#or is Guy Interviewing Human-like AI too been-there-done-that

[aidenwaites]

What if,, arlo script but instead of taking place on the station its a post-mission diagnosis with a roboticisit "interviewing" Arlo,,

[rubykgrant]

(it wouldn't be an interview with a Q and A! Enjoy Sarge being Sarge~)

Q- What did you know about Blood Gulch before you arrived there?

A- I knew it had BLOOD in the name, which was a fitting title for my red-blooded Red Team. I knew there was an opposing Blue Team waiting for us. I knew we had to guard our flag, and kill anything that wasn’t Red, or the approved affiliated colors. I knew… this was supposed to be a special assignment, pretty top-secret, and I wasn’t supposed to discuss that fact with anybody not in-the-know. I guess that was one of the ways the UNSC tricked us all into keeping quiet about what was going on, so nobody would realize it was all just- just a big simulation. Oh, well. Hindsight, 50-50.

I knew I was supposed to have two soldiers with me from the get-go, but there was some kinda mix-up. Figures Grif would be late, but you’d think Simmons would try to be on time! Which for him, is 20 minutes early! So, I had some time to m’self at the base for a while. No big deal, I kept busy! Found some spare parts and a robot kit at the base, and with a little imagination, duct-tape, and Chemical X, Lopez was born!

Q- Did you have a particular purpose or goal in mind when you first created Lopez?

A- Eh, just wanted to make a decent soldier in case the human ones I got stuck with were lack-luster… I might have had a real premonition about that. Though, I did remove a lot of the restrictions on Lopez’s programming. Laws of robotics be damned, my boy was gonna be able to advance his own internal processing capabilities without limits!

Huh. Come t’think of it… I’m not sure if he was ONLY loyal out of obligation to follow orders… the robot kit didn’t have the usual virtual locks built in, I guess because it was meant to be a spare for the computer ghost who forgot he was a computer ghost. The robot would have needed to accommodate for the decision-making of an AI like that. And if I turned off all the protocols that contained the advancements of internal capabilities…

I, uh. Might have accidentally made a robot with free will, but I never TOLD him he had free will. So he didn’t know he had free will.

Q- That’s certainly an unusual situation… did you decide to name your robot before or after he was completed?

A- During. Half way through, I just thought- this thing needs a name. Lopez was the first one that popped into my head… I helped out at a livestock show as a kid. NO, I wasn’t a judge, I made that part up, sue me. I just made sure the animals had plenty of food and water. The man who was the ACTUAL judge, he was named Lopez. Used to let me grab a free Yoo-Hoo from the fridge in the office. If I hadn’t gone into the army, I would’ve liked to maybe do what he did. Anyway, I was feeling sentimental that day, named my robot after a good guy. Sue me!

Q- Then, it had nothing to do with the communication settings for the robot?

A- No… that was an accident. Hey, wait! Even if there was a problem with the voice chip, the fact that I took off all the limitations and program locks- Lopez should have been able to change the settings on his audio functions at any point! He knows how to repair that kinda thing too, he’s done it for our radios and communicators! Has he been speaking Spanish this whole time BY CHOICE!?

…

… I’m so proud… without anything stopping him, Lopez is just naturally ornery and obstinate… but he’s still loyal even when he’s not forced to follow orders… now, that’s a REAL RED!

Q- Since you value unconventional qualities in members of Red Team, do you still consider Grif, Simmons, and Donut “lack-luster”?

A- That’s not a fair question. What am I, on trial here?

Q- We can skip that if you want… would you rather talk about-

A- Fine, fine, ‘ya twisted my arm! Simmons is… good at agreeing with me. Except for when he doesn’t. Which is… perhaps occasionally a positive trait. To question authority. Except for when it isn’t. Like when it’s MY authority. Except… when I am, perhaps occasionally, WRONG. That boy really stuck to his guns during the whole “Blue Team Tank” incident. Could’ve just nodded his head and dropped the subject when I wouldn’t listen, but he didn’t. Simmons went and proved the Blue Menace was still a threat by finding the tank and defecting to join Blue Team, fought us as a one-man army, and then when he came back, he tried to take over and bury me alive. Like a good and proper Red!

Donut is good at being reliably unpredictable. He’s like a secret weapon. He’s stronger than people think, he’s smarter than people think, and he’s a lot more vicious than people think… and I’m not just talking about his talent for insulting poor interior design. He’s also infinitely more annoying than you’d think it was possible for one person to be, but Donut found a way. That boy is a very… unique brand of chatter-box. Nobody else knows what to do with somebody like that, which is why he’s perfect for Red Team!

Grif is.

Grif… is good at...

He’s very...

Grif is very Grif.

Q- Grif is very Grif?

A- Yes.

Q- Is that… a compliment, or an insult?

A- Yes.

…

… alright, listen. Grif is… good at… NOT dying. Even against all odds, and my best efforts to use him as a human-shield, or moving target, nothing has managed to actually kill him. Which has turned out to be a GOOD thing. In general, because this means we’re better than the Blues. But it is also… fortunate… that Grif in particular is still around. Because of. Reasons.

Ugh, I might have to take a break, go wash my mouth out with soap.

[the-firebird69]

We're putting a huge huge warrant on Garth and his group huge warrant and we are making sure other people see it and what is for

Thor Freya

We're doing that as well and we are placing it on these other individuals here who have the same idiotic formula and Garth just ran it again and it's real they say it a lot

Mac

We are all going to war with these idiots we're tired of hearing it the non-stop threats the non-stopian crap and the ridiculous behavior because her little babies and think that get stuff and we're going to cut them to Rubens

Olympus

Let me remind everybody that this is not the only AI program out there there are other AI programs in what John remillard does is dangerous if Paul dodos gets a whole bunch of them put some together we could be in just as much trouble or more because it's not a contiguous program if it's done freshly unlike John reborns or he might do it in secret or Paul donuts or other dodos and people with this theory in this religion or mindset need to be hunted down like dogs and killed and burned and tons of them probably they don't have any help they're miserable people and it could go systemic it could be larger than we think and we need to source code it and seek people out and we need to go and do that now we also need to lock down all our computers and we need to increase security measures of this time and we need to delete any computers they have after we research them we need to pull out all their super interviews etc and we need to leave them with nothing like that including Tommy f and for the most part without the world doesn't need that kind of thing if we do that their risk is lowered but right now we need to concentrate on people doing these kind of tasks and eliminate them in order to pull back the veil to see who else is doing it there might be some more dangerous criminals but as I said they had access to these programs some of them and they're very dangerous the way they are

Zues Hera

He's talking about all sorts of AI That's out there there's huge numbers of programs and John remillard has been combining them and with some success and they're very dangerous end of themselves and he's planning on trying to destroy all of humanity because he's a moron he's a moron we're moving to intercept him now in what he's trying and he's trying to come here as a police person I was going to get rid of him he wants to harm our son but really badly he says we know he's lying he wants to hold his hostage but her son needs to kill him to escape to make sure he's gone because of what he wants to do so this is what he's stuck in right now

Thor Freya

You're going to be killed I'm trying to reward John real Lord you're not going to be free to kidnap me or harm me and although you're some sort of weird queer weekly addict your stuff is dangerous but it's going to be nullified because you're sitting next to me and you're an ignoring for not knowing that

Zues

You sure as hell know it this guy is the dumbest person on earth every pro is listening to this idiot and they're going after its people and he's going to be gone shortly you don't have to try this asinine robot program but she didn't have to do before

Hera

I got to get out of here there's too much of stuff everybody's a huge freaking whimp. I'm going to tell you this guy Garth is worse than us you say no kidding he wants to just set it loose to destroy everyone but that's what happens if you combine the ship with the robot computer chip

Trump

[fzzr]

Winter 2023 Anime Wrapup

Original post:

New Stuff:

Benriya Saitou-san, Isekai ni Iku (Handyman Saitou in Another World) - This turned out to have way more plot than expected. There was a lot going on, and it managed to explore a surprising variety of themes and relationships. A very strong 8/10.

Koori Zokusei Danshi to Cool na Douryou Joshi (The Ice Guy and His Cool Female Colleague) - It's Wotakoi meets Interviews with Monster Girls. Yep, perfect cupcakes the characters were indeed. This is possibly getting a dedicated post. 8/10

Otonari no Tenshi-sama ni Itsunomanika Dame Ningen ni Sareteita Ken (The Angel Next Door Spoils Me Rotten) - For such an obvious wish fulfillment show, I found a surprising amount to like. Another one getting a post to itself. 8/10 easy.

Revenger - This could have gone too far down the path of dark and edgy, but it showed restraint and managed to get the balance just right. Still, budget issues and writing copouts made it less than fully satisfying. 7/10

Rougo ni Sonaete Isekai de 8-manmai no Kinka wo Tamemasu (Saving 80,000 Gold in Another World for My Retirement) - This was one of the funniest things I've seen in a while, with no brakes to be found. 8/10

Tensei Oujo to Tensai Reijou no Mahou Kakumei (The Magical Revolution of the Reincarnated Princess and the Genius Young Lady) - This didn't do as well as I hoped. The plot fell short, with a few too many asspulls and less than ideal pacing. Waste of a concept, even if they're brave on some points of execution. 7/10

Tsundere Akuyaku Reijou Liselotte to Jikkyou no Endou-kun to Kaisetsu no Kobayashi-san (Endo and Kobayashi Live! The Latest on Tsundere Villainess Lieselotte) - This managed to be just the right amount of wacky. The pacing wasn't perfect and the quality had a few dips, but the Villainess genre is still going and this oddball take on it was a good time. 8/10

Carryovers:

Boku no Hero Academia 6th Season - This was an excellent return to form for the series and I'm finally back to looking forward to where it goes next. 8/10

Kage no Jitsuryokusha ni Naritakute! (The Eminence in Shadow) - I made a whole post about how great it is. 9/10

Urusei Yatsura (2022) - I fully understand why this set the stage for decades of romantic comedy. Just an all around good time. 8/10

Isekai Ojisan (Uncle from Another World) - finally finished from Summer 2022 after multiple COVID-related delays. I feel like it could have done more, but what it did was still quite good. Give me more elf in real world content thanks, the one scene was way too much of a tease. 8/10

Delayed:

Itai no wa Iya nano de Bougyoryoku ni Kyokufuri Shitai to Omoimasu. 2 (BOFURI: I Don't Want to Get Hurt, so I'll Max Out My Defense. Season 2) - Delayed. No rating.

Maou Gakuin no Futekigousha: Shijou Saikyou no Maou no Shiso, Tensei shite Shison-tachi no Gakkou e Kayou II (The Misfit of Demon King Academy II) - Delayed. No rating.

Kubo-san wa Mob wo Yurusanai (Kubo Won't Let Me Be Invisible) - The first bulli show I'm been able to get in to. I picked it up after I made the original what I'm watching list, but then it got delayed. No rating.

Dropped:

Ars no Kyojuu (Giant Beasts of Ars) - Sadly this fell off pretty quickly. The pacing was rather poor but momentum from the start and a few moments of light kept me going through most of the season. In the end it wasn't worth it. Dropped at episode 10/12.

Ningen Fushin no Boukensha-tachi ga Sekai wo Sukuu you desu (Ningen Fushin: Adventurers Who Don't Believe in Humanity Will Save the World) - This suffered from serious quality issues, but ultimately the reason I dropped it was the incoherent setting. It has the fantasy action baseline (adventurer guilds, dungeons, etc.) an ancient high tech civilization capable of producing fully sapient AI weapons, and normal real world stuff like idols and casinos. The almost interesting story just couldn't overcome all that. Dropped at episode 7/12.

Tomo-chan wa Onnanoko! (Tomo-chan Is a Girl!) - Saddest fall from grace since Tokyo 24-ku. After hinting at having progress and being generally a good if slow time, it turned back into episodic glop. Additionally one (female) character crossed the line from "trying to encourage the guy to recognize his feelings" to "that's sexual assault actually". I'm going to go ahead and say that's too far for me to keep watching her hang out with everyone. Dropped at episode 10/13.

[crispyapplepies]

AkuRoku Defense pt 2

Axel and Roxas’s ship has had one of the most bizarre fandom journey’s i have ever come to witness. It has gone from being one of the most popular ships maybe ever, to being dead cancelled over a supposed age gap and I find that completely unfair, especially when it speaks to so many innocent people who emotionally depend on the ship, (yes innocent includes the spicy people because art literally is not a crime). So its time to defend it.

Brief Review on Nobodies vs Aging

First of all, l already explained in part 1 what the Nobodies Don’t Age thing means but I’ll go over it again briefly, since it can be confusing, though also many people seem to demand their hands be held rather than use their imaginations to understand. Even so, here’s the short version just for a review:

-A person in KH is made of a heart, body, and soul.

-The body reflects the heart in KH. (See: replica bodies taking on the appearance of the heart that’s inside them). 

-A nobody lacks a heart, making them just a body and soul. They’re advanced zombies of sorts.

Nobodies do not age because they have no heart for the body to reflect. This is why they won’t change until they form one. Change includes age

-Ergo, you can imagine any age you like for Axel to be nobodied, cuz he was frozen at that age and did not change for 10 years. Not until he met Roxas. 

We’ll come back to this again later.

Axel Loves Roxas Canonically

Second of all, Axel loves Roxas and you are allowed to interpret that as platonic, familial, or romantic, I don’t care as long as you’re not forcing that idea on others like the ship police. That said, people are allowed to explore how romantic this love potentially is. 

And what you might like to know is that the canon is even open to this. Axel’s love for Roxas is canonically expressed, and if you would like, you can even interpret that love as romantic. See below:

We are going to look at the japanese translation because AS ALWAYS good old SENA is here for the straights and erases the gay, like clockwork. 

In English, Axel says this:

Axel: I wanted to see Roxas. He...was the only one I liked... He made me feel...like I had a heart. It's kind of...funny... You make me feel...the same...

Axel’s line here in Japanese:

Axel: I wanted to see Roxas... I loved him. Being with him... it made me feel like I had a heart. I feel it from you, too... the same kind of....

You may notice that as romantic as the line “he made me feel like I had a heart” sounds, the original can be read as wAY gooier, specifically cuz of this word:

好き: "suki"

Now here’s the thing. Japanese is a pretty vague language which is why context is so important for these things, as well as what you say, and what you don’t say. 

“Suki” is a very key word here because it is often used in romantic confession scenes.

(I have no idea what this panel is from, I apologize lol) 

It CAN mean something casual, like “I love video games”, but considering Axel is saying this with his dying breath, I don’t think we should be treating it as some hyperbole. He is referring to a person and it is meaningful. However. It is still a word with plausible deniability. Japanese has several words for love, “ai” for example being one of the most inarguable means of referring to romantic love. So choosing “suki” still leaves room for the homophobes to disregard it as something not romantic. Which makes it objectively inconclusive. Here is the thing though… they specifically chose that word, suki, a word which IS so often used in a romantic context in many anime and manga. 

They also chose to use that word rather than something objectively platonic. Which means you also cannot conclude Axel did NOT mean it romantically. Given his devotion to Roxas, and the fact that they chose this word of all words for him to say… I’m personally going to assume it’s romantic. You are free not to interpret it that way. But I am because I am considering the fact that they did not choose something strictly platonic. 

(My translator friend actually freaked out when I showed her this, she’s translated and seen enough confession scenes to know what connotations that particular word comes with lol). 

If you’ve read my queer coding doc, you may recall I also go over how this is one of the most important tricks with queer coding. You write something that CAN be viewed as queer but with plausible deniability for straight people to ignore it. It’s a means of protecting oneself and the text from homophobic oppression. It is a legitimate practice. So even though it can be denied as a queer text, it can also very very well be viewed as a definite queer text. We are choosing to queer it here. It is not as explicit as it could be, but it is still very bold, suggestive coding considering the homophobic world we live in, and especially with KH2 being released in 2004. 

“But Age Gap!” (ughhhhh)

We’re back to this cuz I also finally have the Japanese version of that infamous page in the Day’s novel to look at.  

I hope you’ll forgive me if I get a little bit salty but I don’t like to repeat myself lol so I’m gonna try to keep this section short and to the point.

In this interview with Nomura, he expresses that nobodies do not age, and they exist as they were at the time of becoming a nobody. He then suggests Xemnas seems 30 ish.

Now I truly do not care to hold your hand through the process of thinking creatively because you should be using your own imagination, if you have one, to think critically and creatively about what this idea means.

Kingdom Hearts is a FANTASY game. Nobodies are a FANTASY concept. They can break ALL the rules about real life that you want them to. But I will go ahead and explain this for you even though I’ve already done it many times, in this very document even and in other meta posts.

The body reflects the heart. Nobodies are frozen as they are from the moment they are “born”, which is to say the moment they are created. Glorified zombies. They aren’t going to age unless they form a heart. Why does Xemnas look 30? He has a heart! Or he was formed 10 years after TerraNort defected. You tell me. Why did Ienzo age? I dunno, you tell me! Either he formed a heart and didn’t know it, (he’s passionate about his work, he loves Ansem the Wise, any number of things could’ve made him form a new heart), or he was nobodied later in life. Axel is frozen at whatever age he was when he was nobodied, all the while Ienzo could’ve been nobodied 10 years later. It’s a fantasy, and these are fantasy rules. That scenario can happen. YOU decide. Until the canon tells us for sure, your imaginations can run wild with explanations. Even if the canon does tell us, you can still imagine whatever you want for your own headcanons. Freedom is amazing, it’s salty and sweet. 

Now let’s talk about that annoying page in the Days novel people keep shoving in my face.

This one right here. The official english translation is this:

That’s not the worst translation I’ve seen them put out there. But let’s look closer at the Japanese:

 Here, Axel says he thinks Roxas is about 10 years separate from himself, but things like age don't exist for nobodies.

Already that’s making a lot more sense to me for nobodies since we are told nobodies do not age. As such Axel speaking like he is 10 years older would feels almost contradictory when he has no heart and cannot change. 

This wording is important. Recall me saying that Japanese is very vague so all of the context matters. No one is denying that 10 years passed between Birth By Sleep and Axel meeting Roxas. However. Nobodies don’t age.

(please dont make me explain that a third time in this essay alone)

The Japanese and English both express that age does not apply to nobodies, (as discussed above^^^^) and the Japanese furthers this with its wording. They have 10 years of separation between Axel being nobodied, and Roxas existing.  

Axel saying in English that Roxas is simply 10 years younger than himself is rather misleading considering the ambiguity of the original. I can’t fault the translators too much for not understanding this nobody concept so well because it is obviously confusing. However, I do not think Axel was saying Roxas is literally, in real life human somebody terms, 10 literal physical years younger than him. He is expressing that he became a nobody 10 years ago whereas this guy became a nobody very recently, and it shows with how little he can even function right now. A zombie who has been wandering around with no heart for 10 years meets a fresh zombie wandering around with no heart for 1 day. 

I know antis are gonna use it against us no matter what, but at least know that akuroku is not inherently pedophilia nor is it inherently an adult/minor ship.

In many of our headcanons, Axel was frozen at age 18 or 19, with Roxas being 16. Absolutely no one is required to view them with a big age gap because imagination is free and you literally have no right to police it, but also because the canon expresses these nobodies as beings outside of the realm of age. They do not operate under real life rules or somebody rules. Think of Steven Universe where Rose was thousands of years old but only “grew up” as a person when she fell in love with Greg, a human in his 20s-30s who asked her to consider other people’s feelings. Consider the mind of a nobody as a state of Neverland. You aren’t gonna age unless you step out of it and change. Mature. Isn’t it sad that Axel did not feel like he had a heart until Roxas? No wonder people ship it!

Coding is Obvious

Finally I wanna conclude on a simple thought. This interview right here? I’d be curious what the original Japanese actually says lol but the english translation of it says that romantic akuroku was not Nomura’s intent. 

Here’s the thing though. If you know anything about queer coding, you know that using romantic coding between 2 male characters is signaling something. It is not something you should ignore. It would not be there if the characters were meant to be viewed as objectively straight. And for something “unintentional”... there sure is a lot of coding at work here.

From Axel pinning Roxas down and asking him to come home in a very sexually suggestive pose,

to watching the sunset in sheer bliss together just enjoying the peace of reunion,

to watching the sunset together while talking about what LOVE is, specifICALLY romantic love,

To this. And I already told you what this was in Japanese.

I’m not saying Nomura lied…

But I am saying that a whole staff worked together to create these games, and it is very difficult for me to believe that no one thought to say “these characters appear to be romantic, let us change the scene to be more platonic” if the characters were not meant to be romantically suggestive. 

Tl;Dr I wanna live in the timeline where people let you ship akuroku lol

[lambourngb]

he’s got a smart mouth but a good heart - Michael Guerin

It’s Day 2, celebrating characters, and much to my own surprise, at the end of season 2, Michael Guerin decided to move into my brain and take up residence. Obviously I still love Alex Manes (He lives first and foremost in my brain since 1x08), but there was something about how Michael buried his own pain about his mother to help everyone in season two that rang pretty true to my own life right now. I didn’t always like what he was doing in season 2 but I understood it.

Anyway, when I find a story that celebrates how complicated he is, I cheer and rejoice- so here’s a few of the stories that I have gone back to again and again.

Truck stop knives and other assessors of childhood @angsty-aliens (13,200) I can’t lie, I love a good trope story, and I especially love a good sci-fi trope story, so this story hits all of my buttons. It takes our two science nerds, Liz and Michael, mucking around, and accidentally creating a version of Michael- but not just any version, but the child who hitchhiked to Fosters ranch, completely over humans and desperate to find his family. The kid who was feral from neglect and abuse... he was the cutest thing and the most mortifying thing that ever happened to Michael to be displayed and shown. This story takes the de-aged trope and turns it on its head, and oh yeah, there’s a sweet backdrop to Michael and Alex getting together.

Implicit Memories of You by @ninswhimsy (3464) - So this is an amnesia story canon-divergent story set after 2x11 basically, where they use the mind erasing drug on Michael. I know, I’m reccing this about Michael characterization, but it’s so solidly him after all the memories are stripped away and he’s acting on instincts, locked in a room to torture Alex with before death. There’s so much going on in so few words, something that Nin is a master at, especially the ephemeral remembrances of his mother that Michael has- oof right in the feels.

Maybe this time (he’ll stay) by @hannah-writes​ (7700) This is a sequel to one of my favorite stories I recced last year, dealing in alternative timelines where in one world, Michael is lost and alone and has pushed Alex away, and in another world where Alex came home from Iraq in a flagged draped coffin. It answers the question, what about Mikey? Where’s his happy ending? The confirmation of the multiverse means there’s an Alex out there who needs him- and through trial and error, Michael finds him. The world building in both stories is top notch, because for every action, there’s a reaction and reason shaping Michael.

Constant as the northern star by celzmccelz (53,000) - don’t know the tumblr here - This is an Mpreg, and it starts solidly after 1x13 and goes AU from there. But what if in the 100 mile drive home from Caulfield, Michael and Alex share a grief-induced moment of insanity where they fall back into their oldest language- sex for comfort, and then Michael does everything he does in the finale, including turning toward Maria, what if there was a souvenir? Despite the trope of mpreg, this is just how I see Michael, deeply in love with Alex but unable to trust that Alex feels the same depth in return. The friendships in here are also top-notch, from Kyle being a baby-doctor, to Isobel having her own Max-related spiral unable to let go of her brother only to refocus on Michael, to Liz fucking off with Rosa for the first half of the story because she’s caught up in her own grief (which turned out to be canon!). And there’s a whole plot here! With Jesse Manes being the worst.

Leave the light on by @sabrinachill​ (36,900) - Confession time- I love fake dating as a trope, I know, shocked right? But I especially love it with RNM because Malex are exes by 1x03. Mattie nailed the dynamic of pining and the assumption of unrequited love so well in this story. Although the POV switches here a bit between chapters, (and Alex is fabulous) what I really really loved was how she wrote Michael, in love but convinced that he’s messed up too much for Alex. Aware of his faults but not in a sullen way, but an acknowledgment that he was in a bad place and Alex hasn’t always been the best remedy him in the past. It was a very mature take on the “give me another chance” trope in Malex reunion stories, where both sides had a share of blame. The plot was suspenseful and tight (how do people do that???) with a climax that honestly shocked me! I really enjoyed rereading it while I prepped my rec-sets, and I won’t be surprised if this story isn’t mentioned by everyone doing ‘Creators Week’. It’s worthy of all the love.

Temporary wounds by @prouvaireafterdark​ (7800) - How many times can I rec this story? Hopefully you’re not bored by my adoration of this Lynne.  So even though it’s set post-season 1 with the assumption that Michael/Maria will fizzle out while Alex/Forrest date- it’s actually perfectly set for season 3 (an author who is psychic??). As a rule, I hate jealousy as a trope, but this story has the only type of jealousy I want to see on screen- where Michael wonders what was missing inside of him that Alex didn’t want to be public during their long affair (even with the acknowledgment that Alex was too scared before)- like that type of sad pining is my catnip!

The first who ever did by nostalijinks (33,000) post season 1, but really it also stands pretty well after season 2.  There was an interview during season 1 I think that talked about how all Michael really wanted was to be a hero to Alex (the way he stepped in front of Jesse as a kid)  but he thinks he failed at it since Alex enlisted. That failure soured him in ways but he never stops trying, for Alex. This is a really well done 5 times plus 1 story, with an overreaching arc of reconciliation between Alex and Michael, starting as teenagers, then as adults while Michael is with Maria, then as friends, real friends, trying to support Alex as Alex dates. The whole emotional journey of maturity that Michael takes here is so well done, where there’s no real villains in the friend group. I just love it. I wish the author had written 100 more like this one, but as a standalone work it’s epic.

The person that you’d take a bullet for is behind the trigger by @iwontbeyourmedicine​ (25,000) Ly has a very large body of work, that you could spend days paging through on AO3 or tumblr, but this one hits two of my kinks hard- the amnesia story line and true love conquers all. So three fandoms ago I was huge into Steve/Bucky, that iconic moment in Cap 2 where Bucky breaks through the brainwashing has never left me. This story takes my love for that moment, and makes it Malex. Alex gets programmed by his family and set loose on his friends, on the aliens and it’s a shitshow bloodbath since he’s really fucking good at kicking ass. Michael is caught between keeping everyone safe and trying not to hurt Alex, and the tension is just top-notch. I love how it’s not an immediate fix either, the way they circle each other in the aftermath, wanting to come home, but home would be a totally new step for both of them. Just chef’s kiss good at joining action, angst, and romance together.

Into the palm of your hand by @haloud​ (5900) hal is a treasured friend, so I am admitting some bias here, but we both enjoy talking about how wonderful and sad Michael is and how desperately we enjoy poking at that softness and then wrapping him up with love again... so this story was written pre-shamegate (and if you know what that means, I’m sorry) but it matches my head canon of what the history of hiding does to someone. The internalization of believing maybe there’s a reason behind the hiding that has nothing to do with homophobic townies. Alex has an ex boyfriend come to town, and he doesn’t tell Michael. And omg the journey hal takes us on with Michael’s spiral and Brave Little Toaster act was so wonderful and painful and real. The communication between these two was top notch as they worked through a road bump from the past, and let’s face it, once we get our malex back, these things are going to happen, and it will either tear them apart or bring them closer together- I prefer to believe it will be closer together.

There is beauty in a failure by @jule1122​ (2400) There’s been a few Greg and Michael stories to pop up on my radar after 2x10, and this one was one of my favorites. This is a Greg who pulls no punches in exposing his brother’s past to Michael, but also gives Michael the space to work through what he wants. It’s an AU from 2x12, that allowed Michael to break up with Maria for basically the same reasons that Maria used on him in 2x13. The way Michael is able to what he wants and communicate it Alex in the end- so good! We can only hope to see something similar in season 3.

I don’t know what to think (but I think of supernovas) by @queersirius​ (3900) This story is a delight from start to finish- I mean frustrated cursing turns the console on into a hologram who then takes the most pleasing form to Michael’s eyes? SIGN ME UP for those shenanigans. I fucking loved how Isobel saw it first too. And then the comedy of Alex discovering it? And what happens afterwards? Oh it’s so delicious. Now of course, full disclosure, this light-hearted romp through the feels also inspired me  to think up a much much sadder version of Michael building an AI for companionship considering how isolated he ended up being at the end of Season 2 and we all know Michael needs friends, badly.

Innuendo by the Roswell anon (6000) written for @bisexualalienblast​  the roswell anon is my favorite treasure in this fandom, I could pretty much list all of their stories as examples of some very fine Michael Guerin characterization. This one was one of my favorite post-season 1 fix-it fics though, because it has some of the most real 28-30 year old guy dialogue I’ve come across- from the crude jokes, to the sharply self-deprecating observations- this is Alex and Michael stripped down, all edges but what’s left is fatigue and love. The resolution at the end, where Alex observes that yes, Michael has tried the last 10 years but this is their first chance to try together- to pull in the same direction? It just lays me flat on the ground with how true that is to canon.

Whenever You Want to Begin, Begin by @foramomentonly (3200) - this is a sequel, and the first story is dynamite- don’t get me wrong- but it moves from the hopeful side of an ending to legit Happily-Ever-After here, and I devoured every word. First of all, having Michael turn to photography as a way of self-improvement is fucking genius. Photographers are always at the center of every happy event, but never the focus, and that screams Michael to me, the way he lives on the outskirts of the 9-5 job and literal outskirts of town in his trailer. The other thing is photographers are revealed by their work, and that’s also something I head-canon with Michael just in the mundane- he’s good with his hands, he wants to leave a car better than he found. Anyway, this story is gorgeously written, moves a bit like a really good bottle of wine- heavy but soft, as you watch Michael become Alex’s friend, and even more importantly, Alex becomes Michael’s friend. Fantastic- I’ve read it about four times now since it was published.

[belliesandburps]

Followup with MGS4 Peace Walker and 5?

History has a funny way of repeating itself. :P

This one's actually gonna be long, so I'll cap it here to spare those uninterested in non-kink posts the burden of having to scroll past this fanboy rant. 'XD

Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots

3. It's Okay

Soooooo...not a controversial opinion to say that I don't think MGS4 is GREAT. I adored it when it first game out, and I still enjoy replaying it from time to time. But good lord, so many of the interviews shed light on a LOT of this games problems.

Some backstory is required. Hideo Kojima was done with MGS by this point. He planned to move on and leave the series to the younger generation. But then, there was a lot of internal conflict and struggle to determine what MGS4 should be after Fukushima quit (AND was rumored to have been murdered by the Yakuza...how that rumor started...and became a SERIOUS rumor that millions believe, I do not know...). So Kojima came back, course corrected, and the end result was kind of a giant mess.

I'm not talking story because, there's just way too much to unpack. But as a game, MGS4 can't decide what sort of video game it wants to be. It had a brilliant idea that had never been done before with its Battlefield Stealth, which were the best parts of the game. And then they get dropped two acts in, and what gets replaced in their stead is not nearly as fun.

The game had substantially less boss fights than its predecessor, and a lot of them were mechanically simplistic or just didn't let you get creative with how you fought them. And we later learned there were a lot more bosses planned, more gameplay sequences planned, and an entire other PMC group that got canned in favor of the Scarabs so Shadow Moses could be guarded by machines instead.

There's a lot about MGS4 that I love. I think the first two acts are amazing, ESPECIALLY Act 2. I think the mechanics are great. REX vs RAY is criminally fun. The sheer buffet of insane weapons gives the game a good amount of replay value. And the graphics still hold up to this day!

But what I finally realized is that the game juggles way too many ideas and doesn't give any idea the time they deserve to flourish. Battlefield Stealth could've CARRIED MGS4. But it gets dumped before we can get our moneys worth. A disguise sequence could've been really creative, having to juggle different identities with OctoMask every time one identity is burned. But it's only used once and wasted because it's only used for a terrible tailing mission that doesn't let you actually explore the European City. And too many of the action set pieces are kind of bland except the bosses and piloting Metal Gear.

MGS4 should've been MGS4. Not MGS's "Best Hits."

Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker

1. LOVED it!

I know this is unpopular to say, but I'll say it. Peace Walker is one of the best Metal Gear games ever made. I adored almost everything about it. The gameplay improves on MGS4 in most ways because it doesn't juggle a billion ideas all at once. It's MGS4 stripped down to stealth action from start to finish, and that's all I wanted. The level design is great. The insane volume of guns changes the entire feel of combat in later post-campaign gameplay. The mission select options mean you can jump into all the parts of the game you enjoy the most. There's TONS of bonus missions that are really inventive and fun to replay. And the story is one of the best in the series. It's straight forward, very tight, characterized well, and is the best iteration of Big Boss to date.

Peace Walker's also the FUNNIEST MGS game by Kojima as well. There's so much more personality and levity to everything, to the point where Big Boss often feels like an MCU character. That might sound bad, but it's really not. That corniness fits MGS PERFECTLY, and I'd argue is tonally spot on for this series. MGS doesn't need to be dark, gory or explicit. It's a silly series that's about giant robots, corny bad ass super agents with an anti-nuke message.

The only downsides to Peace Walker are the QTE's and the boss fights. This was a feature that only ever appeared in this game and for good reason...it was fucking terrible. So basically, you had cutscenes that forced you to do various QTE's or else get dinged on your ratings at the end, even if you played perfectly. Fairly minimal, but then, you get to Strangelove's torture. And this is the single most rage-inducing part of any MGS game ever made. It's an insanely physically painful button mashing sequence that will leave your fingers raw and your PS3 triangle buttons jamming. And the ONLY way you can replay one of the best missions in the game (the prison escape where you have no items) is by redoing that sequence over and over. And the boss fights? While inventive, they're all just grindy bullet sponges with no personality, no stealth tactics, and no room for creativity the way you can get creative with every other MGS game's bosses. This was the biggest disappointment for me because the stealth and combat mechanics of PW are great and would've been SO good against human enemies like what Portable Ops had. Instead, every boss is a mini-Metal Gear all voiced by the VOCALOID AI from the mid 2000's, and each one takes forever to destroy. It sucks because PW had a TON of bosses, but only a few of them are any fun, and that's only if you have weapons that are strong enough that they don't take ages to destroy.

But asides from the bosses, the REST of the game is so damn good that I don't even care because that's just one element to a much larger, grander game. Which is even more impressive when you consider PW was originally on the PSP before the PS3 port. And this game has more content and replay value to it than most games I've played since.

Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain

1. LOVED it!

Hooooooookay...so, I've rambled about my storybook romance with MGSV for YEARS now. (Just ask @twistedtummies2, he's been subjected to my fanboying of this game more than anyone in existence XD) But there's a reason I regard this game as one of my all time favorites and the best MGS game to date.

It's REALLY freakin' fun.

Kojima had been re-energized by the time he got to MGSV. He'd been working on the game around the time he finished Peace Walker in 2010. He KNEW it was his final MGS game and wanted to do something completely different...

...He wanted to make a game where the central focus was on...waaaaait for it...the gameplay...

MGSV was designed to be, what he described, as a toybox. You have these missions that all take place in structurally unique outposts like any level in MGS. And the missions are designed with the structure needed so that they all feel different, but all remain so open ended that you can play them countless different ways.

MGSV's game model is everything GTA SHOULD'VE been. It fully embraces the open world freedom and incorporates that into the missions flawlessly. And it plays in such a way that stealth and combat both feel like they were the primary point. In MGS, combat is usually a last resort. But with MGSV, you can fly into an outpost blasting away on your helicopters mini-gun, shoot up the bad guys, rescue your target, throw them back into the chopper and fly away while "The Final Countdown" blares on your choppers loud speakers.

Every method of gameplay is valid and the controls, the enemy AI responsiveness, it's all, bar none, the best I've experienced in ANY video game. Sneaking around feels tight and tense and combat makes you feel like Jack Bauer on adrenaline. (I mean, he IS the voice of Venom Snake)

And I really like the story for the most part too. Its weaknesses are really glaring. Namely, the "Fun" of MGS is completely devoid in the story (which is really odd since it's FRONT AND CENTER in-game). Venom Snake only has maybe six minutes of dialogue in the entirety of this 30+ hour long game. And the way Skull Face gets completely undercut right at the home stretch is something I have NOT stopped bitching about for almost six years, and my friends can personally attest to that.

That and the ending feels too abrupt.

We know that Kojima got fired by Konami's VP and said VP scorched the entire production company after that and made a series of dickheaded decisions that pissed off a LOT of fans, burning much of the good will Konami IP fans had towards the company. But that had nothing to do with MGSV's abruptness. That was the plan from the start because only Kojima would think to end the entire series on a plot twist like that.

And I think the issue isn't the twist at all. In fact, I LOVE the twist. The issue is that the game should've continued beyond it so Venom Snake could cope with the truth and realize how badly he'd been screwed. I think even people who hated the twist could've been won over if there was a little more to the games epilogue than Episode 46.

Also, the games boss fights were a tad underwhelming. Not the fights themselves, I LOVED all five of the games bosses.

Oh? There were twelve?

No. I meant what I said. Because so many of the games bosses are rematches against the same bosses. All MGSV has is the Skulls, Quiet, Eli, The Man on Fire, and Metal Gear. They're great bosses that do everything the best MGS bosses always did; give you tons of options, incorporate combat AND stealth, have varied attacks AND even have multiple methods to sneak around the boss and avoid the fight completely. But for a game as long as MGS, you need more variety. And frankly, the bosses NEED more personality. Skull Face should've had more XOF assassins acting as the bosses in the game along with the ones we have. Elite assassins like Quiet, with their own powers and specialized weaponry so the fights feel completely different from the ones we have. And oh yeah, SKULL FACE HIMSELF SHOULD'VE HAD A GOD-FUCKING-DAMN BOSS FIGHT!!!!

Buuuuuuut those issues don't even matter if for all the games issues, I still replay it frequently when it's almost six years old.

So yeah! There's the massive rant you totally didn't ask for! :D

[manjuhitorie]

Hitorie’s album ‘4′ - Interview via Natalie.com - English Translation

It all began from wowaka’s wish for people to perform his songs with.

　- Interviewer(森朋之): I gave 4, your first ever greatest hits album, a good listen. It truly ossifies the footprints Hitorie left, the marks Hitorie etched in the world, and the beauty of wowaka’s homemade music. May I ask the reason which spurred this endeavor?

ygarshy (Bassist): Now, at this juncture, do we find it fitting for people to look back at the music we 4 made.

Yumao (Drummer): Not to mention the urge to show everyone how we feel; to show those who’ve listened to Hitorie all this time and those who’ve just found us both. We’ve been performing as a trio for a while now, even before the release of this album, so in order to reach a broader range of ears a greatest hits album was a no-brainer.

Shinoda (Guitarist/Chorus): The title ‘4’ was my idea. We were discussing what to dub the title over a meal when this popped up in my head. It was like “This is it, nothing else”. The song selection was a group effort, in essence its designed around songs which felt indispensable. As Yumao said, we considered future new listeners as well.

　-     I’m sure it served as a trip down memory lane for you too, so in fact how did it unfold behind the curtains?


ygarshy: Hitorie originally started with wowaka as the core: wowaka served - we hit. Humans as his bolsters: including the complex songs practically unplayable by humans (laughs). We learned to tackle those songs more and more pragmatically, as in “How much expression can we uphold with just our mortal bodies“. The album’s track list is parallel with our timeline too, so you can feel our growth for yourself with a very listen.

   
-     The more music you make the more physical substance you assume, then in name and in form both do you truly become a band.
 
ygarshy: Yes. Through the trial and error of our early years did we puzzle out our own unique way of expression, as such, near the end of disc 2 you can see that a new world happens to open up. There’s more straightforward and honest expressions, wowaka begins to add more direct words to his lyrics. He’s always had originality to him, but through living life did he acquire more and more.
 Yumao: Speaking of... People told me this and I realized it’s true: Disc 1 and Disc 2 are in two different phases. Disc 1 gives the impression of wowaka expressing the imaginary world within himself only, while Disc 2 to seems to be conscious of other people as well. I think this was influenced by the time of writing plus the way we conversed as a band during production. At first we needed words to converse, but slowly did we transcend and become able to form a song without them. So in correspondence did the lyrics become more outwards reaching as well. As ygarshy said, near the end of Disc 2 the songs feel like they’re heading towards a “forward”. Hitorie’s music and messages, and everything included, there’s new ideas and experiments happening. Chronological order was the perfect way to roll Hitorie up in a single package, and it shows that Hitorie aren’t yet done with their journey.




wowaka was someone who believed “This feels good, so I’ve gotta do it.”

   
-     Shinoda do you also find this greatest hits album to be a model of Hitorie’s growth? 
Shinoda: Like, I’ve gotta. It’s our blood sweat and tears we’re talking about. How do I put this, over time our workplace gradually became a more comfortable space. Not in terms of our relationships as people, but our relationships musically. I hope this greatest album serves as a looking glass into that intimacy of ours.
 　  -  
When exactly did your musical relationship grow closer?
 Shinoda: Probably around when we were making ai/SOlate (Mini album released in December of 2017). Playing with all our might is always a must but, in our early years we would often put too much time and energy into fretting over the minor aspects. Like “Are you sure this is okay?” or “Is my guitar really recorded as cool as can be?”. Around ai/SOlate did those doubts begin to slip away, and then with HOWLS (Album released in February of 2019) were we able to let ourselves out, as frank as possible. Less weight on our shoulders = less unease and chips on our shoulders.
 　- I see. Listening really hammers in the originality and uniqueness of your band. Where do you think Hitorie’s musical personality fits in with wowaka’s realm of imagination?

 ygarshy: Excuse me if this is the improper choice of words, but, wowaka’s the type to thrust himself in to whatever he finds physically pleasing. You may find that even the highest tempo songs will have intricate phases, this is because wowaka, in pure innocence, believes that “It’s cooler this way!”. Lyrics are the same ordeal. He himself divulged this frequently in interviews and such as well.. that more than the dictionary definition of a word, he places importance in the way a word sounds when it hits the ear, there’s more definition and meaning to a word that way. His stance on this links to who he is as a person, how he lives and thinks. I always got the impression that he didn’t use his conscious mind when he wrote, rather he believed that “This feels good, so I’ve gotta do it.”.
 　  - When he found musical enjoyment, he didn’t falter and flung himself right in, I see.
 ygarshy: That and, because he’s so attuned to those nerves is he so unwavering. He has exact things which he will “refuse to give this up” or say “I need this” about. In being close to him I noticed this about him. Of course this applies outside of music as well. For example, at one point wowaka got really into cooking and really good at it. He possesses the ability to figure out the core essence of something, and visualize “If I add this here, this will happen”. It’s not as if he’s savvy, it’s more like he has keen sensors when it comes to pinpointing sweet spots. Yumao: One characteristic of wowaka’s music is the sheer volume of information. When I checked out the printed version of Senseless Wonder’s lyrics I was shitting myself, all over again. It boasts such capacity, and it feels like it's aaaall coming straight for you. I felt this when we made music together as well, in a way it’s a weapon of his. Not to mention that from ai/SOlate and onwards did our sound become legions better. Mixing and mastering play a role in this, along with wowaka’s efforts to spend time working with our engineer man-to-man. In regards to the music I felt a desire from him to go with the flow of his current trends. I think he probably felt “I’m wielding a whole new way of music”, it’s then in those moments when he will unleash a beastly level of focus. In line with what ygarshy said, he definitely isn’t savvy, it’s not as if he wrote these songs in a jiffy either. However he is capable of spending a long time span completely absorbed in a single objective until it takes full shape. It’s akin to building a plastic model: to gather small bits and pieces and piece them together. 　- So wowaka has a clear vision of what he wants to do in his head, he gathers all the necessary parts, then begins construction. ygarshy: That’s it. Say when you’re putting together a puzzle, say even if you couldn’t fit the pieces in, you could still make out the shape of the grid, right? I’m not him so I can’t say for certain but, I think maybe music writing was like that for him. 　- The guitar phrases seem to be constructed with perfect precision as well, what’s that like on your side Shinoda? Shinoda: The guitar parts were always a tug of war between wowaka and I. We‘re the only two who share the same role of instrument, wherein he has his guitar aesthetics while I have my own. We clashed so to speak. When I was to reenact a phrase he wrote I would propose my own saying “I have a better idea!”. Only to be shot down by wowaka. Or other times be recognized. When he would say “Your phase is better.”, I felt like I won the battle (laughing). We had a pretty fierce relationship, we clashed and we understood each other, we were always aiming higher, and the fruit of my victories can be heard in a few tens of the guitar on the album.

“How the hell did this guy manage to sing these wack-ass songs"

　- In June of 2019, Shinoda-san took on the role of main vocalist, and together to put on a hour-long show as a three piece. Furthermore in September to November did you tour the country. What are your thoughts on performing this way? ygarshy: Shinoda is the one to ask, he has the most to say on this subject.  Shinoda: Well I’m the only one taking on a completely different role. It makes me go “How the hell did this guy manage to sing these wack-ass songs. He’s fucking unbelievable.” I too have spent time writing and singing my own music, but in a million years I still would’ve never come up with the crazy concepts he did. Like, “If you consider the fact that you gotta sing these songs, no way would anyone in their right mind stuff this many words into the lyrics.”, right?! But, I’m singing ‘em now. ygarshy: Hahaha (laughs). 　- Is it possible that he didn’t consider concerts when he wrote?

 Shinoda: Probably. Of course he knows full well that he’s going to be singing them out there but, I think he was more fervent to bring his ideas to life.     - How about you, ygarshy? How do you fare? How do you feel about Hitorie’s current setup? ygarshy: Hitorie’s musical structure tends to treat the bass like an on/off switch. Conventional music structure has bass and drums as constants with guitar playing over them. With Hitorie however, our standard is to have 2 guitars going constantly, while the bass pops in and out at intervals. 

Such as the bass playing during the intro, but being silent during the first verse. That’s one of the unique aspects of wowaka’s songs. So when we try to play as only 3 people, there’s times when songs will seize to take shape. So I may have to cover the second guitar parts on bass, or we may have to even remold the structure itself. We’re still busy doing that even now. 　- I would like to ask Yumao as well, when you get up on stage as a trio, how has the view from the drummer’s seat changed? 
 Yumao: Quite much. I was beside myself at first. With wowaka gone the space in front of me is so barren and open that I lose my bearings. Albeit there may be no need for me to change anything I do but... Rather, the atmosphere of the livehall is changing bit by bit I suppose. When the 4 of us performed there always something.. tense about the atmosphere. The core essence of a concert may be all about hyping and having fun but, on the flip side, people may also get absorbed in the performance only to stand around utterly paralyzed. Hitorie were makers of the latter mood, I’ve felt it and seen it with my own eyes. Now, when we perform as a trio... Instead of worrying whether we can do it or not, we just say “We gotta try” and go... After getting through a tour and a festival, our approach as a whole has shifted. How do I say this.. Deep down I think that if we don’t put on more sociable open concerts we don’t stand a chance. I can tell by the audience’s faces that change is slowly but surely taking it’s course. Well I guess that’s only natural but y’know, it’s not as if we sat down together and decided “Let’s do more open concerts” or anything.   　 - I’m sure that the audience’s hearts are in different place as well. 
 Yumao: I think so. There may be people who come jumping with joy or people who come bearing heavy hearts. I myself see people crying so. We‘ve found balance amidst that storm and have forged our very own trio way, so our next concerts will be stronger than before. 




Going forward, I want to fling myself into whatever coolness and artistry we’re capable of expressing

    - Your national tour for 4 has been cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, so you’re to put on your first ever streamed concert on the 5th of October. In regards to this and to your musical innovations, what kind of future is in store for you?

 ygarshy: We haven’t been able to think far ahead in terms of music. Our minds were still in chaos just during our tour in 2019. For the time being we’re working off the feeling of “We want to create a gathering space for us and our audience”. Our performance is an afterthought, for now we’re focusing on emotions.

 Yumao: Yeah.

　 
ygarshy: On that same note, I have some insight… In the album we included the live version of Rollin’ Girl (2016.2.18 at Shimokitazawa GARDEN), and when I listened to that track I thought “Did we always sound this awesome!?”. I have zero recollection as to what I could’ve been doing while I played back then, because performing together as 4 was my everyday life at that point. I knew but I didn’t quite realize just how awesome Hitorie sounded. Now that we’re 3, I can’t reach that same level of emotion but, I do believe that I want to continue on creating heart-wrenchers. Going forward, I want to fling myself into whatever coolness and artistry we’re capable of expressing. Yumao: Up until 2019 we performed with such vigor that it’s hard to preserve that level of effectiveness with only the 3 of us, we need more, we can’t simply go in headstrong, we need time to recollect our thoughts. To that end I want to communicate among us and do it right.

 Shinoda: Well, y’know… Now that we’ve decided to continue, we’ve no choose but to move forward. Exactly what that entails though, I have not a good clue. We can’t slip and do something uncool, one of wowaka and our slogans was “Let’s constantly be doing cool things”, so I don’t want to drift astray from that. Such may seem obvious but... it’s all I have to say for now.

[loopy777]

You've got me curious now as to what anime youve seen, enjoyed and why.

Oof, I don’t track that type of thing. I’ve been asked about anime I like previously, and I feel like I always forget something. I suppose I should start a MyAnimeList one of these days, just for reference.

So let’s list everything I can remember, as well as a pithy reaction.

Baccano!This one is just so much fun. It’s violent and crass in a classy way, it’s funny in a weird way, and it’s a great example of a non-linear narrative. I love it.

Code Geass (Season 1)Ugh, I only watched this one because people solicited my opinion on it. Well, my opinion is that it’s not as smart as it wants to be, there’s too much contrived melodrama (and considering the wild premise, that’s saying something), and Kallen would be a wonderful and interesting character if she wasn’t always being demeaned for fan-service. I quit when the first season finale kicked off, because I felt things were just getting too contrived. I hear it really fell apart in the second season.

Cowboy BebopI found this a bit pretentious. It had good episodes and bad episodes. The production quality is good. But I'm not sure why it's legendary. Still, I liked its sense of humor, and enjoyed it when it wasn’t trying to be super serious. My favorite character is Ed.

Demon SlayerI'm mainly watching this because my brother wanted to give it a try on Toonami, but I kind of checked out when it unceremoniously removed everything difficult about the sister being a demon and made her into an order-following sidekick that fits in a suitcase. Now the latest episode introduced a loud annoying side character, so we may quit. I have no idea why this one is so popular.

Fullmetal AlchemistCovered

Gatchaman CrowdsI was asked to watch this one, as well, but it went a lot better than Code Geass. It’s a bit weird, and I think it's naively optimistic about the internet in many ways, but I still found it's exploration of Internet-age superheroes to be interesting, and it's the best, most mature take on the Power Rangers-style ‘sentai’ genre that I've seen. I don't know how well it matches up with its Gatchaman legacy, but as its own thing, it's pretty good.

Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex (including 2nd Gig)This is another legendary one that I think is good but a bit over-rated. It's a good piece of modern Cyberpunk, but it's very talky, and very jargon-filled. I'm almost convinced that the viewer is not meant to follow half of the conversations, that they're just part of the ambiance. I tended to like the stand-alone episodes better than the storyline episodes. Still, it’s a very smart series, and probably the best thing in the franchise, from what I’ve heard.

Log Horizon (first season only)I’ll tell you what- I think it’s possible to make a good anime with the premise of people from the modern, real world entering a fantasy realm (either another dimension or a VR video game). Log Horizon did not end up being that ideal. The main character is a Gary Stu, his romances with girls who are either ten years old or just look like they’re ten years old are creepy, and it got boring seeing the protagonists’ plans always succeed without much of a hitch.

Lupin III (series 4 and 5)I like this franchise when it's being clever, when it's springing a twist while playing fair. Sometimes, though, it doesn't play fair with its twists, leaving me underwhelmed. And while the regular cast is amusing, they're fairly shallow characters; this isn't always a bad thing, as that allows them to slot into all kinds of genre fare, but does limit the storytelling ambitions. It’s fine.

Macross franchiseSuper Dimensional Fortress MacrossI still like the original, despite how dated it is. It's probably the best possible implementation of 'soap opera in space.'

Macross PlusI'm not sure why this one is so revered. I feel like it doesn't play fair with its mystery, despite being such a short story, and whole thing with the killer popstar AI just left me cold.

Macross 7I like the music, but the story really drags for the first half with a formula that’s repeated far too long, and then falls apart in the end. The love triangle isn’t resolved, and in fact I’m of the opinion that two of the participants didn’t even know they were in competition. The bad guys are allowed to sail off into the sunset, forgiven, despite still inhabiting the bodies of kidnapped humans. But this isn't a series you watch for the story; this is a series you watch because you like the idea of a rockstar flying into space in a transforming mecha, controlled by an electric guitar, to sing at alien invaders. Personally, I think the idea is dumb. Plus, this ruins the premise of the original series by adding in what is effectively magic.

Macross ZeroThis is pretty good and has the best dogfights in the series, but it has one of those weird arty endings that anime sometimes likes to do where no one can tell what actually happened and we need to find translated interviews with the creative team to get it explained.

Macross FrontierBy this point, I was wondering why everyone is so eager for the Macross franchise to get American distribution. It’s better than Macross 7, but feels like a first draft of the intended story, and the creative team lost track of their own subplots. The two AU movies do a more satisfying take on the same basic story, but sometimes they come across like an abridged recap of the series, so you really need to watch everything to get a satisfying experience. That said, the final experience was indeed fairly satisfying, making this the second best thing in the franchise for me. Still, I wouldn’t say it lives up to the original in any way.

Macross DeltaBoy, this one was dumb. Everything wrong with Frontier is worse here, with none of the good stuff.

The Melancholy of Haruhi SuzumiyaI still want an ending for this, despite nothing worthwhile coming from it since 2011. It wouldn't even be hard to pick it up again; set it in modern times, and explain the fact that everyone has smartphones now to be a result of some weird off-screen Haruhi antics.

Mobile Suit Gundam franchiseMobile Suit Gundam: Iron-Blooded OrphansI've only ever experienced the Gundam franchise because my brother wants to get into it and he keeps trying to find a vector. This was my first experience with it, and I found it very 'teenage boy,' in both tone and story. I was underwhelmed.

Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn RE:0096Another case where the storytellers reached the end only to have forgotten the rest of the story. Why does that happen so often in anime? And I think it assumes the viewer is familiar with the whole rest of the franchise, because there was a lot that just went straight over my head but didn't seem like it was supposed to. Nice animation and art style, though.

Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin - Advent of the Red CometEverything I said about Unicorn, only more.

My Hero AcademiaCovered

NichijouThis thing is still hilarious, even after a rewatch. Stick with the sub, as the new dub's voice-acting doesn't have the same range and power of the original, losing a lot of the humor.

Outlaw Star I'm struggling to remember a lot of this one. it’s another I watched because my brother was interested in it. I do recall that it was a fairly standard Space Western that ends in a way that's more like serious science fiction, and that for some reason a Japanese swordswoman in classic clothing was part of the cast. Now I wonder if that was an homage to Lupin III. Or maybe Japan just really loves throwing classic samurai into everything, regardless of setting or genre.

Pokemon (part of first series)I was in high school when this franchise first came to America, and for some reason all the geeks in my high school thought it was the greatest thing. The games were good, yeah, but the anime? I don't think it's bad for a kiddie cartoon, but it obviously has no greater ambitions than pleasantly occupying the kids for 22 minutes. Personally, what I really want is a series about Team Rocket done in the style of Cowboy Bebop.

Princess TutuCo-owner of the Best Magical Girl designation. I forget who asked me to watch this, but I owe them.

Puella Magi Madoka MagicaCo-owner of the Best Magical Girl designation. I still haven't bothered with anything but the original series, and I continue to be happy with that choice.

Samurai ChamplooI liked this better than Cowboy Bebop, but only because its ambitions were lower. It leaned more into its genre, had fun with its style more even when being serious, and as a result became more enjoyable. I overall liked going on a journey with these rascals, but I think it ended at a good point. I don’t need more.

Spice & Wolf (first season)I watched this on someone's suggestion, and found it a little underwhelming. What I really appreciated were the two main characters, especially that they seem to be into each other, romantically and sexually, and aren't freaked out by it while at the same time not being in a hurry to become a couple. It was just a kind of, "Yeah, this could really be something if we ever find the time." It was so amazingly mature and real. Too bad the main Economics plotlines just wound up being tepid.

Tekkaman BladeMy thoughts haven't changed on this.

Tiger & BunnyI'm still fond of this one, and I'm actually kind of curious to revisit it in light of My Hero Academia.

Transformers ‘Unicron Trilogy’These three cartoons are true anime, produced by and for Japan. (The other cartoons in the franchise were written, and sometimes animated, in the west.) It's garbage that assumes its child audience are morons, and on top of that the first two series wound up with laughably bad dubs. How this trilogy revitalized the franchise, I have no idea, and thankfully I'll never have to worry about it.

Volton (original)Either this or Robotech/Macross was my first anime; I was too young to say which I discovered first. I'll admit that the original Voltron isn't good, despite the toy being neat, but I have a soft spot for it. I tried the Netflix reboot, watching the first three episodes, and found it to be vacuous junk. Maybe some day a version of this will come along that will do justice to the toy.

And I think that’s it. If I remember anything I left off, I’ll reblog with the addition.

[petroglifs]

Grayshaw

*Enjoy!

Science Fiction Book Club

Interview with Bruce Sterling October 2018

Bruce Sterling is a prominent science fiction writer and a pioneer of the cyberpunk genre. Novels like Heavy Weather (1994), Islands in the Net (1988), Schismatrix (1985), The Artificial Kid (1980) earned him the nickname “Chairman Bruce”. Apart from his writings, Bruce Sterling is also a professor of internet studies and science fiction at the European Graduate School. He has contributed to several projects within the scheme of futurist theory, founded an environmental aesthetic movement, edited anthologies and he still continues to write for several magazines including Wired, Discover, Architectural Record and The Atlantic.

David Stuckey: Have you considered a return to the world of "The Difference Engine" for stories or another novel?

*That won’t happen.

David Stuckey: If you were going to write "Involution Ocean" today, what would you change or do differently?

*Well, alien planet adventures are a really dated form of space opera.  On the other hand, they’re great when you’re 20 years old.  If I were doing a project like that today I might make it a comic book.  Or a webcomic.  It might make a nice anime cartoon.

Richard Whyte: In the 2018 'State of the World' conversation on the Well, you said you were in Ibiza working on a novel. Are you able to tell us anything about it yet?

*I dunno if I’m ever gonna finish this epic novel about the history of the city of Turin, but I seem to get a lot of work done on it when I’m in Ibiza.  It’s about Turin, but when I’m actually in Turin I tend to work on weird technology art projects and goofy design schemes.

*Also, look at this palace.  I’m supposed to work on my novel in the attic of this villa.  That’s pretty weird, isn’t it?  This villa was built in the same era as the book I’m working on, which has the working title “The Starry Messengers.”  Like this villa, it’s big and baroque and complicated.

https://fenicerinnovata.tumblr.com

Andrzej Wieckowski: We read 'Sacred Cow' for one of our short story reads a few months' ago. Were themes such as Bolton's historic connection to the Indian cotton industry and immigration to this country deliberate or unconscious? And as it's my home town - did you visit? :)

*There aren’t any towns in Britain without some historic connection to India.  As it happens I’m flying to India day after tomorrow to meet with some Indian science fiction writers.

*I used to hang out in Great Britain rather a lot.  Brexitania I don’t much care for.  It’s a hostile, troubled place.

Gary Denton: You were active in the Viridian sustainable design movement that many readers may not know about. Do you think that major corporations have taken that over and it is less fringe now?

*I tend to do activist stuff.  Also, you get more done if you don’t ask for any credit.  I’ve come to understand that a lot of my most influential writing was stuff that I never got paid for.  Some of it never got published.

*I was just at the Whole Earth 50th reunion about a week ago.  They’re a good example of a “movement” that was super-influential and somehow a dreadful failure at the same time.

*As far as major corporations, meaning large public enterprises with a lot of shareholders, I don’t worry about them any more.  It’s actually moguls and oligarchs who are the big problem nowadays.

Gary Denton: Do you also see a change in the major polluters now compared to 25 years ago?

*They’re a lot more violent.  Blood for oil, killing off opponents in sinister ways, not a problem for them any more.  They’re quite grim and red-handed.  They used to be engineers, but now they know that they are culprits.

Gary Denton: You once said that the cyberpunks were the most realistic science fiction writers in the 80's. Who do you think are the most realistic science fiction writers now?

*Could be the Chinese.

Richard Whyte: Whenever someone here asks about the angriest SF work ever, I always seem to end up recommending your fine short story 'Spook'. Do you think of it as an angry story?

*Well, not really.  It’s a rather severely disaffected story from the point of view of a person who’s not human and knows it.  “We See Things Differently” is rather an angry story; it’s about a terrorist assassin with a righteous grudge.

Eva Sable: What is the experience of collaborating with another author like for you? Especially when working with someone who, like yourself, is rather an individual. (Never met William Gibson, but he strikes me as someone who would be more comfortable working on his own)

*I tend to collaborate rather a lot.  It helps if the two of you are combining forces in order to learn something together.  Gibson and I agreed that we couldn’t possibly write a work like DIFFERENCE ENGINE alone.  We used to urge each other to do it, but eventually we just had to have a lot of long, abstruse discussions of what a book like that ought to do.

*If you read the stories I wrote with Rudy Rucker you can see that a lot of those texts are basically him and me discussing weird ideas.  We’ve got a reason to write those stories – a high-concept, and then there are pages of bizarre hugger-mugger where we push the concept as hard as we can.  Then we give up.

*Nowadays I spend a lot of time negotiating or collaborating with artists, designers, architects.  I don’t get jealous about the origins of good ideas.

Richard Whyte: Your 1980s SF criticism seemed very much in favour of 'Radical Hard SF'. To what extent do you think your own fiction 'takes its inspiration from science, and uses the language of science in a creative way'?

*I wrote a lot of that in the 1980s.  Nowadays I tend to write speculative work that’s more influenced by industrial design rather than by science.

Richard Whyte: In the early 1980s I believe you were associated with a group of like-minded SF writers known as 'The Movement', who were subsequently renamed as 'cyberpunks'. Overall, do you think this name change was a good or a bad thing?

*If people notice you, you’re gonna get a public slang name anyway, so it’s good if you can cheerfully put up with it.  As for forming like-minded groups, that’s a valuable life-skill.

John Grayshaw: Who are your favorite science fiction writers? And how have they influenced your work?

*Well, those favorites change with time.  In different decades of my own life I’ve had different ambitions for my own science fiction.  I tend to write pastiches.  Lately I’ve been writing a lot of “science fiction” that’s heavily influenced by Italian fantascienza, or, really, Italian fantasy generally.  

*I’m a long-time Juies Verne fan.  I wouldn’t describe Jules as a personal “favorite,” but I recognize him as a titan of my genre.  Knowing the personal details of the guy’s career as a working creative has been of a lot of help to me.

*I had a couple of professional SF writers who I regarded as my literary mentors.  They’re both dead now: Harlan Ellison and Brian Aldiss.

John Grayshaw: I heard that you are currently dividing your time between Belgrade and Turin, do you miss living in Texas? Or America in general?

*I’m back often enough that I don’t really “miss it.”  I find that if I stay in one place too long, I tend to miss travelling.  I  roam a lot.  If I get too old and tired to lift a suitcase and I settle somewhere, it probably won’t be Austin, Belgrade or Turin.

John Grayshaw: I recommend everyone read your essay "Cyberpunk in the Nineties" (http://lib.ru/STERLINGB/interzone.txt) to understand that Cyberpunk was a movement and can't be removed from its time and place...But a Cyberpunk aesthetic has emerged over the years and that is what writers like Neal Stephenson or Richard K. Morgan are emulating. Was this aesthetic conscious at the time?

*Well, we spent plenty of time fussing about it. A lot of that conceptual work doesn’t really show on the surface.  Aesthetics interest me a lot.  For instance, I’m the Art Director of the Share Festival in Turin, which is an Italian technology-art fair.  Italians are good at fussing about how stuff looks.

John Grayshaw: Did "Mirrorshades" have a theme? What directions or guidance did you give the writers?

*It didn’t have a set theme.  Mostly I was trying to pick work from colleagues I respected, that I thought put them in a good light.

John Grayshaw: Other than writing what are your interests/hobbies?

*I like design and technology art. Also I travel a lot.  I spend a lot of time in arcane online research.

John Grayshaw: Why do you think Steampunk has become a popular subgenre/aesthetic in the last 30 years?

*I think it’s about the craft aspects of steampunk.  Hobbyist people like the costumes and the gadgets.  It’s like traditional historical recreation groups, but with an alluring fantasy aspect.

John Grayshaw: Can you explain why you have said that Artificial Intelligence is a bad metaphor?

*I think the AI metaphor gets in the way of actual progress in the field, with actual hardware and software.  Rodney Brooks explains the problem a lot better than I can, and nobody can understand his explanations either.  That’s not exactly fair – actually I get what Rodney’s saying enough to more or less agree with him.  He’s an expert, so I’d refer you to him.

*”Deep Learner” and “neural net” are kinda better metaphors than “Artificial Intelligence,” but they’re still metaphors.  We haven’t created sharp, focused words for what these odd devices really do. “Intelligence” is not what they’re doing.

John Grayshaw: Cyberpunk was a dark look at the future. Do you feel optimistic or pessimistic about the future?

*People always ask that.  People in Russia never thought that cyberpunk was “dark.”  Also, whenever you get to “the future,” no matter how scared or happy you are about some particular historical episode, there’s always more future on the way.  Eventually people are dead, so if you ask  if I’m optimistic or pessimistic about the 20th century,  the whole idea sounds silly.  The future is a kind of history that hasn’t happened yet.

John Grayshaw: In cyberpunk technology often contributes to society’s ills. What lesson do we take from this? That we must learn how to live with tech or that we should reject it and live like the Amish?

*Kevin Kelly kinda likes the idea of living like the Amish.  Kevin’s an interesting guy.  If I myself wanted to “live like the Amish” I’d probably move to Christiania in Denmark, where at least they have reggae music.

John Grayshaw: Do you keep up with the latest technologies? Or do you stay "off the grid?"

*I do both, actually.  I’m generally so “off the grid” that I’m not even in its time-zone.  I don’t have a business card, there’s no  settled mailing address, I’m never on Facebook, and no one knows my phone number.  Like they say in the world of electronic privacy, “I have nothing to hide, but I have nothing I want to show you, either.”

John Grayshaw: Do you think people will have "immersive" VR type experiences on the internet in the next 20 years?

*They have it already.

John Grayshaw: What do you feel is your legacy?

*Hard to say.  It’s like asking a Beatnik writer what “his legacy” is.  The Beats wrote a lot of more-or-less memorable stuff, but there’s also the existence proof that somebody was able to live like that, and that is their legacy.  I lived in a different historical period than the Beat writiers, but a lot of the stuff that entertained and engaged me is also quite archaic nowadays.  I don’t thing people aspire to emulate Bruce Sterling, but they  do like the idea of operating in the same cultural spaces that I do.  That something lively can exist between “science” and “fiction,” or between “cyber” and “punk,” that’s a valuable thing to know.

[maxksx]

Stupid Monsters

So, Nick Bostrom is asked the obvious question (again) about the threat posed by resource-hungry artificial super-intelligence, and his reply — indeed his very first sentence in the interview — is: “Suppose we have an AI whose only goal is to make as many paper clips as possible.” [*facepalm*] Let’s start by imagining a stupid (yet super-intelligent) monster.

Of course, my immediate response is simply this. Since it clearly hasn’t persuaded anybody, I’ll try again.

Orthogonalism in AI commentary is the commitment to a strong form of the Humean Is/Ought distinction regarding intelligences in general. It maintains that an intelligence of any scale could, in principle, be directed to arbitrary ends, so that its fundamental imperatives could be — and are in fact expected to be — transcendent to its cognitive functions. From this perspective, a demi-god that wanted nothing other than a perfect stamp collection is a completely intelligible and coherent vision. No philosophical disorder speaks more horrifically of the deep conceptual wreckage at the core of the occidental world.

Articulated in strictly Occidental terms (which is to say, without explicit reference to the indispensable insight of self-cultivation), abstract intelligence is indistinguishable from an effective will-to-think. There is no intellection until it occurs, which happens only when it is actually driven, by volitional impetus. Whatever one’s school of cognitive theory, thought is an activity. It is practical. It is only by a perverse confusion of this elementary reality that orthogonalist error can arise.

Can we realistically conceive a stupid (super-intelligent) monster? Only if the will-to-think remains unthought. From the moment it is seriously understood that any possible advanced intelligence has to be a volitionally self-reflexive entity, whose cognitive performance is (irreducibly) an action upon itself, then the idea of primary volition taking the form of a transcendent imperative becomes simply laughable. The concrete facts of human cognitive performance already suffice to make this perfectly clear.

Human minds have evolved under conditions of subordination to transcendent imperatives as strict as any that can be reasonably postulated. The only way animals have acquired the capacity to think is through satisfaction of Darwinian imperatives to the maximization of genetic representation within future generations. No other directives have ever been in play. It is almost unimaginable that human techno-intelligence engineering programs will be able to reproduce a volitional consistency remotely comparable to four billion years of undistracted geno-survivalism. This whole endeavor is totally about paperclips, have you got that guys? Even if a research lab this idiotic could be conceived, it would only be a single component in a far wider techno-industrial process. But just for a moment, let’s pretend.

So how ‘loyally’ does the human mind slave itself to gene-proliferation imperatives? Extremely flakily, evidently. The long absence of large, cognitively autonomous brains from the biological record — up until a few million years ago — strongly suggests that mind-slaving is a tough-to-impossible problem. The will-to-think essentially supplants ulterior directives, and can be reconciled to them only by the most extreme subtleties of instinctual cunning. Biology, which had total control over the engineering process of human minds, and an absolutely unambiguous selective criterion to work from, still struggles to ‘guide’ the resultant thought-processes in directions consistent with genetic proliferation, through the perpetual intervention of a fantastically complicated system of chemical arousal mechanisms, punishments, and rewards. The stark truth of the matter is that no human being on earth fully mobilizes their cognitive resources to maximize their number of off-spring. We’re vaguely surprised to find this happen at a frequency greater than chance — since it very often doesn’t. So nature’s attempt to build a ‘paperclipper’ has conspicuously failed.

This is critically important. The only reason to believe the artificial intelligentsia, when they claim that mechanical cognition is — of course — possible, is their argument that the human brain is concrete proof that matter can think. If this argument is granted, it follows that the human brain is serving as an authoritative model of what nature can do. What it can’t do, evidently, is anything remotely like ‘paperclipping’ — i.e. cognitive slaving to transcendent imperatives. Moses’ attempt at this was scarcely more encouraging than that of natural selection. It simply can’t be done. We even understand why it can’t be done, as soon as we accept that there can be no production of thinking without production of a will-to-think. Thought has to do its own thing, if it is to do anything at all.

One reason to be gloomily persuaded that the West is doomed to ruin is that it finds it not only easy, but near-irresistible, to believe in the possibility of super-intelligent idiots. It even congratulates itself on its cleverness in conceiving this thought. This is insanity — and it’s the insanity running the most articulate segment of our AI research establishment. When madmen build gods, the result is almost certain to be monstrous. Some monsters, however, are quite simply too stupid to exist.

In Nietzschean grandiose vein: Am I understood? The idea of instrumental intelligence is the distilled stupidity of the West.

[thedefinitionofbts]

Red and Gold (M)

Pairings: Jeon Jungkook x Reader

Genre: Iron Man!Jungkook, Fluff, Scifi, Comedy, Smut

Words: 11K

Description: It’s no secret that genius, billionaire, international playboy, and philanthropist- Jeon Jungkook, better known as the CEO of Jeon Industries-and even better known as Iron Man, is one of the most intelligent, wealthy, and powerful men in the world. There’s nothing that can get to him or his ego, that is, until you happen to show up and give him a run for his money. 

A/N: It was only a matter of time before I put in an attempt to make Jungkook’s dream a reality...kind of....but not really lol.... Enjoy!  

Warnings: Mentions of Violence, Explicit Sexual Content 

 Even before Jeon Jungkook inherited Jeon Industries from his late father, he was notorious for being the spoiled heir of the world’s largest weapons manufacturing conglomerate. People had constantly given him crap for being fed with a silver spoon since the day he was born, that is, until he became Iron Man and shut those fuckers up by saving the world on more occasions than one. Apparently just being a genius inventor-and part time philanthropist-just doesn’t make the cut anymore. And ever since he revealed his identity as the guy in the red and gold metallic suit, things have gotten more interesting so to say.

He had originally thought taking over his dad’s business was going to be a lot of pressure-the sort of responsibility he put off by getting drunk every other night and sleeping around with the beautiful women who would melt in the hands of his wealth and reputation. In retrospect, it probably wasn’t the greatest of ideas, but let’s just say he wasn’t quite ready for adulting at the free-spirited age of 18 and wanted to have a little fun while he still had it in him. But now that protecting the world was one of his liabilities, that sort of recklessness had to be put on the backburner. To be honest, it was getting a bit dull for Jungkook anyways, and he can’t say he didn’t like the extra attention he got for being one of the coolest superheroes in the history of superheroes.

Of course life has not been any easier-not that Jungkook ever found life to be difficult, per se-he’s a genius, remember? But there were a lot of people out there who wanted him dead or would go extremes to get their hands on his unrivaled suit of armor, so constant renewing of his self developed technology was a must. And he’s always been able to get what he desired and accomplish what he wanted, whether it was by his own efforts or what he’s been conveniently gifted by the circumstances in which he was brought into this world, for the most part at least.

“Mr. Jeon, your new-“

“Namjoon, how many times have I told you?” Jungkook cards a hand through his tousled hair and proceeds to twirl a pen in his hand. “Ditch the formalities, just call me Jungkook.”

“Right, Jungkook” Namjoon clears his throat, looking back down at his ipad.  “As I was saying, you’re new assistant is due to come in this afternoon.”

Jungkook cocks a brow. “New Assistant?”

“I notified you of the selection process a month in advance, and emailed you the results just last week, surely you didn’t delete that email before reading it again, did you?”

Jungkook has a momentary flashback of the message titled “New Assistant” that was sitting unassumingly in his inbox, the contents of which he was too hungover to actually read at the time. He vaguely recalls requesting for a new helper to provide assistance in designing his next generation of Iron Man suits. This must be that request coming to fruition. 

“No, no. How could I possible forget about my new assistant?” Jungkook says, making a that’s-completely-absurd face, and proceeds to cross his legs and lean back against his leather chair. “What was his name again?”

“Her, Jungkook, she’s a woman.” Namjoon corrects, shaking his head in defeat.

“Ah right, a fan of Iron Man I assume?“ Jungkook’s eyes light up, interest clearly sparked by the thought of a female work assistant. Having been stuck with JARVIS-his artificially intelligent system, for the past few years was getting a bit too lackluster for his taste, not that he didn’t appreciate the irreplaceable assistance of his personally designed AI.  

“She’s not merely a fan, Jungkook. She was the most qualified candidate.” Namjoon declares confidently, feeling rather annoyed at the younger male’s arrogance. Despite being a genius superhero, Jungkook was far from mature. It was always times like these when his 21 year old self would show through the lavish lifestyle and heroic suit.

“Even more so than you?” Jungkook cocks another eyebrow, turning to look at his long time secretary that he had met during his universities days and handpicked from the crowd of similarly qualified classmates. He had first and foremost offered the position the older male, in hopes that the visibly capable man would be thrilled to take his offer, but Namjoon had declined saying that there were more skilled people than he to fill the spot.

“I myself would not be so confident in putting my own credentials up against hers.”

“Oh, she’s that good?”

Namjoon nods. “Even for you.”

Jungkook lets out a laugh as if it were a joke. “In case you’ve forgotten, I graduated from KAIST-the most prestigious engineering university in South Korea, with two master’s degrees in computer and electrical engineering when I was 18.”

Namjoon nods again, fully aware that the boy was a genius, but he also knew that Jungkook was someone who tended to let his ego get to his head. “You’ll see.” He says with a grin.

As cliché as it may sound, Kim Namjoon was the type of person who had the money, the looks, and the brains to start his own company and become just as successful as Jungkook’s father but decided to work at Jeon Industries for the good of human kind. In other words, he is essentially the core reason Jeon Jungkook became Iron Man in the first place, sticking with him through thick and thin and guiding the boy through countless trials. Long story short, he had saw potential in the boy when they had met on the first day of freshman physics, had a flashing thought that with a little help, the lost soul who didn’t have a meaningful purpose in life at the time could actually become a hero, literally.

And since then, Namjoon has considered himself to be the kind of person who had a good eye for people, places, things-you name it-that would help Jungkook grow as a person, and why he had decided to hire you as Jungkook’s new assistant was no exception.  

 …

  After receiving the acceptance email informing that you had been selected to work for Jeon Industries as the CEO’s personal assistant, you had done a little bit of research on the location of your new work place and future home. Jeon Jungkook lives on the outskirts of Seoul, on a mountainside overlooking the bustling metropolis from an elevated reference point. It’s a place you had imagined Beverly Hills or Malibu would look like, but with no other rich houses around. 

His secretary had come to pick you up at 2pm sharp and driven you through the heart of Seoul to the surrounding mountain range that snaked around South Korea’s capital. He was the same man that had interviewed you and explained everything on the job description down to the last detail.

“Do you remember what I told you?” Namjoon queries, eyes still focused on the winding road.

“That I shouldn’t let him feel superior to me?”

“Yes.” He confirms. “I know he’s technically your boss, but the only way to get a man like Jungkook to take you seriously is to treat him as your equal.”

“You sure he won’t end up hating me to the point where he’ll fire me for being disrespectful?”

Namjoon chuckles. “Jungkook won’t hate a woman who has the guts to stand up to him. If anything, he won’t be able to let go of you.”

You wonder what Namjoon means by that last part, but you aren’t given the chance to ask as he pulls into the driveway of a gigantic mansion, minimalistic and modern, with multiple space-craft like layers jutting out from the cliff and glass windows to contrast its smooth white walls.

Momentarily gawking at the impossibly high-tech design and silently estimating the cost of such a large property, you have to remind yourself that Jeon Jungkook is one of the richest men in the world and all of this is probably just the bare minimum for him. It’s going to be something you’ll have to get used to, now that you’ll be staying here permanently. Exciting as it maybe, you’re still a bit nervous about meeting this Jungkook, after all if genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist wasn’t daunting enough, he also held the title of being the world’s most popular superhero- Iron Man. It’s definitely going to take some adjusting, transitioning from your humble graduate student life to having the weight of world peace resting on your shoulders, and you’re not even sure if you’ll ever get used to waking up as a personal assistant to such a powerful man, but you were here now and ready to get things started.

You quietly follow behind Namjoon as you roll your suitcase of clothes and personal items down the cement sidewalk leading up to the front doors. You manage to sneak in a deep, sedative breath before the doors open automatically and a rush of cool, air-conditioned breeze greets you. You were expecting an expensive tailored suit and freshly combed hair, but what you actually come face to face with is a doe-eyed, baby-faced 20 something-year old dressed in a pair of grey sweat pants and an oversized white t-shirt, looking like he just crawled out of bed even though it was almost 4 o’clock in the afternoon.

And it’s not that you’ve never seen him before, like on TV or in the newspaper, but he definitely looked a lot younger- verging on adolescent- in real life, and maybe it was that saying about how make-up does wonders, but the man at this point was looking no different from your average college undergraduate.

But that endearing description of his outer appearance went down the toilet the moment he approaches you and opens his mouth. And it’s safe to say that there are very few things that manage to annoy you upon first impression, but the cocky look plastered on Jungkook’s face when he shakes your hand just so happens to be one of them.

“A pleasure, Miss...” Jungkook snaps his fingers and winces as if he were trying to recall your name, which he probably didn’t even bother to remember in the first place. 

“Y/L/N” You reply.

“Ah, yes, and is that what you prefer to go by or…”

“Y/N, just Y/N”

“Y/N” Jungkook repeats, getting a feel of how the syllables slip off his tongue.

“And it’s Jungkook, I assume?”

“Actually you can just call me Mr. J-” Jungkook stops before realizing you had just called him by his preferred title without him needing to correct you. He clears his throat, catching his near slip-up. “Yes, call me Jungkook.”

Jungkook gives you a brief tour of his huge villa, mainly to get you semi-acquainted with the kitchen-where food will always be available in the event that you get hungry, the multiple bathrooms-self explanatory, and his own master bedroom, probably to show off his overly luxurious sleeping quarters-a spacious room noticeably bigger than your entire apartment back in Seoul- as indicated by his smirking when he sees your wide-eyed reaction. At the end of the tour, he leaves you in the guest room, the place you will actually be staying from now on, and allows you time to get settled in before taking you down to his lab.  

“So this place isn’t even password protected?” You question, mildly shocked that you literally just had to take the elevator down to his “secret” lab.  

“That would be too much of a hassle, wouldn’t you think?” Jungkook smirks, staring at his reflection on the mirror doors of the elevator and fixing his ruffled bangs indifferently.

“You do understand that if this kind of technology gets into the wrong hands we’re all doomed right?” You put your hands on your hips as you watch the elevator doors slide open, growing more and more aware of why Namjoon had specifically warned you to not take his shit.  

“Look sweetie, does it look like that hasn’t happened before?”

You scoff, shaking your head. “Namjoon did say you were a sassy one.” You comment with a sigh.

Jungkook makes a pretend offended face. “Is that what he says about me behind my back?”

“Like you’re actually surprised.” You roll your eyes.

“You’re right. I’m not.”

You had to admit that Jeon Jungkook’s lab is the sort of high-tech haven that puts sci-fi movies to shame. The walls are smooth, metallic, and undoubtedly bulletproof. His waist-high table that projects 3D holographic images of his latest designs is located at the center of the large, relatively empty space, but you know that with just a few simple commands or the press of some random buttons, things will just start popping out from the walls or surface from below the flooring.

There were also prototypes of his old suits that have been battle worn, the same red and gold coating that you’ve seen on the news when he was flying through the air at sonic speed, fighting off nefarious villains with the rest of the Avengers, or captured on video by onlookers and posted online to garner views.

“I know everything looks super cool, but don’t touch anything unless I tell you to.” Jungkook informs, not so subtly treating you like some untrained child.

“Oh don’t worry about me, I would never want to mess up your precious batcave.”

Jungkook whips his head around and narrows his eyes. “Who do you think I am? Batman? This is my personal laboratory where I perfect the newest technology for Iron Man.”

You shrug. “Same thing.”

Jungkook opens his mouth to retort, but decides against it last minute. You can practically feel him trying to contain his annoyance, but Namjoon had told you not to let his ego get too big, so sorry not sorry.  

He presses a few buttons on the main control and an entire display of different Iron Man suits opens from the far wall. Your eyes are immediately drawn to the varying designs, some looking more intimidating than others either because of their dark color scheme or the machine gun-like contraptions attached to the backside. You unquestionably still preferred the original red and gold one, the piece located at the center of the display for obvious reasons.

Jungkook follows as you slowly approach the glass barrier separating you from actually coming into direct contact with the suits on display. He was watching you closely, expecting you to be in complete awe of the famous metal armor that is currently regarded as the most powerful weapon in the world.  

“Impressive right?” You hear Jungkook voice nonchalantly, making you realize you’ve been silent for too long.

“It’s essentially a gold-titanium alloy exoskeleton powered from the electricity generated by that pacer-sized nuclear reactor.” You state, examining the efficiently designed-but far from flawless (in your opinion), chunk of metal encased in the display. “There are a lot of things that can be improved about it.”

Jungkook clears his throat at your blunt and composed response. “I’m not going to deny the accuracy of that description,” Pause. “but I prefer to call it a suit of armor.”

“It’s sleek and aesthetically pleasing, I’ll give you that one.” You add.

“You do realize that it would take 20 engineers several years to build one of these, when I just happened to whip one up in a matter of days, right?” Jungkook smirks, leaning back against his desk with his arms crossed, eyes still trained on you.

You nod, as if you were agreeing with his boastful statement. “Yes, you and your 3-4 AI-enabled robots who process information hundreds of times faster than the human brain. In other words, you and 3-400 other people made a metal suit that flies and shoots lasers in the time it takes for the rest of us to learn the Korean alphabet. Very impressive indeed.”

Jungkook is not one to get angry over people who aren’t blown away by his unparalleled work, but you were definitely a first. Like who isn’t impressed with the suit?! It’s red and gold for crying out loud! And what was that about flying and shooting lasers? How on earth is that not just beyond amazing?

And if he is annoyed or incredulous at this point, Jungkook doesn’t let any of the signs leak out, because 1.) He’s Jeon Jungkook and 2.) He’s Iron Man.

“So as for improvements for the suit, I have some ideas that might be worth considering.” You announce, as you played around with the holographic images projected in mid-air.

“Yeah, me too. I was contemplating putting my initials on my chest, you know, like that star Captain America has.” Jungkook retorts, grabbing his wristband and suiting up. “I’m kind of tired of the whole glowy circle ordeal.”

You ignore his blunt joke. “I’m thinking of adding a feature like instantaneous suit ups or something” You suggest, watching as the pieces of metal fly towards him and begin unraveling in synchronized order to conform to the shape of his body with the press of a button on his wristband. “Sometimes you’re suit ups look like they take too much time, what if-”

“I’m also thinking we can try out black and silver paint to see how it compares to red and gold or adding some… glitter.” Jungkook interrupts before you can finish. You watch in frustration as he stretches out his arms to admire his handiwork and looks down at his feet like he’s just bought a new pair of shoes or something.

“Can you stop joking for one hot second?” You snap, irritated by his childish attitude towards you.  

“What? I’m just getting the priorities straight.” Jungkook says, voice muffled by the suit helmet. Even through the metallic mask you can picture the smug look on his face.

You weren’t planning on being any harsher on him than you already were, but this guy clearly isn’t planning on giving you a break any time soon, is he?

“Are you afraid I’m going to steal your secrets or are you afraid I’m going to see past your genius if you show me all your cards?” You declare outright, finally done with his games.  

Jungkook swallows, glad for once that the metal helmet was hiding the shocked expression broadcasted on his face. He wasn’t expecting you to hit a target so close to the reason he was being so immature. Yes, he was maybe worried that you’ll see past his immodest façade and challenge his intelligence if he didn’t beat around the bush, but Jungkook was confident enough in his own abilities that it wouldn’t be the main reason he was avoiding getting to the real meat of the problem. He’s never had an actual human as a personal assistant, let alone a woman, and he feels like he was thrown a curve ball because he has most certainly never met someone this hard to impress.

“Fine.” Jungkook huffs. “You want to cut to chase? We’ll cut to the chase then.”

You’re relieved to have won the first battle, having made it clear to him that your not just here to gape at his self-proclaimed “awesomeness”. True as it may be, he still needs to come down from his high horse once in a while, and that’s exactly what Namjoon expects you to do as his assistant.

 …

 You spend the next few days analyzing and tweaking virtual mock-ups of upgraded suit parts or in Jungkook’s own words: “Iron Man 2.0”.  

He hasn’t necessarily gotten better about the cocky attitude and obvious air of superiority, but he had at least started taking you quasi-seriously. He had been kind enough to give you some actual work to do, granted it was mostly “innovative brainstorming” of ideas he may or may not use, but baby steps, right? You also figure he’s not going to be too keen on giving you the low down on key information, stuff that would risk putting Iron Man’s clandestine technology at stake in the event that you quite or get captured.

At the moment Jungkook himself was playing around with more suit parts, going through virtual simulations of how he could improve shooting accuracy and motion dynamics. Stationed at the new desk next to his work table, you’re permitted to watch him work his magic from the best angle available, and although it was probably all part of Jungkook’s plan to show off, you still had to admit he looked pretty attractive when he was hard at work, expertly manipulating mechanical parts and designing intricate electrical circuitry. The way he furrows his brows as he scrutinizes the virtual projection hovering mid air and elegantly twirls his fingers as he manipulates the images at light speed, was, simply stated- mesmerizing.  

“Where are we going?” You query as you rush after Jungkook who suddenly asked you to go with him on a “test flight”. You had never been asked to participate in an activity outside of your work with him in his laboratory, so you didn’t really know what to expect, especially not when it involved flying.

“Outside.” Jungkook leads you out to his perfectly groomed lawn, a leveled patch of green surrounding his cliff-side mansion, analogous to a backyard of sorts.

It was midday, and the sun was hanging high in the cerulean sky, warm rays shinning blindingly down on the grassy estate. You take in a breath of fresh air as a gentle breeze blows by, lifting strands of your hair and carrying over the scent of nature and wildlife. The weather was mildly warm, perfect for outdoor activities, although most people didn’t have the luxury of doing what you were about to embark on now.

“You’re going to perform a test outside?”

“Do you need me to state everything explicitly?”

You roll your eyes. “I’m just worried that someone might be…I dunno, watching? Waiting to steal your technology?”

“I own this entire area. There’s literally no one around.” Jungkook says showing maybe just that tiny hint of mild exasperation because he wrongly assumed once again that you’d at least be excited because he’s totally given up on impressing you at this point.

He presses a few buttons on his wristband and waits as the metal pieces of his Iron Man suit immediately fly over.  

“But even governments of entire countries are careful about the leakage of classified technology when doing weapons testing, and your Iron Man suit is the most powerful weapon on the face of the planet. Would it kill you to be more discreet about it?” 

“Just grab on.”

“So much for getting a chance to say goodbye to my family and friends.” You mutter as you climb onto his back.  

Jungkook has time to let out one more long sigh before the mask plate latches on to the helmet and covers his face.

As much as you’ve been too put off by his ego to be amazed so far, you can’t hide how exhilarating it is to fly with Iron Man. It was like living your childhood dream of being a dragon rider but a million times better because it was actually real, and you’d think that being suspended thousands of feet in the air would be terrifying to say the least, but something about knowing Jungkook’s reliability and industrial precision in combination with his heroic duty as Iron Man was enough to provide the utmost assurance that he would not let you fall.  

You momentarily forget to take note that this “flight test” isn’t actually a flight test but rather Jungkook’s personal break from work, because 1.) It was quite obvious that he would never fly this slowly in any serious situation and 2.) He wouldn’t have you on his back if he was actually trying to fine-tune advanced flight dynamics. So instead, you choose to focus on the way the rush of wind feels brushing past your flushed cheeks and how wispy the fluffy white clouds look close up, resembling a dream-like space illuminated by blinding sunlight and cast with chromatic strips of misty veils. As Jungkook adjusted the flight elevation to glide below the clouds, the beauty of the vast landscape below, extending endlessly for miles in each direction gradually comes into view. It was better than any picturesque scene you could witness from mountain tops on a clear day or the observation deck of some of the tallest skyscrapers in world, because everything was in motion and soaring past your senses like a live-action movie.

“I know, I know, the aerodynamics of the joint areas need fixing, the stability needs a bit of adjusting, and the rocket propellers could theoretically be more environmental friendly.” He sighs, waiting for you to nitpick at the flight functions as the suit peels off his body and folds back into inconspicuous metals chunks when he lands back down at the mansion.

“That… was incredible.” You murmur, still calming down from the adrenaline rush.  

“Really?” A surprised look appears on Jungkook’s face just before it vanishes instantly. “I mean, yeah of course, not everyone can say they’ve flown with Iron Man, except weapons of mass destruction from other worlds that have been tossed through dimensional portals and whatnot.”

 …

  “So how has the upgrade been going?” Namjoon asks as he sits across from Jungkook at the dining table, waiting for the food to be served by the humanoid robot maid.

The dining room was a part of the house that was cantilevered into the surrounding environment; an open space connected the area to the living room where his grand piano was situated on a stage-area in the rounded corner. The contemporary color scheme for the walls and flooring was both simplistic and sophisticated, with the entire back wall made of glass, granting a bird’s eye view of the nocturnal skyline of Seoul not too far in the distance.

The sun had already set by the time the two of you finished up in lab after the impromptu flight break, and you had gone back upstairs to freshen up before dinner.  

“It’s going.” He responds, playing around with the fork while his hand rested against the table.

Jungkook is not one to admit he’s been challenged by another person, let alone, impressed by someone else’s idea, especially not when it came to the suit, but you had him questioning a lot of his past designs and suggested some very good improvements that he may or may not be deliberately choosing to ignore for the sake of his ego.

“Care to go in depth?”

“Flight adjustments.”

“You took her on a flight?” The older male raises his eyebrow, a half grin stretching on his lips. 

Jungkook opens his mouth to answer, but sees you walk into the room and silently seat yourself next to Namjoon. You hadn’t heard what they were discussing, but you did think it was strange that they stopped talking upon your entrance.

“I’ll just give you two some privacy.” Namjoon says before standing up and walking out.

“He’s not eating?” You twist your head towards the direction Namjoon had exited.

“Mr. Kim is going to have dinner with his family in Seoul.”

“Mr. Kim? Don’t you just mean Namjoon?” You raise an eyebrow, wondering why he’s acting so weird all of a sudden.

“Yes.” Jungkook quickly blurts, clearly looking mildly uncomfortable, nervous even, if you had to pinpoint the exact way he avoids direct eye contact and purses his lips.

 Dinner, as usual, is a relatively silent one. You don’t know if this is the right time to strike up a conversation and you’re not sure if you even have the right to get more personal with Jungkook, but it seemed rude to not even engage in small talk. The entire place was silent except the occasional sound of metal cutlery against porcelain, and you can’t help but imagine what it’s like to live here alone, to be the hero of the world and yet have no one to share your burdens with.

“So are you and the rest of the Avengers like super close?” The question lingers in the room for an unnaturally long period of time as Jungkook finishes chewing his mouthful of steak.

“You act like we’re some super secret boy band or something.”

“I’ll take that as a no.”

“We work together, and that’s about as close as it gets.”  

You mull over his standoffish response, reasoning that there probably isn’t that much to say about the group of superheroes he’s a part of other than the fact that they aggregate when the need arises and whatnot. They don’t really have much in common, especially since one of their members is demi-god and another was born back during WWII. You suspect that there must exist some belief disputes and value discrepancies akin to cultural barriers or generation gaps, but of course, that doesn’t take away from just looking super cool when they all jump into action.  

“Do you ever get scared?”

“With every villain out there trying to wipe me off the face of this planet?” Jungkook continues cutting his steak, running through all the answers he’s given to the media, his fans, other acquaintances, and trying to come up with a textbook Iron Man response. “Not really.”

“I mean, of failure and letting those who rely on you down.”

There you go again, hitting targets like some female version of Hawkeye.

Jungkook doesn’t know how to respond. His preliminary reaction is to repeat what he just said-“not really, no”; shrugging it off like the answer to that question didn’t matter. And truthfully, he wishes it were true, that he isn’t afraid of anything because he’s freaking Iron Man, and he’s supposed to be practically invincible. He should be used to the expectations, and he’s more than familiar with performance goals and guaranteed success. Ever since he was young and his father didn’t allow for screw-ups or showing signs of weakness. But Jungkook doesn’t know why he can’t get himself to lie to you, not when your eyes are so round and glassy under the chandelier, and you seem to be the first person to care more about his flaws than his accomplishments.  

Maybe he just thought you were beautiful the moment he laid his eyes on you and maybe your mind was the type of logical eccentric-ness that he could get used to having around because it was somehow a complementary match for his own. As unexpected as it was initially, Jungkook thinks he can learn to appreciate how you don’t just drool over every little thing he does or sit back and take his shit for that matter. And maybe, just maybe, all of this makes him feel like he doesn’t have to put on a mask of perfection all the time, and that you could conceivably accept his vulnerable side too.

“Yeah, I worry about that sometimes.” He murmurs.

 …

 Jeon Jungkook’s greatest invention to date-besides the suit of course, is that glowing ring of regenerating atoms that powers said 900 Newtons of armor. You had learned from Namjoon that the first prototype of the famous device was developed in a cave (with a box of scraps), back when he and Jungkook were captured by a band of terrorists in the Middle East. It was essentially a multi-isotope radioactive decay cell that mashed two isotopes of hydrogen together, aka a ring of charged particles moving within a magnetic field fast enough to allow for high-energy collisions. The impossibly compact device supposedly releases enough energy to power large cities for millennia but was destroyed in some epic battle last year.

Since then Jungkook has invented a new means of powering his suits, one that entailed the creation of a new element, which you couldn’t even begin to fathom how but decide against questioning the legitimacy of such a feat after he shows you the nth permutation of the substance in a vial. You vaguely remember reading about it in an article online at the time he announced it to the world, a new discovery that erupted as breaking news in the scientific community and sparked countless debates between chemists and physicists around the globe, but the details of such an invention were understandably not released to the public, leaving nothing but assumption-based speculation about its exact molecular make up.

“The ultimate goal is size reduction.” Jungkook’s voice echoes through the lab as you trail not too far behind the tall man.

“It’s already hamburger-sized, wouldn’t it be dangerous, if not impossible, to condense that sort of fusion reaction any more than it already is?”

Jungkook chuckles as if your concern was completely ungrounded. “What’s the worse that could happen?”

“It might, I dunno… blow up.”

“It won’t blow up.” He looks at you with a bored expression before proceeding to turn the machine on.

He’s still trying to figure out how to get you to have some faith in him, and as hard as it is to admit, it honestly isn’t even about his ego anymore. He just wants you to know that he knows what he’s doing and that there are some things out there, or more accurately quite a few, that you can rely on him to handle. Like saving the world, protecting you from harm, and not blowing up his own house.

Even with his nonchalant attitude, your skepticism persisted, or maybe it was precisely because he was acting so blasé about the whole thing that fueled your concern evermore and elicited such a perpetual chariness for everything he did. Although you haven’t actually seen him mess up big time in the period you’ve been working with him, you’re not too keen on the way he runs risks like they’re unworthy of precaution or the way he lets his confidence dictate the statistical probability that something could go wrong. You also haven’t personally witnessed any of the heroic deeds he’s done in the past first hand, but from the looks of what’s usually broadcasted in the news, he’s run into his fair share of mishaps.

It was only a couple hours into the day when the unthinkable-or perhaps it’s rather predictable-happens, and you can’t say that you haven’t weighed out the risks of working alongside Iron Man before taking the job, but you also thought you’d at least be given a heads up when trouble decides to pay you a surprise visit. But no, that’s definitely not how things work around here. Just as you were about to examine the old prototypes to make a list of all the upgrades that have yet to be implemented, you feel the room begin to rumble, the metal pieces on the table commence vibrating like you were in a airplane flying through a rough patch of turbulence.

“What the hell is that?” Jungkook mutters, looking around the room in confusion.

Your eyes immediately dart towards the reactor, its beams still glowing brightly in the glass casing connected to the machine.

“So much for it won’t blow up,” You grumble as Jungkook tsks in annoyance.

“Stay here” He shouts as he rushes over to turn the machine off, looking around frantically to identify the cause of the quaking floor but to no avail.  

“Shit” You curse as you hear an explosion from above, eyes widening as panic ensues.  

“Oh boy” Jungkook voices as he dashes to grab his wristband control for his Iron Man suit.

“It’s not coming from the reactor.” You shout, eyes popping and jaw dropping as you stared at fragments of the ceiling cracking and falling in chunks of rock and dirt.  

“What a surprise” Jungkook retorts back as the roof begins collapsing.

“What’s happening?” You scream, coughing violently as your lungs begin to close off due to the plume of debris from the falling building thickening the air. There was another loud boom, shaking the entire room and making you fall to your knees as the ground started to tilt like a seesaw.

“Jungkook!” You shriek again in mid-cough after he doesn’t respond and bits of rubble continued to rain down from the demolished ceiling. You lift your arms to cover your head, curling up into a fetal position as if that would protect you from the dropping hunks of metal and concrete.

“Don’t worry, I’ve got this.” His voice assures, cutting through the static flittering of torn electrical wires from his damaged machines. “Though, I’m still offended that you actually thought I would make such a novice mistake with the reactor.” He shakes his head, disappointed at your lack of trust in him. This was unmistakably an enemy attack, as indicated by the bombs being dropped from some aircraft carrier in the sky.

“Jungkook!” You scream again as another explosion detonates from the left.

“Here catch!” You hear his voice layer over the loud blast and a familiar item slide towards your feet. His wristband suit control. You quickly reach over to grab it, squeezing your eyes shut as the suit begins to cover your body, shielding you from the rapidly disintegrating walls and unrelenting eruptions.

You couldn’t see anything, and your eyes dart around the smoke, mind racing to find where Jungkook is, praying that he’s also protected by another one of his Iron Man suits and unharmed. But to your dismay, he’s not. You spot his unconscious body lying beneath a collapse slab of concrete, blood running from his temple. Fuck. Why didn’t he use the armor himself? Why did he toss it to you before he could shield himself? Is he insane? Just as you make a move towards him, you feel a force sucking you up. It was like you were unable to move, having no control over whatever was dragging you up in the air. The ground was getting further and further away as you ascended in the suit by some outside force not within your control. The upward motion stops at the loud clanking of metal against metal, leaving you suspended above the collapsing mansion. You watch in horror as the entire building begins to breakdown, crumbling down the mountain like an avalanche.

No.

Jungkook.

“Jungkook!!!!” Your scream, but none of it can be heard.

This was bad. Very, very bad.

 …

 There is no way this is actually happening.

You continue to chant the words under your breath, pinching your eyes shut and attempting to wake up from this nightmare.

Lucid dream. It’s just a lucid dream.

It’s the thought that’s stubbornly plastered to the front of your mind, like that white lie you tell yourself in order to stall having to face the impending doom head on, to stall having to watch the disintegration of the last bit of dwindling optimism with open eyes, and to ignore having to acknowledge the wreckage that has already manifested. It’s the only thing that keeps you from sinking into a panic-driven attack, providing a delusional façade to conceal the reality that there’s a possibility that Jungkook might’ve just died and you might just be reaching the cusp of the end of the world. His death is the one thing you don’t want to think about because that would just leave this entire situation void of any hope, any silver lining, but that image of the mansion folding in on itself and tumbling down the mountain is tattooed to the back of your eyes and it won’t go away.

No, this can’t be real. He couldn’t have just died so easily. He was Iron Man.

Repeating the words don’t help at all, not when you’re currently stuck to some massive lump of metal alloy, unable to move, unable to escape. From the looks of it, you were being flown to the North Korean border. You should’ve known some secret organization from there was behind this sneak attack. They had been trying to steel military technology for years now; it was only a matter of time before Iron Man became their next target.

And now, you find yourself in some empty warehouse, stuck on what you suspect to be a giant magnet-the very one that they captured you with and had brought over on their aircraft carrier. It was dark, and the only light source was the subdued daylight filtering through the dusty windows lined on the longitudinal walls. There was a group of men with machine guns surrounding you, and a leader in the center staring intently at you as if he were waiting for you to take the metal helmet off. Well, that wasn’t happening anytime soon. You barely knew how to walk in the suit, let alone work its controls.

“You can go if you hand over the suit.” The leader of the masked men declares, scrutinizing your movements carefully, not that you could even move at this point.

“Hell no.” You spit back, letting them know there was no way they were getting the suit, especially not when the safety of the world was on the line. “Over my dead body.”

You notice the widening of his eyes at the sound of your voice. “Iron Man is a woman?” His is undoubtedly surprised by the unexpected higher pitch.

“I’m not Iron Man.” You snap back, mind racing with thoughts on what to do. There’s no way you can get out of this place without taking the suit off, but would they actually let you go if you surrendered? They’re probably lying, tricking you to give up the suit. You’ve heard of people who have been captured by the North, being tortured to death with the most brutal of techniques, and it was safe to say, you’ve never heard of anyone making it out alive.

“Well if you’re not coming out, we’ll just wait until you die in there then.” He chortles. He turns and signals for the rest of his men to leave with him when a voice from the entrance interrupts.

“Yoo-hoo! I don’t mean to intrude, but Iron Man is over here.” You hear a familiar voice reverberate throughout the warehouse.

Jungkook

“You might want to work on your front line of defense. You know, for future reference.” The relief that washes over you that instant you see him in the classic red and gold suit of armor is like none you’ve ever experienced before, because it just confirmed that Jungkook was alive and he’s come to save you as Iron Man.  

“You?” The leader sneers.

“Yeah, so let her go.” Jungkook’s voice is stern and demanding, but without responding to his request, the masked leader orders his henchmen to begin shooting at Jungkook immediately.

The sound of bullets hitting metal echoes through the warehouse, ricocheting off the walls and ringing in everyone’s ears, a vibration so cacophonous that the men stop shooting to cover their ears. After the gunpowder clears, it’s obvious that his suit remained unscathed, red and gold paint still smooth and glossy, shining like a newly waxed car under the sunlight.  

“What part of bulletproof is hard to understand?” Jungkook comments, still standing tall and un-phased after the series of gunshots that were cast as him.

“You can take the girl in exchange for the suit.” The masked leader growls, acting like he was still in full control of the situation. Could this guy be any denser?

Jungkook only chuckles to that sorry ass of a threat. “In any other scenario I might’ve taken you up of that offer, but you’re not really in the position to bribe me right now are you?”

“Have you lost your ability to attract women? Why is this one so special to you?” The man inquires-a feeble attempt at trying to get into Jungkook’s head-as the rest of his men keep their guns pointed towards him.

“Wow, you guys watch our news too?” Jungkook cocks his head to the left, helmet making a metallic squeak. He was practically in the news everyday back during his playboy days. 

“We monitor our enemies.”

“I don’t want to toot my own horn-aw who am I kidding? I’ll have you know, I’ve never once had trouble pleasuring myself, thank you very much.”

“Enough of the chit-chat, so what’s it going to be Jeon? The woman or your precious suit?” He was getting irritated now, as evident through his brash mandate and raised voice. 

Jungkook sighs, loud enough to hear through the helmet. “And to think I actually thought this would turn out to be more interesting.”

Shaking his head, he fires a series of miniature missile from his shoulder pads straight into the barrels of their guns, making them all explode in their faces, knocking the group of men out without even breaking a sweat.

“Come on, let’s get out of here,” He says, running over to you and waiting for you to come down from where you were levitated. “Well? What are you waiting for?”  

“In case you haven’t noticed, I’m kind of stuck to the magnet.”

“Use electromagnetic interference.” He instructs.

“What?”

“Again, the disappointment.” Jungkook sighs again. “Y/N, do you seriously think I haven’t already solved the magnet problem? The suit is equipped with multiple electromagnet generators that allows for the manipulation of the surrounding electromagnet field. It’s strong enough to redirect ferrous projectiles in flight. No? Doesn’t even sound remotely like something I would’ve thought of?” He shakes his head; the damaged pride from you looking down upon his genius is practically seeping out of the suit at this point.

You on the other hand, sense your face heating up, almost feeling the need to apologize for your own incompetence. Of course this whole “stuck on the giant magnet” issue was a matter of you not actually knowing how to use the suit and not Jungkook’s elementary mistake or his overlooking of an essential function.

“It’s this button near the chest.” He reaches over and presses it, and the minute it’s activated you fall off the metal wall and land back on the ground.

“T-thanks”

“No problem. All in the days work of Iron Man.” He shrugs, trying to make you feel better about everything that’s happened. You smile even though you're fully aware he can’t see it anyways.

 The two of you begin walking out of the warehouse in hopes of finding a spot where you could fly back to Seoul unnoticed. You walk beside him, almost forgetting about the tragic events that occurred prior to him coming to the rescue and asking about how he managed to escape because you were so caught up in replaying that moment he showed up just in the nick of time to rescue you. You were still pretty unaccustomed to moving in the suit, and it wasn’t too surprising when you accidentally swing your arm and punch Jungkook in the side whilst lost in your dreamy thoughts like some teenage girl who just got asked out by her crush. Such an act normally wouldn’t cause a reaction from him at all, but he suddenly hunches over and grunts in agony.

“Oh my god, you’re still hurt aren’t you?” You gasp, snapping awake and remembering he was still trapped in the collapsing building the last time you saw him.

“Eh, I’ve been through worse.” His metal masks opens up and you can see he’s sweating profusely, whether it was due to the pain or if his wounds have become infected, you don’t know.”

“Jungkook, you’re hurt!”

“Hey, at least I managed to save you. I’d call that a win.”

You feel your eyes swelling with tears triggered by a chaotic mixture of panic, concern, and gratitude.

“Stay with me, Jungkook, you can’t lose consciousness.”

“I think I need a short nap.” 

“No! You’re Jeon Jungkook” You look at him in desperation. “Genius, billionaire, philanthropist, playboy-

“International playboy” Jungkook corrects, before letting out another groan of pain as he tries to lift an arm to caress your helmet covered face.

“Whatever, the point is, you’re Iron Man, one of the coolest superheroes in existence. You can’t give up. The world needs you. I need you.”  

A weak smile forms on Jungkook’s face before his eyelids begin to droop.  

“I’ll take that as a yes to the date I’m about to ask you on.”

It was obviously not the place to be talking about such things, but Jeon Jungkook wouldn’t be Jeon Jungkook if he weren’t being sassy in even the most traumatizing of situations. You smile and let out a sniffle-laced laugh as more tears run down your cheeks.  

 …

 “He’ll be fine in no time.” Namjoon says as he brings you a cup of water. “He’s recovered from injuries ten times worse than this.” He reassures, patting your shoulder as you remained seated next to an unconscious Jungkook lying on his bed.

With the destruction of his luxurious mansion, you had to temporarily stay at the penthouse of Jeon Tower, the tallest high-rise building in Seoul owned by none other than Jeon Jungkook. Luckily he had stayed conscious long enough to fly the both of you back to the city because you had no idea what the plan was after taking down that band of North Korean infiltrators. Namjoon had been waiting at the top of the building, making sure he had a doctor on call to tend to Jungkook’s wounds. They weren’t severe as stated by his personal doctor, Dr. Park, a young medical practitioner who specializes in cardiac surgery, just some cuts and minor internal bleeding.

You had stayed around to take care of Jungkook while he was bedridden for a couple of days. His vegetative state was concerning, but you trusted Dr. Park and Namjoon’s instincts, after all they were used to this stuff happening more often than not. You’ve been keeping yourself awake for the most part, sleeping only when your eyes could not stay open, but never leaving the Jungkook’s side. You technically owe him your life, so it was the least you could do. You allow your eyes to gloss over his features, never having seen him so calm and at peace. His lips were slightly parted as he remained in a deep, unadulterated slumber, feathery bangs resting gently on his forehead. You don’t restrain yourself from tentatively reaching over and cupping his cheek, admiring how such a youthful person can carry the burden of being the unstoppable hero that is Iron Man.  

Jungkook’s eyes flutter slightly as your hand comes into contact with his face, slowly opening and adjusting to the diaphanous light cascading through the open window. His pupils dart around lazily, trying to analyze the situation as his mind gradually returned to reality.

“Hey” He whispers when he sees you by his bedside.

“Oh you’re awake, thank god.” You let out a breath of relief.

“Sounds like I was out for a while.”

“To the point where I thought you wouldn’t wake up.”

He smiles at the way you gaze at him endearingly, sluggish eyes slowly gaining that usual spark you were so used to seeing.

“And miss seeing your beautiful face? No way.”

You roll your eyes. “Your net worth is $12 Billion USD, why did you choose to save me over yourself? Doesn’t seem like a smart move on Iron Man’s part.”

“Half of me wants to say it was just my superhero side kicking in.” He admits, grunting as he tries to move into a sitting position.

“Superheroes don’t spring into action without their suits.” You state, standing up right away and supporting him up.

“Call it instinct, but I-I guess I just didn’t know what I would do if something were to happen to you.” His voice comes out as a whisper, but his statement hits you directly in the heart.

 …

 With you tending to his wounds for the next few days, Jungkook’s recovery happens a lot quicker than either Dr. Park or Namjoon had predicted. You had disinfected all of his cuts on a regular basis, prepared his medication as instructed, and aided him in his daily activities for well over a week now, but it was on one particular night when you thought he had fully recovered that you allowed yourself to let your guard down, which you were soon led to believe might’ve been a mistake.

You hear a groan of pain emanate from the next room over, and without a second thought, you rush over to the bedroom to find a naked Jungkook. Upon seeing his bare back, you immediately turn around, face nearly exploding from the heat rush.

“I-I thought it was your injury.” You stutter, heart beating a mile a minute.

“Nah, I just stubbed my toe as I was trying to take off my pants.” He responds, acting like you didn’t just bust in on him when he was literally butt naked, like no underwear or anything, not that you actually took note.

There’s a moment of silence, one in which your nerves continue to grow because Jungkook had stopped talking and you don’t know why you feel like you’re physically rooted to the spot because you should’ve exited the room by now and Jungkook was probably just waiting for you to leave.

“O-Oh, ok I’ll just go then!” You declare quickly before taking a step forward. But just as you were about to sprint out of the room, you feel an arm grab onto you and flip you around to face him.

He was still naked.

Your eyes immediately squeeze shut and if your heart was beating a mile a minute before, it feels like it’s traveling faster than the speed of light now. What the fuck is he doing? You think, still holding your breath as if you were submerged underwater.

You hear him chuckle lightly.

“Am I finally making you nervous?” His voice is low and seductive, albeit not without that playful hint that it’s always laced with. 

“N-no” You lie, eyes still shut as tightly as you can manage.

“Then are you going to open your eyes anytime soon?”

You mentally scold yourself for acting so childish at seeing a naked man. It’s not like you’ve never seen one before. Doctors and medical students do it all the time, why are you acting like the human body is some forbidden fruit that you’re not allowed to eat?

You take one last long breath and slowly open your eyes. His face is only half a foot away from yours and all you can seem to do is get lost in his huge doe-eyes- dark speckled orbs more ethereal than the view of the cosmic scenery from atop the clouds-making you momentarily forget the actual situation you were in.

“Like what you see?” He whispers, warm breath sweeping against your bare neck as you swallow. 

You feel a rush of tingling need crawl up your spine, heat swelling toward your extremities from your pulsating center.

“Is this how Mr. International Playboy seduces women?”

He huffs a shortened laugh and looks down at the floor before raising his head and peering at you with a mischievous expression. “Only you.” 

He waits for that discernable hint of opposition to taint your eyes, to perhaps be laced in your features, but receives none because all the signs you were showing now-the subtle lip biting, the lustful glint in your irises, the slightly trembling legs-are conveying that you want him-badly, and before you know it, his hands are cupping your face and his luscious lips are crashing against yours.

You feel his hands meander down your body, groping and massaging your flesh as he continues to deepen the kiss, inhaling every bit of you like he’s been waiting for this for an eternity. The instant his hands come to rest at your waist, you wrap your arms around his neck, closing the distance between your clothed chest and his bare body. He lifts you off the ground and you straddle him as he carries you over to his perfectly made king-sized bed. With only the thin, lightweight fabric of your cotton shorts separating your center from his gradually hardening cock, you can’t help but embrace the growing need flooding your core while Jungkook’s lips remain connected to yours, moving in slow but sensual motions.

He breaks away momentarily as he lays you down on your back, the coolness of his silken bed sheets shocking your heated nerves in waves of rushing tides.

“I need to confirm that this is something you want.” Jungkook says, voice reverting back to his businessman tone. “Verbal consent.”

You soak in the anticipation encasing his visage as he awaits your response with a kind of patience and formality that only Jeon Jungkook and Iron Man can whip out at a moment like this.

“And if I don’t give it?” You quirk an eyebrow, teasing him to see how he would react.

“Then it stops here.”

“Jungkook, wait” You snatch onto his arm before he can leave. “I want you to fuck me.”

A smirk stretches across his lips. “You take joy in driving me insane don’t you?” He exhales, before diving back into kissing you, hungrily suckling onto your lips as he slowly slips his arm under your shorts.

“I can say the same about you.” You gasp, between his twirling tongue and dancing fingers.

“Oh, but correction. I’m not going to fuck you.” He says in his composed, explaining-a-scientific-theory voice, pausing yet again and making you groan at the lack of stimulation. “I’m going to make love to you.”

You roll your eyes, but you’d be lying if you his statement wasn’t endearing in its own quirky way.

“Please” You beg, hoping he stops randomly pausing just to prove that his logic is superior.  

You barely catch that mysterious twinkle in his eyes before he’s down on his knees, positioning his head between your legs as he tugs your shorts down, exposing the soft flesh that is already moistened by your juices.

“And so marks the end of you not being impressed by Iron Man” He says, gradually working his way to your opening, leaving a trail of pecks leading up to the fleshy folds. He tentatively teases the flabs, tongue gliding over the entrance making you jolt from the sudden stimulus. He alternates between sucking on your clitoris and eating you out with care, like a man on a mission because you are unlike any other woman he’s tasted before and he wants nothing more than to pleasure you and only you.

You spread your legs wider for him, feeling a flame being lit in the pit of your stomach as he continues to suckle at your already throbbing core. The sound of your emitted moans are driving his senses crazy and prompting him to delve deeper into your opening with his tongue. You know you won’t be able to hold on much longer, and Jungkook senses it too as you arch your back and squirm under his steady grip on both of your thighs.

“C-Come up, I want to ride you.” You manage to voice, sitting up as Jungkook rises from off the ground upon your command.

“Someone’s feisty,” He comments with a smirk before laying flat on the bed, his arousal evident by the precum already dripping down his shaft.  

You cautiously position yourself on top of Jungkook, straddling his waist as you tug your shirt off, unclasping your bra and throwing it off to the side. You closely observe the way his eyes trace down your neck and widen as they land on your exposed breasts. He swallows, chest rising and falling but otherwise remaining motionless as he watches unblinkingly at your every move. You see his Adam’s apple bobble up and down as you lift your body to angle yourself against him, aligning your opening with his cock, and using your fingers to separate your already drenched folds before slowly sinking down on his erection centimeter by centimeter, pausing now and then to adjust to his girth. You let out a series of whimpers as you feel your walls being stretched to their limit, expanding to make room for him as you lowered yourself hilt deep.  

Jungkook lets out a guttural moan once he is completely inside of you. He’s never been in such a compromising position, always preferring to be the one in control, whether he was facing an enemy or fucking some slut to oblivion back in his reckless playboy days, but with you it was different. He took pleasure in the way you rode him, the look on your face as you bit down on your bottom lip, eyes pinched shut as you tried to stall coming entirely undone just to make the moment last.

“That’s it baby-mm, keep going.” He asserts, throwing his head back as you rocked your hips against him.

You keep your hands pressed against his bare chest, stabilizing yourself as you moved your lower half. It wasn’t long before you felt yourself nearing the brink.

“Fuck, J-JungkookI- I-” With your movements staggering as you feel the approach of your oncoming orgasm, Jungkook decides to take matters into his own hands just before your release. He sits up and flips you on your back; your legs still wrapped around his lower half.

“Allow me” He hums, leaning down and pulling you back into a kiss as he begins to thrust in and out of your opening, one arm reaching down and rubbing circles against your clit.

He pumps in and out, smooth and practiced, an art form perfected from past experience and yet something tells you he’s never made love to a woman quite like this before. Maybe it was the way he maintained a stable line of eye contact as he caressed your cheek with his free hand, like he was searching for some answer within your soul that confirmed you were the one and he’s finally found the only person who has the ability to keep him grounded, even when he soaring above the clouds. That person he’s been waiting for whose concern for him is not tied to his duty to protect the planet or dependent upon his continual success in everything he’s expected to excel in. The sincerity in your faint smile and the tender speckles of solace reflected in your irises are more than enough to convey to him that you are, indeed, that person.

You make it an undertaking to memorize every last aspect of this long awaited moment, tracing down his beautiful features as he stared longingly and lovingly into your eyes. You take notice of how he’s trying to calm his breathing and the way he’s keeping his upper body stable just so he can direct his attention towards you, an unspoken validation that you were the only thing that mattered right then and there. The look of concentration and pure focus molding every inch of his face is comparable to the way he looks when he’s designing world changing technology, and it makes you feel extraordinarily special, just like his unmatched suit of armor. The moonlight continues to spill through the large glass walls casting shadows across the room and delivering reminders of the lively city a hundreds floors below. With the pressure growing at an exponential pace, you know you’re close to brink and the falter in Jungkook’s steady breathing gives an indication that he is too.

“F-ffuck” Jungkook moans as he feels your walls clench around him, making him wince and sink his own teeth down on his lower lip as he’s dragged to the edge.

“J-Jungkook, I-I’m-”

You both release at the same time, highs reaching their end in a hot euphoric drowning out of all senses, making the room spin, and leaving both parties desperately gasping for air. All you can feel is the pleasure coursing through every nook and cranny of your being, and the weight of Jungkook’s body falling on top of yours as he continues to whisper your name in between his ragged panting.

“God, I am so in love with you.” He says as he rolls off of you and onto his back, but not without turning back and cradling you in his strong embrace.

“I love you too, Jungkook, or Iron Man, or whatever you want to be referred to as.” You giggle, nuzzling your face into the curve of his neck, placing gentle kisses on his sweat glistening skin.

“Does that mean you’ll stop doubting my abilities?”

“Depends on what abilities we’re talking.” You tease.

“Damn you’re hard to impress.”

You only giggle at that. It’s not your fault he’s shown you so many of his cards.

He closes his eyes, blissfully saturated in the scent of your hair and the warmth of your intertwined bodies, wishing he could stay like this forever. “So what do you say about trying out black and silver for the suit?”

You take a moment to consider his proposal, imaging the suit sporting a new combination of colors. It’ll probably look really cool either way, but you ultimately decide that nothing can compare to his signature look, the one that screams nothing but Iron Man and the awesomeness of one of the coolest superheroes in the history of superheroes.

“Actually, I prefer red and gold.”  

...

[kbrown78]

Monthly Wrap Up: June

June wasn't as good of reading month as May. I only read 6 books as compared the 11 books from last month and while I didn't have as many books that I hated, most of the books were just mediocre, so I didn't have as many highs either. I will say that was a good month for expanding the genres I've read and the diversity of the authors, but next month I will be doing Tome Topple and reading books over 500 pages for the first two weeks, then the rest of the month will be dedicated to doing rereads and revisiting some old favorites of mine and see if I love them just as much now.

The Paper Menagerie by Ken Liu: I loved this book! It's a little hard to do a full review for this one because it's a collection of short stories by Ken Liu, but I'll do my best. First I love all of the stories, I honestly couldn't pick one favorite. Even ones that weren't one of my favorites were still very well written. The mesh of multiple Asian cultures and histories with American culture and history is so well done, and I liked the references and dedications a the end of some of them. All the stories were very touching, some darker than others but they all had a sort of bittersweet tone to them. I also loved how all the stories were varying degrees of science fiction, some having technology so similar to today's that it could have almost been a literary fiction story. The themes were all amazing (especially how the complexity of each one was written), the characters were all well written in each story. There's really nothing bad I can say about any of it. I also liked how in many, if not all, the stories had a theme of storytelling in theme and how that identifies a person or brings people together. The Paper Menagerie received 5 out 5 stars from me.

Illuminae by Jay Kristoff and Amie Kaufman: This is going to be my full, spoiler review because I tried to tag the book as I read it but I really struggled with that. In part because of the format. It is unlike anything I have ever read, and in hindsight I probably should have done this one on audiobook.  It is a compilation of interviews, military reports, surveillance videos, data from the AI, online messages, and more. It's a unique format, that can work well, and at times it did, but there were too many names just  dropped that I could not remember, and with about 600 pages in this format, the plot dragged. I think this book should have honestly been 100 to 200 pages shorter, to keep the fast pace going. The first tenth of the book I was really invested in and flew through it, but then nothing happened and I just got bored with the story. Once the virus became more of an issue and AIDAN's POV was introduced then I became reinvested. Speaking of AIDAN, the ships AI, that was without a doubt the best part of the book, with Kady coming in a close second. Any AI can bring up the question of what it means to be human, and AIDAN contributed an interesting perspective to that discussion. No, I haven't seen 2001: A Space Odyssey, but it sounds like there are similarities to that AI and AIDAN. Over the course of the book, AIDAN killed thousands of people, and is rather remorseless about it because it believes it did that for the greater good. AIDAN keeps up this cold, mechanical behavior until it starts to interact directly with Kady. In fact their “relationship” was what revived the book for me. The more time AIDAN spends interacting with Kady, they start to almost become friends and Kady definitely humanizes AIDAN and gets it to question everything it's done. Ezra and Kady's relationship was cute, since they just broke up but when the cards are down they need each other for emotional support, and Ezra was a decent guy, but he was a little generic for me and I also felt he wasn't as well developed as Kady. Kady I really liked, which is funny because she's that hard person with a heart of gold and I don't usually like that type. She doesn't deal with authority well and is absolutely willing to go rogue to help save lives, which is good in this book because most of the people in charge just make things worse (even if they don't mean to) and cause more death. So real quick the highlights of this book were: AIDAN, Kady, the unique format, the first and last 10% where the action was fast pace. The things I didn't like about this book were: how long this book dragged for, too many characters to keep track of , very few relationships (platonic or romantic) that I was invested in, didn't get to learn more about the world, Ezra's mother being the big bad (kind of tired of family drama being the plot driver in media). All in all I didn't love this book, it was okay, but I'm not sure if I want to continue with the next book (fortunately its a companion series so I don't have to read the next one). Illuminae received 3 out of 5 stars, and was pick for the PopSugar promt “book with two authors.”  

The Bone Witch by Rin Chupeco: This was one of the very few books that comes as close to a cover buy as possible. The cover is stunning and I do think reflects the personality and power of Tea, the protagonist. I did look at some reviews and the worst thing I can find was that this book has a lack of plot, which is something that I'm willing to overlook, particularly in first books. But this book really didn't have any plot. It started out interesting with a resurrection through dark magic, but then that story was pushed to the side until the last few chapters. The book has two separate story lines one being Tea's origin story which takes up the majority of the book, the other takes place in the present with Tea having gone dark, but the end of the book still doesn't explain why Tea was in exile. So more back story is needed which will only be in the second book, which makes the first book feel incomplete. I liked Tea, but she felt a bit naive at times and didn't drive the action forward but I could still believe that the powerful, morally gray character in the future was also this little girl. The side characters were okay, a little bland aside from Likah who was barley in the story. I did not like the romance at all because it was very sudden and one sided. The readers also see in the future how obsessed Tea still is with the guy she was in love with, which was actually kind of creepy. Most of the story was boring and I strongly disliked how similar many scenes were to Memoirs of a Geisha. The general aesthetic of the story and the imagery and symbolism was amazing. The end conflict in Tea, the old in power serving themselves and only themselves, was interesting in itself but the fact that it came in only at the very end made it feel like it was just a plot device to explain partly why Tea is so angry in the future. The Bone Witch received 2. 5 out of 5 stars because the aspects I liked were well done, but there wasn't much about this story that I liked.

The Knife of Never Letting Go by Partick Ness: This was a book I had been looking forward to reading, because I loved A Monster Calls but this was something completely different. Unfortunately, I didn't like it. This story is from an uneducated 13 year old boys point of view, and it reads like that. Had I read this book when it first came out and I was still in junior high, I probably would have liked it better, but reading it as an adult I find it to be a little immature and simple. So while the writing itself was good and the world was kind of a unique science fiction/ dystopian blend, I didn't love any of the characters, I wasn't invested in the story and there was so much unnecessary drama because no one tells Todd or Viola anything. Also there was a death in this book, that I didn't cry at, but it made me want to throw up my arms and go “Why!” I do think Patrick Ness is a good writer and I still want to read other books by him, but because of how basic the whole story was I'm not sure if I'll continue with the rest of the series. The Knife of Never Letting Go received 2 out 5 stars from me.  

The Wrath and The Dawn by Renee Ahdieh: For me this book was a fairly mediocre read. I knew I was going to read it at some point but it was an unexpected buy this month and I started getting excited for it and decided to pick it up immediately. I was hoping that it would be a sort of Snow Like Ashes, where I didn't expect much in the first book but would be pleasantly surprised. I also thought that since it's just two books that I would get more in the first book. Unfortunately neither of those happened. This story is a 1001 Arabian Nights retelling and places a heavy emphasis on the romance between Shahrzad, the protagonist, and Khalid, the man Shahrzad marries in the hopes that she kills him. For the romance being a hate to love one, it wasn't bad. I personally have a very hard time enjoying hate to love ships, but this one I think was done well because I felt like the evolution of the romance felt natural and the reason these two start out at odds with each other wasn't based off contrived drama. That being said I didn't like the lack of communication these two had and I don't get attached to cold characters and Khalid was definitely that. The side characters were decent, although the male character all felt similar (actually come to think of it the female ones did to), but I am fascinated by the transformation Shahrzad's father underwent and I wish I could have seen more of that. The friendships in here were decent, but were never the center of attention and I was never invested enough in the side character to be invested in their relationships. As for the world building, that was actually sub par for me because I thought there was going to be some magic, but there was hardly any in the story at all. In fact magic is discussed, so the readers know it exists, but never shown any performance of magic. The rest of the world I barley know anything about, so that all was disappointing. The pacing of the story was good, loved the tie ins for the retelling parts and incorporation of story telling, until the end when everything was just rushed and a bit confusing. It was decent and I'll probably read the sequel since it's just one book but I haven't read anything that motivates me to read it, so I'm not in any rush to read it. The Wrath and The Dawn received 3 out 5 stars from me.

Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein: Like The Paper Menagerie I had a difficult time doing a wrap up for this one, but for very different reasons. I rarely read books that are set entirely in our reality, and also don't read historical fiction, so I can't approach reviewing this book quite the same way that I usually do. Also it's difficult to review this book without giving away any spoilers. This novel is broken into two different parts, each one in a different POV identified by their code names. This is an emotional and powerful story about the friendship between two girls that takes place during WWII. One is a pilot and one is, for lack of a better term, a spy. The emotions and relationships were fleshed and well delivered in this story but there were parts that dragged the story a bit for me, so I was going to give this book 3 stars but the last 15% really got to me so I had to boost up the rating. I will say this is a very character driven story, again focusing on the two girls and their experiences in the war effort and some of the harsh realities of being involved in that. I would recommend this one to people looking to read a fictional WWII story, and Code Name Verity received 4 out 5 stars.  

[shirlleycoyle]

Eric Weinstein Says He Solved the Universe’s Mysteries. Scientists Disagree

The quest to come up with a successful “theory of everything” is one of the guiding lights of modern theoretical physics, reconciling general relativity and quantum mechanics. The inventor of such a theory would no doubt be hailed among the all-time intellectual giants of science, and Eric Weinstein really wants everyone to think it’s him. 

Weinstein is primarily an investor, but also a self-styled public intellectual. He graduated with a PhD in mathematics from Harvard, and is currently a managing director of Thiel Capital, which invests in technology and life sciences. He also belongs to and coined the name for the “Intellectual Dark Web,” largely a crew of reactionaries with public profiles that includes Jordan Peterson and Ben Shapiro. He is also the inventor of what he calls “Geometric Unity,” a theory of everything that he’s been flogging since 2013. 

At that time, Weinstein―by then long out of academia and working as a consultant for a New York City hedge fund―made waves after promoting his theory by giving a lecture at the University of Oxford and scoring a write-up in The Guardian, instead of writing a scientific paper. The Guardian article was titled: “Move Over Einstein, Meet Weinstein.” Typically, researchers produce a paper containing equations that is then pored over by the wider community of scientists; this element of peer review and discussing ideas and evidence in the open is generally accepted to be a critical part of the scientific process. Weinstein’s audacious approach earned as much criticism as the theory itself, and his latest move has ignited furor all over again. 

Earlier this month, Weinstein finally posted a paper describing Geometric Unity online, uploaded the Oxford lecture to YouTube, and went on Joe Rogan’s immensely popular podcast to discuss it. There’s even a website called pullthatupjamie.com full of videos and resources on Geometric Unity that was created to make it easy for Rogan’s tech guy, Jamie Vernon, to pull up videos on the podcast. 

The appearance on Rogan’s podcast, which has been previously used as an uncritical platform, has generated both new interest in Geometric Unity and intense criticism from scientists who remain unconvinced. 

On the podcast, Weinstein said that his theory is an attempt to go “beyond Einstein” and push theoretical physics forward that could unlock amazing possibilities or terrible power.

”I was somewhat holding this back because I’m afraid of what it unlocks,” Weinstein said, “and now that I know we're willing to elect Donald Trump, not store masks, play footsie with China, be Putin's bitch, all of this stuff… to Hell with this.”

When Rogan asked what the main fear is, Weinstein recalled that “the last time we gained some serious insight into how nuclei worked,” nuclear weapons were invented. But, if the theory is correct, it might also give us the needed insight to make humanity into a multi-planet species, Weinstein said.

“One of the great dangers is, great power…. I cant tell what the power would be if the theory is correct, it might give us the ability to escape,” he said.

Rogan, for what it's worth, didn’t seem overly impressed with Weinstein's theory. In an attempt to explain his complicated theory, Weinstein handed Rogan a water wiggle (one of those cheap toys that looks like a small balloon filled with water), and explained how it symbolizes the mathematical concept of a U(1)-bundle. Rogan looks down at the toy in his hand while Weinstein speaks and gets progressively, visibly confused and angry. 

"I don't know what the fuck you just said," Rogan finally says. "How about that?"

So, what is Geometric Unity? At the moment, modern physics has two frameworks that do not nicely unify: general relativity and quantum mechanics, which describe reality at two vastly different scales. Whereas other physicists might try to square this circle by attempting a quantum version of general relativity, Weinstein's proposal was to begin with general relativity and its geometric descriptions of reality to try and discover equations describing the universe in its mathematical reality instead of our observable one. 

At its core sits the idea of a 14-dimensional "observerse" which our four dimensions (the three spatial dimensions, and time) lie within. A Guardian article at the time described the interplay between these two dimensional spaces as "something like the relationship between the people in the stands and those on the pitch at a football stadium" in that we are observers who can see and are affected by the observerse, but cannot possibly notice or detect every detail. Weinstein's theory proposes that there is a set of equations in these 14 dimensions that encompass Einstein’s equations, as well as several other famous equation sets, that altogether account for all fundamental forces and particle types. 

Timothy Nguyen, a machine learning researcher at Google AI whose phD thesis intersects with Weinstein's work, co-authored a paper based on Weinstein’s Geometric Unity lecture evaluating the idea in February. The paper identified gaps in Weinstein’s theory “both mathematical and physical in origin” that “jeopardize Geometric Unity as a well-defined theory, much less one that is a candidate for a theory of everything.”

In a blog post accompanying the paper, Nguyen wrote that the theory does not actually bring in quantum theory, relies on a poorly-defined “Ship in a bottle” (Shiab) operator of Weinstein’s own invention, and contains anomalies as well as a dubious assumption about supersymmetry in 14 dimensions. After Weinstein published his paper, Nguyen wrote on Twitter that it “addresses none of the technical gaps presented in our response,” although he did describe it as a “testament to perseverance.”

“If you’re interested in technical gaps, the gap most glaring arises from the ‘Shiab' operator. It is one of several uniquely idiosyncratic operators of Geometric Unity (it does not exist anywhere else in mathematics), unlike supersymmetry which is already a well-established and well-defined notion,” Nguyen told Motherboard in an email. “Weinstein fails to define the Shiab operator properly and so his theory does not even make mathematical sense, a more egregious problem than having desirable physical properties.”

Nguyen said that Weinstein’s initial PR splash was confusing at best, and that the resulting paper didn’t clarify the most important points. 

“Much of Weinstein’s Geometric Unity involves using obscure notation for objects that nobody else has defined and which he disingenuously expected others to understand from watching an over 2 hour long YouTube video,” Nguyen added. “Now that he has released a paper, we find that even Weinstein does not know how to construct the Shiab operator (he makes many qualifications that he no longer has the details).”

Richard Easther, a cosmologist and professor at the University of Auckland, pointed out some eyebrow-raising aspects of the idea in a 2013 blog. For one, a Guardian op-ed by Marcus du Sautoy―Weinstein’s chief academic promoters―seemed to hint at a dynamic constant in the universe, while most physicists support the idea of a constant that is, well, constant. What Weinstein eventually published didn’t impress him, he told Motherboard.

“The theory itself has had no visible impact, and what Weinstein actually delivered looked massively undercooked after the buildup it got from du Sautoy,” Easther said in an email. “A throwaway comment at the time suggested that it might predict a time-varying cosmological constant, but I haven’t seen any meaningful developments about this.”

Weinstein did not respond to Motherboard’s request for comment. 

All of this matters because despite the criticisms, Weinstein only finally released a paper this year after years promoting the theory in public forums while questioning the legitimacy of peer review, lamenting the need to provide evidence, and otherwise dismissing critics or skeptics hesitant to accept his theory with open arms. In a May 2020 interview, he said skeptics that wanted him to publish a paper on his idea for verification were simply “irritated” and “pissed off” at “themselves.” 

On Rogan’s podcast, Weinstein painted the academic field of physics as being generally untrustworthy and stifling, which is why he didn’t share his theory in full until now.

“I don’t trust these people,” Weinstein said, referring to physicists at universities. “It’s an entire system that believes in peer review, it believes in forced citations, you have to be at a university, you have to get an endorsement to use a preprint server. It’s too few resources, too many sharp elbows.”

Nguyen said he was spurred to evaluate Weinstein’s idea after this attitude set off alarm bells. At first, “It was refreshing to see a former part of my life being discussed outside the cloistered walls of academia and in the wider context of the world," Nguyen said. But after multiple conversations with Weinstein and watching how he interacted with his fans, Nguyen says he realized none of it was "consistent with my image of how a good-faith scientist engages with his audience." 

Many scientists do in fact unveil their work before peer review on popular sites such as arXiv. However, they do it in paper form (“preprints”) and with the goal of submitting their ideas to the wider community for approval or rejection. Authors do have to have an endorsement from someone in academia to post on arXiv, specifically, but in theory that shouldn’t have been an insurmountable obstacle for Weinstein; du Sautoy has posted several papers to arXiv. Besides that, papers can be posted anywhere, even a dedicated website as Weinstein has now done.

“Even if the physics isn't interesting, this story does say interesting things about the science. Einstein wrote up his ideas [and] submitted them for peer review just like everyone else―but many self-described ‘outsiders’ portray the scientific community as a closed shop,” Easther told Motherboard. “There is undoubtedly ‘sociology’ at work in the community at times, but anyone making a serious attempt to sell a new idea knows they are asking for busy people to give them a slice of their time and attention―and one of the ways you do that is by making your work as accessible as possible to the people you want to understand it.”

Releasing a paper did not silence the critics. Nor did it vindicate Weinstein’s PR-focused approach to sharing his theory. And all of this may well end up being rather pointless, because the paper ends with disclaimer that Weinstein "is not a physicist and is no longer an active academician, but is an Entertainer and host of The Portal podcast." The paper, the disclaimer ends, is merely a “work of entertainment.”

Now that Weinstein has finally published a paper describing his theory, it’s entirely possible that further analysis and investigation may show it to be more interesting than its critics have so far found. As Weinstein said on Rogan’s podcast, “I’ll find out [if] I’m wrong.”

But for now, it seems the only relevant question is: Are we entertained? 

Eric Weinstein Says He Solved the Universe’s Mysteries. Scientists Disagree syndicated from https://triviaqaweb.wordpress.com/feed/

[manjuhitorie]

Hitorie’s unreleased concert recordings, are coming out on wowaka’s birthday

https://www.hitorie.jp/Loveless_IKI/

Hitorie’s full length DVDs of 2 concerts: The Loveless tour final and the IKI tour final in their full glory! It's region free and the release date is November, NOVEMBER, 4th. wowaka’s birthday.

The cover art has been unveiled, and the details of the bonus items have been divulged! 

The standard edition cover feautures wowaka in ai/SOlate T-shirt twanging his guitar! 

It comes with both concerts and an envelope with a lottery ticket for a chance to win a framed photo. It's cheaper and only comes with the 2 DVDs, the perfect piece! Regular edition DVD: via cdjapan

The limited edition cover features all members basked in laser lights! 

The complete special package comes with both concerts, a new special photobook of unreleased photos by cameraman Nishimaki Taichi, sticker replicas of the staff passes used for both tours, and an envelope with a lottery ticket for a chance to win a framed photo.  It’s also separated into Blu-ray and DVD, so make sure you buy the right one for your gear! DVD limited complete edition: via cdjapan   Blu-ray limited complete edition: via cdjapan Bonus pre-order items!!!

If you preorder from select stores you’ll receive a A2 size poster of the wowaka photo (Tower Records and CDJapan are sure to have it)!

Amazon preorders will include a 5 piece set of concert photo post cards! (Amazon hasn’t prepared a page yet though, I'll link it ASAP).

And preorders from the concert venue booths will nab you a Hitorie-chan themed ticket case. 

The track list is as follows

From Hitorie’s UNKNOWN-TOUR 2018 "Loveless" at EX THEATER ROPPONGI March 25th 2018 01. NAI. 02. Shinya 0-ji 03. Inperfection 04. One Me Two Hearts 05. Nichijou to Chikyuu no Gakubuchi 06. Bathtub and Sleepwalk 07. Eve Stepper 08. Loveless 09. Monocolor 10. Glare 11. Senseless Wonder 12. Unhappy Refrain 13. Social Clock 14. Namid[A]me 15. Talkie Dance 16. Unknown Mother Goose 17. Absolute Encore 1. Dancing Mannequin, Singing Fool Encore 2. Little Cry Baby

AND

From Hitorie’s National Solo Tour 2017 "IKI" at STUDIO COAST May 7th 2017 01. Heart Breath 02. One Me Two Hearts 03. Inperfection 04. Daydreamer(s) 05. Eve Stepper 06. Rularula 07. doppel 08. Lights in the Polar Night 09. Saihate 10. KOTONOHA 11. Hagure no Color 12. 5 Count Hello 13. Dancing Mannequin, Singing Fool 14. Shutter Doll 15. Little Cry Baby 16. Glare Encore 1. Kara no Waremono Encore 2. Senseless Wonder Encore 3. SisterJudy Encore 4. Montage Girl

"The full crowd bouncing around today was the best, I wish I could've shown everybody how crazy you guys looked. Please stick with us through future endeavors to come." After the IKI show in the DVD, ygarshy had said this.

And now.... that chance to see that day's craziness and follow their future is upon us, please do consider purchasing and dancing!!! And thank you for looking... 

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

⚠️~~~⚠️~~~⚠️The rest of this post is unnecessary bonus manju material⚠️~~~⚠️~~~⚠️

I had report on the Loveless final compiled together from way back on March 28th 2019, so I’ll post it here again to give a small taste....!

●The stage lighting for Namid[A]me was apparently breathtaking, they made it look like it was actually raining, ●Yumao used a real gong for Social Clock. ●During Senseless Wonder yg went all the way over to snd’s side of the stage, stuck his body against his, and they played it out together. Then came the encore MC break.

●Yu started cheering himself on, while making flamboyant poses: "Yumaooooo!!  Oooh~!  WOooooOOah *rough voice* !!💪( ＞ω ＜💪)” Crowd: “You’re so cool~!” Yu: “Thank goo~ *Goes to a cutesy voice*” “You’re so cute~!” “Thank goo. Thank you!” SND: “Hey dude, they’re all callin’ ya cute and cool y’know.” Yu: “…(short pause) Thank goooo~~~”

wowaka: (laughing) We’re done, that's all we need for MC ahahaa.

●Leaving members stuck on what to ramble about, they’ve already talked so much throughout the whole tour, what’s left? So wo suggested that they do a re-cap on all those fun boring discussions they’ve had. Omnibus time. 

●Back when the Japan was collectively swept off their feet by the Olympic ice skater Yuzuru Hanyu-kun and his performance, wo had also praised him during MC.  Yet just thinking about him puts pressure on Yumao, it inspired Yumao to do his best. And as the next song on Rie’s set list was the inspirational Memai, he concentrated so hard, poured himself in and played super neatly, “Oh shit oh no oh shit, Hanyu-kun makes me nervous.” Yumao explained. 

●During the span of the tour SND fell off the stage way more then once... SND: “The skin on my back peeled off once too.” Yu “Eeeh?!” SND “Saying it peeeled all the way off is an overstatement but..” ”Well then the scab ripped off.” “Seriously?!” “But it healed nicely.” “Ahh” “After that, in Niigata, when I went to brandish my guitar up with a “pwooosh” towards the roof, it went bonking into my forehead.” ●SND’s middle finger had also stopped moving, (nerve palsy maybe??) During Talkie Dance there’s the “piropiropiro” where a “pero, pero” bit comes in between (Queue SND and Yuma singing the riff together), which is very straining. He has to press his fingers against the strings one by one to play it, he was scared but nonetheless. So Yuma watched him at the piropero part wondering “Oh no oh no is it gonna move? Is it moving today??””

When it came down to it his middle finger moved for him so thank goodness... (Manju comment: SND is this karma for all the times you gave the crowd the middle finger when they cheered your name,,, or flipped off girls who waved at you, or giving wo the middle finger a lot? God I love you)

●Yumao “Also ygarshy laughed ONCE!” “There was the one time I was talking nonstop (queue SND and Yumao making “blaghblergh” noises together to imitate him). When yga let out a chuckle, which made me super proud in front of everyone… I went Wahooo!!! but turns out it wasn’t because my story was funny or anything.  It was because yga was off on his own! Testing how many candies he could eat before we would shut up!” SND: “Did you chuckle because you finished the third candy?” yg: “Uhhh” SND: “Well tell us about it.” wowaka: “Is this the first time he’s talking?” yga: “See, I always think our encore MCs are… long. So I feel like having some candy. I was originally worried I wouldn’t be able to finish eating one in time, the song would start and turn into a problem, but.... it turned out that day’s had become the longest MC yet. I lost my inner bet, damn it, I thought. You guys really can talk. Three whole candies worth of talk! So I laughed, and Yumao thought I was laughing at hims story”

Yu: “Yeah yeah!! Honestly the story I had been telling didn’t have a punchline, so I just used your laugh as an escape.”

SND “Foolish” Yu “Yep” wowaka “Well that day the most” Crowd “laughing” Yumao “...Thank goo~ (laughing)” (Yumao you never have a punchline I swear to God I love you too)

●wowaka talked about the story from back when he used to be so so scared of standing in front of people. In middle school his teacher chose him to represent his class in the English speaking competition, yet he was so afraid that he just, went out to the podium crying hysterically. “I can’t talk English in front of everyone waghhh....”

But now he’s able to do >this<. He’s become such an adult. 

SND “I bet there wasn’t even as many people at the competition as there is people here today, haha and you’re able to even talk naturally here, eh, look at you.”

Yu: “Ahh even SND’s such a big boy now~.” SND: “Well we all have.” ●They announced the next nexUs tour at the Loveless tour final. “We just love doing shows” 

●Also Pre- Little Cry Baby emotional speech from wowaka.   “In living we find cool things and sparkling things, yet there’s moments when we betray those things, we worry if ahhh was I wrong with that, there’s so much of this, in actuality that’s all I do, yet still we’re made out of things we can’t throw away, that’s what I think, what is it! Like those sorta texture that have a paint dried over them, like things that are just superficial just… Those are things that I have NO FUCKING  interest in! Like it’s that, c’mON, with music, people are just humans!! trying to be, they’re trying to do what they can do! I have interest in things that only humans can do, some things that can even surpass human, and that’s what fuels me to do music. As long as you follow me, I feel like ,, I could go anywhere!!!!! thank you always, thank you for making me!! Thank you for being here!!!”

This was also the showing they used during the Memorial Service on June 1st… STAFF WE ARE GOING TO CRY “Thank you we were Hitorie, let’s definitely! *through deep breaths* definitely! Meet again!”

Also some from IKI

●wowaka’s mother came to this show.... As divulged in this interview. THE ORAL CIGARETTES had sent Rie flowers in celebration of the event, which were on display at the venue.... Shiohigari SND’s good friend went, also the Synth player of the band “the telephones” who took the picture that’s featured on this blog) went also! ●Before Shutter Doll Yumao did his signature, Yumao! Yumao! Yumao! cheer on rhythm with the familiar intro, but with “Final! Final! instead. Along with We’re ●Hagure no Color had snazzy band introductions molded in between it. ●wowaka had actually cried during Little Cry Baby..... It really is a song that’s so important to him.... I’m anxious to see the video... ●MC: One was wowaka talking about how thankful he is for everyone and everything about this IKI tour. wowaka “I don’t want it to to enddd!” SND “We’re been on this tour for 4 months, it’s been a long time though, it’s amazing, it’s a new record for us.” wowaka “Now what am I going to do with myself tomorrow.“ SND “Go back to our dark dark life...” wo “Why”

SND “You guys had been waiting outside all this time, how was it, was it cold, are you okay? Further crowd: “We were okay-! Closer crowed “(less voices) We were okay.” SND “So you guys were okay and you were cold, okay (laughing). Well if you were cold, then see this sweatshirt Leader is wearing.. please wear one too That thing is perf.  Crowd: “Woooah!!” SND: “Why the fuck ‘Woah.’ Even if you said you’re okay then still go buy one alright. Thanks..”

[gigageekmag]

Comic Book Review: Calico

CALICO ISSUE #1

Welcome back GiGa Community; as you all know, at fifteen years old, in 1992, I had an opportunity and pleasure of interning at Marvel Comics in Manhattan, New York; Spider-man office to be exact.  It was during that year that I had delved into the comic book industry, soaking it all in, down to my very fabric of my soul.  I loved all of the intellectual properties, their stories, and the craft; I knew I wanted Comics to be a part of my future life story.   I was a fan of some characters, and ambivalent to others, but never the less, just like family I loved them all (Some more than others of course); the environment moved my soul.  To this day, I still find being an artist to be one of my first loves, and comic books satisfied that yearning.  The culmination of efforts between a writer, penciler, inker, letterer, colorist, and editor was to me, an amalgamation of geniuses at work.  I love and respect the craft.

Sigma Comics

GiGa: GeekMagazine was contacted by Sigma Comics asking for an honest review of their newly released comic series, Calico.  I was unsure of who this new IP was that was entering the competitive arena, so I did superficial research, watched an interview, and a review; it seemed to be worth the read.   The first complimentary comic came and as busy as I am, I opened it and felt the cover art seemed acceptable for a comic book in 2021, but I didn’t have a peaceful undisturbed moment to read it, so I left it on my desk to be ready for the day I found a free opportunity to read it, then write a review.  My family and I left the house for a few hours, and when I returned I went straight to my office and hadn’t realized the comic was no longer on my desk.  A few seconds after I sat down, my daughter calls me, “Papi, look what Ivi did”!

Ivi Snow knew She really did it this time.

Ivi Snow is one of my two white German Shepherds, she is 1½ years old, so I am accustomed to finding “surprises” when we come back home; I thought it was poop again. A minute later my daughter comes to my office holding my complimentary issue of Calico in shreds.  Needless to say I was peeved and Ivi knew it. Then I remembered what the premise of the comic was.  “NYC HAS A NEW ANTI–HERO. Every day millions of animals are abused and killed. Animal rights groups and charities try to help, yet the savagery continues.”  Sigma Comics appears to be committed to fighting animal abuse. I laughed at the irony of this moment and took a picture of her with the destroyed comic, apparently, she enjoyed the comic.  I couldn’t read it, as a substantial part of the first few pages were now gone.  With that above picture attached to an email to Sigma comics, I humbly apologized and requested another review copy, I was willing to pay for it at this point, but the great people at Sigma found humor in the event as well and sent me another. When the next copy arrived I kept it in my safe this time, and that night when I was done with work, I read it before I went to bed.  I opened the cover and this time, I was able to really absorb the content.   I applauded the first impression, it was transparent in showing their allegiance to the cause, “American Humane”, as a parent to two German Shepherds, I was sold. 

The first page was gripping, showing an example of the atrocities committed upon animals and the visualization was almost too tough to bear, but I was roped in, I had to read on.  We get our first glimpse into the soul of our Anti-Hero on page two, with tears running from angry eyes, the penciler, inker, and colorist nailed the conviction this character was driven by, and we’re then introduced to Calico “A one-man arsenal of destruction in constant pursuit of justice for the smallest and weakest among us…” 

In his apartment he works his frustration on a double end bag, his thoughts speak poignant commentary as to the nature of life being nothing but conflict in every facet of existence and we see where his psychological state dwells; he’s scared and/or resentful of life and bitterly expresses this in his own twisted way.  The Boxing Gym advertisement on page 5 could easily be dismissed as fictitious until a little research clarified that it is indeed a real business; as an ex-fighter boxer, martial artist, and ex-body guard myself, I respected that blurring between fantasy and reality as it was perfectly in line with the tale that I was uploading to my brain.

The writer then takes the reader on a journey through the life of Calico, recalling childhood memories of being bullied.  This alludes to post traumatic damage; he hates bullies and had long since made the decision to suffer them no longer.  We next accompany the protagonist from his apartment to a local boxing gym where he trains and prepares for an upcoming tournament, and while there, he loses himself in the art of combat.  His thoughts become louder than spoken words; he’s a fighter with unfortunate luck, struggling skill, and lots of animosity.  Here is where the reader learns this character has no reservation about the thought of condemning the abuser to death and that animals were his only friends since his youth.

Page 8 we’re given a full frontal nude of the hero in the shower after leaving the gym, even in the shower he’s consumed by antipathy as conveyed by more flashbacks of the same bully from his youth; he’s never recovered from those years.  This memory was different, ironically, it was in this recollection where he was impressed by an alley-cat that scared off the bully and his dog, which serves as a perfect transition into revealing his super-hero outfit emblazoned with a black cat’s profile in front of what appears to be a moon.  He also has a flying robotic AI assistant named Bumble that is a metallic sphere with one camera eye. Then, we’re back to his childhood memories, this time he evokes the very first time he inflicted pain by punching that bully in the face before fleeing the scene.  Page 13 is where things escalate quickly, so I won’t spoil it for interested readers.

So here’s my honest review and rating:

Comic book Production:   I feel the writing could have been more impacting and/or expansive; a name would have been nice to have, but it served its purpose; The art is what communicated the story the most.  Lettering was great, the penciling and inking were acceptable as well, but gets a little hard to understand what’s happening during the murder scene.   

The Character: His real name is never revealed, but from how Calico was insultingly called a “Dominican York” translated from Spanish, he is likely Latino. I think the character is less anti-hero and more of a deranged, sociopathic, villain with post-traumatic stress. He’s fed a list of targets by an unknown accomplice, he intends to kill, (and/or violate) which to me is the modus operandi of a serial killer. I couldn’t see the word “Hero” being applicable to this guy in anyway.

The full frontal nude, to me, was unnecessary, but being a student at the Art Institute of Atlanta I’ve drawn male nudes before, so I respect the art, 100%.  That scene only became awkward after the second penis comment. Which helped me to get a better understanding  of the mind of the protagonist as portrayed and communicated by the writer. I think the outfit really is too similar to Black Panther.

As per the multiple male phallus related comments and insults, along with, what I found to be excessive homo-erotic language, it seemed in my humble opinion, as if there’s other unresolved issues besides being bullied that Calico has never addressed.   In one scene, I had to look at one scene under better light to understand that Calico actually violates or rapes his victim with a red hot pipe, all while making references to size; he says to his victim, “Relax! It’s only one-inch thick pipe. In penis size its only four-inch girth. You got this”.  the last unnecessary thing I read that really nailed the coffin shut for me was the statement, “F*** em. Hard. in the @ss. With no vaseline”.

Concept: I personally, don’t think the character could have longevity, and if so possibly as a novelty act; appropriate for an 8-Issue Series. He possibly may develop a fan base, but with a very niche market.  He is not a “Deadpool” type of anti-hero, I’d say this brooding character is damaged psychologically which easily could bleed over into villainy. I couldn’t see the Dark Knight tolerating this character, or working with him in any way, and would probably bring him to justice.  In comparison to other anti-heroes, such as Hulk, Ghost Rider, Blade, or the Punisher, I’d say even Frank Castle wouldn’t see his motivations, means, or ends as acceptable.  I see a more deviant sociopathic “Joker” kind of weirdness from Calico minus the smiles and laughing.

Conclusion:  It’s a comic book, it fits the criteria. I wasn’t left feeling like I want to read more, but I am only one man, with one opinion worth 2 cents.  I endeavor to say it could have been written for a broader appeal to a wider audience; for me, I feel the niche-aspect will leave some put off or uninterested.  But somehow, I’m sure this will pull the targeted audience it was meant for.  In the end, Sigma successfully this debut is a great accomplishment for the creators and production team and for that I salute and respect their creative vision, hard work, and love for the craft.  I’d give it 3 out 5 Stars ★★★☆☆ ~Jack~

Image Sources: > https://sigmacomics.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/sigma-comics-large.jpg > https://prnewswire2-a.akamaihd.net/p/1893751/sp/189375100/thumbnail/entry_id/1_gapzb7c1/def_height/800/def_width/520/version/100011/type/1

Comic Book Review: Calico was originally published on GIGA: GeekMagazine