#like visually this was a thousand leagues above Everything Even the first one

[skenpiel]

OKIFINISHED IT. NOBODY TOLD ME. NOBODY TOLD ME IT WASNT DONE. THIS is like when iw atched the first lotr movie and finished it and my sister was like ok time for the next ones ^___^ and i was like huh 😧 what do u mean the next ones i Thoght tjis was it…….? anyways. i get the spot thing now

[minaminokyoko]

A Love Letter to Black Panther

Disclaimer: Y'all gon' get tired of hearing me scream, "WAKANDA FOREVERRRRRRR!"

Because I mean it. Bless this movie, man. This is everything I have ever dreamt of seeing from a black superhero with an all black cast. They couldn't have done a better job. This movie is a vision, fully realized. It's going to leave a very important impact on pop culture at large and I am so here for that. I've been a black nerd since birth, and to be given a big budget film with a 90% black cast that is backed by a studio giant is so gratifying I can see why some people left the theater in tears of joy. It's not that we haven't had black films before that did well. It's not that we're not giving credit to Blade for being a (mostly) successful film franchise with a black hero at the helm. It's all the elements lining up from having Ryan Coogler direct to grabbing actually African cast members to being marketed during the Superbowl--which is the most expensive ad time you can buy on television--to seeing an amazing integration of tradition, science fiction, and modern topics that are relevant to the black community. I sound like I'm overstating things, but I truly am so happy with how this film turned out. It wasn't a cheap cash grab. It was a genuine attempt to weave a story about African and black culture based around a whole lot of ass-whuppin' and I can't wait to dive in. Follow me, Wakandans.

Naturally, spoiler alert.

Let's start with the man himself, the King of Wakanda, T'Challa. First of all, I knew I'd love him since Civil War. Most people went for Tony or Steve and came out of that movie going, "OH MY GOD BLACK PANTHER IS THE FUCKING BADDEST I CANNOT WAIT FOR HIS SOLO MOVIE DUDE." We all knew he was a total badass, but what I left this movie with was a sincere love for the mercy and compassion he showed us in this film. It's very easy in a position with that kind of power to let it corrupt you and become jaded, but the gestures he made in this film were so lovely. I love that he was outraged by his father trying to erase history with what happened to his uncle and cousin. He was genuinely angry and hurt by it all and in the end, he showed so much kindness by letting Kilmonger see the sunrise before he died that it was honestly touching. I love T'Challa because he has such a big heart. It’s an incredibly important perspective to provide, as much of the world still sees black men as angry, dangerous thugs incapable of kindness. He has flaws as well, like his anger issues and naivete, and that's what makes his journey so compelling. It's very easy to write a royalty character as above it all, but that's why Thor: Ragnarok was so well received recently: they knocked Thor off his princely pedestal and brought him down to our level. We understand what T'Challa is going through even though we aren't royalty. He has a homeland to protect and a family to look after in his father's absence, much like we have our own responsibilities trying to tug us in a thousand different ways. I love that he challenged his father and brought about a new era, extending his help to the world. T'Challa is an excellent character and Chadwick Boseman did a hell of a job with him.

As a black woman, you know what's coming next. My girls Nakia, Okoye, and Shuri. Where do I even start? First of all, let me raise my fist for some lovely dark-skinned women getting the spotlight in a major superhero film franchise. Now, don't get me wrong--I absolutely freaking LOVED Tessa Thompson in Thor: Ragnarok. She slayed. But my heart is just bursting with pride at these beautiful badass women who are given weight, agency, and attention in this film. I have absolutely nothing against light-skinned women at all, but I do acknowledge that they tend to get roles easier than dark-skinned women because society still has this idiotic aversion to them because of the establishment's idea of beauty. It was such a rush to see each woman on screen having inner conflict and deciding what side of the line they would stand on. I love Nakia's stubborn nature and her hesitance to join the fray, but the second T'Challa was gone, she switched into spy mode and she did the damn thing. She saved the people who cared about her, she saved Ross, and she stood up for her country as well as the other people out there who needed her help. You are a diamond, Nakia. Okoye is probably going to come out of this film as the runaway favorite, if you ask me. I mean, Danai Gurira is already worshiped for her role as the amazing Michonne on The Walking Dead, but seeing her here, slicing and stabbing and beating the tar out of everyone while struggling with her loyalty to the Wakandan throne just gives me all the feels. I adored her sharp tongue and her grumpy frown and her impossible awesomeness. Then there's Shuri. I can't express my delight with her. She was such an adorable, witty addition to the team. I fully admit that I fell for the low-hanging fruit: the "WHAT ARE THOOOOOOOSE!" joke was hilarious even though I know no one over the age of thirty is going to have a single clue what she was referencing. I loved her calling Ross "colonizer." Shuri was throwing shade left and right and it was glorious. Furthermore, having her be the gadget gal of the film was brilliantly done. I loved her enthusiasm and her amazing tech. I loved that she bravely fought even though she was inexperienced. She was such a great character and I look forward to seeing beautiful little girls idolizing her mind and her strength in the future.

Kilmonger is definitely one of the strongest villains in the MCU so far. Most people ding Marvel for having thin villains, and that's not an unfair assessment. In my opinion, it's Cutting Room Floor issues. When you have to tell a story in two and a half hours, sometimes there's just too much content that you're excited to fit in and you just can't get it in there, so you take out chunks related to the villain to avoid the hero having an unsatisfying character arc. It's not a great idea, because then your villain isn't three dimensional and it can diminish the overall enjoyment of the film. Kilmonger is the answer to that problem. He had a reason for what he did, and while it wasn't an excuse for his cruelty, it definitely made you think about the fact that every good villain is a hero in his own mind. Kilmonger's plan even tempted someone in T'Challa's camp because it had a serious amount of relevance not only to Africans but black people all over the world. Wanting to stomp out oppression, especially in this day and age, is a trap I think a lot of people can fall into. I love the almost Shakespearean tragedy of it all, that maybe this could have been avoided if T'Chaka stayed behind and explained to the boy where he came from and that he had no choice. It probably wouldn't have worked, but just abandoning the kid with his dead father was ice-cold, and it's more tragic that it was done out of good intentions in T'Chaka's mind. I love that T'Challa sympathized with Erik and even offered to save him in the end. That has weight. That's excellent writing. I do admit, though, that Michael B. Jordan is definitely a young actor, because he was hamming it up pretty hard in certain scenes, but overall the kid did well with the role.

The costume design and scenery were just breathtaking. Man, I love the visuals we got to see. African culture is so vibrant and interesting. I'm really delighted knowing millions of people will get some exposure to all the different aspects and traditions it has to offer.

The soundtrack is killer. From the score to the tracks, it was done truly well.

Andy Serkis as Claw (although I don't appreciate the bait and switch, I can live with it; Marvel always kills their villains that are not Loki and even he is probably going to die in Infinity War). I knew he was an oddball in Age of Ultron, but damn, was he a complete nutcase. I appreciate how completely insane he was the whole time with no real explanation as to why. The simple glee on his face when he giggles, "I made it rain!" was just flawless. He might have the market corned for wackiest Marvel villain thus far. I'm sad that we only got to enjoy two performances from Serkis, but they were still entertaining as hell.

The action sequences had me floored. This is one thing I've always adored about Marvel films. The pacing is always excellent and they know how to wow you. If you follow me at all, you'll know one of the numerous reasons I hated the Justice League movie is that there was NO imagination in ANY of the fight scenes. Black Panther offers some of the best and most creative scenes to enjoy, from hand to hand combat to flipping cars with a fucking vibranium spear. I was cringing and twitching in my seat like I was playing a VR of Tekken, for God's sake. These fight scenes were so well done (though I will ding the film for lighting issues; the jungle scene suffered badly from that problem, as did at least one other one to my chagrin) and I loved everyone's various weapons and fighting styles.

MY BOY BUCKY AT THE END CREDITS YOOOOOOOO. I am infatuated with the idea that the Wakandans analyzed him and have been slowly helping him recover from being brainwashed and abused. It made my cold, petrified heart all warm inside when he smiled and looked out over the water. I just want Bucky to be happy, okay?! Leave me alone!

Well, I've gone on long enough, haven't I? I regret nothing, honestly. This is like The Dark Knight all over again: one of those rare instances when the hype for something was so crazy that we were sure it couldn't deliver, but not only did it deliver, it kicked the hell out of all expectations. I can't wait to see where the road will lead from here. My wish and hope is that this movie does so damn well that Hollywood opens its damned eyes and listens to what we have been saying since the beginning: we want diversity and we want it well done and we want it now. Stop relying on the old ideals of a market that we outgrew decades ago. Black people are just as complex and interesting as everyone else on the planet, and it's time you woke up. We've been doing it ourselves with all kinds of various projects from comic books to novels to short films and you can either lead, follow, or get out the way, as Jidenna once said. Your move, Hollywood.

WAKANDA FOREVER.

[songmvri-blog]

surprise bitch, i bet u thought u’d see the last of me.............GUESS NOT ok but real talk vic culture is spending time one useless shit and then being way too tired to type up something that makes sense or even grammatically correct..... so y’all keep up with my shint because u MUST!!!! ok for those who don’t know me, i’m vic ( she + her ) -- super old, super tired who currently resides in the gmt -3 timezone and this is song mari & her color is olive ( the one you would nevver guess by the frckin cholor scheme i chose....i know, so smart ) !!!!! feel free to hate her because i hate her too so there’s that, enjoy it bc i definitely spent the last seconds i had left of sanity on this ( and it’s long ad of course skjlrnrhkiugh i h*te myself ) (( add me on discord  @ RISE OF VOCALIST MINGYU#5789 to discuss further ok i promise i will make a connections page tomorrow )) 

let’s start this with an apology, this is long and you’re not obliged to read at all ( i understands the hardships of such life...... but then i also love to ramble ) but okay. HERE you can find her pinterest board, so you can have more of a visual ?? notion of mari ( not aesthetic bc idk an aesthetic concept ) & HERE you can find a shortened version of this all, a small bio !!! i’m sorry.

backstory ; 

she was born and raised in gwangsan, her parents married at quite young age -- a result of an arranged marriage, and when she was born, she was seen as the glue for their failed union

needless to say it didn’t work, when mari was five years old, her mother simply left without telling anything only a simple note on the fridge 

don’t stick notes on fridge’s doors, mari is triggered 

okay so she was left to deal with a rather terrible father, that treated her poorly for she reminded him so much of the wife who abandoned him, and grow up without the support of an actual family 

as she grew up, she was the perfect student -- she suppressed all high marks, and in the history of the local school, she had had the best grades ever seen

the teachers bet on her, on what her future would be -- on either she would succeed or fail miserably 

it was in one fine morning, when she was fifteen, that she saw her mother with a little boy in her arms and a man holding her hand, she noticed that the boy looked very much like her and that her mother was happy 

mari didn’t know if her mother had been cheating on her father, if she had been pregnant when she left -- she only knew that she had found happiness, and it wasn’t with her

that was the night that she first threw up from drinking too much soju right beside the pool’s fence -- but it was also he night she decided to be gone

her professors and mentors were not surprised when she approached them about  studying abroad and trying for a scholarship in an ivy league universtity

so at the age of sixteen she was gone to finish her high school overseas ( yes, ahead of the time ), and at seventeen she was blessed with her acceptance into harvard ( suck it up bitchez )

years passed and mari didn’t plan on coming back ever. she had graduated in physics, with honors -- and she was in the middle of her doctorate when she finally decided to answer one of thousand missed calls

her father was dying, and he didn’t have much time left. she was to it up earlier, she was to be back already -- but then, she didn’t want to give in, she didn’t want to go back to that part of herself. 

and even though coming home was the last thing in the world she would do....she put her doctorate degree on hold, she was called things that ranged from crazy to the biggest disappointment and came back to gwangsan 

a year ( and a little bit more ) has passed since she came back, and she can totally say that she’s been better.

she had taken up a position as physics professor at the local high school, the same she attended ( which made it blow up because.... a harvard almost doctor......teaching teenagers there ) & her nights she spends either at her house or besides her father’s bed at the hospital, the one who won’t speak to her by any means.

totally...................has been better. 

personality ;

mari has been hurt her entire life for the ones she loves, so let’s say she’s pretty guarded. 

& besides that, let’s say she is a little bit too conceited -- yes, she thinks she’s the Queen of Reason and no one can say it otherwise 

don’t speak of her father or mother..............or brother who’s probably 20 or 21 now................ everything just hurts her a lot

her entire life she’s been lost and she only felt that she was good enough when studying -- when she decided to leave, when she got the scholarship, when she graduated, those were the only moments she felt that she ws worthy 

so, academic success is something really big in her life -- it’s basically what kept her sane those entire years 

she’s...............i wouldn’t say dry, but logical. level headed and cold -- she’s a scientist, she wants facts not goddamn feels.

( too bad she has feels everywhere in her life )

she is ver dedicated and obstinate, to not say stubborn of course 

Exhausted™, she has bad sleeping habits ( if she has habits at all )

addicted to black tea 

when she left to the US she also left her cat behind, faraday -- he is super old now but still loves her the same even though he hates everyone else

( her iq is pretty big but i’m too lazy to think of a plausible number so i’ll mention this in her stats later ) 

she’s sarcastic............ i’m sorry....... really hard to connect with people...most people think she is a bitch....

color ; 

this is going to be a reach of everything i’ve added but i feel like i should explain why olive green once green is the color of harmony and mari is everything but a balanced person, okay. 

the green spectrum shows the balance between heart and mind & is the color of growth and rebirth. mari had to prove herself over and over again, to herself and to the entire world -- and albeit all adversities she has faced in her life, the ones that left her emotionally scarred, she managed to reinvent herself, to rebirth. what she faces now is the struggle of finding that fine line in her life -- she is a strictly logical person because she chose to be one. she’d been hurt so many times that she simply saw the heart as a foolish reason to act through -- if it wasn’t for her mother’s heart desire to be with another man, the one she loved, she would still have a mother. if it wasn’t for her father’s hardened heart, incapable of loving her properly, she would still find good reasons to stay. 

so she decided to be the best where she knew she would be the best at -- because it was logical. she decided to leave -- because it was logical. she decided to be a woman behind her own name, not her family -- because it was logical; but then she finds herself in that break-point -- where all the beliefs she has were put on the edge the moment she decided to listen to her heart and not her head. 

gwangsan is a place where the colors shine through, but also a place where you find the true meaning why those colors define you -- and her mission is to develop that link that connect both extremities in her life. that’s why that further to being in the green spectrum, her color is olive -- besides being the color of women empowerment ( she wants to be more than a pretty face and a nice body ), it’s also the color of peace, acceptance and understanding. 

mari will only find true peace once she accepts and understands, using both her head and her heart, all the aspects in her life & above all when she stops blaming her parents for the things that they couldn’t avoid, to begin with. delving in the negative aspect of olive, it also stands for blaming others for your own problems, greed and deceit. she’s not a deceitful person, but her guarded persona, merging selfishness, makes her quite hard to trust fully. 

it’s going to be a long ass struggle, but she’s trying and not succeeding. 

bitch if u got this far........................this is true love...............i love you.

[lianatasandwich]

Why I love Wynonna Earp

Okay but like, let’s be real here. 

Regardless of the fact that some visual effects are laughable and the show can’t really be taken seriously, Wynnona fucking Earp has taught me so much. 

Honestly. Just, wow. 

Like:

Waverly and Wynonna’s relationship is totally sister goals. They love, support and protect each other so much that it’s beautiful (and hilarious), and they definitely set a wonderful example of what sisters should be like. 

Friendships are fucking important and can form from the most inconspicuous places. (Dolls and Doc? Nicole and Wynonna? The whole Black Badge Division team in Purgatory? Even Jeremy!)

Doc didn’t leave! He fucking came back instead of running away and that’s- that speaks volumes about someone’s character. 

We should embrace who we are, regardless what other people think. (I’m pretty sure this can be applied to basically every single person on the show.) 

And that we should be who we want to be and not who others want us to be. (Kind of like the one above, but not exactly the same.) 

Also, let’s talk about how Waverly learned to never settle with what she thought she deserved. We can all unanimously agree that Nicole is a thousand times better than Champ. They’re not even in the same league. I mean, hello, she’s an Offi- no, my bad- Agent. Whose name is Haught. 

Moving on to Wynonna. After all the crap she’s been through, I think it’s safe to say that sometimes it’s okay to not be okay. There will always be someone there to help you get back on your feet, even if it takes a little while (of course, alcohol should not be that someone, but it’s Wynonna, so I’ll let it slide…).

People change, and there’s nothing you can do about it. (Cue Willa. *shudders*) 

Everything is better if people work together. This is self explanatory and can be seen in every. Single. Episode. 

Consent is sexy as hell. And also a very, very important and often overlooked part of every relationship. (Thank you, Emily Andras, you are, without a doubt, a Queen.)  

And, on that note, Nicole fucking Haught is exactly what every significant other should be like. Supporting, hard working, patient, loving… the list goes on and on and on… We all deserve someone like Nicole Haught and I think that’s lovely. 

I’m sure that there are many, many other lessons, but these are just the first that came to mind. I don’t know, WayHaught is beautiful and wonderful and lovely, but there’s also soooooo much more to be appreciated on this show. These are just my two cents, at least.  

[cartoonfan7]

Has anyone thought of these yet?

Camp Camp by Rooster Teeth has become a haven for AU crafting, but as far as I know, no one’s thought of certain ones that I honestly thought would happen be now. Or maybe someone has thought of them already and I just never came across them for some reason. Regardless, I will list my fleeting AU ideas and leave up to the rest of you to figure out the full basics. Anyone can use the following….. 

 Portal AU: This one seems so particularly obvious, to the point I’m not sure I’m *seemingly* the only one who thought it up. I don’t particularly have any ideas for an AU like this outside of CC characters as Portal characters. My current roster is Max as Chell, Daniel as GLaDOS, Mr. Honeynuts as the Companion Cube, Jasper as Wheatley, Cameron Campbell as Cave Johnson, David as Caroline, Space Kid as The Space Core,  Nikki as The Adventure Core, and Neil as The Fact Sphere.  It’s slightly weird that technically David turns into Daniel in this AU, but I wasn’t too sure of just having OOC David for most of the AU. I did figure that David would be perfect singing “Still Alive”, “Want You Gone”, “GLaDOS’s cut song”, and “You Wouldn’t Know”. I could use some help figuring out the rest of the roster I still need to fill Doug Rattmann, The Morality Core, The Curiosity Core,  The Cake Recipe Core, The Anger Core, The Announcer, The Turrets, The Defective Turrets, Atlas & P-Body, and Greg.  Any help figuring these guys out would be tremendous.

Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory AU:   The same kind of AU as above only expanded and I actually have a few ideas for this one: It’s meant to combine elements from the original book with it’s two cinematic adaptations (Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory and Charlie & the Chocolate Factory). Campbell Inc. has become one of, if not, the richest companies on the planet, effectively on the levels of Megacorporations, but strangely enough, it seems primarily known and famous for what would, under other circumstances, be considered kids stuff, like toys and candy. But everyone agrees that, somehow, someway, they are top of the line, the best of the best. The head of the company even gains more publicity when he took in several kids from less than stellar backgrounds and adopted them, including Davey and Jasper. But the Campbell Inc. seems to be falling into hard times as the world rolled into the 21st century. Rumors began abounding about the illicit and downright illegal activities of CEO, Cameron Campbell, including unconfirmed allegations of abuse, exploitation, and even one of his kids dying horrifically in an industrial accident in Campbell’s combined primary factory/mansion/theme park. On top of that, competitors who wished to discover Campbell’s money making secrets in all things sent spies into Campbell’s factories around the globe and managed to make a few sizable discoveries before Campbell was forced to lay off a majority of this workforce and try to rebuild the company from the ground up. Campbell himself became a recluse and gave control of the company to one of his adopted kids after some of the previously rumored illicit and illegal activity was confirmed, many speculating that Campbell did this to have a scapegoat to deal with this mess while he went into hiding. For a good few years, Campbell Inc. began to loose money, both by the diminished workforce and by the fact that Campbell went into so many directions in the past that the successor had no idea how to continue. (The successor was a recluse as well who did everything humanly possible to remain anonymous to the world until the main factory/mansion/theme park tour, but to answer the question of the people reading this, yes, the successor is David.) That all changed one night when the main factory and several others around the world started up and began production again despite no one ever leaving or entering the factory in the years before, the night of “reopening”, and in the few years after until the Golden Sparrow contest. Afterward, the company seemingly starts again from scratch, selling the best goddamn candy and toys the world has ever known, allegedly because the successor wanted to return the company to it’s roots (but it’s also partially because David’s a kid at heart and wanted to go back to that). A few years after the mysterious successor inherits the factory, a contest begins that almost ends the world with it’s hype: multiple Golden Sparrows are sent out, promising that the people who show up with one will get a free tour of the refurbished factory, as well as a small portion of the company’s stock (which in and of itself promises for thousands, if not millions of dollars in annual income) and a lifetime supply of any products produced by the company, including food, candy, toys, makeup, certain brands of clothes the company owns, etc. Some rumors even went out about a secret prize, although until the weekend tour of the factory, no one can confirm or deny the rumor. And here enters Max, a young, jaded boy who lives a very shitty, poverty stricken home life (that I unfortunately can’t fully describe since we don’t know what Max’s parents are like [all we know now is that they’re kind of shitty] and there’s a possibility that we’ll see the campers’ parents in the season 2 finale, so if that’s true, I don’t want to potentially date this post with speculation, needless to say that Max’s home life sucks in this AU). Max seems unable to fully grasp the hype about the Golden Sparrow contest at first since “his generation” wasn’t around when Campbell Inc. pretty much ruled the world, although many experts note that they’re getting back up there again and might ACTUALLY rule the world this time now that Campbell’s is being run by a new person who seems to have learned from his predecessors mistakes. Max partially blames Campbell Inc. for why the world he lives in is so shitty, since he understands, in basic economics, what’s liable to happen when a workforce a large as Cameron’s is laid off almost all at once without being replaced by other people. But Max eventually starts giving into the hype as more Golden Sparrows are found and he realizes that the contests prizes could get him out of his shitty life and into a much better one (whether he’ll take the rest of his family with him is anyone’s guess, but I’d say it’s very unlikely). Like Charlie before him, it takes 3 tries to get a Golden Sparrow (should I include the forged one, I don’t know who I’d attribute to in this AU, maybe the Quartermaster, but I feel like he should be somewhere in the factory, should he be the forger or the baseline for the Oompa Loompas, or should I just go the book route about the OLs only being described as little people and seemingly not clones of each other, given how similar individual Oompa Loompas look to each other in the movies?) and, noticing that the Sparrows allow bringing plus two, Max decides to bring a local woman he’s kinda friends with with him (my original plan was for this to be Bonquisha, but I noticed that I haven’t made a place for Gwen in this AU, I don’t know, maybe Gwen is one of Campbell’s adopted kids and she makes friends with David, or maybe Max brings both Gwen and Bonquisha together as his plus ones because Max doesn’t like Bonquisha’s boyfriend. Note: David doesn’t get with Bonquisha in this AU, but they do surprisingly make good friends.) All of the other Campers in the main series, including the Woodscouts and the Flower Scouts, win the contest and bring their parents (except the woodscouts and the flower scouts who go as their respective trios, well, I guess the Woodscouts would try to use the free tour as an excuse to infiltrate the factory to steal secret formulas for their popcorn sales, I could even see them stacking Jermy onto Petrol to do the whole kids in trenchcoat=adult shtick so they can have more hands to steal things with or they could fill the role of a character that was actually cut from the book, Miranda Mary Piker .) The Flower Scouts would, collectively (I guess), fulfill the archetype of  Veruca Salt, all of them being highly successful spoiled brats who feel very entitled, possibly playing into Tabii withtwoIs’s hardcore crush on Neil, who would probably be Mike Teevee, including elements of his 2005 Film character. Ered would fulfill the archetype of  Violet Beauregarde, a cool, somewhat competition freak who likes being cool and winning. I’m not sure about any other Campbell Campers filling the roles of the other “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” kids, but I guess that the factory could have things that could appeal to their vices as well, hell, there are chapters that got cut out of the original book, like Spotty Powder, The Vanilla Fudge Room, The Warming Candy Room, and The Children’s-Delight Room (Info taken from Wikipedia and Lost in Adaptation.) Daniel will be in this AU as Arthur Slugworth, although he’s more like how Slugworth was in the book, actually a corporate rival to Campbell as apposed to secretly being in league with David. Max actually starts internally freaking out at how similar David and Daniel are in appearance (especially after the freaky-ass tunnel scene, which is in this AU, David visually turns into Daniel while reciting the “There’s no earthly way of knowing” poem, Max is kind of traumatized and tries bringing it up again later and gets exasperated with everyone pretending like it didn’t happen, eventually he just gives up trying to rationalize it), but eventually concedes that he actually kind of likes David. Other Camp Camp characters will appear, like the town residents, Jasper (who was the factory’s OG dead kid), the cop (Sal,I think, from the first episode), the federal agents, I guess Jen could appear, but I wouldn’t know how to insert her in, the forest squirrels as the Nut Checking Squirrels, the campers and counselors David went to Camp with could appear too, probably in flashbacks.

Because I’m personally kind of hyped for the new movie, I kind of want there to be a Stephen King’s It AU. I don’t know how exactly It would work, but the internet will find a way.

[junker-town]

The Las Vegas Aces were built to succeed. (And it’s working.)

In only its second year in the WNBA, the Aces are thriving on and off the court.

Liz Cambage, dressed in black and drenched from a morning downpour, rushes through the door of a television station 37 minutes after she was supposed to be on air.

”I’m ready,” the Aussie says, apologizing for the delay after her GPS led her up a mountain instead of routing her to the Fox 5 newsroom in Henderson, Nevada. “I’m alive. I made it.”

The morning show appearance falls in the middle of a busy week for the 6’8 star center of the Las Vegas Aces who led the team to a win over the Seattle Storm the night before. All-Star weekend is only three days away, and with it comes an opportunity for the city of Las Vegas to showcase their investment in the WNBA’s newest team.

Joined by Aces head coach and general manager Bill Laimbeer, Cambage dries off and makes her way to the set for the segment. When the cameras stop rolling, the two will return to the chaos of All-Star Weekend as the faces of a franchise setting a new standard for building successful WNBA teams.

But right now, if only for a few minutes, they’re simply the face of the hometown team in a city ready for basketball.

The Aces’ success is no accident, but it took a long time to get here. They were built from the bones of the San Antonio Stars, a team with players and management who bought into its mission, but ultimately weren’t given the resources to fulfill it. San Antonio held the franchise for 14 seasons after it was relocated from Salt Lake City, where the Utah Starzz were one of the WNBA’s founding eight franchises.

In Texas, the team wasn’t adequately equipped to handle its day-to-day operations. Travel schedules were wonky and included multi-layover flights. They also struggled to upkeep their locker room and training room equipment.

Sharing a city with the Spurs, San Antonio’s perennial NBA championship contenders, didn’t help. When MGM International Resorts bought the team in 2017 and moved them out west, the Aces became the third WNBA team to debut in a city with no NBA counterpart (along with the Connecticut Sun and the now-defunct Tulsa Shock). Considering it had been decades since the UNLV Running Rebels’ basketball glory days, Vegas was starved for hoops.

”[Las Vegas] built themselves as a basketball town, but it’s dormant right now,” Laimbeer says. “You put a good product out there, and the fans will come.”

Timing was also on MGM’s side. They caught the city just as it begun its transformation into a sports town. The Golden Knights went to the Stanley Cup Finals in its inaugural season, just as the Aces made their debut. Vegas is also anticipating the Oakland Raiders’ relocation in 2020, the same year the city will host the NFL Draft.

Ownership had to start from scratch when they moved the franchise, and knew they needed someone in charge who could handle both the team and the business. Laimbeer, a two-time WNBA Coach of the Year who finished his 5th season with the New York Liberty, was their target. He saw it as an opportunity to build a team from the ground up with ownership willing to invest in doing it the right way.

But what does that investment look like?

Aces assistant general manager Christine Monjer runs business operations, and every decision she makes holds one purpose: to instill a love for basketball in a community that hasn’t seen consistent success in the sport since the 1990s. And if Vegas was going to embrace the Aces, the Aces needed to embrace Vegas in more ways than one.

Monjer was part of the brand design team for the Aces, which ultimately dropped everything from its gray, white and black uniforms in San Antonio and rooted the brand in imagery inspired by architecture along the Las Vegas Strip.

”A lot of the older buildings had more ornate finishes, but the new construction, it’s very sleek, it’s contemporary, it’s more modern,” Monjer says. “We were leaning into this new landscape that’s evolving on Las Vegas Boulevard.” The Aces’ logo joins the letter A with letters L and V to create a diamond — “the card suit we’ve leaned into the most,” Monjer says — with a monochromatic color scheme and punches of red and gold.

Photo by David Becker/NBAE via Getty Images

The Aces also needed a brand new home. MGM poured more than $10 million into updating their arena, adding more comfortable seating, a new basketball floor, coaches’ offices and locker rooms, upgraded suites, and a brand-new Jumbotron. “This place is dope,” All-Star guard Kayla McBride says, “and when it’s filled up it’s even doper.”

The rebrand was about more than visual upgrades. It was about attracting the right type of basketball fan — those who want to support a consistently good team — who could build a local community around the Aces. MGM management stayed heavily involved during the Aces’ first season, particularly when it came to selling tickets to employees, executives, vendors, “anybody that you could get to buy tickets,” Laimbeer says.

Ticket sales and sponsorships drive the Aces’ business goals. The latter gets a considerable boost from MGM’s powerhouse connections, but the stiff competition among other gaming and entertainment brands presents obstacles for growth. “The No. 1 unique challenge is that there are limited manufacturing and companies in this town,” Laimbeer says. “Most of the companies are gaming, and they have lots of employees who can buy tickets and lots of sponsorship dollars.”

The thing about being owned by the biggest show in town is that competitors don’t necessarily view the Aces as a team representing the city as a whole. “MGM owns it. We play in MGM’s building. You get to the arena, you have to walk through MGM’s casino,” Laimbeer says. “The other owners of the casinos look at it like it’s the MGM Aces, not the Las Vegas Aces, so that’s a constant battle.”

MGM isn’t as directly involved with the day-to-day operations in year two, leaving the Aces to build on the brand-new infrastructure. The franchise is calling it a “benchmark year” that will set the pace for the Aces’ future because the numbers can actually be taken at face value without accounting for giveaway seats and MGM vendor suites. “The first year it’s brand new, and you have to launch it, and it’s all hands on deck,” Laimbeer says. “And then after that, reality sets in.”

Laimbeer’s involvement with the business side shifts during the season so he can focus on the one thing that drives it all: the team. And to say the Aces have a lot going for them on the court is an understatement. Along with swinging a blockbuster deal for Cambage earlier this year, they have two-time All-Star and 2018 Rookie of the Year, A’ja Wilson, the 2019 No. 1 draft pick, Jackie Young, McBride, and Sixth Woman of the Year favorite Dearica Hamby.

Their skill gets fans through the door, but the Aces’ personalities are captivating and make for one of the easiest sells in all of pro sports. And it isn’t just at the top with standout players like Cambage and Wilson. Take Sydney Colson, for example, a backup point guard who had to earn a spot through training camp.

Before each game, Colson leads the pack of 12 in a dance where the team claps and stomps to hype the crowd and themselves. She makes everything up in the locker room, relays it to her teammates, and even directs the camera operators on where they should stand.

Over time, it’s evolved into the Lady Aces chant.

View this post on Instagram

It’s about that time LADY ACES the remix #DoubleDown ♦️♠️

A post shared by LAS VEGAS ACES (@lvaces) on Jun 29, 2019 at 7:16pm PDT

[clap, clap-clap-clap]

[clap, clap-clap-clap]

[clap, clap-clap-clap]

LADY ACESSSSSSS!

Few franchises can achieve anything special without team camaraderie, and the Aces have it.

Laimbeer often ends pregame shootarounds with a cash prize for any player who knocks down a half-court shot. It’s their way of earning back the $10 he charges those who forget their practice jersey. The morning before the team’s game against the Storm, McBride, a repeat offender, is ready to redeem herself and win the $80 jackpot.

With a serious face, she turns on the jets, runs, and launches from the center of the court. The bank was open. “I got my money back!” she yells, pumping her fist. Moments later, Hamby knocks down the same shot. “Shit. Every time,” McBride says with her hands over her face. They split it, $40 each.

Before film sessions, Laimbeer likes to loosen up the vibe of the locker room by cracking jokes and playing old videos of commercials he starred in as an NBA player in the ‘80s. And he’s not above embarrassing his players either, like the time he showed a video of Cambage getting a lapdance at the “Thunder From Down Under” Australian male strip show.

Cambage is one of the WNBA’s best players and most dynamic faces. She can shoot from three-point range and is mobile enough to cause problems anywhere in the paint. She holds the league’s scoring record with 53 points in a game, too. But more importantly for the largest-growing professional women’s sports league in the country, she’s a shit-stirrer on the court and an advocate for change off of it. One minute she’s the league’s biggest trash-talking villain, the next she’s a fun-loving Instagram star who opens up to thousands of fans regarding her struggles with mental health.

Photo by Barry Gossage/NBAE via Getty Images

Cambage should be the WNBA’s most marketable superstar and the league’s failure to recognize her as one has always frustrated her. It took until the 2019 season, when she forced a trade from a smaller-market Dallas team to Las Vegas, for her to finally have a useful platform for growing her fanbase. Her Instagram following grew by 10,000 during All-Star weekend alone.

On top of that, Vegas has allowed Cambage to explore her passions outside of basketball, including taking the stage at Mandalay Bay Beach to deejay the opening set of the All-Star weekend concert. “A big push right now is people being more than athletes. I am more than an athlete,” Cambage says. “I’ve got businesses to run. I can run parties for my vitamin company out [here] — I can run training sessions and do all this other stuff away from basketball.

”If I have to just focus on basketball, I’d lose my mind and overthink and get consumed by the game. It’s nice being in a city where I have an escape from basketball every day.”

Treating his players well is important to Laimbeer, and he knows the Aces have a unique opportunity to do that better than other WNBA franchises.

”We’re not a New York, we’re not a Detroit, we’re not an Atlanta, we’re not a Los Angeles,” he says. “We’re a big small town that can look after the players easier and make them feel more special. The other part is that we have a story to tell — we have personalities from myself onto all of the players.

”It makes for good storylines. The world is changing in terms of media coverage for the WNBA. We have players that can play in that world.”

The team’s energy transfers to the court, too. Whether it’s an injured A’ja Wilson dancing hard near a security guard (who joins in), or a bemused Cambage staring down the Chicago Sky’s Cheyenne Parker after they make incidental contact, the Aces are entertaining in more ways than putting a ball in the hoop. “It’s one thing if you have a player who’s doing that,” The Ringer staff writer Shea Serrano says. “It’s another thing if it’s the best players on your team.”

The WNBA has missed the mark on marketing the personalities of its best players. The fans crave it and the proof is in the numbers. The Aces have more than 63,000 followers on Instagram, seventh-most in a league of 12, despite being around for just two seasons. Las Vegas has become a team for not only the local community but for fans around the country.

”To be treated this way and loved by the organization and the fans, it’s cool,” McBride says. “It makes you want to go out and give everything that you have because you want to bring a championship to a city and an organization that has given you so much.”

The Aces have carefully cultivated a locker room of like-minded stars. But there’s another reason they’ve been able to flourish into a fan-favorite franchise like few others before them: investment at the top.

Revenue and ticket sales are critical for any entertainment entity, but it’s amplified for the W (whose sister company, the NBA, reminds the public of the some $10 million it loses each year).

Not all of the league’s 12 franchises are failing, but as a whole it’s underachieving. This year, the WNBA announced the hire of its first commissioner, Cathy Engelbert, formerly the CEO of Deloitte. The league purposely selected a businesswoman who could prioritize player and fan experience alongside ticket sales and sponsorships.

A league can’t grow a fanbase if its biggest assets aren’t happy. And the biggest stars of the W aren’t happy. In this season alone, seven-time All-Star Brittney Griner foreshadowed leaving the sport because she doesn’t feel protected by the league and Maya Moore, a three-time champion and MVP, took the season off. Even Cambage threatened to leave the W before being traded to Las Vegas.

The league is at a crossroads. Its collective bargaining agreement is set to expire on Oct. 31 after the WNBPA chose to opt-out. The biggest issue? Pay. The maximum WNBA salary is $117,500 for the 2019 season, a fraction of the money the same players make abroad in China or Russia. “We had to go to a communist country to get paid like capitalists,” Diana Taurasi, the WNBA’s all-time leading scorer, told ESPN this year. Taurasi’s Russian team, UMMC Ekaterinburg, paid her the same amount of money to sit out the entire 2015 season that the WNBA would’ve paid her to play.

Then there’s travel. The league’s current CBA states that all players must fly coach. For All-Star weekend, that meant 6’8 Griner was assigned a seat in the middle of a three-person row. She used her own money to upgrade to first class. Another downside of commercial air travel is that it sometimes hurts players and teams who can’t stay on schedule due to everyday travel woes. In 2018, the Aces were trapped in 25 hours worth of delays and flight cancellations so crippling that the franchise forfeited a game with playoff implications in Washington D.C. weeks before the postseason.

Photo by Michael Gonzales/NBAE via Getty Images

Though ownership like MGM may have been willing to expend its services to fly its team privately, the WNBA seeks to outlaw such financial imbalance and keep parity within bigger and smaller markets. But the Aces have found loopholes their players appreciate.

When Kayla McBride played in San Antonio, she remembers flying in tightly packed Southwest flights with at least one, and sometimes multiple, layovers. That rarely happens now that the Aces fly Delta and almost exclusively take direct flights. They can’t fly first-class by CBA rule, but they can fly “comfort,” which provides three extra inches of legroom. The team also books exit rows and aisle seats for their tallest players.

”When you have [great ownership] it changes everything,” McBride says. “You don’t have to worry about the day-to-day things because they’re taken care of for you. And that’s so huge, because our league is so short and compact, and we play so often. So when you have people looking out for you on that level, it makes everything easier to just come out and play the game.”

Bringing the All-Star Game to the Mojave Desert in July could have been a risky move. Yet, Las Vegas Boulevard’s throng of tourists seems unfazed by the sweltering 105-degree heat and grasshopper carcasses crunching beneath their feet after a freak invasion swarmed the Strip.

Billboards promoting the Aces and the league’s 22 All-Stars tower above the Bellagio and Mandalay Bay resorts. City transit buses have been transformed into mobile Aces ads featuring photos of the team’s top players. DJ Liz Cambage’s name sits in the lower-third of posters for the Snoop Dogg and Iggy Azalea concert. Their brand is everywhere, and with the Aces leading the WNBA in merchandise sales this year, it’s clear the team’s popularity is reaching far beyond Las Vegas.

This level of publicity for the sport doesn’t happen in every WNBA city. But this isn’t just any city. And the Aces aren’t just any team.

“It’s a place that’s gonna market itself,” Colson says. “People want to be in Vegas.”

[my-hand-in-your-pocket]

Bad Ending mwahahahah

Setup: Phaenna and her crew get captured by guardians.

Pallaxas had fought guardians during his service to the House of Kings. Individuals were easy enough to kill: picking them off with a wire rifle from afar, grabbing and lifting them overhead before hurling them off of a cliff, even hacking them apart with his shock swords. Facing down two coordinated and experienced fireteams, however, was altogether quite different.

Ether hissed from his many gaping wounds left by gunshots and knives. Three Hunters danced circles around him and stabbed at seemingly opportune moments only to be parried and given the occasional riposte. Moving like a whirlwind to fend off the lot of them was an increasingly difficult task as his movements slowed and his limbs grew heavier.

Phaenna and Beltane-5 occasionally blind-fired from behind cover and missed the guardians but were kept at bay by the Warlocks’ and Titans’ suppressing fire.

“We need to fall back!” Phaenna shouted.

“I’ll move first and take pot-shots. My frame can handle the heat!” Beltane-5 shouted back. “I go, then you go, we’ll split their attention!”

The doctor leapt out from behind cover, quickly took aim and fired, landing a perfect headshot on a Warlock manning the rooftops. The guardian fell, but in a blaze of solar energy, she arose and fired back. Beltane-5′s knee exploded in a spray of shards and wires and he collapsed with a thud.

Phaenna was already on the move and on seeing her companion fall, she hesitated and turned to face him.

And turned her back toward the Titan racing toward her. He tackled her to the ground and gripped her tightly by her neck. Only a wet gurgle escaped her lips. She stared up at his blank mask and armored fist. He said not a single word and punched her, and she fell limp.

Pallaxas caught the skirmish, saw his Exo companion crawling away on his belly, saw the Titan cuff Phaenna with manacles. His moment of distraction was all the Hunters needed; they charged him and slammed their daggers into his back, over and over. The Eliksni’s swords clattered to the ground as he fell to his knees, weakened limbs shuddering from ether-loss and body wracked with agony. At that moment, he knew that his time was upon him.

Looking up, he watched as another Warlock ascended into the air before him. Void energy sizzled around him and gathered between his hands, an orb of violet rage growing larger and larger. With a grunt of effort, he pushed himself to his feet. he sputtered in his native tongue. God of Light, save my people->

The Warlock hurled his Void Bomb and blasted Pallaxas into nothingness.

The Exo convicts screamed, cried, and pleaded. Their final minutes and last words fell on deaf ears as the New Monarchy officers fastened their straps and secured cranial devices to their heads.

Beltane-5 stared at the metallic floor of the expungement chamber and ignored the plaintive wailing around him. He remained still, quiet, and for the first time in his life - the fifth time? He felt exhausted. Numb. Relinquished to his fate.

“Commence the execution,” a senior officer announced. Her tone was clinical and indifferent. There was no asking of last words, no priest to deliver their final rites, no regard for their humanity. To her, they were little more than noisy machines, non-compliant robots that defied the City, aberrations that needed correcting.

Their headgear hummed to life and he felt his circuits pulse with intense energy. A sensation swept through his frame, a feeling not unlike being ripped apart and slowly falling asleep. His memories raced in a desperate bid to fight for his life: the patients that died in his arms. The victims of Fallen brutality and bandit savagery he failed to save. Phaenna looking soulfully at him as she confided in him her hopes and fears. Pallaxas attending to him quietly, an unyielding and loyal sentry.

Young Ana, brightly chattering about video games and waking in the night with tears, holding him until dawn as she cried.

Beltane-5 surrendered to apathy and his head slumped and everything fell to blackness.

The Exo’s visuals went online. He looked up, bewildered at his surroundings and his equally-confused fellow Exos beside him. Several officers garbed in red uniforms approached each of them and scanned them, and followed up with a series of questions.

“Hello,” the Exo said. “Uh, who are you? Why am I strapped down?”

His attending officer stared at him with complete disinterest and scanned him. “What is your name?” He asked.

“My name is Beltane... six. Beltane-6,” the Exo replied.

“Do you have an assigned job, education and skillset?”

“I've got primary and secondary education protocols and, uh, no job training,” Beltane-6 replied. “Where am I?”

“Who are your friends and legal next of kin?” The officer asked.

“I don’t have any friends. No next of kin.”

“What do you know about medicine?”

“Nothing,” he replied calmly.

The Exos were released and ushered single-file out of the expungement chamber. “You will enter orientation shortly and receive your new job and living assignments,” the senior officer announced dully.

I’m getting a job? Beltane-6 wondered. And a place to live? I wonder if I can make any friends...

As they departed, the next set of Exo convicts were secured in the expungement chamber with the efficiency of an assembly line. They screamed, cried, and pleaded, all complaints falling on deaf ears.

The crowd of thousands roared in triumph as Phaenna stepped out of the prisoner transport van. Officers secured restraining poles to her legcuffs, checked her manacles, and secured a restraining pole to the collar around her neck. Two Titans bearing the brilliant white-on-red logos of the New Monarchy attended to her entourage of guards and escorted her on her short walk - a walk that seemed as long as a league - to the stage that was erected in the City square.

“Thief!” The many voices shouted as she passed. “Dirty cunt! Murderer! Thieving whore! Traitor! Burn in hell!”

The Titans kept the angry crowd at bay but made little effort to shield the woman from the trash thrown her way. An empty bottle shattered at her feet and rotten, maggot-ridden vegetables were hurled and caught in her unwashed hair. The guards did not clean her off and when she stopped to shake the vermin-ridden garbage away, they shoved her forward.

Phaenna and her escort climbed the short staircase to the stage. A line of FOTC soldiers stared dispassionately at her, each one standing with rifles resting calmly at their sides. The Titans secured her to a post upstage center before moving to either side of the stage.

A New Monarchy Executor glared down at her from his podium nested on a balcony above and sneered. She could see his thoughts in his eyes: Lowlife. Traitorous scum. Living garbage.

“Phaenna Serov, aka ‘Kosma’,” he began. “You have been accused of the following crimes against humankind: grand theft, assault on guardians, conspiring with the Eliksni, abduction, smuggling, theft of classified Vanguard materials, interference with Vanguard operations. You were previously sentenced to exile in twenty-seven-oh-seven, but your actions have deemed you a traitor to humanity and an enemy of the state. You are sentenced to die by firing squad and your assets will be absorbed by the City, as you have no next-of-kin. Do you have any last words?”

Hot tears welled up in her eyes and her chest tightened. She opened her quivering mouth to speak but her words were drowned out by the roaring crowd. The gravity of her situation fully sank in and she lowered her head, her shoulders shaking along with her quiet sobbing.

“Let the execution commence,” the Executor said.

One of the Titans barked a command, loud and clear to the soldiers and they readied their rifles.

Phaenna looked up at the Traveler hanging above. The sky was clear blue and the sun was shining. Birds flew carefree and she felt a cool breeze waft over her body. The snow glistened on the mountains flanking the City. The sun shone brightly and warmed her face. The day seemed filled with life.

The Titan barked another command, and the soldiers took aim.

Phaenna thought of her lovers, dead or gone. Rotting in prison, cold in the ground, lost forever. She missed their warm, loving embraces, their soft kisses and whispered nothings. She missed fighting by their sides, watching the stars and telling tales over the campfire. She missed her respite from loneliness.

She missed her parents. The last she saw them, she had left New Boston on reaching adulthood and traveled to the Last City to become a Cryptarch. Her mother, Kosma, an adventurer who traveled the world and seized problems by the throat. Her soft-spoken father, who discouraged Phaenna from fighting, swearing, and running wild through the settlement. When she returned in exile from the City, New Boston had long since been razed to the ground by the Fallen. She never saw them again.

She thought of Beltane-5. He had always been dedicated to her, tending to her wounds and acting as her confidante and friend, her shoulder to lean on. She missed his peculiar friendliness coupled with his morbid violent streak, and his compassion for treating the many victims in the world. His cheerful voice. His steady reassurance that everything would turn out okay.

Pallaxas was dependable, loyal to a fault, and in many ways one of her closest friends yet something of a mystery. Even over the course of a decade she still found herself amazed at his tenacity in battle and his expert swordsmanship. She missed the soft music he played on his instrument, missed his temerity around loudness and his unusually soft nature.

And Ana... skin and bones and trembling with fear when they met - now a healthy young girl on the verge of womanhood. Her indecipherable chatter of esoteric technology, her screaming curse words at video games, her soft body shaking in her arms when she was wracked with an episode. Her unique way of looking at the world, of playing with problems and devising ingenious solutions, her disbelief in “impossible” and dedication to unlocking even the most arcane enigmas.

In their brief years together, Ana became more than her charge, more than her crew member. Hot tears rolled down her cheeks.

“I’m sorry Ana,” she whispered to the Traveler. “I’m sorry... my wonderful daughter...”

The soldiers fired.

They were her heroes.

They were her heroes and she had spent her life looking up to them, the saviors of the Earth.

Two years ago, she watched her crew get cut down by two fireteams from the safety of the Kingswind. She saw Pallaxas disintegrate in a blast of Void energy, watched Phaenna get knocked out, watched Beltane-5 get dragged away in chains. She watched her heroes destroy her crew. Her family.

In her panic, she fled the skiff and lost herself in the wilderness. Days later, she was found by settlers and taken in.

Two years passed. Each day she looked at the sky and waited. Waited for Phaenna to arrive on the Kingswind with Beltane-5 at the helm. Every night she woke in a cold sweat and sought Beltane’s or Phaenna’s arms, and instead, found nothing but her stinking hayloft that was her new home. Each day she toiled on the farm and performed menial tasks throughout the settlement.

She never mentioned her vast knowledge of science and engineering to the villagers. To them, she was a transient with no family, an outsider, a young woman that worked as a laborer from dawn to dusk. And what was the point of her mentioning anything? They had no machines, no technology that was relevant to her field. She would not have been able to help them.

Each day she waited, and each day Phaenna did not come, and a growing sense of dread crept up on her: maybe she would never come back. Still, she watched the skies with diminishing hope and grieved for Pallaxas.

A Hunter passed through the settlement one day and for the first time in her life, Ana turned away in anger. She felt betrayed. She hated him. Leaving his presence was all she could do to keep herself from strangling the guardian. The image of their capturing her crew two years ago still felt fresh. Disgust heated her cheeks as she listened to the settlers croon over the Hunter, who bragged about his adventures. She wanted nothing more than to watch him die. She wanted her crew’s captors to die. She wanted them all to die.

Perhaps she had been a fool to have believed in them. When they killed Pallaxas and hauled away the remainder of her crew, the last of her meager hope fizzled. She remembered the sensation of hope dying. Every last dream she had of meeting them, of listening to their stories, making friends and watching them show off their powers shattered in an instant.

Perhaps Phaenna had been right all along. Perhaps they were never the heroes she thought they were.

Perhaps all guardians were monsters.

[roxywashere]

Feel the Fire

A long retired supervillain is pulled back into action.

Xena Noble had made her fame in the 2040’s as a supervillainess, the shape-shifting and pyrokinetic Salamander. She never killed, but she did cause billions of dollars in property damage in Danesville, Wisconsin over the ten years she was active. In the latter years she began to become disillusioned with her chaos and sought desperately for escape. She had gotten her chance in the form of Renegade, a superheroine she had fought many times. One time, she had gotten too zealous for her good, and had very nearly killed Xena. Xena had let her think she had. She shapeshifted away from the wreckage of the building the Salamander had died in, and never used that name again. Xena had never been unmasked, and would never be chased after; it was the perfect crime.

She sought normalcy. She applied for a job as a teacher at a superhuman school, the Astra Academy in upstate Wisconsin, so she could put the knowledge that had created the Salamander to good use.

By sheer coincidence, she managed to become close friends with Renegade’s civilian identity, Alice Prince, who was also a teacher at the same school. In the fifty years since, she had come out as a former villain to the rest of the superhuman staff, and had been forgiven and accepted by the vast majority of them. She had found normalcy.

But now there were some jackasses kicking around and causing chaos using her old name.

She had gone to Danesville, her old city of operation, where the new Salamanders had been making a ruckus. She was standing in front of a still smoldering arson site, as snow drifted from sky onto her afro and wind fluttered her coat. Police were still swarming the scene, and she tagged one down, flashing her Astra’s League (associate) badge. “Morning officer. I’m Xena Noble, from the Astra Academy. We have reason to believe that two of our graduates did this. What can you tell me?”

“The owner of the building said he saw...” The officer hesitated. “Well, he described them as Demons. Big, 7-8 feet tall. Pitch black skin, and glowing mouths and eyes. That ring any bells?”

“Unfortunately, yeah.” They hadn’t just stolen her name, they were stealing her look, too.

“Well thank goodness. I hope you don't mind us pawning this off on you, but we’ve been swamped this week with all of the Harlequin activity.”

“Well, today’s your lucky day. I’ll take it from here.”

“I’ll go grab some of the files.”

Xena pulled out her phone, dialed it, and held it front of her. A hologram appeared above it showing Alice Prince's elderly face.

“They definitely know my old MO,” Xena explained. “They even impersonated my old combat form. If they're both half as good as I was, well, you can do the math.”

“Feel free to call down some help,” Alice pleaded.

“Once I’m actually on their trail, maybe then. Talk to you later.” She hung up. Xena had always been a lone wolf type.

The officer returned with a data card. “This is everything we have on this investigation, and the ones with the same ID’d perps. Drop by the station if there’s anything else you need.”

“Will do.”

Xena walked off, plugging the card into her phone. She read while she walked, and by the time she had gotten to where she was going, she had read all of it. She stopped in front of an old warehouse. It was visually the same as it was before but it obviously wasn’t the same building as the one that she had headquartered in, since Alice and Xena had destroyed it in their last fight. She didn’t even have any reason to suspect that the new Salamanders would be there, she just went there because it’s what she would have done.

The building was abandoned, as it had when she had first taken up residence, because of a downturned economy. The door was chained shut, so she checked that the coast was clear, grabbed the lock, and turned up the heat in her palm, melting the brass away. She forced open the door and kept the heat in her palm going, redirecting it into a flame to light the warehouse. It almost looked too much like it did when she had lived there. If her eidetic memory wasn’t betraying her, it was identical down to the patches of peeling paint on the walls, and the grease stains on the floor.

She ignited her whole body instinctually, and absorbed her clothes and phone into herself to protect them. She turned her skin into diamond-hard black carbon, and turned her eyes and mouth into bright orange embers. This was what she had called the Salamander: A fire elemental with no set form. Her body was a domain which she held full control over, every atom and its energy subject to her will.

Xena cautiously spun on the spot, scanning the now fully illuminated warehouse carefully. As she did so she spotted two shapes crawling from shadow to shadow. She growled at them, her mouth spitting smoke and fire.

They slunk out of the shadows, like serpents, not moving but growing and receding in her direction. They solidified into the forms of two androgynous teenagers, one with pale skin and long black hair, and the other with tan skin and short auburn hair. Xena did recognise them, they had been enrolled at the Academy. They had also taken a suspiciously high percentage of her classes. Xena now realized they had just been been studying her the entire time.

“Look who finally came crawling back to the cradle,” said the auburn.

“What a pathetic excuse for an Elemental,” the brunet taunted.

“What do you want from me?” Xena shouted at them.

“We want you to suffer,” said the brunet, standing where the auburn had been.

“You’ve abandoned your heritage,” said the auburn, standing where the brunet had been.

“You’ve forgotten who you are.��

“You’ve lost your flame.”

“Why should I care what two punk-ass kids think?” Xena taunted in return.

The two were gone, as quick as a blink, though Xena could swear she hadn’t. She spun around, and was met with two Titans, 30-foot tall lumbering masses of fire, soot, and shadow. “What about what we think?” they asked in unison. One of them grabbed her, and the other surrounded her with it’s hands, and she felt their heat. She didn’t just feel it, they were burning her, and she screamed, in pain and anger. Just when she thought their fire would consume her...

She snapped out of the lifelike deception, standing in a warehouse that looked no more like the one she had called home than any other would. Her heart was racing. She looked at her hands: Brown skin, not black carbon. She felt her face, and massaged her temples. “Shit, I do need to call in some help.”

And for deception magic as powerful as that, there was only one person capable of studying it and possibly tracing it: Aradia Furst.

Aradia was Alice's niece, and though most of their family wasn't on speaking terms with itself, Aradia always kept close tabs on her relatives’ allies. When Xena had come out as a former villain, Aradia had briefly kidnapped Xena to interrogate her for her intentions. Xena had passed with flying colors, and as a reparation Aradia offered her services for any magic-related troubles Xena may encounter.

And Xena figured now was definitely the time to cash that favour.

“If I didn’t know any better, Xena,” Aradia explained after hearing Xena’s recounting of the daydream, “I’d say your mysterious and unexplained backstory was catching up with you. You’ve always said you got your powers in a lab accident, but that doesn’t line up with what I’m hearing from you now.”

Aradia was hovering, Lotus-Position, in the center of her workshop. Her black and gold robes hung to the floor, and they glittered and shone with reflections of the glyphs and holograms that covered the walls. Her long brown hair floated freely, and her golden eyes shone with their own light.

“It was lab accident. I was doing my work with Heat-Controlled Cellular Regeneration, a bit of the test culture got on my hand, and then the propane tank fueling my bunsen burner backed up and the lab exploded. That’s all that I remember.”

“Hmm.” Aradia reached her feet to the ground, and walked towards her workbench. “A propane tank spontaneously backfiring at such an opportune time sounds like the work of a Metanarrative Totem.” With a few flicks of her wrist, Aradia summoned a stylized glyph of a spider, and then X’ed it out and drew a stylized salamander in front of it with her finger. “With that kind of force at work it’s a miracle there’s only three of you. Last time a Totemic power got unleashed upon a multiverse a thousand of them went to war, and nobody wants that again.”

Xena just stared at Aradia, unused to seeing this less-than-stoic version of her.

Aradia sighed. “This reference is being wasted on you. Spiderman, Spider Totems, Spider Verse. You’ve never heard of any of that, because Marvel and DC don’t exist in this universe.” Aradia rubbed her face. “I need to get out more.”

Aradia had an apparent revelation with that sentence. “There's an idea, take me to the place it happened. I'll be able to study the magic better if I’m immersed in it. Where was the warehouse?”

“Down by the Pike River outlet.”

Aradia drew a wide circle with her fingers, which then tunneled through the fabric of reality, opening a portal to the Pike River embankment. She stepped through, and beckoned Xena to follow. When she did, Aradia gestured for her to lead the way. Xena led her to the warehouse, and Aradia started casting spells to reveal the magic that had triggered the daydream, summoning illusions and holograms displaying in complicated detail every facet of the space.

“Oh, this is definitely Totemic in nature. It’s got strong traces of Demonic influence, as well, that’s never a good sign. If the Demons are directly involved I may need to summon divine assistance.”

“ ‘Divine assistance’?” Xena asked.

Aradia ignored her question, deeming her not ready for the answer. “A Demon is a worst case scenario, though. Most likely it’s just magic based upon the Deceiver’s own, and not it actually.” She focussed on the glyphs surrounding her as they honed in on the source of the magics. “There we go. Very strong. Ancient. Absolutely Totemic. But, not Demonic, and therefore in my jurisdiction. Would you mind if I called my sister in to aid us?”

“If you think she’ll be able to help.”

Aradia performed an incantation, and after a moment, she created another portal. Out of it stepped a figure.

Thrud Furst was tall, wearing a combination of robes and gold and black metallic body armor. She had long black hair, flowing in the breeze coming from behind her, through the portal. The skin of her face, the only skin of hers exposed, was heavily tanned. Her left eye was replaced with a complicated connector, a port to interface with any other magitech. The skin around it looked violently scarred, and more scars peeked around the edges of the bodysuit hiding her neck. Her arms and legs were not organic, but instead gold and black prostheses, designed to look and act like metallic muscle. She was holding in her hands a very ornate gold and obsidian mask, with a glass slit across the front and a jack inside that matched the one on her eye. After stepping through the portal she placed the mask upon her face, and the glass slit started glowing red.

“The hunt is on, sister,” Thrud said, her voice distorted in an almost robotic manner, summoning a golden sword from the thin air behind her back.

“Indeed it is, sister,” Aradia replied. “Pseudo-Demonic magic, made to mimic the manipulations of New Jerusalem's Deceiver.”

“Nothing we haven’t dealt with before. Where are they?”

Aradia studied her holograms more. “The foundries in the south of the city. How apropos.” She summoned another portal, straight to the foundries along the  border with Chicago at the south end of the city.

“I imagine drawing them out will be as simple as you arriving there,” Aradia said. “At least, assuming they do truly wish you dead.”

Despite their reassurances that the enemy was not Demonic in nature, Aradia and Thrud both crossed themselves before stepping through the portal. Xena stepped through without ceremony.

Aradia and Thrud were standing back-to-back, watching their surroundings carefully. It was strangely quiet. None of the foundries were being worked, all the workers having gone home after a hard day's toil.

Xena assumed her pure carbon form in preparation for whatever may be coming.

Aradia spoke up. “Do you feel that?” She summoned a circular flat hologram, which rippled like a pool of water, shaken by some subaudible vibration. She pointed the hologram in a number of directions around the trio, until the vibrations spiked. “That way.”

She led them to a FursTech Foundry, where the vibrations were audible, a series of loud, steady clangs, the sound of metal being worked. “Well, they certainly have a sense of irony,” Thrud mused.

“They also have a sense of who I’d have gone to for help,” Xena Responded. She pushed through the unlocked door to the foundry, and made her way through the offices to the foundry floor, where the two Titans were at work. One of them was holding its hands over a large glowing-orange sword, heating it to be forged, and the other was hammering it with a massive golden hammer. As Xena silently approached them, they glanced in her direction, nearly rendering Xena paralyzed with fear. They finished their forging, the one who had been heating the sword hoisting it over it’s shoulder.

“Are you ready to join with us, little Salamander?” they both asked in unison, their hulking forms approaching her.

“I...” Xena stammered. Aradia and Thrud stepped out of the shadows behind the Titans. Aradia summoned a circle of seven glyphs in front of her, and each of them fired a laser of a different color at the Sword Titan. Thrud dashed up the Hammer Titan’s leg and back, and planted her golden sword cleanly in the back of it’s neck, before activating an ice spell. She ripped the now frost-coated blade out messily, jumping away, and landing next to Aradia. The Titans both cried out in anger, making a sound like the roar of a jet engine.

“Then you’ve come to die,” they both surmised. “Very well.” Their forms changed rapidly, going from soot and shadow, with burning interiors, to pure flame, surrounding a skeleton of ember bones. Their shape was more obvious in this form, showing that they were humanly proportioned, if a bit stocky, and their skulls were now obviously horned, with two thick bull-horns curving up and slightly forward.

Xena responded by matching their height. She grew her carbon skin thick, and allowed her inner flame to consume the rest of her, becoming an armor shell surrounding a being of fire. She threw the first punch, turning her fingers into long obsidian claws and swiping at the Titans’ skulls.

The Titans both parried with their weapons. Xena then focused on the Hammer Titan, and focused as much heat as she could into the weapon, trying to melt it. Aradia and Thrud, meanwhile tried to divert the attention of the Sword Titan. Thrud zipped around it’s ankles, and Aradia blasted it with various Cold, Light, and Water magics from a distance. After she saw Xena heating the metals glowing hot, Aradia shouted: “It’s Adamantium! Melting it won’t work, you’re just making it more dangerous for us!”

The Sword Titan brought it’s blade down powerfully on Thrud, who held her sword up to block and locked her body mechanically, her armor and limbs seizing into a solid interlocked frame. The swords clashed, and Thrud pushed a crater into the ground instead of being crushed outright. “This is the power of Adamantium,” she proclaimed. She summoned an upwelling of magic strength and pushed back the larger sword. “My body was destroyed by a Demon, but my sister summoned the aid of the angels to gift her the materials to rebuild me. Celestial Adamantium and Uru-mithril make me an unbreakable conduit for magic.”

“Stop talking and start fighting!” Xena roared. She attempted to tear the weapon from the Hammer Titan’s hands, but the Titan would not let go. The two quickly transitioned to wrestling, which threw their tangled forms against the walls of the foundry, and they fell through it to the outside.

The Sword Titan made to follow, but Aradia threw up a barrier preventing it from escaping from the magitech assault. It raged at the barrier, striking it with the sword ineffectually. Thrud climbed the wall nearest to it and leapt to try and stab at the burning skull, but as she did the Titan swung its sword directly at her. Thrud was sent flying through the foundry, crashing into the far wall. Aradia dropped the shield as she tried to cushion Thrud’s impact, allowing the Titan to join its other outside.

Xena had been dealing with the Hammer Titan, throwing it at the surrounding buildings, trying to entangle it in debris so she could try and wrest the Hammer from it. The Sword Titan rushed behind her, and cleaved a wide slash in her back. Xena roared and slashed back, allowing the Hammer Titan to gather itself and lift its hammer.

Aradia, rushing out of the Foundry, hit the Hammer Titan with a frost beam, blasting it’s hands and making it drop the hammer. Xena, turning and seeing the Hammer now free, quickly grabbed it, and tried to smash the Hammer Titan’s skull. The Hammer Titan rolled out of the way, but not fast enough that Xena would completely miss it, smashing it’s collarbone. 

The Hammer Titan howled, crawling towards the other, and the Other met it halfway, grabbing it’s hand. Their bones began to melt together, and they flowed into one another, becoming a blob of flame surrounding a swirling mass of bones. The bones melded together, and the new Titan started taking form, not quite twice as tall at the two had been separately, but lanky and slim in comparison. 

“YOU WILL BURN!” they cried. Almost effortlessly, they bent down and grabbed Xena in both hands, and overpowered her flame with their own. Xena resisted at first, hammering away at them, but quickly the pain became too much, causing her form to start to lose cohesion and be drawn into the Titan. She screamed, refusing to surrender. 

“SUBMIT TO OUR WILL, OR DIE!” 

Far below, Aradia continued blasting with ice and water, and Thrud lept up the sides of the buildings to try and reach weak areas of the Titan. 

Xena seethed for a moment, and then relaxed, allowing herself to be drawn into the Titan peacefully. Once her mind had been completely welcomed by the Titan’s two others, then she started fighting again. 

“I submit to no-one. You submit to me!” 

The Titan’s twin minds, not expecting to be turned against, were quickly restrained by Xena’s will, and fought her as she bottled them into a dark recess of her psyche. As she gained more and more control of her new body, she started dousing the flames, and condensing back to a normal human size. The Titans’ powers, instead of being bottled with the minds, were added to Xena’s own, giving her an immense rush as she accepted the quadruple in strength and control they offered.

The Hammer and Sword fell to the ground as the form grew too small to hold them, causing Aradia and Thrud to back away. They watched as the Titan shrunk to human size, flame swirling around it as it went out, and the form itself solidified. They approached cautiously, spell and sword at the ready, watching Xena wrestle the last bastions of the Titans into the pit in her mind.

Xena, kneeling on the concrete amidst the destroyed foundries, opened her eyes. She looked at her hands, seeing them the shade of brown that she had been born with. Her clothes wrapped snugly around her body, and everything she had had in her pockets was there once again. She noticed that there was suddenly an ice-cold sword pressed against her throat.

“Are you in control?” Thrud demanded from her.

“Why would I tell you if I wasn’t?” Xena answered.

“That sounds like her,” Aradia noted. She finished casting a spell, showing her the landscape of Xena’s mind: The roaring flame of Xena in control, and the two smoldering embers of the Titans wrapped in chains. She motioned to Thrud, and Thrud reluctantly removed the blade from Xena’s throat, sheathing it in the space behind her back.

“How do you feel?” Aradia asked.

Xena introspected for a moment. “Stronger than ever,” she eventually answered. “What was that you were saying about Adamantium earlier?” she asked, having a thought.

“Why?”

“What kind of power would be required to incorporate it into my shifting?”

“Immense.”

“I’ll give it a go then.” Xena stood up, walked over to the still-hot giant Adamantium sword, and pressed her hands against it. She utilized all her newfound power and poured as much heat as she could into the metal, scorching and cracking the ground around her before finally the metal succumbed and started flowing freely from the puddles under her hands. She quickly scooped it up, and absorbed it into her skin. Keeping it heated within herself, she used her shapeshifting to create a mold inside her, directed the Adamantium into the mold, and then sucked the heat from it.

When she was done, she carefully pushed the molded Adamantium out through the skin between her knuckles, in three long blades.

“How original,” Aradia dryly noted.

Xena absorbed another thick glob of Adamantium, and remelted the stock she already had. She moved it throughout her whole body, storing all of it in her bones, having just enough of it to replace her entire skeleton. “I’ll keep working on the possible applications of this metal. But for now, Thank you, Aradia. And thanks to you as well, Thrud. Would you mind dropping me off back at the Academy?”

“It would be no trouble.” She summoned one last portal, opening to Xena’s office at the Astra Academy. “Tell Alice I said hello.”

Xena stepped through the portal, and it shut behind her, leaving Aradia and Thrud standing amoung the rubble of the fight.

“This would have to be at least a half million worth of damage she’s caused here,” Thrud said, adding it to a mental tab of damages caused by her allies in fights.

“I can take the hit to the company funds. It’s well worth the safety this grants the citizens of the city, and the world, with a good woman being empowered by that much.”

[sillyanimegamingroad]

‘Fall Guys’ ranked under top games this summer

Nobody is surprised by the data: ‘Fall Guys‘ is the multiplayer phenomenon of the summer. After Playstation 4 has practically shelved its catalog with two thoughtful, serious, visually exquisite games like ‘ The Last of Us Part 2 ‘ and ‘ Ghost of Tsushima ‘, players turn their full attention to an almost philosophically opposite title: a simple, accessible battle-royale , proudly goofy. ‘Fall Guys’ ranked under top games this summer

The figures that the distributor Devolver Digital has made public are not to be taken lightly: in less than a week, the Mediatonic title has sold two million copies on Steam , has seen it pass through its servers (or rather, “fall “over its infinite cliffs) to sixty million players (one and a half million in its first 24 hours) and their games have been broadcast on Twitch for a cumulative time of twenty-three million hours. The game will be simple like very few successful titles we have seen lately, but there is certainly something behind its acceptance.

At the moment, the game is on an unstoppable rise, and it does not look like it will stop in the coming days: on the statistics website related to the streaming platform TwitchTracker , ‘Fall Guys’ is in second place in the ranking of games , surpassed only (with just ten thousand more viewers) by ‘League of Legends’ . That is to say, it is above, in number of spectators, colossi such as ‘ Fortnite ‘, ‘ Call of Duty: Modern Warfare ‘ or ‘GTA V’.

In fact, the success has been so overwhelming that on August 7, for example, Mediatonic had to temporarily withdraw the game to do a few tweaks. Quite simply, ‘Fall Guys’ were not prepared for the flood of players that the servers were receiving in such a short time , and while they increased the capacity of the same, they warned that players could find problems in matchmaking.

‘Fall Guys’ ranked under top games this summer. Although the game is not a free-to-play in the style of so many battle-royale (it is not a battle-royale to use either), Devolver saw the potential of the title and allowed Playstation Plus to give it away to its subscribers during the month of August and from the same day that the game went on sale to the general public . It is a tactic that was successfully carried out in the ‘Rocket League’ ( before going free-to-play ). That has guaranteed an avalanche of users who have fattened their first figures very notoriously. On Steam it costs € 19.99, but that has not been an impediment for the concurrent figures to be comparable to those of PS4 users.

What does ‘Fall Guys’ have that everyone dazzles?

It may be commonplace that the simplicity and accessibility of ‘Fall Guys’ is what has made it such a success, but perhaps that is underestimating a hidden sophistication . Sophistication that betrays internal rules of the study when designing the levels that led them to self-impose that the rules of each level should be able to be summarized with only three words. It’s a kind of sophistication that, as tasters of retro classics know , are too often overlooked by devotees of high-tech displays or cutting-edge graphics.

Possibly, that “something else” that transcends a mere apparent extreme simplicity is in the most obvious details. For example, that the clear inspiration of the game is in the fixed contests style ‘Takeshi’s Castle’ (what in Spain we knew for years as ‘Yellow Humor’) , the recent ‘Wipeout’ or, under more serious codes, fitness demonstrations extreme like ‘Ultimate Beastmaster’ and company. Here the garish colors of the former are recognizable, the aesthetics of a bouncy castle and oversized toys, the blows that hurt but not much, and the simple mechanics of a schoolyard race and for everyone else.

‘Fall Guys’ is a self-aware game. Their costumes, a merely cosmetic addition, include nods to other video games such as’ Half-Life ‘, and at Mediatonic they know that thongs among crowds are one of the secrets that have made not only more refined games such as’ Fortnite ‘ , but also to the party games of a lifetime. Something of the philosophy of getting together a lot of friends to play the goose with the controller is in this game, although in this case, the friends are 60 and the goose are at a distance.

Fall Guys Game

Because underneath that apparent surface gloss there are quite a few thoughtful decisions. For example, that there are 60 simultaneous players and not the most common number of 100. ‘Fall Guys’ ranked under top games this summer. According to the creators of the game told Forbes , 100 were too many and everything became too chaotic, and on the other hand the noise is such that a race between 60 and more it gives the player the feeling of a lot of people competing . This reduction of runners did not affect the feverish appearance of the game, but it allowed sharpening the technical section.

The immediacy that takes the games to around ten minutes is what makes there less immersion than in a ‘Fortnite’ map, for example, but at the same time, that the game needs many more different levels. This variety, without a doubt, is another of the secrets of the success of the game: races where speed prevails and others that are pure skill, or where luck plays a primary role . Obstacle races or ‘You carry it’ games in teams. Succeeding in one level of ‘Fall Guys’ does not imply guarantees in all the others, and not even in the same one if it is repeated. That unpredictability not only stretches the life of the game no matter how elemental its mechanics, but also gives newbies confidence: everyone has the same possibilities here.

And now? Without a doubt, the great challenge of ‘Fall Guys’, as with all games of this type, is to keep its audience interested. To do this, you will need to build new game maps almost continuously, and offer them to your players consistently and clearly, perhaps for a limited time at certain times of the day. They would also do well not to give in to the temptation to turn appearance enhancements into a luxurious store for those who have cash to spare to thrive on free-to-play . And, of course, not become a free-to-play … paid.

In any case, that (and the Battle Pass style to advance in the game, with too many shadows and doubts at the moment) are aspects that we will understand in all their magnitude and qualify as the weeks go by. For now, ‘Fall Guys’ is a deserved success and a pleasant rest for the warrior jaded by twilight epics . Because sometimes all it takes is some good, classic, hard-hitting bullshit.

The post ‘Fall Guys’ ranked under top games this summer appeared first on Technoeager- tech blogs and articles.

from WordPress https://ift.tt/3fTQrh0 via IFTTT

[nilority-blog]

An endorsement deal between Nike and Colin Kaepernick is prompting a flood of debate online as sports fans react to the apparel giant backing an athlete known mainly for starting a wave of protests among NFL players of police brutality, racial inequality and other social issues.

The deal unveiled by Nike and the former San Francisco 49ers quarterback was a trending topic on Twitter and other social networks, with some fans urging a boycott of the company’s clothes and sneakers — even burning cutting out the signature swoosh logos on their gear. Others pushed back, saying the backlash against Nike showed the polarizing debate has morphed well beyond whether NFL players should be allowed to demonstrate for social causes while the national anthem plays in stadiums before games.

Country music star John Rich tweeted a picture of one of his crew members holding the tops of a cut pair of Nike socks, with the caption: “Get ready @Nike multiply that by the millions.” The tweet garnered about 10,000 retweets and 30,000 likes, plus thousands of critical comments.

Can you imagine living your life in a way where burning your running shoes and gym shorts is the only appropriate response to seeing Colin Kaepernick’s face above the Nike logo?

— Josh Geary (@GearyJW) September 4, 2018

Rich, part of the duo Big & Rich and a former contestant of President Donald Trump’s reality show “The Celebrity Apprentice,” said he supported the right to protest but Nike lost his support when it endorsed Kaepernick.

  Our Soundman just cut the Nike swoosh off his socks. Former marine. Get ready @Nike multiply that by the millions. pic.twitter.com/h8kj6RXe7j

— John Rich (@johnrich) September 3, 2018

Trump, a frequent critic of protesting NFL players, did not weigh in Tuesday morning even though he has loudly urged the league to suspend or fire players who demonstrate during the anthem, repeatedly diving into what has developed into one of the most contentious debates in the sports world.

Kaepernick’s attorney Mark Geragos announced the endorsement deal on Twitter, calling Kaepernick an “All American Icon.” Kaepernick also posted a Nike ad featuring his face and wrote: “Believe in something, even if it means sacrificing everything. (Hashtag) JustDoIt”

Can water and oxygen become official sponsors of Colin Kaepernick too? Since white supremacists are feeling real boycott-happy these days, I have an idea…

— [kie.ran] (@danblackroyd) September 4, 2018

Kaepernick already had a deal with Nike that was set to expire, but it was renegotiated into a multiyear deal to make him one of the faces of Nike’s 30th anniversary “Just Do It” campaign, according to a person familiar with the contract. The person spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because Nike hasn’t officially announced the contract.

The person said Nike will feature Kaepernick on several platforms, including billboards, television commercials and online ads. Nike also will create an apparel line for Kaepernick and contribute to his Know Your Rights charity, the person said. The deal puts Kaepernick in the top bracket of NFL players with Nike.

Regardless of what you believe in, Nike doesn’t care that you’re burning things you already paid for. You’re looking for the same attention you claim Colin Kaepernick is looking for.

— Andrae’ Melancon (@amm6266) September 4, 2018

Nike also provides all NFL teams with game-day uniforms and sideline apparel, a partnership that was extended in March to run through 2028.

Last week, Kaepernick scored a legal victory in his grievance against the NFL and its 32 teams when an arbitrator allowed his case to continue to trial. The quarterback claims that owners conspired to keep him out of the league because of his protests of social injustice.

Kaepernick contends the owners violated their collective bargaining agreement with players by conspiring to keep him off teams. His case hinges on whether owners worked together rather than decided individually to not sign Kaepernick.

In response to the laughable stupidity of .@johnrich and his soundman, that’s probably getting heel blisters right now, I’m burning all of my Big and Rich CDs and merchandise.

I’d provide visual evidence, but I’ve never listened to a Big and Rich song in my life

— SadChiefWahoo (@Thawootang) September 4, 2018

A similar grievance is still pending by former 49ers teammate Eric Reid, a Pro Bowl safety who joined in the protests.

On Friday night, Kaepernick and Reid, also now out of the league, were each given huge ovations when they were introduced and shown on the big screen during a match between Serena and Venus Williams at the U.S. Open.

Meanwhile, the league and players union still haven’t resolved whether players will be punished this season if they choose to kneel or demonstrate during the national anthem. Owners approved a policy requiring players to stand if they are on the sideline during “The Star-Spangled Banner,” allowing them to stay off the field if they wish.

But the league and union put that on hold after the Miami Dolphins faced backlash for classifying the protests as conduct potentially detrimental to the team — putting players at risk of fines or suspensions.

READ MORE STORIES ON BLACKAMERICAWEB.COM:

‘Power’ Recap Season 5, Episode 9: ‘Fathers And Sons’

St. Louis Apartment With Kitchen-Bathroom Combo Creates Stir

Aretha Franklin’s Family Offended By Eulogy, But Rev. Jasper Williams Doubles Down

SIGN UP FOR OUR NEWSLETTER: 

Close

Thank you for subscribing! Please be sure to open and click your first newsletter so we can confirm your subscription.

Email

Submit

LIKE US ON FACEBOOK. FOLLOW US ON TWITTER AND INSTAGRAM

  #gallery-0-5 { margin: auto; } #gallery-0-5 .gallery-item { float: left; margin-top: 10px; text-align: center; width: 33%; } #gallery-0-5 img { border: 2px solid #cfcfcf; } #gallery-0-5 .gallery-caption { margin-left: 0; } /* see gallery_shortcode() in wp-includes/media.php */

Go to Source Colin Kaepernick’s Nike Deal Sparks Boycott, Online Anger An endorsement deal between Nike and Colin Kaepernick is prompting a flood of debate online as sports fans react to the apparel giant backing an athlete known mainly for starting a wave of protests among NFL players of police brutality, racial inequality and other social issues.

[365footballorg-blog]

Pool parties, secret rooms, local culture: 10 Things About LAFC's new home

April 23, 201810:57AM EDT

LOS ANGELES – When expansion side LAFC announced in May 2015 that they’d selected a site for their new stadium, they had no coach, players, colors or even a crest.

This was a time before their black and gold snapback became one of MLS’s most-lauded accessory.

Yet there was a sense that spring day, on an unassuming grass median beside the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena, that if the club could build the first open-air stadium in Los Angeles proper since 1962, then everything else might just fall into place.

Down the street from the Staples Center, across the street from USC, accessible by train and two major freeways, the Sports Arena site was more than ideal — it was perfect.

By August of 2016, the iconic arena had fallen and LAFC co-owners Will Ferrell and Magic Johnson worked the levers of heavy machinery to break ground for the club’s home.

While Wednesday marked the official ribbon-cutting for the completed Banc of California Stadium, several key elements are still receiving finishing touches ahead of Sunday’s home opener against Seattle (9 pm ET; FS1 — Full TV & streaming info). In the meantime, MLSsoccer.com was given an exclusive tour of the stadium in its entirety and found 10 features for future visitors to take an early peek at.

Key to the city

Banc of California Stadium’s keyhole feature | photo by Alex Dwyer

Inspired by executive chairman and co-owner Peter Guber’s vision, a northeast slice of the stadium has been carved away to capture the downtown Los Angeles skyline and the San Gabriel Mountains behind in – a perfect frame.

In a city famous for its urban sprawl, it’s a visual reminder of the stadium’s inclusion in LA’s growing urban core. Though the entire southwest corner of Banc of California is gifted the view, members of the media in the venue’s angled press box have one of the best vantage points to peer through the keyhole.

3252 North End

Safe standing in the North End | photo by Alex Dwyer

Across MLS, clubs are doing their part to give supporters a platform to express themselves. Banc of California Stadium is no exception. The ground’s North End is home to the 3252 independent supporters’ union and their “safe standing” section. Among the league’s steepest at 34 degrees, the stand’s angled handrails were designed to provide a less encumbered support experience. In practice, the curved guard rails are reminiscent of gripping the safety bar when you’re strapped into a roller coaster.

The central section of the stand is an actual removable stage — something built in to allow the stadium to play a role beyond regular MLS matchdays for concerts and events (the first of which, Wango Tango, will take place June 2). Both owners and architects spoke to the stadium’s function not just as a soccer stadium, but a cultural hub.

Capping off The North End is a supporter-designed bar to be officially unveiled later this week with members of the 3252.

For the people

LAFC fans check out the 3252 section | photo by Alex Dwyer

For all the glitz elsewhere, $ 20 seats in the supporters section invite local participation.

In a sense, the 5 million pounds of steel and 190,000 square feet of ETFE roofing that comprise the meat of the structure is only the skin laid atop the heartbeat of the stadium: the people in the south Los Angeles community.

“It might be the only stadium in America that, right across the street, is affordable housing,” co-owner Magic Johnson said ahead of Saturday’s open house. “That means everybody gets to participate.”

Though the stadium also achieved LEED Silver status for its environmentally conscious construction, it’s the more than $ 7 million in total annual revenue for the city/county and the several thousand jobs that make the stadium itself the metaphorical manifestation of the club’s “street by street, block by block” approach.

Gear up

One of LAFC’s merch trucks at the stadium | photo by Alex Dwyer

Buying merchandise at a professional sports venue is about as exhilarating an experience as sliding your finger across a phone screen — which is perhaps why so many people buy their club gear online these days. To their credit, LAFC has tried to reimagine swag acquisition in their designing of the stadium.

LAFC have two gear outposts in the stadium concourse — designed using the same shipping container architecture as the club’s new training facility — as well as two of the city’s quintessential food trucks converted to sell merch, which have been roaming the city for some time and will be parked at the stadium occasionally.

The flagship store sits outside the gates of the stadium in an auxiliary building that will also feature two beer gardens (one on the roof and another adjacent) as well as a high-concept restaurant to be opened later this summer. The store features a massive mural of 3252 supporters and ample rack space, where the club may take a cue from the clothing boutiques of city and offer exclusive offline-only gear in an environment that’s as much experience as commerce.

Hidden room

The owners-only hidden room in the Director’s Lounge | photo by Alex Dwyer

From its foundation, LAFC’s varied A-list ownership group has distinguished the club not only from other teams in MLS but among sports organizations around the world. These owners range from NBA legends, MLB All-Stars, and World Cup winners to founders of YouTube, creators of video game League of Legends and, yes, Will Ferrell.

Numbering over 30 members, this group had plenty to say in the design of the stadium — the $ 350 million venue was privately funded, after all — and one space more than any other attests to this.

Inside the exclusive, gold-accented Director’s Lounge, where only owners and their guests have access, is yet a further tier of exclusivity. In fact, this room is so exclusive, it’s hidden to the naked eye. Push one wall the right way, however, and a door creaks open to a space featuring several chairs, a couch and a panel of private lockboxes.

One can only imagine the conversations that will take place there in the years to come.

Bunker breakaway

A view from the Field Level suites | photo by Alex Dwyer

Among the 33 suites in the building, only one third of them — the “Field Level” — possess the ability to actually put feet on the grass. Those seats are immediately beside the visiting and home benches, essentially pitchside.

The highest-entry club available to the public, these fortunate individuals also have exclusive access to the player tunnel and a vaulted ceiling food/beverage area that was described to me by one supporter who found its fancifulness to be “something I’d imagine seeing in Dubai or Abu Dhabi.”

But it’s the third space in the “Field Level” that re-imagines private matchday luxury. Referred to during the construction phase as “Bunker Suites,” these spaces are essentially boxes directly beneath seats where members can easily duck into through their personal entrances whenever they feel like taking a break from the action.

Business-first changing room

A glimpse of the locker rooms | photo by Alex Dwyer

LAFC spared few expenses in their cushy treatment for season-ticket holders and extended that kindness to players. Everything from the magnetic compartmentalized lockers to the giant hydrotherapy baths in the changing room is evidence of the club’s concern for the employees whose work is the most scrutinized.

The home team’s dressing room is a departure from the shapelier locker rooms at the club’s training facility, a difference architecture firm Gensler’s design director Steve Chung summed up by explaining that at the stadium the players are “expected to be all business.”

A tunnel vision

A shot of the players tunnel | photo by Alex Dwyer

Arenas across the world have redesigned the “tunnel.” The path players walk from the locker room to the field can be considered the most important ground athletes cover that’s not an actual playing surface, and LAFC’s take on the tunnel underlines that fact. 

With another illuminated art-deco crest glowing behind them, players will march down a tunnel blacked out on one side, gold on the other, where owners and certain ticket holders are able to wish players luck as the enter the field in an unobstructed, wide-open space.

Though a private tunnel exists for players who are sent off or require treatment, the starting 11s will be fully throttled by the time their feet touch the stadium’s Bermuda grass.

Pool party vibes

Banc of California Stadium’s Sunset Deck | photo by Alex Dwyer

Images of a Los Angeles summer might include crashing waves, breezy palms and burning sands. Outside the beach neighborhoods though, those dreamy ideals have transitioned onto the rooftops that dot the city’s urban interior. Banc of California Stadium’s Sunset Deck is of this mold.

Ping pong tables, shuffleboard and a water feature — think a knee-deep fountain where match-goers might soak their feet — create a vibe not unlike what one would imagine the best Coachella VIP areas offer. The indoor/outdoor space is a full-blown day-club, with mosaic tiles, a fireplace and cabana-like coverings with more cleverly designed seats and tables than I have room to describe.

Topping it off is the view to the west, where the California state flag peeks out above the nearby Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum right where the sun will drop when it retires for LAFC’s evening matches.

Sacred ground

A look out at Exposition Park | photo by Alex Dwyer

It’s hard to overstate the historical significance of Exposition Park. Famous for museums (Natural History Museum, California Science Center, California African-American Museum, and forthcoming Lucas Museum of Narrative Art) events (John F. Kennedy received the presidential nomination in 1960 and musicians from Michael Jackson to Bruce Springsteen to Migos — have performed on the grounds over the years) and sports (a home to the Dodgers, Chargers, Rams, Lakers, Clippers, and Kings, as well as both basketball and football programs of UCLA and USC, to say nothing of hosting the 1932, 1984, and forthcoming 2028 Summer Olympics), Banc of California Stadium fits right in.

And from the 2-2 draw in a 1966 World Cup qualifier between Mexico and the United States to the 1967 United Soccer Association final where the LA Wolves defeated the Washington Whips in one of the first nation-wide contested professional leagues in the country, Expo Park also boasts over five decades soccer history. That includes the storied LA Aztecs of the 1970s and 80s, who called both the Coliseum and the Sports Arena home (for indoor). LAFC’s Carlos Vela even scored his first-ever goal for Mexico at Exposition Park’s LA Coliseum in a 2007 friendly against Guatemala.

The location of the stadium on a patch of land with such weighty history is perhaps its most significant feature. Now it’s simply up to the club to make its own impression on that sacred soil.

hr.top-border-fade {background: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0) linear-gradient(to right, #ffffff 0%, #dfdfdf 50%, #ffffff 100%) repeat scroll 0 0;margin:20px 0 0 0;clear:both;border:0;height:1px;color:#dfdfdf;} .merch-block { background: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0) radial-gradient(50% 30px at 50% 100% , #ebebeb 0%, #fff 110%) repeat scroll 0 0; /* border-top:1px solid #ebebeb; */ padding:15px 15px 22px 15px; } .item, .copy {display:inline-block;vertical-align:middle;} .item {line-height:0;} .item img {line-height:0;} .copy p {margin:0;} .copy p.merch-block-text {font-size:1.0em;line-height:1.40em;} .copy p.merch-block-title {font-size:1.4em;margin-bottom:3px;font-family:’din_regular’,’Helvetica Neue’, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;;} @media screen and (max-width: 730px) { .item {margin:0 15px;line-height:0;} .merch-block .item img {width:100%;height:auto;} .copy {margin:20px 0 0 0;} .wide {display:none;} } @media screen and (min-width: 731px) and (max-width: 1120px) { .item {margin-right:20px;line-height:0;} .merch-block .item img {width:120px;height:auto;} .copy {width:70%;} } @media screen and (min-width: 1121px) { .item {margin-right:20px;line-height:0;} .merch-block .item img {width:165px;height:auto;} .copy {width:70%;} .copy p.merch-block-title {font-size:1.3em;} }

#block-block-188 {padding:0;} #stay-connected {border-top:1px solid #ebebeb;margin:20px 0;} #stay-connected p {margin:0;color:#4d4d4d;line-height:1.5em;} @media screen and (max-width: 730px) { #stay-connected {padding:8px 6px 0 6px;width:100%;} } @media screen and (min-width: 731px) and (max-width: 1120px) { #stay-connected {padding:8px 6px 0 6px;width:100%;} } @media screen and (min-width: 1121px) { #stay-connected {padding:8px 6px 0 6px;width:708px;} }

MLSsoccer.com News

Pool parties, secret rooms, local culture: 10 Things About LAFC's new home was originally published on 365 Football

[livthomasba1b]

Media Industries - Storyboarding

After my lecture on story boarding I became increasingly interested in the role and wanted to research it further. I thought using a similar format to my previous task of researching a concept artist would help inform my research and help it to become more concise and focused. 

I looked at creativeskillset again and their profile/overview of a storyboard artist to help understand the role better. They describe a storyboard artist as someone who:

“illustrates the narrative, plans shots, and draws panels to demonstrate action and maintain continuity between scenes of an animation”

As anyone performing any role when working on a film or story of some sort I believe must consider themselves as a writer. You’re always storytelling, therefore everything you do should strengthen the story.

Storyboard from Disney’s ‘Pinocchino’ (1940)

As a story artist they are one of the first people who’ll receive the script/screenplay and then begin to plan out how it will appear visually.

Below are just a few of the essential skills needed:

Requires a good understanding of layout, composition, sequential drawing and editing

Drawing skills - quick and adaptable to range of styles

Good presentation and communication skills

I think all of the above are important, however I believe that the last bullet point is very essential. As mentioned by Helen Schroeder, story artists are one of the main contact points to many departments and need the ability to communicate effectively so the final result will be as representative of the idea/concept as possible or better!

Storyboard from Disney’s ‘Aladdin’ (1992)

Story artists may be required to prepare the storyboards for production, which may include indications of dialogue, character performance and the cameras movement - work may be produced in a rough form or cleaned up drawings.

Why are storyboards important?

Storyboards are a cheap way to plan out and experiment with the entire film - it’s the time to see what works and fix what doesn’t before the filming/animation process begins.

GoAnimate resource suggests that storyboarding your project will help other visualise the concept. “When you have a storyboard, you can show people exactly how [the project could] be mapped out and what it will look like. This makes it infinitely easier for other people to understand the idea”.

Pixar’s animation website has a section all about storyboarding which I found very informative and interesting.

Storyboard from Pixar’s ‘Toy Story’ (1995)

Here it is said that storyboarding serves as a “blueprint” for both the action and dialogue.

A storyboard artist takes the written word and draws it into pictures. The pictures are taken and pinned on a board = a storyboard. The artist wants to give a sense of what this movie could be like and tries to bring it to life.

The Process:

Each storyboard artist receives script pages or a "beat outline" - a map of the characters' emotional changes that need to be seen through actions. 

Using these as guidelines, the artists then envision their assigned sequences and draw them out. 

The next stage is to "pitch" their work to the director. Pixar has stated that “over four-thousand storyboard drawings are created as the blueprint for the action and dialog of a feature-length Pixar animated film”. 

They are then revised many times during the creative development process, until they are settled and used.

The Aim:

The aim of a storyboard is to get a feeling of what the story could be like as a final film. The storyboard artist attempts to convey what it would feel like to watch the film in a cinema.

The video below explains the process of storyboarding and what a storyboard is - told by a storyboard artist. There is also a pitch included in the video, helping provide a sense of what this may be like:

I really enjoyed watching this and found it very interesting to hear about the process and more from the perspective of a story artist. I particularly enjoyed the end where the storyboard was compared to the final film/product - helping display the influence and overall importance the storybaording has on the finished product.

John Lasseter; Chief Creative Officer at Pixar, reiterates the importance and contribution of storyboarding to help create a successful film:

“In animation, it is so expensive to produce the footage, that unlike live action we cannot have coverage. We can’t do multiple takes of a scene...... We have one chance to every scene. So how can you possibly know you’re choosing the right thing? What we do is we edit the movie before we start production. And we use storyboard drawings to do that. We quickly get away from the written page and the script, and we really develop the movie in storyboards. A comic book version of the story. And we do it the way Walt Disney did it. We have 4×8 sheets of bulletin board material, and we pin up drawings and we pitch them to each other. To see how things flow. And when something seems to be working great then we’ll go on to the editing system and we will make a version of the movie using the still storyboard drawings. And we’ll put our own voices in it as scratch voices, we’ll get temporary music from some soundtrack album that has the right emotion we want, and put sound effects in there. And we can literally sit back in a screening room, press a button — no excuses, no caveats — and we just watch the movie with still drawings. I will never let something go into production unless it is working fantastic in that version with the still drawings. Because no matter all the great animation you can do will never save a bad story. We will work and rework and rework and rework these reels — sometimes thirty times before we let it go into production. We’re really adamant. We’ll even slow the production down or stop production to get the story right because we believe that it’s the story that entertains audiences. It’s not the technology. It’s not the way something looks. It’s the story”. - John Lasseter

Below I found a very interesting video about the purpose of storytelling. It features story artists, directors and various other people from Disney animation and other production companies discussing the reason for this process and what impact it has:

“What a great storyboard artist is is a great communicator” - Eric Goldberg, supervising Animator, The Genie (Aladdin, 1992)

Walt Disney developed the use of storyboards way back in the 1920s for his classic mickey mouse cartoon, ‘Steamboat Willie’ (1928).

In animation storyboarding has always been and is still used mainly to develop the story and the characters. It is mentioned in the video that a great storyboard artist can put down the minimum amount of information necessary to get a very dynamic and quick read on the content and the emotions in the sequence 

“A story board artist has to be a good storyteller” - Alfred Hitchcock 

Soon a lot of Hollywood was noticing how good Walt Disney’s movies were and the use of storyboards was a large part of that - over the years this process was adopted by Disney’s live-action directors -  

‘20,000 Leagues Under the Sea’ (1954). Now storyboards are now used on almost every live-action production around the world.

One of this most significant purposes/benefits of storyboards that I’ve already mentioned during my research was again mentioned in this video: the use of communicating. So much is going on in the process of a film that everybody has to be aware of the central needs of the film - this is where the storyboard can let everybody in on the secrets 

[pamelahetrick]

9 inspiring ways to celebrate a company anniversary

Alright, so your business or organization has a birthday coming up. Before you up and order balloons and champagne, consider the many creative ways an anniversary celebration can be leveraged as a compelling campaign. From a good old fashioned rebrand and limited edition products to social media sweepstakes and art contests, there are a lot of different ways to go about it. Don’t panic, here are 9 creative ideas for celebrating your company anniversary that will make everyone want to join in.

1. Starbucks marks 40 years around the sun with a fresh new look —

What better way to celebrate decades of world domination than a branding refresh? Starbucks’ visual identity has evolved a fair amount since their launch in 1971, but for their 40th anniversary the iconic two-tailed siren got a sharp new look. The emblem went full green and dropped the “Starbucks” wordmark, simplifying overall and putting more emphasis on negative space. This eco-friendly move cuts down on ink usage and aligns the design to the rather flat aesthetic of the early 2010s.

It goes without saying that updating branding makes a whole lot of sense when a company’s been around for almost half a century, but Starbucks didn’t stop there. They took the opportunity to hold a ribbon cutting ceremony at Zürich Central, reopening the first Starbucks location in continental Europe after remodelling with entirely regional and upcycled materials. This was a great chance to position themselves as committed to local culture, rather than as a massive corporate operation.

While Starbucks is definitely in a league of their own, you can always take a big anniversary as an opportunity to have a think about the relevancy of your branding. If a rebrand is in order, that’s a perfect reason to stir up some hype with a party and new swag.

2. Zendesk turns 10 and shows off their creative chops —

A winning entry from Zendesk’s 10 year anniversary art contest. Via Zendesk.

Not every company can or should mark an anniversary with a large scale rebrand or grand remodel, sometimes it’s a better call to celebrate the employees that contribute to your company’s culture. That’s exactly what SaaS-superstar Zendesk did as they celebrated 10 years of revolutionizing the customer support industry, hosting an art contest for their employees with the theme “10 pivotal moments in our company history.” This was the perfect opportunity to flex their team’s creative muscles and remind everyone that the startup space is still very much a human space, while also focusing on the story of their growth.

They also put together a gorgeous landing page with 10 lessons they’ve learned along the way. This gave them a chance to share more of their company values and experience visually, without the stodginess of corporate communications.

3. Coca-Cola commemorates the 100th anniversary of their iconic bottle —

The 20-ounce PET contour bottle was introduced in 1993. Via Coca-Cola.

Ah, Coca-Cola. More than a household name, the legendary soft drink company compiled an interactive, chronological gallery showing off the evolution of their packaging designs in a push to commemorate the 100th anniversary of their trademarked contour bottle design. The timeline follows the journey of the Coca-Cola bottle from 1915 to 2015 and also includes one-of-a-kind pieces inspired by their unmistakable branding, from chairs made from recycled bottles to repurposed, custom glassware.

Anniversaries are a time to celebrate where we come from, but they’re also to celebrate how we’ve changed. This timeline does a fabulous job narrating the prodigious, century-long odyssey that continues today, and emphasizes the strength of a visual identity that, despite consistent and considerable change, has been persistently recognizable over the span of more than 100 years.

4. Acne Studios salutes 1 year in LA with limited edition local flair —

Acne Studios limited edition LA anniversary sweatshirt featuring the Eastern Columbia Building. Via Hypebeast.

Sometimes an anniversary is a slightly more modest affair, like Acne Studios’ celebration of 1 year in the wild, wild west (also known as Los Angeles). To commemorate their Californian branch’s first birthday, they released a special edition sweatshirt featuring their new home: Claud Beelman’s Eastern Colombia Building, an Art Deco staple of LA’s Broadway Theater District. Coming in a couple of light and breezy colors, the sweatshirt celebrated local architectural flair while promoting their own brand and tempting their loyal customers with limited edition merchandise.

5. Marvel Studios marks 10 explosive years with a star-studded photo op and social media sweepstakes —

The Marvel Cinematic Universe hit the silver screen in 2008 with Iron Man. 10 years later, with 14 television series and 24 feature films either released or in production, Marvel Studios certainly has cause to celebrate. To mark this very prolific decade, Marvel is hosting a 10-Year Sweepstakes this year, encouraging fans to share images and stories on Twitter and Instagram under the hashtag #Marvel10YearSweepstakes over the course of 5 weeks.

With a new winner each week (winning an “Ultimate Marvel Fan Prize” package, including a visit to the “Captain Marvel” set and a tour of the studios), the campaign is a wonderful way to rile up their fanbase, keep everything Marvel-centric, and boost global engagement and awareness. To top it all off, they also gathered more than 80 actors and filmmakers in a single photo to memorialize the accomplishments of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

More than 80 actors and filmmakers from the Marvel Cinematic Universe met for a secret reunion photo in honor of their 10th anniversary. Via Marvel.

What can we learn from this? Playing to your audience’s interests works. Sweepstakes may be old-fashioned, but they can still be relevant. A look behind-the-scenes can intrigue and humanize, and all good campaigns come with a hashtag.

6. Happy Socks rounds off 10 years with a smile (and fresh prints) —

Bold, bright, and beautiful limited edition packaging for Happy Socks anniversary collection. Via Highsnobiety.

What comes after 10 years of success? Expansion of course! If you sell a product, hitting 10 years is the perfect opportunity to release a special line, or to expand your product offering. Happy Socks did both, offering special ranges of socks, and expanding into other undergarments. Besides honoring legendary pop artist Keith Haring with a special collaboration, they’ve upped the ante with gorgeous and very on-trend packaging for the release of their anniversary collection.

Special events are always perfect excuses to show off your creative chops, so channel Happy Socks and bring originality, great design, and business acumen to your anniversary.

7. Moo celebrates their success and dances their way into future with a dystopian party —

Making it 10 years as a business is a pretty good excuse to have a party. And that’s exactly what Moo did. Moo has been providing print goods with stellar design and superb quality to the masses and we here at 99designs are grateful to have worked with them over the years. In what could be seen as a cheeky nod to current affairs, the theme of their 10th anniversary party was a quasi-dystopian vision of 2116, with creative costuming, over-the-top decor and lighting, and all around good vibes (check out #10yearsofmoo on Twitter for reference).

They also went above and beyond and sent cupcakes to loyal customers who had been there from the get-go, complete with a personalized thank you note on their gorgeous cardstock.

Striking light installation for Moo’s 2116 10 year anniversary party. Via Moo.

8. UNICEF celebrates 70 years of changing the world with a thought provoking then-and-now photo essay —

Major anniversaries aren’t always so light-hearted. UNICEF’s 70th anniversary was a bittersweet nod to all of their humanitarian work, but also of how much still needs to be done to make the world a safe and healthy place for everybody.

70 years is a long time and, while a lot has changed, many people still toil through the same hardships. UNICEF, in their mission to provide aid, healthcare, and hope to displaced and impoverished children worldwide, highlights these problems with their UNICEF@70 photo essay, a then-and-now study under-lining problems faced by people entire generations apart. The piece is an emotional reminder of hard modern day realities, underscoring the need for all of us to be generous, responsible, and aware.

The juxtaposition of these photos of malnourished children is a powerful message as to the importance of humanitarian aid (left: 1946 in Greece; right: 2009 in Niger). Via Medium.

Anniversaries can be great opportunity to look back and inspire. Non-profit organizations can use anniversary campaigns to mark their massive achievements and mobilize people around their mission. Photo essays like this, or informational pieces like brochures, posters, or infographics are fantastic ways to educate and motivate the public.

9. 99designs celebrates 10 years of design connections worldwide

—

This month marks our very own 10th anniversary at 99designs and we couldn’t be more proud to have fostered so many hundreds of thousands of design connections since our humble beginnings in 2008.

To express our enormous gratitude, every employee was given 100 dollars to go to a charity of their choice, as putting people first is one of our core values as a company.

We believe in the power of connection, so we designed a special landing page dedicated to 10 ways we’ve seen design connect people from all over the world, including but not limited to philanthropic causes, creative collaboration and even leading to people falling in love (how romantic is that?!). And of course we took to our social media accounts to share all those wonderful stories from designers and customers under the hashtag #decadeofdesign.

Soft gradients and extra terrestrial typography give this poster design a clean relevancy definitely worthy of our 10 year anniversary. Design by goopanic.

Because design is our number one passion, we took the opportunity to unveil 3 gorgeous posters (designed on our platform, of course) commemorating the occasion, also printing the designs as postcards to send to old colleagues, customers, designers, and friends.

As an international design marketplace, we strongly believe that design is global. Our celebration had to reflect that, hosting parties in all three of our offices: Oakland, Melbourne, and Berlin. We also indulged in a bit of a #throwback and made a Spotify playlist of our favorite tunes from 2008 to help us boogie the night away.

Cheers to us! Design by damuhra.

10 years means a lot to us, which is why we came at this from all angles. We can only say thank you to the unfathomable amount of people that have made 99designs possible, and cheers to the next 10 years!

How did you celebrate your company’s biggest milestones? Tell us all about it in the comment section below!

The post 9 inspiring ways to celebrate a company anniversary appeared first on 99designs.

via 99designs https://99designs.co.uk/blog/inside-99designs-en-gb/celebrate-company-anniversary/

[myongfisher]

9 inspiring ways to celebrate a company anniversary

Alright, so your business or organization has a birthday coming up. Before you up and order balloons and champagne, consider the many creative ways an anniversary celebration can be leveraged as a compelling campaign. From a good old fashioned rebrand and limited edition products to social media sweepstakes and art contests, there are a lot of different ways to go about it. Don’t panic, here are 9 creative ideas for celebrating your company anniversary that will make everyone want to join in.

1. Starbucks marks 40 years around the sun with a fresh new look —

What better way to celebrate decades of world domination than a branding refresh? Starbucks’ visual identity has evolved a fair amount since their launch in 1971, but for their 40th anniversary the iconic two-tailed siren got a sharp new look. The emblem went full green and dropped the “Starbucks” wordmark, simplifying overall and putting more emphasis on negative space. This eco-friendly move cuts down on ink usage and aligns the design to the rather flat aesthetic of the early 2010s.

It goes without saying that updating branding makes a whole lot of sense when a company’s been around for almost half a century, but Starbucks didn’t stop there. They took the opportunity to hold a ribbon cutting ceremony at Zürich Central, reopening the first Starbucks location in continental Europe after remodelling with entirely regional and upcycled materials. This was a great chance to position themselves as committed to local culture, rather than as a massive corporate operation.

While Starbucks is definitely in a league of their own, you can always take a big anniversary as an opportunity to have a think about the relevancy of your branding. If a rebrand is in order, that’s a perfect reason to stir up some hype with a party and new swag.

2. Zendesk turns 10 and shows off their creative chops —

A winning entry from Zendesk’s 10 year anniversary art contest. Via Zendesk.

Not every company can or should mark an anniversary with a large scale rebrand or grand remodel, sometimes it’s a better call to celebrate the employees that contribute to your company’s culture. That’s exactly what SaaS-superstar Zendesk did as they celebrated 10 years of revolutionizing the customer support industry, hosting an art contest for their employees with the theme “10 pivotal moments in our company history.” This was the perfect opportunity to flex their team’s creative muscles and remind everyone that the startup space is still very much a human space, while also focusing on the story of their growth.

They also put together a gorgeous landing page with 10 lessons they’ve learned along the way. This gave them a chance to share more of their company values and experience visually, without the stodginess of corporate communications.

3. Coca-Cola commemorates the 100th anniversary of their iconic bottle —

The 20-ounce PET contour bottle was introduced in 1993. Via Coca-Cola.

Ah, Coca-Cola. More than a household name, the legendary soft drink company compiled an interactive, chronological gallery showing off the evolution of their packaging designs in a push to commemorate the 100th anniversary of their trademarked contour bottle design. The timeline follows the journey of the Coca-Cola bottle from 1915 to 2015 and also includes one-of-a-kind pieces inspired by their unmistakable branding, from chairs made from recycled bottles to repurposed, custom glassware.

Anniversaries are a time to celebrate where we come from, but they’re also to celebrate how we’ve changed. This timeline does a fabulous job narrating the prodigious, century-long odyssey that continues today, and emphasizes the strength of a visual identity that, despite consistent and considerable change, has been persistently recognizable over the span of more than 100 years.

4. Acne Studios salutes 1 year in LA with limited edition local flair —

Acne Studios limited edition LA anniversary sweatshirt featuring the Eastern Columbia Building. Via Hypebeast.

Sometimes an anniversary is a slightly more modest affair, like Acne Studios’ celebration of 1 year in the wild, wild west (also known as Los Angeles). To commemorate their Californian branch’s first birthday, they released a special edition sweatshirt featuring their new home: Claud Beelman’s Eastern Colombia Building, an Art Deco staple of LA’s Broadway Theater District. Coming in a couple of light and breezy colors, the sweatshirt celebrated local architectural flair while promoting their own brand and tempting their loyal customers with limited edition merchandise.

5. Marvel Studios marks 10 explosive years with a star-studded photo op and social media sweepstakes —

The Marvel Cinematic Universe hit the silver screen in 2008 with Iron Man. 10 years later, with 14 television series and 24 feature films either released or in production, Marvel Studios certainly has cause to celebrate. To mark this very prolific decade, Marvel is hosting a 10-Year Sweepstakes this year, encouraging fans to share images and stories on Twitter and Instagram under the hashtag #Marvel10YearSweepstakes over the course of 5 weeks.

With a new winner each week (winning an “Ultimate Marvel Fan Prize” package, including a visit to the “Captain Marvel” set and a tour of the studios), the campaign is a wonderful way to rile up their fanbase, keep everything Marvel-centric, and boost global engagement and awareness. To top it all off, they also gathered more than 80 actors and filmmakers in a single photo to memorialize the accomplishments of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

More than 80 actors and filmmakers from the Marvel Cinematic Universe met for a secret reunion photo in honor of their 10th anniversary. Via Marvel.

What can we learn from this? Playing to your audience’s interests works. Sweepstakes may be old-fashioned, but they can still be relevant. A look behind-the-scenes can intrigue and humanize, and all good campaigns come with a hashtag.

6. Happy Socks rounds off 10 years with a smile (and fresh prints) —

Bold, bright, and beautiful limited edition packaging for Happy Socks anniversary collection. Via Highsnobiety.

What comes after 10 years of success? Expansion of course! If you sell a product, hitting 10 years is the perfect opportunity to release a special line, or to expand your product offering. Happy Socks did both, offering special ranges of socks, and expanding into other undergarments. Besides honoring legendary pop artist Keith Haring with a special collaboration, they’ve upped the ante with gorgeous and very on-trend packaging for the release of their anniversary collection.

Special events are always perfect excuses to show off your creative chops, so channel Happy Socks and bring originality, great design, and business acumen to your anniversary.

7. Moo celebrates their success and dances their way into future with a dystopian party —

Making it 10 years as a business is a pretty good excuse to have a party. And that’s exactly what Moo did. Moo has been providing print goods with stellar design and superb quality to the masses and we here at 99designs are grateful to have worked with them over the years. In what could be seen as a cheeky nod to current affairs, the theme of their 10th anniversary party was a quasi-dystopian vision of 2116, with creative costuming, over-the-top decor and lighting, and all around good vibes (check out #10yearsofmoo on Twitter for reference).

They also went above and beyond and sent cupcakes to loyal customers who had been there from the get-go, complete with a personalized thank you note on their gorgeous cardstock.

Striking light installation for Moo’s 2116 10 year anniversary party. Via Moo.

8. UNICEF celebrates 70 years of changing the world with a thought provoking then-and-now photo essay —

Major anniversaries aren’t always so light-hearted. UNICEF’s 70th anniversary was a bittersweet nod to all of their humanitarian work, but also of how much still needs to be done to make the world a safe and healthy place for everybody.

70 years is a long time and, while a lot has changed, many people still toil through the same hardships. UNICEF, in their mission to provide aid, healthcare, and hope to displaced and impoverished children worldwide, highlights these problems with their UNICEF@70 photo essay, a then-and-now study under-lining problems faced by people entire generations apart. The piece is an emotional reminder of hard modern day realities, underscoring the need for all of us to be generous, responsible, and aware.

The juxtaposition of these photos of malnourished children is a powerful message as to the importance of humanitarian aid (left: 1946 in Greece; right: 2009 in Niger). Via Medium.

Anniversaries can be great opportunity to look back and inspire. Non-profit organizations can use anniversary campaigns to mark their massive achievements and mobilize people around their mission. Photo essays like this, or informational pieces like brochures, posters, or infographics are fantastic ways to educate and motivate the public.

9. 99designs celebrates 10 years of design connections worldwide

—

This month marks our very own 10th anniversary at 99designs and we couldn’t be more proud to have fostered so many hundreds of thousands of design connections since our humble beginnings in 2008.

To express our enormous gratitude, every employee was given 100 dollars to go to a charity of their choice, as putting people first is one of our core values as a company.

We believe in the power of connection, so we designed a special landing page dedicated to 10 ways we’ve seen design connect people from all over the world, including but not limited to philanthropic causes, creative collaboration and even leading to people falling in love (how romantic is that?!). And of course we took to our social media accounts to share all those wonderful stories from designers and customers under the hashtag #decadeofdesign.

Soft gradients and extra terrestrial typography give this poster design a clean relevancy definitely worthy of our 10 year anniversary. Design by goopanic.

Because design is our number one passion, we took the opportunity to unveil 3 gorgeous posters (designed on our platform, of course) commemorating the occasion, also printing the designs as postcards to send to old colleagues, customers, designers, and friends.

As an international design marketplace, we strongly believe that design is global. Our celebration had to reflect that, hosting parties in all three of our offices: Oakland, Melbourne, and Berlin. We also indulged in a bit of a #throwback and made a Spotify playlist of our favorite tunes from 2008 to help us boogie the night away.

Cheers to us! Design by damuhra.

10 years means a lot to us, which is why we came at this from all angles. We can only say thank you to the unfathomable amount of people that have made 99designs possible, and cheers to the next 10 years!

How did you celebrate your company’s biggest milestones? Tell us all about it in the comment section below!

The post 9 inspiring ways to celebrate a company anniversary appeared first on 99designs.

9 inspiring ways to celebrate a company anniversary published first on https://www.lilpackaging.com/

[helenpattersoon]

9 inspiring ways to celebrate a company anniversary

Alright, so your business or organization has a birthday coming up. Before you up and order balloons and champagne, consider the many creative ways an anniversary celebration can be leveraged as a compelling campaign. From a good old fashioned rebrand and limited edition products to social media sweepstakes and art contests, there are a lot of different ways to go about it. Don’t panic, here are 9 creative ideas for celebrating your company anniversary that will make everyone want to join in.

1. Starbucks marks 40 years around the sun with a fresh new look —

What better way to celebrate decades of world domination than a branding refresh? Starbucks’ visual identity has evolved a fair amount since their launch in 1971, but for their 40th anniversary the iconic two-tailed siren got a sharp new look. The emblem went full green and dropped the “Starbucks” wordmark, simplifying overall and putting more emphasis on negative space. This eco-friendly move cuts down on ink usage and aligns the design to the rather flat aesthetic of the early 2010s.

It goes without saying that updating branding makes a whole lot of sense when a company’s been around for almost half a century, but Starbucks didn’t stop there. They took the opportunity to hold a ribbon cutting ceremony at Zürich Central, reopening the first Starbucks location in continental Europe after remodelling with entirely regional and upcycled materials. This was a great chance to position themselves as committed to local culture, rather than as a massive corporate operation.

While Starbucks is definitely in a league of their own, you can always take a big anniversary as an opportunity to have a think about the relevancy of your branding. If a rebrand is in order, that’s a perfect reason to stir up some hype with a party and new swag.

2. Zendesk turns 10 and shows off their creative chops —

A winning entry from Zendesk’s 10 year anniversary art contest. Via Zendesk.

Not every company can or should mark an anniversary with a large scale rebrand or grand remodel, sometimes it’s a better call to celebrate the employees that contribute to your company’s culture. That’s exactly what SaaS-superstar Zendesk did as they celebrated 10 years of revolutionizing the customer support industry, hosting an art contest for their employees with the theme “10 pivotal moments in our company history.” This was the perfect opportunity to flex their team’s creative muscles and remind everyone that the startup space is still very much a human space, while also focusing on the story of their growth.

They also put together a gorgeous landing page with 10 lessons they’ve learned along the way. This gave them a chance to share more of their company values and experience visually, without the stodginess of corporate communications.

3. Coca-Cola commemorates the 100th anniversary of their iconic bottle —

The 20-ounce PET contour bottle was introduced in 1993. Via Coca-Cola.

Ah, Coca-Cola. More than a household name, the legendary soft drink company compiled an interactive, chronological gallery showing off the evolution of their packaging designs in a push to commemorate the 100th anniversary of their trademarked contour bottle design. The timeline follows the journey of the Coca-Cola bottle from 1915 to 2015 and also includes one-of-a-kind pieces inspired by their unmistakable branding, from chairs made from recycled bottles to repurposed, custom glassware.

Anniversaries are a time to celebrate where we come from, but they’re also to celebrate how we’ve changed. This timeline does a fabulous job narrating the prodigious, century-long odyssey that continues today, and emphasizes the strength of a visual identity that, despite consistent and considerable change, has been persistently recognizable over the span of more than 100 years.

4. Acne Studios salutes 1 year in LA with limited edition local flair —

Acne Studios limited edition LA anniversary sweatshirt featuring the Eastern Columbia Building. Via Hypebeast.

Sometimes an anniversary is a slightly more modest affair, like Acne Studios’ celebration of 1 year in the wild, wild west (also known as Los Angeles). To commemorate their Californian branch’s first birthday, they released a special edition sweatshirt featuring their new home: Claud Beelman’s Eastern Colombia Building, an Art Deco staple of LA’s Broadway Theater District. Coming in a couple of light and breezy colors, the sweatshirt celebrated local architectural flair while promoting their own brand and tempting their loyal customers with limited edition merchandise.

5. Marvel Studios marks 10 explosive years with a star-studded photo op and social media sweepstakes —

The Marvel Cinematic Universe hit the silver screen in 2008 with Iron Man. 10 years later, with 14 television series and 24 feature films either released or in production, Marvel Studios certainly has cause to celebrate. To mark this very prolific decade, Marvel is hosting a 10-Year Sweepstakes this year, encouraging fans to share images and stories on Twitter and Instagram under the hashtag #Marvel10YearSweepstakes over the course of 5 weeks.

With a new winner each week (winning an “Ultimate Marvel Fan Prize” package, including a visit to the “Captain Marvel” set and a tour of the studios), the campaign is a wonderful way to rile up their fanbase, keep everything Marvel-centric, and boost global engagement and awareness. To top it all off, they also gathered more than 80 actors and filmmakers in a single photo to memorialize the accomplishments of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

More than 80 actors and filmmakers from the Marvel Cinematic Universe met for a secret reunion photo in honor of their 10th anniversary. Via Marvel.

What can we learn from this? Playing to your audience’s interests works. Sweepstakes may be old-fashioned, but they can still be relevant. A look behind-the-scenes can intrigue and humanize, and all good campaigns come with a hashtag.

6. Happy Socks rounds off 10 years with a smile (and fresh prints) —

Bold, bright, and beautiful limited edition packaging for Happy Socks anniversary collection. Via Highsnobiety.

What comes after 10 years of success? Expansion of course! If you sell a product, hitting 10 years is the perfect opportunity to release a special line, or to expand your product offering. Happy Socks did both, offering special ranges of socks, and expanding into other undergarments. Besides honoring legendary pop artist Keith Haring with a special collaboration, they’ve upped the ante with gorgeous and very on-trend packaging for the release of their anniversary collection.

Special events are always perfect excuses to show off your creative chops, so channel Happy Socks and bring originality, great design, and business acumen to your anniversary.

7. Moo celebrates their success and dances their way into future with a dystopian party —

Making it 10 years as a business is a pretty good excuse to have a party. And that’s exactly what Moo did. Moo has been providing print goods with stellar design and superb quality to the masses and we here at 99designs are grateful to have worked with them over the years. In what could be seen as a cheeky nod to current affairs, the theme of their 10th anniversary party was a quasi-dystopian vision of 2116, with creative costuming, over-the-top decor and lighting, and all around good vibes (check out #10yearsofmoo on Twitter for reference).

They also went above and beyond and sent cupcakes to loyal customers who had been there from the get-go, complete with a personalized thank you note on their gorgeous cardstock.

Striking light installation for Moo’s 2116 10 year anniversary party. Via Moo.

8. UNICEF celebrates 70 years of changing the world with a thought provoking then-and-now photo essay —

Major anniversaries aren’t always so light-hearted. UNICEF’s 70th anniversary was a bittersweet nod to all of their humanitarian work, but also of how much still needs to be done to make the world a safe and healthy place for everybody.

70 years is a long time and, while a lot has changed, many people still toil through the same hardships. UNICEF, in their mission to provide aid, healthcare, and hope to displaced and impoverished children worldwide, highlights these problems with their UNICEF@70 photo essay, a then-and-now study under-lining problems faced by people entire generations apart. The piece is an emotional reminder of hard modern day realities, underscoring the need for all of us to be generous, responsible, and aware.

The juxtaposition of these photos of malnourished children is a powerful message as to the importance of humanitarian aid (left: 1946 in Greece; right: 2009 in Niger). Via Medium.

Anniversaries can be great opportunity to look back and inspire. Non-profit organizations can use anniversary campaigns to mark their massive achievements and mobilize people around their mission. Photo essays like this, or informational pieces like brochures, posters, or infographics are fantastic ways to educate and motivate the public.

9. 99designs celebrates 10 years of design connections worldwide

—

This month marks our very own 10th anniversary at 99designs and we couldn’t be more proud to have fostered so many hundreds of thousands of design connections since our humble beginnings in 2008.

To express our enormous gratitude, every employee was given 100 dollars to go to a charity of their choice, as putting people first is one of our core values as a company.

We believe in the power of connection, so we designed a special landing page dedicated to 10 ways we’ve seen design connect people from all over the world, including but not limited to philanthropic causes, creative collaboration and even leading to people falling in love (how romantic is that?!). And of course we took to our social media accounts to share all those wonderful stories from designers and customers under the hashtag #decadeofdesign.

Soft gradients and extra terrestrial typography give this poster design a clean relevancy definitely worthy of our 10 year anniversary. Design by goopanic.

Because design is our number one passion, we took the opportunity to unveil 3 gorgeous posters (designed on our platform, of course) commemorating the occasion, also printing the designs as postcards to send to old colleagues, customers, designers, and friends.

As an international design marketplace, we strongly believe that design is global. Our celebration had to reflect that, hosting parties in all three of our offices: Oakland, Melbourne, and Berlin. We also indulged in a bit of a #throwback and made a Spotify playlist of our favorite tunes from 2008 to help us boogie the night away.

Cheers to us! Design by damuhra.

10 years means a lot to us, which is why we came at this from all angles. We can only say thank you to the unfathomable amount of people that have made 99designs possible, and cheers to the next 10 years!

How did you celebrate your company’s biggest milestones? Tell us all about it in the comment section below!

The post 9 inspiring ways to celebrate a company anniversary appeared first on 99designs.

via https://99designs.co.uk/blog/

[skeletonsinherheart]

Memory can be a tenuous thing, to some. Mine however, mine has been both a blessing and a torturous curse for me, since the earliest days of my recollections. My very first memory is my first birthday, and I can still see it, clear as crystal behind my eyes whenever it comes to mind.

My whole life has been about capturing memories. Collecting visual data to store away, be it consciously, or subconsciously. From entire days, down to the most insignificant of moments. Seconds, mere fragments of captured time. Moments that are gone so quickly that they might not have happened at all if one were not paying attention.

But its the shortest of moments that stay with me most often. Seared into the walls of my skull, behind my eyelids. Bottled and shelved on the thousands of bookcases within my psyche. A library of time.

I noted a few of them today. But some of the shortest, the most innocent were my favorites.

I am standing behind you under the showerhead, you are in front of me, your back to me. I step to your right, and I glance up at your face. I say something. And you glance back at me, over your shoulder. Your eyes meet mine, a small smile tugs at the corner of your mouth, eventually breaking into my favorite smile. Like watching the sun rise.

It only lingered for a moment. Just one. But it was as though my eyes took a photograph of the moment. Something I can look back on and smile at, no matter the day or hour. Something that can never be lost or tarnished. Destroyed or forgotten. Forever frozen in a moment, just behind my eyes.

And the other, my most favorite. The sun is streaming through the window just above our heads. You are looking at me, and I am looking back at you. I move to do something, but I pause. My eyes find yours again, and I stare.

You stare back. Sunbeams dance across your eyes, throwing the smallest of their details into sharp relief, exaggerating the brilliance of their color. They are ocean eyes, the color of clearest shallow waters in the most coveted parts of the world, and the hazel sunbursts that rim the tide pools. They are leagues deep...I am lost in them. And I drown in them as much as I burn. Just the way the water seems to catch fire as it caresses the setting sun.

I reach up with a fist, and my fingers part...I am running my fingers through your hair. I brush it back with my finger tips. Once, twice, three times. I can't help but smile, I never can. Mere seconds have passed...but they have been my favorite seconds of the day. The seconds you would reverse time for, just to experience them again for the first time. Because the little moments are never little. It's only a matter of how closely you're paying attention to them while they are happening, and what they leave behind after they've gone.

These irreplaceable seconds are all that I have. Sometimes its as though the rest of them are nothing but whisps of smoke that I reach out to try and grasp, or struggling to cup water in my palms as it trickles through my fingers, trying to hold onto what is left of it. But others are etched in permanence. Things like the exact shade of blue in your eyes, or the way they light up when you smile, and that very specific smirk you give me right after you make some smartass comment.

People as a whole tend to take these things for granted, because they are so small. Most times, they are never noticed, or even thought of at all. Oftentimes we do not, or cannot recognize their worth until we no longer have them. Did you know that your voice is my favorite sound, and there is not a single note you utter that is not loved for what it is? I wonder if she looks deep enough to notice or care for such things, or if her gaze is spent on the mere moments that could be noticed by anyone.

I see everything. I always have, and I always will. Sometimes I wish I didn't. And that maybe I could be spared my pain if that was something I were capable of.

But if pain is the price for seeing more than most, it is something worth fighting to keep.