#she debuts in the second book but shines a lot in this book in particular and it's awesome. just go read mr. lemoncello's library pls

[psychicthepsychic-daily]

the very next line is "impossible. keeley doesn't have a mind for me to play with." which i feel is very much something psychic would say about boyfriend

[downtonabbeyrevisited]

Season Two Episode Two

Following a typically chaotic opener, Episode Two of Season Two strikes a far more sombre tone. The arrival of Henry Lang as Robert’s valet brings the first of this episode’s three plot points that address the impact of WW1 on the mental health of its soldiers. There is nothing funny to say about either shell-shock or suicidal ideation both of which are vast, complex issues that, for my money, Downton Abbey isn’t the vehicle explore in (because they require more time and depth than the pace of the plot in Season Two affords) and it certainly isn’t my place to make light of them in this rather irreverent corner of the internet. So I’m going to have a go at treading a fine line here. Forgive me if I stumble. 

Lang is clearly in the grips of something awful and yet in an attempt to avoid the indignity of having maids in the dining room, he is bumped up to footman duty. He struggles throughout, culminating in him depositing his cargo on Edith’s dress. Mrs O’Brein has firmly taken Lang under her wing, recognising that he is struggling and offers him assurance and comfort that she has never gifted to Thomas. 

Across the Village, Lieutenant Edward Courtenay is in the hospital having been blinded by gas. The use of gas (both chlorine and mustard) had a devastating impact on soldiers in WW1 but was also the root of the development of Zyklon B. Frtiz Haber, a German Jewish chemist, enabled chlorine gas to be used a weapon in WW1 and his research was later developed into the Zyklon process which was used by the Nazis to murder millions, including his own family. This is only one of a dizzying number of appalling ironies to be found in the World Wars but as I said last episode, I’m not a military historian so I’m going to leave it there. Edward had plans to return to the country after his graduation from Oxford to pursue the simple life (although one gets the feeling that his idea of the pursuit of a simple life will still be one that is very well upholstered). Thomas has taken it upon himself to read Edward’s letters to him and  together with Sybil is helping him to adjust to living life with a different set of parameters. But growing pressure on the hospital’s limited capacity means that he is to be transferred elsewhere. All three voice their dissent at varying volumes to Major Clarkson who falls back on the very real backlog of wounded men. After Edward has died, Major Clarkson, Isobel and Sybil talk about a renewed need for the Abbey to become a convalescent home, an idea that has been bubbling under the surface for a while now. Meanwhile, Thomas has been left on his own to process both Edward’s death and the implications of witnessing a lack of support given by his own physician to those with depression.  

The usually reliably jovial Mrs Patmore also has a more somber episode with her pursuit for the truth about the death of her nephew Archie. Robert finds that he has been shot for cowardice. Not only does this mean that her family is in mourning but they will now have to navigate the stigma and undue shame that came with having a relative die in this way. So entrenched in British life was the derision levelled at those who were shot for cowardice or desertion that it was only in 2006 that pardons were offered by Britain for 309 of those that were executed by firing squad during WW1. I know I said I’d leave it there with the military history, but that felt like an important bit of context. 

We are now in 1917 and Matthew is still in the same trench that he was in 1916 (a detail I hadn’t actually noticed until I got the screen cap for this) so it looks like his strategy of downing tools mid-fight and continuously popping back to Blighty for important plot developments isn’t really paying dividends. Perhaps the addition of William to the ranks will help him? William certainly seems to think so and if the speed at which he moves through the various stages of his ‘relationship’ with Daisy is any indication of his tactical prowess, the British Front will not only be well within Germany’s borders but will be breathing down Russia’s neck in a fortnight. In any other episode, this would certainly get the award for oddest relationship dynamic but Sir Richard Carlisle exists. 

Sir Richard makes his debut at Downton, having been introduced in name only in the previous episode. He and Mary met at Cliveden which is a regular haunt of mine, giving me hope that one day I too will from a strategic alliance with a newspaper magnate. He may know how to talk his way around a boardroom but he is lacking in the sartorial department. Whilst Sir Richard manages to avoid catching fire in his tweed, Lavinia is not free from the heat as he threatens her with his connection to her uncle. He may not know much about navigating the niceties of Downton, but at least he has cottoned on to the fact that any major disagreement should occur under a specific tree. Whilst Mary’s signature move is weeping into her gloves, Sir Richard’s is grabbing women by the forearm. A female friend of mine told me that one of her favourite things about the pandemic and the compulsion to keep 2m away from anyone (and not just emotionally) is that she has not been ’steered’ by a male hand on her lower back since 2019. It turns out that she can enter and exit rooms just fine on her own and I get the impression that Lavinia could get the gist of Sir Richard’s rage without the vice like grip of a man probably about twice her age. 

Twinned with the ’tree of emotional conflict’, the ‘platform of romantic uncertainty’ provides the backdrop for Sir Richard’s proposal of marriage to Mary which is a declaration that really feels like it should come with a series of well-formatted charts. Mary’s heart, however, is still very much with Cousin Matthew. After being counselled by Carson in a type of conversation I cannot imagine her ever having with her father, she is on the verge of coming clean with Matthew. But in the second round of Lavinia vs. Mary, Lavinia declares that she ‘could not go on living’ without Matthew and Mary winds her neck in. 

Also having a romantic entanglement this episode is Edith. Drake, previously of dropsy fame, has lost his farm hands and Edith turns up to offer her help in a wildly unsuitable trouser and heeled boot combo. But she soon gets down to it by pulling up a tree stump and flirting in a barn whilst a rather lovely border collie looks on (I’m currently trying to talk myself out of getting a border collie and this incident has done nothing to help things). After showing Drake that she can drink from a bottle like literally every single other human on the planet, the two share a kiss and some highly awkward dialogue that only slightly resembles ‘Carry on Downton’. 

Whilst Edith is more than happy to crack on in a barn, Mr Molesley is much more backwards about coming forwards. Apparently having predicted the creation of ‘The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society’, he figures that a book is the perfect kindling for romance when you exist in a glossy depiction of the past. Sadly neither Elizabeth nor her German garden can lure Anna from Bates who is fast shaping up to be schrodinger’s boyfriend. Anna proceeds to make some odd analogy where she compares Mr Bates to her moon-based child, revealing a rather unhealthy amount of codependency in that particular relationship. 

Romantic declaration of the moment 

Again, it feels like anyone but Sybil and Branson should get this but I am an agent of chaos and here we are. Branson defends Sybil’s will to work and has ample opportunity to see her shine in her chosen field. The admission that she will not be returning to her old life is a little chink of light that Branson basks in. 

Expressive eyebrow of the week 

I nominate Carson’s entire face when he realises that he has taken on too much and goes an impressive shade of red. As Carson frets about spoons, sauce, and something I can’t quite fathom, he starts to resemble a man who is re-arranging the deckchairs on the Titanic. Carson’s battle to get a cork out of a bottle and knocking into chairs is a warm up to his rather dramatic collapse which is accompanied by a pretty disturbing groan. Sybil springs to action and he is soon efficiently ensconced in his own quarters. 

Wait, what? 

“I got a lot done on the train” Clearly Richard was on a train that was unencumbered with the wifi issues that plague the Pendolino.  

“It takes a good deal more than that to shock me.” Mary’s shock-o-meter is a pretty odd instrument. It is unresponsive to corpses of diplomats but goes into absolute meltdown at the notion that she might have to live in a cottage. 

“Let's hope my reputation will survive it.” I’ve not checked (and I categorically never will) but I would put money on the fact that someone has created a rarepair out of this. 

“How can Matthew have chosen that little blonde piece?” Is Lavinia blonde? Women’s hair is not really my forte but I would have thought she was more akin to Tim Minchin than 1998 Justin Timberlake. 

“I believe in this war. I believe in what we are fighting for.” William seems to have a better grip on what all of this is about than I ever did in high school history. The ‘A’ that eluded me is heading his way. 

“I thought he might've died for love of you.” How I love snipey Thomas. It’s good to have him back. To borrow a quote from Bottas (another man who is currently living a life in which his destiny is his own demise) ‘traditions’. 

“Fold it in, don’t slap it” The more season two goes on, the more I think that Moira is just an amalgamation of some choice elements of Julian’s kingdom. 

[davidmann95]

Comics this week (1/13/2021)?

Future State: Dark Detective #1: I liked this! I was convinced Tamaki’s superhero work was on a downward slide given the progression from Supergirl: Being Super to She-Hulk to Wonder Woman, and her showing in Detective #1027 didn’t much impress me, but I decided to give this a chance and I’m glad I did. Stylish affair where she knows exactly how much implied plot and solid ‘he’s down and out but still the coolest badass who’s ever lived’ hardboiled one-liners to lay down while letting Dan Mora work his beautiful work, though I’ll concede it’s a bit weird that Bruce Wayne looks if anything younger in here than in the main books. Not worth not having a Klaus this year, but a pleasant surprise (I even liked the Grifter backup pretty well!) that sold me on trying her Detective run proper even if there’s no way Mora’s going to stick around for long.

Future State: Justice League #1: Another pleasant surprise! That the V/Takara JL Dark backup would rule was a given - why is Takara not on huge stuff ALL THE TIME, he’s certainly more than paid his dues - but Williamson has turned in one of his few non-snoozefest efforts with the lead feature. Buncha cool little ideas, a sense of a familiar but slightly bent team dynamic, and Rocha does some background worldbuilding that makes this world feel like it has a real lived-in history. It can’t live up to that instantly iconic cover, but this is a crew this book makes me want to see more of.

Future State: Kara Zor-El, Superwoman #1: Man, I really gotta go back and finish Bombshells at some point. This is a really interesting take on where Kara ends up delving into the dichotomies of her presentation over the years and what she does independent of the other super-folks and what problems continue to follow her. And probably the most distinctive-looking of the whole Future State slate.

Future State: Superman/Wonder Woman #1: Leading with that some Brazilian comics readers have been pointing out a number of “yeah, this didn’t get all the eyes on it that were needed” mistakes re: the culture in here, with varying degrees of severity in the response among said readers, so I’ll just go about my business and leave that discussion to those qualified: this issue otherwise rips. Almost a softer take on DKR, where the former-friend leads have (even further) down the road reached the peaks of their respective iconographic powers and found themselves divided in the process, though in this case it’s more disagreement than brutal beatings and there’s an amazing shared threat for them to be forced to team up and deal with. Watters and del Duca do an excellent job in delineating the flavors of Jon and Yara’s adventures, and there’s a ton of great minor world-building elements. Definitely going to end up one of the shining stars of Future State, and I hope they can both write their ticket coming out of it.

The Union #2: A clever enjoyable little book; not all I’d have wanted from Grist, it’s one of those “I’d skip if it wasn’t a mini” minis, but that’s what it is, so.

S.W.O.R.D. #2: I was impressed enough by GOTG managing to pivot into King in Black seamlessly, but that wasn’t its second issue. Thankfully awhile since Ewing’s had to flex that particular skillset, but he’s still got it.

The Immortal Hulk #42: I’M NOT READY FOR THIS TO BE IN ITS FINAL YEAR

Home Sick Pilots #2: I can already tell this is gonna be a “I can’t especially remember what’s happening issue-to-issue but I vibe with it so I hard I don’t care” book ala a lot of Gillen’s output.

Haha #1: Really good but this feels for all the world like just the next issue of Ice Cream Man, which is especially odd when the last issue of that one felt so out-of-place tonally for that book.

Penultiman #4: I feel like this is building to a happy ending, but I can’t imagine how this’ll pull it off within a single issue, especially with the cliffhanger.

Commanders in Crisis #4: Not much I can say about this one without spoilers beyond A. Still rules, and B. If you personally felt like #2 and #3 weren’t carrying the same kind of momentum as the debut, friend have I ever got the comic for you.

[iffeelscouldkill]

say what we wanna do, make it all come true (chapter 2)

A/N: In my original notes for this fic I had written that Chapter 3 might be rolled into Chapter 2 depending on length because I thought that Chapter 2 was going to be super short. *laughs wildly in 7.1k-long chapter* But this is my favourite chapter of the fic, so it's nice that we get to spend extra time with it!

No particular content warnings for this; everything’s pretty chill. Enjoy! <3

Link to Chapter One | Read on AO3

“That, dear listeners, was ‘Landers Never Stand Down’, the hit single – or should that be anthem? – by beloved indie band Rumor, from their debut album, ‘Ghost Squid’. If you’re just joining us, I’m Piper Tanaka, and this is Radio Indie, Folk and Techno. With us in the studio are Rumor frontwoman Sana Tripathi-”

“Hello again.”

“-and bassist Arkady Patel. We’ve just been hearing the stunning true story of how the band added a new member to its line-up, drummer Violet Liu, after she was discovered trying to obtain confidential files in order to blow the whistle on her employer, the notorious IGR Corp, and its development of an unethical surveillance device.”

“Isn’t that, really, the only logical way to join a band?” Kestrel quipped.

“It sure worked out well for the Rumor crew!” said Piper. “On a more musical note, though – and yes, that pun was intended – that was a great track we just heard. I’m curious about the name you picked for your debut album; is there a story there?”

Sana glanced at Arkady, amused. “Call it an in joke,” she said. “We were originally going to go with ‘In the Deep’, since there’s kind of a loose space theme to the first album, and then… after rehearsal one day, we were just riffing on what kind of creatures might live out in the depths of outer space-” They had also been pretty drunk at the time, but she didn’t need to mention that live on air. “-and Arkady suggested that maybe there’d be giant squid, like in the depths of the ocean.”

“Space squid!” Piper enthused. “Now there’s a concept I can get behind.”

“Right, but Violet, who is our resident science expert – she has a Masters in Molecular Biology–”

“Fancy. Love a woman of science.”

“-pointed out that a squid could never propel itself in a vacuum. Unless it was, you know, a ghost squid.”

“How much had you guys been drinking?” Kestrel asked shrewdly. Arkady coughed.

“It was a dumb joke, but we thought it would make a pretty unique name for a first album,” she finished.

“You were right there!” said Piper brightly. “Then, of course, there’s your upcoming second album, which we’ve heard will be titled ‘More Than a Rumor’.”

“That’s right,” Sana confirmed. “We’ve been working on some really cool material for this one, and we’re excited to bring it to you all.”

“We’ve been hearing some interesting talk about what exactly that material might be,” said Piper. “The discussion boards online are buzzing about one track, ‘The Saga of the House of Zravshen’, which is said to be a thirteen-minute-long “epic space opera ballad” written by Brian Jeeter.”

Arkady made a derisive noise. “It’ll be a thirteen-minute-long something, all right.”

“Arkady, maybe you could tell us about ‘Nanoswarm’,” said Kestrel slyly. “I’ve heard that you and Violet Liu collaborated closely on that track.”

“I – we didn’t – what I mean is, uh, it really wasn’t a formal – collaboration–”

Arkady’s transformation from self-assured to completely flustered was delightful to behold, even though Sana felt like she should maybe step in and save her best friend from herself.

“It was more of a, uh, sort of a side project – we just worked on it and it sounded pretty cool, so it, uh – went onto the album.”

“What I think is really great about ‘More Than a Rumor’,” Sana intervened smoothly, and Arkady let out a breath, sitting back in her chair, “is that there are various tracks where different band members get a chance to shine. Building on ‘Ghost Squid’, which was the introduction to the band as a whole, we really delve into different members’ specialisms in our second album, which has made the material really varied as a result. But at the same time, we’ve worked hard to give it a cohesive flow…”

---

Not everything about adding a new member to the band had been as seamless as that first set. They’d improvised together well over the course of a performance, sure, but there was a different quality to rehearsals now that there were five of them instead of four; they were still figuring out how to navigate each other, adapting routines and in-jokes to accommodate a new person.

A lot of their original material sounded different now with the addition of a keytar and a new drummer; Liu was more technically capable than Jeeter had been, and she also wasn’t content with just falling into a role that had been laid down for her. She had ideas, things she wanted to change, and they weren’t bad ideas, but they still bugged Arkady anyway. She was just attached to a lot of their old songs, that was all.

And okay, maybe she’d pushed back on a few suggestions during rehearsals in a way that had Sana raising an amused eyebrow at her and Krejjh pretending to duck and cover. To her credit, Liu didn’t just roll over and give up on her ideas at the first sign of resistance, sticking to her guns in a way that Arkady respected even if it was also annoying. Things never deteriorated too far, mainly because Sana was quick to play peacemaker, but there always seemed to be some kind of friction between the two of them. It was like an itch under Arkady’s skin whenever she was around Liu, quick to flare up.

Then there was the time that Liu had made an offhanded comment that, “Everyone here went to an underground concert or two in college, right?” in the context of discussing the kinds of set-ups that they’d performed with in the past. Arkady had said nothing, but could feel her teeth grinding as she played an overly loud riff on her bass. It was an innocuous enough comment on its own, but the easy presumptions behind it – the idea that everyone had had access to the same educational opportunities that Liu had had – were what pissed Arkady off.

But contradicting her would have meant talking about something that was personal to Arkady, something that cut way too close to the bone, and she didn’t want to do that. Liu hadn’t earned that from her. Instead, Jeeter made a joke about having been way too immersed in books to find time for concerts, and Sana tactfully steered the conversation out of dangerous waters.

After the rehearsal, she’d pulled Arkady aside. “If you want me to talk to her about—”

Arkady shook her head. “It’s not a big deal. Really,” she added at Sana’s unconvinced look. “It was a stupid assumption, but I can let it go. I’d rather just… let it go.”

They were in a band together, but that didn’t mean they had to be best friends. Arkady could maintain a civil working relationship. It didn’t matter what she’d… thought when she first met Liu, or what Liu might have been about to say to her in the bar. All of that was in the past, so there was no point dwelling on it. All Arkady needed to do was work with Liu within the context of the band; she could do that.

Until one afternoon when Arkady arrived early for rehearsal without really meaning to, and found that the only other person in the warehouse was Liu, who was setting up her drumkit. Before Arkady could turn around and pretend she’d never been there, Liu looked up and spotted her.

“Oh… hey. I was just planning to run through a few drum lines before the rehearsal… try some stuff out,” she said.

“Right,” Arkady said, casting about for an excuse that would get her out of the warehouse until the others arrived. “Uh, I’m gonna go get some coffee from the-”

“Arkady, listen, can we, uh… Can we clear the air between us?” Liu asked, the last few words coming out all in a rush.

Arkady froze. “Clear… what air?” she asked, hoping to god that Liu would say something innocuous about why she thought the drum line on Fear for the Storm needed work.

No such luck. “Look, I get that you’re not… thrilled with having me in the band,” Liu said, quietly, though her voice still carried in the echoey space. “I’ve been in a lot of workplace environments where I’m not welcome, so I… know how to spot the signs. And maybe I’m being hypersensitive, or looking for things to worry about, but something still feels off between us, so whatever it is, can we just talk about it and deal with it? Please?”

Arkady’s chest clenched at Liu’s mention of not being welcome in ‘workplace environments’. Damn it, she didn’t want to make Liu feel the same way she’d felt in whatever white dudebro-filled tech companies she’d worked for. But she also didn’t want to go into the reasons why she wasn’t always a ray of sunshine when they interacted. There was no way that that conversation was going to make anything better.

“I don’t have a problem with you being in the band. Really,” she said instead. “If it comes off that way, it’s just because… Sana and I worked on a lot of those early songs together, and I’m… attached to how they sound. That’s all.”

“So… this is really just a musical disagreement?” said Liu, sounding unconvinced. “Because it feels like there’s… something else. I know you’re not the biggest fan of my former employer – and I mean, me neither – but I figure if it bothered you that much, you wouldn’t have come to help me when Seiders was threatening me-”

“I wasn’t going to just let you die,” Arkady said, nettled. “And no, I’m not in the habit of judging people for where they work. I’ve worked my fair share of jobs for shitty employers just to get by.” She shrugged. Then, almost without meaning to, she added, “Of course, I didn’t have the choice that you probably had…”

Liu frowned, but more like she was confused than like she was annoyed by Arkady’s comment. “What do you mean?”

Arkady sighed. “Not everyone went to college, Liu,” she said. “I’m a high school dropout. So no, I didn’t go to any underground concerts. Or any kind of gigs in college.”

Liu’s eyes widened as her comment from earlier came back to her. “Oh my god,” she groaned, putting her hand to her head. “I am so sorry, Arkady – I should know better than to make assumptions like that. I was just – I’d been talking to Brian about his studies and how he met Krejjh doing fieldwork, and I guess I assumed you guys had all met in college-”

Arkady barked out a laugh, too startled to even really be annoyed. “What, you thought that I could’ve been studying alongside Jeeter? You know he went to Brightwell, right? That elite college that’s supposed to be harder than Harvard to get into?”

Liu shrugged like the idea was actually plausible and not something that sounded like part of a bizarre alternate reality. “Yeah, I don’t see why not.” Then, quickly, as if she was afraid that this might have offended Arkady even more, she added, “But like I said – I really shouldn’t have assumed, and I’m sorry – I know better than that. I was only able to go to the college I did because I won a scholarship.”

Keen to move away from the topic of Arkady possibly having gone to Brightwell – because really, what – Arkady said, “You went to uh, that all-girls college, right? Harmony?” She vaguely remembered overhearing a conversation between Liu and Jeeter where Liu had talked about there being a Latin motto. “It sounded… interesting.”

Liu pulled a face. “Yeah, that’s one word for it.” She went on almost shyly, like she was confessing to a deeply-held secret, “I would have liked to study something more artistic – music, maybe – or at least do more extra-curriculars, but… I got that scholarship, and I was under a lot of pressure from my parents to do something ‘worthwhile’. Plus, I really wanted to show the kids who said I only got that scholarship because I was ‘a minority’.” There was an anger and a bitterness and a tiredness underlying those last two words that Arkady knew far too well.

“They what,” she spat out. God, was she glad she’d never been to college. Then again, she’d worked at places where she’d come up against the exact same attitude.

“Yeah,” Liu said wearily, fiddling with the drumsticks she was holding. “It wasn’t all bad, though. Being away at college was the first time I was really able to be myself – play the drums, be out. I got this haircut in my freshman year that was just – wild, it was awful.” She laughed, though Arkady barely heard her, her heartbeat suddenly pounding in her ears at the word ‘out’. God, Patel, get a grip. “My parents never liked the drums, they thought they were too – un-feminine,” she pulled a face again. “I play the flute, too, but I’m bad at it.”

“We should add that into the line-up,” said Arkady, to distract herself from thinking about Violet’s – Liu’s – flushed cheeks and her smile as she talked about her old haircut. “Sana can write a flute part.”

“Oh god, no,” Liu said, laughing again. “I don’t even have my flute any more, I sold it in grad school.”

“So… if you went to grad school… you can’t have hated it that much, right?” Arkady asked. “Uh – the biology, not the – flute playing.”

“Oh, no, I love biology,” Liu enthused. “It’s the study of living things – what’s not to love? Grad school itself, though, was…” She pulled a face. “I came close to quitting, a few times.”

“What happened?” Arkady asked. They were pretty far off their original subject by now, and Arkady was willing to admit to herself (and only herself) that maybe she was enjoying the conversation. It was all in the name of building better inter-band relationships, of course. Sana would be thrilled that they were bonding like this.

Liu sighed. “Let’s just say there were a few people on my course who were determined to let me know I didn’t belong. We had a lab work module where we were supposed to carry out an experiment as a group, and… I got put in charge of our group of six. My teammates would do things like pretend not to understand my instructions, or move things I needed to shelves I couldn’t reach… make comments they knew I could overhear… Growing up with an anxiety disorder, everyone’s always telling you not to worry – you learn to doubt your own thoughts. And my advisor just dismissed my concerns as ‘over-sensitivity’, so…” Arkady’s eyes narrowed further with every word that Liu spoke. “It was too late for me to transfer to another module. In the end I wound up carrying the whole project basically by myself.”

Liu gave Arkady a weak smile. “So, y’know, you didn’t miss out on much. I interned for a pharmaceutical company for a couple of years after college, did some work as a research assistant. When I got the job offer from IGR Corp, I felt like I’d finally made it – and look how that turned out.”

“Hey, it’s not your fault that IGR Corp turned out to be a special brand of greedy, soul-sucking and unethical,” said Arkady bluntly – even though she’d previously thought that maybe Liu could have had less awful taste in employers. “That’s on them. Look… I know a thing or two about soul-sucking workplaces myself.”

Arkady hadn’t intended this to turn into Personal Story Hour, but at the same time she felt like she should at least offer something after Liu had opened up about her time in college. She hadn’t needed to justify herself; she could just have apologised and left it at that. Instead, she’d shared something that Arkady suspected she didn’t talk about to a lot of people.

“The last job I worked before Sana and I started Rumor was for Telemachus Enterprises,” Arkady said, and Liu’s eyes widened in recognition.

“The global consulting firm? That’s very… well…”

“Capitalist? Soullessly corporate?” Arkady finished for her.

“I was going to say stable,” Liu said diplomatically.

“Sure, as long as you also like ladder-climbing, backstabbing and toxic work environments,” said Arkady. “I was an assistant, doing all the crap work like photocopying, fetching coffee, making calls, scheduling appointments and dealing with angry clients. It was the kind of job you get to get a ‘foothold’ in the world of business, and all of the other assistants were recent college grads who were way younger than me. I hated it.”

Liu nodded, listening intently, not offering any kind of commentary or judgement.

“Playing the bass was kind of the only thing that kept me sane, so… I used to go down to these shitty clubs at night and play, sometimes straight from work because the overtime was ridiculous. I’d join up with a couple of other musicians and do jam sessions, or sometimes play solo stuff. I’d sing, sometimes, too,” she added, a little self-consciously, even though she sang backing vocals on most of Rumor’s songs, and everyone in the band had heard her sing.

“I moved around a lot, never performed at the same place two nights in a row, so that no-one got to know me too well. I used to use different stage names – my favourite was Duchess Calpurnia Higginsworth-Cobb.”

Liu burst out laughing. “You didn’t really tell people that was your name?”

“Drunk people will believe anything,” Arkady told her. “I’m still known as ‘Duchess’ in a few places. It was a precaution, in case anything got back to my work, but in the end… the person who recognised me was someone I hadn’t seen in over a decade. Sana.”

Liu’s eyes widened. “You guys go back that far?”

“Kind of,” Arkady said. “It’s a long story–” delving into the tale of The Landing and her and Sana’s shared history definitely felt like it would be going a step too far – “but uh, I used to do work at a tattoo parlour that Sana came to a few times. I didn’t think she’d really noticed me at the time, but she remembered me well enough that when I played at a club near her workplace, she recognised me. She managed to catch a few more of my performances, figure out where I’d be, and one night she showed up with her guitar, and… we played together.”

Arkady smiled a little, remembering that night, the spark she’d felt as soon as they started to play. The drummer had been awful, some white asshole named Ricky who thought he was God’s gift to music – and wasn’t – but they’d sounded like magic anyway.

“Somehow she managed to figure out where I worked, showed up one day, invited me to get lunch, and after she found out how much I hated it there, she told me I should quit so that we could start a band,” Arkady said.

“And you did?” Liu asked, sounding half impressed, half scandalised.

“I really hated that job,” Arkady said. “Besides, the Capt- Sana can be really persuasive. We joke about her motivational speeches, but she’s…” Arkady hated to admit this, because it sounded so goddamn cheesy, but there wasn’t another word to describe it. “…inspirational.”

Liu smiled. “Yeah, I can tell. She seems like that kind of person.”

“We wrote a lot of our early songs together during that time,” Arkady said. “‘Landers Never Stand Down’, ‘Fear for the Storm’… they kind of – ugh, this is going to sound so corny, but they were about our hope for something better. So… that’s why I’m weird about changing them.”

Liu’s expression softened. “I completely get it. Look, I know that all of this has been pretty sudden – me joining the band, us trying to put together an album – and I’d understand if you wanted me to… back off a little. I was throwing out ideas for things that I thought would sound good with our new line-up, but I should have appreciated that these aren’t just songs to you and Sana.”

“No, it’s – you’re – okay,” Arkady said awkwardly. “You’re fine. They’re… they’re uh, really…” God, Arkady, just spit it out. People pay each other compliments all the time – it doesn’t have to mean anything. (Even if you might want it to mean something). “They’re really good. Ideas, I mean. And the others seem to like them! So… don’t stop on my account.”

Arkady’s urge to just leave the building after finally stumbling through that awkward admission was pretty strong, but she managed to resist. Which turned out to be worth it to see the small, pleased smile unfolding on Liu’s face. It was a different kind of smile to the one that she wore when the Captain paid her a compliment, though Arkady couldn’t have said exactly how. It just felt… personal to her.

“Well, in that case,” said Liu. “I had this idea I really wanted to try out on ‘Landers’, and… I’d love to get your thoughts? On how it sounds?”

Which was how, when Sana showed up for the start of the rehearsal fifteen minutes later, Arkady and Violet came to be mid-debate about the merits of speeding up the tempo of the drum line in the first half of the second verse, Arkady singing Sana’s part of the vocals to illustrate her point.

“Am I late?” Sana joked, throwing Arkady an amused glance. “Sorry, I didn’t realise practice was starting early.”

“The cool kids show up to practice a half hour early to go over new drum lines,” Arkady deadpanned, and Liu laughed. Sana smiled as she brought out her guitar.

“What you were playing just then sounded really good – can you go over it again?”

The conversation with Liu didn’t magically fix everything between them, but the tension eased up significantly after that, and it became easier for Arkady and Liu to come to a compromise whenever they disagreed. The album started to come together much more quickly, and when Red Gregor stopped by (which he did a lot more than he strictly needed to as the head of their record label, and Arkady suspected he was mostly there to see Sana), he was full of praise for the new arrangements.

It also somehow became a habit for Arkady to start showing up early to rehearsal. She told herself it was because the line in the coffee shop was easier to deal with at that time, and it was true that at some point she’d bought enough coffee for both her and Violet to have Violet’s regular order memorised; but it also had something to do with the fact that more often than not, Violet would arrive while she was setting up, or vice versa, and they’d run through the parts that had been bugging them, each lending the other an honest and unjudgemental ear. Sometimes they’d play around with something new, or improvise, trying on new techniques and styles for size.

Arkady honestly hadn’t had this much fun experimenting with music since those first early, heady days with Sana, when they started to lay down exactly what kind of performers they wanted to be. It was different with Violet – they had a different relationship, a different vibe – but there was still something about their sessions that felt similar, like they were breaking new ground.

One day, Arkady had been messing around with a bass line that she couldn’t get out of her head – she’d been thinking of adding it to ‘The Carmen Gambit’, one of the band’s originals that Jeeter had helped write, but it didn’t really fit. She liked how it sounded on its own, though. Liu had been listening, head tilted to one side, which Arkady didn’t really think anything of until quietly, underneath the bass line, Violet started to add a drum part.

Arkady was startled, mostly by how well the two fit together; after a slight fumble, she carried on playing, improvising and adding a couple of variations to the bass line when she ran out of material. Liu smoothly changed up the rhythm of the drum line to match just a second later, and Arkady realised that they had something that almost sounded like… a real piece of music. Something organic, something that flowed and moved and changed with-

Crap. Arkady came to a stop at the end of a section as she realised she didn’t have any idea what to play next. “Uh…” She threw an apologetic glance in Violet’s direction. “I haven’t really figured out what comes after that.”

Violet nodded, not seeming put out by this. “What about…” She hummed the end section of the melody that Arkady had been playing, and then another phrase that almost mirrored it. “Actually, that part could come before the-”

“Right, right-” Arkady understood Violet’s meaning, and quickly picked up the tune on her bass.

The song (well, technically it was an instrumental) they were writing didn’t have a name for the first few days. Arkady and Violet would pick up where they left off each time they came to rehearsal, and would throw around ideas for additions and changes, discussing the overall sound and vibe, but it didn’t feel like there was a need to put a name to it.

Then in the middle of one of these discussions, Violet started scribbling something in a notebook, and Arkady realised she was writing down their song. She peered curiously at the letters and notes, and Violet grimaced self-consciously.

“I’m not sure if I’ve got all of the bass chords right,” she admitted, tilting the notebook so Arkady could see it better. “Feel free to correct any bits that are wrong, I was mostly trying to get the drum part down for my own benefit. My memory’s not as good as yours is.”

Arkady hesitated. She was tempted to lie and say the notation was fine; Violet would accept it, and it probably wouldn’t come up again. There was a time when she would have done it without a second’s thought. But Violet already knew that Arkady had dropped out of high school; knew bits and pieces of her background, if not the whole story; and Arkady had to admit that she’d been enjoying being herself more around Violet. She didn’t want to backtrack on that.

“I never really learned to read sheet music,” she admitted. “I can recognise a few chords, but… I mostly learned how to play from YouTube videos, so it always seemed easier to just watch someone else play the chords, and learn which ones went with which songs, and… for performances I always had to memorise stuff anyway, so, um.” Arkady was rambling, and Violet was staring at her, which was possibly not good. “There didn’t seem much point in having it written down.”

“So… you never had a bass teacher?” Violet said slowly. “All of your playing, your singing – it’s all self-taught?”

“Uh,” Arkady cringed. “Yes?”

“Wow,” Violet said, and Arkady suddenly realised that she was dumbfounded because she was impressed, not because she’d just realised she was playing with an amateur. “That’s… really impressive.”

Arkady fidgeted, uncomfortable with the pure admiration in Violet’s gaze. “It’s not really – I mean sure, I put in a lot of hours, but so does every musician,” she hedged. “It wasn’t anything special, I just – couldn’t afford to pay for classes.”

She braced herself for an awkward silence to follow, but instead Violet nodded. “No, you’re right, everyone has to put in the work if they want to improve,” she agreed. “But I imagine that it would be harder to motivate yourself when it’s just you and the instrument.”

Arkady shrugged her shoulder slightly. “It wasn’t so bad. It helped that I enjoyed it, I guess.” After the disaster that was her high school education, it had been a relief to find something she’d felt like she was good at – and wasn’t being assessed on.

Violet smiled, and mercifully changed the topic by looking down at the notation she’d scribbled and saying lightly, “Well, now that it’s been written down, it feels like we should give it a name.”

Arkady thought about it. “Anything that’s shorter than whatever the hell it is Jeeter and Krejjh are working on,” she said, because Jeeter had been waxing lyrical about the ‘epic space opera ballad’ that he’d been composing with his fiancé. Apparently it was about a race of fictional aliens, and some of the lyrics were in a made-up alien language that Jeeter had invented. Arkady had no idea why Jeeter had such a dedicated following among their fans for the weird shit that he came up with, but there you were.

Violet grinned, tapping her pen against the space above the lines and notations. “So, one word, then. It’s got a pretty futuristic sound… What about ‘Cyberpunk’?”

Arkady couldn’t help grimacing a little bit. “Yeah, too clichéd,” Violet agreed. “Maybe something themed around space… ‘Supernova’?”

They tossed around a few other ideas, but none of them quite seemed to fit the mood of the song. Violet frowned down at the music she’d written, and Arkady was about to suggest they come back to it later when she said, “This might sound like a weird association for a piece of music, but I was reading a paper the other day on nanotechnology, you know, technology used at the atomic and molecular level?”

“Sounds kind of dry for bedtime reading, but I’m with you,” Arkady said.

Violet laughed, blushing a little. “Yeah, a friend from my Masters sent it to me; I still like to keep up with new developments in the field, and there are fascinating implications for biology. But I’m thinking, what if none of the space names fit because they’re too big, too grand? What if instead we went really small, like… ‘Nanobot’?”

“Nanobot…” Arkady turned the name over in her mind, thinking about the quick, intricate rhythms of the song they were creating together. It was a surprisingly good fit, but something about it felt off. Something about the ‘bot’ part was too… lonely. “What about ‘Nanoswarm’?”

Violet’s eyes widened slightly and a smile spread across her face. “Nanoswarm,” she said, and wrote the song title in blocky capitals above their music. “I like it.”

Both Red Gregor and Campbell came to rehearsal that night, which Arkady took as a sign that they were there to discuss something Important. Their album, ‘Ghost Squid’, was selling more copies than any of them had expected, and had actually got them some interview requests from indie music blogs and magazines. This seemed to be partly down to Red Gregor, who apparently had enough of a reputation as a business investor that his decision to start up a record label had attracted a lot of interest, and consequently a lot of interest in the first band he’d signed to it. But they’d also had some great reviews, including from Radio, Indie, Folk and Techno (also known as RIFT), the go-to station for all things indie music, who had covered it on their ‘Rave Review Hour’.

There’d also been a noticeably bigger audience at most of their gigs. They’d had a modest but dedicated following before Violet had joined the band, and were regulars at a couple of underground venues where they pulled decent crowds, plus one bar where Arkady had managed not to piss off the owner (the other four were… long stories); a bunch of people also streamed their music from various parts of the world. But since Ghost Squid came out, they’d started playing at (and filling) much bigger venues across a much wider area. It was fun, but also a little surreal.

“What’s the good word, Campbell?” Krejjh asked, leaning on their keyboard. “Are you here to tell us how much the people love us?”

Campbell’s lips twitched in amusement. “They love you a whole lot,” he said. “More every day.”

Krejjh fist-pumped, and Arkady asked, “So, what are you guys here for? Is this about ‘Ghost Squid 2: Electric Boogaloo’?”

They’d had a discussion with Red Gregor about beginning work on a second album; this one would take longer, since they’d had plenty of existing songs to draw on for ‘Ghost Squid’, and hadn’t needed to put together any new material. But, as Gregor had pointed out, it was better to start thinking about that sooner rather than later, and they’d been working on a few new songs anyway. So far, the second album was still nameless, but they’d taken to calling it by a range of joke nicknames.

Red Gregor grinned. “Sort of, in the sense that it’ll be good promo,” he said. Spreading his hands out to either side like a showman introducing his next act, he said grandly, “I’ve landed you a gig at the CUI Stadium.”

Jeeter’s mouth dropped open, Krejjh flailed and exclaimed, “Holy moley!”, and Violet repeated, “Stadium?!” in an almost horrified tone. Even Sana seemed surprised by the news.

“You actually got it?” she asked Red Gregor, who nodded.

Arkady’s eyes narrowed. “Okay, what’s the catch?” she asked. “They don’t let just anyone play the CUI Stadium.”

“No catch,” Campbell promised them. “Red has some contacts who tipped him off that the CUI is looking for some new, lesser-known talent to put on its billing. Once upon a time, the CUI had a reputation for scouting the best undiscovered bands and giving them a bigger stage – literally – and they feel they’ve been losing their touch.”

Put like that, it did make a kind of sense. “Cool, so who are we supporting?” Jeeter asked. “Oooh, maybe it’s Hremreh.”

Hremreh was a weird electronic band that Jeeter and Krejjh were completely obsessed with. Arkady rolled her eyes. “I hope the CUI has more taste than that.”

“Excuse you, Hremreh is an underrated gem of a band,” Krejjh retorted.

“The Destroyer?” Violet suggested jokingly. “They’re local.”

Arkady knew from having spent time with Violet that The Destroyer was one of her favourite bands from college, whose gigs she’d religiously attended during her freshman year. Everyone else looked interested but bemused, and Violet hurriedly added, “Uh, that was a bit of a niche joke. I used to go to their gigs a lot in college.”

“All great guesses,” Red Gregor said, “but you’re all missing one important piece of information. You’ll be the headline act.”

“What?” said Arkady.

“Heck yeah!” Krejjh exclaimed, and high-fived Jeeter.

“So, someone will be supporting us?” Violet said a little faintly.

“Red, exactly how many strings did you pull?” Sana asked, sounding halfway between amused and disapproving. Red Gregor held up his hands.

“I just talked to my contacts, I promise,” he said. “It gave me a chance to put your name forward, but that was all I needed to do. You guys have a great sound; they’re excited to have you on.”

Everything dissolved into a flurry of noise and celebration. Jeeter played a celebratory tune on his keytar that Arkady was fairly sure was from some video game, Krejjh whooped and slid their hands up the keys of their keyboard, and Campbell picked up Sana and spun her around, both of them and Red Gregor laughing. Violet caught Arkady’s eye, grinned, and did a little roll on one of her cymbals. Arkady huffed and rolled her eyes, but she couldn’t fight the smile that was trying to emerge.

“So, when is the gig?” Sana asked, flushed and catching her breath, after Campbell had put her down.

“A month from today,” Red told them. Sana straightened up.

“Wow, okay, we need to get rehearsing! Everyone—”

They quickly got into position, picking up instruments and drumsticks and plugging in amplifiers. Sana beamed around at the assembled band members.

“I just want to say how proud I am of all of you for what we’ve accomplished so far, and everything that lies ahead of us. I-”

“Not to head you off at the pass,” Arkady interrupted, sensing a long Sana Monologue was coming, “but didn’t you say we needed to get rehearsing? Maybe save the speech for after?”

Most people would have taken offence at being interrupted, but Sana, being Sana, smiled at Arkady. “Thank you for the reminder, Arkady. I am proud of you all, but I’ll tell you exactly how proud once we’re done.”

Rehearsal went well, everyone energetic and buoyed up from the good news. As they were packing down afterwards, under the noise of Sana, Krejjh, Jeeter, Campbell and Gregor eagerly discussing where they could go out for drinks to celebrate, Violet said to Arkady,

“I forgot to tell you earlier, but I heard back from the journalist. Emily Craddock.”

Arkady fumbled the wire that she was looping around itself. “Yeah? What did she say?”

“She said that she thinks we have enough for a story. Even with the missing data,” Violet said.

She looked happy, but something in Arkady’s chest still clenched. It had been nearly four weeks since the fateful gig at IGR Corp, and so far, everything had been quiet. The band had been on high alert at all of their performances at first, not spending any more time than was necessary setting up or lingering on the stage, but there’d been no attempts at sabotage, no suspicious ‘fans’ trying to approach them after a set. (There had been a few real fans whom Arkady had cross-examined a bit too aggressively when they tried to get close to the band, but people seemed to actually find it funny and no-one got offended).

They figured that IGR Corp must not know about the files that Violet had managed to copy across; Seiders had been unconscious, after all, and it was possible that they hadn’t realised that Violet had made off with anything, or had downplayed the severity of the incident to the higher-ups. Arkady had, in spite of her misgivings, broken the encryption on the files for Violet, but she’d been secretly hoping that the data wouldn’t turn out to be useful, or that there wouldn’t be enough of it to do anything with.

She’d hoped that even after Violet told her that she’d found a tech journalist who was interested in taking a look at the files and potentially investigate the story. Of course Arkady was a fan of doing whatever they could to stick it to the corporates; she just wished there was a way to do it that wouldn’t involve Violet painting a huge target on her back.

“That’s… good,” Arkady managed, and even she could hear how unconvincing it sounded. Violet looked at her questioningly. “It’s just…” She tried to find a way to word things that wasn’t, ‘I’m afraid that you won’t be safe’. “Once the information is out there, IGR Corp is going to know who leaked it. What happens if they come after you?”

“By that point, they should have bigger things to worry about, if the evidence that Emily Craddock has found is as damning as she says it is,” Violet pointed out. “She’s been looking into that engineer that Seiders mentioned, Alvy Connors. It’s not really clear whether something… happened to him, or whether he just made a run for it, but he definitely disappeared. And it wasn’t that long after he started work on Project ADVANCE.”

As they talked, the other band members had been clearing equipment away and loading it into the van, until Violet and Arkady were the only ones left in the warehouse.

“I know there’s risk involved,” Violet said. “But I can’t just forget everything I’ve learned. And this is bigger than me – I have to do it for Alvy, too, and his family and friends, and everyone else who could be affected by Project ADVANCE. What IGR Corp is doing-”

“I know, I know,” Arkady said. “Don’t get me wrong, I think they deserve to have the cover blown right off their shitty, awful surveillance plan.”

“I’m going to talk to the Captain before I do anything,” Violet assured her. “I know this could affect the band, too. I just wanted to tell you first.”

Why? Arkady wanted to ask, but that would have taken the conversation down a road that Arkady was not prepared to go down. Either Violet would say something like, ‘Because we’re friends’, or ‘Because you’re my bandmate’, and Arkady would feel like a moron for having hoped for anything different. Or she wouldn’t, and that would be worse, because Arkady had no idea how to respond to Violet saying… Well, it didn’t matter, because it would never happen, anyway.

“Sana will tell you to go for it,” she said. “If it’s what you think is right, she’ll be behind you all the way.”

“And… you?” Violet asked quietly.

“I…”

Why was it so hard for Arkady to just say that she approved? Violet was a grown woman who could make her own decisions; she didn’t need Arkady second-guessing her. Violet didn’t even need Arkady to agree with what she was doing – she could just go and do it anyway. But the fact that she’d asked Arkady meant that she cared what Arkady thought… and that made Arkady want to be honest with her.

And honesty was terrifying.

The moment stretched out; Arkady composed and drafted half a dozen different versions of what she wanted to say in her head. ‘I just need you to be careful’ – ugh, that sounded like something Sana would say. Also, of course Violet was going to be careful; that didn’t mean there was no risk involved. ‘I trust you to make the right choice’ – vague, and it also made Arkady feel weird. ‘If they hurt you, they’ll wish they’d never been born’ – alarming, and probably too honest.

Arkady took a breath in, gathering her nerve – and then both of them jumped as the van horn beeped loudly from outside.

“Paging bandmates Liu and Patel!” Krejjh shouted. “Bandmates Liu and Patel to the Rumormobile, please!”

Violet laughed a little, as Arkady huffed, inwardly cursing her own goddamn indecision. She’d spent so long trying to figure out what to say that she’d lost the chance to say anything.

“I guess we shouldn’t keep them waiting,” Violet said, slanting a small smile in Arkady’s direction.

“I trust you,” Arkady found herself saying, almost without meaning to. Violet looked puzzled, and Arkady scrambled to clarify. “Uh, that is – if you think this is the right thing to do. Then, you should… do it. Just…”

She still couldn’t say it, but Violet’s smile widened, her eyes softening like she knew what Arkady was trying (and failing) to tell her. “I’ll be careful,” she promised.

[starrymothwings]

Fate 21, 22, 23

Now because of the very nature of Fate and Fate Grand Order in particular, you can make the arguments that there aren’t a whole lot of crack ships in general? Now if we’re talking about the regular ol’ human and mage characters then that’s one thing and I don’t have any strong opinions on that. Ship what you want as long as it’s not, like, incest or pedophilia.

However if we’re talking servants or ships that involve servants?? Understand I’m going to mostly talk about FGO because that’s the part of the franchise I’m most familiar with, but

One of the most popular ships is literally between the alternate darker versions of Jeanne d’Arc and King Arthur who is also a woman in this.

Now there’s context for this but that doesn’t make that sentence not buck wild, right? Another ship the game teases is between Martha (like, Saint Martha) and Sasaki Kojiro who is technically one of many possible nameless swordsmen who can take up the mantle of Sasaki Kojiro by taking up and mastering his techniques. As far as ships I’ve seen art of, there’s Semiramis and Amakusa, Gilgamesh and Arturia (King Arthur but woman, also this ship is one of divided opinion for very good reason), and even Tesla and Thomas Edison. You know, Tesla and the guy that stole his inventions--oh but let’s not forget that in the Fateverse Thomas Edison is merged with all of the American presidents which for some reason makes him a fucking buff punch wizard with the head of a LION.

I’m rambling, but my point is: by the very nature of Fate, there aren’t a whole lot of characters you can stick together and properly call it a crack ship. It’s one part of the ridiculous that I love about Fate, which is that you don’t have to go out of your way to imagine any number of scenarios between all sorts of colorful characters.

This is....Hard for me to answer. Very hard.

So, the thing is, there aren’t any popular characters I can say that I hate. Either because the popular characters in the Fateverse tend to be popular for more reasons beyond the fact that they’re pretty (The original VN was an eroge, yes, but that was because of marketing. You take out or ignore the eroge scenes and you have a well-written, interesting visual novel) OR it’s because I just simply don’t have enough context for that character.

For the latter, let me use Tamamo and Nero for example. These are two characters that I KNOW are popular. They’re also characters I’m not super fond of--however, that’s possibly because I don’t know them well enough. I’ve played through Fate Grand Order and Fate Extella Link. I’m currently playing through Fate Extra for the first time, but I’m on Archer’s route. I have not played Extella Link or the other two routes in Extra, I have not watched a playthrough of CCC yet, I have not watched Last Encore, I have not read Foxtail, I have not played through Extella. 

That’s a lot of context, story, and character for those two that I haven’t experienced yet. I don’t like Nero’s character in FGO because they try to erase everything she did wrong in life, or just sweep it under the rug. However, I’ve heard that she’s written much better in the game that she debuts in, Fate Extra, and that the loose anime adaptation of it, Last Encore, has something good too.

Tamamo just...Bores me. But! I know even less of her character than Nero. It’s way too soon for me to say whether or not I dislike her when I’m only taking her at face value.

I may not like the two of them for now, but my answer may change once I have all the information.

Again, I can’t say that I there are any popular characters I hate, however...

Robin Hood (pretty sure he’s at least fairly popular) is one character that I do like, but not nearly as much as I’ve seen. I just...Don’t really get the hype? Again, haven’t played through Extella or watched someone play CCC but I HAVE played past his roles in Extra and FGO. Like I like him but I can’t say he’s a favorite of mine, or even near that spot.

Nightingale, however...Nightingale I don’t like. I don’t hate her but I don’t like her either. There were spans of time in the America singularity that I was either bored or annoyed with because of her. Does she make good points and say some dope shit occasionally? Yeah. Most of the rest of her dialogue however felt very very repetitive. Like yes I know that your shtick is that you’re a nurse and you’re here to treat the illness and disease in the singularity and Cu Alter is a prime candidate for treatment because his character as he is in that current iteration is diseased, yes yes yes. But there’s only so many times I can read her talk about illness and disease before it starts to get on my nerve. Yeah she has Madness Enhancement EX, but you know who else does? Saber Gilles. Cu Alter has it too, and they’re both coherent. Also, and more importantly, I fucking hate her pose. The art in her ascensions is fine, but the pose?? I get what it’s supposed to be but it looks so stiff. It’s an insignificant detail but she looks like a balloon person and it’s upsetting.

There are...A few. But I’m gonna talk the most in detail about one of my earliest favorites when I first got into Fate. I just mentioned him, actually.

Saber Gilles. I need to specify the class because his Caster self and Saber self are completely different (well, no? It’s complicated) and Saber is the one that’ll always hold a place in my heart.

Because I have a very soft spot for pious people who are goaded by a darker side and struggle with that darkness. Saber Gilles de Rais is not the infamous Bluebeard. Saber Gilles de Rais is the man that came before Bluebeard, the one who was known for fighting alongside Jeanne d’Arc. Saber Gilles is lawful good while Caster Gilles is Chaotic Evil. At a glance, these two are completely different, but the horrifying (and there’s beauty in that horror) truth is that he’s not. And nobody feels that horror quite like Saber Gilles himself.

Fate Grand Order tells of Gilles’ struggle not through words, but through visuals.

In his first ascension, you have him in his ‘purest’ state. You can literally call him a knight in shining armor. This is the honorable man that fought alongside Jeanne, plain and simple.

Then you have the second ascension, and you can immediately tell he’s been tainted. Something isn’t right. His cloth is bloodied, some of his armor has been stripped away and you can see a bit of a dark cloak resembling what he wore as Bluebeard--having replaced that white cape. In his hand he holds a sword. His armor has become sharper, more detailed. He is still a general, yes, but something in him has changed.

Then, the third ascension. It’s a dramatic change. One thing to note is that when servants ascend, they generally gain something in appearance, but Gilles? Gilles has lost. More than half his armor is gone, and now you can very plainly see that Bluebeard-esque garment underneath. The chestpiece bearing a cross? Gone. Every piece of white cloth? Gone. And in his left hand he holds Prelati’s Book. For context, Prelati is the being that convinced Gilles to give into his darker impulses and that led to Bluebeard, or Caster Gilles. That book is also what Caster Gilles wields. In this third ascension we finally see the man who struggles with and fears what he knows he becomes. 

Again, Saber Gilles is not Caster Gilles, cannot but Caster Gilles, but the two are not so different. Caster Gilles is not an alter of Saber Gilles, after all, but rather the two are the same man at different points in his life. As we ascend him we see him transverse the point between when he is a man with strength in his convictions, to a man fighting an inner conflict and change that is coming but will never come to him. Servants generally don’t change much because they are aspects of heroic spirits, but Saber Gilles has to change.

It’s even reflected in his battle sprites. Notice the change in the third sprite? His smile and optimism: gone.

Then, we get to his final ascension art.

THIS. This is still one of my favorite final ascension arts if not my favorite. I’m pretty sure I can’t say anything about it that I haven’t already said above, so I think it’s okay to let the image speak for itself. It’s so fucking beautiful and telling all on it’s own. The angel and devil over your shoulder imagery. Note how it’s not the side with the angel that’s closer to the viewer, that’s in the foreground. I love everything about this piece and if I could buy this as a big poster to hang up in my room I would do that in a heartbeat.

I just love Saber Gilles so, so much. The way he’s written has me smitten. I know it likely won’t ever happen, but I desperately wish he gets another interlude in the future, or a serious role in an event.

...Okay, so I did want to discuss some others but this post is long enough, so I’ll just say some other unpopular characters I love are Fionn Mac Cumhaill, Amadeus Mozart, Fergus, Yagyu (more underrated than unpopular), CALIGULA, Mephistopheles, PHANTOM, Gilgamesh (NOT unpopular just decisive and one of my big favs so I have to mention him), and Salieri if he counts. Really tried to get a lady in there but I can’t think of any that are unpopular. I’m only thinking of the FGO cast because the roster is already so long.

I wouldn’t mind (read: I would LOVE) if someone asked this question again so I can go into detail about some of my other unpopular favorites. I have more that err on the more popular side too, because my heart is big and full of love. OR just straight up send me an ask, anon or not, because I have a lot to say.

Sorry about the long post and thank you for the questions!!

[alj4890]

RCD Appreciation Week Day 5 Prompt

(Thomas Hunt x oc*Amanda) with the day's given prompt of tradition.

(Thomas x Amanda) taken from the storyline And Then I Met You

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Masterlist

The Debut

Thomas walked down the corridor of St Orella that led to the rooms the family tended to use more than the other wings. He grimaced at hearing gasps from a tour group that was currently on their way to the portrait gallery. Nearly six years as the Duke of St Orella had yet to make him comfortable with strangers coming by every Saturday afternoon.

He nodded briefly to the people without breaking his stride. Cameras flashed as excited murmurs grew in volume at having caught the famous director at what was considered his second home. The closer he got to the sitting room Amanda preferred made the tense muscles in his shoulders relax. 

His lips curved when he heard the squeal followed by laughter. He opened one of the doors and paused. Amanda was chasing a giggling Kathleen around the room. Their recently turned one year old was laughing while trying to playfully evade her mother that was laughing along with her.

Thomas swooped down and captured the toddler when she came within reach. Kathleen squealed again as he held her above his head. Her little dimpled hands grabbed his cheeks. Her smile was wide when he lowered her down for a quick kiss on her cheek.

"Your grace, this was delievered by royal courier." Hudson bowed and handed Amanda the mail. "Would you care for me to bring your tea tray?"

"Yes, thank you Hudson." She replied. "And please add Kathleen's sippy cup with milk." She looked up at Thomas. "Would you care for some coffee?"

He nodded while setting Kathleen down on the blanket in the center of the room covered with toys and books.

Hudson bowed with a smile at Kathleen waving and saying bye to him. "I'll be back, Lady Kathleen." He promised.

Thomas chuckled at the stoic butler’s inability to keep from smiling at Kathleen’s sweetness. He sat down beside Amanda. His curiosity piqued at the elegant envelope in her hand.

"Who's that from?" He asked.

"The Queen Mother." Amanda opened it and smiled. "It's an invitation for Kathleen to be officially introduced to the Royal family." Her voice became a touch reminiscent. "I had completely forgotten about that."

"Introduction? Liam and Riley were at the hospital when she was born." He pointed out. "I can't imagine introducing them to her any sooner than having them be the ones to deliver her."

Amanda laughed softly causing Kathleen to look over at them with a big smile. "This is a formal debut of sorts." She explained.

"Formal?" Thomas repeated. "How formal?"

"Tuxeudo formal for you, Lord Thomas. Ballgown for me and a formal white dress for our little lady." Amanda placed the gilded invitation in the desk drawer with the few other items she planned to add to Kathleen's memory book.

"Isn't she a little young to be attending a ball at the palace?" Thomas asked. "We rarely stay until the end."

Amanda sat back beside him, settling against him when he wrapped his arms around her. "It isn't much of a ball and is held early in the evening due to the age of those making their first official appearances."

He rested his cheek against the top of her head as they watched their daughter babble to the stuffed corgi that had been one of her birthday gifts from the little princes. She got up and toddled over to them, giving the stuffed animal to Amanda.

"Thank you so much." Amanda said and then dropped a quick kiss to Kathleen's nose. She scrunched her face with a giggle before going back to the blanket. She picked up a book and brought it to Thomas.

He smiled and thanked her. She bent her head forward for him to drop a kiss on her forehead. She then tried to climb between them. Amanda picked her up and cuddled her close.

Hudson returned with a tray and chuckled when Kathleen tried to say his name. He presented her with her sippy cup with a bow.

"Say thank you, Hudson." Amanda encouraged her to try.

Kathleen scrunched her shoulders while trying. Her smile grew when Hudson told her she was very welcome.

"Ring if you need anything else, my lord and ladies." He told them as he left.

Kathleen crawled into Thomas's lap with her cup. She took the book she had brought over and handed it to him again.

He chuckled. "Is that a hint?" He opened the book and started reading Good Night Mr. Darcy.

Kathleen fell asleep to his rhythmic, deep voice. He placed her in the playpen set on the other side of the room and covered her up.

He accepted the coffee Amanda had prepared. "This debut...what does it entail? It isn't a miniature marriage mart type event for the two little princes is it?"

Amanda stirred her tea and bit back a smile. "No, it isn't a marriage mart." Her eyes twinkled with mirth. "No more Mr. Darcy books for you."

He rolled his eyes. "What is the purpose of this then?"

"It's a tradition for each new generation of nobles. The debut is meant to plant the seeds of responsibility and loyalty to their king and country." She explained. "Plus it gives us a chance to show off how wonderful our girl is."

He softly kissed his wife. "We do have a lot to be proud of." Thomas glanced over at the playpen before meeting Amanda's eyes. He knew what was going to happen. "When will we be traveling to the palace?"

_____________

Thomas stepped out of the bathroom while trying to place his cufflinks in his sleeves. "Will you help me with these?"

Amanda took the simple gold cufflinks and slipped them in. He looked down at her and lifted an eyebrow.

"I thought you were wearing the St Orella colors tonight."

She sighed softly. "I was. While you were in the shower, I went to check on Kathleen. Along the way, I somehow stepped on the hem and ripped the skirt. Riley sent up the only dress they had in my size." She gestured to the purple gown she had on. "I should have brought a backup dress to the palace."

Thomas wrapped the arm she wasn't working on around her. "You look beautiful."

She smiled as his lips ghosted over her bare shoulder. "As long as you think so." They both turned to the open doorway when they heard Kathleen. "Wait until you see her." Amanda told him to remain where he was as she went to retrieve their daughter.

Thomas slipped his jacket on and buttoned it. He lifted his eyes when Amanda cleared her throat. Kathleen stood beside her, gripping her mother's fingers. Her expression was serious as she looked at him.

He crouched down, grinning when she walked to him.

"What do you think?" Amanda asked.

"I think she looks like you." He picked up the little lady in white. "Which is the highest compliment I can give her."

Kathleen pulled at his bowtie. Her dark eyes met his and she rested her head on his shoulder.

"We have one more stop before the ball." Amanda told him.

_______________

"Pictures?" Thomas asked. Nobles with their latest offspring were posing outside in the courtyard for photographers.

"Of course." Amanda slipped her arm around his waist. "Her first formal event must be captured for posterity."

Kathleen looked around and seemed to turn suddenly shy at seeing the number of strangers around them. She gripped Thomas's jacket when he tried to set her down.

Amanda helped untangle her from him. She pressed her face against her mother's neck and held tight.

Amanda pressed a kiss to the top of her head. "We aren't leaving you, sweetheart. Would you smile at least once for me?" She whispered.

Kathleen lifted her head when they neared the camera. She reached out for it as a smile formed.

"I wonder where she got that particular interest from." Amanda teased.

Thomas chuckled as they sat Kathleen down on a stone bench. They watched her charm the photographer with her sweet shyness. Once a few pictures were taken of just her, he then took some poses of Amanda with her daughter.

The once labeled unfeeling director felt his heart nearly hurt at seeing the two that had completely changed his life. His typical frown never remained long whenever they were near and seeing the joy on their faces as they looked at one another did much to improve his mood.

Amanda switched places with Thomas, watching the poses for the father/daughter shots. Her heart nearly burst from the sweetness of seeing the two she loved more than anything smiling. Kathleen looked up at him with a degree of adoration that was surpassed by the one Thomas settled on her.

"Now for all of you, please." The photographer positioned the family of three together.

Thomas slid his arms around Amanda from behind as she held Kathleen. Their little lady laughed at the the two as they encouraged her to look at the camera. Once all was completed, they took their place to be announced before the court.

Kathleen rubbed her eyes as she rested her head on Amanda's shoulder.

"I don't think she is going to last much longer." Amanda whispered.

"Should we still take her in?" He asked.

"We can and then leave after formally greeting Liam and the rest of the royal family." She reached over and slipped her hand in his. "Thank you."

He tightened his fingers around hers. "For what?"

Her eyes fell to the one in her arms. "For our girl. For coming and supporting this ancient tradition." She looked up at him, her heart shining in her eyes. "For giving me all I ever dreamed of."

He ignored the slight gasps from the nobles milling about while pressing a tender kiss to her lips. "I'm the one who should be thanking you." He whispered in her ear. He placed his hand under her elbow and proudly escorted his two loves into the ballroom

[aion-rsa]

Upcoming Movies in October 2020: Theaters, Streaming and VOD

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October looks a lot different than it did only a few weeks ago. As the month many movie theater owners were hanging their hats on with the hope of a weekly deluge of new movies , October has recently been vacated by high profile features that include Wonder Woman 1984, Death on the Nile, and Candyman.

Yet if you’re  a cinephile or movie lover who is desperate for new stories and visions, it is not all doom and gloom. Between the streaming market of Netflix, VOD, and other platforms, as well as some smaller films willing to roll the dice on a limited theatrical release, there are still more than a few things to see in October 2020…

2067

October 2 (U.S. Only)

A high-concept science fiction setup if we’ve ever heard one, 2067 is the story of Ethan Whyte (Kodi Smit-McPhee), a young man born in a dystopian future where he learns that he might be the savior of humanity… at least that’s what people from an even more distant future are saying. In a plot twist that sounds, at least on paper, akin to a reversal of The Terminator, messengers from the future say Ethan is the key to saving the world and wish to transport him via time machine to an unknowable destiny. Chaos ensues. It’s a big idea, but we’re always game for someone swinging big in this genre.

Death of Me

October 2 (November 23 in the UK)

Darren Lynn Boseman, director of Saw II through Saw IV, returns to the horror genre again alongside Nikita’s Maggie Q and Westworld’s Luke Hemsworth. In this VOD release, the pair play a vacationing couple who wake up on an island with a horrible hangover. Yet a video on their phones seems to suggest the night before was even worse: Neil (Hemsworth) spent the evening brutally murdering his wife, as per the screen in their pockets. Nevertheless, here they are now, left with a lot of questions of what happened yesterday… and what can happen today.

Black Box

October 6

The first of Amazon Prime and Blumhouse Productions’ “Welcome to the Blumhouse” series, Emmanuel Osei-Kuffour’s Black Box has a tantalizing premise. Nolan (Mamoudou Athie) survived a car accident that took his wife, but it also took large swaths of his memory of her. So in order to regain his memory, and regain a sense of stability for his young daughter, Nolan undergoes an experimental treatment where his psychologist uses hypnosis to thrust him into his subconscious where he’ll be able remember his past and face his personal demons. Literally. 

Like something out of Christopher Nolan’s Inception, this horror movie shows how scary being trapped in dreams really is if all that’s in them is the stuff of nightmares…

The Lie

October 6

The second Amazon/Blumhouse feature is more of a psychological thriller than a straightforward horror movie. Originally premiering at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2018, The Lie follows a father (Peter Sarsgaard) who discovers his daughter Kayla (Joey King) accidentally killed her friend… until she admits she may have actually murdered her.

How far will he go to cover-up his daughter’s sins? Well, that’s the logline, and it seems to be a gripping one, albeit reviews from TIFF were less than kind two years ago.

Hubie Halloween

October 7

Last year Adam Sandler warned the Academy that if he doesn’t win an Oscar for Uncut Gems he’d make a film so bad that it’d make “you all pay.” Well, he wasn’t even nominated and eight months after the ceremony, here we are with Netflix’s Hubie Halloween. It remains to be seen whether this is actually the bad one—for starters it filmed before Oscar nominations went out—but it is still very much a Happy Madison production, complete with major supporting roles for Kevin James and Rob Schneider.

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In the movie, Sandler plays Hubie Dubois, the town loser of Salem, Massachusetts. A lonely fry cook obsessed with Halloween, Hubie spends all year looking forward to decking out his home and town the same way Clark Griswold anticipates Christmas. But on this particular Halloween, the town appears besieged by actual supernatural forces, and finally Hubie will have his time to shine. Eh, it looks more amusing than The Do-Over and The Ridiculous 6?

Books of Blood

October 7 (U.S. Only)

Who doesn’t love anthological horror? Hulu certainly does, as they’re releasing Books of Blood, the latest adaptation of Clive Barker’s multi-volume series of short stories by the same name. Previous tales from Books of Blood have been adapted into movies as beloved as Candyman and as decidedly not as Rawhide Rex. In this film version, three stories are created for the screen by co-writer and director Brannon Braga. Here’s hoping it lands closer to the former?

Saint Maud

October 9 (UK Only)

The UK will be the first to get A24’s only horror movie this year. Lucky. The feature directorial debut of Rose Glass, Saint Maud follows an unhealthily repressed and zealous young woman: Maud (Morfydd Clark). Maud is technically a caretaker by trade, looking after people in hospice. But she also imagines herself to be something of an apostle, sent to save godless folks from their sins, particularly Amanda (Jennifer Ehle), the woman she’s living with as the in-home nurse.

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By Don Kaye

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Best Horror Movies on Netflix: Scariest Films to Stream

By David Crow and 2 others

It’s already a tense situation, even before Maud starts hearing voices and having images of ecstasy and Heaven, and demons and Hell. Rich with atmosphere and grueling anticipation of something horrible happening, Saint Maud is a great debut for Glass and a potential star-maker for Clark, who is skin-crawlingly pious as Maud, the young woman who’s wound up tighter than a jack-in-the-box.

The Wolf of Snow Hollow

October 9 (U.S. Only)

Debuting in theaters and on VOD, The Wolf of Snow Hollow is Jim Cummings’ follow-up to Thunder Road. That earlier, underrated movie was a delightful mix of comedy and drama that won the SXSW Grand Jury Prize. So the sophomore effort being a werewolf comedy-horror movie is intriguing. Indeed, Wolf of Snow Hollow is the rare lycanthrope yarn that’s told from the point-of-view of the would-be wolf hunter, Sheriff John Marshall (Cummings).

Following a series of grisly murders every full moon, the residents of Snow Hollow become convinced they have a wolfman on their hands, even if the frustrated sheriff refuses to accept the obvious. The film also marks the final performance of Robert Forster as John’s crusty mentor.

The War with Grandpa

October 9 in the U.S. (October 16 in the UK)

For most people, having Robert De Niro as a grandfather can be an imposing experience. But kids these days! That’s at least one amusing takeaway from The War with Grandpa, the delayed family movie that sees De Niro’s grandfatherly Ed enter into a prank war with his grandson Peter (Oakes Fegley) after upsetting the youth by moving into his old bedroom—Peter’s mom and Ed’s daughter Sally (Uma Thurman) forced them into the arrangement.

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The King of Comedy: What’s the Real Punchline of the Martin Scorsese Classic?

By Tony Sokol

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By Tony Sokol

Soon shaving cream reveals itself to be foam sealant stuck to De Niro’s face, and Peter’s oral report announces he is a louse. Oh, and there’s a dodgeball battle in which De Niro is aided by a squad of screen legends like Christopher Walken, Cheech Marin, and Jane Seymour, to squash the pups. Now things are getting serious…

Nocturne

October 13

The first of Amazon and Blumhouse’s next batch of original movies, Nocturne is the tale of a hellish rivalry between sisters. Genuinely. The feature debut from director Zu Quirke stars Sydney Sweeney as Juliet, the younger sister of fellow musician Vivian (Madison Iseman). While both young women are gifted pianists, Vivian is a prodigy and the center of Juliet’s envy. That is until Juliet finds the diary of another child prodigy at their prestigious conservatory who killed herself. The book includes all the late pianist’s hidden compositions… and symbols and incantations.

Ever heard the story of Faust? It seems like Juliet is about to get an up-close modern example.

Evil Eye

October 13

As the final Blumhouse effort to be released on Amazon Prime in 2020, Evil Eye hails from directors Elan and Rajeev Dassani and presents itself as both a psychological thriller and supernatural chiller. The truth of which it really is depends on how much you believe the eye of Usha (Sarita Choudhury).

Read more

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How Jason Blum Changed Horror Movies

By Rosie Fletcher

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Jason Blum: No Plans To Restart Universal Monsters Universe

By Don Kaye

For this mother of Pallavi (GLOW’s Sunita Mani) is convinced her daughter is necking with a new boyfriend (Omar Maskati) who’s the spirit of an evil abusive ex Usha escaped in her youth. Is he the vestiges of a half-remembered curse or the potential victim of a mommy dearest prone to snap judgements? Tune in to find out for yourself…

The Trial of the Chicago 7

October 16

“The whole world is watching.” That’s the chanted refrain of protestors in Aaron Sorkin’s second movie as director, but it might also apply to the level of anticipation regarding this major Netflix release and potential awards season darling. The movie itself is an old-fashioned legal thriller like Sorkin cut his teeth on with scripts like A Few Good Men, but Chicago 7 feels urgently (and depressingly) vital.

Following on the heels of the Chicago riots during the Democratic National Convention of 1968—riots later deemed to have been started by the police—eight men categorized as “the far left” are rounded up for a show trial by Nixon’s Justice Department where they’re charged with conspiracy.

Read more

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Aaron Sorkin: Donald Trump Made The Trial of the Chicago 7 Movie Possible

By David Crow

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Quentin Tarantino Calls The Social Network the Best Movie of the 2010s

By David Crow

The film features the same blistering abundance of dialogue Sorkin has become famous for, as well as his penchant for breezy fast-paced editing. But the political heft of the subject matter and the movie’s deep bench of an acting ensemble that includes Sacha Baron Cohen, Jeremy Strong, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Eddie Redmayne, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Mark Rylance, and Frank Langella is what makes this one of the most thrilling movies of the year.

Honest Thief

October 16 (U.S. Only)

Liam Neeson plays a thief who wants a second chance. A bank robber willing to turn himself and $9 million in to be with the new love of his life. But then crooked FBI agents (Jai Courtney and Anthony Ramos) steal his money and frame him for murder instead. So he’s left with one thing to do: menacingly hiss over the phone, “I’m coming for you.” We imagine that trailer-ready threat was what Honest Thief was sold on during its elevator pitch.

Rebecca

October 21

Remaking Alfred Hitchcock remains a tricky proposition that has thwarted many filmmakers in the past. Readapting the only one of his movies to win the Oscar for Best Picture, Rebecca, appears all the harder. Yet everything we’ve seen from Ben Wheatley and Netflix’s luscious adaptation of the Daphne Du Maurier novel is highly encouraging.

With a winning cast that includes Lily James as the new Mrs. de Winter, Armie Hammer as her husband Maxim, and Kristin Scott Thomas as his menacing housekeeper Mrs. Danvers, the film opens with the young bride trying to step into the shoes of Maxim’s dead first wife, Rebecca. An apparent light of his mansion that has been long snuffed, Rebecca’s flame burns still if only because of Mrs. Danvers’ admiration for her late mistress… and maybe the ghost who prowls the house. This is archetypal Gothic horror, and with screenwriter Jane Goldman apparently keeping the novel’s original ending, we already feel seduced by the imagery.

On the Rocks

October 2 in the UK (October 23 in the U.S.)

Sofia Coppola and Bill Murray work together again. For the first time since their luminous Lost in Translation (if you ignore the ill-considered A Very Murray Christmas), the director and star are collaborating on this visibly intimate tale. It’s about an adult daughter (Rashida Jones) and her famous father (Murray) spending a weekend in New York City on an adventure after years of estrangement.

Read more

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By Michael Leader

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The film, which also stars Marlon Wayans, premiered to a largely warm reception at the New York Film Festival and is already being written about as a spiritual successor to their original collaboration. Once more a woman in the midst of an existential crisis is aided by Murray between glasses of scotch. Who doesn’t want to pull up a seat and order another round?

Over the Moon

October 23

You probably don’t know Glen Keane’s name but you should. The longtime Walt Disney Animation Studios animator oversaw the design and animation of Ariel in The Little Mermaid, Beast in Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin in Aladdin, and Rapunzel in Tangled. With Over the Moon, he steps away from the Mouse and toward Netflix as a first-time co-director, alongside John Kahrs (an animator on Tangled and Frozen).

The trailer for the film is like a Georges Méliès fever dream from  as a little girl named Fei Fei (Cathy Ang) builds a rocket ship to take her to the moon. But once there, Fei Fei and friends meet a mythical moon goddess (Hamilton’s Phillipa Soo) who takes them on a candy-colored odyssey through the cosmos.

Synchronic

October 23 (U.S. only)

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Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead are two of the most intriguing new voices in science fiction. If you don’t recognize their names, go watch The Endless right now. One of the strangest and cleverest sci-fi yarns of the last decade, that film is now being followed up by Synchronic, another original tale that stars Anthony Mackie and Jamie Dornan. The specifics of the film remain vague other than it is about two New Orleans paramedics who investigate a series of murders caused by a new, bizarre designer drug. But we already know we can’t wait to watch what horrible side effects come from these poor bastards taking it.

The Craft: Legacy

It cannot be Halloween without at least one more horror movie coming out the week of. Thus enters The Craft: Legacy, Sony Pictures and Blumhouse Productions’ legacy sequel to the original 1996 The Craft. Like its predecessor, this follows an outsider who is the new girl in school (Cailee Spaeny). She may be ostracized by the popular kids, but she befriends fellow students who have alternative tastes… like witchcraft.

The original is a touchstone for millennials and Gen-Xers of a certain age, and this reboot looks to push the story into a more complex understanding of friendship. And if it doesn’t, it’s still a Blumhouse effort so it should have plenty of spooky jumps!

Relic

October 30 (US Only)

Dementia is at the heart of this very eerie chiller where three generations of women convene in an old family home which seems to be rotting from the inside. Robyn Nevin, Emily Mortimer and Bella Heathcote star in a slow build drama which delves into the horror of losing your sense of self, as Nevin’s matriarch goes missing for days and can’t remember what happened while her house is filled with odd notes, black mould and snippets of a life slipping away from her grasp. This is the feature debut of Australian-Japanese director Natalie Erika James and it’s a stylish, chilling and confident first feature with a final act that veers into full blown horror. Out already in the States on VOD it has a UK theatrical release in the UK.

The post Upcoming Movies in October 2020: Theaters, Streaming and VOD appeared first on Den of Geek.

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[lorewytch]

A 80′s Gushing Rant

Sorry I just spammed everyone with 80s cartoons XD (Well.. sorry, not sorry?) As a child born in the 80s, I have a special attachment to these cartoons. I mean doesn’t everyone? Nostalgia sells for a reason after all. We all at least have one fond memory of one cartoon or TV show or book that touched us. I was born a only child so often I only could play with myself. I was shy and much different than my other classmates. I was awkward a lot and often did my own thing. But one thing I loved was my parents giving me VHS’ to play which I would watch over and over until the tapes warped. I had many favorites over the years. And the 80s and early 90s were a peek time for several different companies to open their doors and unleash a barrage of toys, videos and books at young kids. I of course loved the popular shows. Shows like TMNT, Tiny Toons, Care Bears, My Little Pony, etc. I had a special spot in my heart for them all. But there were a few that were widely unknown. Most of these were popular but only really had one animated episode created. I kinda just wanted to gush about them a bit. Because these were underrated and I felt needed more recognition. A few of these did have a few episodes out on VHS but most only had one or two episodes. Some you may recognize, some not. Granted I didn’t watch everything that aired in the late 80s and early 90s. But these are some I just remembered.

Rose Petal Place

This one had only one episode, several dolls and apparently a board game XD. Rose Petal Place was about a group of flowers. They were given life when a little girl cried over them, wishing to stay with her flower garden forever. But the family was forced to move and she had to leave her poor garden behind. The magic behind those tears transformed the flowers into real magical beings whose sole duty it was to protect the garden per the young girls wishes. Rose’s voice is the only thing that can keep the flowers blooming in the garden. Her singing brings life back and her spunky and upbeat personality kept me intrigued as a child. I loved girl heroes fighting bad guys as a child. It inspired me and showed me I could be as strong as her. Rose never backed down even when her voice was stolen from her by Nastina the classic spider villain in the series. She still tried to sing even without her voice. One of the very first lines we hear from Rose Petal perfectly defines what kind of character she is. Nastina: Rose Petal. You think you can restore the rose garden with your singing? Rose Petal: You know I can. (hands on hips) She was pretty classy too for a cartoon character. I loved her voice and singing was very on point. The episode itself was rather cliche and dated by todays standards. But the voice acting I felt was mostly on point. It did struggle a bit, but it kept it entertaining even as I watched it a few months ago. Sadly it didn’t really define the characters all that well. But I think given the chance it could have been a nice series. Maybe even with more colorful villains. It was very similar to Strawberry Shortcake and Rainbow Brite. I think also with the limited setting and semi unbelievable background story was probably a few of the reasons it didn’t do so well. However, the character designs were pretty cute and I loved the creative concept. “Friends, would you like to be friends? Would you like to share the day with me? We can be anything we want to be!” -Rose Petal  Pound Puppies (1980s)

Okay this one is a bit more popular than the others on this list. But honestly, I forgot about it until recently. The series itself is nice, but the one thing I remembered most about it was the movie.

I think the best part of it was the music. While some songs were meh, Songs like “All In your Mind” and “At the Pound” were pretty good and I found myself singing along. Also it was pretty dark for a kids movie. If you really think about it, the villain was creepy and him turning those puppies into those vicious dogs reminded me a bit of dog fighting and how people turned dogs into killing machines. Plus the background design on these were pretty impressive as well. At least for me anyways. This is really all subjective anyways. But I liked the concept. Who wouldn’t love singing Dogs and cats going on adventures? XD But I feel like a lot of that vanished in the TV series. I got to say I don’t remember the TV series that well. And while it was popular, I think if you think of the 80s cartoons, this one takes a while to come up. It’s not forgotten totally but its not one of the first ones you remember. I certainly didn’t. I remembered the movie more than the TV show. But I also think it was a important show/movie. Because it was the show to bring more awareness about Pounds and shelters. Adopting kitties and dogs from shelters seems common now. But it wasn’t so back then. And a lot of animals were treated very badly at these places. I feel like this had more promise. And I’ll always remember Cooler and his gang from back then. The voice acting was meh most of the time. But some of the characters were pretty interesting and I loved the movie. Also, can I say I love the whole 50s/60′s theme they got going on?! Poodle skirts! YES!

Lady Lovely Locks

Okay for this one, I only remember two episodes in particular off the top of my head. The Dragon Tree, which I loved because of the creative way dragons were born in this world. (Born from flowers the dragon tree bore) and the cute little baby dragons that emerged from them. Plus you got to see Lady Lovely Locks in black of all colors. The second episode being the first one. We get to see first hand at how Lady Lovely Locks can make her kingdom beautiful. Its literally in her hair. Magical girl hair. She was also rocking colored hair before it was popular. The voice acting can be cringe worthy and there’s not much music in this series, which is probably why it never got SUPER popular. It was semi known enough. Again, not one of the first ones I would think of. But I loved the character designs. I think in the 80s there were a lot of creative people wanting to create new and prettier dolls that stood out in one way or another to sell the toys to girls. But the world itself was very creative too and I appreciated that. So yeah the writing and stories kind of fell flat, especially by today’s standards.

But it was a series that doesn’t get nearly enough credit. It was one of the first American magical girls we had really. Lady Lovely Locks was a lady true to every word and not afraid to get her hands dirty to stop Ravenwaves. Also those Pixie Tails were so cute! Peppermint Rose

“Listen... to the legend... of Peppermint Rose...” Can I just say how much love I have to this lesser known cartoon girl? Okay, I admit, this girl at the beginning of her one episode debut was a bit of a brat. Hey they even admit it in the cartoon! Rose is the typical spoiled teen. She has a bit of a attitude problem and is more the hesitant hero than anything. But she has personality!

The writing on this episode is some of the better writing I feel on this list. Not to mention the music in this animated episode was pretty, flowery and I fell in love with many of the lyrics. Here’s the title song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bEy536JeVEc “ Sunshine, Rainbows A breeze that gently blows A garden filled with magic The home of Peppermint Rose Daydreams, Laughter A sweet and Fragrant Glow As Four enchanted Maidens Help their gardens grow. There’s lemon Drop Lily So pretty and frilly Miss Vanilla Daisy Kind of Cute And kind of crazy And Dreaming ‘neath a sky of blue Merry Mint Violet dreams here too Someone Special And so the story goes A rose whose a rose Who’s much more than a rose And we call her Peppermint Rose Listen to the Legend Of Peppermint Rose..” Yeah no I had that stuck in my head for weeks.. couldn’t get it out. Despite Rose’s sour personality, she manages to cross a dangerous river, out wit the Bubba Beetle and magically sing the evil Queen turning her good as well as her henchmen because.. y’know...magic! XDDD The ending did seem rushed and the bad guys were very typical bad guys of the time. But I loved that Rose had a lot of negative traits. It goes to show people can change and her transformation into Peppermint Rose only proved that she could be stronger, braver and kinder. I admit the story does not age well. But I loved the music and character designs of them all. The story was also very cute. This was a decent cartoon for the time honestly and I was sad that there was only one episode of this. It had potential to be more. Again, another one like Rainbow Brite. “What’s that Smell?” “Begonia!”

Now I didn’t put Strawberry Shortcake, Rainbow Brite, Jem and the Holograms or any of the other more popular 80s cartoons here because while I did love them to death.. this list is for lesser known cartoons that others may not be familiar with. Granted the 80s and 90s were quite the decades themselves with a ton of cartoons. Both good and ehhh. But these always stuck out to me as a kid. Yes, I was a very girly girl. Still am in a few aspects. But each of these had something I appreciated and carried with me. And all had really cool designs for characters. I just wanted to show how much I appreciated them even as a adult. Even if they are dated and slightly cringe worthy today. I just appreciated the magic they brought with them, the music and the characters. I would love to see great remakes of any one of these. (The new pound puppies is kind of meh to me honestly) But I’d also love a great revival of Rainbow Brite and Jem and the Holograms too. Sorry this got so long. Whew... I think I will wrap this up. If I think of any more I may post something separate. Now remember, keep singing to bring life to those around you, never lose your bone of scone, let down your hair and let it shine and remember this beyond all else: A rose, whose a rose, who’s much more than a rose... And we call her.. Peppermint Rose.

[caesarsme]

Why The Woman Dior Bag Is Essentially The Most Magical Luxury Handbag Of All

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[wellesleyunderground]

Wellesley Writes It: Chelsea Ennen ‘14 (@ChelseaEnnen), Writer and Editor

Photo by  Shannon L Hasenfratz.

Chelsea Ennen holds a master’s in Contemporary Literature, Theory, and Culture from King’s College London and double majored in English and Theater at Wellesley College. Her writing has appeared on The Female Gaze, The Tempest, The Mary Sue, Publisher's Weekly, Kirkus Reviews, Avidly, and HelloGiggles. She is the Fiction Editor at the Kaaterskill Basin Literary Journal and works in book journalism. Follow her on Twitter (@ChelseaEnnen) for updates on her creative work and inane pop culture commentary. Interview by Camille Bond ‘17, Wellesley Writes It series editor.

WU: Welcome, Chelsea, and thank you so much for interviewing with us! Your academic experience and written work reflects a serious interest in feminism, pop culture, and literature. How does your work handle these themes, or how do they intersect in your work?

Something the head of my department in grad school said to us once is that if you’re really thinking about something a lot (whether it’s because you like it or hate it) there’s probably a specific reason why, and if you can articulate that reason you’ve got a good thesis for an essay. That’s the attitude I take towards my academic and freelance writing. When something, be it a movie or book or whatever, sticks in my head, why is it stuck there?

When you look at the pop culture from any particular time or society, you’re looking at their values. Who do these people think of as heroes? Who are the villains? What do they see as a problem to overcome, and what form do solutions take? What kind of identity is considered the “default”? Who is deserving of love, success, visibility?

I feel like I hear people dismiss pop culture as “just a book/movie/TV show” less and less these days, but when I do hear it my blood just boils. Art, and especially the business around art, is and always has been political. To try and assert otherwise is a political statement all its own. To be able to consume art and not notice the politics of it, to not be affected by the politics of it, is also deeply deeply political. So while I don’t necessarily have a political critique to make in every piece of writing I publish or every thought I ever have about something, I find that’s the side that sticks in my brain the most.

WU: Your written work has been featured in an impressive assortment of publications. Are there any published pieces that you’re particularly proud of?

One that comes to mind is the War and Peace essay that I wrote for Avidly, mainly because I wanted so badly to publish something about reading that book and I pitched it around for months looking for the right fit (never give up, kids!). Another couple are the Alien: Covenant and Transformers: Lost Light essays I wrote for The Mary Sue. Both those pieces really represent the kind of thing I wanted to do after leaving academia, where maybe what I want to say isn’t really suited to an academic essay but it’s something I think is worth saying or something I’m enthusiastic about. There’s something coming up in a couple months that I’m EXTREMELY jazzed about but it’s too far out to talk about it yet.

WU: You’re currently working as a Fiction Editor at the Kaaterskill Basin Literary Journal, which was founded by Wellesley alumna Dana Mele. Can you tell us a bit about the journal, and how you got involved with the project?

When I had finished my dissertation but had another few months until I officially had my MA, Dana posted something in one of the Wellesley Facebook groups (I think Wellesley Writes It?) saying she was starting this journal and did anyone want to help. I reached out to her and she’s been letting me serve as the fiction editor ever since!  It’s been a lot of fun, the website describes us as loving “the strange, the experimental, the disastrously gorgeous, and the simply lovely” so we get some really bold, cool submissions. It also forces me to read more short fiction, which is always a great idea! (Side note: Dana’s debut novel, People Like Us, is coming out soon and is getting a lot of positive buzz, you should preorder it!)

WU: How does your editorial work inform your voice as a writer, and vice versa?

I seem to be one of those rare people whose creative work often benefits from my editing work. For one thing, editing also means reading and it’s always helpful to read more, but I’m always taking mental notes. What is this writer’s style like? What am I changing about it, and why? What do we do differently, what do we have in common? And as a writer I’d like to think it helps me to be more objective about what I’m doing, because I have an idea of how an editor looks at things. Nothing can replace having other people read your stuff and give you feedback, and book editing isn’t the same as the editing I do, but it’s good to be able to self-edit as best as you can.

You also work as an editorial assistant at Kirkus Reviews. What have you learned from your experience working at a book review journal? How, if at all, has the position changed your understanding of the industry as a whole?

My job at Kirkus has given me a fairly deep understanding of contemporary publishing, and it was amazing how quickly I was able to gain that knowledge. Not because I’m some kind of whiz kid, but just from the breadth of books we cover. We publish reviews two months before the book is published so we get them in really far ahead of time. And I very quickly got to this point where I flick through the New York Times book review supplement and I recognize everything. I know all about what my mom’s book club is reading, or the new biography my dad ordered. And feeling like a publishing-insider is pretty cool, but as a writer it’s helpful to have a pretty wide knowledge of what kinds of things are getting published, and what the big dogs like Penguin Random House are publishing versus what smaller presses are publishing.

WU: You earned a Master’s degree from King's College London. Your dissertation, titled "Entertaining the Offered Fallacy: Pop Culture, Postfeminism, and the Function of Uncertainty in Feminist Narratives,” earned a Distinction and was accepted into Indiana University of Pennsylvania's 2016 English Graduate Organization Conference. Can you tell us a bit about the focus of the project?

The summer before I left for grad school I watched the HBO series Big Love and I was so fascinated by it, but I couldn’t articulate exactly why. Over time as I kept reading literary theory in my seminars, particularly feminist theory, I was able to whittle down what I thought really worked about that show and see other places where I saw the same thing.

If you look at academic (and nonacademic) feminist criticism of contemporary pop culture, you see a lot of...criticism. A lot of deconstructions of why all these properties that market themselves as being progressive are actually incredibly regressive. Go on Twitter for any number of seconds and you will see fifty of these articles, I myself have written plenty of them. And they’re great! They’re important! Keep writing them!

But I found myself wondering if achieving a contemporary feminist narrative was even possible. What would it look like? How would you account for intersectionality? Contemporary oppression is all about pretending it doesn’t exist, that racism is over/women are equal/the poor are just lazy, whatever. So how do you shine a light on that hypocrisy as a whole instead of picking at one small aspect of it? What I found was these different pieces of media, like Big Love, that used a bit of fantasy in an otherwise realistic work, and that bit of fantasy called everything else, including gender norms, racism, capitalism, materialism, etc. into question.

WU: You’re currently workshopping a finished manuscript for a novel. What is the genre of the novel? What steps will you pursue after workshopping?

It’s contemporary fantasy, and I hope it comes across as quirky and even a bit odd. I’ve been influenced a lot more by fantasy writers like Jasper Fforde and Susanna Clarke than, say, Tolkien. I like things that are a little weird. I actually finished workshopping/editing it recently, and at long (long) last I am sending agents query letters! Which is all very exciting but a slower-than-frozen-molasses endeavor. I’ve gotten a full manuscript request, which was wonderful and totally unexpected only a couple weeks after sending, so it was nice to have some kind of confirmation that I’m not sending things into a void. I’ve also already gotten a couple rejections, which is also great, usually they don’t have time to notify you at all! Every single individual stage of writing a novel and trying to get it published is one of those ultra marathons where you go fifty miles over a mountain or whatever, so it’s important not to get too bogged down in the process. In the meantime I’ll be starting the next one...

WU: During your time at Wellesley, were there any professors, classes, and/or orgs that you found particularly formative? If so, how did the professor/class/org influence you?

Listen, your mileage may vary, but since you’re asking, I am one of Those People who had an amazing time at Wellesley and would gladly follow any of my former professors into battle. I will name a few specifically, however, if only not to cop out of the question. Nora Hussey gave me a lot of great opportunities early on in the Theater department and I think without those I would have allowed myself to get lost in the shuffle of the bigger personalities who usually do theater-y stuff. And I don’t care what your major was, if you took a class with Diego Arciniegas I bet it helped you with your confidence. I adore the English department as a group but Lisa Rodensky is such a gem of a teacher and a human being, and she went out of her way to be there for me even when I was in grad school. She’s someone whose advice I always think about when I’m having a hard time (I also pull up old emails from her sometimes…), and another person who saw a pretty reserved, timid student and was like hey! I see you! Your voice matters!

Speaking of your voice mattering, I also took private voice lessons with Andrea Matthews, who is just plain cool and so enthusiastic about music and teaching. She’d get so excited whenever I had a breakthrough, which was touching for me because I’d always been so insecure about my singing, which was not very good despite all the high school and community theater I’d done. She taught me how to really engage with the act of singing from an emotional, organic place. The word she’d use was “yummy, it should feel yummy!” which was a really wonderful image. I was never the best singer around the department but I got better and better every semester and ended up participating in as much as I could because I always had so much fun.

WU: What is your approach to self-care?

Exhaustive! I am more or less a collection of mood disorders stuffed into a meat sack, so self care is A Thing and I could talk about it for forever. I should do a podcast about it. One thing I will say, that I wish more people talked about, is that I find it incredibly therapeutic to engage in hobbies where I don’t care if I’m good at it. That’s such a hard pill to swallow for most people, Wellesley types in particular, but it’s soooooo good for you to let go of the need to be the best at everything. There are enough things in your life, especially if you’re a writer, where you care about it and deeply want to improve, and that’s great but that can’t be your attitude towards everything in life, you’ll explode and have no self esteem (in that order).

I recently did a paint night with my cousin, which is basically an episode of Bob Ross but in person and with wine, and we just decided to not to care if the painting looked “right” or like the example. What if we just mixed colors we thought were pretty and had fun and learned something new instead of getting down on ourselves for how “good” or “bad” it was? And we had an amazing time! I painted a wave on the beach! It didn’t look exactly like the example, but no one died and I am still deserving of love!

I also really like playing first person shooters (Titanfall 2, anyone?) because that kind of goal-oriented quick-moving target-based activity is actually really helpful for certain kinds of anxiety. And boy howdy do I need to not care if I’m good at those! I just set it on easy, never play online, and don’t worry how many tries it takes to hit all the evil robots.

WU: What advice would you give to a Wellesley student or alumnx seeking to improve their writing skills?

Reading and writing, both, a lot, LIKE SO MUCH, is the biggest thing. It’s so big that even though I know it’s what everyone says, I’m still saying it. Read fiction, read nonfiction, read stuff you like, read something you know you’ll hate (or maybe just sample it, your time is valuable). If you have an impulse to write something, do it! Make the thing! Get it out of your head first and then worry about fixing it up later. Do some garbage journaling about how you can’t think of what to journal about. It all helps.

WU: How would you like to grow as a writer and/or editor? Do you have any writing-related New Year’s resolutions?

I would love to finish my next novel not necessarily more quickly but more smoothly than the last one, and for freelancing I would love to branch out and get published in places I haven’t been published before. For editing I want to strengthen my grammar skills. There are some things I keep having to check with AP every time I see them and I’d like to get those to stick! I also really need to make my website, I’ve been putting it off for ages. Partially because I could also use a new set of headshots. I’ve been using the Wellesley ones since I got them senior year and, dare I say it, those are perhaps a bit too old now... Anyway, no one likes to think about the businessy side of writing that includes using Twitter every so often and having a website, but it’s important stuff!

[misterclandestine]

My Favorite Stuff from 2017

It’s been a tough one, but there was a lot of awesome stuff that made it easier. Here are some of my favorites in no particular order.

DAMN by Kendrick Lamar, Album - The World felt different once this was in it. Kenny’s 4th release proved he’s just as thoughtful, agile, and hungry as ever.

everyone’s a aliebn when ur a aliebn too by Johnny Sun, Book - You can go through this hybrid graphic novel/picture-book in one sitting, but there’s so much to chew on here that I recommend taking time with this story, which follows Jomny, a misspelling aliebn sent to earth to study human behavior. The brief, direct interactions simply, & hilariously reveal everything beautiful and tragic about what it is to be alive.  

Abstract: The Art of Design, Series - This Netflix series drops you into the lives of 6 masterful creators moving through subcultures of artistry (i.e Footwear Design, Illustration, Stage Design). Each revealing their varying methods, ideas, and joys about creativity. The standout episode follows Christoph Niemann, an illustrator for the New Yorker, and his blue-collar approach to his work.

Game of Thrones: The Spoils of War, TV Series - Though this season was rushed, clumsy and arguably unrecognizable from the compelling and prestigious drama that has unprecedentedly impacted our culture, you won’t find a more gripping hour of television. You know a show is wilding out when you don’t know who the hell to even root for anymore (Get em, Drogo! Wait, not Bronn! Wait, not the incestuous child killer!)

Insecure: Season 2, TV Series - The show you didn’t know you needed. Issa Rae’s hilarious dramedy paints a picture of what it’s like to be young, ambitious, unapologetic, lonely, intelligent, sexy, successful, and losing.

Last Week Tonight with John Oliver: Season 4, TV Series - Oliver’s weekly recap simultaneously manages to be enlightening, funny, depressing, and hopeful. His takedown of Alex Jones was one of the most satisfying things I consumed all year.

Do Not Disturb by Drake, Song - the final track of More Life, a surprise ‘mixtape’, samples ‘Time’ by Snoh Alegra, and is one of his most personal songs to date. Without a chorus, he raps for 3 minutes about not needing romance, fear of irrelevancy, and the quickening passage of time. Gracefully shifting between insecurity and arrogance with dizzying fervor, Aubrey continues to capture the emotional woes of an entire generation.

Get Out, Film - Jordan Peele’s directorial film debut is the rare instant classic, and it’s not because it has one of the most crowd-pleasing endings of all time. The satirical, social commentary cloaked in the guise of a horror comedy, refuses definition, and peels back layers of race, and class previously untouched in cinema.

Melodrama by Lorde, Album - With a kajillion pounds of pressure on her shoulders to follow up one of the best pop debuts of all time, Ella delivers. She croons on top of Jack Antonoff’s unruly production about heartbreak, fame, and the feeble impact of acclaim. As one Twitterer put it “I gain an extra chromosome when the beat drops in ‘Sober II’.

mother!, Film - I can’t say I enjoyed this movie because it was the second most excruciating sit I had at the theater all year (kudos to Justice League), but it left me SHOOK. It’s clearly allegorical, but what makes it masterful is that the way you take this movie in is colored almost entirely by your own personal experiences.

Master of None: Season 2, TV Series - A perfect double-feature to Insecure (give me a shared universe where Dev and Issa are a power couple). Ansari’s relentlessly entertaining series accomplishes what every second season strives for. It tops the first, while redefining and expanding itself. The show is tirelessly committed to the experiences of ‘others’ (a deaf person, a lesbian, a non-believing muslim, service workers in NYC etc.) It’ll leave you crying, laughing, and hungry.

Split, Film - When we’re lucky, films hit ya with “SURPRISE, muthafucka” moments that Jesus himself would not see coming. Shyamalan’s second hit in a row (after a run of all time duds) ends with one 17 years in the making. The iconic villain terrifyingly played with razor-sharp swiftness by the world-class James McAvoy is the icing on the cake.

Isaiah Thomas, Athlete - If not for Russell Westbrook’s record breaking response to Kevin Durant’s betrayal, the “King in the Fourth” takes home the MVP. Watching him play through tears the day after his sister died in a car accident will stay with me forever. His 53 point performance on her birthday a few weeks later starkly reminded me of the unifying, powerful spirit of sport.

Moonlight’s Best Picture Win - I’ll begin by saying that I really liked La La Land. A month after we swore in Don, we got it wrong again… psych! I’ll never forget the roller coaster of emotion that came over me in this moment. Barry Jenkin’s tale told through 3 untraditional acts (titled ‘Little’, ‘Chiron’ & ‘Black’) was gorgeously shot, flawlessly acted, and supremely helmed. It arrived at a time we needed it most and Mahershala Ali FINALLY got his shine.

Coco, Film - We got one shot this year, and we NAILED it. This breathtaking portrait of Mexican culture demands to be seen on the big screen and illuminates the importance of dreams, family, and tradition. No manches!

‘No Man’s Land’ scene in Wonder Woman - There were two times in the theater this year that I felt that sinking drop of a roller coaster in my belly, this was one of them. Gal Gadot and Patty Jenkins must be emboldened and protected at all cost.

Woody Harrelson, Actor - The rare movie-star actor quietly had a phenomenal year, further etching the grooves of his name into Hollywood lore. His turns in The Glass Castle, The War for the Planet of the Apes, and Three Billboards in Ebbing Missouri prove he’s STILL at the top of his game. I’m shocked that his heartbreaking portrayal of a drifting, alcoholic yet whimsical and passionate father in The Glass Castle hasn’t gotten more attention.

S - Town, Podcast - The colder you go into this one, the better. All I’ll say is that you’ll step away from this one feeling some type of way about people, the feeble sustainability of the planet, and clocks.

The World Series, Sports - The. Best. Ever. After being devastated by Hurricane Harvey, the Astros grant Houstonians some restoration via their first World Series Championship in a thrilling 7-game series that was literally witnessed by the World.

The Keepers, Documentary Series- This 7 episode series documenting the varying controversies surrounding the Catholic Church left me epiphanized about what it means to remove the seemingly impenetrable powers of institutions. Targeting one single individual, or a group of individuals or an organization won’t get it done. We must take down the viral ideas themselves.

Bladerunner 2049, Film - Aside from being wondrously constructed technically (you won’t see better production design or cinematography - give Deakins his Oscar now dammit), this story about a robot serves up a surprising amount of soul. Denis Villeneuve, solidifying his auteur status, delivers a nostalgic yet entirely unique follow up to the beloved sci fi classic.

‘Throne Room’ scene in The Last Jedi - This was the other time I felt like I was falling in the theater. Despite considerable problems, Rian Johnson showed us stuff we’ve never seen before in the SW universe. It’s the showdown you dream about as a kid.

The Big Sick, film - Kumail Nanjiani’s autobiographical story of how he met his lover is sorta the woke edition of Meet The Parents. Like Dev on MON, Kumail struggles to blaze trails while upholding loyalty to family and falls in love for a white girl along the way. Ray Romano and Holly Hunter turn in a pair of the year’s best performances.

Big Little Lies, Mini Series - I resisted the marketing for this one initially: dissatisfied, rich folk in Monterey. But the re-teaming of Jean-Marc Vallée (Wild, Dallas Buyers Club, Demolition) & Reese Witherspoon seemed promising. Momentum grew with each weekly installment (I overheard people theorizing whodoneit in restaurants), which is refreshing in the Netflix age. The leads are all stellar (believe the hype about Kidman) and Zoe Kravitz proves she should be working more.

Creature Comfort by Arcade Fire, Song - A painful examination of youth that’s equally heartbreaking and melodic.

Homecoming Season 2 - The fictional podcast about the remnants of a government coverup of a failed rehabilitation program for distressed veterans makes some questionable narrative choices in it’s second season and Oscar Isaac is absent throughout most of it (likely due to a loaded schedule). He does “appear” at the end of the second episode ‘CIPHER’, in a brilliant usage of audio storytelling, and it left me in puddles.

Mindhunter, TV Series - We all know Fincher is a technical maestro, but I don’t think he gets enough credit for being a complete storyteller, which he clearly is. The 13-episode made-to-binge Netflix series based off the book by the same name follows Holden Ford, an idealistic FBI profiler, and Bill Tench, played by Holt McCallany subverting every macho character role he’s ever taken on as a highly intelligent, hardened fed, as they attempt to break ground on our understandings of serial murderers. All of Fincher’s trademarks are there with sprinkled elements of Seven, & Zodiac.

Tyler the Creator’s Tiny Desk Concert, Podcast - I enjoyed ‘Flower Boy’, but didn’t find myself returning to it. That all changed after this. In a year of fantastic TDCs (i.e: Thundercat, Chance the Rapper) Tyler’s stands out. With help from a pair of stellar background singers, his array of talents are on full display, namely: composing and orchestrating melody and harmony.

Colin Kaepernick, Athlete - it’s not about the flag or the military don’t @ me.

20th Century Women, Film - Released wide in January, it remains one of the year’s best. Set gorgeously in 1970′s Santa Barbara, Mike Mills’ deeply personal tribute to motherhood, women, & outcasts overflows with heart.

Kamala Harris, (D) CA Senator - She is so bad, can we get started on the 2020 bumper stickers now?

What Now by Sylvan Esso, Album - ‘Hey Mami’ from their 2014 debut popped up on my Pandora one day and I was IN. Amelia Meath’s angelic vocals layered over Nick Sanborn’s unpredictable production is sublime. The “Echo Mountain Sessions” include dope af live recordings of the album’s standout tracks.

Logan, Film - The Wolverine movie we deserve also features a star-making performance from Dafne Keen and an unrecognizable Professor X. With a decade between the last time he inhabited his iconic portrayal of Charles Xavier, Sir Patrick Stewart strides (wheels?) back into the role with award worthy tact.

Fargo Season 3, TV Series - The best season yet and that’s really saying something. David Thewlis is haunting as Varga, the creepiest, most frightening villain in the series’ history and a collection of top-tier thespians rounds out the rest of the cast. There’s also a moment in one of the later episodes similar to the ending of ‘Split’ that’s a real delight.  

Mr. Robot Season 3, TV Series - Showrunner Sam Esmail moves us through this complex dystopia, which has begun to bear resemblance to our reality lately, with complete CTRL. We see Mr. Robot AND Bobby Canavale like never before. That oner episode is pretty cool too, but it’s not even the season’s best.

Other Notables: Patton Oswalt: Annihilation, Girls Trip, The Leftovers Season 3, Glow, Twin Peaks: The Return, Ingrid Goes West, BEAUTIFUL THUGGER GIRLS by Young Thug, Add Violence by NIN, Good Time, Stranger Things: Season 2, Legion, Dunkirk, Crashing, NO ONE EVER REALLY DIES by N.E.R.D, 4:44 by Jay-Z, Dirty John, Wind River, Dear White People

FYI: I still haven’t seen/listened to a lot of stuff, namely all the big award contending films.

[onestowatch]

Luna Aura Aims to Set Fire to Society’s White Picket Fences in “English Boys” [PREMIERE + Q&A]

Photo: Quincey Sablan 

Luna Aura is cutting as she is cunning. A woman dedicated to living life unapologetically, Luna Aura has gone through a wide variety of life experiences, both euphoric and painful. The result is an artist who exited the other side with a deeper understanding of herself and the world around her. 

Yet, at times this world can be unforgiving to some of its most poignant inhabitants. Growing up amongst the Mormon community, Luna Aura became well versed in the flagrant injustices and inconsistencies that plague women in our society today. Thousands of years of mass accepted oppression does a number on the psyche of all those involved. Therefore, to truly combat this we must question how we as a community have internalized and personify this discrimination, women included.  

Luna Aura’s latest single, “English Boys,” takes the ironies of self-inflicted oppressive behaviors and, in Luna Aura and her gang of female choristers’ own words, “burn(s) it down.” Synth-driven and visceral in nature from the get-go, JT Daly's (K.Flay, PVRIS) production chops shine effervescently, getting that head banging violently before the finish of the first bar. About 20-seconds in Luna Aura enters with prowess, setting the stage that she intends to destroy. 

“My English boy / He calls my name / He breaks my heart / But I’m to blame,” Luna Aura sings as she transitions into an explosive chorus, reminiscent of the children’s choir present on Pink Floyd's “Another Brick In The Wall,” a fitting comparison considering both artist’s fervent penchant for social justice.   

It is this feminist-focused fight for equality that encapsulates the themes of Luna Aura’s highly-anticipated debut EP Three Cheers For The American Beauty, due 2020. From her previous single “Crash Dive” which explores freeing women’s sexuality, focusing on the fact that women masturbate too and shocker, they like it. Now onto “English Boys,” each song on the EP champions a different feminist theme in punk-rock fashion, holding nothing back and grinning widely at the face of disapproval. 

Luna Aura’s grin is defiant in nature, incorrigible if you are so inclined, and how could it not be? We had the chance to catch up with the rising rockstar on everything from transitioning out of the Mormon church peacefully, how the loss of her younger brother has affected her relationship with music, and her continual riposte to those who attempt to silence her.   

  OTW: Can you share the birthing story of the artist persona Luna Aura?  

Luna Aura: The name Luna Aura comes from a Marvel comic book character named Luna Maximoff. I was inspired by her power, which is the ability to see and feel what others are feeling and manipulate those emotions. It really spoke to me as an artist and stuck. 

OTW: What made you decide to move from Arizona to LA to pursue music as your career?  

Luna Aura: I chose to move to LA for the opportunity to grow as a songwriter and creative mind. I love Arizona, I go back frequently, but there is a level of community and opportunity that exists in Los Angeles that you really can’t get anywhere else. I also just wanted to be challenged. 

OTW: Tell us about growing up Mormon. What elements of that part of your life do you hold onto and what have you relinquished?  

Luna Aura: The Mormon faith has beautiful teachings. Forgiveness, family, love. It was never the teachings that turned me off of the Church. The Mormon community consists of some of the best people I’ve met to this day, but I’m not someone who does well with organized religion. There were things I was being exposed to as a young woman that didn’t align with the person I wanted to be. Some practices and teachings felt archaic, especially as a woman. 

OTW: In January 2015 your brother passed away from a tragic accident. How does his spirit inspire you in your music and how you live your life?  

Luna Aura: My brother taught me the greatest lessons I will ever learn. Life is not promised to you, and every day spent breathing is a gift. As my little brother and friend, he taught me what it meant to love and care for somebody, and his passing taught me to never let a day go by without doing what I love. My music is a direct reflection of that.    

OTW: You are a well-versed and accomplished performer, having shared the stage with the likes of The Killers, K. Flay, Chance the Rapper, P!nk, Run the Jewels, and more. How did you develop your performance style? How do you prepare for your performances?   

Luna Aura: I’m working really hard on building a solid health routine! These shows we’ve been playing are no joke, and your girl loves to Netflix and chill with a saucy burrito from time to time. I’ve been getting better about respecting my body and making sure I’m in the best shape possible, so I can deliver the high-energy show that people deserve. I used to be trash when I first started performing, but I got better by learning from my mistakes and never giving up.  

Photo: Sam Katz 

OTW: Can you expand on your recent sonic transition? What made you decide to move from pop to a more rock-based sound? 

Luna Aura: I LOVE a good pop song, and I truly had an affinity for it growing up. I got into pop because I enjoyed it but, as an artist, I didn’t know who I was yet. My voice, my sound, what I wanted to say. None of that was figured out when I started this whole music journey. You build your identity off of your experiences, and it took me a while to figure that out. But here I am, and I’m proud as hell of it.

OTW: You’ve been working very closely with the producer JT Daly, best known for his work with K.Flay and PVRIS. How has working with JT shaped the sound of the new EP? 

Luna Aura: JT was incredibly instrumental in shaping my new sound. He heard a song I wrote called “Baby Be Cool” and wanted to work with me to my disbelief. I couldn’t find a single producer that understood my vision, and/or wanted to be a part of what I was trying to create. He just let me be who I was, and didn’t stand in the way. He completely elevated this project to something I never thought it could be. 

OTW: We know there is some ironic symbolism present in your latest single. What does “English Boys” represent? 

Luna Aura: I was going on a trip to London a couple years ago, and I remember having conversations about how excited I was to meet and marry an English Boy. There I was, about to travel out of the country for the first time and I was talking about meeting a guy. I sounded brainwashed, kind of made me sick. I realized it was stemming from the whole white picket fence fraudulent dream that gets put in every little girl’s head at one point or another. This song is my recognition of that in myself and choosing to let it go, even if that means setting it on fire I guess.

OTW: Is that a choir we hear on the track? Can you tell us about the creative process of this single in particular? 

Luna Aura: My friend Matt Keller was able to find and record a group of young female singers who work with an amazing vocal coach named Satyam in Phoenix. That element was extremely important to me and it added a lot of dimension to the song sonically. 

OTW: We know that your upcoming EP Three Cheers for the American Beauty is based on various feminist themes. Were there any specific events that inspired the project? 

Luna Aura: I just got to thinking what it meant to be an American woman. I researched the societal pressures of young women in American culture and realized I was looking into a mirror. I hated that. I want to create a world where all that conditioning gets thrown out the window, and women take back the life that belongs to them. In my world, it’s not just about fighting against those who stand in the way of female advancement in American culture, but also the war we fight within ourselves. 

OTW: Who are your Ones to Watch?

Luna Aura: I’ve been listening to girl in red, Slaves, and Fidlar a ton lately!  

Thirsty for more Luna Aura? Quench your thirst with her performance of “Crash Dive” for our sister site The Noise. 

[ramajmedia]

Who Is Ms. Marvel? Powers and Origins Explained | Screen Rant

Who is teen superhero Ms. Marvel, and what are her powers? Kamala Khan, otherwise known as the current Ms. Marvel, is coming to the MCU in the form of a live-action TV series on Disney+. Since her ground-breaking debut, Khan has become one of the most beloved new additions to the Marvel comics roster, heralding a more forward-thinking era for the publisher as their first Muslim superhero.

Kamala was effectively introduced as the Peter Parker for a new generation – a teenager who finds themselves burdened with the responsibility of incredible powers in a world filled with larger-than-life heroes and villains. Plunging ever deeper into the complexities of the Marvel universe, she struggles to find balance between being an Avenger, a job she's always dreamed of, and being a normal teen who keeps up with her studies and hangs out with her friends.

Related: Every Marvel Cinematic Universe Movie, Ranked Worst To Best

Having only been introduced in 2014, she may very well be the youngest comic book character to make the jump to live-action, but it's not without reason, as the affectionately dubbed Kamala Korps will surely be out in force for her Disney+ series and beyond. Here's everything you need to know about Marvel's Muslim icon.

Ms. Marvel's Comic Origin Story

Although she made her first legitimate appearance in the anthology All-New Marvel NOW! Point One 1.NOW in January 2014, the real start of Kamala's story came in March 2014's Ms. Marvel #1 by G. Willow Wilson, Adrian Alphona, Jamie McKelvie and Sana Amanat. That's where we got to really know Kamala, her family and friends, and see how she got her powers.

Kamala's family are Pakistani, and her parents and brother moved to America before she was born. Growing up in Jersey City in the 2000s, her heroes were The Avengers, specifically Iron Man, Captain America and Captain Marvel. One night, after a falling out with her friends at a party, Kamala falls prey to an outbreak of Terrigen Mists, a mutagenic substance that creates powers in those with Inhuman DNA.

Related: How Marvel Television Is Evolving & Improving In The 2020s

Miraculously, Khan survives the process and awakens with the ability to modify the size and shape of her body, meaning she can stretch her limbs and distort her features to become bigger or smaller as she sees fit. What's more, she's now wearing a version of the outfit Carol Danvers wore as Ms. Marvel, before she became Captain Marvel.

The early stories of Carol Danvers' new replacement maintain a light-hearted tone, focusing on Kamala trying to find the new normal amid being a hero, a dutiful daughter, good student and worthwhile friend. The overriding plot is a tie-in with the Inhumans, particularly Medusa and Lockjaw, and Kamala learning about her lineage to the strange, quasi-mutant secret species. She partners up with a number of famous heroes, including Wolverine and Spider-Man, until her initial run is ended with the Last Days of the Universe, the direct prelude to Marvel's Secret Wars event that effectively destroys and rejigs the entire Marvel universe.

Ms. Marvel's Powers Explained

Despite inheriting the title from Carol Danvers, Kamala Khan has a very different set of powers. Considered a “polymorph”, Kamala's moves are basically Ant-Man and Mister Fantastic's combined. She can stretch, grow and shrink any part of her body in just about any way conceivable, allowing her to move and distort herself to whatever a scenario requires. The limits of these abilities remain undefined, though in the adaptation they may adhere to the same risks as Ant-Man in the movies when he shrinks down into the Quantum Realm or becomes Giant-Man.

She can also shape-shift, having appeared as her mother and Carol Danvers and imitating Col. James Rhodes' voice. Likewise, she has some form of healing factor, although the healing can only really happen when she restores herself to her original body-shape, and using it drains her powers exponentially.

Related: Every Upcoming Marvel Cinematic Universe Movie

Her elasticity can be blocked and impeded by an electromagnetic pulse, as discovered during one of her first fights against the Inventor. The effectiveness of this, whether long-term exposure can weaken her indefinitely or not, remains to be seen.

Ms. Marvel's Connection To Captain Marvel

When infected by the Terrigen Mists and locked inside a Terrigen cocoon, Kamala dreams of her three favorites: Steve Rogers, Tony Stark and Carol Danvers. They ask her what she wants out of life, and she responds she wants to be like Captain Marvel. She gets her wish, essentially being given the job Carol left behind in her promotion to Captain Marvel.

Carol and Kamala met in the lead-up to Last Days of the Universe, wherein Carol helped Kamala save her brother and gave her a gift, a medallion with the Hala star and Kamala's lightning bolt. Carol confirmed Kamala's fears that the universe was ending, but instructed her to hold onto hope and keep fighting, information that would become useful in Battleworld during 2015's Secret Wars II crossover event.

Related: Streaming Wars Explained: What Exclusives Each Service Offers (For What Price)

Post-Secret Wars II, Kamala was on Carol's side during the Civil War II crossover in 2016, though she wasn't without her doubts as the conflict unfolded. In the event, an Inhuman named Ulysses gains the power to predict the future and sees a dystopian wasteland on the horizon. Captain Marvel wants to safeguard against this information, while Iron Man believes they should react to threats as they happen rather than per-emptively striking, placing the two at odds. Ms. Marvel questions Carol more and more as the event goes on, weary of the lengths Danvers and Stark are willing to go to.

After the conflict subsides, Kamala forms a new team, the Champions, featuring heroes unhappy with all sides of the establishment as reflected in the second superhuman Civil War. The line-up includes Nova, Mile Morales as Spider-Man, Vision's daughter Vivian, Amadeus Cho as the Hulk and a time-displace Cyclops.

Ms. Marvel In The MCU

The likelihood is that Ms. Marvel's show will loosely follow her initial 2014 run of comics: a teen romantic comedy-drama that also features superpowers and ta heroic universe as a backdrop. Some changes will be inherent, such as the characters Kamala crosses over with in her first outings as a Marvel protagonist – Wolverine and Spider-Man, in particular, are very unlikely to make an appearance. Her first year as a fledgling Avenger probably won't be punctuated by a literal clash of two universes, either.

A bigger question is whether her Inhuman back-story will stay intact. She was cultivated in a period when Marvel was going all-in on the Inhuman mythos as a stand-in for the X-Men, whom they were distancing themselves from, and there was intended to be a synergy of sorts between the comics, TV and Marvel Studios movies. In 2014, Inhumans was still slated to be a film and Agents of SHIELD were laying the ground-work for the alien-human sub-species in the MCU.

Related: What Are The Eternals? Marvel’s New Cosmic Movie Team Explained

Needless to say, a lot has changed since then. The Inhumans became a TV series that failed entirely, there was ultimately very little tangible connection between Marvel television and MCU films, and Disney have now bought Fox, giving them back the rights to the X-Men and mutant terminology. There's huge anticipation around when Marvel are going to integrate the mutants into the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Kamala Khan could be a mutant here, side-stepping having to involve anything from the Inhumans in favor of teasing, or even being a backdoor to, the introduction of Xavier's School for Gifted Children. This wouldn't affect her basic story much and makes her even more relevant to the future of Marvel Studios.

Ms. Marvel in live-action will be a momentous occasion for the Marvel Cinematic Universe. There's no better hero to help usher in the franchise's second decade, further diversifying the line-up of heroes and villains along with the likes of Eternals and Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings. With Kamala and her Kamala Korps looming, the post-Avengers: Endgame future of the MCU shines ever brighter.

More: Every Marvel Studios Reveal From D23

source https://screenrant.com/ms-marvel-character-powers-origin-explained/

[enddaysengine]

Spirits (Chronicles of Darkness)

The word "spirit" can mean a lot of things. Enthusiasm, ghost, soul, and vital energy are all valid interpretations, and they all have something to do with the spirits of Chronicles of Darkness. In Chronicles, spirits are part of a broad class of creatures known as ephemeral entities. These entities are intangible and incorporeal creatures, not dissimilar from the classic conception of a ghost. Worth noting though is that in Chronicles, ghosts and spirits are two very different categories of supernatural beings.

Spirits are the animate essence of both living and non-living objects. This concept is probably somewhat familiar because it is the defining feature of animistic religions and worldviews across the entire planet. There are spirits of rocks, trees, doves, spiders, swamps, mountains, mud, and clouds. Spirits inhabit humanmade objects as well; there are spirits in swords, phones, cars, buildings, airplanes, books, telephone wires, and tablets. Spirits don't have to be physical either. Spirits of rage, healing, cancer, death, religion, spite, joy,  revolution, and time are all entirely valid as well.

Also worth considering is that spirits cover a massive range of power levels. Chronicles of Darkness has always been a bit cagey about whether the gods humans worship really exist. We know the God-Machine is out, and it certainly has the power to back up its claims of being a deity... but it could just be a transcendent alien program that understands reality on a level we don't. Spirts are the same way. The most powerful spirts, like Luna, the spirit of the freaking moon, is powerful enough that for all practical purposes, she's a god. And it is worth noting that the same concept can be served by multiple spirits. In Luna’s case, she is the great spirit of the Moon, while there are many other weaker spirits called Lunes that also serve her. Some spirits, like the one inside your newly bought chair, especially if it was mass produced furniture, is likely going to be little more than a seed. 

I used the word seed intentionally because spirits are fundamentally about growth and hunger. Even spirits of decay and stagnation. Events and objects in the material world create ephemeral energy known as Essence. Spirits require Essence to survive, but Essence also comes in various types depending on led to its creation. Various spirits need various kinds of Essence to survive, so spirits often will endeavour to influence humans to create their particular brand Essence. That can lead to spirits having very alien mindsets. One healing spirit may be content to hang around a hospital and syphon up the latent healing essence all around it, but a more active healing spirit may endeavour to start a gang war or detonate a bomb so that there are more people in the local area to be healed. The more Essence as spirit consumes and the more influential it becomes in a local region, the more it powerful the spirit becomes. Theoretically, that chair spirit that starts off as a non-sentient spiritual seed could grow to become as mighty as Luna. It isn't likely to happen, but then again, if you decide to make a Chronicle based on Game of Thrones, the spirit of the Iron Throne would not be someone you would get in a fight with lightly.

The politics of spirits are complicated. Light-Always-Shining dominates the local hierarchy of Las Vegas' spiritual landscape, supported by various electricity, money, and vice spirits. Always-Shining's biggest rival is Desert Starlight, who can barely enter the urban landscape due to the light pollution. Now the various astronomical light spirits of the Mojave Desert have allied with their nominal enemies, the darkness spirits and storm spirits, in a bit unseat Light-Always-Shining by knocking out Vegas' power supply.

The Iron Horses, or Anfarsisu, are the spirits of trains. While these metal snake-horse chimaeras were once powerful lords of the transportation spirits, newer, more innovative vehicles have created spirits that have taken their lordship away. That said, even the least of the Anfarsisu are mighty spirits with ancient memories. With the proper combination of flattery and bribes, an Iron Horse could be convinced to provide information from a far away place, reveal a secret from the age of rail, or teach magic to move between locations quickly.

People talk about the holidays bringing out their Christmas Spirit, but religious festivals really do bring out the spirits. Many spirits have awoken seasonally for centuries, but Nutcracker spirits seem to become more common each year since the 1892 debut of Tchaikovsky's play. Every year, they come out of hibernation for a month or two to encourage the spirits of music and dance, and to slaughter the spirits of rodents. This can form a defensive spiritual barrier around households in the winter, but it can also wreak havoc with the spiritual landscape.

Notes: I've been meaning to do this one for a long time! It seemed appropriate, since the Dark Eras 2 Kickstarter just funded, and one of the eras I'm looking forward to is the Werewolf Era during WWI, which promises to show how the Great War wrecked havoc with the spirits of France, Belgium, and Germany.

Speaking of Dark Eras 2, all of the Second Edition core rulebooks are available as add-ons to the Kickstarter for $10, which is about half their usual price. Even if you aren't interested in the Kickstarter, you can pledge $10 for any of them without selecting a reward Tier in order to get the PDF on the cheap.

Dave Allsop and Steve Prescott are two of your best bets for spirit art. Both contributed heavily to the first edition of Werewolf: the Forsaken, and I’ve used a couple of Dave’s pieces above. 

[cover2covermom]

Today I’m back with another batch of mini book reviews for books I’ve recently read…

*Books included in this batch of mini book reviews: The Read-Aloud Family:  Making Meaningful and Lasting Connections With Your Kids by Sarah Mackenzie, Akata Warrior (Akata Witch #2) by Nnedi Okorafor,  Aru Shah and the End of Time by Rochani Chokshi, and Not That I Could Tell by Jessica Strawser

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» The Read-Aloud Family:  Making Meaningful and Lasting Connections With Your Kids by Sarah Mackenzie

*4.5 Stars*

As a avid reader & mother, The Read-Aloud Family was an absolute delight to read.   I loved learning about the benefits of reading together as a family.  Mackenzie includes studies, other books on this topic, personal narratives, and even experiences of her podcast listeners.  Don’t know what to read-aloud with your kids?  No fear!  Mackenzie includes an extensive recommendation list of books broken down by age range.  I also appreciated Mackenzie listing discussion questions to allow for critical thinking & opening up dialogue.

One thing I did not realize going into this book is that it is classified as Christian Fiction.  Mackenzie is a devout Christian, so she does talk about her faith throughout this book.  It did feel a little “preachy” early on, but it didn’t last long.  After a small section towards the beginning, she only mentions Bible recommendations throughout the remainder of the book.  If you are against books with religious tones and are wondering if Mackenzie’s discussion of her faith is going to put you off – I’d say if you can make it through a small section, I think you’ll be fine.  If you are expecting a book with lots of religious tones, I really wouldn’t peg this as hitting that mark either.

I admired Mackenzie’s realness throughout this book.  Mackenzie doesn’t try to sugarcoat her life, she fully admits that family life is crazy & finding the time to read-aloud to her kids is not always easy.  Throughout the book she shares what has and hasn’t worked for her family and encourages you to find what works best for you & your family.

After reading this book I was very inspired to implement family reading in my own life.  Let me just say that it is much harder than I anticipated.  Between school, homework, sports, and activities, it is really hard to implement reading together as a family.  I feel like it will be more freezable for my family in the summer months when our schedules are not so hectic.   Regardless, I am going to keep trying.  Any reading is better than no reading at all.

I highly recommend listening to this book via audiobook as it is narrated by the author herself.  Her passion really shines through her narration.  I will also be purchasing a paper copy of this book to use as a reference for the book recommendations, discussion questions, etc.

I had never head of Sarah Mackenzie or her podcast, The Read-Aloud Revival, going into this book but being familiar with her podcast is NOT a prerequisite to reading The Read-Aloud Family.  I will be picking up Jim Trelease’s book, The Read-Aloud Handbook, next since this book is what inspired Mackenzie in her read-aloud journey.

» Akata Warrior (Akata Witch #2) by Nnedi Okorafor

*4.5 Stars*

***No spoilers for this book or for the first book***

I was very excited to dive back into this world again!  After reading Akata Witch and loving the magic system & characters, I couldn’t wait to follow up with the second book.   This YA series includes wonderful themes that I love to read about: friendship, identity, courage, family, sacrifice, education, etc. 

I really enjoyed watching Sunny’s growth from the first book to the end of this book.  She really came into her own in Akata Warrior, and is starting to realize just how strong she is.

Much like the first book, I highly enjoy the group of friends in this series: Sunny, Orlu, Chichi, and Sasha.  Sure they bicker & have disagreements, but they truly are there for each other.  I really adore Chichi in particular, and appreciate the positive female friendship between her and Sunny.  I think this stems from the fact that Chichi is a head strong female that does not apologize for who she is, which I both relate to and appreciate.  I also really enjoyed that Sunny’s brother, Chukwu, was a much bigger part of this book.  When Chukwu winds up in a bad situation, Sunny risks everything to save him.   A depiction of a strong sibling relationship was such a heartwarming addition to this story.

The thing I appreciate the most about Nnedi Okorafor’s books are that they are unlike anything I’ve read before.  She’s built such a interesting magic system here, and I absolutely adored it.   I said it after reading Akata Witch and I’ll say it again after Akata Warrior, I’d recommend these books to Harry Potter fans.  They do not have a similar plot, but they gave me similar feelings. 

I would like to add a disclaimer that if you are not a fan of spiders, you may struggle at times in this book.  Really Nnedi?  Did you have to pack this book FULL of spiders?!?!  Don’t you know I HATE spiders?  This is like Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets all over again (I know I said these books were not similar to Harry Potter, but they are similar in the fact that both have too many spiders) Yuck!  Despite my strong aversion to spiders, I still loved reading this book, so that has to tell you something.

My only issue with this, much like the conclusion to her Binti series, is that it didn’t really feel like a conclusion.  The way Okorafor ends both of these series almost feels like she is leaving them open for more books in the future…  It is very possible that this is NOT going to be the conclusion, which I hope is the case.

Overall, if you are looking for a unique YA fantasy to pick up, I encourage you to pick this series up. 

» Aru Shah and the End of Time by Rochani Chokshi

#YARC2019

This was my first time experiencing Roshani Chokshi’s writing and I was not disappointed!

What Roshani did so well here in her MG debut was write an age appropriate & realistic main character.  I cannot tell you how much it annoys me reading a book that that has a middle grade aged main character, but they feel much older than they are.

Not only was Aru age appropriate, but she was a wonderfully complex & flawed character.  Aru struggles to fit in with her peers in her new school.  In order to fit in, Aru has a tendency to tell tall tales.   The middle grade years are tough.  I would venture to say that most kids feel like they don’t completely fit in at one time or another.  Aru is a very relatable character for this reason.   I loved Aru’s character development from the beginning of the book, towards the end where she discovers that she does not need to stretch the truth in order to get kids to like her, she simply needs to be herself.

Aru Shah and the End of Time is fast paced and full of action & adventure.  It definitely held my interest from start to end.  I really appreciated the Hindu mythology – Hindu gods, the traditional Hindu beliefs of karma & reincarnation, Mahabharata & the Pandava brothers – included in Aru Shah and the End of Time.  This was a big reason why I picked it up in the first place: I love learning about different mythologies from around the world.  

I was pleasantly surprised at how funny Aru Shah and the End of Time was!  The dialogue was clever and amusing, even for an adult reader.  This book can definitely appeal to a wide audience from children up to adults.  This would be a wonderful book to read in a classroom setting, or at home with your middle grade readers.

» Not That I Could Tell by Jessica Strawser

*3.5 Stars*

Not That I Could Tell was a bit of a nostalgic read for me.  This story is set in the small town of Yellow Springs, Ohio, which is about 20 – 25 minutes away from where I live.  I’ve been there many times, so I can say that Strawser’s portrayal is fairly accurate.  Basically Yellow Springs is a small town and the biggest hipster town in Ohio.

Not That I Could Tell is labeled a domestic thriller, which it is and it isn’t.  I would consider this one to be more of a small-town or neighborhood drama more than a thriller.  There is an underlying mystery of what happened to Kristin, but the majority of the book centers around the neighbors & the aftermath of Kristin’s disappearance.  The thriller elements do not come about until the final chapters when everything comes together.

One thing I really appreciated about this book was how plausible it was.  I could totally see this really happening in real life.  While I appreciate the realistic plot line, I like to be surprised when I read a thriller, and I didn’t really get that “shock factor” here. 

Overall, Not That I Could Tell was a quick and easy read that served to entertain me while I was reading it.  I think Strawser’s writing was well done, and the story was well crafted.  I didn’t get the “shock factor” that makes a thriller memorable for me, but I think this is a solid book nonetheless.

  Have you read any of these books?  If so, what did you think?

Comment below & let me know 🙂

      I share a batch of mini book reviews on the blog today! #BookReview #Review #Books #Reading #BookBlogger #Bookworm #AmReading #Bibliophile Today I'm back with another batch of mini book reviews for books I've recently read... *Books included in this batch of mini book reviews: 

[whatthekpopofficial]

10 Great Kpop Solo Artists You've Probably Never Heard Of

You've heard of Rain, IU, BoA, PSY, and Ailee, but do you know these solo K-pop gems? The Korean music industry gains countless great new groups and artists every year. Whether it's due to not gaining enough popularity initially, or simply the test of time, many have become lost and forgotten. I've composed a list of the top 10 solo artists that even the oldest and most decorated K-pop fans may not be familiar with today. I've stuck to the true Korean pop category in particular for this list, leaving out rock, rap, hip-hop, indie, R&B, ballad, and others. The following are also all solo artists who actually debuted as solo artists, not solo units or members who broke away from bands— such as KIXS, originally from DMTN/Dalmatian, or Kahi, originally from After School.

1. Andamiro

This female artist debuted four years ago and screams "girl power" in every sense of the term. Her songs "Left Out" and "Hypnotize" (the latter of which has a Korean, English, and Spanish version!) will certainly put you in a hypnotized groove. Her videos show females are just as strong as men and deserve to fully shine! After a break, she returned under the new stage name ANDA with the somewhat scandalous song "Touch." ANDA is still active to this day, and most of her newer music videos hint at homosexual themes. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XGigcMweiaE

2. CrazyNo

One of my personal favorites in this list, CrazyNo is a Korean-Australian who moved to Korea through the Hallyu-wave to show his music mixing skills. He was known for his interesting ability to twist his singing as if he was a "scratched record" (Example: 1:39 in the video below). "Musiche" is a zany, techno beat that brings up the topic of how liking music doesn't make you ignorant or insane— although his unforgettable, crazy antics and dance moves certainly make it seem that way. However, that's his unique charm! Sadly, he didn't have a comeback after his debut. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fAy4L7qvhW4

3. Natthew

After having won one of Thailand's largest singing competitions and making a name for himself there, Nat Thewphaingam then set his sights on the Hallyu Wave. With the move, he brought a new, more upbeat sound to his music. His debut song "She's Bad" has that definite 2011 Kpop feeling, and it certainly helped Natthew to have featured a rap from Highlight's Yong Junhyung. He's still active to this day and has put out songs collaborations with impressive artists such as g.o.d's Son Hoyoung. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SI5U3wIZZNA

4. Kim Sori

After being left out of the upcoming band Jewelry in 2006 due to not fitting the image, Kim Sori was given the chance to debut as a solo artist in 2009 with the song "Lip." Her looks and style have been compared to Lee Hyori. In 2010, she became a six-month member of the popular show "Invincible Youth," providing more exposure for her at the time. Kim's catchy song "Dual Life," released in 2013, garnered lots of attention online and overseas, but was given some harsh criticism for parts of it being too sexual. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gIovAaUlT3o

5. AJOO

Let's go back almost ten years to this young cutie with a dark, sassy attitude. Perhaps young Noh Ahjoo wanted to be an idol singer, but also liked the idea of being a second generation Chaebol (wealthy Korean families who own large corporations), which happened to be the name and concept of one of his more popular songs. It gathered a lot of negative criticism from the media for its bragging of an excessive and indulgent lifestyle. In 2009, AJOO released a song with his at-the-time label mate, and popular singer, Younha, called "Paparazzi." He put out a few tracks before ultimately leaving stardom in 2010. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L8m4IopRRlc

6. Taegoon

A mix of Rain and Se7en, this idol's style definitely took pages from his seniors' books. Yet, Taegoon still has his own, unique flair. With a natural sexiness about him, it's somewhat sad his fame couldn't be retained, but he did develop a tight-knit group of followers at the time. Taegoon is still active today, but focuses primarily on being the featuring artist for other singers' tracks. Unfortunately, it's been five years since his last solo comeback. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bPmVMZKEeOE

7. NC.A

This baby-faced cutie definitely deserves a spot on this list. Still active to this day with new comebacks, as well as Drama OST's, NC.A is slowly but steadily gaining more love from followers. Her song "Vanilla Shake" will shake you up with its cute, addictive dance and "ding-dong-ding-dong" hook. Be sure to check out her dancing with penguins (Yes, penguins!) on the live performances of her song "Coming Soon." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A9NiKZUWCLI

8. Baek Seungheon

One of the more recent debuts on this list, Baek Seungheon is double trouble as an actor and singer. You've probably seen him in dramas such as "Something About 1%" and "High School Love On." His steady voice and impressive visuals carry the songs which have that "I'm really sad but just have to dance it out" vibe. His song "Till The Sun Rises" boasts almost 700,000 views since 2012. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tv7BHjZjsF8

9. FatCat

FatCat first gained interest when she worked with Defconn in 2011. She eventually debuted as a solo artist, impressing many who were unfamiliar with her singing-rap style. Her song "Is Being Pretty Everything?" brings up the issue of how girls can feel unimportant just because they aren't considered "pretty." It then goes on to reinforce how they all deserved to be loved just like anyone else. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RCRBG1J6i4w

10. Roh Jihoon

Sexy is the perfect way to describe Roh Jihoon of Cube Entertainment. He put on a show with fellow singer Ailee for the 2012 "Korean Music Festival." Acting as a sexy, tension-filled couple for a performance, they even ended it with a kiss, which netizens raved over. His sharp looks and charming demeanor mix perfectly in his music video for "Punishment" as we see him chasing the illusive girl of his dreams. The unique "shoe-sliding" and "belt-pulling" dance will keep your eyes glued to the screen. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYfqORbqRmc How many of these artists did you recognize? What did you think of their songs? Hopefully you were introduced to an unfamiliar artist that you liked! Let us know in the comment section below! CaptainMal has been into Korean Entertainment for seven years now, since 2010. She travels to conventions in her area, showcasing her “Kpop Game Show’” and occasional Kpop cosplay. Although her favorite bands are Infinite, Super Junior, and VIXX, she boasts a love for a huge variety of artists throughout the last 15 years of Kpop. Other than Kpop, CaptainMal loves Disney, 80’s rock, Daft Punk, Gaming, and Orange Juice. Media: As Credited Click to Post