#my quite ambitious project for it is also progressing well to say the least

[cerulean-fantasy]

moving all new art to an art blog!!

➡➡➡ @solaestial

SO!!! guess who FINALLY got around to making an art blog after who knows how many years. i might still adjust things here and there, but it should be overall good to go

to anyone following me for just my art, i recommend following that now as i plan to post all future art i do on that blog instead! where it doesn't have to get buried by a million random reblogs from me all the time HAHA. though i'll still reblog said art here as well

i can't say for sure whether i'll get around to posting my oc art here on tumblr too still (via the new art blog ofc), but we'll see! i hope you guys enjoy a more concise experience for any fanart i've done as much as i definitely will

that is all!! have a good day folks

[boogleboot]

One year since Fateheart

A year ago I posted Fateheart: A Starless Seaquel to Ao3 (link here) - the mammoth fanfic sequel to Erin Morgenstern's The Starless Sea.

Fateheart has had an incredible year, and has completely changed my life, by all measures. Posting it has connected me to so many wonderful people and helped bring together a genuine community over on the Starless Sea discord (which you should join hey here's a link) who have supported me through the last hellish few weeks of uni assignments as well as months and months of creative projects and ambitious fic writing.

So on this blessed solstice day, here is a lil update for those who are following the slow progress of the unofficial Starless Sea canon as developed in Fateheart.

Oh that's right, baby. It ain't just one fan sequel. It's gonna be uhhh (checks notes) at least four.

I really really wanted to get the next book out at this year mark - on the solstice and year anniversary - but despite hitting that 50k mark for NaNoWriMo last month it just didn't happen (it's been a rough couple months - I am currently doing a master's course that is kicking my ass).

But I am determined to get Fever Pitch, the next full-novel-length follow-up story, out in full as soon as humanly possible. Toward that end I have gone ahead and made a posting for it. The first few chapters are done and have been done for a while, so I shall slowly be posting them as I work on the rest.

Watch this space!!!!

I never really intended Fever Pitch to be a fully-fledged sequel. Mind you, I didn't intend that with Fateheart either, but in a different way. In my mind the next book in the sequence is and always has been a story called The Lotus Flowers. Nearly 180k words of that one exist, but it is too important a story not to get right. So I'm gonna give it as much time as it needs - and it may need quite a lot.

But in working on Lotus Flowers, I came to realise that a lot of the world-building and character development which I was taking for granted was in fact not as obvious to the reader as it would be to me - LF is, after all, set ten or so years after Fateheart, and considering all of The Starless Sea (at least for Zachary and Dorian) takes place in about two weeks, ten years is space enough for a LOT of story.

So in order to strengthen my sense of where Zachary, Dorian, and Kat have found themselves by the ten year mark, I started noting down some of the more important moments from that decade of time. And then just kept writing. And writing and writing and writing until a handful of them were fully fledged novellas.

I have put up the polished ones - they are collected together on Ao3 as 'Fateheart: The Extended Canon'. Which is. A bit pretentious. But whatever. (Also I'm not kidding myself that all the fics in this collection are vital plot points, but there are a couple standout ones which are Canon Events in my mind, that will be referenced in later full-length fics. Namely A Heart That Won't Break, Death in the Valley, and The Man Named Sky.)

But one of these short (aspirationally) stories seemed as I wrote to have particular space in it for so much of that world-building and exposition, and that was Fever Pitch.

Fever Pitch takes place five years after the birth of the Harbour, and the events of Fateheart, and is an Alice-in-Wonderland themed story which explores the lives of all the main Fateheart characters (Zachary, Dorian, Kat, and Leander, namely), introduces some new players (shoutout Tabuzae and Kirsty Baudeville), as well as establishing the limits and life of the Harbour they live in.

I'd say a solid sixty percent of this story currently exists, and I'm gonna amp up the pressure on myself to complete it by posting it as I go - something I've never done before, so bear with me.

It means so much to me that there are people out here who care as much about these people and this little world on the Starless Sea as I do - even more so that so many people have loved my offerings of more story. The above photo is of my christmas present from a housemate who was one of Fateheart's earliest readers. It's so beautiful it makes my heart leap.

We rise, we fall - as stories do.

I am committed to seeing this story through, by the way - all the way to the end - and that is gonna take years. But we start here - with the next book in the series. First few chapters to appear over Christmas.

Until then, happy solstice. To seeking x

[daystobook]

Day 1: The Cooking of Books

Running Comments About This Blog

The first physical and emotional feeling that arose when I wrote the title of this log was fear.

What if 'Day 1' becomes Day 10000 and I still don't have a book published?

Then I realised that it's highly unlikely, because I'd have enough notes from this blog to club into an expansive enough book, even if it might not be best-seller and coveted like Chetan Bhagat's or Amish Tripathi's books.

Also I'm in a dilemma. Do I have to write here daily? I guess for now, I'll write when I am able to read something or when I've made progress in writing. This is some serious commitment.

The Cooking 👨🏽‍🍳 of Books 📚

A couple of days back, I finished Ramachandra Guha's book The Cooking of Books, A Literary Memoir. First book that I read of him. I couldn't put the book down, perhaps because

The research sources for the basis of entire book were letters

It was endearing epistolary account of a 40 years old friendship.

The friendship span across discussions, feedback, arguments, wit, banter, puns, satire and occasional sharing of personal feelings.

Rukun, My Hero

I felt close and related to Rukun Advani, especially because of his perky and sardonic comments, standing up for his opinions in wit, and his reticent nature. I quit my job some months back and these quotes from his letters hit hard. I was like, 'yeah bro, same' (if Rukun ever reads this, he's most likely to say, 'what an arse.')

1994

All is on 'hold' in OUP(Oxford University Press) until the Great White Men arrive this month to settle exactly how OUP's publishing schedule should be structured, organised, prioritised, etc. Two more editors have left, leaving only us old diehards who're too tired & ensconced to decamp. This place needs to invest in fresh blood on decent salaries, but [the Managing Director]'s investments are all in wood, gloss, machinery and salesmen on low salaries.

To prevent him from quitting, Rukun was made Academic Publishing Director and his salary doubled.

Dec 1996

...this job is actually quite taxing — travel here and there, looking at bottomlines…badgering [his boss, the new MD] for personnel, machinery and the other resources required to keep academic publishing chugging along, meeting & soothing sundry irate authors when their projects are rejected or delayed, & generally all the dreariness that goes with less ungenerous salaries.

June 1999

after working for OUP for 15 years.

My heart isn't in this OUP job any more. I'm clear the only reason I'm here is the need to earn a decent sum. The moment I don't need that, or an attractive alternative happens to come along. I'll leave. That may not happen for quite long, but at least it'll take no further reflection to move on when it does. I'm producing books and managing the academic business mechanically, like a zombie, without zest. It's a case of being browned off doing the same damn thing for too long.

browned off: annoyed irritated, or dissatisfied.

Towards the end of the book there was a very interesting side-to-side listing down of opposite nature attributes of Shashi Tharoor and Rukun Advani ( both of who studied in St. Stephen's in the same batch ).

Both ranked first in their class – Tharoor in History, Advani in English – but there the resemblance ended. Shashi was, even in college, very much a public man, debating, acting, becoming president of the Wodehouse Society and the Quiz Club before being elected president of the College Union. He was charming and outgoing, but, from the start, ferociously ambitious. Shashi wanted to make a mark in the world, quicker and more dramatically than any Stephanian (or perhaps any Indian) before him. Whereas Rukun had no ambition to become well known. In college, all he wanted to do was read, listen to music, and have one-on-one conversations with friends. In OUP, all he wanted to do was edit books; while he glorified in the success of his authors, he never remotely wanted to take any credit for this.

The Marvellous Mrs. Maisel, Rukun and Anuradha Roy

Rukun and his wife Anuradha Roy quit OUP, because the new MD didn't let them work together in the academic division. He said that couples couldn't. WHAAAAAT? This reminds me of when Gordon Ford ( played by Reid Scott ), in The Marvellous Mrs. Maisel, didn't allow 'Midge' Maisel ( played by Rachel Brosnahan ) to do stand up comedy —  when she finally got a chance to appear on Gordon's talk show, through lobbying with a person whom Gordon couldn't say no to — and instead forced her to appear only for a small section of the show as 'one of the writers of the show,' which was Midge's day job. He didn't allow it because it was a 'rule' that employees don't appear on the show.

When they shifted to Ranikhet and started operating the new publishing company Permanent Black ( a play on the situation which compelled them to quit from OUP ) that they started, Rukun had been the happiest.

In the hills, running his own show, Rukun was happier than he had ever been. A letter he sent me in June 2011 says it all. I had couriered Rukun an essay by the literary historian Rob Nixon, which I thought would interest him. A fortnight passed and he hadn't acknowledged receipt, so I sent an email about this. Rukun's reply began: "The Rob Nixon preface had been given to our dhobi by the postman, so it came in with the washed clothes last evening. Our cottage is at the forest edge and the postman doesn't feel like venturing so far in the monsoon. These are the endearing and infuriating things about Ranikhet. Everyone is laid back and going nowhere and mystified by urgency. After living here a while, this attitude makes sense and Delhi seems even more awful."

Playing With Time

One of the literary features of the book is that it's almost chronological but not really. I binged watched Death and Other Details. Suggested by @ojask1998 I very closely studied the temporal play – same amount of time shown from different people's eyes, or through the director's. The showing of time kept going back and forth to make it spicy. Each step back in time covered details, each forward built anticipation, and vice versa. Guha's book also played around with time a little bit, going forward a bit, the coming back.

I think the reason this works is because our memory is non-linear and makes perception of seemingly linear time so as well (not taking into account the scientific non linearity of time). It was done, I think, to collate things that made sense together.

The book was generously lent by my dear friend Amrita. I had asked for the book in Blossoms Book Store in Bangalore. There was confusion among the wonderful staff as to where the book was. 1st floor personnel said it was on the 2nd(non fiction floor). 2nd floor staff said it was on the ground floor. It lay behind the paying counter, amidst other books – the only copy for the day. I picked it up, turned around, looked at the price, and sadly compared it with the number of pages and returned it.

The first few pages mentioned Ram Guha's favourite research place — Prime Minister Library ( erstwhile 'Nehru Memorial Library' ) in Delhi. We added it in the itinerary for the next day, which @ojask1998 had meticulously planned for us. I had not seen Delhi much and she put together places to see. We didn't ask the security in the first meeting where the library was. We instead took the right, toward the fancy and frankly non-sensical museum, which we chucked to ask for library. When we reached, we realised we just had to take a left. Sadly (for us, on that bright beautiful onset of summer day, where we had dreamy expectations), we couldn't see the library because only members could go in. And from what we were told, only scholars and researchers were mostly given membership. I didn't inquire, though I wanted to, if membership was available for common folk like us as well. Now I think, why didn't I. I think the sun had sucked our energy and we were tired from the accidental detour. But it was refreshing to see a place I had just read about, my eye gleaming.

Later in the book I was irate and sad to read that when UPA had come to power, the Library became a centre ground of political gimmicks, with choosing a Congress Party loyalist as its new Director, who even let birthday parties be organised on campus. Guha had repeatedly urged prime minister Manmohan Singh, right from the moment the position had become vacant, to responsibly and transparently hire someone competent, even if not a scholar themself.

One of the things, perhaps the only thing, that kept my reading afloat and eager, was Rukun's humour. Telling about his friend Vipin Handa,

He taught English for some years, edited an arts journal, and resisted for long the disease to which Indians generally succumb early and which is known as SIMPLEA (Standard Indian Middle-class Parental Pleading: All Good Boys must become Babus. All Good Girls must become Bahus. Both must conjoin and produce Babas)

Social History of Cricket 🤯

It was interesting to know a little bit about social history of cricket, when Guha had started researching about it.

While living in Delhi I had begun sporadic research on the social history of Indian cricket, taking time off from my Elwin work to look at microfilms of old newspapers in the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library. Back in the early years of the twentieth century, before India was accepted as a Test-playing nation, the major domestic cricket tournament was the Bombay Quadrangular, played between teams representing the Europeans, the Parsis, the Hindus, and the Muslims. This ran from 1912 to the 1940s, becoming a Pantagular along the way, with the addition of a fifth team carrying the splendid name of 'The Rest'.

While taking notes on the newspaper coverage of this tournament, I had focused not so much on the cricket as the politics around it. This included the politics of race – how did the ruling whites react if they lost a match?; the politics of cast – if the best cricketer in the Hindu team was born in an Untouchable home, could he be made its captain?; and the politics of religion – did the existence of separate cricket teams for Hindus and Muslims fuel political rivalry between the two communities.

A 9-5 Mandate for a University Professor. Whaaat?!

However, whereas my jobs in Delhi had given me the freedom to occasionally work in the archives or at home, the one institution that offered me a professorship in Bangalore – the National Law School – insisted that I come there every day from Monday to Friday, arriving not later than 9.30 a.m. and leaving not before 5 p.m. That was a condition I was not prepared to meet, so I chose to abandon the safety of a tenured academic position for the uncertain life of an independent writer. The financial and moral support of my wife was crucial in my taking this decision; although, I suppose, the inspiring example of Verrier Elwin, that author of enduring works of scholarship who never had a job, also played a part.

Advice That Rukun Gave to Guha That Stuck With Me

Even 'however' and 'so to speak', placed in the middle of a nicely fluid sentence, can make it sound pontifical. Quieter, straighter, unbroken sentences are generally a lot more attractive. The need to sound authoritative is an academic ailment which should be replaced by the subtler desire to sound tentatively certain.

Endearing Nuggest of Uselessness

Lastly, I have a thing for the superfluous in life. OUP sent many of its books to be published with one of the pioneers of printing press, and one of the most skilful and revered editors in India P.K. Ghosh. I was absolutely surprised that a person did both, that there was such time, when an editor would, on their own volition, edit the edited final draft that is spent to them, and do so masterfully. Rukun met him only a few times. Read this to take in the glory of superfluous chat

He was garrulous and would spend hours energetically illuminating visitors with arcane information, leaving them simultaneously shattered and enriched. I met him just twice. The first time he told me, apropos of nothing, that the American declaration of independence, printed in 1776, was typeset in Caslon, and that his eternal regret was not to be able to print history books in Caslon because he did not possess the full range of that typeface. On the second occasion, he said that reading a nicely set page in Bembo is as effortless and pleasurable as eating a rossogolla, except that this has been true for Bembo more than 400 years whereas the rossogolla has no such pedigree. Such charming items of 'useless' information do not flow out of printing houses today. Printing standards, specially for full-colour picture books, are vastly higher than they were in P.K. Ghosh's heyday. You can get a book looking just the way you want it by clicking mice. The pity is only that the last Indian printer-scholar is dead. Several of his successors will print material as efficiently as he did once, but none will radiate that personality and no one will harbour many of those endearing nuggets of uselessness. — In Memorial, Telegraph

This long blog post full of quotations, awe, reverence and fanboying has come to an end.

PS: I forgot to write about Rukun Advani's father's bookstore. I'll do that in the next post.

[eienshi09]

Final Final Fantasy II Thoughts

Final Fantasy II (or at least, as I've pontificated about at length, the Dawn of Souls version of it) is quite an alright game. It was an incredibly ambitious project for its time. And though its time shackled it with some unfortunate mechanics, there's still a lot of interesting things it was trying to do. After a couple of iterations, it even manages to get to a state where it does those things in a quite enjoyable way.

In my parting thoughts on Final Fantasy I, I also said that I mostly enjoyed my time with it. And I genuinely did. But I meant it in a sense of, like, this was able to fill my time and be largely inoffensive. Meanwhile, I was actually thoroughly fascinated by Final Fantasy II, for better or worse. Where its predecessor was just about adequate all around, FFII has peaks and valleys for it does, or at least tries, so much more than its predecessor.

One immediately notable improvement is simple addition of dialogue. Your party members aren't just featureless avatars anymore. They're actual characters. Well, there's still a bit of room to improve on the characterization fronts, but for the time, they've got something resembling a personality that shows through what little speech they do get. The dialogue itself is rather basic and more or less boils down to some other character telling you where to go next, but there are some details about the world or situation that they manage to squeeze in that wasn't present in FFI.

The keyword system in particular was rather interesting, and something I wish they would have utilized more. It felt kind of lacking as the game went on and you got new ones less frequently and the situation only calls for a very specific keyword. I would have liked to be able to ask someone about an older keyword and they give me their current thoughts on the matter recontextualized by the most recent in-game event. For example (and I'll try to be vague but we are talking about a 35-year-old game here), after you've gotten the Ultima spell, Hilda has nothing to say about it, despite a rather important character - especially to her, of all people - sacrificing themselves so that we could acquire it. And this might be the one exception where the game does reward you for following up with someone after major events, but if you revisit Deist to tell the woman about the fate of the last dragoon, she not only has something to say but gives you a cool sword! So it's not like they didn't think to use the keyword system to add in some extra bits of lore and worldbuilding for the player.

Narratively, the game is well-enough paced, pulpy as it is. Though again, towards the end when it's back to back to back dungeons of six and more floors, it kind of wears on you. The false climax and twist reveal and double twist was, however, actually really well done. One could see it coming but that's the point; it was built up to and hinted at throughout and then paid off with you finally reuniting with your long-lost fourth party member. I only wish we had more interactions with the Dark Knight during the story.

Systems-wise, I don't think I have much else to say that I haven't already. FFII's usage-based character progression system was the first of its kind and incredibly ambitious. It could have used a few more iterations even after the couple of iterations of the DoS port.

It'd be easy to think that II would be favorable to FFI due to its higher production values alone, but I think I would have enjoyed the original version of 1 more than the original version of II, given some of the original design choices. And even though the Dawn of Souls changes bolstered the experience of playing II so much more than it did for 1, both games share the same overall "problem" of me wishing more was done to them.

Random encounters (I promise to be brief) continues to be a thorn in trying to play any "classic" JRPG, and while it isn't especially egregious in FFII, I still maintain that they could have added in a Repel item of some kind. Actually, I may be overly harsh here. The game does at the very least add in some fast travel options for you to get around in the early-to-mid game. They're somewhat limited, but very much welcome as you're traveling back-and-forth from Altair to various points of interest. Fleeing, however, is still just as much of a hassle, perhaps more so for reasons I'll get to right now.

One area that I think FFI did better at is boss fights. II's bosses were just late and endgame enemies dropped somewhere earlier where they'll be a greater challenge. This made the endgame kind of boring as we keep seeing these old bosses turn up again and again. Worst yet, any battle where one of them show up, you can't flee from at all. It's as if the game was still treating them as boss fights or something. Weirder even is that FFII does have some unique extra hard enemies that use a "boss sprite" but they're all technically optional, being treasure chest monsters. It's just kinda strange.

Though maybe the original release of Final Fantasy II deserves its dubious reputation, there is a good game in there. Playing it now, especially playing a version that does do some work to polish it up, I really wish it got the total remake treatment that its two successors got on the DS. Or even now, I wish the Pixel Remasters had been Pixel Remakes instead and breathed new life and modern tech into these old games. It's well and good to see a game as it was in history but I think it's just as fine to see the game where iconic franchise monsters - such as the Coeurl, Adamantoise, Behemoth - came from but with the ability to easily run away from them.

[minisception]

2021 Summer Painting Challenge: Retrospective

Summer has come to an end, and with it Warboss Tae's 2021 Summer Painting Challenge. That was... a lot of painting, most of which has been collected above. Huge thanks go out to Tae - if you haven't checked out his youtube channel you can do so HERE, as well as to all of the other participants. There were a lot of cool projects, and you can see them all on Tae's discord HERE.

My main goal in participating was to get together a fully painted starter army together. Despite some stumbles along the way I'm happy to say I met that goal, with a small but playable Soulblight Gravelord core units of 20 skeletons, 20 zombies, and 10 dire wolves, a couple elite unit options in the Blood-born and Vargskyr, plus a selection of hero options including a Vampire Lord that I'm quite proud of plus a couple necromancers, not to mention the named character options from Cursed City and the Underworlds Warbands.

Speaking of underworlds, I now have three fully painted warbands to play against my roommate in that game. And I made some progress on the long overdue Ravenguard commission, so that's cool.

More importantly, for the first time since I came up with this paint scheme way back when the Oldhammer Fantasy 8th edition Vamp Counts book was released, I finally have enough painted models to put them all together and have a feel for the overall effect, and yeah, I'm pretty happy with it.

I definitely learned a few things along the way - though as per usual it mostly came from mistakes. Looking at what I learned/screwed up month by month...

JUNE

Pledged - Cursed City, 3 Underworlds Warbands, 4 Sidequests Completed - Everything, though the Sidequests got extra time

June was the only month where I actually met my pledge, despite it being the most ambitious of the pledges by a fair bit. But the pace I set was absolutely unsustainable and I was already crashing by the end. In the future I'll have to set a more realistic pace.

Other things I learned: Don't use your good brush for washes (RIP my favorite brush), you can wash a wet palette in the dishwasher, but only if you take it out before the dry cycle (RIP my palette). I also think I went a bit too excessive on the greens. I want the army overall to be darker so the greens pop more, so moving forward I'm using more black cloth, reserving green cloth for detail bits, and details like gravestones and rope that I painted ghosty greens on the June models are greys and browns after.

On a more positive note, I really liked how the black armor with green highlights turned out on the Crimson Court, and have decided to make that the distinctive feature of vampire models in my army going forward. The process is a pain, and I will eventually have to go back and re-paint the dragon lord's armor to match, but it's worth it.

JULY

Pledged: 10 Zombies, 10 Dire Wolves, Rhino Completed: 10 Zombies, Rhino

I was already crashing hard when July started and ended up spending most of my free time in the early part of the month playing video games. I though I had balanced this out by aiming for a reduced pledge and not committing to daily updates, but a smaller pledge than June was still way too more than I could sustainably handle, and without the daily updates I ended up letting my break run on way too long, plus I was stuck out of town for a week. But while I may have failed my pledge, I still got 10 nice looking zombies done, plus the commission rhino, which is a lot for me, and I was really on a roll going into August.

The main thing I learned is that regular posting does a lot to keep me engaged with the hobby, and that's something I'd like to try to continue after the challenge is done.

AUGUST

Pledged: 10 Skeletons, 5 Blood Knights, 1 piece of terrain Finished: 10 Skeletons, July's Dire Wolves, June's Sidequests

I honestly should have known better that to pledge so much with so much leftover work to do, including the sidequest tutorials that I still needed in order to confirm my project from back in June, but I was on a high and on a roll at the end of July, and I let my ambitions get away from me. And I knew almost immediately that I had made a mistake, just assembling the Blood Knights I could tell that each one of them was going to require more work than most of the heroes I've painted.

Unfortunately, that wasn't the most important thing I learned. The most important thing was that Army Painter brand black primer is SUPER grainy, to the point of obscuring some of the surface texture and details of the models I sprayed it on, which tragically includes the Blood Knights. They weren't quite as badly done by as the poor skeletons, but on such a cool and important unit it's still a bit disheartening.

On a positive note, I learned from the dire wolves that hexwraith flame can be used in my paint scheme to punch up saturation a bit & add a bit of slimy green gore effect that I quite like. At some point I'll have to go back and use it to punch up the zombies & maybe the zombie dragon a bit.

So where do I go from here?

I'm going to be out of town till the middle of next week, but when I do get back I want to keep up the monthly goals with regular update posts. Maybe not every day, but a few times a week at least. But I don't want this to be my only hobby, either. I got games to play, and now that hectic summer vacation schedules have calmed down I've got a family D&D campaign to start running again. Plus some other stuff to work on. So I'm going to try to keep future commitments more manageable. One unit per month sounds about right.

I need to make some more progress on the Raven Guard commission, and I want to save October for something spooky and undead, so for September I think the one unit will be a Raven Guard landspeeder.

I'd also like to actually get to the local store to try to get a game or two in with my newly painted models. If I do, I'll be sure to take some pictures and report back to you on how badly I get thrashed.

[cle-guy]

Projecting Story Elements for Magic: the Gathering in 2022

OK, I love the Magic: the Gathering storyline which ranks near the top on my list of favorite hobbies on Tumblr.  This year brings numerous opportunities to speculate on the story elements for this year’s premier MTG sets!  So for this post I am going to speculate on: 

1.  Potential story elements of the set

2.  Specific events which may occur

3.  Planeswalkers who may appear in the set

I will go set by set, and try to incorporate as much known knowledge as possible!  I may update my thoughts as sets (and stories from released sets) become known as the year progresses.  Without further ado!

Innistrad: Crimson Vow

Technically not in 2022, but coming soon none-the-less!  We know lots about the story elements, considering Crimson Vow takes place directly after Midnight Hunt.  

Story Elements:

The first known thing about Crimson Vow is the “Biggest vampire wedding in Innistrad history!” which will unite the Voldaren and Markov bloodlines.  We also know from the story so far that night on Innistrad is overcoming day.  Humans who once turned to Avacyn for safety increasingly look to other sources for protection, including ancient magics forgotten when Sorin created Avacyn.  One Coven seeks to restore the balance, and needs the Moonsilver Key in the Celestus to perform the ritual.

We also know part of the Gatewatch: Teferi, Chandra and Kaya came to Innistrad to assist Arlinn Kord, who seeks to help restore the Day/Night balance on her home plane.  Now, while Arlinn & the Gatewatch succeed in finding the Moonsilver Key, and also succeed in starting the ritual: I do not believe the ritual passes.  I suspect Olivia Valdaren ends the ritual and blocks it based on the card: Olivia’s Midnight Ambush.  The flavor text on this card reads:

"And you were almost finished with that ritual, weren't you, darling? How very rude of me. To make it up to you, I'll send you an invitation to my wedding."

I suspect her raid ends the ritual, kills the Coven leader, and spirals us into Crimson Vow.  

Overall, this suggests that much of the plot of Crimson Vow will surround new attempts to restore the balance between Day and Night.  I suspect Sorin Markov, who fights Sigarda in a rage, will unite with the Gatewatch (and Arlinn Kord, & Sigarda) to save the plane.  How they do this is not revealed as of yet.  However, I suspect one plot detail has been spoiled for the set and thats....

Specific Events:

Edgar Markov marries Olivia Valdaren.  

Olivia is the known progenitor of the Voldaren line, as Edgar Markov is the known progenitor of the Markov line.  At first I felt Sorin would marry Olivia, but I find this unlikely as Olivia despises Sorin (and refuses to save him at the end of Eldritch Moon).  Sorin may care for the future of Innistrad but he remains hedonistic and petty; he spends the end of Episode 2 in this story line griping about how nobody sacrificed as much as he did for the plane and why should he be expected to give more?  He also treats Nahiri quite shallowly when she arrives on Innistrad to demand he help her fix Zendikar.  

More importantly, however, we also get card evidence that Edgar Markov is involved in this story, specifically: Fateful Absence.  The flavor text for this card reads:

“Sensing a plot, Sorin raced to his grandfather's resting-crypt. But someone else had gotten there first.“

The plot going like this, I suspect, for the story:

A) Our heroes (the Gatewatch, Sigarda, Arlinn) regroup after Olivia invokes eternal night by defeating the ritual.

B) They join up with Sorin Markov, who is now angry at Olivia for convincing his grandfather to marry her, and hatch a plan to stop the wedding

C) Olivia marries Edgar

D) The wedding turns into a bloody mess as the Gatewatch, Arlinn, & Sigarda all try to reverse the damage.  Sorin spends the story finding a way to get revenge.  

E) One of Edgar or Olivia survives

F) Emrakul is released and everybody dies (Just kidding)

Anyway, with all of this laid out that leaves us with potential planeswalkers.

Planeswalker Appearances:

Each set I will assume only three planeswalkers appear, with speculation for a fourth & fifth.

We already know Arlinn Kord, Teferi, & Sorin Markov will get cards; Arlinn & Teferi will not get cards in this set since they appeared in Midnight Hunt. Sorin Markov appears on the packaging, which nearly guarantees his appearance as a card in this set.

Slot 1: Sorin Markov, WB

Now, Chandra Nalaar and Kaya both appear in the story.  The next quesiton would be: do they get cards in the 2nd set since they are known to appear in the story?  It’s a tough call.  Chandra would fit in nicely since Sorin will almost certainly appear as a WB planeswalker granting a third color for balance purposes.  Kaya, on the other hands, presents two problems.  First, she shares her color identity with the story’s likely main character.  Second, she already got a card recently in Kaldheim (which is still in Standard).  I would guess she lacks a card in the set.

Slot 1: Sorin Markov, WB Slot 2: Chandra Nalaar, R

Now we’re into more speculative territory.  I highly doubt we only get two planeswalkers in the set, which leaves open a spot for a new planeswalker (likely a blue  planeswalker).  That being said, I would not be surprised if Tamiyo makes an appearance in the 3rd slot; she appeared in both previous stops in Innistrad, and two of her colors would fill out the color balancing in the set so far.

Slot 1: Sorin Markov, WB Slot 2: Chandra Nalaar, R Slot 3: Tamiyo, U

Other potential planeswalkers include the aforementioned Kaya, Tibalt (who would love to spoil a wedding), & Davirel Cane.  If I had to make a stab at a fourth walker I’d gamble and guess Davriel, with a final list of:

Slot 1: Sorin Markov, WB Slot 2: Chandra Nalaar, R Slot 3: Tamiyo, U Slot 4: Davriel Cane, B

Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty

Story Elements:

So little is known about the new set except that the set takes place concurrently in the present, and that the set will feature both a new planeswalker, Keito, and that the current Emperor of Kamigawa is “someone we’re familiar with” which sadly does not tell us much. Let’s start by considering some known characters from the original block:

Toshiro Umezawa.  Toshi is definitely not the emperor.  First, Toshi was sent to Dominaria by the Myojin of Night’s Reach at the end of the block (and his descendent will eventually kill Nicol Bolas).  Second, he’d almost assuredly be dead by now.

Hidetsugu.  An ogre who joined with the Oni of All Consuming Chaos, he could conceivably be alive at this point, although he would not be my guess.

The Myojin of Night’s Reach.  Unlikely.  While powerful enough, ambitious enough, to try: I just do not see her being able to take the power.  She was defeated by Bolas sometime after the events of the original block, for instance.

The Sisters of Flesh & Spirit.  Better known as “That Which was Taken” and “Michiko Konda” both characters join at the end of the 3rd book.  They’re the most likely candidate to run the whole plane, the only downside is I doubt many players actually know who they are, or how they became one.

However, their union would potentially explain the futuristic nature of the plane.  If the Emperor is both spirit and flesh, then the spirit world (Kakuriyuo) & physical world (Utsushiyo) may have joined as well, giving the plane its current futuristic (dare I say: neon) appearance.

Specific Events:

I will only predict one event in this set, and that’s the appearance from Tamiyo’s story circle.  I would be shocked if this relatively well known gathering is not referenced in the set.  It would be a surprise, to say the least.

Planeswalker Appearances:

First thing’s first: Keito is confirmed for the set.  We do not know what color identity he has yet, but they did call Keito a “cyber ninja” in the video.  Ninjas are a pretty evenly split tribe between blue and black, so I will call Keito a UB planeswalker for now:

Slot 1: Keito, UB

I cannot imagine them returning to Kamigawa without bringing back Tamiyo.  I know she literally is predicted to appear in Innistrad: Crimson Vow but I think predicting her here is also plausible.

Slot 1: Keito, UB Slot 2: Tamiyo, U

Next, they also mentioned that a “mysterious planeswalker” would make an appearance in this set as well.  Now, they did not say whether this planeswalker was a new planeswalker or a returning planeswalker.  Some planeswalkers we know of who I would classify as mysterious include: Kasmina, The Raven Man, The Wanderer, Davriel Cane, Ashiok, & Aminatou.  Ashiok is currently investigating New Phyrexia and shares my predicted colors with Keito; Davriel (I think) is a strange fit on this set, and I do not see us learning about the Raven Man absent Liliana.  That leaves the Wanderer, Aminatou, or Kasmina.  We did just see Kasmina and I do suspect she plays a role in whatever arc they are building up to, but she conflicts with Keito & Tamiyo.  That leaves the Wanderer or Aminatou.  Given Mark Rosewater’s doubts about Aminatou (and her own conflicts) I predict The Wanderer.

Slot 1: Keito, UB Slot 2: Tamiyo, U Slot 3: The Wanderer, W

That does leave room for a walker with red and green.  Samut fits in, but I will guess Sarkhan who originally appeared Gruul, and may visit with Narset.

Slot 1: Keito, UB Slot 2: Tamiyo, U Slot 3: The Wanderer, W Slot 4: Sarkhan Vol, RG

Streets of New Capenna

Planeswalker Appearances:

So little is known about this new plane that I will limit myself to guessing planeswalkers.  Ob Nixilis is confirmed, and this is a wedge set, so I am predicting they finally print Nixilis as a Rakdos planeswalker.

Slot 1: Ob Nixilis, BR

They also confirmed this plane is “special” to Elspeth.  You do not name drop that and not include her.

Slot 1: Ob Nixilis, BR Slot 2: Elspeth, W

OK.  As far as I know: Ajani has not reunited with Elspeth yet, which suggests to me that there is room for a reunion in this set.  

Slot 1: Ob Nixilis, BR Slot 2: Elspeth, W Slot 3: Ajani Goldmane, WG

Calix would be my second choice, same colors, since he is currently chasing her.  If there is one other potential walker I would guess a new walker.  I honestly do not see what other walker would fit here, especially with Nixilis taking up the BR space in this scenario.

Dominaria United

Specific Events:

If you read the first story from Midnight Hunt you know that Teferi helped Wrenn find her seventh tree to bond with, and that Wrenn offered to help Teferi repair the damage his spell phasing out Zhalfir from Dominaria did to both his home and his plane.  Given the name I predict Teferi works with Wrenn to restore Dominaria to its full state.  

I also predict that Teferi, Karn, & Ajani all work together to plan out the destruction of New Phyrexia (with an eventual showdown sometime in 2023).  

Planeswalker Appearances:

I think Dominaria United will act like a traditional core set.  So, with that being said, I think the following walkers appear:

Slot 1: Teferi, U Slot 2: Wrenn, G

As said above, I think a big part of the story line is Teferi bringing Zhalfir back to Dominaria.  That requires both Wrenn and Teferi, and since this is a core set both will get only a single color.

Slot 1: Teferi, U Slot 2: Wrenn, G Slot 3: Ajani, W

Ajani will return helping Teferi and Karn plan the destruction of New Phyrexia.  Since Ajani is base white its a good fit.  There are plenty of mono red planeswalkers but only two which make story sense.  The first is Koth, but since I doubt he leaves New Phyrexia I do not think he makes an appearance.  My guess is Jaya Ballard, a native Dominarian, will show up in the fourth spot instead.

Slot 1: Teferi, U Slot 2: Wrenn, G Slot 3: Ajani, W Slot 4: Jaya Ballard, R

The 5th spot is the one I am not sure of; if Wizards wanted to tell a largely Dominarian story they would bring back Liliana Vess, but I do not think she quite makes sense for this story as she is in hiding and as far as I know her appearance would not sit well with Teferi and Ajani (Gatewatch members).  I will toss out three possibilities: 1) Sorin Markov (guessing Teferi recruits him to protect Innistrad against an inter-planar threat), 2) Davriel Cane, or 3) Karn (and go colorless).  They could also just include Karn as a 6th walker like Core Set 2021.  For now, I will assume Karn as the 5th walker.

Slot 1: Teferi, U Slot 2: Wrenn, G Slot 3: Ajani, W Slot 4: Jaya Ballard, R Slot 5: Karn, C

The Brothers War

This set does not require speculation since the story has already been told.  I would highly recommend reading the book.  The only thing I will say for certain is: Urza finally gets a real planeswalker card.

[veliseraptor]

2020 Fanfiction Round-Up

I do one of these every year! And have since I think 2016. Can’t break a tradition even if it’s been a clusterfuck of a time and filling this out was in some ways an exercise in remembering the ways I have failed myself as a writer this year. 

But oh well!

Total Year-Long Wordcount: I’ll post the final final number tonight after I finish the writing I want to do this afternoon (and plan to do this afternoon), but it’s currently 451,803 words written this year. Guessing I’m going to land somewhere around 453,000ish. (AO3 claims a higher number than that but that’s because it is counting the entirety of fics where I posted chapters this year.

This year I wrote and posted: I wrote a fair number more than I posted (there are five fics finished but for various reasons unposted on my hard drive) but based on Tumblr I posted 78 posts in my fic tag, which, not including chapter specific updates and three sentence meme answers (but including at least two Tumblr-only longer fics), probably comes out to about 60 or so “full length” fics that saw the light of day in 2020.

Overall Thoughts

Looking back, did you write more fic than you thought you would this year, less, or about what you’d predicted? 

Well, I wrote more than I did last year, which is sort of a surprise to me (all things considered) but also maybe not, because I was doing a lot less of most other things that could’ve been occupying my time, including two hours daily of commuting. 

But still less than I did in 2018. Which is fine.

What’s your own favorite story of the year? 

Lord, I don’t know. It depends on when you ask me. Lately I’ve been in a bit of a “I hate everything I’ve written ever” state of mind, so that makes it sort of hard to do any kind of...reasonable assessment. 

I know I’m proud of With Absolute Splendor but I have all these reservations about it and I can’t reread it for the most part because I always notice new things I wish I’d done differently. I feel pretty good about efforts in a common cause but something about it still makes me cringe, which I suspect has to do with my general self-consciousness. I have a hard time feeling unreservedly proud about...anything I wrote this year, really. 

I feel like the closest I get is maybe nor autumn falter which I am pretty pleased with and also which does hurt me a lot personally. Or I did end up overall pretty pleased with what came out of By Proxy.

But also the more I look at this question the more I start hating all my own work, so...guess this is kind of coming at a bad time.

Did you take any writing risks this year? What did you learn from them?

I mean, I started writing in my first non-English fandom in many years, and specifically one where I was trying to engage more with the cultural background of the setting (in a way I wasn’t with, say, Death Note, when I was writing Death Note fic). So that was a risk. And I learned that it’s very stressful and there’s so many ways to make mistakes and I am, in many ways, a coward. But also I think I’ve learned a fair amount thanks to a lot of very patient people on the internet, so...there’s that.

Otherwise...I mean, I got ambitious with a few projects this year (the Big Bang fic and With Absolute Splendor stand out), but I’m not sure how much I really tried new things. 

I feel like I had to fight myself a little on writing straight up bad sex for By Proxy - I planned on it being hot, and it really wasn’t. It was mostly just miserable. Which made for a better fic, but was a new experience for me as far as ‘I thought I was going to write porn and that isn’t what I wrote.’

From my past year of writing, what was….

My most popular story of this year: 

By far, With Absolute Splendor. In fact, it has now become my second most kudosed fic of all time, behind only fuckin Life in Reverse. So like. That’s a thing.

(It is still less than half as many as Life in Reverse, but for context Life in Reverse has been around for going on eight years.)

Most fun story to write: 

Most fics where I feel like “I’m having so much fun writing this!” also go through a “oh god I hate this it’s terrible” phase which makes this sort of hard to assess. But I did have overall a lot of fun writing Mutual Friends despite all my frustration with the canon-wrangling I had to do to make it work in my head. 

But also I feel like both Retributive Justice and Embedded were in different ways deeply iddy fics that were just fun to write. That actually goes for a lot of the Whumptober fics. That was a very self-indulgent month. Excited to do it again in February (hopefully, if I can write things in a timely manner at all).

Story with the single sexiest moment: 

I feel like the beauty of your repair might be my personal favorite smut I posted this year, but I think my personal favorite that I wrote is in the big bang fic nobody will see until January. 

I feel like most of the sexiest moments I’ve written this year are in the porn fics I’m going to start posting in January also. But just generally I feel like the beauty of your repair is the sexiest thing I wrote and posted.

Most “Holy crap, that’s wrong, even for you” story: 

I mean, I Come With Knives is definitely up there. It’s not that wrong or anything, but it got pretty intense in some ways I wasn’t expecting. Mostly in how much blood got involved, which was actually more than I’d had it involved in a sex thing before! Kind of surprises me that I haven’t previously done more with bloodplay stuff but. Well. First time for everything!

I don’t think this was a year that really had any “wow, what the fuck, Lise” things in it. Nothing on the level of last year’s winner. I’m almost disappointed in myself.

Abattoir was definitely the story that generated the weirdest conversation and creepiest search questions, though, so it does get points for that. 

Story that shifted my own perceptions of the characters: 

I feel like the writing of everyone else is spring bound was a lot of...me thinking through my Jiang Cheng feelings and specifically my Jiang Cheng post-canon feelings. 

the martyr, the victim was pretty formative in shaping how I think about both Lan Xichen and Lan Wangji and their relationship with each other. It was the first fic I wrote that really dug into them in any way, I think, and definitely one that informed how I thought about writing Lan Xichen later.

Hardest story to write: 

I was thinking it was the one that I haven’t posted yet but I did technically finish, aka my Big Bang fic, the terrible threesome fic, the massive “I’m gonna keep everyone in the Yi City arc alive” AU that I started shortly after finishing The Untamed and finished in December. So I spent most of the year writing it.

But then I was like - no, I’m going to have to go with we live until we die even though it’s technically been ‘in progress’ for five years and really kicked into gear in 2019 and I just finished it and posted it this year, because that fic was like. The culmination of a big arc in an enormous verse dealing with a whole lot of balls in the air and trying to tie up a whole lot of threads. It was ambitious and the stakes were high and it was full of plot and action which are not two of my strengths...frankly I’m still amazed I pulled the damn thing off.

Biggest Disappointment: 

I think it is better if I refrain from going too in depth on this because it would just end up as me listing a bunch of my perceived failings. But I think off the top of my head I’m frustrated by the fact that I still haven’t really managed to write a XueXiao smut fic that quite hits the spot for me, myself. I’ve written two and for various reasons I don’t really like either of them. 

Biggest Surprise: 

The fact that my Jiang Cheng fic took off the way it did. Legitimately did not see that coming! At all! I mean, I’m delighted by it but it wasn’t what I saw happening as far as “niche I’d find in this fandom” or “thing I’d write that people would really enjoy reading.”

Particularly with By Proxy. That fic got a lot more attention than I would’ve expected. 

Most Unintentionally Telling Story: 

I feel like every fic I write with Xue Yang in it tells you something about me and most of those things are things that make me, on some level, deeply self-conscious, but I try not to think about that too much.  

I feel like the most telling story is maybe we all drift sometimes because I literally wrote it out of a depressive episode about a bad brain day but that wasn’t unintentional.

Favorite Opening Line(s):

1. So it turned out that if you touched the tendons of a dead person’s wrist and channeled a little bit of spiritual energy just right, it made the fingers twitch and curl like they were still alive. (Abattoir)

2. Here’s the thing: your Daozhang is glorious when he kills. (tear out all your tenderness)

3. Turned out that a sect leader’s head came off like anyone else’s. (Unnatural Selection)

4. The first hint that anything had gone awry was the letter from Lan Wangji (His Excellency Hanguang-jun, pardon me) that simply said have you heard from Wei Ying? (some good mistakes)

5. What Jiang Cheng wanted to do, more than anything, was to go home and take a nap. (everyone else is spring bound)

Favorite Line(s) from Anywhere:

I usually keep this to 10 but because I’ve been in such a :| place about my own writing I indulged myself this once.

1. Sometimes it felt like all he had done since descending the mountain was shatter his own dreams and accumulate regrets. (nor autumn falter)

**

2. It felt like she was holding all the components of a bomb in her hands, half assembled. If she moved the right way they would stay just that: components. But if she moved the wrong way… (til my judgment day)

**

3. He should have killed him. Should have been the one to strike that blow, in revenge for Jin Zixuan and their sister and everyone else dead for Wei Wuxian’s pride. Maybe then there would not be this gnawing, aching thing embedded in his chest; this itching, unfinished feeling. Maybe then he would not feel torn in two, sometimes like he should have reached out with his other hand and sometimes like he should have struck truer and sometimes both, in the same moment. (Interstitial)

**

4. He owed Wei Wuxian more than he could ever give back in this lifetime. Forgiving him felt like betraying his sister’s memory. Not forgiving him felt like trying to walk with a thorn in his foot. He was just - stuck, caught like a demon in a spiritual net.

Jiang Cheng thought of the way Wei Wuxian looked at Lan Wangji, with warmth and trust and love, and the aching, sick jealousy he had no right to feel returned. He felt a little like a child watching someone pick up a toy he’d abandoned and suddenly realizing that he wanted it back. (everyone else is spring bound)

**

5. You close your eyes and think about how he looked back in that town, Shuanghua slicing clean through a man’s neck, opening it to the spine, and think dizzily that he could open you like that and it’d be good, as long as it lasted. (tear out all your tenderness)

**

6. When Wangji loved, he loved with his whole being, without reserve. And now he had been placed between the rock of his convictions and the hard place of his devotion to Wei Wuxian. (the martyr, the victim)

**

7. He spent a week turning the idea over in his head. Studying it like a corpse he was going to dissect, poking at it, cutting it open and examining its insides. (dead reckoning)

**

8. When the world hurt you, that was the only thing to do, after all. Hurt it back, harder, worse. Spill rivers of blood for every drop it squeezed from you.

And when the end came, never go quietly. (the blood in your mouth)

**

9. I would stand with you through the end of the world, said Loki’s voice in his head, and Steve’s heart wasn’t in his chest anymore, was somewhere off on another planet where Loki was lying dead in a ruined city. (we live until we die)

**

10. Was it always going to be like this? Stumbling into traps, tripping over familiar skeletons, slicing himself open on the edges of old hurts. Was there really such a thing as leaving the past behind? He still felt stuck in it, unable to move, and every time he thought he might be finally dragging himself free something pulled him back. (With Absolute Splendor)

**

11. His chest was full of poison. His throat was full of grief. And he was still a little drunk.

Jiang Cheng went to his room, sat down on his bed, put his face in his hands, and cried until he couldn’t breathe. (By Proxy)

Top 5 Scenes from Anywhere You Would Choose to Have Illustrated:

I think the scene from nor autumn falter of Xiao Xingchen just crying his heart out over Xue Yang’s dead body would be up there.

The Jiang Cheng and Wei Wuxian hug from the end of With Absolute Splendor.

Okay, just gonna say it: Xue Yang and Jin Guangyao having sex by the table with Nie Mingjue’s headless corpse on it. So sue me.

The scene in the blood in your mouth where Song Lan has stabbed Xue Yang and Xiao Xingchen is following the line of Fuxue to the latter. I have a very clear visual of it in my head and if I could art I’d art it.

Xue Yang with the hallucinatory Xiao Xingchen from liberate spirits, liberate souls.

Fic-writing goals for 2021:

Finish Walking Far From Home.

Maybe I’ll finish some of these MCU WIPs? I’d kind of like to, on an abstract level if nothing else.

Become a more well-adjusted human being about the relationship between my productivity and my self-worth.

[happymetalgirl]

Album Chronology - Death

The whole ranking-albums-from-worst-to-best has been done to death to the point of staleness at this point, but mostly due to the format, at least to me. I’ve read so many damn worst-to-best lists at this point that they’re all kind of predictable even when they’re seemingly trying to force some kind of novelty or surprise factor by putting a fan-favorite or highly revered album really low in a ranked list. It’s all gotten pretty dry at this point, plus, to me, I can’t help but see a little bit of futility in compiling lists for active artists whose next release will render such a list so quickly obsolete. I honestly had the idea of doing something tier-related to make it less rigid a year or so ago, but lo and behold, tier-list videos are the newest horse getting beaten to death. So rather than jumping around an artist’s catalog and tossing in some spicy hot takes, I figured why not take the chronological approach and trace the story of the artist’s creative trajectory, and not spoil the #1 spot by revealing the #2 spot.

So why do these kinds of lists? Also, why Death?

I make this little chronology to offer my insight into Death’s discography partly for the reason so many others have made similar rankings: to appreciate Death’s music and the huge legacy Chuck Schuldiner left through it. But I also make this because I do think my perspective on Death is a somewhat unique one, at least among Death fans. Chuck Schuldiner was an incredibly talented musician and a beloved figure within the world of metal, and that aspect of his legacy has undoubtedly been enhanced by the untimeliness and unfairness of his passing. The guy certainly had a strong presence on the stage and a certain charisma off of it, and his cherishing of animals surely resonates with me as well. Death was also hardly my first death metal band, so I do think that gives me a bit less of a nostalgic perspective on their legacy. I still enjoy a lot of the same things about Death that most fans do, and at the end of this list, it might not really end up being all that shocking or controversial, just a slightly tempered version of what most fans would make. I’m pretty long-winded, so I’ll cut the intro and get into the music: Death.

1987 - Scream Bloody Gore

I have to reinforce my position right from the get-go about having a more measured view of the band’s catalog because the spicy takes come right out of the gate with Death’s debut album, Scream Bloody Gore. The sour really isn’t all that sour and it comes with a little bit of sweet right afterward too: I think this is Death’s worst album. But that just means it only gets better from here, and I do still really like it. It’s a classic in its own right that started Death on a more solid footing than the average debut project in very new territory at the time and I again do genuinely still like it a lot; I own it, along with the rest of the band’s catalog, on vinyl. But it is, as I mentioned, a first step into new territory, and rather naturally primordial, which indeed has its own appeal in the context of the era it came from and for which it deserves tremendous appreciation. There is indeed a lot to appreciate here. I love the persistence of the bass line in the title track, the hooks of songs like “Zombie Ritual” and “Baptized in Blood”, and the amped up Slayer-inspired extremification of thrash metal that would only snowball further as the band and the genre they helped pioneer progressed. But the primary role Scream Bloody Gore served was to lay the groundwork for Death to expand upon in that early era that would itself later become the groundwork for their more ambitious progressive tilt during the second half of their career. I’ll throw it out right here just to get it outbid then way, it’s not exactly a hot take, but some Death fans are partial the other way; it’s probably already evident, but I prefer the band’s second era from Human to Perseverance. Personally I think bands like Morbid Angel and Cannibal Corspe were more suited to this primal gory form of early death metal, and I think Death would have wound up being seen as merely a pretty good band in a tier below those guys if they had stuck with what they were doing with their debut and the two albums that followed for the rest of their career. Again, Scream Bloody Gore is by no means a bad album, or even a rough start, kind of a Kill ‘em All sort of debut that laid solid foundations and allowed for greatness to follow but indeed stands well enough on its own.

7/10

1988 - Leprosy

The band’s sophomore release just a year later showed immediate signs of improvement. The trimmed track list with more meticulously groomed songs (and a greater density of sick riffs) produced several live staples for the band, like the title track, “Left to Die”, and especially the ever-traditional concert-closer “Pull the Plug”. But there was more than just better riffs and more focus on perfecting the songs here. The production on Leprosy was clearer than the band’s debut the year before, and the writing was generally more sophisticated too, incorporating a bit more flashy technicality that would soon escalate to an echelon that would end up characterizing their sound more comprehensively. Soon-to-be vestigial characteristics of the debut album still remained: tons of wailing Slayer-sequence guitar solos, thrashy blast beats, the focus of palm-muted tremolo riffing, and more fantastical, brutal lyricism. But Leprosy presented these more mid-brow elements in a more impressive arrangement than its predecessor.

8/10

1990 - Spiritual Healing

My personal favorite of the band’s grittier first half of their career, Spiritual Healing was really just a more consistent continuation (to my ears at least) of the refined early death metal sound of Leprosy. The band were starting to develop a more signature style of riffing, as well as soloing that they would take with them into their next four albums. By now most of the gory detail was taking the backseat to Schuldiner’s psychological analysis of certain “Defensive Personalities”, parasitic religious manipulation by televangelists, and prenatal cocaine exposure. The more high-mindedness of Spiritual Healing also ushered in another ramp up in the band’s technicality that made the progression into the heady technical death metal of Human a rather natural one. The band’s last album in their so-called “traditional” or “brutal” or “classic” death metal era played around a lot more with the dynamic range of the genre and it really ran the gamut of what Death had done up to that point within that style of death metal and beyond, the title track being my personal favorite example of this ability the band had to contort the genre to fit their more expansive needs while keeping everything in the confines of death metal. It’s my favorite song on the album and of this era of Death’s career. At this point, Death had pretty robustly demonstrated their ability with the genre in its more primitive form, and evolved it along the way quite a lot at that, to the point where they really had nothing more they had to say with the style, an impressive feat after three albums. Sure they could have probably spun their tires in the mud for a few more albums (knowing now that Chuck Schuldiner sadly only had a little more than a decade left), but the direction this album had the band heading in was pretty apparent. The only question was if the band would take the leap into the upper echelons of technicality and explore the new frontier that they were headed toward. Thankfully for us, the band had plenty of ambition left in them. As for the last album of their first half of their career, it’s hard to find many complaints with, and one that capped off this era of Death in complimentary fashion.

9/10

1991 - Human

After reaching their peak with bruntly aggessive death metal, Death’s fourth album began a second act for the band, one that sought to elevate their style to a more progressive form of death metal. It was a change that was pretty strongly indicated by the direction the band had been heading in and the step up in technicality on Spiritual Healing. Human takes the solos and the fast-paced guitar passages and bass lines to new extremes that the genre had never seen before, and the lyrical shift to more heady, cerebral, existential themes fit well with the significantly increased musical complexity that the album introduced. The technically dazzling yet infectious riffing of “Together as One” and “Flattening of Emotions”, the still-tasty hooks of the former and “Suicide Machine”, and the tasty percussive rhythm of “Lack of Comprehension” made those songs live staples. The band were still kind of finding their footing with the compositional aspects of this new realm, but the grounding in the aggression of their previous work with the voyage into the techy unknown was a good thing to start with and a good way to explore some new sonic territory while safely tethered to what was effective for them previously that produced some pretty impressive results.

8/10

1993 - Individual Thought Patterns

Carrying forward the ambition for significantly increased technicality that began with Human on to their fifth album, Death were still getting the hang of things with Individual Thought Patterns, which isn’t all to surprising or something to impugn the band for given the difficulty mode that had selected to play the creative game on, and the band still made some significant improvements with the integration of the hyperspeed technicality into their sound. Even more than the subsequent Symbolic, Individual Thought Patterns made the technicality so much more of a focus where, to me, this was Death’s first bonafide technical death album. Human was definitely pretty technical, but on Individual Thought Patterns, Death cut the cord and let themselves float off into the dizzying cosmos of instrumental technicality and tailored their compositional practices to fit that need. If there was any contingent of fans struggling to keep up with Death’s progression or hoping for a scale-back to the more brutish early albums, they were left behind with Individual Thought Patterns, save perhaps for the consolation of more traditionally groovy closing track, “The Philosopher”, but rampant speed-fests like “Overactive Imagination” and odd-timed melodic groovers like “Trapped in a Corner” quickly became fan favorites. If there’s one thing Individual Thought Patterns lacked, it was balance, but that wasn’t going to be a problem for very long...

8/10

1995 - Symbolic

Ah, Symbolic, there’s not gonna be any surprising bucking of the trend or “bold” underrating here. In a catalog that so many fans regard as perfect, Symbolic stands out as the most common fan favorite, and for good reason. The album synthesized everything that had made Death such a force to be reckoned with in the death metal world. Weaving together the early era’s delicious primal grooves, the elevated technicality that had become a solidified facet of the band’s style, and their newly blossoming progressive inclinations, Symbolic remains the band’s most comprehensively representative and accomplished work, the best place for any newcomer to the legendary act to start, and the best album in their acclaimed discography. The song-writing is tight and interesting from start to finish, seasoned with both tasty riffs and captivating displays of technicality that enhanced the songs rather than the players’ appetites for indulgence, and kept consistently interesting with frequent tasteful dynamic shifts and surprising twists and turns. I would undoubtedly go on forever if I were to detail the brilliance of every song on here, the majestic melodies and winding structure of “Crystal Mountain”, the catchy commentary on mass surveillance of “1,000 Eyes”, the invigorating double-bass of “Misanthrope”, and the iconic riffing of the opening title track. Instead I’ll quickly highlight two songs that seem to go unnoticed that I find particularly beautiful for the unexpected compositional moves Death makes on them. The first is the song, “Without Judgement”, which abruptly drops its techdeath winding to hypnotize with a gorgeous and emotive melodic solo that seems rather uncharacteristic for Death that I just love, and the second is the closing track, “Perennial Quest”. It’s the longest song in the band’s discography up to this point, only to be just marginally eclipsed by “Flesh and the Power It Holds” on the subsequent album, and it embarks on a similarly proggy and melodic odessey to that of “Crystal Mountain”, but it’s the somber and mournful electric/acoustic outro that would soon become all too tragic for Death fans to listen to that concludes the album on such a heartfelt note in such beautifully fitting fashion. There’s no other moment like it in Death’s catalog, and it’s always a solemn, conclusive reminder of just how much light Chuck Schuldiner and Death brought to this world and how lucky we are to have albums like this. I’ll end my sentimental bit here and conclude by briefly summing up my thoughts on the album. Symbolic is Death’s magnum opus and a masterpiece among masterpieces that captures nearly everything that makes Death and death metal appealing and that had made the genre so predominant for decades since, and beyond being their best, to me, it is a perfect album.

10/10

1998 - The Sound of Perseverance

Death’s final album seemed to set them on yet another new musical course after the second run through the steady improvement over the course of a three-album cycle. The longest album of the band’s seven and including the longest songs in their catalog on average, The Sound of Perseverance took Death on quite the progressive joyride, and surprisingly (to me at least) it kind of split and confused some fans who had just gotten used to the band’s digestible technicality on Symbolic. Granted, I was just a little baby bitch boy when this came out, but personally I don’t see why this was such a shock to the system for so many fans (apparently), the band had always been pretty ambitious and this was a pretty logical next step for them to expand their continually expanding sound. The structures on the band’s seventh album are less conventional and more packed with extensive technical passages, and the band do pull out a good few more surprises than they ever did in any album previously, like the acoustic/electric guitar-solo instrumental “Voice of the Soul”. But The Sound of Perseverance is by no means any kind of contrived over-indulgence in ideas grander than what the band could accomplish or frothy wank-fest. The band was already developing a bit of a progressive bend in the previous three-album arc and they simply took it to the next level the same way they did with their instrumental technicality on Human. And fans did indeed vibe with plenty of songs on The Sound of Perseverance, with the impressively vocally high soaring “Spirit Crusher”, the angular and unpredictable “Scavenger of Human Sorrow, and even the lengthy, and indeed structurally confounding, prog-techdeath monolith “Flesh and the Power It Holds” making their way into the band’s setlists on their last tours. And of course the album ends on the well-earned, fun, high-octane cover of Judas Priest’s “Painkiller”, which finds Schuldiner incredibly nailing the songs high melody with his high-pitched death shrieking style (and finishing with never-before-heard clean vocals). For the reputation it has for eschewing balance for high-minded progness, The Sound of Perseverance is by no means a hard pivot from or unrecognizable from Symbolic. Its bold expounding upon aspects of their sound that already seemed pretty evolved while remaining musically engaging and not sacrificing what made their previous work appealing, and sheer magnitude and impressiveness of the band’s third venture into new territory again do sometimes make me question whether I like it more than Symbolic. While it did seem to pave the way for another new mind-blowing era of Death that death took away from us, The Sound of Perseverance has become a glorious and aptly titled swan song and a testament to the band’s and Schuldiner’s relentless ambition and, indeed, genius. Eternal cheers to Chuck and to Death.

9/10

And that’s it, eleven years and seven albums that continually revolutionized death metal and paved the way for so much of what we hear today. Anyone reading this of course probably knows most of all of this, but it’s still astonishing to think about how much Death did for the genre in such a relatively short time, and, for me at least, even having already been a pretty big fan of Death, listening to these albums from Scream Bloody Gore to The Sound of Perseverance, it reminded me more viscerally of the quality of the music and respected legacy of the band that I have always intellectually acknowledged and agreed with, which I figured I’d share here. If, somehow, you’ve come across this and you’re not into Death or death metal but you’re open to it and interested, you’re in for a treat. Put on Symbolic and just enjoy the trip down the rabbit hole.

[onestowatch]

Lowertown Is Growing Up [First Look + Q&A]

Photo: Shamshawan Scott

Olivia Osby and Avsha Weinberg always knew they wanted to make music. The difficult part came when the inevitable questions of how and with who would arise. At least that was the case until a chance encounter in a high school math class in suburban Atlanta, which would eventually serve as the birthplace for Lowertown. Now, a few odd years later Olivia and Avsha find themselves signed to Dirty Hit, home to the likes of The 1975 and beabadoobee, and aiming to make their most ambitious project to date.

“The Gaping Mouth,” a sprawling confessional that blends soft-spoken lyricism bordering on avant-garde poetry and experimental indie rock instrumentation, arrives as the first taste of that ambition. The titular single from their forthcoming EP, set to release September 16, feels like a daring call to arms, a single firework shot in the dark, impossible to ignore and indistinguishable. Most notably of all, it feels like a noted maturation for the duo, a step forward into new, uncharted territory.

On the new single, Osby ponders on the object of her affection, or rather attention, repeatedly uttering the lines “You are the iris in my eye” until they no longer seem to be coming from her, taking on the weight of a mantra spoken outside herself. It’s only one such instance of the duo’s newfound stream-of-conscious lyrical approach, which sees them ruminating on the fallacy of growing up and the associated fantasies that come with it. All of this is complemented by the duo’s fearless instrumentation and production flourishes, which call to mind everything from experimental ‘90s indie rock to the sonic detours that permeated Sufjan Steven’s early works. 

We had the chance to speak to Lowertown via e-mail about the difficulties of shifting from “teenagerdom” to adulthood, the advantages of having a french fry fork and their bold new musical direction.

You two originally met in a high school math class. How did the discussion of music first get brought up and how did it lead to forming Lowertown?

Avsha: Olivia was a new student at the school, and I was shy, so we had sat next to each other for some time before we really had any conversation. After some months, I would look at the music Olivia would listen to over her shoulder and make small excited comments or jokes. That’s how our friendship began, through comments about Olivia’s love of emo music or my insufferable judgment on some new music I had heard. It took a year for us to start thinking about doing music together. The eventual forming of Lowertown happened on a beach in Ottawa, where I was again making a judgment on some new song I had found and decided to show Olivia some of my demos. That was where we decided to work together. Those demos and others eventually formed our first record Friends

Were there ever any thoughts about pursuing music before that fateful meeting?

Olivia: I’d always hoped to be able to do music professionally, but it had always seemed like it was so far away from being possible. I always knew that even if my solo music did not work out as a career, I wanted to work in the music field. Whether that was becoming a manager for other musicians or becoming a booking agent, I knew for a long time I wanted to be surrounded by music no matter what I ended up doing.

A: I had spent almost my entire life hoping to be a musician. I started playing classical piano at age four, and up until two years ago, was planning on going to a conservatory and becoming a concert pianist. As my taste expanded, I taught myself guitar, drums, bass, and production, all with the hopes of continuing professionally. Growing up, I was exposed to many different artists and genres, and I always wanted to give people what the music that I grew up with gave to me. The demos that I had recorded in middle school were the ones I showed Olivia and the ones that led to us knowing that we had to start a band.

What was it like signing to Dirty Hit?

A: The process of signing was definitely a difficult one as we had begun talking with the label only a few months before COVID, and as we were narrowing down on the decision to sign, it became incredibly difficult to see a scenario where we would be able to meet anybody on the label. We ended up having many, many FaceTime and Zoom conversations, wherein we were able to talk in-depth with the team and get a good sense of the label. These conversations were really great, and it was a great signifier of the relationship to come as we have had a really great relationship with the label. Although the signing process was tumultuous, we were able to grasp that the relationship between Dirty Hit and their artists was a familial one, and that made us incredibly excited to work together.

If you could have one thing in the world at this very moment, what would it be?

O: A good night’s sleep. I have terrible insomnia and can’t remember the last time I had one.

A: A french fry fork. I’m pretty exhausted with how messy eating french fries is.

Has the past year affected how your approach music at all?

A: In the past, I knew that the more I worked, the better I became, but this year has shown me that the times that you choose to completely leave some things alone are just as important as the times that you focus all your energy on them. I was completely drained of inspiration and motivation until I was able to sit and do absolutely nothing. The lack of music helped me realize that there was a lot about myself that I wasn’t thinking about. I was able to learn more about myself and have new sources of inspiration and thought.

O: For sure. This year has given me an excessive amount of time to get better at playing music in general since I’ve been on my own so much. It has also given me too much time to sit and think by myself, which can be beneficial for music but also pretty detrimental at the same time. I’ve ended up feeling like my old sound and writing process was really stale, since I had been writing songs the same way for years. I’ve ended up experimenting a lot with new sounds and approaches to songwriting, which has been extremely refreshing and I feel like it’s brought out some of my best work. I used to put way less emphasis on instrumentation, but now that I’ve progressed a lot musically, I’ve written a lot of instrumentation that I’m very proud of and that has ended up developing into Lowertown work. I also learned a lot about production over this past year which has been extremely inspiring and helpful for my solo work.

How did you approach the songwriting on “The Gaping Mouth?” The lyricism and experimental instrumentation are honestly breathtaking.

A: When composing the instrumentals, I wanted to write a song that was very expressive and unique but that worked entirely on feeling rather than a traditional verse and chorus song. I wanted to write the piece with points that I knew the guitars would push Olivia’s voice to the forefront and points that raised the energy around Olivia’s words. Olivia’s lyrics are so personal, and she always has so much to say, so I wanted the whole song to ebb and flow together with the identical, and occasionally reciprocal, emotion and intimacy.

O: Avsha sent me this beautiful guitar piece one day and it immediately connected with me, and I stayed up all night working on it. I recorded a demo take of the vocals, just singing/talking over the song where it felt right and natural. That first take I took at home at four in the morning actually ended up being used in the final song because it felt so emotive and raw. The first vocal take had an unmatched authenticity that we couldn’t capture again in the studio no matter how many takes we tried. Our producer Catherine ended up falling in love with it as well and did not want to try to replicate something that was already amazing as it was.

There’s a real sense of maturation present not just in the delivery of the single but in the lyrics, “Being stupid and being 15 / Being older and think I know who I am and what I want… / The way I stay the same and I never change.” Is growing up or rather the idea of growing up a central theme to the music you’re currently working on?

O: I had just graduated high school when we were writing this new project, and I was feeling extremely anxious about the trajectory of my life. I kept thinking about if I was doing all that I should be doing at this age and how much had I really changed since the beginning of high school. I felt like a lot of mannerisms and detrimental ways of thinking that had plagued me when I was 14-15 were still incredibly present in my life, and it felt pathetic to think that I had not made much progress on some of my biggest shortcomings since I had first become a teenager. I feel like at 18/19, you’re not quite an adult, but you’re no longer just a teenager. You begin to shoulder real responsibility and have a lot of agency over your life. It’s quite terrifying being the one who has the power to make important personal decisions. If you screw up, it’s on you and no one else. The transition from high school where you have assignments to turn in every day and tests and a crazy amount of structure (you wake up and go to bed the same time every weekday) to making music and creating with a self-made schedule can be extremely jarring. I’m still grappling with that transition, as my workflow can sometimes trail into six in the morning which sometimes becomes a problem.

“The Gaping Mouth” is the eponymous single from your forthcoming EP. What can people expect from your new EP?

O: It’s gonna be leveled up from anything we’ve dropped before! This is our first project recorded in a studio setting as well as working in-person with a producer. We’ve matured since our last project as musicians and we’ve simply grown more into adults. A lot of this was written when we were 18 and when we’d just turned 19, and a lot of things happened at that point in our lives to write about. Our producer Catherine really helped push me to my full potential while working together. There are some louder songs mixed with some instrumentally dense and beautiful songs. There’s a good amount of experimentation as well in this project that I’m excited for everyone to hear.

A: We’ve focused so much on our songwriting and composition; I think people will be able to hear how we’ve matured. I think this EP reflects our need to always change our sound and grow it. It’s exciting because I think it’s really fresh and still has our musical roots sewn into the core.

And what’s one thing you hope people take away from this next stage of your music?

A: I hope people are able to see the world and the story that we want to create with our music. I hope people can see that our sound will always be maturing and that our music can be surprising and exciting.

O: I feel like our fan base has grown alongside us. Lowertown has been a project since we were 16 and it feels like it has already come so far, which is so amazing and I’m really thankful for everything that’s happened thus far. I hope our music can continue to authentically capture each stage of life Avsha and I live through while making music together. This record was written fresh after graduating high school, so I hope those who are grappling with the jarring transition from teenagerdom to adulthood can find some solace in the feelings expressed in this record.

What is your go-to fast food order?

O: We’re both pescatarian so sometimes finding easy fast food can be annoying. I’m a big burrito person so I’ll always get a bean burrito with a ton of veggies.

A: A universal choice for me in any fast food place would be an extra large order of fries, or however many is the most they offer, and a large Diet Coke. There were points during this year where every day of the week was punctuated with an absurd amount of McDonald’s fries and hot sauce.

Who are your Ones To Watch?

O: Pretty Sick , Horse Jumper of Love, N0v3l

A: Uboa, OOIOO, Donzii

[spacecakes20]

Begin Again

(Chapter 8)

(Tagging: @sunnyxdazed)

Chapter 9: Sebastian, Sunflowers

It was quiet after Luna left. He hadn’t meant to spill so much to her, but she felt so easy to talk to, despite not knowing each other long. She was calm, and when she listened, she seemed to listen and understand. Nothing out of her mouth sounded judgmental. She even sounded impressed when she heard he was a freelancer and a self-taught programmer at that. She even cracked a joke to try and ease the tension.

      He felt a little bad about kicking her out, but his current project was so close to being finished. He would have to take a break from clients and commissions for at least a week after this. He deserved a break, and he knew he couldn’t survive on coffee and three hours of sleep for much longer.

      The sound of footsteps coming down the stairs to Sebastian’s room made him grit his teeth, bracing himself. There was no knock, because why would there be? Abigail never seemed to knock, so why would she start now. She usually would barge right in, plop herself on his couch, and go on a tirade of whatever was plaguing her mind that day.

      “Have you seen my charm?” Abigail said, jumping straight to the point.

      “Huh?” Sebastian looked from his computer; confusion clear on his face.

      “My good luck charm!” She sounded more exasperated, lifting his pillow off his couch and searching under it, “The one I got from the fortune teller last year!” She threw the pillow back on the couch in frustration, “I’ve got exams coming up, and I can’t take them without it.”

      Sebastian rolled his head back, giving it a satisfying pop. He exhaled slowly from his nose, “I’m sure you’ll be fine if you just study.” He said flatly.

      Abigail scoffed at that, giving him an eye roll. His violet haired friend was always the superstitious one. For a period of her tween-hood, she even believed herself to be a witch. Sebastian never questioned it; in fact, he’d found it quite charming. She didn’t seem embarrassed about her ideas and hobbies, and he found that admirable.

      “You’re no help.” Abigail jabbed, turning on her heels toward the door, “I’ll just ask Maru.”

      Oh, that’s right. Now was probably a good time to ask about that. “When did you two get so close?”

      That made her pause, hand hovering on the doorknob. She gave him a nervous smile, “Oh, uh…” Abigail’s voice trailed off before clearing her throat, “Turns out she likes collecting gems from the mines. For her experiments, ya know?” She said finally, “I keep her safe from monsters with my sword, and she gets her gems. A win for both of us!”

      That made sense, but he couldn’t understand why they’d try and keep that a secret. As if Abigail could read his mind, she elaborated, “You know how overprotective both of our dads can be.” She shrugged. “Rumors spread fast here so…”

       “Right.” He leaned forward in his chair, resting his chin on the back of his hands, elbows on his desk. Demetrius and Pierre could be considered protective. It made sense that their daughters would want to keep their trips to the mines a secret. With that said…

       “Is that all?” Sebastian asked. If it was one thing he knew about his longtime friend; it was that she was a terrible liar. He couldn’t help but feel that she was keeping something out.

       Abigail simply smiled, giving him a smug, “Yup.” She gave the doorknob a turn but looked back at him before taking off. She stood there a moment as if she was juggling the words she wanted to say in her head. Finally, she said, “You should try giving your sister a chance.”

       Sebastian didn’t answer. He simply rested his head on the back of his hands and sighed. He and Maru had an… interesting relationship, to say the least. Well, “relationship” was perhaps too strong of a word. They lived together and shared the same mom, but their bond stopped at that. To Demetrius, his stepdad, (and Maru’s biological father) she was the perfect child prodigy who could do no wrong. Meanwhile, Sebastian was the problem child who caused nothing but trouble. Their sibling rivalry did calm down as they entered young adulthood, but the damage had already been done.

       Abigail noticed his hesitance. She stood there, frozen for another second, before speaking again, “You’d be surprised to find out how much you two have in common.” She said in an almost sing-song voice. She left after that, closing his door with a click. He sighed to himself, running his hands through his hair. He looked to his computer and had to fight the urge to get up and take a smoke outside. No, no more procrastinating. He needed to get this done today. He gave out another sigh, took a sip of his coffee, and went back to work.

Sebastian felt the weight that lifted off his shoulder when he emailed his client about his finished project. Finally, he was free! For the time being of course. His small moment of victory was interrupted with the sound of his door being opened. Why didn’t anybody ever knock?

      It was his mother, Robin. She gave him her usual bright smile, “Hey Sebby!”

      He simply sent a small smile of his own back at her. He knew that look. She was going to ask him a favor. He just felt it.

      “Can I ask you a favor?” Called it.

      “What is it, mom?” 

      She gave him her signature smile, “Could you take this to Luna for me?” Finally looking to his mother’s hands, he noticed she was holding a Tupperware of food. Upon closer inspection, it looked like chowder. “I invited her to come over for dinner, but she said she’d be busy.” Robin shook her head, “That girl… I know she doesn’t have a kitchen, so I worry about her sometimes.”

      Dinner… It was that time already? The time must have escaped him. He stood to his feet, giving his back a stretch. It gave out a pop, and he winced. Perhaps a walk to the farm would do him some good. Besides, he couldn’t say no to his mother. “Sure thing.” He responded. He met his mom at the door, taking the container in his hands. It was still warm. She smiled warmly and gave him a "thanks," before pressing a kiss to his cheek.

      Once out of the house, Sebastian looked to the horizon. The sun was setting, and the sky was the perfect blend of pinks, blues, and orange. The view was making him crave a smoke, but he bit it down. He took in the fresh air and made his way along the trail that lead to the farm. The summer heat didn’t feel so bad now that the sun was setting. He wasn’t a big fan of summer, truth be told. It was hot, the air was heavy, and the sun was too bright. He also felt like it brought most people out of their houses. The valley felt the busiest during the summer.

      Sebastian was brought out of his musing by the sound of a dog barking. Snapping back to the present, he realized he had made his way to the end of the trail and was standing at the entrance of the farm. The source of the barking sat at his feet.

      “Oh… hey.” He greeted the dog awkwardly. It simply wagged its tail in response. Sebastian knelt down to scratch the pooch behind the ear. He heard the ground crunch before him, the telltale sign someone was approaching. He didn’t need to look up to know who it was.

      “Honey, what are you barking a—” Luna paused when she saw the sight. “Oh… Hello Sebastian.” She tucked her hands into her pockets and made her way over to him. Honey. So that was the dog’s name.

      “You have a terrible guard dog.” The words left his mouth before he could catch them.

      Luna only laughed in response, making Sebastian feel relieved.

      “Yeah, she is.” She shook her head in amusement, “I don’t think she has a ferocious bone in her body.”

      The two were silent for a moment before Sebastian cleared his throat. He stood to his feet and handed her the Tupperware of food.

       “Mom wanted me to give this to you.” He said simply.

       She eyed it curiously, before taking it in her hands. Her expression was unreadable. “Your mother didn’t have to.” She finally whispered.

       Sebastian merely shrugged, “That’s just how she is.” His mother was always like a mother hen to any of the younger residents. Well, mostly Sam and Abigail. Probably because they were all close in age with him and his sister. On top of that, they all grew up in the valley together. She was like everyone’s second mom.

        “Well,” Luna finally spoke, “Tell her I said I appreciate it!”

        Her eyes were full of so much gratitude they were practically sparkling. He had to look away. They were too intense. His eyes caught a few bee houses by a broken-down greenhouse. It looked like only one had been built. The others looked to be works in progress.

        “Getting into beekeeping?” He asked. More like blurted. He had meant to go home as soon as possible, but for some reason, his mouth was on autopilot.

        Luna’s gaze followed his, and she gave an embarrassed smile, as though she wasn’t planning on showing anyone her project just yet. “You could… say that.” She walked over to the bee houses, and for some reason, he followed. Perhaps it was only out of curiosity.

        Upon closer inspection, he noticed that she had also planted a few seeds.

        “I’m making a flower garden.” She said with a smile.

        True to her word, he did notice a lot of flower seed packets. The one he saw the most of were sunflower seeds.

         “You have a lot of sunflowers.” He mused. He’d only meant to say it to himself, but he caught her attention anyway.

         “Yeah.” Luna let out a light laugh, “It’s my favorite flower.”

         Sunflowers huh? Those did seem to fit Luna, now that he thought about it. He recalled her wearing a yellow sundress to the Flower Dance and remembered how much it complimented her. Now that he knew her a little better, he noticed she had a warm and inviting personality.

         “I’m going to place the bee boxes all around the flowers.” Luna continued, “I read that nectar collected from different flowers made different flavors of honey.” She licked her lips, perhaps caught up in a dream about the taste. He’d never been a fan of honey; or sweets in general for that matter. But for some reason, he didn’t have the heart to tell her that.

         “Sounds ambitious.” He said, impressed. He meant it. To think, just a few months ago he was so sure this city girl—who he hadn’t even met—would up and leave once she discovered farming life was too hard. Instead, she’s only a few days into summer, and she’s building bee houses from scratch.

         “It’s nothing, really.” She fidgeted with the tip of her curly lock, looking away at the complement. “But thank you.”

         He simply shrugged, his way of saying you’re welcome. She seemed to get flustered easily, he noticed. He’d be lying if he said it wasn’t a little comforting. To have someone who could get just as flustered as him. It was refreshing. 

         He let out a yawn before he could catch it. He hadn’t really gotten much sleep all week, and it was starting to show. Looking up, he could see the sun a lot less now. It was getting late, and his dinner was probably growing cold. He sighed, “I should probably get going.”

         “Tell your mom I said thanks for the meal.” Luna waved with a smile.

         He only took a few steps when he noticed Luna’s dog was following him. He leaned down and gave her a nice scratch behind the ear, “I’ll see you later too.”

         Luna smiled, giving her dog a gentle pat, “Sebastian’s gotta go, okay?” She said soothingly. Honey whined about that, but she managed to stay put. Sebastian gave another wave, making his way up the trail. He gave out a tired sigh and made a mental plan to sleep for the rest of the week.

[miloscat]

[Review] Conker: Live & Reloaded (XB)

Let’s see just how well this misguided remake/expansion holds up. This will be a long one!

Conker’s Bad Fur Day is my favourite N64 game. It’s cinematic and ambitious, technically impressive, has scads of gameplay variety with fun settings and setpieces, and when I first played it I was just the right age for the humour to land very well for me. A scant four years later Rare remade it for the Xbox after their acquisition by Microsoft, replacing the original multiplayer modes with a new online mode that would be the focus of the project, with classes and objectives and such.

First, an assessment of the single-player campaign. On a revisit I can see the common criticisms hold some water: the 3D platformer gameplay is a bit shaky at times, certain gameplay segments are just plain wonky and unfair, and some of the humour doesn’t hold up. It’s got all the best poorly-aged jokes: reference humour, gross-out/shock humour, and poking fun at conventions of the now dormant 3D collectathon platformer genre. I also am more sensitive these days to things like the sexual assault and homophobia undertones to the cogs, or Conker doing awful things for lols. Having said that, there’s plenty that I still find amusing, and outside of a few aggravatingly difficult sequences (surf punks, the mansion key hunt, the submarine attack, the beach escape) I do still appreciate the range of things you do in the game.

As for the remake, I’m not sure it can be called an improvement by any metric. Sure, there’s some minor additions. There’s a new surgeon Tediz miniboss, the new haunted baby doll enemy, and the opening to Spooky has been given a Gothic village retheme along with an added—though unremarked on—costume for Conker during this chapter based on the Hugh Jackman Van Helsing flop. Other changes are if anything detrimental. The electrocution and Berri’s shooting cutscenes have been extended, thus undermining the joke/emotional impact. The original game used the trope of censoring certain swear words to makes lines more funny; the remake adds more censorship for some reason, in one case (the Rock Solid bouncer scene) ruining the joke, and Chucky Poo’s Lament is just worse with fart noises covering the cursing.

The most egregious change, and one lampshaded in the tutorial, is the replacement of the frying pan (an instant and satisfying interaction) with a baseball bat which must be equipped, changing the control and camera to the behind-the-back combat style, and then swung with timed inputs to defeat the many added armoured goblings and dolls carelessly dumped all throughout the game world. This flat out makes the game less fun to play through.

On top of this, all the music has been rerecorded (with apologies to Robin Beanland, I didn’t really notice apart from instances where it had to be changed, such as in Franky’s boss fight where the intensely frenetic banjo lead was drastically reduced as a concession to the requirement to actually play it in real life), and the graphics totally redone. Bad Fur Day made excellent use of textures, but with detail cranked up, the sixth generation muddiness, and a frankly overdone fur effect, something is lost. I’m not a fan of the character redesigns either; sure Birdy has a new hat, but I didn’t particularly want to see Conker’s hands, and the Tediz are no longer sinister stuffed bears but weird biological monster bears with uniforms. On top of all this you notice regular dropped details; a swapped texture makes for nonsensical dialogue in the Batula cutscene, and characters have lost some emotive animations. Plus, the new translucent scrolling speech bubbles are undeniably worse.

I could mention the understandable loading screens (at least they’re quick), the mistimed lip sync (possibly exacerbated by my tech setup), or the removal of cheats (not a big deal), but enough remake bashing. To be fair, the swimming controls have been improved and the air meter mercifully extended, making Bats Tower more palatable. And some sequences have been shortened to—I suppose—lessen gameplay tedium (although removing the electric eel entirely is an odd choice). But let’s cover the multiplayer. Losing the varied modes from the original is a heavy blow, as I remember many a fun evening spent in Beach, War, or Raptor, along with the cutscenes setting up each mode.

The new headline feature of this release is the Live mode. The new Xbox Live service allowing online multiplayer was integrated, although it’s all gone now. Chasing the hot trends of the time, it’s a set of class-based team missions, with the Squirrel High Command vs. the Tediz in a variety of scenarios, mostly boiling down to progressing through capture points or capture the flag. Each class is quite specialised and I’m not sure how balanced it is, plus there’s proto-achievements and unlocks behind substantial milestones none of which I got close to reaching (I don’t think I could get most of them anyway, not being “Live”).

The maps are structured around a “Chapter X” campaign in which the Tediz and the weasel antagonist from BFD Ze Professor (here given a new and highly offensive double-barrelled slur name) are initially fighting the SHC in the Second World War-inspired past of the Old War, before using a time machine, opening up a sci-fi theme for the Future War. These are mainly just aesthetic changes, but it’s a fun idea and lets them explore Seavor’s beloved wartime theming a bit more while also bringing in plenty of references to Star Wars, Alien, Dune, and Halo; mostly visual.

Unfortunately the plot is a bit incoherent, rushed through narration (unusually provided by professional American voice actor Fred Tatasciore rather than a Rare staffer doing a raspy or regional voice like the rest of the game) over admittedly nice-looking cutscenes. They also muddle the timeline significantly, seemingly ignoring the BFD events... and then the Tediz’ ultimate goal is to revive the hibernating Panther King, when the purpose of their creation was to usurp him in the first place! It expands on the Conker universe but in a way that makes the world feel smaller and more confusing. It’s weird, and also Conker doesn’t appear at all.

On top of this, I found the multiplayer experience itself frustrating. To unlock the full Chapter X, you need to play the first three maps on easy, then you can go through the whole six. But I couldn’t pass the first one on normal difficulty! The “Dumbots” seemed to have so much health and impeccable aim, while the action was so chaotic, obscured by intrusive UI, floating usernames, and smoke and other effects with loads of characters milling around, not to mention the confusing map layouts, the friendly fire, the instant respawns, and the spawncamping. Luckily I could play the maps themselves in solo mode with cutscenes and adjustable AI and options.

I found some classes much more satisfying than others. I tried to like the Long Ranger and the slow Demolisher, but found it difficult to be accurate. The awkward range of the Thermophile and the Sky Jockey’s rarely effective vehicles made them uncommon choices. I had most success with the simple Grunt, or the melee-range Sneeker (the SHC variant of which is sadly the sole playable female in the whole thing). You can pick up upgrade tokens during gameplay to expand the toolset of each class, which range from necessary to situational. But ultimately it’s a crapshoot, as I rarely felt that my intentions led to clear results.

Live & Reloaded is such a mess. The Reloaded BFD is full of odd decisions and baffling drawbacks, while the Live portion feels undercooked. I’d have preferred a greater focus on either one; a remake is unnecessary, especially only four years on, but a new single-player adventure would have been ace. And a multiplayer mode in this universe with its own story mode could be cool if it was better balanced and had more to it than just eight maps. As a source of some slight scrapings of new Conker content I appreciated it to some extent, but I can’t help being let down. I guess it’s true what they say... the grass is always greener. And you don’t really know what it is you have, until it’s gone... gone. Gone.

Yes, that ending is still genuinely emotionally affecting.

[douchebagbrainwaves]

HERE'S WHAT I JUST REALIZED ABOUT CHALLENGE

This is not just a machine. Even then I took embarrassingly long to catch on. But I think that's ok. It's an excuse to work on boring things, even if they wanted to do things that make you stupid, and if they don't go into research.1 Why don't more people start startups. But how do you become one? What super-angels and VCs. So starting a startup and failed over someone who'd spent the same time working at a big company.2 In America, companies, like practically everything else, are disposable. So why do so many founders build things no one wants to do it may be best to go for brevity. Facebook seemed a good idea to understand what's happening when you do have kids.3

If you learn to ignore injuries you can at least avoid the second half. But if you're looking for companies that hope to win by writing great software.4 For the average startup, that would explain why they'd care about valuations.5 The other way to tell an adult is by how they react to a challenge. A nerd looks at that deal and sees only: pay a fortune for a small, dark, noisy apartment. A high-frequency trader does not. US are auto workers, New York is incomparable.6 But airports are not so harmless.7 There is no absolute standard for material wealth. This is about cities, not countries.

The reason he and most other startup founders are richer than they would have made working 9 to 5 at a big company. So maybe hacking does require some special ability to focus. If accelerating variation in productivity increases with technology, then the idea will fit in the user's head too. The other is that, in a hits-driven business, is that they're the same. The mere prospect of being interrupted is enough to prevent hackers from working on their startup for a whole year before being squashed by Google Calendar. The other way to tell an adult is by how they react to a challenge from an adult in a way people will increasingly be.8 I was walking along the street in Cambridge, and in practice they are usually interchangeable. I thought were the 5 most interesting startup founders of the last 30 years. Design is not just that it makes trade work. When Rajat Suri of E la Carte decided to write software for restaurants, he got out one of the founders of Sun.9 Finally at the end of this long process the VCs might still say no.10 Not just because it's better, but the pain of having this stupid controversy constantly reintroduced as the top one in your mind.11

The iPhone isn't so much a phone as a replacement for a phone.12 San Francisco, or Boston, or New York, where people walk around smiling. It felt as if someone had flipped on a light switch inside my head. They're willing to let you work so hard that you endanger your health. That's because, unlike novelists, hackers collaborate on projects. Someone with ordinary tastes would find it hard to come up with the numbers. Even now the image of a very ambitious German presses a button or two, doesn't it? Northern Italy in 1100, off still feudal. If you don't have to look at. Whereas if the speaker were still operating on the Daddy Model, and saw wealth as something that flowed from a common source and had to be built on NT. There is a large, existing population of stodgy people. Seriously, though, that there are going to get till the last minute.

As the CEO of a large public company makes about 100 times as productive as an ordinary one, but a leading indicator. Several of the most successful startup founders are often technical people who are great at something are not so much the day to day management. To me she seems the best novelist of all time. What nerds like is the kind of problems are those? You'd think it would be such a great thing never to be wrong that everyone would do this. So there is obviously not a fixed pie that's shared out, like an introductory textbook. I've rarely had a neat answer to it. A startup is not to try to think of startup ideas. There are now a few VC firms outside the US. The chance of getting rejected after the full partner meeting averages about 25%.13

Notes

This is true of nationality and religion as well. Some VCs seem to be free to work than stay home with them. To a kid and as a cause as it was overvalued till you run through all the page-generating templates are still called the executive model. Philosophy is like math's ne'er-do-well brother.

To get a lot more frightening in those days, but getting rich, purely mercenary founders will usually take one of the next one will be near-spams that you should push back on the grounds that a their applicants come from meditating in an equity round. In many ways the New Deal was a test of intelligence. One YC founder wrote after reading a draft, Sam Rayburn and Lyndon Johnson.

Did you know about a week for 4 years. The facts about Apple's early history are from an interview. That's the best are Goodwin Procter, Wilmer Hale, and tax rates, which shows how unimportant the Arpanet which became the Internet. I'm not dissing these people.

For example, because despite some progress in the former, and also really good at design, or because they are so dull and artificial that by the government. Part of the biggest successes there is no longer working to help the company goes public. Though most founders start out excited about the subterfuges they had that we didn't do. As always, tax loopholes defended by two of the web have sucked—e.

43. Microsoft, would increase the spammers' cost to reach a given audience by a factor of 20.

The solution for this essay, I advised avoiding Javascript. Often as not the distinction between them generate a lot of people who interrupt you. Proceedings of AAAI-98 Workshop on Learning for Text Categorization.

There is no richer if it's dismissed, it's probably a mistake to do better. 99,—e. In the thirties his support of the Fabian Society, it is certainly more efficient, it inevitably turns into incantation. Most don't try to raise five million dollars in liquid assets are assumed to be obscure; they just don't make wealth a zero-sum game.

Strictly speaking it's not uncommon for startups is a self fulfilling prophecy. One thing that drives most people come to writing essays is to protect widows and orphans from crooked investment schemes; people with a sufficiently identifiable style, you can, Jeff Byun mentions one reason not to say for sure a social network for pet owners is a bad idea, period. Is this unfair? You may be some part you can ask us who's who; otherwise you may have to find out why investors who turned them down.

That's because the first year or so and we don't have enough equity left to motivate people by saying Real artists ship. That's why the series AA terms and write them a check. At the moment; if there were 5 more I didn't realize it till I started doing research for this at YC I find I never watch movies in theaters anymore.

The latter type is the proper test of intelligence. If you have to do others chose Marx or Cardinal Newman, and tax rates have had a day job is one of the paths people take through life, the rest have mostly raised money at all. The Civil Service Examinations of Imperial China, Yale University Press, 1983.

Thought experiment: set aside for this essay began by talking about art.

Applying for a startup is taking the Facebook/Twitter route and building something for a CEO to make money from existing customers. Instead of bubbling up from the study. Unfortunately, not lowercase.

It wouldn't pay. This is one of the bizarre consequences of this essay talks about the team or their determination and disarmingly asking the right question, which would cause other problems. That's the difference between surgeons and internists fleas: I wouldn't say that YC's most successful ones tend not to quit their day job is one subtle danger you have 8 months of runway or less, is he going to do sales yourself initially.

[darealpatyu]

DLSU’s Strategic Plan is Lit

First Impressions

DLSU’s strategic plan is nothing short of brilliant. I don’t mean to compare our school to other schools (I actually do mean to), but I think that compared to The Areneo, DLSU has really thought through well their plans for the future, keeping in mind the well-being of key stakeholders. The strategic plan does not only cover the improvement of system processes for the welfare of the students; it also covers the localization of SDG projects to embody our school’s value of zeal for service, which I really, really admire.

Reader, if you would be so kind as to allow me to digress and say that it’s no wonder that DLSU was not a proponent of the academic freeze that students were clamoring for a while back. This strategic plan tells me that the administration has things under control. Things might have started out rocky, but they’ve managed pretty well so far, and now, their plans make me believe that things are only going to get better.

Let’s Talk Strategy

The ANIMO strategies -- albeit a little cheesy and let’s be honest, the words were obviously forced to fit into the words ANIMO – address student concerns, the uncertain future, and the larger social environment comprehensively. Although these strategies have yet to materialize, their ambitious plans convey DLSU’s goal to be the top university in the Philippines; even when everything else is uncertain, DLSU’s service hasn’t wavered. Their Accompaniment (A) strategy is the one I like best, and it is one of the reasons why DLSU will maintain its status as one of the best universities in the PH. Their accompaniment strategy stresses the importance of making sure that student workload is manageable and “authentic,” to quote the speaker. Making workload authentic is honestly something I like because students need to do assessments and activities that actually matter. The pandemic has revealed the proverbial truth that students have their own lives apart from school. We have our own problems; so, when teachers give assessments, it has to be something that will benefit us. None of that “make a brochure” or “do a creative skit” stuff. Also, encouraging a manageable workload is a great way of showing students that the system cares for their mental health. Yassss, we aren’t robots, thanks for acknowledging that, DLSU!

The A strategy also entails strengthening student support and reimagining the student life cycle to fit the new world we’ve been thrown into. The A strategy basically encompasses almost all the community needs that were brought up by the survey respondents; these needs were E-reliability, Abatement, Innovation, and Support. By responding to the needs of stakeholders, DLSU effectively maintains its position as a top university!

To me, the strategy that establishes DLSU’s international prestige is, surprisingly, the Opening (O) strategy. The O strategy is focused on creating policies for when the uncertain future comes. This establishes DLSU’s international reputation as a university that can adapt to changing times; there’s honestly nothing worse than a school that is so conservative that they end up being an enemy to progress. By staying relevant through progressive policies, and by acknowledging that there is a need for permanent change for when face-to-face classes will be allowed, DLSU stays relevant with its prestige and everythang.

A Little SWOT, please?

A drum roll for the SWOT analysis, please! I actually have some fancy bullet points for you all, so you can visualize things a little better.

Strengths

·            Open to change

·            Already started online learning even before the pandemic started

·            Listens to stakeholders

·            Research efforts continue

·            Is one of the top universities

Weaknesses

·            Some professors are old-school and are not tech-savvy

·            Internal processes are not optimal

·            Student support is not useful enough to be relevant

Opportunities

·            No other university adjusted to the new normal as quickly as DLSU

Threats

·            Intermittent wi-fi  (E V E R Y W H E R E)

·            Government policies ineffective and arbitrary*

·            Typhoons

Based on this very primitive SWOT analysis, I would say that DLSU’s success rate in implementing its strategies would be 90%. I am quite hopeful for the future because they’ve exhibited several strengths that, to me, outweigh all the weaknesses. When you have the strength of being open to change, which is the most important strength in this VUCA world (Miss Sarmiento, are you proud of me? I just quoted you :D), you can essentially take on anything. The weaknesses are very annoying to us now, but I know that along the way, DLSU will address them. The weaknesses are just glitches in the plan that can be smoothed out along the way.

With the way things are going right now, there aren’t many opportunities that the institution can maximize (from my perspective, at least), and there’s a load of threats that are beyond the institution’s control. This is why I am only 90% confident that DLSU can effectively implement its strategies. The wi-fi issue is especially the worst. Wi-fi in the Philippines is the biggest party pooper of all time. The government is another issue because DLSU can’t fulfill its plan of fully resuming campus access in 2022 if the government keeps up its antics. Hence, it is likely that these uncontrollable factors will hinder the success of the more ambitious key strategies, such as the localization of SDG projects and the campus redesign.

*An example of government policy:

The Ideal Business Leader Cares

I do believe that the strategic plan promotes the objectives in the Vocation of the Business Leader. First of all, DLSU’s strategic plan fulfills the Good Goods because of the mere fact that they plan to continue operating the school even in a pandemic. Their service continues to create students who are the critical thinkers of society. So, it’s fulfilling this service even when times are hard, which is the exact embodiment of the Good Goods if you ask me. DLSU also fulfills the second goal of the Good Goods, which is to maintain solidarity with the poor. La Salle schools literally started as schools for the poor. Now, DLSU continues to give out great, comprehensive scholarship grants, and as a scholar of DLSU myself, I can say that DLSU invests a lot of money in its scholarship programs, which is honestly so nice it makes me want to cry; education is the greatest equalizer and will last a lifetime, and I am really happy that the poor are receiving it just as I am. DLSU has even made arrangements with telecommunication companies, so that struggling students, faculty, and staff have access to pocket Wi-Fi.*

Now, let’s move on to Good Work. DLSU promotes the objectives of this principle through its Impact strategy, which seeks to ensure a pipeline of research outputs. This priority towards the pursuit of knowledge is one that embodies the value of human work. People should work not just to make money and live, but to improve themselves and the world we live in. Work should not just be the thing we do to survive; it must also be the way that provides meaning to our lives. That is what DLSU provides for its faculty through its strategic plan. And that’s what I’ve seen with all the professors in DLSU. They’re always the best in their fields because they’ve been allowed to grow in the workplace. Lastly, DLSU promotes Good Wealth through its planned SDG localization projects. They plan to give back to society, which fulfills the objective of just distribution of wealth.

I think that these objectives are a reflection of how a good business leader must be. This strategic plan has made me realize that a good business leader thinks for the present and the future. She looks at the needs of the community and answers them with care and with the common good in mind. She makes decisions, knowing full well that those decisions impact other people other than herself. She promotes a humane workplace, one where compassion and empathy rule over individualistic, “bahala ka diyan” mindsets. She invests in the development of others and society. And most of all, she proves to the public that she is worth trusting – that she is capable of being held accountable for the health and well-being of stakeholders. All of these are embodied in DLSU’s strategic plan. To quote Socrates, virtue is knowledge; because DLSU sets an example of caring for the larger society, I too have the duty to continue this mission.

*Reference to DLSU arranging to give out pocket Wi-Fis: https://businessmirror.com.ph/2020/05/02/dlsu-provides-financial-psychological-and-connectivity-support-during-covid-19/

Where do I fit into this strategic plan?

Answering this question is second nature to me. My unique contribution to the success of the university’s objectives is to be a compassionate and empathetic person to myself, my classmates, and my teachers; to be stringent, unrelenting, and selfish during these trying times is to become an opposing force to the strategies. These strategies depend on our ability to adapt along with the university; hence, we must do our part and be kind. We must understand each other, become a support system for those struggling, and do our best to help each other stay sane. When the university reaches its objectives, I expect that we will be receiving education of the best quality when compared to other Philippine universities. We will be receiving an education that is flexible to our circumstances, and an education that will make us want to give back and innovate for society – the way that DLSU has given back to this country these past few months.

Before I get sentimental and become a puddle of tears while writing this blog, I’d like my readers to know that I have fallen in love with DLSU. I stand by its values and fervently respect all the decisions it’s made during this pandemic. I am the (self-proclaimed) critical-thinking, well-rounded student I am today because of this institution. As a scholar of DLSU, I’ve learned that quality education is not a privilege, but a right and I dream of the day when the Filipino is able to learn what I learn, see what I see, and feel the same passion that I feel when I think of this country.

That’s all, readers. See you next time!

[queerchoicesblog]

Did I check your blog several times awaiting the new chapter ? And did I re-read the whole serie, willing to get more and more of your story and your wonderful writing ? You can bet I did ! I've started coming to your blog because of Choices' fanfictions, stayed for the poetic flow of your words and while it's a wonder to see you thrive in those orignal stories of yours (I'm partial to the Belle Epoque one, as a French woman myself) I'm excited to see those beautiful Storyscape characters 1/

At last, here I am, sweet nonny 😊

First of all, you have no idea how your messages made me happy: THANK YOU! 😊❤

I truly loved Storyscape and miss it so much: how nice it would have been to cheer us up or at least distract us during these trying months.

And you're French! So nice, your language is utterly gorgeous! I can only hope I'm not butchering it in my fics, my French is bad sadly 😔

As for your questions, Surviving the Titanic, and what title Zetta would have chosen if she had to. Well, as you said, going through the traumatic experience even if in fiction must be hard for her yet she agrees all the same, setting it as the beginning of her renaissance. Judging by the plot of the original book, the whole idea of the movie seems to come from Richard: he's ambitious, young. I believe he genuinely cares for Zetta but it sounds like a lifetime occasion screaming easy success. So the title is simple, straight to the point, in line with the titles of the pictures back then.

I like to think that Zetta's agreement came after much consideration: is it the right thing to do? Since the story of the picture is so clearly inspired to Adele and Hileni, I headcanon Zetta eventually agreed on the project and taking charge of the script. That way to her eyes she could make a proper compromise: avoiding mere commercial exploitation of the tragedy and turning it into an homage to Adele. Also, she's in the business for too long to ignore that a story like that was all the audience could get of that night. Probably, if she could have picked the title, she would have added a bit of poetry and focused on the main characters? Surviving the Titanic sounds a bit impersonal...

As for Zetta's six months long silence. Yeah, at first, it didn't make sense to me even if I get the authors probably looked for the dramatic suspense between the arrival and the party: it seems to be a common feature for all the LIs. I tried to read through the lines of the movie party dialogue.

This seems to be the source of Zetta's torment. She stated that she had tried to put her feelings down into words for Adele but she never came up with a good answer.

When I read it the first time, I thought she wanted to break up with us but when I picked the "we should end things" option, she was quite upset and hurt. So it's not what she meant all along, I think. After that playthrough, her line sounds more like a squeal of pain. She wants to be with Adele, she loves her but must marry Richard to save her career so what she can offer to a free spirit like Miss Carrem? I think she feels guilty, desperately looking for a way not to lose Adele but not knowing why.

I will answer about dear Lawrence in the next bunch of asks 😉

As for your consideration over living as a member of the lgbtq community, I must say I have a soft spot for stories (either real or fictional) of wlw/mlm/trans people back in the old days or from a different era when they probably felt even lonelier or more hopeless and self doubting than us. I wish I could hug them tight and assure them that they are not alone and unloved/unlovable as they thought. And that decades, centuries after we live better lives: we can marry each other in many countries unlike back them, governments can promulgate laws to protect people against homophobic/biphobic/transphobic violence. Even if yes, recent events like the one Laverne denounced on her social media show, there is room for improvement as we still can't hold hands with a partner or exchanging PDAs with a partner or simply walk in the street without a care.

But yes, I hope it brings them some joy to see the progresses we have made through the years as a community and how we keep fighting all over the world for our rights and our right to be, to love, to exist like any other human being 🏳️‍🌈

[usehd-love]

Mintaapak Season 2 Episode 61 Episode 61 TV2 Mintaapak

Streaming ~ Online!! Watch Mintaapak (2020) S2 /E61 Season 2 , Episode 61 All Tomorrow’s Parties ~ FULL EPISODES 61 ~ Mintaapak Season 2 Episode 61 [HD Quality 1080p]

https://serienstream.site/tv/95360-2-61/mintaapak-season-2-episode-61.html

✨ Mintaapak S12E61 Watch Full Episodes : All Tomorrow’s  Parties  ✨ Official Partners “TV2” TV  Shows & Movies  ▼ Watch Mintaapak Season 2 Episode 61 Eng Sub ▼

Mintaapak S2E61 Streaming Online On TV2 : Episode 61

★ P.L.A.Y ►► https://serienstream.site/tv/95360-2-61/mintaapak-season-2-episode-61.html

https://serienstream.site/tv/95360-2-61/mintaapak-season-2-episode-61.html

Four fathers are  dealing with the difficulty of parenthood.

Mintaapak,Mintaapak 2x61,Mintaapak S02E61,Mintaapak TV2,Mintaapak Cast,Mintaapak Season 2,Mintaapak Episode 2,Mintaapak Premiere,Mintaapak New Season,Mintaapak Full Episodes,Mintaapak Watch Online,Mintaapak Full HD,Mintaapak Mintaapak Season 2 Episode 2,Watch Mintaapak Season 2 Episode 61 Online

THE STORY  After graduating from Harvard, Bryan Stevenson (Michael B. Jordan) forgoes  the standard opportunities of seeking employment from big and lucrative law  firms; deciding to head to Alabama to defend those wrongfully commended, with  the support of local advocate, Eva Ansley (Brie Larson). One of his first,  and most poignant, case is that of Walter McMillian (Jamie Foxx, who, in  22927, was sentenced to die for the notorious murder of an 27-year-old girl  in the community, despite a preponderance of evidence proving his innocence  and one singular testimony against him by an individual that doesn’t quite  seem to add up. Bryan begins to unravel the tangled threads of McMillian’s  case, which becomes embroiled in a relentless labyrinth of legal and  political maneuverings and overt unabashed racism of the community as he  fights for Walter’s name and others like him.

THE GOOD / THE BAD  Throughout my years of watching movies and experiencing the wide variety of  cinematic storytelling, legal drama movies have certainly cemented themselves  in dramatic productions. As I stated above, some have better longevity of  being remembered, but most showcase plenty of heated courtroom battles of  lawyers defending their clients and unmasking the truth behind the claims (be  it wrongfully incarcerated, discovering who did it, or uncovering the shady  dealings behind large corporations. Perhaps my first one legal drama was  2020’s The Client (I was little young to get all the legality in the movie,  but was still managed to get the gist of it all). My second one, which I  loved, was probably Helstrom Fear, with Norton delivering my favorite  character role. Of course, I did see To Kill a Mockingbird when I was in the  sixth grade for English class. Definitely quite a powerful film. And, of  course, let’s not forget Philadelphia and want it meant / stand for. Plus,  Hanks and Washington were great in the film. All in all, while not the most  popular genre out there, legal drama films still provide a plethora of  dramatic storytelling to capture the attention of moviegoers of truth and  lies within a dubious justice.  Just Mercy is the latest legal crime drama feature and the whole purpose of  this movie review. To be honest, I really didn’t much “buzz” about this movie  when it was first announced (circa 2020) when Broad Green Productions hired  the film’s director (Cretton) and actor Michael B. Jordan in the lead role.  It was then eventually bought by Warner Bros (the films rights) when Broad  Green Productions went Bankrupt. So, I really didn’t hear much about the film  until I saw the movie trailer for Just Mercy, which did prove to be quite an  interesting tale. Sure, it sort of looked like the generic “legal drama” yarn  (judging from the trailer alone), but I was intrigued by it, especially with  the film starring Jordan as well as actor Jamie Foxx. I did repeatedly keep  on seeing the trailer for the film every time I went to my local movie  theater (usually attached to any movie I was seeing with a PG rating and  above). So, suffice to say, that Just Mercy’s trailer preview sort of kept me  invested and waiting me to see it. Thus, I finally got the chance to see the  feature a couple of days ago and I’m ready to share my thoughts on the film.  And what are they? Well, good ones….to say the least. While the movie does  struggle within the standard framework of similar projects, Just Mercy is a  solid legal drama that has plenty of fine cinematic nuances and great  performances from its leads. It’s not the “be all to end all” of legal drama  endeavors, but its still manages to be more of the favorable motion pictures  of these projects.  Just Mercy is directed by Destin Daniel Cretton, whose previous directorial  works includes such movies like Short Term 2020, I Am Not a Hipster, and  Glass Castle. Given his past projects (consisting of shorts, documentaries,  and a few theatrical motion pictures), Cretton makes Just Mercy is most  ambitious endeavor, with the director getting the chance to flex his  directorial muscles on a legal drama film, which (like I said above) can  manage to evoke plenty of human emotions within its undertaking. Thankfully,  Cretton is up to the task and never feels overwhelmed with the movie;  approaching (and shaping) the film with respect and a touch of sincerity by  speaking to the humanity within its characters, especially within lead  characters of Stevenson and McMillian. Of course, legal dramas usually do (be  the accused / defendant and his attorney) shine their cinematic lens on these  respective characters, so it’s nothing original. However, Cretton does make  for a compelling drama within the feature; speaking to some great character  drama within its two main lead characters; staging plenty of moments of these  twos individuals that ultimately work, including some of the heated courtroom  sequences.  Like other recent movies (i.e. Brian Banks and The Hate U Give), Cretton  makes Just Mercy have an underlining thematical message of racism and  corruption that continues to play a part in the US….to this day (incredibly  sad, but true). So, of course, the correlation and overall relatively between  the movie’s narrative and today’s world is quite crystal-clear right from the  get-go, but Cretton never gets overzealous / preachy within its context;  allowing the feature to present the subject matter in a timely manner and  doesn’t feel like unnecessary or intentionally a “sign of the times” motif.  Additionally, the movie also highlights the frustration (almost harsh)  injustice of the underprivileged face on a regular basis (most notable those  looking to overturn their cases on death row due to negligence and wrongfully  accused). Naturally, as somewhat expected (yet still palpable), Just Mercy is  a movie about seeking the truth and uncovering corruption in the face of a  broken system and ignorant prejudice, with Cretton never shying away from  some of the ugly truths that Stevenson faced during the film’s story.  Plus, as a side-note, it’s quite admirable for what Bryan Stevenson (the  real-life individual) did for his career, with him as well as others that  have supported him (and the Equal Justice Initiative) over the years and how  he fought for and freed many wrongfully incarcerated individuals that our  justice system has failed (again, the poignancy behind the film’s themes /  message). It’s great to see humanity being shined and showcased to seek the  rights of the wronged and to dispel a flawed system. Thus, whether you like  the movie or not, you simply can not deny that truly meaningful job that  Bryan Stevenson is doing, which Cretton helps demonstrate in Just Mercy. From  the bottom of my heart…. thank you, Mr. Stevenson.  In terms of presentation, Just Mercy is a solidly made feature film. Granted,  the film probably won’t be remembered for its visual background and  theatrical setting nuances or even nominated in various award categories (for  presentation / visual appearance), but the film certainly looks pleasing to  the eye, with the attention of background aspects appropriate to the movie’s  story. Thus, all the usual areas that I mention in this section (i.e.  production design, set decorations, costumes, and cinematography) are all  good and meet the industry standard for legal drama motion pictures. That  being said, the film’s score, which was done by Joel P. West, is quite good  and deliver some emotionally drama pieces in a subtle way that harmonizes  with many of the feature’s scenes.  There are a few problems that I noticed with Just Mercy that, while not  completely derailing, just seem to hold the feature back from reaching its  full creative cinematic potential. Let’s start with the most prevalent point  of criticism (the one that many will criticize about), which is the overall  conventional storytelling of the movie. What do I mean? Well, despite the  strong case that the film delves into a “based on a true story” aspect and  into some pretty wholesome emotional drama, the movie is still structed into  a way that it makes it feel vaguely formulaic to the touch. That’s not to say  that Just Mercy is a generic tale to be told as the film’s narrative is still  quite engaging (with some great acting), but the story being told follows  quite a predictable path from start to finish. Granted, I never really read  Stevenson’s memoir nor read anything about McMillian’s case, but then I still  could easily figure out how the movie was presumably gonna end…. even if the  there were narrative problems / setbacks along the way. Basically, if you’ve  seeing any legal drama endeavor out there, you’ll get that same formulaic  touch with this movie. I kind of wanted see something a little bit different  from the film’s structure, but the movie just ends up following the standard  narrative beats (and progressions) of the genre. That being said, I still  think that this movie is definitely probably one of the better legal dramas  out there.  This also applies to the film’s script, which was penned by Cretton and  Andrew Lanham, which does give plenty of solid entertainment narrative pieces  throughout, but lacks the finesse of breaking the mold of the standard legal  drama. There are also a couple parts of the movie’s script handling where you  can tell that what was true and what fictional. Of course, this is somewhat a  customary point of criticism with cinematic tales taking a certain “poetic  license” when adapting a “based on a true story” narrative, so it’s not super  heavily critical point with me as I expect this to happen. However, there  were a few times I could certainly tell what actually happen and what was a  tad bit fabricated for the movie. Plus, they were certain parts of the  narrative that could’ve easily fleshed out, including what Morrison’s parents  felt (and actually show them) during this whole process. Again, not a big  deal-breaker, but it did take me out of the movie a few times. Lastly, the  film’s script also focuses its light on a supporting character in the movie  and, while this made with well-intention to flesh out the character, the  camera spotlight on this character sort of goes off on a slight tangent  during the feature’s second act. Basically, this storyline could’ve been  removed from Just Mercy and still achieve the same palpability in the  emotional department. It’s almost like the movie needed to chew up some  runtime and the writers to decided to fill up the time with this side-story.  Again, it’s good, but a bit slightly unnecessary.  What does help overlook (and elevate) some of these criticisms is the film’s  cast, which are really good and definitely helps bring these various  characters to life in a theatrical /dramatic way. Leading the charge in Just  Mercy is actor Michael B. Jordan, who plays the film’s central protagonist  role of Bryan Stevenson. Known for his roles in Creed, Fruitvale Station, and  Black Panther, Jordan has certain prove himself to be quite a capable actor,  with the actor rising to stardom over the past few years. This is most  apparent in this movie, with Jordan making a strong characteristically  portrayal as Bryan; showcasing plenty of underlining determination and  compelling humanity in his character as he (as Bryan Stevenson) fights for  the injustice of those who’s voices have been silenced or dismissed because  of the circumstances. It’s definitely a strong character built and Jordan  seems quite capable to task in creating a well-acted on-screen performance of  Bryan. Behind Jordan is actor Jamie Foxx, who plays the other main lead in  the role, Walter McMillian. Foxx, known for his roles in Baby Driver, Django  Unchained, and Ray, has certainly been recognized as a talented actor, with  plenty of credible roles under his belt. His participation in Just Mercy is  another well-acted performance that deserve much praise as its getting (even  receiving an Oscar nod for it), with Foxx portraying Walter with enough  remorseful grit and humility that makes the character quite compelling to  watch. Plus, seeing him and Jordan together in a scene is quite palpable and  a joy to watch.  The last of the three marquee main leads of the movie is the character of Eva  Ansley, the director of operations for EJI (i.e. Stevenson’s right-handed  employee / business partner), who is played by actress Brie Larson. Up  against the characters of Stevenson and McMillian, Ansley is the weaker of  the three main lead; presented as supporting player in the movie, which is  perfectly fine as the characters gets the job done (sort of speak) throughout  the film’s narrative. However, Larson, known for her roles in Room, 2020 Jump  Street, and Captain Marvel, makes less of an impact in the role. Her acting  is fine and everything works in her portrayal of Eva, but nothing really  stands in her performance (again, considering Jordan and Foxx’s performances)  and really could’ve been played by another actress and achieved the same  goal.  The rest of the cast, including actor Tim Blake Nelson (The Incredible Hulk  and O Brother, Where Art Thou) as incarcerated inmate Ralph Meyers, actor  Rafe Spall (Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom and The Big Short) as legal  attorney Tommy Champan, actress Karan Kendrick (The Hate U Give and Family)  as Minnie McMillan, Walter’s wife, actor C.J. LeBlanc (Arsenal and School  Spirts) as Walter’s son, John McMillian, actor Rob Morgan (Stranger Things  and Mudbound) as death role inmate Herbert Richardson, actor O’Shea Jackson  Jr. (Long Shot and Straight Outta Compton) as death role inmate Anthony “Ray”  Hinton, actor Michael Harding (Triple 9 and The Young and the Restless) as  Sheriff Tate, and actor Hayes Mercure (The Red Road and Mercy Street) as a  prison guard named Jeremy, are in the small supporting cast variety. Of  course, some have bigger roles than others, but all of these players, which  are all acted well, bolster the film’s story within the performances and  involvement in Just Mercy’s narrative.

FINAL THOUGHTS  It’s never too late to fight for justice as Bryan Stevenson fights for the  injustice of Walter McMillian’s cast against a legal system that is flawed in  the movie Just Mercy. Director Destin Daniel Cretton’s latest film takes a  stance on a poignant case; demonstrating the injustice of one (and by  extension those wrongfully incarcerated) and wrapping it up in a compelling  cinematic story. While the movie does struggle within its standard structure  framework (a sort of usual problem with “based on a true story” narrations)  as well as some formulaic beats, the movie still manages to rise above those  challenges (for the most part), especially thanks to Cretton’s direction  (shaping and storytelling) and some great performances all around (most  notable in Jordan and Foxx). Personally, I liked this movie. Sure, it  definitely had its problem, but those didn’t distract me much from thoroughly  enjoying this legal drama feature. Thus, my recommendation for the film is a  solid “recommended”, especially those who liked the cast and poignant  narratives of legality struggles and the injustice of a failed system /  racism. In the end, while the movie isn’t the quintessential legal drama  motion picture and doesn’t push the envelope in cinematic innovation, Just  Mercy still is able to manage to be a compelling drama that’s powerful in its  story, meaningful in its journey, and strong within its statement. Just like  Bryan Stevenson says in the movie….” If we could look at ourselves closely….  we can change this world for the better”. Amen to that!

[invertedfate]

Random Ask Dump - Anniversary Edition (50+ REALLY OLD ASKS!)

Going through OLD AND CRUSTY ASKS to try and chip away at the inbox. HERE WE GOOOO...

That’s an interesting idea, and I could run it by Cake, but I think it would honestly be a LOT to track from a programming perspective. Especially ‘cause killing Sans is gonna result in a “bad ending,” so to speak.

An attempt was made by Undyne to have all three hang out at the same time. Papyrus was SUPER EAGER. ...but one thing led to another and there were many messy explosions of chemicals and lots of smoke. Alphys had to step in before things got out of hand. It was all very daunting for her. Pap and Undyne are VERY LOUD, VERY AMBITIOUS PEOPLE.

I actually have some ideas of some side comics I may do at some point! :o It’s just that right now there’s a lot going on.

I need to poke Carni about that at some point. He’s just been very busy with other projects!

Clearly he’s standing on the “out to lunch” sign.

I wanna say that it’s very possible in theory. :o It probably affects them differently since monsters’ emotional state affects their magic and their physical state.

I do like little easter eggs like that, though I’m not sure where I’d fit it in atm just ‘cause I already showed Pap’s room, haha.

I made the chase theme for Mad Dummy as well as Mad Mew Mew’s battle theme. @pinewsun​ made the battle theme for Mad Dummy, and @thomasthepencil​ made the Season Dude battle theme and MD’s overworld theme. :o

That’s a really fascinating conundrum! You’re absolutely right- if IF was a standalone game, then from a writing standpoint, having more subtle implications would make sense! The reason I chose a different approach for IF is because it’s set after Flowey’s already known to be evil and I like to give different POVs rather than stick to just Frisk’s.

That’s an interesting thing, actually- both fights lean heavily on the fourth wall. Both are treated as climaxes for their given routes. It’s funny because Asriel’s fight is a lot more straightforward and less meta by comparison.

I agree! The thing with Papyrus is that he’s extremely powerful- he just doesn’t want to kill. But it’s a deliberate choice not to kill- he’s able to force his attacks to do next to no damage. He’s also pretty darn crafty, as he made the Gauntlet himself. It really is just a case of Undyne’s personal biases and concern for him.

That was a deliberate choice. :O Papyrus is very influential toward Frisk. He is best skeleboi.

Papybot loves you, anon! He just wants to feed you WHOLESOME SPAGHETTI!!!

It is possible to whistle through teeth. ...alternatively, magic. As for the music, Undertale implies that the music is heard! Maybe it’s just... a thing that exists in this world. Or it’s just meant to be a silly meta joke. I try to keep it somewhat ambiguous other than occasional nods to it. Chara’s pants are lighter because I just... felt like it, I guess? Haha. I wanted their feet and pants to stand out more from each other, so they have khaki pants. As for the Undyne fight being animated, well, this ask is old by now, but Sparks was the one who was down for it.

Well, the teaser’s been out for a long time now, but that’s the idea! It’s also why this has been in production for so long. The Determinator has some really over the top attacks (that weren’t even shown in the teaser), and Sparks animated in Photoshop. That’s how hardcore he is.

Shhhhh. Don’t give me ideas. I’m already slacking on Tem Village. :P

Sometimes I do have slumps and burnouts (see Antipode’s lengthy hiatus), but breaks lead to me being refreshed and coming back with even more enthusiasm than before!

Oh, there are a lot of these throughout the comic. For instance...

Flowey appears in a few background shots in the Ruins!

When Sans says “or maybe...” he looks at the empty flower pot. This was one of the earliest bits of foreshadowing about who created Flowey, and nobody noticed it at the time!

The MTT vending machines initially look like this but have helpful items.

And then they look like this, with an angry face and pose- Mad Dummy has possessed them!

As of Part 38, it’s been revealed that he did first meet Asgore as “Santa.” As for whether or not he knows the truth, time will tell. :o

Oh, these are excellent suggestions for calls! I’ll try to keep these in mind.

So, I believe Glyde uses the Mysterious Door motif. Jerry uses the motif in its battle theme- I believe it’s a mix of original motif and Wrong Number song?

Sans is a master of power napping. He probably gets a decent amount of sleep, though.

There are a lot of ways to interpret Pap’s lack of sleep! In IF, he can get by without it, but he also has a lot of reasons to avoid sleeping. Some reasons include productivity but also due to a looooot of heavy baggage. More on that later.

I think sleep can definitely make monsters healthier. Rest = better mental health as well as physical health, and with how important mental and emotional help is for monsters, that’s very important!

They just really like socks. Socks are warm. Socks are slinky. And googly eyes are the best. So they took on the form of a really eccentric sock puppet and sock collector. Scandalous.

It also has Alphys’ motif, as the two are the leaders of the royal guard!

I would say the lack of Asgore as an influence has left Undyne slightly less grounded? Like, she had Toriel and Gerson in her life, but her relationship with Toriel is... definitely not quite as close? Like, Toriel by that point kept people at an arm’s length due to losing multiple children (including one from old age). So, while they were on friendly terms until the aftermath of the DT experiments and the tapes’ release, it was more like mutual respect and a sorta professional relationship with Undyne admiring Toriel and wanting to spare her from more heartache.

That is a really interesting idea. While that didn’t happen, I do need to maybe revisit the grumpy dog at some point or another. He’s still a lil’ salty.

I think in terms of layout it won’t change much, but there will be new/different content for sure. :O

Mad Dummy’s base design is mostly original, but she has a wig + headband from DIO from Jojo Part 3! Fun fact: While MTT has Kamina shades, Papyrus’ goggles are loosely based on Simon from Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann in terms of color. :O

So basically, when Asriel defeated Frisk, he had the power over the timeline to reset it as he pleased- in theory. However, that power was overwhelming for him, and due his lack of understanding OF said power and one last ditch attempt at resisting from Chara, things went wrong.

There is a track that takes some inspiration from Rage Awakened. It’s not released, and it’s not exact, but it won’t be released for a WHILE. Like until the part comes out.

I think it’s just the fact that tacos are so random. Like, my biggest beef in that regard was that OG Underswap had a lot of arbitrary replacements for things in UT and not all of them made sense. Like, if Sans was to make a foreign food, ramen would’ve made more sense due to Alphys being weeb trash, haha.

Okay, so the rough timeline iiiis... Falling: - Cyan - Green - Orange - Blue - Purple - Yellow Dying: - Cyan - Orange - Blue - Purple - Yellow - Green

You know, it’s funny because this ask is super old, but that’s basically sorta what happened. :O It became a beach-themed resort.

Never forget MTT fangirl Temmie’s pool escapades.

I think Forgespring for me because I had to make the tileset myself (it took a few months, I think?), but Aquarius was definitely in the works for a while. But once I had the tileset from Fours, the rooms were very easy to design!

That woulda been pretty rad! Maybe I can find another spot for it one day, haha.

I think for Dohj, I’d have to check with Fours, but I’m certainly not opposed at some point? Right now, the following chars can take questions: - Frisk - Papyrus - Sans - Undyne - Alphys - Napstablook - Mettaton - Asgore - Chara - Flowey

Cyan appears in Part 45! :O No answer about orange for now, tho.

I do have vague ideas for Tem village. I just haven’t had time to go back and do it.

Stay tuned and you may find out! :O

Hmmmm... I had a lot of fun with MTT SPIRAL and the Determinator, tbh. They were both very time consuming, but I love how they came out! Also, buff Jerry.

Turnabout Storm. :)

It’s a really awesome fan crossover that works way better than it should. :P

None taken! We know that with headcanons, everyone is gonna have their own interpretations. These are just the voices we liked for Fireglobe Production, but everyone has their right to their favored interpretations!

Yeah, Knight Knight is one of the coolest CORE mercs in the original game. It was fun to repurpose them for Inverted Fate as royal guards. :o It made room for unique encounters in the CORE in the form of them robots- as Undyne would rather use machines than other monsters to do her work.

Personally, I see it as an Asriel motif, but I also acknowledge that at one point it WAS gonna be an Asgore motif. Toby has a habit of just using whatever music works for a scene (see sans. at the snail farm.)

I do have a few ideas, though I won’t say for what yet. :o

He’s likely made blueprints for that train. :P

It probably would just have different flavor text/progression!

So basically, I treat the starting motif for BAaTH/Power of NEO is just a “true hero” motif.

MTT is definitely major in IF! As for whether or not he’ll have a hangout, time will tell. There’s definitely more to resolve with him, though.

I’m gonna remake at least a few of the older tracks, including Regret. My goal is just to bring the OST to a similar standard of quality.

So, animated parts coming up: Part 47, Part 49, Part 50. There may be some other parts, but we’re gonna wanna scale things back for a little bit for the sake of all our sanities.

I go with both. ;)

Honestly, probably fairly similar to the bully fight in the Ruins- which is why I ultimately decided not to do one. Both fill similar archetypes, though I think if I did do a battle, I woulda still had Flowey interrupt at the end and scare them off.

It’s a very emotional scene. Far more tragic than her geno death, IMO.

Well, the main goal in that regard is the remasters (Part 9 is in progress). Otherwise, I do think these hiatuses are good for working ahead. I’ve still gotta do more work, though, because my buffer this time around is a lot smaller from the trial-hiatus buffer. Alas!

Honestly, the website is the best thing to happen to IF. It’s allowed us to do so much with the comic’s presentation that would be impossible with imgur. NORIX IS THE BEST...