#man this stinks for Lunar

[llamaisllama777]

@thedenofravenpuff

You're right Lunar does need someone to turn to. Unfortunately everyone who he could turn to is either

-mad at him

-done with him

-is an idiot *Cough!* Castor! We get it dude don't dig the knife in deeper. *Cough!*

-evil, Rez.

-in another dimension

-or busy with their own poo. Literally everyone on the other TSBS.

Boy has literally no one.

And yes, Earth is still right in her decision, but you are right. Lunar needs someone to turn to and help him. It doesn't need to be Earth or even Monty, but... who?

I DON'T WANT TO HEAR ANY OF Y'ALL SAY EARTH IS NOT JUSTIFIED IN HER DECISION!

Earth is entirely in her right to not forgive Lunar.

Earth has been betrayed time and time again this is another scar to add to the list!

She's made it very clear she still hates her dad and hates Nexus, but a part of her still cares for them like Lunar. She may hate Lunar right now, but he's still her brother. Lunar messed up BIG TIME. Every action has consequences, good and bad, and Lunar's consequences are bad. Earth is gonna have this pain for the REST OF HER LIFE!

I don't wanna hear anyone say Earth is in the wrong. She's not!

Lunar still has a lot to work through, and in time, Earth will forgive him, but not right now.

[stacks-reviews]

Anime for Halloween

Every year I try to watch at least one horror anime that I own. Though it does not necessarily have to be scary. As long as it is very violent and/or contains monsters commonly associated with Halloween then it qualifies. This year I tried out Another. I have only four episodes left to go and I am currently planning on finishing them Halloween night after work.

In years past I watched: 

--The Skull Man “Freelance journalist Hayato Mitogami returns to his hometown of Otomo to investigate rumors of a man wearing a skull mask committing murders there. Once in the city, he discovers connections between the victims and a local pharmaceutical company, a new religious sect, and strange half human, half animal creatures. Along with a young photographer, Kiriko Mamiya, he decides to find out who the Skull Man really is.”

A pseudo sequel to Cyborg 009, which I didn’t know until after I watched it. This was the first anime I started for my annual Halloween watch. It has been about three years since I watched it so I don’t remember too much about it. I do remember liking it overall.

--Memories A three part anthology produced by the great Katsuhiro Otomo, that are based off of three of his short stories.

----Magnetic Rose “Two space travelers following a distress signal drawn into a magnificent world created by one woman's memories.”

The only thriller/mystery in this anthology. This one was really good and suspenseful. 

----Stink Bomb “A young chemist accidentally transforms himself into an unstoppable biological weapon set on a direct course for Tokyo.”

This one was hilarious. I laughed throughout the entire thing.

----Cannon Fodder “Depicts a day in the life of a city whose entire purpose is the firing of cannons at an unknown enemy.”

This one is more of a thought peace. It moves at a slower pace than the other two. Which can be a bit jarring after watching the comedy and action of Stink Bomb. But it is still really good.

--King of Thorn “A virus begins to grip the Earth's population and a group of hopeful survivors are cryogenically frozen in attempt to find a cure. But when the group awakens they are flung into a horrifying situation.”

I was really excited for this movie when I first heard out about it. It looked beautiful and amazing. And it was beautifully animated. At least until they had to move. Or fight. Or do anything that wasn’t talking. Then it didn’t look as pretty. I watched this with my friend and we laughed at most of it and were confused by the end. We ended up labeling it as good for a laugh but not much else. I would like to rewatch it sometime to see if that opinion still stands. It has been three or four years. 

It would have been better off if it had been made into a series. After we watched it I decided to hunt down the manga it was based off (six volumes total). I got lucky and managed to get them all from Rightstuf. I enjoyed the manga a lot more but I had to read it a second time before I understood it.

--Serial Experiments Lain “Lain Iwakura appears to be an ordinary girl, with almost no experience with computers. Yet the sudden suicide of a schoolmate, and a number of strange occurrences, conspire to pull Lain into the world of the Wired, where she gradually learns that nothing is what it seems to be... not even Lain herself.”

This is a really good series. I didn’t understand all of it and it will take a few rewatches to piece it all together.  

I haven’t been doing the Halloween anime for very long. I think I started doing it in 2014 or 2013. And I don’t always have enough time to watch something. Last year I ended up not watching anything. I thought I had seen more but after some double checking that ended up not being the case. But I wanted to list them anyway as additional suggestions for October viewings. Though remember, this is based on titles that I currently own. They don’t have to be scary but can qualify if they have high levels of violence or star creatures usually associated with Halloween. They are:

-Le Portrait de Petite Cossette (a fun mystery) -Boogiepop Phantom (not as good as I was expecting but still enjoyable) -Project Ito: Empire of Corpses (I was tired when I watched it and kept having to rewind it when I nodded off. So I need to rewatch it sometime) -Lunar Legend Tsukihime (only cause it has vampires) -Elfen Lied (pure violence levels only)

And now for the titles that I currently own but haven’t watched yet: -Ghost Stories (every year I say I’ll watch it but I keep moving it back) -Shiki -Shigofumi -Gilgamesh -Ghost Hunt

[cloudninetonine]

One last thought before I sleep, player being sarcastic with the boys when it comes to them being questioned about how they smell so good and it’s shit like “I was blessed by the goddess to smell good” or “when I was a kid I fucked around with magic so every time I get sweaty the spell I did makes the stink go away after a few minutes.” And they fucking believe them. The boys don’t realize it’s sarcasm. Player sneaks off during their watch to go bathe , they’ve properly hid their supplies too so the boys can’t use them. You know that stuff has to be expensive like body wash? 30-40 rupees. Shampoo and conditioner one bottle of each is like 50-60 rupees cuz they have to make sure to have enough to keep up with not just the travel but the fighting as well.

That is my little thought also stinky chain will be in my fic cuz it’s funny to think about- your man Lunar

Okay but Player just gaslighting them-

"I was blessed by an oracle when I was just a bab and now I will forever smell like fresh flowers and vanilla."

"Really?"

"Hell no."

[thalsianiii]

DWC Day 6: Festival

Winter’s veil was goblin greed. Hallows end was a sham. The lunar new year was elven hullabaloo. Most of Azeroth’s festivals meant absolutely nothing to the mad warlock. All except one: Brewfest.

It was Brewfest and Brewfest alone that would put a pause to his dastardly ways and let him live life as an ordinary man. For a couple weeks a year, Percival would give up sacrifices and abductions, spells and summons, all so he could indulge with his now growing family in strong ale and prezels. Rolled ribs, pickled cabbage and boar tails. All the hallmarks of the best festival in all realities.

This year was no different. Souvineer steins were added to his already obnoxious collection. A new pair of lederhosen for himself and a matching one for his wife. This time with some dark iron fiery design.

His jiggly stomach was put to the test as he engaged in sausage eating contests, only to lose to fat pandaren.

His racing skills were proven as he rode the backs of stinking rams in races. Why the cruel summoner even volunteered to bark for his favourite brewery, Thunderbrew, for an afternoon.

And when the dwarven polka played, he danced.

No one embodied the spirit of Brewfest quite like Percival. Even some dwarves could be put to shame with how hard he partied. No human loved this holiday like he did. The newer members of his family seeing a side to him that if they hadn’t seen it for themselves, they’d never believe it to be true.

A teenage stepdaughter might be a bit more abrasive to the idea of such boisterous and foreign revelry. But an infant child? Percival could mould the little one as he saw fit. Raise him to learn to love Brewfest just as much as he did. The first step? Teeny tiny lederhosen!

@cypris-thalsian​ @daily-writing-challenge​

[serandipity]

If the guest decided to make an issue of this there would be worse things than a scolding he would receive. Sheik was meant to be not scene nor heard. If it was to be known that he had been perceived by a most esteemed guest he would be punished severely. He kept his head bowed, practically trembling from fright.

However, when no yell came and instead the guest spoke softly, making it clear they were not interested in seeing him punished, he lifted his head, his gaze still cast downward making it clear that Sheik knew he was below them.

"T...The celebrations are two fold. His Majesty spared no expense for the first guests to be hosted in the new Kingdom of Hyrule, but as the fall equinox approaches, it is customary to celebrate the harvest before the Goddess of Life sleeps for spring and things freeze over for winter..." Sheik muttered sheepishly, answering the question as best as he could.

Truthfully, he isn't sure if they should be celebrating. The land was still scarred from the long civil war and food stores were much leaner than these celebrations made it seem. However, it would not be the nobles who went without if famine struck-- it would be the peasant class.

Sheik could not help but feel a sense of unease about it all. He was told not to question the king's decisions-- he was an accomplished war hero that unified the land together, but...

There was no doubt the stink of decadence lurked in the castle halls. His father had not been the same since the passing of the queen. His father spent more time trying to assuage nobles that this was not an omen that would portend a great evil than he did actually solving problems among the populace.

Indeed, the palace was much like a gilded bubble in that way, and he knew eventually it would be Zelda's problem to deal with. Even before the war, Hyrule had always been matrilineal-- the holy powers of the Goddess of Light would always be strongest in the women of the family.

Sheik often felt more relieved than upset that he would not be considered for the throne as a man and as a half-Sheikah. He had seen the way his sister suffered because of it and could not say it was a life he wanted.

"Additionally, along with the Most Esteemed Royal Empress of the Sidhe-- the King of the Gerudo will be here in the next lunar cycle to sign the last treaty to officially end the civil war that must be signed..." Sheik explained reticently. Truthfully, he knew far more than an average servant should given he was Zelda's closest attendant. His sister spoke to him often of court politics even if he didn't truly understand the nuance.

"Imperial Sidhe does not bow, or bend, or break."

Fariah would have lied if she said the expression on the King's face at such flat words did not make her want to smile ruefully. She knew, however, that to break face here at the grand entrance of the delegation and herself would be seen as a weakness. A contradiction in terms that undermined the sheer political power she was exuding. When faced with a monarch so under-confident he felt he had to bow to anyone, it was her job to push back, glittering at the front of her own people atop the fierce warhorse that was a crowning achievement of her military might with the afternoon sun ringing her head and setting the metallic stitches across fine silk alight with cosmic fire. Fire reflected in her unfeeling gilded gaze from the prideful loft of her head, barely agreeing to meet eye to eye.

A vision, a terror to even mainlanders who had never once been exposed to her lineage's bloodthirsty legacy. A wordless warning nonetheless.

There was a ripple of unease through the welcoming party at her refusal to prostrate in return, and she thought at first that maybe it was some sort of custom Hyrulian royalty merely did. But there was a snide arrogance she could see upon the monarch before her, a feigned sense of propriety that made her own mane frizz in response and her ears pin to her head. Body languages she knew went unnoticed in their subtlety. Nothing to pick apart as she was waved ahead to bring her delegation caravan into the courtyard beyond for their week-long stay.

Frankly, she was surprised to see the man out in the courtyards with his staff. If Markesh's sly intel was to be believed, the King had not been seen outside the castle grounds for a long while. His child had, for certain. A little social butterfly, apparently, fond of mingling among her people when she could or was allowed. The Empress could commend that, at least. Hopefully, it would not be long before she held the throne. For a multitude of reasons that flickered through her head as potential future paths.

Though the Empress herself refused to bow, the rest of the delegation did, passing by the King with hands on their hearts and bowing from the shoulders. A sign of deep respect, pledging where the life-blood flowed. A custom of anyone not their supreme leader to give promises of an uneventful visit, though wherever Sidhe went it seemed they were noticeable. Vibrantly colored, elegantly adorned, with movements like dancers and surprisingly warm smiles where their Imperial refused. It would not be long before they went from only noticeable to popular as well.

The party was set up in one of the side gardens, draft horses boarded in the royal stables as a part of their host's hospitality. When ignorant stablehands went to grasp her Dragon's chin strap to board the terrible stallion and his brethren, they were dutifully warned by the on-staff handlers to leave them be. They would handle the war chargers as their accommodations could not be provided by standard means, accompanied by the angry thundering snarl from Bucephalus' chest and the pant of his sinister grinning jaw, lined in needly teeth that threatened to remove pieces from the inexperienced.

Markesh was immediately at his Empress' side, offering a hand to help her dismount and peruse how setting up was going. Wagons and carts were balanced and stabilized, wheels chocked to keep them from rolling. Standards were properly in place, as though the gilded finery of the vehicles themselves could not tell curious onlookers who they belonged to. Space was designated for a community meeting ground between them, the shouts of checking shipping rosters and rattling off itemized to-do lists before they could properly call themselves camped in for the week.

">>Everything is according to the itineraries.<<" Markesh began, striding tall and closed next to his Imperial with a little smile on his face.

">>Good.<<" she replied, moving to pull the Aeroglaive from its hidden pocket and rest the small pointed baton over her left arm. ">>I am going to look over the customs gifts to make sure all is in order. Meet me at the shipping cart when you are done here.<<"

The young Regent saluted smartly, although she knew it was more flippant than anything, and he went on his way to help finish setting up with an equally playful, ">>Yes, Your Eminence.<<" She continued on her own path, leaving him behind with a small smile and a chuckle under her breath. His jovial nature was hard to ignore for her. Perhaps it was what softened the message from the host's court before she could begin her role, much less complete it.

She was to lodge within the castle itself, customary orders. Of course, her Regent would also be allowed to keep her company. Fariah's lips thinned a little with the smallest narrowing of her eyes, although she did agree to the terms of custom. The King of Hyrule was no fool, it seemed. Seeking to separate an undisputed ruler from their entourage provided extra security on his part, believing that if there were barriers between them, no signs of rebellion or dissent could be utilized. It was a fair request, under guise of offering luxury to a visiting monarch. She may have done something similar on her own home turf. But she did not need walls or stairs or doors or windows to separate her connection to her people. As such, accepting was merely a formality for her.

Markesh was soon to catch up on seeing his Imperial being lead toward the castle instead of performing her actual duties, though he understood with a knowing glitter of his dark eyes after a short explanation. Even in so small a noise as his own compliance, he was very much aware of what it meant. Customs would have to wait a little while, it seemed.

The straight-forward corridors of the inner castle were a surprise. The Imperial Palace was a labyrinth of crisscrossing hallways and back corridors and byways, meant to follow the curving edges of the structure and confuse any would-be attackers. Very few halls were so straight and parallel to one another as they were here. It would be easy for intruders to be spotted, and equally as easy for the victim to be found. Ticks and notes as they descended to the guest quarters set up for them, added to mental lists to be shared at a later time. The notice of constant activity was made with a tick here and there between them.

The room itself was decent, in their opinion. Not ornate or decorated as much as they were used to, but it was spacious for the pair of them. Fariah offered a nod of thanks to the usher that had brought them to their lodgings, and once the door was closed and they were certain they were alone, Markesh was immediately at work.

Every nook and cranny was checked, not even a speck of dust being missed by his sharp eye for detail. Nothing was amiss in the room or adjacent alcoves that he saw, Fariah paid mind to the Aeroglaive still on her arm. So far, the enchanted weapon was silent, not a buzz or whisper against her hand. Nothing magically dangerous was detected, and all she needed to do was watch Markesh pulling a long strip of blue silk from inside his vest into the open to know there was nothing physically dangerous as well. It felt bordering paranoid to do such checks, but after such a flagrant display of disrespect at the front gate, she expected something to happen.

The blue silk was tied to the branch of a crawling ivy just outside the window of the bedroom space. The wind caught it, billowed it sinuously out into space. A marker of where their room was to the delegation in the gardens below in the event the hivemind was rippled for war.

">>Well! Shall we go and retrieve your luggage, Your Eminence.<<" Markesh posited, opening the door once more for his Empress to glide through it into the hall beyond.

">>I think we shall.<<" she told him, stopping long enough for him to shut the door again and join her. ">>It gives us a chance to see the inside of the castle workings as well, doesn't it.<<"

">>Too true. Too true.<<" he laughed and followed her step down the hall.

Small quick steps were employed, giving the impression that she never walked wherever she was going. Instead, she floated, the light ruffling sound of silken layers the only thing that betrayed any movement. Her Regent remained next to her left shoulder, a glittering phantom on his own in his sharp black uniform hemmed in the silver and platinum motifs of his station. They were muttering notes back and forth to one another, occasionally stopping to allow the staff to move where they needed or do what they needed to do. Bulletpoints on mental lists to address at a later date, when the world was a flurry of white fabric of which she was contrast to in dark peacock greens and glittering embroidery of the pupil'd feathers, the Goddess Skin in its vivacious crimson framing her with vibrating contradiction.

Fariah found herself caught off-guard by the display, though it barely showed in more than a stiffening of her shoulders and her ears pinning to her head. The surprise was short-lived as she stared down at the culprit, laying gilded gaze on hardly more than a child. Markesh took a moment to disengage himself from a wayward towel that had landed on him, laughing a little at his own predicament before he pulled free and ran his fingers through his hair to straighten it back out.

By now, they were both staring at the prostration of the boy, heads tilting opposite one another in silent query before a glance at one another made them share in the discomfort of it. Staff in the Palace never acted this way. Reverent at times, certainly. It was to be expected, given the role the Imperial and their inner court played in the structured hierarchy of the place. But this was bordering on abject fright of something that likely would not come. An expected punishment, perhaps?

Fariah was not one to scold another's house staff. She was something to be feared in debate and in politics and on the battlefield. Terrorizing someone else's maids was surprisingly not in her favored repertoire. It did lend her and her eagle-eyed Regent something to look into as bait, however. That was something she would have to see to later.

"...It is quite alright." she offered in reply after a short hesitation of observation, watching as Markesh began to find and fold the rogue linens, stacking them neatly nearby. "Tell me, if you would be so kind. What is the bustle about?"

A smooth voice, even in tone and darkly rich. Like a fine red wine, or something darker and much stronger than that with a hint of a bite to it. It was not supposed to be unkind or unsettling, but she realized as Markesh stacked another towel onto the pile that such flat affect may be taken the wrong way. A sigh, unable still to leave the politician behind...

"What Her Eminence means to ask, is there a holiday going on?"

His voice was much brighter, a lot less tense. Friendlier to match the equally friendly smile he had on his face. Always better with people, she should simply let him handle the public relations. He was better at it.

[feralnumberfive]

The Rewatch Academy: Episode 1 of Season 1

"We Only See Each Other At Weddings and Funerals”

I am in no way a good analyst so my little analysis and speculations probably sound a bit goofy or pretty wild and probably mean nothing at all. Everything I put into this post about each episode is purely what I noticed or thought, whether it's funny or serious. I will be making jokes, so please just leave it at that (in no way am I trying to make fun of an actor and or character!) I am also in no way saying I noticed this stuff first. This is just what I noticed while rewatching these episodes

☂ ☂ ☂ ☂ ☂ ☂ ☂ ☂ ☂ ☂ ☂ ☂ ☂ ☂ ☂ ☂ ☂ ☂ ☂ ☂ ☂ ☂ ☂ ☂ ☂ ☂

1x01 | 1x02 | 1x03 | 1x04 |

☂ ☂ ☂ ☂ ☂ ☂ ☂ ☂ ☂ ☂ ☂ ☂ ☂ ☂ ☂ ☂ ☂ ☂ ☂ ☂ ☂ ☂ ☂ ☂ ☂ ☂

☂️ In the Pilot script, it has a woman giving birth to a baby boy in Poland in 1984 (potentially Five or maybe even Luther??) 

☂️ “Picture Book” is an absolute bop and no one can tell me otherwise

☂️ What if someone saw this parade of carriages and noticed that there were seven? Later Reginald announces that he adopted 6 kids, so I wonder if anyone saw the carriages earlier and heard Reginald's announcement and became confused

☂️ The concert hall in the Pilot script is in New York, which I assume is safe to assume in NYC. The script also mentions later that Diego drops the monocle in the Hudson River

☂️ The Pilot script originally had Allison in LA, and Klaus in Amsterdam (which he was supposed to be levitating in that scene)

☂️ Diego was originally supposed to be pretty brutal and violent

☂️ I am a huge POTO fan so having a medley of the songs from the musical is so awesome to hear. The first time I watched this episode and heard the violin starting to play, I was like “Huh, this really sounds like POTO” and then I realized it was! It gave me chills and still does to this day overtime I watch this scene

☂️ The dark and mysterious tones of POTO really matches the vibes of TUA well. It’s just so good, especially as a way to introduce Vanya. The first song Vanya plays is “Phantom of the Opera” which is a nice symbolism when introducing the Hargreeves Siblings. The song itself is Christine discovering who her true Angel of Music is, a strange masked man that everyone knows well but they truly don’t know who he really is, like with the Umbrellas and their separate personalities and struggles as actual human beings and not just as the superheroes the public knows them as. It also plays while showing Diego, who is a mysterious masked figure at that point. 

☂️ “Angel of Music” is basically Christine asking her angel to guide her, which is ironic that it plays while Klaus is getting out of a place that guides him down the right path, knowing that he’s immediately going to go do drugs again and to go down the “wrong” path

☂️ I wonder if the voice in Luther’s spacesuit as he receives his message is an automated voice or his robot named “Ben” like in the comics. I doubt it’s the latter, but who knows

☂️ Okay, here’s another POTO thing. Diego picks up his knife and wipes the blood off of it and tells the family “Your family is safe now” right as the start of “Think of Me” plays. The first lyrics of the song are “Think of me, think of me fondly” which can be seen as Diego wants the family to truly view him as a hero that saved them

☂️ Aaaand here’s another! Again, while “Think of Me” is playing, one of the parts in the song where Raoul sings “Long ago, it seems so long ago, how young and innocent we were” plays while the paparazzi begins questioning Allison about her father and siblings

☂️ Okay okay, last POTO thing. I especially love that "Music of the Night" plays when Klaus wakes up in the ambulance at night. It's so awesome! Especially since the song is basically about giving into your darkest desires, which Klaus clearly did

 ☂️ Goddamn is the music in the show amazing, and I’m not just talking about all of the fun lyrical songs! Jeff Russo you get a thumbs up from me

☂️ Ta-da! Here’s some portraits that are shown of the siblings with Reginald when they were young that are shown in the show

☂️ Even the first person Vanya sees when she arrives home doesn’t greet her/welcome her back 

☂️ Emmy and Elliot really played that awkward hug and greeting between Allison and Vanya well. You can feel the awkward tension (hey sisters)

☂️ According to the pilot script, Diego wears his mask practically all the time like in the comics

☂️ Luther was literally supposed to have a gorilla body in the pilot script

☂️ “Oh, YoU gOt BiG, lUtHeR”

☂️ Godddd the song playing while Vanya looks at the books on the shelf in including her own is 👌

☂️ Ah, there’s a book called “Lunar Living”

☂️ It might just be me, but it seems like the light shining onto Five’s portrait is ever so slightly askew

☂️ Vanya leaving the lights on and sandwiches for Five reminds me of someone leaving food outside for a stray cat

☂️ Five was originally supposed to be gone for over 22 years in the pilot script

☂️ I wonder at what point in each of the siblings’ lives did they realize, or at least they thought, their brother wouldn’t be coming home 

☂️ Babies 

☂️ There’s so many ape and monkey pictures and diagrams around Reginald’s office. Foreshadowing for Luther?

☂️ I love Klaus’s theme. It’s heard in almost every episode https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EJa9H8SY4wQ&list=OLAK5uy_k2NJivpu0PIwxrOmPVrqN4umBZaahOGWI&index=6

☂️ Why does Reginald have two pictures of himself featuring aircraft? In one of them he’s outside a private jet and the other is him inside a cockpit

☂️ I must say that the dialogue in the pilot script definitely closely mirrors the dialogue of the comics 

☂️ “Told me I should be careful who to trust” 👀

☂️ Something behind Elliot is moving

☂️ I was hoping for this to be a gazelle of some sort above Five’s portrait, but It’s an Gemsbok. However, the Gemsbok is an antelope and all gazelles are antelopes

☂️ “The Walker” playing during the bank robbery scene is 👌👌

☂️ Luther is ready to throw hands

☂️ These robbers really decided to rob a bank at 10:05 am?

☂️ I just love Five popping out of nowhere criss-cross applesauce 

☂️ Something that hasn’t been explained/fully shown is Five’s ability to teleport objects. He teleported the gun out of the guy’s hand and replaced it with a stapler

☂️ Five’s teleportation noise reminds me of something going really fast, like an aircraft breaking the sound barrier. It’s almost like a mini sonic boom, but not as loud

☂️ Okay so I’ve noticed this in most of the episodes, but I don’t think when Five teleports he makes an actual noise. I’ll point this out more as we continue through the episodes. At the bank scene when Five is on the counter, it appears that the first time he teleports the bank robber whips around when Five speaks. The second time the robber turns to Five simply because he doesn’t know where he went and he’s searching for the threat

☂️ “That’s one badass stApler”

☂️ When Ben asks if he has to go into the Vault, he looks at Klaus for reassurance even though Luther is the one speaking to him

☂️ Five was still pretty cocky back in his youth. They, or more like Ben, have more bad guys to take care of and he’s just chilling with his hands in his pockets and leaning back/slouching like he’s bored. His tone with the robber also proves that and the way he just happily bounds out of the bank

☂️ Sir, why are you looking at the camera

☂️ Luther’s little wave to the reporters when the Umbrellas come out of the bank is cute

☂️ The pilot script didn’t include a flashback of a bank robbery, but instead to the Umbrellas training when they were younger. There’s too much to screenshot to I’ll summarize it.

-Luther bench-presses over 500 lbs

-Diego has been holding his breath for about six hours and he flips Reginald off

-Klaus levitates stuff

-Allison is slacking off and when Reginald tells her to continue her training she simply rumors him that she doesn’t have to

-Ben is fighting guards and Reginald calls him “Number Six” to which Vanya, who isn’t supposed to be down there, corrects him that his name is Ben and reminds Reginald that they have names

- Five very quickly and quite brutally rips off the heads and limbs of training dummies, snaps their necks, and stabs them. He is referred to as “A ruthless little war machine.” Reginald calls him “Perfect”

☂️ The pilot script implies that Reginald had alien life mounted on the walls of his office

☂️ There wasn’t a dance scene in the pilot script

☂️ Not to get super into detail about this, but Luther’s room is filled with a lots of models and paintings of aircraft, mainly from WWII. Almost all of them are of Allied aircraft, and more specifially Commonwealth aircraft, like the RCAF. So this could be more of a clue to the Umbrellas living in Canada

☂️ Diego giving that Wildebeest head the stink eye aways makes me laugh

☂️ Klaus is dancing with Reggie’s urn in a Waltz fashion, so maybe he’s just doing that or it’s the ballroom dancing lessons they received as children peeing through

☂️ I love Diego’s dancing skills

☂️ Fuck you Five for ruining their dance party

☂️ Honestly Five’s portal is pretty powerful. Here’s a description of it from the pilot script

☂️ I like that when Luther tells everyone to get behind him and Diego copies him with “Yeah, get behind us” Luther lets his brother use himself as a shield instead be pulling the “I’m the leader, I’m the strongest” card

☂️ When Luther and Diego are shielding their siblings, Diego has his arm stretched out to guard Vanya

☂️ In the pilot script Five’s body is smoking when he comes out of the portal

☂️ What if when Five fell out of the portal he got knocked out so he just laid face down on the ground unconscious aksdhfjsafhd

☂️ “So are we gonna talk about what just happened?” No bitch, let him make his sammie first

☂️ Diego and Klaus had some sort of bet on Five’s time traveling in the pilot script

☂️ Here’s another example of Five’s teleportation possibly not making noise. When he teleports around while his siblings are questioning him, it looks like they only look at him when he appears and not when they hear a noise

☂️ Five in the pilot script is actually 62

☂️ “What part of the future do you not understand?”

☂️ I like that Five styled his hair to the exact style it was when he was actually young, but eventually gets looser throughout the season

☂️ Five is so oddly calm when talking to Vanya in front of his portrait

☂️ “Well, there are worse things that can happen.” “You mean like what happened to Ben?” Yeah there’s also an apocalypse on the way lol

☂️ Five actually got a hug in the pilot script! 

☂️ An ironic moment from the pilot script considering that Five is an assassin and has killed tons of people but this siblings don’t know that

☂️ When Diego is talking about their names and numbers in the courtyard, Five sighs, which I’m sure he’s just bored/has better places to be and is annoyed, but I’d like to view it as “Shit, I don’t even have a name”

☂️ Funny tidbit from the pilot script during the funeral scene “Whatever the hell you are”

☂️ Diego talks about how he assumed Reginald sent Luther to the moon because he couldn’t stand the sight of him, so he must be talking about Luther being like a “failed” leader or something? Like he couldn’t keep the team/his siblings together? Diego doesn’t know about his ape-like body so he’s not thinking about that.....

☂️ I love that Klaus reaches his arm out to guard Five, and that Five simply glares at him and bats his arm away

☂️ When Luther broke Ben’s statue, I can just imagine Ben yelling at Klaus “Seriously? Klaus, why didn’t you stop them?”

☂️ So I’m sure this is just a continuation error, but you can’t see Five walking away in the shot of Ben’s statue hitting the ground. Considering that he had just left, he should still be visible in the background. Again, probably a continuation error or maybe he even teleported inside

☂️ A detail I love about Luther is that his fingernails are dark due to the gorilla DNA

☂️ The bank robbery scene in the pilot script is after the funeral. Not much was changed for the actual first episode, just a few different scenes. Also the Umbrellas were described as gods

☂️ Vanya drawing the tattoo on her wrist hurts my heart

☂️ “Together, you will stand against the reign of evil” gives me chills 

☂️ “This is your home and always will be” is great foreshadowing to S3, and hurts my heart when I think about how it is in fact no longer their home

☂️ When I first watched this episode and saw Pogo watching Vanya I knew something was pretty sus

☂️ Just some gold dialogue from the pilot script during the scene of Five, Allison, and Klaus in the kid area and Five is complaining about coffee (but in the pilot script everyone but Vanya is there)

☂️ “An entire square block. Forty-two bedrooms, 19 bathrooms” goddamn the Academy is HUGE. Also 42 is just one away from being 43 👀

☂️ “I know how to do everything.” Yeah, like survive an apocalypse and professionally kill people :]

☂️ I’ve pointed this out before, but the license plate on the car that Five takes to Griddy’s says HERMES, which is the license plate of his car in the comics

☂️ The exit sign in the background is only half lit up to where it says EX and if my memory serves me correctly that’s the door Vanya and Leonard enter the Academy through in episode 6

☂️ Diego telling Klaus to lean back is like “Ugh I don’t want him with me, but safety first”

☂️ I love that they added his feral chimpanzee smile from the pilot script into he show

☂️ “You won’t be going home.” Cocky smartass strikes again. Not to mention he smiles when he says that. He also says this to the men before he kills them in the pilot script

☂️ Before I even knew about TUA, I had heard of the “Istanbul (Not Constantinople)” scene and looked it up. I remember thinking “Wow, that kid is scary.” Now I think “Wow, that old man is scary.”

☂️ I love the little salute he does before he blinks away, and the way his basically just plays with these men like a cat playing with its prey. He knows he’s going to kill them, but he wants to have fun doing so

☂️ Five had some fancy moves in the pilot script

☂️ Five teleporting his tie around the man’s neck is another example of him teleporting an object. Can we see more of this actually happen in S3 please?? I also love the fact that he takes it off the man’s body and puts it back on

☂️ The way he calmly, or tiredly, snaps the man’s neck is chilling to see from a child’s body. This was also included in the pilot script *chanting* Feral Five, Feral Five, Feral Fi-

☂️ It’s honestly such a cool and iconic scene on the show. It truly shows that Five is fully capable of handling himself, and is/was great at his job

☂️ Having the city at night in the background of Diego dropping the monocle is really pretty

☂️ I really like the way they revealed Ben. Having watched both season and now watching this scene again is a bit awkward when Ben doesn’t talk. He’s probably just tired of Klaus 

☂️ “The world ends in eight days, and I have no idea how to stop it.” This line combined with the music and the previous scene of Five in the apocalypse is powerful and chilling and I love it

☂️ I love that they have The Umbrella Academy theme playing during the credits in both seasons

-------

Feel free to comment or reblog with things you have noticed too!

[fckemms]

where: lunar cres, probably wave’s house tbh who: @thesbianwaves​ ( closed )

if there was one thing aaron couldn’t do, it was cook. actually, there was probably a small list complied somewhere of the things he actually couldn’t do, but man did he stink at cooking. after burning and ruining numerous pots and pans, he’d been graciously deemed the chopper if his boyfriend needed any help. so, to have ‘lessons’ from a neighbour, he couldn’t be more appreciative.  “alright, where do you want me, and what’s on the menu boss?” aaron questions, attempting to stand out from under toe until given proper instruction.

[blizzardrush]

❰❰ THREAT ❱❱ - Nina 💜

Send these

❰❰ THREAT ❱❱ sender holds a weapon up to receiver as a threat

    There's a sticky note above the door frame. ABANDON ALL HOPE, YE WHO ENTER HERE is written on it in black marker. A smartass comment on the state of working in a Zaibatsu lab. Nina knows who made it a reality.

    She enters the first level alone, despite the SWAT team positioned at the doors. They are better utilized tending to the wounded and clearing the rest of the building. They don't stand a chance against the thing deeper inside.

    He is a man, Nina reminds herself, Was a man. Proof lies in the amount of destruction. He left the lobby perfectly intact. Even the secretary came off unscathed. She can picture how he did it. Threatening the staff with a glimpse of a gun at first, until security would no longer be cowed. He showed restraint, leading to broken bones and bleeding faces.

    Then something went wrong. Something escalated.

    The further Nina goes, the greater the stench. Poisoned rust and acid smoke. The alarms are silent but the emergency beacons still blare bright red. The first corpses look like they're sleeping, their necks twisted past normal limit. Armed guards killed in the line of duty.

    Level Five is a river of stained moonlight. Glass coats the floor. Some of it results from shattered windows. Some of it has an eerie blue tint and refuses to crack under her feet. The stink belongs to a war zone. Lacerated researchers paint the walls in slashes of gore.

    Nina raises her gun as she spots a glow. It's him.

    The half-devil braces himself against a row of cabinets. Glass blankets his bare flesh, his clothes reduced to shreds. A hand presses against his side, barely fitting between rows of lunar blue daggers. Six tendrils writhe from his back.

    Two battles happened here, Nina realizes. One of them Dragunov is losing.

    "Captain."

    He looks over his shoulder, eyes wide and wild. Though Nina keeps her distance, she feels something prickle along her body. She resists the urge to break her gaze as thorns snag at the periphery of her mind. Feeling for cracks, she thinks.

    "If you're looking for a cure, it's not here," she says, "Now we can do this the easy way, or the hard way. Choice is yours."

    For a split second, something plaintive flashes across his face. Something that wouldn't mind if she shot him. But his glass keeps growing, fists balling into talons.

    There's never an easy way, Nina thinks as the devil flies at her.

[crepuscular-gloom]

Poptropica Island Ratings

okay I saw a post on here a while ago and someone rated the Poptropica islands. I remember agreeing with a lot of them, but they only went so far so a lot of the newer islands were missed out. I came across it again recently and got hit by a wave of nostalgia so I’m gonna do my own now. Unoriginal content very good. i’ll put a keep reading link to stop it from taking up too much space

Early Poptropica - mega nostalgia but kinda boring. I like the original Poptropicans being pixely and there is a goth gf in the sewers however the giant green spider scared the shit out of me as a kid and the idea of an aircraft graveyard made me sad so 6/10

Shark Tooth Island - also nostalgic but I didn’t complete it for a long time for some reason.. very short. it has a story but its there is nasty shark and people stuck on an island so make a calming potion. the medicine man looks like he is from viva pinata so 6/10

Time Tangled Island - VERY GOOD AND FUN AND HISTORICAL FUCK THAT AZTEC THO DICKHEAD. quite lengthy for an island but this is good because that means more time periods to explore. it’s also educational but i just care about restoring time. very legendary the iconic just jumped out - 10/10

24 Carrot Island - stupid pun point taken off. introduces Dr Hare and people are THIRSTY. you can dye your hair with milkshakes. i thought it was creepy as a kid honestly. i think its mind control or something. but i like it, it still has nostalgia value 8/10

Super Power Island - very legend like. i loooove the antagonists, especially copy cat but i think i had to look up a guide to beat her because i was dumb af. you need a licence to be a superhero but you are a superhero!!! very fun i like this one a lot 10/10

Spy Island - i remember sucking at this one as well as a kid.  i think it fucks with peoples hair and i only remember because my character looks fresh 100% of the time and this island fucked it up i think. i don't really remember it tho. 5/10

Nabooti Island - it’s based on a Choose Your Own Adventure book so good premise. go around the world is also good. you have to get jewels i think. ngl i didn’t finish this one because i sucked at it so i’m just going off the wiki and how far i got into it. fuck the animal puzzle 7/10

Big Nate Island - who the fuck is Big Nate. i only remember the school climbing frame and a stink bomb. fuck you big nate we don’t have your comics in England 1/10

Astro-Knights Island - medieval knights.... IN SPACE?!?! COUNT ME IN. crazy jester bard guy antagonist. people are thirsty for him too. i’m pretty sure you end up in another dimension or something. cyborgs and shit 9/10

Counterfeit Island - bruh i loved this island. pretty sure antagonist is also making people thirsty. you have to go back to Early Poptropica Island to complete it, very cool. investigating crime is cool idea it’s l.a. noire in poptropica. the wiki says there is a glitch called anti-social clown and i have to say relatable 9/10

Reality TV Island - i think i completed this like twice and i remember jackshit. you get to see past characters tho so very good. it’s just doing challenges. 4/10

Mythology Island - VERY GOOD. LEARN ABOUT MYTHOLOGY. you can fight hydra and other creatures, you meet Zeus you meet Hades, Aphrodite is a bitch. 9/10

Skullduggery Island - pirates are always good no matter what. apparently it is one of the hardest islands which explains why i never completed it but you fight other pirates and sea monsters for doubloons or some shit sounds cool to me 8/10

Steamworks Island - steampunk is good. i remember completing this and thinking it was interesting and weird to look at. i think the atmosphere is was lonely tho. there’s a boss battle against a plant i think. otherwise i don’t fuckin remember 7/10

Great Pumpkin Island - it’s Peanuts so it’s nice. very nice and simple. it’s just about the great pumpkin except you’re there. 6/10

Cryptids Island - GOD TIER. CRYPTIDS IS SUCH A GOOD IDEA. some of it is scary tho. the jersey devil just fucking staring at you from the window was a shit the bed moment for a kids game. also before the islands got rebooted, it was one of the only islands to have sound effects, i.e. when the chupacabra bursts out the box. honestly because of the balls on this kids game to scare children and also being good island 10/10

Wild West Island - the only thing better than pirates is cowboys. i don’t really remember it but you do go against an outlaw gang. i like cowboys 10/10

Wimpy Wonderland Island - Jeff I know you made doawk and poptropica but did you have to show it. ngl i liked it because i like doawk. but it’s kinda... creatively bankrupt i guess. 3/10 2 points because Rodrick is there

Red Dragon Island - i think more time travel but just to old Japan. you have to save a girl. that’s all i remember. also i think there is a nasty samurai guy. but also evil dragon. i can’t remember because for the longest time this was a premium account only island so i never got to finish it for the longest time. that was a dick move 7/10 for that alone.

Shrink Ray Island - cool premise but this island expects me to learn morse code 3/10

Mystery Train Island - detectives? on a train? very nice. basically murder on the orient express except no murder and thomas edison is there and also various other 1700/1800 nerds

Game Show Island - basically Reality TV except it’s to save the world from robots. 5/10

Ghost Story Island - wow iconic. this is the only island with voice acting and it’s to fucking jumpscare you i shat myself.  ghost hunting, very cool 10/10

S.O.S Island - it’s basically Titanic mixed with Moby Dick. it’s ok 6/10

Vampire’s Curse Island - i reaaaally like this one. i like vampires. it has a vampire daddy in it so. he kidnaps a teenage girl tho because he thinks its the love of his life who is dead. kinda weird. he does stop being insane at the end tho and says sorry and dies. the girls bf is a dickhead tho. 9/10

Twisted Thicket Island - i think you’re saving a forest from becoming housing. i really like it because it introduces various folkloric creatures like the nokken. i only remember the nokken because i went on akinator to see if he knew what it was and i don’t think he did so i added it and it’s photo to his database. or maybe it was just his photo but i remember uploading something to akinator. 8/10

Poptropolis Games Island - i don’t think i liked this one 3/10

Wimpy Boardwalk Island - Jeff. 2/10 1 point added because Rodrick is also there

Lunar Colony Island - space is good. do i remember this island tho? no. i think theres aliens tho. 5/10 because i like space and aliens.

Super Villain Island - it brings back the most memorable villains like binary bard and black widow. you find out why they are evil. pretty chill 8/10

Charlie and The Chocolate Factory Island - what do you expect 5/10

Zomberry Island - the last of us except i think people are just eating nasty berries really. i like it it’s spooky 7/10

Night Watch Island - Paul Blart Mall Cop 6/10

Back Lot Island - you make a film. i can’t remeber it like at all. 6/10 because it sounds ok

Poptropolis Games Island Part 2 - fuck off 2/10

Virus Hunter Island - i don’t think i completed this one either. however it is one of those inside the human body things which is always cool if cliche. 8/10

Mocktropica Island - very satirical what if about if poptropica was run by assholes. ironic since a bunch of islands were made premium only for a while. pretty sure the bonus missions still are too which is why i’m not mentioning them. funny tho 7/10

Monster Carnival Island - spooky yes. people thirst over the ringmaster raven guy too. theres a spooky clown on the ferris wheel. i don’t remember much other than i liked it because it was about monsters in a theme park. 9/10 i remember it was surprisingly short tho

Survival Island - castaway except it’s you. i don’t remember it either lmao. i got out of touch with old poptropica real bad by this time so my next ratings might be unfair sorry. pretty sure it also becomes the most dangerous game tho and some guy wants to actually fucking kill you. ballsy. 7/10 because it sounds ok i should maybe play it.

Mission Atlantis Island - i like atlantis but i didn’t play this one either. you see deepsea creatures which are spooky so extra points 8/10

PoptropiCon Island - poptropica’s answer to comicon. now i did play this one for some reason but i don’t remember it too well either. i was 14 when it came out so. sounds like yu-gi-oh so good. 7/10

Arabian Nights Island - didn’t play it i think it’s just telling the story. it’s a cool story so 7/10

Galactic Hotdogs Island - what the fuck 1/10

Mystery of The Map Island - vikings are cool. island seems very short tho. 5/10

Timmy Failure Island - who the fuck. this would be more impactful if i read these fucking things but i don’t. who the fuck are you timmy. i guess it’s called failure for a reason. (that was mean sorry) 1/10

Escape from Pelican Rock Island - prison break, nice idea. you have like a twin in this one. seems a bit repetitive sometimes tho. theres like 7 days of doing similar things. 6/10

Monkey Wrench Island - it was created to be the new tutorial, i.e. an actual tutorial rather than Early Poptropica. very fast and boring, especially if you already know everything. 2/10

Crisis Caverns Island - i know nothing about this. even the wiki is incomplete. maybe that means its shit then. 1/10 the wiki doesn’t even care too much about this one.

Greek Sea Odyssey - more ancient greece is always good. you get to beat the shit out of zeus this time 8/10

Snagglemast Island - all you do is collect coins. another tutorial one. 1/10.

bonus: home island. legit just a hub. points added because you can do a lot of customisation here and pick up a pet that doesn’t cost credits. 4/10

DOUBLE BONUS: the little haunted house mini thing. very good because spooky costumes, spooky house fun little monster party. 10/10

[imagine-organization-xiii]

How would the Members react if their s/o brought back a little bunny rabbit they found back from a mission?

Another one from Sam! She’s really taking the initiative now that I’m so busy at work. It’s trial time for our attorneys so everyone’s going crazy, so everyone give her some love for picking up the slack!

Also, I ended up doing the Luxord and Marluxia ones since she wasn’t able to finish!

Xemnas

He is NOT pleased. Like, his expression stays the same as it almost always does, but you can clearly tell how displeased he is with you. Of course he doesn’t say this outright. 

”Hmmm….” the Superior’s low voice echoed through the hall. “What made you think that bringing a creature like this here? To the Castle that Never Was?” You suddenly regret bringing the creature anywhere near this place. When you answer, your voice shakes. The rabbit was hurt. You brought it back with you to try and help it. 

”Well… If it’s injured…” the Superior paused. “Maybe it isn’t fit to survive.” The superior took another step towards you and the rabbit and summons his glowing blade. You knew what was going to happen next and it horrified you. You quickly turned to run out of the room, but before you could reach the door, within a flash, then Xemnas appeared in front of you. But instead of striking down his wrath, the larger figure swooped in and got within inches of your ear and whispered. “Make sure the creature is gone by the next time you are within my sight, or I will do what I must.” 

Of course, you weren’t one to listen to rules. So you decided to instead, hide it and help heal the bunny yourself without getting caught and releasing it when it was healed. Some rules were meant to be broken, anyhow. 

But it doesn’t last long until Xemnas finds it and after a long argument, your stubborn ass gets the mighty Xemnas to agree that you may keep the rabbit, but it must be as FAR away from him as possible. Rabbits stink, after all.

Xigbar

As soon as he sees the little ball of fluff in your arms, Xigbar can’t help but start to laugh. “What is that you got there, kiddo?” he snickers. When you say, ‘it’s a rabbit’ like any normal person would respond, he shrugs “Well yeah, I can see that. What I meant was why do you have it?”

You tell him ‘why not?’ and explain that you want to keep it. And you are immediately given a taunting ‘tsk tsk tsk’ as Xigbar crossed his arms. “Hmmmm, the bossman isn’t gonna like this…” You sigh. He was right but.. “I’m in.” Wait what? You ask if you heard him correctly and he nods. “Yeah, sure, What the hell? This could be worth a few laughs to keep around for a while. Plus you seem pretty into it, so why not?�� You smile and give the free-shooter a big kiss on his scarred cheek.

”Does this mean we also have to do it like rabbits, in the spirit of everything?” He gives you a playful smirk before punching him in the arm. What an ass.

Xaldin

”Why hello… What have we here?” The lancer peers down at the small fuzzy creature you’re holding in your arms as you entered your shared quarters. You tell him how you found this bunny alone in the woods and how it was much too small to be full grown and how you were hoping to do something to help it.

Xaldin reached down and picked up the small creature from your hands and looked it over. As he placed a finger on the tiny bunny’s head and gave it a small pet, he couldn’t help but smile. “Well you’re a sweet little thing, aren’t you?” The lancer cooed to the rabbit as he continues to pet the baby’s soft fur. It was actually incredibly sweet to see the usually hard faced lancer fawn over a baby bunny.

“Well, you’re right…” He sighed. “This little one is much too small to survive on it’s own.. Do you know anything about raising a baby bunny?” You grin. “I’ll Moogle it.”

Vexen

At first the scientist is absolutely thrilled to see you carry the rabbit in to him. “Oh wonderful, Y/N! You’ve found us a new test subject!! How intuitive of you! Now bring it here!” But as he reached out to take the rabbit from you, you pull back.

You explain that the rabbit was not for experimentation but because you wanted to keep it as a pet, and as soon as you do explain, Vexen is not pleased. He then explains exactly how many rules you are breaking for bringing such a filthy creature into the castle and how much trouble you could be in if you are caught.

As he gives you the riot act, he starts to he how upset you become, eyes filling with tears as he scolds you. And as soon as he does, the words stop. And now the scientist feels bad. Good going Vexen. But as you cry with the rabbit in your arms, he speaks again.

“Okay, alright. No - no tears.. Okay? You can keep the creature here for now.. And I’ll promise not to experiment on it… But you need to bring it back to where it came from by the end of the week. Alright?” You nod and give him a kiss on the cheek as thanks, knowing how much doing such a task would be for him.

Lexaeus

Oh man. You’ve brought this rabbit to just the right person. As soon as you come through the door and he sees the fluffy ball, the silent hero’s hardened featured soften immediately. Ans without a word, looks at you questioningly.

As you move your arm to better show the small bundle in your arms, the tiny creature pops it head up and looks up at Lexaeus. The larger man then reaches out and you place the bunny in his arms. Such a tiny creature looks even smaller as it sits in his giant hands. He pet the rabbit softly and smiled as he ran his fingers over the rabbits soft fur before speaking again. 

”You should bring it back,” he said, as he continued to fawn over the rabbit as if he didn’t just tell you to take it away.

“What? What do you mean bring it back? You love it!” You ask, but the silent hero only sighed.

“It won’t be happy here,” He said in a low tone looking sadly at the bunny. And then it clicked and you realized what was going through the mind of the silent hero. He knew how unhappy the rabbit would be in a place like this, and he didn’t want it to suffer. You sigh and place a kiss among the giant mans head.

“Okay… Let’s go bring it back.”

Zexion

Zexion doesn’t pay the rabbit much mind at first, not even looking up from his book when you come through the door to the library. It may have been your track record with these things, but it was as if the boy already knew that you were up to something. “What did you bring back?” he asks, refusing to tear his eyes from his reading to see what you had brought back this time. 

”Why don’t you look for yourself?” you smirk as he slowly looks up from the book to see the fluffy bundle in your arms, and as soon as he does, the boy’s expression changes completely. His eyes immediately grow soft  and his mouth opened just enough for a silent gasp to pass through. The bundle was so small. And he couldn’t help but look at it in that way.

”Where… Where did you find it?” He asks, in a much softer tone than he had moments before. You tell him how the rabbit was in the forest and seemed to follow you. You mentioned how you thought it wanted to come with you so you could take it home.

As you explained what had happened, the wonder in the boys eyes started to fade. He placed a hand on the rabbits head, caressing the soft fur before speaking again. “You took it from it’s home? To bring it here? Y/N… We should bring it back It doesn’t belong here with us…”

You knew he was right. As soon as he worded it that way, you suddenly realized the thing that you thought was right, wasn’t really a good situation for anyone. However, that didn’t stop the two of you from holding the rabbit a little longer and letting it hop around the library a short while before the both of you released the creature back where it belonged.

It wasn’t long after, however, that the two of you decided that the rabbit was so fun to have with them that day and you both traveled to the local Radiant Garden pet shop and looked into getting a domestic rabbit of your own, one that needed a new home.

Saix

”What is that?” The Lunar Diviner looked down on you with scrutiny as you held the little bunny in your arms. You pull you hand away and the tiny creature pops its head up and looked up and returned Saix’s gaze. He didn’t react much as the rabbit’s nose twitched and sniffed the air. He really didn’t show much of an expression at all. He just stared down silently for a moment, looking at the rabbit with stern disapproval before speaking. “It can’t stay here. It needs to go.”

Your mouth hangs open a moment before you start to object, claiming how it wasn’t safe for such a small bunny to be out on it’s own and how he wasn’t giving the opportunity a chance and was being unfair, but with one glance up into your eyes from him silenced you greatly. His golden eyes felt like they had pierced your soul with a single glance.

With that glance, you knew he had made his decision. Sadness wells in your eyes as you agree that little rabbit needed to go and agreed to take it home, but before you could open the dark portal, he spoke again.

”Not now,” he stated with a commanding tone. “It is late, and you must rest. We can go return the creature tomorrow. For now… we can keep it. I will make the necessary preparations.” With the omission, you smile and place a kiss on the Diviner’s cheek before making your way to your shared quarters with your new friend.

That night, you played with the rabbit as it scampered across the floor and giving it pets and all around having a good time, but as much as you urged him, you could not get Saix to come near the rabbit let alone even pet it. He simply watched from a nearby chair in the room as you and the rabbit played. And as you went to sleep that evening, you sighed, knowing that you and the bunny were going to be parting ways the next morning. But you were happy to have had the chance to play with the bunny that you did. 

Sleep came quickly for you, but you had the strangest dream that night. It felt as you awoke in the night but instead of sleeping next to you, Saix was sitting in a chair across the room, holding the rabbit close to him and gently stroking the creatures soft fur. And you could swear he was… talking to it.

“You have made her so happy, little rabbit, and for that I thank you. I wish I could bring her as much joy as you do, but we are beings that can’t provide such comforts. Not that you understand me…” You quickly fell asleep again after that, but awoke the next morning to see Saix asleep in bed as he was before. It had to have been a dream… Right?

Axel

As soon as you bring the bunny through the door, the guy’s expression breaks out into a cheeky grin. “Aw hey! You got yourself a friend!” he chuckles as you continue petting the little bunny. “Where did you find this one?” As you sit next to him on the sofa in your quarters, you explain that you had found the little guy out on a mission and that you had decided to bring the little guy home with you until it’s injury healed and it could survive on it own. The redhead can’t seem to help himself but chuckle.

”You really are a good person, you know that?” he smiles, but the smile almost seems sad. “You always are bringing home injured animals and helping others when they need you… You ever think that… you’re in the wrong business?”

You look at him, confused, before you place a gentle kiss on his cheek. “My place is here, with you!” you smile back, and Axel lets out a soft laugh, one different from the chuckle before. This one was almost… more vulnerable.

”Yeah… Right. With me.” He pauses, assumedly lost in thought to somewhere you couldn’t go. He would seem to go to this place often in recent months, but whenever you would ask if he was okay, he would ask you to not worry and quickly shift back to the Axel you knew, and this worried you. This time, instead of asking what was wrong, you decide to change the subject.

“Axel? Do you wanna hold him?” you ask, and it’s as if you calling his name brings him back from his thoughts.

“Oh, uh. Sure? Sure. Why not?” he shrugs and holds his hands out to take the rabbit as you gently place the fuzzy little thing into his arms. The bunny settles into the redhead’s arms with little struggle and quickly gets comfortable as Axel starts to stroke the rabbits soft fur with his free hand. As he continued to pet the rabbit, the pain and worry in his face started to relax, as if this simple action was enough to soothe his worries, at least for the moment.

“This is… really nice.” Axel smiles softly, and it was a smile you knew was genuine. It was soft, and almost carefree. But then, the smile disappeared and a face of fear.

“Is something wrong?” you ask swiftly, fully prepared to take the rabbit from him at a moment’s notice.

“I– I think it peed on me?!” Quickly you scramble up and take the rabbit from Axel and sure enough, right there on the redheads coat a nice little wet spot from where the rabbit peed on him.

You tried to be nice, but you could not help laughing hysterically as Axel stood up and tried to wipe the pee from his coat.

”Aw man!! No This isn’t funny!! Aaghhh Now I’m gonna smell like bunny pee!!” But your laughter doesn’t relent and soon enough Axel is laughing right alongside you. This bunny pet project is going to be really fun.

Demyx

“Hey welcome ba– Whoa! Oh my god, is that a rabbit?” The musician excitedly asks as soon you enter the door after a long mission, but before you can enter the room any more, the boy had already swarmed to you, staring quizzically at ball of fluff in your arms. “Can I pet it?”

You nod enthusiastically as the boy reaches out a hand to pet the soft little rabbit, and as soon as his hand presses against the soft fur, another excited noise escapes his lips.

“Woooow!!! So soft!!” He exclaims as he continues to pet the rabbit as you hold him in your arms. You urge Demyx to be gentler with his petting as the rabbit is soft and delicate. You then ask if he would like to hold the bunny and it was as if every star in the sky appeared in his eyes. You quickly took his expression as a yes and instructed him how to hold the rabbit before placing it gently in the musicians arms. And as soon as the rabbit settled in, Demyx made another excited squeal.

“This is… SO COOL!” he exclaimed but you quickly hushed him, saying how the rabbit is still a skittish animal and could be easily startled. “Oh! Sorry!” The boy replied in a loud whisper. He was trying his best. “I just was so excited that I forgot that we needed to be quiet!” And with his explanation, you couldn’t help but laugh.

You both broke out into silly laughter as the rabbit simply twitched it nose in confusion, but within a flash Demyx’s smile disappeared. Before you could ask what was wrong, the answer became perfectly clear as Saix’s voice erupted from behind you through the doorway. Oh yeah. You forgot to close the door.

“Is that what I think it is?” The blue hair wasted no time staring Demyx down with that piercing stare of his. And of course the soft boy holding the bunny couldn’t do much more than stutter.

“I— Uh– This is–”

“That was a rhetorical question, Demyx. I can see that there is a wild animal in your hands.” The Lunar Diviner slowly reached down, and picked up the rabbit with trying to make as little contact with the creature as possible and placed it in your hands. ”Y/N, would you kindly send this creature back to where it belongs while I escort number IX to his new position for the next month on dish cleaning duty?” He asked as he grabbed your partner by the arm and harshly dragged him out of the room.

”WHAT? BUT THAT’S DUSK WORK!!!” He objected. 

”Not anymore.” Saix retorted before disappearing down the hall with the small musician lagging behind. Demyx never ratted you out for being the one who brought the rabbit into the castle in the first place and took his punishment in stride. That was just like him. And even though you had to send the rabbit home, you were still kind of happy the three of you got to have those moments together.

Luxord

You didn’t expect Luxord to be in your shared quarters when you walked inside, but he was. He looked up from the table where he was sitting and smiled, eyes flickering down to the fluffy bundle you carefully cradled in your arms.  You followed his gaze and glanced up. “I can explain.”

“I’d more prefer if you explained how you managed to get it past Xemnas,“ he said. He stood and walked over to you, hovering as he examined the rabbit. He reached out and rubbed behind its ears with the tips of his fingers.  “It’s adorable, but he’d never let you keep it.“

“And that won’t be a problem if we all keep our mouths shut, right?“ you warned, almost as a threat. “The poor thing was shivering in the cold outside and I couldn’t just leave it there.“

“You and your bleeding heart,“ he replied, chuffing you playfully under the chin. “I won’t cover for you if you get caught.“

“Noted.“ There was a pause. “I hope you realize that this means I’m keeping it in our room for the unforeseeable future.“

“Yes,“ he sighed. “I figured you would. Just make sure it doesn’t reproduce. I don’t think I’d have the patience for that.“

Marluxia

Marluxia was always prone to overreactions, but whatever response you were expecting from him when you brought the adorable little bunny into your room, it certainly wasn’t anger.

“What... the fuck... is that?“

“Uh...“ You were wondering if it was supposed to be a trick question as you looked down at the rabbit in your arms.  It curled up into your sweatshirt and shut its eyes sleepily.  “A bunny?“

“Where did you find it?“ he demanded.

“... In your garden? I found him under one of the shrubs. He was -“

“That little bastard has been eating my plants for the last six weeks. GET RID OF IT!“

Wide-eyed, you protectively cradled the animal to your chest as if Marluxia would just reach out and snatch it from your arms. “No! It’s not his fault if he was hungry!  He was just looking for something to eat! He’s just a baby!”

“A little baby that destroyed my begonias!“

“Well now he’s my pet,“ you scoffed, gently rubbing your face against the soft fur.  “Look, he’s cute and he likes you!“ You lifted the bunny in your arms, holding it up dangerously close to Marluxia’s face. It sniffed at his nose and let out the most adorable sneeze you ever heard. “Aw, isn’t that nice!“

Marluxia wrinkled his nose in what you were sure is disgust, but he just shook his head and scowled.  “I take it that there’s nothing I can do to get you to bring it five hundred miles away from here, isn’t there?”

“Absolutely not.“

Larxene

”AgH!! What is That THING?!” Larxene squeals, jumping back 20 feet from where you were standing holding the rabbit in your arms. “Is it a rat? A big rat? And you’re holding it?!?”

You look at her, seriously perplexed. “Uh… No? Larxene, it’s a rabbit… You do know what a rabbit is… right?”

”What? Of course I know what a rabbit is!” She snaps. “I just… Haven’t seen one in person before.”

You let out a little gasp. Did she really just say that? This needs to be remedied immediately. You sit down on the edge of the bed and inch closer to where Larxene sat and urged her to pet the bunny.

At first she refused, but she stared at the little harmless creature in your arms with skepticism before slowly reaching an arm out and hesitantly placing her fingertips on the rabbits head between it’s long ears. And as soon as she felt the bunny’s soft fur, the fear on face disappeared.

”Whoa! It’s so… Soft.” She says with surprise as she continued to pet the rabbit.  You smirked as she quickly gave in to the temptation of the rabbit’s soft fur. At first she only allowed the pads of her fingertips to touch the ball of fur but eventually found her hand stroking the tiny beast from it’s head and down its back. It was obvious that both Larxene and the bunny were enjoying themselves. 

”You want to hold it?” You ask and she looks at you with shock.

“Can I?” You nod and slowly place the creature on her lap, and within a second, the rabbit snuggles itself in the nymphs lap and looks very pleased. Larxene’s mouth falls open as she softly gasps.

”So… We’re keeping it, right?” She asks. 

With a chuckle, you nod. “Absolutely.”

Roxas

As the rabbit hopped closer, Roxas’ eyes went wide and looked to you in question, almost pleading with his eyes. ‘Can I pet it?’ With a grin, you wiggle a nod and urge the boy on. Cautiously, his hand came up, and landing in front of the bunny, allowing it to sniff his hand. It sniffed for just a moment before sliding it’s head against the boys hand and allowing a pet.

As Roxas’ hand touched the fur, he gasped quietly to himself, maybe even unaware he did it. But his wonder just made you feel so good. If you had a heart, you knew it would have been swelling in your chest. It just made you so glad that you could do something like this for Roxas.

”Oh, cool!” Roxas smiles as you bring the rabbit into the room, its soft little face sniffing the air and examining this new place. You shut the door behind you and place the small bunny loose on the floor as Roxas stepped closer to get a better the little creature.

He sits on the ground near the bunny, watching it hop along the floor and you soon join him.  You both sit quietly on the floor a minute, watching the tiny fluff hop and explore its new surroundings. 

”Look at it check the place out…” The boy points out as the rabbit sniffs a nearby table leg. You look over to Roxas as see that for the first time in weeks, that he is smiling. To see him having fun and enjoying something as simple as this. Well it was cathartic. As the bunny finished it’s romp around the room, it moved closet to Roxas, sniffing the boy’s foot curiously before coming closer.

Xion

She had never seen a rabbit up close like this before and this fact is very apparent that she is trapped in wonder as she steps closer to you upon realizing what you are holding. “Can… Can I touch it??” She asks, just above a whisper, almost afraid of scaring the little thing. 

As soon as you nod in approval, her hand is reaching out to gently touch the bunny’s soft fur. And as her hand makes contact with the fur, a tiny gasp escaped her lips. 

“It’s so soft!” she whispers excitedly as she continued to pet the bunny. Watching her be so happy and enthralled was enough to be worth any kind of trouble you were going to get in for bringing the rabbit into the castle in the first place.

[summervanlife]

12 July

The drizzle was back this morning for a short time. Not long enough to inconvenience us, and it was still warm. We had breakfast and headed to the Callanish visitor centre allowing the weather time to improve further. It wasn't until we had entered the gift shop, that the visitor centre disclosed entrance to the exhibits would be £15. Instead we browsed the gift shop and read the guidebook. Then, reasonably knowledgable, we took a walk up to the stones. Callanish stone circle was built in about 3000BC. It underwent a few changes, and over the centuries a lot of peat developed to the extent that in the 1800's over 5ft of peat was removed from the stones and various excavations occurred later. The stones were between 2 and 3 metres tall. The centre stone being the largest. A circle of 13 stones at a radius of about 20ft surrounded it. Spokes stretched out to the east, south and west. An 'off' north avenue branched away from the centre. The best theory we heard was that describing lunar worshippers. The moon appearing to give birth to a star just off north every 18 years in the line of the avenue. We enjoyed checking the angle of the spokes with a compass and eavesdropping on the various tour guides! Next on the list was the 2000 year old Duone Broch; a small twin walled cylindrical castle with a staircase in between the walls to the 10m wall tops. Sounds amazing, but we were only able to get to about 200m from the ancient monument. Time for lunch. Further up this coastline we came upon the blackhouse village (so called due to the interior becoming soot coated resulting from burning peat). We got our first look at a tweed loom here. The operator was at lunch when we got there, but we got to have a good look round the 100 year old machine. When Alug returned he talked us through the process - but not in a dull way, he waited for our questions and then let rip. He was great and completely engaged with us. No-one else was there at that point, he sort of let on that he'd had a belly full of coach parties that morning. Perhaps he preferred a smaller audience. Once we had roughly got our head around the complex machine he started weaving - what a din! At one point a damaged shuttle shot from the contraption at 70mph and missed Jay's head by a few centimetres! Lucky! Alug wasn't deterred, apart from the fact his shuttle was damaged and they cost over £100 each! The rest of the exhibits were good, but we missed Alug. We watch a film about peat cutting and enjoyed roaming around the purposefully sloped blackhouse (designed so that the water from the leaking roof ran out of the bottom door and into the animal shed.) Alug had convinced us that we should find a couple more things in the day. Closest was a restored archway made from the jaw bones of an 82ft Blue Whale. It had drifted into the area dead, having being harpooned at sea elsewhere. The local boatman towed it ashore where it began to rot and stink out the village. In the end, locals were permitted to dispose of the whale - tapping through the skin for blubber mainly. The local postmaster decided to use the jawbones as an archway to his house - which is where they remain today, with the deathly harpoon hanging as a gruesome centrepiece. We chose to tick off the most northerly point on the Hebrides - The Butt of Lewis. On route we found ourselves at Port Ness. A lovely little village and harbour, even the man fishing off the end of the pier was nice and offered us some of his pollock and mackerel catch! It was already 1800hr. A finger post pointed towards The Butt of Lewis 3km away and we followed it on foot. Then we realised the reality of the time and decided to enjoy the view off the very high cliffs before returning to the van in order to cover the distance in the van. The road took us all the way to the lighthouse where we scared ourselves at the height and the soaring birds below us. Whilst trying to decide where to stay for the night, Clare suddenly remember Alug's suggestion of St Moluag's church ("All stone expect for the bible") - not to stay in, just to visit. So at 1930hr we set off in search of the stone church. We found it. However, the 'all stone' claim was a little far fetched - sure, the walls were stone, but that was it - slate tiles, wooden rafters, wooden pews, flowery flowers. The bible wasn't even there! So we couldn't check to confirm it wasn't made of stone. It seemed like a nice church though and had a pin board that people could put prayer requests on for people they knew - which we think is probably a good thing. We eventually decided to return to Port Ness for the night and found an ace spot above the harbour. Cian and Jay explored the harbour and found a lady balancing boulders and stones on the beach in a most impressive way. Then Nia tag teamed with Cian who went to help with the cooking. Jay and Nia sat on the harbour wall watching the birds feast on shoals of sand eels (Arctic terns, Fulmars, Black Backed gulls, Gannets and Guillemots). A local fisherman headed out in his small wooden boat, exited the breakwater, turned back and hollered to Jay and Nia "Wanna come for a spin?" We declined - dinner was nearly ready, but what a nice offer. We had dinner, had some book and then went to the local toilet adjacent to a cafe. They had been locked! But we were in 'Nice Town' and the cafe lady spotted out retreat, raced out and called us back saying she would unlock them for us. We glad we're here tonight - this village seems to exude the kindness, common in so much of the Outer Hebrides!

[yes3blondesabrunette-blog]

Blog Post 1 ENH110

Melisa’s View-

             In the three short stories that we had to read, “A Hunger Artist”, “A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings”, and “Sonny’s Blues” each of the main characters are being made spectacles of in their own way. In the case of “A Hunger Artist” the artist himself is put on display to show everyone that he can starve himself, though he comes to find that the general public does not appreciate nor believe that he is really starving himself. In “A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings” the old man that lands in the front yard of the fisherman is actually an angel but when the townspeople and others come from different parts of the world to see him, they do not believe he is one due to his appearances. In “Sonny’s Blues” Sonny is isolated by the world and also by the people he is around. He wants to be a jazz player but does not want to be doing what every musician is-drugs. All three stories have a sense of isolation shown in them through their central characters.  

           Beginning with Franz Kafka’s short story “A Hunger Artist” the starvation artist is miserable with his life, because no matter how hard he tries to show everyone that he can do the act of not eating for longer than 40 days, people still believe that he is sneaking himself food during the night time. Even the watchers that are assigned to him during the night do not seem to believe that he is actually starving himself, and they turn their backs so they can let the artist eat what he wants, “nothing annoyed the artist more than these watchers; they made him miserable; they made his fast seem unendurable; sometimes he mastered his feebleness sufficiently to sing during their watch for as long as he could keep going, to show them how unjust their suspicions were. But that was of little use; they only wondered at his cleverness in being able to fill his mouth even while singing” (Kafka, 1). During the story, the artist only gets more frustrated, being the one who has decided to have a career as the one he has and not having a choice to change it due to his old age. He only wants the approval and appreciation of the public who comes to see him in his cage, but that is not something that he receives. With this, the artist only ends up pushing himself away from the world as “such suspicions, anyhow, were a necessary accompaniment to the profession of fasting. No one could possibly watch the hunger artist continuously, day and night, and so no one could produce first-hand evidence that the fast had really been rigorous and continuous; only the artist himself could know that, he was therefore bound to be the sole completely satisfied spectator of his own fast” (Kafka, 2). When the artist decides to join the circus in hopes of getting more attention, he is only left more disappointed, “when the public came thronging out in the intervals to see the animals, they could hardly avoid passing the hunger artist’s cage and stopping there for a moment, perhaps they might even have stayed longer, had not those pressing behind them behind them in the narrow gangway, who did not understand why they should be held up on their way towards the excitements of the menagerie, made it impossible for anyone to stand gazing for any length of time” (Kafka, 4). The artist makes himself more isolated from the world, both by putting himself in a cage, and by also getting angry with everyone due to their suspicions. In the end, he gets overshadowed by the panther, who everyone gets more interested in seeing.

           In Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s “A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings”, the old man is found in Pelayo’s and Griselda’s courtyard, being described by both as “..dressed like a ragpicker. There were only a few faded hairs left on his bald skull and very few teeth in his mouth, and his pitiful condition of a drenched great-grandfather took away any sense of grandeur he might have had. His huge buzzard wings, dirty and half-plucked, were forever entangled in the mud”(Marquez). When the neighbor woman informed them that he was an angel, they were in disbelief with the rest of the townspeople. At first “when they went out into the courtyard with the first light of dawn, they found the whole neighborhood in front of the chicken coop having fun with the angel, without the slightest reverence, tossing him things to eat through the openings in the wire as if he weren’t a supernatural creature but a circus animal”(Marquez). As soon as the old man enters, he is being isolated by being locked into the chicken coop. He is then not believed to be what he is, an angel. The people do not treat him like an angel because he does not look or act like one, in fact, he cannot even fly. Instead they “..threw stones at him, trying to get him to rise so they could see him standing. The only time they succeeded in arousing him was when they burned his side with an iron for branding steers, for he had been motionless for so many hours that they thought he was dead. He awoke with a start, ranting in his hermetic language and with tears in his eyes, and he flapped his wings a couple of times, which brought on a whirlwind of chicken dung and lunar dust and a gale of panic that did not seem to be of this world” (Marquez). The angel is not only isolated because of his being put into the chicken coop, but also because of not interacting or responding to the people. In the end, the angel gets overshadowed by the woman who was turned into a spider. However, he proves himself by surviving a cold winter, growing stiff feathers, and flying away. 

        In James Baldwin’s short story “Sonny’s Blues” the narrator speaks about his younger brother Sonny. The narrator is worried about Sonny, his health, and his life decisions/choices. The two have been in and out of touch for some time, and the narrator comes to find out that his brother has been picked up because of a heroine addiction. This was brought into Sonny’s life along with his love for music, specifically speaking, jazz. The narrator and his brother have completely different lives, with him being an algebra teacher, and Sonny trying to become someone famous in the music industry. The narrator does not understand Sonny when it comes to his wanting to become someone in the jazz industry. He tells him that he needs to finish school and doesn’t pay much attention to his brother’s wants and dreams. He says, “I just looked at him and I was probably frowning a real frown by this time. I simply couldn’t see why on earth he’d want to spend his time hanging around nightclubs, clowning around on bandstands, while people pushed each other around a dance floor. It seemed---beneath him, somehow. I had always put musicians in a class with what Daddy called “good-time people” (Baldwin). Sonny feels isolated in this story because his brother does not understand nor support his love for jazz. He wants to become someone but anytime they talk about it, his brother is questioning him. Sonny loves jazz but with it comes drugs, as people during this time frame are using heroine to intensify their performance. Sonny does not want to do drugs. In fact, he even tried to escape them by leaving home, specifically Harlem. He says, “I was all by myself at the bottom of something, stinking and sweating and crying and shaking, and I smelled it, you know? My stink, and I thought I'd die if I couldn't get away from it and yet, all the same, I knew that everything I was doing was just locking me in with it” (Baldwin). When Sonny came back he hadn’t really escaped, but he tried to. He still wants a life where he is playing jazz music, but at the same time he feels isolated from it. 

        In conclusion, all three stories have their fair share of isolation that is present in their own way. In “A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings” and “A Hunger Artist” the similarities are more obvious between the two. Both of the main characters are put on display for the general public. They are both made fun of, and not treated righteously. This can be a life lesson to speak up. The old man does not say anything to any of the people that throw things at him. He does not show them who he really is until the end, where he proves everyone wrong by flying away. The hunger artist does not have to keep his job just because of his old age, but even though he does he does not have to make himself angry because of people’s suspicions. After all, he is the only one who knows he is not cheating himself. He does not need everyone else’s approval. This could be a life relating issue because a lot of people seek the public’s approval, and they end up disappointed because everyone will always judge. “Sonny’s Blues” relates to real life situations by showing that even when you attain the fame, things do not magically get better. There are still troubles that a famous person goes through, their lives are not amazing just because they are famous. 

Alma’s view-

       To begin with, in Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s story “A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings” the central character being the old man, is made a spectacle of when he lands in the courtyard of the fisherman’s house. In Franz Kafkas story “A Hunger Artist” the main character, the starvation artist has put himself in a cage to show off his skills of starving himself only to not get the appreciation and recognition that he wants. In James Baldwin’s “Sonny’s Blues” the character we pay most attention to, Sonny, feels separated from the world. He wants a career in jazz but can’t seem to not be a part of the drugs that come with it. In all short stories there is a sense of isolation that takes place, with each character being put to test by their specific audience or world.

      Starting with the story “A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings” the old man who is the main character is meant to be an angel who is found in the front yard of a couple’s house. However, he is not believed to be one because of the way he looks, “..he was much too human: he had an unbearable smell of the outdoors, the back side of his wings was strewn with parasites and his main feathers had been mistreated by terrestrial winds, and nothing about him measured up to the proud dignity of angels” (Marquez, 166). The angel is put on show in a chicken coop for everyone to gather around and see. There are people from around the world who decide to come see him. The townspeople and others “..tried to make him eat some mothballs, which, according to the wisdom of the wise neighbor woman, were the food prescribed for angels. But he turned them down, just as he turned down the papal lunches that the penitents brought him, and they never found out whether it was because he was an angel or because he was an old man that in the end ate nothing but eggplant mush. His only supernatural virtue seemed to be patience” (Marquez, 167). The angel is put to test by his audience who wants to see and know what he can really do. No one believes he is a supernatural creature because of his appearance and because of that they treat him poorly. The angel’s audience fades away when they turn their attention to the woman who was turned into a spider, leaving him be in his chicken coop.

      Continuing onto the story “A Hunger Artist” the main character, the starvation artist has decided to make a career by putting himself in a cage and showing everyone that he can starve himself for up to 40 days, or longer. He is already isolating himself from the world and his audience by starting out with living in a cage. The hunger artist then feels as if he is not being recognized nor appreciated by his talent. He wants to show everyone he can do more and..”he made no secrets of this, yet people did not believe him, at the best they set him down as modest, most of them, however, thought he was out for publicity or else was some kind of cheat who found it easy to fast because he had discovered a way of making it easy, and then had the impudence to admit the fact, more or less” (Kafka, 245). Because of the disbelief that the artist receives from everyone, he decides to join the circus, which leaves him to be more miserable than he already was. It seems that he becomes even more invisible, “..at first he could hardly wait for the intervals, it was exhilarating to watch the crowds come streaming his way, until only too soon---not even the most obstinate self-deception, clung to almost consciously, could hold out against the fact-- the conviction was borne in upon him that these people, most of them, to judge from their actions, again and again, without exception, were all on their way to the menagerie” (Kafka, 249). A panther ends up replacing the artist, getting all the attention that he wanted and deserved.

       For the last story “Sonny’s Blues” the narrator speaks about his brother Sonny, who has gotten himself in trouble by being on heroin and getting picked up by the cops. Sonny had always had a certain love for jazz music in his life, and he speaks on how he wishes to become a famous artist one day. His brother, the narrator, does not seem to understand why he wants to be a jazz player, stating that he “..simply couldn’t see why on earth he’d want to spend his time hanging around nightclubs, clowning around on bandstands, while people pushed each other around a dance floor” (Baldwin, 44). This creates the isolation for Sonny because he feels he is not being understood. At the same time, Sonny is also knows that part of the music he wants to get into includes getting into the drugs that come along with it. He is struggling to keep himself away from it, “I’ve been something I didn’t recognize, didn’t know I could be. Didn’t know anybody could be. Sometimes, you know and it was actually when I was most out of the world, I felt that I was in it, that I was with it, really, and I could play or I didn’t really have to play, it just came out of me, it was there” (Baldwin, 55). It is obvious that Sonny is not feeling right with his life and where he is at. He wants to be someone in the jazz industry, but he is not there quite yet.

         To conclude, the 3 short stories display isolation in their own way through the main characters. The stories “A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings” and “A Hunger Artist” show their isolation through their characters very similarly. The old man is locked up in a chicken coop, and the hunger artist is in a cage, and they are both put in a public place where others can view them as they wish, and for who they are. The old man proves his worthiness in the end by flying away. The hunger artist sadly does not realize that people will have their suspicions either way, and if he wouldn’t be happy with himself, that neither would others. In “Sonny’s Blues” the narrator is able to show us how Sonny feels isolated through his relationship with his own brother and also with the world. All of the stories can teach us that we need to approve of ourselves first before trying to get to bigger and better things. It is hard to become successful when we put ourselves down at the downfalls of things.

Kaleigh’s View:

We were tasked to read three short stories, “Sonny’s Blues”, “ A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings” and “A Hunger Artist. They’re victims of people making them a spectacle; which causes them to feel isolated.

In “Sonny’s Blues” by James Baldwin, our main character Sonny suffers from a heroine addiction. Sonny is involved in the Jazz scene. During, that time jazz performers would use heroine as an enhancement to their performance.His older brother, the narrator of the story disapproves of his life style. This causes Sonny to feel isolated. Sonny wants to get away from heroine so much he moves out of Harlem, but is love of Jazz draws him right back into that scene.

Secondly we have, “A Hunger Artist “ by Franz Kafka. The main character is a performer. His performance involves him starving for 40 days. No one believes that he actually doesn’t eat for 40 days. This causes him to be discontent with his life. All he wants is acceptance for his so called “craft”. He is obviously a sick man from the beginning but the fact that he isn’t believed causes him to feel isolated and do self hate.

Lastly, we have a short story by Garcia Marquez, “ A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings “. The old man is found by a couple on the patio. The old man is quite tattered looking. A women lets them know that this man is a angel. The couple and the townspeople do not believe this statement. So he is locked up in a chicken coupe and antagonized by the townspeople. He is isolated due to lack of communication and being locked away.

In conclusion, all these victims of isolation; were also the hero’s of their stories. This shows us how people’s ignorance and isolation can do to a person’s psyche.

Steffanie’s View-

From all three stories there is a different theme and meaning. But they all have similar meaning. “A very old man with enormous wings” he lands in the gentleman’s yard and s an angel but isn’t seen that way by others. “Sonny’s blues” the young kid does drugs but has his escape but is not seen as a normal kid by others. Lastly in “A hunger artist” the hunger artist thinks people want to see him starve but in reality they don’t and he comes to terms with that.

In the story “A very old man with enormous wings” the old man is seen in the courtyard and as described by Pelayo and Elisenda “they both looked at the fallen body with mute stupor” (Marquez) as the neighbor told the couple the old man was an angel they could not believe what they were being told by this lady. “He must have been coming for the child, but the poor fellow is so old that the rain knocked him down” (Marquez). The couple hold the angel in their house and their whole town knows it. Pelayo takes the angel out to the chicken coop and locks the angel there. The next day when the couple wake up they come to find that the neighbors are watching him and enjoying him through the fence. “... they found the whole neighborhood in front of the chicken coop having fun with he angel...”(Marquez). This alone shows how the angel is isolated right from the get go and the quality of life isn’t good from their perspective.

Moving on to the next story, “ Sonny’s Blues” as the story is told by Sonny’s brother the narrator is a math teacher with a typical life an goals he has accomplished, “I told myself sonny was wild but he wasn’t crazy”(Baldwin).  His brother sonny on the other hand have been sent on different paths, Sonny is hooked on heroine, “they’ll send him away some place and try to cure him” (Baldwin), but the one thing he loves most is music. Sonny wants to make something of his music career but its a tough industry to be in. Sonny didn’t always do drugs and he always wanted to quit doing them so his solution was to run away from Harlem and attempt to start over , but as seen in the story it didn’t work. Sonny’s love was not supported by him brother and he didn’t have the same love for it and thought sonny needed to make something of himself because the jazz industry can be hard. Sonny feels isolated in the sense that he’s not supported by his brother and his brother wants a different path for him.

Last in the story “A hunger artist” the starvation artist wanted to show the world that he could actually accomplish something and that i starving himself for a long time as amusement for the watchers. People don’t seem to believe he is starving himself and that he is sneaking food when all the watchers are gone. “It used to pay very well to stage such great performances under one’s own management, but today that is quite impossible” (Kafka). People would stop by at least once a day when the hunger artist first started because the suspense and excitement was so built up. “There were people who bought season tickets for the last few days and sat from morning to night in front of his small barred cage”(Kafka). The hunger artist wanted the attention and acceptance of the community but as he sat in his cage he began to grow further and further away from the town because people started to become disinterested. “... since it was not the hunger artist who was cheating; he was working honestly, but the world was cheating him of his reward”(Kafka).

In the end all three stories share the isolation theme and its clear how the characters face that. Both “ a man with enormous wings” and “a hunger artist” share the similarities more than “Sonny’s blues”. The hunger artist groans old and eventually begins to realize he doesn’t need the peoples approval but that’s what he has been longing for and he’s the only one that know he is not cheating himself. He stayed true to his beliefs and followed through till the very end. “Sonny’s blues” gives more of a real life outlook as far as dealing with addiction but having an outlet of a hobby, and when things turn up right not everything follows. These stories share great similarities, and real life story.

[graywyvern]

( @spaceliminalbot / via )

Thread.

      "GRAWLIX"

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Demonic Caterpillar.

28. juxtapyloric thorp thought alone can sun-char anodyne from Starbucks man o' war with nunchucks

Deep Sea Anomaly II.

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odd lethargy

Piracy sites & DuckDuckGo.

[sciencespies]

The Apollo mission had no toilet. Here's how the astronauts went to the bathroom

https://sciencespies.com/space/the-apollo-mission-had-no-toilet-heres-how-the-astronauts-went-to-the-bathroom/

The Apollo mission had no toilet. Here's how the astronauts went to the bathroom

Bathroom breaks on the moon? Forget about it.

Astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin may have been the first people to set foot on the lunar surface when Apollo 11 landed there 50 years ago, on 20 July, 1969, but they had to forgo some Earthly conveniences in order to pull off the moon landing.

NASA engineers were so busy figuring out how to get astronauts to and from the moon that they didn’t bother to design a toilet for the Apollo missions of the 1960s and 70s.

In fact, the first toilet wouldn’t be installed on a US spaceship until the space shuttle got one in the 1980s. (There was technically a toilet on the Skylab space station in the 1970s, but it was an inglorious commode that looked like a hole in the wall, and astronauts had to dry their faeces in a special compartment.)

“Defecation and urination have been bothersome aspects of space travel from the beginning of manned space flight,” an official NASA report on the Apollo space missions reads.

During Apollo 11, as with all the other Apollo missions, astronauts had to wrestle with a stinking baggie in order to relieve themselves. Here’s what the process entailed.

Human waste in space was relegated to a baggie system

To pee, astronauts used what looked essentially like a condom (which they replaced daily), which was hooked up to a bag with a short hose. There was no female-friendly system, since the Apollo astronauts were all men. Spills happened often.

On the Apollo missions, astronauts peed into a cuff that emptied into this bag. (NASA)

The procedure for dealing with poop in space was no better.

“In the absence of a system providing positive means for the removal of faeces from the body, an extremely basic system had to be relied upon for in-flight faecal collection,” the NASA report says.

“The device used was a plastic bag which was taped to the buttocks to capture faeces.”

This aptly named “faecal bag” that the astronauts used came complete with a compartment for toilet paper, and it had a built-in finger covering so astronauts could stay clean while positioning the bag on their butts.

It wasn’t easy to get the bag set up correctly inside the small flap at the back of astronauts’ space suits. One Apollo astronaut estimated that the whole bathroom-going process took astronauts about 45 minutes.

And even then, the toilet-bag contraption was not fool proof.

During the Apollo 10 mission in May 1969, astronaut Tom Stafford sounded a warning: “Get me a napkin quick. There’s a turd floating through the air,” he said, according to one NASA transcript.

NASA insisted that the astronauts bring back all of their faeces for examination, so after the Apollo astronauts finished doing their business, they had to seal up their baggies and “knead” them, as the report details, mixing in some all-important bactericide that would allow the excrement to get safely back to Earth. (There is now a complete log of all five of the Apollo 11 space turds.)

The poop bags were “rolled into the smallest possible volume” by the astronauts and stored for the return trip, following the well known backpacker mantra “pack it in, pack it out.” Unsurprisingly, the report notes that “the problem of odor was continually present” during Apollo bathroom breaks.

“In general, the Apollo waste management system worked satisfactorily from an engineering standpoint. From the point of view of crew acceptance, however, the system must be given poor marks,” the final Apollo bathroom report read.

Because relieving oneself in space was such a gross, time-consuming, and smelly task, astronauts often took laxatives before they launched, and sometimes relied on drugs that kept their intestines running more slowly.

On the moon, astronauts wore space diapers

Astronauts couldn’t use this same bag system to catch their waste while wearing space suits on the lunar surface. So when Apollo astronauts left their spacecraft, they wore a “faecal containment system,” which was basically a diaper.

It’s not clear whether Aldrin and Armstrong ever took full advantage of those “systems” in their 21 hours and 36 minutes on the moon, but Buzz does claim to be the first man to ever pee on another celestial body.

“It’s lonely as hell out there,” he told a crowd at the Newseum on the 40th anniversary of the moon landing. “I peed in my pants.”

The plaque that Aldrin and Armstrong left on the moon 50 years ago reads, in part, “here men from the planet Earth first set foot upon the Moon July 1969”

The plaque does not mention that they were both wearing diapers when they took that giant leap.

This article was originally published by Business Insider.

More from Business Insider:

#Space

[ladyofdecember]

ZADR Week - May 15th - BEEEES

A/N: Just to bring everyone up to speed with this universe. Dib and Zim have begun living together in Zim's base now that Dib has turned nineteen though he sometimes still spent a night or two at the Membrane home. It had been over a year now that both had graduated from the high skool and neither seemed particularly interested in attending college. With Dib's father gone often and Gaz more interested in being alone most of the time anyway, it had seemed like the perfect idea. The human and the alien had grown insanely close and yet were still pretty strictly far apart.

din-din ˈdindin/

noun

a child's word for dinner.

Also from urban dictionary:

TOP DEFINITION

din din:

another word for dinner, used by the very cool kids

Example: Sup, whens Din Din, Yo?

...

It started with what the human stinks call “April Showers” dissipating, leaving behind nothing but sunny skies and an overabundance of plant life in it's wake. That was what brought Zim out of the safe and secure haven of his base on the quiet May morning.

GIR had been playing some game around the yard and had inadvertently knocked over some of the gnomes outside. Venturing out to set things right, Zim had become overwhelmed by the stink of a large, purplish plant at the edge of the yard. Investigating it closer, he discovered that it was in fact, a flower of some kind, one of the various earth blooms that were common during this time of lunar drift.

He hadn't given much thought to these flowers or plants during his stay on the planet. After all, why should he? He was an invader, not some... plant lover... being. But upon receiving the recent news from his Tallest, it seemed there wasn't much point in conducting his normal studies or daily activities anymore. None the less, Zim was convinced that he did still have an importance here on this dirt ball, a mission, if not official then unofficial and still important in his eyes. So he wouldn't stop, not even if they wanted him to.

Sniffing the bell shaped flower bloom gently, he was surprised that he wasn't immediately repelled by the stench. It was light, a little dizzying but not repugnant.

“Am I interrupting?”

Zim startled, spinning round to see Dib standing just slightly outside the fence at the beginning of the yard. He narrowed his eyes in suspicion at the tiny white, paper bag in his hand. “What is that?”

Dib cocked an eyebrow, the small smile on his face never leaving. “Donuts.”

After a moment of just staring at one another, the man sighed impatiently and motioned towards the house. “Are the gnomes off? Am I safe to come in?”

The irken waved at him dismissively and faced the plant once more. “Yes, yes. They are in need of repair so they've been disconnected. You are safe to enter, Dib-worm.”

The human walked up to Zim, trying to figure out just what was so interesting about the flower. “Did you plant this?”

“No. I believe it was GIR. What IS it?”

“I dunno. I'm not much into flowers to be honest.” Dib said shrugging, then letting his eyes roam over Zim's studious face. “Are you... okay this morning?” To say he was worried about the irken was an understatement. He was downright concerned with making sure the alien was happy, content or at least not borderline homicidal. That wasn't good for anyone.

A pause and then, Zim spun to glare at the human, irritated. “I am fine, Dib-human!”

He wasn't so convinced but decided to let the issue drop for now. He'd bring Zim back to normal eventually. He had a plan after all. Holding up the bag in his hand with a hopeful smile on his face, he beckoned towards the base. “Hungry? You'll like these, Zim. They're covered in sugar!”

Relaxing a little, Zim turned back towards the human and eyed the bag in his hand once more. Well... he supposed he could take a break. But then, it was right back to his constant vigilance and walking the perimeter of their secret lair.

Grinning at the promise of sugar, Zim reached out happily with both claws to snatch the bag when suddenly a loud buzzing began from somewhere behind him. Zim turned with a curious expression, noticing a large bumblebee circling him. He began shrieking like mad and ran to cower behind Dib.

The man laughed. “It's just a bee, Zim!”

“Nonsense! It is... a disgusting thing!”

“In what way are bees disgusting?” Dib asked amusedly.

“Shut UP, Din-Din!” He responded, switching to his affectionate nickname for his friend.

Dib sighed as Zim continued clawing at his back and waist, peering around the side of him towards the flowery bush in an effort to “spy” on the bee. “I told you not to call me that.”

“And Zim told you to shut up!”

The two watched the bee visit each flower on the tiny bush before buzzing upward and over towards them. Dib stood perfectly still, used to bees and the like buzzing around him. They always seemed to follow him. It must be his shampoo. Zim however began to freak out all the more.

“Oh god! We're going to die!” He shrieked as he squeezed Dib's sides, nearly suffocating him.

“Zim! My... organs!”

Finally, the bee grew bored of the the display and flew off, high up into the blue sky and clouds.

Dib squirmed out of the alien's grip and retrieved the bag of donuts in the grass. “See what you did? Now, can we please go inside? I'm starving!”

Calming himself and adjusting his uniform slightly, Zim nodded quietly. “Let us enjoy these... er... do-nots!”

The two headed towards the house, Dib chuckling and shaking his head. “Donuts, Zim.” He corrected.

“Whatever.”

[cliftonsteen]

How to buy coffee gifts

After extensive testing on our own families, here are our top picks for Coffee Christmas Gifts. #christmascheatsheet

For the filter coffee drinker… 

  Aeropress Brew Dice Gift Pack | $88.90

Here we’ve done the hard work for you and created the ultimate gift pack for filter coffee lovers. An Aeropress, bangin’ filter coffee, Keep Cup brew and genuine WAC Brew Dice – all wrapped up in a cute box!

Filter Coffee | $15-$17 

All the coffees we roast for filter have been chosen for their character. Close your eyes, click anywhere on the page and you’re guaranteed to select a winner!

 For the environmentally conscious coffee drinker…

KeepCup Brew | $21.78

Available in plastic or glass, these stylish vessels have a low environmental footprint. Join the ranks of KeepCup users who are diverting more than 8 million disposable cups from landfill every year.

Share Generously Tote Bag | $22

Ultra-sturdy for carrying all the veggies home from the farmer’s market, this tote is built for everyday use. Made of heavy cotton canvas with reinforced handles – and a reminder to Craft With Care, Share Generously.

For the ‘my partner makes my morning coffee’ coffee drinker… 

Moccamaster Classic | $418

If making morning coffee means multiple cups, it might be time to set up the kitchen with a Moccamaster. Don’t be fooled by the 80’s American diner vibe, this little batch brewer will pump out 1.25L of delicious coffee at the flick of a switch – and keep it warm while the other half wakes up

Barista Training Voucher | $165 

Rather than trying to teach coffee prep (anyone else get traumatic flashbacks to driving lessons?) leave it to our professional trainers. Teach a man to fish…

For the ‘this is my daily treat’ coffee drinker… 

Loveramics 150ml Cup & Saucer | $18.70 – $20.90

Enjoy café quality cups from the comfort of home. The beautifully textured porcelain holds in the heat, so curling up on the couch with one of these beauties is the perfect way to escape for a moment.

Flavourtrain Blend | $15

All aboard the Flavourtrain. This juicy & smooth bodied blend is making stops at malted honeycomb, stewed peach and lime before launching express to its final destination … Flavourtown.

For the “shh, don’t talk. Just gimme dat caffeine” coffee drinker… 

Clever Coffee Dripper | $33 

Possibly the simplest way to brew coffee at home. (This is literally what my parents use to make coffee). CCD + filter paper + coffee + water. Leave it for a couple of minutes. Drain into a cup. Perfect for clearing the morning fog.

Crompton Road blend | $15 

Rich flavours, chocolatey and heavy bodied – this coffee is a nod towards more traditional flavour profiles. “Mmmm tastes like coffee!”

For the ‘beach is life’ coffee drinker… 

Toddy Cold Brew System | $61.60

Enjoy perfect coffee, even in the middle of a stinking hot Aussie summer. The Toddy makes a big batch of the cold good stuff to take on your weekend road trip Dowth. #justperththings

iKegger | $217.80

You know what’s even cooler than a big bottle of cold brew? Serving it up from a nitro keg. Double walled for superior insulation, enjoy a cold, driver-friendly frothy any time of the day.

For the “… Tamping… Channelling… Distribution…” coffee drinker… 

Pullman Chisel | $184.80

The ultimate tool to improve espresso distribution by maximising the sideways movement of the coffee grounds, with minimal downward pressure. Want to get repeatable shots? This sure helps!

Acaia Lunar | $308.88

A sophisticated modern scale designed to time and weigh out your espresso extractions – and it’s built tough enough to survive in the drip tray ecosystem.

Dark Horse Blend | $15

Complex, intense and full bodied, this Dark Horse will delight most espresso drinkers. Delicate herbal aromas lead into dark chocolate flavours, which swiftly open towards juicy blackcurrant notes and an extended syrupy body.

This article was originally published on 10 December 2018.

The post How to buy coffee gifts appeared first on Five Senses Coffee.

How to buy coffee gifts published first on https://espressoexpertweb.weebly.com/