#maybe his ice core evolved into an space core

[injuries-in-dust]

We don’t go to earth...

Chu looked at images of earth of their data-pad, staring at the magnificent cities, the majestic countryside, the beautiful blue oceans, and more. 

Chu glanced over at their friend, a human named Marie. “We take our next shore-leave together.”

Marie smiled at him, “I’d like that.”

Chu managed to imitate the smile, though his face hadn’t evolved to express itself the same way. Marie said it made him look ‘constipated.’ “Maybe we could visit your home, earth?”

Marie’s smile dropped. “We don’t go to earth.”

Chu cocked their head. A gesture which usually amused Marie because it reminded her so much of a confused dog. She showed no amusement this time. He voiced his thoughts, “I know earth has this reputation as a death-world but -”

“We don’t go to earth,” Marie stated in a more serious tone. “Not even humans go back to earth. Not because it’s a death-world, although, from what I’ve heard, it totally is! You wouldn’t last a day with the climate alone. We don’t go to earth, because there are earthlings down there.” 

Now Chu’s confusion was mounting, “earthlings?” he queried, “You mean ‘humans,’ don’t you?”

He’d seen enough human expressions to know a grimace when he saw one. “I’m sure that’s what they call themselves, but no one else does.” She saw his bewilderment and continued, “How many humans are on this ship? A few hundred? how many humans serve in the space-core? Millions? Maybe a billion or so? How many of them do you think list earth as their home?” She didn’t even wait for him to speculate. “None. A big, fat, zero. No human has come from earth since the last of the pioneers left, about 200 years ago.

“I was born on the Seti-Alpha colony. Ask any human on this ship and you’ll get similar answers; Seti-Alpha, Earth 2, New India, New Australia, Nova, Sherman’s Planet, Arian, Arkas, Dagon, and so on. No one is from earth anymore.”

“But why?”

She just shook her head slowly. “We left all the idiots back there.”

His head cocked again, this time in the other direction.

She continued, “It’s what I heard in school growing up. Earth used to have a population of idiots. Some believed the earth was flat, and space wasn’t real.” She noted his surprised expression. “Yeah. Some kind of twisted misinterpretation of ancient religious text. Earth was made by a creator deity, it was a flat plane, covered by a dome called a ‘firmament.’ Space, planets, stars, all that stuff, was just a lie made up by governments to trick people into not beliving in the creator deity.”

Chu’s head began to hurt as he took a second to even try and understand this point of view.

He didn’t have to speak, Marie could tell what he was thinking. “I know. It doesn’t make sense to me either.

“They were shown evidence, they said it was fake. We landed on our moon, they said it was fake. We colonised mars, they said it was fake, like actors in a studio or something.

“Some people even offered to take them into actual space, so they could see it was real. They said it would all be fake, with TV screens, CGI, and VR headsets and other dumb stuff.

“In the end, all the humans who knew space was real left the planet and went out to the colonies to start new lives. The rich at first, then the well-off, and then space travel got so cheap almost anyone could do it. Until the last of the great pioneers left earth and the only people left behind were those people who didn’t think space was real.”

Chu shook his head violently. “That is ridiculous! Where do they think all of the colonists went?!!”

Marie shrugged her shoulders. “I don’t know,” she admitted, “Some big hidden city in an isolated area? Culled by the evil secret cabal that’s running the world from the shadows? Underground bases? In cities around the hidden ice wall that’s supposed to surround the flat earth? It was a few hundred years ago and I wasn’t really paying much attention in history class.

“The point is that, the real humans took to the stars and we left the idiots isolated on earth. They’ve had that place to themselves for the last two hundred years.

“That’s why we don’t go back to earth.”

[ichayalovesyou]

THE BIG VULCAN BIOLOGY POST (aka Vulcan is a Hell Planet)

DISCLAIMER: I am not a biologist, astrophysicist, neurologist, animal psychologist or literally anything that would qualify me to talk about this with 100% confidence. This is the result of dozens of headcanons and obsessive deep dive research. I don’t want this post to be three miles long, so after I address the planetary stuff I will oblige y’all with a Read More.

Adsfasdkfjhaslkdfh I’ve been working on this post for almost a month SO HERE WE GO!

First of all, Vulcan (aka T’Khasi) is a HELL PLANET, which is part of the reason they’re so badass, I say this for the following reasons:

No moon(s) (natural satellites)

Sodium (Salt) is so rare on the planet that Vulcan’s oceans are freshwater

It’s a “Super-Earth” (as in big chonkin’ planet of similar composition to earth in the “goldilocks region”)

Let’s do this.

“Vulcan has no moon Ms. Uhura.”

-Spock, The Man Trap

Tons of things change about our planet if there was no moon:

Much darker nights (no moonlight)

Much lower sea levels since there is no gravity from the moon to pull it upward.

Lower and weaker tides because the water is pulled by the sun instead of the moon, and it depends on how large the Vulcan solar system’s sun is for how big the waves are.

Stronger winds from faster planet rotation.

Depending on whether the axis of the planet would straighten or tilt further without the moon’s pull, combined with the faster rotation would lead to more severe seasons (strong tilt) or no seasons at all (no tilt)

The first factor may lead to Vulcan eyes being very catlike even if they aren’t nocturnal (I think they’re crepesucular but we’ll get into that later). Which given the likely nature of their blood and their herbivorous eating habits they probably aren’t. The sky would still be so dark that our human eyes couldn’t even see our hands in front of us, being blind when the sun goes down could be a death sentence. Alternatively, if they didn’t develop strong night vision that may be one of the reasons why they have such strong senses of hearing.

The stronger winds, faster rotation, and stronger (or nonexistent) seasons come from the lack of resistance and friction that stronger tides and the moon’s pull create on our planet. I suspect that Vulcan is larger, or at least denser than Earth, but I’ve been informed that according to the TMP novelization that it does rotate faster. I also think that Vulcan’s tilt is on the more extreme end to get the hostile extremes like storms and heat that we see on Vulcan.

If you look at this image of Vulcan, water covers way less of the planet’s surface than Earth. I don’t think this is necessarily because Vulcan has less water, but that it isn’t spread as far because of the lack of moon, and the fact that the oceans are freshwater, I’ll get into that shortly.

“My ancestors spawned from a different ocean than yours.”

-Spock, The Man Trap

In the Star Trek: The Original Series (third) pilot The Man Trap, there is a creature that kills its victims by draining their bodies completely of salt. Spock encounters the creature but does not die, implying his (and Vulcans overall) body contains little to no salt. His justification is that his species did not evolve from a salinized ocean.

What does it mean to have oceans with no salt?

This has to mean that sodium is a very rare mineral on Vulcan, as the reason our oceans are so salinized is due to erosion of minerals by rainfall, carried from river to ocean. Salt in the ocean is also generated by submarine volcanic activity, which means either that the volcanoes on Vulcan (which we definitely know exist) somehow don’t produce salt, or the vast majority of the submarine volcanoes have been inactive for millions if not billions of years. The active volcanoes on Vulcan must be very far inland and/or Vulcan has almost no rivers, which given how hot the planet is, wouldn’t actually be too much of a stretch of the imagination.

Which means every single lifeform on T’Khasi, including Vulcans, evolved biosystems that exist without (or with very little) salt content. Any salt that exists would likely be deep beneath the planet’s surface, and within volcanoes.

No saltwater has a ton of consequences:

Plants (like underwater algae) are rarer and may not photosynthesize the same way Earth plants do, meaning less oxygen and more carbon dioxide, which means more greenhouse effect, which means higher temperatures.

The lack of salt would also mean less diverse plant life (at least as humans know it) and given the lack of visible rivers and vast swaths of desert on Vulcan, we can safely say vegetation must be hardier and infrequent.

Lower sea levels as the oceans would have lower density due to lack of salt.

Little to no water convection, which salt is crucial for on Earth. Which means warm ocean water doesn’t move to cold regions and vice versa. Creating extremes, the equator being obscenely hot, and polar waters freezing at the poles more extensively.

Lack of convection means more frequent and stronger storms like hurricanes.

If you thought the lack of a moon made Vulcan inhospitable, compound it with the low sodium factor and you’ve got a planet of even more severe extremes than before. The heat, and the decrease of plant diversity definitely explain why the vast majority of Vulcan is rocky desert, even being near the water poses more extreme dangers than it would on earth due to the increased frequency of hurricanes.

“Mr. Spock is much stronger than an ordinary human being.”

-Kirk, This Side of Paradise

I am almost 100% sure that Vulcan is either bigger or denser than Earth. Which would explain why Vulcans are so much stronger than Humans and other species that exist on similar gravity worlds.

Effects of a high-gravity planet or “Super-Earth” include:

Everything is shorter or has very strong foundations, plants, animals, structures, and people.

More “Armageddon” class asteroids would hit the planet (like the one that killed the dinosaurs and created the Gulf of Mexico)

Larger liquid mantle under the planet’s surface, higher pressure under the surface as well.

Weaker magnetic field due to lack of convection in the planet’s core (not to be confused with the mantle interacting with the planet’s crust). Which means a weaker atmosphere, lower magnetism in surface metals, and increased vulnerability to solar flares.

More volcanically and seismically active due the the increase in the mantle’s size and generated heat, more earthquakes, and more volcanic eruptions.

Would have to have a smaller sun but be closer in orbit to it than earth.

Extremely deep oceans, potentially with water under so much pressure at the bottom that it becomes solid like ice. Luckily Vulcan is not an ocean world, because the pressure would block the planet’s core from interacting with the atmosphere, which would prevent life as we know it from happening.

There is plenty of evidence for this on so many levels. We never see any plant life similar to trees on Vulcan. Nor animals significantly larger than Vulcans, the ones that are bigger are much more muscular. Vulcan’s sky is more red than blue because of the lack of oxygen molecules for the light from the sun to filter as blue. I actually headcanon that Spock is unusually tall for a Vulcan because of his human heritage (Leonard Nimoy was around 6ft tall) , and may have had heart and muscle problems in his teens and early adulthood while on Vulcan.

Perhaps Vulcans are the result of many more extinction level events than we are, contributing to their hardiness. Perhaps they are, evolutionarily, not too much older than we are, and had more incentive to develop extraterrestrial technology than we have, so that they could repel Armageddon Class meteors and defend their planet against Solar Flares? Space travel being born out of self-preservation rather than curiosity. Which would absolutely account for their attitudes in the beginning of Star Trek: Enterprise.

It could be that Vulcans still maintain a semi-nomadic lifestyle even today because their planet is so incredibly volatile. Unsentimental and utilitarian in anything less than the most sacred of architecture long before they adopted the teachings of Surak. Their own survival more valuable than any structure that would inevitably be damaged or destroyed by their planet’s harsh environment.

In summary, Vulcan is a Nightmare Planet because:

So, so many much natural disasters, like, so many, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, tsunamis, hurricanes, twisters, just, so many more than Earth.

Water is relegated to specific locations in the world rather than spread across it due to lack of flow and lower sea levels.

Extreme temperature changes, intense heat, intense cold, hard to breathe, stronger gravity.

Due to the planet’s hostility, there is a smaller diversity of life than we have here on earth, which means fewer and hardier food sources that, like Vulcans, are very difficult to kill.

So… How do they handle it? What features have they developed to adapt and thrive in such an inhospitable place?

First thing is first, lets talk about

BLOOD

“My hemoglobin is based on copper, not iron.”

-Spock, Obsession

Funny thing is Spock, it’s not hemoglobin at all! It’s hemocyanin! In fact, there are earth animals that have it, among them Horseshoe Crabs, crustaceans, mollusks and spiders!

Hemocyanin is blue when it hasn’t been exposed to oxygen, and blue-green when it has, according to some sources on Vulcans their blood is orangey red when unexposed to air and that’s why they have pink lips and so on, but we can brush that off as chemical variation within their hemocyanin. Better yet, maybe it’s trendy for Vulcans to wear pink lipstick nowadays, ‘cause Surak knows how horny Humans and Vulcans are for each other XD! Anyway!

Hemocyanin does quite a few things that our blood can’t, it’s uniquely built for high pressure, low oxygen environments, as well as endure temperature extremes like cold (not unlike nights on their planet). Not only that, but it coagulates and clots WAY faster than our blood. Which means wounds seal themselves off from harmful bacteria and stop bleeding much faster than hemoglobin. Pair that with the Vulcan ability to enter a healing torpor, no wonder Spock keeps surviving environments and wounds that would definitely have killed a human.

Now, the animals I listed don’t have veins, which for us carry oxygen around via hemoglobin, so it’s possible that the same difference that causes Vulcan blood to be a coppery orange-red beneath the skin, is the same reason they have veins. Allowing them to look more like us and lack the exoskeletons and deep ocean delving that their earth blood cousins have.

“The ship’s temperature is increasingly uncomfortable for me. I’ve adjusted the environment in my quarters to 125 degrees.”

-(Elderly) Spock, The Deadly Years

Oh goodie, the Vulcan blood temperature discourse has arrived, the age old question, are Vulcans warm-blooded or cold-blooded? The answer to this question is

YES

I am firmly in the small (but hopefully growing) camp Vulcans Are Heterothermic. Among the earth animals we know to be heterothermic are bumblebees, several species of bats, the opah fish, and the arctic ground squirrel. Of all these animals, despite the opposite temperature intensity of Vulcan’s environment, I’m basing how Vulcans function on the last one, the arctic squirrel.

Which means they can deliberately control their body temperature in accordance to the needs of their survival. I imagine, just as arctic ground squirrels can drop their body below zero as needed (entering what is called a “daily torpor”) Vulcans can do the same. In turn, they could possibly skyrocket their bodies to temperatures that would be a lethal fever for humans. Which makes both McCoy’s “nonexistent Vulcan metabolism” comments in various episodes, as well as describing his blood as “ice water” make sense. As well as Spock being able to handle the heightened body temperature caused by Henoch in “Return to Tomorrow”. It also explains why Spock was in far better shape than Bones in the freezing temperatures of the planet from “All Our Yesterdays”.

However, like arctic squirrel newborns, they start out as ectothermic (cold-blooded) which lends itself to the Vulcan infants needing even more skin to skin to survive than humans theory by @acesexualspock. Being born cold blooded would prevent them from immediately dying the second they were exposed to the dangerous extremes of Vulcan’s heat. I also think they slowly lose the ability to control their metabolic rate as they grow older, slowing down dramatically as they age, which is why Spock gets increasingly colder as he ages rapidly in “The Deadly Years”.

“The brightness of the Vulcan sun has caused the development of an inner eyelid.”

-Spock, Operation: Annihilate

I wanna thank @tribbleland for inspiring this part in particular.

I want to offer a special congratulations to furries people who let their love for anthro-cats bleed into their love for Vulcans, turns out Vulcans are very catlike! Like our feline Terran friends, Vulcans have what is called a Nicitating Membrane. It’s functions that would serve Vulcans well in their desert home include spreading moisture across the eye, protect the eye from small water and small debris (like sand for example), as well as protecting the eye from ultraviolet radiation, which is more or less what Spock said in that episode. Other animals that have Nicitating Membranes aside from felines is actually the majority of the animal kingdom, and primates (like us) are the exception and not the rule. I also subscribe to the idea that Vulcans have other desert dweller features like thick hair and eyelashes, sealable nostrils, big feet, a crepuscular sleep cycle (avoiding extreme midnight and midday temperatures), and a tough as nails digestive system!

As an added bonus fact since this section is pretty short: It makes purrfect sense for Vulcans to purr! In cats purring is an emotional regulator when they are angry or scared (Vulcans are ALL about regulating their emotions) as well as purring when they are happy. It is also a mechanism for healing themselves, their kittens, and their owners, the frequency at which cats purr (25-140 Hz) cover the same frequencies that are therapeutic for bone growth and fracture healing, pain relief, swelling reduction, wound healing, muscle growth and repair, tendon repair, and mobility of joints. I’m over here getting emotional about the mental image of like, Spock or Tuvok or smth sitting next to a wounded crewmember and just like, purring with a completely straight face and that is soft and just a little funny and I am emotionally compromised.

“And are it’s natives predatory?” “Not generally, but there have been exceptions.”

-Spock to Trelaine, The Squire of Gothos

Surprise! This isn’t just going to be about Vulcan dietary needs, it’s gonna be about animal behaviors and self-domestication as well! I was trying to think of herbivores that are capable of eating meat, and then this idea hit me like a bomb going of in my head-

Vulcans are like Hippos!

I don’t mean I think they used to be hippo-like (visually anyway) somewhere along the evolutionary line. I mean that they were probably big, extremely aggressive, pack roaming herbivores that are able to eat carrion when food is scarce. Have you ever seen a video of a group of Hippos smashing an alligator to smithereens? They kill more humans than any solitary predator on the African continent! What about a murder of crows killing a cat that injured one of them, or a group of bison saving a calf from a lion?! Herbivores can be insanely aggressive while still being social, plant-eating animals.

With that in mind, let’s talk about self-domestication! This is something that we humans (and to an extent, cats too) did way back in our biology according to some studies, we bred out aggression and bred in cooperativeness and curiosity. Cats, while partially domesticated by us, started looking for mates that were more sociable so that their offspring could exist closer to humans (and their food) as well as to tolerate other cats. While I do think Vulcans self-domesticated to a degree, I do not think they were able to do so nearly to the same extent as humans or our deliberately domesticated companions. Vulcan is a harsh, violent, and unforgiving planet, even more so than Earth, if Vulcans were naturally as friendly and curious as we Humans are now, they would not have survived as a species.

I believe this is why their emotions are so primal and strong, and things like Pon Farr and their unusually high wariness of the new and unexpected still exist so strongly. How do they live together in such high numbers and develop a functional society? They developed other means of coping as a work-around the impracticality of decreasing aggression!

“Call it a deep understanding of the way things happen to Vulcans.”

-Spock, The Immunity Syndrome

So, how do you have a species as aggressive, unforgiving, and frighteningly strong as Vulcans keep from completely destroying itself (aside from Surak’s teachings)? You take the empathy that humans already have, turn it up to 11, and tack on every evolutionary possibility to increase it. We already know how the Earth comparisons for Vulcan empathy: the extreme vitality of touch for the survival and emotional stability, cats purring to heal each other and themselves (and regulate emotions), nonverbal communication, the ancestral instincts of an infant animal being able to walk days after its born. What if we had all of these traits in remarkable spades, Vulcans certainly seem to! (Be prepared, the science starts getting a little squidgy because there are no real world comparisons and neurology research is very jargon heavy)

Electricity is a fundamental part of the biology of nearly all living things, it allows synapses to fire, regulates our internal organs, and gives us our senses of touch and movement. Skin to skin is so incredibly vital to the survival of infants, and the emotional stability for adults, that needing any more touch could be impractical and counterintuitive. So what if we got more from less? What if our sense of touch, and the acuteness of being able to read the emotions of others from body language and touch manifested as a form of what looks like from an outsider’s perspective, telepathy!

Now what if the radius of the sensation of touch could be extended much farther, say being able to sense someone to the same intensity I described in the last paragraph, like, through a wall or from across a room? What if you could connect to other lifeforms with the same ability like a chain circuit that could connect a whole species together in one giant circuitboard? I just described what Vulcans call the kwar’ma’khon, the telepathic energy that connects all Vulcans to each other!

Imagine having this same intense telepathic connection to someone for an extended period of time, like a t’hy’la or Bond Mate. What if you had a relatively easy to master non-lethal attack against other members of your species, that comes to you easily due to your intrinsic understanding of nerves and touch, like the Vulcan Nerve Pinch. In turn, what if, through the intensity of this connection you could transfer everything you knew and saw and felt to another person in the event of your death. That way, if you survived the harshness of your world without dying violently or unexpectedly, you could deliberately pass on that knowledge and those instincts to your next of kin, like the Katra. (thanks @distractedducky @spacedancer1701 & @find-me-in-outer-space)

Now, that’s A LOT of empathy on top of A LOT of aggression, if you don’t have a work around for any of these, as a species you’d be rendered a complete emotional wreck pretty much 24/7 (or whatever the time cycles for Vulcan are). Which is where @ineffablebuddies theory that Vulcans can control, or at least mitigate their incredibly strong emotional reactions the same way they control their nervous system and metabolic rate. Which is how they are able to be touch telepathic, able to enter a torpor at will, and be heterothermic in the first place. The only reason Vulcans come off as unemotional to us is because we simply do not see and feel the way that they can. Unlike us, because of their ability to control their own internal chemistry, if they follow Surak’s teachings and/or Syrranite ideology, they can take that emotional regulation to the extreme.

(BIG EXHALE) Congratulations on getting through this insanely long post! I hope you enjoyed it, if you want sources on any of my non-tumblr post research just let me know in the notes. LLAP! 💚🖖🏻💚

[avoutput]

Gaps Between Worlds || Mega Man X

Recently I have been searching for the answer to a problem I have been drowning in: Do I still love playing video games? There was a time when new video game releases would get me hyped, and it could just be that I am getting older and my priorities are changing, or my love for games is evolving, but I think there is a better answer that sounds more analytical and less like a platitude. I had to start thinking about what made me fall in love with games in the first place, which was easy enough to do; it was an escape. We need to go deeper. What about games, about the escape grabbed me. Looking back at my most recent completions: Dark Souls, Persona 5, Final Fantasy VII Remake, and Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII, most of them offered a balance between challenge and story. For a long time in between the excitement of a title, I had been relying on a game either appealing to the challenge or the story, on a sliding scale in one direction or another. Whenever I feel overwhelmed by my lack of enthusiasm for new games, I pick up a game from my childhood, something that made me feel nostalgic, something like Mega Man X. They have this ability to lift my spirit and invigorate me. That’s when I realized what was missing from modern games: my imagination.

When I booted up my copy of Mega Man X this weekend, it was like it was calling to me. I did it subconsciously. I was struggling with my drive to play Persona 4 Golden, and picked up Nioh, a playstation plus game that had been sitting around for awhile. I was working on a boss, and I just wasn’t feeling it. That’s when I went looking through my games library. I had actually picked up a copy of Mega Man X Legends a while back, installed it, and never played it. Without thinking, just like I did when I was a kid, I just started playing it. The Capcom sound plays and the Mega Man logo flashes across the screen and I am instantly back on my friends bedroom floor, hogging the controller. When the first level starts, it’s instantly chaos, cars flying down the highway, trying to escape the ensuing carnage. You can find out why if you wait for the demo screen that explains the game instead of instantly pressing start, but I never did as a kid, and this led precisely to what I am here to talk about. I filled the gaps with my imagination, even in places where the game didn’t ask me to. I was hungry for a world that I could make cohesive. One that offers a clear definition, a map that leads the eye and the mind to a conclusion, but open enough to let that conclusion be anything that suits you. (The opposite of the Nomura-verse!)

In the era of 8-bit and 16-bit games, the worlds were often presented as flat, layered objects, but drawn to appear in three dimensions like a diorama or, as they often called levels back then, a stage. After you beat the opening level and receive a helping hand from your… friend… or brother… or just some other robot who looks cooler than you, Zero, you are introduced to the classic Mega Man selection screen, but with an interesting tweak. You now can access the enemy’s location via the map screen. This really got my imagination going as a kid and still does to this day. It’s just a minor tweak to the usual formula for the series, but it suddenly added a new layer of depth. I always knew they had to exist somewhere, but it never occurred to me that there was an interconnected ecosystem. They boldly took this approach a step further. Defeating certain Mavericks (the stage bosses) affected another Maverick’s stage. For example, defeating Storm Eagle causes the plane you fight on to crash into Spark Mandrils’ stage. I loved this because as much sense as it made, it also really didn’t make any sense.

Take a look at the map. It is an incredibly dense locale, seemingly made up only of the locations related to the Mavericks. You start the game in some sort of cityscape, but now, you appear to be on some kind of island or peninsula that maybe… supplies all of the needs of the people in the city? Some of the functions of these stages are clear, some you have to make a stretch, and others defy clear explanation. You have a power plant, an airport, a mine, and a factory, all pretty straightforward. As a stretch, we have a forest that possibly processes carbon into oxygen. It doesn’t seem to produce wood, the trees are all made of electronics and covered in a wood veneer. The sea port is also a bit mysterious. It seems more military related than shipping related. All of the robots aren’t the repurposed kinds you see in other stages. They already have missiles and lasers, they are attack focused. So this is probably a military research facility. In the unexplainable, first we have the icy mountain stage, which could be a mine or maybe a research station. I often thought that it produced and controlled weather, but what exactly does a mountain have to do with that? Maybe it is rooted in science, but as a kid, the mind isn’t fully formed, and as an adult, you just know that water becomes clouds and it rains. The American Education system is broken. Lastly, we have a tower that appears to be surrounded by a moat. As a kid, I used to think this was the control tower for the airport, but now I am thinking it might be the control tower for the entire peninsula’s robot ecosystem. It’s not clear, at all, but that's what makes it fun. It is the inconsequential nature of their necessity that makes it fun to explore in your imagination. The bosses don’t speak between each battler or even introduce themselves beyond the shonen bad guy thumbs down, phase in, or muscle flex posturing. If you dig, I am sure there is some concrete answer, but the power is that it ultimately doesn’t matter, it’s just fun to play and explore, either way you go about it.

What also stands out about the construction of the map is how one stage actually interacts with another. If you notice, the Chill Penguin stage is way up at the north side of the map and the factory is to the south, and yet, when you beat Mr. Chill, you Flame Mammoth’s stage is frozen over. There are other stages between the mountain and the factory that are totally in the way of the possible avalanche that would have hit the factory, and yet they are unfazed. I get it, fire is weak to ice, but since there isn’t really an overall method to the madness in the construction of the Map image, as far as I can tell, I just can’t figure why they didn’t move the stages into proximity of the stage that is affected by the defeat of a Maverick master. What is hilarious, the defeat of Launch Octopus causes the forest to overflow, and wouldn’t you know it, they are right next to each other. Same with the airport and power plant, helmed by Storm Eagle and Spark Mandrill respectively. The funny thing about the airport is that because you destroy an airplane in midair, you could have destroyed any stage on the map, and it would have made sense. It would have been even cooler if they had made it so that the longer it takes to defeat Storm Eagle, that changes where the plane falls, and thus the stage it destroys.

It’s not that modern games don’t have these imaginative gaps, it’s just that there are much fewer obvious gaps in the world because they have so much more space to create in. Just looking at the file size between games of the past and today, it’s like comparing the size of Mercury to Jupiter. With that in mind, it could be that I haven’t spent the time to really dive in and find the cracks in modern games. As a kid, I just played the same games over and over again and committed these gaps to memory.

I decided I would use this title to discuss different aspects of the gaps between the imaginative leaps that storytelling asks us to make. Like how we all came up with a particular internal story about what happens inside a Pokeball. I was part of the crowd that thought maybe they get their own personal oasis that suited their type. Or maybe we can discuss the implication of the relationship that Zelda and Link must have based on the minimal interactions we actually get to see them in. Mega Man X has many more facets as series we can dive into, like how exactly his buster arm might actually function and be powered? Maybe it is an internal nuclear reactor offset or totally green and powered by the sun. If it was nuclear, does he leave behind fallout at every defeat? Hopefully I can dedicate more time to this! Thanks for reading.

[dannyphantomisameme]

Not What I Want

~ Chapter 4 ~

(Click for prologue, chapter 1, chapter 2, chapter 3, and fan fiction link)

‘You need me.’

‘No I don’t.’

‘You want me.’

‘No I don’t.’

The devil began to multiply and evolve, growing in number and size to surround Daniel. Their smirks gradually took over their faces, spreading like the Cheshire cat. Their stances unveiled dominance and madness. Behind them roared the intense inferno, red flames blazing to touch the ceiling. ‘You will never escape.’ they said in unison.

Behind the numerous devil’s rested a cage with an indistinct figure inside. Daniel ran through the mob of monsters, pushing them aside to reach the cage. Their eyes continued to follow him, searing into his fragile skin. Instinctively, he recognized the need to save whoever was in there. As he neared the silver restraint, he noticed a ghost with flaming blue hair sitting on the floor, bawling her eyes out. His pace slowed as he reached the cage.

Ember. Was it really her? Was she back?!

She suddenly stopped crying and her head pivoted to face him. ‘YOU DIDN’T SAVE ME…’ she shrieked as she began to ooze into a pile of ectoplasm. The noise pierced his ears and he fell to the ground, clutching his ears to stop the noise.

‘THIS ISN’T WHAT I WANTED!’ Daniel shouted just as the largest of the devil’s monstrous hand lept for him. Daniel squirmed to be set free, but he was stuck within the palm of the demon. The devil’s all began shrieking, their laughter ringing through his head and tearing the little sanity he had left.

‘You will never get what you want.’ The largest devil’s voice echoed. The fire thundered to match his words. ‘You’re my little pawn. You do what I want. Understood?’ The laughter picked up again and rumbled throughout the inferno.

‘Stop. Please. STOP!’ Daniel shrieked as blood poured out of his ear and dripped down his face. He couldn’t hold consciousness anymore.

Daniel gasped and sat up suddenly, only to bump his head on the table above him. It was cramped in the vehicle with all the pieces of furniture, but there was enough space for a half-ghost teenager to fit in. The events of yesterday hit him like a train, prompting him to lie back down and sigh. He rubbed his head as a migraine began to form. So he really was free. Away from the devil. Closing his eyes, he continued to doze off.

With his heightened hearing he heard a screech and noticed that the vehicle had stopped moving. Realizing he needed to take off before anyone noticed him, he went invisible and flew through the wall. Just as he exited, the back doors opened and two men began unloading the furniture.

He flew off into the sky, not understanding where he was. The van had stopped in a suburban neighborhood. According to the sky, it was late morning. He flew out of the neighborhood area into the parking lot of a strip mall. Becoming visible again, he landed on the floor and rounded the corner. His back contacted the stone wall as he slid down into a sitting position. He placed his pounding head into his hands.

Now what?

He couldn’t evade his father forever, right? At some point his money would run out and he wouldn’t be able to provide for himself. He needed some way to fit in and save money.

Lifting his head he noticed his hands covered in soot. I need a shower. A warm shower. He needed to change his clothes too, before someone noticed a ash-coated teen with a tattered attire walking around. He got up, went invisible, and sprung into the air. He ground was covered with a thick blanket of snow, making it harder to spot what he was searching for.

After soaring through the frigid atmosphere, he discovered a forest filled with pine trees. He knew he could find what he was looking for within the thicket of timber, but overlooking the woods he couldn’t see under the large evergreens. Plunging to the ground, he landed swiftly on his feet in front of the forest. He trekked on foot, searching and searching. The forest seemed deserted, except for the little wildlife not hibernating.

Finally noticing a glimmer from a distance, he raced towards it. Upon closer inspection, he came across a frozen pond.

It’s not ideal, but I’ve been through worse.

Blasting a hole onto the pond, he shattered the layer of ice that sat upon it. He didn’t notice any fish in the pool of water unfortunately. He lightly tested the water with his fingers, a cold sensation running up his spine. He manifested ecto energy on his palms and placed it down onto the pond. Soon he saw the water begin to smoke, fog rising into the air. He removed his hands and checked the water temperature again.

Perfect.

Removing his clothes and tossing them aside, he stepped into the water. The liquid rose up to his armpits when he sat down. His muscles softened as he relaxed into the warm sensation. He had created his own hot tub.

Ha, beat that, father.

He scrubbed himself clean of the ash. Once he was finished, the water had returned to its original temperature. He got out and fished for a new pair of clothes in his backpack. Realizing he had only packed one outfit, he was careful to not get it dirty. Slipping his collared shirt, boxers, blazer, and pants on, he tied his shoes and stood up. He grabbed his backpack and took out a packet of Chex Mix.

He ate as he considered what his next objective was. He couldn’t leave behind any evidence, so he decided to burn his clothes and trash. Throwing everything into a pile along with a few pieces of kindling, he sent three ecto-blasts towards it. The clothes immediately lit up, blazing red and orange. Although there would still be some indication that someone was here from the now black stained snow and smoke, it would wear away after some time.

He was proud of himself for surviving this long away from his father. Although his entire life he desired to be away from him, he couldn’t help but feel a pang of guilt. He had stabbed his father, threw him into a wall, and set ablaze his only ‘safe haven’. That wasn’t exactly the best goodbye he could have given his old man. But no matter, he was quite a distance away from the devil and had no intention of returning back to hell.

Daniel decided to trek through the forest instead of flying since he had all the time in the world. He also settled to return to the strip mall and find a way from there. Walking through the forest felt like bliss, the cold radiated through his jacket, but it was better than the devoid sensation of the stone halls back home. He hadn’t the slightest idea from which way he came, but luckily his footprints still showed through the snow, so he followed them.

He began humming a song as he strolled, but he couldn’t recall the name of the song or where he heard it from. But then he realized. He stopped in his tracks, glaring straight ahead subconsciously.

Ember’s song.

It was the last song he heard her sing. Shaking it off and continuing his journey, he remembered the last visit he paid her.

‘Hey Ember’ Daniel said sheepishly, grinning as he entered into the living room.

‘Hey Babypop!’ she squealed as she hugged him tightly. A light green blush tinted his cheeks, but they vanished just before she noticed. She stretched out her arms to look him in the face. ‘You’re just in time to see to hear my newest song,’ she said as she grabbed his hand and pulled him further into the room. ‘come on!’

He smiled as she yanked him through the living room, past the kitchen, and into her bedroom. Her guitar rested on her black comforter detailed with skulls. They both hopped onto the bed, giggling as she picked up her guitar and pic.

‘Just a sneak peek alright? I still want to keep you waiting for the entire performance. You are coming right? Remember the tickets I gave you?’ her mouth moved a mile a minute. She was so passionate when it came to music.

‘Y-yeah. I’m coming.’ he said as he rubbed his neck nervously. No way would his father ever approve of him going to a concert in the ghost zone. But he couldn’t tell Ember that. And it wasn’t like he would be seen in the crowd of thousands of ghosts anyways.

‘Great! Now here’s a little something I like to call Remember’ she exclaimed. Ember began to strum her guitar singing the chorus of her future hallmark song. ‘Ember, you will remember. Ember, one thing remains. Ooh Ember, so warm and tender! You will remember my name.’ With a final strum of her guitar, he clapped for her.

‘That’s amazing.’ he replied beaming. ‘Your fans are going to live again with that hit.’ her vocal range was quite impressive. And with her song, she was going to have so many swooning over her. They surely were going to remember Ember Mclain.

Just like him.

But he would remember for the wrong reasons.

He returned to consciousness, blinking away the surreality. His smile from earlier faltered as he tripped over a log, catching his balance before tumbling into the snow. He was living a life of luxury while Ember was who knows where. And it was all his fault. Maybe if he had disobeyed his father he could have saved her. He knew he should of swung the hammer at his father’s demonic glare instead of Ember’s core. But now it was too late.

He finally reached the end of the trail of his footprints. Going invisible, he vaulted into the air, continuing the rest of his path in the air. He couldn’t remember where he came from, so he resolved to go to the nearest store. Within a mile of flying, he spotted a link of stores. He headed for the shopping center, descending to the ground. Once he contacted the floor, he turned visible and whirled to walk to the front of the store.

Now what?

He didn’t want to buy anything, but he also didn’t want to do absolutely nothing, so he entered the store. Inside, he realized it was a grocery store. Produce lined the right side of the large space. Next to it were refrigerators stocked with dairy products. On the left were shelfs equipped with non-perishables and other food items. Maybe he could buy something for dinner.

“Aren’t you supposed to be in school?” a voice out of nowhere said. Daniel turned to see a woman with blonde hair tied into a messy bun. The cashier. She stuck her finger out at him with a lazy expression on her face. She couldn’t be older than 25.

“I -uh.” before entirely responding, he dashed out of through the automatic doors and into the parking lot. He heard a muffled cry behind him, but he didn’t bother to listen. He continued to run into the streets, using the sidewalk as a guide. Once he was a safe distance away, he swiveled to hide behind a bare oak tree. His hands were on his knees as he panted softly. Droplets of sweat descended down his forehead. Even in winter he could find a way to sweat. So maybe he used a bit of his supernatural strength to race out of there, so what? Hopefully the cashier didn’t notice.

But she did have a point. A teenager roaming the streets wasn’t the ideal situation. Since he wasn’t 18 yet, he was sure to be called either homeless or a runaway. He didn’t need the police involved. If they found him, he would receive a one-way ticket back to his father. And back to hell.

Deciding to research some more, he resolved to find a library and use a computer. Although, he didn’t know where to find a library. Entering back into the open and walking along the sidewalk, he noticed someone walking towards him. He waved frantically, hoping to grasp their attention.

As the figure came closer, he was able to make out a man wearing athletic wear. The man noticed him and removed some white bulbs from his ears that were connected to his phone by wires. Were those earbuds he had heard of once?

“What’s up kiddo?” The man’s said in a friendly tone. It felt strange to hear an actual human voice that contrasted his father’s greatly.

“Uh- do you know where I could find a library?” Daniel asked softly. Hopefully the man wouldn’t answer his question with more questions.

“Yea, your in luck. It’s only a 20 minute walk from here. Take a right on McBerry street, then continue until you hit an intersection. Turn left on Winona street and then from there you should be able to see a large building on your left. That’s the library.” the man said as he gestured the directions.

“Thanks!” Daniel replied quickly, not waiting for the man to reply back. He took off, following the mans guidance. He continued walking till he noticed a pole with a green sign displaying the words ‘McBerry Street’. He took a right and progressed forward for another 15 minutes. He passed by more homes that looked almost identical in shape, other than their different colors. Most of the homes looked vacant with their dark windows. Daniel guessed that the residents were off working or studying at school. The chain of trees situated in the front yards were all stricken of their leaves, bare to the twig. The sidewalk was somewhat slippery with chunks of ice forming a rocky sheet, but he was able to keep his balance majority of the time. Nearing Winona street, he turned left and noticed a building in the distance. He headed in the direction of the building presumed to be the library.

Nearing the library, he noticed a sign outside the building. Johnsville Library. So he was on the correct path. Opening the door, he felt a wave of warmth hit him. The air conditioner blew his hair away from his right eye, but he returned the strands back to its previous position. Entering the library, he was reminded of the one back home, however this one was more vibrant with its posters and modern looking furniture. Shelves stacked with books filled the area. In the center, sat a table peppered with computers ready to be used. Few people actually were inside the building, most of them sitting on the couches in the far corner reading a book.

He took a seat at one of the computers farthest away from the checkout. The desktop was already opened to google. In his lifetime, he had used a computer several times. His father occasionally graced him with the opportunity to search the internet for a maximum of two hours. Typically three times a month. He always said yes and learned more about the world around him. His research was the only reason he was still surviving, otherwise he would have been like a newborn child entering the world for the first time.

He first searched for his current location.

Amity Park, Minnesota.

What? He went north? It made some sense considering there was more snow here than his father’s mansion back in Colorado. He then searched for the distance between the two states.

992 miles. 16 hours and 27 minutes.

Was I asleep in the van for 16 hours? He hadn’t slept that long since he was an infant. The rest was helpful though, as he recalled being quite energized after being startled awake. But there was still no way his father could find him here. Out of all the places he could be, Minnesota was one of the most unlikely. It would have been better to get out of the country, but then he would have to waste some of his money on a plane ticket. Unless he flew, but flying over the ocean would be next to impossible. Although he could hitch a plane ride by sitting in the cargo… he set that as plan B. He still had some things in mind he wanted to accomplish.

Daniel proceeded to research about Amity Park. He found some interesting information. Amity Park was among the smallest of cities in the midwest state of Minnesota. So small, that they only had one high school, Casper high. That was good news. He could stay here for the time being till he found a better way to provide for himself. And what better way to amuse himself than going to school?

To be able to interact with other humans his age would be a life-altering experience. He didn’t care if he had to work through it, anything was better than roaming the frigid streets of the petite town. He googled Casper high, coming upon a website with a raven as its mascot. Toying around the site, he found a link to application forms.

Score!

He entered his information, changing some of the details.

Full name: Daniel James Masters. Being accustomed to his name, he knew he wouldn’t reply to any fake name he could provide. But he never had a middle or last name. James was a name he had seen on one the portraits in the hall. His father’s last name was Masters, so it seemed the most reasonable. He kept it the same since he anticipated his father would be looking for a Daniel with a different last name, not something so obvious as his father’s last name.

Gender: male.

Date of Birth: February 15th, 2001. Originally his birthday was April 3rd, 2001, but he needed to switch it up.

Age: 17 years. He couldn’t fake his age even if he tried.

Origin: USA. He kept his home simple, although he knew people would ask where he came from. He would have to think of something by then.

Reason for Application: Previously homeschooled, looking to join a school.

He filled in a couple of other questions, answering them to the best of his ability. At the bottom of the document, it requested him to make an appointment and notify the school when he wanted to join. He decided to see the school tomorrow, and join immediately the next day. Once he finished, he pressed the enter key on the computer and smiled.

He was going to high school.

[kat-hawke]

The Brood Chamber

“I still think this is stupid. There are plenty of them above ground, why do we have to go down here for a sample.”

“Because we don’ know wot the taint in the area has done to the hives and the larvae don’ surface until they molt into grubs. Either way, orders are orders.” Kat’s tone was flat, her mind on edge as her gaze constantly shifted about the hive interior, not looking to the younger woman who had spoken.

“It’s a simple in and out, don’t get your panties in a wad.” The armored man who was sent with them quickly retorted.

“That’s enough, both of ya’. Stay on yer toes, we have yet to encounter anythin’ and we are almost to the brood chamber.”

Both responded with nothing more than a simple “Yes ma’am.”

Everything about the hive interior made the hair on the back of Kat’s neck stand on end. It was too quiet for an active hive. The humming of distant silithid’s and the squishes from the small team’s boots on the damp floor were the only real sounds that could be hear. Twitching appendage like structures along the walls were continuously catching the Director’s attention, unsure of just what they were.

( Warning: Blood, gore, death, self harm and other bad times below the cut.)

“Ulen?” She address the young researcher.

“Yes, Director?”

“We found that these evolved silithid operate on a hive mind when within proximity of another. Were any of those tests run within close range of a hive?”

“No ma’am, all done at base camp. Why? Are you thinking the hive is the core for thought processing?”

Kat’s gaze continued to drift about the corridor as they neared the brood chamber. The twitching parts responding as they passed, the near flesh like lining on the cavern walls, floor and ceiling, larger discolored runs similar to muscle and bone structure. “Maybe. I think the hives might be sentient themselves. The cavern seems to react to us as we move.”

“So we can just start stabbing the walls and we can kill it?” The guard spoke, arching a brow at the both of them.

“Doubtful, Warren. I don’ think it’s a creature, but a sentient structure. I mind ya’ could say and if so, then they know we are here.” Her words trailing off at the end as they stood before the brood chamber. 

A large and open space, eggs nestled along the wall, covering every inch. The floor was more porous then the cavern they entered from. Deep red strands covered the ground, weaving around the porous openings and trailing up the walls to the ceiling that was equally covered in porous dimples.

“I don’t see any larvae, just eggs.” Ulen sounding almost disappointed, looking to the small trap she carried.

“Then that’ll have to do. Perhaps we can incubate one and hatch our own, easier than tryin’ to catch a live one.”

Warren began to step into the chamber, drawing the long sword from it’s sheath as he set his path to the nearest egg cluster. Kat and Ulen following several steps behind him.

Something did not feel right, about any of it. If the hive was indeed sentient and part of the hive mind, then the silithid knew they were here and exactly where they were. Yet there was no attempt to stop them and why was there no larvae. She only had to think about it for a minute before she realized this was a trap. “Wait.” The word quickly flew from her lips as and arm raised to bar Ulen from taking another step, her eyes flicking to Warren.

“Problem, Direc-” Too late. 

The larvae they were seeking made their appearance. Roughly the size of two fingers wide and five inches long, they poured from the thousands of holes in the floor and ceiling. They chewed through Warren’s chain mail like a hot knife through butter, nothing but the man’s gargled screams could be heard as he collapsed to the ground in front of the two women. The screams soon vanishing as a few larvae from the swarm filled his mouth, the pool of red growing quicker by the second, the flesh being chewed through like tissue paper and the muscle being devoured right from the bones of the swarm’s living meal.

“We need to go. Now.” The words flew from Kat’s mouth, shoving the younger woman to the opening from which they came, foot steps hastened in the growing scent of death that pulled on her sensitive sense of smell. She knew there was nothing to be done about Warren, she only hoped his sacrifice would give them the time they needed to escape.

The stomach churning squishes of their heavy footsteps on the moist cavern floor combined with more larvae emerging from the floor and ceiling above them only pushed the two women faster to the exit. Crossing the threshold with labored breaths, Ulen chanced a glance back at the brood chamber before halting. “Kat.” She panted out, motioning for the Director to look back.

The advancing swarm stopped at the doorway. Something was preventing them from moving beyond the room. Slowly the pile of tiny red creatures churned and shifted, retreated back into the openings on the brood chamber floor. “Strange. But why do they no’ move beyond the roo-” An excruciating pain, like a searing stab wound, struck the top of Kat’s left should. Her right hand quickly raising to pain source, grunting through grinding teeth as she dropped to one knee. 

She had completely missed the larvae that dropped from the ceiling and landed on her pauldron, which had just now burrowed into her shoulder at the collar bone. This was not the ideal location as anything could be heading their way but as far as she could tell in the moment, there was only this one larvae

“Kat!” Ulen shouted out, quickly dropping before the Director, eyes wide as she looked over the entry wound. “Shit...shit shit shit.” Panicked, she fumbled through her knapsack, the young researcher unsure of what to do.

Kat could feel every microscopic movement of the larvae under her flesh, every bite into the tissue and muscle of her frame as it moved over her collar bone and down the side of her chest. Unable to hold back a wailing scream of pain as she fell onto her back. A lump under her skin was the only indicator of the larvae’s location as it moved just under the skin surface, forcing the tight leather armor to bulge like a blister as it moved.

Forcing her self to look away from rise in her skin, another scream was pushed from her lungs, fingers digging into the flesh like floor of the hive. A pain unlike any she had experienced before, making the day her soul was torn from her body seem like a walk in the park. “Get it out! NOW!”

“I-I-I-I-I” Ulen fumbled the bag, the woman lost and confused in her own mind. Failing to operate at full capacity under the pressure and imagine of the raven hair women wailing in pain.

“ULEN!”

“I’M TRYING!” Shaking fingers quickly searched through the various objects now scattered on the ground. Her eyes darting around as her mind raced, the Director’s pained wails only clouding her thoughts further.

Kat’s gloved hand scratched at the ground toward the dagger sheathed on her boot, her gaze nearly blazing from the pain as the larvae chewed it’s way to the center of her chest, around the bottom of her left breast. “Dagger- kill it.” Words forced through the pain, quickly followed by another scream as she could feel the creature within her sliding over individual ribs.

In panicked and hasty movements Ulen tore the dagger from Kat’s boot, but held possession of the weapon for only second before the Director snatched it from her hands. Spinning the blade over in her fingers, Kat plunged the dagger down on her self, stabbing the bulge in the armor. A small screech pieced the air as the blade met it’s target, quickly drowned out by another pained shout of the Director as she twisted the blade in her own flesh to ensure the tiny menace was killed. Blood quickly pooling from the wound and turning the blue leathers a crimson red, Ulen turned her head and covered her mouth in a gag.

The blade was then dragged another few inched across the Director’s mid section, further opening the wound through a pained grunt. When the dagger was finally pulled away, Kat placed the weapon’s handle in her mouth, clamping her teeth into the rubber grip from the pain that tore through her body. There was a chill to her flesh as dizziness started to come. She had lost a lot of blood and Ulen was about useless at the moment, she had to act fast.

With a few quick breaths, gloved fingers dove into the opening in her flesh. Her jaw closing, sinking teeth deep into the rubber handle, muffling the scream from the raging pain as fingers dug until finding the larvae. Quickly wrapping fingers around the so called prize and pulling it from the wound, she slapped it on the ground where Ulen was dry heaving.

“There’s- yer fuckin’- sample...” Kat barely finished the last word of her sentence before her world faded to black, the only warmth she could feel was the small pond of her own lifeblood that seeped into her armor, the rest of her body feeling cold as ice.

[charlesjohnson-mct]

Textile installations

Going through bct, I never had an interest in textiles, I viewed them as materials to work with to build not materials to be explored.  This left me looking at acrylic, plexiglas, fiberglass, silks, wood and metal to build my designs and/or installations, not really thinking about the materials individually and what narratives they held by themselves. This mindset has changed since starting mct. I now am fascinated by how textiles react to each other, with space, technology and especially blood. Blood is undeniably the driving force behind this excitement and exploration. When I knew that I wanted to explore the hidden narratives and accounts within the evolving materiality of blood, it’s relation to evolving digital data and manifesting those explorations together - textiles are an undeniable part of this exploration.

My practice of manifesting my digital waste each month onto large-scale silks has helped this exploration and really guided my thinking forward; a thought process and pattern that would not have occurred without the post-materiality postgraduate group. With what I’m looking into now (silks, resin, blood and lithophanes), it is important to research and explore what other textitle artists and researchers have done in the past. I’ve explored Jordan Eagles and his works Shards (2018) and The Blood Mirror Project (2014-2016). His work with blood has had a direct influence on my thinking of art practice and the specific material I’m looking at - blood. I had a conversation with Frances and Clint yesterday about my ethics application and Frances mentioned a textile artist Eva Hesse. Specifically her work ‘Contingent’.

Contingent by Eva Hesse 1969.

In this work Hesse explores cheesecloth, latex and fiberglass. The soft and malleable cheesecloth is painted with latex and suspended between fiberglass - giving these pieces each a distinct dichotomy of form. The works exist now as a hanging installation, along with a few of her other works which I am fascinated by such as “Right After” (1969) and “Aught” (1968).

Right After, 1969 [left] & Aught, 1968 [right]

With both of these installations Eva explores a multitude of materials such as fiberglass, polyester resin, wire, canvas, latex, rope, polyethylene sheeting and metal. While these works are stunning hung up, the most interesting thing to me is the self-awareness that Hesse had when creating these installations. 

      “She was well aware that latex decays―and loses the very qualities which she so valued―and knew of the discolouration and brittleness of fibreglass. Even though she admitted to feeling a little guilty that her works would not last, the qualities of latex were too appealing, seemingly irresistible.” (Ward, n.d)

I’m looking at the evolution of digital and physical material and it seems that was an area of interest to Hesse as well. Though, maybe it was something she wanted to avoid rather than embrace. I know that organic material with moisture decays in resin, which is potentially why Hesse used material such as wire in her works with resin. But the color and texture the pieces have now speaks volumes for the case for artistic material decomposition. I want to explore what this may look like with blood and I intend to contact Jordan Eagles to see what blood after a few years does in resin - but that is for another time.

Speaking about material investigation, Naoko Yoshimoto is a Japanese material artist and in almost all of her works she explores the narratives and meaning behind clothes, specifically worn white garments.

“White coffin”, 2006 [left] & “Shadow Portrait”, 2008 [middle] & “River of oblivion”, 2008 [right]

Yoshimoto doesn’t talk much about her process, so I don’t know how she makes the garments stand on end like they do in white coffin (2006) or how they are suspended in such a way as to make them not flat as is the case in River of Oblivion (2008). I suspect that they are coated or cast in resin, but I can’t be sure. They could’ve been sprayed with starch which would make them rigid, but it’s hard to say. Making aside - these conceptual installations explore the narratives within the materials and the final artifact(s) are not about how they exist now, but the evolution of the material itself - it’s life. A core aspect to my thesis, just not with white clothes. River of Oblivion is especially interesting to me, exploring bleach and how that reacts with the chosen worn garments, the way that the bleach is absorbed by the clothing reminds me of my experiments with blood and silk, how the silk absorbed the blood and the “fingers” that formed when suspended vertically.

Going off this idea of material exploration; Joseph Kosuth explores his materials in a more literal way. 

“Glass Words Material Described”, 1965, Joseph Kosuth

Some of his works go along this vein, the artwork describing exactly what they are. Some would say this is the artwork being self-aware and while that is true, I also see that this is Kosuth’s investigation into the material itself. He is just describing them, but doing so; he investigates and explores them.

Another key aspect of my thesis exploration is that of evolutionary materials, both physical and digital. Decomposition is a fascinating aspect of materiality to me, and how resin can prevent (for a time) this process, but it is inevitable. Artist Makoto Azuma takes this idea of preservation, decomposition and evolution of material in his exhibition “Iced Flowers” (2015).

“Iced Flowers”, 2015, Makoto Azuma

Over the course of the exhibition which was held in a warehouse in Saitama, Japan; these flowers suspended in ice melt for a one-time fleeting installation. While the flowers are stunning in their arrangements; what’s really interesting to me is how they melt and eventually end their life as a pile of flowers in a puddle of water. This idea of a temporal, one-off installation echos the themes of “Until I Die” (2016), just with flowers and ice instead of electricity and blood. While blood evolves and decays, I wonder how I can encapsulate or explore this beyond the ‘final’ exhibition? Because realistically - the art will not stop evolving; it never will.

The final aspect and “puzzle piece” of my thesis is the concept of assemblage and bricolage. A practice of bringing together to create new. Artist El Anatsui takes this into his evolving installations where he takes found bottle caps from local alcohol recycling plants and weaves them together to create these large-scale evolving textile works.

Untitled, 2009, El Anatsui

The above installation is comprised of bottle caps and copper wire. Interestingly, everytime these works are displayed; he encourages them to take on a different shape and form. Each time you see the piece it will be different. Again, this echos the same fleeting and temporal nature of the installations of Azuma and Morozov. But this time, the installation continues and evolves past the initial observation. These pieces that Anatsui produces bring the smaller artifacts together which each have a story of their own, but together they tell a wider narrative. Similar to Eagles’ “Untitled” (2015) piece - part of the wider “Blood mirror project” (2014-2016). 

All of these artists bring something to the table for me through these installations, each embodying an aspect of my thesis. I have not looked at posthumanism today, but that’s because I’m using it as more of a philosophical framework to encapsulate my ideas. One can argue that all of these aspects can be a guiding framework in themselves, but I have chosen to use philosophical posthumanism with this thesis. 

While I’m not looking directly at the materials these artists have used, I can see how these aspects and “puzzle pieces” are explored and exhibited. The exhibition aspect can wait until later and when I know definitively what I am producing, but I can use these installations as starting points.

References:

Eagles, J (2018). Shards. Retrieved from: https://jordaneagles. com/shards#shards-2

Eagles, J. 2014-2016. The blood mirror project. Retrieved from: http://jordaneagles.com/blood-mirror#blood-mirror-1

Hesse, E. 1969. Contingent. Retrieved from: https://cs.nga.gov.au/detail.cfm?IRN=49353

Ward, L. n.d. Contingent. National Gallery of Australia, Canberra. Retrieved from: https://nga.gov.au/exhibition/softsculpture/default.cfm?IRN=49353&BioArtistIRN=15232&MnuID=3&ViewID=2#_ednref4

Yoshimoto, N. 2006. White Coffin. Retrieved from: http://www.naokoyoshimoto.com/works_sironohitugi2006.htm

Yoshimoto, N. 2008. Shadow Portrait. Retrieved from: http://www.naokoyoshimoto.com/works_sironohitugi2006.htm

Yoshimoto, N. 2006. River of Oblivion. Retrieved from: http://www.naokoyoshimoto.com/works_sironohitugi2006.htm

Kosuth, J. 1965. Glass Words Material Described. Retrieved from: https://www.skny.com/artists/joseph-kosuth?view=slider#16

Azuma, M. 2015. Iced Flowers. Masada seisakujo, Saitama, Japan. Retrieved from: https://azumamakoto.com/563/

Morozov, D [::vtol::]. (2016), Until I Die, Kapelica gallery, Ljubljana, Retrieved from: https://vimeo.com/206472719

Anatsui, E. 2009. Untitled. Smithsonian National Museum of African Art. Retrieved from: https://elanatsui.art/artworks/el-anatsui-untitled-2009-2

[sciencespies]

Giant caves on alien worlds could be havens for life, scientists say

https://sciencespies.com/space/giant-caves-on-alien-worlds-could-be-havens-for-life-scientists-say/

Giant caves on alien worlds could be havens for life, scientists say

When magma comes out of the Earth onto the surface, it flows as lava. Those lava flows are fascinating to watch, and they leave behind some unique landforms and rocks. But a lot of what’s fascinating about these flows can be hidden underground, as lava tubes.

These lava tubes are turning out to be a very desirable target for exploration on other worlds, just as they are here on Earth.

Lava tubes are formed when the surface of flowing lava cools and hardens, but the lava underneath keeps flowing. It’s kind of like a freezing river that forms an ice layer on top while the water underneath keeps flowing. The flowing lava can remain hot and drain out, leaving a cave. This happens on Earth, and can be both a delight and a challenge for spelunkers.

But it’s also happened on the Moon, and on Mars, and maybe anywhere else where there’s been volcanic activity. Lava tubes are unique environments. They may provide a shelter for life, or evidence of microbial life in the past, and they may contain easily observed records of geological activity.

This is the main idea behind an article titled ‘Core Concept: Lava tubes may be havens for ancient alien life and future human explorers‘. The author of the article is Sid Perkins, a science journalist who specializes in Earth Sciences, and who also writes about planetary sciences.

The article is published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) of the United States of America.

Lava tubes can be very large, sometimes many kilometers long. The longest one that we know of on Earth is the Kazamura Cave in Hawaii. It’s 65.5 kilometres (40.7 mi) long. It’s also the deepest.

There’s plenty of evidence that lava tubes have formed on the Moon and on Mars.

In 2009, NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter took pictures of a skylight opening into a lava tube in the Marius Hills region. A couple years later, the Indian Chandrayaan-1 lunar orbiter spotted more lava tubes. Pretty quickly, people started to wonder about exploring these unique landforms. There was also some conjecture about their suitability for habitation.

The first evidence of lava tubes on Mars came from NASA’s Viking Orbiter. At the volcano Alba Mons, in the Tharsus region of Mars, Viking’s camera captured an image of a long tube shape extruded above the surface of the volcano’s flank. This is almost undeniably a lava tube.

Mars at one time in its past was wet and warm, and may have hosted life. Over time, it was stripped of its atmosphere and its water, and became frigid. But if there was life there, it may have had time to “migrate” to the only remaining niches where it could survive. On Mars, that might mean lava tubes.

That’s what makes them such desirable exploration targets.

“If Mars ever hosted life, it may have moved into such refugia as the planet evolved and surface conditions became increasingly harsh,” Perkins wrote in his article. ”Indeed, some researchers suggest that microbial life may yet hang on in the Red Planet’s underground havens. “

“On Mars and other places, lava tubes have the potential to have made the difference between life and death,” said Pascal Lee, a planetary researcher at NASA Ames Research Center in Mountain View, CA.

An illustration of a longitudinal cross-section of a Martian lava pit. (Melissausburn/Wikimedia)

But the task of exploring those tubes is onerous. It would have to be done by robot, at least initially. What astronaut would want to climb into a lava tube on Mars without knowing how stable and safe it might be? Anyone willing to take that risk without understanding what they’re venturing into probably wouldn’t make it through astronaut training anyway.

Even on Earth, caves are dangerous. Exploring them takes a specialized skill set. Risking an astronaut’s life is probably out of the question.

But what kind of robot could do it?

The best way to access these lava tubes is through so-called ‘skylights’. That’s an opening in the top of the tube where the ceiling has collapsed. That grants access to the tube without any problematic, complicated drilling maneuver.

Laura Kerber is a geologist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, CA. Kerber and her colleagues proposed using a rappelling robot to explore the lava tubes on the Moon, and the same thing could work on Mars. The robotic explorer is called the Moon Diver.

The Moon Diver is a great concept. It consists of both a rover and a lander. A precision landing system would get the craft to the surface, close to its target. The rover is tethered to the lander, and as the rover rolled towards the skylight, it would play out its tether. Once at the skylight, the rover would slowly lower itself into the hole and onto the floor of the lava tube.

But whether it’s the Moon Diver, a Mars Diver, or some similar concept, the key thing is what it’ll see once it’s inside.

The walls of lava tubes might hold all kinds of evidence of the history of the world they’re on that’s simply unattainable any other way.

When the Apollo astronauts visited the Moon, they never drilled deeper than about 2.9 meters (9.5 ft.) But the walls of skylights and tubes on the Moon can be tens of meters thick. Mars will be similar, maybe even more exposed.

Distinct geological layers will be exposed to easy study. The walls of lava tubes could show evidence of periods of lava flow, evidence of periods of intense meteor impacts, and more. Examining these walls can shed light on Earth’s history too.

Earth is a very active planet, and lots of ancient evidence is simply erased by all the geological activity and erosion. If lava tube walls on the Moon show evidence of sustained periods of meteor impacts – like a well defined layer of pulverized rock – that layer can be dated.

With that evidence, we can conclude the same thing happened on Earth, at the same time.

If we ever do send a robotic mission to Mars to explore lava tubes, there’ll be no shortage of targets. The United States Geological Survey’s Astrogeological Center has collected the locations of over 1,000 candidate cave entrances on Mars, many of which are lava tube skylights. It’s called the Mars Global Cave Candidate Catalog.

If modern Mars holds clues to its ancient habitability, the most promising place to search for it might be these lava tubes. Deep under the planet’s subsurface, ancient simple Martian life may have made its last stand. Down there, it would have been protected from cosmic rays and damaging particles from the Sun, which streamed down on the planet, unimpeded by a protective atmosphere.

The young Solar System was a much more chaotic place when ancient Mars was warm and wet. Large meteor impacts were more common, and lava caves might have provided refuge from those, too.

Protected cave walls might be the best place to find evidence of past life on Mars.

As Perkins writes in his article, “such signs could include organic chemicals, which might fluoresce under certain wavelengths of light. Or they could be visible remnants of biofilms created by communities of microbes.

“Or if such obvious signs of life are absent, other signs of past life – such as fossilized microbial filaments or even fossil cells – could show up within minerals that formed on cave walls and were then preserved.”

With each succeeding robotic mission to Mars, our mission designs are more refined. As our understanding of Mars grows, we get better at selecting specific areas and designing missions to explore specific questions.

NASA’s next Mars rover, Perseverance, is heading to Jezero Crater to look for signs of ancient life. That location was chosen after a rigorous selection process.

Is it only a matter of time before a mission is sent to explore lava tubes? Probably. And as usual, it’ll be fascinating to watch the conversation start to gain momentum. It’ll be fascinating to see what kind of vehicles and technologies innovative minds come up with for the mission.

And it’ll be fascinating to see what they uncover in what might have been the last redoubt for ancient Martian life.

This article was originally published by Universe Today. Read the original article.

#Space

[rheys]

The Wait

Jon/Daenerys  1,500 words Read on AO3!

Daenerys waits for Jon to come back to her, and this time she doesn't leave when he does.

aka: Dany's POV after the wight hunt mission and subsequent rescue.

Spoilers for episode 7x06!

Daenerys didn’t know how long exactly she had stood atop the wall.

It had been hours, at least. The harsh wind biting at the exposed skin of her cheeks all the while. She was glad she had not yet found the strength to cry if only because she knew those tears would surely freeze before they fell.

She watched Drogon and Rhaegal, flying and roaring heartbreaking cries that echoed through her bones. And she watched the tree line far down below, waiting. Waiting.

She had lost a piece of herself when Viserion fell. The piece fought and tore its way through her blood and sinew and flesh to join her child as he sunk beneath the ice.

He’s dead. Daenerys knows he is. Even if she hadn’t been there to see him fall from the sky herself in a explosion of fire and blood, she would have known. She would have felt it from here, or from Dragonstone, even across the world in the Dothraki Sea, she would have felt it.

What she can’t accept is that Jon Snow is dead.

Go, he had yelled to them as he still fought dead men from the ground.

Not yet, she’d thought, we need you. I need you.

Even when Daenerys watched him, too, sink beneath the ice, she waited. But he didn’t surface, and the one he had told her about—the Night King—had raised another spear and she had no choice but to listen to him and go, fleeing with the others on Drogon’s back.

Another piece of herself was left behind then.

Over the weeks the King in the North had spent at Dragonstone, Daenerys had grown from her initial respect of him to blooming admiration, and she’s not too proud to admit that it had quickly evolved to affection and something else. More, maybe. Something greater.

She hadn’t wanted him to leave on this expedition in the first place, despite her recognizing its overall importance. And she had spent every day since that boat had left her shores troubled and fraught with worry.

When she received that raven requesting aid, she hadn’t thought twice about it, even as Tyrion pleaded with her not to go. She spent the whole flight urging Drogon faster and faster still until she saw them.

The undead, the army. Thousands of them. More.

Her dragon’s could not burn them fast enough, there were too many. And she was forced to leave Jon Snow behind, sinking into that frozen water.

But he wasn’t dead. Not like Viserion is. She knows he isn’t.

So, Daenerys waits.

Ser Davos stands watch with her, for a while. He doesn’t look away from the ground. The snow and the trees. He stays as silent as she is as she gazes upon her dragons in the frigid air, as she eyes the distance with him.

But before long, he leaves and Daenerys is alone again.

Part of the curse of being alone is too much time with your thoughts, and that curse haunts her now as she waits, and waits more.

If I look back I am lost.

So Daenerys thinks of whatever else she can. Like the wall of ice she's now stood upon. She remembers this wall from the visions she had from her time in Qarth, and it feels like it did then, in a way.

Like a dream, like this is not real, like she could wake up in her chambers at Dragonstone and receive updates as Jon Snow mines the dragonglass he so wished for in the caves below her birthplace.

She doesn't even feel the cold, really. Dragons are fire made flesh, she thinks, and I am the mother of dragons. Maybe she can't get cold, with the fire in her blood.

But her cheeks are red from the wind whipping at her cruelly, so she's afraid it’s just that the empty feeling in her chest is spreading wider and eating her whole.

Jorah joins her later, and a part of her wants to ask him about what happened beyond the wall, how he fared and of the others who were with them. But she can't find the words, and she stays silent.

He tries to urge her a few times to come down, to get warm, to eat something, please, Khaleesi. But it's not until much later that the last of her hope finally wanes.

“A bit longer,” she tells him eventually, taking deep breaths in order to calm herself. Her heart is racing as if it too will rip itself from her chest to join everything else on the other side of the wall that she loves.

If I look back I am lost.

Daenerys turns away from the edge.

A horn blows.

She watches as they carry Jon Snow into his cabin on the boat displaying her Targaryen sails, his body shaking like there's ice in his very veins.

But he's alive, breathing, and they tell her he’ll suffer no lasting injuries. For the first time since landing back at the wall, she feels the beginning of her outward composure begin to fracture.

And then, she sees it.

They're removing his wet and freezing clothes, to get him warm lest his heart stop from the cold, and she sees the scars. Deep, still red and barely healed. On his stomach, his chest.

He took a knife in the heart for his people, Ser Davos had said that first day in the throne room at Dragonstone, and the truth of his words are now clear. Daenerys has always herself been willing to die for her people, for her causes. And so it seems Jon Snow would too. That he has.

He doesn’t open his eyes the first day, when they set sail back south. Or the second day, either, but still she sits at his side, silent and turbulent and calm until someone pulls her away. To eat, to plan, to sleep.

On the third day, he wakes. And finally, Daenerys lets herself cry.

“I’m sorry,” he says to her while he lays there, hurt and bed ridden, “I’m so sorry.”

He takes her hand in is, and the piece of her that fell with him beneath the ice as she flew free finds its way back to her.

“I wish I could take it back. I wish we’d never gone.”

She shakes her head at his unneeded guilt. “I don’t,” she tells him truthfully. “If we hadn’t gone I wouldn’t have seen. You have to see it to know. Now I know.”

She pauses, and then swallows her fear. Maybe it’s fear of rejection, or something else but she has to tell him. “The dragons are my children, they’re the only children I’ll ever have. Do you understand?”

He nods, and it’s a feeling greater than relief.

“We are going to destroy the Night King and his army. We will do it together, you have my word.” She vows to him, and they will. She knows it. Every piece of her strains towards this goal, to protect her kingdom, and for vengeance.  

“Thank you, Dany.” He says to her, gratitude flooding his tone.

The name shocks her. No one has called her that for years, at least, not since…

“Dany,” she huffs out in a breath, “who was the last person who called me that? I’m not sure, was it my brother?” The sound of his cries before Drogo had killed him echoes in her head from across the Narrow Sea. “Not the company you’d want to keep.”

“Alright, not Dany.” He says, and she has an urge to tell him no, it’s okay, you can, but he continues before she can work up the nerve.

“How about My Queen? I’d bend the knee, but,”

The gesture means nothing to her now, but the words strike something deep in her very core. “What about those who swore allegiance to you?”

“They’ll come to see you for what you are.”

Her breath becomes harsh, ragged as she tries to hold back more of her cries. She can’t hold herself back from reaching for his hand, though, but really she doesn’t want to anymore. To hold herself back from her feelings, not for him, not anymore.

“I hope I deserve it.” I hope I deserve you.

“You do.”

His expression and tone and words are all open, not hiding anything, and it scares her. Not his feelings—Jon Snow’s not in love with me, she’d told Tyrion, and she’d wanted so badly to be wrong—it’s the vulnerability that frightens her.

But when she goes to pull her hand away, he doesn’t let her. Stay, the gesture says, and so she does. Jon Snow moves over slightly on the bed, creating a space just large enough for her to join him.

Laying down with him, and taking the liberty to rest her head on his chest next to the scar on the other side, Daenerys feels at home.

[chancelipscomb]

How to Win Back Andromeda

Wide-Open, New Worlds

With the canon of the Heleus Cluster being a ravaged wasteland, Bioware gave us an explorer’s playground with lots of space for expandable content. Critics argue that it was empty space, but it was an investment on future installments. We’ve settled into these decimated worlds and created a Milky-way friendly biome on them. To capitalize on it, simply do what settlers do: expand. DLC drop a new, post-game settlements. To facilitate a low-budget, fast paced schedule and reconcile fans of the series, I outlined a plan for modular DLC drops.  

1st DLC New Neighbors           $5-10

This one’s relatively cheap to produce. There’s not much new content and almost no new asset production, but it will give you an estimate of people willing to come back to your story.

Eos has its exile faction that wanted to mine the natural gas. If you helped them with the hammer, they’re underway. If you didn’t, they start stripping parts from the one you placed less than a kilometer away. Use pre-existing level assets, like Kadara & Elaaden’s caves, to build out a base for Ryder to explore. Drop a few hints with the exiles about the Benefactor’s assassin and leads to Kadara, for a bonus. Script out a peaceful and hostile solution for those settlers to build upon in future games. Key question: do they fold in with the Initiative, get blasted, or operate autonomously?

On Kadara, the assassin’s trail goes cold, but you learn that the Shadow Broker also has agents in Andromeda. They have new items to buy, and promises of quid pro quo. For the port itself, you simply see how your new power dynamic is playing out. Sloane or Reyes may have work hunting down the other faction, with Reyes having romance dialogue if courted. The Doc and bartenders may have some quests involving supply runs. Utilizing Vorn can tie Elaaden and the Nexus to the itinerary.

Not much has changed on the Nexus, H-047, or Elaaden, as newly awoken crew are funneled to settlements. The water crisis on Elaaden hasn’t changed yet, despite the vault and shipments from Voeld. New enemies in the Flophouse, and idle chatter over Okeer’s notes. Maybe spend some time reanimating Krogan fighting techniques.  

2nd DLC Voeld and Havarl       $15

As a two-for, this price point will be a little higher, but it has more content. With proper handling of the Eos pack and its nature, fans will be more eager.

Voeld and Havarl offer their own opportunity. Rather than new maps, focus on story expansion and lore here. The Angara have learned their origins and the truth about exaltation. In both places, they’re dealing with this. The Roekaar are leaderless, so address whether someone will fill the power gap or if they’ll be welcomed back by Evfra. Tie in the Glory Seekers here for added effect.

Use these stages to flesh out the body gestures for the existing dialogue system. This’ll draw attention away from stiff animations angst and give your developers better tools for future content, including DA:4 and other Frostbite titles. I haven’t seen your pipeline, but if this isn’t part of an art/animation workflow suite, you really need to hire me Bioware. I can make your life, and your fans, much happier.

On Havarl, expand upon the Mithrava lore and the ancient stellar maps we saved. Build some context around this new species. Crafty players now have access to shared scientific research thanks to the coop. That’s an opportunity for weapon/armor/item packs, not to mention ferry quests for flora to the Nexus and less fruitful planets. Use Jaal and his family to deepen our understanding as well. That’s a great place to flesh out angaran relationship culture. This’ll address fan feelings about the race and any animosity over Jaal’s romantic preferences.

For Voeld, pick up on the yevara poacher quest. These beasts will require modelling and animation, but your script made them a crucial bit of angaran history. We have evidence of living creatures on “The Lost Song” side quest. Since the Kett still have that huge fortress in the hills, prepare to drive them out for good. Organize the hunting party with the resistance. Now, get ready to drop the bomb: en route, you find a pair of Quarian escape pods. Since Voeld is now an ice planet, it makes sense they’d head there to limit foreign bacteria exposure. Thaw them out to reveal the fate of the Keelah Si’yah. Connect their audio log event to the assassin and Benefactor, implying their designs trace back to the Milky Way. It doesn’t have to be the core cause, but it’s important to keep that thread alive.

3rd DLC Quarian Ark    $5-10

Not going to lie, I want this to be free but it is content-heavy like DLC 2, so despite being an olive branch to fans, it’ll take money to make. The low cost still rewards fan loyalty.

Do not shortcut this one. Use the ME 2 assets to marry quarian style to the Initiative tech. Build the tertiary races like elcor, hanar, and drell… even if we only see them briefly. It’s both an investment in the franchise and rekindles that wonder and nostalgia from the original trilogy.

Not sure what the writers have in store, but based on the multiplayer additions, I’d say involve the Batarians and the Salarian pathfinder from the outset. With neither having a squad mate spot in Andromeda, there’s a huge opportunity here. Both have multiplayer and game models to source for single player inclusion.

If you followed up on DLC 2, let players pick the male or female Quarian escapee they want to party up with. The other will play a support role, like sibling Ryder. Vary their move-set if possible, but the story elements should be the focus of their addition. Build franchise characters like Tali so that their returns exceed development costs, and match accents with the original trilogy.

Now the rest depends on the plot direction scripted so far. If the Reaper-Geth or Reapers themselves followed the Initiative, there’s a much longer conversation I’d need to build this story. Open to chat, Bioware. I’ll even pitch it to EA for you. If the Benefactor, Kett, some malfunction, or Scourge are the culprit; tie up those loose ends here.

Kett: make it big and challenging. The Archon, like Corypheus, was a bust for a boss. Fighting the Architect in confinement was a nice touch, but if players tackled them already, it cheapened the experience. Craft an intense, unique battle that they’re eager to replay this DLC to repeat. The Primus is the perfect candidate, flouting that the Archon lost his way, and offering an ulterior motive to pulling their forces from the final battle. Since they aren’t present, even missing “Dissention in the Ranks” doesn’t upset the quest line. Finally, set up travel to Kett space or an invading armada for the true sequel.

Benefactor: Jien Garson’s body never turned up, and paired with Alec and SpecTRe agents seemingly littering the Initiative… they all point to the first-time game reveal of the Illusive Man’s identity, and his connection to Cora. You’ve laid out the dots connecting the Harpers and fans are clamoring for impact on their decisions. Make them wreathe. Does this shatter the pathfinder team’s core leadership, or will Ryder and gang be able to look past her heritage? Did she even have a relationship with her father? Could she be the assassin? That’d take some work to spin, but she was awake before Ryder and likely has special resources if so. In any case, it explores her character and the relationship to the crew. It ties two large settling points of the game plot together. Based on the outcome, you may even weave an enemy with very intimate knowledge of the crew into sequels. 

Scourge and Technical difficulties: The Quarians took on a lot to bring all those other races to Andromeda. For a sabotage angle, the original showed us that Reaper agents were embedded everywhere… even the Hanar, and by de facto, the Drell. Imagine fighting an indoctrinated version of Thane, or an enraged elcor. What if they were preventing the wake-up procedures? Have they evolved over the 600 year trip? What if the Volus simply seized the ship as an opportunity to create their own hierarchy, sick of their status in Council Space? Finally, as a technology based race, the Quarians face unique trials when it comes to the scourge, which wreaks havoc on any technology, even if it only actively seeks Rem-tech. This is pre-geth boosted immunity, but if the Krogan used their travel-time to adapt to the genophage, perhaps the Quarians did the same.

Overall, address what time their ark left the Milky Way and what that means for Mass Effect 3’s endings. Determine whether or not any more travelers are en route, friendly or otherwise. Even if these two aren’t enacted immediately, they’ll guide future scripts. And just for feels, let’s see some of Jill’s handiwork. Nothing says invested like newborn babes. If she and Gil had one, show him revealing to Kallo that they named it after one of the Tempest engineers. Show Cora tending sprouts in a garden, even if she’s now an enemy. Let Liam try an angaran sport on Aya. Show Vorn, Kesh, and Drack teaching Lexi Fire Breathing Thresher Maws of Doom in Vortex. Have Peebee, Jaal, and Suvi tinkering around the monoliths. Have Kallo and Lisana T’lesso, the ice runner from Voeld racing through the Scourge with new pilots.  

[man-creates-dinosaurs]

ESSAY: Are the ALIEN Films Dinosaur Movies?

NOTE: This essay contains spoilers for the film ALIEN: COVENANT (2017, Dir. Ridley Scott)  

At first glance it’s a question that appears to be a total non sequitur. After eight films and countless comics, novels and video games there has never once been any indication that the Xenomorphs – the genetically engineered, black skinned, bio-mechanical, shape-shifting “perfect organisms” at the heart of the ALIEN franchise - are dinosaurs, let alone a product of terran evolution. Even the Xenomorphs’ most direct literary antecedent, the Coeurl from A. E. van Vogt’s 1939 short-story “Black Destroyer,” is decidedly mammalian – feline to be precise – in nature.  

Nevertheless these facts apparently were not enough to give scholar W.J.T. Mitchell pause while writing his groundbreaking cultural study of dinosaurs, The Last Dinosaur Book (University of Chicago Press, 1998), in which he posits that…

“Ridley Scott’s ALIEN films are an exception to this rule in their adherence to the most pessimistic logic of dinotopia. The initial discovery of the petrified alien creature is presented as a paleontological find. The space travelers descend into the fossilized belly of an ancient subterranean dragon, a vaulted, cavernous labyrinth supported by enormous ribs. Their presence revives the dormant eggs waiting in the giant womb, and unleashes the rebirth of a monster whose blood is not merely cold, but composed of metal-eating acid. The reborn monsters are ‘body-snatchers’ who breed by using human bodies as temporary wombs until they are ready for their ghastly and deadly ‘birth.’ The monsters are regarded as a potentially valuable military technology by the intergalactic corporation financing the expedition. The alien, it becomes clear, is actually the ‘monstrous double’ of the very corporate state that wants to exploit its power.” (p. 38-39)

When Mitchell uses the term “dinotopia” he is not referring to the acclaimed series of illustrated novels by writer/artist James Gurney. Rather he means any fictive world in which dinosaurs and humans are imagined as coexisting. The “rule” of such imaginary realms, which Mitchell observes here, is the often inherently violent conflict for survival which dinosaurs and humans appear to be perpetually engaged in. Moreover, in most instances it is the humans who emerge triumphant: “Dinotopia seems to require a happy ending for mammals, no matter how arbitrary.” (p. 38) The ALIEN movies then are an exception to this rule in that the human characters always loose. Oh true, there may occasionally be survivors of encounters with the Xenomorphs, but as was the case with the series’ early protagonist Ellen Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) survival is no guarantee of a happy ending.*

But even if this is true, it is an idea still predicated on the notion that the ALIEN movies are somehow dinosaur films. How could this be? The screenplay for the original ALIEN (1979, Dir. Ridley Scott) was written by screenwriter and director Dan O’Bannon (1946-2009) who openly acknowledged on multiple occasions that he owed the idea for ALIEN to a number of different cinematic, sequential and literary sources; one of the most significant film influences being the 1958 sci-fi film IT! THE TERROR FROM BEYOND SPACE (Dir. Edward L. Cahn) about a reptilian humanoid extraterrestrial that sneaks adored an Earth bound spaceship departing from Mars and subsequently begins picking off the human crew one by one until they can eventually blast it out the airlock (Valaquen).

But while ALIEN may borrow IT!’s narrative structure, the film’s thematic elements come from none other than American horror icon H.P. Lovecraft. O’Bannon was a huge devotee of Lovecraft and even wrote and directed several films based on Lovecraft’s stories with ALIEN owning much of its affect to Lovecraft’s seminal 1936 novella At the Mountains of Madness about an Antarctic expedition lead by a team of paleontologists/geologists who subsequently stumble upon the ruins of a prehistoric alien city buried in the ice. Exploration of the city leads to the shocking discovery that these aliens were probably responsible for the creation of human life and the horrifying revelation that the synthetic shape-shipping monsters, called Shoggoths, which did them in are still alive and on the prowl. Of all the films in the ALIEN series it is PROMETHEUS (2012, Dir. Ridley Scott) which makes the greatest use of the themes of “cosmic horror” found in Lovecraft’s novella (McWilliam, 531-545), but nearly all the films – even 2004’s ALIEN VS. PREDATOR (Dir. Paul W.S. Anderson) – owes a slight debt to this story.      

As maybe evident from the occupation of the protagonists, Lovecraft scholars are largely in agreement that H.P.’s primary influence for writing Mountains was his reading of contemporary paleo-fiction beginning with Katherine Metcalf Roof’s now painfully obscure 1930 short-story “A Million Years After” about a revivified dinosaur egg (Joshi and Schultz, 11) as well as classic Edgar Rice Burroughs’ works including 1914’s At the Earth’s Core (Fulwiler, 64) and 1918’s The Land that Time Forgot (Debus, 79), as well as John Tain’s 1929 novella The Greatest Adventure about an Antarctic expedition which discovers a lost world of mutant dinosaurs created by an ancient technologically advance race (Price, 141 & Debus, 77-78). As in Lovecraft’s Mountains, the scientists in Tain’s novella discover that the ancient race which created the mutant dinosaurs ultimately wiped themselves out when their experiments lead to the cultivation a deadly parasitic spore – a plot point which leads us back around to latest installment in the ALIEN franchise; ALIEN: COVENANT.

Considering this lineage it is now possible to draw a line directly linking the ALIEN movies to paleo-fiction thus further legitimizing Mitchell’s claim. While the fact remains that the Xenomorphs are not dinosaurs in even the loosest sense of the term, it is possible to argue that they are still influenced by the kind of stories we tend to tell about dinosaurs.

On this latter point I am reminded of Joshua Bellin’s provocative book Framing Monsters (Southern Illinois University Press, 2005) which argues that the ALIEN and JURASSIC PARK film series both play off American cultural anxieties concerning the fear of infertility among the ‘right’ kind of people (i.e. white, patriarchal, heterosexual, married couples) in the face of the illicit and unregulated explosion of offspring among the ‘wrong’ kind of people whether that be “clever [LGBTQ] girls” who have figured out how to reproduce in a “single sex environment” as in JURASSIC PARK (1993, Dir. Steven Spielberg) or the black-skinned “super-predators” of ALIENS (1986, Dir. James Cameron) ruled over by their matriarchal Queen who Bellin sees as an embodiment of WASP boggart that is the unwed African-American welfare mother (Bellin, 106-136).

Whether one agrees with Bellin’s analysis or not depends on how convincing one finds his arguments in which case I would encourage those interested to seek out his book, but personally I do find them convincing insofar that I see both the ALIEN and JURASSIC PARK franchises as promoting a narrative which celebrates the archetype of the hetero-normative nuclear family while figuratively and literally demonizing – be those demons dinosaurs or extraterrestrials – those who by choice or circumstance do not wish to confine their future to the American dream of a married life in which the husband works and the wife remains in their white picket fenced home with their two kids and a dog. Indeed, those who reject such a lifestyle are either naïve workaholics – such as Claire Dearing of JURASSIC WORLD (2015, Dir. Colin Trevorrow) – who only need to be shown the folly of their ways and given the opportunity to redeem themselves by accepting the role of foster-mother to the children whose lives their refusal to be responsible parents has imperiled, OR they are mad scientists who, in an almost textbook example of the feminist interpretation of the myth of Frankenstein, have decided to try and take the process of baby-making into their own hands and as a result created something unnatural and monstrous.

This once again leads back around to the new film ALIEN: COVENANT which pushes this latter idea to the furthest limits it has ever been since James Whales’ classic BRIDE OF FRANKENSTIEN (1935), with its revelation that the Xenomorphs are the creation of PROMETHEUS’s sociopathic, sexually frustrated and now possibly gay (or at least bi) android David who has given rise to such horrors as a byproduct of his angst over his inability to [pro]create.  

As Mitchell noted it does appear that, in the end, the alien – and dinosaur – are indeed actually the “monstrous double” of the very systems of social indoctrination and control which surround our everyday lives. And even more troubling, according to the ALIEN films, they’re winning.      

SOURCES    

Bellin, Joshua. Framing Monsters (Southern Illinois University Press, 2005)

Debus, Allen A. Dinosaurs Ever Evolving (McFarland Press, 2016)

Fulwiler, William. “E.R.B. and H.P.L.” in Black Forbidden Things, Edited by Robert M. Price (Starmont House, 1992)

Joshi, S.T. and David E. Schultz. An H.P. Lovecraft Encyclopedia (Hippocampus Press, 2004) 

McWilliam, David. “Beyond the Mountains of Madness: Lovecraftian Cosmic Horror and Posthuman Creationism in Ridley Scott’s Prometheus (2012)” in the Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts Vol. 26, Iss. 3 (Idaho State University, 2015) 

Mitchell, W.J.T. The Last Dinosaur Book (University of Chicago Press, 1998)

Price, Robert M. “About The Greatest Adventure” in The Antarktos Cycle 2nd Ed., Edited by Robert M. Price (Chaosium Inc., 2006)  Valaquen, “Alien and its Antecedents” (Feb 26, 2015) at Strange Shapes: https://alienseries.wordpress.com/2015/02/26/alien-and-its-antecedents/

* The ALIEN films are particularly notorious for ending on what seems to be a positive note only to pull the rug out from under the characters in the sequel. ALIEN ends with Ripley seemingly having survived her encounter with a Xenomorph only for the sequel, ALIENS, to reveal that she has been in hypersleep for 57-years with everyone she’s ever known and loved having died. ALIENS then ends with Ripley being granted a surrogate family in the form of Newt and Hicks only for ALIEN3 to open with the revelation that Newt and Hicks were killed while in hypersleep. PROMETHUS likewise seems to end on a somewhat positive note with Shaw having survived and it is only in ALIEN: COVENANT that we learn that Shaw was subsequently murdered and experimented on by David. COVENANT actually breaks with tradition by ending on an overt downer; it is clear in the film’s closing moments that Dany and everyone else onboard the Covenant is doomed.         

[lunagalemaster]

Dannymay Day 2: Ice

(I’m late and this was overboard. Is this going to be a theme?)

Setting: Master of Space AU once more, sort of. Astral is narrating. No specific time period. 

Special thanks to @skyereminiscing​ and @ninjagorocksdealwithit​ for letting me use their Ice Sprite and Ice Prince Dannys! 

With that, let’s begin!

There was a huge difference between Cores and cores.

In short, Cores referred to the Dannys. The infinite, unfortunately incredibly important Dannys. Each universe created a Core once in its way too long lifespan (with a minor glitch here and there creating either an odd knock off or amusingly, an actor playing Danny). It was a ridiculous cycle. A Core was born, they lived, and if everything went well, they died after a long eventful life.

Astral noted that things only went well half the time.

The other half either were Cores with boring lives, those who died early, or those who never died at all.

Cores were important for sustaining a universe. No matter what they did, as long as they did something, their deaths would, at the very least, extend the longevity of the universe by a great number of Earth years Astral never bothered figuring out.

(Clockwork probably told him a few times, but considering it sometimes felt like he blinked and missed an entire millennia, the actual number of years were lost to him).

Whatever the actual number of years, it didn’t particularly matter. A Danny lived, they died, and their energy helped to make a universe live longer. Since Clockwork’s and Astral’s goal was to make universes live as long as possible, it was usually in their best interest to make sure that a Core was born.

Not that they could do much to keep the Core alive once he was born, but that was another story for another day, and by another day, Astral meant never.

On the other hand, cores were (with a few exceptions here and there), the lifeline of a ghost. Like Cores helped power universes, ghost cores were the literal center of being for every ghost, holding their power, personality, and essentially their very existence.

Unless you were a halfa, of course, then it had half of your existence...sometimes. Other times cores were in the halfas literal heart, and that really made a mess in some of the universes where a ghost managed to dispose of a Core by destroying their core.

The weirdest thing about cores, in Astral’s opinion, were their elemental effects. For some reason, some cores had elements. Not all of them but some of them. Astral could never figure out why (well, there was always an in-universe reason, but they varied and were way too complicated for his tastes). Of all the abilities ghosts could have, those related to their elemental cores always felt different than other powers. They didn’t relate to a ghost’s past, nor did it particularly relate to ghosts in general. Elemental cores were just another power….for no reason except to have an additional power.

Don’t even get him started on those with “musical” and “adaptive” cores. He tried to wrap his mind around these variations, and he  just came to the conclusion that they sounded cool and so the multiverse made it happen.

The Rule of Cool was a legitimate law, one that Astral himself indulged in quite often.

Generally, Cores tended to have ice cores….for some reason. Again, sometimes the sudden cryokinesis explained and other times, they just generally appear whenever the timeline demanded it. Astral tried to rational it all out, but by the time he found out that at least a fourth of the Common universes didn’t have cores, let alone ice cores, Astral realized that was a stupid thing to try to understand.

This, by itself, wouldn’t be too much of a big deal. Like ghost powers themselves, not every single universe had to have the same abilities. Fuck, the multiverse threw logic out the window as much as Astral did, which made sense when he thought about it. No, the reason why he was hung up on the stupid ice thing had nothing to do with lack of consistency or the consistent lack of consistency.

It was because for some damn reason, universes just loved to center ice as a Core’s main theme, even in Common universes.

If the ice theme was similar to the stars, Astral might have understood. Nearly every universe, with the exceptions of a handful had Core that either loved space or centered space around their universe. Space was loved by all of them in one form or another, and while the stars were simply a backdrop to him now, Astral distinctly remembered his pre-Master days and even his early days just staring out into the great infinity in wonder.

Ice on the other hand? Nothing. There was no reason. It was a theme and nothing less. The Cores didn’t have any attachment to ice, no memories, fuck, they usually hated the winter holiday. (Was this entire thing some great irony in the multiverse?) The only connection to ice they had was to their inconsistent occurrences in their ice core.

Clockwork said it was because the original universe had a Danny with an ice core. Astral preferred to think that the Rule of Cool had evolved into the Rule of Cold.

Whatever the case, it didn’t matter. Ice was a Core’s theme, and as a result, there were several universes dedicated to centralizing it to the point of extremity.

OoOoOoOoO  

Phantom, king of ghosts, leaned leisurely on the armrest of his throne, face impassive, as he eyed the babbling ghost before him. Bright blue eyes, bored at this endless routine strayed to the walls of his palace. The walls, changed to match the reign of the new king, packed to the brim with solid snow to the point only the most powerful of fire cores could even hope to melt it. Icicles clung to the ceiling dangerous, the pointed ends like spikes ready to close down on the rest of the room. The floor was slick and shining. If he wanted, Phantom could see his reflection.

“M-m-m-my K-king?” A voice whispered.

Phantom’s eyes snapped to the ghost, who jumped away in fright. The poor thing was shivering, from fear or the temperature, the king could not say.

Phantom smiled softly, “Please continue. I was just distracted. Not harm done.”

The ghost hesitated a moment, before nodding and continuing on.

The smile dropped from the king’s face, and it was all he could do not to let out another sigh. He wrapped his cape closer to his body, the snowflake design glittering nicely with the rest of the room. If he could, Phantom would be anywhere else, trying to proactively find a way to improve his kingdom.

But no, he was here, listening to some councilman explain boring economic efforts that he’d just hand off to someone who knew what they were doing. It was a boring thing, but a necessary one. He just wished that it wasn’t.

Phantom huffed out a breath and watched it float through the air. Crystallizing, making patterns, before breaking away.

Sometimes being  the Ghost King had a powerless quality to it.

OoOoOoOoO

Astral understood on some level.

On others he didn’t.

It was as much of a symbol as it was a mark of power.

However, for some, it was something new, but just a part of their lives just the same.

OoOoOoOoO

Danny frowned as the little wings fluttered behind him.

They felt...odd on his body, but at the same time, perfectly normal. Like an extra limb that had been asleep for who knew long, it at first was awkward almost painful, but now?

He turned his head to look at them, their fluttering stopping at the moment. Snowflakes trailed up and down the dragonfly esque design of the appendages. The base of the wings were a light blue, almost white, and probably would be if it weren't for the lighting. Even when they weren’t moving they seemed to be shimmering, twitching, ready to take off for a long flight.

Or maybe it was just him.

He shook his head and hopped off his bed. He headed towards his mirror to get a better look at himself again. The combination of morbid fascination mixed with a strange inner peace had him skitting his now, much brighter eyes toward any reflective surface he could find. Even if he jumped at the alien in the mirror (well, sprite), he couldn’t help but think that he looked...right for once.

Fueled by a desire to see his reflection, he felt himself floating off the floor in little hops, wings buzzing excitedly behind him. He couldn’t exactly understand flying just yet, but some deep instincts had him using his wings with whatever limited uses he could find.

He must have miscalculated his jumps because he found himself stumbling nearly on top of his vanity. Grumbling to himself, he gripped the edge and lowered his feet back on the ground.

Then he caught his reflection.

He looked like a Smurf. At least, that was always his first thought. Although, his skin wasn’t that deep of a blue, the shade of blue always closer to a light sky rather than deep blue of the little creatures, the deeper blue of his eyes and the dark blue spots of his freckles made it difficult not to make the comparison.

As he absently poked at his freckles,  his eyes trailed over the rest of his face. More pointed features of his jaw with pointed ears to match. Yet his hair poofed more than usual. Maybe it was to give the effect of powdered snow, but after his transformation, his black hair turned snowy white and seemed to shine softly off his head.

Danny didn’t even realize he was leaning forward until he pressed his hands on the glass. Startled, he looked behind him only to find his wings fluttering up a storm and his body floating gently off the ground. Slightly panicking, he leaned forward towards the glass, and he found his breath creating trails of frost, the ice crawling intricate patterns on the mirror in a way he’d only seen in movies.

Despite his predicament, Danny couldn’t help but smile.

OoOoOoOoO

For others, ice was their very of life. Their identity was tied to the snow and freezing cold just as important to them, as the very air they breathed. It was their story, their beginning, their end. Astral couldn’t disconnect them if he tried.

Yet despite it all, there was a certain innocence when it came to ice, snow more specifically. It should have been mundane, yet as the Cores explored the vast snowy plains, their eyes glittered as they eyed the land

There was an innocence and beauty in watching these Cores love the world around them that Astral appreciated even if he didn’t particularly understand.

OoOoOoOoO

Phantom snuggled under the snow, keeping his breaths low. It was dark and more than a little cold, but that was alright. He knew what he was doing. Paja taught him how to keep warm when he was lost in the snow.

He wasn’t lost now. He didn’t even need to fly very far to go to the village, let alone see it. Yet, quietly, as he could, Phantom camouflaged himself under the light cover of snow. He was sort of cold, and he was pretty sure he had snow in some weird places, but unlike the time he jumped into a giant piles of it only to have his Paja needing to take icicles out of his frozen hair, this time it was different.

He waited, anticipation building, his core buzzing with excitement. He tried his best not to shift too much. To keep quiet. Hidden. Not visible even by the greatest of-

“Found you, Little One!” Suddenly, Phantom found himself being lifted in air by two strong, familiar paws. He screamed in surprise, before the sound turned into a wave of laughter and giggles, as he hugged the Far Frozen who surprised him.

“Paja! You found me!” Phantom exclaimed. He floated up to rest on Frostbite’s shoulders, legs dangling between his head, as his hands held on tightly to his horns. “How did you know I was there?”

“I am a master tracker!” Frostbite said with a chuckle. He started making his way back to the village.

“But how?”

Frostbite sounded amused, as he replied, “It’s not too difficult to find a wiggling pile of snow.”

“Ohhh,” Phantom muttered, pouting a bit, “I thought that I was still enough.”

A giant paw came up and ruffled his hair, causing Phantom to giggle under his breath. The Ice Prince could hear the pride in his Paja’s voice when he continued, “It was a nice start. If you had been farther out, I might not have had that easy a time finding you. But alas, your wiggling and the circumstances made it quite a bit easier on me than you. You’ll learn,” he said, after Phantom gave a little sigh, “But you also need practice, but for now, time to get you warmed up.”

“Wait!” Phantom called out, floating quickly off Frostbite.

He arched an eyebrow, “Oh, what is it, Young One?”

“I just…” He turned away from the village and looked back to the endless snow, “...Can we stay longer? Just the two of us?”

There was a small silence from his Paja, and it made Phantom’s heart hurt. Out here in the snow with no one else around, he was free. No duty, no other Far Frozen, just the Ice Prince and his kingdom, sharing the land with the creature he cared more than anyone else in the Zone.

He looked back at his Paja, eyes wide and pleading, but to Phantom’s despair, he had already closed his eyes, shaking his head no. “I’m sorry. But we must make our way back home. Now come along. I don’t want you to freeze yourself.”

‘You’re my home,’ Phantom thought. And so was Maja and the snowy beyond, but he couldn’t say this, he knew. He didn’t want his Paja to feel guilty for anything. His home was here, and he was happy with his life!

However, as he longed for the vast expanse of the unknown, he couldn’t help but think he could be happier too.

OoOoOoOoO

It was ridiculous. There was no one connection that ice had to the Cores. Yes, there was overlapping ones (how couldn’t there be), but over the many Cores and many universes, they attached themselves to their ice abilities in ways that baffled him. Some for beauty, some for practicality, some simply using them because they were there, and why not? It’s another power, isn’t it?

Astral knew he shouldn’t be harped on the idea of an ice theme or narratives being carried just by this theme of ice, but he has seen the same story so many times and yet the stories of ice could either be completely boring or jaw droppingly emotional.

It didn’t make sense.

But nothing made any sense really, and the multiverse enjoyed beating his sense of reality into little tiny pieces anyway, so why not just go with the flow and enjoy?

Astral supposed the ice thing was just one little problem out of many that represented his struggles as a whole.

If the Cores were enjoying their ice abilities, who was he to judge them?

OoOoOoOoO

It was midnight in the middle of December in what could have been the coldest nights of the year. Danny had zero sleep in the last two days, he failed his world geography test, and he was only one parental late night check-in away from getting grounded for all eternity.

Even so, he found himself floating down towards the lake at the edge of town, the decently sized body of water frozen over for the winter. Despite himself, Danny couldn’t help but smile, clutching the bag in his hand even tighter in his excitement.

Flying was amazing stress reliever, sure, but his favorite pastime was getting riskier by the day. With Valerie and his parents both after his hide, one moment he could be enjoying the rush of air as he rushed toward the ground and the next, he could be plummeting for entirely different reasons.

So, no, with the chaos of his life and his already high stress levels, he did not want to risk being shot at, thank you very much.

Danny gently landed, boots barely making a sound, as the ice gained his light weight. While he was sure it would hold him, just in case, he crouched down, and after shifting the bag, pressed his free hand on the ice. His eyes glowed blue, and there was a woosh of cold air that rose up and unsettled the sparing trees around him.

He got up and pressed his foot down, moving his foot side to side. Danny stepped his foot once or twice, and when he was done, he smiled in satisfaction, giving the ice a little nod. After doing his tests, he floated over to the edge of the lake, made himself an ice bench. He settled himself and his bag down with a plop, transforming back into Fenton.

From here, covered from head to toe with thick winter clothes, Danny opened the bag, revealing a pair of figure skates.

It started out as a way to practice his new ice powers. Some nights, he’d go out, freeze the lake a bit, and try to make some snowmen or something. It wasn’t too big of a deal, and while using his ice powers wasn’t as practical on non-moving objects, as other ghosts, the powers were new enough that anything was helpful.

Although, if Danny were to ever come clean and tell his friends, he will remember never to mention the number of squirrels he pissed off while looking for target practice, or so help him, Sam would fully kill him right then and there.

The reason he started skating was a bit embarrassing. One night he freezed the lake and started sliding around like a clumsy baby penguin. Fenton stubbornness kicked in, and he wouldn’t leave the lake until he could slide around on the ice without slipping. He got the brilliant idea to put skates on the bottom of his boots.

It worked out well for about three seconds before he fell flat on his face.

Normal people would have given up there. However, a combination of dread of coming home and the before mentioned Fenton genes had him huffing, getting back up again, and trying to skate once more. When he got back home, the first thing he did was look up how to make actual skates and, of course, how not to flat out on his face.

He eventually bought a pair of skates when he figured out putting blades on the bottom of his boots was not very effective.

Danny didn’t exactly know what it was supposed to be to him. He never saw himself as a skater. Even if the thought did ever cross his mind, he would have shoved it down, tear it up, and make sure it never did again, in fear of Dash finding out and bashing him in the face.

Good thing Danny stopped caring what Dash thought a long time ago.

If Tucker and Sam ever found out what he did some nights, he’d never hear the end of it. They wouldn’t get it, not exactly, and while they wouldn’t make fun of him (for long), he knew they wouldn’t see this like he did.

It was like flying, except a bit more accessible. Whenever he moved on the ice, the wind flowing, body bending, and twisting, he couldn’t help but feel like he was in a whole other world.

Danny finished tying up his skates. Carefully, he made his way towards the ice,  smile wide on his face, as he started the now familiar motion of skating. He started slow, making sure he knew the motions. The wind picked up, as he went along, as he sashayed back and forth, marking his trail with the cut of his blades.

As time went on, he went faster, nothing too much, but he felt the air pick up around him, the cold holding him like a hug, and he closed his eyes so he could just feel the world turn into nothing but wind, ice, and freedom.

Hours later, Danny sat on the little ice bench once more. He was exhausted, face flushed pink, breath short, and sore from head to toe. He should have stayed home, slept, get some homework done.

Yet, as he stayed at the frozen lake and put away his skates, Danny couldn’t help but feel the happiest he’d been in a long time.

OoOoOoOoO

There may be a big difference between Cores and their cores, but considering their passion, not only with ice, but with the usual hope they had to continue on beyond what should be possible, Astral appreciated them nonetheless.

Ice was a staple of the multiverse. It wasn’t going away.

So why not just sit back, watch the show, and enjoy the winter wonderlands?

[karkatvantasistrans]

Hey I wrote another chapter of my Rosemary fic you can read it on ao3 or in this post.

==>

Sollux maintains this vaguely ominous floating action a few inches off the ground after he phazes in through your window. He stands in one corner of your room, tucked away despite the continuous bobbing up and down drawing your eye. He has a consistently cool palette, you notice, bouncing off your grey walls, and he almost starts to sink into them; even the deep black of his shirt blends in after a while. There's something cold about him inherently: tone, presence, demeanor.

Aradia's boiling hot, then.

Maybe explosive is a better word; it's like she's boiling over. She makes this red hot contact with everything in your room, digging her claws into your bed sheets and hand pushing through the air as she speaks and moves her legs all over your floor. You watch the tips of her shoes hit everything in the metre of clearance in front of her as she pushes the ball of her foot across, and back. Maybe you're boiling over too. You can feel your face, hot and sticky with strands of your hair, and you can hear yourself howling. You're talking about your suicide mission -- Sollux filled her in, or you, you don't remember -- and she's doubling down on every miserable thing you throw at her. You catch Sollux finally start to settle down onto a surface the longer you regale them with the details of your death: the icy-hot of the sun's burn and feeling your muscles pull and split apart just inches away from your body's network rebuilding. The feeling of being put back together.

And you could tell, you know you've never been in one but you just know, that's not what it feels like when a womb builds you up from your core. It doesn't feel like the icy hand of a stranger forcing you back together. Like 1,000 little electrical currents all slicing each other open until they cut into a new you. You're not even sure why you're torn up about being an artificial creation. Why you're giving any reverence to something you don't even have. But you picture these massive hands every time, clawed and masculine and clumsy, tearing you apart and putting you back together like they have any understanding of what you became after John made you. Like it could ever control you if it weren't literally ripping you apart. "What's a WOMB?" Aradia shrieks, and you laugh so hard you knock yourself back onto your sheets. Aradia is bent forward, holding her stomach. Sollux is doing...something. Shuffling in place or looking generally uncomfortable or pretending to be disinterested in your conversation. Who cares. Aradia looks up at you, hair piled in front of her eyes as she catches yours. "Can we have one?" She grins, "A corpse party?" ==> You are lying, ceremoniously, on the carpet on your floor. Your bed has been shoved against a wall so you can access every corner of the rug, in true corpse party aesthetic. Aradia is reading your vows. You're snickering. "Here lies Rose! She was good, I think. She was worthy of a corpse party, if nothing else." Sollux flicks his knuckles in a gesture you can extrapolate into raising a glass. Here, here. "Now do me!" She demands, already prepping her skirt to lie on your rug. "That's all I get?" You laugh, shoving yourself up, catching one shin with the other as the force threatens to knock you back down again. You didn't realize it before, but was Sollux always standing? "I don't--" He spits, And she's already laughing and dropping herself down so, what's the rush of ending the festivities? "Let's not do this-- Aradia," And you're laughing for so long before you realize; the walls are all rumbling. "I don't, want to do this," He huffs; you're not sure what's shaking now, is it him, or the-- The corner melts and the grey walls peel straight up, shooting past where the ceiling just was. You catch the last echo of your laugh. The cool of Sollux's skin splits a wound into the sky, now: deep, heavy purple pounding out around him. His mouth is split back past the natural line of his cheeks as he heaves, eyeballs popping and spitting hot liquid into the air. Your gut wrenches; not from fear but from watching a creature tortured. From bearing witness to the agony of someone ripping out the inside of his face. You step to the side. You step to the side, but you're not moving. This is Aradia's memory. You step back, sideways; you're watching her and you look back and you can see yourself, confused as you feel as your minds pulls back and forward between the two of you. The front of your brain starts to rattle as hot tendons pull up the sides of your vision. You're not supposed to be her in these. You're watching it as you're living it and you feel a hot scream pull out from the base of your tongue, You feel your skin peel away as the note hits the highest octave you can hear; it's inhuman. Mechanical. You vomit. Your room is empty. Your bed hasn't moved. ==> This is a new kind of hangover, you guess. Dragging your arm along the wall as you text your girlfriend, you hear the soft shifting of silk as it rubs and re-arranges under your arm. It's sending a hum down the front of your brain as much as it's rumbling the contents of your stomach. You can't tell if you need one to stop more than you need the other to stay.

 TT: You're sure I'm not uprooting your entire day by coming over so early?

 TT: Late?

 TT: Pointlessly?

 TT: Unannouncedly?

 GA: That Is Without Question Not A Real Earth Word

 GA: But It's Actually An Extremely Convenient Time

 GA: That I Wish You Were Awake For More Often

 GA: Though No Doubt It's Not For Any Reason You're Likely To Be Enjoying

Another push back, your thumb running the line of your cheekbone towards your ear as you smirk. Just another raucous alone night with the eccentric Rose Lalonde. How could you forget that's all that had been going on?

You don't stop yourself from smirking this time.

==>

The light that hits you when you walk in sends a rocket through your brain you weren't prepared for. You throw a hand over your face like it's the middle of the fucking day and you're actually outdoors for once. You don't even know if it's you or Kanaya doing this, so you just stumble over to her like an inebriated muppet regardless.

She leans over you and dims a light, and you catch the pulse of her skin as it adjusts to the room. Your head is still throbbing and some of this light is still definitely from you. You watch the golden glow hum off the tables in her room, radiating into you in hot waves. You squint.

Something can be overwhelmingly Good, you guess. So evolved that catching up with it overwhelms your spirit. You keep your eye on the golden hum, watching it fizzle out and dissipate as it hits the untouched air in the rest of the room. You tuck your knees up under your chin, silk skirt bumping against a patch of stubble. You picture a pesterlog chat years ago with John, gold bristling into the artificial angles and edges of the familiar blue font. The first time it started poking in and intruding onto your every day life and you were forced to fucking consider it, the bottom of your stomach dropping out onto your intestines. You cackle, ice cold, into your skirt.

Remember when you thought you were in love with John?

"Wanna talk about it?" You hear over your shoulder. If you didn't know better, you'd think she was making fun of you.

You catch her over your shoulder and realize you don't know better. She was definitely making fun of you.

You forget she knows things about you.

"I'm just thinking about John," you admit.

You feel her move beside you and you realize you're very pointedly not looking at her, but you catch the path of her hands on her skirt just on the corner of your line of sight. You guess your line of sight is focused on this big fucking lamp in the middle of the room.

God, it's garish. You love that she puts it right in the fucking centre of her room, too.

You hear the familiar crack and pop of her clearing her throat as she sits beside you,

"I didn't necessarily spend a lot of time getting to know the trolls I already allegedly knew,"

You can feel her staring at the ugly lamp, too.

"But it's...weird. To not see them. Dream bubbles couldn't even properly deliver Feferi and Aradia and Sollux. They just...came, because they're the only ones that seem to have any concept that there's a timeline with living versions of their friends available somewhere in paradox space.

That even if paradox space is concocting some sort of appropriately malevolent scheme to keep all your friends away, it's still hard to not take it personally."

You watch her bite a knuckle, the faint glow off her skin bouncing back onto her hand from her teeth. An "X" hums where her the skin hits her tooth.

You shift your head back to look at the ugly lamp.

"Mmh," you manage, speaking directly into your sleeve. You lift your head just enough to address the lamp.

"It's, insulting almost, thinking about it. How there's no iteration of any of your friend anywhere in the timelines stupid and optimistic enough to feel the need to visit you. That dream bubbles with thousands of versions of your stupid dead friend couldn't co-ordinate enough to bump into something even near you."

You clear your throat. It's wetter in there than you'd like it to be.

"And John was exceptionally stupid and stupidly optimistic, so he really had no excuse."

You feel the guilt of stealing a visit from Kanaya's friends away from her clawing at the back of your mind, but you're too tired to obsess about it. You feel her cold hand on the back of your head intead.

"I would accuse most of our dead friends of being idiots,"

you feel her finger curl around a lock of hair at the base of your neck, sending a quiet hum up and down your brain stem as it does,

"when they could be here, having the time of their lives crying alone in a depressing grey room,"

you guess you are crying,

"they're out reliving memories and exploring the expanses of paradox space with no obligation to the alpha timeline whatsoever. Really outrageous lack of commitment to Not Being Total Idiots, in my opinion."

A laugh chokes into a much wetter sound beside you, so you guess you both are just crying alone in a room while every instance of every person you've ever had to lose is completely out of reach. You hear a sob choke into a laugh and you feel yourself do it, too, and you start to laugh harder as your mind hurdles past the fact that your dead friend is either totally indifferent to finding you or too powerless to even try into the memory that you just lived through the high-definition, first-person re-enactment of the murder of one of Kanaya's friends.

You stop laughing.

You take a deep breath.

[courage-a-word-of-justice]

ACCA 2 | Nanbaka 16 | SGRS 16 | Marginal #4 2 | Classicaloid 15 | Blue Exorcist: Kyoto Saga 2 - 3 | D Gray Man Hallow 1 | ReLIFE 2 - 6

The idea for D Gray Man Hallow from now on: Once all 2016 shows are done (rewatches or not), expect the 2016 ranking.

(ACCA 2)

What in Dante’s Inferno? I’m properly listening to the OP as it was intended in the anime…and it doesn’t quite look like what I expected.

I don’t like tomatoes, so no bread for me.

This is a cute…albeit unconventional way to introduce the series’ core concepts. Also, acorn berets.

Kabocha = pumpkin, while murasaki = purple. That’s made from purple lettuce, so I don’t blame ‘em for calling it that.

Mushroomhead = Rail.

I thought ACCA paid really high if he got cigarettes for free.

Oh no, is Nino going to go against Jean?

Bihinshitsu = equipment room.

2m 22 cm is over 6 foot…wow.

Walnut-topped cake filled with nuts.

The systems managers seem really incompetent…I suspect something’s up.

The guys all deilberately seem to have the same face.

A-hah. As I thought. (Dang you, title spoiler.)

If this ED were to evolve, it would be even better than Yuri on Ice’s OP. (That’s saying something.) Unfortunately, that doesn’t seem to be happening…

Doesn’t seem like there’ll be any title spoilers next time either.

(Nanbaka 16)

I’m less likely to skip Rin! Rin! Hi! Hi! than some of the other Ops when I’m watching. That does make it slightly unwieldy as a rewatching show, though.

“Wow, he’s trash.” – Dat me.

Samon has a brother?

In a world full of filial piety, the worst one can do is to insult someone else’s family.

I’m not very good with “kept secret” stories, which is why I’m trying to do “Next to Me” well enough…at least to my standards, anyway. My standards are very high, you know.

They must’ve done something to the snacks…

(Showa Genroku: Sukeroku Futatabi-hen 3)

The fireworks are so lifelike in this ep!

Daiku Shirabe…I found out about the story from an ANN article, so I should’ve seen its appearance coming…“Tamaya” is something you yell during fireworks displays. Apparently it was the name of a fireworks company somewhere along the line.

The flattening refers to how Yota had to bow for forgiveness, but I think I kinda explained that already.

“Shinuchissei”…Yota seems to slur the end of his sentences.

I actually went “WHAT?!” at Yota not being fazed by the big daddy boss.

Note for later: The baby (I heard his name was Shinnosuke) was born November 23rd.

The jazz soundtrack really sells this show.

...so this is the rant from Daiku Shirabe. It’s fast (compared to even the usual), but it has lots of heart. Plus the showcasing of the tattoo really did its significance justice.

I think the bridge is called Matsubashi (Pine Bridge).

Yota could’ve fabricated the shaking of his hands.…wow. Yota has such yaoi hands. Just what you’d expect from a former BL artist.

I thought Yakumo was more of a cat person. Whose dog is Hanako?

Aw. I felt sorry for Matsuda, even if I have a suspicion he feigned those tears. Well, regardless, now I know Matsuda has grandkids anyway…so win win.

I knew he was either summoning the master Sukeroku II pissed off or Sukeroku himself.

“Tou-chan” was an unexpected nickname I didn’t think Konatsu would use.

Update: I thought about it, and even Shinnosuke’s name takes after the legacy. Remember? Sukeroku used to be called Shin! 

(Marginal #4 2)

One of the things that makes this show stand out is the space-styled episode titles.

Ooh. Pretty cherry blossoms.

Pan shots. Of course.

I know this isn’t the sort of show that gets too much coverage, and I even think it looks a bit ugly at times (not to mention a bit weird) but when you’re not caught up on most of the other big idol shows, this is the best you can do.

I think game boy (orange twin…er, aka R)’s trying too hard with his terms.

Now that Atom is talking about heart, it really does look like he’s a Toshiki Masuda character through and through, although he doesn’t look very angry when he sounds angry. I’ll chalk that up to the art department.

“Don’t think, feel” seems to be attributed to lots of places, so I don’t know the original source. However, since game boy (um, aka R) cites a movie star, it’s apparently Bruce Lee (if my Google-fu serves me right).

L makes stuff sound deeeeep.

WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT?! Rui wasn’t surprised by the juice.

Atom is such a Ryuu sometimes...

…okay, enough with the underwear jokes…The twin jokes are a bit weird. Plus the ships can be smelt from a mile away…but that’s not enough to save a show.

“Ore-sama”? I only just realised Atom uses such a term.

Enough about the lucky underwear! *flips table*

Oh, I saw Ayanokouji in the background at one point.

I’m with Rui most times, including the need for deduction.

I’m still questioning the sanity of someone who wrote an entire episode plot about lucky underwear.

Alright, since I feel brain dead after that, I’m going to drop it, meaning ACCA is the show that forges ahead. Well, I’m lucky I was hoping to watch FLCL to fill in the gap once I’m done with my 3 remaining rewatches at this point in time (ReLIFE, D Gray Man, Morose Mononokean). The latter two will have, from ep 7, fresh impressions, so hopefully you can look forward to them.  

(Classicaloid 15)

Selfies: a worldwide phenomenon…I never got into that stuff, but if I were to analyse ‘em, I’d say they tap into the human need to be self centred.

There’s something sad about seeing someone rejected, eve if that someone is a piece of trash like Sousuke…

The game the Classicaloids are playing appears to be a game of Life.

Unfortunately, Kanae’s right…again. Sad life for you, Sousuke.

Motz literally became a flippin’ Akoya, right down to wearing a dress. Plus, the Amazon brigade came back.

Aw, I really felt for the glasses guy, even if briefly.

“Basics of Programming”? Don’t need that for Garage Band, Sousuke.

Hanted house and cosplay café...

…eh? Tchaiko still calls herself a former member of Cla:Kla?

Oh. I never realised until now, but Hamamatsu + festival (matsuri) = Hamamatsuri.

With that song (Sousuke’s song), it’s a sad blooper reel.

(Blue Exorcist: Kyoto Saga ep 2)

I got a wallpaper of Shima trying not to laugh (it was from the official Blue Exorcist anime page, but only for a period around Shima’s b’day). So this ep is where it comes from.

“Bon” means “young master” anyway, so it doesn’t matter.

“…a herbal tea antidote…”

Kyoto is meant to be the imperial capital…at least around the 1700s, it was the imperial capital.

Mamushi means “pit viper”. She’s not one to mess with.

He’s got some reflexes, that Ryuji.

Uwabami is also a type of snake…I forgot which one though.

Wait, Uwabami’s the man?! Uwabami was a woman in Oumagadoki Zoo…

Seriously, are they all getting drunk on juice…? Oh, okay. So that’s what happened.

(ep 3)

Rin’s shirt says “Sankyu” in goroawase and English, LOL.

Even if you love weeds, please don’t smoke ‘em, kids.

I thought Rin was going to pull a Shaft head tilt out of nowhere when he looked back at Konekomaru.

Update: For efficiency, the tag for this one is “Chesarka watches AoEx”. However, I don’t normally refer to it as such. I’d probably refer to it as “Ao Eku” if I wee speaking (due to the season 1 DVD extras), but “Blue Exorcist” is the shortest mode of the name I’d use in typing format.

(D Gray Man Hallow ep 1)

I am familiar with this source material, so do be aware of that. However, I didn’t finish the anime the first time around, so do be aware of that too.

Sometimes the art style for this anime can be a little off. The noses can be a little too pointy and too close to the eyes, so on and so forth.Allen doesn’t even look like he’s blushing with this art style too…that’s a bit of a disappointment.

Even the golems have it in for each other…LOL.

Johnny has apparently been stealing the spotlight for quite some time, but I haven’t noticed it all that much. Probably because I read volumes 21 – 24 in one go…

I think.Cross Marian looks more like Grelle (Black Butler) than ever in colour.

Why does Lenalee have such a short skirt?

When even the masked guy has a sweatdrop, you know there’s trouble.

(ReLIFE ep 2)

Unfortunately for Kariu, I understand there is no “next time”…

I’ve found out even at 18, people don’t judge two people of different gender sitting together eating lunch…of course, cultural standards notwithstanding.

Stud earrings are fine if you play sports, I think.

According to Google-sensei, it’s only about $11, my country’s money. It’s not that much if you work…but knowing Japanese standards (which say you should focus on getting into uni before getting a job), it does seem a bit much for someone who doesn’t work and doesn’t get any allowance. So in a weird way, it does make sense to me.

...but you took Kariu’s hand when she offered you the rubber, Arata?

Hey, that joke was in Erased too.

Kazu-kun = Karamatsu…kinda. LOL.

I always seemed to understand Hishiron, and yet also understand Arata to some extent too. Maybe I’m the perfect in-between for these two. Probably because I tend to break off friendships as soon as the year ends, and yet prior friendships are a core part to my social strategy.

Unfortuately, the downside to “minimalistic” is that it’s obvious when it goes off model.

LINE sticker…LOL. LINE’s very popular in Japan.

(ep 3)

I’ve wondered whether Yayoi Sou is a lady or not. Considering the circumstances, it probably is that Sensei is a female.

Hideyo is the dude on the 1000 note, obviously.

Ah…fitness tests. The bane of youth. No one says “stupid loud” though.

Oh. Tamarai’s there around the time of Asaji’s throw.

Lookit that rabbit on Usa-sensei’s shirt. No one says “crazy athletic” either…you outdated subbers.

Akira (Inukai) is kinda like Yurio, come to think of it, eh?

Didn’t you just say it yourself (about you being old) though, Arata?

Yoake literally had a blank face there, LOL.

There appears to be a Sato GP on the way to Aoba. Huh.

Ah…a show’s a real classic if it makes you laugh every time…

(ep 4)

Where’s the guy who does sad interpretations of OPs and EDs? (This guy.)

I know your feels, Kariu. (see the Tumblr debacle for an instance of this)

There appears to be something about whales near the fishtank.

The cityscapes in this are so nice.

There’s a map of Japan on one wall of Kaizaki’s place.

Go forth, young Kariu! Pick up your fallen balls! (teehee)

CGI balls, LOL.

It’s creepy (but also dramatic) when the lights of the eyes are the last to move.

(ep 5)

Sumire! Her name means “violet” (the flower).

There are some nuances lost in translation, like yappari and the levels of formality…but those are typically lost.

This “lecture” is probably the highest point you can get in the show (so far). It’s times like this you can really see an author’s strengths in storytelling.

The piano really sells the Hishiro/Kaizaki meeting.

What a strange angle that “lean to the left” shot is.

I’ve found out swear words have a lot of leeway when it comes to levels of “oh no”. These swar words include yabai and temee. Due to the context of Wan! and the fact it was Chuuya who kept using them, I went with the nastier variants [in my scanlating days] but sometimes a non-swearing variant is enough. However, kirai (to dislike) is pretty nasty if you use it in Japanese.

Kaizaki’s delivery of these lines really sells their comedic effect. The electronic keyboard makes it sound like night, but also makes it sound 1) like night and 2) creepy, for some reason.

Freeter is almost as bad as NEET, Kaizaki.

There appears to be a 100 man (10 thousand) coin bank behind Yoake, which makes that...1000000 yen. (chorus in back: One million yen?!)

(ep 6)

Apparently someone tried to type the same Japanese words into Google and didn’t get the same results, LOL.

Hishiron uses a Mac, LOL.

“Thanks for having us” probably isn’t the right words for it. Ojamashimasu means “sorry for intruding”, but it sounds heavily formal when translated, so I can see why the subbers did what they did though.

*laughs* MDs (minidiscs)? I know what they are, even though they’re meant to be completely dead by now. Apparently they’re a product of the 90s that never caught on..although I admit I’ve never used an MD in my life, let alone held one. It does kinda look like a floppy disc, though. (chorus in back: You poke through old stuff too much, don’t you?)

Those fadeout cups are so cool! I want one.

Ah, maths. The sad thing about my life is that up until a certain point I was good at maths. Then the hard stuff came up and I started to fail.

I thought it was Third Street Oga was talking about, but it’s 3rd chome, sort of like a suburb.

Knowing An, she may have deliberately put Oga out of the way for her own purposes…if you know what I mean.

CGI car just ruined the suspenseful mood, dangit.

Sometimes I just turn off my volume and turn on some music on Spotify. That way, you can make your own soundtrack.

Why did Arata have such a dumb face in the thought bubble?

Wow, she’s a real fujoshi, that one [An].

“Dude”? I cringe so much at her use of it, despite the fact I use it myself. 

You liar, Onoya. Knowing who subject 1 was means that I know they couldn’t have even thought about that part…

[coldtomyflash]

Have you done an ask about what len thinks of barry/the flash?

Not quite. I’ve talked a bit about their mutual dynamic in canon and how I think it’s supposed to read (a push and pull, and Len having some fondness for Barry [and probably Cisco for the record] that comes out sometimes) and how much on-screen chemistry they have. But I don’t think I’ve talked about how I think Len sees Barry in canon? Or I mean, I probably have in a couple of lines here and there, but not in it’s own post.

And wow did this get long (good thing I didn’t add gifs after all lol) and it turned into a winding exposition on how I figure Len’s canon feelings for Barry evolved over time, so I put it under a cut. 

Hmm…

Well, I would wager that at first, the Flash was a nuisance. A curiosity but something to be readily dispatched. He might not have realized up front that the Flash had superpowers? He might have attributed the speed to the suit, since metahumans weren’t making the news yet. Conversely, he might have heard about people with powers in the city and suspended his own disbelief to accept that the Flash really could simply run that fast.

But nonetheless, intrigue and curiosity but also ready to kill the guy. The first thing Len did was evaluate the Flash’s weakness, test his skills, and then seek to exploit all of that in order to kill him. 

But then he didn’t kill him (and here’s a post on that and some of why that might’ve been).

But he wasn’t done with the murder attempts, and that’s important. Because at that point, he’d realized that Barry was just a kid, even if he didn’t know his name yet. A determined kid trying to clean up the city and if the internet info on ‘the Flash’ was to the trusted, there were other people with powers he was taking down. But Len was still willing to kill him.

And that’s… something. Important. It’s clear that Len always had a contingency in case the Flash beat him, but he was very much gunning for the Flash’s life nonetheless. 

But he’d brought Mick back into his life and decided to own this new persona. And Lisa was by his side the next time we saw him, which I genuinely think helped to soften him, make him enjoy the job and focus a bit less on the ultimate score and on being harsh. Note that she’s not around whenever he’s giving his “well if you’re out, you’re out” speeches. So having his best friend and his sister at his side makes a difference. 

But importantly, necessarily, Len didn’t decide to get revenge on the Flash as his next move. Despite losing to him and getting arrested, Len wasn’t fuelled by hate at all. He picked up Cisco to get his weapons back (completely practical reasoning even if I don’t enjoy his methods) and then to extract the Flash’s identity. 

And that’s where Len seems to update his opinion on the Flash. Maybe he’s come around to liking how the Flash cleans up the city, or maybe he’s mollified by feeling powerful with his weapons and his sister and best friend at his side, or maybe he sees something in Cisco and his loyalty to family and to Barry, remembers Caitlin’s loyalty to him as well, that thinks there’s something more here. 

But all of that probably wouldn’t be enough to stop him from killing Barry if Barry was rotten to the core, or else a major liability.

So I think there’s something he also sees in Barry, in what he’s doing as the Flash and in what he inspires in both the city and the people around him, that makes Len pause. That makes him, though he’d never admit it, care. Just a bit.

Because when Len learns Barry’s name and looks him up, he doesn’t use the information to hurt him. He uses the information to keep Barry doing what he’s doing, just out of Len’s particular path while he does it. And I imagine he’s a bit relieved that Barry so readily agrees to a truce, and maybe impressed that the kid (”and fuck he is just a kid, he’s so young, look at that baby face” - Len’s internal monologue) pushed back and made Len concede something as well, in their woods negotiations.

But from the moment Len sees Barry instead of the ‘The Flash’, Len very clearly and deliberately chooses not to hurt him, when given the option. And when Barry goes to him for help, Len is both amused and annoyed, and I take his annoyance to be partly annoyance at the situation and himself because he knows he’ll say yes, though I do think he’s largely annoyed at Barry for getting himself in so far over his head and needing to come to his goddamn enemies for help (”what the honest hell, kid?” - his internal monologue continues).

He’s giving Barry lectures all throughout that episode, sort of. “First rule of business: always protect yourself.” And he’s intrigued that Barry pushes it, and he only agrees after Barry lets go of his arm and steps back in that scene, respecting Len’s space and boundaries in a way that some characters don’t (and then get punched in the face for. Looking at you, Palmer).

I think Barry wins some brownie points in Len’s eyes for respecting him, for using his love of the city against Len to convince him, and for being so goddamn stubborn. 

I think that the more Len interacts with Barry, the more he wants… maybe not to protect him, but not to see him seriously harmed if Len can help it. To see him stay the hero that he is. He saves Barry’s life from Simmons and Mardon and that’s not an accident. Sure he twisted the whole thing to his advantage but he technically carried out his part of the deal in protecting Barry and his friends and he did save Barry when he could have gained even more debt from these metas and even more power in the city by killing Barry. 

Len chose Barry’s life over personal gain and turned the entire thing into a lesson to Barry to make sure he wouldn’t be so dangerous and foolish in the future. That’s gotta mean something.

I take it to mean he cares on some level, and that he’s maybe a little inspired despite himself. This young, brash, too bold and too brave kid who rushes in and trusts and cares so much, but still has respect, still uses an underhanded tactic from time to time. Who looks out for his friends above all, and who’s friends look out for him. That’s got to ring a bell for Len, the need to protect the people you love, no matter the price.

And Barry’s past has got to intrigue him a little, a father who went to prison for murdering his mother. I wonder to what extent Len thought the Flash was going to be some perfect person with this perfect life then met Barry Allen and went ‘well shit’ because Barry has suffered and it has taken a toll on him but he always does his best despite that, and never loses hope. That’s the part of Barry I think inspires Len.

And then, finally, jump forward to Lewis being out of prison and Len being in over his own head and in probably the shittiest situation he’s been in in a long time, isolated and scared to death for what might happen to Lisa. And then Barry just freaking shows up and is like “I’m supposed to be rescuing you” and Len, despite his acerbic comebacks, has got to be at least a little surprised that this kid is here, that he cares enough to have listened to Lisa (that Lisa was desperate enough to go to the Flash in the first place, “but she’s always had good instincts” - Len is internally always praising his sis). 

This kid who wants to help him but who Len can’t accept help from (for a whole bunch of reasons you can read about in my scene analyses from that episode if you want, or just check out my family of rogues tag for more meta because I’ve written a lot of it). This kid who Len freaking shoots full of ice and who shows up an hour or three later at Saints and Sinners saying “let me help you” because he’s already trusting Lisa and already figured out that Len wouldn’t do this if he had a choice.

This kid who sees through Len in the moment he’s the most vulnerable he’s been in a long time? Who Len uses barbed words and cold threats to push away but who is so goddamn determined to help him for reasons I’m sure Len can’t even fully comprehend. Because he hurt and betrayed Barry and just hurt him again that evening and yet here Barry is like a goddamn dog with a bone. And Len knows Barry can’t be that naive, couldn’t be if he’s seeing to the heart of the situation already, and considering Barry’s been through what he has. And yet he’s here and wanting to help.

And that’s got to make Len feel something. And when Barry shows up the next day and knows Lisa’s in danger and is willing to dress up like a criminal and do this job and manages to bluff his way onto it and pull out a half-useful lie to cinch in to Lewis, Len has to be relieved. He has to be worried and angry and grateful all at once. He has to be a bit mind boggled at the lengths Barry is going to for him and his sister because you can’t convince me that Len believes anyone except Mick would go to these sorts of lengths for him, not really, but here Barry is, doing just that.

And maybe it’s about making sure Lewis isn’t going to kill anyone but Barry could do that as The Flash and they all know it. He’s here as Barry to make sure nothing awful happens to anyone and that includes Len. And it’s Barry who gets shot and Len who is visibly sad over it, who apologizes. He didn’t want that to happen. he doesn’t want Barry dead. He doesn’t want any of this.

So by or at that point, I think Len goes from reluctant respect for Barry alongside some un-admitted care about his wellbeing to something more. Something closer and more genuine. Still enemies, but a very deep respect for the kind of person Barry is and what he’ll do for some people, what he’ll do for Len. The kind of mettle Barry obviously has but the compassion in him too. 

And Barry saves Lisa. Not just Barry, all of team Flash. I think Len has a real soft spot for Cisco too. But Barry was the one there in that hallway facing down the cold gun to help protect Lisa.

And sure, I have no doubt that Len is pissed to wind up in Iron Heights for this. He ought to be pissed, really, and he seems it when Barry goes to talk to him. But that doesn’t stop him from taking Barry’s call and acknowledging Barry knows his weaknesses and challenging Barry. The game is changed a bit and the frustration he feels is real, but that doesn’t mean he’s ungrateful for what Barry did or that he’s stopped caring or wants to see Barry hurt. Because the first thing he does after getting out and getting his gear is to refuse to hurt Barry and indeed to warn him. 

He feels he owes Barry, and he’s come around to a place of honoring their give and take. A man who shoots people when they want ‘out’ and kills a mob boss who was offering for Len to live and leave town probably doesn’t tend to worry so much about honoring implicit agreements until he respects the person he’s made the deal with (unless his reputation is on the line). And yes, that’s indicative of how he’s changed as a person over the course of a season and a half, but it’s also indicative of how he feels about Barry. He cares.

So tl;dr - by the end of 2x09, I think Len has gone from seeing ‘The Flash’ as a curious problem he needs to dispatch, to seeing Barry as a person he respects and doesn’t want to see come to any lasting harm. A person to protect, when he’s in a position to do so. As a person who inspires loyalty and trust and honor (even in him), and who Len could place some trust in, if he needed to. He cares about Barry. Who is maybe young and naive and in need of a few wakeup calls (especially at first) but who is bold and brave and something of an enigma in Len’s eyes, in Len’s world. Which, I suppose, though this is reaching, I imagine that makes Barry something, someone, to cherish, if only privately in his mind.

[swissforextrading]

A final interview in San Francisco: Christian Simm, Founder and CEO of swissnex San Francisco, heads to swissnex Boston

When Christian Simm came to San Francisco in 1997 as the Science and Technology Counselor for Switzerland, the city (and the world), was a very different place. Even if the smartphone had not yet been invented, the Internet and the World Wide Web were the new El Dorado with seemingly endless opportunities. This represented a paradigm shift in the way information and connections were made available, shared, and brokered. Within this new context, Christian saw a unique opportunity for Switzerland. He transformed his role and founded swissnex: a hub for international collaboration–where people from different disciplines, industries and countries could meet, exchange, collaborate and find new ideas. Today, open innovation and interdisciplinarity are well-known concepts, but fifteen years ago, they were truly visionary. Leaving behind a legacy, we recently farewelled our Founder and CEO as he left San Francisco for Boston, where he commences as CEO of swissnex Boston in August. We sat down with him to hear his story.           swissnex was inaugurated almost fifteen years ago, in Nov. 2003, can you tell us how and why it all began? A revolution started in the mid-nineties when the first web browser became available to the public. Having so much information available anytime, anywhere, organized in such a user-friendly manner seemed to promise endless opportunities. And Silicon Valley became the place where many of these opportunities were explored thus quickly turning the region into a magnet for pioneers, researchers and entrepreneurs from all over the world. This lead Switzerland to create a Science & Technology Counselor (STC) position in San Francisco, the first outside a national capital. When I arrived in the Bay Area in December 1997, I quickly discovered that the scope of this position, as much as the web itself, were a work (constantly) in progress, requiring extreme agility and inventiveness for what looked like permanent and totally exciting exploration. The traditional role of the STC as a ‘reporter’ and middleman was bound to change fundamentally. Not only did one need to be part of the ecosystem, rather involvement in the community of innovators was indispensable to be credible. Collaboration was needed as everything seemed possible: giving before taking. An idea was quickly born: join forces with other Swiss-based organizations, create a neutral place for experimentation of ideas, open this venue to the public with attractive programs, stay at the edge and adapt quickly when necessary. My boss in Switzerland loved the idea and said «I don’t have a budget for this (yet) but I will support you if you find third-party funders». The swissnex concept was born. Did you envisage that swissnex would become the place that it is today?   The iPhone is only ten years old. Who could have predicted in 2007 the impact it would have on our lives by 2017? It was, and still is, the same with swissnex; an organization built to evolve with new topics, new trends, and new challenges. We detect faint signals, grab opportunities and transform them into actions, which are often premieres for Switzerland: From creating a “Facebook for scientists” (Swiss Talents), to a widely recognized art-science practice at a time when mixing these disciplines was still considered frivolous (now it has become mainstream); From pushing young entrepreneurs to go global, to putting trans-disciplinarity at the core of future thinking; From breaking boundaries between startups and large corporations to creating a new model for science diplomacy. I once read the following text: ‘One must be generous. We are only here for a short time and we can’t take anything with us when we go. What’s the point of holding onto things and not sharing knowledge, ideas, insights and opportunities? If you keep them for yourself, then it’s gone when you are gone. But if you share, then you can make something that is much bigger than the beginning. In other words, ideas grow when you share them. Others grow when you share, and you grow when things are shared. In a way, it’s a win-win game’. With that in mind, with an amazingly creative and dedicated team, with trusted partners, supporters and headquarters we were able to ‘re-invent’ swissnex San Francisco in 2016. We moved to a very unique venue at Pier 17, created an experiment in open innovation with more than seventy people from over twenty organizations, and quickly became the model many others wanted to understand. Did I all plan that in 2003? That would be presumptuous to say. But it was a dream, for sure! What were some of the biggest problems you sought to solve when you started swissnex? Solving problems was not the reason why I created swissnex San Francisco and grew it over the past fifteen years. swissnex is about seizing opportunities. The entire team works passionately to help partners, stakeholders, clients and other parties see potential and take action. What is the most serendipitous moment you can recall at swissnex? As swissnex is about the future–where knowledge is in flux, certitudes are scarce and leaders still have to emerge–serendipity plays an important role in our practice. Though, it is not just about waiting for something unexpected to happen. Serendipity can be engineered with the right methodology: constantly pushing the boundaries, listening carefully to faint signals, showing genuine curiosity and generosity, planning improbable encounters and a few more ‘secret ingredients’. Successful outcomes are often beyond expectations. Among the many examples of serendipitous moments, I’ll cite one of the very first. To brainstorm out-of-the-box ideas for what swissnex may become, a good colleague of mine offered to cook Greek specialties at her home if I could come up with a wildly diverse group of participants. Intrigued by swissnex, a confidential list of top San Francisco creatives joined. They enjoyed the unusual setting and conversations so much that, without being asked, they spontaneously offered to invent our brand and graphical identity for our, then nameless, initiative. Their legacy is still all around us every day! swissnex San Francisco occupies a unique space that transcends disciplines, industries and borders; a place where people meet and collaborate to let new ideas emerge. What is the greatest success story of swissnex San Francisco? We started very early on to help Swiss entrepreneurs and startups with benchmarking, gaining international exposure, having a base abroad and ‘thinking big’. This type of support was very uncommon at the time, whereas now, incubators, accelerators, hackathons, pitch events and the like have become mainstream. For a long time, maybe since the Renaissance’s famous polymaths, sciences and arts were considered so far apart that dialogues between them were few and remained mostly intimate. With San Francisco’s receptiveness for experimentation, my love for the arts, very talented team members, and the trust of several key supporters, allowed us to be at the avant-garde of the nascent art/science and art/technology movement. There are many different ‘languages’ to describe the world, and some of the most fascinating insights emerge at their intersections. Open Innovation was pushed to a new level with our move to Pier 17, where selected startups and large corporations, universities and individual researchers, creatives and communicators, short-term visitors and long-term ‘Residents’ share an inspiring open space. In this very unique innovation ecosystem, engineered serendipity has become the norm. In each of these instances–and there are many more examples–swissnex fully played its role as pioneer: discoverer, experimenter and, as we would say in Silicon Valley jargon, ‘evangelist’. Part ice-breaking, part ground-breaking, we laid the foundations on which new and meaningful projects became possible. You’ve witnessed some of the biggest changes the world has seen over the past fifteen years from the vantage point of Silicon Valley. What are some of the biggest changes you expect the world to see in the next fifteen years? Predicting precisely the future requires a crystal ball. swissnex’s methodology, on the other hand, starts with the faint signals of the future that I mentioned earlier. They are collected through listening, reading, observing, talking to people from all types of backgrounds and sectors, and more. Possible scenarii are then imagined, analyzed and tested through more discussions and storytelling, for instance on our ‘nextrends’ blog. The knowledge and understanding gained reduce the cone of uncertainty about the future. Technologies like virtual reality, deep learning, gene editing tools like CRISPR, autonomous vehicles (whether on the ground or in the air), and artificial intelligence will clearly have a deep impact in the next fifteen years. Machines will become even more like us. They won’t necessarily look like us, but they will sense, interpret, understand, communicate and act in ways which will make physical devices: robots, algorithms, and bots will blend into our daily lives like the smartphone did over the past decade. Such machines will negotiate directly with each other and possibly manage their own entities: they may be taxed like humans, and I’m certain that it will trigger in-depth debates about the future of our societies. At the same time, this techno-centric view is very much the culture of Silicon Valley. Apps are not the solution to every problem and the world has a very differentiated approach to technology. The needs for and impact of technologies are wildly different around the globe. Companies cannot ignore this anymore and they will have to ask why, what for, and under which conditions their new devices and services are developed. Business models will need to include Corporate Social Responsibility, Sustainable Development Goals and global political, environmental, humanitarian (as well as other) issues. Switzerland and swissnex are perfectly positioned to encourage, support and lead the shaping of a better common future.   Christian Simm commences as CEO of swissnex Boston in August 2017.   Gioia Deucher, previously CEO of swissnex Brazil, is now CEO of swissnex San Francisco. https://nextrends.swissnexsanfrancisco.org/interview-with-christian-simm/ (Source of the original content)

[neuralnetworkmakingmagic]

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Episode 28

1 ([[Gliving Golxie, Promises]]

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