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millenniumfae · 4 years ago

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Video Game Cooking: Nectar (Hades 2018)

Nectar is one of the in-game items Zagreus can collect. By gifting these bottles of golden liquid to other characters, he raises his affinity with them, which in turn gives him powerup items and advances character questlines.

Hades (2018) is a retelling/adaptation of the classical Persephone and Hades mythos. All items, settings, and characters are from classic Greek mythology; Zagreus’ foster mother is the primordial goddess of night. Achilles’ personal questline is about reuniting him with his lover Patrocles. Zagreus has spent his entire life sheltered underground in Tartarus, so he doesn’t know what birds are, or what winter is.

In turn, ‘nectar’ exists in Greek mythology. It’s sometimes interchangeable with ambrosia; both are the legendary foods/drinks of the gods, said to grant immortality to anyone who consumes them, amongst other positive effects. In-game, nectar is the more commonplace counterpart to ambrosia; Zagreus finds nectar as a dungeon drop. But he needs to defeat the champion of Elysium boss to gain a single bottle of ambrosia.

Today, we’re gonna re-create the nectar of Hades (2018) for ourselves! It may be contraband in Hades’ domain, but it’s not like anyone pays attention to that rule, anyways.

Why are we recreating nectar, and not ambrosia? Because there already exists tons of ‘ambrosia’ drink recipes. Maybe not based off of the Hades (2018) version, but there’s nothing new or exciting in making yet another ambrosia drink. Nectar, on the other hand, gives us more room for invention.

Hades (2018) Nectar Recipe (Makes One Serving)

1 1/3 cups Martinelli's sparkling cider

2 tablespoons orange flower water

1 tablespoon honey

1/4 teaspoon edible gold shimmer powder (make sure it lists all ingredients, and is certified food safe)

A pinch of coarse sea salt

A pinch of lemon zest

A drop of mint extract

The first times Zagreus gifts nectar to npcs, they describe honoring some sort of godhood custom and exchange with him with a ‘keepsake’ - an in-game powerup he can wear. Unlike with gifting ambrosia, their eyes don’t pop out with shock at receiving such a luxurious gift, it’s instead just something nice, even if relatively commonplace. But nectar is still prestigious enough that gifting the actual Olympic gods nectar goes over well.

If ambrosia is the equivalent of Zagreus gifting $30,000,000 Breguet watches to his friends and family, then nectar is the gourmet-wrapped basket of cheese and crackers you see in the ‘gift’ section of the grocery store. Something you spot while on errands, and impulsively buy so you have a hostess gift the next time someone invites you over. It’s a gift borne of societal custom, and implores the giftee to give you something in return, eventually. Everyone from your multimillionaire uncle Poseidon to your humble jailbird neighbor Sisyphus are pleased to receive such a gift, even if they might value its contents differently.

(In the early-access versions of the game, nectar was ambrosia. The final release wrote ambrosia as the coveted, rare prize you earn after defeating the champions of Elysium. True enough, Zagreus can only find ambrosia after defeating the Elysium boss.)

In original Greek mythology, ‘nectar’ and ‘ambrosia’ aren’t two distinct things. Homer describes nectar as the god’s drink, and ambrosia is the food. But in Sappho’s and Anaxandrides’s poems, it’s the opposite. There’s more recorded mentions of ‘ambrosia’, rather than nectar. Some take this to mean that both nectar and ambrosia can be seen as something both food and drink, like honey.

Both share canonical similarities. Ambrosia and nectar are fragrant foods/drinks, sometimes used as literal perfume by the gods. Makes sense that nectar smells good, if in the AD period we’ve taken the word to mean the sweet stuff within flowers.

Other than its smell, we’ve no canonical information about nectar (other than in the Odyssey, nectar is described as either ‘rose-red’ in color, or in scent). Hades (2018) rendered nectar’s appearance as an opaque, warm gold liquid in a cute little round bottle, wrapped with a ribbon to benefit its ‘gift merchandise’ reputation.

Nobody in Hades (2018) describes the taste/smell of nectar. Ambrosia, on the other hand, is said to be rare ‘vintages’ that you’re guaranteed to like. Sometimes, gifting either results in a cutscene where Zagreus and co. hang out at the lounge, complete with a sound clip of uncorking a bottle and pouring it into a tall glass. You can also see characters drink nectar amongst each other, savoring both the occasion and the taste. Eurydice also offers a ‘Refreshing Nectar’ power up item, which just kinda looks like normal nectar but in a tall glass.

There’s a clear alcohol equivalence. But nobody references drunkeness in-game. Even original classical Greek culture didn’t have a drunk culture like we do; wine was revered, but it was mixed with water to be savored, not to intoxicate oneself. Maybe nobody in-game can get drunk in the first place; everyone’s either an immortal, or a ghost.

(In my opinion, it’s always a bit weird when videogame characters can nurture deep, trusting relationships purely built upon a system of gifting items. But Hades (2018) does make it clear that Zagreus already has established relationships with most of the cast.)

Ambrosia’s a rare vintage. So what does that make nectar? We need to make something sweet, pleasant, attractive-looking, and also tangibly related to its rarer sibling. So we’re using another liquid that’s distilled and sometimes fermented; apple cider.

A bit of this decision comes from the soundbite of opening up a nectar in the lounge; it’s a thin viscosity with a slight hint of foam, almost sounding like beer. And the color matters too, since different distillations of apple cider can result in different colors, ranging from dark brown to a light, bright gold.

Apple juice, when fermented, can have alcohol contents going from light apple wine, to brandies that have 10-25% alcohol. As a culinary ingredient, its modest fructose content means a higher temperature tolerance, and its citric acid can be used as a brine. It’s a popular ‘new world’ ingredient in cooking and baking.

It’s also an ‘old world’ food. Hades (2018) doesn’t take itself super seriously, with its foil-wrapped gyros and french fries as in-game healing items. But any character/worldbuilding they do have, they keep it consistent.

Zagreus says that Hermes’ symbol “almost looks like a bat wing”, when it’s very clearly a bird wing. Because he’s lived underground his whole life, he doesn’t know what a bird is. Weapons upgraded with the aspect of people like Guan Yu, or King Arthur, are time-bending powers that no one has ever heard of, with hints that these mysterious people live in places with their own gods/mythology. Zagreus catches a trout/bass/sturgeon fish for the first time, and it’s completely foreign to him, but Achilles fondly recalls these Greece-native fish fitting of his Nereid heritage. Characters have discussions about how mortals fear death, despite Thanatos being a gentle god represented by butterflies. There’s no sun, therefore no time, in the underworld. Hades is the god of minerals as well as the underworld, hence gems and diamonds being an in-game loot.

Apples originated in Central Asia. During the Classical Greek era, they would have resembled what we call crabapples; small, hard, sour, cherry-sized. “At the Sammardenchia-Cueis site near Udine in Northeastern Italy, seeds from some form of apples have been found in material carbon dated to around 4000 BCE.”

It implores me to find ingredients that fit the setting, as with my other Video Game Cooking recipes. No pumpkins, no corn, potatoes, chocolate, tomatoes, vanilla. Instead, we have things like almonds, lentils, oranges, honey, garlic, onions (haha, suck it Achilles)

To reflect nectar’s ‘sweet smelling’ trait, we’re using an ingredient common in Persian cooking - and later the French royal court of King Louis; orange flower water. I found mine in my local Asian grocery. It’s a byproduct of making essential oil, and it’s colorless/flavorless, but with a strong aromatic smell that affects any food you mix it with. It’s also a known ingredient in modern day Greece, called anthonero (ανθόνερο).

(Eeurydice is confirmed to use both nectar and ambrosia as a cooking ingredient, and her food is apparently amazing. Maybe one day, I’ll make another Video Game Cooking recipe based off of her Pom Porridge, or Ambrosia Delights.)

And to really make it look like the food of the gods, we’re adding an ingredient found more and more in swanky bars worldwide; edible glitter powder. Originally, people only used this to decorate baked goods and candies, but come Instagram, people are making these really picturesque cocktails that shimmer rainbow. You gotta be careful when buying these for yourself, though; the tiny tins of decorative edible shimmer power you find at Michaels may not actually be as edible as they claim. I found Bakell-brand Luster Dust at a bake-supply shop. If it doesn’t list its ingredients, or certify itself as FDA-approved, then don’t use it for food.

And since it’s called ‘nectar’, we’re also adding honey. Which has long history of its divine status as a holy food. To take down the intense sweetness a bit, the tinest pinch of sea salt - another holy, pure substance. And to really bring out the brightness of the apples, we’re adding a sprinkle of lemon zest. A tiny drop of mint extract brings a complex depth to the orange flower smell.

To make a glass of nectar; cover the bottom of the glass with mint, lemon, sea salt, honey, and orange flower water. Then, pour the apple cider with the gold shimmer dust together, so that the two mix together a bit, to avoid clumping of the powder. Then you mix the drink a bit, so that the honey, zest, and salt aren’t sitting at the bottom.

It only now occurs to me that this recipe might actually be a rendition of Eurydice’s Refreshing Nectar item, rather than pure nectar itself. But just take my word for it; when you open up a bottle of nectar, you get that whiff of blossoms with the slight coldness of mint, and the sea salt/honey taste goes really well with the apple juice. I imagine that Eurydice’s somehow making a further delicious drink by adding a splash of Bailoni and ice.

Enjoy! Just imagine that you’re hanging out with Zagreus and his three partners, cracking a cold one open over stories about how crazy the surface world is. Did you know that we have machines called computers that instantly relay information all over the world??

#hades game #hades #hades 2018 #hades (2018)#hades supergiant #video game cooking

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nefariousplottings · 3 years ago

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I’ll Trade you

So, this is fanart I made for Delphi’s fanfic Sweetheart (Good Enough to Eat) and it was created way back in Feb 2018. I’ve been really hesitant to post it for a couple of reasons, the first being, it’s wrong.

When I first went to make this, I hadn’t read the fanfic in a while and was going off of memory, so when I was almost done, I opened it up to make sure I got all the details right. Welp, I got the blocking of the scene completely wrong, so I did what any perfectionist would do- I saved the picture in 2 different files and re-did the second one to be actually accurate, but while I was working on the correct version, I completely lost motivation and haven’t touched it for ages.

The second reason I dragged my heels was the fact that I didn’t want to upload it without the correct props. The SFM workshop doesn’t have any sort of crayons or colored pencils, (Or if it does now it didn’t have any in 2018) so I took it upon myself to download blender and make my own 64 ct box. But once again, while adding color to the crayons I lost motivation, and the almost finished box has been sitting there for literally months. I also intended to scan/port to SFM a the actual picture that Pyro’s coloring, but again, I must have just burned myself out biting off more than I could chew.

At this point I’ve accepted that it will never be what I want it to look like, so I’ll just post what I have- better it is out where people can see it rather than gathering dust in my hard drive. I’m still very proud of it and all the time I spent making it, and I hope you enjoy my bit of fanart!

#tf2 #Team Fortress 2 #Fanart #fanfic #fanfiction #yes I'm still dead on tumblr #I just needed somewhere to post it #my pics

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dustedmagazine · 4 years ago

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Dust Volume 7, Number 4

Axel Ruley x Verbo Flow

A little bit of optimism is creeping into the air as Dusted writers start to get their shots. We’re all starting to think about live music, maybe outside, maybe this summer. But as the spate of freak snow storms demonstrates, summer’s not here yet, and in the meantime, piles of records and gigs of MP3s beckon. This early spring version of Dust covers the map, literally, with artists representing Pakistan, Australia, Canada, Sweden, the UK and the USA, and stylistically with jazz, rock, punk, rap, improv and many other genres in play. Contributors include Jennifer Kelly, Justin Cober-Lake, Bill Meyer, Ray Garraty, Patrick Masterson, Tim Clarke and Bryon Hayes.

Arooj Aftab — Vulture Prince (New Amsterdam)

Vulture Prince by Arooj Aftab

Arooj Aftab is a classical composer originally from Pakistan but now living in Brooklyn. Vulture Prince, her third full-length album, blends the bright clarity of new age music with the fluid, non-Western vocal tones of her Central Asian roots. “Last Night,” from an old Rumi poem but sung mostly in English, lilts in dub-scented syncopation, the thump and pop of stand-up bass underlining its bittersweet melody. An interlude in some other language shifts the song entirely, pitting vintage reggae reverberation against an exotic melisma. “Mohabbat” (which is apparently Urdu for sex) soothes in the pristine instrumentals, lucid guitars, a horn, scattered drumbeats, but smolders and beckons in the vocals. None of these tracks feel wholly traditional or wholly Western and modern day, but sit somewhere in a well-lit, idealized space. Timeless and placeless, Vulture Prince is nonetheless very beautiful.

Jennifer Kelly

Assertion — Intermission (Spartan)

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Intermission comes from an alternate timeline. Founding drummer William Goldsmith started his musical career in Sunny Day Real Estate and had a notable stint with Foo Fighters. To cut the biography short, Goldsmith took a decade off from the music industry. He's returned now with Assertion, joined by guitarist/vocalist Justin Tamminga and bassist Bryan Gorder (both of Blind Guides, among other acts). This band picks up in the late 1990s, imagining a new path for post-hardcore/post-grunge music. The trio's name suits, as the songs' energy and the lyrical assertiveness develops the intensity of the release. The group works carefully with dynamics, neither parroting the loud-quiet tradition nor simply pushing their emo leanings toward 11.

“The Lamb to the Slaughter Pulls a Knife” epitomizes the album. The track sounds like Foo Fighters decided to get dirtier rather than more arena-friendly, while the lyrics mix violence with emotional persistence. First single “Supervised Suffering” finds triumph in endurance, turning the aggressive chorus into something of a victory. “Set Fire” closes the album with something more delicate, but it's just the gauze over a seething anger. Goldsmith's time off seems to have served him well, as does collaborating with some new partners. Assertion makes its case clearly and effectively, and if the intermission's over for Goldsmith, the second half sounds promising.

Justin Cober-Lake

Michael Beach — Dream Violence (Goner/Poison City)

Dream Violence by Michael Beach

“De Facto Blues,” from Michael Beach’s fourth solo album, is a barn-burner of a song, rough and messy and passionate, the kind of song that makes you want to take a stand on something, who cares what as long as it matters to you. It snarls like Radio Birdman, slashes like the Wipers and follows its muse through chaos to righteousness like an off-cut from Crazy Horse, just back from rockin’ the free world. It’s got Matt Ford and Inez Tulloch from Thigh Master on guitar and bass, respectively, Utrillo Kushner from Colossal Yes (and Comets on Fire) on drums, and Kelley Stoltz at the boards, and it’s a killer. The rest of the album is varied and, honestly, not uniformly astounding, but there’s a nice Summer of Love-style psych dream in “Metaphysical Dice,” a slow-burning post-rocker in the title track and a driving, pounding punk anthem in the opener “Irregardless.” Beach has been splitting his time between San Francisco and Melbourne, Australia, and lately settled on Melbourne, where he will fit like a native into their thriving punk-garage scene.

Jennifer Kelly

Bloop — Proof (Lumo)

Proof by BLOOP (Lina Allemano / Mike Smith)

The trumpet is already a catalog of sound effects waiting to happen, and Lina Allemano knows the table of contents by heart. So, to shake things up, she has paired up with electronic musician Mike Smith, who contributes live processing and effects to Allemano’s improvisations. A blind listen to Proof might leave you with the impression that you’re hearing a horn player jamming with some outer space cats, and we’re not talking about hip, lingo-slinging jazz dudes. In fact, everything on these eight tracks happened in real time. Smith’s a strategic intervener, aware that too much sauce can spoil the stew, so he mixes up precise layering and pitch-shifting with more disorienting transformations. It’s hard to say how much Allemano responds to the simulacra that surround her brass voice, but there’s no denying the persuasiveness of her melodic and timbral ideas.

Bill Meyer

Bris — Tricky Dance Moves (TrueStory Entertainment)

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Bris left some music behind when he died in 2020, but it took almost a year to shape these recordings into a proper CD. The label CEO Mac J (a fine artist himself) could easily capitalize on his friend’s death, stacking Tricky Dance Moves with features from the artists Bris never would have worked with. Yet the album was prepared with the utmost care, not giving an ugly Frankenstein monster feel. Bris’s references to his possible early death are scattered throughout the whole tape: “Heard they wanna pop Bris cause they mad I’m poppin.” Almost every song could be easily turned into a prophetic tale (a cheap move one wants to avoid at all costs). Nonetheless, something is missing here. Or maybe it is just an image of death that disturbs the whole picture, making us realize that this is the last we’d hear from Bris.

Ray Garraty

Dreamwell — Modern Grotesque (self-released)

Modern Grotesque by Dreamwell

I recently read an interview with Providence’s Dreamwell breaking down in almost excruciating detail the influences that led to the quintet’s sophomore full-length Modern Grotesque. I kept scrolling past Daughters and Deftones and Deafheaven and increasingly disconnected influences like The Mountain Goats and Nina Simone. I went back to the top and looked again. I typed Ctrl+F and put in “Thursday.” Nothing. This is preposterous. I may not be in the post-hardcore trenches the way I once was, but even I’d know a good Full Collapse homage if it swung a mic right into my face the way this one did; hell, just listen to “The Lost Ballad of Dominic Anneghi” and tell me singer Keziah Staska doesn’t know every single word of “Paris in Flames.” That may not look like flattery on a first read, but too often, bands striding the emo/pop divide have chased the latter into sub-Taking Back Sunday oblivion; what Thursday did was much harder, and Dreamwell has ably taken up the torch here. That they did it unintentionally is a curious, bewildering footnote.

Patrick Masterson

Paul Dunmall / Matthew Shipp / Joe Morris / Gerald Cleaver — The Bright Awakening (Rogue Art)

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It’s a bit perplexing that reeds player Paul Dunmall hasn’t spent more time playing with American musicians. He’s firmly situated within the English improvisation community, where he’s perhaps best known for his longer tenure with the quartet Mujician, and his ability to double on bagpipes has allowed him to establish links between improvised and folk music. But

his jazz-rooted approach makes him a natural to work in settings such as this one. When Dunmall toted his tenor to the Vision Festival in 2012 (even then, it could be costly to lug multiple horns on a plane), he found three sympatico partners in Fest regulars pianist Matthew Shipp, double bassist Joe Morris and drummer Gerald Cleaver. They all hit the ground running, generating a barrage of pulsing, roiling sound for over 20 minutes before the piano and drums peel off, leaving Morris to sustain momentum alone. Dunmall’s gruff, spiraling lines find common cause with each of his fellows, and the gradual addition and subtraction of players from that point makes it easier to hear the exchange of ideas, which often seem to take place between dyads operating within the larger flow.

Bill Meyer

Editrix — Tell Me I’m Bad (Exploding in Sound)

Tell Me I'm Bad by Editrix

Wendy Eisenberg’s rock band is like her solo output in that it snarls delicate, self-aware, mini-short stories in complex tangles of guitar, hemming in high, sing-song-y verses with riffs and licks of daunting difficulty. The main differences are speed, volume and aggression (i.e. it rocks.) and a certain communal energy. That’s down to two collaborators who can more than keep up, Josh Daniel on surging, rattling, break-it-all-down percussion and Steve Cameron, equally anarchic and fast on bass. The title track is an all-out rager, thrusting jagged arena riffs of guitar and bass forward, then clearing space for off-kilter verses and time-shifting, irregular instrumental interplay. “Chelsea” follows a similar chaotic pattern, setting up a teeth-shaking cadence of rock instruments, with Eisenberg keening over the top of it. “I know, perfectly well, that we’re not safe, safe from the men in power,” she croons, engaged in the knotting difficulties of the world as we know it, but winning.

Jennifer Kelly

Elephant Micah — Vague Tidings (Western Vinyl)

Vague Tidings by Elephant Micah

The new Elephant Micah album, the follow-up to 2018’s excellent Genericana, has an apposite title. Vague Tidings conveys an atmosphere of feeling conscious of something carried on the wind, a story passed on that may have shifted through various iterations, leaving only a sense of its original meaning. All that can be sure is that this is sad, sober music, unafraid to brace against the chill of mortality and speak of all that is felt. The instruments — guitar, piano, percussion, violin and woodwinds — move around Joseph O’Connell’s voice in stiff yet graceful arcs, distanced by an unspoken etiquette. Repetitive melodic figures, stark yet steady, gradually accumulate weight as they roll along like tumbleweeds. It’s a crisp, forlorn country-blues, in no hurry to get nowhere, carrying ancient wisdom that seems to acknowledge the empty resonance of its own import.

Tim Clarke

Fraufraulein — Solum (Notice Recordings)

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Fraufraulein’s music is immersive. Anne Guthrie and Billy Gomberg beam themselves, and us along with them, Quantum Leap-style directly into multiple environments in medias res. Through the clever employment of field recordings, they transport us to a hurricane-addled beach, performing a voice/piano duet as driftwood missiles careen through the air. In another “episode,” the manipulation of small objects conjures up the intimacy of a water garden filled with windchimes. Partners in both life and art, Guthrie and Gomberg are also consummate solo artists. He is a master of spike-textured drones, while she explores the intimate properties of physical entities. Like a child tends to resemble one parent while borrowing subtle traits from the other, Solum identifies more with Guthrie’s electroacoustic tendencies than it does with Gomberg’s electronics. This is in stark contrast to 2015’s Extinguishment, which felt a little more balanced between those two modes. Both approaches work, yet Solum feels more meticulously crafted and nuanced. Careful listening unveils multiple subtle tones and textures, and each piece is an adventure for the ears.

Bryon Hayes

Gerrit Hatcher / Rob Magill / Patrick Shiroishi — Triplet Fawns (Kettle Hole)

Triplet Fawns by Gerrit Hatcher / Rob Magill / Patrick Shiroishi

The album’s title implies a crew you wouldn’t want on your yard; while those adolescent ungulate appetites do a number on your bushes, the hooves are hacking up your grass. But if they knocked on your door, saxophone cases in their respective hands, you could do worse than invite them around the back for some blowing. Hatcher, Magill and Shiroishi present with sufficient lung power to be heard fine without the reflective assistance of walls, even when they aren’t making like Sonore (that was Gustafsson, Vandermark, and Brötzmann, about a dozen years back). This album, which was released in a micro-edition of 100 CD-Rs on Hatcher’s Kettle Hole imprint, builds gradually from restrained melancholy to pointillistic jousting to a climactic blow-out, and the assured development of each piece suggests that each player was listening not only to what each of the others was doing, but where the music was headed.

Bill Meyer

A.Karperyd — GND (Novoton)

GND by A.Karperyd

On his second solo release, GND, Swedish artist Andreas Karperyd broodingly ruminates on snatches of musical ideas that have been percolating in his consciousness over extended periods. Anyone familiar with his 2015 debut, Woodwork, will find these 55 minutes similarly immersive, as Karperyd manipulates live instruments such as piano and strings into shimmering, alien tapestries. Opener “The Well-Defined Rules of Certainty” appears to take Fennesz’s Venice as its blueprint, issuing forth cascading, percolating tones that tickle the ears. “The Desire to Invoke Balance with Our Eyes Closed” and “Failures and Small Observations” have a Satie-esque elegance to their piano lines, albeit refracted via a hall of mirrors. The 12-minute “Reminiscence of Tar” sounds like a slow-motion pan across the hulking mass of a shadowy space station. And closing track “Mummification of an Empire” slowly fries its piano in static, then unfurls wistful melodica and throbbing synth across the wreckage.

Tim Clarke

Kiwi Jr. — Cooler Returns (Subpop)

Cooler Returns by Kiwi jr

Kiwi Jr.’s brash, brainy indie pop punk vibrates with nervy energy, like the first Feelies album or Violent Femmes’ 1983 debut or that one great S-T from the Soft Pack. Those are all opening salvos for their respective bands, but this one is a second outing, suffering not a bit from sophomore slackening. Instead, Cooler Returns tightens up everything that was already stinging on the Toronto band’s debut and adds a giddy careening glee. An oddball thread of Robin Hood-ness runs through the disc, with Sherwood forest getting a nod in the title track and “Maid Marian’s Toast” tipping the love interest, but these songs are anything but archaic. “Undecided Voters,” the single jangles harder than anything I’ve heard since Woolen Men, slyly upending creative pretensions in a verse that goes: “You take a photo of the CN tower/you take another of the Honest Ed sign/Well, I take photos of your photos/and they really move people.” Has it been done before? Maybe. Does it move us. Yes indeed.

Jennifer Kelly

Kool John — Get Rich, Die $moppin ($moplife Entertainment)

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A year ago, Kool John was shot six times. Yet you wouldn’t know about it from the general mood of Get Rich, Die $moppin, his first tape since then. He does name one song “6 Shots” and explicitly mentions the shooting accident a few times on other songs, but his bouncy music says he wasn’t hurt bad after all. The beats perfectly match the rhymes, playfully ignorant and ignorantly playful. Kool John still doesn’t mix with broke people, doesn’t return calls if it’s not about money and “doesn’t get stressed out.” Instead, he gets high. His new tape is nothing groundbreaking, even though he’s pretending that is: “If I had no legs I’d still be outstanding.”

Ray Garraty

Nick Mazzarella / Quin Kirchner — See or Seem: Live at the Hyde Park Jazz Festival (Out Of Your Head)

See or Seem: Live at the Hyde Park Jazz Festival by Nick Mazzarella / Quin Kirchner

Perhaps the most remarkable thing about this recording is that the titular festival happened at all. While most festivals either canceled or went on line, Chicago’s Hyde Park Jazz Festival dealt with COVID by spreading out. Instead of big stages and indoor shows, last September it staged little pop-up events on sidewalks and in parks. So, if the sound of See or Seem feels a bit diffuse, it’s because it was recorded with a device propped in front of two guys playing on a grassy median. There are moments when the buzz of bugs rises up for a second behind Nick Mazzarella’s darting alto sax and Quin Kirchner’s brisk, mercurial beats. But the thrill of actually playing in front of some people (or actually being surrounded by them; when there’s no stage and social distancing is in effect, it makes sense to walk slow circles around the performers) infuses this music, extracting an extra ounce of joyousness from Mazzarella’s free, boppish lines, and adding a restlessness charge to the drumming, as though Kirchner really wanted to squeeze as much music as possible into this 31-minute set. This release is part of Out Of Your Head Records’ Untamed series of download-only albums recorded under less than pristine conditions. A portion of each title’s income is directed to a charity of the artists’ choice; the duo selected St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital.

Bill Meyer

Dean McPhee — Witch’s Ladder (Hood Faire)

Witch's Ladder by Dean McPhee

Finger-picked melodies cut through haunted landscapes of echo and hum on this fourth LP from the British guitarist Dean McPhee. Track titles like “The Alchemist” and “Witch’s Ladder” evoke the supernatural, as does the spectral ambient tone, reminiscent of Chuck Johnson’s recent Cinder Grove or Mark Nelson’s last Pan•American album. Yet while an e-bow traces ghostly chills through “The Alder Tree,” there’s also a grounding in lovely, well-rooted folk forms; it’s like seeing a familiar landscape in moonlight, well-known landmarks suddenly turned unearthly and strange. The long closing title track has an introspective air. Pensive, jazz-infused runs flower into bright bursts of notes, not quite blues, not quite folk, not quite jazz, not quite anything but gorgeous.

Jennifer Kelly

Moontype — Bodies of Water (Born Yesterday)

Bodies of Water by Moontype

Margaret McCarthy’s voice swims across your headphones like being on an innertube drifting languidly downstream. Typically, saying someone’s vocals are like water indicates a degree of timidity or laziness, obscured in reverb or simply buried by the mix, but on Moontype’s debut LP, it’s a compliment: McCarthy floats across the different styles of music she makes with guitarist Ben Cruz and drummer Emerson Hunton. You notice it not just because she often sings of water or because it’s right there in the title, but also because the Chicago trio hasn’t settled on any particular style yet — just listen to the three-song stretch at the heart of the record where achingly beautiful alt-country ballad “3 Weeks” leads into “When You Say Yes,” a sub-three-minute power-pop number Weezer ought to be jealous of, followed immediately by crunching alt-rock swoon and first single “Ferry.” All the while, McCarthy lets her melodies drift to the will of the songs. I’m reminded of recent efforts from Great Grandpa, Squirrel Flower and Lucy Dacus, but the brief, jazzy curveball of “Alpha” is a peek into whole other possibilities. Bodies of Water is a fine record, but perhaps its most exciting aspect is how much ground you can see Moontype has already conquered. One can’t help but wonder what sonic worlds awash in water await.

Patrick Masterson

Rob Noyes / Joseph Allred — Avoidance Language (Feeding Tube)

Avoidance Language by Rob Noyes and Joseph Allred

The 12-string guitar can emit such a prodigious amount of sound, and there are two of them on Avoidance Language. If Joseph Allred and Rob Noyes had planned things out in order to avoid canceling each other out, they might never have picked their instruments up, so they just started playing and listening. The result is not so much a summing of two broad spectrums of sound, but an instinctual blending of similar textures that ends up sounding significantly different from what either musician does on their own. Even when Allred switches to harmonium or banjo, as he does on the album’s two shorter tracks, the music rushes in torrential fashion. Their collaboration is so compatible that it often seems more like a recital for one big stringed thing played by one four-handed musician than a doubled instrumental duet.

Bill Meyer

NRCSSSST — S-T (Slimstyle)

NRCSSST by NRCSSST

There’s no “I” in NRCSSSST but there’s plenty of swagger. The Atlanta-based synth pop band, formed around Coathangers drummer and singer Stephanie Luke and Dropsonic’s Dan Dixon, taunts and teases in its opening salvo “All I Ever Wanted.” Luke rasps appealingly atop Spoon-style piano banging, and big shout along choruses erupt from sudden flares of synths. It’s all hedonism, but done with conviction. You haven’t heard a big rock song kick up this much fun in ages. “Love Suicide” bangs just as hard, its bass line muttering like a crazy person, unstable and ready to explode (and yet it doesn’t, it maintains its restraint even when the rest of the cut goes deliriously off the rails). Dixon can really sing, too, holding the long vibrating notes that lift these prickly jams into anthemry. It’s been a while since a band reminded me of INXS and U2 without sucking, but here we are. Sometimes guilty pleasures are just pleasures.

Jennifer Kelly

Zeena Parkins / Mette Rasmussen /Ryan Sawyer — Glass Triangle (Relative Pitch)

Glass Triangle by Zeena Parkins, Mette Rasmussen, Ryan Sawyer

Harpist Zeena Parkins and Ryan Sawyer have a long-standing partnership in the trio substitutes Moss Garden, a chamber improv ensemble with pianist Ryan Ross. But swapping in Danish alto saxophonist Mette Rasmussen brings about a change, not just in instrumentation, but attitude. She plays free jazz like a punk, impatient and aggressive, and Parkins and Sawyer are up for the challenge. This music often plays out like a battle between two titans, one blowing and the other pummeling, while Parkins seeks to liquify the ground upon which they stand. She sticks exclusively to an electric harp whose effects-laden tone is disorientingly alien, blinking beacon-like one moment, low as a backhoe engage in earth removal the next. The combination of new and old relationships promotes a combination of instability and trust that yields splendid results.

Bill Meyer

claire rousay — A Softer Focus (American Dreams)

a softer focus by claire rousay

In film, soft focus is a technique of contrast reduction that lends a scene a dreamlike quality. With A Softer Focus, claire rousay imbues her already intimate compositions with a noctilucent aura. She has created a dreamworld with sound. One glimpse at the glowing flowers that grace the cover art created by visual artist Dani Toral, with whom rousay closely collaborated on this release, and the illusory nature of the record is revealed. The reds, oranges, blues and purples of deep twilight are reflected in both the textures rousay weaves into her soundscapes and the visual themes that Toral conjures. Violin, cello, piano and synth are the musical origins of this warmth, which rousay wraps around environments crafted from the sounds of everyday life. She recorded herself moving about her apartment, visiting a farmer’s market, observing kids playing and just existing. These field recordings of the mundane, when coupled with the radiance of the musical elements, are magical. Snatches of conversation become incantations; auto-tuned vocals are the whisperings of spirits; fireworks explode into brilliant shards of crystal. With A Softer Focus, rousay takes a glimpse into the beauty of the everyday, showing us just how precious our most humdrum moments can be.

Bryon Hayes

Axel Rulay x Verbo Flow — Si Es Trucho Es Trucho / Axel Rulay (La Granja)

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Axel Rulay must be kicking himself right now. With more than three million plays on the original version and more than five million on the remix that adds verses from Farruko and El Alfa into the fray, the Dominican is cruising into our second pandemic summer with an unbeatable poolside anthem — and to think, after years of clawing his way up through the industry dregs, working to get his name out there, all he had to do was make himself the chorus over Venezuelan producer Manybeat’s 2019 tropical house trip “El Tiempo.” Presto: Massive visibility in the Spanish-speaking world and a song that ought to transcend any linguistic barriers unlocked even if the best I can manage is a title that translates as “If It’s Trout It’s Trout.” Expect that long-desired Daddy Yankee collabo to follow any day now.

Patrick Masterson

Rx Nephew — Listen Here Are You Here to Hear Me (NewBreedTrapper)

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Rochester rapper Rx Nephew trailed brother-turned-archrival-turned-back Rx Papi’s coming out party 100 Miles and Walk’in by just a few weeks with the 53-minute all-in proposition Listen Here Are You Here to Hear Me. Unlike Papi’s Max B-ish smoothness, Nephew is all rough n’ tumble through these 17 tracks, provocative pump action with narrative bursts of violence and street hustling delivered with a verve most akin to DaBaby or, in some of his more elastic enunciations, peak Ludacris. A recent Creative Hustle interview provides some insight: The first time he went into the booth, “I didn’t write anything. I just started talking about selling crack and robbing people.” The stories haven’t stopped since. If he can keep putting out music as engaging as Listen Here…, Rx Nephew is destined for more than just the margins; until then, we have one of the year’s densest rap records to hold the line.

Patrick Masterson

Nick Schofield — Glass Gallery (Backward Music)

Glass Gallery by Nick Schofield

Nick Schoefield, out of Montreal, composed these 13 tracks entirely on a vintage Prophet 600, the first synthesizer to designed to employ the then-new MIDI standard established by the instrument’s inventor Dave Smith and Roland’s Ikutaru Kakahashi. The instrument has a lovely, crystalline quality, floating effortless arpeggios through vaulting sonic spaces. Though clearly synthesized, these pieces of music resonate in serene and peaceful ways, evoking light, water, air and contemplation with a simplicity that evokes Japan. “Water Court” drips notes of startling purity into deep pools of tone-washed whoosh and hum. “Snow Blue Square” flutters an oboe-like melody over eddying gusts of keyboard motifs. The pieces fit together with calm precision, leading from one beautiful space to the next like a stroll through a museum.

Jennifer Kelly

Archie Shepp — Blasé And Yasmina Revisited (Ezz-thetics)

The Ezz-thetics campaign to keep the best of mid-20th century free jazz on CD shelves (yes, CD, not streaming or LP) breaches the walls of the BYG catalog with a disc that issues one and a half albums from Archie Shepp’s busy week in August 1969. Blasé is a stand-out for the participation of singer Jeanne Lee, whose indomitable and flexible delivery as equal to the demands of material that’s be turns pungently earthy and steeped in antiquity. But the rest of the band, which includes Philly Joe Jones, Dave Burrell, some harmonica players, and a couple members of the Art Ensemble, is also more than equal to the task of filtering the blues and Ellingtonia through the gestures of the then-contemporary avant-garde. “Yasmina,” which originally occupied one side of another LP, makes sense here as an extension of the raw, rippling “Touareg,” the last tune on Blasé, into exultantly African territory.

Bill Meyer

Juanita Stein — Snapshot (Handwritten)

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Juanita Stein was the cool, serene, Mazzy Star-evoking vocal presence in the Aussie dream-gaze outfit Howling Bells, and she plays more or less the same role on her third solo album. Yet she is also the source of mayhem here, kicking up an angst of guitar-freaked turmoil on “1,2,3,4,5,6” then soothing it away with singing, hanging long threads of feedback from the thump-thump-thumping blues-rock architecture of “L.O.T.F.” and crooning dulcetly, but with a little yip, in the trance-y title track. This latter cut reflects on the death of her father, a kindred soul who wrote a couple of Howling Bells songs for her and passed away recently. It distills a palpable ache into pure, distanced poetry, finding a cool, dispassionate way to consider the mysteries of human loss.

Jennifer Kelly

The Tiptons Sax Quartet & Drums — Wabi Sabi (Sowiesound)

Wabi Sabi by Tiptons Sax Quartet & Drums

Over its 30 years together, the Tiptons Sax Quartet has done less to hone its sound and more to figure out how many styles to embrace. The group (typically a soprano, alto, tenor, and baritone sax joined by percussion and even including some vocals) can dig into trad jazz but sounds more at home in exploration, adapting world music or other traditional American styles. The title of their latest album, Wabi Sabi refers to the Japanese concept of finding beauty in and accepting imperfection. The Tiptons, despite that sentiment, don't approach their play with a sloppy sound; in fact, they're as tight as ever. The understanding of impermanence and imperfection does help contextualize their risk-taking. When they turn to odd yodeling on “Moadl Joadl,” they find joy in an odd vocal moment that highlights expression and discovery over formal rigor. When they tap in New Orleans energy for “Jouissance,” we can connect the dots between parades and funerals, celebrating all the while. The whole album serves as a tour of styles and moods, always with an energetic potency. If it's more of the same from the Tiptons, that just means continuance of difference.

Justin Cober-Lake

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filthy-rat · 5 years ago

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literally had a dream with the GHOST band in it and im only just starting to get into them so i gotta ask bc i feel like trying to look it up will yield confusing results somehow: in a nutshell if you dont mind, what and who are they? i can see they play characters and that there's a lot of lore (kinda like Gorillaz??)

Okay I actually got onto my desktop to answer this properly. Here’s Madge’s Shit Guide to Ghost

This is Tobias Forge, the Mastermind. He is the one who runs the show basically. He’s a Swedish man from Linköping and from what I understand he’s only recently shown his face on camera. He used to do interviews as “Special Ghoul” but now he just does them unmasked. A very good Dad.

Now onto the Lore.

This is Sister Imperator.

She basically runs the “show”, i.e. the fictional Satanic church everyone belongs to. She’s polite but she absolutely will cut a bitch if necessary. We see a younger version of her in both the Dance Macabre and Kiss the Go-Goat music videos. In the Dance Macabre video we see her meeting a young man at a party. She basically “chooses” him (read: absolutely punches the shit out of his left eye, making it go dead) and he becomes Papa Nihil.

This is Papa Nihil!

Just a funny old man!! He was the previous “Papa” (basically a Satanic anti-Pope), and the very first Papa in the Lore (that we know of). He had three sons, Emeritus I, Emeritus II, and Emeritus III, each inheriting the title of “Papa” from him. Each Emeritus coincides with a different ‘era’.

This is where my knowledge is a bit lacking, I’m sorry.

Emeritus I

The first Papa in real life??? If that makes sense? He was the original vocalist for the band and reigned from 2010 to 2012. Of all the characters, he probably has the least amount of character or lore? I assume because Tobias was just starting out at the time and hadn’t quite gotten a feel for what he wanted to do with the band yet. Emeritus I was eventually replaced by Emeritus II.

Emeritus II

Emeritus II was the second front man and reigned from 2012 to 2015. He received the position of Papa when Emeritus I handed him the mic during a special performance in the band’s hometown, Linköping. He was also the first Papa to appear without facepaint on camera.

He was described by as a bitter old man and the fans called him “an asshole.” He was eventually replaced by his “younger brother of three months”, Emeritus III.

Emeritus III

Seemingly one of the more popular Papas, Emeritus III reigned from 2015 to 2017. Probably the Papa from the original bloodline with the most personality. He wrote/performed Cirice, which won a Grammy and absolutely fuckin slaps if I may say so myself.

I saw someone call him “Grandpa Coochieneck” and I have never been the same since.

On September 30, 2017, while he was performing Monstrance Clock, two men came on stage, interrupted his performance, and dragged him away (quite literally).

On April 30, 2018, he and his two brothers were killed at Sister Imperator’s order, and their bodies were embalmed and put on display on Ghost’s Prequelle tour cycle.

Enter Cardinal Copia

In 2018, the Emeritus bloodline has run out, and Sister Imperator chooses Cardinal Copia as the next successor. He was the “most senior member” of the Church and was always Nihil’s right hand man. He also has the second most employee of the month awards, so he was a natural fit. He takes the stage as Papa Nihil’s protege and if he proves himself, he’ll earn his skull paint.

He wears the tightest goddamn pants I have EVER SEEN and I die a little when he does the thing

In March of 2020, Papa Nihil passed away while performing his saxophone solo in Miasma, and Copia immediately ascended to the title of Papa Emeritus IV.

(he’ll always be Copia to me tho)

A popular fan theory is that Copia is actually Imperator’s son? Whether or not that is true and whether or not he was Nihil’s son as well remains to be seen. I personally think he’s Imperator’s but not Nihil’s. I think his father is Satan himself.

The Ghouls

Alongside each of the Papas, there are several people in masks who play the instruments. These are the Ghouls and while the band mostly just refers to them as “Nameless Ghouls”, they have distinct enough personalities for the fandom to differentiate them and give them nicknames. Where they are on the stage indicates their ‘element’ (fire, water, earth, air).

Dewdrop

Angy. Stompy. Licky. Has no ass. Plays a white guitar. Will cause problems on purpose.

Aether

Lorge. Pure. Soft. Will jump off nearest high surface. Plays a black guitar. A very good boy��

Rain

Headbanger. Ass-wobbler. Wanders around the stage. Plays a white bass.

Swiss AKA Swiss Army Ghoul

SLUT EXTREME. Plays a lot of instruments/backup vocals, a “multighoul”. Can and will shimmy.

Mountain

Drummer. Plays without shoes. The tallest ghoul. Bang bang bang

The Ghoulettes

Cirrus -- Cute and TALL. Keyboard/Tamborine. Keytar during Mummy Dust.

Cumulus -- THIQUE QUEEN. Tambourine/Keyboard/Backup vocals. Usually makes hearts with her hands.

This has been Madge’s Shit Guide to Ghost. I’m sure I left some shit out, feel free to add on if you’d like.

#the band ghost #Anonymous

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xb-squaredx · 4 years ago

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Please Don’t Sleep on Hades

2020’s…been a real year, huh? At a time when in-person gatherings aren’t much of a thing and people have to stay in, video games are suddenly a pretty attractive option. That said, few games have really grabbed me this year; in a roundabout way, 2020’s been a year of reruns, as I go through a lot of games I’ve already played or games that are just yesterday’s news (but new to me!). However, in the nick of time, the folks at Supergiant Games delivered unto us their latest title, Hades. While they’ve been working on this game for years, with it hitting Early Access on Steam back in 2018, the full version of Hades finally hit Steam, the Epic Game Store and made the leap to consoles with the Switch, which is where I picked it up. It has been a WHILE since I’ve had a game grab me so strongly so early on, and I’ve been hearing this game’s praises for years now already, so allow me to happily state why I think Hades is worthy of the hype and is a fantastic game I’d easily recommend!

DADDY ISSUES

OK, so first things first…you don’t actually play as Hades in this game, but rather his son Zagreus. Ol’ Zag has had it with his father, and tries to literally fight his way out of hell to reach the surface, and no matter what his old man puts in his way, Zagreus (and the player) will meet the challenge. And probably die, but hey, that’s OK! In the underworld, death is more of an inconvenience than anything else, so after taking a moment to dust himself off, Zagreus will head out for another attempt. For as long as it takes.

Hades is a rogue-like, meaning it’s a game based around randomization and adaptation. On any given “run” of the game, the level layouts, enemies present and the variety of power-ups Zagreus can find will be left to chance, with the player challenged to amass the best build they can to eventually break out of hell and reach the human world and if you die…start from scratch. That said, Hades is among the ever-growing sub-genre of rogue-lites, in that there IS some permanent progression, which takes a bit of a sting out of dying, but more on that later. Now, most games of this type aren’t really big on story. They have a premise that’s little more than an excuse to play. Splunkey wants you to explore a cave, The Binding of Isaac sees you escaping a basement and in Enter the Gungeon you uh…e-enter the gun—you get the point! But what separates Hades from most rogue-likes/lites is that there actually IS a very interesting story that unfolds as you play.

There’s more to Zag’s desire to get to the surface than just getting away from his father, though their strained relationship certainly doesn’t help matters, and over the course of your many, MANY escape attempts, players learn of the rather screwed-up nature of Zagreus’ family of deities, though any mythology nut could tell you to expect that. Hades has an incredibly charismatic cast, superb voice acting across the board, and some real sharp writing that really got me wanting to meet anyone and everyone and learn more about this world. You’re likely to run into Hypnos first, who always has a “tip” ready for you when you meet your end to a given enemy or hazard, or the fabled hero Achilles, who acts as a mentor to Zagreus. There’s Dusa, the adorably frazzled flying gorgon head who acts as the House of Hades’ maid, and of course…Megaera, of the Furies.

She serves as the first proper boss in the game, and will be a pretty sizable challenge for most players, but as you eventually overcome her again and again, she and Zagreus end up attempting to reconnect with each other, and her recurring fights become an excuse to flirt and test each other. I may as well say too that it’s easy to fall in love with the characters in this game because…I-I mean, just look at them! This game is a bisexual’s paradise, that’s all I’ll say.

A bit of a fun fact, but Zagreus’ voice actor, Darren Korb, is also a composer at Supergiant, so he’s a man of many talents, since Hades has a killer score. From the laid-back tunes at the House of Hades where you can unwind and recharge after a botched run, to the pulse-pounding boss theme, there’s some GREAT music on display here. And that’s before you meet Orpheus and Eurydice, two characters with amazing singing voices that, if you play your cards right, might start singing together. The game’s visuals, meanwhile, aren’t a slouch either. While the level layouts are randomized, everything manages to look well-crafted, each region of the underworld having their own distinct look and feel. The fiery pits of Asphodel end up juxtaposing well with the paradise that is Elysium. Now, character models are generally less-detailed since the camera stays zoomed out to give players a good view of the action, but the portraits for the various characters more than make up for it with their distinct, detailed designs. A-And I’m not just saying that because everyone’s hot! Now, admittedly you might take a look at Zag and think he’s nothing but an edgelord and the game itself might be taking itself too seriously, but in reality, Hades strikes a pretty good balance, and definitely carries a sense of humor. Characters love to snark at each other, the various Shades chilling in the House of Hades’ lounge have some funny conversations you can listen in on and all told, the game only gets serious when appropriate. Really, I have no real complaints with the game on a presentation level; it’s all aces so far, and thankfully the game-y part follows suit!

LIVE.DIE. REPEAT.

Hades is best described as a dungeon-crawler. You have an isometric view as you move about, avoiding hazards and fighting off enemies as you climb each chamber on your way to the surface. Defeat every enemy in a chamber and get a reward. Sounds simple enough until you factor in all of the various permutations of events; Hades aims to make sure no two runs are alike, with different enemies, power-ups and challenges awaiting you. All of this is doled out slowly, as with each subsequent playthrough you begin to have more of the game unraveled. First and foremost, Zagreus can gain various Boons from the other Olympian Gods, who are sympathetic to his plight and lend him some power if he makes contact with them. Each God has their own twist on the abilities they grant Zagreus. They can all increase his stats in some way, or affect either his dash ability or his Cast, a projectile attack. For Zeus, naturally, all of Zagreus’ moves will gain an electric effect, whereas Artemis focuses more on upping Zag’s critical hit chance. Dionysus, the God of Wine, grants you the “hangover” status effect, allowing your attacks to uh…make enemies drunk? Sure! You’ll be given a random selection of three Boons to pick from, of varying rarities. Over the course of a run, you might try to nab as many Boons from the same God as possible, or vary it up and see which abilities synchronize together. At times, you might even be granted a Duo Boon, where two Gods decide to combine their power for a special ability that plays to both of their strengths. Still, at other times, you might be forced into a Trial of the Gods, where you must choose one God’s Boon over the other, with the snubbed God lashing out afterwards. Hey, just because they’re Gods, doesn’t mean they’re nice. Of course, you’ve also got a variety of health and weapon upgrades too. In fact, let’s gush about the weapons for a second, shall we?

At the time of writing, Hades has six weapons to play with. You start with a sword, which is the all-rounder of the set, but as you gain keys to unlock more weapons, you can start to really experiment. The bow and rail cannon serve as ranged options with different approaches, while the spear is the melee weapon with the best range at the cost of pure power. The shield grants you absolute defense at the cost of range, while the gauntlets let you unleash your fisticuffs on underworld scum, though leave you with limited ranged attacks. Each weapon has specific Boons and weapon upgrades you can find as well, some of which can radically alter how a weapon works. The rail cannon, for example, fires a lot faster than the bow, but this is balanced by needing to manually reload…unless you get a weapon upgrade that gives you unlimited ammo with the only catch being that you can only do burst fire. Adding to this, players eventually unlock hidden Aspects of weapons, morphing them into different forms which can also influence their moveset. Change the shield to the Aspect of Zeus, and when you throw your shield Captain America style, it stays out and continually spins, dealing tons of damage over time and effectively forcing enemies to get sliced to bits if they want to get near you. I didn’t expect this game to have half this many weapons or to have them balanced so well. Really, just like anything else, weapons are another tool you can poke and prod and experiment with until you get a truly killer collection of Boons and upgrades that let you just demolish anything in your way. It’s very satisfying when you finally clear a run with a great build…though depending on the RNG, you WILL get some crummy builds, but that’s the nature of the rogue-like!

It’s likely that a bad build (or really, just getting hit with a new boss or enemy you aren’t prepared for) will lead to a death, but as already established, death isn’t really that much of an inconvenience in the underworld. Zagreus just spawns back at home and is free to immediately try to escape again, but this brief reprieve lets you chat up whoever happens to be around, give them gifts, advance some side-quests, pet your dog Cerberus and practice with weapons and such before you’re ready to go at it again. It’s after a run that you also get to spend a lot of the spoils of your escape attempts. While you lose Boons and weapon upgrades and the like upon death, there’s a LOT of various items you keep with you that have plenty of uses. Darkness shards are used for permanent skills that can be applied to Zagreus, like Death’s Defiance, which grants Zagreus another life upon dying, which can eventually be upgraded to give him THREE extra lives, just as an example. Precious gems can be used to fund a variety of cosmetic changes to the House of Hades. Just because Zagreus doesn’t want to live there anymore, doesn’t mean he can’t at least make it look good! Nectar can be gifted to other characters to improve your relationships with them, with bottles of Ambrosia being required later on, while special keys can be used to unlock weapons, more upgrades for your Darkness shards, or just used as a secondary currency for trade. There’s really a LOT of different items to mess around with, though admittedly if you’re the type to want to max out EVERYTHING you’ll be in it for the long haul, as there is not only a LOT of stuff to upgrade and purchase, but the random nature of things means rewards are never a guarantee. Though it’s worth noting the game’s totally beatable without going nuts with completion. Which I guess leads me to the biggest compliment I can give this game: even after “beating” it, I still can’t stop playing, and there’s plenty of reason to keep going.

REPLAYS AND REWARDS

So, full disclosure, I’ve gotten Zagreus to the surface. Several times, actually. But I haven’t quite “beaten” the game yet. In fact, at the risk of sounding pretentious, it is as if the true game begins after you’ve beaten it once. Without getting into specifics, let’s just say the game gives you a very good in-story reason to keep playing, and you won’t reach credits without several completed runs under your belt. And even then, there’s still stuff to do. I’m almost 30 hours into Hades and I’ve barely scratched the surface honestly. Every major character has their own sidequest you can undergo, but it can be slow goings when it comes to advancing them. Trying out all the weapons and boons and different combinations will easily take dozens of hours to fully experience, though the game has a handy in-game list of what you’ve done and haven’t done, as well as in-game achievements with tangible rewards that will spur you on. I was admittedly surprised at how dense of a game Hades can be. A successful run will likely take you somewhere between a half-hour to an hour, which is pretty devious. Just long enough to stay engaging throughout, and short enough that I can keep convincing myself that I have time for “one more run” and then suddenly several hours have gone by. Strangest thing.

Something that’s become a bit of a staple of Supergiant’s work is customizable difficulty, various modifiers you can flip on to make the game harder if you so desire, which in Hades takes the form of the Pact of Punishment. After a successful run, you can turn on a given pact to spice things up for subsequent runs. Maybe enemies do a bit more damage, or you give yourself a super strict time limit to clear a run. You can give enemies armor that makes them sturdier, or jack up the in-game shop’s prices. You can even be forced to give up Boons in order to advance past certain doors! Probably the most impressive Pact is Extreme Measures, which ends up greatly affecting the boss fights in the game…trust me when I say you won’t be ready for them the first time you flip that on. Activating a given pact increases a “heat gauge” that, should it reach a given level, will end up granting you various special items to help with fully upgrading and unlocking stuff. Of course, with each successful run completed with a given Pact activated, you’ll have to raise the heat more and more in order to keep getting these upgrade materials so be prepared. You can also still gain these materials (albeit at a much slower rate) playing through the game normally though, and there’s really no penalty for choosing NOT to activate a given pact. On the flip side of things, there’s also a God Mode you can toggle on that makes Zagreus a little stronger with each death, which can help those that want to see more of the story but are struggling with the game. Have your God Cake and eat it too!

All and all, this game just delivers on every level and I’ve been devouring it since release whenever I have a spare minute. You can see that Supergiant is taking all the lessons they learned from each previous game and combined it to make what is easily their best game yet. I don’t throw around words like “masterpiece” lightly, but Hades is just such a slam dunk that I’m sorely tempted to call it just that. I mean, if you hate rogue-likes, I’m not sure if Hades will really push you over the edge admittedly? You get way more rewards retained after death than just about any other rogue-like I’ve played, but if you’re the type that hates having to constantly adapt and not being able to memorize what’s coming, I can see this not working for you. But for me at least, I’ve had an absolute blast with the game and the only issue I really have with it is a small nitpick at best. When it comes to getting to know various characters, you can talk to them and give them Nectar or Ambrosia as a gift right? But what happens if they don’t show up on a given run? Or what if they DO show up, but they’re locked into a conversation with someone else? That means you can’t really advance anything with them until a given dice roll pities you. MEGAERA I THINK YOU’RE COOL, PLEASE JUST TALK TO M—oh sorry, don’t know where that came from… So yeah, that’s the nittiest of picks.

I adore this game’s cast, the voice work and music is excellent to the ear, the combat is engaging, the gameplay loop is addicting…need I say more? I mean, I’ve said almost 3000 words, but to really sum it up…I highly recommend Hades and I hope you don’t pass it up if you’re even remotely interested. You can find it on Steam, the Epic store and Switch as of right now, and I don’t think you could go wrong with any version.

Blood and darkness await you.

-B

#Hades #Hades game #supergiant games #hades supergiant #zagreus #megaera #rouge like #nintendo switch #xb-squaredx

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burgeonmeraki · 4 years ago

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My Current Skincare Routine

I believe in investing in your skin because it's going to represent you for a very long time. As much as I love wearing makeup, I’d still wanna look natural on the outside. But I also want to go out in public and not wear that much makeup. That’s why I'm a big believer that if you focus on your skincare, you really won't need a lot of makeup. Skincare is self-care.

Just a background story of my skin lol.

This is me back in High School.

Back when I was in high school (the puberty period), I literally have no problem with my skin. I never had any kind of breakout the whole high school life, and for that, I considered myself lucky. I don’t know if it’s in our genes or what, but I think my irregular period explained why I don't break out? I'm not sure hehe.

But when I stepped into college, that’s when I started having cystic acne, just once every month. I noticed my skin reacts in a different environment than I’m used to. Like when I was in college, I was studying in Manila. Manila is known for its air pollution because of traffic congestion. I have also found out that the water in Manila has chlorine, and I feel like my skin gets irritated, and that causes acne or breakout.

My brother who lives in South Korea sent a lot of skin care products. ca. 2017

I started using skincare products when I was in college, but mostly it's just facial wash, toner, and moisturizer. Then 3 years ago, I started putting serum on my face, a sheet mask or clay mask, and my skin feels so good after. My face feels so hydrated and the product that I used which is Innisfree works for me.

April 2018

RECENT BREAKOUT STORY (2020)

Ever since this pandemic and lockdown happened, I started breaking out. My skin became super oily, I thought maybe it was just the heat because it was summer then. I update my skincare, and nothing seems to work on me. And then I thought, maybe it was a hormonal imbalance, so I started taking pills for two months, still not working. The worst part of it, my pimples are cystic. Before, whenever I get a pimple it was just once every month. But now, when one pimple heals, there's another one comes, and they're mostly on my T-zones, which is the oiliest part of my face. I was so stressed about it, so I decided to see a Dermatologist at Cutis Essentials. Take note: this is my first time seeing and consulting a Dermatologist.

In order for the Doctor to treat me, she asked me a bunch of questions like, what kind of product do I use, she asked about my skin history and family history, and if I am taking some medicines or vitamins, and so on. And from that, I have learned that too much Vitamin E, B6, and B12 can cause acne. I have never taken any kind of vitamins in my whole adult life because I hate drinking medicines, but since there's a virus spreading all over the world, killing millions of people, I started taking it to boost my immune system. She gave me an oral medicine called Doxycycline and Epiduo Gel that dries up my acne. I stopped taking my pills and multivitamins and just stick to Vitamin C. I also stopped using this cleanser St. Ives Apricot Scrub and switch to a more mild facial cleanser. And hurrah, I finally see a good result. My face started clearing up little by little, and the oiliness lessens a bit. All I need to do is to get rid of my dark spots, which takes time.

The thing with doing your skincare routine, you have to stick with it consistently. And I gotta admit, there are days that I'm so lazy to do it and just skip some steps. Like sometimes I just removed my makeup, washed it, then put some toner to clean the excess dirt, then I'm done. That's my slacky routine. Don't do it hehe.

I did a one week sheet mask challenge and my skin feels so good after. I definitely recommend this product that I got from BeautyMnl. It’s called Superfood Coconut Salad Mask Package from the brand Farm Skin. Last pic on the lower right, that’s The Ordinary AHA 30% + BHA 2% Peeling Solution.

youtube

A video of my skincare routine. Sorry if it’s a bit confusing LOL. I’ll make a better video next time hehe.

MY CURRENT SKINCARE ROUTINE & HOW TO LAYER PRODUCTS:

I want to be clear, I am not a dermatologist or esthetician, but this method has worked for me. If your skin is irritated, I recommend hitting the reset button and start from scratch. Try introducing new products one at a time and use it consistently for a few days to see if it's working for you. Also, try to learn more about what your skin needs. Like if you have dry skin, moisturizer and hydrate i every day. If you have an oily skin like me, try to lessen the products that’s very greasy, and don’t use it during the day. Just stick with light moisturizer. It is a little bit of a process and takes time, but once you have it figured out, your skincare routine will be on autopilot, and your skin will look better and better.

Here are the products that I am currently using:

FACIAL CLEANSER

Brand: COSRX

AC Collection Foaming Cleanser

Cosrx is a Korean product. This gentle foam cleanser fights acne. It manages excess oil, without stripping skin of essential moisture. With BHA to exfoliate, lauric acid to provide antibacterial support, and centella ingredients to soothe, this creamy cleanser clears skin while keeping irritation at bay. | I have been using this for 3 months now and the brand works on me. My skin feels so soft after using this.

TONER

Brand: COSRX

AHA/BHA Clarifying Treatment Toner

Formulated with AHA, BHA and purifying botanical ingredients, the AHA/BHA Clarifying Treatment Toner works to soothe, refresh and soften the skin. It is effective for hydrating evening skin tone and texture, and it’s a mild exfoliation. | This toner for me is very gentle and it doesn’t sting and harsh like the other toner that I used before.

MOISTURIZER

Brand: COSRX

AC Collection Light Weight Soothing Moisturizer

This cream moisturizer provides light, non-sticky hydration for acne-prone skin. Made with asiatic acid, niacinamide, and zinc salt, it calms and strengthens skin’s moisture barrier while controlling excess oil. | I love this moisturizer! It’s not greasy so it’s okay to use it during the day because it’s fast-absorbing.

SERUM

Brand: THE ORDINARY

Niacinamide 10% + Zinc 1%

The Ordinary comes from Canada. A high-strength vitamin- and mineral-packed formula to minimize the look of blemishes. Contains a high 10% concentration of niacinamide (vitamin B3); reduces the appearance of spots, marks, and congestion; supported by zinc salt of pyrrolidone carboxylic acid to balance visible aspects of sebum activity. | I’ve heard a lot of good reviews about this product so I tried it, and the brand works for me. It just really takes time to lighten up my dark spots but it works.

EXFOLIATION

Brand: THE ORDINARY

AHA 30% + BHA 2% Peeling Solution

A 10-minute liquid mask treatment that exfoliates to visibly improve skin texture and tone. This product goal is to enhance brightness, even out skin, and decongest pores; exfoliates the topmost epidermal surface; helps fight visible blemishes for improved radiance; reduces the look of fine lines with continued use. | Take note: this peeling solution stings for a few sec, but it’s tolerable. Read the instruction first before using this product. When I first used this, I noticed my skin feels like a glass skin, like it looks healthy. I was expecting my face to peel, but it didn’t. I only use this 2-3x a week or whenever my skin needs it.

PROTECTION

Brand: THE ORDINARY

Vitamin C Suspension 30% in Silicone

Helps reverse multiple signs of skin aging with vitamin C, an effective antioxidant; naturally brightens and refines tone and texture; feels smooth on the skin thanks to very light silicones despite the suspension format of the formulation. | I just recently purchased this and I think it’s a great add for my skincare routine to reduce all the blemishes on my face and fights skin aging because well, I’m not getting any younger anymore. This one is a bit greasy so I only use this in the evening, and it has an off smell but fades away for a few sec.

CLAY MASK

Brand: INNISFREE

Super Volcanic Pore Clay Mask 2X

Innisfree is a Korean product. Features 2x more powerful adherence to sebum for intensive pore care; provides triple exfoliation from encapsulated Jeju volcanic scoria, walnut shell powder, and AHA; enhanced deep cleansing formula removes away fine dust particles, pore-clogging dirt, and dead skin cells; provides powerful sebum-absorbing capacity as it washes away impurities while moisturizing and brightening skin; leaves a cooling sensation when applied that refreshes pores. | I have been using the 1.0 version of this for 3 years, which is the Super Volcanic Pore Clay Mask without 2x. I super love this clay mask because this brighten up my dark spots so fast. I only use this 2-3x a week or whenever my face needs it. I recommend this product.

SHEET MASK

Brand: INNISFREE

My Real Squeeze Mask

These face masks are dew-licious skin treats that target your skin's unique concerns and bump your entire routine up a notch. | So Innisfree has a lot of sheet mask that can be tailored to your skin's daily needs. All I can say that whenever I use this sheet mask, my face feels so hydrated, and fresh. It’s an instant boost for my skin. So every time my face looks so dry and dull, I use this product.

LASH BOOST

Brand: SKIN GENIE

Hair Growth Booster

Skin Genie is a Philippine product. This nourishing clear serum is the answer to fuller brows and lashes. It helps minimize hair loss, prevent breakage, and prime the strands for healthier regrowth. | This product smells so good and I noticed that my lashes became more stronger, longer, and a bit thicker. It will just take times but it works its magic. I put this if I’m about to sleep because the serum goes inside my eyes and kinda sting a little bit.

LIP CARE

Brand: VASELINE

Lip Therapy

A lip-healing jelly with a mouthwatering chocolate fragrance for silky, supple lips. Clinically proven to moisturize chapped lips; instantly softens and soothes dryness and flaking; locks in moisture to help lips recover from discomfort; leaves a healthy, glossy shine; non-sticky formula glides on smoothly. | My lips get dry very easily, and it always turned chapped. Before I go to sleep, I always make sure to put some of this and viola, the next morning my lips feel so soft and hydrated. I used cocoa butter at night, then I use rosy lips during the day whenever I put my makeup on, and they smell so good.

MOISTURIZER

Brand: NATURE REPUBLIC

Aloe Vera 92% Soothing Gel

A hydrating and cooling gel containing 92% pure aloe vera. Gently moisturizes all skin types, including sensitive skin; soothes and refreshes dry, dehydrated, inflamed, and sunburnt areas; firms skin and naturally protects with vitamins C, E, and other minerals; fast-absorbing gel won’t leave a greasy feel; can be used on hair, face, and body as a moisturizer, mask, and/or sleeping pack | I super love this product. I have been using this for more than 2 years now and it does wonder on my skin. I use it on my hair and body too.

ANTI-ACNE GEL

Brand: GALDERMA

Epiduo Gel (Adapalene and Benzoyl Peroxide) 0.1%/2.5%

Epiduo is a prescription medicine used to treat the symptoms of Acne Vulgaris. Epiduo may be used alone or with other medications. Epiduo belongs to a class of drugs called Acne Agents, Topical Combos. | This gel is pricey, and this was prescribed to me by my Dermatologist. I still use this whenever I have acne, and it dries up my acne fast.

ACNE PATCH

Brand: COSRX

Acne Pimple Master Patch

This is the original set of hydrocolloid stickers that comes with three different sizes to spot-correct pimples. It heals intensively overnight, protecting problem areas from infection and brings out deep-rooted blemishes without leaving behind scars. Slap a patch on your breakouts for instant relief away from bacteria. This will stop the insane urge to pick at your skin and pop your pimples. It’s made with A.D.F. hydrocolloid dressing, a unique material that helps extract gunk from stubborn zits and speeds up their life cycle. | I absolutely love this patch. I use this in the evening whenever I have a very bad acne. TIP: I use the Epiduo Gel first, applied it on my acne, and then let it dry first before putting the patch. I promise, the next day your acne heals so fast! But sometimes, if it's cystic, it will take a few try like 2-3 patch every night.

ACNE PATCH

Brand: LUXE ORGANIX

Hydrocolloid Acne Spot Patch Night Time

When patched to acne; it increasingly absorbs the pus and oil to reduce inflammation and fasten the healing process. This brand is from Korea. | This product works well on me too, plus it contains more patches than Cosrx. Cosrx isn't available in most stores here in Bataan, so I have to order it online. I just go to Watson and buy this, which is very convenient for me.

CLEANSER

Soft Silicone Facial Cleansing Brush

Gently scrub your face with this along with the Foaming Cleanser, it is easy to use. It is great for getting rid of dirt and clogged up skin. I noticed that after I wash my face with full on makeup, it get rids all the excess makeup and dirt that you have on your face because whenever I apply my toner, you can’t barely see any dirt. You better get one of this. I got mine from Watson, and it is very affordable.

FACIAL MASSAGE

Brand: BE KIND

Jade Facial Roller + Guasha Set

This beauty tool duo will renew fatigued skin in just a few cooling strokes. Made from 100% authentic jade, each tool is uniquely designed for restorative facial massages. Not only do these tools boost product absorption, they also offer different types of massages. The roller stimulates lymphatic drainage that reduces puffiness, while the gua sha relieves tense facial muscles. When used together, they liven up dull skin for a fresh, well-rested look. | Sadly, I broke my jade roller, but I am getting one soon. Make sure that before you use this tool, put it first on the freezer for a few minutes, and it feels so good, I swear! I used the jade roller whenever I put on my sheet mask. While I used guasha whenever I put on my moisturizer because it glides really well when your skin is moisturize.

OIL CONTROL

Brand: THE FACE SHOP

Oil Blotting Films

Contains 50 silky-soft blotting sheets; made with excellent oil-absorbing 3M film; works to absorb excess sebum; leaves skin looking fresh and grease-free. | I read that if you have oily skin and you're wearing makeup, don't put on another layer of powder just to get rid of the oiliness on your face. Instead, use this oil-blotting film to remove all the oil before retouching your makeup. It's a helpful way not to clog your pores and for your makeup not to look cakey.

More skincare products that works on me but I don’t use it anymore:

MOISTURIZER

Brand: DRUNK ELEPHANT

Protini™ Polypeptide Cream

Protini’s proprietary formula restores younger, revived-looking skin, almostfrom the first application. Lines, wrinkles, and signs of sun damage appearreduced, and skin feels strengthened and moisturized. | I only have the sample bottle of this because this brand is a little expensive but I heard a lot of good reviews on this. It’s a bit thick for my taste, so I make sure to wear this at night and not under my makeup, that’s only if you have oily skin.

SHEET MASK

Brand: FARMSKIN

Superfood Coconut Salad Mask Package

A set of 7 sheet masks that leaves your skin brighter, hydrated, and more youthful. Nourish, moisturize, and illuminate skin with this set of sheet masks formulated with a combination of superfoods and colostrum ingredient. | First time using this product, and so far, it doesn't have any negative reaction on my skin since they used organic ingredients on their products. Farmskin has different kinds of sheet mask packages, and it is tailored depends on your skin's daily needs. This package is for brightening and hydrating my face since I need to get rid of my blemishes and dark spots.

FACIAL OIL

Brand: HERES B2UTY

Tea Tree Oil Serum

A multi-benefit serum that clarifies your complexion. Treats acne and soothes redness and swelling with tea tree oil; enriched with green tea, which contain antioxidant and anti-inflammatory catechins to hydrate and regulate excess oil production; fades spots, eliminates acne scars, and protects against free radicals with chamomile, a powerhouse antioxidant; improves moisture levels as it minimizes the look of fine lines and wrinkles with rose hip oil; alleviates irritation as it tightens skin with antiseptic and anti-inflammatory witch hazel; draws moisture to skin with hyaluronic acid to revitalize skin’s outer layers; plumps, restores, and renews to instantly improve the appearance of fine lines. | When I started using this, I thought it was to prevent me from having acne. This oil doesn't work on my acne though, but it lessens the oiliness on my face. I just don't use it very often because I'm so lazy or sometimes I forgot. LOL

TONER

Brand: ESKINOL

Spotless White Classic Cleanser

Eskinol provides products which are specifically formulated for the Filipina skin. Its range of products is known to effectively solve oily skin problems and pimples. Removes deep-seated dirt, excess oil, and makeup with micro-cleanse anti-bacterial formula. Pure Calamansi extracts known to whiten skin. It has vitamin C derivatives to help lighten dark spots in as early as 1 week for an even skin tone. | This product is classic and very effective that's why until now it's still here, unlike other brands being discontinued in the market. I have been using this since college, but later on this particular calamansi formula is more effective on me, while the other formula doesn't work on me.

BUYING THESE PRODUCT SOON:

PROTECTION

Brand: COSRX

Aloe Soothing Sun Cream SPF50 PA+++

An aloe-infused moisturizing sunscreen for dehydrated skin. Protects skin from ultraviolet rays and other environmental damages with SPF50 PA+++ | I’m reading a lot of good reviews about this product, so I am adding this to my cart now hehe.

EYE CREAM

Brand: NEUTROGENA

Rapid Wrinkle Repair Eye Cream

Help improve the signs of skin aging with Neutrogena Rapid Wrinkle Repair Eye Cream. Specially formulated for the delicate eye area, the fast-acting retinol cream helps fade the look of stubborn crow's feet, brightens and evens skin tone in the under-eye area, helps smooth fine lines and texture, and reduces the look of dark circles. This clinically proven retinol formula works quickly with visible results in just one week. | It says that this is the best eye cream for 2020 so let’s see if it’s going to work on my eyes hehe.

Whew! That was a lot of information. I hope you find this helpful and give your skin the love it deserves. If you have any questions or suggestion please don’t be afraid to say it to me. Til next time!

Love Lots, Jamie ♡

#beauty #skincare

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globalpattern · 5 years ago

Text

Interview with From Tokyo to Honolulu

bandcamp | twitter | soundcloud

1. Hey! Tell us how the project was born, what inspired at the beginning, what inspires now?

hi! to begin with, I encountered vaporwave only in 2015. honestly, I don’t already remember how it happened, but judging by last.fm I was mostly listening to sovietwave back then and somehow, in an unknown way, I got into a vapor. after a year of listening, one day I thought, why not to try to do something myself because everything is built on samples. I was inspired at that time by t e l e p a t h, I didn’t get my hands on listening to his full discography for a long time (which I regretted later, but now I regret that listened to everything he did hundreds of times). and so, i had to start with artist name and wanted something simple and at the same time unusual (without any unnecessary symbols), so this kind of topic of air flights came to my mind and without thinking twice, I opened the map, and then the first thing happened was Tokyo - Honolulu, that's all.

the first albums were made in Audacity, I don’t know why I chose it, I probably wasn’t going to do this like professionally but just for fun, just to try it for myself. and this audacity was terrible because cutting tracks there was just hellish! perhaps it could have been easier, but I did not understand it and at that moment I just proceeded. now it's funny to think of – the first 12 (!?) “albums” were made that way. but then it got even better, I switched to FL Studio... DEMO, and for a year I did all the tracks on the go because it was impossible to save the projects :) and only at the end of 2018 managed to buy the full version and get my hands on it. honestly, now almost nothing inspires me to continue this project, because I'm tired of sampling and I'm planning (in fact, already doing) my own original music without samples.

2. So is it true that vaporwave is dead? If you abandon the samples and make original music, then will it be something else? Or is it still vapor for you?

I believe that the sampled vapor is almost dead, but the thing is how to approach this. you can’t just slow down and pitch the tracks for a long time and assume that you are doing vaporwave (though I’m still doing this (just kidding)). you can also do something unique [with samples], but I don’t really know how to do this, so, as I said above, I decided to switch to the non-sampled project. but it will still be under the tag of the vaporware anyway because even if I tried to leave it, it always overtakes me :) vaporwave has recently become an independent genre and therefore you can refuse samples and still make vapor, despite his PAST.

3. By the way, about the past - recently 100% Electronicon happened, after which there were talks about the beginning of a new era in the genre, that now it exists not only on the Internet, but also IRL, which makes vaporwave kind of “more real". What do you think, in order to be a successful artist, is it necessary to play concerts? Would you like to do your stuff live sometime?

I think the opposite is true. first you need to have at least some listeners to give a concert for, heh. and then success will come. honestly, I can’t imagine how anyone can immediately reach this — take t e l e p a t h — as far as I know, it was one of his first shows, so here is a simple example. as for myself, I would like to for sure, but so far I have nothing to play *laughs*

4. For your music, which applications do you see, if not concerts & tours? Take Fantasy Labirynth – I think it could be a nice soundtrack for a game or some adventure film! What kind of game would you like to score?

I never thought about this, but if you fly from Tokyo to Honolulu, be sure to turn on some of my music! in general, yes, I could do something like that. but given that the Fantasy Labirynth samples were taken from games, then the game must be assembled from different games, huh.

5. And which, say, three albums (no matter vapor or not) would you take with you on such a long flight? In general, what kind of music do you listen to besides what your "profession" presumes?

I'd take the entire discography of 仮想夢プラザ, it’s ideal for trips in general, I always listen and will listen to it. in fact, that would be enough! also I’ve been listening to Boards of Canada since childhood, I’m waiting and hoping that someday a new album will be released. by the way, about them – guess I can say that they invented vaporwave, as well as Aphex Twin and Autechre maybe, this is the first thing that comes to mind, probably because at the moment I'm listening to them too. in general, I can listen to anything, but I need a mood for it, and sometimes I just need to find it first :)

6. As for the mood, is it important for you in which mood you make music? Or is the music who sets the right state when you start playing?

generally I do all things only by mood. if something is wrong, I can’t do the thing and music is no exception. one day you can sit for a long time without getting anything - in such case, I immediately go outside and switch to something else - and the next day it can just go perfectly. and later, if everything goes as it should, then the music will set the subsequent mood already.

7. Since you are saying that you’re going to close the project and make original compositions, will you share some plans for the future? What is the fate of FTTH and what to expect from the new project?

FTTH lives on while cassettes are released, there are plans for several more new albums on physical media and subsequent reissues of the old albums. my goal here is to release as many albums on the cassettes as possible so that way it actually lives. I planned to close it a long time ago because the motivation was gone, there was a feeling that I was doing something for an unknown reason, not really knowing for who and why. but managed, so to speak, to "get hyped" a little. and about the new project, I don’t know what will happen tomorrow, because the idea came like today and the whole project literally changed, so we'll see :)

8. Do you collect cassettes or vinyl yourself? Do you think this is more connected with nostalgia and vapor or is it important for any genre of music to be on some non-virtual medium?

I used to have cassettes in “childhood”. I remember Gorillaz track recorded from the radio, I loved listening to it. but then they were all thrown away. recently began to collect cassettes again, but so far they are more of my own albums, but there are several which I purchased. at first, I was skeptical about this, but now they give me pleasure, listening online or on the media is a completely different experience – you can also feel it, touch it (xD), in general, it’s dope! but since I like to listen to them, and not watch and dust them off, I haven’t got any vinyl yet because got no player for it. perhaps the time will come. yes, as I said above, it is important for any music to be on such a medium, I recently saw an article that recently people began to acquire way more music on PHYSICAL MEDIA.

9. In your opinion, anonymity is an important part of vaporwave aesthetics? Or is it a matter of samples/copyright? Are you planning to keep anonymity with the new project too?

well, judging by the Electronicon, only one artist retained anonymity, which means that he wants to have such style. therefore, I do not think this is an important component. if we talk about live performances, then no, I’m not going to hide my face from anyone.

10. Do you think Russia will ever have its own vapor festival? Who would be the headliners?

I think everything is possible, but the problem is that there are just few performers, as well as the listeners, I don’t know anyone IRL, who even heard what it is, vaporwave! gather me all the russian performers and listeners in one place and then I will say. of the performers I know, just a few are doing really good stuff. so we get 5 people maximum, I don’t even know the rest. I’m sure you know better :)

11. Do you have a dream album that you would like to make? Or a project, or a global dream in general, which you'd like to achieve someday?

of course, I would like to do something that would become mainstream, but you never know how everything goes. usually, if you look into history, what is not recognized at one time, becomes something significant in the future, so I won’t know now. and the authors themselves often do not recognize something of their creations, so it seems to me that it always has been and will be that way :) in general, I am not a dreamer, I try not to abuse this so that these dreams don’t fall apart.

September 14, 2019

▼ https://globalpattern.bandcamp.com ▲

#from tokyo to honolulu #global pattern #slushwave vaporwave ambient cassette

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putschki1969 · 6 years ago

Photo

Takanori Nishikawa no Bokura no Ongaku ~ Wakana Cut

Huge THANK YOU to @ mowskyuu for providing a link.

Get it here 〈(•ˇ‿ˇ•)-→ CLICK ME

First we have a talk session with Takanori Nishikawa, Satoshi Takebe and Wakana. Takanori Nishikawa says he is a huge fan of Satoshi Takebe and then he talks about how it has been quite a while since he has last seen Wakana. Apparently Kalafina and him took part in some events together. Can’t really remember though. Takanori Nishikawa knows a lot about Wakana’s past music career, he surprises Wakana by talking about her solo FictionJunction WAKANA songs. Then Wakana explains how it was a strange feeling to have a solo debut but she got a lot of support by various composers (including Takebe who she has known properly since March 2018, they met each other before on a Music Fair episode tho). Then Takebe explains a little more how he has been collaborating with Wakana ever since. He has been in charge of her live productions and he will also produce future lives. Nishikawa notes that Takebe has been responsible for many great debuts in the past so it’s a good thing he is also involved in Wakana’s solo debut. He is apparently really helpful in finding yourself, in finding your own style. Wakana is greatful he is by her side because there are still so many things she doesn’t know (about herself and what she wants). Nishikawa is super surprised to hear that this was Wakana’s first time write lyrics.

「翼/Tsubasa」

Vocal wise I think that this performance far exceeds the one from the single. It doesn’t feel as rushed, there is less nervousness. There is more strength and gravitas in Wakana’s voice. Her low notes are neat and there are a few more gritty parts where she does that growling thing with her voice. I LOVE IT!

Then we have some more talking. Takebe explains how he wanted Wakana to have a chance at expressing herself as a solo artist. That’s why he felt like it was necessary for her to write the lyrics herself. Wakana should be able to make the songs her own. Wakana talks about how she is constantly discovering new things about herself and how she is rediscovering the joy of music. She wants people to see that she loves singing. Nishikawa says her joy really comes across. So far the image of Kalafina has always been super fierce and now she comes across as a little more “friendly” and such.

「時を越える夜に/Toki wo Koeru Yoru ni」

This is a bit shaky compared to the studio version (could be written off to the studo acoustics tho) but there is a LOT more emotion in her singing so I don’t really mind. Her singing style is slightly different to the one she used for the recording. A bit more fragile I guess but not necessarily in a bad way. Anyways, just look at all her expressions. Seeing her perform this song live is amazing, you can clearly tell that the song means a lot to her. The bridge and the final chorus literally killed me. All the feels!! ｡：ﾟ(｡ﾉω＼｡)ﾟ･｡

Takebe praises Wakana’s voice and says that he really loves working with her. As diehard Takebe-fan Nishikawa seem to be quite jealous that Takebe holds Wakana in such high regard. XD They talk about how Wakana’s debut is a new step in her life, a new anniversary, a sort of birthday. Then there is a smooth transition where they celebrate Satoshi Takebe’s birthday. Nishikawa wonders if it’s okay to ask his age, he guesses for guys it’s fine. Takebe replies that he turned 62 and Wakana is like, “WOW! Sugoi!” They then talk about the TM Revolution song Wakana chose to cover. She says that she loves it, it really touches her heart but it’s very difficult to sing. She had a hard time choosing between Winter Dust and Kaze no Yukue. Takanori Nishikawa is very flattered to hear Wakana praise his songs.

「雪幻/Winter Dust」

I don’t know the original but I love Wakana’s rendition. I actually got goosebumps during some of the chorus lines, they really struck my heart.

#kalafina #wakana #video #bokura no ongaku #toki wo koeru yoru ni #tsubasa #winter dust

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eurosong · 6 years ago

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Undo my ESC - 2019, SF1

Hello there, folks, and welcome to the first part of Undo my ESC, where I take a look at the field this year and, for each country, make a feasible change – as small as, for example, minor tinkerings with the staging, or as big as a different song completely winning a national final. It’s all light-hearted and just my opinion, of course. Allons-y... Cyprus: We start off completely in the deep end. I loathe “Fuego”, and this repackaged Fue2.0 is no better and is indeed perhaps worse to me given that I hate desperate attempts to catch lightning in the same jar. I also find Tamta a very unsympathetic character. I don’t know what I’d do to improve this, other than replace the internal selection with a national final with some songs actually in Greek and with local character. Montenegro: Things do not improve... but at least the solution is easier! Montenegro had a decent national final in which literally any other song would have been a better choice. I particularly liked “Nevinost”, and so did the unfortunately out-voted expert jury, so would be tempted to give D mol’s ticket to Tel Aviv to its artist, Ivana Popović, instead. I do find D mol to be sweet kids though, so the other part of me would be sad to rob them of their time in the limelight and would instead have taken the 90s throwback and bizarre random background sound elements out of their song, replaced the score with one that emphasised the traditional musical elements, and kept the lyrics in Montenegrin.

Finland: Three strikes and I am almost out. I really struggle with the new UMK format – I understand the logic behind it, just as I did when it was a thing in the UK in the early 90s, but I think it only really works if an artist has a wide-ranging repertoire. If not, then you end up with 3 samey songs that only appeal to people who like the music styles that artist makes. I’m not an EDM fan and I would have taken the relative flop of Saara Aalto last year as indication to return to a multi-artist UMK. Plenty of artists from previous years who could be worth a spot in one such.

Poland: I was disappointed by the disappearance of Poland’s national final, but I can’t say I was too surprised after a few underperforming years. I have to commend the Polish broadcasters for going for something popular within their own country, without being overly preöccupied as to how it would play outwith their borders. Pali się is one of those entries that I don’t like much but which I respect. My changes would be to remove the pointless English intro and outro, which, if one were not paying attention, one might not notice actually being in English. I’d also try to make the song a little less linear, as the song feels mostly confined to one pace.

Slovenia: Finally, we come to a country where I can change next to nothing. Many people I know were disappointed that “Kaos” was not elected as the Slovenes’ song. Whilst I found it an earworm, I really didn’t like her haughty, “I’m only in EMA to promote my new disc” attitude – and I really preferred the delectable, contemplative and intimate “Sebi.” It’s pure elegance in simplicity, and I wouldn’t need to change a thing.

Czechia: I appreciate the Czechs’ creätive way of bypassing the expenses of a traditional national final – whilst still giving fans a choice – by holding their selection online. Really cute this year was the way they tried to equalise differences in funding by making the candidates’ official video be a low-budget affair filmed in their flats. I liked quite a few songs of their selection, with the eventual winner, “Friend of a friend”, middle of my rankings. I would, of course, opt for my #1 of the NF to win instead, the delightful slice of “Bohemiana del Rey” style that was “True Colours.”

Hungary: Hungary’s A Dal has the cachet to attract a number of returning artists, so it was not surprising that, eventually, it would be won by someone who’d triumphed before – and I’m delighted it was Joci Papái, one of the biggest revelations of the Hungarian NFs for me. Yet, as is often the case with folk coming back to take a second bite of the cherry, the sophomore effort comes short of the first – “Az én apám” is lovely, touching, but lacks the bite and edge that “Origo” had. I might have JP come second and hopefully return for a second victory in 2020/1 with something a bit stronger, and send in his place the soaring but melancholic “Madár, repülj”.

Belarus: Life is too short to do some things, and whilst I try to listen to pretty much every national final song, one of the things life is too short for is intensively following the Belarusian national finals with their hundred-odd auditions. I saw a few, though, and they were a rum lot. Musically, Aura’s touching “Čaravala” was probably the best of those I heard – but was also strangely won over by the unpretentious, fun ode to tubers that was “Potato, aka Buľba” and depending on my mood, I might give it the nod either.

Serbia: Beovizija had a great lineüp yet again, and there were a number of songs I would have been happy to have gotten the win, including the eventual winner, but also those of Saška Janks, Extra Nena and Ivana Vladović. The latter’s beautiful “Moja bol”, with strings to die for, was my favourite on the night, but in retrospect, I’m not sure I’d replace the equally stunning “Kruna.” I’d be tempted to send it in its acoustic version though, where Nevena’s lovely voice stands out even better.

Belgium: Ô, Belgium. I adored “City Lights”, and so my expectations were really high. This is nice enough, but a bit beige, and doesn’t quite deliver, especially the way the enjoyably tense verses lead to an anticlimactically limp chorus. I’d change that with something that actually feels like a pay off to the verses and the Walloons would have a better shot of shining again.

Georgia: I have to say that, once again, I find myself being one of the few people I know who has some love for Georgia. Whilst it wasn’t truly my cup of tea, I appreciated and enjoyed Iriao’s song last year on some level, and the same is true of Oto’s – he has a powerful voice and it’s a strong, if rather unsettling song. I think, though, that I prefer the darkly ethereal Sevdisperi zgva, which sounds like what I imagine would result if Björk were tasked to write a Bond tune.

Australia: After a few years of rumours, Oz finally jumped on the national final train, and, credit where it is due, it was one of the most intriguing national finals of the year. It was as if SBS had decided to atone for its aggressively MOR pop picks of previous years by actually showcasing some musical diversity. Unlike a lot of folk, I don’t dislike “Zero gravity” – it has a meaningful lyrical background and some quirky charm. But there’s no question about whether I would replace it and with what. I still get chills every time I listen to “2000 and Whatever” – the sheer, irrepressible burst of positive energy and the power of its “kulila miranyi” still give me goosebumps. Damn straight one of the best song of the entire year.

Iceland: Given the amount of hype Hatari have received – and how fans flooded videos of its competitors with comments about how they shouldn’t “fuck up” by picking them instead – I may be one of the very few who would change the result there. Yet, I almost definitely would, even though I typically like lesser-heard genres at Eurovision and like the heavier, industrial musical style. And yet, I find this quite trying. It seems like a very knowing, art school student pastiche and I’m not here for their “above the contest” feel or the BDSM gimmickry. I’d be tempted to replace this with the low-key but lovely “Hvað ef ég get ekki elska��”, or to at least pare back the OTT disdainful irony.

Estonia: It feels almost like another era when I was a firm exponent of the idea of Eesti being Beesti. Three years of immense disappointments will quench that type of fire. Whilst leaving behind the stunning Spirit Animal in 2017 and opting for a generic poperatic vocal exercise in 2018 were excruciating, this might be the biggest let down yet – a land of so many talented musicians having to rely on an Avicii pastiche sang with no small difficulty by a reedy-voiced Swede. I found Eesti Laul very slim pickings this year, and found the other two frontrunners to be rather bland too – even the delightful Sandra Nurmsalu came with a tune that, whilst pleasant, sounded less nomadic epic and more toilet tissue commercial backing track. I would have gone for Kadiah’s delicate “Believe” as my pick instead.

Portugal: FdC was once again one of the best national finals, and the one for whose result I was perhaps most anxious. There were a few songs I really liked, like “Pugna”, “Mais brilhante...” and “Inércia”, but when the dust settled, there was only one song I wanted to see winning – “Telemóveis,” of course, which I was delighted to see prevail. I have some real worries about the bizarre staging distracting from the message and emotional power of the song, though. There’s so much going on, and it might be enough to push people from being entranced to being weirded out. I’d get rid of the spoons, sort out the clothes and try to make things impressive without being so extra.

Greece: I actually really like Greece this year, even if I’m still pissed off at what they did to “Don’t forget the sun” in their dubiously axed national final last year. Her voice is beautiful, the music is uplifting and anthemic, the æsthetic is curious and a bit culty, but at least memorable. The one thing I don’t like? The lyrics, which sound like a bunch of motivational Instagram quote clichés loosely knitted together. Sing something actually meaningful, preferably in Greek.

San Marino: Lord, I’m not going to start because if I do, I shan’t stop. All I’ll say is that San Marino’s “troll nation” status is wearing thin for me. Unbelievably, hundreds of talented people came out in numbers last year willing to represent them, and yet they went with a song written supposedly in 5 minutes but probably in half that. I’d have invited Sara de Blue back instead to make up for the bizarre fiasco that was last year’s 1in360. And the automatic qualifiers:

France: If France’s national delegation aren’t rethinking their voting system after this year, then they ought to be. It’s the opposite of Sweden, where the juries really have the power and the televote is scattered – all you need is a frenzied following to overturn a low jury placement. I liked a great number of Destination Eurovision’s selection this year. I would have taken pretty much ány single one of them over the snivelling, bombastic, self-aggrandising drivel that is Roi. With regards to what to send in its place, I’m torn between the powerful “Là haut”; the adorably, quintessentially French “Allez leur dire”; or the energetic, indefatigable earworm that was “On cherche encore”.

Israel: Boy howdy, Israel sure want to do their level best to avoid fluking a 1979 and winning on home ground, eh? I heard there were many big names who sent songs in, though I’m unsure if any of them would have helped to make the stormy Kobi seem more sympathetic. I think I would have opted to let Ketreyah perform for the hosts instead.

Spain: After a great national final last year, I was really disappointed with the subpar quality of the so-called eurotemazos which were anything but. Miki’s song was the best of a bad lot and at least he didn’t have the hideously negative attitude some of the other people, who seemed surprised and aghast that the winner of a contest related to Eurovision could end up performing there. I’d try to give Miki a song that matched his energy with at least a bit more lyrical depth.

Join me in some days when I evaluate what I would change with SF2!

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dcwastelands · 5 years ago

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Throwback Theurgist Event - Jan 1, 2018

Eevelion: It was roughly noon as the crowd finished gathering in the meeting hall a tall sharply dressed scientist stepped up to the podium, adjusting his tie and glasses before straightening a stack of papers in his hands, clearing his throat, and adjusting his glasses again before addressing the crowd “Alright, is this all the attendants? Mediocre turnout, but sufficable. Anyway, onto business, at eleven-hundred hours this morning a ghost was found to have escaped lab containment, on checking the surveillance cameras, the closest time we can point to it having escaped was around ten-hundred hours. Now on-” As they were about to continue another scientist, this one smaller and significantly more energetic than their stick-in-the-mud colleague, ran up to their side and started pushing him away from the podium “Shoo, you weren't supposed to be handling this briefing, the effects still haven't worn off.” The male scientist was somewhat resistant at first but relented shortly after, yelling back at the admin as he head off into a back room “I'll be telling HR about this!”As the admin took her place at the podium she pat some dust off her coat and gave a sigh before continuing “Okay, sorry about that, okay let's see, he gave the times, well, military time, It was found to have escaped at 11-o-clock and the cameras said it got out at 10-o-clock, just so we're clear.” She gave an inquisitive look at the papers the other scientist left on the podium before wadding them up and tossing them at a nearby trash basket “Anyway, so what you saw with that guy was kind of one of the effects of the ghost we're looking for, got him while it was on its way out, I'll explain that in more detail later. So, this ghost, Throwback Theurgist is what someone in the labs named it, firstly, it can disguise itself as any sort of appliance, phones, laundry machines, radios, only problem with that disguise is that it always looks like a really outdated version of that thing, like, it could be a landline, a washing board, or a walkman respectively, that's kind of how it escaped, someone didn't notice one of those 1980's brick phones at the checkpoint. Okay, second power, it's got this tongue, usually hidden under a grille or something on whatever it's disguised as, any appliance it licks with that tongue turns into an outdated version of itself, so pretty much the same thing as its disguise ability but applied to other things.” She stopped to take a breath before continuing the briefing“Finally, last power, it's what you saw with that guy and is kind of the hardest part to explain, when people get licked by the ghost, it turns them into sort of like, a flatter version of themselves, like, they're not uhhh, fully developed as people, using our example, as you saw, he was a very boring straightlace scientist, well, last week he was balancing a hoagie on his nose among other things. Anyway, using what we know of the ghost, it's likely still in the city, probably hiding in some appliance store, we want you all to make your best effort to recapture it, it's probably one of the least destructive ghosts we have down there, so we're not authorizing you to destroy it, but feel free to rough it up a bit if it'll make capture easier. Just remember if you notice any super obsolete equipment in a store or something, that's probably where it's hiding and to keep any grilles or the like pointed away from you, if its tongue touches you this mission will be harder on everyone. There is both digital and analog ghost capture gear available for you all in the lockers, use whatever you feel will work best for you.” With her briefing concluded she head the same direction her afflicted colleague went, mumbling to herself “Stupid papers didn't even have anything written on them.”

EverSoNitro: Mous crossed her arms as she listened to the briefing, quirking an eyebrow as the first scientist was shooed off the stage. From the sound of things, this didn't seem like an especially destructive ghost, so at least PR didn't have to worry about having a lot to cover up when this was all done with. So long as her colleagues weren't running around like a bunch of lunatics, at least. But hey, this promised to be a good excuse to get out from behind her desk. She'd have to keep her phone on her though, in case her favorite radio station got wind of things while they were trying to take care of it.

Dezzy: Pendant eyed around the room with hidden caution. She would try to get to the ghost first before anyone took advantage of freedom to rough up the ghost. Poor little thing is genuinely harmless… And if Pendant could capture it first they could have it lick and transform her appliances into vintage aesthetic. A colorless TV, VCR, tapes, phone and the such would sure do nicely to gothen up her cove. She simply gave a nod at the end of meeting, striding over to Mous since she seemed one of the more reliable attendees. “Might be a good idea to search in pairs, or something, to catch Throwback,whatever.” Her tone was tonless and nonchalant, ready to get down to buisness but also with an air of dismisal.

Gigi: Ascot leaned back in her chair, arms behind her head. She let out a tiny smirk, what kind of silly prank was this? It'd be a break from the normal shenanigans in her department at least so, whatever. Being roped into stuff pertaining to research was always weird, but....apparently they needed crowd control, or something.Why couldn't they get their own succubus for this, anyway? "Hey, question," she raised her voice a bit, otherwise unmoving. "What if we're dumber than a box of rocks and don't know exactly what model of ipod from 2069 we're looking for, anyway? People are all about going retro these days, maybe it's a new Nebula s420 or something I didn't hear anything about."

Proph: Peasant Top picked his teeth with a small knife, scoffing to himself as the ghost's list of "powers" was rattled off. "I thought we'd have literal walking cannons or somethin' by now." Regardless, he was trained as a frontliner, so odd jobs like this are par from the course. Listening to Ascot's question, he was glad all he carried on him was the aforementioned wittling blade. What can that downgrade to, raw steel?

Eevelion: Admin stopped short of leaving the room to turn to Ascot “Well, Throwback seems to only be able to disguise as and turn things into versions pre-year 2000, so it definitely won't be disguised as a smartphone at all, please use your best judgment and try not to break someone's nose to get their Blackberry or whatever.” she'd also turn to Peasant Top “The walking cannons are in a different section of research, please don't underestimate the diversity of our projects.”

Proph: "'s'fair." was his reply. Let's be fair, we all know who would issue walking cannons, or at least watch them get made, and the last thing PT wants to do is cross that amazon in ANY way. Self preservation at its finest.

EverSoNitro: Mous glanced to Pendant and nodded. "Indeed. Having a few smaller groups would help us keep a low profile out in public, I imagine a large swarm of us roving around would raise suspicion." Of course, as Ascot spoke up, she couldn't help but give out a little scoff. "Well, fortunately for those less observant among us, the... let's say more experienced and worldly among us should have an eye for such minor details, like myself, for instance. If you're not sure about something, I'd be happy to help you identify a "genuine article" from a vintage reproduction."

Gigi: She gave Mous a look that seemed just as boredly acerbic as her voice. "I'm pretty sure I can tell a gramophone from a record player, grandma."

HappyPaca: She-la was just comming out of a repair shop after getting her bike a good old fashion tune up from one of the only repair shops in city tht would take her old clunker. But it was her old clunker and she love it. doesn't matter how old her bike gets it's still running like a dream to her. She didn't have much planned for that day so for a moment she pulled over and parked to take a drink of water and take out her phone to see if there was anything going on today.

Dezzy: Pendant knew she had picked the perfect partner for today, vintage mood board post on tumblr here she come. She was going to get sooooo many followers after this. “The mall might be a good hotspot to check out. Plenty of tech like phones, tvs, kiddy video games a plenty for it mess with and junk.” Pendant could already imagine the tears on some 10 year olds face as their precious game console turned into gameboy classic.

EverSoNitro: Mous huffed a bit at Ascot's reply, particularly the "grandma" comment. "Well, if you discover you can't, I'll be here to assist." She nodded to Pendant. "Good thinking. And, if it does happen to be there, it shouldn't be too hard to keep it contained until we capture it."

Proph: "You always bicker like this?" Peasant Top snipes as he stood into a groaning stretch. "I know you're a bit eccentric like any celebrity, but do you even HAVE a limit?" He starts to lumber off in search of anything pre-pre Fall looking. Hopefully he remembers that capture gear? No? Yes? Maybe?

Gigi: Ascot rolled her eyes at Peasant Top's departure, good luck setting out on your own, dude. ��She propelled herself into an elbows-on-knees position, looking at the others. "You two have a point though with the malls. Does anyone think more than one location is likely? Do we know anything about behavior patterns that would suggest other locations?"

Dezzy: “Car and motor dealerships might be worth checking out as well. Electronic warehouse stores too.” Ew capture work how troublesome Falda thought to herself, rounding out the edges of her nails with a file. But it couldn't be helped she guessed having rejoined HQ a few months ago. Even it seemed like grunt work given her rank with them it was fitting. She gave a small huff, slipping the file away into a pocket.

EverSoNitro: Mous squinted a bit at Peasant Top, opening her mouth to defend her bit of cattynes, but decided to drop the subject, for the sake of keeping things running smoothly. Collecting up her own capture gear, she shrugged a bit. "That would be a question for Research personel. Though that does raise the question, will someone be on-hand to assist?"

Eevelion: Throwback was enjoying its current freedom, walking down the park disguised as a heating iron as its synthetic brain replayed the objects it had devolved so far, a block back it turned a really nice stove into its cast iron counterpart and a fridge into an old icebox, while crossing the street it turned a food truck into a hot dog cart, luckily the guy was out for a smoke break and didn't get crushed when the truck compacted, that would have been grotesque. As more memories of things it recently changed played through whatever would be analogous to its head it noticed a Harley motorcycle, and its presumed owner distracted, scurrying up next to the metal beast it extended its tongue out of one of the holes in the grille of the heating iron, making a faint “Rerorerorero” sound as it licked the Harley, quickly turning it into a Penny-farthing bicycle. Not wanting to be on the receiving end of its owners wrath, Throwback waddled off, there seemed to be a neat looking mall just a block down it was interested in.

HappyPaca: Pin fixed his shirt collar some what aloof to all that was going on, he was suppose to be over seeing preparations at his restaurant that day but had to put this meeting first. "sigh, i suppose i should go check on my business to make sure the kitchen hasn't been converted to the point my sues chefs have no idea how to use the equipment" he stood up. An looked to Falada "care to look with me mon cheri?" he offered hoping to make the day more barible with a search partner.

Eevelion: When Mous asked about on-hand assistance she suddenly received a call on her phone, when she would answer it a voice on the other side would ask “Waddup, pimp?” Robe chuckled from a chair behind where Mous' group was standing, one leg crossed over the other.

Gigi: "Oh great, a baby is babysitting instead of me. Perfect," Ascot went over to grab some gear herself. Frankly she didn't care who was supervising, as long as she didnt have to do it. Fuck if she knew what she was doing with research business. She knew how to do cop stuff, and that was about it.

HappyPaca: She-la felt her self being raised up as Cyclone was converted into something she has only seen once in a cartoon she autibly gasped and yelled "WHAT THE FUCK?!" as the bike tipped over and she fell harshly onto the side walk not knowing how to keep her balance on the damn thing. if she wasn't wearing her Riding suit it would have been a much nastier fall. "What happen to my bike!?" after recovering quickly as she could from the fall, she stood up and looked at it up and down trying to fathom what happen to cyclone.

Dezzy: With impeccable timing Lessy pulled up to the repair shop and spotted She-la, giving her a honk with her car’s horn, “ Hey, Ghost Rider!” Once she noticed the… just what the hell was that? Lessy scoffed in uncontrollable laughter, covering their painful smile with a gloved hand. “ HAHA, What the fuck? I didnt think your ride couldnt get any shittier than before but DAMN did you prove me wrong!”

EverSoNitro: Mous quirked an eyebrow as her phone began to ring, though as she answered it and heard the voice, she sighed a bit, hanging up as she turned to Robe in person. "Alright, well, if that's everything then, I can drive us all to the mall." Mous's own Aston Martin was in the shop, and so her current vehicle of choice was a bit more cartoonish, and oddly appropriate given the circumstances. She'd taken her reproduction Mystery Machine out of storage.

Eevelion: Robe looked at her phone with an annoyed expression as she was hung up on “Wow, she hung up on me, that's crazy rude.” She'd announce loud enough the group could hear her before actually addressing the group “So yeah, I'm not going, but if you need to know something you can call me, I helped with Throwback once or twice. They're alright.” After that she'd wave them off.

Dezzy: Pin’s familiar face brightened Falda up if only just a little bit, “Oui, but i’m not sure if the restaurant is the best place to start for this mission, don’t you agree? What with the heavy preference for electronics for its meals,” she gave his shoulder a soft pat with rub. “Not that your menu isnt delicious enough, I assure you. Maybe the car dealership would be fruitful with electric cars and the such.” plus, she just really wanted to check out some sweet lambos. "Shotgun," Pendant announed after the phone call.

Gigi: Ascot let out an exasperated scoff, letting her head tilt lamely onto her spine. "Seriously? I hope you all aren't expecting me to actually know what the fuck I'm doing." She absently grabbed for a capture set, regrouping to the others. "I already don't have hope for whipped-cream-for-brains here."

Eevelion: Robe sent out a tweet about the rudeness of some people then checked the rest of her timeline before thinking to herself, she was bored, “I'm going to the mall.” She'd announce to no one in particular.

HappyPaca: Pin smiled glad to see he could brighten up her day abit with a simple gesture. "As usual your right, i supose my staff isn't entirely hopeless if a problem arose." and besides it thing should be alot easier to spot in an open are if they cn find it that is. Pine grabbed some equiptment being sure to be ready to go when ever. "would you like to ride with them or take my car and we follow?" he gestured to Mou's forming group.

Proph: While everyone else was smart and paired up, Peasant Top just walked the sidewalks of the city alone. Destroying a kebab, his lone wolf tactics (accidentally?)bore some fruit, finding some poor joe bawling over a vintage hotdog cart. With over half the kebab left, he kept following the trail of nostalgia while looking for a ride.

Dezzy: With the inclusion of Ascot, Pendant’s team could split up an search various stores in the mall. “Right, so, with Ass here we can search the Phone, Game, and electronic stores at the malle no problem. I call dibs on checking out the cells.”

HappyPaca: She-la was on the phone calling the repair guy she just went too "And your SURE this isn't some god damn joke your pulling on me? then how does a Harly davison turn into a damn 1900 bicycle?!" she was confussed and alittle embarissed rubbing her temple.

EverSoNitro: Mous huffed again, grimacing at Ascot. "I hope you're not just using ignorance as an excuse to not help." Mous replied, before motioning for her own squad to follow her to the psychedelic van. "We'll head for the mall first, perhaps pick up Peasant along the way if we see him." Rounding to the driver's side, she climbed in, waiting for the others to join her.

Gigi: She followed along, putting her hands up a bit. "Nah, I'm just letting you guys know I'm not research, I catch things but this is a little different than what I usually do." She opened up the back sliding door, and made herself comfortable with the extra room. "Place me where you see fit, I can't make any guarantees I won't beat up the first mlg softboy that throws shit my way, though."

Dezzy: Pendant slide into the passenger side next to Mous but not before giving the rather cartoonish car a double take, “Zoinks,” she mumbled before taking the passenger set net to Mous. "Take the game store then I guess," she waved to the back at Ascot. "Pry a Nitendo 64 outta some dude's hand if you gotta." From the looks of it Mous’s car would be a tight squeeze, so she shook her head, wrapping an arm around Pin’s and locking elbows, “I’ll ride with you, of course.”

HappyPaca: He was alittle bit ahead of Falada already pulling out his car keys to his convertable "To be honest i wouldn't mind if the ghost licked my car. It would be fun to see an old french convertable again" He laughed as he open the door for Falada bfore getting in himself. "my grandmother had one." he added.

Proph: "Oh hey, a carpool." said the meat-loving giant. He glanced around, glared at the van, shrugged, then worked on trying to wedge his large frame inside it. "Don't complain if your gas mileage takes a hit." he calls from the far back as the shocks moaned from his settling in. RIP Ascot's ears, though; his burly tone in such a confined space had to be a bit loud.

Dezzy: Falda hummed approvingly at the thought as she got in,”Ooo, vintage isn’t so bad in some aspects.” She couldn't help but think back to straight out of a Scooby-doo van Mous and the others were riding in and gave a small giggle. “ Some, that is.”

EverSoNitro: Once their riding situation was figured out, and her passengers were loaded in, Mous nodded and backed out, quietly dying a little inside as she realized Falda would be seeing her driving a hippie bus. Trying to to let her embarrassment totally rot her soul, Mous pulled out, following the breadcrumb trail of out-of-place vintage vehicles. Pulling up as she spotted PT, the van was thankfully accomodating to his frame, if only just. Still, it'd get a bit more cramped for Ascot in the back, PT being a bit larger than a great dane. "We were headed for the mall," Mous explained. "That seemed like the best place to start looking, and from the look of things, that's where it was headed." Mous glanced to the Penny-farthing bicycle as they passed by, grimacing a bit. "Someone might want to be making a note of where incidents are, clean-up might be a bit of a hassle..."

Proph: He gave a thumbs up while stuffing the remainder of the kebab into his maw. Some of these things stood out like actual sore thumbs, kinda hard to miss

HappyPaca: Pin started the car and started driving toward the dealer ship closetest to trail of vintage memorablia following Mous's car for some time, he never visited the dealership often but he remebered something they coud use as an excuse to look. "if the dealer ship gives a hard time for looking so throughly, let's just tell them since your new in town i'm getting you a new car as a small welcome back gift." He gave a charmming smile and winked "and if you find something mon cheri don't hesitate to ask, it would make things more believeable." he suggested.

Eevelion: One by one, everyone (sans She-la) would hear a ping on their phone as Robe added them to a group text channel, with the first post reading [I just realized you all probably need a way of telling each other if you find Throwback without having to yell across a crowd.] with the second post reading [FYI, maybe try not to cause a bigger panic]And a third reading [BTW, nice van Mous]

Gigi: Ascot gave an affirmative grunt and not much else, being shoved into a corner. She checked her phone, looking at the messages. [Thats gonna depend on how many sweaty guys are out today.]

EverSoNitro: As Mous pulled into the mall parking garage, she'd hear the ping on her phone, reading the message and pausing for a moment. "Panic... Oh, damn it all..." Mous seethed, quickly checking social media. Sure enough, there were those leeches sticking their noses into their business. "You all go on ahead, I've got to deal with this... everyone pick a store and fan out." Mous's nose was buried in her phone, hanging back for a moment and working on a cover story to quell suspicion.

Proph: Peasant looked at the phone hanging from a lanyard around his neck, looking fun-size in comparison in his meaty hoof of a hand. With the nail on his index finger, he carefully typed out a [ok boss] before letting the device drop under his namesake, dangling like the dongle it is as he poured out of the back of the van.

Eevelion: As Mous' group started to make their way through the mall they would come across a handful of people walking towards the exit with bulky CRT TV screens, NES cartridges, a couple brick phones, and one person even leaving with a ColecoVision, indicating a sort of trail left by Throwback, even more indicative, hastily taped signs to a few storefronts saying “Retro Sale!”

Dezzy: With a click of her pen Pendant was already on taking notes of the incidents as they drove by them, “ On it.” Pendant shuddered in her seat as Peasant munched the remainder of his kebab. Food crunching wasn’t her preference in asmr. Once they pulled up Pendant hopped her short legs out with equipment safely tucked into her bag. “Find me at phone shops when you catch up,” Pendant said Mous and trotted over to the cellular stores. At the sight of all the people leaving with archaic devices Pendant could tell Throwback had been there. “Perfect cover,” agreeing with a soft giggle she heard the noise go off from her phone. Falda then began to type and verbally read out loud her response for Pin[ Pin and I will let you all know if we see anything at the dealership. Good luck everyone]

Gigi: "Hah, try not to get chewed out by the vampire too much!" She got out, closing the door behind her and walking in. Unfortunately she was in enough time to see that yes, she'd have to smack a few gamers today, if the boxy consoles that looked nowhere near as sleek as the usual models she's used to dealing with on smuggling cases was any indicator. "Oh , for the love of......FUCK."

HappyPaca: " ah merci, I can't reply while driving" Pin pulled into the dealer ship actively looking around for ny retro car the may have seemed to pop up out of no where, it seemed that day though their was a wide varity. he parked and got out putting on some shades that were acutally perscription so he could look a bit more throughly. "Let's get started shall we?"

Proph: PT wasn't too far behind, watching a couple frat boys carry out a big screen box-set tv straight out of an 1980's sitcom. Not being the biggest tech guy, he thought it the Best Idea to check out every home entertainment section in the major chain stores, keep the search simple. He liked simple.

EverSoNitro: Mous huffed a bit as she put her phone away. "Damn it, I don't have time for this..." Mous intoned. She'd have to help with the official statement later, right now there were more pressing matters to attend to. Stowing the device in her pocket, Mous headed up to the mall proper, deciding that she should investigate the food court. Surely there'd be a number of unattended phones for Throwback to slobber all over.

Eevelion: As Mous checked the food court, sure enough there were a couple of retro-fied phones, but not enough to establish a sort of pattern. Back over by the electronics section there lay on a bench a TI83 Graphing Calculator, sitting there in all its monopolizing glory despite being an outdated piece of junk.

EverSoNitro: As Mous spotted the phones, she squinted, approaching cautiously, arming herself with the capture gear. She stepped closer to the first, an old Mickey Mouse rotary phone (and mentally recalling the one she had in her own collection) before carefully nudging it with an activated glove.

HappyPaca: She-la was just sitting on the curb by this point kinda stranded and still lil confused on what the hell to do with this bike. but then basically said 'fuck it zipped down her ridding suit tied it around her waist and tied her helmit to the back and after a few minutes of trail and error started riding the stupid looking bike back to her appartment.

Gigi: Ascot stormed in, stretching out, the chaos in the air tasted nice but there was just too much joy in it. Terrible. No time for asking people questions, she followed upstream of the surges of people running about, pushing aggressive customers out of her way with minimal effort.

Dezzy: Pendant browsed around the cell store she was at, so far there was no noticeable signs of Throwback had been there. A couple brick phones sure but it seemed like it had already done its damage by the time she arrived. [Nothing at the cell shop. Less you count last year’s Ipad as archaic.] With a nod and link of their elbows once more Falda agreed and began the search. Falda eyed the cars like it was she was a little girl in a candy shop. “Call me what you want, but I just think lamborgini’s to be so stylish.” she mused happily at the sight of gold lambo, walking around and fawning over it like it was an adorable puppy.

Proph: Muscling through one department store only to turn right back around and leave, Peasant took the time to peck out an update. [dept store on E end looked clear didnt come this far] Slipping the phone under his shirt PT went into another shop. Oh. An ACTUAL home entertainment store, good call.

HappyPaca: he smiled as she hung on his arm browsing the more suspious cars as they walked. looking particuarly at models that were more then 40+ years old. looking up and down the lambo as Falada fawned over it. "i Personally i'm more found of Charcoal grey cars but a lambo of any color is always nice. This seems like a newer italian model too." he chuckled and made sure to keep looking around but stood by as falada was fawning over the nice car. checking throughly of the cars around them for any suspious activity enjoying his time more with Falada there to lighten things up.

Eevelion: As Mous nudged the phone suddenly a voice came from one of the other food court tables “You really gonna try to touch it?” Robe asked from her seat, but that distraction was just enough that the phone, in truth Throwback, was able to climb past her glove and jump at her face, tapping her forehead with her tongue before skittering off towards the entertainment section of the mall. Robe laughed at Mous as she changed, typing out on her phone [Critic down :P]

EverSoNitro: Mous glanced up as she heard the voice, squinting a bit as she saw Robe lounging nearby. "You know, you really ought to be properly helping, considering this came from your-" Of course, while Mous was preoccupied with criticizing Robe's work ethic, she failed to notice the beloved cartoon icon grab for her upper arm, yelping and stumbling back as it scrambled up and slapping her forehead with her tongue. Falling on her rear, Mous's head began to spin, until she gave her head a shake, seemingly recovering. "Ugh... you detestable little insect..." Mous began, carefully getting to her feet. Once standing again, she seemed to look down her nose at the imp a bit more, than normal, taking a rather haughty and self-important stance. If one were to look closer, it also appeared that her makeup was a bit heavier, as if concealing injuries. "I would have had it, too, if you hadn't divided my attention..."

Proph: Of all the people to first reply, it was the 9 foot literal meatslab. [is ms ego ok? is ghost there?] Clearly not in the right neighborhood, Peasant left the store he was haunting, awaiting a reply. Or a return volley, depending on who answered.

Eevelion: "Maybe you would have had it if you used your capture gear instead of just trying to grab it." Robe snarkily replied, waving her off "Now go get back to work, it already hit you so you're immune to any further effects." meanwhile she tapped out on her phone [She's fine, just bratty, ghost head towards electronics section.]

Dezzy: “ I like my cars to stand out amongst the crowd,” the are was so clean that Falda could ee her reflection on it. She flashed a cute smile at herself till her phone went off, to which she huffed and unlocked her phone. “Ah, it seems the experiment is at the mall. Poor Mousquetaire.” she feigned sadness at that last part if only out of respect. “We should head to the mall now, I guess.” She gave the yellow lambo a pet on its hood. Someday, but not today. Pendant meanwhile left the store and headed to the food court with Robe and Mous. Helping Mous onto her feet and into the food court's chair she asked flatly, “ Where did it go?”

Proph: PT replied with a thumbs-up emoji because it was faster before stomping off to where he was pointed. He fingered the capture gear as he thundered down the thoroughfare; Hitting things is is forte, but since Mous was ALSO a member of the Hit Things club, he decided to be cautious this time.

Gigi: Ascot heard a buzz, and checked the message. She typed a hasty [ok, on it] before taking off her neckpeice and readying the kit. Guess everyone in the games department would be spared for now. Though...if they spotted the ghost, things weren't going well already....Thankfully not too many people were in her way this time, as people tend to avoid a large, blackened sword that's vaguely skeletal-looking. Someone screamed, and she whipped out a badge. "Sheesh, woman, don't you see the crowds! It's not black friday!"

EverSoNitro: Mous rolled her eyes. "I was using my capture equipment, imbecile." She flashed her activated buster gloves, which presently seemed just a bit bulkier than normal. "Besides, in the very probable case that you hadn't noticed, there's tons of potential candidates for that ghost's disguise in this mall." She jerked her arm away from Pendant as she was helped up, before looking incredulously at Robe. "You're telling me what to do?" She let out a rather haughty laugh, before planting herself in her seat. "I don't think so."

HappyPaca: Pin sighed "Poor dear, we should invite to take her out for dinner later." he said as he once again pulled out his car keys and took off his shades. "Let's hurry so we can possibly try to minimize the damage knowing the group thats currently there at the moment" now that he thought about he wounders how Mous is now while under the affcts of throw back.

Dezzy: Raising her hands up defeatedly Pendant shimmied around the angry Thrownback!Mous and headed for the electronics store, retrieving a mask and metallic pointer that one would use for presentations from her bag and began proding around the area. “Agreed,” she kissed into her hand and placed it one the lambo before Pin and her were off again on the road to the mall.

Gigi: Something particularly old and boxy caught the periphery of Ascot's eye, and she tried to rush and swipe for it. It lunged at her, and she began backing up quickly, thrusting her arm out quickly to let her sword extend properly. No connection, but that did seem to scare the moving appliance for now....she kept following, more slowly this time. Her eyes were still peeled onto it, and she wove her way through the crowd a few hundred feet back.

Proph: Blade resting on his shoulder, Peasant storms in right as Ascot swatted the critter away. He followed Throwback through the food court as best as his bulk could go. Clearly, it won out in raw speed, so, Without a thought, he hefted the sword up and held it inverted, hefting the massive sword he flipped it around so he held it inverted, and matching his stride, chucked the heavy blade at the ghost like a javelin. PT managed to clip the ghost along the side, but this made it run /faster/.

Eevelion: As Throwback ran down the corridors it ran into MORE people that seemed to want at it, narrowly dodging a sword from one and taking a slight clip from the other, as it circled back it gave them a wide berth, not wanting to take another hit, back towards the food court it went.

HappyPaca: Looking at the way falada liked the lambo hmm... maybe pin could get her a welcome gift after all it's a strong maybe. As soon as the two found a parking space convently next to Mous's van, He grabbed the equiptment from his trunk while Falada was stepping out of his car and got them both ready as they headed for the Mall's entrance making sure both of them were prepared for whatever may come their way. As if he was prepering a excellent meal for an importent guest.

Dezzy: At the sound of Throwback making its way back to the food courts Pendant sharply rose up from inspecting, grabbing onto her namesake to allow it to transform into its true rapier form and made long strides for the ghost. “C’mon goth momma needs a new…” she took a swipe “Aesthetic!” her sword missed, stumbling on her feet a little before she could fall. She cursed under her breathe bitterly.

Eevelion: As Throwback barreled back towards the food court it passed by Pendant who seemed very intent on capturing it as well, as it ducked past her rapier and head towards the food court Robe popped the lid off her drink, controlling the liquid inside to try to make a cage of ice around the escaping ghost, unfortunately her placement was off, and instead of encapsulating it, the ghost launched off the side sending its trajectory... straight towards her, “Oh crap” she muttered, as it collided with her its tongue lolled out and tapped her on the scalp. As she held her head where it had bumped her she seemed to shrink into her clothes a little, but that was more overshadowed by those clothes getting bigger, and when she stood up she was almost completely covered in her robe, except for the top of her head, which she quickly put a huge wizard cap on, the gremlin was here. Meanwhile, Throwback continued its escape path, running into the same direction Pin and Falda were entering through.

HappyPaca: Pin thrusted forward the secound he saw the lil bastardheading towards him and flada causing a ruckus umong his associates. "It's time to falay the main ingdent!" cheesy phrases aside pin nly manages to graise throwback as he passes him, quickly turning back to Falada "Quickly grab it mon cheri!" hoping she could use the moment to her advantage being so close to him.

Gigi: Ascot was still chasing after it, though it was getting increasingly difficult to follow it within all the ruckus. She grabbed her phone in frustration, tapping out a [DO WE HAVE ENOUGH TIME TO ATTEMPT A QUARANTINE, BECAUSE I THINK WE REALLY OUGHTA]. The way it was going it looked like she was getting closer to the entrance, about back where she came from...no good, no good at all.

Eevelion: Gremlin Robe gave a quick peace sign with a playful “See ya, suckers!” before running off to the electronics section with surprising quickness for someone covered so wholly, as she passed by Pendant she leaped, snatching her hat off her head and placing it on top of her own hat, continuing down the electronics section she slowed down and held her primary hat over her face as she saw the absolutely gargantuan Peasant Top, taking a wide arc around him and never taking her off him till she was far away enough to start running again, straight out of the mall.

Proph: Still catching his breath, PT just watched the jittery imp circle around him with a look in her eyes like he was going to eat her. He shrugged it off, though, truth be told, he got looks like that a lot. Looking at the latest page, he gave an exasperated sigh before retrieving his blade from the floor it was impaled in and following the others.

Dezzy: “Hopefully the team inside has it managed,” she said, shoving her phone back into her jacket as she entered the mall, only to be greeted by the said ghost the group were aiming to capture. “God damn it.” grabbing the hem of her long skirt and with one swift movement it turned into its pistol form around Falda’s hands and for Falda to stand in her pantsless glory. She pulled the trigger and missed by the skin of her teeth. [Quarantine sounds good. Box it off before it can escape. Through the parking lot.] Pendant went to go grab Robe but it seemed that the small imp had, somehow, gotten visibly smaller than thought possible. She ran a hand through herbangs and sighed but it was short lived as her big hat was taken from here. “What the-” Pendant shook her head. Nevermind that they had to contain this thing before it got out.

Eevelion: Throwback had almost made it to the door, sweet sweet freedom was at hand, then suddenly it found itself in front of a couple pulling out weapons, it managed to dodge their attacks, but couldn't risk trying to pass the two, so it turned and head back into the food court, jumping up onto a table to try to figure which way it could run to next.

Gigi: [on it, I'll notify the blarts.] She held ground, calling up a security line. "SUP, its Enforcer Pheles, I'm gonna need you guys to keep guard on entrances for any rogue objects that look like they're moving on their own..................Don't shut down the place but have people recommend they either don't go in or go into another shopping center...........Dude just do what I say okay and make sure nobody panics!" She hung up. Might as well stay in the food court to do what she does best, crowd control. Also, eating.

HappyPaca: Pin's cheeks turned pink seeing falada in her under garments and quickly un button his shirt having an undershirt on underneath do to recent cold weather. so he did not mind lending his shirt to Falda to tie around her waist "Here, i'm so sorry this is all i have at the moment. but if you do not mind contenueing we should try and follow it" he gestured towards the food court.

Dezzy: Pin was much taller and larger than Falda that the ends of his shirt went down to just above her knees. “Thank you mon cheri,” she gave him a small peck on his cheek with a wink and jogged to the food court. [Food court] Pendant typed in the group chat and approached the ghost once more. She gave another strike at Throwback but blade only seemed to collide with the floor tile and fell back into a chair. Taking a knee Falda tried to line up a good shot at the thing but also missed. This is why she just left the action to CGI.

HappyPaca: Mean while She-la fell off the penny bike again and just decided to sit on the side walk and contiplate life.

Gigi: Ascot was in a fair amount of concentration, trying to sap energy out of everyone. Panic wasn't quite her favorite flavor but it'd work--and crowds around her seemed to clear out. Good. Pendant and Falda's noises gave her a general idea where to watch where the ghost was going--and took a guess at the location it'd land in, and slap. SATIN extended outward, slamming into the floor and holding the ghost firm by one of its legs. "FUCK, DID I GET IT?"

Proph: With the wind back in his sails, Peasant reconvened with the others, blade held firm, tip resting on the ground. e watched Ascot work, waiting to strike when the proverbial iron was hot. Much as he would love being a gloryhog for once, it didn't feel right to steal the kill. Then she acted. Well then. Nothing against getting an assist! With the critter pinned, he lunged forward with a throaty roar, swinging the chunky sword up then down in a solid arc,like an oar, slapping the ghost into the ground one last time.

Eevelion: As Throwback was well and truly pinned an energetic clapping could be heard from behind the group, the first scientist from the briefing stood there “Good work everyone! Very impressive work, anyway, the effects wore off on me about fifteen minutes ago, so I figured I should come by to bring Throwback's containment cage over so you don't have to bring it back to HQ at arm's length.” Mentioning Throwback's cage he'd pull out a small bird cage before leaning down to where the ghost was, picking it up gingerly from behind and placing it inside the cage “All done!” he exclaimed “Don't worry about getting it returned, I'll handle that, the rest of you just enjoy your day, and again, thank you for your work.” Bowing out he head back to HQ with a small enforcement team just to make sure the ghost didn't escape again.

HappyPaca: She-la resorted to walking the penny bike home wanting nothing more then a cup of hot coco when she got back.

Dezzy: Pendant gave a half hearted fist pump as the scientist from earlier took her vintage dreams away in its cage. She tilted her head back exasperatedly and let it hit the table behind her, running a hand through her hangs. Well… the effects hadn’t totally worn off the other effected appliances yet, there was still hope to be salvaged. She sharply rose up from her seat and pulled out her camera she had tucked away in her bag. “I’m going to just… take some photos record today’s events for research,” she announced before scuttling away. Falda gave a sigh of relief and wrapped her namesake back to hug at her hips,. “Problem solved, now to deal with clean up and those tontos at Panic.” How did they even know her panties were edible?

Gigi: Ascot wiped her brow and dismantled her kit. "NOTHIN' TO SEE HERE FOLKS, EVERYTHING'S UNDER CONTROL." She shooed off shoppers that looked like they were lingering too much. Don't think about it too hard. She looked over to the rest of the team, with a slight grin. "Good job, guys, we...got the job done and I got lunch free of charge."

HappyPaca: Pin nodded to falada after thanking the scientists for their work and strentch alittle, "it sounds good to me. we can end the day with a good drink." He could here his wine cellar calling his name just thinking about panic and their shenanigans. He looked around abit and thought "maybe we should call chaleco to pick up robe as well where ever she went."

Proph: "That's all one can wish for, right?" Peasant once again donned his namesake, just in time his bare barrel chest was gettin' nipply. "Jus' thowin' it out there, but how about we DON'T go hunting next time we go out, okay? A run, some lunch, little weightlifting, make a day of it!"

Gigi: Whatever joy was on her face got replaced with narrowed eyes and a slanted, tight lipped look. "Don't push it, dude."

Proph: He raises his hands is mock surrender. "Jus' bein' nice, calm down. We're all friends, here." The ONE time he wasn't trying to put the moves on someone...

Dezzy: Falda hummed as she texted her brother to come pick up Robe, "The only exercise I want today is...." She stopped herself right there and smiled innocently, "I could go for a drink though."

HappyPaca: Pin gave a chaismatic smile and said "if anyone else cares for free drinks just tell inferno i sent you in. there all on me" he'd ask falada on the ride back if she wanted to have drinks at his place or inferno, options are always nice.

#dcwastelands #dcwlogs #dcw demon event

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dlrconlicense · 6 years ago

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And in what reality is this...?

Read here or on AO3

Titan, 2018, Somewhere in the multiverse

“Tony, there was no other way…” Stephen Strange replied solemnly to the heavily injured Stark. In a flash of white before him, Stark and the desolated landscape of Titan disappeared. He was sitting by his window overlooking Bleecker Street.

He did not have on the Cloak and his blue robes, but his street clothes, and in a sense of déjà vu he could have sworn he was about to leave for the deli down the street to get a roast beef sandwich.

“And a metaphysical ham on rye for Wong…” Stephen muttered. What is going on? Perhaps this is another dimension that I have been sent to.

He felt a small tug on his cardigan and looked down to see the brightest pair of blue-gray eyes staring back at him. “Dad…”

Stephen stared back in bewilderment at the tiny creature before him, bright eyed, with cherub cheeks and long auburn hair that reminded him of someone.

“Molly…” Stephen whispered and with a sudden flash he was back on Titan, surrounded by the kid and that band of space assholes.

“Doctor! What just happened? Where’s Mr. Stark?!!” the kid was hysterical.

Stephen stood up and brushed off the dust from his cloak “Kid, it’s been five years, time we head back to Earth.” With a wave of his hand, he opened up a portal. Destination, Avengers Compound.

When all was said and done, and the realization of that one probability of Titan’s defeat, Stephen stood by the lake near Starks’s cabin, able to finally process all that has happened. A portal suddenly opened up next to him, he turned to see Wong standing behind him.

“You have not been to check in on the London Sanctum.”

“Nooooooo, I did not. And that,” Stephen points to the portal “…is NOT the London Sanctum.”

Wong gives him a nod “Just go. They’re waiting for you.”

They? Does he mean Molly and Holmes?

“Thank you, Wong.” Stephen steps through the portal and with sound of whoosh it closes behind him.

The flat is virtually the same as five years before, the time that has lapsed since he “vanished”. Time which was but a moment for him. Neat and pristine, she had liked to keep things that way. He approached the mantle, drawn to the frames of photographs covering its surface. He picked up a photo frame, a moment from that road trip long ago frozen in time. When he had kissed her playfully on the cheek, and she smiles radiantly at the camera as she held a cup of that strawberry frozen dessert.

He sets the frame down and took notice of another small frame next to it, with letters adorning the bottom denoting the name of the child whose photo it housed.

“Sofia.” He whispered as he ghosted his hands over the lettering, then to the photo of a smiling girl in an Iron Man Halloween costume. He half laughed and fought back a sob, staring back at him in the photo were those same eyes he had seen in those moments when he had “vanished.”

“Oh my god...”

He slowly turns around, and there she was, Molly Hooper with a blaster gun in her hand, tears welling in her eyes.

She was as beautiful as she was five years ago.

Stephen cautiously approached her, he had many questions, but could not bring himself to form any words. Molly pulled him to her and clung to him disbelief. He breathed out a sigh of relief and held her tightly in his embrace.

“You finally came back.” She whispered into the crook of his neck.

“Believe me, it felt like a lifetime.” Though it was but a fleeting moment. He clutched her to him, not wanting to let go of her ever again, he buries his nose in her hair, breathing in the scent of her.

“Dr. Hooper, since when do you pack heat? Mycroft?”

“Yes, and Braddock. You know, in case some other alien arsehole decides to attack Earth again. It was Stark tech, Sherlock and Sofia were mighty jealous.”

“Mummy!” A little girl’s cry came from the guest bedroom, or former guest bedroom, of Molly’s flat.

Molly carded her fingers through Stephen’s hair “Well, Mr. Sorcerer Supreme, ready for a history lesson of the last five years?”

Stephen Strange sat silently on the settee with his daughter in his arms and Molly by his side. Little Sofia had nestled on his chest, his heartbeat lulling her to sleep. Though she was shy at first, Sofia had taken to her father quickly. It did help that the curious child was fascinated by the incantations (in the form of sparkly magical animals) her father had shown her to get her attention. Molly had joke she won’t need to book entertainment for Sofia’s birthday, he would be a hit with the children. By the end of dinner, the girl had clung to her father asking this and that, finishing her meal whilst sitting on his lap.

Molly had briefed him on the past five years. The discovery of her pregnancy after the snap. Her adventures with Sherlock taking care of two young children after John and Mary had turned to dust. Apparently, Sherlock, godfather to Rosamund and Sofia, is quite a child whisperer. Wong had helped whenever he happened to be in town to check on the London Sanctum. Even Mycroft when he wasn’t running the government, though he was a tad more helpful on the resources and security front, not so much hands-on child-minding.

He told her of the fight at the Sanctum, being space with Stark and the kid, those assholes from space, Thanos, and Stark’s sacrifice.

“I saw her, you know.” He finally broke the silence.

Stephen brushed a hand through his daughter’s auburn hair, his other hand intertwined with Molly’s.

Molly turned to eye him curiously, silently urging him to continue. Stephen continued in a low voice “When…when I had quote-unquote ‘turned to dust’, I woke up in the Sanctum, and there she was.” He placed a small kiss to Sofia’s hair “calling me ‘Dad’, then I woke up and I was back on Titan. I came back, and she is real.”

Molly rested her head on his shoulder “Are you worried that we aren’t?”

Stephen turned kiss the crown of her head “I am. Perhaps I might have transported to a different reality, we don’t even begin to understand the full effect of the Stones.”

“She’s real.” Molly ran her hand up and down his arm in a gesture of comfort “We’re real.”

He gave a wry laugh “I was at Stark’s funeral today.” He felt the little squeeze that Molly gave his hand “I saw his wife, his little girl. She’s about Sofia’s age.”

“I saw over 14 million possible outcomes in our fight against Thanos, 14 million different realities and only one of which we come out on top. It was that one.” Stephen laughed bitterly “You know, I had told him if it was between saving him, the kid, and the Stone, I would not hesitate to let either of them die. And in the end…I did not hesitate.”

“But when you saw his wife and child, you questioned…”

Stephen shook his head “My duty as the Sorcerer Supreme is to protect our reality and protect the Earth from threats against it with my life and at all cost. But I can’t help but wonder after meeting my own daughter about Stark’s little girl.” He held onto his little girl a little tighter. “Was there something that I, or anyone could have done that does not result in this? Was there another reality I have not seen?”

Molly cupped his face and turned his head towards her, she knew that was the doctor side of him coming through. “You only saw the possibilities. In the end it was his choice to use his life to exchange for the lives of many, including his wife and child. It was...inevitable I guess.”

He planted a kiss to her forehead “Ever practical with death, Dr. Hooper.”

“Part of the job.” Molly wrinkled her nose in thought “Do you think there really are different realities, where there are different versions of us, leading different lives?”

“My dear, would that even surprise you?” Perhaps The Ancient One had left some text written on the subject, he really should check with Wong when he gets back to New York. Eventually, anyways.

“No, not really.” Molly pressed her lips together suppressing a smile “Who knows? Maybe in another reality you have a hot nurse for a girlfriend who go to all the conferences with you, and I would be married to Sherlock or Jim, spending our lives microwaving eyeballs or planning the demise of a small country.”

“I forgot you had a thing for brilliant assholes.” Stephen sardonically.

“Brilliant and dramatic arseholes to be correct. I met the most brilliant one a few years back. He literally floated into the morgue with sparkles surrounding him, such a drama-queen.” she said as she playfully gave him a peck on the lips.

Molly smoothed her hand over her daughter’s hair “I should put her to bed, here let me have her.”

Stephen stopped her and stood up with Sofia in his arms, being careful not to jostle her too much. The little girl sensed movement, but quickly shifted and snuggled into her father’s chest with a yawn and remained asleep.

“It’s been a long day for us all.” He slowly stood up and held his daughter in one arm and offered his hand to his Molly, leading his family to the main bedroom.

This was his reality now, the reality he came back to, with his Molly and their beautiful little girl,

It was a reality that he will defend at all cost.

#Spoilers #Strangeolly #Stephen Strange #Molly Hooper #turn away if you have not seen Endgame #Avengers: Endgame #stephen x molly #Stephen Strange x Molly Hooper #strangolly

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haillenarte · 6 years ago

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the swallow’s compass;

Here are translations of various Hingan signs, both within Kugane and The Swallow’s Compass.

...That’s the simple explanation, anyway. The full post below involved a lot more research than I expected, but I don’t really know how else I should describe what I’m doing here. I imagine that this will be fairly interesting to those loremongers with a special interest in Doma and Hingan culture, so if you really like Kugane, or you write a Doman character or something, come on in!

...That said, now I have no idea where I should begin.

I guess I’ll start from the top. I’m not sure if this is widely-known information within the “Western” FFXIV fandom, so forgive me if I’m parroting things that you already know, but basically, the the signage in Kugane and Doma utilizes a “Hingan alphabet” that is essentially a substitution cipher for Japanese hiragana. You know how Eorzean works, right? With the Eorzean signage in the game, the letters of the Eorzean alphabet are substitutes for English letters... so with Doman signage, the characters in the Hingan alphabet are substitutes for Japanese characters.

If you can read hiragana, you can check it out yourself at this fansite here.

I should note that the Japanese version of FFXIV doesn’t really utilize the concepts of “Doman” and “Hingan” the way that the English version does, so Japanese fans refer to the “Hingan alphabet” as クガネ文字、 or “Kugane characters.” I should also note that it seems straightforward enough until you realize that a lot of the in-game signage is highly stylized, so reading it is a lot harder than you’d think, sometimes...

Let’s take a look at the sign outside the Shiokaze Hostelry, shall we?

Broken down — and reading vertically from right to left, of course — the characters here read:

youkoso Kugane e

Welcome to Kugane.

Here’s another example: the banners in the Sekiseigumi Barracks! What do they say? Well... they’re not very interesting, actually. This just says:

Kugane Sekiseigumi

At least they’re proud of themselves...

I considered photographing and documenting every instance of Hingan writing that I could find, but the fact of the matter is, a lot of it is very self-explanatory: the sign outside of the Bokairo Inn, for example, just says Boukaisen, advertising the Bokaisen Hot Springs. (By the way, I believe the localization team chose to go with short-vowel romanizations to encourage correct pronunciations among non-Japanese players, so that’s why there’s an extra vowel there.) So it wouldn’t have been very interesting for me to go around taking pictures of every single sign I could find...

One thing in Kugane I do find really interesting, however, is the sign just outside of the Mujikoza theater!

This sign is actually an advertisement for the actors at Mujikoza:

enja (”Performers”)

Maibito Shiranami Narita Rakuyou Gakunin Fuuran

Gakunin Yabusame Narita Ransetsu Narita Yachiyo Maibito Kikusui

I am not sure if these are intended to be surnames or titles. My assumption is that they are titles, because Gakunin is probably 楽人、or musician, whereas Maibito probably means 舞人、or dancer. Unfortunately, I can’t figure out what “Narita” means in this context, because it definitely isn’t the airport. My guess is that it might be a yagou — a stage name, or acting-house name, which you can read about here.

Note that the actors again receive top billing on the roof of the building, where the sign reads:

SHIRANAMI RAKUYOU FUURAN

Yabusame Ransetsu Yachiyo Kikusui

Shiranami, Rakuyou, and Fuuran must be really popular?!

I’ve got one more surprise from Kugane to show you all, but before we get to that, let’s dive into the Hingan text in The Swallow’s Compass.

First, a little background information: The Swallow’s Compass is, in Japanese, called 風水霊殿ガンエン廟 — very literally, “feng shui temple, gan-en mausoleum,” but since the localization has decided to translate feng shui as geomancy, I think the Japanese dungeon title is best rendered “The Palace of Geomancy: Ganen’s Tomb.”

The English description of the dungeon elaborates on this somewhat:

Enshrined within this tomb, his likeness carved on an imposing scale into the cliffside, is the person of Ganen, the great general who united the warring clans of Yanxia to arise as the first king of Doma. A skilled swordsman and mage both, he is credited as the founding father of Doman geomancy.

Anyway, with that background knowledge, let’s dive right into the signage in The Swallow’s Compass. Quite a lot of it is, um, pretty cool, but really very redundant in my opinion — you know, it’s a million different lines about earth and wind and water — so I have to admit I’m glazing over some of it...

Just imagine a lot of stuff like this...

hagukumutsuchi soil nurtures

megurumizu water circulates

hakobukaze wind carries

Notably, this tablet just past the first boss is a quote attributed to Ganen himself:

kaze wo shirite mizu wo seishi chi wo osamuru ganen-ou

Know the wind Contain the water Heal the earth — King Ganen

The tablet to the right of King Ganen’s reads as follows:

mu ni naru kawa ryu ni naru yama yansa no chi doma to nasu

As the river turns to nothing And the mountain becomes a dragon Does the land of Yanxia Form the nation of Doma

Lastly — I have not included screenshots of every single stone, because it would just be too many pictures that all basically look the same — two famous Chinese poems are quoted throughout the dungeon! I won’t get into the whole history of kanshi poetry and the tradition of Chinese poetry in Japanese literature, but suffice it to say it’s a personal favorite subject of mine.

The Swallow’s Compass quotes two lines from “In the Mountains on a Summer Day” by Li Bai, for which I have enclosed two translations (not by me, of course):

夏日山中李白

懒摇白羽扇裸袒青林中脱巾挂石壁露顶洒松风

In the Mountains on a Summer Day, by Li Bai trans. Arthur Waley, 1919

Gently I stir a white feather fan, With open shirt sitting in a green wood. I take off my cap and hang it on a jutting stone; A wind from the pine-trees trickles on my bare head.

A Summer Day in the Mountains, by Li Bai trans. Andrew W.F. Wong, 2014

Too lazy to wave my fan of white plumes; Rather, go naked, ‘neath the greenwood trees, My headcloth undone, on a stone wall hung, Idling, bare-headed, in the pine-filled breeze.

Peresonally, I think Wong’s translation is better by far, and more ambitious with the rhyme scheme and structure, but Waley’s is more well-known, as you might imagine. Oh, and I’ve italicized the lines that are quoted in FFXIV! The rest of the poem isn’t in the dungeon, but it seems silly to only enclose a part of it here.

The Swallow’s Compass also quotes another poem by the master of masters, Du Fu. There are many translations of Du Fu’s “Spring Prospect,” but here’s one that I liked:

春望杜甫

国破山河在城春草木深感时花溅泪恨别鸟惊心烽火连三月家书抵万金白头搔更短浑欲不胜簪

Spring Prospect, by Du Fu trans. John Tarrant, 2014

The nation is broken – mountains and rivers remain. Spring comes to the city overgrown with grass and trees.

Feeling the time – flowers weep, hating captivity – bird calls pierce the heart.

The war beacons have burned for three months now and I’d give ten thousand pieces of gold for a letter from home.

I’ve torn my white hair till it’s so thin it almost won’t hold a hatpin.

With these poems in mind, I’m coming back to the final sign from Kugane that I saved for last...

The wall scroll in Hancock’s office reads:

saihi akatsuki ni izureba shimoyuki no gotoshi

This, too, is a quote from a kanshi poem, but this poet isn’t very well known at all. Instead of another big-name poet like Li Bai or Du Fu, someone on the dev team decided to quote “Keirinsou Zatsuei” by Hirose Tansou — a really very obscure poet better known for being an egalitarian educator.

...Since no English translation of this particular poem existed, I decided to translate it myself. This involved a lot of personal research and time, so I wound up translating a small selection of Hirose’s poetry as the final project for one of my translation classes. I considered submitting my collection of Hirose’s poetry for publication somewhere, but in the end, well... I don’t know, I mean, who would care except for FFXIV players?

The poem itself is a celebration of friendships forged during one’s schooling years. I have enclosed a direct translation and a more structured, syllabic, rhyming translation:

桂林荘雑詠広瀬淡窓

幾人負笈自西東両筑双肥前後豊花影満簾春昼永書声断続響房書

休道他郷多苦辛同袍有友自相親柴扉暁出霜如雪君汲川流我拾薪

遙思白髪倚門情宦学三年業未成一夜秋風揺老樹孤窓欹枕客心驚

長鋏帰来故国春時時務払簡編塵君看白首無名者曾是談経奪席人

Song of the Cinnamon Grove, by Hirose Tansou trans. haillenarte, 2018

(direct translation)

From east and west we travel, carrying our book-boxes, through the plains of Ryōchiku — as fertile and lush as ever. The shadows of the flowers shield us from the sun as intermittent voices rebound and resonate in clusters of sound.

We shall not rest in foreign lands with bitter feelings in our hearts when our brothers here, our comrades-in-arms, will soon become our dearest friends. As we leave the house at dawn, beneath the hoarfrost so like snow, you will draw our water, and I will collect our firewood.

Distantly, I think of gray hair, and my heart presses against the gates — my third year at civil service school, and my work isn’t finished. In the evening, an autumn breeze shakes the ancient trees, and I rise from my solitary pillow, trembling with wanderlust.

And at last, the sweet return, the glorious springtime of our homelands! The time has passed, our work is cleared, and our books are layered in dust. With your hair grown white, you would be nameless to me but for the hours we have passed debating the sutras, side by side.

Song of the Cinnamon Grove, by Hirose Tansou trans. haillenarte, 2018

(structured translation, departs from original)

From east and west, we walk with burdens through the fields of Ryōchiku. The shadows of the flowers shade us as I talk and walk with you.

We shall not rest in foreign lands with bitter feelings in our hearts when we have friends to stand beside us in our study of the arts. And as we leave the house at dawn ‘neath frozen dew that looks like snow ‘tis you for whom I tend the fire, you for whom I make it glow.

As I recall the greying hairs my mother and my father wear, I long to travel to my home, where perhaps I will see them there. Beyond these years of solemn schooling, I have work that must be done, but I rise from my lonely pillow, thinking of the rising sun.

And after all of this is over, someday we will return home with dusty books and whiter hair and fewer, fewer lands to roam; And you would have no name to me but for the time we spent in class, Arguing over the sutras, laughing as we lay in grass.

Why do I think the dev team decided to quote this particular poem? Well... read it to yourself. Doesn’t it remind you of a certain scene, from a certain patch, from another expansion, long, long ago...?

#kugane #ffxiv #ff14 #stormblood

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bestfabricsteamerforclothes-blog · 6 years ago

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hypeathon · 6 years ago

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RWBY - Volume 6, Chapter 13 Production Analysis

Previous Volume 6 Production Analysis Posts:

Chapters one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven & twelve

When starting this production analysis series, three goals were kept in mind: 1) To disspell any potential misconceptions and myths about RWBY’s production, 2) to help add more depth and nuance to discussions about the production since some fans out there do care enough to talk about it, and 3) to highlight how various members of the staff have helped carry on certain aspects of the vision meant to be applied to this show. When the late creator of the show, the writers most closely associated with the show’s story, and almost every animator, storyboard artist, modeler, camera layout artist, rigging artist compositor, VFX artist, sound designer, etc., have all been passionate about the medium of anime and have applied that passion into crafting this ongoing anime-inspired project, why not give them all credit where credit is due, especially for this specific occasion?

As with all other prior analysis posts, this one is intended to put forth as much insight and context of the behind-the-scenes as possible. That said, since the volume 6 finale chapter follows the tradition of every other volume finale, expect things to be a bit more “shot-in-the-dark” than usual. Since volume 3, the ending credits of every other episode will usually list the names of those that were involved in that episode. Sometimes, names of certain people from certain departments will change depending on whether someone is being assigned to work on something a few episodes later or because that person is possibly preoccupied with another big project at Rooster Teeth Animation like Gen:Lock at around the same time. However, the ending credits for the volume finale are setup to list literally everyone that was involved throughout, even those that were otherwise non-credited from those with specialized roles to the families, children and pets of individual members of the production staff under “Special Thanks” and “Additional Security”. Combine that with no one in the animation and storyboard teams having mentioned who did what, there will be a lot more guesswork involved.

That’s not to say there was nothing to acknowledge about this episode, far from from it actually. To see how, let’s dive right in the Neo and Cinder scene. One of the first things of note that has not been mentioned elsewhere yet is Neo’s materialization effect. This has been done once before in chapter 11 of volume 3, but like with Yang’s semblance, the approach has changed with more nuance. By close observation, the way she previously materialized may have been done in a manner where one character model was layered on top of the other with the same exact pose and a wipe effect was used through the light emitted with another layer of the shattered pieces added. In comparison, Neo’s semblance in this chapter is a bit more elaborate. The supposed character model layering trick is still there, but what was once a more simple wipe with some pink lighting is now an empty space with a lot of fractal pieces swirling with the brighter colored ones in the middle. The effect also extends to Roman’s hat on Neo (assuming that was his hat) and the tips of pieces of the Mistralian ship as it transforms into an Atlessian one.

Then there’s the matter of the new designs for Neo and Cinder. Again, since the volume 6 finale did the ending credits differently, that also means that no concept art was shown, so there are no notes regarding the matter. It doesn’t help either that there is no known concept art of Neo in particular throughout the show’s history in general, partly due to how her model was originally conceived a mere 10 days prior to her first appearance in volume 2. However, right before volume 6 premiered, the key visual art made by concept artist, Einlee appeared which featured a silhouetted character with peculiar claw-like left hand in front of the head of the Sphinx Grimm. Many fans have quickly speculated that it was Cinder but the context of the appearance was kept vague. It’s now clear as to why that was the case considering how much Cinder’s new attire matches that of silhouette. What’s most curious about this design is how much a certain accessory has been kept between her main designs in volumes 1-3 and volumes 4 & 5, that being the “iridescent feathers” which have been kept towards her right side in varied places. That and her black crystal earrings and anklets have been mostly exclusive to her base designs and not present in any of her past, alternate incognito designs which have been designed by volume 2 art director, Kristina Nguyen, current art director Patrick Rodriguez and lead concept artist, Erin Winn. However, her two main designs that come with both of those accessories were done by Einlee and become increasingly darker in their color schemes to her now fully black outfit. As for why this specific design was in the poster when it didn’t officially make an appearance until this episode is hard to say, but it’s possible that on some level, this was an attempt to throw off fans from guessing too easily where things will turn out as they would theorize. How successful that was however is a whole other matter.

Putting that aside, as well as an extra mention of the choice of rim lighting for the setting and the little bits of animation that show off Cinder and Neo’s differing characteristics, we can move on to the main event regarding the Leviathan Grimm... or Levi, or Bubbles or whatever its nickname is suppose to be. Similar to Neo and Cinder, there were no concept designs of the character to dissect from, but it is clearly safe to say that the character was inspired by kaiju of the tokusatsu or “special filming” genre in Japan. Tokusatsu is basically used to describe any live-action films or shows that utilize a series of special/practical effects, one of which being having a stuntman portray a giant creature of mech or some other variation inside a suit, otherwise referred to as “suitmation.” The fall 2018 anime, SSSS Gridman, served as an example of simulating that feeling to a great degree through the way the creatures and for the most part, Gridman were animated in 3-D. Co-writer Miles Luna has gone on record before about being a big fan of the Godzilla franchise, having grown up watching them with his father, so it would not be the least bit surprising if the Leviathan Grimm was his idea. The way it was animated seems to strike this balance between how Godzilla and other kaiju have been depicted in live-action Japanese films while also making it believably feel like a part of the world of RWBY. Another noteworthy bit regarding the Grimm and how it moves is the way it dives down into the water and then rises back up from it slightly later in the episode. This is not so much to do with animation as it has to do with the use of visual effects and compositing, but parts such as the Leviathan’s silhouette underwater are especially interesting since that has rarely happened in the show prior. The only other comparable instance that springs to mind is when the Nuckelavee appears from the smoke in the volume 4 finale and there may have been a similar compositing trick. The other thing of note was the water effects which are depicted much more realistic compared to when say, Cordovin shot at Ruby and Weiss in chapter 11 which that giant splash was done in 2-D or when splashes are done via more cel-shaded 3-D visual effects.

There is more to talk about regarding the Godzilla inspired Grimm, but first, let’s rewind back slightly to bits of character acting. Despite being unsure of who did these moments, the transition from Cordovin feeling frustrated to feeling incapable of doing anything was very convincing, as well as the scene with Blake, Yang and Ruby right after and then. Of course, Blake’s ears was part of the reason for the latter as when we hear Ruby off-screen, her right ear shifts and then a bit later we see them perk up after she, Weiss and Yang talk to Maria. Even though certain animators like Asha Bishi and Hannah Novotny took more advantage of the rigs for the cat ears than others back in volume 4, a lot more animators have since then been increasingly been more conscious about having that be a part of Blake’s character acting. Speaking of rigs, the rigging artists, along with the audio and tech teams, can be considered the unsung heroes of the ever-growing staff. Lead rigging artist, Gio Coutinho and fellow rigging artists, Brian Eby and Ariana Fillipini may be one of the smallest teams and are hardly mentioned throughout these production analyses, certain animators such as Kim Newman have gone on record to owing them for providing what are essentially the virtual skeleton and bones of the character. As talented as the animators are, they can only do so much with the character models unless they are as “animatable” as possible to quote volume 5 lead rigging artist Sean Stephenson on the 6th episode of CRWBY - Behind the Episode, who is now the current lead of the rigging team for Gen:Lock.

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We then get some effects of the hard-light dust barriers being implemented and are timed pretty effectively through some slow-in and slow out animations along with the use of lighting towards the start of the barrier as the hard-light shifts from one pole to the other. Next is more homage to Godzilla by having the Leviathan breathe out its version of the atomic ray (there’s a lot of them in the franchise). Between the first instance and the next one when the main party attempted to close in, there is actually a combination of certain lightning and fire effects such as the same animations for the swelling ball of energy used whenever Cordovin was about to fire lightning dust, as well as sparks surrounding the fire breath with some seemingly blurred compositing layered on top. There is also a neat recoil animation with the Grimm as it unleashes its attack. In between all of this though is a scene of Ruby putting forth her plan within the airship. The timing and facial reactions presented by everyone felt similar to that of when Jaune announced his idea to steal the Atlas airship in chapter 9 which was animated by Hannah McCravy, so it’s possible that she may have animated this scene too. Whether she animated the entirety of said-scene though is what I’m more uncertain of.

Skipping ahead a bit, we get to Ruby preparing to use her silver eyes by getting the music being more subdued and getting quick cuts to the things going on around her. I nice touch here was having Ruby’s mouth twitch a bit right when her name gets called out through her ear piece. Then again, what’s really surprising is the fact there was an ear piece model at all. Back in chapters 10-12, we saw quite a bit of the main cast using gestures with their fingers by their ears as if there was a device they were using the listen to each other. However, the device in question was never really shown up until now. One educated guess could be that there never was one until this small scene here where it needed to be made and shown in order to see Ruby attempt to remain focused. Now comes what is part of the highlight of the episode being Ruby’s memories which are mostly redrawn shots from various cuts in the series with parts of characters like arms, legs, hair and in Zwei’s case, his tail being movable (and his butt having an actual x-marked "hole”). There were also certain details implemented such as the lighting being more comparably warmer and the line work in certain characters hair, clothing and in Nora’s case, her biceps being slightly more defined. Many fans by now have already concluded that due to the show’s visual presentation of its first few volumes not having aged that well back when Poser was the main animation software that the choice for 2-D art was shown instead. That would not at all be a wrong assumption to make. However, even the one shot with Jaune in the forest in chapter 2 of volume 4, back when RWBY transitioned to using Maya and 3DS Max was entirely redrawn. The same goes for Oscar and Ruby in the training room during chapter 5 of volume 5 which seems to have been slightly redrawn but to more with adjusted lighting. So the choice was not limited to anything prior to them using the two softwares. The one clear exception to this ensemble set of shots was of Maria back during chapter 8 of volume 6. Admittedly, it was tricky figuring out who did all of the redrawn shots, especially since not all of them seem to have been done by the same person. The shot with Qrow and Ruby in particular sticks out as being more different. It may be that Erin Winn did most of the shots since the way she draws lines for hair like with Yang being similar that of the line work for Kali Belladonna’s concept art, which she designed. As for Qrow and Ruby meeting, that may have been Patrick Rodriguez.

One other thing to note in these series of shots were the sound effects used during them. Sound designer, Philip Spann described the change of the sound of the memory flashes to Pyrrha and Penny as being the equivalent of viewers “being hit in the gut”, using large reverberant drums. Conversely, sound was applied a little differently during the the latter set of memory flashes, namely “pulling the music back” as Philip phrased it when seeing Summer Rose which was Kerry Shawcross’s idea. Now, in-between all of this, there was a bit of Ruby and Jinn interacting with each other. While I’m uncertain as to who animated it, it may be the same person that animated Ruby and Weiss’s interaction at the bar room during chapter 5 of volume 6. With that mention out of the way, there’s the first reveal of a fulled rigged and animated model of Summer. There were a couple of noteworthy design choices, the first being how her clothing more or less resembles Ruby’s current outfit while hairstyle is more varied in appearance. The other thing of note is her eyes. According to Kerry Shawcross on the season 2 finale of RWBY Rewind, characters with silver eyes have a small “tick”, referring to the small white dashes on their eyes whereas characters like Mercury who have been confused for having silver eyes, don’t. This is something Kerry admitted as being an oversight at first when needing to differentiate between such characters and their visual traits.

Next is when Ruby unleashes her silver eyed powers which involves the same hatch-lining effects which have not been used since the Wyvern Grimm in chapter 12. Skipping ahead to when the Leviathan is still moving, we get Cordovin who believes in the Ruby that believes in her. In all seriousness, just as how it was likely that Miles Luna anticipated the Levianthan Grimm as a fan of Godzilla, Kerry very likely planned for the moment Cordovin utilized her mech’s drill feature as a big fan of Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann. To put this all in perspective, Gurren Lagann was an anime Monty Oum introduced him to as a fan of the show himself back around the time they and Miles started forming ideas and outlines for RWBY’s story in the midst of Red vs Blue season 10 production in 2012. It was even among the various anime that Monty had him and Miles study as inspiration for RWBY. Fast forward to over a year later in August of 2013 and Kerry mentioned being on his sixth viewing of the show.

“Toppa Tengen Gurren Lagann is probably my all time favorite anime. It just has a level of energy and enthusiasm I enjoy. There are subtle (and not so subtle) lessons in Gurren Lagann about not giving up; energy that persists beyond oneself that I apply to RWBY.” - Monty Oum, Crunchyroll

Having said that, the scene itself gained the most criticism out of the whole episode from the fan base due to the frame rate when Cordovin attacked the Leviathan. Obviously the choice to lower the frame rate two 2s and 3s was a creative one given the likely homage previous mentioned. However, the matter of frame rate in 3-D animation will never cease to be a delicate subject matter with the creative decision leading to varying results from project-to-project and leaving different responses from viewer-to-viewer. As much as these analyses are dedicated to providing any objective insight about RWBY’s production whenever possible and making educated guesses in-between, whether the frame rate felt right, is up to you, the reader. Speaking personally, since the visual choice revolved around a character whose recurring animation and camerawork has been often depicted as over-the-top and dramatic, it only felt fitting. Speaking of dramatic, when Ruby and Cordovin face each other, there is an interesting fast zoom between the two before amends are made between them.

Once all has died down, we get a scene with quite a bit of rim lighting to help emphasize on the night time setting. The animation of the scene itself and how the characters are timed to do a small pause before each gesture was akin to that of the beginning of chapter 8 with the main party and Cordovin and in chapter 2 when team RWBY were all arguing with Ozpin, both of which were largely animated by Nicole LaCroix. Everything from when everyone talked to Ruby about her bold decision-making to when the cast sees Atlas and the Kingdom’s air fleet were probably animated by her. Whether or not that’s true, certain instances like Weiss’s concerning facial expression when seeing the air fleet were quite nuanced. One last thing to talk about regarding the scene are the matte paintings of Atlas, made by one of the environment designers, Weston T. Jones, who apparently contributed quite a bit throughout the volume in terms of what is shown in the final product. With that said, the ending credits themselves have some interesting positions only seen here that are not shown in earlier volumes. This is nothing new, as the volume 5 finale ending credits had a team of crowd animators which was not previously listed throughout every other episode of that volume. In this case however, positions such as matte painters and script consultants were exclusive to the finale credits this time around. Also, side note, Dustin Matthews and Kim Newman credited among the series animators even though they were never credited on any episode this volume and have been dedicating time working on Gen:Lock as that series’ animation director and lead animator respectively. Maybe he was credited for providing bits of motion capture?

Finally, there’s the after credits scene which actually has a fair bit to touch on, one of which being the forming of new “flying monkey” grimm. Aside from it being another nod to The Wizard of Oz, there seems to also be the sound of the Nevermore cries layered beneath the Beringel roars a bit. Accompanying the scene is some intriguing framing of Emerald and Mercury by the broken windows and then Hazel being framed with them a bit later. This is actually very similar to the opening scene in volume 4 before Cinder called them over, so it’s possible this was done by design to indicate the shift in who they find themselves sticking with. Lastly, Salem summons the pools of black in the form of some 2-D effects animation to end the scene and thus wrap-up the volume as a whole. As said in the previous analysis, there’s no clear indication of when production of volume 6 ended between departments. However, Miles Luna confirmed in a podcast interview with Chad James on the “Lights, Camera: Austin” website that the outline phase for RWBY volume 7′s story started as of January 21st. Combine that with how Neath Oum confirmed that there was still something leftover that never made it into the volume 6 finale and it’s clear that Kerry and Miles are itching to tell the next installment of RWBY’s ongoing story.

That officially marks the end of the chapter 13 production analysis, as well as the production analysis series for this entire volume as a whole. To say that this was a strenuous process would be putting it mildly, as a lot of searching and fact-checking information of the show’s production, past and present and forming it into as cohesive of a narrative as possible each chapter, each week, was definitely more of an ordeal. This was all a lot fun to do and some of this would have not been as doable without much needed help. A tremendous thanks to Changyuraptor over on the RWBY Sub-Reddit for being as gung-ho about updating his Source McGourse document every week to confirm who animated which sequences every week which greatly helped with better understanding how certain animators approached doing what they did. A big thanks also goes to MyAmelia on the RWBY Sub-Reddit who provided some very constructive, much-needed advice for both this Tumblr page and its posts to help potentially attract more viewers. There are still some kinks to work out, but I’m very much bearing in mind the feedback. Speaking of which, a big thanks also goes out to the following who have been very eager and provided great feedback about seeing these analysis, both on tumblr and on reddit:

Duelverse

Achro-o

HighPriestFuneral

i-am-the-entertainer

htgeehtgee

lordess-dickery-doof

yellow-eyed-green-crocodile

ladychaosstudios

And everyone else whose names I’ve otherwise neglected to add here that have been avidly reading these analyses. Finally, a grand shout-out to Kerry Shacross and Miles Luna for continuing to do great work, as well as every member of the CRWBY in every department, new and veteran for putting as much time, effort and skill into their respective crafts for making the show look, sound and feel the way it volume 6 did. They all did an overall hell of an amazing job. Among these members I wish to thank especially are animator Asha Bishi, storyboard and camera layout artist Rachel Doda and 2-D FX Artist, Myke Chapman, who have each decided to follow some random, awkward fan on Tumblr that spent perhaps a bit too much time obsessing over the production of this show. Thank you guys so much.

#rwby #rwby6 #rwby spoilers #rwby analysis #crwby #production analysis #Kerry Shawcross #Miles Luna #einlee #patrick rodriguez #erin winn

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