#no one take this too srs its mostly so if/when i finally watch everything i can reference how off my assumptions were

[sparring-spirals]

There is a universe in which i was caught up properly on CR whenever what the fuck went down and Imogen verbally and definitively declared that- after everything leading up to this and the back and forth and indecision- that she'd be willing to take down her mom if need be. and i would have been deeply insufferable and writing 20+ separate meta posts and liveblog yelling posts and shitposts. This is not that universe so instead we will put this post here where i can have wildly uninformed (aka 20 eps behind) Emotions about it until someday i actually catch up.

(I know. i accidentally wrote potentially wildly off base/deeply out of date meta again. what can i say. i like shaking the concept of An Imogen (even if it is Outdated Imogen) in a jar. sorry.)

Because i was watching long enough, I think, to see Imogen in the throes of the hope for something better, to understand that Imogen was viewing her mom was a figure and an idea and an answer, that would make things easier. Her mom was- gone, so early. And so her mom, in her mind, was not a person she was an idea, and there was so much hinged on that! Dogged determination and anger at her father and a deep seated dislike of the powers in her hands and head even as they gave her a guilty rush. There were promises there that maybe no one else had made, but Imogen believed. Things built up. Expectations made. Lore crafted, even unconsciously, around someone who was, yes, important to Imogen, but more importantly: Missing. Gone. A blank slate to be filled in. A promise of an answer guide to open questions.

And then she meets her mom, and Liliana Temult goes from a figure to a person- with all the bells and whistles and rough edges. She meets her mom and her mom turns her away. Tells her to run. Tells her she should go. Tells her to leave.

And Imogen doesn't. In the same way she kept visiting libraries, keps asking, kept pushing for answers when it was just about her magic and her headaches and the voices. Imogen always, always wants to know. She keeps digging, she keeps trying, she reaches out, over and over and keeps trying to touch this figure in mist until she's real under her hands, and. Evidence piles up- of deeds gone wrong, blood on her hands, a figure standing next to Otohan (her friends bodies scattered, lifeless, around Otohan). She keeps reaching out, keeps trying, and is rebuffed, over and over. Things get worse and the skies get redder and magic goes dead and she's still- unsure, because what if there's a better reason, what if there's a better way, there has to be a reason, why. There has to be, right- maybe if- maybe. Maybe-

Its just like- a person as an idea. As a symbol. As a promise. One you build yourself up around and towards. One you talk about, not talk to.

And then the fog clears, and they are a human.

(And she's your mom, and she's not what you imagined. She's done you wrong. She's done your loved ones wrong. She's hurt you. She's hurt others. She's going to keep hurting you. She is going to keep hurting everyone. She is too far gone to reason with. She is not listening to you. She is flawed. She is. dangerous. She looks so much like you. You look just like her. You are so similar. You have always known you were similar. You always hoped. You.

Are not her. You are not hers. She is not yours. She is not who you thought she was. She was always someone else. So are you.)

Imogen walks through the bases pretending to be her mother. Liliana is a known face- a powerful one, a figure people fear. A well known silhouette. Imogen slips into the shadows of it, sometimes, when it serves her, but we know- she knows- its all an act. All a lie.

Liliana, after all, is alive, and well, making choices that she believes in and fighting for things with a dogged determination maybe only matched by her daughter.

Imogen knows this. I think. There's a part of her that maybe wishes that wasn't the case.

"There is no loyalty with this blood." And after all- only living people bleed.

[theoriginalcarnivorousmuffin]

You wrote your opinions on the Order of the Phoenix, what about the Death Eaters? That's another way of saying Lucius, Bellatrix, and anybody else. I honestly feel that we're running out of HP characters for you to write your opinion and reasoning about, so yeah~

We honestly are. When people start asking me questions about Harry’s nameless and faceless classmates I feel like we’re scraping the bottom of my barrel of Harry Potter opinions.

Though, that said, this is still a very large ask if you want me to analyze very Death Eater ever or even the Death Eaters as a whole (which is worthy of its own post).

So, we’ll compromise, and I’ll just look at the two you name dropped.

Lucius Malfoy

To me, Lucius is by far one of the more intelligent Death Eaters. He’s the guy who makes them almost look classy. I say almost, because Lucius is still a racist domestic terrorist and as the series goes on Tom gleefully drags him into being less classy by the minute (his house becomes a POW camp and housing for the dregs of society, Lucius just sobs, trying to be thankful he’s somehow still alive).

Lucius is rich, sophisticated, and is probably the most politically powerful man in the country. He has a beautiful wife he has... a son (sorry Draco, but you do not live up to your father) the guy has it all.

Which makes it very surprising that he got dragged into this mess. But you see, Lucius is paying for that tragedy we call youth.

Also, as a caveat, I’m about to headcanon hard and will not bother to get into the details of why I think x, y, or z in this post.

Ten years prior to the start of canon, Lucius is a very young man, probably very charismatic, certainly believes he’s intelligent and probably gets decent grades, but nonetheless the kind of stupid you see in men ages 15-25.

He’s likely chafing under his aging father’s strict guidance, knows he’s not going to be Lord Malfoy for years yet, wants to get out there, prove himself, and make a difference for his country. More importantly for Lucius, there’s this hip, exciting, new thing that all his cousins and friends are getting into called “The Death Eaters” (yes, I don’t believe the Knights of Walpurgis/Death Eaters 1.0 ever happened, I think it’s ridiculous that fandom and JKR does, I could go into why but not in this post). 

The Death Eaters are led by the single handedly most beautiful, charismatic, man in Britain. (Yes, I headcanon Tom’s still blindingly attractive at this stage, because it makes much more sense to me but we’re not getting into that here.) A mysterious man by the name of Voldemort, Salazar Slytherin’s long lost heir, who has come to resurrect the wizarding world’s true heritage and purge the land of the muggle stain. (Yes, I do believe that no one, not even Lucius who is later given the diary, knew who Tom really was. I believe Regulus’ had only the vaguest idea, informed mostly by Tom’s use of Kreacher to place the locket.) This is the most exciting thing to have ever happened, the rallies probably consist of rich kids drunk out of their minds and maybe even high on a little wizard cocaine, and Lucius is down for it precisely because his father says “Lucius, this is stupid, please don’t embarrass the family.” WELL LUCIUS IS GOING TO EMBARRASS THE FAMILY, DAD! WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO ABOUT IT?!

And for a while, it looks like Lucius made the right choice. Things are happening, they’re actually going out and killing the mudbloods! Unlike Regulus, Lucius never has that “wait a minute” moment as he realizes that Voldemort’s actually far more efficiently eliminating pureblood families and sowing dissention in what was once a unanimous force among the Wizengamot (the other pureblood lords aren’t necessarily pro muggleborn, per se, but they get a bit queasy at the thought of blowing them up or Merlin forbid actually blowing up their own public venues wizards use). 

And then October 31st, 1981 happens, and it all comes crashing down. Lucius has to desperately lie his ass off, having only the flimsiest lie to rely on, has to hand out a shit ton of bribes, and manages to squeeze his way out of being imprisoned in Azkaban. 

I’m sure Abraxas looked at his son, with his tattoo on his arm that makes him another man’s slave, at the utter destruction of the Black family, and just shook his head going, “Clean up your mess, Dumbass Son”

And Lucius does to the best of his ability. While some will always suspect him of being a Death Eater, while some know it, he’s able to climb very high in influence in their ridiculously tiny community. Granted, I do think he messed up, and could never for example run for minister given everything (if Crouch can’t rerun then Lucius certainly can’t). He also shows us that in some ways he is not above the law, he’s very afraid his house will be searched without warrant in The Chamber of Secrets, and this is in part why he dumps Tom Riddle’s diary off onto Ginny.

However, he wields total control of the Prophet, has a seat on the Wizengamot, has the ear of the current Minister, is on the Hogwarts’ Board of Governors, and has his hands in pretty much every pie he can.

I imagine during this period Lucius grows up. He brushes the indiscretions of his youth under the carpet, gleefully leaving it all behind him, and the only real friend he maintains contact with from that period is Severus, the least zealot like of all of them. (Crabbe and Goyle Sr aren’t friends, they’re minions). 

Don’t get me wrong, he’s still a racist slime bag, and I don’t think he really regrets the domestic terrorism. He just regrets nearly getting caught and putting his entire family’s security on the line. He witnessed first hand what happened to the Blacks.

And then the worst thing happens: Tom Riddle rises from the dead. He rises, impossibly, from the dead when Lucius has his own hand caught in the cookie jar.

Lucius has been living a life of luxury and influence while his great master, the man he had pledged everything to, was dead. Worse, Lucius took what was described as a treasured item to be protected at all costs, and not only threw it away but sent it to Hogwarts where it caused massive havoc and was ultimately destroyed. 

And Lucius, I imagine, no longer wants to serve a master.

But he has no choice. And so begins Lucius’ descent into misery and hell as he’s given an increasing set of impossible, horrific, tasks in punishment that involve him watching as his wife and son are put through hell.

I believe Tom holds a special place in his cold, black, passive aggressive heart for Lucius Malfoy.

First, Tom makes Lucius’ house his headquarters. Oh, Lucius, you have a very nice, very large, estate? Why don’t you host your beloved, mad, cousin, her equally mad husband and brother-in-law? Oh, Bellatrix threatened to cut off your ear? Well, she’s just so passionate! 

Second, Lucius is told to go get the prophecy. Well, this is easier said than done. He nearly succeeds but then it all turns into the world’s largest clusterfuck that ends in two notable things. First, the prophecy is lost forever, shattered. Second, the government admits that Voldemort is truly resurrected. Both of these things are very bad in Tom’s book. And the blame can easily be put on Lucius’ head.

In response to this, Draco is now given an impossible task that Draco is too stupid to realize is designed to cause him (and his family) as much misery as possible. Draco is to assassinate Dumbledore. 

Likely, Tom was already informed by Snape that Dumbledore was dying. The blackened hand was too obvious a tell coming from too obvious a source for the pair to have hid it. I think trying to hide such information would have immediately blown Snape’s cover. So, Tom knows the man is dying, and doesn’t see fit to tell Draco this.

Instead, he tells Draco, “Kill Dumbledore as soon as possible or I deliver you to Fenrir Grayback.” Draco, however, is young and stupid, so he honestly thinks he is doing this to restore the family honor, earn glory for himself and for the cause, and is expected to do this entirely by himself. As a result, when Narcissa begs Snape to aid Draco, Draco blows them both off and only accepts help from Bellatrix because HE CAN DO THIS ON HIS OWN! DRACO IS A MAN.

This, of course, doesn’t work out either. Draco doesn’t deliver the killing blow, Snape does, but Tom decides to give him a pass.

Instead he moves on to his next plan which is making the Malfoy manor his torture chamber and POW camp. Even Draco, at this point, realizes this all kind of sucks. 

And then Voldemort finally dies a second time, and I’m sure Lucius just stares numbly at his malformed corpse, wondering if it will really take this time.

So that’s Lucius for you, paying always for his mistakes, and pretending he’s just as much of a nutcase as Bellatrix to fit in.

Bellatrix LeStrange

God, compared to the novel that is Lucius’ ridiculous life, I really don’t have much to say about her because I feel like there’s not much too her.

Bellatrix reminds me a lot of the Manson family, she gives off those same vibes. Point being, I think even before Azkaban (while Azkaban certainly didn’t help), she was insane and a little too worshipful of Voldemort.

I guess I can start there, I don’t think Bellamort is a thing, at all. 

Tom may have, probably did, have sex with her before he died but afterwards? In that body? Forget about it.

That said, I’m sure Bellatrix both wanted to have sex and is convinced she did have sex to produce whatever the hell Delphi even is. It just wasn’t with Tom, and probably was Rodolphous with a Halloween mask on his face as they got a little too into role play.

And there we go, I suppose, I can’t take Bellatrix seriously. You often see her portrayed as sexy femme fatale Death Eater, the most competent of all of them, if a bit of a sadist.

Oh she might be a very good duelist but she’s... Bellatrix.

She prances around in corsets, shrieking madly, and just what part of that is supposed to be femme fatale? I literally cannot take her seriously on any level. When I even try to write her seriously, in very serious stories, I end up with lines like the following:

"My lord, if there's anything you need… Anything from me, specifically, as a woman…" 

- Bright Eyes

That was my best attempt. That was the best I could come up with. It’s still something that belongs in a comedy.

So, I don’t think Tom really corrupted her. I think without Voldemort she still probably would have been blowing up Diagon Alley, just in a much less organized manner.

Even in canon she does ridiculous things. For example, Bellatrix, frankly, could have easily avoided prison.

For weeks after the dark lord fell neither she, her husband, Barty, nor her brother-in-law were arrested. Bellatrix in grief and utter disbelief that the dark lord could ever do something so mortal as die, said “remember that other house our lord mentioned, THEY MIGHT HAVE INFORMATION, LET’S GO MURDER THE LONGBOTTOMS!” They torture and kidnap Frank, demanding he tell them where their master is, THEY KNOW HE KNOWS. He doesn’t know. They go too far and torture the man into being a vegetable. “Shit, GET THE WIFE!” They go get the wife, do the same thing, with the same results.

They now have no information on the dark lord, two well regarded aurors tortured into brain damage, and are quickly caught and brought before the court with absolutely no “I was imperiused” excuse they can give out. 

How am I supposed to take her in any way seriously?

I mean, to end your life killed in a duel with Molly Weasley. That just says it all.

[one-boring-person]

Only Traitors Consort With The Damned (Part Eight)

The Lost Boys x reader

Warnings: mentions of death

Context: (y/n) has to stay entertained at the cave, and so goes about setting up defences.

A/N: I think this chapter is a bit dull, but I promise it gets better soon!

Masterlist

Unsurprisingly, no light filters into my room when I wake again the next morning, my eyes having to swiftly adjust to the shadowy sight before them as I sit up, rubbing at my scalp. A pounding headache has set in, thanks to the lack of sleep and the sheer amount of over thinking I did last night, my skull feeling as if it's about to explode as I swing my legs out from under the covers, knowing that I have even more planning and preparing to do if I want to survive long enough to see the end of the year. Stretching out the dull ache in my muscles, I check the watch on my wrist briefly to get an idea of the time: 4:23. Whether that is AM or PM, I have no idea yet, but I aim to find out, quickly grabbing my rucksack and jacket as I stand and leave the room, heading out into the main hall where the boys usually spend their nights.

Bright light streams in from the outside, indicating that it is 4:23 PM, illuminating the decrepit lobby in a new clarity I've not seen it in before, every piece of scattered rubbish given a new appearance. In the daylight, the whole place looks less sinister, and more like an abandoned antiques shop, the dusty bits and pieces casting odd shaped shadows onto the floor as the sunlight hits them from a certain angle, every dull colour suddenly highlighted more than usual. I have to blink a few times to allow my eyes to adjust, but they quickly do so, my gaze swiftly flicking around the looming room so that I can take it all in, a plan springing to my mind as I observe it all.

Silently, I get to work, dropping my bag on the fountain ledge and rummaging around in it, pulling everything out to lay it out in front of me so that I can properly see what I have. It's not much, but it's enough to satisfy what needs doing. Picking up the lightweight chains we are required to own, I grab some dirty old cans lying a little way away, the litter most likely the remains of a meal from sometime before, their rusted forms almost perfect for what I need them for.

Eyeing the brightly lit entrance, I take up a ball of string, too, and go over to it, stepping out onto the rickety walkway, examining the rugged wood with a critical eye as I walk out a little way, putting some weight in my step. Under each step, the wood moves slightly, the material having a light spring to it thanks to its age and exposure to the elements, which makes me frown slightly, hoping my plan will still work even though this is the case. Kneeling down, I measure out a length of string that runs the width of the walkway and use my knife to cut it to size. Setting it aside, I get to work on the chains, making six separate lengths with cans attached to them, each one of them rattling loudly as I shake them out experimentally. Smiling to myself, I connect one chain to the end of the piece if string, doubling it over itself for a better result, quickly doing the same on the other end of the string, weighting it down perfectly. I find a pair of small rocks lodged into the cliffside beside me and place them at opposing ends of the walkway, but not before I've scraped a small groove into their surfaces, where the string rests once I've set it up, hanging the chains over the sides of the walkway. The string sits an inch or so above the surface of the walkway, meaning it is easily tripped over, setting off the rudimentary alarm.

I repeat this twice more, leaving them at alternating distances from each other to provide a crude trap to alert anyone inside the cave of approaching intruders: when someone trips the string, the cans and chains will rattle loudly, signifying their approach. Absentmindedly, I hear a small voice in my head telling me that any SRS soldiers will be expecting this, and won't fall for such an amateur trap, quickly deciding that I need to work on something inside the cave, too, something more hidden.

Going back inside, I wipe some sweat from my upper lip, surprised at the heat of the day despite it being mid-October, my clothes sticking to me as I go back to my rucksack, trying to figure something else out. My eyes are quickly drawn to the grenades I have left. They won't work very well on humans, but the loud noise and subsequent explosion of mist will throw anyone off if caught up in it, meaning they are somewhat effective for this purpose.

Grabbing them, I take the string again and go to the entrance, making sure to set up two of the conveniently placed barrels of charcoal the boys use as braziers, setting them up a little way apart around the front of the cave. Going a little way ahead of them again, I place a seemingly random cardboard box face down on the floor, checking the layout once more, before measuring pieces of string again. Cutting them all to size, I tie one end of each of the length to the ring of a grenade, which I carefully loosen, hiding the two explosives under the cardboard box as I loop the string around the two barrels, pulling it tightly enough that it creates another tripwire across the entrance.

Sitting back, I look at my handiwork, noting that the string isn't too obvious and that the overall look isn't too bad. Cautiously, I pull the string taut again, knowing how tense it needs to be for this trap to actually work. Aware that this is now a near-fatal hazard for the four original residents of the cave, I make a mental note to warn them of the new trap before one of them accidentally trips it and gets a face-full of burning holy water.

Sighing, I go back to my rucksack and pick up the gun, checking the clip for rounds, annoyed to find it only about half-full, most of them having been used over the last few days, meaning it needs reloading. I check over the rest if my stuff, growling when I realise that I haven't got anymore bullets with me, leaving me with a pretty much useless weapon which will need reloading very quickly. Setting it down again, I quickly make a decision, going back out into the daylight and up to the cliff top, where I grab some of the random pieces of driftwood lying around, returning to the cave with an armfull of them. Tiredly, I drop them to the floor and sit down, pull in out my knife so I can start whittling them down - a skill every Hunter is taught is how to make wooden bullets, seeing as they are effective against both supernatural and natural creatures.

A small pile of bullets has steadily grown by the time the boys finally emerge from their sleep, the last rays of sunlight having dissipated an hour or so ago, my fingers sore from scratching the knife over the dry wood for so long, though it has paid off: I have enough to fill four or five clips, now. As they enter the room, I look up at them with a tired smile, glad to have some company now.

"Hey guys. Sleep well?" I greet them, waving slightly with the knife, my tone light despite the tension in my body.

"Mostly, yeah." Marko responds, coming over to me with the others, their brows furrowed as they see what I'm doing.

"What're you up to?" Dwayne questions, eyeing the bullets apprehensively.

"Making some more rounds for my gun. I didn't bring enough ammo, so I'm making my own." I explain, gesturing to the pile dismissively.

"Out of wood?" Paul interjects, looking genuinely curious.

"Yep. It's the only available material."

"That's...kinda cool, but also pretty worrying." The blonde vampire muses, dropping down beside me as he goes to pick one up.

"I'm not planning to use them in you guys, don't worry." I reassure them, rolling my eyes.

"Why do you need so many?" David asks, blue eyes appearing much darker in this light.

I shrug casually, finishing up the one I'm currently working on.

"In case the SRS comes knocking. Speaking of which, I've set up some traps by the entrance, so just be careful of them." I make eye contact with David, "One of them will be very painful if it's tripped."

He frowns a little, but nods in any case.

"Duly noted." The vampire licks his lips carefully, "I'm hungry, so I'm gonna head out and get something to eat. You boys coming?"

Marko and Paul eagerly agree, though Dwayne politely declines.

"I think it's a good idea if someone stays here with (Y/n), and I'm not that hungry so I'm happy to do that." The dark haired vampire explains, watching me for a reaction as I give him a confused look, surprised at the offer.

"You don't need to, Dwayne. I'm grateful for the offer, but I don't want to ruin your night..." I start, only to be cut off by him sitting down beside me.

"Don't worry about it, I'd rather stay here. Plus, maybe you can show me how to do that. It'd get the job done quicker with two people doing it."

"I guess. Thank you." I murmur, still surprised, trying to ignore the blush rising to my cheeks.

"No problem."

"Right, well, we'll be back in a few hours. Want us to bring you something back, Dwayne?" David cuts in, eyeing the two of us carefully.

"No, it's alright. I'll go out when you guys get back."

"Ok. See you two later." Without another word, the three vampires leave the room, the surrounding quickly lapsing into silence as Dwayne and I sit there.

"So, how do you carve these?" He finally asks, pulling a knife from the pocket of his jacket, his thumb running swiftly over the blade to test it's sharpness.

"Oh, it's pretty easy. Just copy me..." I run through the basic premise of what needs doing, the vampire easily picking it up, the two of us starting to produce a good amount of them between us.

Part Nine

[rigelmejo]

listening reading method updates

Some updates because I’ve done Listening Reading Method maybe 10-15 hours within the past week and wow is it worth doing (for me) if done properly:

First some notes of what “properly” means for me: It means I’ve done step 2 at some point (since I’m using all books I have at least vague prior context for whether its this past year or in life I’ve seen them before). It means I do step 2 first. Then I do step 3, with parallel text so I keep my place OR do it in Pleco (doing step 3 in Pleco is strangely super effective for me).

So, I’ve been testing my general listening comprehension. How I’ve tested it: listening to some audio file of a chapter I did with L R method, and see if I can understand it better. So no text aid. Also generally some time gap (at least a few days) between when I did L R, and when I listen to test my comprehension.

Limits of test: this is not new material - I have both prior context of the plot, and doing L R method on the material before means I have intensively studied that audio material with L R method at one point. I’m trying to find some ‘totally unknown’ stuff to test with too we’ll see.

Benefits of the test: its easy to compare my progress, because I’ve listened to these audios many times so I know where my ‘comprehension’ of them was at a few months ago. I can more easily compare.

---

So anyway, has L R Method helped listening comprehension? YES god oh my god. 

I listened to Chapter 9 of Guardian’s audiobook just falling asleep, because I didn’t feel like full on L R Method the chapter (I have done Listening Reading Method for chapters 1-8). I could understand enough to follow the entire main plot and all the main scenes - a few descriptive sentences lost me, but I got all the action-related (touched reached stood cried shouted left side pocket held objects movement and set phrases priest uses for certain expressions), key emotion related (like sad cold warm kind sharp worried investigated pushed shivered and set phrases I remember priest using for certain expressions) details, and got all of the main dialogue (this part context helps for though since words like reincarnation and sundial are fairly new to me and I only understand since I already ran into them in previous chapters I’ve done L R Method with). 

I was freaking FLOORED I could just listen and enjoy the story, so today I listened to chapter 1 again. And YEP - same thing applied. I could follow all of the main plot, main scenes, and certain details. I totally missed the part where he talks about his aunt/uncle but I heard his bad grades, got the letter for a job notice, how he hates phone calls, his plan to go, him getting to the place, what the place looked like and Wang Zheng and all the scenes at the job - so like I mentioned, actions/emotions/real objects being interacted with I can mostly follow. The paragraphs of description background (like Guo Changcheng’s upbringing and how his uncle got him a job) are harder for me to catch everything - I am guessing because there’s more description phrases and less straightforward action=response. (For example - xiao guo sees Lao Wu, they respond, so its easy to follow, or he sees Wang Zheng and faints, or he walks into the courtyard and reads the address - all of these moments directly focus on things and react which is easier to follow). 

For the first time I can say I can listen to just the audiobook and follow it enough to enjoy the plot and what’s mainly going on without any text aid. And I’ve only done the listening reading method for 8 chapters! That’s 40-50 minutes a chapter, around 360 minutes or 6 hours. 6 hours spent Listening Reading Method Guardian, and I already see a huge boost in what I can comprehend in listening! (I also did some random L R method chapters of other stuff so add 1-2 hours - that’s still like 8 hours total... that ain’t much). 

Last time I listened to guardian audiobook without any text aid (a few months ago), I could hear some words I knew and some phrases, and had a vague understanding of when he got to the job (heard courtyard and si ming hao), met Lao Wu (i heard him report for duty), when he talked to zhao yunlan and got generally welcomed, met Wang Zheng and thought ‘he has no feet’ and got scared. No fucking details. The vaguest impression of the main plot mainly because I’ve read the chapter before and knew the scenes coming. But that was still eons better than Before That - around 6 months ago i listened to chapter 1 like 5 times until i could hear some phrases instead of just isolated words. 

This time, I could follow things because I could HEAR what was actually going on, not just because I heard some keywords. I could clearly hear the details about Guo Changcheng entering the courtyard, reading the address and special investigations name, go up to Lao Wu and report in and Lao Wu greet him warmly and excitedly mention how lucky it is he came today that their boss is there! And fawn over how cool the boss is, and all the specifics of the convo with Zhao Yunlan (and half of his appearance like how he’s handsome and heroic looking and had a hand in his pocket and seemed cold until he noticed them and smiled and acted warm and friendly). And all the scenes were like that - like with Wang Zheng I could hear all the details of Guo Changcheng freaking out, eventually noticing her head had been cut and it wasn’t a necklace it was like sewn on and how he passed out. It was soooo much better ToT. The amount of comprehension is sooooo much higher than the last time I tried to listen! It shocks me how much better! This is enough comprehension to actually listen and just enjoy it. ToT

So yeah, I’d say Listening Reading Method, as I’m doing it right now, is making noticeable improvements in my reading skill and listening skill. 

So yeah I’m super curious how listening comprehension is gonna be 20 chapters into Listening Reading Method. 

What I do think this would be good for, if you were studying short term? If you wanted to understand a specific audiobook - doing L R Method with the book until you can listen to the rest. It would probably take a short enough amount of study to do within a month if you already have some skills in the language (since this is with 6-8 hours of study). I saw someone once do SRS Flashcard study based on a show they liked in a foreign language, and within a month they could watch that show they liked without english subs and follow the main plot. I think L R Method with a novel works kind of similar - its intensive study on one story. So within a reasonably short amount of time (10-50 hours maybe, something that can be done within a month) you can get enough comprehension skill of that One story to understand it ok. 

I imagine you need to do L R Method longer, and with either a word dense material (lots of varied vocab) or else multiple stories (ideally different authors and genres), in order to get broader listening skill improvement. Like right now my listening skill in general seems to have improved somewhat... but its more like ‘listening to a show without subs’ is now easier. Not like I can turn on a brand new audiobook and follow it this well. So some slightly easier listening activity is now easier, but for other audiobooks I am probably comprehending more but the listening skill improvement is NOT as drastic as it is specifically with Guardian. 

Testing listening comprehension with materials I have not L R Method with:

Alice in Wonderland (story is shorter/simpler than novel): I can follow it mostly when listening only. I can follow it near entirely (know exactly what’s going on just a few words I don’t recognize) if I’m looking at the video (since it has pictures for context - like watching a show). My listening comprehension drops noticeably if I do NOT look at the video visuals for an aid - since I am used to Alice in Wonderland hitting the original novel beats, not this shorter movie-based version. This level of comprehension makes sense, as its written simpler than Guardian so I should have an easier time following details in this. But lack of context means I have to put more effort into figuring out what scene is what if I don’t have any visual cues. So easier ‘written’ audiobook material is much more comprehensible now (easier than Guardian even since I know most words), but I still need context like an image or prior awareness of the overall plot or else I need to pay more careful attention to follow everything: https://youtu.be/HqCg5y8Nwhg

Sherlock Holmes 血字的研究: Some benefit just like Alice in Wonderland in that I have broad context (I know Watson and Sherlock live and work together to solve issues, Watson is a verteran and doctor). First 5 minutes I can vaguely tell its probably Watson narrating, that he lives in London, that before he might have been injured (I heard bing like sick or?) - I’m truly not sure what happened, and now after 5 minutes I heard ‘great friend’ and ‘touched shoulder’ and ‘gaoxing’ so happy. So I’m guessing Sherlock and Watson are interacting now. What improvement in my listening comprehension I can Notice - is that words stick out, phrases, and sentence structures (like finally, since, therefore, actions). So I feel if I paused I might be able to look up some words I notice but can’t understand, to follow along better. As the 2 of them have their conversation I can catch SOME details and I could probably follow what’s going on IF I had some prior context (like what the general case is about). But I only hear - its a pity, what happened last night, poor lad, fangzi, destination. So i’m not sure if someone died or was hurt or what happened the other night?? But again, conversations seem to be the easiest part to follow. For this particular audiobook I almost feel like if I just kept consistently listening or re-listening, I could understand more... like I probably know more words than I’m catching, but since my brain’s working on trying to catch the main gist plot right now its not grasping any details I might otherwise be able to notice. No prior context of plot, no image - hard lol. Unlike guardian, I cannot follow most of it. But I can catch bits of each scene, most clear are the dialogue parts (but cause I have no surrounding contexts I’m still pretty lost). Also the clear action parts are easier to follow (he spoke, moved, reacted to something). Mostly the lack of context is what’s making me struggle. In the descriptions I hear a lot phrases and words I recognize, but I’m struggling to comprehend them together. Unfortunately context is mostly in the description parts I can’t figure out lol. https://youtu.be/J1sbP6_3680

I suspect an audio DRAMA might be a little easier now. Since they’re mostly dialogue, and dialogue seems to be what I’m finding the most improvement in (from very vague to some of the clearest comprehended parts). I listened to tian ya ke audiodrama a few days ago and it was doable to follow along with - but that was before more Listening Reading Method, and of course my prior context (having seen the show/read part of the novel) means it was muchhhh easier to follow cause I had enough context to guess which scene each moment was supposed to be - so I didn’t have to figure out overall context, just details. 

[pengychan]

A while ago you mentioned you had an idea for a HP fic where Riddle Sr. escaped from Merope with baby Tom. I was really intrigued with the story because I’ve always thought that Riddle Sr was unfairly considered a bad guy due leaving her and his child, but he was basically a victim of the most powerful date rape drug in existence so he had every right to escape. What kind of father did you think he’d be if he had raised his wizard son?

Oh yeah, Tom Riddle Sr. got a lot of shit for being… basically a rape victim? I get the pity for Merope, I pity her as well (she was so deeply damaged by her upbringing and never got a chance to learn what love is really about), but that in no way changes the fact what she did to Tom Sr. was terrible. And I really don’t like how it’s framed, with even Dumbledore going on about how he abandoned Merope as opposed to running away from a forced relationship after the effects of a magical drug wore off. Even the narration goes out of its way to remark on the fact he was an Unpleasant Stuck-up Guy, as though being an unpleasant stuck-up rich kid (he was like 20, he was young) somehow means you deserve to be basically robbed of your free will, taken from home and be magically coerced into a relationship. 

… Okay rant over sorry on to the story idea.

Basically my idea was that Merope would only wean Tom Sr. off the love potion after their child was born, hoping as per canon that he would be in love with her regardless. Of course he wasn’t, and of course he was absolutely horrified when she admitted what she’d done and how. Horrified enough to kill her out of anger and fear she might bewitch him again (with her too stunned and pained to react with any magic). As I said, I pity her, but let’s be honest - to Tom, she was a terrifying being who had enslaved him and could do it again if he allowed it.

Anyway, he’s now left with a dead body and a baby. He gets rid of the dead body somehow, and almost smothers the baby because what if it’s like its mother, but Tom Jr. starts wailing when he looks down in his crib (unusual, that, he was usually a very quiet baby) aaaaand no, he can’t do it. So he takes the baby, and gets to the nearest station. The plan is to hand the baby over to a bobby claiming he found him in a rubbish bin or something before hopping on the first train home. Only that he… doesn’t. He can’t. And so he gets home, trying to explain he was somehow bewitched (he is fully aware no one would believe the full story about a love potion, I mean, come on) and with a baby in tow, claiming Merope left him and the baby and he has no idea where she is now (the bottom of the Thames, probably) and anyway, he’d really like his old life back. 

And the return home… sucks. A lot. His parents don’t believe him being bewitched for a second, of course, and are furious at him. His fiancee, well, she wants to hear no more of him since he just up and left her to elope with the crazy gal. The village as a whole is having a laugh at his expenses. His parents full-on pressing for him to give the baby up for adoption or something aren’t helping, but at this point Tom Sr. is so angry with his lot in life, he decides to keep the child mostly out of spite. He lost nearly everything, his reputation and the woman he wanted to marry, but this child? He’s his. He’s keeping him. His parents can swallow their dentures. Not that he’s going to look after him much, they can hire a nanny to do it and that’s exactly what happens.  

But time passes and the baby grows, and to everyone’s relief he looks nothing like his mother, or anyone from that weird family. He looks like his father and he seems so normal, and little by little, his grandparents are won over. He becomes the apple of their eye, and of course they set upon spoiling him. The boy wants a pony to learn how to ride? Then by God, the boy is getting the damn pony, and new clothes, and just about anything he asks for. What Tom Jr wants, Tom Jr gets. He leads a sheltered life in the manor, his every whim satisfied.

And soon enough he wants to spend more time with his father, who has become increasingly withdrawn and spends a lot of time having long horse rides across the countryside, though never anywhere near the shack where she used to live. And little by little he lets him. He’s still guarded, anxiously waits to see if his son does anything strange, but he does not. There is a certain distance between them, and Tom’s mother is a subject to never bring up, but they… get along well. Tom Sr becomes more interested in what his son is up to, and he does give him whatever he wants because why not, that’s how he was raised, too. And the kid loves his life as it is, the spoiled only child in a big mansion with rich grandparents, long horse rides with his father, and not a care in the world. His mother? Why would he care to know who she was?

Until of course something happens. During one of their rides, they are ambushed by a raving Morfin Gaunt, who spooks the horses, makes Tom Sr fall off it, and tries to hex him - only to be thrown back by a sudden explosion of uncontrolled magic by Tom who is, understandably, kinda angry at this guy who went and threatened them. Morfin becomes unable to breathe and Tom almost, almost kills him before his father grabs him and snaps out of it and takes him away, back home, leaving Morfin to gasp. 

Suddenly Tom Sr finds himself with weirdly dressed men in his living room, his parents’ memories being erased, and his child chasing around a moving chocolate frog while this Dumbledore fellow talks nonsense about a school of magic what the hell is going on.

What is going on is that this is basically his nightmare, his son is like his mother and will apparently go be educated among other people like his mother whether Tom Sr wants it or not. And ten years earlier, the day he broke free, he would have smothered the boy in the crib if he’s known that - but then was then and now is now, this is his son, and he wants him safe. It takes a long time to convince him Tom Jr will be fine learning magic, that everyone else will think he’s going to a really fancy boarding school, and he’ll be back every Christmas and summer, but he finally relents. 

Of course Tom Jr is enthusiastic, a ten year old kid who was just told he’s gonna learn MAGIC, who wouldn’t be? It takes some effort for him not to blurt out too much in the presence of his grandparents. This is gonna be great, he thinks, and oh boy is he wrong. He is sorted in Slytherin, and he finds out at his expenses that being Muggleborn (of course he thinks his mother was a muggle, too, his father surely would have told him if his mother was a witch?) is looked down to. He goes from being a spoiled rich kid to being an easy target, the kind other classmates turn their nose up to. He tries the Draco Malfoy “when my father hears of this” talk, only to be laughed at because literally nobody fears or respects a muggle. You could say it’s one hell of a culture shock. 

And he hates it. A lot. He loves learning magic, but he hates the way he’s treated and how his family is looked down to. Even once his achievements earn him some respect, he still hates it. So he looks forward to vacations at home, when he can be the spoiled rich boy again and spend time with his father - who knows all that well what it is like to be a pariah over something you had no control over. He almost tells him about his mother, but he can’t bring himself to. Instead he uses that time to teach him about Muggle things, about science and mathematics and literature and muggle history, a whole wealth of knowledge wizards discard but oh are they wrong to do it. The older Tom grows, the closer they get. People seeing them side by side could almost think they’re brothers. 

Little by little, Tom becomes certain that Purebloods are deluded - it’s Muggleborns like him that really the best, because they have access to the knowledge of both worlds. And he eventually guesses, as he grows - as he hears whispers about his parents’ eloping - that his mother perhaps was a witch; he can guess what she did. But at this point he doesn’t care, and never bothers to look into her lineage. He’s Tom Riddle, he’s son of a muggle, and he’s going to show everyone what he can do. Instead of throwing away his father’s name to embrace his mother’s legacy, he throws away hers to remain his father’s son. 

And… that’s the long and the short of it. I would need to check my notes to see what was meant to happen at this point, but I think Grindelwald’s war was involved, with Tom taking the opposite side because oh no, he’s not going to trample Muggles underfoot, no sir, not on his watch. All while his father knows vaguely what is going on, and is worried for his son, the way parents are, as Tom tells him and his grandparents to move for their safety. At some point, Tom Sr would have probably told him the whole truth about what his mother did to him and how she ended up. 

I don’t remember if they all made it through to see the end of 1945 - I think I had Tom Sr and Morfin Gaunt dying in the same incident, and Tom visiting the Gaunt shack afterwards to set it on fire, letting it burn with Salazar’s locket inside while he rode back to Riddle Manor, but I’m not 100% sure.

… I was pretty close to making this my NaNo project a few years ago, really. I kinda wish I had gone for it, but oh well. XD

[mgrgfan]

Past of the future, future of the past...

Chapter 6. On the brink. "Do you think it's time already?" the Empress asked her husband. "I do," replied the Emperor, who has arrived to the palace via his own supersonic tiltjet not even ten minutes ago. "Look, dear, with this machine in orbit, we can declare pretty much whatever we want." "I don't really think so… but yeah, this allows us for much more freedom. Okay, tuning up to Nation's comm." The Empress opened the communications app on her computer and initiated call to her delegates, which were supposed to participate in talks with Pokemon Nation. Right now, one of the primary priorities will be what to deal with the corpse of Rayquaza - a pretty big radiological hazard... ---- "We're the guardians of heavens / Protectors of the skies / We'll fulfill our duties / We've been born to fly…" the pilot was quietly singing, to, surprisingly, no annoyance of the rest of the crew in the CIC. "About that - it's about time we rotate the shifts. The first shift will take the stations in a few minutes." said the XO. "Aye-aye," replied the rest of the officers. When the first shift came back, the rotation went without problems… but the captain was slightly unnerved by the contents of the transmission, which came to the ship in the meantime. Apparently, there was a possibility, that they'll have to deploy the retro-missiles today… ---- In the Meteor Village, things weren't easy. Right now, Damien and Elder were talking. Even though the head of the man was still somewhat aching, he could work through it. Because of how the Rayquaza was brought dead by the sorisian space warfare ship, the prophecy was rendered nil, and the sheer radioactiveness of the corpse of the Sky High Pokemon made any attempts to recover it equal to the suicide. And, as if to humiliate them even further, right now, there was an announcement on TV about how Soris Empire sent their giant nuclear-powered dirigible to recover the remains of Rayquaza for burial in the radioactive waste storage facility, as well as quite a few government agents, sent to oversee the extraction and make sure, that everything will go smooth. Even though most of the Draconids were against it, Damien has managed to convince the Elder that it was still the best thing to do, since sorisians, given their proficiency with nuclear tech, must have a great experience with decontamination too. Several especially head-strong Draconids, who decided to not listen to his words, got to look at Rayquaza's corpse and got radiation poisoning, only made the talks with Elder easier.. Of course, it was not normal for Draconid to be like this… but Damien was not a normal Draconid. Besides, having a girlfriend, who was a nuclear physicist and, as he recently learned, was involved in Castelia Project, helped to understand full ramifications of nuclear technology involved major time. The only thing Damien was really worried about was how, thanks to the actions of Soris Empire, now there wasn't anyone to stop the Groudon and Kyogre, should the awaken and rage again... ---- Not too far away from Zemlino, the giant launch assist sled track was, after many years of disuse since the pause of the "WHITEBIRD" project, finally repaired and prepared to be used once again. The hypersonic spaceplane for it - the "Dreamwing" - was already loaded with everything and almost refueled with liquid hydrogen and oxygen, awaiting the load on the sled and launch. This machine, unlike the Space Shuttle of the Pokemon Nation or Project 21A Space Ferry, was long, sleek and even somewhat ominous, resembling unovan SR-71 strategic reconnaissance aircraft. It had two short, somewhat angular vertical stabilizers near the the tail, alongside with two similar horizontal stabilizers. However, the most unusual thing about this human creation were three long, boxy engines, suspended beneath the fuselage. The engines of the spaceplane were hybrids between usual scramjets and pure rocket engines. They've needed the spaceplane to be pre-accelerated to more than 1320 km/h before they could be started, but once they were up and running, they would accelerate the spaceplane to more than 7 times the speed of sound and get it to the edge of atmosphere, where it'll switch to internal oxygen supply and finish the orbital insertion. As big as this spaceplane was, there wasn't too much place for payload bay, crew cabin or like this - the machine mostly consisted of giant fuel tanks for the liquid hydrogen, because such was a price of being an SSTO. Because of this, the crew was forced to live in conditions somewhat harsher, than aboard the 12-meter LRV, though they didn't really mind it too much. ---- "Your Majesty, the "Dreamwing" is fully loaded and installed on the launch assist sled. T-1 hour and counting," said one of the technicians in Zemlino. "The "Red Explorer" is ready to receive the cargo," continued the other one. "Wonderful, just wonderful…" the Emperor replied to them via videolink, looking beyond merely pleased with how events were unfolding. "Notify me of any anomalies or mishaps. I'm sure our guys up there'll like this little present…" ---- "Vanya, please, can you explain to me - what's up with all those launches in such a short time?" Empress Svetlana asked her husband. "First - we need to make sure, that our big ship is supplied with everything they need, and there wasn't really too much of a place on the "Water Dragon" to cram everything we needed. Second - we need to get our launch infrastructure up and running again, if we want to continue to hold our advantage in space over the Pokemon Nation." "And the third one? I feel, that there's a third reason for it." "... Yeah, there's one - it's a chance for me to challenge the Pokemon Nation to a space race." "And why do we need it?" "Because it's the future!" the Emperor snapped in all sudden. "Space exploration and exploitation is the answer to almost all questions! The medical researches on both Space Lab stations showed amazing results, but the special drugs, developed during those researches, can only be manufactured in microgravity, as well as some of the ultrapure materials! The orbital solar power plants can easily supply us with enough energy to start rerouting our nuclear fuel production from being used for powering planetary grids to be used in space for engines of long-distance interplanetary ships. With heavy spaceships out there, we can easily deal with any asteroid! And with colonies out there, even if something happens to Earth, humanity will persist!" The Empress was taken aback with the sheer fervor in the voice of her husband. She was always worried about his intense desire for space exploration, but he never got that excited and angry. "However," Ivan calmed down no less suddenly, "we must not forget, how challenging them to the space race will also allow us to subtly steer them in directions we desire." "But they can try to do it to us too." "Yeah, but it doesn't mean, that we shouldn't try. Oh, by the way, the "Dreamwing" will be launched in one minute! Gonna watch it…" "Nearly forgot to ask - why did you resurrect the WHITEBIRD? I've thought you'd rather go with the BLUEBIRD…" "I'd really like to do it, but the BLUEBIRD nuclear spaceplanes are still in process of development, even if nearing the final stages, "Water Dragon", while reusable, takes decent time to prepare for launch again, so, the cheap WHITEBIRD, with pretty short turnaround time and non-extensive refurbishment, is our current best ground-to-orbit ferry." "I guess I can see that." ---- "...Three, two, one, launch!" sounded words of the operator in comm. Crew of the "Dreamwing", trained as they were, still were somewhat surprised by abrupt acceleration. On the outside, the sled, loaded with huge spaceplane and propelled by both electromagnetic forces and hydrolox engines, started to move and gain speed almost as fast as an adult Garchomp. In less than a second, the sled passed the 100 km/h mark and continued to accelerate, soon entering the "ramp" portion of the track, which was going on for several kilometers both in length and in height. The engine ignition on the spaceplane happened mere moments before the sled with it passed the highest point on the ramp and performed the separation. After that, one human-created machine stopped on accelerating and continued to slide down the rails - now towards the depot, where it'll be prepared for another launch assist procedure, while the second one steadily accelerated and climbed into the skies, continuing to squash its own pilots with g-forces in the desperate attempt to pass the atmosphere, the horrible thief of velocity and heat-giver, as soon as possible. A few minutes after, the airflow through the scramjets thinned out to the point, when it was no longer sufficient to sustain the engine operation. The supersonic combustion ramjet engines went silent for several moments, as the air intakes were closed, injectors were reconfigured and nozzle extensions were deployed, before starting again - this time, as pure rocket engines. ---- "Another launch detected from the Soris Empire," noted one of the operators in the Mossdeep Space Center. "Apparently, this time, it's some kind of spaceplane, if we go by the trajectory and acceleration." "They sure do a lot of launches these days," grimly replied one of the generals of Hoenn Self-Defense Forces, who got recently transferred here because of the actions of Soris Empire. "Let me guess - another supply mission to their space battleship?" "We don't know for sure, since the plane is still in the atmospheric phase and yet to begin the actual orbital insertion…" "Whatever. Still, they've decided to bet on their space tech… and Arceus-damn it, they now have a space battleship with WMDs above our heads! And I'm sure, that they're now stuffing even more weapons in there… Can't wait, until usage of Legendaries for warfare is decriminalized again…" Most of personnel, present there, paid no attention (or, at least, played paying no attention) to a horrible, bloodlusty smile, that has appeared on general's face. ---- Several hours after the launch, the "Dreamwing" spaceplane was finally docked to the "Red Explorer". Even though this was mostly a cargo mission, with three retro-missiles for reloading the ship's storages and some provisional supplies, the cosmonauts from both vessels still've had a small chat about the events both on Earth and in space. Pilots of the "Dreamwing" were astonished by the deeds of the crew of the battleship, while their colleagues from the "Red Explorer" were pretty surprised to hear the rumors from the ground. Alas, all good things come to an eventual end, so, after four hours in docked state, the "Dreamwing" separated from the battleship and began the deorbiting burn, with resulting trajectory ending right on the airfield of Zemlino, while the ship continued silently orbiting the planet. Inside the ship's CIC, the things were pretty professional and quiet. The thrill of battle and victory was gone, the tension of the diplomatic talks on the ground (which, apparently, weren't going exactly good, if a few whispers from the crew of "Dreamwing" were to be believed) was in the air and… the very fact, that they've manned a humongous weapon platform was pretty unsettling by itself. Suddenly, the comm came to life and the words from it made the blood of the officers chill: "Zemlino to "Red Explorer" - this is the Emperor speaking. Prepare to perform the Operation D-2." "Acknowledged," said the commander, concentrating and trying to stop his panic, then gave an order to the weapons officer. "Prepare the nuclear ordinance for planetary bombardment." "Aye-aye. Nuclear ordinance is now ready for planetary bombardment," replied the officer, who held himself only so well. "Arm the retro-missile #6." "Retro-missile in silo 3-25 is now armed." "Enter the confirmation code: 12-342-24-553." "Confirmation code entered. Retro-missile is now ready for launch. Key it, captain." "Zemlino to "Red Explorer" - the launch permission is granted, I repeat, the launch permission is granted!" "Acknowledged. Three, two, one, retro-missile away." As those words were being said, both the commander and the weapons officer inserted their respective keys into locks and turned them at once, sending the final confirmation signal to the ship's ordinance systems. On the outside of the ship, one of the round hatches opened again, much like back in the battle with Rayquaza or recent resupplying procedure… but this time, it was different. A small explosive charge ejected retro-missile, shaped like a short cigar, out of the ship. After clearing some distance from the ship, it turned around, received a final package of guidance data from the ship, then activated powerful chemfuel engine, decelerating from the orbital speed and preparing to drop down the gravity well. Onboard microcomputer calculated the burn with great precision to deorbit the retro-missile at designated coordinates. A few minutes later, heat started to build up on the retro-missile, which prompted for separation. The now-empty and useless propulsion bus got detached, while the front cover fell apart, allowing all individual warheads to leave their nestings and enter the terminal phase. The atmospheric ram pressure burned the fronts of conic machines, but arcanotech-enhanced ceramic held well, allowing the vessels of death, now engulfed in plasma, to continue accelerating towards their targets. Tiny steering flaps helped the warheads to constantly correct their trajectories, all of which were converging on the island, placed between Soris and Sinnoh. Roughly 40 seconds later, all warheads reached their target points. In each of the machines, altitude triggers sent signals for the airburst detonation... but there was nothing to respond to it - the thermonuclear devices inside were replaced with mockups, since this retro-missile was a dummy one, loaded on ship purely for demonstrational purposes. All six warheads impacted the ground not even a second later, vaporizing in the bright kinetic explosions. "Wonderful," came voice of the Emperor from the comm. "Great job, guys. We've filmed it. Stand by for additional orders… and deactivate the habitation centrifuge for now. I feel like you'll have to do some maneuvering soon." "Aye-aye, sir," replied everyone in the CIC, relaxing. Of course, the fact, that they've had to launch a dummy retro-missile instead of live one, helped them to get through it, but the possibility of actually using nukes for attacking the targets on the surface of Earth still persisted. A few more stressful hours passed, before the comm received another transmission from the Empire: "Zemlino to "Red Explorer" - this is the Emperor speaking. Perform the trans-lunar injection and enter the Moon orbit ASAP, I repeat, perform the trans-lunar injection and enter the Moon orbit ASAP!" "It will be done, Your Majesty, but… why?" the captain decided to go slightly off-protocol. "We've shown them the power of our weapons. We now need to show, that they'll only be used for self-defence - after all, you'll need several hours to travel from the Moon to Earth. If something really bad happens down there, you are authorized to open the code packages and perform the global thermonuclear bombardment - the hundred PBRM-1 retro-missiles with MIRVs and another hundred with big booms should be more than sufficient." "I don't quite follow that logic, but okay, we are already preparing and will activate the bomb drive in three minutes." "Acknowledged. Good luck to you, guys, and thank you for all of your deeds." Soon after those words were said, the pulse engine started thumping once more, setting the ship on the transit trajectory to the Moon. ---- Young Latias looked in the skies, seeing small white flashes. Even if she didn't know about that, those flashes, which belonged to the working nuclear pulse engine, marked the definite end of the usual flow of destiny, the true beginning of the new age and the new fate of this world - fate, which was not shaped yet. Now, it was up to the inhabitants of this world to create their own fate. ---- "Ram heating has reached threshold #2. Atmospheric ionization detected, blackout imminent," reported the pilot of the "Dreamwing", looking at the MFD. "Acknowledged, "Dreamwing", we're tracking you, return safe," replied the flight control center shortly before the radiolink got drowned in static. "Aaand we're deaf again," noted the commander. "Well, good to fly our birdie again!" "Uh-huh," mumbled engineer, looking at his own MFD. "Wow!" "What's that?" immediately asked him both pilot and commander. "Some kind of a directed flash of arcane energy - draconic one, of Legendary level... or was it? Most likely, just interference from ionization hitting the sensors, like back during the third test flight..." "Draconic, you say? Let us really hope, that those were merely interferences..." grimly said the commander, turning his gaze towards the window. "Because if it's not - we're in the world of trouble..." Author's notes: The launch sequence of the "Dreamwing" is partially inspired by the Silbervogel project and the launch of "America" hypersonic spaceplane from the "Silver Tower" by Dale Brown. SSTO - Single Stage To Orbit. MFD - Multi-Function Display. Hydrolox - a type of binary rocket fuel composed of liquid oxygen (lox) oxidizer and liquid hydrogen combustible.

[fairygirl34-art-writing]

Deathly Alliance Chapter 2: The Beginning

Tomarry. Death Note AU. Hedwig and Salazar are shinigami. Media-Res. Chapters will be semi-non-chronological order. Chapters will be updated when inspiration hits me.

------

Tom Riddle Jr. doesn't believe in Fate.

But he does believe he was destined for greatness.

It's been his goal since he was a small child to be better than everyone else, to be revered and worshiped. He deserves it after all.

As he stares at the five filled pages of names of criminals he's written and killed, he can't help but feel high off the killings. To think that the innocuous black notebook could have such godlike powers within its pages. Tom wants to covet and and hide it away forever so no being, human or supernatural can ever find it again.

A dark and sadistic laugh escapes his lips. He can now purge the world and filth; shaping it to his liking. At least while the notebook his still in his possession. He has no idea if the book was gifted to him or was dropped by some god, who later might come to take it back, but he is going use as much as possible.

The Death Note.

How fitting this book was for his new persona Lord Voldemort.

The new god of the world.

A knock upon his door startles him from his euphoria.

"What is it," Tom growls out, angered that someone would dare interrupt his glorious work.

"Dinner is ready, Young Master." A maid says from behind the door.

"I'm not hungry." Tom dismisses.

"Please, Tom. You're father specifically asked that you attend dinner." The maid nervously pleads.

Tom scowls. The thought of even eating with his parents makes him want to bash someone's head in. It's not enough that he has to deal with that dreadful woman he's forced to call his his Step-Mother, Cecilia. Even though he's never known his own mother, who died from childbirth because she was weak, he's never been particularly close with his Father either. And when is Father married that vapid cow when he was five, the already unsteady bond between father and son deteriorated into practically nothing.

"Tom?"

Slamming the Death Note closed and placing it in a hidden compartment he created in his desk, Tom prepares himself for the disaster known to be a family dinner.

"Fine. Tell them i'll be down shortly." Tom bites out. He just wants to get it over with, but that doesn't mean he won't take his time going down as much as he can.

When he reluctantly enters the dining room, Tom notices his Father and Cecilia sitting at one end of the long table, with his Father at the head. Tom takes the seat opposite of his Father at the other end of the table. The farther away he is from them, the better for him.

"Tom. I'm glad you finally decided to join us," Tom Sr. says.

Tom says nothing. He watches as the servants bring out trays of food.

Dinner is mostly a quiet affair with stilted questions 'How was school Tom? and answers 'Like any other day.'  Only Cecilia manages to fill the dining room with chatter towards her husband, completely ignoring her Step-Son. Which was fine with Tom. He and Cecilia despised each other and did everything to stay out of each other's way. Only Tom Sr. seemed to want to enforce "Family Bonding" time , which both Tom and Cecilia silently agreed that it was a waste of time.

Dabbing his napkin his mouth, Tom asked, "May I be excused? I still have some studying for upcoming exams to do."

"Very well," Tom Sr. sighs, no doubt disappointed with the lack of participation his son had done during dinner.

Tom nodded and quickly left to his room. Locking his room door so no one could disturb him again, Tom turned on his computer and brings out the Death Note.

Hacking into his father's personal computer and work files is a piece of cake when Tom Sr. is constantly working on cases at home. With a maniac smirk Tom continues his duty to rid the world of garbage. Hours pass in this manner until he gazes upon his clock and sees taht it is already eleven p.m.  

"I think I've done enough for one day." Tom chuckles to himself, stretching his stiff body.

"I see you've been working hard the last couple of days using the Death Note." A gravelly voice says behind Tom, making him jump,up, knocking his chair over.

Narrowing his eyes and barring his teeth, he growls, "Who the hell are you?"

The being - monster - because it couldn't be anything else stood imposingly tall, long lanky limbs, sharp nails and a face close to a monkey's with sharp teeth, gazes interestingly at Tom.

"I'm the Shinigami Salazar Slytherin who dropped the notebook you're currently possessing."

"Shinigami? What's that?" Tom demands.

The monster may have surprised him, but Tom will turn the situation to his favor. He always manages too.

The monster huffs as if the question wasn't worth answering and that Tom was an ignorant mortal for not knowing.

"A Death God." Salazar says.

Tom relaxes minutely, but never let's his guard down. "Are you here to take back your book?"

"In time," The Shinigami answers. "I was just curious to see what kind of human picked up the Death Note."

Tom is a bit suspicious and fearful. If there is one thing Tom fears above all else...it's Death. The thought of his existence ending, sends a chill down his spine. He doesn't care if the monster is a Death God, Tom will fight with everything he has to keep the Death Note and leave his mark. Dying a a nobody is not on his to-do list.

He was destined for greatness!

And the Death Note was his key to success.

"Are you going to kill me? take my soul?" Tom eyes the other, his mind scheming, discarding, and reorganizing plans should he have to fight the Shinigami.

"Once a Death Note lands in the Human World, it becomes a part of it. You may pass the Death Note onto another, but your memories of the book will be wiped away. Essentially, That Death Note belongs to you."

Tom turns to the notebook laying innocently on his desk. It was his. It was his. He gazes at Salazar contemplatively. "What do you get out of it? It seems like that this is all in my favor with no punishment at all for me for using it."

"Just think of it as you becoming my entertaining to fight off my boredom. But be warned, you will feel the fear and pain known only to humans who have used the Death Note." The Shinigami smiles sharply. "Do we have a deal?"

Tom contemplates the pros and cons of the deal. "Is there any consequence for using the Death Note? Like every time I write down a name, part of my soul splits off?"

The Shinigami chuckles. "No, nothing that drastic. However, when it is your time to die, I will be the one to write your name in the my own Death Note. When that happens, your soul will neither go to Heaven nor Hell. So, again, do we have a deal?"

The silence is heavy in the room for only a moment.

Tom smiles sharply, a determined and maniac glint in his eyes.

"I'll change the world. No, Lord Voldemort will change the world!" Tom laughs darkly.

Lord Voldemort's reign began now!

-----

Hope you guys liked it!

@bookreadervirgo

[theonceoverthinker]

OUAT 1X18 - The Stable Boy

I’m very interested to see my reaction to this episode this time! On my first watch, I didn’t like it (At least the past portion), but with time and more insight into Regina’s character, that just might change!

It’s not because of you, Reggie! i love you!

But what was my deal then, and how has it changed?

Find out alongside me under the cut!

Press Release Emma continues her exhaustive search for evidence that will prove Mary Margaret’s innocence in the murder of David’s wife, Kathryn. Meanwhile, in the fairytale land that was and before evil blackened her soul, Regina must choose between betraying her mother, Cora, and marrying for true love, or betrothing royalty and living a regal - but loveless - life; and the event that caused the Evil Queen to loathe Snow White is revealed. General Thoughts Past It’s weird. I know Cora is an amazing villain, and it may be the fault of time, but I sometimes forget just how menacing and evil she was. So seeing the evil she’s capable of show itself again with such intensity was like when you touch someone else after getting a good dose of static shock going through you. Just as with Regina’s villainy up to this point, Cora’s is overt and strong. Even when she’s praising Regina, it’s a backhanded compliment (“You’ve finally done something right”). But oddly enough, it’s when the abuse is less over the top that it’s at its worst, and by that, I mean accepting Leopold’s proposal on Regina’s behalf and getting Snow to divulge Regina’s secret. How Cora’s lunges at insecurities and just makes the bold yet quiet moves to get everyone to do what she wants is terrifying. I don’t have a lot to weigh in on the plot, but I do think that watching it on the second go did a lot more for me to highlight Cora’s abuse and make me realize the quality of the flashback. See, for me, I always felt that Daniel was the main thing for Regina’s revenge about Snow, and I felt on the first go that that was a pretty lackluster approach for such a cool villain because I found Daniel boring (I still do, and I swear that I tried to like him). However, it’s occurred to me recently that this isn’t so much as the main point, but the final straw after a long line of Cora’s abuse. Cora’s abuse is what drives Regina’s character and with this in mind, I went into my rewatch of this episode and found it much more compelling. I mean, all you have to do is look about to see the impact Cora had on me.

Also, as I said before, I don’t like Daniel. I find his character boring and bereft of chemistry with all who he interacted with despite his decent dialogue. Given that a lot of (Not fully, but still a fair amount) Regina’s backstory is dependent on their interactions, it sucks, but I just wasn’t feeling like there was much of a character to connect to.

Finally, I wanted to take this moment to drop a theory I’ve held for a while about this episode. I feel that Regina has a secondary purpose for going after Snow. Now, of course, she blames Snow for Daniel’s death, but that’s lead her to be mislabeled as overly petty. However, I think that that blame has something behind it. Regina doesn’t have magic at this point, and her beloved was taken from her. She has a lot of anger, and no place to responsibly place it. Of course, it belongs with Cora, but Cora just killed her boyfriend and has been magically binding her for quite some time. What chance does Regina have up against someone like that? But Snow? Snow’s just a little kid. Snow’s vulnerable and trusting. Snow was the one to tell the secret. And suddenly, for as wretched as it is, you see how the cogs turn. Present I loved August’s advice to Emma here. Sometimes, I find that skill helpful when I’m writing fanfiction, and the way it fits into the murder mystery was interesting. Their rapport, alongside August’s mystery is a large driving force behind the plot as Emma looks for the way to connect the crime to Regina. They also did a really good job establishing Sidney and then exposing him with that flower pot. For a while, one can forget that it’s there, but once you see it, you know what’s going to happen. Still, the journey to using the plot device was an engaging one. As for the rest of the plot, I cover more of it in “Arcs,” but I found that it was well placed and dramatic. Mary Margaret’s conversation with the DA was especially helpful in reinforcing after last week’s “breather” episode just how bad things are and how important it is that Emma solves this case and fast. Insights -I love watching Rumple and Regina negotiate. Theirs is such an engaging push-and-pull relationship and even in the case of foregone conclusions like the one the audience goes in knowing here, the exact what and how are never what you expect it to be. Because of their power, influence, and shadier dispositions, there’s always something up their sleeves and seeing them poke and prod in search of those secrets is just the best. Also, I love that clash of tones. Regina’s harsh words clash brilliantly with Rumple’s more flowery language. -Hair and makeup really did a wonderful job on the younger Henry Sr.! -”She’s getting a little old for fun.” “Stop coddling her.” I like the implication that Cora’s abuse of Regina started out smaller than it is today and that Henry Sr. was allowed to have a bigger influence on Regina’s development during her childhood. -”I’m not criticising you. I’m helping you.” Holy shit. That is such an abuser line. If it wasn’t coming out of Cora, I’d almost call it heavy handed, but since it s Cora, it’s such a good moment of character establishment. -There’s this great frame where Henry Sr. is walking towards Cora with a face that screams “I’mma kill you if you harm a hair on our daughter!” Even though Henry Sr. was definitely afraid of and overpowered by Cora, it’s clear that he was always on Regina’s side. -The segues on this show between the past and present crack me the fuck up! -In regards to young Snow...HOW DOES THIS SHOW CAST PEOPLE SO PERFECTLY?! -Thank you, Gold for acknowledging the skeleton key! -Gold just has the best expressions during the Q&A with the DA. Every look he gives MM just says “you’re lucky your daughter is breaking this curse.” -Mary Margaret, that’s not true. After Kathryn hurt you, it was your denial of David that kept you two apart. Not saying you were wrong for that you definitely weren’t - but facts are facts. -Regina looks so cute in that blue dress! I’m pretty sure anyone on OUaT can pull off a blue dress! -I love how Henry Sr. reflects both Regina and the audience’s reaction to this horrifying proposal. -So is Daniel just the Mills’ family’s stable boy or both theirs and Snow’s family’s stable boy? -Regina unknowingly gave Snow and Charming the perfect lyrics to their big show-stopping musical number about how they’d overthrow her! XD -I love Regina’s suit in the warrant scene. Red and black - despite her rocking blue as well - are totally her colors! -That whole sequence of Cora trapping Regina and Daniel in the stable reminded me of The Haunted Mansion! -Snow looks so cute in her flower girl dress! -So, the camera doesn’t show Regina’s face as she’s telling Snow how Daniel ran away, but you can just hear the pain behind the monotone in her voice solely because of how different it is from the rest of her lines. Regina’s lines usually host such passion and ferocity, but here, she’s bereft of it. Arcs Kathryn Nolan Case - So, we sort of come to an ending here. Now all that’s left to find out is the “who-dunnit,” so to speak. Personally, I found the case itself boring as well as the conversations about the proceedings. That said, in a way, I’m glad we had it. I’ve seen fics without it happening and they leave David and Mary Margaret with so little to do. Besides, we got some really good character moments because of it, mostly those that go through Emma and I feel comfortable saying that this doesn’t have to do with the fact that Emma is my favorite character because for everyone else (Barring Rumple and Regina who also had amazing interactions), the events of this arc for everyone else become completely irrelevant going forward. Emma and her interactions (Barring those of the other awake people’s) are the only moments that retain prevalence for their characters in the future That’s not a problem: The character moments still stand out - I still adore everything with Ruby and the scene with MM and David in the jail cell was powerful - but it needs to be accounted for. The Mystery of August Booth - We finally get those first glimpses of Pinocchio. It reminded me a lot of Michael’s symptoms in Season 3 of Jane the Virgin. They’re so small that you forget about them with the plot, but as they happen, they make you wonder just what it is. Why throw in a splint? ...I guess we should say a splinter! XD Favorite Dynamic Snow and Cora. I know these two only had one scene together, but damn, it was a good one! When Cora talks to Snow, she’s so warm and very much like a grandmother in the way she speaks, and you can see through Snow’s expressions just how much that paired with what she’s saying is preying on her still present grief over her mother. It’s like that study about the bullfrogs when the water gradually increases. Snow’s about to hurt her friend, and she doesn’t even recognize that she’s being played because of Cora’s delicate manner of approaching things. Writer Adam and Eddy did a really great job here! They have a way of writing very iconic lines, and  “Love is the most powerful magic of all” has proved itself lasting - both in verbal and song form! XD In addition, A&E know how to make a villain sympathetic while not forgetting that they’re evil and following through on that. I’ve seen a lot of bad writing of villains (And some of it comes from OUaT too) where they just throw a sob story on a villain and then just flip a switch from villain to hero, but Regina still retains her villainy  even as we’re learning about her tragedies, and that makes her feel more alive! Rating 9/10. I love all of the character development we get here. The introduction of Cora gives us that taste of all that’s to come and she’s fucking petrifying, even with the knowledge that she dies! And seeing Regina’s awful childhood really sticks where this resentment of Snow and Mary Margaret is coming from and it makes it glorious! Additionally, the present had a great story too and delivered a cool sort-of ending to the Kathryn Nolan case while giving Emma and August an interesting conflict to work with. I took off a point for Daniel just because of his impact on the story that I actually got compared to what I felt that I needed.  ()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()

Thanks to @watchingfairytales for putting this project together and to everyone who read! I’ll see you next time when we...RETURN! ...These puns don’t get all that subtle. Season Tally (157/220) Writer Tally for Season 1: A&E (50/70) Liz Tigelaar (17/20)* David Goodman (33/50) Jane Espenson (36/60) Andrew Chambliss and Ian Goldberg (29/40) Daniel Thomsen (8/10)* Vladimir Kvetko (9/10* (* = Their work for the season is complete)

Operation Rewatch Archives

[chilly-territory]

K Case Files of Blue 2, chapter 2 (part 2 out of 2)

The next part of the novel, featuring Munakata’s family.

Case Files of Blue 2 by Miyazawa Tatsuki

Chapter 2 (part 2/2) (volume 2, pages 80-111)

†

On that day, Munakata Reishi had done a nearly unimaginable amount of work with utmost efficiency and maximum energy and, after sowing some hope among his men, left Scepter 4. Munakata, always having an air of composure about him even when he went to visit the ruler of all things on the ground, Kokujouji Daikaku, was now walking with a hurried gait, glancing at his wristwatch worriedly and painting the picture of a terribly busy man.

For he had an appointment he absolutely could not be late to.

"Well now. I hope she will like it."

Nearby, there was a present he bought in a short break between his demanding work - an adorable plush teddy bear wrapped in pink wrapping paper. It was Munakata Ume's birthday, and as her uncle, Munakata Reishi was invited to her birthday party. Last year, due to an emergency matter coming up, Munakata wasn't able to make it to his niece's birthday party which had hurt her feelings deeply. So half a year ago he had promised her that this year he would be there without fail. As far as Munakata was concerned, he wanted to keep his promise no matter what.

Strangely enough, for him, the little girl's birthday party and the Great Cause of protecting the country had about equal weight. Neither was less important than the other. That's why he chose to head home even at the time of what could very well be called a crisis.

The moment the door opened, he was ardently welcomed.

"Uncle, you really came!" Umi was overjoyed as she popped up first.

Umi's younger brother, Kai, approached Munakata timidly and clutched at his sleeve. Although later, next Munakata's mother, then his father and finally his older brother Taishi with his sister-in-law appeared and gave Munakata Reishi a warm welcome as well.

In this house, he was neither a shrewd government official nor the Blue King chosen by the Dresden Slate and possessing supernatural powers. He was just a person, Munakata Reishi, a second son of the Munakata family.

"Sorry I'm late."

Hurriedly done with his greetings, he was pulled into the house where they all sat down around the tea table, and the feast began. The table was tightly packed with croquettes and meat and potato stew that Mrs Munakata whipped up, roast beef and minestrone that Taishi's wife made, beer and authentic Japanese sake that Taishi bought, a chocolate cake that the children had picked and sashimi out of mackerel that Munakata Sr caught - a popular commoners' menu, maybe lacking in class and consistence, but overflowing with warmth.

"Congratulations, Umi!" the present toasted, the adults with beer and sake, the children with juice.

They talked about everything that happened to Umi at her school, about the swimming pool Kai had recently started attending, Taishi brought up a professional baseball discussion, his wife demonstrated embroidery she was into lately, and the senior Munakatas brought a pamphlet about Izu where they planned to go for their end-of-year trip.

When they were done eating, games started - Othello, cards and other typical party games. All the members of the Munakata family were spirited and doing well. After that, they sang the birthday song, cut the cake, and the children ate the cake in utter happiness, smearing their faces in the process.

Full and happy, the children started nodding off, and the older brother's wife took them to take a bath. With them gone, the living room suddenly became very quiet. Quiet clicking of tableware as Mrs Munakata washed it and the rustling of running water were the only sounds filling the room.

Munakata Sr, taciturn by nature, took out the shogi board and, holding a book in one hand, began solving shogi problems. On the TV, its volume muted to be only background noise, a news story about a large-scale typhoon closing in on Japan ran. Taishi was idly lying on the tatami with his hands behind his head.

"What a feast we had today!" He looked up at the ceiling happily.

Munakata sat in seiza, quietly sipping tea.

"Gotta thank you" Taishi suddenly added, "for coming, despite being busy."

Munakata shook his head to that. "Oh, there is no need. I had fun, too. And I'm glad the birthday girl seemed to like my present." "Haha," Taishi chuckled. "You should make kids of your own, y'know. Kids are cute." "Indeed. I shall see what I can do."

The wandering conversation continued, with Taishi mostly being the one to do the talking and Munakata only replying from time to time. But it wasn't like Munakata was being reserved or something of the sort. Time flowed slowly and relaxedly.

It was a curious relationship, to say the least. Munakata Taishi made a living with landscape gardening, had a family of his own, spent his free time watching TV and sometimes going to pachinko, took his children to the local park to play on Sundays, and liked fishing as a hobby. Once a month, he played grass-lot baseball with his old friends. He was much better at manual labor than at mental work, he hardly read any books and wasn't really interested in what was going on in the world around, being the type of wholesome man who could smile, showing his pearly whites, when his close people were healthy and smiled themselves.

Munakata Reishi, on the other hand, was completely and utterly different - not just from Taishi but from anyone else in the Munakata family. From his father, his mother, his brother, his brother's wife, his niece and his nephew. None of the family had ever written a report on Confucius and Spinoza as a grade schooler, taken the first place in mock exams countrywide for many years in a row or served as the student council president from starting elementary school to graduating from university.

Munakata Reishi was a superior being from the day he was born. He outstripped those around in intelligence, physical ability, character and culture. Everyone who he ever came across were under the impression that he had to be a son of a very distinguished family. And when they learned about the actual environment he was raised in, they all couldn't help but being puzzled and amazed how someone like him could be born to an ordinary family like that.

His father was a taciturn man taking pride in his work, with shogi and occasional fishing trip being his hobbies. His mother and sister-in-law, although both women of virtue and good cooks, didn't go in any area past what is considered ordinary and average, and the children they produced, although were quite cute, for now displayed absolutely no ability out of common.

In the Munakata family, only Munakata Reishi was an exception. A child, who insisted on not speaking casually even with his parents and brother, was much too out of place for the family of a mediocre craftsman from the low-lying part of Tokyo.

Truth be told, Munakata's parents must have had quite a bit of trouble deciding how to treat a child prodigy so unlike the rest of them. But it was somewhat different for Munakata's older brother Taishi.

Being unruffled and unfussy about the small stuff, from their childhood years on, he kept treating Munakata Reishi in a way that could be seen either as largehearted or insensitive. While their personalities and nature couldn't have been more different, the two always remained siblings that got along just fine. Munakata held respect for his cheerful and honest brother who had not a prodigious bone in his body.

"Ah, speaking of," Taishi asked, following the flow of the conversation, "how's your work lately?"

Taishi only knew that his little brother was the 'boss' of 'a place that was something like the police'. Being content with only the roughest and broadest idea of things was something that was in Taishi's nature.

Munakata took a pause to ponder before answering, "Well, not very well, I have to say." "Oh?" Taishi let out a surprised noise. "You don't hear something like that coming from you every day, Reishi." Munakata let out a chuckle. "Indeed. I'm afraid I made an enemy of a troublesome person. He is even more resourceful than myself, so I'm having a little bit of a hard time."

Taishi abruptly got up and took a seated position, crossing his legs. "For real? You mean to say someone smarter than you actually exists?" he asked bluntly. Munakata flashed a little wry smile.  "Yes, they do, in spades." "So what? Are you being cornered?"

Munakata simply nodded, without pretense, embarrassment, self-derision or eagerness.

"Whooa~," Taishi elongated, stunned. "That gotta be a first, eh," he remarked, seemingly very impressed. "At least the first from what I know." "No." A shogi piece touched the board with a nostalgic click. "It's not," the two's father, Munakata Jirou, murmured quietly. This time, it wasn't just Taishi who was surprised by their usually taciturn father's remark, but Reishi as well as he gazed at Jirou.

For a while, Jirou only stared down at the shogi board, his back to his sons and seemingly oblivious to the gazes they fixed him with.

"You know, with that substitute teacher that was in charge of Reishi's class for a short while back in 5th grade when their homeroom teacher got injured in a traffic accident."Not changing his cross-legged position, he turned his head to the brothers. "What was his name, again?" "...Mnn..." Of course, Taishi, being as uncaring about details as he was, could only cock his head in puzzlement. "...Right." Munakata recalled immediately. "It was Kasuga-sensei." "Oh, right, that's right." Jirou's eyes narrowed. "The only teacher Reishi couldn't get 100 points from on tests."

Inside Munakata, a spark suddenly flew, and his eyes glinted mysteriously behind his glasses. In a voice, that had the slightest of quivers in it, he asked as he got up, "Father, brother, would it be alright with you if I went to my room for a while? An idea regarding my work has struck me."

Slight surprise crossed the features of Munakata Sr, but he simply nodded, "Mn-hm," and turned to his shogi board without saying anything else.

Taishi lied back down on the tatami, asking with interest, "What, Reishi, something about that guy you mentioned?" "Yes, correct. I just might have the chance to kick his behind," Munakata provided an explanation for his brother, using the simplest and most understandable words he could find.

Taishi burst out laughing. "Good to hear," was his reply.

†

"What I'm doing is actually very simple," Kounomura said after they had finished the driving the advertising van job and relocated to a members-only bar in Nanakamado.

They were in a deluxe room where only a handful of VIPs from even among the members of this closed establishment were allowed to enter. The sofas, the tables and all the other furnishings were stunningly extravagant and posh, but what drew the eye was the masterpiece works of a certain famous maestro. If they were put up for auction, there was no way the price offered would drop lower than a hundred million at worst. In this room, there were 2 such gems that by all rights should have been in possession of an art museum.

Like the regular customer he was, Kounomura came in front of the glass case where expensive Western liquors were on display, and casually took out a bottle of aged whiskey, pouring it into glasses - for himself and for Gouoku. He took a sip, held it in his mouth, then lied down on the floor on the fur spread on it.

'As usual, this man looks so out of place in this kind of furnishings,' Nakamura Gouoku thought. 'Just the other day he was sprawling on mats by the riverbed, slurping up some cheap plum shochu, and frankly, that place fit him perfectly, and certainly a lot more than this one. Though the same could be said about me.'

A penguin-like shortie of a man and a balded giant in a place where only the cream of the crop could enter certainly was a sight to behold. What's more, Gouoku was in his priest's garb while Kounomura had yet to change out of the fatigues he drove the van in just a short while ago. It was pretty amazing how none of the reception staff so much as batted an eye as they took the two such guests to the back rooms.

Gouoku took a gulp of straight liquor out of his whiskey glass - his palm easily wrapping around the thing in its entirety - and chuckled a little. The fact that both of them were completely out of place here still stood unchanged though. If anything, it was probably Munakata Reishi, with his gorgeous looks and commanding presence, who would fit right in.

"Mn? What's wrong?" Kounomura asked. "Ah no, nothing," Gouoku shook his head. "Go on with what you were talking about." "Erm? What was it I was saying, again?" Kounomura asked back slowly and drowsily. "You talked about Munakata Reishi," Gouoku reminded him. "Actually, there's something I wanted to ask you for ages," he continued, his interest in the topic apparent. "You may have incredibly exceptional brains, but that Munakata Reishi guy is one hell of a sharp fella himself. So there has to be a reason why your clash is so one-sided so far and you're messing with him however you like, y'know?" "..." "That's something I want to know. Just what kind of witchcraft did you use to achieve this?" "Ah well, it's actually pretty simple. You could say it's 'love', I guess? It penetrates the perception gap between the sense of self, of others and of the world. Umm~m."

Gouoku patiently waited. If he kept waiting, his prodigious friend would eventually give him an explanation in words simple enough even for him to understand.

"Well, let's see. The reason why Munakata-kun is so confused this time is because in a sense he's too smart for his own good." "Meaning?" "Gouoku. When you're so smart that you have no equal, you end up seeing through everything like an open book and forgetting that you yourself, too, are part of this world, as well an influence on it. Well, maybe not exactly forgetting but never even realizing it. Perhaps, picturing yourself on top of a big mountain would be an adequate epithet."

Kounomura slowly rose and put the bottle on the table.

"Munakata-kun is currently here." He indicated the top of the bottle. "And those around him, people and circumstances alike, are this."

He placed a glass next to the bottle.

"In his case, he basically has a bird-eye view of all kinds of life's problems, and he can easily solve any problem by moving it in whatever direction is required or switching something with something else."

The glass was placed in different spots in sequence.

"As it keeps on going, curiously enough, a gap born between himself and his surroundings comes into existence," Kounomura went on, his voice having notes of sadness in it. "Misunderstanding becomes commonplace, leading to creation of an idol molded to people's wishes and expectations without his consent. Those around start to assume things, abandoning all attempts to actually understand and starting to pretty much deificate him instead. All because he is much too capable and outstanding. And yes, he is capable, but there is not a single soul who understands him, and it doesn't cross anyone's mind to even attempt to anymore. Munakata Reishi is a genius beyond anyone's reach. This conviction prevents people from thinking on the matter further." "So they just label him Ubermesch and leave it at that, huh? Just like they do you." "No, no." Kounomura flashed his pearly whites. "I can't hold a candle to Munakata-kun. He's the real authentic elite here. I'm just barely keeping up with him in this competition by making use of all the years I've lived, nothing more."

Kounomura took out another bottle out of the glass case and placed it next to the one that was already on the table. The two were of about the same height.

"That said, it's still probably a first to him, chancing upon someone of his own class who is actually trying to analyze him. And it's due to that unfamiliar experience that the thinking processes of even a genius like Munakata-kun automatically slow down, like a heated swimming pool becoming lukewarm, and the boundary line between himself and those around him becomes blurred. So what I'm doing is simply preventing him from doing his best. Simple as that." "You're sure being some nasty life senpai to him, eh. So basically you turned the supposed-to-be intelligence battle into psychological warfare, is that it?" "It can't be helped, Gouoku," Kounomura laughed at Gouoku's teasing. "I wouldn't stand a chance if I fought a person like that fair and square." "So, in short, it's because Munakata never met his equal that he's now falling for your tricks, or something?"

Kounomura shook his head.

"Not quite. Like I said earlier, the point here is that Munakata-kun is too smart for his own good. Let's use the chess analogy, shall we? He's an impossibly excellent player. He can win in virtually any position, at any point of the game, just after one look at the board, and that's precisely what he's been doing repeatedly. That's why he's accidentally forgotten that he, too, is one of the factors composing the world, one of the elements that determine strategy and tactics. One of the pawns on the board called fate." "Hmmm." "Putting this into even simpler terms, until now he was a chess player who never moved the pawn that he himself is. No one ever presented enough threat for him to, so he naturally leaves himself out of his calculations and predictions. ...No, it's not quite that he leaves himself out, he's just lacking in self-awareness a little, I guess." He grinned. "But that's enough for me."

Kounomura really was a terrifying man, Gouoku reaffirmed once again.

Said Kounomura yawned. "Everyone stopped trying to seriously figure him out. They don't see Munakata-kun's typical thinking patterns, habits and tendencies even though everyone naturally has them, no exceptions. But I..." "But you're seeing through them." "That's right. Because I have 'love' for him. I didn't treat Munakata-kun as an unreachable genius or a monster, I simply tried my absolute best to get to know him thoroughly. And then I made use of the tiny chinks in his armor that I had painstakingly searched for and found. That's all there is to it," Kounomura simply said, but even Gouoku was well aware just how uncommon and outstanding the ability to do that was. Yes, it really was Munakata's disastrous misfortune to become possessed by this man.

Under Gouoku's gaze, Kounomura let out another small yawn and sprawled listlessly on the fur of Russian sable.

"So how is it? Do you feel you can usurp the throne of the Blue King with this plan of yours?" Gouoku changed his question.

Kounomura was silent for a while.

"Hmmm. Dunno. Like I've told you many times before, the nature of the Dresden Slate is too mysterious. After all, even the brilliant Gold King, ruling all things on the ground, Kokujouji Daikaku spent half a century on researching that thing and is still hardly even closer to figuring it out than he was in the beginning." "Speaking of, I wonder what said Gold King wants to achieve through this affair." "Beats me. Maybe he regards us as nothing more than an experiment to advance his research of the Slate. Or maybe it's his way of testing Munakata-kun. Or..." Kounomura paused. "The fact that you became a strain proves that the Slate is responsive to human will to a certain extent. But beyond that, I have no idea." "So even you can't figure out the inhuman Slate, although you could the human Munakata Reishi, huh."

Kounomura didn't reply. He lay curled in on himself.

Gouoku's shoulders shook with laughter. Now he could see clearly the reason why Kounomura was so unmotivated.

"You're such a greedy man, as always. You're gunning for the throne of the Blue King, yet get dejected when the Blue King's not resisting your ususrpation attempt hard enough," he accused in a teasing manner. "You're mistaken," Kounomura denied Gouoku's words, but not hard enough for it to sound convincing.

"Hey, Zen'ichi. Tell me something. What exactly Munakata Reishi can do to turn the tables on us in the current situation?" "Well," Kounomura replied in a quiet sleepy voice. "Since we're striking at the structural flaw that we found in Munakata Reishi as a human being here, he could just remember his own existence - recall who exactly he is. Or..."

But that what all Kounomura said, a peaceful sleeper's breathing being the only sound escaping him anymore.

Gouoku chuckled and took another gulp of his drink. He wouldn't mind drinking in the company of the man named Munakata Reishi together with Kounomura Zen'ichi someday, he thought.

†

It felt like he was drunk, or maybe delirious with fever. But Munakata pushed forward, shivering only slightly.

Ascending the wooden stairs, he headed to the room he used to use as his own. After Munakata became independent and left, his parents kept the room as it was, so he could use it to stay at on the extremely rare occasions when he came to visit them.

It was a straw-matted room, of the size about 6 tatami mats. Out of furniture, it only had a bed, a desk and bookcases. The massive amounts of books from when Munakata was indiscriminately reading during his being a student were mostly gone, but certain materials and albums were still lined up in a strict orderly fashion on the shelves.

Out of them, Munakata took out his grade school graduation album and opened it.

The memories revived with ease.

"Kasuga-sensei."

Munakata's brain was fast pursuing several concurrent trains of thought at once. If the process inside his cranium was to be visualized, it would probably look like a multitude of multicolored lights flashing all the time. The past data stored in the memory field were retrieved, assigned meaning through reasoning and interpretation, linked with the next piece of information and given the unity of a whole.

At the moment, Munakata was engaged in ultra-fast computing of frightening speed magnitudes. That influenced the part of his brain that controlled his body, so he was currently reeling. Or, putting it in layman's terms, he could also be said to be concentrating extremely hard.

'You are an exceedingly capable child, Reishi-kun. No, maybe I should call you too capable for your own good?' his teacher, about to retire, said once with a wide smile.

Munakata's brain reconstructed the details of the appearance of the teacher in question without any problem. His features were like a visual illusion picture meant to form a human face even when turned upside down. He wasn't particularly fat, but the vertex part was prominently rising, some straight completely white hair looking like fuzz still left on his head above his ears. His nose was bulbous, and behind the Lloyd glasses, his eyes smiled with kindness. Like a professor from an old school manga, as one of Munakata's classmates described him once.

Next, Munakata recalled the teacher's personal background. From the scrapes of rumors, Munakata's own investigation and what Kasuga-sensei told them about himself, it was a rather eccentric history for a grade school teacher. From it, it followed that Kasuga-sensei earned a PhD in political science in the USA, got a job with the UN as a member of an arbitration committee for disputed territories and worked there for almost 10 years until suffering severe injuries to his right leg. Reluctantly, he had to resign. He had job offers from several business corporations and research institutes, but he declined them all, becoming a teacher for a public elementary school instead.

"I'm sure where life is concerned, you won't get anything less than 100 points, now or in the future," Kasuga-sensei predicted with the same wide smile.

He really was a strange teacher who would cut a lesson short and take the kids to go watch bugs and flowers outside or would recite poetry non-stop for an hour. But it was during that teacher's tenure that Munakata had received anything less than full marks twice: 95 the first time and 98 the second.

To Munakata, that was completely outside his expectations.

Perfection. That was the undeniable nature inherent of the human named Munakata Reishi, even if he was only alive for a little more than 10 years at the time. On the day when their regular homeroom teacher came back, which simultaneously meant the end of Kasuga-sensei's short substitution, Munakata Reishi, whose features were still those of a young child, knocked on the door of the faculty office with the intention to directly ask Kasuga-sensei the question that needed to be asked, in the boy's opinion.

Kasuga-sensei welcomed him with a smile on his face. Munakata's question was straightforward and clear.

'Sensei, please explain why I did not get the full marks on your test?'

Let's just say that in addition to the question not at all being what a young child would ask, it was also somewhat arrogant and warranting the need for some guidance, from the educational perspective. An ordinary teacher would get angry at that. But Kasuga-sensei only burst out laughing, looking like he really did find it very funny.

'It's only natural that you would come throw this question at me. I'm happy you did, Reishi-kun. But it's only just as natural in a sense that you could not get full marks on that test.' He giggled like a prankster kid. 'After all, I designed that test specifically for you. Through observing you, I drew up all the questions in a way designed to lead you astray and guide you to make a mistake. All of them were a trap custom-made specially for you, Reishi-kun.'

He was not shy about what he'd done in the least.

At the time, Munakata was lost and bewildered.

'But sensei, is that not an inappropriate manner of conduct for an educator?' Clearly, this man's attitude as a teacher was supposed to be the opposite. 'Even if you managed to stike me down, in essence the test would lose its meaning as an educational testing tool, would it not?' 'Hahahaha!' In response to that reproving statement, Kasuga-sensei laughed loudly. 'This too is an educational method, Reishi-kun. Make sure you remember it,' he said and patted Munakata's head.

In all honesty, at that point of time what his teacher was talking about was beyond comprehension even to the prodigious Munakata Reishi. Only, Munakata Reishi still made sure to store those words in the innermost depths of his heart.

Because he had a hunch he should. Because he felt what his teacher taught him might change something in him unnoticed.

'I love you very much, you know.'

The instance those words of Kasuga-sensei's came to mind, a spark flashed in Munakata's brain. Pieces connected, instantly falling in place and unraveling the mystery of the events that until then seemed inexplicable. The riddle stopped being a riddle, becoming nothing more than its real structure instead.

At the same time, the exceedingly simple swindling scheme Kounomura Zen'ichi was running was laid bare before Munakata in pretty much its entirety. It only took mere 20 seconds for all of the above to happen.

But even Munakata Reishi ended up dizzy and unsteady from concentrating and thinking as hard as was humanly possible. Beads of sweat dripped from his brow, and his breathing was rough. That's how intense a thinking process was required.

In addition, at mostly the same instance, Munakata noticed the key that could break down his current predicament. He had understood that for besting Kounomura he absolutely needed to recall who he, himself, was. And once he realized that necessity, coming up with a solution was easy.

Munakata Reishi's obvious reason d'etre.

He got up, straightened his back and said a single phrase then. "I see. I remember now."

Pushing up at the bridge of his glasses with a finger, he whispered with grace and elegance, "That's right. I'm a king."

A flash of a smile that tugged at his lips was that of the Guardian of Order, of the Fourth and the Blue King Munakata Reishi, most clever and most young.

†

Driving his car at high speed, Munakata Reishi hurried back to the HQ. He didn't plan to stay overnight at his parents' house, but even with that taken into account, he left the family gathering a little earlier than expected.

He stayed just long enough to say good night to his niece and nephew before they went to bed.

"Uncle, will you visit again?" the two children asked, rubbing their eyes sleepily. "Of course I will," Munakata smiled and placed a gentle hand on the two's heads.

His brother who came out to see him off wrapped a hand around Munakata's shoulders as he grinned, "Say, Reishi. I made a baseball team with friends, but we don't have enough people. So... are you free next Sunday?" Munakata had to think a little. "Let's see. If I'm finished with my current matter, I might be available." "Great, I'm counting on you then. Let's form a sibling battery while we're at it, 'kay? You'll be the pitcher, and I'll be the catcher. The other way is fine, too. Yeah, now I can't wait!"

Taishi remained Taishi no matter what.

Unusually enough, Munakata Sr appeared in the entranceway to see his younger son off, too. It was anyone's guess what exactly the taciturn craftsman Jirou figured, but he clapped the younger Munakata on the arm and said, "Nm. Do your best." With that he slowly returned to the hallway.

Munakata bowed deeply to his father's back.

He sensed that his father constantly lived with the feeling of confusion when it came to him. And if he was honest, he knew that neither his parents nor his brother could ever gain a thorough understanding of who and what he was. He wasn't disappointed by it or resigned to it, he simply acknowledged it as a fact. At the same time, never once had he doubted the love they offered him.

'A kite has bred a hawk,' was what those around kept saying, and both Munakata's father and mother thought so too.

But still, the kite loved the hawk.

And they did too, in their own clumsy way, but sincerely and unhesitatingly. That's why Munakata could always return to their household as their second son Reishi, without the need to be cautious or anxious.

Before awakening as a king, Munakata Reishi lived his life without truly knowing who he was. His overly superior intelligence, his insight allowing him to foresee every manner of matter, his prodigious physical capabilities and talents... no matter what he did, he did it so well that he ended up eclipsing others as if it was only natural. What was a challenge to ordinary people, to Munakata was like walking a straight flat road, coming as natural as breathing. Not even an obstacle preventing him from seeing dozens of meters ahead. He was someone who surpassed in a heartbeat others' long and painstaking hard work with just his natural talent.

What would it even lead to if someone so superior and reality-defying tried to lead a school life among your average people?

The answer was, exclusion from the collective under the guise of admiration, and alienation from the mass with no even feeling of jealousy involved.

Because Munakata-kun was special. Because Munakata-kun was not normal.

How many times did he have those words, full of understanding on the surface but essentially ruthless and intolerant if you dug deeper, thrown at him?

His superior intelligence let him see through the pretense of respect veiling people's wish to distance themselves from him, and the Munakata Reishi of the past allowed it, resulting in his all-encompassing loneliness.

No matter how much he wished it, no one could stand equal to him. No one could see what he saw even if they looked at the same thing.

Before becoming king, Munakata Reishi was always lonely.

Munakata operated his PDA via voice input as he drove.

During his intense brain storming earlier, he exposed most of Kounomura's scheme, but there still remained a few unclear points. To figure them out, he absolutely needed capable people who could conduct field operation in his stead.

The line connected. Using a hands-free set, Munakata inquired, "Ah, Fushimi-kun?"

As he said the name of the person he was calling, a thought flashed in his head that maybe he head-hunted this person for his organization because he projected parts of his own past on the way the young man lived at the time. Needless to say, their personalities and environment was nothing alike, and unlike himself, Fushimi had a friend he could confide in, but still, the way the two of them felt out of place and alienated by those around them due to how outstandingly capable they were was very similar.

'---What is it?' The voice on the other end of the line was openly annoyed despite its owner talking to his direct superior.

Munakata's lips curved up in a smile.

"I have something to ask of you."

He then explained the contents of his request, keeping it short. Since the order was almost too concise, a normal person would likely fail to see what exactly Munakata wanted to achieve by giving it.

But Fushimi was not normal.

'---Understood,' he answered back after a 2 second silence, sounding like he had grasped Munakata's goal behind the directive in full.

The line went dead almost immediately after.

'He really is capable, extraordinarily so,' Munakata thought to himself from the bottom of his heart.

Afterwards, until arriving to the HQ, as he was driving, Munakata mulled over the topic of the grass-lot baseball game his brother invited him to. He was even humming to himself, an occurrence almost unheard-of for him.

Munakata knew he was in an uplifted mood. His drive and motivation were back.

[inyri]

Befores and Afters (a Mass Effect story)- for Kaidan Week 2017

(OK, so I’m really cheating on this one with 0 writing time so far this week- I wrote this at Christmas 2012 for a gift exchange. Sorry.

Mass Effect 3. FemShep/Kaidan.)

***

Befores and Afters (Some things change. Some things don’t.) I. Mako Her drone just barely fits under the Mako. She wouldn’t need it, normally, but her hands are full with the torque wrench, she’s got a bolt between her teeth and her headlamp keeps threatening to fall off. The light from the drone offsets the shadows from the maintenance trench just enough, and when she mutters around the bolt it chirps cheerfully in response, its tinny voice reading off the next set of pre-programmed instructions. USING A MALLET BREAK THE CONTROL ARM FREE OF THE SPINDLE Mallet. Shepard rests the wrench on her stomach, feeling around her for the appropriate tool without result. Which is still on the workbench. Damn it. She bends her knee to kick the edge of the hoverboard with one booted heel, sending it scooting out from beneath the Mako- and squarely into Kaidan’s ankles, knocking him back a step before its momentum dies. “I thought I heard you muttering under there.” He crouches down beside her. “Isn’t it supposed to be impossible to break a Mako?” “Whmph-” She spits the bolt at him; it clinks off his belt buckle and lands on the floor beside his foot. “Whoever said that wasn’t trying hard enough. I think we cracked an axle on that last slide down the mountain.” Kaidan picks up the bolt, twirls it between his fingers. “That would explain the loud noise and the wheel wobble. I knew that terrain was impassable.” “We passed it just fine.”

“Until you broke the Mako.” He sets the bolt on her stomach, next to the wrench. “At least the system’s clear of geth. Maybe they’ll even give us a real mission soon, instead of mopping up stragglers in the Terminus.”

“Yeah, well. The medals were pretty shiny.” Her scar twitches, pulls her right eye closed into the semblance of a wink. Kaidan snorts. “And that and a dead Reaper’ll buy you a cup of coffee. Did you need something?” She gestures awkwardly toward the workbench. “I forgot the mallet- I haven’t fixed an axle since Basic. Wires and lasers are more my thing, y’know? But the mechanic’s on shore leave until tomorrow morning, so-” her drone peeks out from the repair bay, chiming impatiently, “-I figured I’d take a stab at it.” “A stab?” “Metaphorical stab. With hammering.” Lifting and setting the wrench beside her on the hoverboard, Shepard powers down the gravity control and starts to sits up even as he pushes her back down, one hand on her chest. “Hey, now- watch those hands, Alenko.” He grins and waves her off. “I’ll get it for you. Mallet, right?” “Yup. Should be on the… right. I think.” “So it is.” He rises and his footsteps move away for a moment, then pause. “On one condition.” Something scrapes along the bench surface; his footsteps come back, closer, and she turns her head to look at him as Kaidan waves the mallet in front of her, crouched down to whisper in her ear. She rolls her eyes at him. “On what condition?” “Promise you won’t steal the blankets again.” His voice is barely audible, even so close. (They were always careful, in those days- regulations and all- but caution turned every moment into an opportunity, like how the elevator just happened to get stuck for about a minute whenever they were in it together.) “You have seriously cold feet, Shepard.” “I promise.” Kaidan nods solemnly, reverses his grip and hands it to her, handle-first. “Have fun.” “Will do.” She kicks the hoverboard back into gear and slides back under the Mako as her drone reactivates with a happy-sounding hum. USING A MALLET BREAK THE CONTROL ARM FREE OF THE SPINDLE “Yeah, yeah.” After a moment, the drone’s synthetic voice is lost beneath a flurry of hammer blows. *** Shepard didn’t expect to find much left on Alchera, honestly. Her ship- Joker’s baby, but in her heart it was hers- sits in a dozen pieces on the surface, scattered armor pieces and dog tags like deformed metal flowers on red dirt but then she comes down a hill and there’s the Mako, resting on a rocky outcropping like she just drove up and left it there yesterday. Never mind that it’s been two years. Never mind that it must have fallen out of the sky, landed there when the Normandy broke up during re-entry (though she was mostly broken up already, long before she hit the atmosphere). Never mind that the rear axle she replaced so carefully is still intact when she peers beneath the vehicle, complete with the scratch on the right-hand side where the torque wrench slipped out of her hand. Maybe it really is impossible to break a Mako. She scales the rocks and kicks at the door until it opens, reaches inside and pulls the dangling fuzzy dice off the viewport; they fit neatly into an empty ammo pouch, and when she returns to the SR-2 she drapes them over the corner of the frame that holds his picture. ***

II. Armor “But now we’ve got reports about you and Cerberus.” She denies it, of course. She’s working with Cerberus, not for Cerberus, the change in preposition making all the difference in the world, but the words seem interchangeable to everyone but her. The armor doesn’t help. The style’s the same that she always favored, with plenty of pouches and pockets for spare wires and ammo and odds and ends. Her shotgun sits comfortably at the small of her back; her sniper rifle, an upgraded version of the gun she’s used since her trips to the firing range with Mom, rests along her spine in its scabbard. She looks the same- except for the orange blazon on her shoulder like a traitor’s brand. In the end, Kaidan walks away, and Shepard doesn’t fault him for it. When she gets back to the ship she dismantles one of the pop-up turrets and uses the laser to blast the painted logos off her armor. She’s finished with the body armor and halfway done with the helmet by the time Miranda stalks into the armory. “Shepard, what the hell do you think you’re doing?” Her speech’s particularly clipped today, the consonants sharpened to knifepoints. “Making some adjustments to my gear.” Shepard finishes with the laser and makes a few passes with a buffing pad before picking up enamel and paintbrush. “Orange isn’t my color.” Miranda scowls, picking up her breastplate in one hand and one spaulder in the other. “This is Cerberus property, not some off-the-rack Alliance garbage. It’s not yours to deface.” She finishes the white stripe down the armguard, looks up and snorts. “Oh, really?” “We’ve discussed this, Shepard. You’ve already made non-standard adjustments to your weapons, the drones-” “-and half the crew are aliens and it pisses you off, Miranda. I get it.” The stripe’s still too damp to tape over; she’ll have to do the red later. “But I’m pretty sure we’ve established this is a non-standard mission.” Arms folded across her chest, Miranda stands in the doorway. “Field research suggests that this armor pattern is optimal across nearly every combat condition. You may lose the element of surprise.” She pushes a few buttons on her omni-tool and her drone flickers to life, hovering just at eye level in front of the other woman’s face. “If people see me coming, lady, it’ll be because I want them to.” Shepard smiles over the static buzz of the drone’s energy field. “So if I want to paint my armor bright fucking pink with lime green polka dots, I will.” Miranda narrows her eyes. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got some work to do.” She turns her back to the door and doesn’t look up until she hears it close. *** She always liked the way Kaidan looked in blue- the color did something remarkable against his hair- but she has to admit his new armor is pretty spectacular. Maybe it’s the pockets. You can never have enough pockets. The first time she fights beside him when he wears it, they end up pinned between two buildings with a turret on their rear and an Atlas shooting rockets up their noses. Shepard hates Atlases- can’t get close enough to shotgun them, sniping takes forever, so she’s stuck plinking away at the damn thing from behind a crate between carefully timed Overloads. “Low on ammo here,” she shouts across to him, sending her drone behind them toward the turret. He throws a clip across; she reloads the rifle and aims across the crate, finally getting a clear line of sight to the mech’s pilot through the shattered bubble. Her shot catches the Cerberus soldier just between the eyes, and as he slumps out of the cockpit the mech powers down. Behind them, the turret explodes in a shower of sparks. “Clear?” Kaidan checks their tail. She crawls out of cover, looks right and left around the empty Atlas. “Clear.” The turret’s dead, a few parts still useable- she tucks those into her belt pouch- but its thermal clips don’t work with rifles. Shepard looks back to Kaidan with a shrug. “This rifle’s an ammo hog. Can you spare any more?” “Eh, I’ve got plenty.” He opens one of the front pockets. “The ammo pouches on this thing have ammo pouches. I feel like a munitions factory.” Shepard resolves at that moment to get a suit of it for herself. It would figure, of course, that the Ajax was a Cerberus design, stripped in bits and pieces off a couple dead engineers after a raid and retrofitted to Alliance spec. (Of course it was for engineers- practical, elegant design with plenty of gear space, easily adapted to different loadouts, better-than-standard performance enhancement. Only an engineer could create such a thing.) She can’t help but tease Kaidan about it, if only a little. “So I guess not everything Cerberus worked on is so bad, hm?” She brushes off the engraving on the chestpiece- SHEPARD, in big block letters, unmistakeable as anyone’s but hers. “I guess not,” Kaidan says, inspecting his own suit with its matching engraving; he looks her up and down, and grins. “I can think of a few good things they’ve done.” “This armor is pretty great.” She doesn’t notice he’s still looking until she turns around. “Yeah,” he says. “Yeah, it is.”

***

III. Rest It’s a travel day, which means mission planning. There aren’t many travel days, now, with the Reapers in almost every system, but this outpost’s at the furthest edge of the cluster and they decide to play it safe. If the Reapers follow them, there won’t be enough time for a full evacuation before they lose the whole thing- or the planet it’s on. Like Bekenstein. Shepard closes her eyes and flops back onto the bed. “I need a nap.” “You need a vacation.” Kaidan snatches the datapad from beneath her just before she rolls over onto her stomach. “A long vacation.” “Hmph.” She turns her head to the side, keeps her eyes closed. “Didn’t they tell you in Spectre training? We don’t get vacations. We just keep working until our bodies give out, then get replaced with new models. Like machines.” His hands slide under the white cotton of her shirt, fingers working at the knots that run like parallel ropes along her spine. “You’re not a machine, Shepard. You get to be tired once in a while.” He digs into a particularly stubborn spot; she winces, then relaxes. “Besides, we’ve done as much planning as we can.” “I keep telling myself that, but it’s never enough.” She rests her head on her folded arms. Kaidan lets it go for a while, brushing her hair away to get at her neck, pulling up the elastic cuffs at her ankles to work along the backs of her legs. “It has to be.” “What if it isn’t?” He stops, then, and when she turns to look at him he lifts her hand in his, presses his lips against the tattoo on her little finger. “It will be. Get some sleep, okay? EDI can let you know when we’re getting close.” “I don’t want to sleep.” “I thought you said-“ Shepard sighs. “I did. I lied. I want to forget, I guess- when I sleep, I remember.” She rolls onto her back again, looking up at the passing stars through the skylight. “Can I help you forget, then?” Kaidan, still sitting cross-legged on the bed, looks down at her. “Not if it involves tequila like last time. I was hung over all day.” Her nose wrinkles at the memory. (She’s had to stay away from it ever since; she’d always thought he was a whiskey drinker, anyway.) He chuckles, and bends down to kiss her stomach, just at the gap where the hem of her shirt pulls away from her waistband. “I can probably think of other ways.” “Mm?” She smiles. “Mm.” He gets the drawstring between his teeth and pulls.

*** Communication lines were spotty after the war ended, and it took some time to repair enough of the damage to get the Normandy airborne again. He knew she wasn’t gone, though. The others called it wishful thinking, made a plaque with her name to put up on the memorial wall, but he wouldn’t do it. Not yet. When he gets the message he’s already back on Earth, helping clean up the wreckage that used to be Vancouver, but half an hour later he’s on the first transport to London. “They found her.” Liara meets him outside the hospital- she’d been the first to know, as she was so often. Her voice cracks. “She’s in rough shape, but she’s alive. I’ve spoken with Miranda, and she’s coming to help, but-“ “That bad?” He swallows. He’d seen the records. “No, no. Alive. Awake, now. Shepard’s a hard woman to kill.” “Let me see her.” She’s terribly pale and wrapped nearly head to toe in bandages and clean white sheets, but when he comes through the door she smiles. “Hey, you.” “Hey.” There aren’t words for this, for the moments between ‘I thought you were dead’ and ‘don’t ever do that again’ and ‘I love you,’ so he settles for the first thing that comes out. “You did it.” She laughs like it hurts her, but she nudges his hand where it rests on the bedrail. “Just doing my job.”

[raidpirate52]

The Loud House Season 3 Scorecard by raidpirate52

More in-depth analysis under “Keep Reading”. 

Tripped: A good, entertaining episode. Not the best of the 30 minute specials, but still quite enjoyable on its own. I give the episode a "B". White Hare: I feel the number of rabbits was a bit too high to really focus on the episode and it was overall distracting. Originally it was the plan for the cast to be rabbits with various other animals, and I have to admit I'm glad they decided to go with what they did with humans. Probably wouldn't have been as popular of a show with animal humans. I give this episode a "C". Insta-Gran: It had a nice ending with the Loud kids being there for Myrtle learning she didn't have much of a family like hers after spending the episode loathing her, which was caused by some funny moments like her deleting Lori and Leni's shows.  I give this episode a "B". Roadie to Nowhere: So this might be controversial, but I don't like this episode. Everyone seems to call it one of the best and I just get so bored watching it. Sorry, but I give this episode a "D". A Fridge Too Far: It was clever to see the ways the Loud's protected their leftover food. Also when throwing away dad's food and Cliff having himself a feast.  I give this episode a "B". Selfie Improvement: Lori getting into a selfie competition with Carol was pretty funny, but it felt fairly repetitive and not exactly the most compelling plot. It was nice that she and Carol became friends in the end, so I give this episode a "C". No Place Like Home School: I really liked that Lola decided to help her siblings out to help them pass their tests and them returning the favor to go back to regular school so she can continue home school instead. Was a great episode, I give it an "A". City Slickers: It was funny how Lori struggled with the city life. I think the Lincoln and Ronnie Anne story was alright. A bit cliche with the hide from origins angle, but it was nice she embraced Royal Woods at the end. I give this episode a "B". Fool Me Twice: The different ways Luan's prank to humiliate the family was pretty ridiculous but in a funny way. Also, finally Luan gets some comeuppance in the end for the April Fools saga. Not sure if this will be the last April Fool's episode, we'll just have to wait and see. I give this episode a "B". Net Gains: It was nice for Lynn to learn teamwork in this episode, despite her team not winning in the end. Also nice that Flip wasn't terrible for once. I give this episode a "B". Pipe Dreams: An interesting plot idea with the Loud parents wanting a bathroom in their closet. Feel it had some similarities to Lock 'N' Loud from the last season with this time the parents trying to secure their new bathroom. Not as good as that one in my opinion, but I still give this episode a "B". Fandom Pains: A nice episode that gives focus to Lucy's relationship with Lori and Leni, a trio you wouldn't think to see much. It was a great episode and I enjoyed seeing the three of them hang out. I give this episode an "A". Rita Her Rights: This one is alright. Highlight was seeing which ways Rita could find ways to get community service and returning to a house of chaos. Other than that, not the most entertaining. I give this episode a "C". Teacher's Union: Only part I liked was Lori assuming Lincoln was talking about himself when asking for advice, other than that I didn't really care about the Coach Pacowski and Mrs. Johnson plot. I give this episode a "C". Head Poet's Anxiety: So this episode has Lucy interacting with Luan. Definitely a great episode. Despite initially being jealous, it was nice Luan came to her senses and in the end supported Lucy. I give this episode an "A". The Mad Scientist: A fairly good Lisa episode. It was nice that she remembered the time with her family and how much they really mean to her. I give this episode a "B". Missed Connection: A good episode with Lori and Bobby trying the long distance thing. I liked them coming together and despite not having their best dates, they still work things out. I give this episode a "B". Deal Me Out: Lincoln and Clyde feel their too old for Ace Savy. Not sure how I felt on this episode, just felt it was okay. Nothing wrong with it, but nothing spectacular to me. I give the episode a "C".   Friendzy: Another episode the siblings fight each other, but this one has a good resolution in the end with them making up and working things out. I liked the part when the sisters caught on to the friend card and caught Lola watching TV with her friend, Lincoln cried for his mom. It was pathetic but in a cute kind of way. I also liked that Lincoln's first friend to tag along him and Clyde was Liam. Great moments in this episode, I give it an "A". Pasture Bedtime: Liam actually gets a spotlight role. It was fun to see him have so much energy around the farm. Also unfortunate what happened to Lincoln, Clyde, Zach and Rusty at Girl Jordan's party but they had it coming for double-crossing Liam. Also some hilarious dark humor at the end. One of my favorites of the season. I grade this episode an "A". Shop Girl: So the Loud's try to teach Leni to be assertive. Not as good as "Walking Small" in SpongeBob, but still had some fun moments. I liked the part at the end when Lola tried to be rewarded for being nice only to push fries on a poor guy.  I give this episode a "B". Gown and Out: A great Lola episode where she spends most of it with Lori. I liked Lincoln helping out, a nice call back to Toads and Tiaras. Was nice for Lola to congratulate the winner of this episode, and I liked when Lincoln got ahead of himself and scared Lola only for Lori to hang up on him.  I give this episode an "A". Breaking Dad: It was nice to see Lynn Sr. spend some time with Lily in this episode. Quite repetitive though, but not a bad episode by any means. I give this episode a "B". Ruthless People: Not really hard to see why a lot dislike this episode, but me personally, I thought it was funny. A lot of fans want to feel bad for Lincoln's group, and that's fine, but you should keep in mind they brought their misfortune on themselves for the most part. Had they just stayed where they were and not bail at the first opportunity, they wouldn't have had such a bad time. Also, a bit of their sympathy goes away when their motive was to get the others to have a miserable time they were having, so they kind of deserved it. Overall, I give this episode a "B". What Wood Lincoln Do: The highlight of this episode was definitely Walt demanding he get his bird house back.  I also liked Lincoln trying to bribe his own mom to do his wood shop projects. Overall I'd give this episode a "B". Scales of Justice: Just like "Frog Wild" of the last season, this one compliments it by having Lana try to save a new breed of animals. It was funny when Leni would run into walls/trees.  Definitely a great episode as it showed how Lana gets along with the wildlife. I give this episode an "A". Crimes of Fashion: I liked what Clyde and Lincoln did for Leni to fight and help get her job back. Also was kind of amusing they were in their Ace Savy costumes the whole time. I give this episode a "B". Absent Minded: Kind of a meh episode. Clyde worries about his perfect attendance being tainted. Not really the most compelling idea for an episode. I give this episode a "C". Be Stella My Heart: I liked the episode pointed out that not all male-female friendships need romance. Also had some good moments with Lincoln's friends. I have to say my personal favorite was they hit each other with dodgeballs and stated the reason was for what happened at lunch. "That's for the meatball." "That's for the mustard." "That's for blinding me!" -Then Clyde misses Liam-.  I give this episode an "A". Sitting Bull: It was nice seeing Lynn take some responsibility. Even though she wasn't the best babysitter through most of the episode, it was still pretty funny. At least she wasn't neglectful. A good episode with the older Loud sisters. I give this episode a "B". The Spies That Loved Me: It was pretty funny how the family worried about Ronnie Anne but didn't seem to pay any attention that Carl was the one who fell victim to everything they worried about. I give this episode a "B". Really Loud Music: Probably my favorite of the season. While I wasn't a fan of every song in this one I still really enjoyed the overall plot. My personal favorite songs were Lana's, Lola's, Lori and Leni's, and all of Luna's. I really liked the part where when Michelle and Doug tried to pull the plug on Luna, it was Lana and Lynn who teamed up to stop them. This episode easily gets an "A". House of Lies: I did enjoy this one. I liked the Loud's working together to destroy Lisa's lie-detecting glasses and later to destroy the over-sensitive system. The montage of them having to tell full truths was pretty funny too. I give this episode a "B". Game Boys: Not a bad episode, but compared to some of the others recently, this one kind of pales in comparison. It's good, but not a standout. I give it a "C". Everybody Loves Leni: I really liked the episode showing off how Leni puts everyone before herself, but I kind of wish her friends were more interesting of characters. Overall, a good episode though. I rank it a "B". Middle Men: The horrors that was Middle School. I totally see where Lynn was coming from in this episode. Not really sure how I felt about the happy ending to this one, it was nice, but all the same, the drama of middle school doesn't ever go that way, especially for characters like Lincoln and Clyde. I still grade it a "B" though because I like that Lynn tried to help Lincoln through it. Jeers for Fears: I definitely liked seeing Chandler in another episode. Though, he was mostly only in the beginning and end of it. In the middle is where the episode kind of drops in quality for me. I didn't enjoy seeing Lincoln be a coward in Price for Admission and I didn't really like it here either. It was nice for the Loud sisters to help him out and later Bobby too. I also liked that Chandler comes to respect Lincoln and Clyde too so overall give this episode a "B". Tea Tale Heart: Lola thinking the doll was haunted was an entertaining episode. I liked that at the end it was revealed Lana just always happened to be at the same places at the same time. Of course Lucy loving the thought of the doll being supernatural too. I give this episode an "A". The Loudest Thanksgiving: Was nice to see a Thanksgiving special, but I felt it maybe had a bit too much conflict for a Thanksgiving episode. Also felt that there were too many characters to focus on. Not bad, but I feel it could've been done better. I give this episode a "B". Predict Ability: I did enjoy seeing Lincoln mix things up with his daily routine. I also really liked his hipster outfit. Also had a good mix of focus with the other characters. I give this episode an "A". Driving Ambition: It was a nice Lori-centric episode. Overall though I feel it was a bit forgettable. I give it a "C". Home of the Fave: I did really enjoy seeing Lynn Sr. interact with all his kids, though wish they evened out a bit more. Most of the first half is with just Luan and Lola. I did like how he tried to give his kids equal time, only driving himself crazy. Also, at the end when the pets started to get jealous.  I give this episode an "A". Hero Today, Gone Tomorrow: Was nice for Lynn to share the spotlight with her friend for once and seemingly keeping her lesson in tact at the end. Nice to see Paula get a second appearance. I give this episode an "A". Cooked: It was a good special. I did like seeing the Loud kids come up with different ways to promote their dad's restaurant and seeing it get put into action like Lincoln trying to drive every bus that stopped by or Lana allowing patrons to bring pets to Liam bringing his whole barn. Very entertaining episode, I grade it an "A". The Write Stuff: A pretty mundane episode where if not for Lucy would probably be the sole F of the season, but her addition keeps me from ranking this as the least. I don't care much for Principal Huggins but this episode gave him a lot of focus and I liked that Rita stepped in to take over Lucy's group, but still, not the most entertaining episode. Racing Hearts: I liked that we got a focus episode on Sam and Luna. I do like that it was shown that relationships can work even with personal differences but I wish they showed more of what they have in common to balance it out. Still a good enough episode to get a "B" grade. Stage Flight: I liked the Benny and Luan interactions in this episode, I thought it was cute. Definitely had me on board with the two. Funny how Benny has a puppet of his own. I give this episode an "A". Antiqued Off: The last episode that features Lincoln and his friends. Though most focus was on Clyde and Zach, not exactly my favorite of Lincoln's social circle. Still, it was a nice episode with a good lesson that friends should try more things that their friends like so I give this episode a "B". No F's in this season, lots of A's, so that's good. Overall, a great season. Looking forward to see what Season 4 brings.

[danmacrae]

Silly 90s Intro Blab: A Thing To Skim Through On The Toilet

Hello! I’m semi-tolerable nuisance Dan MacRae! Why am I shouting at you? Not sure! Sorry, I’ll take it down a notch.

Instead of learning how to pleasure a woman or how to unlock the mysteries of grooming, I have devoted my life to TV nonsense. Blessed YouTube presence RwDt09 has been collecting these amazing compilations of era (and sometimes season) specific TV intros and they are my everything. Imagine having a child that didn’t suck? That’s the feeling RwDt09′s videos put in my heart.

I've been obsessively rewatching this collection of mostly forgotten early '90s TV intros. The bulk of these shows died a quick death and feel like the product of whatever drugs TV execs take. (Probably something snorted from one of those awesome McDonalds coffee straws they ditched in like 2002.) Because I'm a handsome pin-up hunk of the year, I wrote some dumb blurbs about the first few shows and have some stray thoughts on the rest. This appeals to no one but me AND I APOLOGIZE TO NO ONE!

In the immortal words of John Lennon, let’s get biz-zay!

DINOSAURS: I’m at a point in my life where I can acknowledge that Dinosaurs sucked. It’s incredibly freeing. Christ, this is like that stupid-ass Norman Lear show where dogs did social commentary BUT WITH HENSON PUPPETS! I hope Baby Sinclair was stomped to death and eaten as pudding before the extinction series finale. (Yes, that happened.) The intro isn’t bad, mind you. You get the lumbering theme song and Earl gets stuck in a door CUZ LAFFS! TIMES SURE HAVEN’T CHANGED HO HO HO! God I hate these fucking dinosaurs.

Intro MVP: It’s not a stellar pack, but we get a bit of Robbie Sinclair who census data has shown led to a variety of surprising sexual awakenings for youths at the time.

SCORCH: A 1300-year-old dragon named Scorch visits the 1990s on a budget that looks not far removed from Skank on The Ben Stiller Show. The song will make you want to barricade your sex organs from a world where you can bring children into a world with THAT CAWAZZZY SCORCH! The theme song really is a special brand of irritating and Scorch looks like a malformed Deviant Art dildo with a vaguely religious bent.

Intro MVP: Probably John O’Hurley for not actually appearing in the intro. (Even with O’Hurley’s weird résumé.)

FISH POLICE: Not to be confused with the (ARF! ARF! ARF!) Dog Police, Fish Police and Family Dog are shows I know almost exclusively from being mentioned as examples of the crappy post-Simpsons primetime animation gold rush. Fish Police actually looks good animation-wise, but it’s pretty clear you’re gonna be sledgehammered with endless “COULD YOU IMAGINE FISH DOING THESE OLD TROPES? DO WE NEED TO CALL A SEARCH PARTY FOR YOUR SIDES? ARE THEY SPLITTING ALREADY?” jokes. Congrats dipshits, you made a cinema-touched precursor to Frankie & George. You dummies. Also there’s the tone of casual racism UNDER THE SEA so do with that what you will. DID YOU SEE CHINATOWN? WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT SHIT?

Intro MVP: Thank goodness they specified who John Ritter voices so we could all bask in Inspector Gil as a character name. Fuck you, Fish Police.

CAPITOL CRITTERS: Christ, this looks UNWATCHABLE. Like walk into oncoming traffic as an alternative unwatchable. Capitol Critters centers around an animated mouse named Max (voiced by Neil Patrick Harris) witnesses his family being murdered in Nebraska and moves to D.C. and wait what the fuck is going on with those roaches? (Racism, mostly.) Who thought this was a good idea to invest time, money and animator joint damage in? Stephen Bochco, baby! I have a perverse curiosity to see an episode but after 90 seconds I know I'd be dying to eat a fucking gun instead of suffering through any more of Capitol Critters.

Intro MVP: Gotta be Bochco. Also, EAT SHIT BOCHCO!

And now a really tiny blab about the rest. Watch this clip package, ya goofs!

FAMILY DOG: Folks were fucking horny for Spielberg TV shit in the 90s, ditto Tim Burton too and that's how an Amazing Stories, uh, story was morphed into a shitball TV series that Brad Bird wanted no part of. Also, I have no idea how to explain things like the CBS StereoSound chyron to anyone born after Clinton left office.

THE CRITIC: Nice to see you, Jay Sherman! This is a lovely intro and you likely know that already. I've done a few rewatches of The Critic (not the web series season, though) and I say the show definitely holds up and is far from a duketastrophe. That said, some of the parody film clips that got raves at the time are kinda creaky in hindsight.

CHARLIE HOOVER: Can I say something? Fuck Sam Kinison. Hmm... That's a bit harsh. I guess I just don't get him on any level. The only thing he's done that I've ever found all that funny was when he said he wished Andrew Dice Clay die of stomach cancer from the inside out, like Bette Davis. Kinison's not my cup of tea is what I'm getting at. In Charlie Hoover (GET IT HURF HURF), Kinison is a foot high loudmouth in a long coat that's getting 40-year-old square Tim Matheson where he needs to be in life.

A LEAGUE OF THEIR OWN: Or... "Betty Spaghetti's Here Which Is All The Star Power You Need!"

HARDBALL: A League Of Their Own had a fun, feel good intro with all the corny touches of ol' timey baseball. Hardball tries to sell you on Joe Rogan: Baseball Fella and the vague scent of urinal troughs.

GOOD GRIEF: Howie Mandel golfs in a cemetery and it's not particularly clear if he's just fucking around on strangers graves for fun. (Alternate Theory: Those graves belong to the family from Bobby's World. All the Generics!)

THE FANELLI BOYS: If enjoy broad Italian-American stereotypes to the point of falling down laughing at the sight of a pizza box, you'll love The Fanelli Boys! Joe Pantoliano and Christopher Meloni both star.

SOMETHING WILDER: Something Wilder was the sort of show where I wished Gene Wilder well and still kept 5000 miles away from watching it. Also, Wilder's face on that house is CHILLING.

DUDLEY: Embrace the luxury hotel elevator elegance of Dudley! Does it feature Dudley Moore make a series of faces where he seems surprised by everything? You better believe it. This was also where Max Wright got work in-between taking abuse from a cat eating alien and Norm Macdonald.

CAROL & COMPANY: It's a bit Carol Takes On in the intro with Carol Burnett in assorted costumes and that's alright because everyone does the assorted costumes intro thing. Tickets to the show are blown across America and get in the hands of whatever Orphan Black Carol happens to be in the area.

THE CAROL BURNETT SHOW: This is an extremely 90s sort of intro that feels like something more upscale soft rock stations did in TV ads at the time too. Richard Kind directs a bit of paper at someone midway through.

DREXELL'S CLASS: One of more storied entries in the Dabney Coleman being an asshole catalogue. The first intro features Dabney, ol' Drex himself, just hanging around in class being hot shit and occasionally mimicking a flying dinosaur. The second intro is a more traditional clip collection highlighted by a young Brittany Murphy (WHO WAS MURDERED! FACT! REMINDER!) and Coleman in a wild 8 ball jacket. Rembrandt off Sliders also makes an appearance.

TEECH: If this intro looks exactly like a sitcom where a Cool Black Music Instructor™ teaches Prep School bad boys in Bush Sr era America that's because it is exactly that sort of sitcom. Maggie Han deserves better.

THE ROYAL FAMILY: It seems extra cruel to take Redd Foxx's popcorn away considering he'd be dead before the fifth episode even aired. Della Reese is in this, die-hard Della fans.

ROC: This intro works perfectly. We get Charles S. Dutton, Ella Joyce and an easy to digest Jerry Lawson theme song. (En Vogue would do the theme later.) It’d be nice if they could get Edgar Allan Poe wagging a finger at seafood or something else in the background to push that Baltimore thing even more, but I still wish this intro from 25+ year old Fox comedy all the best in its future endeavours.

BREWSTER PLACE: Speaking of good intros, Brewster Place is a first rate brand of TV welcome. Brenda Pressley is the MVP of the intro over Oprah Winfrey which might explain why Brenda Pressley has been missing since 1992. (I know she’s on The Path. Just play along.)

SUNDAY BEST: The intro equivalent of getting someone to throw shit at a wall, we get an early 90s NBC grab bag of fuck it whatever shots of TVs and TV dinners with poor Carl Reiner trotted out partway through.

AMERICAN CHRONICLES: Mark Frost and David Lynch paired for a documentary series in the early ‘90s on Fox because Fox was like fucking UHF at the time. The industrial strength creepy opening doesn’t include any shots of narrator Richard Dreyfuss turning towards the camera and that’s a damn shame.

AMERICAN DETECTIVES: If you get horny for stressed out real-life detectives, this will send your undergarments to Mars! Lots of mustaches here. A whole Safeway bag’s worth. Some real rural gas station rock going on with that theme tune.

FBI: THE UNTOLD STORIES: The tone of this entire intro is: “Hey kid, wanna see a dead body? Or twenty?” Creepy music blasting over Jackie Kennedy on the back of JFK’s death limo and Wayne Williams heading to trial equals primetime party fun!

ENCOUNTERS: THE HIDDEN TRUTH: Suck it, Sightings! Encounters is leading a new dawn for crackpot horseshit to eat Bugles to! I appreciate the shameless X-Files knockoff intro thing Fox is doing (cuz it’s their show) that comes complete with head shop blanket alien head popping up midway through.

STEPHEN KING’S GOLDEN YEARS: Essentially Garth Marenghi's Darkplace with one hell of a music rights win tacked on.

TRIBECA: This opening reminds me an awful lot of terrible movies I was bullied into watching on VHS at a friend’s house.

WIOU: One thing I like in a TV intro is when something fun happens with the title onscreen. It’s a minor thing, but the way those WIOU letters turn into view? HOOCHIE MAMA! Eight is Enough’s Dick Van Patten does a fantastic job of conveying that being a weatherfellow is tough work.

GABRIEL’S FIRE: I will never for the life of me understand how the early ‘90s could not sustain a James Earl Jones fronted program titled Gabriel’s Fire. Those worlds are supposed to meld beautifully.

PROS & CONS: Gabriel’s Fire would morph into the more lighthearted Pros & Cons which symbolized its new form by laying it on thick with the Video Toaster touches. Instead of James Earl Jones peering at you from the darkness, this go-around it’s a lot of smiles and silly moments with Richard Crenna.

BURKE’S LAW: Hearing “it’s Burke’s Law” at the start of that intro is like when “Do you smell what The Rock’s cooking?” would play before Dwayne Johnson would wander down a ramp to kick Triple H in the stomach. In this case, it’s to get you fired up that Gene Barry’s back on television. This particular episode promises Dom DeLuise and Tawny Kitaen together at last!

MAX MONROE: LOOSE CANNON: If you only see one intro for a Shadoe Stevens vehicle that transitions from a Donut Hole shot to an extended leer at a lady’s bum, make it this one!

TEQUILA AND BONETTI: The creators of Tequila and Bonetti know that if you want folks to get on board for an L.A. dramedy about a New York cop and streetwise police partner dog, you should kick things off by trying to make you feel sorry for this asshole who “accidentally” murdered a kid. Seriously, that’s the route Tequila and Bonetti goes with this fucking insane opening that begins with newspaper headlines screaming “COP KILLS 12 YR OLD” while he cradles a black girl in her arms and then BOOM! we’re spun around to JACK SCALIA GRINNING AROUND WACKY LOS ANGELES AND ALL ITS CRAZY CHARACTERS LIKE A DOG THAT JUMPS THROUGH A FUCKING WINDOW WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON HERE? THIS IS LIKE IF SOMEONE STROKED OFF THE HANNITY VIEWING AND KEPT WHAT WAS SPURTED OUT ONSCREEN! It’s just a really, really, really bad intro.

[ohlawsons]

the things that matter.

SUMMARY. Commander Natalie Shepard has a bit of a history with her flight lieutenant, but they've long since worked through any lingering awkwardness. Mostly. When she and Kaidan go on a double date with Joker and his girlfriend, it leaves them all thinking about the past, what-ifs, and all the things that are most important. Inspired by a double date prompt. NOTES. nat belongs to @reagans-ramblings! thank you for letting me write about your beautiful bi shepard i love her so much now with an ao3 link! LINKS. [ AO3 ] [ FFN ]

Thinking back, Joker wasn’t sure exactly whose idea it had been.

Setting up an elaborate double date between three of the galaxy’s busiest people and a woman whose job required her to be virtually impossible to track down was, strictly speaking, a terrible idea. Maybe Cal had suggested it, because she loved social shit like that. Or maybe he had, because social shit like that was a surefire way to convince Cal to take some shore leave on the Citadel. There was a pretty decent chance it had been Kaidan, for no other reason than Joker was more than willing to put some good-natured blame on the major. Hell, it might’ve even been EDI who’d brought it up, and in that case he was just glad he wasn’t on his way to meet her and Sam.

Although, awkward as EDI could be, a double date with her and the comm specialist could potentially be less awkward than a double date with Major Alenko and Commander Shepard — the now very pregnant Commander Shepard, who he’d once dated, and who his current girlfriend was definitely a little bit into.

Yeah, he’d rather take his chances with EDI and Sam.

But then his omni-tool chimed with a message from Kaidan saying they were running a few minutes late, and Joker typed up a reply that Cal was still MIA, and it was officially too late to back out. He fidgeted with his suit — again; it was only at the insistence of both Cal and Kaidan that he’d even agreed to wear it in the first place — and opened a vid call to Cal. “Any chance you’re still in another system? Running tragically late and we’ll have to miss dinner?”

She laughed. “Just landed, unfortunately. I’m on my way over.”

“Alright. See you then.” Not leaving the crew quarters just yet, Joker glanced reflexively over to where EDI’s display had once been. “EDI, let me know when Cal gets here.”

“Of course, Jeff. I can also alert the Commander with an updated estimation of your arrival, if you’d like.”

He groaned in response.

Fortunately for Joker, the Normandy was blissfully empty given that they were finally getting a rare bit of shore leave. Adams was still down in engineering, and he was pretty sure Tali and Traynor were both around somewhere, but with EDI’s help it had been easy enough to avoid them all evening. This whole ordeal — dressing up and looking presentable and going out to a fancy restaurant — was certainly not high on his list of ways he typically preferred to spend his time on the Citadel, and the last thing he wanted was to have to deal with comments from the rest of the crew.

But by the time he’d met Cal down in the CIC, he’d almost changed his mind about dressing up and going out; her short hair was combed back into its usual style, and she wore simple heels and a fitted suit with a black jacket and a crisp white shirt left partially unbuttoned, and she was quite possibly the best damned thing he’d seen since the start of the war. Or ever.

Joker pointed to her shirt. “You missed one,” he said, clearing his throat as he tried to find his voice.

“I prefer to think of it as giving you a head start, you know, for later, but I can always—” Cal moved to fasten another of the buttons, and he quickly retracted his statement.

“Actually, on second thought, it looks great.” He paused, not bothering to hide how his eyes roamed across her figure. “You look great,” he added, voice filled with sincerity, and emphasized the statement with a kiss, just a light brush of his lips against Cal’s.

“I look fucking fantastic,” she shot back, stealing a quick kiss of her own, “and you’re not so bad yourself. But I was promised dinner, and company that I haven’t spent the last four months with.”

He took her hand as she led him out through the main airlock and towards the skycar she’d brought. “Is it that bad?” Joker frowned; Alliance special ops weren’t easy during the best of times, but with the war, Cal’s N7 training had been pushed to the limits. He knew it had been draining her, but the level of exhaustion in her voice was still unexpected.

She gave little more than a shrug in answer, climbing into the skycar and not surrendering Joker’s hand even as she keyed in the location of the restaurant. “War sucks and everything’s classified.” Despite her words, Cal launched into a vague explanation of her most recent mission, detailing the soldiers she’d lost and the relative lack of success they’d had against the reapers. Joker chimed in where he could, adding sarcasm or supportive comments as needed., and Cal’s mood had nearly lifted by the time they reached the restaurant.

They were the first ones there, and a quick message to Kaidan confirmed that it wouldn’t be a long wait. The reservation was under Natalie’s name, and apparently being Commander Shepard meant no waiting in lines, because Joker and Cal were almost immediately led to a relatively secluded table near the back. The second couple joined them before they’d even ordered drinks, and Joker wasn’t sure whether he or Cal was being more obvious about their staring; he’d long since accepted that Kaidan would always manage to look unfairly handsome — and it didn’t hurt that his suit actually looked like it fit — but it had been a long time since he’d seen Nat out of uniform and she was practically glowing, with her hair pulled up into an elegant bun and the contrast of the deep green of her dress against her warm brown skin.

“Calliope Olson.” Cal stood, just a bit too quickly, and held out a hand first to Kaidan, then to Nat. “Joker talks about you all the time.”

Nat raised one perfectly arched eyebrow as she sat across from Cal. “Does he?”

It had been years since they were together — they were just kids on Arcturus, back then — but damn if it wasn’t suddenly very, very awkward. Repressing the sudden urge to get up and head straight for the bar, Joker shrugged. “What can I say? Cal’s a longtime fan of yours, and I aim to please.” Cal snorted at that, and Nat gave her a pointed, knowing stare; the urge to leave grew, and was accompanied by a rush of heat to his face.

“No, he’s right,” Cal admitted as she recovered from her laughter. “I’ve been following your career since Elysium. You caught my eye after Eden Prime,” she continued, turning towards Kaidan. “The only biotic originally on board, and with the woman who would become the first human Spectre? Of course I was interested.”

The two shared a sidelong glance; Kaidan looked a bit overwhelmed, but Nat seemed to be thoroughly unimpressed. She got recognized far too often for Cal to even phase her. Joker, who was fairly certain that his attempt to disappear into his chair was not working, was nearly prepared to intervene — as much as he loved how excitable Cal could be about everything from Nat to sniper rifles to wheat fields, this was not a good time — but was saved by a waiter bringing their drinks. The conversation lulled, and after a moment Kaidan set down his whiskey and cleared his throat. “So, Calliope, how’d the two of you meet?”

“He doesn’t shut up about you,” Nat interjected, sipping at her water, “but none of us ever really paid attention. ‘I’ve got a girlfriend, she’s just involved with top secret Alliance missions and she’s really hard to get a hold of’ isn’t exactly the most credible story.”

“Just Cal. And well, it was… actually…” She trailed off, giving Joker a look that clearly said help; it was never easy to bring up the two years Nat had been gone, especially for those who hadn’t actually discussed it with her before.

“It was while I was grounded,” he offered, knowing Nat would catch his meaning. “We were at a bar, she asked me to dance, I told her I didn’t feel like breaking a femur.” He shrugged. “Typical meet-cute. You know.”

If Kaidan was shaken by the mention of Nat’s death, he didn’t show it. “Somehow, I don’t have too hard of a time imagining that,” he said dryly, not quite rolling his eyes.

“What about you?” Cal asked, pausing to take a drink of whatever bright pink concoction she’d ordered. “How’d the two of you meet?”

Nat gave a flat, “My father,” at the same time that Kaidan said, “A tech issue.” They both laughed, and Nat explained, “My dad handpicked the original Normandy crew. He chose Kaidan specifically for his biotics, and Joker specifically to piss me off,” she added with a mock glare in his direction. “But actually met face to face? That… yeah, I guess that’s what it was. I had an issue with my omni-tool and Kaidan helped me work it out.”

“That’s so much better than ‘we saved the galaxy and they hooked up.’” Cal emphasized the words with air quotes, tossing a teasing grin in Joker’s direction.

“In my defense, I did try my best to stay out of their way.”

With dinner out of the way — which, if Kaidan were being honest, hadn’t gone as badly as he’d feared it might — the four of them began walking back towards Nat’s apartment. It wasn’t far, and the streets were quiet enough that there wasn’t a need to get a cab. They were in no particular hurry to get back, and Kaidan walked with an arm around Nat’s waist as they made their way through the Strip.

The bright spot of the evening, he thought, had been getting to spend so much time talking and reminiscing about their time on the SR-1, before things had gotten so damn complicated. Out of the frying pan and into the fire, as it were.

He watched as Cal and Joker walked a ways in front of them, hand in hand, laughter occasionally ringing out into the night. Kaidan had known that Nat and Joker had been together, before, but their double date had piqued his curiosity — less about the two of them, and more about Natalie, and how she’d been when she was younger. He wondered if she’d laughed more, back on Arcturus, back before she’d fought her way to hell and back and returned triumphant. Before life had hardened her, before all the scars that he knew so well — the ones he’d once learned and re-learned, after Alchera, and the cybernetics from Cerberus that still sometimes flared up.

Kaidan wouldn’t ever give up the woman Nat had become, but sometimes he still wondered.

“You’re quiet tonight,” Nat observed with a tilt of her head, eyes searching his face.

“Just thinking,” he assured her.

“About?”

“You.” He leaned over to place a light kiss on her forehead, right above her eyebrow, where he knew the bright lights of the Strip hid the soft glow of her cybernetics.

Nat gave a quiet laugh. “You’ve already got me, Kaidan, you don’t have to butter me up.”

“Mm. Let me enjoy it.” He fell silent for a moment, attempting to collect his thoughts; in front of them, Cal stripped off her jacket and tossed it at Joker, following it up with a less-than-subtle innuendo and laughter at his half-hearted protests. She wobbled a bit as she slid out of her heels, tucking them under one arm and falling back into stride with Joker. “It’s just— Do you remember being that… carefree, I guess?”

“No.” Her answer was automatic and unhesitant, but after a few moments she amended, “More than now, maybe, but never entirely. It’s been a long time since I’ve gone without some sort of weight on my shoulders.”

Kaidan’s only response was a thoughtful hmm as he considered all the things that had weighed her down over the years — himself included. He was under no illusion that the state of the galaxy was in any way his fault, but things could’ve perhaps been different if he’d been the one to receive the vision from the beacon on Eden Prime, all those years ago, instead of Nat stepping in because she’d wanted to save him.

But maybe it didn’t matter. Maybe it would always be complicated, and what mattered was being at Nat’s side when those complications arose.

[tobytjohnson]

OCR-Week 3

This was started a while ago and I’ve been behind. I’m doing my best to play catch up.  

 OCR Week #3

Event: Spartan, Asheville

Miles driven: 823.7

Events: Saturday-Super, Sunday-Sprint

Approximate Distance: 13 miles

Medals Earned: 2

 Third week Down and I have accomplished my first Spartan!

              This week started off with leaving Brooklyn and slowly making my way to Asheville, North Carolina.  I decided to stop along the way because I had more time and less distance to travel between cities.  This was a welcome change from the push push push for the first couple weekends.  

              Leaving Brooklyn and the busy streets of NY behind I made my way initially out to Coney Island.  We have a tradition in our family that we eat, what we call, Coney Island hot dogs, every Halloween.  The magic in the Coney Island hot dogs and what makes them special is they have bean-less chili on them.  It is a recipe that my grandpa got from a guy years ago from Coney Island.  I figured I’d go out and see if any place could compete with this recipe.  Sorry Coney Island, my Grandpa’s recipe kicks your ass.  Basic chili on a hot dog has been done.  If it doesn’t have enough worchester sauce in it to make your eyes and mouth water at the same time then don’t even bother.  So I left Coney Island a little disappointed but figured I would carry on. It was getting to be later in the day and I wasn’t going to make the campground I wanted to in the day light. If I’m staying at a campground I like to make it during the day so I can see what I’m doing when I get there. Along my route was Atlantic City. I’d never been before and knowing what I studied in college (hotels and recreation), let’s just say I got a screaming good deal on a room.  Not just any room, a suite!  Which unfortunately since I’m on a budget could not use to its fullest extent.  No, I didn’t do anything illegal that I know of. Just was nice to the desk guy and he hooked me up.  I walked around, checked things out.  Atlantic City is exactly what you think it would be.  Casino’s, lot’s of food, carnival rides, and all the wondrous touristy things people love to buy, aka, CRAP.  Think of it like Vegas thought he was hooking up with Lake Tahoe but actually ended up hooking up with Reno, Tahoe’s inbred sister.  Put it on the ocean, and you have Atlantic City.  I will give the hotel credit though.  Great bed!  

The next morning, I ventured further south to catch the Cape May ferry that takes you to Lewes, DE.  Cape May is the furthest tip of Jersey and is a cute little coastal town.  I also wanted to ride the ferry. It’s not every day I get a chance like that, and I also used it as a chance to catch up on some work. I had some time before the ferry left so I stopped to check out the beach and get some breakfast.  The beach was great.  Any chance I get to see the ocean and watch the waves I am a fan.  I just stood there and soaked it in.  It’s been a while since I’ve been able to do that.  I will take full advantage every chance I get. On my way off the beach I met a teacher on her way to the beach.  She was on summer break with a broken foot.  Rachel, I hope your foot is healing and you can get back to running soon! After my visit, I went and got breakfast at a little local place called Dock Mike’s Pancake House.  Yes, this place is good.  For some reason, they couldn’t give me a single pancake with my order but could give me 6 large silver dollar cakes.  I didn’t argue, just wanted a pancake with my omelet, and if I had to eat it in smaller form, so be it.  Following breakfast, I made my way down curvy grass lined roads to the ferry. Paid my way on and enjoyed the air before moving inside to get some work done.  The rest of the day was mostly driving. I made my way to DC by way of back roads and some highways. Very pretty country.  I met up with Olwen, a member of Potomac Boat Club and my host for my time there.  

I decided to spend at least a couple days in DC considering I’d never been before.  As of right now I’d like to go back.  The morning after I arrived I met up with Sam Stitt, a coach at PBC.  He was nice enough to let me out on his launch so I could watch his practice.  There is something about watching a rowing practice that lets gives you a different view on a city.  Not only was the rowing fun to watch but I also got to see the city from the water. Not many people get to do that and it offers a great view.  Especially as the sun comes up.  Sam and I got some breakfast and some coffee following practice. It was good!  Now if you know me you know I don’t normally drink coffee.  I had a dirty chai which is far more caffeine that I take in in a month.  Thank you Sam for giving me the energy to walk around what seemed like most of DC for the day and not even get phased.  Looking back on my day I should’ve planned a little better. I got the National Mall and figured I’d see as much as I can.  I should’ve have known that I wanted to see everything.  I came out of the metro right next to the National Archives.  The houses the Constitution, Bill of Rights, and the Declaration of Independence.  Can’t take pictures while you’re in the building so just know that they are there, they are written on parchment, which is animal skin, and they are written perfectly. It also houses a ton of other stuff! I could’ve spent all day in just this building.  But I pressed on and left this part of history behind.  This is where my planning kind of went out the window.  I should’ve looked more carefully at what I wanted to do and where I was going. If you know me then you know I like efficiency. I put in some extra miles that day. I went from the Archives to the Washington Monument, passed the reflecting pool, to Lincolns memorial, all the way back to the Air and Space Museum, and then over to the Capital Building. I spent time at each one taking pictures and checking things out but I spent the most time is the Air and Space Museum.  By far some of the coolest things from history I’ve seen.  The Wright Brothers flyer is in there along with so many other iconic air and space craft.  I spent over two and half hours there just checking out history of flight.  My pictures that I posted on Facebook don’t do it justice.  To be there and absorb the time through flight.  To see where it came from and what it is now is amazing.  Following my time at the National Mall I decided to get dinner at a local spot.  I felt mildly under dressed. But I didn’t pack a button up so my v-neck and flip flops would have to do.  I had a good dinner at a mildly preppy DC restaurant. It was fun soaking up a different city.  

The following day I learned that there was another Air and Space Museum. It’s about 40 minutes out of DC and was on my way so I decided to stop by.  If you’ve seen Transformers 2 then you’ve seen this place.  Walking in your view is directed right down onto the SR-71 Blackbird.  Fastest plane on the planet.  The info says 2,250 mph, give or take.  I’m sure it can do more.  When it was flown to DC from San Diego they said it took just over an hour!  Crazy talk!!  So after I drooled over the Blackbird I walked around and looked at everything before I made my way to the Space Shuttle Discovery.  A few notable planes to mention; Piper Cub, the Concord, and the Enola Gay.  The Enola Gay was a plane that was crazy to see.  I just stood there in awe of it.  It was truly a piece of history that changed the world.  If you don’t know what it did for history, it was the plane that dropped the two atomic bombs known as Fat Man and Little Boy (I hope I’m getting all my names and history correct). Point being, it is there!  It is a part of history and it’s there!! The interesting thing is I’m sure some people just walk by it like it’s another plane not knowing what it has done in its life.  Food for thought.  So after looking at a crazy amount of cool planes I checked out the space shuttle Discovery.  From what I know they brought that pretty much straight to the museum following its last mission.  A couple things I didn’t know about the shuttle.  It’s not smooth.  The tiles on the bottom are smooth, but the white part of the hull looks like its covered with tightly packed quilting.  If you knew this, good for you.  I did not.  Another thing about the shuttle, IT’S HUGE!  I figured it was on the larger side but movies and TV still don’t seem to put it into perspective.  It was just cool to see.  Makes you want to go back and become an astronaut.  It’s not too late is it?!  Surrounding the shuttle is a bunch of space memorabilia like capsules, rovers, and missiles.  It’s pretty crazy to see both ends of the spectrum when it comes to flight.  To see the first plane ever and then to see the space shuttle over two days is a mind rush.  Also, just to see how everything progressed through time is just cool.  

Following DC I pressed on toward Asheville.  The next day I decided to travel through Shenandoah National Park and camp there.  Nothing too crazy here.  The park was pretty and I’m sure the views were really pretty in some places.  The only issue I had was there was fog for most of my drive.  I pulled some good pictures I think.  I need to download them.  I stopped at a quiet campground in the middle of the park and had a quiet night. Finally pulled out the tent and put it to good use.  Of course I didn’t plan on waking up to rain.  I never really like packing my tent in the rain.  Since I don’t really have a chance to air it out it always smells great when I finally do. That’s beyond the point though.  I didn’t get to make breakfast because of rain so I considered this morning a fasting morning.  The way I’ve been looking at this whole trip is to go with the flow and to consider everything I do a training opportunity.  Like walking around the National Mall to not getting food when I’d like.  It’s all preparation for the Worlds Toughest Mudder in November.  

Making it into Asheville that evening was fun.  I was staying with friends from Austin who decided to run the Spartan Super on Saturday.  We stayed in an Air BnB which at this point was pretty much spoiling me.  Memory foam bed and a super clean shower!  Hot damn!  I like the bed in my truck but the rook of the truck and limited space is something to get used to.  I also enjoyed seeing familiar faces.  Even though I’ve been meeting new people and gaining new friendships, there’s something about seeing a friend that has known you longer than a week.  We got dinner at a local Italian place right down the street and it was good!  Don’t really eat a ton of pasta but following that whole 91/10 rule when it comes to diet I figured I’d survive the night.  Since that was the case I also finished off Lauren’s meat balls.  Can’t pass up good Italian.  We all got good sleep and were off to the races in the morning.

This was my first Spartan. I thought I had signed up for the elite event. Turned out I didn’t, which actually was a good thing.  I got to run with Lauren, really soak in the experience, and enjoy the race for what it is. I’m also going to take credit for helping her get a 5th place finish in her age category.  You’re welcome!  The Super was a good event!  I had a good time.  I also did a pretty decent wod the day before the event so my body was a bit tired. Bad on me, I know.  Either way it was a different experience from a Tough Mudder as expected. Also, since it was a televised event all of the “good” obstacles were on the tail end of the race.  I made it through most of them.  A few of my new favorite enemies are obstacles like “Olympus” and “Twister”. I know if I was fresh and my hands were dry I would’ve been fine but that’s not what OCR is all about.  Olympus is not made for tall people in general but I have an idea on how to attack it next time.  Twister is the same. Of course, most of OCR isn’t made for tall people. Sure, we have our advantages on certain obstacles but there are plenty that shorter lighter athletes can dominate on. This is me just being jealous that the obstacle beat me that day.  I made it through Saturdays Spartan Super with only 60 burpees. I was ok with it. I understand I’m not out to win. I am, however, out to be fit and have a good time while trying to raise money for a good cause.  Saturday night was spent stretching and staying mellow. If I remember right, I cooked dinner for everyone. It was just what everyone needed. We also watched Moana, which if you haven’t seen is a good movie with The Rock voicing a main character.  He sings!  I like that guy.  

Moving on to Sunday!  Sunday was a sprint. Which I was signed up for the elite category.  Surprisingly enough I wasn’t too tired, at least at the start.  A Sprint is roughly 5 miles with about the same number of obstacles as the Super. All kinds of good times.  Waiting at the start I placed myself about mid pack and decided that I would try and stay here.  Since this again was my first time doing a Spartan, let alone an Elite Sprint I figured this was good placing for me.  They let us loose and we were off.  Throughout this entire trip it has been my goal to complete the course and not get injured.  So far that has been proving to be a good strategy.  Today when they let us go was no different. The only difference was my pace. It was a little (and I mean little) faster than normal.  I took on every obstacle as it should have been done.  Once again, I gained some enemies in the ways of obstacles. On the bucket carry my rocks settled which meant I had to do it again.  NOT COOL.  I still did it but I had another goal that day of not getting caught by any of the elite women.  Well, doing a second bucket carry helps the elite women catch up.  Whatever, I still pressed on and made my way through the course. Just like the day before, there were many of the obstacles at the tail end of the course. The organizers also ran the athletes through mud and water before we got to them.  That means out hands were wet and muddy which does nothing for grip.  I struggled with the same obstacles from the day before but I added one to the list of fails for the day.  Just the ring rig.  That upset me.  Any other day I would’ve smoked it.  Today wasn’t that day.  Overall I had a 90 burpee day for the sprint.  I completed the course with minimal errors and collected my medal. That’s always a good thing.

I was happy with my performance for my first Spartan event.  Everything is a learning opportunity and this was definitely a great one!  I spent the rest of the weekend plus an extra day with Lauren and her friend David.  We explored what Asheville had to offer by ways of art galleries, coffee shops, antique malls, restaurants, and of course breweries.  I have the card of one artist in particular that really hit a home run with me. Very bright and vibrant canvases with splashes of color that are not for the faint of heart.  I will find the card and attach a link.  You don’t have to like it but I do.  One day I will own a piece of his art.  Lauren and David had to get on the road and I had to press on to my next event after a day of galleries.  

Next stop: Western New York!

+�A�