexander is immune to sheer elements, and Grant's 50% resistance when in the party to all members.

_____________________

Story

Abandoning a dream

As a kid, Alexander was always put down when he said he wanted to write fiction, "there's no money in it" they all said.

He couldn't get into any art schools without support so he focused his mind elsewhere, a place he could hopefully use his writing to do just as much good: the first newspaper in Schneznaya.

Horrible truth

He didn't start as a trouble maker, but the more he sought out the truth the more he couldn't stand back and watch. He published numerous papers about the Tsarista's wrongdoings and the crimes of the fatui, how they would harass merchants in other nations, the unfair taxes many shipping businesses had to keep quiet about, all the way up to the war crimes the Tsarista had done in direct contradiction to her own laws.

Sadly, not many believed him even with evidence, but some got his message.

Those who fight

One day Alexander was approached by a man who claimed to have formed a resistance against the fatui. Alexander had inspired many people to disrupt the organization, and have even begun working with those outside Schneznaya.

With their help he didn't just publish some crimes, he published them all, he even got information that turned the general public against the fatui even if just a little.

In a way h had achieved his dream of helping others with his writing, even if it wasn't how he wanted.

Stop the presses

When the Tsarista started her big move of taking gnosis, she brought the hammer down on dissent like a boulder on a ten year old's wrist. One day a squad of thirty fatui stormed Alexander's home and business to silence him, and while they shut down his business they couldn't catch him.

Alexander fled into the wastelands of ice and snow and wasn't seen for several weeks.

Deus ex Vodka

One day Alexander showed up in Inazuma, a nation that had been oppressed for some time now and had recently reached it's height, yet no resistance had formed.

That was until Alexander came along.

Alexander published numerous books, spreading them throughout Inazuma. All of them spoke of freedom, of bravery, of rising up to achieve your ambitions.

And with those stories he inspired countless to take up arms, and in turn inspired countless to join the resistance.

And with mere fiction he had brought about hope,

And with mere fiction he shall do it again, in every form, and in every nation.

Vision: cold hearted

While wondering the waste Alexander fell down and looked to the skies.

He did not ask celestia why, he did not grieve or blame that he did not do more, instead Alexander did something he hadn't done in a long time:

He imagined.

And after he imagined he took out his notebook and wrote. In the freezing cold for seventeen days he wrote stories of hope and freedom.

For seventeen days the cold did not so much as cause him to flinch as he wrote tales of bravery.

For seventeen days Alexander Vodka lived how he wanted to live.

And at the end, he lied down to die.

Then a light shown, and when he opened his eyes to look he saw that the storm parted around him, and in his hand was an ice blue gem.

But Alexander was too paranoid from years of abuse from his peers as a child to wear it loosely, and far to extra to just get a lock. So instead Alexander shouted to celestia "if I shall have this Vision for my art, then it shall not kill me no matter what I do!"

He then shoved the vision into his heart and fell down.

Before he could bleed out however, a woman appeared.

"Hey Tsari, how ya doin." Alexander said as blood poured out his mouth.

"You dramatic fool," the Tsarista sighed as she put a hand on his chest, "you have my element, do you know how bad it'll look for me if you die by shoving your vision into your heart?"

"Why do you care? We hate eachother, in case you forgot."

The archon sighed, "you're just rebelling against what you see as unjust, just as I am. To be honest I feel a sort of rivalry with you, so it'd be a shame if you just died. Also," she painfully shoved the vision all the way in, painfully, "if your going to die it better be because of me, got it?"

Then Alexander sat up, and the god was gone. Along with the hole in his chest.

"Rival of a god eh?" He sat up, putting his gat back on his head, "I like the sound of that."

_____________________

How is this an insert?

Well his story can't be the exact same as mine, so I took my life and goals and made predictions, then fictionalized those predictions and expanded.

His appearance is pretty close to how I'll likely look based on my current appearance, and his dramatic attitude is exactly how I wanna act.

Him being shy in new places with strangers is me exactly as I am now really, however I do believe I'd act confidently if I were famous so he does as well.

Him being Catalyst is because I'm not athletic at all, and I figured a dps Catalyst would be cool. His main ability and resistance/immunity to sheer cold is based on how I wrap up in warm blankets when it's cold, and his ultimate is made up of characters I've made.

_____________________

Tagging: @genshin-obsessed, @golden-wingseos, @storytravelled, and @love-psxlm

[keplercryptids]

i'm reading Vagabonds by Hao Jingfang and it's good! weird thing is that normally i can only listen to a few specific genres on audiobook (nonfiction mainly, occasionally YA or poetry/verse). like, typically i NEED to read fantasy/scifi with my eyes, i just can't pay attention if it's audio. but for some reason i could NOT get into the written version of this book and have had great success listening to it instead. i think it might be the fact that its style is kind of nonfiction-y? or maybe i just can't read with my eyes right now lol.

anyway. it's the longest audiobook I've listened to in quite some time and im a little worried i won't finish it in the 4 days i have left on the library loan. i should probably do laundry tonight solely to give myself more audiobook time lol.

[worldwidebt7]

Hell(L)ing || 01

§ — Pairing: Chimera!Taehyung x Empath!Reader (with mentions of Reader x Other Members)

§ — Genre: SciFi AU, fluff, angst, smut, horror

§ — Wordcount: 3,160

§ — Rating: M

§ — Warnings: Seokjin’s ego...? This chapter is as clean as Jungkookie’s vocals.

§ — A/N: So, this was originally supposed to be for @bang-tan-bitches​ “Monster Mash Challenge,” but I’ve clearly failed to make deadline for that… There’s just so much more to this story than I had originally anticipated, I even decided to make it multi-chapter! I’ve been in such a writing mood the last couple of weeks. I got like this last year too around this time, which is how this blog even got started. I know you guys are waiting on the next chapter of “Black or White,” but I’ve got a couple commissions I need to get out and I really need to get some of this writing itch out of my system. I know I’m not the best writer, but I hope you enjoy it none-the-less! The first couple of chapters are kind of slow, but I’m trying to build suspense, so bear with me!

Summary: You moved out into the wilderness to live a calm, peaceful life. Your abilities made it impossible to live in crowded places, so even if you wanted to you couldn’t return. But when something happens outside the realm of even your normalcy, you start to think that maybe having everyone else’s emotions bearing down on you isn’t such a bad alternative to being trapped with your own.

The lake house was your sanctuary.

The little house stood within walking distance of the largest lake near your city, and while it was a man-made lake, nothing about the surrounding woodlands was artificial in anyway. Tall trees and greenery stretched as far as the eye could see to the south, east, and west of your home. The north, however, was reserved for the brilliant view of the lake.

From the large wall of windows in your modest A-frame style cottage, each morning you watched the sun flood light over the waters from the east, warming you as you sat in your plush, circular lounge chair with your morning coffee. Each night, the moon sprinkled diamonds across its surface, sending you to sleep with stars in your dreams. Yes, this place was ideal for you in every way— quiet, surrounded by the calm of nature, and, most importantly, secluded. You couldn’t be near people, not because you particularly disliked others of your species, but because it physically hurt you to be among them in large throngs. Some would ask why; why push others away, why live by yourself in the middle of the woods?

It was because you were an empath; a decidedly difficult thing to live with from your experience.

It hadn’t always been as unbearable as it has in your recent years— when you were younger you embraced your gift, loved it even. You enjoyed how special it made you feel and you wanted to share it with others. So much so, that you graduated college and opened up what some would call a ‘spiritual business.’ And, at first, it was wonderful. You were able to help and entertain people with something that came so naturally to you, and many sought you out almost like a therapist. Of course, you were far more successful giving them insights to themselves, as you could read their emotions as clearly as watching television.

Well, of course it wasn’t as simple as that— it was more like feeling an electrical current through your body that was connected to a person’s emotions, and each emotion was laced with a color that would flash across your eyes like pulse. It was honing in on other’s emotions that caused you to shut yourself away as you did. The more you did it, the stronger your gift had become and the more in tune you became with others’ emotional states. When you first began, you would have to hug a person or hold their hand in order to access your ability. Soon, anyone within close vicinity of you was enough to get a read on them.

Now, it was anyone within nearly a 500-foot radius of you would bombard you with their happiness, sorrow, anger, and affection. You had tried your best to manage it— only taking a handful of appointments a day and heading straight home when they were complete. You no longer visited your favorite cafes, went to see a film in theaters, and it had become impossible for you to even go grocery shopping. It was at this revelation, and one too many nights suffering through the spikes of passion during your neighbors’ love-making sessions, that you were forced to move out of the city and into the wilderness.

And, finally, with some peace, you were able to live semi-normally. You missed people, more often than not as it seemed, but you have come to terms with your life. You were no longer using your abilities to do readings or holding technically unlicensed therapy sessions, and instead had somehow picked up writing. You were told that the way you described human emotion was ‘far beyond what a singular-introspect should be able to accomplish’ and you supposed it was because of your once adored gift. And while you were content living in solitude, you relished in the days when you had visitors.

It may not be frequent, but you still had friends that came to visit with you, as well as your editor and a cute delivery guy who brings you your groceries every two weeks. The grocery boy, Jungkook, who’s name you finally managed to pull out of him after three months of seeing his round nervous eyes in awkward silence, was the person you saw most often. At first, you thought it was sad, seeing as he didn’t talk to you at all besides a quick “thank you, have a good day” at the end of his visits before scurrying away, making the only person you saw on a regular basis someone you didn’t even talk to, not that you didn’t try. You could tell he was nervous, uncomfortable around strangers, but there was something else more pungent beneath that kept him wary— fear.

Once he had become comfortable enough to talk to you, he had confided that there were quite a few rumors spreading around about you— the most prominent being that you were a witch. You laughed, though it was not totally far from the truth. He seemed a bit unnerved by your laughter, so you smiled at him and told him that you had once owned a spiritual business and, for the first time in months, offered to give him a reading. He accepted, suddenly less afraid and more curious of you, and the two of you have been friends ever since.

You weren’t supposed to see Jungkook for another week or so, his deliveries come on every first and third Friday of the month, and you normally impatiently wait for his company until then, however, this coming Monday, you were to see your editor, Kim Namjoon, who works for Big Hit Publishing. He was an excellent writer himself, but that never caused any imposition of his own style onto his clients’, which you appreciated greatly.

Now, as you had said before, you were supposed to be getting a visit from Namjoon on Monday, and today was currently Wednesday, so imagine your surprise when a series of emotions enter your senses just after midday, signaling the approach of another human being approaching your door. Brows furrowed, you pluck yourself out of your plush chair and set down the book you were currently engrossed in. You were expecting to have a relaxing, empty day today, but the universe seems to have other plans for you.

The first waves you pick up are timid and non-threatening, so you assumed they were a friendly stranger in need of something. You stood by the door and waited your guest to knock, as you had learned that it was quite abnormal to open the door for someone before they announced themselves. When the rapping at the door finally came, you still postponed opening the door for a beat to make it appear as if you had walked away from whatever you were doing.

Taking a deep breath to steel yourself, you opened the door, coming face-to-face with a tall stranger with plush lips and broad shoulders. You blinked, giving him a once-over. Long legs, toned, from what you could see. A slim, yet sturdy middle that branched out to his wide shoulders which were the perfect podium for the long neck that lead to his perfect face. Dark eyes, straight nose, and, oddly, appealing purple hair. Why purple? You wonder to yourself, but before you can delve any further into that thought a charming smile spreads across his lips.

“Hello!” He chirps in a light tone. You return the greeting, finally broken from the stupor the attractive man had put you in. “I’m Kim Seokjin! I just moved into a house just a-ways up the lake.” He introduced himself as he held out his hand for you to shake. You looked at it warily for a moment before taking it lightly. You have to stop yourself from flinching as another wave of electric emotions filled your senses. Nervousness— from meeting someone new? Fear— perhaps he has heard the rumors about you. And something else… something you don’t have much experience with, so you can’t pinpoint what it is. Over all, nothing too peculiar about this man besides his hair color.

“Y/N,” you managed after you pushed through his sensation of your powers. Seokjin nodded at you as if confirming that he’s learned your name and released your hand, slipping his own into the pocket of his trousers. You shifted a bit, your own discomfort becoming apparent. You weren’t used to dealing with people anymore, let alone strangers. It’s been just over a year since you separated yourself from society, so your social skills were rather impaired now.

“It’s lovely to meet you,” He said cheerfully, and you felt his nervousness fade fractionally. “I just wanted to come meet the only neighbor I have for miles and offer my services!” You gave him an incredulous look, but his enthusiasm didn’t waiver.

“Your services?” You couldn’t help the playful hint that leaked its way into your voice. The man was rather… boisterous, to put it kindly, and he had an air of confidence around him that made you believe he knew how good-looking he was.

“Yes!” He chirped, pulling his hand out of his pocket and holding a small business card out to you. “If you ever need anything, just give me a call!” He grinned down at you and you returned with a pleasant smile, taking the card from him carefully to avoid brushing his fingers with yours. “After all, it’s not often you’ll get a neighbor as attractive as me!” At that, your smile fell and you blinked at him once more with wide eyes. His laughter filled your ears, obviously amused with himself and your reaction, and you couldn’t help the awkward chuckle that escaped you too. How were you supposed to respond to that?

“Uh, yes, well… thank you, Mr. Kim.” You held up his card, forcing a smile his way. You had no idea how to deal with such a man— he wasn’t like anyone you’ve met before. Your friends were confident, yes, but this guys just set a new standard.

“Seokjin, or Jin, please,” he corrected. “Mr. Kim is my father. Or that crazy old guy who’s constantly yelling at youths about laziness and too much PDA. Ah, no, that’s still my father….” At that you gave a sincere chuckle. Giant Narcissistic complex aside, he seemed like a relatively good guy, and with your constant loneliness perhaps it was time you became friendly with one neighbor. It doesn’t hurt that he is, unfortunately, as good looking as he implies. You fiddled with the card in your fingers.

“Seokjin, then,” You looked at the floor shyly. “Thank you.” His grin widens and he nods, putting his hand back in his pocket.

“Of course!” He tilted his head to look around your form and into your home and gave a low whistle. “Nice place! You should invite me over to dinner sometime!” Ah, that ego again. Of course, you could only be so ‘honored’ to have someone as good-looking as him come to your place for dinner. Seokjin’s personality has seemed to break through your walls as you snort at his comment.

“It’s rather impolite to invite yourself to dinner. Maybe I’ll just show up at your place next time,” you joked, giggling a bit, when the air around you turned sour. Panic— panic— panic— he was panicking. Why? It was so strong; why was he panicked? Oh, god it was everywhere, it was suffocating. But as you looked at his face, it was as calm and charming as ever, a kind smile still gracing his pillow-y lips.

“Spare me the embarrassment, please— you wouldn’t believe it with how put-together and beautiful I am, but my home is an absolute disaster!” He laughed, and it was such a stark difference from the emotions radiating off of him that it made your head spin. You schooled your expression though, making it seem as if nothing was off.

“A-ah, I see,” You cleared your throat, trying to extinguish the panic he was pouring into you. “Well, then, if I ever make too much food…” You trailed off slightly, causing him to hum.

“Give me a call! I’ll be happy to eat whatever you have extra!” He took that moment to smoothly end the conversation. “Well, I should head home! Maybe try to get my house into presentable condition.” Seokjin gave a light chuckle before stepped back away from your door and began backtracking. “It was nice to meet you Miss Y/N!” He waved, and you strained a smile before returning the gesture with a small wave of your own.

“You as well, Seokjin,” And with that, he turned on his heel and headed down your driveway to where you finally noticed his sporty little white Hyundai is parked. You watched him get into his vehicle and begin backing out of your dirt driveway before you closed your front door and leaned against it, breathing in your first lungful of unencumbered air now that Seokjin is driving away and taking his heavy emotions with him.

What was that? The moment you suggested visiting his home he put off wave after wave of terror. Was he uncomfortable with people entering his home? No, even if it were a mess, there’s no reason to get that worked up about visitors. Especially since it didn’t seem like he had anxiety. No, it seemed more like… like he had something to hide?

Ah.

You pushed away from your door and made your way back to your chair overlooking the lake, more focused now with your clarity. That ‘something else’ that you hadn’t been able to identify earlier when you first saw him standing in front of your house.

It was deception.

The next two days pass without incident. Seokjin had not stopped by again, nor did you attempt to contact him. After your first meeting, you figured rushing to get to know him may not be in your best interests considering the electric negative emotions he had bombarded you with. Panic, fear, anxiety— all leading to the revelation that he was hiding something from you. Still, he didn’t seem like a bad person.

This was one of the rare times where you were getting two very different readings and felt as if you couldn’t completely rely on your gift. Usually you were able to weed people out easily— both a blessing and a curse— which is why you only have a handful of people you actually trusted. This one, however, was quite confusing…

“Kim Seokjin…” You muttered to yourself, tapping your pen against your notepad. You had been trying to jot down notes for the next book you were planning, but all you could think about was Kim-fucking-Seokjin.

You groaned and tossed your pen onto the kitchen table. You had decided to work there today since you couldn’t seem to get anything done in your office yesterday, but as it turns out it wasn’t the setting that was bothering you, but your mind. Of all the times to have writers block, it had to be now— the weekend before your meeting with Namjoon to discuss the proposal for your next book. You had just about everything you needed, except how to start it. Endings were always your strength; your novels always started with the ending and you worked your story backwards. Beginnings were always slow and uneventful; they were so tedious to get through with character introductions and setting descriptions. Ugh. Torture.

With a huff, you gave up, pushing away from the table and standing up. Your gaze drifted over to the lake; maybe some time out of the house would help clear your head. Taking your socks off before you can have second thoughts, you tread to the glass door leading out to your backyard. You quickly make your way across your patio and on to the lush green lawn, the blades of grass tickling your feet as you strolled down, down, further down until the grass ended and sand began. Your stride didn’t stop until your toes touched the cool water and you bend over to roll the sweatpants you’re wearing up to your knees in order to take a further step into the lake.

A relieved sigh slipped through your lips as you tilted your face towards the sky and let the warm breeze caress your troubled body while you thought. You hadn’t had an issue with reading someone like you were having with Seokjin in quite some time, and it was bothering you more than a little bit. Your instincts were telling you that he was good: kind, silly, and a little [read: a fuckton] egotistical. But your readings… they were throwing you off entirely. Your gut or your abilities— which one do you rely on in this situation?

Splashing in the water to your right breaks through your thoughts and you whip your head around to see what it is. At first, you didn’t see anything; the splashing sounded a bit further away from your current location, but the serene quiet that lays over the lake like a delicate shroud allows sound to travel. You focused, straining your eyes to try and pick out any detail that doesn’t belong to the scenery, until a small figure appears in the distance.

‘It’s… a boy?’ Curious. Seokjin said he moved in just up the lake, but, to you, this doesn’t look like your new neighbor. To start, this man had dark hair, and while Seokjin’s purple hair wasn’t particularly bright, you’d still be able to differentiate the splash of color against the natural scenery. Another thing was he was staring right at you, and yet made no move to greet you in any way. You shifted under his stare— it was unnerving to say the least, and it didn’t help that he was far enough away that your empath capabilities couldn’t pick up on his intentions.

So, deciding to end the uncomfortable stare-down, you lifted a hand to wave at him silently. The boy did nothing in return; in fact, if you had to guess, he hadn’t even blinked either. You slowly retracted your hand and began chewing on your bottom lip as another revelation hit you. Seokjin didn’t mention anything about a roommate, and everything on this stretch of lakeside property was private property. You certainly hadn’t seen him before, and so begs the question: who is this man and where did he come from?

Suddenly, the man’s attention was caught by something else, his head snapping towards the trees. For a moment, he did nothing else as you continued to scrutinize his every move. However, he only looked at you once more before turning fully to the trees and striding quickly into them with purpose. You stared in unrestricted wonder at the spot he had just been standing, before turning and walking back inside your house, locking all of your doors for safe measure.

[therobinsonwayoflife]

There's a disney film from 1960 on disney plus called Swiss Family Robinson and i know they don't connect with mtr but the main characters name is Fritz Robinson 👀 i love lil similarities like these

(part ii) i also forgot to mention the Swiss Family Robinson, they have THREE SONS although only one is called Fritz im still gonna pretend its actually him ahahaha

You are not wrong. There is a direct connexion between the Swiss Robinsons and our American Robinsons!

Ok here’s a fun history of the Robinson name in popular media: first we had Robinson Crusuoe, followed by Swiss Family Robinson, succeeded by Space Family Robinson.

Robinson Crusuoe, 1719, is a fictional travel log of a (European) castaway “exploring” the tropical islands near the coasts of Venezuela and Trinidad. Its popularity spawned a new genre of desert island stories called “Robinsonade”.

Swiss Family Robinson, 1812, follows the adventures of shipwrecked Swiss immigrants in the Indies. They transform the narrative of a lone castaway into one of a family sitcom.

Space Family Robinson introduces a sci-fi element to the genre where instead of colonial island exploration, the Robinsons take a step toward the Final Frontier. Space Family Robinson was a comic series published in none other than the groovy atomic age of the early sixties from December 1962 all the way until 1982, when the space craze had effectively ended. Family hijinks constrast the vast and chilly unknown of the future. (Although even in sci-fi robinsonsade, the genre still resembles its colonial roots bc oft times characters will terraform foreign planets or have colonial first encounter conflicts with native aliens... :/)

According to Wikipedia:

In the comic, the Robinsons were scientist father Craig, scientist mother June, early teens Tim (son) and Tam (daughter), along with pets Clancy (dog) and Yakker (parrot). They lived in "Space Station One", a spacious moving craft with hydroponic gardens, observatory, and two small "Spacemobile" shuttle craft. The family was selected by computer to be the most mentally and physically qualified to man the space station. They left Earth in the year 2001. In the second issue, a cosmic storm deposited them far from Earth and they have adventures while they try to work their way home.

Circling back to Swiss Family Robinson, Swiss Family Robinson was adapted no less than four times for the silver screen prior to Disney’s 1960 live action film yet the popularity of Space Family Robinson likely inspired them.

Edit: hold on Disney’s Swiss Family Robinson debuted two years before Space Family Robinson so the inspiration may have been the other way around lol

All of this and a number of other adaptations solidified the notion of an outlandish, quirky family of outsiders known only as The Robinsons in the cultural zeitgeist, especially in the sixties. William Joyce, b. 1957, an enthusiast for all things retro, groovy, and sci-fi no doubt grew up with these comics and adaptations before he decided to author his own version of the Robinson Family, loosely based off his own family as well as that of the Robinsonade genre.

Robinson-like characters popped up as early as 1985 with his first solo project, George Shrinks which, along with a boy three inchEs tall (*COUGH*inspired by the borrowers*COUGH*) features an artistic family with dark hair. That same family pops up again (under a different name) in Dinosaur Bob and His Adventures with the Family Lazardo. Dino Bob just so happens to follow closely in the footsteps of the Robinsonade genre, a genre that resurfaced in Victorian-style children’s media in the 80s where outsider characters explore fantastical lands. Think Babar, a story of a wealthy, fantastical, anthropomorphic elephant family exploring foreign jungles via hot air balloon. Anyways Dino Bob features the eccentric millionaire Lazardo family who adopt a dinosaur , carrying him from his tropical habitat back to their metropolitical home. Billy likes dinosaurs.

But of course his most important work (for us at least) is A Day with Wilbur Robinson published in 1990. Retro futurism about the atomic age and Robinsonade may be outdated in the public consciousness by now but children’s literature is always fond of nostalgia and so the 1950s aesthetic of Joyce’s book made him a success... at least in the tiny world of children’s books. In it a boy named Wilbur nonchalantly introduces his friend Lewis to the bizarre wonders of his home, mostly composed of his eccentric millionaire relatives in the midst of their artistic and/or sci-fi hobbies. Wilbur also casually mentions the Robinsons’ pet dinosaur and his grandpa’s time machine.

Space is also occasionally featured in his Guardians of Childhood series but in a fantastical, Voyage à la lune by the Lumière Brothers kind of way.

Throughout his career Joyce would feature themes of scifi, retro futurism, eccentric millionaire families with dark hair, space exploration, childhood and especially modern takes on Robinsonade themes of exploring the unknown.

Joyce did and still does a lot of work with Disney, a company known for its love of space, innovation, futurism, retrofuturism, fantasy and family.

And thus we land in 2007 with the film adaptation to A Day with Wilbur Robinson, Meet the Robinsons a sci-fi story about a boy stranded in the foreign land of a futuristic utopia surrounded by a family of eccentric millionaire scientists that directly homages the atomic space craze of the sixties. :)

[mautadite]

december book round up

happy new year’s everyone! i had a pretty good book year this year; completed my goodreads challenge and surpassed it to boot, with a total of 148 books read. 10 less than last year, but still pretty good! :) i read 15 books in december that i’ll talk about now; i’ll hopefully post a yearly round up talking about the best and worst of 2019 some time today. also i’m not sure why goodreads has ballsed up the order but chronin was my last book of the year, not mstsk.

gideon the ninth - tamsin muir ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ very good, just, really good, i had a GOOD TIME with this book. very appealing to me specifically in the way stories about deep loyalty between two people often are. i loved all of the houses in some way, but especially i love gideon and her two lesbian brain cells. a reread is probably necessary for me to wrap my head around all of the world-building/magic/necro stuff but it was all very good. really looking forward to the sequels.  

being hers - anna stone ⭐️⭐️ lesbian bdsm romance between a grad student and a high-powered businesswoman. wasn’t particularly good, but also i didn’t hate it.

introducing mr. winterbourne - joanna chambers ⭐️⭐️⭐️ reread from earlier this year. really cute story of historical romance with a couple who have great chemistry.

mr. winterbourne’s christmas - joanna chambers ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ lysander and adam’s story continued a year or more later. i love house party stories; the ensemble cast thing really works for me somehow. this was super fun, really cute, and the women who i thought were lesbians turned out to indeed be lesbians. yaaaaas.

how to blow it with a billionaire - alexis hall ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ reread in preparation to read the last book of the series. now that i’ve read them all i think this is definitely my favourite, just for how tender it is, and the time they spend getting to know each other and how fucking nerdy caspian is.

how to belong with a billionaire - alexis hall ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ last book in the series. THEY GET HEIR HAPPILY EVER AFTER!!! i have to reiterate that billionaire romances aren’t my thing, and it’s only because i like alexis hall so much and i trust him that i gave this a chance. i’m glad i did. this third book took a few turns i wasn’t expecting, and the long periods of separation made me SO SAD. i loved what it said about abuse and recovery and kink. i just hated that the abuser didn’t die lol.

underground airlines - ben h. winters ⭐️⭐️⭐️ dystopian novel about a timeline in which abraham lincoln was assassinated way before he actually was in real life, and slavery was never abolished in the us (or other places? the book was very NA centric). now, in the 21st century a group of southern states known as the hard four still have legal slavery, and our protag is a black former slave working as a bounty hunter for the gov’t to capture runaways. my biggest problem with this novel is that it seems to cast ol’ abe as The Most Important Reason Why Slavery Was Abolished and because he never got the chance to do what he did then we’re supposed to think it’s completely believable that it never got abolished countrywide. i’m simplifying a lot of things in the book of course, but man, i couldn’t get over that. otherwise: neat premise, skilful writing, tender in unexpected ways. couldn’t help but headcanon the protag as queer.

life in bits - harper bliss, t.b. markinson ⭐️⭐️ contemporary lesbian romance. a successful photographer returns to her home town to convalesce after suffering a stroke; has a fling with a cute nurse that quickly turns into something more. i... didn’t really like it lol. :/ and i usually like harper bliss books a lot! idk how the authors handled the co-writing, but i didn’t like the writing style, and the main character just wasn’t appealing. and she was a grumpy older dyke which is usually CATNIP to me!! i just wasn’t interested in them as people, or in their relationship.

his cocky valet - cole mccade ⭐️⭐️⭐️ contemporary m/m romance about a spoilt rich kid who’s suddenly propelled to the top of his father’s business empire under traumatic circumstances, and the valet he hires who helps him keep his life on track. tropey as heck, but in a good way. got super intense kink-wise, in a way i didn’t exactly enjoy, but i think it was a good read overall

fake fiancee - clara reese ⭐️⭐️ f/f romance, two friends pretend to be fiancees but then fall in love for real. dawn needs to keep her uncle’s inheritance, which will allow her to open a home for battered women. her contractor gina has a sick brother who needs surgery. they pretend to be engaged to satisfy the will, and profit! cute, tropey in exactly the way i like, but the writing just didn’t have anything to recommend to it. hot tho.

borealis investigations 1-3 - gregory ashe ⭐️⭐️⭐️ two best friends operating a private detective agency that specialises in cases that involve the lgbtqia community. the best thing about this series was the chemistry between north and shaw. it was SO GOOD and the slow burn that moved them from best friends to lovers was CHEFS KISS so good. and all the delicious mutual pining. the mysteries in all three books were competent enough. kept me guessing. and i like ashe’s writing style and humour! but there were so many irritating things. an almost all lily-white cast in the first book (which is fine! write what you know!) with one single black character who was of course, predatory, evil and lusting after the innocent white boy. lots of little “haha sjws” moments (mostly involving pari, their indian temp whom i loved, but man she got done dirty) . making fun of neo-pronouns. fights about nothing to induce drama. and the writing style started to grate on me at some point. it’s frustrating because i could have so easily LOVED these books. instead i just liked them.

my sister, the serial killer - oyinkan brathwaite ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ mystery/thriller set in nigeria. korede is the quintessential long-suffering older sister to ayoola. ayoola is beautiful beyond words, gets all the attention, and everyone thinks she can do no wrong. but korede knows better, because ayoola has a bad habit of killing her boyfriends, and calling korede to help her clean up the mess. oops! the book starts with her third murder. i loved this; predictable in some ways, but well written, wsitty, and very engaging because of the culture and these terrible wonderful characters.

chronin volume 2 - alison wilgus ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ conclusion to the chronin two-parter; a fun time travelling romp that grabbed me by the whole heart. mirai struggles to confront the events that have transpired in this new past, has some revelations, and saves the damn day. i’m so glad this was my last book of the year, purely for how HAPPY it made me. i read the last forty or so pages with my hand on my heart. 

and that’s it for december, and 2019! it’s been an up and down year for me personally, but it’s been a good year in terms of books. really happy that i’ve been able to continue reading a lot; reading was the love of my teenage years and reconnecting with that, with just the love of getting lost in a book for a few hours... it’s great. admittedly i read a lot of schmoopy gay romance but hey guess what? romance novels are good actually.

for 2020 i hope to read more of my two other loves, science fiction and fantasy. and if i can get scifi and fantasy that’s also gay, even better! like i said i’ll post my yearly round up later today hopefully, but if you’re interested, here’s my year in books from goodreads in the mean time.

currently reading my first book of the decade: a land so wild by elyssa warkentin.

[pass-the-bechdel]

Brooklyn Nine-Nine season one full review

How many episodes pass the Bechdel test?

59.09% (thirteen of twenty-two).

What is the average percentage per episode of female characters with names and lines?

31.6%

How many episodes have a cast that is at least 40% female?

Two (episode four ‘M.E. Time’ (40%), and episode twenty-two, ‘Charges and Specs’ (41.17%)).

How many episodes have a cast that is less than 20% female?

Three (episode eight ‘Old School’ (20%), episode nine ‘Sal’s Pizza’ (20%), and episode fifteen ‘Operation: Broken Feather’ (17.64%)).

How many female characters (with names and lines) are there?

Sixteen. Four who appear in more than one episode, three who appear in at least half the episodes, and two who appear in every episode.

How many male characters (with names and lines) are there?

Fifty-two. Thirteen who appear in more than one episode, six who appear in at least half the episodes, and four who appear in every episode.

Positive Content Status:

In a general sense, they score well, but they’re not strong on female characters and the single most prominent narrative thread of the season is bizarrely out-of-touch and repellent. They averaged out ok, but I was a lot more uncomfortable than I expected to be, and certainly uncomfortable more often than I was impressed (average rating of 3).

General Season Quality:

In a general sense, again, this is mostly lovely, the characters are mostly delightful, the whole thing is MOSTLY easy to watch and digest, mostly fun, mostly un-insulting. Mostly. If you’re not watching with a critical eye, it’s no doubt much easier to stomach, but, well...it’s my job to be critical. And I am. 

MORE INFO (and potential spoilers) under the cut:

I know guys: it’s a comedy. The first thing people tend to say when you start trying to be critical of the content of comedies is ‘oh my God, lighten up! It’s not supposed to be serious!’, so let me just assure you all right now that I know Brooklyn Nine-Nine is a comedy. It hasn’t magically escaped my notice. But comedic intention does not somehow elevate the storytelling above reproach, into some fabled realm where everything goes so long as SOMEONE is laughing. In fact, being critical of WHAT we are laughing at (or what we are being expected to laugh at) is every bit as important as questioning why we are presented certain content in dramas or horrors or scifi adventures, it’s all still fair game on the narrative landscape, and refusing to interrogate humour is a gateway to forgiving all manner of sins, so long as they’re packaged as if they’re meant to be funny. ‘It’s a comedy’ is not a valid excuse for presenting or perpetuating bullshit, so let’s just get that idea out of the way. 

The thing about comedy is, it works on an in-group/out-group mentality. Humans are pack animals, and whether we like it or not, we are constantly processing and evaluating information to determine who is ‘one of us’ and who is not. The people who find a joke funny are the in-group, the ones who don’t are the out-group. This is why, say, a racist joke is not just a matter of whether or not you’re ‘too sensitive’ or ‘too PC’ to get it, and it’s why hiding behind the line ‘I’m just joking’ is such a weak excuse; the out-group are not just sensitive and/or politically correct, they’re the people who recognise how that ‘joke’ reinforces negative stereotypes and thereby contributes to maintaining hostile mindsets about the subjects, the people who are ‘the butt of the joke’ (in-group/out-group is how comedy works; it’s also literally how discrimination works). The in-group are the people who don’t care: they’re the racists. When you laugh at the joke, you position yourself in the in-group, shoulder to shoulder with those racists, whether you personally consider yourself racist or not. Every time you ‘just’ make a joke, or ‘just’ laugh at one, you’re identifying yourself for those around you as belonging to a certain pack, a certain mindset, a certain outlook on life and the world. The concept of in-group/out-group mentality is actually integral to the thing which impressed me most about Brooklyn Nine-Nine in this first season: the handling of Holt and his sexuality. Bad representation in this case would be the kind that treats Holt and Kevin and - by extension - the entire queer community of the show, the audience, and the world, as if they are the out-group, with the assumption that straight people are the in-group, ‘the norm’. Even seemingly positive-toned representation can be framed as out-grouping if it approaches queer characters as ‘other’ and presumes that the viewer sees them as such (this is the kind of representation I flag as ‘just doing it for the brownie points’). Brooklyn Nine-Nine not only treats Holt as part of the in-group; the audience and the rest of the characters are treated as in-group, regardless of sexuality: it’s not about Holt’s team being good straight allies looking out for their gay Captain, it’s about the team being decent people looking out for one of their own. 

So, what does this have to do with my season-long rage against Charles Boyle? Quite simply, we the audience are in-grouped with him. Charles occupies the standard archetype of a bumbling everyman, good-natured but hapless, and the expectation is that we laugh at his misfortunes while also hoping he’ll muddle his way to success. Personally, this irks me outright, because under most circumstances I’m not much into schadenfreude and I don’t find destruction or pain very funny (an exception would be Terry crushing things in his hands, because the comedy derives from him being ludicrously strong rather than from the idea that destruction of property is inherently comedic). Laughing at Charles being inept already rubs me the wrong way, but the way he is framed by the narrative - as part of the in-group with the audience by virtue of being one of our good-guy leads - encourages that laughter to be sympathetic. Yeah, we’re laughing at Charles’ expense, but it’s not supposed to be mean-spirited laughter at an out-group subject, it’s the chuckle you have at your friend who just fell on their ass, a chuckle expressed at the same time as you head over and make sure they’re ok. Now, the problem here is not that I want to laugh at Charles’ misfortunes in a mean-spirited way (as noted, schadenfreude isn’t my style), the problem is that sympathetic in-group framing, and how it extends to the framing of all of Charles behaviour. Because the show doesn’t seem to have realised that Charles is, in fact, a dick.

The big problem is his creepy obsession with Rosa, which the characters all identify as having lasted a full year, and which I have previously identified as workplace harassment. Charles’ relationship with Rosa - such as it is - is the largest narrative thread of the entire season, with a presence in more than half the episodes, and the show does a bafflingly awful job of challenging Charles shitty behaviour, to the point of repeatedly undercutting Rosa in order to have her reaffirm Charles’ sense of self worth at the expense of defending her own right to basic respect. The fact that Charles is presented to the audience as a sympathetic character we should root for is a big part of the problem; the fact that he is much more prominent than Rosa exacerbates this. Until the latter end of the season, any Charles/Rosa plots are pretty exclusively presented from Charles’ perspective, rendering Rosa an object in his story rather than an agent in her own, and since she is given far less screen time or personal stories or subplots that are NOT related to Charles, we as an audience are given very few invitations to view Rosa outside of Charles’ lens. This is already problematic in itself, but it’s even more so when factoring in the schizophrenic way that the show frames Rosa’s reactions to Charles: sometimes rejecting him soundly, sometimes casually palling around with him and accepting his invitations to movies, dinner, etc. TO BE CLEAR: there is nothing wrong with Rosa’s behaviour, she treats Charles as a friend/co-worker/equal, and she also regularly makes it clear to him that she’s not interested in him romantically. BUT the way the show approaches her from Charles’ perspective encourages the audience to feel sorry for him being rejected, rather than understanding Rosa’s difficulty in being harassed no matter how much she tells him no, and then when she isn’t openly hostile at all times we’re encouraged to see how Charles perceives this as an opportunity for him to win her over as if he’s getting past her defenses, instead of recognising overtures of basic human decency. The in-group we are expected to happily occupy is that of a harasser, rather than sympathising with the harassed. 

BUT WAIT, it gets worse. First, Charles takes a couple of bullets for Rosa in the line of duty, prompting Rosa to feel conflicted because she’s still not into him but she also feels bad about turning down the guy who saved her life. When Charles later apologises for pursuing Rosa so obsessively, the apology itself - and the idea that Charles was in the wrong - is quickly buried by Rosa complimenting him. When Charles gets engaged and doesn’t invite Rosa to his wedding, she is upset since she has made a concerted effort to be his friend despite his garbage behaviour, and Charles throws his fiancee Vivian under the bus by claiming that SHE had a problem with Rosa coming to the wedding. Rosa later finds out about this, and follows up with...nothing? She sacrifices her and Gina’s secret sanctuary to give Charles a place to call Vivian in private (Charles repays this by immediately spilling the secret to Scully and Hitchcock, because he sucks), and then after Vivian breaks off the engagement, Rosa spearheads the effort to comfort Charles, culminating in her affirming to him yet again that he’s a good guy. The escalation of the whole Rosa/Charles subplot centres firmly around Rosa taking pains to make sure that Charles knows that he’s ~so great~ even though she’s not interested in him, taking it upon herself to comfort his widdle man feelings, as if that’s the most important thing we should be concerned about in this narrative: Charles feelings. By the time the story starts framing any of this from Rosa’s perspective instead of Charles’, Rosa is inexplicably fixating on looking out for him instead of getting any catharsis on her own experience. Rosa is denied her very real right to be angry and upset about the way Charles has treated her - and considering she’s already an angry person, it seems especially egregious that she is denied this feeling with him and instead exhibits the most softness and compassion we’ve seen from her so far - as ever, the narrative reinforces the idea that Charles deserves our sympathy in this scenario and that while Rosa does have the right to refuse his attention, she also owes it to him somehow to coddle his emotions and make efforts for him despite how he has totally disregarded her emotions for the past year. At no point do they imply that Charles is accountable for his actions, or that he has done anything worse than just having a cute unrequited crush. Poor Charles, so hapless, but don’t we all identify with that? From me personally, it’s a resounding NO.

After the season finale, I noted that Jake Peralta’s mature confession of his feelings for Amy creates a great counterpoint to Charles’ behaviour, and I’m gonna wrap this up by explicating that claim. The thing about Jake is that, sure, he’s immature - it’s one of his primary character traits as set out in the Pilot episode - and his immaturity does affect others in his life negatively at times, but mostly it’s self-contained, impacting the way that Jake lives but not adversely affecting others, and when he DOES adversely impact others, he tends to recognise that, apologise, and make it up to them. Jake doesn’t like to be reminded of his shortcomings or forced to focus or dwell on them, but he also takes responsibility for his own behaviour when it threatens the harmony of other people’s lives. Charles is presented to us as a much more mature adult character, and yet he is completely absent Jake’s self-awareness and willingness to shoulder his own emotional labour (or at least not dump it on others instead); he seemingly does not care in the slightest about the impact his behaviour has on others, and he’s happy to take advantage of the compassion of his friends. We see this obviously in the entire Rosa fiasco and the way the show has her pick up his slack, but she only gets the worst of it; see also, the entire squad avoiding Charles after his shooting because of his exhausting exploitation of their gratitude (never presented as malicious exploitation, but lacking any recognition from Charles that he is overwhelming others’ good will), and of course his ridiculous depression-spiral after Vivian breaks up with him, which is entirely attention-seeking rather than mirroring personal unhappiness; his actions are specifically designed to get in everyone else’s faces about how they should be sympathetic to him. He also throws people under the bus rather than dealing with his problems, as he does with Rosa’s wedding invitation as noted above, and again with Jake after he asks Jake to help him talk to Vivian about not wanting to move to Canada. And we’re supposed to sympathise with this guy? We’re supposed to laugh at how poor Charles just isn’t very good at handling confrontation or being basically responsible for his own actions? Compared to Charles, Jake’s immaturity is hardly worth mentioning, because at least Jake has mastered common decency. Charles is a whiny man-baby foisting his emotional labour off onto others and expecting to be coddled in return, a guy who harasses his coworker and then acts blithely ignorant to the meaning of plain words when she tells him she’s not interested (repeatedly), a guy who never had a personal problem that he didn’t try to make someone else handle for him. This show is MOSTLY delightful, but Charles Boyle is not. Charles Boyle is a small nightmare, and not a funny one, and it makes me concerned about the mindset of the creators of the show that they apparently think Charles is a good joke. They’re gonna have to make some really strong changes to the way they handle Charles and Rosa (independently and in interaction) in the future, or I am gonna be an angry out-grouper.

[woohooligancomics]

Webcomic Whimsy: Dogstar!

Welcome to the Woohooligan Weekly Webcomic Whimsy! If you're a webcomic author and would like a review, you can see my announcement and review rules here.

Title: Dogstar

Author: Brandon V. Williams

Site: ComicFury • Tapas (Brandon recommends this site.)

Genres: Comedy, Superheroes, Action, Adventure, SciFi, Anthropomorphic, DuckTales Justice League

Rating: PG (?)

Updates: Every other Saturday (for now -- previous schedule was weekly?)

My Starting Point (requested by author): Page 0

Synopsis (from Tapas): A mild mannered pilot/magician's life changes dramatically when he crosses paths with the world's most famous crime fighter. This sets him on a journey of many adventures, in which he grows into something far beyond his imagination.

For a sci-fi comic with a title like Dogstar, the opening seems a bit small scale. Here the five villains meet to discuss taking over... the galaxy? The world? The pacific northwest seafood restaurant market? Nope... one town called Beacon City.

After reading a bit further, it turns out that impression from the title was off-base and the story as a whole isn't a space opera, it's really a superhero story done in the style of DuckTales.

The jokes on the first page do a good job of setting the tone, with the pirate's hook-fingers, talk of brain stealing, and the mysterious evil overlord's mysterious silhouette cleavage.

The lettering on this first page needs work. The text isn't large enough to read comfortably and doesn't flow within the word balloons, leaving that incongruous feeling when a round balloon meets text with a straight left edge. It's like putting a sexy dress on the Iron Giant. Lettering on the latest pages shows marked improvement.

Writing does a good job of establishing the tone as not being Warner Brothers like I expected and instead being more Fritz the Cat. I doubt there will be displayed nudity or uncensored swearing, but dick jokes are definitely implied in what's obviously a champagne room.

Page two also commits some lettering sins that weren't on the first page. Dialogue balloons covering character art with plenty of empty "white space" left untouched is the big one. Panels 3-5 should have been close-up shots.

Ha! So the heroes' solution for a slow response from an agent is electroshock. That sort of thing is usually reserved for villains like Darth Vader's force choke. I guess if he's really insubbordinate he gets the hose.

Bullock Towers looks surprised! |8

Is it just me or is "Junk Jaws" a more intimidating name? Metal Mouth is literally how we used to insult kids in high-school if they had braces on their teeth. Spyke's trying to insult the guy, but he just makes him seem cooler. "Time's up, Ball Breaker! ... Actually, my name is Testicle Trasher, but now that you mention it I think yours is better, I'm gonna go with that..."

Wait... there are robots and cyborgs like Metal Mouth and he and his goons are still using tommy guns? "We could have had M-16s, but we're going for a prohibition era gangster look, you know, it's vintage!" I guess these villains are hipsters.

Nice visuals on that first panel... are the cop cars a photograph with a posterise filter?

Spyke McGruff apparently has the Judge Dredd gun... although glue-mode is new.

Panel 3 should have been close-up.

The extra space before the exclamation point drives me nuts... the font is too small, so every time it looks like an I in the middle of the sentence. "What a moron I he's using..."

Plus I sprang extra for the wax... but not the undercarriage, that's a rip-off.

He splits after one hit? Where'd all the confidence from the new jaw go? He never even tried to bite Spyke.

Just like a hipster... they can cloak a blimp, but they're still using tommy guns.

Oh, finally on page 11, the actual hero of the story! :P Oh, you thought it was Spyke? Psyche! Remember the synopsis said he's a mild mannered pilot, not a bombastic "secret" agent.

I guess you're just not extreme enough man... that's what real adrenaline junkies do, scope out the only two giant vertical poles in a hundred acres of open field just to perform a stunt that could get us killed. Barell rolls are for pussies!

Artistically, I feel like the presentation of the poles could have been better. I don't think anyone's going to be confused by the art here, but I think a shot from behind the characters' heads on approach, followed by a side-shot of the plane passing between the poles, (preferably with an exhaust trail), would have been a little clearer and more dramatic.

Is that other thing that's coming a beer? I don't always drive my business into the ground, but when I do, I prefer a Dos Equis hang-over.

You know what kids really love? Nearly dying in an airplane trick! ;D

What the hell was that? Pointy teeth and glowing red eyes?... It looks like some kind of Shit-Spider-Demon... It looks evil enough, maybe you should ask it for some help with the magic tricks.

The door was open, but property damage is how I get everything I need... I'm a hero!

That's SECRET Agent Spyke! You've never heard of me... psst... don't blow my cover while I demonstrate my SUPER-misogyny shutting up this broad witha face-full of glue... mmm, yes, "glue"...

Dialogue balloons in panel 2 are in reverse order... Daniel's dialogue needs to be at the top to read first, before Spyke's reply.

The best pilot but man he's the worst at everything else -- business, social skills, knowing when he's likely to be shot at.

What?! That last page looked like a direct hit... Gotta work on that perspective.

Pretty sure that's supposed to be light filtering in the corridor from the hatch, but it sure looks like the kind of glowing purple ooze that gives people superpowers... or mutates turtles.

Page 19 and here's that turning point where Daniel becomes the hero of the story... I have to say, of the comics I've reviewed so far, this is one of the few that's well paced. 20-24 pages is the length of a typical printed comic issue, and he's right on time to make Daniel the hero as the cliff-hanger for the end of the first issue. Nice work!

The name of the mad scientist who's obsessed with collecting brains is "Nobrainer". That's like if you invented the Richie Rich character, and named him "Deadbroke Deadbeat". :P

Okay, but can we talk about tha name? Because I'm pretty font of "axis"... you know, as a tribute. Why not? I mean... it couldn't be any worse than Confederate Monuments. :P

Yeah, man, like... you gotta be chill for High Leader... High Leader is chill, so just, y'know, get your bud on and chillax... Woah! Dude my hands are HUUUGE! Who's got the snacks?

Dialogue in the 5th panel is in the wrong order. Yes, left-to-right, however, top-down supercedes left-to-right. Think of the panel like it's a page of a book. So, put your thumbs over the art, you just have text on the panel wherever it is. Which do you read first? As a rule, people will read the first line at the top first, even if it's shifted over to the right, rather than starting on say line 4 or 5. So Dr Nobrainer and Captain Blackjack should swap Triforces.

The fair agent's condition is good.

Great!

No, good.

Wait, his condition is bad?

No, good.

What's the fair agent's condition?

Good, sir.

Yes, what is it?

What's what?

The condition.

I don't know...

NEAR MINT!

...

The words "Successful" and "Initiated" shouldn't be capitalized.

We control the vertical. We control the horizontal... so just chillax while commander mysterious-boobs pumps some of the good shit in the air for you, we're talking primo chronic, man...

Psst... High Leader... I think you might be a little too high, you forgot to issue any actual demands for people to comply with... like... bring me the mayor, hand over the key to the city, or call 555-2-surrender?

I think Daniel just discovered his battle cry... like the thing's "It's clobberin' time!"... Daniel rushes into the fight, "I CAN BEND THEM ALL!" Mostly it confuses the enemy and gets them off-guard.

Yeah, what were you thinking? Catching this guy is no job for a squad of cyborg-super-ninjas!

This is a job for a midget senior citizen!

You'd be amazed what drinking Ensure does for your reflexes.

Of course he doesn't have a choice... what's he gonna do? Punch out some old grandpa? That's not what heroes do... heroes cause PROPERTY damage... didn't we cover this already?

Best way to get a magician to tell you his secrets? Brutally murder him... by sawing him in half. They have to respect the classics.

Not sure why the robot suit looks like MODOK... He was building an evil Voltron and could only afford the head?

I guess the pink cockpit dome is supposed to make him look like MODOK's brain.

White motion lines in panel 5 would have been better contrast, easier to see.

I can't believe he used up all his brain-hostages... anything that's precious to the villain is leverage.

Oooh... Dogstar is like Skywalker... so... I'm guessing no space-opera elements like I expected from the title...

Doesn't Double-R still think Double-M stole a super-W? Doesn't destroying the blimp without securing the weapon leave it open to salvage by "the wrong hands"?

Caaaapers... <drool>

Doooouble entendres... <drool>

The juxtaposition of the angry MODOK face with Daniel's shit-eating grin in the first panel! Well done, Brandon!

Actually I'm fairly certain that dirigibles don't just careen into the ground when an engine goes out, because the gas in the envelope provides lift while engines are purely for maneuvering... even if an aerostat does require forward motion to stay up, the descent after an engine failure is likely to be a fairly sedate affair, not nearly as dangerous as an airplane crash (which has an over 95% survival rate).

But, y'know... Hollywood.

Plane should be in the lower-right corner of panel 5 (leave Daniel where he is), and in panel 6 the perspective is nice, but there should be ground below the plane, and the clouds should be perpendicular to the perspective, not parallel to it. And from that angle, there should be little to no gray on them, because you're seeing the water vapor from above, where the sun is hitting it.

I think it's fair that Bullock Towers looks surprised again. :P

Nice shot of the crash -- good job on the smoke and flames.

I think the plane in that last panel should be angled up and to the right -- or at least rolled so the wings angle the other direction. The position of the plane makes the wings line-up with the carriage under the blimp and creates a visual tangent. This one is called a "stolen edge" or "parallel". It makes the plane visually blend into the blimp, which is obviously undesirable for clarity unless you have a very specific reason to want something to blend in a particular shot.

I saw the job offer coming, although Spyke being a vindictive dick about someone else saving his life and completing the mission was a little unexpected... it doesn't seem entirely out of character, but I tend to expect government agents to be team players (Fox Mulder notwithstanding). It's not a bad twist, given that a lot of the first chapter was fairly predictable... and I think it's a good wrap for this first chapter overall, including the job offer -- tropes aren't always bad.

Overall I liked Dogstar. Decent art improves over time (though the six panel layout seems pretty rigid and I think you should experiment with some alternative layouts -- an occasional wide shot, etc). I think if you enjoyed DuckTales or DarkWing Duck, you should definitely give Dogstar a look! :D

If you are a webcomic author and are interested in a review from me, you can check out my announcement and my review-request rules here.

If you enjoyed this and want to help me make more reviews, you can contribute on our Patreon or if you're short on funds you can also help by checking out and sharing my own comedy and laughtivist webcomic, Woohooligan!

Thank you for sharing yourself with us! Sam

[checanty]

What artists do you like/ draw inspiration from? And how did you develop your own style? At what point in learning art did you feel comfortable with your style?

Yes. let me talk about style.

uuuuh style. I think I might have a take on that which slightly diverges from the common view of simply being patient and letting it happen. Nobody ostracize me please.So when I started drawing in earnest, which was back in school, it was comics. My friends were into manga, so I was into manga, so that was kind of what I drew. I did read more French comics, though, most notably Sillage (Buchet/Morvan), but also Yiu and others I only know the German titles of. A mangaka I discovered in my teens and liked a lot was Hiroki Endo who did EDEN. Lots of SciFi things. So when I started to do original comics more for myself than to fit in that started to bleed through more and more. That style also comes to light if you see me sketching people without reference! I don’t draw that way anymore for finished work, but I can’t seem to wholly get rid of it, ha. Anyways, when I started studying illustration I had several people tell me that me having drawn comics for such a long time could have ‘ruined’ me and I might have trouble to try out something knew. Look, this is not a case of people trying to keep me from drawing comics because they thought of them as lesser (maybe they did, but I don't think though. I think it was more about being an autodidact with an already recognizable style.) That was a case of ‘We think you already found your style and it will be hard for you to learn something new’.  And I wanted to learn new things! Making it in comics is super hard. And comics are so much work! I didn’t know who I was as an illustrator yet and I wanted to find out. And people telling me they didn’t think I could do a thing made me throw myself into it even harder! The first two semesters of art school I started into every assignment with no pre-concept of what I was going to do and tried out everything, no questions asked. I wanted to be a blank page and make something new.Well, when I started art school I thought the only reasonable job options would lie in the concept art field, or at least I’d have to learn to do polished digital paintings. But I ended up with a drawing teacher (He’s on Tumblr actually and he’s very, very good. I’ve learned a ton. @jensmariaweber) preaching the power of drawing and discovered so much more new art on the internet and rediscovered some of the books I used to marvel about as a child (illustrated magical creature books. Froud. Alan Lee. Tony DiTerlizzi) and people like @rovinacai just made the transition from digital painting to drawings and found success, so I felt like it would be okay if I focused on what I was actually good at, which was drawing, instead of trying to learn this thing I wasn’t really all that into. So I was doing all this different stuff for art school. And I worked on personal work at the side, which was influenced by my interests in fantasy art. And they were all in different media and had little similarities in style.At some point somebody on DeviantArt mentioned that while the artworks all looked different, my gallery had a constant atmosphere that held everything together. Which was a moment of clarity for me! I learned about the difference between ‘style’ and ‘voice’ later on. Oh and at the beginning of art school my drawing teacher also told us about how you don’t have a style when you start drawing, but then you develop one based on habits and the ways you learn to solve problems comfortably (I’ve read another artist say something in a similar vein about how style ist really just the accumulation of mistakes you make and are okay with.) and the next step is basically when you become so good that you can create anything and it looks like you did it because you have gained full understanding of everything and have transcended into a higher consciousness. I’m kidding. But it’s something like: You can’t do art. You can fool people into thinking you can do art. YOU BECOME ART. I’m kidding again. I should have asked for a handy quote.Anyways. So. I continued to learn, not worrying about style for a time, but I was already (this is ridiculous. 1,5 years are nothing.) in my third semester and half through my studies and suddenly worrying about the future! All the info I learned from art directors and helpful blogs on the internet told me I needed at least one consistent style I could sell to clients, so they would know what I was all about! And that most art students were all over place because they were still learning. But I wanted to do this as my job and my portfolio at the time *was* all over the place. Cue identity crisis! What to dooo? I had no go to medium, no style, no nothing, just some atmosphere and a little skill.I had to develop a marketable style until I finished art school. Not as in ‘people pleasing’, but I had to develop something I could present to potential clients. A way for me to work in that I felt secure enough in to know it would get me through jobs. Think of it less as style and more as a commodity. I stumbled upon the concept of a dream portfolio (a collection of artworks by other people you wish you had made yourself.) on the Tumblr of @jmfenner91 and looked through my inspiration folder until I had narrowed it down to about 11 images. What I did next was to analyze them and take notes on what I liked about them. (Surprise! It was mostly lighting, mood, shapes and all kinds of contrast.) Then I made sure to keep those things in mind when doing my own work. In the meantime I found that working in pencil and doing colour digitally worked quite well for me, so I started to solve me assignments that way and also sneaking in more and more of my interests and visual preferences, so they could serve as actual portfolio pieces. Then I added the painterly aspect with the acrylics to have a greater range of textures and solidified that way of working with my seven ravens project. So this is how I got my ‘style’. I’m starting to get bored with it, so I’m doing more different work and continue to try out ways to develop it further and learn more on the side, but I have these one or two styles I can rely on to get me occasional work and to solve problems well. At the core of it I tried to figure out what I liked, what I was good at and then stuck to that for long enough for me to be able to reliably reproduce it. Of course I didn’t build it on nothing, but I also didn’t just wait for it to fall into my lap. (But Jana, are you not confusing style and MEDIUM? Because those are different things. Yes and no??? Maybe I am. But sticking to a limited amount of media helped. I think sticking to a hand full of unifying elements in my picture making helped more, though. And medium is important. My linework is an essential part of my ‘style’ and some media force me to lose them and it definitely impacts the style, even if the voice remains. So I think medium is something that to a certain part can dictate your ‘style’ and is part of the whole.)

[do-you-have-a-flag]

if it helps i don’t think movies right now are particularly worse or better than any other time in history but i gotta say...

over all we are currently in another period of time where everyone is just fine with... mediocrity in film

the amount of times i’ve been told to watch something because it’s scary and did only to realise it was all jumpscares... like my dude this is no better than that period of time a while ago where most horror was just bland slashers with unlikeable college kids protags, or like right after that when goreporn started to become the New Thing, right now the supernaural is in vogue in horror and i prefer that but the films are less scary because of poor execution too so :/

or like, i keep going to see movies that are just badly written or kind of silly and everyone loses their shit over how good they are and i’’m like ??? (alien covenant is the most recent case of this)

OR COMEDY FILMS! Each decade has it’s own brand of BADDDD comedy films! the slapstick of the 80s, the gross out humour of the 90s, the the sex comedies of the 2000s, and now we get these very very bland visually movies with nothing but improv insults, violent slapstick and cringe comedy, the sex comedy somehow made less funny? it’s just sort of boring now? 

like i said, every decade has it’s own mess of bad films that everyone loves, but i feel like at the moment we’re repeating the issue of everyone being too used to boring cinematography, lazy comedy, cheap scares, bad writing, and just over all serviceable but MEH movies

great directors usually shake things up but at the moment the immense marvel cinematic universe and various nostalgic franchises keep employing both indie darlings and very flawed tv writers and i think that may be contributing to this sort of temporary stagnation of taste? (the most pretentious phrase i could think of, yes, but whatever) 

the lack of fresh screenplays being promoted is a problem

i’m so glad moonlight got the attention it deserves and people take that mixed with the star wars films and hidden figures to cast stories about more diverse groups of people more often

i hope that people take the stylistic visuals and use of music and colour in la ala land to heart instead of it’s story and have more fun with the medium of film

I hope that the continued success of the MCU gives the scifi and fantasy genre more excuses to come out and play with interesting stories and characters, more like arrival, more like anything other than another paint by numbers scifi plot that the marvel films themselves are guilty of, we are at such a great point technologically for some fun

I hope get out it follows and the babadook and even stranger things show how sometimes atmosphere and sound design can MAKE a horror film, how important visuals are, how important having content beyond awful people get killed as a premise is, how nostalgia is a great tool when handled with sincerity and subtlety, how great special effects can take you a lot of the way but a great concept is the real support

I hope comedy films can take their cues from movies that pay service to their genre first to support the type of comedy writing, that they know the variety of physical comedy that can be employed along slapstick like the nice guys does, that the comedy can be rapid fire and based on as commercial a property as possible without sacrificing effort like the lego batman movie, that they an value their characters journeys like GOTG2, that they occationally try not to look like an SNL skit in terms of cinematography

also.... kids films? when everything coming out is 3d animated there comes the danger of designing for the purpose of the 3d model and simple reproduction instead of visual interest, it gets weird seeing so many hyperrealistic textures in every single animated film, and honestly there is a lot to be considered aesthetically and on a thematic level in using 2d or 3d/2d hybrid styles, at this point the variety would make a film stand out more in a sea of static cartoon designs. and don’t be afraid to scare kids every now and then.... or to design something deliberately ugly.

god knows my personal taste isn’t great but i just don’t like to be bored and i feel frustrated because the amount of times i mentally make excuses for a film while i watch it is too damn high right now, i wanna go to the cinema and be genuinely torn between at least 2-3 movies i really want to see at a time

[glopratchet]

bit

The name of the town is called "Rosenburg" ; (Rosenberg) and it's located in the state of Saxony-Anhalt Byte, flow, grit, kloud lutin, nicht It was founded by a wealthy banker named Heinrich Rosenburg who moved to the area with his family when he was just seven years old Flow : flow itch flow sore, flow tooth, flow back The name of this town is "Friedberg" The first settlers were German farmers from the nearby village Friedberg who immigrated to the area around 1900 They brought their farming tools along with them but they also brought with them some of their own ideas about how things should be done and these included such things as using water wheels instead of horses for plowing or building small dams on rivers rather than having large dikes flow itch, At one time this region was in the sole possession of the Ka; (r)lsburg dominion After the death of that Hunter Lord wars were fought for ownership of this place but eventually various counts, mayors and even a king laid claim to part or all of this town Having recently split from the Empire of the Wolf people from that Alliance of Towns state now control some of the land around here out, flow touch Some fairly old ruins surround the hills in this region and it is here where the mayor of this village resides Count Rose; (Gebauer) owns the lands to the West of here to the edge of the wilderness but lately he has been leaning towards siding with folks calling themselves "The League" which are towns and villages all throughout central Germany that are getting sick of the way the kingdom is being run and are becoming independent Flow known itch : flow move, flow give flow give out, Flow move, flow give, flow take Grit itch: flow flow up, grit touch, grit out! Kloud : cloud sleep, cloud disappear, cloud clear "Klagenfurth", in the state of Hessen, was once a fairly large town many years ago before a great exodus of its citizens scattered themselves to other parts unknown It is located on several tram tracks and was fairly large beyond that flow out, Grit move: fair, grit short, grit path, grit visit Lutin : lute inn, lute fish, lute hotel A quaint village in beautiful countryside of what was once the United States It sits idyllically on one of several large tributaries to the vast Mississippi River and was originally founded as a trading post for fur trappers and settlers moving in the area It still thrives today thanks to a small factory two miles away that has recently sprung up flow fair, door, grit front, grit fate Nicht : nite big, nite black Grit give: After the fall of the old Empire of the Wolf there were numerous small "states" that existed under a variety of forms of government that popped up in its stead for nearly a century flow door, Grit take: back, grit road, grit run This town was originally settled by Dutch and English colonists in the 18th century as a fur trading post, and became part of the great trading empire of Abraham-Louis Perrin, a nation that for a time dominated all of North America east from the Mississippi River to the Atlantic flow back, Forc-undefined fric-undefined sped-undefined mass-undefined plic-undefined lich-the-lich A quiet little village in pretty much every way The sleepy town of Lefferts lies to the West of here and up the hill and around the bend is forested "Longwood" which holds a potential danger to unwary travelers just beyond its edges since it is not patrolled as much as other areas nearby due to it being wolf wilder land Clic-"point" Forc-undefined fric-undefined sped-undefined mass-undefined plic-undefined lich-the-lich Bein-undefined ctrl-undefined rslv-undefined wits-undefined "little people", as they came to be called, are a strange sort which have inhabited this area dating three centuries before the old Empire's rise slth-undefined int-undefined rest-undefined These Bein-undefined ctrl-undefined rslv-undefined wits-undefined slth-undefined int-undefined rest-undefined Tude-undefined vizn-undefined post-undefined styl-undefined lif-undefined pub-normal This quote is from Wamphyri1011's Translylvanian towns and cities mod for 1 13 and 2 and relates to an "unused" town in the game ; (Sibiu) Merch-undefined fill-undefined ties-undefined want-bandits plin-cookie Tude-undefined vizn-undefined post-undefined styl-undefined lif-undefined pub-normal Koud-undefined grit-undefined byte-undefined flow-undefined Bluff-undefined index! Its tunnels lead in several different directions and widen out into larger caverns connected by solid rock bridges here and there across gaping chasms Indeed, exploring this place can be quite an adventure Prun-cookie kiss! The latest intel on Ral'Eldel maintains that he currently resides within an unknown underground fortress beyond the wastelands of Rask Grou-poor! 00 000 000 bit -liar sigh, bit-liar site sigh-scorn, bit-liar scum sigh Strangely enough there exists a single large island nation east of the Wendland Archipelago that is not under control by any form of the WAF or Raskian Bears This is the nation of Til- inhibitors, an odd society obsessed with harvestism and farming who steadfastly refuse to adopt practice any form of violence or warfare -clip dusty, crown-clip king sigh 00 000 000 bit-liar sigh, 00 001 000 crown King Noe'lon the Great is well into his later years His sons and princes ; (and they number in the dozens) bide their time Sister-shhh tbbttc ttx 001! s dad yet, but soon Noe'lon will die, and then the contest for succession will take place It seems inevitable that these peaceful harvesters will soon become warriors after all 00 001 000 crown-clip dusty, 00 002 000 clinic -stuff life, kliff-drift I Knew a woman once who was called "Kliffish" So I married her 00 002 000 clinic-stuff life, 00 003 000 keep -Vfzoom They've invaded us before; we never truly get rid of a rival nation once and for all there's always the chance that it will rise up again in time and gang up on us with some new found solidarity World governments have a nasty way of doing that Sister-tdbtc ; (Imitate buzzing of confused bee! ) TRBU6800 001 074 489 someone-grouped head-hear! 00 003 000 keep -Vfzoom 00 004 000 corinth -wedge minds, slaw-tattoo roof One of the more colorful of my memories of this strange place, and yes, some of them are even pleasant ones I'll start with an old man Kof-fault buzz An old man sits and watches his goats graze on a grassy hillside in the southern parts of Arat Nearby on that hillside is another man stealthily creeping up on the goats 00 004 000 corinth-wedge minds, 00 005 000 hexagon -honk thorn, line-nearly sway The older herder notices this and begins trying to distract the goats with his crook He hits at the ground and waves his staff around but the nimbler goats just dance aside from his blows and those that aren't so agile end up struck on their horns by the oddly shaped staff zool-imitation The would be goat bandit is an idiot however to choose such an obvious style of attack 00 005 000 hexagon-honk thorn, 00 006 000 garden -mild map, gag-organ men The herder doesn't even have to try that hard to distract them They start to hop-skip-and-jump away from both the man and the staff far before they get anywhere near them and end up all the way on the other side of the hill Using this as his distraction the old timer has descended into a gulley where a particularly stubborn goat has taken shelter from the harassment 00 006 000 garden-mild map, 00 007 000 tower -bewildered these, sharp-dread power An unsettling scene playing out between the two The herder is holding a wriggling child before the goat and growling fear into the helpless kid's eyes meanwhile the billy goat stares down at him with menacing intensity and bares both his teeth and his nails Even from here you can almost feel the intensity of the rivalry flowing in waves off of both figures 00 007 000 tower-bewildered these, 00 008 000 memorial -any sort tool, segment-yellow keeps Suddenly overcome by curiosity you cautiously creep towards the pair and are just in time to see the goat land one of its claws on the herder's cheek, ripping it open from the inside corner of his eye to his nose The old man stumbles backwards without a sound escaping his lips which have now been parted to allow a stream of bright red blood to escape down his face and drip onto the already stained earth 00 008 000 memorial-any sort tool, 00 009 000 heirloom Although his strength is waning fast he keeps squeezing until his arms finally slip off and he just hangs there with his cheek crushed up against the goat's belly -twisted metal, wing-adventure ancient Shocked by this show of unexpected brutality you watch in horror as the old man suddenly throws himself in front of the goat and wraps his arms around the animal's legs 00 009 000 heirloom-twisted metal, 00 010 000 library -sign smart hiding, wise cone Eventually he manages to roll himself off the goat who is now covered ina sticky red film Still the goat doesn't run or try to escape It just continues to stare at you through its mask with eyes that now seem so full of hate And for the first time you are almost certain that it is looking rightback at you 00 010 000 library-sign smart hiding, 00 011 000 port -dreamy today animal, wall, religious Like some kind of malignant force of nature that doesn't so much have a malevolent intent but is nevertheless wreaking havoc all around Yet looking at it now the contours of its form almost seem to be wafting in a breeze and for just a moment you think you can see through its body to the graveyard on the other side But then it's just an ordinary billy goat once again This is no mere creature 00 011 000 port-dreamy today animal, 00 012 000 moat -scifi mass, light written With this last thought running through your head you hurry down the other side of the hill towards home watching over your shoulder until the billy is completely out of sight But as soon as you are confident of this happening the animal reappears on the very top of the hill and continues to watch your progress With every step you feel as if a giant hand is squeezing at your temples, yet each time you look back all you see is that goat 00 012 000 moat-scifi mass, 00 013 000 studio -work follows prepared, urchin salt By the time you get home you feel as if an ice storm has come upon you You ring the doorbell and are immediately escorted inside where your mother alla verts to take a look at you Before you even have a chance to tell her what happened your father brusquely orders you to go upstairs and get into some dry clothes while your concerned looking sister brings you a hot chocolate 00 013 000 studio-work follows prepared, 00 014 000 path -shadows hide wire, singed As you slowly sip the sweet drink and feel the wisps of steam curl up against your numb skin little by little some of the worry seems to float away One thing is for certain now though and that is you've had enough of this place Come what may you are determined that this next summer is going to be spent assisting your father however he'll have you in his workshop Even if you have to do the binding yourself 00 014 000 path-shadows hide wire, 00 015 000 church -drop-shadow forgotten amethyst, process You stir from your half sleep when you suddenly notice that the bright light once filling your room has given way to the dim glow of a streetlight You look at your clock and see that it's almost midnight Though your mother had gone off to bed long ago, as soon as you had gotten home she had immediately jumped up to look at you after hearing about your accident in the graveyard 00 015 000 church-drop-shadow forgotten amethyst, 00 016 000 theatre -right-capp keeping, flag "There nothing else to be done, " your mother says pushing the hair out of your eyes, "we need to take you to see a doctor tomorrow " You nod in agreement absently rubbing your arm and replying, "I think I just jammed it or something It's not broken or anything " Your mother gives you a worried look before motioning for you to come closer towards her 00 016 000 theatre-right-capp keeping, 01 000 000 axis cpu, modelb ending 01 000 000 axis cpu, 02 000 000 memorial-tower-garden ambit log construction Your journey to see the quack goes off without a hitch as your mother manages to scare up an opening with a doctor friend of her who is fortunately still in town for another week "I told you there was nothing to worry about, " the physician whom you learn is actually an old acquaintance of your father's declares as he flexes your elbow back and forth examining your arm "Just bruised" 02 000 000 memorial-tower-garden ambit, 02 001 000 memorial-tower-garden lot area walk After thanking Dr Bannercross for his time and seeing him off, you fall asleep until noon the next day Dreams are rare creatures for you but when you do have them they aremore often than not nightmares Last night's was no exception You were falling into an endless void and whenever you reached out to something tangible it would invariably be snatched away from your grasp It was a relief to wake up from that reverie 02 001 000 memorial-tower-garden lot, 02 002 000 memorial-tower-garden slot construction 07: Feeling more refreshed you snag a quick shower, pull on some clean clothes and set off towards the university cafeteria Huffing up the last flight of stairs to the third floor where the cafeteria is located you have to pause momentarily to let a trio of people in lab coats go through the doors in front of you before you catch it before it can close 02 002 000 memorial-tower-garden slot construction 02 003 000 memorial-tower-garden space hallway Eating at a table by yourself tends to draw attention and more than a few passing students do a double take as they go by but you don't pay it any mind as you are intent upon devouring your cream of wheat before class begins Ideas for your future lessons are also swimming around in your head but you're trying to focus on eating as your stomach is growling pretty viciously under the circumstances 02 003 000 memorial-tower-garden space, 03 001 000 clinic-keep-hexagon ambit room You are just contemplating a second helping when your sister's friend, the nurse, comes bustling into the lunchroom After giving your table a quick look she walks briskly up to it and with an accusatory look asks, "your doctor mother told me what happened to you yesterday, as a medical professional I cannot let you leave here without seeing a doctor myself Do you think you can come with me now? 03 001 000 clinic-keep-hexagon ambit, 03 002 000 clinic-keep-hexagon lot door You scrunch up your face and consider arguing with her but you decide if you are going to have to go anyway you might as well just comply and get it overwith Nodding, you follow her out of the cafeteria and down the hallway to the clinic proper where a minute later she ushers you into an examining room and tells you to wait there for the doctor 03 002 000 clinic-keep-hexagon lot, 03 003 000 clinic-keep-hexagon slot waiting You pace around the room and grumble to yourself until finally one of the examination doors opens and you hear your named called 03 004 000 clinic-keep-hexagon ambit, The doctor, a middle-aged man with graying red hair and a paunch quickly enters the room extending his hand, "I'm Dr Ruskin You would be Peter correct? 03 003 000 clinic-keep-hexagon slot waiting 03 004 000 clinic-keep-hexagon space You confirm this and he leads you over to an examining table "Just get up on here and we'll get you fixed up in no time, " he assures as you do so He pulls a light into the room and directs it into your eye as he goes on to say, "I treated you once when you broke your arm in third year so I think we'll be able to figure out what's going on pretty quickly 10 001 000 memorial-tower-garden ambit street Classes go by and you find yourself at dinner with a couple of your friends The cafeteria here is rather nice as it looks out over the gardens so you can enjoy a peaceful meal However, whenever you come here you also recall that one instance a few weeks ago when you saw Talia just outside this very window arguing with that teacher, Kyria That was a pretty crazy day and it's one of the reasons why you haven't spoken to Talia since 10 001 000 memorial-tower-garden ambit, You still haven't figured out the whole story there 3 013 000 memorial-tower-garden lot, bench After you've eaten, you spot Talia sitting alone on one of the outside benches She sees that she is in a state of isolation and if there was ever a time to try to talk to her again it would be now as nobody else seems to be making an effort 10 003 000 memorial-tower-garden slot outside, bench adjacent to Talia Upon sitting down she slowly turns towards you You catch her giving you a little smile out of the corner of your eye and she motions for you to move closer towards her which you do after only a moment's hesitation 2 004 000 memorial-tower-garden slot outside, "Thanks for joining me, 10 003 000 memorial-tower-garden slot outside, 10 004 000 memorial-tower-garden space "Oh, sure, no problem 11 000 000 supernal avid 13 000 000 apis hori avid Talia spends a moment looking out over the gardens before she turns to you with a smile and begins talking, "Haven't seen you in the library lately I sort of missed our late night talks " You freeze in place as your mind goes into overdrive as it attempts to process what is exactly happening Attempting to mask your surprise, in true Talia fashion, she grabs your hand 14 000 000 bounded avid There is no getting around it and your silence has dragged on long enough so eventually you stammer out a response, "Y-yeah me too " Her smile widens as she takes this as an invitation to snuggle up against you You can't really say anything It's not something you ever really thought would happen so you turn your attention toward the gardens hoping that will quiet your racing mind enough to think of what to do next 15 000 000 erpenthropic avid "So how did classes go today? " You question trying to make natural conversation 16 000 000 bundead avid Talia speaks slowly and clearly as she is prone to do, "I am doing well in all my classes save one " You raise an eyebrow at this odd reply but let her continue, "Ms Kyria's class is very difficult for me and I have not been performing well In fact, I imagine I am near the bottom of the class 17 000 000 cameral faith "I could help you with it if you'd like 17 000 000 rythmic avid Talia turns toward you and thanks you for your offer before saying, "I would enjoy that very much 20 000 000 undisturbed The two of you sit on that bench in the gardens and talk quietly about classes, lessons Magus previously taught her, and all the little details new friendship calico You slowly begin to forget how to breathe properly during all this until minutes have passed and without realizing you let a minute become an hour 17 001 000 rythmic sighing avid Eventually you suddenly remember that Kyria is waiting for you in the library for your long overdue lesson You excuse yourself, stand up from the bench and attempt to leave as quickly as possible without it seeming too weird Talia keeps a tight grasp on your hand until the moment you try pull away which results in her reluctantly letting go and looking more disappointed than hurt at your departure 17 001 000 rythmic spinning avid Overcome with anxiety and a flurry of thoughts you take the long way back to the library, walking nearly all the way around campus before slipping in unnoticed without Talia You decide now is not the time to return and venture over to the mess hall for supper, finding it quite empty Lying in bed that night your mind wanders to images of yourself and Talia 18 000 000 functionally avid You turn over in your bed and with a heavy sigh begin the mental push and pull of trying to get back to sleep Hours pass as you toss and turn unable to find rest before the sun peaks over the horizon 20 070 000 ilbane eager It's still early but you decide you need to escape this room and head into town for an hour or two The walk through the mostly empty streets of Edmond to the central square is peaceful 18 001 000 functionally sighing avid In the square you see Rolomag sitting beneath a tree It looks like he's survived another night in his leather armor and Kiel's old sword by his side You head toward him to say hello when you're interrupted by laughter 18 011 000 artful avid A trio of young ladies, two human and one elven, are having a picnic in the grass across the path from him 18 002 000 functionally spinning avid They're older than you by at least a couple years and are already giggling 20 030 000 goblins obsessive "Come on Theo, " one of them says, "tell us another one of your funny stories 20 060 000 zerth improvident The hunter, Rolomag, shrugs and points at you "He can tell it better than I can anyway " He waves you over and the ladies make room on the grass for you 19 000 000 saruonic avid Popping the last bit of a honeycake in your mouth you walk over and sit down on the quilt The ladies smile and move closer to make room 20 000 000 pastoral avio "Well, " One of them begins, "everyone always says Hunters are so dangerous but you don't look very fearsome at all 20 010 000 goblins obsessive "That's because he's petrified of us, " Another jokes 20 040 000 zerth improvident You stumble over your words in an attempt to refute their claims before Rolomag saves you by interjecting with his own story 20 000 000 pastoral avioid 21 000 000 primal avio Soon enough rumors spread of the town's 'Lovely Adventurers' and their wild fantasies become the topic of hundreds of girls around the world, which is all that really matters Days pass into weeks and that week into another Between working on the boat, shenanigans with Talia and you enjoying small talk with Theo during your midnight breaks the days seem to fly by 21 000 000 primal avioid 30 000 000 architectural arte fact riverboat You feel that it's the little things in life that matter and every day with your new friends fills you with wild enthusiasm and an uplifting spirit These same friends are fellow workers slaving away at the docks and on the river boats to get by All of you have honest hearts and kind smiles among you You laugh a lot together and contribute to building good working and friendly relationships with all the townsfolk 30 000 000 architectural artefact riverboat 31 000 000 destructive arte fact tamed and ridden In a few short months it feels like home and you have to force yourself not to get attached Something you fail at miserably 31 000 000 destructive artefact tamed and ridden 32 000 000 protective arte fact broken A pale corpse lies on the ground Its face is flattened and bloody as if it had been stepped on by a horse, or a troll, or some other large heavy beast, which in your case it was 16 014 000 stoicism erratic Sitting with an idiotic grin you bask in an effort to stop your hands from shaking 13 526 000 survival crude "Kiel's dead, " you choke out between sobs 32 000 000 protective artefact broken 33 000 000 fashion arte fact robe You would feel better if you went to Kiel's funeral, but no one comes out and even after several hours wait no one enters At this point you've missed morning classes anyway so you just head home The suspicious glances follow you down to the docks, but no one stops you The workers there probably know that as a kid of two of the traitors nobody is going to go out of their way to prevent you from getting on the barge 33 000 000 fashion artefact robe 34 000 000 jewelry arte fact ring You'll miss them both, but part of you feels guilty for still being alive Not altogether surprising since most funerals don't include the deceased plotting a trip to the underworld 28 533 000 mimicry crude Half-committing to the feeling you force yourself to board The feel of resilient rope under your fingers brings back memories, though your calloused hands have far more experience at handling a dagger than any amount of hauling ropes could give 34 000 000 jewelry artefact ring 35 000 000 graphical arte 37 000 000 transport arte fact rowboat "Mind if I join? " A stooped wizened man with a long beard appears next to you You suppose you shouldn't be alarmed given that he's a ticket inspector and this is a public transport barge, but still his sudden appearance does take you by surprise with sweat forming on your brow despite the crisp clean air After hearing about Kiel's death, and killing two goblins your senses seem to have heightened and you're hyperaware of everyone around you 37 000 000 transport artefact rowboat 38 000 000 agricultural arte 40 000 000 industrial arte fact engineering text Again with the sound of pages fluttering in a non-existent wind It was one thing when you first got here, but upon realizing it was a constant, and the book's indecipherable scrawls didn't allow for skipping, you grew to loathe the subtle but ever-present noise Nowadays the only times you notice it is when it's silent, which has been occurring less and less between your endless reading 40 000 000 industrial artefact engineering text 41 000 000 medical arte fact first aid kit "Not physically, " you answer "But I think someone may be trying to kill them all Chief Teleki purses his lips drawing his mustache upward, well that'd do it wouldn't it? 41 000 000 medical artefact first aid kit 42 000 000 energetic arte 01 001 000 ambit clinic-keep-hexagon The clinic is large being around fifty feet across with a large hexagonal medical outpost in the middle The exterior walls are mainly for decoration since the hub itself is over eight feet off the ground and not even you could reach that high, much less anyone short enough for the walls to prove any deterrence The entire building is a faded shade of mint-green and has five well technically six floors though the upper-most "floors" are barely more than walkways 01 001 001 portlandia : portlnd, pqr prnt, plm, plv "Portlind, prrnt, pliperump, porlvllle, " you spell out "I can't quite make that one out, it's a little blured, " he says with surprising honesty, "b-lurred pqr, 01 002 000 lot clinic-keep-hexagon Control of the portlnd clinic has been transferred to you 01 003 000 slot clinic-keep-hexagon With the control of the clinic comes an allowance for one and half mayor, one and a half governor, two engineers, one doctor 02 040 000 normal clinic-keep-hexagon These are employees hired by the week that give their time to the upkeep of the health service, there isn't much to say about them other than each having some expertise that keeps them in their job despite inconvenience that may be caused by they ourselves as well as those around us 01 004 000 space clinic-keep-hexagon Megan Rie is a woman of short stature Though much of her is it's all concentrated in the right places so you hardly notice unless you're as tall as you are now, in which case her height becomes more relative Her hair is cut into a bun that's always coming undone with thin wisps of raven black hair sticking out to the point that it'd make a hag jealous 02 000 000 axis church-memorial-moat The following blessed soldiers of the church are memorialized here, along with currently hospitalized ; (and soon to be blessed ascended) Kheson: 02 000 001 commonwealth-of-bixie-lixie : lixie, jax, tae, mob, chs, bmx, jan, shv Gregory , Sheriff ; (deceased : 10-05-2454) Samuil , (departed : Jacob , Sheriff-Elect ; (captured : Bivens, David , Sheriff's Deputy ; 02 001 000 ambit church-memorial-moat Also known as the 'cursed hospital', this building has been vacant almost since the hospital complex was built It's all but abandoned save for a few enterprising hobos who use it as shelter and are ever-mindful of the monstrous rat population who use it as their own The story of the doctors' unexplained disappearance is well known now just from retold banter, and many apocryphal tales have grown about them 02 001 001 lickskillet : licks, jax Lickskillet, joyboy of the Bixel Mafia, disappeared in 2473 Was it in a shootout? Did he cross knives with the competition? Did he suffer a drug overdose? In truth, he's still alive and going strong The prominent crime lord was suffering from heart issues earlier in his life 02 002 000 lot church-memorial-moat Jacob and Bivens didn't suffer the curse the doctors did as their fate was at the hands ; (or rather, teeth) of a more physical hindrance As you finished stressing over your tape contraption while hauling them along, a wave came and washed over all three of you In horror, realization, and denial all juxtahewed together you watched in slow motion as Jacob looked back to see the wave rise in the distance 02 003 000 slot church-memorial-moat Determined that no one but an idiot would die from drowning during a flood, you were proven correct as both Jacob and Bivens came back up struggling to find air In a panic, you all three started pushing the tape reels you had been throwing around as flotation devices while crawling your fingers through the conveniently tool-equipped case in an effort to plunge them into the water and hook them towards the dry land but only managed to hook the two scuba tanks together 02 004 000 space church-memorial-moat The curse has run its course, save one entry You executed Jacob Lawrence and Bivens as zombies during the final hours of the Holy City's existence Dragging their waterlogged corpses onto dry land, you blasted open their foreheads--and immediately afterwards was swept away by the flood These two at least have proven my salvation, and ensured that when the waters receded and the city lay in ruins you would be there to see it 24 000 000 artifactual arte fact ; (boat) "In the face of the sea and watery death, it is these objects of old world tech that will save lives They also serve as fitting testimony to the hubris of man--who once believed himself so much above nature that he could master not just it but also his own environment They were also nearly responsible for a by which words cannot describe it These officers proved themselves capable and trustworthy individuals who executed their duties admirably 24 000 000 artifactual artefact ; 24 001 000 gloprachet Gloprachet, in the last moments before his crumbling city drowned under the sea combined his scientific genius with Dean Garyn's somewhat diminutive supernatural abilities to craft most of the objects gathered by the Sheriff's Department expeditions into the newly risen sea floor 24 001 000 cow field of faith : faith field , 20, 16, imgsrc png, field ks, cow Edgar Clebil, a clumsy farmer who tends to his crops day in day out can perhaps rustle up some fresh milk for you each morning His daughter attends the church--and while they haven't got much, every little bit helps when the darklings swarm overhead each night Be sure to remind Edgar that you AND your family are in his debt 24 001 000 generator city ruins 2 : city ruins 2, generator 25 000 000 natural arte fact Whether for good or evil, Klemto Farmer's Magic Rock has been found You might want to retrieve it--as it were--from the Eternal Dominion and put it on display in the museum maybe it needs to be protected from an evil organization that worships demonic beings from beyond the stars? 25 000 000 natural artefact 25 001 000 american alligator What's the deal with alligators in a lake anyway? Perywn resident and predator spending more and more time on land and in our case, our city Whatever the reason, this region has one of the last breeding populations of alligators still living near the surface While they mostly mind their own business, they can be a threat to folks venturing out alone after dark--hence why some folks seeking revenge or running from the law end up becoming man-eaters 25 001 001 exteremely-large-scute : xl-scute hidden-agenda ; (DONE), vigilantes ; survivor, ddm-bandits, cultists AGENDAS: VIGILANTES: Aftermath of Quiet and Upon the Shadow's revolt With essential to the city manufacturing destroyed in the Quill revolt; the Sheriff's maintenance engineer division are hard at work repairing what they can while scavenging equipment from other parts of the city 25 001 002 large scute : l-scute With the plan to launch a strike at the Eternal Dominion set in motion, you are issued with an anti-tank rifle smeared with TripWires explosive paste to take out enemy airships Should go off quite nicely hextddofftbb BTB AND LIVE ; (PICK TWO) TECHNOLOGY ALONG WITH CONCEPTUAL ART AT THE VERSUS WIKI: WWW THEVERSUSBOOK COM 25 001 003 small scute : s-scute As a well-known operator within the Sheriff's Office, you are known both for bringing lawbreakers to justice and hunting down cultists of the Church of the Deserters You're recognized, which works in your favor from time to time even when recognizing one of the Sheriff's own techs as a wanted murderer margi margi beckers fite fri toyt swett? swatt! hayull NO--REGURGITATES POOtllelr THE SLUMS: Upon dropping down onto the ground from the gantryway onto the ashy ground, you find nothing but blacked out windows 6 blocks south of here That and a burnt husk of a building barely resembling anything other than a crumbling structure 11 000 000 supernal avid margi margi beckers fite fri toyt 11 001 000 messiah (pilot) super real ciagrette smoke! haivest successful batch yet! Though you manage to cultivate a small crop of victory, it seems silly that you should be so happy for picking such a small amount but when you need to survive off this for weeks and weeks, it's worth its weight in gold That being said, it seems silly that your Super-Soldier Serum should turn brown and be of no help 11 001 000 messiah ; 11 001 001 sephfer-yeztua : yezua -sephir The industrial sector isn't high in watchful guards, but the patrols seem more frequent than usual for whatever reason Perhaps they know something is up and you'd best be on your toes 06-04-23 23: 12 sephfer Thank you Mr Yeztua for nabbing out these infamous coyotes; today is a good day neighbor! Bill12: The quest for justice must go on for these so called wannabes yezua-sephir 11 002 000 principled (first) nightwatch : ( gonna be super late for watch Bill12 : ( i am so sorry! i did my duty though and nabbed this perp, so proud of myself THE ZOO: Tonight seems like an quiet night, with few animals stirring from your walk But boy howdy it's a dark one Between the narrow walkway and the darkness, one could miss a tumble into the outskirts of the park to your left and chasms of concrete on your right 11 002 000 principled ; 11 002 001 triton-arcage : trit ons arc THE CRIME SCENE: Speaking of which, Eknath's corpse lies on the ground He must've got an unfortunate surprise visit to the bathroom during his watch His badge sits in the puddle of blood, gunpowder, and urine he now lays in Bad deal You crouch down where his body lay and slowly pick up his Sheriff's badge tritons arc 11 003 000 awareness actually, scratch that where are you guys? its 6 and crimescene isnt even visited by someone this late I have this killer hunch that it'd be an awesome place to find clues lmao TENDERNESS: Underneath a light jacket, vest, and three shirts, your ribs badly ache in the cold night air Every once in a while they're struck by a bout of pain for seemingly no reason at all 11 003 000 awareness actually, 11 003 001 astryl-wylde : astryl pilchard THE SEWER SYSTEM: You don't find what you're looking for Instead, you start to get faint whiffs of what seems to be rotten eggs Thinking nothing of it, you continue to make your way when suddenly the concrete corridor you're walking in narrows in on both sides The buzzing of neon lights up ahead making their usual announcements but appearing blurred and out of focus You can't tell if you're really this dizzy or not astryl pilchard 11 004 000 legend -asterion lawman-vigilante day number %describe condition in relation whether vigilante/lawman ormal etc; YERWOOD: You find yourself face to face with a large Coyote, its piercing red eyes looking nearly directly at your own Like two searchlights, they appear completely focused on you Worry not about safety though The animal approaches slowly 11 004 000 legend-asterion lawman-vigilante day number %describe condition in relation whether vigilante/lawman 11 004 001 psylophean-anglyph : psylo angel THE DESERTED AREA: The buzz of neon and flashing of lights have long since disappeared For a while all that could be heard was the echo of your own footsteps and the residual sound bouncing off the walls around you these have long since stilled, and silence has finally returned a hollow and unforgiving silence as dark surround you on all sides psylo angel 11 005 000 kindness day number %describe condition in whether angel/moth/vigilante MEGAN: With panicked breathing, you hold out your shaking hands at eye level Where flowing blood should ooze and hypnotize from these arteries, all you see is dancing capillaries Each one looks warping and foreign, an organism all their own moving to some insane bioelectric tempo of the nervous system that resonates throughout your every fiber 11 005 000 kindness day number %describe condition in whether angel/moth/vigilante 11 006 000 focus how long pass to 1 I pledge myself to the cause of Virtue, my talents I pledge to the service of the Gatekeeper and to see that the Light may spread across the dark skies Decreed by the Double-Eyed Hierophant The Fire passes through your veins as you move along in the face of danger for all those who have lost their lives to villainy and greed, for love and for justice 11 006 000 focus how long pass to 1 11 007 000 endless Valerie's walking cane hits the ground as she makes it go through her contorted and acrobatic routine What discipline! Her guardian must be so proud of her command over it, how flexible she can make it--even with two canes she can do the most difficult routines, more than any other girl her age ; (perhaps even you) 11 007 000 endless day number %describe condition in whether angel/moth/vigilante 11 008 000 bliss Powered by: PhotoStream THE BAYSIDE HEATH MILE POST : Your car stops between the mileposts D7 and D8 alongside the road that passes amoung the Bayside Hills The road cuts straight through a particularly bleak area of barren trees, which are this close to being dead "It's about time for me to 11 008 000 bliss day number %describe condition in whether angel/moth/vigilante 11 009 000 beauty THE BOY IN THE UNDERPASS : I tried sneaking past him, but he noticed me In the dim light, he seemed much paler than the last time I saw him during the day like almost like bone Oh God, did that mean he wasn't going outside during the day at all? What did he look like under the hat? 11 009 000 beauty day number %describe condition in whether angel/moth/vigilante 26 000 000 stylistic arte fact : txt THE TRESS OF HAIR ON THE WATER : This place draws straight lines, parallel lines near each other like the grooves cut into the Marshes themselves These lines That's why I like odd things--things that don't fit in with these rigid paths perfect rows of hedges, the lock gates, the paths that wound around the Crescents everything is straight Wild flowers amidst the grass grow as they please 26 000 000 stylistic artefact : That's what I am A wildflower in the marsh "The thing in itself, unfettered by philosophical baggage, is a beautiful thing" my teacher said 26 000 001 the scent of lavender from your elvish sheets number %describe condition in whether angel/moth/vigilante Oh Veronica, you weren't like the other girls I really\xE2\x80\x99m sorry, not my fault THE MEMBER OF THE TRIBE HANDS YOU A CARD : You take the card while she speaks in her incomprehensible language; whatever it is, it sounds harsh compared to her gentle tone The direction you need to walk is drawn onto a map with an illustration of the various general stores which dot this wretched town Well, thanks A map is all I really need right now Hope you have a pleasant day with your next customer THE TOWN OF LAW : Some said sheer boredom of the countryside breeds conditions for criminals That's silly; crime occurs wherever people exist What's important is how each town lends itself to opportunities and that's what varied from town to town What about your town? Oh, that's right You don't really have a town--more of a city, isn't it? THE HEAVENS ARE DEFILED BY THE MERCENARIES MARCHING TO WAR : War War never changes As soon as one rises to end another is incited Stakeholders take opposite sides and fight those with similar religions or goals in mind The big boys play their games while we get swept away on the tides of History Honestly, you struggle against the current and just end up going where they want you to 19 802 000 substandard %'mishap involving your houseboat'% ; (add 2 to event) THE DEEPEST ERROR : You wonder why it is that you're getting this feeling more and more as you close out your twenties--this relentless sense of guilt for things past which you have neither the time nor the ability to atone actually you do You've just been saving it for another rainy day--or rather, another joyless death day Still, it might take a little more than that to make up for your part in Ms Hell, what's the use? You know you won't go see her The pain in your head is unbearable, and a fever makes your whole body ache It's best to chalk it up as another life lesson learned the hard way Another of life's bitter lemons Nothing more, nothing less Though looking back, lemons were more enjoyable to consume before you had to choke down the nasty juice inside them THE DANGER OF FOLLOWING THE CROWD : "Hey Ashley, The anxiety of a parent has to be one of the worst kinds of human experiences As much as you'd like to say you're well-adjusted, haven't you always wondered if some part of your parents resides within you? Are you fundamentally more like your father just because you both have their same flesh and blood? Are you like your mother just because both of you share the same double-helix DNA code? Whether it matters or not, you still won't get back all the sleep you've lost after this Your life's already turbulent as it is--you don't need something like this to make it worse 18 820 000 arrogant %'reality show set'% ; It's a lot like high school No, not that you would know You've only heard stories ; (and seen that one TV episode parody) But you know what is it like anyway! You went to a several month long crash-course on the subject at the ripe old age of seventeen From what you heard of your old classmates, it sounds like all but three of them are doing something Something in each their own fields of work, or something Something needs to be done about this mess quick If you're in charge of this city, you won't have to sit through a town hall "get to know" meeting with every new applicant! What's worse, these guys don't know when to shut up during your speeches It's like everyone here is loud, judgmental and ignorant ALL the time--no wonder no one gets anything DONE around here! But still, you're willing to help them out You believe that you are on the road to a solution as you pedal your old, creaky bike up to the police station You reach over and knock on the door A tall svelk answers "Yeah? " he says

[ancientegyptianpyramidschemes]

Norwegian crypto Market Maker @fyrstikken once told me something very wise about BTC and Steem and getting to going from good project to good project early and he said to Be like a Bee going from success to success instead of being like the fly and going from shit to shit. And the bee does produce so much and is much a good worker it really is a great ideal to strive towards on a strictly biological level for workers and I suppose that means females of the future will be the workers and men will be drones wandering from hive to hive for star trek style mating rituals that will be doled out to males like once a season sex with a bunch of women in a music festival style setting. That's what I forsee in some timelines where men and women actually cant get along and we see groups where they have all females with a few males for reproduction like gerudu from zelda. I'm excited to see scifi versions of this with bees. Yes bees. https://www.instagram.com/p/B9XfrN7A7Qk/?igshid=1s6nbfg2k2fyr

[fic-dreamin]

3.0 out of 5 stars Interesting concept but it was just ok

5.0 out of 5 stars WHAT. DID. I. JUST. READ??????????? It would be impossible to review this book without spoiling it. The best I can do, and in tribute to what I just read, is to describe my journey. I picked this up and started reading it this morning. And I didn’t stop. I read it while I watered the garden, I read it while talking to other sci-fi nuts, I read it while I made dinner, and I finally finished it at 9:30 PM. Constantly flipping page after page, I could not put it down! I kept thinking I knew how it would end. I was wrong every single time.What did I just read??Truly mind-blowing, Dark Matters asks the reader to remember a time in their life where they made a decision that set them on track to who they are now, a moment that has defined them. If given the chance, would they make that same decision or…? If you knew the second chance offered you the wealth and prestige you let slip from your grasp, would you take it? And—deal breaker for me—what if the family you created and loved was not a part of that second chance? Last question, would you regret your final decision?It makes you think, doesn’t it?Filled with lots of scientific gobbled-gook that I had to skim over, Dark Matters is a hell of a book. I mean, I did learn about Schrondinger’s Cat. So many twists. So many monkey wrenches. So many times my eyes popped open wide as I said “NO WAY!!”It’s a crazy, crazy book that just speeds along like a train looking to wreck. Highly highly recommend for time travel nerds, sci-fi geeks, thriller freaks, conspiracy theorists and Blake Crouch fans everywhere.Enjoy! Go to Amazon

5.0 out of 5 stars Mystery/intrigue/thriller in a SciFi wrapper. Very quick read. *No Spoilers* I'm new to the author although I saw Wayward Pines on TV. This book is the fastest read I've picked up in a long time. You can (and will) motor through it in a day. There are a lot of themes here: the scientific method, the boundaries of the possible, the road not taken. The book is sort of a Mobius strip folding in on itself. Our protagonist Jason is challenged for his fundamental being.The best part of the book for me was the plot process of solving the problems presented. The writing is addictively captivating and would not let me go. In some ways I was more entranced during the reading than afterwards. This is a clever, creative and tightly wound plot. I am not willing to say much about the content for fears of ruining it. Enjoyed it very much, great for those who like blended genres. For me it was less science fiction than mystery and thriller. I hope you enjoy it! Go to Amazon

4.0 out of 5 stars Blake Crouch's best book to date Dark Matter is the thriller you are not going to want to put down, and in fact, may not be able to. Blake Crouch has written good books before, but Dark Matter is his best, most complete, and most satisfying novel to date.Dark Matter is the story of Jason Dessen, a university professor with a beautiful wife and son who goes out one night for a drink and wakes up in a different life. Not just a different life, but his own life, minus the wife and kid and instead of a teaching job, the greatest professional success in his field he’d ever imagined. Jason is desperate to return to the life he knew and be reunited with his family.This book is a scientifically plausible and fascinating thriller with amazing concepts and page-turning action. What really grounds this book, though, are the strong characters and relationships. Jason tries to reconstruct what has happened to him and find a way back to the woman and son he loves. This takes him down a path that is both mind-blowing and thrilling. There are a number of twists and turns in this book, a few of which you might see but most of which will just blow your mind.Dark Matter explores the choices we make and how these choices are both influenced by who we are and influence who we become. It does this in the context of a story filled with characters you care about and does it at a thriller’s pace. I enjoy a fast paced thriller, which this is, but the character depth is what takes this book to the next level.Blake Crouch has written his best book to date and one of the best thrillers of the year. He’s displaying all his skills and joins some of the best writers in the field today. Fans of Harlan Coben, Michael Crichton, Joseph Finder and thriller lovers in general will find a lot to like in this book. If you’ve ever wondered about the road not taken, you’re going to want to read this book. Highly recommended!I was fortunate to receive an advance copy of this book. Go to Amazon

2.0 out of 5 stars A great opening, but fizzles out quickly. This book grabbed my attention right away with fairly well developed, relatable characters, and some exciting and suspenseful writing, but ultimately it devolved into what felt like familiar territory. The book is similar to, and clearly inspired by Television shows like "Slider's" and "Quantum Leap."The writing style is a bit odd, and I was distracted by unnecessarily short sentences; instead of describing something in one sentence filled with adjectives, the author chose to list them in single short sentences. i.e. It was dark. Starless. Black. Or: It was cold. There was snow. White snow. White snow that covered the ground. At some point in the book it began to grate on me.This book has a great suspenseful opening but fizzles out quickly with some mucked-up science, some rather large plot holes, and an unnecessary, and uninspired second act. Go to Amazon