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taiblogcomics · 4 years ago

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I Can’t Pet Force You To Read This One, But...

Hey there, high school crushes. Well, it's finally here. Can you believe it? Yes, counting from the original Xanga site (which, yes, still counts. It's like our own Golden Age publication or apocryphia), this is our 10th anniversary of reviewing comics. That's fantastic. I'm excited, can't you tell? I can tell, since I'm writing this preamble a good two months before the actual anniverary~

So, last year we reviewed the absolute pile of dreck that is Heroes in Crisis. And while that was worth ripping into, I'd rather not spend the 10th anniversary hating on something. I'd like to do something actually meaningful to me. I've teased about this one for many years, probably for as long as I've been doing this blog, and I think it's time we stopped pussyfooting around and reviewed some Garfield. But not just any Garfield. It's finally time, my friends. This... is Garfield's Pet Force.

I dunno how many people will remember this one. Maybe you recall the direct-to-DVD movie adaptation from 2009, or at least advertising for it. I never saw it, but apparently it differs a bit. They also appeared a few times in those Garfield comics from back in the day. We even reviewed a couple (some were on the Xanga blog). But what we're looking at here are the original novellas published between 1997 and 1999. So yeah, these really are from my childhood. And since I've long espoused that Garfield was always funnier 20 years ago, this must be actual premium Garfield content, yeah? By golly, I hope so, because we got five whole books here today. So we should probably get into them~

Book 1: The Outrageous Origin

This is a classic sort of superhero cover. Standard team shot of poses, and that's fine for a first volume. In fact, that's great. Later editions of this would replace the lightning-filled gradient background with a pure white one, but I have this original version. We'll get to specifics about these characters in the meat of the story, but let's talk about the costumes for a bit. Very classic early-'90s sort of look, before the Dark Age kicked in. Reminds me a lot of Jim Lee's X-Men designs, actually. Making all your characters visually distinct is important in a team book. The heavy lean into secondary colours is unusual for heroic characters, but not unwelcome.

So we actually start with a cold open in the superhero universe. This is pretty much to introduce us to the characters as soon as possible, and thus I'll do the same for you here.

*Garzooka, team leader, super strong, has a razor-sharp claw, and can shoot radioactive hairballs from his mouth. That's... at least a unique power, I don't think anyone on the Justice League can do that~ *Odious, the dumb muscle with the accent on the "dumb". Possibly even stronger than Garzooka, and possessing a "super-stretchy stun tongue", an elastic tongue that can scramble the minds of whoever it adheres to. *Starlena, the team girl. She can fly, and she has a siren song that can put those who hear it into a hypnotic trance. Garzooka is the only one immune to its effects, for reasons that are never explained. *Abnermal, the kid-appeal character. He has ice powers, forcefields, and an ill-defined "pester power" that means he can annoy people on a greater scale than normal folks. It's pretty much only used for comic relief, but that could be a brilliant power in the right hands. *Compooky, the brains of the operation. Other than flight, his powers are limited to super intelligence, which means he's usually the exposition guy. There's probably a reason they left him out of the movie adaptation~

You got all that? Don't worry, we'll introduce you again later in the book. What actually happens in the intro chapter isn't really important, it's just setting up the universe. In fact, it's all taking place within Pet Force #99, a comic just enjoyed by Nermal. Yes, we quickly cut over to the main Garfield universe ("our universe", the narrator calls it), where Pet Force is just a comic book. The Garfield gang is all outside, enjoying a cookout prepared by Jon Arbuckle. Nermal is extremely enthused by his comic book, and brags about how he has all 98 previous issues sealed and polybagged, and this one will soon join them. Sorry, Nermal, this came out in 1997, the speculator boom already went bust~

Garfield dismisses comic books as stupid because you can't eat them or use them as a blanket, and declares that none of the stuff that happens in the comic could possibly happen in real life. Uh oh, irony! Because these things can happen, and do! It's a parallel universe, baby! This might be one of my earliest introductions to a "parallel worlds" concept. Much like Earths 1 and 2 in pre-Crisis DC, the events of the comic are essentially the real life adventures of their super-powered counterparts in another dimension. Most of the action in these stories will take place there~

So here's the setup: Vetvix (the parallel equivalent to Liz the veternarian) is an evil sorceress and scientist, who essentially wants to experiment on animals in peace, and possibly subjugate the universe while she's at it. You could argue that Liz is an odd choice for villain, since our universe's Liz isn't particularly evil. But then, our universe's Garfield isn't particularly heroic either. She operates out of a deadly space station called the Orbiting Clinic of Chaos, and at present she's waiting for the arrival of her henchman, Space Pie-Rat, who is a six-foot-tall anthropomorphic rat dressed in stereotypical pirate getup. Vetvix has just finished inventing a levitation ray, and she'd like Pie-Rat to go out and use it to steal all the food in the universe. Vetvix doesn't think small, is what I'm saying.

The counter to Vetvix is Emperor Jon, ruler of the planet Polyester. He's kind and benevolent, even if he's a little dippy and his fashion sense atrocious. Having gotten wind of Vetvix's latest plan, he contacts Pet Force in their ship, the Lightspeed Lasagna. Upon learning the problem, Pet Force gives chase to Pie-Rat. They eventually corner him on some desolate planet, landing and entering an abandoned factory. Unfortunately, they're not safe amongst the dangerous machinery, because this turns out to be a trap. Vetvix has been busy as hell, because she's also invented a metal that's impervious to their powers. And that's not all, because she's also basically invented the Phantom Zone, where she traps Pet Force forever. It specifically mentions it doesn’t kill them, because it wouldn't be kosher to murder the heroes in a Garfield book~

The Lightspeed Lasagna has both onboard cameras connected to the heroes' belts as well as automatic return protocols, so within two days, Emperor Jon knows exactly what's happened to Pet Force. He needs help, so he calls upon his most trusted and powerful advisor: Binky the Sorceror. Binky's just as loud and obnoxious as in the main universe, but he's also a powerful magician. He conjures up a spell for Emperor Jon that lets him pierce the veil between universes. It's basically Equestria Girls rules: parallel universes have similar characters between them. So to replace Pet Force, they need the nearest genetic equivalents from another universe. And that's the versions of Garfield, Odie, Arlene, Nermal, and Pooky that we know and love~

Back in the main universe, it's another day entirely. Another cookout is taking place, and Nermal has received his special anniversary issue of Pet Force #100. The cover's really special, dripping with '90s cover gimmicks like glow-in-the-dark and embossing. A rarely used one, though, was "portal to another universe". That was pretty expensive to print, so you won't find many comics like Nermal's. Maybe he had something there with the collecting after all. The cover glows, and while Jon is distracted by the grill, Garfield and Friends disappear~

They reappear in Emperor Jon's wood-paneled throne room, now transformed into Pet Force. Emperor Jon and Sorceror Binky try to explain the situation, but Garfield--now Garzooka--is disbelieving of the whole thing. In fact, even the idea that Jon can now hear him talk absolutely floors him. Since he's about to deliver the exposition for everyone, can we talk about Compooky for a minute? This spell has just granted sapience to Garfield's teddy bear. I don't expect deep philosophy from a children's novella, but the ramifications of this are really under-explored. Like, never mind the whole idea of a teddy bear having the same genetic makeup as an alternate universe equivalent. He goes from inanimate object to fully conscious being, and he just rolls with it.

Anyways, once everybody gets caught up on what's going on and accepts the new reality, a training montage ensues so the group can all learn to use their powers without killing each other. Once at least reasonably trained, the reborn Pet Force is sent out to stop Pie-Rat. He's gotten sloppy in the times with Pet Force dead, so they track him down easily. After a brief scuffle where Garzooka takes his eyepatch, Pie-Rat flees in his ship. They follow Pie-Rat back to the Orbital Clinic of Chaos, but they can't go in the front. That led the original Pet Force into a trap. Finding an unguarded maintenance hatch--standard on any big space station--they enter Vetvix's lair for a final confrontation!

After dealing with the Waiting Room of Doom, which slowly fills with outdated magazines, they enter Vetvix's inner sanctum. Frustrated with Pie-Rat's failure, she uses her magic to turn him into an ordinary mouse. Vetvix then attempts to use her same weapon on this new Pet Force, but thanks to story contrivance, it only works on beings born in this universe. As other dimensional visitors already, they can't be banished to another dimension. She then pulls a Dr. Claw and runs off cursing Pet Force's name while her base self-destructs. Vetvix is a very "discard and draw" sort of villain, it seems. Pet Force, of course, makes a harrowing escape just in the nick of time.

Returning to Emperor Jon, they vow to be ready to return whenever they're called on, since evil never stays dormant for long. Odious even gifts Emperor Jon with the mouse-ified Pie-Rat as proof of their victory. Well, I'm glad they remember that, so they didn't accidentally murder a major villain in their first superhero outing. They're returned to their own universe, and the time differential between them places them back with Jon having not had time to even look up from the grill. Garfield begins to doubt the adventure even happened--until that night, when he finds Pie-Rat's eyepatch still on his person. Ah, definitive proof of... eyepatches, I guess~

Book 2: Pie-Rat's Revenge!

You have to wonder where, in a space-faring superhero setting, Pie-Rat got the inspiration for his classic pirate motif. It's a little incongruous is all I'm saying. And hey, remember when I said earlier that Garzooka's purple-and-green colour scheme was odd for a hero? Well, here he is as a villain! That'll catch your eye. This would be a terrific comic cover, which is what you want in a series like this.

The book opens with a brief recap of the previous story's events, then moves into the new plot. See, Emperor Jon has opted to keep the polymorphed Pie-Rat as his pet. How very Ron Weasley of him. That's pretty apt, actually, because similarly Pie-Rat has maintained his intelligence in his new mousey form. Pie-Rat gets sick of being Emperor Jon's pet and plans a daring escape, exploiting the emperor's dimwitted and loving personality against him. Pie-Rat jams the lock with a food pellet and makes his escape that night.

Once free from his cage, he encounters Binky's cauldron, still left in the throne room from when the sorceror summoned Pet Force from Garfield's universe. Figuring he has nothing to lose, Pie-Rat jumps in the leftover brew. Suddenly he finds himself growing. He returns to his original anthropomorphic state--but with a twist. He's now twice his original height, a staggering twelve feet tall. He scoops up the rest of the remaining potion for later, and sneaks out of the palace as best as a 12-foot rat can sneak. Desiring revenge on both his former employer and his longtime foes, he steals Pet Force's ship and makes his escape from the planet, headed for Vetvix's newest base.

After his guards help Emperor Jon put the pieces of the problem together, they decide they must once again call upon the powers of Pet Force to recover their missing vehicle and stop the newly embiggened Pie-Rat. Fortunately, Garfield and friends have been watching movies all weekend, so Jon doesn't notice when his pets disappear from the living room in a bright flash. Of course, once returned to the alternate universe and the situation explained, they still have a problem: how do they give chase to Pie-Rat when he's got their ship?

And speaking of Pie-Rat in their ship, he's followed the trail of a mysterious energy output, and it's led him right to Vetvix's new base, the Menacing Moon of Mayhem. See, this is why you don't blow up your base: the backup base is never as good. if it was, it wouldn't be the backup. Given that it's such a shoddy base, Pie-Rat is easily able to get inside and get close to Vetvix. She's expecting a technological attack, so she's unprepared when he pulls out that vial of magic potion and sprinkles her with it. And naturally, the potion that made him grow 12 feet tall makes Vetvix shrink to 5 inches. It's magic, we don't have to explain it!

Pie-Rat takes the magic crystal that Vetvix uses to fuel her powers, which of course didn't shrink because magic is just bullshit. See previous paragraph's last sentence. And while Pie-Rat takes over the base and begins plotting a further revenge against Pet Force, we cut over to them. They're at Sorceror Binky's own castle, and it's clear he's a bit of a hoarder. This is to their advantage, though, as they eventually piece together a working spaceship out of old car parts and other things, all patched together between Compooky's know-how and Binky's magic. This seems like the sort of book where I could use that "it's magic" quote every other paragraph. But craft a new--if small--ship they do, and speed off in the newly christened Planetary Pizza.

The rickety little ship does eventually find its way to Pie-Rat's base, saving him the trouble of being proactive as a villain. The magic thing keeps happening, and Pie-Rat basically becomes Discord for a bit while he fights them, doing things like turning Starlena's siren song into actual living music notes. One by one, the members of Pet Force are taken out, with only Garzooka is left. He and Pie-Rat struggle, while Pie-Rat tries to aim the magic crystal at Garzooka. Garzooka uses his claw to rip the crystal from Pie-Rat and defeat him.

Unfortunately, here's where the cover comes in. It seems the moments Pie-Rat was focusing the crystal during the struggle affected Garzooka's mind. He puts the crystal around his own neck. which turns him evil. He helps Pie-Rat to his feet, and the pair escape in the Lightspeed Lasagna. While Pet Force pursues them in their ramshackle ship, the new criminal duo strikes the storage planet of Deli to steal their food. Pet Force manages to catch up as the villains celebrate their spoils, and use a magic blast from the systems Binky installed to short out the Lightspeed Lasagna. This enables them to dock with the ship and climb aboard for a contfrontation.

The group fights, and once again the bearer of a bullshit magic crystal subdues the heroes easily. Annoyed now, Garzooka takes hold of Starlena and prepares to kill her or something. She taps into the one thing she has left: she's not fighting just Garzooka, but Garfield in his body. She drops some heavy put-downs, which resonate with Garfield, and he hesitates long enough for her to cut the crystal off him. The crystal hits the floor and shatters, undoing its evil magics on Garzooka's mind as well as on all his teammates. With Pet Force reunited, Pie-Rat is easily subdued and locked up.

The group waits for the ship to power back up, then speed off to apologise to the planet Deli. Following that, they head back towards Vetvix's moonbase. That night, though, the magic that was making Pie-Rat 12 feet tall wears off, and he escapes from his cell. He steals the remaining shards of the crystal, climbs into the Planetary Pizza, and makes a getaway. As a bonus, he also repeats the power-down spell against the bigger ship, giving him ample time to escape. And he's not the only one. Over on the Menacing Moon of Mayhem, Vetvix also returns to her proper size, and abandons this base as well. And when Pet Force fails to find her, they simply return to their own universe, ready to be called on once again in the future~

Book 3: K-Niner: Dog of Doom!

Another very basic comic book-style cover. K-Niner is a much more typical villain in style. This one's actually a wrap-around, and features the rest of Pet Force reacting to K-Niner on the back cover. Which is good because, other than the first cover, the covers all have a heavy Garzooka focus. Which makes sense for a book series, I suppose, you wanna assure the kiddos that Garfield's gonna be in the book. But as a comic book series, this would be a bad look for a team book~

So after our standard introduction and recap, we start off with Vetvix in yet another new base, the Floating Fortress of Fear. I'm sure it's very intimidating, if she can keep hold of it for more than a single book. She's picking up from the epilogue and putting the last touches on K-Niner, mostly enhancing his intelligence. Now, you look at the cover and tell me what kind of voice you'd expect. Some sort of German or Austrian accent, like the doberman on Road Rovers? Does anyone remember Road Rovers~? Anyways, but no: he speaks with a posh British accent. You know, the "I say, good chaps, looks like we're in a bit of a sticky wicket, eh wot?" type. Trust me, you can tell. But just because he sounds refined doesn't mean he's not evil.

I also love that after the initial "trapped them in the Phantom Zone" bit, the villains just go whole ham. K-Niner here demonstrates that he is indeed evil by threatening to rip out Vetvix's throat. Let your villains be villainous is all I'm saying. She's pleased he's so vicious, but feels he needs to learn his place as well. She force-chokes him until he complies. She then gives him his assignment: she thinks dogs should be liberated. The Boy Mayor of Second Life would approve, and so does K-Niner. Turning pets on their masters is just his style.

K-Niner takes a portable evolution gun, and immediately sets off. He begins on the planet Kennel. Isn't it neat how every planet is named after an English word that describes its function? K-Niner quickly takes over the dog population and turns them against their masters, because boosting their intelligence also makes them evil, of course. They use enslavement collars on their former owners, and within a few days, the dogs now run the planet. We cut over to Emperor Jon on Polyester, where a man has crash-landed a ship. He's an escapee from Kennel, and he's here to report the events so we can get the plot moving and once more summon Pet Force!

And summoned once more they are, Garfield and Friends once more conveniently disappearing in a split second while Jon's back is turned (this time they're outside playing volleyball). And once back in the parallel universe, Emperor Jon fills them all in on K-Niner's dastardly doings. Garzooka, naturally, takes great offense to dogs being in charge, and takes his duties as a hero completely seriously for once. Pet Force takes off for a confrontation with K-Niner in the Lightspeed Lasagna. And speaking of Pet Force's ships...

The Planetary Pizza, piloted by Pie-Rat, plants its pads down on polar planet Glacia. Pie-Rat is here seeking a way to restore his magic crystal and regain his mighty magic powers. He's sought out the home of a legendary evil wizard, who's known by the name of... Barfo. I see why Barfo keeps his location a secret. But anyway, Barfo is the one who made the crystal, so naturally Pie-Rat reasons he can restore it as well. Suprisingly once on Glacia, Barfo's evil lair is pretty easy to find. His manservant, Hobart the Gnome, brings Pie-Rat before the wizard, and within moments the crystal is restored! Pie-Rat turns to thank Hobart, but Hobart suddenly turns into Vetvix!

Yes, Vetvix knew all along that Pie-Rat's quest would lead him here. And as she was once Barfo's student in the ways of evil magic, she knew she could get the old coot to go along with her plan. Barfo returns the crystal to Vetvix, restoring her powers. And so Pie-Rat, a recurring villain in three whole books, is unceremoniously done away with, as Vetvix teleports him inside an asteroid, trapping him in solid rock. Even if the asteroid were hollow or he displaced the interior when he teleported in, no doubt he'll suffocate within moments. That's pretty harsh.

With that over, we rejoin Pet Force as they approach Kennel. K-Niner's battle cruiser spots them incoming, and shoots the ship down, even in spite of Abnermal's forcefields. Pet Force bail out of the ship, and Abnermal uses his powers to make snow to cushion their fall. Upon landing, a contingent of mutant animals attack. The mooks aren't much, but K-Niner himself puts up an impressive fight. However, one of the mooks pulls a gun and points it at Compooky. This is why Compooky usually stays aboard the ship, but that wasn't an option. Rather than let their friend get hurt, Pet Force surrenders.

Pet Force is held prisoner separately from Compooky, with both the cell's technology making it freeze-proof and threats of "don't break out, or we'll shoot your compatriot". Their imprisonment is not long, though, as suddenly the power goes out. Pet Force takes advantage of the situation and make their escape, quickly running into Compooky. K-Niner didn't think the hyper-intelligent teddy bear needed a high security cell, and just locked him in the basement. It was easy for him to then break out and shut down the local power grid. This also has the side effect of turning off the control collars the humans were wearing. How convenient!

With control of the planet now tilted in their favour, Pet Force now has time to both fix their ship and reverse the polarity of the brain-boosting weapons, turning the dog population of Kennel back to their normal selves. Though the experience did change the pet owners of Kennel. Having experienced life in their pets' shoes (so to speak) for a bit, they've resolved to treat their canine companions a bit more equally. More being allowed on the furniture, less stupid tricks for treats. Still, Pet Force can't stay long, and they head off in pursuit of K-Niner's battle cruiser. This is why most superheroes don't have spaceships (Jedis don't count): if your enemy also has one, they can flee way more easily than on foot.

Not willing to let another place go to the dogs, as it were, Pet Force catches up with K-Niner. With his previous success, Vetvix has stepped up the timetable and sent him after Polyester right away. Emperor Jon is in danger! They enter the planet's atmosphere, and are attacked by fighter craft. They fend them off, but their weapons system is damaged in the fight, so they can't simply use the reverse brain-rays and solve it quickly. The team splits up instead: Garzooka and Abnermal will go after K-Niner, while the other three will find the planet's power source and knock out the collars, since that worked so well the last time.

The two heroes quickly make short work of K-Niner's guards, and then turn the battle to deal with the Dog of Doom himself. While the struggle goes on, the rest of Pet Force reach the planet's power grid. Using a clever tactic, Compooky overloads the power and causes and electrical storm that simultaneously undoes the brain-boosting effect and shorts out the enslavement collars. There's only a few pages left, after all, and we have to wrap this up. K-Niner is reverted back into an ordinary dog, and the emperor is reverted to an ordinary non-enslaved person. The day is saved!

And now once again, Pet Force prepares to return to their own universe. However... when the spell clears, the five heroes are still standing there. Something is blocking the passage between dimensions, and Pet Force is trapped. And while Pet Force's adventures have taken place between mere moments in their own universe, they have always returned quickly enough that Jon didn't notice a thing. But this time, as Jon retrieves the volleyball and turns around to his pets, he's surprised to find they've all vanished into thin air...

Book 4: Menace of the Mutanator

This one's very striking because of its more painted look compared to the heavy black outlines the rest of the covers have. Does this one count as having the whole team on the cover? Because, spoilers, that's what the Mutanator is: the rest of Pet Force mashed up into a villain. Again, though, that's definitely a striking image that'd draw in readers to a comic cover. In fact, while Garzooka may be over-used as a cover focus, several of these also show him imperiled in some way, and that's nice for character stuff. That helps balace it a bit~

I wanna say, before we start, that I'm impressed by the continuity for the series as a whole. They could've just written each story as a standalone, but for a series of 100-page children's novellas starring Garfield characters as superheroes, things happen in these books. Like, maybe not sweeping status quo changes, but events affect the plot of each next book down the line. And that's where we pick up! Right where the last book left off, with Pet Force now stuck in the alternate universe, unable to return home to Jon. But if they can't go home to Jon, well, maybe then events will conspire to bring Jon to them~

Yep, because Jon happens to wander into the room where they keep the copy of Pet Force #100 that acts as a portal to their universe, he gets transported into the Pet Force universe. And since Emperor Jon is still an extant entity, there's just two Jons now. Jon, of course, is a bit freaked out, and it takes several pages to explain the whole deal to him, and also have a showcase of all their powers to pad out the book some more. Eventually, they decide to call in Sorceror Binky to examine the problem. When he has a go of it, a sudden tornado emerges from the cauldron and whisks away Pet Force--save for Garzooka, whose prodigious strength keeps him anchored.

Garzooka heads out in the Lightspeed Lasagna to track Pet Force's signature, glad to get away from a double trouble Jon. And while he's searching, the scene cuts to Vetvix's Floating Fortress of Fear. Hey, one of her bases actually lasted more than one book! This is where Pet Force has been transported to, once more in a power-proof cell. Vetvix monologues to the heroes, as she is wont to do, explaining that she's the one who cast the spell to keep them from returning home. And further, she's brought them here to mutate them into her servants.

While Emperor Jon exposits about his backstory (turns out he is not of royal blood, and has about as much legitimate claim to the throne as you or I do), the search continues. Sorceror Binky detects Pet Force, giving them all a view of what happens next. The trapped members of Pet Force are literally broken apart and reassembled: Odious' body, Compooky's brain inserted into the chest, Abnermal's hands, and Starlena's head. She christens this beast "Mutanator", and it is soullessly obedient. I also wanna say, Mutanator's kind of a non-binary icon, aren't they? (The comic uses "it", but it was 1998 and alternative pronouns weren't really a thing yet.) Muscular, masculine body, but confident enough to still wear lipstick. It's a look, is all I'm saying~

Mutanator continues to possess the combined powers of Pet Force as well. Vetvix sends them to attack the planet Armory to gear up before attempting to conquer Polyester. And meanwhile, thanks to the convenience of being able to scan all of Compooky's memories now that his brain is part of Mutanator, Vetvix has the perfect trap to spring on Garzooka--or should she say Garfield. Yes, she really knows the whole origin for Pet Force now, and now she knows all Garfield's weaknesses, likes and dislikes, and probably blood type and other dating profile stats~

Thus, when Garzooka receives the coordinates from Emperor Jon and arrives at the Floating Fortress, he finds himself menaced by giant spiders. Vetvix couldn't think of a way to get Mondays to attack him, so the Giant Spider Invasion will do. Spiders are apparently very formiddable foes, Garzooka's personal fears aside. They can swat gamma hairballs out of the air, they can construct webs as quickly as certain Marvel heroes, and their hairy exoskeletons are resistant to both claw and strength. But despite his fear and Abnermal's running commentary, Garzooka manages to trounce the spiders with a carefully applied flame--taking Vetvix's blueprints with them.

Garzooka heads out once again to track down the Mutanator, leaving his less-than-all-together friends in the safety of their forcefield prison. While he's off, we return to the perspective of his target. Using their combined powers, the Mutanator swiftly conquers the planet Armory and sets their sights on Polyester next. It's not a bad plan, honestly. With the stockpile from Armory, not only will the Mutanator be more powerful, Polyester won't be able to use the planet for backup. Fortunately for the two Jons, though, Garzooka intercepts the Mutanator before they can leave Armory.

The fight's actually pretty good. Very back and forth. But even despite Garzooka's great strength, the Mutanator wins in the end. Thankfully, Vetvix puts her conquest of Polyester on hold to take the time to retrieve Garzooka and add his power to the Mutanator. This, of course will be her undoing--in a completely ridiculous way, of course. For back in the palace, our universe's Jon is watching Pet Force's struggles with the scrying cauldron. And he leans in a bit too close. Sowhile Vetvix is prepping the machine to divide Garzooka's body like she did the rest of Pet Force, Jon suddenly tumbles through the dimensional warp caused by the cauldron and lands on Vetvix, which causes her to put the machine in reverse. A real Jonnus ex cauldrona there, eh?

The Mutanator disappears, their existance as a unique being wiped out as their pieces return to their proper Pet Force owners. With Pet Force reassembled, Garzooka takes out Vetvix with one of his gamma-radiated hairballs while she's distracted by Jon. Pet Force decides that the vile veternarian should have a taste of her own medicine, and stick her in the body-splicing machine with some of her guards. This divides them all up and mixes them into bizarre combinations. It also has the side effect of disabling Vetvix's magic, so they can return to their own universe now.

The book wraps up here. Pet Force first returns to Armory to both return the stolen weapons and also make repairs on the buildings that were damaged in Garzooka's fight with the Mutanator. That's the sort of thing I'd like to see in more superhero stories in general. The two Jons part ways, with the Emperor believing the other Jon's heroism to have been deliberate. And thus are Garfield and friends returned home. And just like the end of their first adventure, where Garfield couldn't be sure if it really happened, so too is Jon's memory fading. Had he really witnessed all that? Only his pets know for sure--and in this universe, they can't talk~

Book 5: Attack of the Lethal Lizards

This one's another wrap-around, showing the rest of Pet Force engaging the remaining Lethal Lizards on the back cover. This is one advantage books have over comics: a front and back cover you can use for your story-telling. The Lizard designs are pretty good for a villain group too. Like Pet Force, they don't adhere to a particular theme, but they do look good individually. Garzooka roasting a hot dog on a stick might be a bit too comedic for a superhero story, though. It sets the tone wrong. How "lethal" can they possibly be if Garzooka is out here roasting hot dogs in the middle of battle?

So here we go, last book. After the usual recap, we open with Jon explaining to Garfield and friends his latest plans: they're going to WackyWorld, a theme park dedicated to Jon's favourite cartoon, The Wackies. Both Garfield and Nermal think the show is lame, and if those two agree on something, you know it must be so. In less lame universes, however, trouble is once more a-brewing. So it turns out Vetvix's Floating Fortress of Fear has been orbiting the swamp planet Reptilius this whole time. And her various experiments in the last two books have been radiating the planet in magical energy...

From that magical power, three reptiles find themselves uplifted in intelligence and granted fantastic powers. Please say hello to our three main villains for this book: Snake, an enormous snake (the only one without an anthro design) with stretching powers; Chameleon, who can shapeshift; and Dragon, a komodo dragon with fire breath and the bad attitude to match. While Snake and Chameleon figure out their powers, Dragon declares himself the leader as he's clearly the smartest, strongest, and most powerful. They name themselves the Lethal Lizards and start plotting how to rule the planet.

After that exciting intro, though, the book kind of slows down. First we get a whole chapter of Emperor Jon also deciding to go on vacation, to planet Funlandia. With Vetvix out of commission for a while, there's no better time. In short, he's out of the castle and Sorceror Binky is in charge. This is followed by a chapter of Jon and his pets at WackyWorld. It's certainly an accommodating amusement park to allow pets on its grounds. Garfield at least gets along with the food, but if you know anything about amusement park food prices, the amount Garfield eats will make your wallet weep. Jon takes his mind off it by dragging the pets along to a ride. Surely they have to be under the height restriction~

Fortunately, we get back to the actual stars of this book, and we see a bit more of their dynamic. Snake is the sort who sucks up to whoever's calling themselves "Boss" at the moment. Dragon is power-hungry, and it's clear he'll sell out his allies at the drop of a hat. Chameleon is Starscream. Anyway, they trek through the jungles of Reptilius until they find a downed spaceship. Reviewing the logs reveals it was a scout ship from Vetvix, and they also learn of Vetvix and her mission. However, they don't know where Emperor Jon lives, so they crowd into the the newly christened Rapacious Reptile and set course for the stars.

The first planet they come across is a world called Klod. Quickly the Lethal Lizards beat up the populace and find the local government. Chameleon shapeshifts into a dignitary, pretending to be an advance entourage for Emperor Jon, schmoozing with the governor until he learns both what Jon looks like and the name of his planet. With this information secure, Chameleon nips out suddenly, and the trio sets forth towards Polyester. Governer Klutz calls up the palace as soon as the reptiles depart, and reports the incident to Sorceror Binky.

Binky wastes no time, and he dials up Pet Force. Since all five are in one place, he's able to pull them through even without them being near the gateway through issue #100's cover. Convenient! Pet Force, however, does waste time, as a lengthy comedy scene eats up several pages before we just get on with it. Eventually, the situation is conveyed, and they figure it's safer to keep Emperor Jon on Funlandia for the time being. Compooky stays behind to help plan some strategies, while the rest of Pet Force boards the Lightspeed Lasagna to intercept the Lethal Lizards before they even arrive.

Pet Force spends the next few minutes both scanning for incoming ships and bickering with each other, so I'm very glad when the Rapacious Reptile appears on their detectors before too long. Dragon threatens the ship, telling them to move or he'll knock them aside. It's a spaceship, dude, you can move in three dimensions. The ships trade shots, and while Chameleon's piloting is actually pretty good due to his independently-rotating eyeballs, eventually both ships crash land on whatever planet is nearby.

Both ships crash right next to each other, which is improbable but less ridiculous than some of the contrivances in these books, so I'm okay with it. Now you'd think what with the enemies being reptiles and Abnermal having freezing powers that this battle would be over really easily, but no. In fact, Garzooka and Dragon are pretty evenly matched. Snake turns out to be immune to Starlena's siren song because snakes don't have external ears. See, now there's a contrivance I find a bit weird. Snake swallows Abnermal whole, and Chameleon and Odious get literally tongue-tied. The Lethal Lizards actually live up to their name pretty well.

As the fight continues, half of both sides are laid out when Compooky comes rushing up, saying he has an urgent message from the emperor. And that's when he sucker-punches the team. It was actually Chameleon in disguise, having gotten knocked away when he and Odious separated. So yeah, round one goes to the Lizards, and they make their escape first. Pet Force regroups, and they give chase. The Lizards have enough head start to really lay siege to Polyester before Pet Force arrives, though. They even get access to the palace using Chameleon's shapeshifting, leading to Sorceror Binky letting slip the real location of the emperor just as Pet Force arrives.

Another fight ensues--see, now it's really a superhero story--and the Lizards leave again 2 and 0. This time Snake uses his venomous fangs to attack Starlena. This leads to the weirdest contrivance yet. Maybe not the worst, but definitely the weirdest. They have only minutes to save Starlena. So how do they do it? Well, they notice that Odious drools quite a lot. It's very "fluid output". So they have Binky magically reverse Odious' drooling, so that he has "fluid input" on his tongue instead. It becomes a big suction sponge and sucks the poison out of Starlena. They then restore the drooling, and he just harmlessly drools out the poison. What.

With their teammate saved, Pet Force pursues the Lethal Lizards to Funlandia. They get there just in time to rescue Emperor Jon from their clutches, with Garzooka and Odious combining their strength to literally rip a kiddie ride out of the ground. Starlena corners Chameleon in a hall of mirrors, turning his own trick against him. Snake is undone by Odious' strength. And Garzooka fights Dragon to a standstill, finally trapping all three on a roller coaster still operating. When the ride comes to an end, Abnermal freezes them all until the authorities can retrieve them.

Naturally, Emperor Jon thinks it's all part of the show (because Jon is dimwitted in any universe). The Lizards are sent to a lizard-proof prison (seriously, it specifies this), and Pet Force returns to their own universe. As usual, Jon didn't notice his pets go missing during the dark amusement park ride. The book concludes on an ominous note, however, as the ship carrying the Lethal Lizards makes its jump to lightspeed just as it passes the Floating Fortress of Fear. The shockwave knocks over some debris that reactivates the combining machine, restoring Vetvix to her full evil might once more!

The end!

No, really. Those five books are all there was. I hear it may have continued into the comics, but I don’t know how accurate that is. I didn’t really look into it.

But boy, what a ride, huh? Let’s dissect the books one at a time, since it only seems fair to take them as individual stories.

The Outrageous Origin: It’s a fairly basic origin story, I’d say. It kind of has to be. I guess my main gripe is that, like Rita Repulsa’s entire run on Power Rangers, the heroes never fight the main villain directly. In fact, there’s barely even an evil plot in this one. You have henchmen and some traps, and that’s about it for the menace.

Pie-Rat’s Revenge: A cautionary tale about why you treat your minions with respect. This one’s pretty good, but the events depicted on the cover make up such a small part of the book. Wouldn’t it have been more fun if Garzooka was turned at the beginning of the story? Book 4 would at least do the reverse of that, so it’s not a major complaint~

K-Niner, Dog of Doom: I think this one’s about as middle of the road as you can get. What a coincidence that it’s also the middle of the series! Like I said in the recap portion, it’s a shame that Pie-Rat’s story ended here. This one definitely feels more “villain of the week” than most.

Menace of the Mutanator: This one might be the best book in the series. Garzooka, alone, battling against the best parts of his team? That’s gripping stuff. I guess the main problem is that the Mutanator isn’t really a character in and of themselves. Like, K-Niner, he may have been a generic rent-a-villain type, but he had a personality. Mutanator is little more than an extention of Vetvix’s will.

Attack of the Lethal Lizards: I’m a bit split on this one. The bits with the titular Lizards are great. They steal the show! But the parts where it focuses on either Jon kind of drag, and Pet Force is a bit too jokey here. Like, I get the point is that they’ve relaxed into their roles now, and there’s not much point of doing it as a Garfield story if they don’t actually use the character personalities, but... I dunno. It’s good, but it could have been better~

And that’s it! Like, I dunno how to wrap this up. Pet Force was neither my first exposure to superheroes nor my first introduction to the Garfield brand (you can thank Saturday morning cartoons for both of those). But for some reason, maybe just the absurdly goofy premise, it always kinda stuck with me. And I think that’s a good enough reason to make it my 10th anniversary review, don’t you~?

#books #reviews #Garfield #Pet Force #Garfield's Pet Force #Taiblog

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blackswaneuroparedux · 4 years ago

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Vivant, il a manqué le monde ; mort, il le possède.

- François René de Chateaubriand (1768-1848), Vie de Napoléon, livres XIX à XXIV des Mémoires d’outre-tombe (posthume)

Of course we don’t have any photograph or film of Napoleon’s death on 5 May 1821 on Saint Hélène. But we do have the next best thing: a painting. Charles de Steuben depiction of Napoleon's deathbed and his faithful entourage that served as witnesses to his dying moments became the one of the most important paintings of the post-Napoleonic era but then faded from modern memory.

I first came across it by accident when I was in my teens at my Swiss boarding school. There were times I found myself with school friends going away on hiking trips around the high Alpine chain of the Allgäu Alps and we would drive through Lake Constance to get there, or we would hike around the Lake itself through the Bodensee-Rundwanderweg.

Perched high above Lake Constance and nestled in large parklands, stood Schloss Arenenberg which overlooks the lower part of Lake Constance. At first, it appears a relatively modest country house. But this was no usual pretty looking house. Arenenberg was owned by well-heeled families before it was sold to Hortense de Beauharnais, the adopted daughter and sister-in-law of the French Emperor himself, Napoleon Bonaparte. She had it rebuilt in the French Empire style and lived there from 1817 with her son Louis Napoleon, later Emperor Napoleon III, who is said to have spoken the Thurgau dialect in addition to French. This elegantly furnished castle then was once the residence of the last emperor of France.

The alterations made first by Queen Hortense and later by Empress Eugénie have been carefully preserved and the house still bears the marks of both women. Queen Hortense's drawing room is perfectly preserved and visitors can still admire her magnificent library (all marked with the Empress' cipher) containing over one thousand books. Likewise, in the room where the queen died, every object has been maintained in its original condition: pieces of furniture and personal belongings are gathered here to evoke her memory in a very touching manner. As for Empress Eugénie's rooms, they too have been very carefully preserved. Her private drawing room is a perfect illustration of the Second Empire style with sculptures by Carpeaux and portraits of the imperial family by Winterhalter.

After 1873, the Empress and the Imperial Prince brought the palace back to life by making regular summer visits, which they continued until 1878. However, on the tragic death of her son in 1879, Eugénie found it difficult to return to a place so full of painful memories. And so in 1906 she donated the estate to the canton of Thurgovie as a testimony of her gratitude for the region's faithful hospitality towards the Napoleon family. And in accordance with the Empress' wishes, the residence was turned into a museum devoted to Napoleon.

In what is now the Napoleonic Museum, the original furnishings have been preserved, and the palace gardens had been fully restored. This in itself might be worth a visit for the view over Lake Constance which is stunning. For Napoleonic era buffs though its the incredible art collection which is its real treasure. It houses an important art collection including works by the First-Empire artists Chinard Canova, Gros, Robert Lefèvre, Gérard, Isabey and Girodet-Trioson, and by the Second-Empire painters and sculptors Alfred de Dreux, Winterhalter, Carpeaux, Meissonier, Hébert, Flandrin, Detaille, Nieuwerkerke and Giraud.

But what caught my eye was this painting, ‘La Mort de Napoléon’ by Charles de Steuben. I didn’t know anything about it or the artist for that matter, but one of my more erudite school friends who, being French, was into Napoleonic stuff in a huge way, and she explained it all to me. Of course I knew a fair bit about Napoleon growing up because my grandfather and father, being military men themselves, were Napoleonic warfare buffs and it rubbed off onto me. I just knew about Napoleon the military genius. I never thought about him once he was beaten at Waterloo in 1815. So I never really engaged with Napoleon the man. And yet here I was staring at his last breath of mortality caught forever in time through art. Not for the first time I had mixed feelings about Napoleon Bonaparte, both the man and the myth (built up around him since his death).

On 5 May, 1821, at 5.49pm in Longwood House on the remote island of St Helena, in the words of the famed French man of letters, François-René de Chateaubriand, ‘the mightiest breath of life which ever animated human clay’ came no more. To the British, Dutch, and Prussian coalition who had exiled Naopleon Bonaparte there in 1815, he was a despot, but to France, he was seen as a devotee of the Enlightenment.

In the decade following his demise, Napoleon’s image underwent a transformation in France. The monarchy had been restored, but by the late 1820s, it was growing unpopular. King Charles X was seen as a threat to the civil liberties established during the Napoleonic era. This mistrust revived Napoleon’s reputation and put him in a more heroic light.

Fascination with the French leader’s death led Charles de Steuben, a German-born Romantic painter living in Paris, to immortalise the momentous event. Steuben’s painting depicts the moment of Napoleon’s death and seeks to capture the sense of awe in the room at the death of a man whose legendary career had begun in the French Revolution. It was this, ultimate moment that Steuben wished to immortalise in a painting which has since become what could almost be described as the official version of the scene.

There is no question that Steuben’s painting became the most famous and most iconic depiction of Napoleon’s death in art history. In another painting, executed during the years 1825-1830, Steuben was to give a realistic view of the emperor dictating his memoirs to general Gourgaud. This same realism also pervades his version of Napoleon’s death, and it is totally unlike Horace Vernet’s, Le songe de Bertrand ou L’Apothéose de Napoléon (Bertrand’s Dream or the apotheosis of Napoleon) which, although painted in the same year, is an allegorical celebration of the emperor’s martyrdom and as such the first stone in the edifice of the Napoleonic legend.

And what a legend Napoleon’s life was turned into for time immemorial. Napoleon declared himself France’s First Consul in 1799 and then emperor in 1804. For the next decade, he led France against a series of European coalitions during the Napoleonic Wars and expanded his empire throughout much of continental Europe before his defeat in 1814. He was exiled to the Mediterranean island of Elba, but he escaped and briefly reasserted control over France before a crushing final defeat at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815.

Napoleon’s military prowess earned him the fear of his enemies, but his civil reforms in France brought him the respect of his people. The Napoleonic Code, introduced in 1804, replaced the existing patchwork of French laws with a unified national system built on the principles of the Enlightenment: universal male suffrage, property rights, equality (for men), and religious freedom. Even in his final exile on St. Helena, Napoleon proved a magnetic presence. Passengers of ships docked to resupply would hurry to meet the great general. He developed strong personal bonds with the coterie who had accompanied him into exile. Although some speculate that he was murdered, most agree that Napoleon’s death in 1821, at the age of 51, was the result of stomach cancer.

By contrast, Charles de Steuben was born in 1788, his youth and artistic training coinciding with Napoleon’s rise to power. He was the son of the Duke of Württemberg officer Carl Hans Ernst von Steuben. At the age of twelve he moved with his father, who entered Russian service as a captain, to Saint Petersburg, where he studied drawing at the Art Academy classes as a guest student. Thanks his father's social contacts in the court of the Tsar, in the summer of 1802 he accompanied the young Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna of Russia (1786–1859) and granddaughter of Frederick II Eugene, Duke of Württemberg, to the Thuringian cultural city of Weimar, where the Tsar's daughter two years later married Charles Frederick, Grand Duke of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach (1783–1853). Steuben, then fourteen years old, was a Page at the ducal court, a position for which the career prospects would be in the military or administration. The poet Friedrich Schiller was a family friend who at once recognised De Steuben's artistic talent and instilled in him his political ideal of free self-determination regardless of courtly constraints.

At the behest of Pierre Fontaine in 1828 de Steuben painted La Clémence de Henri IV après la Bataille d'Ivry, depicting a victorious Henry IV of France at the Battle of Ivry. De Steuben's Bataille de Poitiers, en octobre 732, painted between 1834 and 1837, shows the triumphant Charles Martel at the Battle of Tours, also known as the Battle of Poitiers. He painted Jeanne la folle around the same time and he was commissioned by Louis Philippe to paint a series of portraits of past Kings of France.

Life in the French capital was a repeated source of internal conflict for Steuben. The allure of bohemian Paris and his military-dominated upbringing made him a wanderer between worlds. As an official commitment to his adopted country he became a French citizen in 1823. However, the irregularity of his income as a freelance artist was in contrast to his sense of duty and social responsibility. To secure his family financially, he took a job as an art teacher at École Polytechnique, where he briefly trained Gustave Courbet. In 1840 he was awarded a gold medal at the Salon de Paris for his highly acclaimed paintings.

The love of classical painting was a lifelong passion of Steuben. He was a close friend to Eugène Delacroix, the leader of the French Romantic school of painting, whom he portrayed several times. Steuben was also part of this artistic movement, which replaced classicism in French painting. "The painter of the Revolution," as Jacques-Louis David was called by his students, joined art with politics in his works. The subjects of his historical paintings supported historical change. He painted mainly in sharp colour contrasts, heavy solid contours and clear outlines. The severity of this style led many contemporary artists - including Prud'hon - to a romanticised counter movement. They preferred the shadowy softness and gentle colour gradations of Italian Renaissance painters such as Leonardo da Vinci and Antonio da Correggio, whose works they studied intensively. Steuben, who had begun his training with David, felt the school was becoming increasingly rigid and dogmatic. Critics praised his deliberate compositions, excellent brush stroke and impressive colour effects. But some of his critics felt that his pursuit of dramatic design of rich people also showed, at times, a pronounced tendency toward the histrionic.

The portrayal of key moments in Napoleon’s dramatic military career would feature among some of Steuben’s best known works. But it is this death scene that Steuben is most remembered for.

Using his high-level contacts among figures in Napoleon’s circle, Steuben interviewed and sketched many of the people who had been present when Napoleon died at Longwood House on St. Helena. He wanted to attempt o give the most accurate representation of the scene possible. Indeed, the painter interviewed the companions of Napoleon’s captivity on their return to France and had them pose for their portraits. Only the Abbé Vignali, captain Crokat and the doctor Arnott were painted from memory. The Grand maréchal Bertrand made sketches of the plan of the room, noting the positions of the different pieces of furniture and people in the room. All the protagonists within the painting brought together some of their souvenirs and in posing for the painter, each person can be seen contributing to a work of collective memory, very much with posterity in mind.

Painstakingly researched, Steuben painted a carefully composed scene of hushed grief. Notable among the figures are Gen. Henri Bertrand, who loyally followed Napoleon into exile; Bertrand’s wife, Fanny; and their children, of whom Napoleon had become very fond.

The best known version of “La Mort de Napoléon” was completed in 1828. French writer Stendhal considered it “a masterpiece of expression.” In 1830 the installation of a more liberal monarchy in France further boosted admiration of Napoleon, who suddenly became a wildly popular figure in theatre, art, and music. This fervour led to the diffusion of Steuben’s deathbed scene in the form of engravings throughout Europe in the 1830s. As Napoleon’s stock arose within French culture and arts, so did Steuben’s depiction of Napoleon’s death. It became a grandeur of vision that permeated Steuben’s masterpiece of historical reconstruction.

Initially forming part of the collection of the Colonel de Chambrure, the painting was put up for auction in Paris, on 9 March 1830, with other Napoleonic works, notably Horace Vernet’s Les Adieux de Fontainebleau (The Fontainebleau adieux) and Steuben’s Retour de l’île d’Elbe (The return from the island of Elba). The catalogue noted that the painting had already been viewed in the colonel’s collection by “three thousand connoisseurs” – which alone would have made it a success -, but its renown was to be further amplified by the production of the famous engraving. The diffusion of this engraving by Jean-Pierre-Marie Jazet (1830-1831, held at the Musée de Malmaison), reprinted and copied countless times throughout the 19th century, made the scene a classic in popular imagery, on a level of popularity with paintings such as Millet’s Angelus.

A / Grand Marshal Henri-Gatien Bertrand. Utterly loyal servant of Napoleon’s to the last. His memoirs of the exile on St Helena were not published until 1849. Only the year 1821 has ever been translated into English.

B / General Charles Tristan de Montholon. Courtier and companion of Napoleon’s exile. Montholon managed to ease Bertrand out and become Napoleon’s closest companion at the end, highly rewarded in Napoleon’s will, which Montholon helped write. Montholon’s untrustworthy memoirs were published in 1846/47.

C / Doctor Francesco Antommarchi. Corsican anatomy specialist. Sent by Napoleon’s mother from Rome to St Helena to be Napoleon’s personal physician on the expulsion of Barry O’Meara. Napoleon disliked and distrusted Antommarchi. Antommarchi’s untrustworthy memoirs were very influential and published in 1825.

D / Angelo Paolo Vignali, Abbé. Corsican assistant-chaplain, sent by Madame Mère from Rome to St Helena in 1819.

E / Countess Françoise Elisabeth “Fanny” Bertrand and her children: Napoléon (F), who carried the censer at Napoleon’s funeral; Hortense (G); Henry (H); and Arthur (I), youngest by six years of all the Bertrand children and born on the island. She was wife of the Grand Marshal, very unwilling participant in the exile on St Helena. Her relations with Napoleon were difficult since she refused to live at Longwood. She spoke fluent English. Was however very loyal to Napoleon.

J / Louis Marchand. Napoleon’s valet from 1814 on and one of his closest servants. As Napoleon noted in his will, “The service he [Marchand] rendered were those of a friend”.

K / “Ali”, Louis Étienne Saint-Denis. Known as “the Mamluk Ali”, one of Napoleon’s longest-serving and intimate servants; He became Librarian at Longwood and was an indefatigable copyist of imperial manuscripts.

L / Ali’s English (Catholic) wife, Mary ‘Betsy’ Hall. She was sent out from England by UK relatives of the Countess Bertrand to be governess/nursemaid to the Bertrand children. Married Ali aged 23 in October 1819.

M / Jean Abra(ha)m Noverraz. From the Vaud region in Switzerland. Very tall and imposing figure that Napoleon called his “Helvetic bear”. He was himself ill during Napoleon’s illness.

N / Noverraz’s wife, Joséphine née Brulé. They married in married in July 1819, and she was the Countess Montholon’s lady’s maid. Noverraz and Saint-Denis had a fist fight for the hand of Joséphine.

O / Jean Baptiste Alexandre Pierron. The cook, dessert specialist, long in Napoleon’s service and who had accompanied Napoleon to Elba.

P /Jacques Chandelier. Iincorrectly identified on the picture as Santini who had left the island in 1817. A cook, from the service of Pauline Bonaparte, Napoleon’s sister, who arrived on St Helena with the group from Rome in 1819.

Q /Jacques Coursot. Butler, from the service of Madame Mère, Napoleon’s mother, he arrived on St Helena with the group from Rome in 1819.

R / Doctor Francis Burton. Irish surgeon in the 66th regiment who had arrived on St Helena only on 31st March 1821. He is renowned for having made Napoleon’s death mask (with ensign John Ward and Antommarchi).

S/ Doctor Archibald Arnott. Surgeon in the 20th regiment. Brought in to tend to Napoleon in extremis on 1 April 1821.

T/ Captain William Crokat. A Scot, orderly officer at Longwood for less than a month, having replaced Engelbert Lutyens on 15 April. He received the honour of carrying the news of Napoleon’s death back to London and also the reward, namely, a promotion and £500, privileges of which Lutyens was deliberately deprived by the governor.

#charles de steuben #art #painting #napoleon #bonaparte #st helena #life #death #chateaubriand #french #france #emperor #artist #aesthetics #war #politics #society #culture #arts #personal

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wolfloke · 3 years ago

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Rp Ideas

(Barista Aus)

[Character A] is a barista at a coffee shop. [Character B] comes in every day and orders the same thing, at the same time, always. One day, [B] doesn't show up.

[Character A] is all ready to pay for their coffee, when they realize they've lost their wallet. [Character B], the customer in back of them, offers to pay for them.

[Character A] and [Character B] are baristas who work the morning shift. Something more than friendship blossoms between them (Can already be pre-established or can happen over time), however, things change when [A] is moved to the night shift, and [B] stays in the morning shift.

[Character A] is tired of customers' shit. When one especially rude consumer decides to mouth them off, [A] does the logical thing, and spits right in their mocha whipped caramel latte. It isn't until they're handing the coffees out that they realize the rude customer hadn't ordered the latte. [Character B] did.

[Character A] is the new barista at a local coffee shop. [Character B] doesn't quite like them. When the two get into a fight and the hot milk machine explodes, the manager threatens to fire the both of them unless they can work it out. How do they go about becoming friends?

[Character A] is a barista working the late shift alone. It's a slow night, and the store is entirely empty, so they decide to close up shop and lock the doors. However, as they're in the back of the shop counting stock, they hear glass shatter in the front, and they know it's not just a coffee crazed customer. [Character B] can be anyone; The burglar, an employee who forgot their things and decided to head back but witnessed the burglary, or a concerned passerby who spotted the break in happening.

(Zombie AUs)

[Character A] is holed up in a locked down, abandoned mall. Somehow, [Character B] gets in. How do the two react once they realize they're not alone?

[Character A] is stuck on a rooftop. [Character B], who's stuck on the rooftop across from them, has been trying to make contact with the other survivor, to no avail.

[Character A to Character B] "Gimme all your shit. The food, the water, the weapons. Everything. Now!"

[Character A] is all out of ammo. There's a horde on their tail, they're injured, and it's not likely they're going to make it out alive. And that's when they see [Character B] beckoning them to a hiding spot just a few steps away.

[Character A] and [Character B] are traveling together. Then, one of them gets bit. How does the other react?

[Character A] is dying. [Character B] is keeping them company. How do they interact with eachother?

(Highschool AU)

[Character A] is new to a prestigious boarding school. They're lost in the hallways. Then they happen to bump into [Character B].

[Character A] manages to piss off [Character B], aka, the scariest kid in school.

(Three People RP) [Character A] is happily dating [Character B]. However, [Character C] is secretly in love with [A/B], and desperately wants them to break up.

[Character A], a high school student, is dating [Character B], a college student.

[Character A] and [Character B] are by no means friends. Then they get grouped together for a project that forces them to spend time at each others' houses. Do they become friends, something more?

[Character A] is hiding a secret. [Character B] just happens to find out.

[Character A] is the new kid in school. If the rumors are any indication, they're a bit of a weirdo. [Character B] refuses to believe them, and decides to get to know [A] for themself.

[Character A to Character B] "Yikes, I saw that fall a mile away. Looks like you dropped a lot of stuff. Want some help?"

[Character A to Character B] "Are you...Are you drawing me?"

[Character A to Character B] "Lunch in the classroom again? Mind if join you?"

(Celebrity AUs)

[Character A to Character B] "Holy shit! I've seen you before! You're...!"

[Character A] is the top model at a fashion agency. That all changes when [Character B] is scouted, and practically rips the spotlight from [A]. How does [A] respond to this? How does [B] feel about it?

It's not everyday you bump into a celebrity...Except it is for [Character A], who suspiciously keeps bumping into the famous [Character B] everyday. Coincidence, or something more?

[Character A] is a movie star visiting their hometown. However, they realize that time in Hollywood has made them forget the town. So, they appoint [Character B] as their tour guide.

[Character A to Character B] "Don't you know who I am?"

[Character A] is a famous movie actor playing the lead in a romance film. [Character B] is the clumsy rookie that somehow got the second lead. How will the two get along, especially when [Character B] can't seem to remember their lines?

[Character A] is a photographer in a park struggling to find their muse. When [Character B] happens to stroll by, they realize they've just found it.

[Character A] scores backstage tickets to a rock concert, which just so happens to be their favorite band, like...Ever. [Character B] is the lead vocalist/guitarist/whatever of the band.

[Character A], a lovestruck rookie actor. [Character B], an experienced, well known actor who's been starred as the main lead in multiple romance movies. Somehow, [A] ends up being the second lead to [B]! How does [B] react to [A]'s inexperience? Will they get along? And how will they go about about the kiss scene that occurs later on in the movie?

[Character A] is walking home one night, when they see [Character B] attempting to jump from a bridge! Dashing into action, they talk them out of it, only to find that [B] is a famous celebrity, who, for some reason or another, feels indebted to [A] forever now.

(Supernatural AUs)

[Character A] is a werewolf struggling to control their transformations. [Character B], a lycan nerd, offers to help them, but only if they can document the process.

The city is plagued by a number of mysterious killings that leave their victims drained of any and all blood. While believed to be animal attacks at first, [Character A], a detective, thinks differently. And when [Character B] is caught on CCTV grabbing a helpless woman and tearing out her jugular, well, that just confirms [A]'s suspicions.

(Multiple people rp) Ever since the dark ages, witches have been forced into hiding, lest they be revealed and punished with a fiery death. For centuries, they've breeded amongst covens, creating generation after generation of children with extraordinary abilities. Each child only has one ability when they begin the harnessing of their internal power. But, of each generation, there is one child, and only one, that shows signs of having multiple abilities. Over time, these special children became known as The Supreme Witch, and had to complete grueling and painful challenges in order to prove their powers. Now in the modern age of technology, there is a special school for the last remaining witch millennials to come to terms with their abilities, learn to control them, and strengthen them. All witches are able to participate in the test to determine who is supreme, at their own risk. However, one question remains; Just who will survive the test and be crowned Supreme Witch?

[Character A]'s family moves into a new house. It doesn't take [A] very long to figure out they're being haunted by [B].

[Character A] thinks that their boyfriend/girlfriend, [Character B] is acting a little odd. They're always cold, pale, and they seem to be uncontrollably thirsty all the time.

[Character A] is a clumsy witch struggling to harness their internal energy. [Character B] is an older witch, who offers to teach them, on one condition.

[Character A], a sailor on the S.S Jolly Fellow, awakens from a nap below deck to find the boat anchored in the middle of the ocean and the crew gone. The only other person they can hear is [Character B], a mermaid/merman sitting on a nearby rock, singing a soft harmony.

[Character A] finds a fairy out in the woods and traps it in a jar. This fairy, [Character B], demands they be let go. And [A] agrees, but on one condition; [B] must grant them any wish they want.

[Character A] is bitten by a wild wolf one night in the woods. They hide it from their friends and family in fear of being scolded for being out when they weren't supposed to. But soon, weird things start happening. For instance, their hearing seems to be super good. Their eyesight is enhanced greatly. And they can smell every hamburger in a five mile radius. But along with the hamburgers, they can also smell certain people with "different" powers (Vampires, witches, other werewolves, etc). And their nose seems to be leading them right to [Character B].

[Character A], a fledgling vampire, attacks [Character B] and turns them. Now apart of their pack, [Character B] must now be mentored by the very person that turned them into a bloodthirsty monster, [A].

[Character A] is a professional hunter hot on the trail of [Character B], a monster.

[Character A], a mermaid held in captivity. [Character B], a worker assigned to their tank. How do the two come to trust each other? What happens then?

(Darker AUs)

[Character A] wakes up in a dark room with a chain around their ankle. They can't remember anything from last night, except maybe.. A blurry image of [Character B]'s face.

[Character A] knows not to talk to strangers, but there's something so endearing about [Character B] that they can't help but to chit chat. Little does [A] know, they'll be regretting it very soon.

[Character A] has had [Character B] chained up in their basement for a while now. At first, they'd just meant to kill [B] and be done with it. But for some reason, [A] can't bring themselves to do it. Why? What will they do in the end?

[Character A] wakes up covered in blood, next to a sleeping [Character B]. What happened? How did [A] end up there?

[Character A] is a twin to a royal family, their sibling being a princess/prince destined to marry into a richer kingdom. For years, [A] had dreaded their parting. It finally came in the form of [B], a sadistic tyrant who insists he marry the beauty that is [A]'s twin. Refusing to let their sibling fall into [B]'s hands, [A] dresses up as them, and takes their place instead, becoming [B]'s hand in marriage.

(War AUs)

[Character A] is a freshly drafted soldier. [Character B] is the bitter, apprehensive sergeant, tasked to whip [A] into shape.

[Character A] and [Character B] are soldiers on opposing fronts, who so happen to be severely injured, and who so happen to be hiding in the same house. Unfortunately,

Disclaimer. I don't own any part of the art nor do I own nor do I own the context of this of this post. I am reposting this so all who love to role play has access to it.

#rp #erp #role play #role play ideas #creative writing #writers block #writing ideas #short story #one shot plots #plots #rp plots

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duratrans · 4 years ago

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Satoshi Mizukami Q&A, 2/3

Satoshi Mizukami recently took questions from the editor's desk, and publicly from write-ins, for an interview to celebrate the first volume of Solte going on sale (Jan 9th!). So I translated them all! It’s in three parts, so I’ll post them one by one.

Here is the second section, revolving around Sengoku Youko and his other works.

Q: In Sengoku Youko, we were wondering about the history between Tama and Kuzunoha that led to their mother-daughter relationship. We know Tama was actually born from the ancient fox spirit Tamamo-no-Mae, so Kuzunoha must have adopted her, right? A: When Tamamo-no-Mae transformed into the Sessho-seki stone, which killed anyone who came near, a monk called Gennou Shinsho destroyed the rock, sending fragments of Tamamo's being flying near and far. (that's the actual legend from wikipedia. As for my plan to tie it to the story...) Kuzunoha found the fragmented portion that became Tama, and decided to take it in basically to kill time. I couldn't find a spot to fit that part of their history in, and eventually just left it.

Q: What happened to Kuzunoha after Yazen's death? Does she leave in search of a new love? Personally, I would find it more poetic for Yazen to have been the last man she ever embraced, seeing how she was willing to die for him! A: She would take on a disguise, probably a female monk, and nurse her broken heart for many years. Of course, being an unaging youkai, she could never stay in one place too long, and would move around, until one day she meets someone new. Just the way she's always done. That's how it is for a youkai. You do what you've always done.

Q: You did judo in high school and kenpo in college, and we know you liked the matches and sparring but hated working out, so you've coined your own nickname as "the limp-armed berserker" on twitter before. Did Douren and Thousand-Tale Jinka's love of battle come from a familiar place? A: Insofar as the feeling of "yeah, fighting is fun!" might be rooted somewhere in there, I guess so. The idea of a real fight still makes me nervous, though.

Q: Senya and Tsukiko's village is protected by the barrier that makes it invisible, which has kept it relatively isolated from the larger world. Did they also manage to stay independent from the sweeping administrative changes that changed Japan, like Toyotomi Hideyoshi's restriction of arms to the samurai caste or the land census, or the Edo period's capitol attendance policy, isolationism, and welfare laws, just to name a few? A: All of it. Passed 'em right by.

Q: In the story, we learn Mudo took up a number of hobbies like go, shogi, haiku, bonsai, etc. If Mudo was living today, what kind of pastimes would he be into? I get the impression he'd be sinking cash into mobile games and Gacha. A: Mudo is a fighting game/FPS gamer. I don't think he'd be as interested in stuff like mobile games that don't take player skill into account as much.

Q: After Jinka and Tama married, did Jinka change how he addressed her? As in, did he start to have a pet name or something like that for her? I'd love to know! (I'm guessing Tama still just calls him "Jinka," but if that changed I'd love to know, too!) -Negurano A: This didn't really change for them, no.

Q: What kind of person is Mudo's sister? -Weekend A: Didn't really plan her out.

Q: So many characters in Sengoku Youko had incredibly impactful, memorable death scenes. If Senya or any of the rest of the cast that were around when the story ended had to go, how would you envision it? -Namamono A: How would I kill off the characters that didn't die? That's a weird one. I was never going to create scenes that aren't part of the the story, so I got nothing for that.

Q: Did you have any additional self-contained stories from the Youko universe that you wanted to draw? For instance, maybe something with Tama and Senya and their life together as lovers, and how that's going! -Neko A: If I had too much free time on my hands, or it was for work, I might come up with something but I don't really have any ideas at the moment.

Q: Did you have a favorite part or arc of Sengoku Youko? -Kokoronohito A: I like the ending.

Q: I wish Ufotable could do an anime adaption of Youko. Although, I also think Kyoani would do a very nice Tama... -Akane A: Is there a question in there?

Q: Can you give us your top three characters, and your favorite three parts of the story? -Akane A: For characters, it'd be Yazen, Tago, and Hanatora. I guess for the scenes I like best, there's the ending, Senya and Mudo's showdown in volume 9, and the final battle between Senya and Jinka.

Q: How did you come up with the nonsense dialog for the mad gods? Was there any reference or inspiration behind the dog, the whale, the rabbit, or the others? -Gen A: Nothing in particular. I just tried to string things together that would make absolutely no sense. I did want to hide some hints or foreshadowing in the babble, but it didn't really work.

(note: back to editorial for one question) Q: When The Man of Legend was published in Geko Geko back in 2004, you said Yamanaka was probably the most powerful out of all your characters. Does he still wear the crown here in the year 2021? A: I'd have to say at this point he's been dethroned.

Q: I really liked Soon Ken and Penta in Sanjin Sadou, so I was wondering where the idea of a sake-loving penguin came from. -Leviah A: I can't remember in the least.

Q: Akitani Inachika (Swordfish knight from Biscuit Hammer) obtained knowledge of all things, and Hakke Neko has the all-seeing eye. They existed at very different times, but is there any connection between the two? -Abuson A: There's no connection.

#mizukami satoshi #satoshi mizukami #sengoku youko #lucifer and the biscuit hammer #sanjin sadou

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winterune · 5 years ago

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A Gift from the Heart

A Final Fantasy VII Fanfiction

Part 2 of @finalheaven‘s CloTi Confessions 2020: White Day

Word count: 2207

Rating: T

Summary: There is a common unspoken rule among men: you should return the gift you received on Valentine's Day three times its value on White Day. Now, White Day is tomorrow, and Cloud still has yet to decide what he wants to give Tifa.

A/N: not sure how this turned out. Been fighting against a slump so...yeah ^^; This is probably weird

Also available on AO3.

~*~*~*~*~

White Day was tomorrow, and Cloud had no idea what he should give Tifa. Chocolate was probably the safest thing. White chocolate was advertised everywhere—from TVs to radio shows. That was the only thing he had been seeing these past several weeks. But, wouldn’t that be too ordinary? Too common of a gift? Everyone would probably give a white chocolate to their girlfriends.

Barret had laughed when he heard Cloud had not bought anything for Tifa, said something about how Tifa would be so sad if she didn’t get anything in return. Cloud was having lunch alone in a cafe when Barret had sauntered in and took the seat across from him without his consent. “You’re not helping,” Cloud had muttered, because yes, he knew how sad Tifa would be and he needed to up his game if he wanted to be able to get her something on time.

“Just buy a chocolate somewhere, I’m sure that’ll be enough.” Enough was the keyword, as Cloud wanted it more than enough. If he had settled for enough, he would have already bought one of those fancy chocolates he had eyed in a couple stores that he knew Tifa would like. But it didn’t feel personal enough. “Or, well, I heard fancy guys buy them jewelries.”

That caught his attention. He looked up at the dark, burly man. “Jewelries?”

Barret nodded, through a mouthful of burger. “Jewelries,” Barret repeated. “Rings? Necklaces? Bracelets? All those girly stuffs.”

Jewelries. He hadn’t thought of that before. It would be nice to get her matching rings or something. But he probably couldn’t have custom-made rings ready by the end of the day. Dammit. He should have thought of this sooner.

“Or,” Barret went on. Cloud glanced at him and found him grinning.

“What?”

Barret leaned over the table and motioned for Cloud to do the same. Furrowing his eyebrow, Cloud did as he was told. However , he hadn’t expected Barret to say something so…obscene.

“You could buy her some lingerie,” Barret murmured.

Cloud didn’t know how he looked. Feeling his face heating up, he had pushed away from the table so sudden that his chair scrapped against the floor. Whatever word he had had in mind as a retort or a counter was immediately gone and replaced by a blank page, leaving him speechless. Barret, on the hand, was laughing so hard and hitting his leg that they were drawing other people’s attentions to them. The stares didn’t help Cloud’s embarrassment at all.

“Oh, man, the look on your face!” Barret said between laughter.

Realizing it had only been a joke, Cloud’s mortification slowly transformed into irritation and he scowled. “That’s not funny,” he said.

“But your face is.”

“I meant the joke.”

Barret looked at him, wiping tears away from his eyes, as he, finally, managed to control himself. “What joke?”

“That,”—lingerie—”joke.” How the hell could he buy her that?

Barret tilted his head to the side, genuinely confused, before his eyes lit up with understanding, and he started grinning again. “That’s not a joke.”

“What do you mean that’s not a joke?”

“Oh, God, you really have no clue about this, do you?” Barret said, taking another bite off his burger. “Sure, the meanings aren’t set in stone, but—” he looked at Cloud, who cocked an eyebrow and demanded an explanation, and sighed, though he was still smirking when he said, “I feel sorry for Tifa.”

Cloud gritted his teeth. If Barret wasn’t going to give him any useful advice, then he could just look for it somewhere else. He had finished his lunch and left the table with an irritated huff.

***

He had asked Zack once what his friend was going to give Aerith for White Day. They had been going out for several years now and Cloud had hoped Zack could give him some sort of light on the matter. Sure, this wasn’t the first time he would give Tifa a White Day gift, but it would be their first time as a couple, and Cloud wanted to do it right.

“How do you measure a homemade chocolate?” he had asked his friend once, on their way out of a meat shop after having gone in to finish a delivery job.

“What do you mean?” Zack had asked.

“You know, that rule. The three-times-the-value rule?” It was a common unspoken rule among men that they should give back three times the value of what they had received. Cloud had never really cared much for it before because there hadn’t been much meaning behind the chocolates that he had received. He would just give Tifa some sweets that she liked and that would be that. But it was different now. He had received his first ever honmei chocolate. How the hell should he return the favor? Not to mention it was homemade, delicious, intricately designed, with a cute little message on the side too.

When Cloud told Zack about all of this, Zack only nodded understandingly. “You could always buy her some of those fancy chocolates,” he had said. “Or flowers. I give Aerith flowers sometimes. Or, what about making her something?”

“As in cook her something?”

“Yeah, you’re a decent cook—at least, more decent than me, I think," Zack said. "What better way to return a homemade chocolate than a homemade cooking of yourself?"

Cloud shook his head. He would rather buy those chocolates than have Tifa eat his disastrous cooking on White Day.

“Well, what about—” Zack cast his eyes around him, but before he could spot anything, a figure had jumped into their line of sight: Yuffie, still in her school uniform, her grey scarf billowing around her. Cloud and Zack jumped in surprise.

“Hey, guys!” she greeted them in that flashy fashion of hers.

“God, Yuffie, you’re going to give me a heart attack!” Zack said with a hand to his chest, but Yuffie just grinned it away.

“Where did you come from anyway?” Cloud asked.

“School?” Cloud and Zack frowned. That was not what he’d meant. “Hey, it’s not my fault you two were too engrossed in your own little gossiping to notice—” She caught herself, then whipped her head at the two boys, grinning mischievously. “Were you talking about White Day?”

“No,” Zack immediately said.

“You are!” Yuffie exclaimed. She looked at Cloud. “Do you know what you’re going to get Tifa yet?”

“Yuffie—”

But she took Cloud’s silence as answer enough, and immediately said, “Did you know that marshmallows are so in, right now?”

“Marshmallows?” Cloud asked.

Yuffie nodded enthusiastically, her grin growing wider. “Yes! They have these little chocolates covered in these white marshmallows and they look so cute! I’m sure Tifa would—”

Zack smacked her at the back of her head, cutting her words off. “Don’t give him any weird ideas, all right?” he said, frowning. “And I haven’t paid you back for the wasabi prank you pulled last time.”

“Ah, yes, did you like my present?” Yuffie asked, grinning up at him, as though he hadn’t just reprimanded her. “You’d better give me a White Day present too.”

“Oh, just you wait, I’m going to give you ten-fold for what you gave me.”

Yuffie gave a feral grin. “Bring it on, my friend.”

Cloud looked at one person to the other. Zack had said something about Yuffie messing with Aerith’s chocolates that he had ended up eating some wasabi chocolates on Valentine’s Day. Cloud hadn’t been able to stop himself from laughing when he heard it. But, knowing that they had been making the chocolates together, Cloud could only be grateful that those wasabi ones hadn’t gotten into Tifa’s batch. He didn’t have any score to settle with Yuffie right now, so he decided to leave the two be and went on White-Day-gift hunting by himself.

***

For all his reluctance to buy chocolates, Cloud ended up buying one from one of the stores that he knew Tifa liked—because he was running out of time and he didn’t know what he should do. A heart-shaped box filled with various white chocolates. This should be enough, he told himself, even though part of him felt he should buy something else. Maybe some candies, or cookies—jewelries. That was what Barret had told him. But he had spent a lot of money on this chocolate alone that he wasn’t sure he had much to spare for an additional jewelry.

Cloud desperately looked for ideas when his eyes fell on a game center building across the street. He didn’t know what had gotten over him when his feet decided to take him there. It had been so long since he last entered one of these and Cloud had almost forgotten how crowded they could get. It was filled with mostly children to high schoolers playing shooting games or racing games or dancing games. His eyes searched for the specific machine that he was looking for and finally found it somewhere near the back.

Crane games.

He remembered playing a lot of these back when he was a kid, and he was quite decent at them—though probably not extremely good either. Sometimes, not knowing what to give Tifa for her birthday, Cloud would spend hours here trying to get that one stuffed animal or another for her. He remembered getting her a white stuffed carbuncle from one of these machines in middle school. He wondered if Tifa still remembered that.

The machines now had a ‘WHITE DAY SPECIAL’ banner on them and he could see various stuffed animals or chocolates or even some cute jewelries in there. He even spotted a white chocobo. She had given him a chocobo chocolate, so it would be great if he could get her a chocobo-themed gift too. Would it be okay to get her one of these? It’s not fancy nor expensive but at least he would put some effort to get it, instead of just picking one and paying for it at the cashier.

And maybe, Tifa would appreciate the nostalgic gesture.

Staring at the chocolate in his hand, Cloud fished in his pocket for some change and decided to give the game a try.

***

He waited for her at the park, at a favorite spot of theirs, beneath a tree overlooking a lake. In the spring, the tree would hold a plethora of sakura, and they would often have a picnic here with Zack and Aerith to watch the flowers blooming. Now, however, there were only a foliage of green leaves waiting for spring to arrive.

Cloud held the presents in his hands—the box of white chocolates and the white stuffed chocobo wrapped in white paper and red ribbon. He had won it after several tries, and when he was taking it out of the machine, it had come to him as a surprise to find a silver chain bracelet hanging around its neck with a silver chocobo charm attached to it. And it had looked so authentic—not one of those plastic imitations you could find in cheap stores.

Cloud had tried taking it off and worn it around his own wrist. If he hadn’t known any better, he would have thought the bracelet had been from some jewelry store, not won it in a seventy-gil crane game. When he imagined the bracelet around Tifa’s hand, he couldn’t stop himself from smiling.

“Cloud!”

Cloud looked up to suddenly find Tifa’s face directly in front of him. “Whoa!” he exclaimed, almost jumping in surprise and dropping her presents to the ground. “T—Tifa, how—wh—when did you get here?” he stammered, trying hard to get a firmer grip on the gifts

Tifa giggled. “Just now,” she said. “You seemed to be too focused on something, so I wanted to surprise you.” She smiled up at him. “Are those for me?”

Those… He looked down at his hands and forgot that his presents for her were out in the open. “Ah!” He fumbled to hide them away, but there was no use. She had seen them.

“Uh, yeah—” Gods! He wasn’t ready for this. He looked at her—at her grey overcoat and maroon scarf around her neck; at the way her dark hair was tucked behind her ears, revealing a hint of a blush on her cheeks—and, like always, the sight of her took his breath away. Maybe it would be all right. What mattered was the heart behind it, not the value of the present. He steeled himself and straightened his back. Taking a deep breath, he held out the presents and said, “Happy White Day, Tifa.”

Tifa looked at them and she smiled. As she took them into her hands, she stood on her tiptoes and brushed her lips against his cheek. “Thank you, Cloud.”

And there it was, her bright smile—a smile that made her eyes crinkle in delight and drove away any sort of anxiety, doubt, or hesitation Cloud had felt about his present. She’ll love it, he thought to himself. I’m sure of it. With that in mind, Cloud finally felt the tension leaving his body and his face finally relaxed into a smile.

~ END ~

#cloticonfessions2020 #cloti #final fantasy #final fantasy vii #fanfiction #my fanfiction #my story #ff fanfic #ff7 fanfic

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josephmyplace · 4 years ago

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ART EVALUATION - MULTIVERSE ASSIGNMENT

themes of the assignment

The multiverse assignment took us through a variety of artistic styles, drawing, printmaking, typography and collage, but there was also a narrative element introduced through the penguin book, we were tasked several times to draw inspiration from narrative elements from the book, or to depict scenes from it, this I felt was similar to fine art, however while on the computers we worked on 'postcards' (personally though I always felt their purpose was more like covers for our books), which again had inspiration taken from the book, this reminded me of graphic design; we were attempting to express a product through a visual means.

the three ‘postcards’ that had text added to them, overall i find that the first one below is my favorite, the central image i feel is a strongly emotive one, figures shrouded in darkness, almost in solidarity over some tragedy, which is why i annotated it “a reminder of better days”, as a reference to how i felt the image was tragic.

this image i annotated it with words associated with god, the drawing i used because i wanted it to resemble an old medieval representation of an angel, which i feels far more visually interesting, and below it is the shattered sky and broken buildings, riven by strange flames, all part of the ‘wrath’ and ‘profound fear’.

here was see the hand receiving what should cause ‘the rapture’ i used the sun as the object because i felt as though the sun’s connection to the heavens, and it being unreachable was going to add to the piece. i also inverted the colours of each of the annotations, to draw contrast between the statements.

This all being said I'm confused over how the multiverse plays into this, the assignment was about creating art based around a narrative, not around other universes.

Two artists I felt influenced the art I made during the assignment were Brooks salzwedel and pokras lampras, Brooks' art I have already examined, still, he depicts floating land masses, and strange forested scenes obscured by mist, while pokras lampras is an asemic writing artist, his particular

Brooks salzwedel

style was structured and merged aspects of Cyrillic, English, Greek and Arabic creating an interesting visual style.

Pokras lampras

What did we learn in lesson

This assignment did not focus on new artisic methods (in comparison to the last unit we learnt screenrinting, intaglio, chalk, graphite etc.) but rather ways to express ideas through it, in this case through the aforementioned narrative.

Animation:

animation is relatively simple, animations are composed of several frames, then the amount of frames per second will determine how the animation plays put, generally the higher frame rates are used for smoother, more high effort animations, 24 fps (Frames Per Second) is industry standard.

In a programme the last frame can be viewed to better let the animator decide where they want to go with the animation.

Light box art:

our light box art used tracing paper, each piece of paper was drawn on, the penned, the most 'misted' paper would be at the back, giving an impression of dictance, the paper in fromt would similarly appear closer to the veiwer.

Though as for what we used, screen printing, digital, painting, drawing were all used, of note was the continued use of animations in digital atr.

the use of light boxe was interesting particularly the use of layered tracing paper to create a obfuscated image, though I personally wonder how I could use them in my own art.

Out of lesson

digital art became my focus, I've found my transition from traditional methods difficult, lines are less stable, and dealing with confusing interfaces has proven itself difficult.

The quality of my artwork has been reduced as a result, but this is expected when moving to a new, unfamiliar medium.

Though digital art has allowed me to use colours freely, which again is difficult, as I never developed any real sense over how to use colours using traditional drawing methods.

Inspiration

Additionally I asked each individual artist the same three questions about their work, which were

what is your source of inspiration? (meaning what initially inspired you and what continues to)

how did you start? (what did you draw initailly, when?)

what processes and materials do you use?

void_illustration - Richard Saunders Illustration

Richards art either is obviously biological, where a creature is depicted, or has a distinctly biological edge to it, metals seem to bend,twist and stretch like flesh, nothing seems to be truly just a machine or device, rather every ridge, bulge and groove hints at a more organic truth to his figures and objects.

1. im inspired by so many things, its good to pull from a wide range of inspirations.

2. Ive been drawing for a long time, im not professional but im hoping to change that, most of my work forms into narrative universes and then develops on from there.

3. For materials I use a range. My 'bio warrior' series is mainly pencil sketches with marker colours and white paint pen highlights. My brown paper dragons are watercolour on strathmore toned tan paper, lined digitally, though I will layer them up further with paint and markers.

Fuelstains - Nikolay Georgiev

His work similarly to Richard's trends to directly be a creature or rather, monster, these organism often have strongly textured skin, often appearing to have many grooves, showing the musculature underneath, then there are his mechanical pieces, either directly depicting a machine of some kind, such as a robot, or depicting a human who has been massively altered by technological augmentations.

1.I was initially inspired by comics, as a kid, stuff like spiderman, bat man and transformers, but later on it could be anything that inspires me.

2.I started in primary school and it was mostly superheros or stuff from movies.

3.Pencil, ink fineliner, brushpen, watercolour, ballpoint pen, digital.

Milesr.art – Miles R art

miles' art focuses on creature drawings, particularly drawings of alien life, creating some truly bizarrely fascinating, most bearing little resemblance to earth organisms, if any. Another aspect of Miles' work that I appreciate is that it seems grounded, the animals, in spite of their bizzarreness still seem like they could exist.

1.some of my biggest sources of inspiration:

- C.M koseman, Brynn metheny, and dougal dixon are some of my most inspiring artists

-just thinking about the natural world in general like on our planet

2.what initially inspired me to draw and that goes into number 2) in kindergarten I saw some kid drawing a honey comb pattern with neon markers and was like huh okay im going to do that but better.

And I always drew monsters and characters, always becoming more based on science overtime, and here I am now.

3.Now I exclusively make finished things digitally with my ipad pro and apple pencil using procreate, but I often make sketches on post it notes with just regular pencil. In terms of processes I feel like I just do what I do it, its hard to define ones process.

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shock777archive · 5 years ago

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Damn. Has it really been that long?!? The past 10 years of my life have been so transformative to me...I cannot wish away anything I went through in those years nor would I want to. I am so thankful to those of you who have followed me for a long time, if you're new followers, or are just casually checking my works periodically. You all have supported me in ways you don't even see. Thank you so so so so much for all the love and appreciation! I cannot wait to see what the 2020's will bring. God Bless! I've also included a little run down of the major things that happened to me as well as notes on my art down below. Can't wait to see you all next year!

2010: Age 17. I was still in high school and I remember this was the year I had finally switched from Photoshop to Paint Tool Sai as an art program. Paint tool sai improved my digital art majorly, and I am forever grateful. I was also super obsessed with pen-palling and I had a lot of pen pals with folks on skype. 2011: Age 18. I graduated high school this year! It was one of the toughest years of my life, however with a lot of spiritual battle and issues at home. I really dug into my faith this year, and it reflected in my art. This was the year I also had made my first Original Characters that were not fan characters of a separate series. 2012: Age 19. I got my driver's license this year. It was also the year I got accepted into ministry school, and the first time I moved away from home to be on my own. I got my first car this year and continued to draw on my laptop I was given. Having no wifi at home and having to stay in the church parking lot in my car to be on the church's wifi was an experience I wouldn't forget. When the laptop battery died, it was game over! lol. I drew a lot, but it didn't get posted often because of my internet issues. 2013: Age 20. Year 2 of my Ministry School days. I met a lot of cool people. It was the first time I had rode in a plane and the first time going to the East Coast of the United States. This year I was making animations on youtube and expanding on my original characters a lot. I made so many new OC's, I can't even remember them all! lol It was a very creative time for me, and a deeply spiritual one as well. 2014: Age 21. I had my 21st birthday this year and my very first drink was a Pineapple mimosa. This year was sadly the year I lost my grandmother to cancer. It was hard, but I had a lot of support. I graduated ministry school and I also got my first job working as a grocery bagger! In the fall I began taking Japanese lessons at college, and met many japanese friends on the internet. This is the year that "NARUTO THE LAST MOVIE" came out, and NaruHina, my all time favorite couple from anime, had become canon at last. Thus, I drew a looooot of Naruto content this year. It helped me through the hard times. This was also the year I finally did my first art commission! 2015: Age 22. Now this year was a year to remember. I continued my schooling at college and I had a part time job at an arts and crafts shop. Those japanese friends I met online? Yes, those friends and I had become close and through some miraculous ways, I was able to finally visit Japan...a country I had always dreamed about visiting! In August I went to Japan and it was one of, if not the highlight of my life. It was the year that I also had started to balloon in popularity on tumblr and other social media sites because of my bbrae art. I had always drawn and loved bbrae, but posting it online this year is what really made me "popular." 2016: Age 23. I had to move back to my hometown after 4 years away. This year was difficult mental health wise...lots of changes were happening and there were plenty of ups and downs. But one of the biggest ups was meeting my boyfriend Josh. We had known each other in high school, and even dated for a month in 2011. But these many years later, it finally meant something more. 2016 was full of BBRae drawings and a mix of naruto art. I was torn between two loves! 2017: Age 24. Hey, It was finally my chinese zodiac year! This year was considered lucky. I got to visit so many cool places thanks to my boyfriend who brought me along. I was also continuing my schooling at a different college. I got to see my favorite band of all time in concert, and it was AMAZING. I got to go inside their tour bus, get autographs and meet them and take photos. A good time was had by all! In this year I really focused on BBRae stuff as well as my own series and characters within the Teen Titans universe. 2018: Age 25. I grew tired of college and decided to take a break from it. This year was very hard for me mentally and emotionally. Looking back on it, it all revolved around my health and lack of productivity. This year I focused HARD on creating a cute anime style for myself. I was obsessed with watching speedpaints on youtube, and learning how to draw cutesy things like chibis...I used a lot of pastel colors, created even more oc's that had cute themes and outfits to them...I was so obsessed with pink lol I was frustrated with my art this year. But I picked up a new hyperfixation, which was splatoon 2 lol. 2019: Age 26. Ah yes, now we are up to speed. As for 2019, well. I got to see one of my favorite japanese girl bands in concert. That was sooooo exciting! I think I made lots of strides in conquering some of my depression. For one thing, I went back to school and figured out a game plan for what I want to do in life. This was a big year for me in a videogaming sense...I have played more videogames this year than I have in my entire life. And my collection keeps growing! I rekindled an old friendship, and also have been studying how to cook. I was more private with my art this year...keeping a lot of drawings to myself. I did post this year, but not as much as in the past and I hope to change that this upcoming year. I celebrated my 3rd anniversary with my boyfriend, and I'm going to soon get a college degree. I've taken my sweet time with pursuing higher education, but now it's starting to finally pay off. I haven't drawn much naruto lately, and it's been mostly about my own characters and bbrae. I hope to get more of my personal life in order and become healthy so I can draw even better and more amazing things!

#my art #bbrae #naruhina #my ocs #teen titans #naruto #teen titans go #ttg #boruto #hinanaru #raebb #beastboy #raven #hinata

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duhragonball · 5 years ago

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7 Comfort Movies

Tagged by @pandemicpicnic . List your seven favorite comfort movies, then tag 7 people.

This is a good thing to pass around, since I could use the diversion, and as I think about this list, I realize how long it’s been since I last saw a lot of these movies.

In no particular order...

1) Dragon Ball Z: Fusion Reborn

I dunno if these are necessarily comfort movies, as opposed to just movies I like the best, but I don’t watch movies a whole lot, so I’m guessing my all-time favorites are probably close enough. Movie 12 is good watchin’, period. This is a movie about everyone working together. Friends, enemies, strangers, the living and the dead, the damned and the divine. I watch this movie and wish that we in the real world could put aside our differences so easily and blow up all the Nazis.

2) Superman IV: The Quest for Peace

People say this is the worst Superman movie, but fuck that noise. This is the only one where Superman throws all the nuclear weapons into the sun. But one of them has a chicken nugget attached to it, which grows into a clone of Superman with scratchy fingernails, his only weakness. So Superman has to kick his ass on/with the moon, and then tell everyone that nuclear war is too big a job for Superman, because we’ll just re-arm the minute his back is turned.

This is a story about high school physics, Luthor. Sometimes the things we fear the most are only the darker side of our greatest strengths. If humanity has the power to destroy itself, then doesn’t that mean we have the power to save ourselves as well? The choice is ours.

3) Spaceballs

Some killjoys actually hated this movie, and point to it as evidence that Mel Brooks lost his touch. I respectfully submit that those people are dumb. Spaceballs came out during the dark years between Return of the Jedi and Phantom Menace, when we all wanted more Star Wars but thought we would never get more. Brooks heard our pleas, and gave us this movie, which is basically Star Wars with dick jokes all over it. People always go on about how Star Trek predicted smartphones and the Simpsons predicted the Trump administration, but only Spaceballs was prescient enough to declare: “Fuck! Even in the future, nothing works!”

This is a story about following your heart. If all you care about is duty, and obligation, and profit, you’ll end up marrying some dullard, or owing your soul to a talking pizza, or roaming the universe in search of air.

4) Batman: Mask of the Phantasm

This is the best Batman movie ever, and maybe even the best comic book movie period. In 1994, Batman the Animated Series was popular enough that they made a feature film and ran it in theaters and everything. I remember some smartass article at the time questioning whether parents would see the point in taking their kids to watch a movie of something that’s on TV for free, which is just dumb. It’s not like they ran four episodes of the TV series for this thing. It’s an original story! Anyway, Batman has to figure out what the deal is with this new vigilante who fights crime with murder, which is also a crime. He also gets very sad in place and it’s very emotional and I bought the soundtrack as soon as I could because I wanted to listen to it and feel things.

This is a story about the future, and promises, and the roads not taken. And when all is said and done, maybe the choices we made were the right ones after all, in spite of our second-guesses.

5) Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi

I considered putting Revenge of the Sith on this list, since that’s usually the one I look up clips from on YouTube, but there’s no topping Jedi. I saw this in the theatre when I was six and everything was awesome. Jabba the Hutt, wint-o-green lightsabers, speeder bikes, Ewoks breaking stuff with logs and rocks, it’s just a pleasure to watch. Also, this movie introduces Emperor Palpatine, and lays the foundation for the Sith lore that made me love Revenge of the SIth in the first place. Not long after we got home from seeing this movie in 1983, I tried to draw this scene in the screencap above, because it left such a deep impression on me.

This is a story about feelings. Every butthole in Star Wars is always telling everyone else what to feel and how much they should feel it, and don’t get too attached to this or that. But in this movie Luke has to exercise restraint and then cut loose, give into his passions and then reign them in, care for his friends and family but also be willing to let them go. Everyone can give him advice, but he’s got to hoe that row himself, and figure it out as he goes. He doesn’t always get it exactly right, but he still gets it.

6) The Transformers: The Movie (1986)

The historians will say that cartoons like the original Transformers were nothing more than glorified toy commercials, made possible by the deregulation of children’s entertainment in the 1980′s. I find this incredibly unfair, because that analysis ignores the fact that Transformers was a fucking awesome cartoon. They’re all robots, so they could shoot and punch each other without any guff from standards and practices. And since the show was designed to promote an entire toy line, there were literally dozens of characters, each given a surprising amount of character and personality. Starscream (center) and Ramjet (right) are practically the same toy, but kids wanted both of them because Starscream is a whiny, shitty drama queen, and Ramjet is a dumbass who likes to hit things with his head. Astrotrain (left) is just a cool dude who can be a train or a space shuttle.

This movie is the height of the franchise, where they could raise the stakes even higher, and introduce even crazier concepts like planet-eating monsters and robots actually killing each other for keeps. I see fans from my generation acting all traumatized over all the deaths, like they never should have done that in a movie marketed for children, but this was a story about renewal. The old order changeth, and it falls to the newcomers to rise up and carry on. I’ve always taken a lot of comfort in the way these characters pass the torch. The Smurfs were never brave enough to have Papa Smurf name his successor.

7) UHF

Geez, I haven’t watched this one in forever. I’d have to double-check to see if I even have it on DVD. UHF was the ‘Weird Al’ Yankovic vehicle from the late 1980′s. I want to say ‘89. He plays a guy who takes over a TV station and runs all these ludicrous shows on it until it becomes the most popular channel in town. It’s basically a bunch of sketch comedy stitched together into a movie, and it doesn’t try to apologize for this.

This is a story of the importance of imagination, and of being true to yourself. Al’s character has trouble finding a steady job, and its’ easy to conclude that there’s something wrong with him, but it’s really just that he hasn’t found the right opportunity for his passions and skills. Once he finds his place, he rises to the occasion.

And that’s my list. Now I gotta tag people. @auralime, @ediblenonsense, @semercury, @twobellsilence, @drowning-in-this-starry-serenade, @cozymochi, and @glintea.

#that shot of the twinkie weiner sandwich is strangely poignant to me #when i was 11 it was hilarious #when i was 18 i was determined to make my own #out of some misplaced sense of patriotic duty to the weird al fandom #then al went vegetarian and it seemed kind of silly #now i watch the scene where he makes the thing and i just feel bad for him because his character's broke #i'm old enough to get the context finally

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venus-says · 5 years ago

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Yes! Pretty Cure 5 Episodes 01-24

The biggest irony of it all is that this isn't the 5th precure season.

New month, new season! And march will be another busy month as I'll have to cover two seasons instead of one. I hope I don't get crazy with it, especially considering that both my brother and my birthdays are in this month, I hope I don't get behind schedule again...

But oh well, that's not what you came here for, you came here for precure so let's talk about that.

Yes and GoGo are seasons that I have a weird history with. Much like Splash Star I never got to finish neither seasons, but I got to work on both of them back in the day when I was part of the Brazilian Subs group who takes care of everything precure related, I don't remember exactly what episodes I was involved with but I did quite a few of them, including the Yes finale, funny enough. Because of my contact with the Yes! seasons weren't of a mere spectator I used to hold these seasons in high regard, they were never part of my top 4 but they were very close, I used to say I like them a lot even though I never properly watched them. But now, after properly sitting through the entire thing... I'm more on the fence about what my feelings are.

Much like its predecessor, Yes was a season for a lot of firsts in the franchise which means they were a bit inventive with the ideas for the show, and while some of those ideas work very well, others not so much. Aside from the team of five and all the implications that come with it, the biggest difference from Yes to the past series is that this is the most episodic and more character-focused series up until now. The plot is almost nonexistent but in exchange, we got a lot of focus on these characters and the stories the show wants to tell about each one of them that intertwines with the show's main theme of hope and finding your own path in life. And that's not a problem, au contraire, this is one of its biggest strengths because the main cast is very solid and even the more overlooked of them is able to shine on its own.

The problems of the show start with more of a production level? I'm not a specialist in the matter, and I don't know much about this stuff so don't rake what I say here as fact, but I feel like since Splash Star underperformed they didn't have that big of a budget for this season and you can see that by how every single episode has some sort of fluke in the drawings or the animation. Which is a shame because this show has a great character design and the backgrounds are more often than not very beautiful. Another huge problem, at least to me, is in the action because Yes! didn't just introduce to us a team dynamic rather than a duo, they also introduced to the series a thing that haunts us until today, the stock footage finishers spam. Yes, the animation for the attacks isn't nearly as long as the ones we get today but I think it's very rare that we get a fight where not at least three attacks are used, like if the action portion wasn't already very short. Speaking of it, I don't understand why Dream is the one that finishes the monsters almost every time when it was shown that all other cures (probably only not counting Mint) can also break the masks and defeat them.

But this is more or less minor stuff, I can get behind it. My biggest problem with Yes! is the romance. They tried with Nagisa and Fujipi, it didn't work. They tried with Saki and Mai's brother, it didn't work. They should've learned with that, but instead, they decided to make it again and different from the past two cases they decide that they would sell the romances hard. Like, the first scene of this show was they already trying to sail Nozomi x Coco, and they shove this couple down your throat in a very ugly way. To begin with, it's an adult man with a high school girl and that's gross. "Oh, but he's a fairy" I DON'T CARE, in his human form he's a male adult, he's a school teacher which means everyone sees him as an adult, this shit is freaking gross. And they try to pull it twice because just Nozomi and Coco wasn't enough and they decided to make Nuts and Komachi a thing too. Thanks, I hate it.

Remember that I said the show doesn't look very beautiful all that often? Well, in episode 24 there's a scene with Nozomi and Coco and they're hugging and that shit was drawn with so much care and flare it didn't even look like the same anime. And you know what infuriates me the most? Is that right after it there's a scene that is the great moment of the episode where the whole group reunites and free themselves from Nightmare's control and that scene doesn't get anywhere near the same amount of care that the Nozomi x Coco scene got. They have transformations, attacks (I'm looking at you Aqua Stream), and the whole show looking subpar, but when it comes down to this couple they make it seem like a CLAMP manga, the only thing missing was the arabesques in the screen. I said it once, I'll say it again. THANKS, I HATE IT.

But moving on.

Going into the characters, Nozomi is weirdly enough the one who has let the less of an impression on me, but I would say a big part of it is because of all her thing with Coco. Because she has interesting going for her, like her indecisiveness about her own future, but this ends up being left behind because they wanna either focus on her thing with Coco or show just how clumsy and air-headed she is. It's a weird approach to the lead of the show, there are times that it seems like Nozomi and Dream are two different persons because when Nozomi is Nozomi they focus so much in showing how much of a crack-head she is, but when she's Dream she is very serious and mature, it's not a very good balance.

I like Rin quite a lot, she's the first one to take over the position of being the sporty one that before was exclusive to the pinks, and she has a great personality. She's just as much of a crackhead as Nozomi but she also is very grounded so she displays a full rainbow of emotion by being very funny, but also very snarky, without losing the ability to be angry and serious. She's a lot of fun.

Urara is probably my favorite, I love how the youngest of the cast is the most complex character of the group. Between dividing her life as an actress/singer with school and having to live this life with one of her parents being dead, she's probably the member who had gone through the most stuff in life, and while there are times we see that her past gets to her she does her best to never lose her smile and to always be cheerful and caring to everyone around her. She's a precious kid and I love her to death. That episode where we get to know about her mom is so strong, it's definitely my favorite of this first half.

Komachi is the only other member of the cast that already had a dream when we met her and this is great because we see her go through different situations that the other members of the cast wouldn't be able to. She's very sweet, but it's a shame the show doesn't give her a lot to do. Like in these 24 episodes only two were focused on her, one of them was her introduction as Cure Mint and the other was to try to sell Komachi x Nuts as a secondary ship for the show. She deserves so much more, I hope the second half will give her more focus.

Last member of the team is Karen and she's my second favorite. She's the stoic rich girl with a lot of responsibilities that would later become the rule of thumb for most blue cures. but she holds a lot of personality. I like how she's stubborn but it's not in the level that is annoying, it's on a level where it serves as a perfect contrast for her serious side. I also like her story about how lonely she was and how she used to hide and bottle up those emotions since when she was a kid but she started to open up more when the girls got into her life.

As a group they work very well, they all have amazing chemistry and a great dynamic, I love how they're all very different and have very few similarities between them yet they work magnificently together. I love how they were all introduced since episode 1 and all had small parts in each episode before they all became cures, it felt very natural the way they were getting close together. Another thing that I like, that I also praised this weeks' Healin' Good episode for, is that they don't click immediately, Rin and Nozomi were friends before, just like Karen and Komachi, but when they are the four together with an Urara cherry it's completely different from how they were before and they had to work that out. I would've like if this had been explored more than just Rin and Karen's small rivalry and the plot of episodes 23 and 24, but they're still great regardless.

The fairies though... they're probably the worst of this entire show. To begin with, they're not consistent between their fairy and their human forms, because they wanna sell Coco and Nuts as hot guys they make the human forms be completely different their cheerful selves as fairies, especially Coco. They're not interesting, they don't do much, I don't know why they're there. Coco is creepy, he's way too handy with Nozomi it makes me uncomfortable as hell. Nuts is a jerk, the dude is not pleasant and the fact they're trying to pair him with Komachi makes me want to hit my head against a wall. Milk is the last addition to the cast and holy jesus she's annoying as hell, much like Nuts she's a jerk as well and the show wants to make us sympathize with her by saying "she's like that just because she has gone through a lot" and that just makes me hate her even more. Also, their collectibles this season are the Pinkys and they're another thing I don't know why it's there, I also hate how there are 55 of these things, that's way too much.

The villains are a mixed bag. I like Nightmare and how it actually works as a company, I love their whole thing with the mask, I think it's a very menacing and intimidating look, it's perfect. I also like how the generals kinda work on a rotation system rather than what was the norm of the previous seasons where one general would come, do their thing, get defeated, and only then a new one would come. The problem is that they don't have that much of a personality? Like, Bumbee and Kawarino of course have a lot of character and they leave a clear impression on you, but the recurring generals not so much. I know they're a mantis, a spider and a frog, but other than that I don't remember much. But I guess that's not that big of a deal since this is more focused on developing the girls rather than the fight against Nightmare.

One last thing before I wrap-up. I love their cures' designs and I also love their transformation device, I wonder why we never got a watch or bracelet as a transformation device again. The transformations are short, just like the attacks, and it frustrates me that they have good concepts for how each one is "choreographed" but the actual drawings for them lack a lot of care in the details. Like I mentioned up there, the animations and the drawings aren't the best and you would think that at least the stock footage they would get it right, but they go off-model quite a lot of times, this gets very evident in Aqua's roll call, their group pose, and Aqua Stream's sequence. Maybe it's foolish of me to complain about this since I'm watching the DVD version and these things are probably corrected in the blu-ray, but again these reviews are about my experience so these were details that tickled me off so I have to mention them.

Well, that does it for now. This ended up being way longer than I expected, thank you so much if you read all of this. Please let me know your thoughts on the first half of Yes! in the comments, I'm enjoying the ride despite all the bad things I said and I'm excited to properly finish this season in the next week. See you all around~ o/

#Yes! Pretty Cure 5 #Yes! Precure 5 #precure

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heroicadventurists · 5 years ago

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Comic Con @ Home panel and exhibitor list (so far)

Source: Comic-Con@Home

Source: SDCC unofficial blog

TV & Movies

American Dad: Ever wanted to learn how to draw one of your favorite AD! characters? Now is your chance, join show Supervising Director, Brent Woods, as he teaches the cast and executive producers how to draw Roger! Grab a sketchbook & pens and learn to draw everyone’s favorite alien alongside Rachael MacFarlane (Hayley), Wendy Schaal (Francine), Scott Grimes (Steve), Dee Bradley Baker (Klaus) and EPs Nic Wegener and Joe Chandler as they chat about the current season and look toward the series’ 300th episode airing on TBS this fall.

[NEW] Archer (July 24 at 5PM PT): with Aisha Tyler, Chris Parnell, Judy Greer, Lucky Yates, Amber Nash, and moderated by Casey Willis.

The Blacklist

Bill & Ted Face the Music: with stars Alex Winter and Keanu Reeves, as well as Wyld Stallyns, Samara Weaving, Brigette Lundy-Paine, William Sadler, and director Dean Parisot and writers Ed Solomon and Chris Matheson. Moderated by Kevin Smith.

[NEW] Blast Off with Disney+’s The Right Stuff (July 25 at 1PM PT).

Bless the Harts: Join the Harts, in quarantine of course, for a Paint & Sip! Watch Kristen Wiig (Jenny Hart), Maya Rudolph (Betty Hart), Ike Barinholtz (Wayne Edwards), Jillian Bell (Violet Hart) and Fortune Feimster (Brenda) with executive producers Phil Lord, Chris Miller and Andy Bobrow try to recreate Bless The Harts characters while chatting about their favorite moments from season one, what they’re looking forward to in season two on FOX this Fall and how they’ve kept busy during quarantine while drinking the show’s favorite drink – boxed wine!

Bob’s Burgers: The Emmy Award-winning animated FOX series “Bob’s Burgers” invites fans into their homes for a virtual panel with all of the laughs and surprises they generally bring to the Indigo Ballroom. Creator and executive producer Loren Bouchard will break news about the upcoming season, and the always entertaining cast including H. Jon Benjamin, John Roberts, Kristen Schaal, Eugene Mirman, Dan Mintz and Larry Murphy will have you howling with laughter with never-before-seen footage, followed by a lively panel discussion and fan Q&A.

Constantine: 15th Anniversary Reunion: with Keanu Reeves, director Francis Lawrence, and Akiva Goldsman.

Crossing Swords: Hulu Original Crossing Swordsfollows Patrick, a good hearted peasant who lands a coveted squire position at the royal castle. His dream job quickly turns into a nightmare when he learns his beloved kingdom is run by a hornet’s nest of horny monarchs, crooks and charlatans. Even worse, Patrick’s valor made him the black sheep in his family, and now his criminal siblings have returned to make his life hell. War, murder, full frontal nudity—who knew brightly colored peg people led such exciting lives? With Scott Mantz, Seth Green, Alanna Ubach, Tara Strong, Yvette Nicole Brown, Adam Pally, Tom Root, John Harvatine IV, and Adam Ray.

A Conversation with Nathan Fillion: Showrunner Alexi Hawley (“The Rookie”) talks with Nathan Fillion (“Firefly,” “Castle,” “The Rookie”) about his career in film and television. With special appearances by Joss Whedon, Alan Tudyk, Gina Torres, Mekia Cox, Molly Quinn, Seamus Dever and Jon Huertas.

Director’s on Directing: with Robert Rodriguez, Colin Trevorrow, and Joseph Kosinski.

The Dragon Prince: with creators Aaron Ehasz and Justin Richmond, as well as voice cast Jack Desena, Paula Burrows, Sasha Rojen, Erik Todd Dellums, Jason Simpson, Jesse Inocalla, and Racquel Belmonte

Duncanville: Join executive producers Mike & Julie Scully, executive producer and star, Amy Poehler, along with stars Ty Burrell, Riki Lindhome, Joy Osmanski, Yassir Lester, Betsy Sodaro and guest stars Rashida Jones and Wiz Khalifa for an exclusive first look at the upcoming second season; returning next Spring on FOX.

Emily the Strange: with creator Rob Reger and illustrator Buzz Parker

Family Guy: Join cast Seth MacFarlane, Alex Borstein, Mila Kunis, Seth Green and executive producers Rich Appel, Alec Sulkin and Kara Vallow from FOX’s hit animated comedy “Family Guy” as we celebrate 350 episodes with a virtual table read! After, we’ll take a look back at some of our favorite moments from the last 18 seasons, plus a special sneak peek at the hilarity and hi-jinx coming up in our 19th season premiering this fall on FOX!

Fear the Walking Dead: Fear the Walking Dead will present a panel for the series’ upcoming sixth season, premiering later this year. Moderated by Hardwick, the panel will feature Gimple, Showrunners and Executive Producers Andrew Chambliss and Ian Goldberg and cast members Lennie James, Alycia Debnam-Carey, Colman Domingo, Danay Garcia, Karen David, Jenna Elfman and Rubén Blades.

G-Loc: with director Tom Paton, and stars Stephen Moyer, Tala Gouveia, Casper Van Dien, and John Rhys-Davies. Moderated by Jacob Oller.

The Goldbergs: with cast members Wendi McLendon-Covey, Sean Giambrone, Troy Gentile, George Segal, Hayley Orrantia, and Sam Lerner

Helstrom: As the son and daughter of a mysterious and powerful serial killer, Hulu Original Helstrom follows Daimon (Tom Austen) and Ana Helstrom (Sydney Lemmon), and their complicated dynamic, as they track down the worst of humanity — each with their own attitude and skills.

HOOPS: The star-studded voice cast of “Hoops,” a new adult animated series for Netflix launching this summer from 20th Century Fox Television (“The Simpsons,” “Family Guy,” “Bob’s Burgers”), gathered for an irreverent-in-the-best-way conversation about coming together to make this show that follows a foul-mouthed high school basketball coach who is sure he’ll hit the big leagues if he can only turn his terrible team around. Voice stars Jake Johnson, Rob Riggle, Ron Funches, Natasha Leggero, Cleo King and A.D. Miles join creator and executive producer Ben Hoffman and moderator/ guest voice star Max Greenfield (Johnson’s former “New Girl” co-star) for a truly wild and hilarious Q&A. Fans will be treated to an exclusive first look at footage from the premiere episode. “Hoops” comes from writer-comedian Ben Hoffman (“The Late Late Show with James Corden,” “Archer”), Phil Lord and Chris Miller (“The Lego Movie”), with animation produced by Bento Box (“Bob’s Burgers”).

Kevin Smith: You know what this is.

LGBTQ Representation on TV: with Jamie Chung (Once Upon A Time), Jamie Clayton (Roswell: New Mexico), Wilson Cruz (Star Trek: Discovery), Tatiana Maslany (Perry Mason, Orphan Black), Anthony Rapp (Star Trek: Discovery), J. August Richards (Council of Dads, Angel, Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.), Harry Shum, Jr. (Shadowhunters) and Brian Michael Smith (9-1-1: Lone Star). The panel will be moderated by TV Guide Magazine West Coast Bureau Chief Jim Halterman.

[NEW] A Look Inside Marvel’s 616 on Disney+ (July 23 at 1PM PT).

Motherland: Fort Salen: TBA

NEXT: Coming to FOX in Fall 2020, “NEXT” arrives at Comic-Con@Home with a sneak peek of the thrilling opening scene of the propulsive, fact-based thriller about the emergence of a deadly, rogue artificial intelligence that combines pulse-pounding action with an examination of how technology is invading our lives and transforming us in ways we don’t yet understand. “NEXT” stars John Slattery (“Mad Men”) as a Silicon Valley pioneer, who teams with cybercrime agent Fernanda Andrade (“The First”), to fight a villain unlike anything we’ve ever seen. Panelists will include creator and executive producer Manny Coto (“24”), John Slattery, Fernanda Andrade, Michael Mosley (“Ozark”), Jason Butler Harner (“Ozark”) and Eve Harlow (“Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.”) for a fascinating conversation about the new series and how AI and technology infiltrates all of our lives, moderated by Thrillist’s Esther Zuckerman.

NOS4A2: Moderated by Entertainment Weekly’s Clark Collis, the panel will feature Showrunner and Executive Producer Jami O’Brien, Executive Producer Joe Hill and cast member Zachary Quinto.

[NEW] Phineas and Ferb The Movie: Candace Against the Universe (12PM PT).

Rooster Teeth: Yssa Badiola, Torrian Crawford, Barbara Dunkelman, Fiona Nova, Kerry Shawcross, and special guest F.J. DeSanto are going to virtually smack you in the face with exclusive reveals and new information about Recorded by Arizal, Red vs. Blue Zero, RWBY Volume 8, and Transformers War For Cybertron: Siege.

The Simpsons: They’ll never stop The Simpsons!…from appearing at Comic-Con; this time on zoom. Join Al Jean, Matt Selman, David Silverman, Carolyn Omine, Mike B. Anderson and moderator Yeardley Smith. Find out how the show has surmounted social distancing and turbulent times en route to season 32!

Solar Opposites: Your favorite Shlorpians are getting together for Comic-Con at Home! As Hulu’s most-watched original comedy premiere to date, “Solar Opposites” centers around a team of four aliens who escape their exploding home world only to crash land into a move-in ready home in suburban America. They are evenly split on whether Earth is awful or awesome, while protecting the Pupa, a living super computer that will one day evolve into its true form, consume them and terraform the Earth… Join Justin Roiland (“Korvo”), Thomas Middleditch (“Terry”), Sean Giambrone (“Yumyulack”), Mary Mack (“Jesse”) and executive producers Mike McMahan and Josh Bycel for all things “Solar Opposites” including an exclusive clip from the upcoming second season!

Stumptown: with cast members Jake Johnson, Cobie Smulders, and Michael Ealy

TV Guide Magazine’s Fan Favorites: Hale Appleman (The Magicians), Chris Chalk (Gotham, Perry Mason), Robbie Amell (Upload), Kennedy McMann (Nancy Drew), Jeri Ryan (Star Trek: Picard), Richard Harmon (The 100), Lindsey Morgan (The 100), Harvey Guillen (What We Do in the Shadows), and Alex Newell (Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist)

The Walking Dead: The Walking Dead will make its 11th San Diego Comic-Con appearance with a panel spotlighting the Season 10 Finale episode, “A Certain Doom,” which will air as a standalone episode later this year. Moderated by Hardwick, the panel will feature Gimple, Showrunner and Executive Producer Angela Kang, Executive Producer Greg Nicotero, who directed the season finale, and cast members Norman Reedus, Melissa McBride, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Lauren Cohan, Josh McDermitt and Paola Lazaro, among others.

The Walking Dead: World Beyond: The Walking Dead: World Beyond makes its Comic-Con International debut as the third series in wildly successful The Walking Dead Universe. Moderated by Hardwick, the series’ panel will feature Gimple, Showrunner and Executive Producer Matt Negrete and cast members Aliyah Royale, Alexa Mansour, Hal Cumpston, Nicholas Cantu, Nico Tortorella, Julia Ormond and Joe Holt.

[NEW] What We Do in the Shadows (July 25 at 5PM PT): with Kayvan Novak, Matt Berry, Natasia Demetriou, Mark Proksch, Harvey Guillen, Paul Simms, Stefani Robinson, and moderated by Haley Joel Osment.

Wynonna Earp.

COMICS

Celebrating 80 Years of The Spirit: Moderated by Danny Fingeroth.

Decoding the Kirby/Lee Relationship: with Danny Fingeroth.

[NEW] Howard Cruse: The Godfather of Queer Comics.

In Conversation with Robert Kirkman: Creator Robert Kirkman answers fan questions on his titles including THE WALKING DEAD, INVINCIBLE, FIRE POWER, OBLIVION SONG, and more!

[NEW] LGBTQ Comics and Popular Media for Young People.

[NEW] Out in Comics 33: Virtually Yours.

[NEW] Marvel Comics: Next Big Thing: Friday, July 24, 11:00 AM PST

[NEW] MARVEL HQ: Thursday, July 23, 4:00 PM PST

Skybound Presents: Comics & Creators: A panel of Skybound’s comic book creators including Robert Kirkman, the team behind EXCELLENCE, and more come together to discuss their latest projects.

Tribute to Dennis O’Neil: with Danny Fingeroth.

The Wonderful, Horrible History of E.C. Comics: Moderated by Danny Fingeroth.

OTHER

The Art of Collaboration: Duos Behind Top Films, TV Shows, & Video Games.

California Browncoats.

Creative Renaissance: How to Thrive When it’s Hard to Survive. The continued need for social distancing has brought about a creative renaissance in the digital space. Join the conversation with Joe Barrette (Creators, Assemble!), Phil Jimenez (Creators4Comics), Alonso Nunez (Little Fish Comic Book Studio), and Kit Steinaway (Book Industry Charitable Fund) to hear how nonprofit organizations are working with comics creators to support each other and their communities during these challenging times. You will hear about new learning opportunities, collaborations, how to forge new creative friendships in a time of global disconnect and what it means to find your tribe through fandom and shared passion. Moderated by Dan Wood (Comics librarian, EPL).

From Script to Screen: Behind-the-Scenes of Your Favorite Film & TV Shows.

The Future of Entertainment.

GirlsDrawinGirls Presents Industry Professional Women Artists in Quarantine: Balancing Work, Art, Homeschooling, and Life: With Melody Severns, Debbie Mahan, Sherry Delorme, Rehana Khan-Tarin, Aisling Harbert-Phillips, and Christine Chang.

The Legal Geeks.

Making a Living Being Creative: with Lee Kohse, Brendan Hay, Lex Cassar, and Johnny Kolasinski.

Masters of the Illustrated Film Poster.

Music for Animation.

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theewrites-tf2 · 5 years ago

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(Kudos to @teamfortressaswell for the idea, OC REVIVAL FOR 2020!!!)

OC information of Theewrites, ENJOY Y’ALL!

WARNING: LONG, LOOOOOONG POST AHEAD! (And I info-dump alot, so be prepared for some heavy reading material)

(Also, not all of these backstories/OC canon’s are set in stone, and i’m still doing research on their respective characterizations/lifestyles/ect. they’re still in the editing/drafting process, but these are the basics of some of my older OC’s that you may know… and some of my NEW Oc’s that you may NOT know…. Yet, Mwhahaha!)

Regine: Eldest abandoned & disowned daughter of the RED Spy. Born in Marseilles, France, Parisian-raised until five years of age. Vanished suddenly for nearly a decade, resurfaced in Japan as an assassin prodigy at fifteen. Is totally not soft on her half-siblings, but is totally soft on her half-siblings. Cool, regal and calculated, plans to have the world in the palm of her hand before she hits 30. Long-time girlfriend of Matthias, identifies as pan. Has lost her temper one (1) time in her lifetime, immediately went to reapply lipstick afterwards like nothing happened. Definitely has night-terrors about her childhood, doesn’t discuss them with Matthias, and absolutely takes those nightmares to the grave.

Matthias: Unauthorized clone of the RED Medic, is physically near-identical to him with only minor changes and a stark age-reduction. Has considered bleaching/dying his hair to look more different than his predecessor. Expert in human biology and chemistry, experimented with his own blood cells so to transform them into a more… internal version of the components of the Medi-Gun, so as not to carry around clunky equipment. Is the low-key tired dad of the group. Probably designate roadtrips with the squad and immediately regrets it. Romantic-dork for his girl, Best Supporting Boyfriend 197X.

Emma: Daughter of Ex-MannCo employee, Julia V. Henry and [REDACTED]. Legal goddaughter of Dell Congher. Child-genius, though deep-seated anger issues since childhood, potentially as a behavior coping tragedy. Built her first plane with her bare hands at twelve, can dismantle and rebuild a shotgun in exactly 63 seconds. Doesn’t wear helmets on motorcycle. Feels happiest flying in the air, alone. Absolutely, 100% adores kids, and will never admit it. Can’t go more than a minute without cursing. Also, though not information she shares immediately, she’s an elder twin. And she doesn’t like talking about it, so it’s best not to push her luck on the details.

Lui: Ultimate flower/pastel lesbian. Fluent in Japanese and English, though prefers her mother’s language, Hawaiian. Brings snacks to battle, often rehearses her battle catchphrases the night before. Makes friends with every animal she meets, owns a duck named Bartholomew. Reads teen fashion magazines, draws hearts around models she crushes on. Almost everything she owns has pink, no matter what shade, including her rocket launcher. Shares Emma’s love of the sky, is basically Emma’s favorite person. Infectious genuine smile, and will sing along to every new bop on the radio.

Tamela: The eldest out of the entire group, born in Nigeria, doesn’t know her parents. Considers her squad her family, Emma and Lui are her baby sisters, who can MORE than handle themselves but she still worries. Was gifted with abilities of fire-manipulation/telekinesis and heat resistance at a young age. Entire body, from knuckles to toes, is covered in jet-black flame tattoos. Demisexual, has not been in a romantic relationship as of yet, likely to change. Improvo leader, often first into battle and last to leave. Looks imposing and intense at first glance, is actually very warm (haha) and friendly personality-wise, but has a serious streak from having to grow up quickly.

Denny: Mute from birth, youngest of the group. Has never missed a shot in his life, expert target-shooter and excellent sniping protege. Definitely idolizes Annie Oakley, dressed up as her one year for Halloween. Often corrects Emma’s sign-language, but appreciates her efforts. Like Tamela, see’s the group as his family, sticking together through thick and thin. Likes to hike, but also enjoys reading, keeping a raggy, decades-old copy of Sherlock Holmes in his knapsack, right next to his additional ammo.

Ricardo: Born Rosetta, the youngest of a fairly well-off hotel-chain family business throughout Tijuana, Mexico. Was often the forgotten one and left to his own devices, so he practiced running, dreaming of being an Olympic runner. Became Ricardo at 15, traveled to the US a year later. A bit boastful and chatty, though is often last to get a joke. Had a crush on Lui for sometime, before reconnecting with an old schoolmate, Maria, who he plans to move back to Mexico with after his job is done. Hasn’t given up on the dreams of the Olympics, often wakes up long before the sun rises to run laps around.

Sigríður Anja Dis Jóhannsson, or just Sig: Operational MannCo. Shipment Specialist Expert, has been on the payroll for only the last decade, but has become invaluable with the knowledge she has. Born in Iceland, has traveled the world on specialized shipment and cargo missions, even in more dangerous missions and item-requests. Has had to play poker for her own life, more than once. Single and childless, though she took care of her half-sisters children when she died suddenly, her niece and nephews now all grown up and located elsewhere. Sig is happy to travel alone on the open seas, though she’s had more than a fair amount of lovers around the world, men and women alike. Looks forward to retirement, hopefully with someone more long-term whose also ready to lean back, put away the balisong and let the kids take care of the damn gravel pit…

Jonathan Marks: Born Jane to wealthy stockbroker located in Manhattan, Jonathan is the promising CEO of Marks Enterprises, an international trading and environmental-studies. As the youngest CEO of his company, he’s expressing interest to making big changes, including looking into MannCo, hoping to form a co-ownership or eventually takeover, mostly for the sake of his own company, but the fact that MannCo seems to have a few secrets in the closet that seem suspicious… Jonathan knows Regine from childhood, as they both attended the same private school in Japan, prior to Jonathan’s transition. Very book-smart, often tries to lead by example, he’s persistent with getting a meeting with representatives of MannCo, growing more suspicious as time goes on with dodged replies, forcing him to contact a current employee for an opportunity of a private tour of their facilities, one Miss. Binyamin-M’laney

Angelita de los Reyes: Second-generation of Cuban immigrants, Angelita was considered one of the kindest, sweetest people while in school in New Jersey, unfortunately, her studies were often halted as she suffers from CFS (Chronic Fatigue Syndrome) leaving her exhausted before noon often times, though she managed to graduate with a specialty in painting. Though she turned mostly house-ridden after high school, she honestly enjoys spending her day painting and creating art to decorate the family-restaurant downstairs, and also sending her artwork to commissioners all over the state. It also gives her time to send plenty of letters to one of her oldest and closest friends from high-school. He was VERY much higher than her in energy, and could literally run blocks in minutes, but they practically grew up together, at least until he moved to New Mexico for work… Though, strangely enough, Angelita doesn’t get much information about Eric’s company Builders League United, even though he has a whole CONTRACT with them… Hm. How odd.

Sarai Binyamin-M’laney: Born in Tel Aviv as a Mizrahi Jewish woman, her parents sent her to vacation in California when she was six, in which they died suddenly, leaving her overseas with her relatives in Cambria, California. Book-smart and a lover of the beach and surfing, Sarai was popular throughout her younger years, especially with the ladies. Though she identified as bisexual, it wasn’t until she graduated college with a degree in human relations and psychology that she had her first, though admittedly short-lived relationship with an unnamed man in Vegas, returning to Cambria shortly after and finding out she was pregnant. A year later, Sarai suddenly expressed interest in the minute human-resources division in MannCo, relocating to New Mexico shortly after her employment. Quiet, smart and with a very private personal life, she was a perfect, though secretive employee, with a bit of a soft-heart, as seen with how concerned she is for her ‘niece’ and ‘nephew’ back in Cambria, and how quickly she snuck in Mr Marks into the private industries. Her personality, perhaps, is meant to be a more opposing to that of the father of her two children in Cambria. After all, though she lives mere miles from his work location, Sarai has yet to bring herself to walk over and face the red-suited mercenary over in the RED base, whom she still can’t help but remember from their time together in Vegas.

I told y’all it was long as hell, Also it alludes to my OC-canon, which is INSANELY long and i’d hate to waste more of y’alls time on my stuff Xp

Anyway, GO REVIVE THE OC COMMUNITY, PEOPLE HAVE SUCH AWESOME OC’S THAT NEED/DESERVE TO BE SHARED AROUND!!!

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