#option 1. she's copying someone's laser eyes

[christopher-the-cube]

hello??? is that lila

[tabloidtoc]

Star, June 29

You can buy a copy of this issue for your very own at my eBay store: https://www.ebay.com/str/bradentonbooks

Cover: Brad Pitt dumps Jennifer Aniston again 

Page 1: Matthew Perry falls into a funk after his recent breakup leaving loved ones frantic about his well-being 

Page 2: Contents, Joe and Melissa Gorga work out in their home gym 

Page 4: Hayden Panettiere’s Fresh Start -- coming out the other side of a toxic relationship she has hope for the future -- in addition to improving her relationship with ex-fiance Wladimir Klitschko she wants to get her career back on track 

Page 5: Kate Winslet fell in love with New Zealand while filming Avatar 2 recently so much so that she’s seriously contemplating moving there, even after Lea Michele issued a mea culpa about her diva behavior the comeuppance kept coming so she’s reached out to costars like Emma Roberts and Jonathan Groff but so far no one’s vouching for her good name and she feels betrayed, stepping out as lockdown restrictions eased in California Maria Shriver’s newly smooth face comes from Botox and filler and laser resurfacing and skin-tightening procedures but she needs work on her neck and decolletage so the contrast is less apparent 

Page 6: Now that Justin Hartley has been flaunting his new romance with Sofia Pernas his This Is Us sister Chrissy Metz who considers Justin’s ex Chrishell Stause a friend can no longer keep quiet because Chrissy isn’t one to not express her opinion especially when she feels someone’s being hurtful, The Real cohost Amanda Seales announced her departure from the show saying people at the top aren’t respecting the necessity for black voices to be at the top too, Star Spots the Stars -- Lily Collins, Justin and Hailey Bieber, Emmy Rossum, Kylie Jenner using Luxie’s cruelty-free beauty brushes, Tim McGraw sharing a passionate speech about ocean pollution, Lucy Hale, Cedric the Entertainer 

Page 8: Star Shots -- Heather Graham and Odessa Rae at the beach, Brooke Burke leaving the exercise studio, Winnie Harlow on a hike in Big Bear Lake 

Page 10: Kiddie Care -- Kylie Jenner and daughter Stormi, Molly Sims tows her kids Grey and Scarlett while on a bike, Chrissy Teigen and kids Luna and Miles sifted through their many costume options 

Page 11: Jason Biggs and sons Sid and Lazlo, Brigitte Nielsen and daughter Frida 

Page 12: Machine Gun Kelly and Mod Sun enjoy a boys’ night out at Craig’s, January Jones, Kerry Washington 

Page 13: Gavin Rossdale, Ariel Winter 

Page 14: SNL’s Michael Che hosted a comedy show from the flatbed of a pickup truck in Long Island City, Mario Lopez showed his support for Mark Wahlberg on his 49th birthday, RHOBH Dorit Kemsley taking out the garbage 

Page 16: John Boyega gave a powerful speech about racial injustice and inequality at a Black Lives Matter demonstration in Hyde Park, Adam Sandler at the beach 

Page 17: Scout Willis and her dog Grandma, Kim Zolciak-Biermann and husband Kroy Biermann 

Page 18: Normal or Not? Lucy Hale put her dog Elvis in a backpack for a hike -- not, Justin Bieber multi-tasked while riding a bike barefoot -- not, a dressed-down Christina Milian pumps gas -- normal 

Page 20: Fashion -- stars charm in puff-sleeve minis -- Madeline Brewer, Ali Larter, Millie Bobby Brown 

Page 21: Lucy Boynton, Naomi Watts, Camila Cabello 

Page 24: Kelly Clarkson and Brandon Blackstock are over 

Page 25: Khloe Kardashian was worried about going public with her being back together with baby daddy Tristan Thompson because of the backlash it would create but she’s been spending a lot of time with Tristan and really believes he’s changed and she’s throwing caution to the wind and making it official and has already been spotted openly getting cozy with him at a friend’s birthday party, Denise Richards and Aaron Phypers’ marriage continues to be rocked by former Real Housewife Brandi Glanville’s allegation that she and Denise had an affair, Hayley Erbert is patiently waiting for Derek Hough to propose but Derek is skeptical of marriage and worries that they are both children of divorce and he fears that he and Hayley could repeat the pattern 

Page 26: Cover Story -- Brad Pitt dumps Jennifer Aniston again -- after reuniting during lockdown the onetime golden couple are over as Brad gives Jen her walking papers

Page 30: Kim Kardashian and Kanye West together but alone -- the fighting’s gotten so bad that Kim and Kanye can’t stand to be under the same roof and now friends fear the pair are at the breaking point 

Page 32: Jennifer Garner wants her old life back -- as Ben Affleck and Ana de Armas take their romance to the next level Jen is eyeing them with envy 

Page 34: Blamed & Mom-Shamed -- they can’t even breastfeed in peace! For famous moms there’s no end to the flak they catch from the parenting police -- Shay Mitchell, Amy Schumer, Alicia Silverstone 

Page 35: Chrissy Teigen, Shawn Johnson, Hilary Duff, Jessica Simpson 

Page 36: Health -- staycay essentials -- Brooke Burke 

Page 38: Beauty -- PRIDE yourself 

Page 40: Entertainment 

Page 41: Q&A with Joel McHale 

Page 48: Parting Shot -- Nina Dobrev does a cartwheel at the Welcome to Utah sign on her QuaranTrip

[anneapocalypse]

Five Freelancers who Had Their AI Stolen (And One Who Didn’t)

Or, So You Want to Un-Retcon Recovery One!

In the last month I've been ordered to the sites of five different dying Freelancers in an effort to recover their intelligence programs.

For the sake of the argument, we’re going to assume that what Wash is saying is true—that he’s not confused or mistaken about the events he describes. There’s plenty of speculation to be had about Wash’s mental state during Recovery One and the reliability of his memories, but the purpose of this post is to take what he says as canon and try to reconcile it with later material.

Tex still has Omega with her until her Pelican crashes in Valhalla, and Wash doesn’t visit the scene at Valhalla until after Recovery One. Tex cannot be one of the five.

Carolina’s AI were taken by the Meta immediately after the ship crashed and Carolina was thrown off a cliff and presumed dead. She cannot be one of the five.

York is killed by Wyoming and Wash recovered Delta and disposed of his body shortly after. Wash calls York “the fifth one this month” when he receives the call, mentions that Delta was a fluke, so we can assume that York is one of the five.

Wyoming is still alive when Wash visits York’s body, so Wyoming cannot be one of the five—at least, not this Wyoming. We may recall, however, that Wyoming’s use of the time distortion unit to cheat death in season 5 resulted in copies of Wyoming being created. It is therefore possible, however improbable, that Wash found a dead copy of Wyoming absent both armor enhancement and AI, and this would fit with his story. Wash believing Wyoming was dead could also explain why Wash never calls him by name at the base, or ever mentions encountering him—he believed Wyoming was already dead. Wyoming could have been one of the five. It’s plausible.

North is the last body Wash visits in Recovery One. North’s AI and equipment have been taken, and so far as we know North was in fact killed by the Meta. North is one of the five.

Maine is the Meta, or rather the Meta’s host to be precise; therefore Maine isn’t dead and his body cannot be one of the five.

That’s all the agents who ever received AIs that we know of, before the process was put on hold. So for the five, we have:

Wyoming

North

York

That’s three, and one of them is a stretch.

We’re still missing two. So how do we fill in this gap?

We have two options.

The other two agents who were killed did not have AI. Only their equipment was taken, and Wash just means that all the agents who had AI were missing them.

There are more AI.

The No AI Theory

According to this theory, we only need to find two more agents who died and had their equipment taken. We don’t need to find any more AI. So let’s keep rolling.

South is still alive in Recovery One. South is not one of the two.

Florida is originally believed to have died before season 1 began from an aspirin overdose, but it later turns out he survived in the caverns beneath the canyon and was eventually possessed by Omega. His actual death comes at the very end of the Blood Gulch Chronicles, when he is taken out by an unseen sniper (later revealed in season 16 to be a time-traveling Tucker). Unfortunately, for Florida to be one of the two, he has to have died before Recovery One, and both the official timeline and the apparent proximity of the two miniseries places Recovery One before the end of the Blood Gulch Chronicles. Florida is still alive in the caves, and cannot be one of the two.

Connecticut dies of an axe wound to the chest on a transport out of Longshore. We don’t know what happened to her body, only to her armor, which was taken by the leader of the Charon squad she was working with. That armor eventually ended up at the desert temple where Fake CT was killed by Epsilon’s laser eye. Even if CT’s body had been dumped somewhere and eventually found, she wouldn’t have had her armor or equipment and it would have been obvious that she was dead long before Recovery One. Fake CT isn’t killed until season 7, so even if Wash mistook him for CT (which he does, actually, when the faint beacon leads him and the Meta to the desert in season 8) it’s too late for Recovery One, and thus CT (original or imposter) cannot be one of the two.

We’re out of top squad Freelancers, and so at this point, if they don’t need to have AI, the two could’ve been just about any lower-ranking agents. Any of the lower ranks who either went rogue or were sent out into the field post-crash are also viable candidates here. This includes the squad sent to investigate the mysterious energy reading in the desert, though that would account for more than two agents—and like York and Wyoming, their deaths are unrelated to the Meta so even if Fake CT and his goons took their equipment, we’re looking at coincidence. But it’s as plausible as anything else.

So the No AI Theory is as follows: Wash found two lower-level agents who had been killed and their equipment taken but who never had AI.

The Additional AI Theory

For this theory we posit that there were more AI fragments than the big nine, when they were split, and what happened to them.

Here’s where we bring in another seemingly-retconned piece of Recollections lore, the AI storage facility in season 6. Says Wash:

It's the storage facility for all the AIs. The rejects, the bad variants—everything is here. Everything.

So if we take this as canon, there were other fragments. They were simply rejected for implantation—maybe they were too unstable, maybe they weren’t full personality fragments, maybe lots of things. Whatever the reason, there were addition fragments that weren’t given to any of the top squad.

When were these fragments split? I’d say most likely in between the named fragments, or even before the Director acquired the Huragok to facilitate the process. Maybe the Huragok was meant to alleviate the specific problems that made these fragments unsuitable for implantation. I think it’s unlikely they were split post-season 10, as it’s implied that Alpha was sent to Blood Gulch for safekeeping directly after the crash.

It follows that some of these rejects could’ve been given to lower-ranking agents later on, after most of the top agents defected or died, in the Director’s last-ditch attempts to keep the project going. If that’s the case, then the Meta could’ve found a couple of these agents out in the field, killed them, and taken their equipment and their AI—and probably had a fairly easy time of it, considering they were lower-ranking soldiers with weaker fragments.

Conclusions

Whichever theory you prefer, this whole scenario still presents us with a certain irony: though Wash is actually correct that someone is hunting the Freelancers and taking their AI, he only has one recent example of that actually happening. York’s death, and Wyoming’s if we count him, were unrelated to the Meta.

One would think that Carolina’s death would tie into this theory heavily, as the Meta stole her AI all they way back at the time of the ship crash, and this incident had multiple witnesses including possibly the Director and the Counselor himself. Yet Wash never mentions Carolina, not to South and not to anyone. How do we reconcile this?

It’s possible Wash was never told what happened to Carolina, only that she was dead. He was still recovering from a psychotic break at the time of the crash, and did not directly witness the incident. Furthermore, since both Tex and York fled after the break-in, there simply might not have been any witnesses left to fill Wash in on what really happened. Withholding useful information isn’t exactly out of character for the Director, and it’s entirely plausible he sent Wash out to begin recovering equipment without ever telling him why. The Director knew about the Meta from the minute go. Wash had to put the pieces together on his own.

There is more retconned canon throughout the Recollections trilogy... but that’s another post. For this problem, at least, the problem of the five dead agents, we have a couple of options for reconciling it. This is not to say that there isn’t a continuity problem with canon—only that if you’re a fic writer or simply a fan looking for an internally-consistent reading, these are some ways to make it work if you’re inclined to do so.

Crossposted on dreamwidth.

[tedlyanderson]

Annotations for Adventure Time: Beginning of the End issue 3!

Did you enjoy my annotations for issue one and issue two of this miniseries? If so, good news! (If not, shove off!) I have annotations for the third issue, right here waiting for your lovely eyes! Obviously, as with the previous posts, this will have great big massive spoilers for the issue, so take that into consideration. Please enjoy, my pals!

Pages 2&3: Okay, there’s a lot to unpack on these pages, haha. First and foremost is a reference to something other than Adventure Time for once: Jake’s monologue on these pages is a loose reference to one of the very best issues of classic Fantastic Four, number 51, “This Man ... This Monster!” In that issue, among other events, Reed Richards travels through the Negative Zone and muses to himself about the nature of reality:

There are cameos on these pages from a bunch of the “cosmic” things of the AT universe, including the Catalyst Comet, the Lich, a copy of the Enchiridion,  Glob Grob Gob Grod, the Finn Sword, and Prismo (in a rare 3-dimensional appearance). There’s also a herd of Time Lards with clocks on their bellies.

Also in this image, note the most minor and in-jokey reference in this entire series: the satellite on the middle-left with the word “FELIS” on it. In the episode “Fionna and Cake and Fionna,” someone asks Ice King where he gets the ideas for his Fionna and Cake stories, and he replies that they’re “beamed into [his] melon every night.” Later that episode, we see him sleeping as a pink laser zaps into his head, carrying images of Fionna and Cake. I chose to interpret this as a reference to one of my favorite authors, Philip K. Dick, who believed that he was receiving knowledge in the form of an information-rich pink laser beam from a satellite called VALIS. So this satellite, FELIS (get it? like cats?), is the source of the Fionna and Cake stories—in my version of the universe, anyway.

Page 4, panel 4: Chronologius Rex declares that he is the lord of Time, not meatloaf. Meatloaf has been established multiple times as Finn’s favorite food.

Page 5: And here we come to the crux of this issue: Finn’s possible futures. Issue 1 of this series was about Finn’s past, issue 2 was about his present, so naturally issue 3 is all about his futures. Obviously none of these should be taken as “canon;” I just came up with three possible paths Finn might take based on what we’ve seen him do throughout the series. I’ll explain my thinking after the third sequence.

All three of the futures are color-coded—the Candy Knight future is pink, obviously.

Page 6: I love Mari’s designs for Queen Bubblegum—the high ‘80s shoulders are great! My suggestion for Old Peppermint Butler was that he be smoother and shinier, as if he’s a candy that’s been sucked on for too long.

In panel 2, the “Dinner Kingdom” is kind of a half-reference to the Breakfast Kingdom in present Ooo.

And in panel 5, note old Finn’s Jake medallion.

Page 7, panel 4: I am not sorry for the “bunch” of banana soldiers joke.

Page 8, panel 1: Beards are indeed a factor in many of Finn’s futures: pretty much every time we’ve seen an older or artificially-aged Finn, he’s got a beard of some sort. I continue the trend in this issue.

Page 8, panel 5: This is a futuristic version of Founders’ Island, the main human settlement outside of Ooo, fixed up and fully repaired. The implication is that Finn not only returned to the human islands, he also helped fix the place up.

The color scheme for the Teacher Finn future is blue, connecting with the water and sky surrounding them.

Page 9, panel 2: I love Teacher Finn’s design so, so much, you guys. I described him as a lovable old professor, someone with his mother’s compassion and his father’s roguish charm, and Mari knocked it out of the park. Note his Jake hat.

Page 9, panel 3: “Homies help homies: always!” is the Adventure Time philosophy in a nutshell.

Page 9, panel 5: Note that Finn is still using his old, trusty sword Scarlett in this future. She’s even more nicked and battle-scarred, but I’m sure she’s still good in a fight.

Page 10, panel 2: Dodging eggs while fighting was part of Finn’s training from Rattleballs in his eponymous episode.

Page 10, panel 2: When it came to Finn’s human wife, I told Mari to make her look a little bit like a human version of Flame Princess. I figured Finn if has a type, it’s her!

Page 11: The third and final possible future is the Space Captain Finn future, which is green-themed for no particular reason. This future is based on the idea that Finn and his Candy Kingdom pals team up with the remaining humans to build a spaceship to take them away from Earth, which is about as likely as anything else in Adventure Time, haha.

Everything in this sequence is of course heavily inspired by Star Trek: the Next Generation, a show that I love and grew up watching. The Minerva A.I. is the ship’s computer, obviously, warning of “excessive sparks detected on bridge.” Jake is Finn’s right-hand-man, just like Riker was to Picard (and Finn even calls him “numero uno,” like Picard’s “number one”). Lady Rainicorn is the equivalent of counselor Troi, Fern is a bit like Data, and Jake’s skateboarding granddaughter Bronwyn is the hotshot kid pilot, like Wesley. Princess Bubblegum is the engineering chief—she always struck me as preferring the role of scientist rather than royalty, frankly—assisted by Frieda and BMO. Flame Princess, upgraded to Plasma Princess, powers the ship as a whole. And Finn himself sports a beard similar to Commander Riker’s—which is appropriate, as a future version of Finn was voiced by Riker’s actor, Jonathan Frakes!

When coming up with these futures, I thought about what the Finn we knew might be most drawn to doing, and boiled it down to three major options: fighting and defending (the Candy Knight future), teaching and training (the Teacher Finn future), or exploring and leading (Space Captain Finn). For what it’s worth, I don’t really have a preference, or any opinions on which future is most likely—one of the strengths of Adventure Time has always been finding ways to surprise its audience with something that makes total sense in retrospect. If Finn does have a “canonical” future, it’s probably something I would never have thought of, but which makes perfect sense.

Page 11, panel 4: Princess Bubblegum yet again mentions “zanoits,” which are maybe some kind of mysterious particle? It’s a funny word and deserves to be used more often.

Page 12, panel 1: I mentioned in my annotations for the previous issue that I felt bad making Susan revert to her simpler speech patterns, since by this point in the series she’s perfectly capable of using big words. I tried to make it up to her by making her the ship’s communications officer, who would use big words all the time.

Additionally, the “Tuffbone sector” is a reference to Meredith Gran’s Adventure Time miniseries, Marceline: Gone Adrift. In that series, Marceline explores space and meets other races, including the Tuffbones, dog-like alien critters.

Page 12, panel 2: Note that Shelby (the worm who lives in Jake’s viola) is wearing a bandolier similar to Worf’s. I was particularly proud of that idea, haha.

Page 12, panel 4: Jake’s exclamation of “Outrageous!” is a reference to another role by his voice actor, John DiMaggio: it’s the catchphrase of Aquaman, from the Batman: the Brave and the Bold series.

Page 16, panel 3: A “dead world” is another bit of unexplored Adventure Time lore: they’re apparently where people go when they die, but they’re not quite the afterlife as we think of it? Or it is, but there’s a lot of them, like at least fifty? Unclear.

Page 16, panel 4: I had to work in the title of the show somehow.

Page 17, panel 3: I wanted to make sure I referenced my favorite song from the show, “Everything Stays” by Rebecca Sugar, and this seemed like the perfect time to bring it up, as Jake discusses the inevitability of change.

Page 17, panel 4: When I described this panel in the script, I specifically mentioned the series Neon Genesis Evangelion, one of the weirder depictions of the end of the world you can find. I love the image of the enormous stone blocks sinking into an endless sea.

Page 18, panel 5: Chronologius’s epithet for Jake, “starchild,” references Jake’s actual origin as a half-alien creature. I checked the dates, and apparently I finished the script for this issue just a couple weeks after the episode “Jake the Starchild” aired, in which Jake’s parentage was fully revealed.

Pages 20-21: Finn’s final “confrontation” with Chronologius might feel a bit underwhelming—essentially, all he does is convince Chronologius to give them an opportunity to escape. There’s no big battle, no war of wits; it’s already been established that Chronologius is basically invulnerable, so it’s not like Finn could beat him in a fight. It’s not terribly exciting, but that’s kind of the point: over the course of this issue, Chronologius becomes more sympathetic to Finn and his plight, particularly after seeing all the good he did (and might have done) in the world. So it’s less about beating up some big bad dude, and more about convincing someone to act like a pal. In a way, Finn beats Chronologius by making him into a friend.

Would it have been better if the ending was more exciting, action-packed, crazy-style? Maybe! Looking back on it, I feel like I could have given Mari more chances to do cool art stuff—the first half of this issue has some pretty far-out sequences and nifty new things to draw, but the second half is basically three characters talking against a mostly boring background. Thematically I feel like it’s better to have Finn succeed by befriending the villain, rather than just punching his lights out, but it definitely doesn’t have the same visual impact. Overall, I’m still proud of it, but that doesn’t mean it couldn’t be improved.

That’s it for issue three! Join me next time for—issue four?!? Yes! This three-part miniseries is in fact a four-part miniseries, ending with Finn and Jake’s adventures through time! Look forward to it, my chums!

[fgodestinyawakenings]

Babylonia Section 3~Section 4

Mean time while waiting for news on Christmas event this year + recovering Command Seals on JP again... Let’s return to the adventures in Babylonia where the crew finally makes a visit to the oldest King, Bilgamesh!

Section 3

Finally inside the royal hall aside Merlin being avoided by woman as usual... Looks like King Gilgamesh is busy with tending matters on the war and city... Definitely chaotic despite the outlook outside the castle...

While we see the good side of Gilgamesh caring for his men and people... Merlin decided to not beat around the bush and threw the crew to meet the King himself!

The High Priestess, Siduri, scolding Merlin in mean time for his lacking in his work... 

... WOAH WAIT WHAT?! DINGIR?! THE NOBLE PHANTASM?! 

MERLIN YOU FUCKING IDIOT! TALKING VIA FIST DOESN’T MEAN ALL OF US ARE READY TO DEAL WITH HIM, YOU STUPID COCK WIZARD!!

I realized while starting this fight... This isn’t my JP account without Merlin already existed... And about King Gilgamesh Caster, he isn’t a problem since skills wise, he doesn’t have anything to pierce defense along with his NP. But he buffs high on his attack, so it still hurt like a bitch when you don’t expect it

Your AOE Rider, Santa Artoria Alter (Welfare Servant), ideal to bring to clear the mobs along with him

......... Facing the wrath of his NP and we survived one way or another... Gilgamesh seems completely upset with the crew that even he held back halfway? So much for fist-talking...

Nevermind on second thought and as expected, the Gudas and crew are the usual mongrel that’s not even worthy of him and his time >.>

Even better, you worked your ass to give your name and he doesn’t bother! Or actually, he already knew with Clairvoyance from the start! Or actually again, he didn’t knew or bother because stupid dick wizard never told him!! >.>

And even better, he saves us the day of having the grail... WITH HIM ALREADY?! W-W-WHEN AND HOW?!

Okay, seems like even if we offer to help him defeat the three Goddess... We’re now the newly-recognized Clowns from the future who somehow made him laugh, huh...

Though while he deny us the last time... Looks like Ishtar decided to drop by and say hi to King Gilgamesh, much to the latter’s unamusement... Oh hey, she crashed in after Gilgamesh insult, as per usual by Siduri’s comment

Even a soldier seems smarter to leave from the sight of an angry goddess! KUDOS TO YOU MY FRIEND!

Gudas even remembered to bring this to the royal court, CHARGE HER FOR VEHICLE ACCIDENT! Oh and lastly, looks like King Gilgamesh decided to join us for this fight alone to teach Ishtar a lesson

I had doubts to bring Jeanne now after I remember her second skill... But thankfully, she uses extra attack for this fight... TIME FOR PAYBACK ONTO THAT HORRIBLE DRIVING LICENSE OF YOURS!

After kicking that spoiled rotten Goddess out of there... For some reason, Ana is invovled? Hmm?

Welp, at least she’s gone after picking up her pillow because she happened to be on a stroll, freely overlooking at Uruk, freely plucking her bow, freely ravaging the lands... Even Demonic Beasts have taken up north... Siduri, please don’t raise a white flag for this spoiled goddess!

Unfortunately, so much for working together, Gilgamesh definitely not even going to listen to the Guda crew at all... WOAH WHAT?! MERLIN’S MASTER IS KING GILGAMESH?!

Now that explains why he’s a Caster instead of that fucking Archer version... After complimenting us, we earned SORT OF a position to finally have him listen to us... Bottom to top, ehh... We’ve been there, so take care of us Siduri! Including kicking us out of there too, haish... OTL

Siduri herself... She’s a pure soul... At least she’s kind enough to lessen the burn from Gilgamesh’s words. So it’s time, to do our part-time job in working around Uruk!

Section 4

A decent private lodging in Uruk, a new home base outside Chaldea while we clear this Singularity :)

While Da Vinci has given trivia on the Age of Gods, the set up for summoning is ready! Celebration with feasts at our new job on the first day... The irony of life when I think about dreading to go to work OTL

Oh look, we’re reunited with Benkei and Ushikawamaru! Which apparently, Gilgamesh summoned them too... Along with the best tanker, LEONIDAS! :D Ah, seems like the ones we know in Uruk are a different copy from the one in Chaldea if they are in there (WHICH SHOULD BE ALREADY SUMMONED IN CHALDEA OTHERWISE)

And it makes more sense... Looks like rather than summoned... They sort of reincarnated to a more human form after summoned for a while from Gilgamesh himself...

Back about “Enkidu”... Even Uruk can’t believe what had happened before their eyes about them... :( Siduri also commented what the real Enkidu would be like after their relationship with Gilgamesh. Surprisingly, Gilgamesh seems uninterested at the appearance of fake Enkidu! Strange for a close relationship that he’s not saying anything...

Looks like we take care of Ana while some cock-head incubus out of a trip to a brothel, and a good rest is required after 3 chapters of tiring days the crew has been through

First day of work begins! We’re starting with shearing of sheeps for Mr. Limmat... Welp, we ARE starting from the bottom, Doctor Roman! So time to shear... 7 Berserker Demonic boars and 1 Shadow Servant... Are we really shearing sheep and shearing the farmer here?!

Okay thank god, we’re just killing the ghosts and the wild boars that’s attacking the ranch OTL And..... This is familiar, when you apply for a job and someone decided to take it from you instead... Ah the nostalgia, so much for shearing sheeps... 

Second day, we’re to investigate Mr Kissinamuh’s wife who has been acting strangely....... Oh hey, private detective for marriage partner that wants to be NTR or something... At least Ana is having fun (I think) in helping a florist at the flower shop, so she can’t join us

But what does those fucking archer amor laser shooting mobs got to deal with an NTR Affair?! As from the Gudas... I’m really understanding lesser and lesser about Uruk...

<<NOT SCREENSHOT>>

.............................................. Okay nevermind, this is some weird anime plot... An undercover alien who disguised themselves as a human, going as far as being married to take over the world.... But in plot twist, they really did love their human and help save the human world....

Anyway, learning more about the Three Goddess alliance: three attack from all three direction of up north, south, northeast... And hence the problem despite Leonidas responsible at the north of Uruk...

Eh? The grail Gilgamesh have isn’t the era’s Holy Grail for this?! And the plot thickens... If Gilgamesh’s own grail is obviously his from the start... Where and who’s using Solomon’s holy grail...?

Day 3, a break from work, the crew is training with Leonidas! Or rather a job from Spartan training with 100 soldiers... I thought we’re done with his interlude to stop that

Leonidas.. The Gudas are still normal people, at least 60 is already more than enough to deal with at their capacity... ==lll

But still, Leonidas is definitely a great teacher and commander to inspire his army for Uruk :) Despite the confusing lecture he’s giving out...?

Seems like Ana doesn’t have any idea what a Servant means despite being one... And rejected the offer to be our Servant... I wonder if she really hates humans and fears one so much to not want to be a Servant to anyone...

Day 4, looks like the Gudas returned from their odd job. And Ushikawamaru as usual angered King Gilgamesh... Leonidas also returned to join us for dinner :D

Damn, Siduri’s butter cake made Ana enjoying the dessert a lot! Merlin’s back with a kick from Fou in the face too :D Now DW, can we get the option to send food to Doctor Roman? He’s feeling lonely too despite what he said?!

Day 5, or Day 20 nearly 3 week since the Guda started their life in Uruk... The Gudas got a day off or thankfully a job from Ana! But fight..? Wonder where we are headed to... With 6 ghosts and 1 Soul Eater?

Ah, it seems we’re exorcising evil spirits along with her... Turns out there was spirits spreading deadly disease in Uruk, spiritual death rather than physical death. Spiritual death considered as an illness rather than departing...

While Mash helps Ana to explain Siduri... The Gudas met an old man... Familiar one? Nevermind looks like what Merlin would have been if he isn’t that too dick-headed! 

The Gudas decided to give the old man food, which... A cryptic warning was given to them by the old man. But also a compliment for their insight and thoughtfulness... Three storms will come to Uruk, empathize not with the hateful ones and celebrate not with the joyous ones... And extol not the pained one... 

Woah okay, he disappeared the moment they demand of his identity! A cliffhanger to end for this chapter... Three storms... Damn trouble is already brewing to end the daily life in Uruk...

I’ll end things here since I need sleep after one bullshit in Lostbelt... Will be back later/tomorrow to continue things in Babylonia!

[tap-dat-agent]

Who Knew? 4/? (Merlahad) - A Roxy Aside

Part 1 / Part 2 / Part 3

A/N: Not necessarily vital to read if you wanna skip it (no Merlahad/Eggsy interactions in this)…just wanted to give Roxy some much deserved attention. Also, her not being dead is a great thing Vaughn & Co. should consider.

Part 4

Everything hurt.

The bedposts had held steady, as she knew they would, but the destruction beneath her had heaped a bit more than just a few scrapes and bruises. Already she struggled to breathe in the suffocating fallout. Only the fact that she could feel every ache in her body kept her hopeful that the damage was very minimal and that somehow, in some way, she’d get out of this mess alive.

Roxy passed out.

When she came to, it was morning. She could see sunlight refracting off dust and smoke. It appeared her room had been split into two, by the destruction, tipping her bed ever so slightly to reveal the debris of Kingsman’s country house training facility. The structure had been compromised beyond salvaging, with only a few crumbles of its former self still standing. The sight triggered a series of mental regressions wherein missiles threatened to take out all of Kingsman. Despite the agonizing pain, the agent known as Lancelot forced her body up from the confines of what might have literally been her deathbed and moved to free herself from the rubble pile.

“Fuck,” she hissed, her hands clawing weakly at stone and mortar, the infrastructure of what had become her home away from home too solid and heavy to push out of the way. That didn’t stop her from trying, of course, she was insanely stubborn that way. She hadn’t ranked highest in her year and graduated with top marks for sitting on her arse and waiting for things to happen, no…the rubble simply wouldn’t budge.

Roxy collapsed into a tight sprawl, subduing the urge to hyperventilate. The damage was all-encompassing, in her hair, up her nostrils, and beneath her fingernails. The heat of the explosion had singed the room’s materials into nothingness, leaving only the clothes on her back and…and her glasses!

Roxy reached over her shoulder, wincing form the pain of it, as she searched the dim and small space for where she’d felt her glasses fall. She’d held onto them steadfast, in the skirmish to take cover, knowing even in the face of certain death that her eyewear would be worth even more than her life in the event of Kingsman’s total annihilation. She finally found them, somewhere above her, head and quickly put them on, releasing a pained exhale to find that the equipment still worked. The lenses were pretty scratched up but, with the slightest nudge to the bridge of the frames, they fired up a reboot display of systems detail and basic Kingsman clearance information.

Kingsman glasses were military-grade, meant to last, equipped with every tech utility and augmented virtual interface a spy would need to be the best eyes and ears on the field. The day Merlin had fitted her with a pair was the day she’d truly become a Kingsman.

Roxy’s heart seized to imagine that man might now be dead.

It troubled her to think any of her colleagues were now similarly inconvenienced or, worse, possibly scattered in bloody bits among the wreckage of a missile attack.

Roxy touched the sides of her glasses to reopen communication channels and received no return signal.

“Hello?” she said, the word escaping in a raspy breath, the reality of having a stronghold estate collapse on you sounding as apparent as it felt. “This is Agent Lancelot. Does anyone copy?”

The readout continued to search for a signal but received none.

“Agent Lancelot reporting. For the love of fuck, please, tell me someone receives me.”

“…Message received, Lancelot.”

Roxy jostled her addled mind to pin a face to the voice on the other end of her eyewear’s mic piece.

“Percy?”

“Agent Percival reporting.”

“You’re alive.”

“Trust, I’m as shocked as you,” Percival said, a smile of relief in his voice. “Hang on a moment—I’m establishing visual.”

Roxy waited, all she could do, the frightening helplessness of her predicament at last setting in during Percival’s brief absence.

“Ah, there we are,” Percival said, popping up in a window screen, a reflection of his disheveled state appearing before a dingy-looking mirror. “Can you see me?”

“Yes,” Roxy said, smiling tearfully, the relief of seeing her mentor’s very-much aliveness washing over her. “Where are you?”

“I can’t say,” Percival said, the uncertainty of his own declaration evident in his eyes. “Are you alright?”

“I think so,” Roxy said, looking down at what she could see of her person. “I followed protocol, got under the bed, and activated the frame-seal. I think the mechanism’s broken now. I can see the room around me. Perce, it’s gone. I saw the incoming missiles. I’m still here, at—”

“Don’t tell me, I don’t want to know,” Percival interrupted. “In fact, I shouldn’t even be talking to you right now.”

“What, why not?”

“The doomsday protocol,” Percival sighed. “It went into effect the instant headquarters went down. In the event of such a catastrophe, we must assume no one is to be trusted. All communications are to cease before convening at the safe point.”

“Right, of course.”

“Lancelot, if you’re where I think you are, it’s best to find the groundsman.”

“What?”

“I have to go—I’m still on assignment,” Percival frowned, eyeing his surroundings. “Find the groundsman, Roxy.”

Percival, seemingly her last vestige of hope for escaping her would-be tomb, signed off without warning. Roxy worked to memorize his surroundings, the nastiest lavatory she’d ever seen, and it wasn’t enough. He could be in any part of the world, on a mission of nondescript importance, and it would still matter more than coming to her rescue. That was the job. She could already hear Merlin, with his hardened Scottish cadence, drilling into her the importance of the mission and how it would always outweigh their safety and the lives of their colleagues.  

Her heart sunk to think that that man, above all others, might no longer be among them. After all his dedication, having lost those that were clearly dear to him, to have been robbed the opportunity to go out on his own terms seemed an offense to all that he was. Fighters didn’t deserve to go out unawares. Fighters deserved to go out fighting.

“God damn it, Eggsy,” Roxy sighed, staring up at the metal under of the bed. “You better still be alive.” She never imagined him going out on his arse either, munching down on a plate of meatballs and lingonberries no less. If Percy managed to escape unscathed then perhaps there was hope for the likes of Galahad and Merlin.

Roxy’d be damned to go out without a fight. After a deep breath and a reassessment of the situation, she realized she had a key tool in her possession. Her glasses seemed to function at full capacity, no worse for wear, and so she touched the sides of the frames again and troubled through the eyewear’s many functions. Roxy prayed that what she sought after might actually work when she found the dropdown option wedged between face-mapping and infrared vision.

Two red beams shot out from the corners of her glasses and started breaking through the metal bed frame on first contact. Roxy took the eyewear off to turn away from the slight sparking as the combined laser points created a perfect square cut-out above her.

“This is fucking ridiculous,” Roxy chided, sneaking glances at her work, her having to laser her way out of the collapsed wreckage of a missile attack on a secret service agency base a fact of life she couldn’t quite square away. Yet there she was, buried alive, cutting her way through a mechanically-reinforced bed.

Also, she was a fucking spy.

The slab of metal cut out dropped down at about three stones. Roxy caught it before it could crush her already compromised frame and pushed back against it with all the strength she could muster. The wood had already splintered, the mattress itself scorched beyond recognition, so when the metal slab finally fell through there was nothing left but her and the sweet air of freedom.

“Ugh!” she gasped, chugging down relatively breathable oxygen like her life depended on it…because it did. “Oh my god…!”

Roxy, aching, injured, quite put off, annoyed, angry, confused, and afraid, used what was left of her energy reserves to attempt climbing out from under her own would-be tomb, pushing and tossing away rubble ranging from the size of small pebbles to jagged blocks the size of her head.

“Oi!” called a voice from above the wreckage. Roxy looked up, noticing the nearly ten-meter drop from ground level for the first time, to find a sizable man sporting a healthy beard and a casual disposition staring down at her. “Are you still livin’?”

Roxy stared up at him, beside herself in astonishment.

“Wait right there!”

The man strolled off, and Roxy did what anyone stuck in a 10-meter deep, country house-sized hole would do: sat her arse in wait.

The man that pulled her from the newly-made chasm of structural integrity and decimated top-secret information was the groundsman, Balyn, who’d been canvassing the area since the previous night. He wore black gloves and a navy-blue herding jacket. Roxy thought she might have seen the man here and there, maintaining the property, but she kept to limping behind him as he led her to some onsite cabin all the same, just in case the very man that had rescued her had ulterior motives, like say, participated in the destruction of Kingsman.

“Welcome to Avalon,” Balyn said, pulling open the large sliding door of a cobble fixture that looked neglected and unassuming on the outside but inside marveled with the kind of high-tech displays that not even the tailor shop could parallel. It was small, true, but looked to be a more condensed version of the control room and weapons annexes of the Kingsman training facility. “Please, come in. Wipe ya feet on the carpet and try not to die on my watch.”

Roxy had no intention of dying just yet.

“Back already, Balyn?” carried the questioning voice of a women from behind a wall divide. She appeared quickly thereafter dressed in plaids, brown boots, and a deerstalker. A figured redhead with pastel skin and more breasts than Roxy would have known what to do with if it had been her appeared. Seriously, she imagined the woman suffered from chronic back ache. In her hands she carried a high-caliber hunting rifle which appeared to have a few tricks of its own up its sleeves. “Well, bloody cock.”

“I should hope not,” Balyn huffed, assessing a cascade of monitors projecting various camera feeds and mapped locations. “Quite fond of the knob.”

“You are a knob,” the women declared, staring Roxy up and down. “You Lancelot, yeah?”

“How did you—”

“We’ve got you on the scanner, see?” the woman explained, tilting her head towards the monitor set-up. “We picked up the glasses’ signal and couldn’t believe our fucking luck could we, Balyn?”

“Thought everyone dead.”

“Name’s Balan,” the woman said. “Balyn and Balan. That’s not too confusing, now, is it?”

From Arthurian legend, Roxy thought, but she wasn’t prepared to accept the common thread of naming as any proof just yet.

“Who are you?” she asked though, from the make of their setup, she could make a few intelligent guesses as to who they might have been and who they might have worked for.

“Obvious,” Balan ruffled, leaning her gun up against the divide. “We’re Kingsman.”

“I’m sorry, but, what?” Roxy looked between the pair, frowning from behind the film of debris and dust caking her face. “What do you know of Kingsman?”

“Questions later,” Balan said, approaching, and Roxy concisely but carefully considered the many ways in which she could overpower Balyn and Balan, if it turned out they meant her harm. “We’re not gonna attack if that’s what you figure.”

“That’s what she figures,” Balyn chimed in, never once taking his eyes off the monitors at his post. “Like a wounded animal ready to pounce.”

“Let’s get you cleaned up and checked for any internals,” Balan took Roxy by the arm and led her to an automatic sliding door that opened up before a descending staircase, “then you can ask all the questions you like. If you think they don’t hold, you’re welcomed to try and kill us. Emphasis on the “try”.”

From then on it was surrealism within surrealism. Roxy had just gotten to feeling seamless in her double life, as both only daughter to an old family with investments in textiles and mobile parts and international spy working independently from Queen and country, before an unknown threat leveled a building on top of her. Now the likes of two people she was admittedly unfamiliar with, who claimed an affiliation with Kingsman, had rescued her from the rubble pile and fashioned her wounds.

“Who do you report to?” Roxy asked, sometime later, as Balan patched her up. The other woman had already treated her to a full suite wash room and a set of new clothes stored in one of the numerous underground rooms situated beneath the cabin post. “If you’re Kingsman, why don’t you attend roundtable debriefings?”

“Eyes and ears aren’t obligated,” Balyn said, his voice projecting from the speaker systems installed in the corners of the room.

“We see everything, we hear everything, and we answer only to Arthur,” Balan answered, finishing her work. “You’re good to recover. You can rest up, as room and board is yours. Now that we have you here, however, we can’t let you out of our sight. It’s the doomsday protocol.”

“Percival mentioned the doomsday protocol,” Roxy said, in earnest. “He’s alive.”

“We know,” Balyn’s voice rang true. “Listened to the relay through access on your eyewear.”

“Can’t say the same of anyone else,” Balyn said, a learned indifference about the shrug of her shoulders. “We received the same incoming warning as you did. After that, silence.”

“Couldn’t pick up on Percival’s location,” Balyn revealed. “The explosion must’a muddled the systems.”

“No signal from the tailor shop, either.”

“No,” Roxy exhaled, her hands clutching onto the edge of a surprisingly comfy bed, and her heart sunk. Her worst fears were coming true. In the pit of destruction, she could pretend to be of one and a few onsite staff harmed by the attack. Now that she was safe and seemingly secure, the reality that others just might not be as lucky was beginning to settle beneath her freshly-washed skin. “Percy survived.”

“The only other it appears,” Balan said, recognizing the devastation coming over Roxy. “I’m sorry about your mates. They were good agents.”

Eggsy, Roxy thought, remembering the last message he sent her.

‘ur da best’

“Best agent or best friend?”

‘both ;)’

“What can we do?”

“Well…” Balyn hummed over the intercom. “Until we sauce out who’s friend or foe, we do nothin’.”

“We just sit here?”

Balan shrugged again. “We wait.”

[hellyes-tommccamus]

Mutant X [TV] (2001-2004)

S01E05 “Kilohertz”

[spoilers]

Sci-fi/action

Tom McCamus plays a main role in season 1

The episode opens with some strange goings on. A mysterious stranger appears on computer screens, saying he’s not going to put up with the way (presumably New Mutants) are being treated. Jesse and Shalimar are on their way back from a successful mission in the jet The Double Helix (appropriate name!) when it goes out of control. Brennan somehow resets the computer that controls The Double Helix with an electric bolt. And the race is on to find this dangerous New Mutant first.

Proxy Blue knows quite a lot about this guy, calling him Kilohertz. Mutant X want to find him before he outs New Mutants to the world.

After Thorne presumably ran away at the end of episode two (or was stasis-ed offscreen) Mason has had bad luck with second-in-commands. So this time it’s the turn of Renfield (Adam MacDonald) who is fresh from the GSA Academy. Mason is pretty angry about Kilohertz’s antics risking the exposure of New Mutants. And so the protagonist and the antagonist aren’t so different after all.

Back at Sanctuary, Jesse and Brennan are working on the computers trying to put together a picture of what Kilohertz looks like. Emma admits to having no computer knowledge at all (which is oddly paralleled in an interview with Lauren Lee Smith, the actress who plays her, when she admits to never having seen any sci-fi. Now I might be a huge nerd, but isn’t that strange?)

Renfield visits a local TV station and questions the guy in charge, who is suspicious and isn’t willing to answer any of his questions. This gives him a chance to show off his powers. He touches the man on the back of the neck and freezes him, allowing him to copy the files from his terribly retro looking computer onto a USB drive.

Jesse encourages Emma to have a go on the computer. He’s clearly learnt his lesson about excluding her since the last episode. It’s nice to see them bond a little more as teammates, and also we’re getting away from the potentially damaging stereotypes that girls are inferior to boys, or that people with mental gifts are worth less than people with physical ones.

As if by magic, Emma quickly comes up with a match. It’s a bit creepy how facial recognition data is held in the New Mutant database, especially when you wonder how they got that data in the first place. It’s certainly not his opinion now, but while he was working at Genomex I imagine Adam must have viewed New Mutants as subhuman and not deserving of the same rights and freedoms as regular humans.

Kilohertz is one Barry Sterling (Jim Thorburn), who works for a local TV station. Emma and Brennan go to track him down. (Incidentally I love how everyone is wearing red sunglasses in this episode. I had a pair just like Emma’s. Debunking the science and 00s nostalgia make watching Mutant X even better than the first time around.) Barry thinks they’re with Renfield, who he believes to be with the FCC. There is a mercifully brief slow motion chase scene - I don’t think they thought about how frustrating it is to see people run in slow motion. Kilohertz turns into electricity and escapes into a satellite dish.

Adam is working on some kinda weapon against Kilohertz that has the Apple transparent plastic of the future aesthetic. But with added extra lime green jello. Brennan thinks he has little control over his powers. As far as we know he hasn’t met any other electrical New Mutants but he might be speaking from personal experience. Adam has a lucky guess that someone from the GSA is pretending to be from the FCC. Maybe he’s just been doing this so long that he just always assumes it’s the GSA because it’s always the GSA.

Back at Genomex, Renfield walks into Mason’s office as he is applying his fake skin. He seems annoyed and tells Renfield to keep his distance. And well, that really wouldn’t be much help. He should really be doing this in a controlled, aseptic environment (which his office is not) or he would risk exposure to pathogens that would be deadly to a person with no immune system. And how on earth does he deal with airborne pathogens? Some kind of invisible filter? The real world implications of Mason’s medical condition are, in short, horrifying. All things considered it would have probably been more believable for him to go full Darth Vader, but then we wouldn’t have seen as much of Tom’s great acting, so I’m not complaining.

Renfield has little to report, and Mason reprimands him for blindly following the academy’s teachings of constantly reporting to superiors. We see Karen do exactly the same thing in the previous episode, but he is much gentler with her. Considering what happened to her, we can’t conclude that Mason was being gentlemanly, rather perhaps he was amused by her. Renfield clearly does not amuse him at all. We never actually see Mason report in to anyone and he seems to have unlimited power and influence, so one must wonder why he cannot fix the errant teaching at the academy.

Kilohertz makes another broadcast, calling New Mutants to rise up and take over. He delivers an inspiring speech to the weird and the different, one that strikes a chord with Renfield.

Proxy Blue makes a cryptic remark about Kilohertz and Adam deduces that he is about to hit the stock market. So he recruits Jesse to help him build a firewall around the financial databases. I’m not sure which is more worrying: the fact that Adam knows where they are, or the fact that they’re all in the same place. Maybe this is how Adam is so rich? But here is where the show was actually educational. The comment Jesse made about the stock market being 90% perception stuck with me. I recall having a conversation with some older colleagues who weren’t aware of this. If I’m surprisingly knowledgable about something, it’s pretty likely I learnt it from TV.

Shalimar asks Brennan if he has any doubts that Barry is Kilohertz. Surprisingly his answer isn’t “well duh I saw him turn into electric.” Two GSA SUVs pull up at the same time they do. Renfield tells his guys not to hurt Barry (very wasteful that they used two SUVs to transport 3 people. Maybe more backup might help?) Barry erases any doubt about his identity by turning into electric and jumping into a satellite dish in front of everybody.

Mason and Adam are both watching the financial news when Kilohertz comes back onscreen with a warning. Kilohertz is bypassing the firewall Adam and Jesse built and causing chaos, doubly so because he is causing shareholders to lose faith in the market and act accordingly. But apparently Jesse knows how to fix this.

Renfield comes clean to Barry about who he really is and tells him he’s impressed by what he has to say. But then Shalimar bungee jumps off the top of a building and grabs hold of Barry. Two questions: why? She’s a feral so surely doesn’t need such equipment. Also do they always take bungee cords with them everywhere just in case? (Don’t think they ever use it again.)

Despite being an incredibly dangerous criminal, Barry is brought back to Sanctuary. You’d have thought somebody would have asked if this was such a good idea.

Mason is busy watching an individual in stasis who looks distressed while being electric shocked when Renfield comes back to him. Somehow Mason knows about his sympathies towards Kilohertz, and tells him he needs more training, which looks like some kind of multi-sensory torture but may be a hyper realistic VR simulation more advanced than our current tech.

Meanwhile Barry more or less demands to become part of Mutant X. Adam thinks it’s safer for everyone for New Mutants to hide, but Barry doesn’t want to have to hide any more. There’s a validity to both points of view. What kind of life is it to hide what you are and always be afraid of being found out? But what if coming out into the public eye brings harassment, fear and danger?

There is a fight which ends with Adam injecting Barry with something that he says will knock him out for 12 hours. What kind of heavy anaesthetic does he have access to, and should we be worried that he has it so close at hand?

Adam uses a different method to look at DNA this time, using some kind of laser to scan a vial of blood. He says Barry’s DNA is in a state of flux between matter and energy. It’s possible to turn matter into energy, that is how atom bombs and nuclear reactors work. Recent experiments have proven that energy can become matter. So I’m giving this a big scientific thumbs up.

The Mutant X team have some Japanese food and discuss what to do with Barry. They come to the conclusion that a sub dermal governor is their only option. But Barry wakes up, turns to energy and escapes before they can stop him.

Barry returns to work to gloat to his boss. Adam follows him but he turns to energy and escapes again. Somehow they trick him into getting trapped in the weapon that Adam was designing. But it doesn’t hold him for long, he manages to turn into a virus/giant holographic head. He takes out their lights and oxygen. They lose him, but with Brennan’s help, Adam manages to get their systems back online and block him from coming back.

Renfield has just got permission from Mason to go back to work when Barry shows up. Renfield freezes him before he can escape.

Adam ends up regretting losing the chance to have Barry as an ally. He says he had some good ideas but got carried away with his own sense of power. I’m guessing he sees himself in Barry. After all, the same could be said for Adam and the New Mutant experiments.

Barry ends up in stasis. Which is arguably the best place for someone so dangerous. Adam is afraid the GSA will use him as a weapon. But Mason has more sense than that, and he also has much better containment systems for dangerous individuals. We don’t see Renfield again, but as Mason is actually for once happy with someone’s work by the end the episode, I think we can assume he got to keep his job and his consciousness.

I have to mention how much I love the lighting in this episode. It’s generally great in Mutant X anyway but I think the stills from this episode look especially good. The combination of everyone dressing in black/white/neutrals and having coloured lighting and sets give a great pop art effect.

[makeitwithmike]

Making stuff is hard ️

By Crowdfire

or How to Kill My Darned Creative Block

Illustration by Kirtana Krishnan

Anna Pickard, Chief Wordsmith at Slack, states most elegantly —

Words are hard.

As a copy writer, my day starts with a blank page — it’s up to me to make sure it doesn’t remain so. Whether I’m writing a product feature release post or an article on company culture, that blank page needs to be filled, day to day, week on week.

But sometimes, when things get rough, the blankness remains — large, looming and so blindingly white. It’s a struggle to write something meaningful with a value proposition that’s actually going to create any impact.

There are days when I feel like I can write pages, and I do! I write and write and write, and I exhaust my words.

Then there are days when I run dry as an empty inkwell, with the insides unyielding and solidified.

I’m sure you have these days. If you create, then you do. If you use your hands to make art, if your voice makes music, if you’re the face behind your vlogs, if you use your skills to build something, anything, then that block is frustrating and just as inevitable.

So how do you defeat this? How do you keep creating? How do you look your art in the face and say, “Not today, bub.”

I’ve figured out a few things that work for me. They might not work for everyone, but maybe it’ll guide you in the right direction. ¯_(ツ)_/¯

Breathe.

I find myself being overwhelmed 95% of the time, especially when I set off on a task that seems daunting. I tend to give up even before I start (I know I’m not the only one).

What helps me the most is meditating. I use Calm to slow down my mind, get some clarity and find my focus.

Here’s a simple breathing technique you can try:

Breathe in through your nose and count 1 (in your mind) on the in-breath

Breathe out slowly and count 2 at the end of the exhale.

Focus on the in-flow and out-flow of your breath.

Do this a few times (5 minutes should work!) and you’ll feel refreshed, calmer and a lot more positive about tackling the task at hand.

Creating creates stress and breathing reduces stress! Don’t take my word for it. The American Institute of Stress has an entire web-page dedicated to focused breathing.

Take a break.

If it’s not happening, don’t force it. Step away from your desk, easel, camera, phone, musical instrument or workshop.

Art is not something that you wrest from yourself in haste, but a gift you give unto existence, willingly and with grace. Even if you’re making a living out of it.

Forcing something might not produce anything beyond the mediocre so consider working on something else or diverting your mind.

Go for a walk. Give your mind some space to breathe and refresh itself. Enjoy the scenery outside the window or walk around the block, once, twice. I hear showers work, too, by the way

Read fiction.

I’m guilty of thinking (sometimes) that if I’m not reading a non-fiction book, then I’m wasting my time. Not true.

Reading fiction opens up a vein of creativity by taking you to a completely different place. You never know what idea might strike while you’re eyes deep in a Murakami or a Jeffrey Archer tale.

Immersing yourself in someone else’s creative output leads to sparks in your own. Steve Jobs said, “Creativity is just connecting things,” so when you’re reading fiction, you’re feeding your brain more sources to foster that connection.

Take 10 minutes out and read a few pages of Enid Blyton’s Enchanted Forest or a Harry Potter novel.

After all, “Fiction is the lie through which we tell the truth.” ― Albert Camus.

Listen to music.

There’s a reason people say that music heals. Try playing some light music in the background, or, better yet, plug in to your favourite Spotify playlist and tune everything else out.

Listening to music while you’re stuck can put you in the right mood to continue or give you just the boost you need to complete your project. The right music can help you get laser-focused and set the mood every time you start making…stuff.

My go-to playlist is this brilliant piano soundtrack that calms me down and helps me focus my attention on the task at hand. Don’t play anything that might put you to sleep or worse: amp you up that you start breakdancing on the floor.

Talk to a friend, a colleague or a confidant. And share your work.

Now this works like a charm. Any time I get stuck on a sentence, or a paragraph or even the basic outline of any story, I immediately text my best friend and ask him for help. We talk about what I’m trying to achieve, what my end-goal is and what I want people to take away from my post.

Even if I don’t get valuable input from him, talking about it clears out some of my confusion, and disintegrates my maker’s block by margins. Not just him. I talk to my boss, my product manager and my designer friend to get their views on my piece. Each of them has something different to say and that gives me a lot of options to work with and a lot more avenues to consider.

Approaching people whose opinions you value and sharing your problem can greatly pierce that nasty mind trap. So, go ahead, and ask for help

Break it down.

Come back to your desk with renewed focus, vigour and energy. Don’t tackle all of it at once. Try to divvy up your work in smaller, digestible chunks.

Complete one part at a time. Maybe paint a quarter of the canvas today, maybe sketch out just the outline of your plot, maybe record a few minutes of video.

You’ll get a lot done by doing a little at a time.

These are just 5 strategies that I turn to every time I face a block. But everyone’s different and everyone has their own way of overcoming the struggle of the blank canvas.

We held a Twitter chat some time back on creative blocks. Check out the recap here and see how people all over the world defeat their own blocks. Their answers might just surprise you and you can add more resources to your list of How to Kill My Darned Creative Block.

So, how do you do it? What strategies do you use to keep making stuff, even when you think you just can’t make anymore? What activity helps you plod on toward your final output? I wanna know! ⬇️

*This post is part of an ongoing series about Bite-sized Productivity

Ann is a Content Crafter at Crowdfire. She tried to breakdance once. It did not end well.

Making stuff is hard ️ was originally published in Going Big — The Official Crowdfire Blog on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

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