#that anthology is seriously interesting i think everyone should check it out

[creatediana]

“Tree” by Aboriginal Australian poet and playwright Kevin Gilbert (1933–1993), published in the 1988 anthology, Inside Black Australia, edited by Gilbert and included among other contemporary Aboriginal poets

[thekranke]

October Fanfic Rec Prompts

I was inspired to share some fanfic recommendations thanks to this weekly prompt list originally made by @piratejenna. My week 1 recommendations are extremely belated but alas here they are.

The prompt in question was “Fics you’ve read more times than you can count” and or “Fics you’ve stayed up reading later than you should have.” 

As a final note: These are mainly for the fandoms of Touhou, Fire Emblem and Mili.

Touhou Project:

Tipsy Words: Nightly Stroll of Moon Goddess and Weird Rabbit by CroakenTheCroakey: This fic starts off with everyone’s favorite joyful alcoholic oni Suika trying to impersonate a rabbit. What more do I need to say? More seriously, this fic had several characters who most people wouldn't think to put in the same room together interacting. Most notably the pair the title itself is alluding to, Ibuki Suika and Kishin Sagume. It was interesting seeing all these different personalities together and the drunken shenanigans were hilarious and adorable. Another sweet thing about this fic is that Suika’s initial motive was she wanted to be a great party host so she could bridge the gap between the Lunarians and the Earth Folk. So earnest lol, a real pick me up for this fandom if you need it.

The Great Danmaku Festival by Aardvark123: Reimu just wanted to hold a spectacular festival for her friends but of course, some other shrine happens to be holding a separate festival at the same time. Touhou-style shenanigans ensue. This was a genuinely entertaining story that incorporated a good portion of the characters and definitely felt like something they’d get up to in-game. Plus the fight scenes aren’t too shabby either. If you want to see some chaos that would make ZUN proud then check out this fic.

Touhou Summer of Ships 2021 by Mimic_Teruyo: If you couldn't tell by the title this rec is a little different since it's a collection of shorts as opposed to one continuous story. The collection was a nice blend of both pairings and genres. No matter what character or ship the author wrote it always came as IC and the wide range of stories in this anthology is what makes it memorable to me. It also got me considering some new pairings like Reimu/Letty so kudos fer that.

Fire Emblem:

Soft as Silk by Acureforliving: A Marianne x Ignatz fic that never fails to make my soulless heart beat. This is such a touching fic that fills you with a warm fuzzy feeling while being a fitting love story for both characters. In particular, it really captures the shy deposition these two possess and how they come to bring each other out of their shell. Seeing the steady progression of their relationship through a series of consistently adorable and lovingly awkward interactions was beautiful and it all comes together in a perfect ending. If you like this pairing, I’d recommend giving this one a read.

i want to see the stars reflecting you by seasparks: I read this at 11:30pm thinking it would be quick but uhh…it filled me with one too many Edeleth feelings and then I couldn’t sleep for another 2 hours but more seriously I liked that this fic is set in the period of time between White Cloud and Part 2 since I feel like there’s so much good potential to explore how the characters were coping with…well everything that happened in the Academy Phase’s climax. Especially Edelgard as you can imagine. This fic deals with a lot of the complicated feelings she had after her ‘victory’ and it was interesting seeing her in such a vulnerable position. Dorothea’s interactions with her really put the comfort in Hurt/Comfort and overall this was a really nice fic that covered both their friendship and Edelgard’s angst at losing her idol. 

Goodnight, Lucina by Doctor_Bedlam: The premise of this fic is that for various Completely Logical Reasons all the FE:A kids wind up in Lucina’s bed and thus a massive cuddle pile is formed. A lovely thing for us readers to experience but uhh not so great for poor sleep deprived Lucina. This was a real feed good fic and the buildup of how one good sisterly deed spirals into an impromptu slumber party is nothing short of perfect. We also got this iconic line “Insult not the noble turnip,” that’s all the advertising you need.

Beruka: The Equal Assassin by Sketchione: A Beruka/Camilla fic that starts out pretty fluffy with Beruka being confused as to why her liege is so insistent on spending time with her…only to later reveal that Beruka’s struggle to understand her own emotions leads her into a downward spiral that results in her attempting to take her own life. I read this fic way back in 2016 and it’s always stuck with me. Beruka in general is such an underrated and underutilized character in Fates for the aforementioned reason of her struggle with emotional repression. While the beginning bonding interactions between her and Camilla are very sweet it was definitely tragic to see how Beruka just couldn’t accept her affection which is what starts her spiral. Camilla’s reaction to the event was also heartbreaking and something that’s particularly notable about this fic is that it has a sorta ‘choose your own ending’ with chapter 4A being the bittersweet so-to-say ending and 4B being a straightforward tragic ending. It’s got something for everyone so why not give it a try

Miscellaneous Fandoms:

So I Can See You Again by Renjo: A rare fanfic based on the band Mili whose songs are known to have some extensive lore behind them. This one in particular takes a look at the characters of Tellulu and Lancel0t from their song “Ga1ahad and the Scientific Witchery”. This fic continues to depict the destructive nature of their relationship as seen in the song but it takes little hints of lyrics and adds context or theorized lore between them which helps make these characters and their world fleshed out. Additionally, it has the kind of subtle or perhaps not so subtle reference to body horror that Mili loves to sneak into their songs which was very well written. Definitely say give it a read while listening to the actual song haha.

This is in no way a complete list but believe me, more recs and more fandoms to come soon...

[fiction-fun]

Manchurian Gold: The Great Escape

@creedtheconquer @theconfusedleo @friedrich-the-gay @hamiltimes @braidedchallah @haha-gunsgoburrr @alexanderdamnhethin @rthoney @andpeggy21

Fandom: Man of Medan, Dark Pictures Anthology

Pairings: Alex/Julia, Conrad/OC, Brad/OC

Words: 13262

Warnings: Mentions of Guns and Knives, minor violence

THIS IS IN COLLABERATION WITH THE AMAZING AND WONDERFUL @2-pints-of-sam-adams1776

Reading Key:

Bold: Narrator

Regular: Laurens

Italics: Me

Oh hello and welcome to my repository, if you choose to stay may I offer a story to keep you entertained? 

Fantastic, now where should we begin? Oh yes this one is one of my favorites, shall we begin?

"Jesus there you are, we are already running late as is." Alex slightly scolds his brother's best friend, a young lady by the name of Cheyenne.

"Sorry Alex kinda got lost or did the fact that we are in a different country escape your understanding." She fires back causing Alex to raise his arms in surrender.

"Julia and Conrad will be there any minute we need to head out now." He says grabbing the things they need and he starts to head out.

"Be nice Alex I'm pretty sure if they get there before us it won't be that bad." Brad interjects giving Cheyenne a sympathetic look.

The 3 friends climbed into the rental car and they headed off to their next stop, where they will be spending the next few days.

"Conrad, there will be plenty of beer, would you relax?" Julia called from the front seat of the car.

Conrad looked back and waved her off.

"Seriously Jules, you'll get to see your lover boy soon. If Lil ol' Connie wants to grab a drink let him." Julia's friend Kaley said looking at her from the driver's seat. 

Julia sighed and looked at where Conrad had disappeared too.

"I'm not worried about that, they're going to be waiting for us!" Julia said with a huff.

Kaley stifled a chuckle and looked at her friend critically.

"Julia, are you sure they won't mind my sudden appearance?" She asked, watching her friend closely.

Julia waved her off much like Conrad had moments ago.

"Yeah, they won't care. Alex is cool and from what he says his brother is pretty chill too." Julia said just as Conrad jumped into the back.

"Alright you two, enough gossiping let's get on the road!" Conrad called with energy.

Kaley shook her head and put the car in gear, the three heading off towards the docks where they'd meet up with the others.

"Can you go grab that last case of beer while we get set up here." Alex asks Brad and his brother nods leaving the boat and going back to the car.

"So we finally get to meet this Julia you've said so much about." Cheyenne teases, taking a seat and Alex shakes his head ignoring her and starts to unpack some things.

"So Julia." Brad says setting the case of beer down.

"Did you take those diving classes like I asked you too?" Alex asks and Brad shakes his head.

"No I didn't." He responds and Alex sighs.

"How are you going to get in the water." He asks and Brad shrugs.

"Just wing it I guess." Brad responds and Cheyenne snorts biting back the laughter threatening to spill out.

"Brad, Julia and Conrad don't mess around with this kind of stuff we are swimming with the big fish now." Alex states and Brad rolls his eyes, "I shouldn't have let you tag along Julia just wanted to meet you."

"Tag along? Last I checked I was invited." Bred fires back and Alex instantly regrets his choice of words.

"I'm sorry I didn't mean that I'm just a little stressed with Med school and this whole long distance thing with Jules." Alex says apologizing to his brother and Brad nods.

"Don't worry man I understand." Brad says, offering a small smile to his brother to reassure him.

The three of them pulled up and Conrad jumped out, phone in hand.

"What are you doing now, Connie?" Julia asked, looking at him.

Kaley just sighed and grabbed her bag, before walking over to the other side of the car.

"Seriously, Conrad? One track mind much?" Kaley asked, moving to stand a bit ahead of them.

Conrad gave a smirk and jumped forward,wrapping his arm around her.

"Come on, Kaley! It's a vacation! Live a little." Conrad said with a little laugh.

Kaley and Julia just shook their heads and the three of them started walking towards the pier.

"They are here." Alex says clicking his phone off as the other two look towards the dock and see 3 figures moving closer to them.

"Julia hey." Alex says to the girl with dirty blond hair and bright blue eyes.

"Alex!" She squeals, pulling him into a hug.

"This is my brother Brad." He says pointing behind him.

"Brad oh my god it's so nice to finally meet you, this is my best friend Kaley and my brother Conrad." She says introducing the ones behind her.

"And who is this?" Conrad asks as Cheyenne comes up from below deck.

"Oh this is…." Alex starts but she walks past him.

"I'm Cheyenne, and you are?" She asks, sticking her hand out to Conrad and a ghost of a smirk appears on his face.

"Conrad." He says and she nods with a smile as they shake hands.

Kaley smiled at the gathered group and moved off to the side to look out at the ocean, noticing that Brad moved towards the side as well. Then Conrad walked up.

"Hey, man." Conrad said looking at Brad.

Brad nodded.

"Hey." Brad said looking to the side.

Conrad being his normal self, wrapped his arms around him and dragged him towards where the beer was.

"Come on, share a cold one with me!" Conrad said, moving to pass Brad one.

Brad shook his head and put his hands up.

"No, trust me, you don't want to see me blowing chunks!" Brad said.

Kaley smirked and grabbed the bottle that had been held out to Brad.

"Then I will just take this." She said, moving to sit on one of the seats.

Conrad shrugged before turning his attention back to Brad.

"So have you ever done this before?" Conrad asked motioning towards the dive gear and ocean beyond.

Brad shook his head again.

"No, I never have."

Conrad smiled, and Kaley who noticed shook her head knowing Conrad was going to say something stupid.

"Ocean virgin nice! We'll pop your cherry, together!" Conrad said with a determined look.

Brad looked distinctly uneasy. Kaley leaned forward, grabbing her tablet from her bag.

"Hey Brad, want to come look at some of my photos from my last free dive? I think you'd be interested." She offered sliding over to give him room.

"Yeah, thanks." Brad said, moving to sit by her.

"If you're handing out drinks I'll take you up on that offer." Cheyenne says coming up to Conrad and he smiles handing her a cold one.

"Tell me, how do you know Alex and Brad?" He asked leaning against the frame taking a swig of his drink.

"Me and Brad have been friends since middle school and well Alex tolerates us." She says sitting down on the seat next to where Conrad was standing.

"Is this your first dive?" He asks, casting a glance over to Brad and Kaley.

"Not my first dive I've done but it is my first one of this magnitude." She says and he looks pleased as he turns his attention back to her.

"Awesome! Glad I'm paired with someone who at least knows somewhat, what they're doing." He says amused and she nods as the captain boards the boat.

"Looks like you and I are a pair." Kaley says softly as the captain boards.

"I'd say make yourselves at-home but….anyways we'll be leaving shortly." Fliss, the captain of the 'Duke of Milan' said as she headed towards the controls in the front.

Brad looked at Kaley, and rubbed the back of his neck.

"Sorry you got paired with such a noob." He said softly.

Kaley just laughed lightly shaking her head.

"Don't worry, everyone starts somewhere. All these pics were taken mid range free diving. Swimming but a bit deeper. I need more pictures anyways so if you want we can just chill up in the upper water." Kaley said reassuringly.

Brad smiled happily.

"Yeah, that'd be great." Brad said excitedly.

"Finally we can get going, felt like I was about to bake out in this sun." Cheyenne groans finishing off her drink and she places it in the trash as Conrad takes a seat next to her.

"What do you like to do for fun?" He asked, trying to strike up a conversation.

"Oh you know the usual, watch movies, listen to music. I also love to read and write but that's more of a guilty pleasure past time." She says, sitting criss cross and she turns slightly to face him.

"What kind of stuff do you write?" He asks and she laughs slightly looking down at her hands as she feels embarrassment start to bubble inside of her.

"Nothing really just little short stories and a few poems here and there." She says and he playfully nudges her shoulder.

"You should let me read some of your stuff some time." He comments and she laughs nervously again.

"Maybe but only if you tell me a little bit about yourself first." She says finally looking back up at him and he nods.

"I like diving, watching movies, uhhhh can't really think of anything else." He says and she nods.

"Alright what do you do for a living." She asks and he smiles slightly.

"I just finished college, I'm trying to become a bartender, what do you do for a living?" He turns the question on her.

"I also just finished college, I'm trying to do something in the history field but haven't found anything yet." She says and he looks somewhat impressed.

"Damn...you're interesting." He says softly.

"So Brad, what do you do? Just, in general?" Kaley asked, adjusting to look at Brad.

He paused and pushed his glasses up, before adjusting to look at her too.

"Well, I'm still in school, studying history with a large focus on world war 2. I love learning all of the different aspects that no one really teaches anymore. Beyond school...I study and read, I work too, I'm a battlefield archeologist. Basically I get to go explore and dig at old battlefields, but I'm only a junior member." Brad said, looking embarrassed as he finished.

Kaleys eyes widened, and a smile split her face.

"That's so cool! I love what you can find in and around battlefields. I myself am studying oceanography with an English secondary and a little bit of a history minor... although my area of expertise is in the civil war. Beyond school I read different things Shakespeare, Homer the  iliad and Odyssey, and a bunch of other stuff. As far as work goes? I work at the aquarium by my school, it's peaceful and relaxing." She said, smiling still.

Brad looked back at her with shock registering as he digested the similarities between them.

"That's...so cool." He said with a bright smile.

After that no one could disturb them for a while as they began debating the differences of their chosen wars and discussing other aspects and things they had learned.

"We're here." Fliss says bringing the Duke to a stop and she lowers the anchor.

"I'm so excited!" Julia squeals zipping up her wet suit.

"If there was a wreck here this place would be swarmed with people like you." Fliss states with a hint of anger in her voice.

"There is a wreck here, if Brad says there is I trust his judgement." Alex says fighting back an eye role.

"Have you ever dove before?" She asks, crossing her arms.

"Yes I have a few times." Alex responds, zipping up his wetsuit.

"Well if you have you should know regulations, if this is an undocumented wreck we need to turn it in….now." She says and Julia sighs getting annoyed.

"Look we paid you ok we can handle this don't worry." Julia snaps and Fliss shakes her head as she walks off.

"Julia, relax ok? She's right. We know regulations, we need to turn it in." Kaley said with a sigh.

Julia looked like she wanted to keep arguing but Alex cut in.

"So what you're saying is that we shouldn't dive? Come on! You even said you wanted to get in the water!" Alex said, trying to get her to their side.

Kaley put her hands on her hips.

"Yeah, I do. But I want to freedive and only take photos for my oceanography course. Not mess with world war 2 era fighter planes. You guys are treading on dangerous territory, who knows what is on that plane!. Long story short I agree with Fliss, we need to report this." She said crossing her arms definitely, daring them to argue more.

Alex opened his mouth to continue, but paused when Fliss walked back, looking frustrated.

"Just don't touch anything. Take pictures if you want but don't touch anything. Otherwise we all will be at risk of being arrested." Fliss says, with a hard glare.

Kaley turned and looked over to Brad.

"Let's go get ready and I can show you some cool stuff." She said walking away from everyone else.

Brad nodded.

"Yeah, alright." He said with a small smile.

"I agree, we should call this wreck in." Cheyenne speaks up, throwing her 2 cents in.

"At least there are a few people on this boat who have their head screwed on straight." Fliss says under her breath as she starts to set up the diving gear.

"Lets go get ready." Cheyenne says giving a nod to Fliss before turning towards Conrad.

"Alex are you ready?" Julia asks making the last connections on her rebreather and he nods, "Alright let's go."

The pair jumped into the water and they started to descend to the wreck.

"Hey Fliss, I'm sorry about them." Cheyenne says coming up to her.

"Thanks." She says not looking up from what she's doing.

"No Fliss, she's right. They were totally in the wrong. Julia's one of my best friends and she can be a major bitch sometimes. Conrad's not a lot better when he gets his mind on something but he at least tones down to a loud jerk while Julia just steam rolls you. Long story short they should have reported it." Kaley said walking over to get her and Brad's flippers goggles and a couple underwater cameras.

Brad walked up behind her, gently taking his goggles and flippers from her.

"Thanks, and both Kaley and Cheyenne are right, Alex can be a big jerk when he wants to be." Brad said as he got his flippers on.

Kaley smiled and moved to sit on the edge of the boat by Brad.

"Don't worry Fliss, we'll follow guidelines and stay in the upper waters so you won't have 2 sets of misbehaving people." Kaley said as she finished getting her flippers and goggles on.

Brad looked up and nodded with a smile.

"Ready, Brad?" Kaley asked as she stood on the small platform that hung off of the boat.

Brad gave a last small smile to Cheyenne and Fliss before moving to stand by Kaley.

"Yeah, yeah I think so!" He said as he pulled his goggles down.

Kaley passed him a camera and with that the two of them leapt into the water and dove a bit to get a better distance from the ship to see the animals and plants of the area.

"Could your first mate interest you in a cold one?" Conrad asks walking up to Fliss.

Fliss turns with a slight disgusted look on her face, "You're not my first mate."

"Cabin boy?" He questions and she shakes her head causing Cheyenne to snort watching his failed attempts.

"Not even close." Fliss says crossing her arms and Conrad takes a deep breath.

"How about if your dashingly handsome well paying client has asked you to join him for a frosty amber colored liquid?" He asks again and Fliss shakes her head.

"I'm only taking this because you people give me a headache, now would you please go I have work to do." She says and he nods handing her the bottle.

"Aye aye captain." He says turning and he takes a seat on the deck.

"Wow that was almost embarrassing to watch." Cheyenne teases Conrad as she takes a seat next to him.

"Hey I'm a man of many talents." He says and she laughs shaking her head.

"Oh are you now." She says back and he nods looking down at her.

"Yes I am, I can show you if you'd like." He quips and she side eyes him.

"Charm must not be one of them." She says looking him over and he shakes his head.

"That is where you're wrong, it's like a boomerang once you think it's gone over your head it comes back and hits you." He says with a wink causing Cheyenne to look away from him as she feels a blush creeping up her neck.

He was right at first she was unfazed by his advancements but as the day has dragged on she's found herself falling little by little and she hates it.

Kaley and Brad slowly swim a little lower in the water. Brad swims a bit ahead of her just to test his flippers and Kaley shakes her head before grabbing him and pulling him back quickly. Brad wide eyed looks at her. Kaley waves her hand through the water in the direction Brad had been headed, causing Brad to look and see a small shark slowly approaching.

"Ahh" Brad bubbles out in surprise.

Kaley smirked a bit and carefully covered his mouth before holding up her camera and pointing at him then the shark. Brad shook his head frantically, so Kaley shrugged and pointed to his camera before starting to swim over to the Shark. Brad, shocked that she had reached it and was carefully resting a hand on the dorsal fin of the shark, slowly raised his camera up and snapped a few pictures. Kaley smiled as he gave her a thumbs up before pointing behind Brad. Brad turned slowly expecting another shark but saw just some flowering sea plants, with a nod and a smile he swam over to them and Kaley captured a few nice shots. An hour or so later they both surfaced and climbed back into the ship.

"I can't believe you grabbed that shark!" Brad said amazed.

Kaley, who was looking over her pictures paused on one of Brad by a coral structure and shrugged lightly.

"Brad, it was a baby reef-back. They aren't dangerous, not even the adults are. The only sharks even less dangerous are nurse sharks." She said as she finally put her camera down and slipped her flippers off before moving onto the slow process of extracting herself from the dive suit.

"Still, it could have been risky." Brad muttered softly, slowly pulling out of his suit.

Kaley plopped onto one of the benches and pulled the suit off her legs, before looking up at Brad, she offered a little sigh.

"Brad, I know sharks and I know the species that are in this area, I was safe. But I thank you for being worried about me." She said smiling softly as she pulled her wet hair into a high ponytail.

Brad sighed and looked up, eyes going wide for a second as he saw her in just a pair of short swim shorts and a tight tank top.

"I...I was worried that you'd be ripped apart. But you do know what you know." Brad said finally.

Kaley smiled and sat next to him.

"Thanks Brad, honestly one of the best free dive partners I've had. Let's look over these pictures." She said smiling brightly.

Brad swallowed before nodding and grabbing his camera to pull his pictures up. Kaley tore her eyes away from Brad with a soft blush, Brad made a sight in only swim trunks.

"Hey is that a boat coming our way?" Cheyenne asks as she scans the waters.

"That must be what was popping up on radar ...I don't think that's the coast guard coming to arrest us, I've got a bad feeling about this." Fliss says picking up the binoculars before glancing back at the others.

"So what do we do?" Conrad asks, crossing his arms and Fliss glares at him.

"We aren't doing anything, I'm the captain so you be quiet and let me talk." She warns and he nods holding his hands up in surrender.

Not even 10 minutes later the boat comes racing by and hits the dive line before it comes to a stop.

"You have to back up, we have divers in the water!" Fliss calls out as the guy that looks to be the quote unquote captain looks over the side of the speed boat.

"Look what you did to our boat." He says pointing at the very obvious indentation on his speed boat.

"Look man we're sorry, how much would it be to fix that? 10." Conrad says bringing out money and he flicks a 10 dollar bill into the water, "No? How about 20?" He flicks another bill into the water, "30?" He flicks another, "Here take it all." He finishes throwing all of it in the water.

The men speed off and Fliss looks up at Conrad, "You're an idiot." She says harshly before walking away.

"What the hell was that, they could have been pirates…..good job." Cheyenne scolds walking away from him.

"You guys are right, why don't I start up the grill." He says walking over to the grill and he starts to put the starter on the charcoal and he lights it, but it blows up and catches on fire.

"Shit." Fliss says rushing to grab the extinguisher and she rushes over and puts the fire out.

"Fuck, Conrad are you ok." Cheyenne says getting up and rushing over to him and she looks him over to make sure.

"Yeah I'm fine." He says letting her examine his arm.

"What the hell was that?" They hear Julia say from the water.

"Some guys ran into the dive line." Fliss informs and Julia nods looking at the money floating in the water.

"Who decided to pay the ocean?" She asks and both Fliss and Cheyenne look at Conrad.

"I don't know, ask your idiot brother." Fliss says and Julia shakes her head.

"Connie I swear to god you can be stupid sometimes." She says shaking her head before holding up her hand, "Anyways everyone shut up and look."

"Oh my God congratulations you guys!" Cheyenne squeals as she gazes at the ring on Julia's left hand.

"Well damn this is cause for celebration." Conrad smiles as he helps bring them in.

Brad and Kaley who had been down below deck until then came up in time to hear Conrad.

"What's the celebration for, Connie?' Kaley called out as they walked over.

Julia squealed a bit and jumped up onto the little platform, before shoving her hand in Kaleys face.

"LOOK!" she squealed happily.

Kaley upon seeing the ring smiled a happy smile for her friend.

"Congrats, I guess Conrad is right. This time." She said muttering the last bit.

"HEY! I heard that!' Conrad called with a smile still plastered on his face.

Kaley rolled her eyes and shook her head.

"That was the point. So how are we going to celebrate? And before Conrad says alcohol, why don't we let Julia and Alex choose since it's their celebration." Kaley said, and the rest nodded, Conrad looking properly chastised.

"How about food? That is if Conrad didn't break the grill." Julia suggested.

Everyone agreed to that and before long everyone was seated with food and all except Brad were drinking a beer, Brad had a soda.

"Why don't you tell us a ghost story Brad." Cheyenne says relaxing back against the bench she was seated on next to Conrad.

"Yeah I agree, come in Brad." Julia says taking another sip of her drink.

"Alright, this is the retelling of a true story." Brad started but Alex cut him off.

"Woah wait a true story? Where did you hear it?" Alex asked.

Brad gave him a little look.

"An old man, on a beach." Brad said pausing.

Alex seemed to settle back down, Kaley leaned forward, getting into the story.

"It was a long time ago on a cloudy day, an old lighthouse keeper was walking the beach, when out of nowhere a frantic woman ran up to him begging and pleading for help. The lighthouse keeper asked what the problem was, and she said her parents had been murdered. Now the lighthouse keeper, realizing the gravity of the situation, started back with her before asking where she was taking him. 'the old lighthouse, I've lived there for years' the women responded. Now the keeper knew that wasn't true because he was the only one to live there in several decades. He tried to tell the woman this, but she wouldn't listen and instead lead him up the stairs. When they reached the top, there were two bodies splayed out in a bloody fashion on the floor." Brad paused for a second to take in the reactions knowing the best part was coming up.

Julia looked freaked out while Fliss looked interested, Kaley leaned even further trying to fully take in the story, he almost felt bad knowing the ending would probably make her jump and fall off the bench. Conrad and Alex looked marginally unimpressed. He continued.

"The man turned to the woman and asked her 'who did this?' she looked at him and said  'my husband, and he's still here, in the closet' she pointed to the old closet and the keeper looked at it before cautiously making his way over to it, he took a second to take a breath expecting to be attacked. The lighthouse keeper opened the door and sure enough, there was a man in the closet and in the shadow the lighthouse keeper couldn't see his face, so he leaned closer, and closer until finally he could make out the man's face. And….it was his OWN FACE and before the keeper knew what happened the man jumped and his eyes bulged out and "WAHHH"" Brad lunged forward, lightning cracking at that moment and Brad's face went creepy.

Julia laughed, Alex looked impressed and Kaley, as expected, fell off her chair in shock.

Fliss looked the slightest bit impressed, Conrad laughed giving Brad a nod while Cheyenne yelps instantly clinging on to Conrad and she hides behind him.

"Alright as much as the story was interesting, I think it's bedtime." Alex says standing and Julia follows him.

"I agree." Fliss says as she too stands up and walks off.

"Was the story really that scary?" Conrad says looking behind him slightly at Cheyenne.

"N-no, just the lightning caught me off guard." She says letting go of him and she fixes her shirt.

"Whatever you say sweetheart." He responds with a wink and a smile and her jaw dropped slightly.

Kaley stood up and stretched lightly.

"Scuse me love birds. Hey Brad, nice story. I was wondering if you wanted to come chat a bit before bed?" She asked side stepping Conrad and Cheyenne.

Brad smiled at her lightly.

"Yeah sure, wanna talk down in my room? So we can sit comfortably?" He asked her as they started walking.

Kaley nodded.

"Yeah that sounds good." She says and follows Brad down and out of sight.

"I would actually like to get to know you better." Conrad says relaxing back against the bench with Cheyenne.

"I would like that too." She says softly looking up at him and he smiles.

"Let's start with the basics, how old are you?" He asks and she nods playing with her hands.

"21, how old are you?" She returns.

"22, do you have any siblings?" He asks the next question.

"Yeah 3 actually, an older brother and sister and then a younger brother." She replies and he nods.

"You know you have beautiful eyes." He whispers and she feels her face heat up.

"Stop you're just saying that to say it." She responds and he looks confused before he shakes his head.

"No, I'm serious it's true." He reassures and she smiles slightly.

"Thank you. If my eyes are beautiful yours are otherworldly." She responds and he smiles happily.

"I could go on with the compliments but I get the feeling you really don't want to hear the truth which is a shame because you deserve to know." He says and she feels her heart stutter at his words.

After a beat of silence, she clears her throat and looks away from him, "As much as I'm enjoying this and your company I think I'm gonna call it a night." She stands and he follows stopping her.

"I mean you can join me, I have the top bunk but we can work something out." He says and she smiles nodding.

"Alright, lead the way." She says moving out of his way and he walks them down to his bunk.

Kaley ducks into Brad's room, looking around before joining him, sitting on the bed. She leans her back against the wall next to him and they sit quietly for a few minutes.

"So...so uh what did you want to talk about?" Brad asks, breaking the silence.

Kaley smiles a bit and looks over at him.

"Well we know each other's majors, and what we enjoy and do for work, but that's all. So tell me about yourself, how old are you?" She asked him, turning to him a bit.

Brad shuffles and looks at her.

"I'm 21, how old are you?" He asks her softly.

Kaley smiles a bit.

"I just turned 22 last week." She said softly.

Brad smiled and nodded.

"Do you have any siblings?" Brad asked her.

Kaley nodded and offered a small smile.

"An older brother and a younger sister." Kaley said softly, slowly slipping down the wall.

She let out a yawn, one that Brad mirrored a few seconds later.

"So, have you always been interested in world war 2?" Kaley asked softly.

The two of them had slid down and we're facing each other on the bed barely awake. Brad nodded, his glasses pressed up.

"Yeah, just seeing the….the differences that have happened have always intrigued me." He said voice, soft.

 Kaley smiled and nodded.

"You're intriguing." She murmured.

Brad laughed a bit.

"So are you." He whispered as they both dozed off.

"Shhhh, we have to be quiet, the children are sleeping." Conrad teases pointing to the bottom bunk where Brad and Kaley are sound asleep.

"Duly noted." Cheyenne whispers climbing the ladder and she settles into the sheets.

"If you want me to, I can sleep on the opposite end with my back to you." He whispers and she shakes her head patting the just big enough space for him to lay next to her.

"I don't mind…..might actually help me sleep better, never was really good at falling asleep on boats." She whispers and he nods, settling next to her closing the gap between them with an arm around her.

"Goodnight." He whispers against her ear and she smiles to herself.

"Goodnight." She whispers back and they too are sound asleep within minutes.

Barely 2 hours later Cheyenne is shaken awake from the force of a random guy pulling Conrad off the bed. She sits up right as Conrad smashes a bottle over the guys head and she jumps into action and she kicks him sending him flying back to the wall, "Are you ok, are you hurt." She frantically says climbing down from the bed and she starts to look at the cut on his forehead.

"I'm fine, are you ok?" He asks and she nods looking over to the other bunk and seeing the two that were there previously are gone.

"Where is everyone?" She asks and Conrad shrugs.

"Both of you shut the fuck up." The man, her and Conrad had tagteamed shouted standing up holding a knife and the two of them held up their hands.

The man ties their hands behind their back and he tapes their mouths before leading them into Alex and Julia's room. When they enter they see everyone there but Brad.

The man pushes them down to the ground harshly and when they land he takes a swing at Conrad but luckily Conrad dodges before he can land the punch as both Alex and Cheyenne kick the guy sending him to the floor. He stands up furious but storms out of the room quickly.

When he leaves Conrad moves to take the tape off of Cheyenne's mouth and she does his before they slowly start to remove the others tape as well, "Is everyone Ok?" He asks and most of them nod when the guy from earlier comes back and takes Fliss.

"What the fuck do they want?" Julia whispers and Conrad looks down.

"I think those are the guys I may have pissed off on that boat earlier." He says softly and a sympathetic look washes over Cheyenne's face.

At that moment the door opens again and the guy drags Conrad out.

Kaley shoots a glare at Cheyenne as she tries to work her socks off. The others watching between the two girls.

"Look at this mess your damn boy-toy got us into!" Kaley hissed in frustration before turning to Alex.

"Alex, weird thing, but pull off my left sock would you?" She asks as she shuffles a bit.

Alex looked at her before turning so both hands were visible.

"Uh sure, but...why? And where's Brad?" He asked as he pulled her sock off.

Kaley smirked with triumph and grabbed the pocket knife that had fallen out of her sock with both feet.

"Because I have a habit of sleeping and existing with a pocket knife in my sock." She says smirking.

"The fuck do you mean boy-toy last time I check he's her brother and your friend." Cheyenne snaps as she wiggles free of her restraints.

"Guys seriously where's Brad?" Alex asks again as she unties him.

"I don't know, maybe you should ask Kaley here, she was getting a little friendly with our dear Brad last I checked." Cheyenne says leaning against the bed again, her head in her hands.

Kaley rolls her eyes before getting Julia to cut her ropes and then cutting Julia's ropes in return. Alex looked at her. Kaley sighed and shuffled against the bed behind her, hiding the pocket knife in her bra.

"I don't know, one minute we were talking and getting to know each other, relaxing before bed. I had planned to go to my room and sleep there. We must have fallen asleep cause a bit later I'm getting grabbed and tied up by these damn goons that CHEYENNE'S boy toy pissed off earlier. My only hope is that he heard something and managed to hide. They didn't see us earlier so maybe we just keep his existence quiet as long as possible. And yeah Connie is her brother and my friend but if anyone was getting friendly with someone it was you and him." Kaley says in a quiet huff, worry etching her face as she talks about Brad.

"I agree about keeping Brad's existence secret. But what exactly do you define 'getting friendly' do tell the class please." Cheyenne huffs looking up from her hands as a shout can be heard from outside.

"So you're saying you didn't grab onto Connie cause you were scared earlier? Or maybe that you haven't been staring at him every chance you get? The flirting you're both playing off as subtle, it's not subtle." Kaley says rolling her eyes as she pays attention to the door.

"Me grabbing onto him earlier during the story was pure coincidence, had anyone else been sitting there I would have grabbed on to them. And in regards to me 'staring at him every chance I get' I'm getting to know him he's the only one that's even bothered to get to know me. You haven't even tired, Julia has given it a little try, same with Fliss. So of course I'm going to naturally gravitate towards him since you have been spending every chance you get with my best friend and Alex, the only other person on this damned boat I actually know has been spending this time like he was supposed to with Julia. So forgive me for looking for a little bit of company. And fuck I'll admit Conrad is one hell of an attractive person you happy." Cheyenne fires off before sinking back into herself.

Kaley pauses and takes a deep breath before letting it out slowly.

"Look, yeah maybe you're right. I have been monopolizing Brad, but can you blame me? We have so much in common...I haven't found that with anyone else. And sorry I haven't been trying to talk to you as much, truth is I suck at talking to people and groups freak me out. Julia had to practically beg me to come on this trip because I'm so crowd-phobic. And the only reason I got the ability to be friends with her and then Conrad is because our English professor paired us together for a research paper, and she introduced me to her brother. But to be fair yeah I've been monopolizing Brad but you've got Connie wrapped around you so hard I haven't been able to say more than 10 words to the guy. As for getting to know each other, that's all me and Brad have done, is get to know each other. But alright, you admitted what you think of Connie, Brad is an amazing, wonderful, gorgeous guy and why he's still single is a damn mystery to myself." Kaley said before leaning back from where she had leaned forward to look at Cheyenne, and turning to look out the window.

Cheyenne goes to respond but the door swings open and they shove Conrad in with the side of his head bleeding and an obvious black eye, "My god are you ok?" She asks standing and she notices the tip of his right ear missing.

"What the fuck happened to you?" Julia asks and he shakes his head taking a seat.

"Alright, we need to come up with a plan. When they come back we get them." Alex says and they all nod as the door opens again and they drag Julia out faster than anyone can react.

"Fuck." Conrad shouts as Alex pounds on the door.

A few minutes later Julia returns and she looks fine, "What did they want?" Alex asks.

"They were asking about our parents. They want money." She says and Conrads sighs.

Kaley shoots a little glare at Conrad.

"Way to go Connie. How's your ear?" She asks the fight, leaving her as she fails to find a solution.

Julia sits looking sad but looks up at her question.

"My ear is fine, doesn't really hurt any more." He says moving to sit by the window as the storm starts to roll in.

"Look, Kaley I'm sorry for going off on you earlier it was uncalled for." Cheyenne says trying to ease the tension in the air.

Silence falls over the group when a clap of thunder erupts in the sky making everyone jump slightly. Another bolt of lightning flashes and Conrad starts to softly count to himself, "8 seconds, that means the storm is 8 miles away." He says and everyone looks at him confused.

"I'm not following you." Alex says standing and walking over to him.

"If we time it right I can sneak out and steal their speed boat and try to go and get help." Conrad says and Alex nods, processing what he was saying.

"Won't they hear you hitting the window?" Julia asks and Conrad shakes his head.

"Not if we time it with the sound of the thunder." He informs her and everyone agrees, "Ok on my count."

On six both Alex and Conrad hit the window and it pops open allowing Conrad to slip through right before the men come back in.

Conrad breaths in deep and holds his breath as he hears the commotion going on in the room when one of the guys sees him. He grabs the knife next to his foot and he takes off along the side of the boat before jumping back onto the deck completely forgetting the escape mission and he holds the man that tied him and Cheyenne up at knife point.

The guys in the room with the rest of the group stop when they all hear a thump on the main deck. The big one turns and walks back upstairs.

"Damn it, Conrad." Kaley mutters knowing he didn't get away.

Before too long they are all led upstairs, where Conrad rejoins them.

"What happened to the escape?" Julia asks voice low.

Conrad shrugs and glares at the guys.

"He gave it up to try and get them away from us." Kaley whispers back.

"Put the knife down." The big one says and Conrad shakes his head, his grip on the knife tightened.

"Get the fuck off our boat." Conrad shouts back and the guy shakes his head.

"I won't ask again." He says pointing a gun at Kaley and Conrad freezes and a look of fear flashed in his eyes but he doesn't let up.

"No." Conrad says calmly and the big guy shakes his head again.

"I must have threatened the wrong one then, how about now." He says pointing the gun at Cheyenne.

With all backs turned to her, Kaley slowly reaches up to grab her knife.

"Bitch-boy you want my knife where?" She growls and she jumps, and cuts the big ones forehead/cheek.

He grabs her and throws her down repositioning the gun on Cheyenne even as the blood from his new wounds runs fast down his face. Kaley lays on the ground virtually unconscious from the impact blood slowly trickles from her forehead and arm.

"One more time, put the knife down or say goodbye to your girlfriend." The man snarls as he cocks the pistol and places it directly against her temple.

"No, stop please don't." Conrad says shoving the guy he had away and he throws the knife on the ground as they throw him on the ground with the rest of the group.

Kaley comes to, as they drag her back to the group, groggy and unfocused,she slumps gently against Cheyenne where they drop her.

"Sorry, I'm getting you bloody." Kaley mutters softly as she tries to gain more focus.

"It's fine look at me." Cheyenne says holding up her bloodied and scraped up hands.

"I'm sorry I caved, I just couldn't let them shoot you." Conrad whispers and Cheyenne gave him a weak smile, "And I'm sorry I kinda got you knocked out Kaley."

"It's ok." Cheyenne whispers back reaching up and she places her hand over his and he turns his and holds her's.

"All of you shut the fuck up." The guy Conrad had at knife point shouts as the boat hits a rather hard wave and it rocks everyone forward harshly.

"Why are they taking the boat?" Alex whispers and everyone shrugs.

"They say that sign you guys brought back talking about the Manchurian Gold." Fliss hisses glaring at Alex.

"You know what doesn't seem right? How they had you up there nearly this whole time and there is not a scratch on you. I think Fliss is working with them." Alex accuses and everyone looks shocked.

"With them? Are you that stupid, why would I be working with them? Fuck you Alex." Fliss snaps back shaking her head in disgust.

Kaley hums trying to sit up as her head spins.

"Conrad it's fine, not your fault, you know my training...Alex seriously no starting….shit when we have idiots trying to kidnap us." She murmured softly as she tried to look around a bit, but the waves shaking the boat didn't help her with her dizzy head.

Conrad watched her as she swayed trying to focus. Julia looked around as well.

"Manchurian Gold? What the hell is that??" Julia demands in a low whisper.

Fliss just shrugs a bit.

The group falls silent after a few minutes, Julia clings onto Alex, Cheyenne clings onto Conrad as she shakes slightly, Kaley trying not to fall unconscious again and Fliss just stays off to herself.

After about 30 minutes the boat is rocked hard as it hits something else about 4 times before it comes to a stop, "Alright all of you up, now." The guy says and he leads them to the deck as another takes the distributor cap.

Kaley sways violently as she's shoved up onto the ledge to jump into the other boat.

"Hey man! She can't make the jump!" Conrad and Alex both shout, the girls having already jumped but were watching from the door.

Kaley stuck her hands out in front of herself.

"I got it, don't worry." She mutters as she sways again.

She bends her knees and everyone holds their breath, Kaley jumps and just misses the ladder falling into the cold rolling waves below.

"KALEY!" Julia and Conrad scream out, as they rush to try and get down to her.

The guy with the gun points it back towards the girls, causing them to freeze.

"On the boat." He says demandingly.

The guys don't fight trying to protect the other girls. What they didn't know is hitting the cold water had woken Kaley up and snapped her out of her daze. She managed to find a small air pocket below the small platform and she took a deep breath before swimming lower under the boat to avoid their captors detection.

"Keep moving." They shout pushing the 5 remaining group members along.

"Take my hand." Conrad whispers to Cheyenne and she takes his hand holding it tightly.

The guys lead them to a room and they lock them inside in the pure darkness, "Hey can you at least give us a light it's dark in here." Fliss shouts banging on the door and it opens and one of the guys hands her a flashlight.

"We need to find a way out of here." Julia says as she lights an old lamp and she starts to look around the room for something.

"Hey, are you ok?" Conrad asks Cheyenne as she sits in a corner shaking slightly.

"Scared and cold is all." She says looking up at him and he nods sitting down next to her and he pulls her in close and she lays her head on his chest.

"We'll get out of here alive, it'll be ok. When we do, what do you say we spend a little alone time together just the two of us." He whispers, placing a kiss to the top of her head and she nods.

"I'd like that." She whispers back as she feels the shaking starting to die down, "Thank you."

"Hey I found a vent, help me get this open, someone." Alex shouts from the opposite side of the room.

"Someone needs to distract the guards as we get this open." Julia whispers and Fliss nods walking over to the door and she starts to pound on it and shout random things as the other 4 work on getting the vent open.

"It's open come on let's go." Alex whispers and they all sneak out.

Meanwhile back on the Milan, Brad finally walks slowly upstairs to see if the coast is clear. He hears a slight splashing and a slap sound. Before Kaley pulls herself up.

"Brad?" She says as she tries to pull herself all the way on, still weak from before.

"Kaley!" Brad says rushing over to help her.

Kaley lands on the deck and coughs a bit trying to get air back into her body.

"Where is everyone? What happened?" Brad asked as he looked at the navigation system.

Kaley pointed towards the large boat, as she scooped up her knife, and grabbed the first aid kit.

"We got boat jacked and kidnapped, they pointed the gun at me, and then at Cheyenne and I jumped and tried to stab the main guy. He threw me into the control panel which is how I got these, and the rest are on the ship." She said as she cleaned and bandaged her arm.

Brad reached over and took some of the cleaning solution and wiped the wound on her head, before bandaging it.

"Now what?" He asked softly sitting next to her.

She sighed and leaned against him, before looking at the big ship.

"We gotta go after them. The kidnappers don't know about you and they think I'm dead, everyone thinks I'm dead. But if we can get on there and catch up with everyone else, we can work through and maybe get the part they stole." She said quietly.

Brad nodded and after a few moments where he sat and held Kaley softly he stood up and walked over to the side by the ship. He went to step up before stepping back and bouncing a bit.

"Shit! Fuck fuck fuck fuck shit! Come on B you can do this!" He said psyching himself up.

Kaley stood and walked over to him and looked at the ladder they'd have to catch. Brad looked over at her with a small smile.

"Hey, if we survive this, you wanna get food or something?" He asked her.

Kaley paused, not thinking this was the best time, but knowing Brad was too adorable to say no too, nodded.

"Yeah, I'd like that a lot." She said happily. 

Brad whooped in joy before running and jumping onto the ladder and scurrying up to the door. Kaley sighed softly before running and leaping barely catching the ladder this time. She climbed up and Brad pulled her in.

"Now what?" Kaley asked looking at Brad.

Brad looked around, before shrugging.

"Keep walking? Try to find them?" He asked her.

Kaley nodded and feeling adventurous, grabbed his hand.

"Alright, let's go." She said and together they walked down the corridors.

"Alright there's the distributor cap." Fliss says pointing to the deck below them, "I'll go down and get it."

"Be careful." Cheyenne whispers and Fliss nods dropping down to the bottom deck.

Things go south and Fliss gets captured and the other four get split up.

"Where did Alex and Julia go?" Cheyenne asks and Conrad looks behind them.

"I don't know, hopefully they find a way out. Now stay close ok." He says, pulling her closer to him and they continue to walk down the corridors.

"Conrad!" Cheyenne shouts as the floor gives way underneath her and she falls just barely catching herself on a beam.

"Shit, no no no." Conrad yells trying to find a way down to her but to no avail.

"Keep going I'll find my backup to you ok." She shouts back up to him and he nods reluctantly to himself.

"Just be careful ok." He responds.

"You too!" She shouts before she heads off trying to find a way back up.

As she's walking the winding corridors she starts to hear odd noises and see things from the corner of her eyes. She rounds a corner and comes face to face with a clown and she shrieks taking off in the opposite direction.

Kaley and Brad keep walking the corridors, trying to avoid the kidnappers and find their friends. Suddenly they hear a shriek.

"That was Cheyenne!" Brad says and Kaley nods. They pick up the pace and run towards where they heard the shout.

Kaley jolts to a sudden stop, her breathing picking up and her shaking all over the place, Brad looks at her concerned.

"Kaley? Are you ok?" He asks her softly.

She shakes her head and points, but when Brad looks he doesn't see anything.

"There's nothing there Kaley." Brad says gently.

"S-s-spiders." Kaley whispers before backing up and turning racing away from the scene, Brad trying to keep up behind her.

"KAY STOP!" Brad yells as he trips and she races towards an open ledge.

Kaley skids to a stop and shakes her head a bit, taking a deep breath and looking at Brad.

"Brad? What happened?" She asked, still looking pale.

Brad wraps his arms around her and holds her close, pressing a soft reassuring kiss to the top of her head.

"You got spooked, said you saw spiders." He said softly.

Kaley shook, and buried her head in his chest.

"Brad I can't do spiders. There was this thing in summer camp back when I was like 7 and long story short I got trapped in a building that was basically a huge spiders nest." She whispered shakily.

He nodded and held her.

"Don't worry, I won't let the arachnids get you." he said softly.

Kaley giggled softly at that and nodded. The two started to move forwards after that, trying to find their friends again.

"Come on Conrad get it together." He says to himself as he walks the corridors after having a few unexplained experiences since he parted ways with Cheyenne.

He's found his way into a room when a door slams and he turns, coming face to face with what looks like a hag. When he sees this he takes off running but the hag is in hot pursuit and after a few near death experiences he gets outside and looks behind him and sees the hag still chasing him.

After Cheyenne's run in with the clown she somehow found a door leading outside and she takes a deep breath and she feels a weight lift off of her. She looks around and she spots a set of stairs leading up to the next floor and she smiles going up them and finally stepping back inside.

She walks around for a few minutes before she spots Conrad walking, "Conrad!" She shouts trying to get his attention. He turns to her but he takes off running when he looks at her.

"Come on Conrad get it together." She hears him say to himself as she chases him to a room when she hits a loose pole and it slams a door behind her.

He turns again and sees her and yet again he takes off running again and she runs after him calling out his name. They both go through a series of near death experiences before she follows him out onto a ledge, "Please Conrad it's me stop!" She pleads and he turns back to her and a look of panic flashed in his eyes as he looks for a way to escape.

"Connie please!" She shouts and he blinks looking at her again and a look of confusion comes over him.

"Cheyenne? Is that really you?" He questions and she nods her head, tears filling her eyes.

"Yes it's me Connie, now please come here." She says reaching her hand out and he takes it.

She walks him back off the ledge and he just looks down at her, "It's really you." He repeats more for himself than anything.

"God you really scared me." She whispers, hugging him tightly.

"To be fair you scared me too, but you called me Connie." He says and she looks up at him and he smiles.

"Shut up idiot." She smiles and brings him down for a kiss to which he happily returns, "Don't ever do something like that again ok." She whispers and he nods hugging her again.

"Brad, there's a door." Kaley says pointing after what feels like hours of walking.

"Yeah, let's see where that goes." He says quietly.

They walk to the door and shove it open taking a deep breath of the fresh air the small deck they had found offers. They walk to the railing and lean against it for the support. 

"We should keep going." Kaley says standing up.

Brad turns and looks at her, noticing now that they have light, that she has blood running down her cheek again, and she looks pale.

"Hey, are you feeling ok?" He asked, softly wrapping her in his arms.

She sways a bit but nods.

"Yeah I'm fine, why?" Kaley asks looking up at him.

He doesn't respond but reaches up and swipes her cheek a bit, before showing her his thumb.

"Your bleeding again." He says gently.

She sways again, and nods.

"Yeah, I have been for a bit." She tells him quietly.

"What?" Brad asks looking at her.

Kaley nods.

"Yeah, since the whole s-spider vision thing." She says softly.

Brad sighs and leads her over to a pallet in the corner, and pulls her down to lean against his chest. Kaley softly sighs and snuggles against him a bit more.

"Why don't we wait here, I'm sure they'll find us soon." Brad said softly.

Kaley nodded and let her eyes slide closed, resting softly but not really sleeping. Brad rubbing her back and shoulders as they waited.

"Hey is that Brad and Kaley?" Cheyenne asks when they reach the deck.

"It looks like it, HEY!" Conrad calls out as they get closer.

Brad leans forward jostling Kaley awake, before helping her stand.

"Hey!" Brad calls waving.

Kaley waves dazedly as she leans on Brad.

"Hey guys." She says quietly.

"Thank God you guys are ok." Conrad breathes a sigh of relief as he and Cheyenne sit down next to them.

"Hey guys." Cheyenne says softly, laying her head on Conrad's shoulder.

"If you want to sleep you can." Conrad whispers moving slightly so she can lay her head in his lap.

"Thanks Connie." Cheyenne whispers laying down and she relaxes slightly when she feels him rubbing her shoulder softly.

Thankfully about an hour later they hear the door open and they see Alex, Julia, and Fliss walk out holding the distributor cap, "Come on, let's get off of this shit hole." Fliss says climbing down the ladder and she jumps onto the Duke and the others follow.

"What exactly happened to you guys in there?" Cheyenne asks the others.

"After we got split up from you two Alex and I got split up briefly but once I found him there were so many things that had Alex's face…That's one memory I do not want to relive ever." Julia says as a shiver runs down her spine.

"Nothing much, escaped those pirate assholes then met back up with Alex and Julia before finding you guys." Fliss chips in.

"I'm not sure about you guys but this calls for a frosty." Conrad says coming back with a drink in hand and everyone groans.

"What happened with you guys?" Julia asks leaning against Alex.

"Well we got split up after we lost you two but then found each other again after whatever that gas was made Cheyenne here, something entirely different than she is but she was able to snap me out of it….." Conrad says, still trying to understand what exactly happened.

"Before you get too comfortable I'm gonna need to clean your ear." Cheyenne says turning his head so she can look at it now in better lighting.

Kaley sat up as Brad grabbed some of the antiseptic, and looked around.

"After I fell in the water it woke me up a bit. I managed to find a pocket of air, and stayed under water until the coast was clear. Brad helped get me on the...ye-ouch! Careful...he helped get me on the boat and then we talked for a few minutes before getting on the boat." Kaley explained her part.

Brad smiled apologetically, before continuing to dress her wounds.

"I had heard something during the night, and it woke me up. So I climbed out of bed to see what was going on, but when I saw the other boat, I just freaked out and hid. After everything settled down I snuck upstairs to see if anyone was up there. And I saw Kaley trying to get on the boat and rushed to help her. After helping her we got up into the boat and wandered around trying to find you guys. Kaley freaked at one point and ran off but I kept with her." Brad explained as he finished up and Kaley snuggled into his chest.

"He broke me out of whatever gas induced nightmare that was. And after that we kept walking around the boat to find you all. After a few hours we found the deck and intended to keep going and find you." Kaley said, explaining more.

Brad wrapped his arms around her and nodded.

"But I noticed Kaley was bleeding so I decided it would be best to sit on the deck and wait for you all." Brad finished.

"I'm just happy everyone is ok." Julia says breathing a sigh of relief.

"Me too, as much as you guys can be idiots I can at least trust you." Fliss says smiling for the first time since the group had met her.

"Alright Connie come on gotta go get you bandaged up." Cheyenne says holding her hand out for him and he stands following her back.

Cheyenne finds the first Aid kit Brad must have found and she places it on the counter, "Can you sit in the chair please I kinda need to reach your ear to clean it." She says looking up at him and he smiles taking a seat.

She cleans the wound and he hisses slightly wincing at the burn but the small amount of pain is gone as fast as it came and she places the bandage over the wound and cleans up her mess, "Am I done doctor?" He teases and she nods.

"Yes you are free to go." She smiles returning to him.

Kaley rests against Brad the entire way back, the two talking softly to each other. 

*A year and a half later*

Kaley walked towards the dock before turning and smiling gently at Brad. She put her hands on her hips and smiled a bit brighter.

"Bradley come on! We're going to be late" she says and Brad shakes his head before running up to her and wrapping her in his arms.

He smiled and pressed a kiss to her check, before releasing all but her hand

"That fast enough?" He asked jokingly.

She smiled and nodded with a laugh.

"Yeah, perfect. Look! The Duke!" She said turning away from him a bit.

Brad looked up and they both froze slightly as the memories hit them in a rush. Brad gave Kaley a small smile and a hand squeeze.

"Come on, the others are going to be wondering where we are." He said softly.

She shook herself and nodded.

"Yeah you're right let's go." She said softly.

Before long they reached the boat and climbed on, not seeing anyone they settled onto one of the benches.

"We can't be the first ones." Brad says softly.

Kaley nods but shrugs shortly after.

"They could be below deck, who knows for sure. Just relax for a few." Kaley said looking up at him.

"Come on Connie I think I hear Kaley and Brad." Cheyenne says sitting up in bed and she stretches climbing over him and then down the ladder.

"I think all we are waiting on now is Fliss." He says climbing down too and they walk above deck.

"Yeah Alex and Julia were first here." Cheyenne says squinting as the sunlight hits her eyes.

"Hey guys!" Conrad calls to the two on deck.

"Hey look here comes Fliss." Cheyenne says pointing as Fliss steps onto the Duke.

"I see some things never change." She teases starting up the boat.

"Alright we are all here." Conrad smiles relaxing on one of the benches.

Kaley and Brad offered Cheyenne and Conrad smiles.

"Hey guys, hey Fliss. I'm guessing Julia and Alex are downstairs then?" Kaley asked them.

Brad pressed a kiss to her head before wandering off down the stairs.

"Yeah they were here when we got here, Alex said Julia wanted to rest because you know the baby." Conrad sighs opening his arms up for Cheyenne to cuddle in next to him.

"How far along is she again?" Fliss asks from over her shoulder.

Cheyenne cuddles up to Conrad and she sighs, "6 months I think." She says looking up at him and he nods playing with the ring on her finger.

"Yeah that's what they said at least." Conrad responds as she lays her head back down on his chest.

"So when are you guys getting married?" Fliss asks, finally turning to them.

"Next month." They both say happily and Fliss smiles at her friends.

Kaley watches the three talk, smiles softly. Happy that her friends were happy. She leaned back and watched everyone, smiling the whole time.

"So, how's it feel to be this close?" Kaley asked the happy pair.

Cheyenne looked up at Conrad before looking at Kaley.

"It honestly is the best feeling in the world, I love him so damn much." Cheyenne smiled at Kaley as she brought Conrad's hand up and she kissed it.

"Best thing to happen to me, I love you too." Conrad says softly and he kisses the top of Cheyenne's head.

Kaley smiled sweetly at the sight as they started to hear voices coming back up stairs. Brad and Alex both emerged from the doorway leading to the lower deck.

"Hey, so that's where you disappeared too? Hey Alex." Kaley said, turning slightly.

Brad smiled a bit and walked back over to them.

"I actually went down to put our bags in our room, and I ran into Alex on the way back up." Brad said as he sat back beside her.

Alex waved and gave everyone a smile.

"Hey everyone." He said sitting down with a small yawn.

"How's Julia?" Cheyenne questions as she sits up from Conrad.

"Tired but she's perfectly fine." Alex smiles leaning back relaxing.

"I guess the real question now is when are you and Brad going to get hitched." Conrad says sending a knowing look towards Kaley and Brad.

Brad instantly turned beat red and rubbed his neck. Kaley sat up and smiled at him, from where she had leaned against him.

"We will, when we're both ready. Right now we're just enjoying each other. No stress, no rush. We know it's an option and when the time is right, it's on the table, right?" Kaley said with certainty until the end when she turned to Brad for confirmation.

Brad sat up and wrapped his arms around her from the side.

"Of course it is, you'd have to probably kill someone to get rid of me." He said jokingly.

Everyone, even Brad gave an involuntary shudder before laughing at his joke.

"Don't worry, I have no murderous plans." Kaley said, smiling innocently.

Conrad looked at her and shook his head.

"That look says otherwise." He muttered.

Kaley and Brad leaned back and Kaley gave a short laugh.

"No, really the only thing I plan to kill is maybe a fish if we fish, otherwise hamburgers." She said smiling happily.

*Two years later*

"Careful you know how slippery these docs are." Conrad says holding on to Cheyenne's arm softly.

"Connie, I'm pregnant, not fragile." She warns and he nods.

"I agree, I just want you to be careful ok." He says softly, placing a kiss on her temple and she smiles.

"I will, I promise." She says as they reach the Duke and Conrad breathes a small sigh of relief.

"There they are." Julia smiles and she hugs her brother and Cheyenne as her and Alex's son clings to her.

"Hey there buddy." Conrad smiles at him and takes him from Julia.

"Where is everyone else?" Cheyenne asks, smiling slightly at the sight before her.

"Alex had to make a quick run to get more drinks, Fliss is almost here she just texted me and I'm not sure about Brad and Kaley." Julia says sitting back on a bench and Cheyenne follows, "How's your little one?"

"Oh she's perfect, but her and me both are ready for her to come out." Cheyenne laughs and Julia nods knowing all too well how Cheyenne is feeling.

"Come on, let's go back to mama." Conrad coos softly to the little boy in his arms before he walks back over to the girls and he hands him back to Julia.

"Looks like someone loves his Uncle Conrad." Cheyenne teases and Conrad nods with a smile.

Brad parked the car beside the other one.

"Looks like Conrad and Cheyenne are here, I wonder where Alex and Julia are?" He muses lightly.

Kaley laughs softly.

"They do have a son now, maybe it takes longer to get ready with kids? Besides Fliss isn't here either so, all things considered..." She says with a smirk and sent a small smile towards Brad.

"We made pretty good time." She finishes grabbing her bag, the sun glinting softly on the silver band with the purple and blue stones adorning her finger.

Brad nodded smiling and blushing lightly.

"Right, but some of the delay was traffic." He said, grabbing his bag.

Kaley nodded and looked at him holding out her hand.

"Yeah, but traffic wasn't the only reason. Now come on, let's go see what this crazy group has been upto in the last few months since we've seen them." She said smiling happily.

Brad nodded and grabbed her hand. The two of them walked slowly over the small parking lot, crossing the beach before hitting the dock.

"Oh, Julia is here, where's Alex?" Brad muttered softly.

Kaley shruggs before giving his hand a gentle squeeze.

"Maybe he ran to the store?" She suggested.

Brad nodded accepting that answer.

"Hey guys!" Brad called as they stepped down onto the deck of the Duke.

Kaley smiled and waved as best she could with a bag in her hand, and her other one occupied by Brad.

"Hey everyone." She said smiling happily.

"Hey there they are!" Conrad said standing up and he meets them both with a hug.

"Hey guys." Cheyenne and Julia both say from the bench with a small wave.

"All we are waiting for is Alex and Fliss." Conrad sighs moving to go sit back down next to Cheyenne.

"Alex just got parked and Fliss is 5 minutes out so we should be getting out on the water here soon." Julia says checking her phone and everyone nods.

Brad takes Kaleys bag with a small smile.

"I'm going to go take the bags down to our room, you relax a bit." He said kissing her softly, before moving downstairs.

Kaley smiled and nodded moving to sit on the other bench.

"Alright, but you need to relax too." She said laughing a bit.

"So, how are you guys?" She asked looking at the group at large.

"Well to be expected." Cheyenne teases pointing to her baby bump.

"Tired but good." Julia sighs cradling the little boy in her arms.

"We are good, how are you and Brad?" Conrad asked, offering up a seat for Kaley.

Kaley smiles softly at both girls and nods in thanks to Conrad.

"We're good, we've been busy with work and travel. I actually got the opportunity to dive down and see sharks and rays up close. It was fantastic." Kaley said excitement radiating from her.

"And of course I had about three heart attacks when she said she was diving into a school of sharks." Brad said walking back up and settling down on a chair.

Kaley laughed and pressed a kiss to his check.

"Like, you not telling me the battlefields you were digging in were dangerous didn't cause me my own heart attacks, dear." Kaley said with a small eye roll.

Brad laughed a bit and nodded.

"Yeah, that's fair." He said.

 Brad turned to the others and giving a smile started to dive into a tale from their trip.

"So I'm exploring this old battlefield and I get a text, 'hey by the way diving into sharks! See you later' I thought the rest of the crew were going to have to pick me up off the ground." Brad said waving his hands around.

"That's Kaley for you, leaving something probably dangerous to the last second." Julia laughed softly.

Kaley shook her head and smiled gently.

"I was perfectly safe!" She exclaimed.

"Hey looks like the gang's back together!" Cheyenne exclaimed as both Alex and Fliss walked up.

"Is everyone ready?" Fliss asks with a smile and everyone nods.

"How's my little man?" Alex says sitting down next to Julia.

"He is perfect." Julia smiles at Alex and he nods happily.

*Three years later*

Brad pulled in and parked the car, before shutting it off and running around to get the door for Kaley.

"Brad relax, I'm not going to break." She laughs as she takes his hand to stand up.

Brad nodded and makes sure she was standing ok, reached and grabbed the bags before taking her hand.

"I know, I just want to help." He said smiling and pressing a kiss to her cheek.

Kaley laughed and nodded walking along with him, she let out a small giggle before resting her free hand on her belly, and smiled gently. Brad smiled and reached over rubbing her belly.

"Is little one tossing and turning again?" He asked, smiling.

Kaley laughed and nodded.

"Yeah, but not as much as usual, just a little bit of a floppy." She said smiling.

Brad laughed and rubbed her belly gently.

"You be nice to momma." He said softly and gently.

They continued talking as they walked up the beach, Brad carefully helping Kaley on the deck. She let out a loud laugh.

"Really Brad! I'm fine!" She said giggling.

Brad nodded and helped her down.

"I know you are, but...still." he says as she helps her settle into a bench.

Kaley sighs and settles back, Brad setting the bags by the steps.

"I'm going to run the bags down to our room, you relax for a bit." Brad says smiling.

Kaley leans forward and presses a kiss to his lips. And nodded.

"Alright sounds good, I wonder where everyone else is? Usually they beat us here." Kaley mused, as she settled back.

Brad shrugged as he reached down to grab the bags.

"Maybe it took longer to get ready with the kids?" He suggested as he started down the steps.

"Come on Lily let's go." Conrad said happily, picking up his daughter as the three of them arrived at the docks.

"Connie, I can get some of the bags since you also have Lily." Cheyenne smiles stepping out of the car and he nods handing her 2 bags.

"Looks like Kaley and Brad are here." Conrad said pointing to their car and Cheyenne smiles happily.

"Hey Kaley!" Cheyenne says happily, carefully giving her a hug when they reach the Duke.

"Why don't we run down and find Uncle Brad yeah?" Conrad asks Lily, setting her down and she nods her head happily, blonde curls bouncing.

"How are you?" Cheyenne asked Kaley, turning to her after watching her husband and daughter go below deck.

Kaley laughs and settles back again rubbing her belly.

"I'm as good as can be expected, wore out and I think we're both ready for her to come out. And I feel bad, because Brad has to pick up all the slack that I can't do anymore. But enough about me, how are you doing?" She asks as she refocuses on Cheyenne.

"They always say baby number 2 is easier so like you as can be expected but he's been good and not giving me a hard time, but Connie is always right there acting like I can break at just the smallest of wind gusts but he's super excited to meet our little man." Cheyenne smiled, placing a hand on her belly.

"Hey everyone." Fliss greats stepping onto the deck and the two girls smile and wave at her.

"Hey Fliss!" Cheyenne said happily standing and hugging her friend to which Fliss returned the hug.

"Where is everyone?" She asked looking around.

"Conrad and Lily are below deck with Brad and uh Alex and Julia are almost here." Cheyenne responded when the three from below come up.

"Look Lily it's Aunt Fliss." Conrad whispers to his daughter and the little girl's face lights up and she runs as best as she can over to Fliss.

"Hey pretty girl." Fliss smiles picking the little one up.

"Hi." She says softly hugging Fliss.

With some assistance, Kaley stands and carefully hugs Fliss.

Brad smiling right by Kaley offers a wave before helping her back down. 

"How are you doing Fliss?" He asks looking up from his wife.

"I'm good, it's nice seeing you guys again, like always." Fliss smiles at him as Alex and Julia step onto the boat.

"Aunt Fliss!" Noah shouts and runs over to her hugging her leg.

"Hey little man." She smiles down at him and he giggles.

"Hey guys, how was the drive?" Cheyenne asked and Alex smiled.

"Long but we are here now." Alex said, helping Julia sit down.

"And how are you sis?" Conrad asked, taking a seat next to her.

"Tired but happy to be here with everyone." She smiled at her brother and he nodded.

"Shall we get going?" Fliss asks, setting Lily down and the little girl runs back over to her father.

"Yeah I think we are." Alex sighs, relaxing back a little.

Kaley sighs and looks around with a smile.

"What's up?" Brad whispers to her with a small smile, giving her hand a squeeze.

Kaley smiles at him and rests their joint hands on her belly.

"Just happy, who knew that kind of terrible trip those years ago, would lead to us all having and being one big family?" She said softly as she watched the kids run and play on the deck, while Julia, Alex, Cheyenne and Conrad talk between themselves.

Brad smiled and nodded looking around again.

"Who knew." He agreed.

Cheyenne took a seat next to Conrad and he smiled at her leaning over, placing a kiss on her lips and she smiles relaxed.

"I can't believe all of us are here right now. It feels so good to be surrounded by all this joy when not so long ago it could have been so different." Cheyenne whispered and Conrad nodded, placing a hand on her belly.

"Yeah but we are all here now that's what matters." He whispered, placing a kiss to Cheyenne's temple and she nodded.

"I love you." She said and he smiled wrapping an arm around her and pulling her close.

"I love you too." He said kissing the top of her head and he sighs softly.

And that concludes our little story, our group of friends luckily got out of everything alive and they lived happily.

I hope you like our story, but be sure to come back soon there are many stories to be told and it's all up to you.

[eliphante123]

meet Taniya the lion

Name: Taniya Kalisha

Nicknames: Tachan, Ta-nyah, little cub (Leona)

Age: 17

Gender: Female

Race: Lion

Height: 5 ft 1

College: Night Raven College

Dorm: Savanaclaw

Year: 2nd

Job: dorm assistant & peacemaker (dorm mates)

Family:

Father

Mother (decease)

Uncle

Aunt

3 cousins

Quote: a dream doesn't become reality through magic; it takes sweat, determination and hard work

Goals: strong, happiness, and become a greatest sorceress

Personality: She is kind and hardworking that likes to learn more about magic, helping out with everyone who are in trouble, and opens up to every old/new students of meeting new friends. Before she came to Night Raven College, she used to be shy and intimidated lion who gets really nervous of talking to everyone but as she was accepted, she became confident and honest with her words. She’s not like the rest of savanaclaw students that supposably hot-headed, rowdy, and hooligan of wanting a fight with other students, she is consider to be calm or more like a peacemaker to them but she can be a bit hot-tempered, too if they try something to pissed her off. When it comes to work of being savanaclaw’s dorm assistant that Leona assigned her to be, she’s very serious about her job and wanted to get her work done, perfectly by writing a to-do list of tasks, attendance, errands, keeping savanaclaw dorm from chaos, organize/fixing the facilities from damage, checking out the students, and etc. before going back to her studies or spending her free time in her dorm room. Taniya has a phobia of flying, which brings her to be a scaredy cat of attending flying class by skipping class or running away; even when her classmates, including Ashton, tried to drag her out from her room. Although, she may have a weakness. When something happens that reminds of her past, she fell disorientated of having a mental breakdown by repeated saying “Im sorry for being existed” that she would gladly die for them. After that happened, she went back to her normal self and telling them to forget what she’ve said by reassuring that it was her acting skills. She has a hungry glutton for meat that she goes fully hyped of wanting to eat and with that kind of energy, she always get easily fooled by her friends pranks. Her insecurity of being small which made her very sensitive and everyone at college thinks she’s a kid or a freshman despite that she’s actually 2nd year. If anyone made fun of her height, they’ll feel her dark aura with a sarcastic smile to threat them by scratching their faces or bite their arms and legs off with her pointy buck tooth.

Likes: MEAT!!! ALL KINDS OF MEAT, desserts, peace, magic, animals, adventure, strolling/running around the campus, jokes, good grades, break, getting the work done, studying, friends and helping others

Dislikes: fish, calling short, get into fights, flying (especially with brooms and magic carpet), failing, teasing, her dorm mates, Leona, losing someone dear, mess, and evil magic

Favorite color: yellow, green, and blue

Hobbies: running, reading, sports, magic, cleaning, and parkour

Skills/Abilities: martial arts, potion making, levitation, acting, sense of hearing, casting spells, talking to animals, and speed

Backstory: 

She was born and raised as a sweet girl and lived a happy life from an isolated house, far from town with her parents until her mother passed away since she was 5. Her mother’s death cause her to be depressed and downhearted for the pass few years. Both of them were poor and grew up in tough life where Taniya was doing the household chores all by herself while her father was busy his full-time work. Every children in town and school were afraid of her as they keep themselves away from Taniya because of her form and proves that she’s actually a lion which brings the children into thinking that lions are a vicious and dangerous animals. Even if she try being nice to the children by telling them that she won’t hurt them but they end up running to their parents then accused her for pretending to be nice, so she can lure them for being her food. The townspeople believes them and begins to be afraid of her so they treated Taniya and her dad like an outcast by throwing rocks at them and badmouthing them. They didn’t want her to be around the town so they told her that she doesn’t belong here and rather live in the outskirts and die. With that happened, they made her to become timorous and not wanting to make friends with anyone but instead, talking to animals from the woods. Everything that she’ve been through, Taniya grew tired, out of frustration and decided to take her own life from all the pain and torments that inflicts her. Out of anger, she accidentally uses her levitation spell on a boulder then crumbled into a million pieces, which shocked her. She asked her father about what happened though he knew and waited for it to happen. It reveals that her mother was one of the noble family that inherits special powers and her family has an outstanding social status throughout the region. On the other hand, her father and his family works as their servants. When two of them meet, they fell in love at first sight and they became very close, together for few months. The servant propose the noble daughter in marriage but both of their parents didn’t approve their relationship because of their social standards. So, her mother and father decided to run away from them and live their own happy life. Taniya didn’t know that her mother was a sorceress in the first place. Her father didn’t tell her that because they thought she doesn’t have powers for a long time so they decided to keep it a secret until the time comes but if her mother has powers then Taniya should have powers, too. After long years of practice, she was able to master some of her magic, however, it wasn’t enough for her. She told her father that she needed to get fresh air from practicing magic for almost everyday so she wanted to cool herself off. As she leaves her father and her home behind, Taniya decided that she could take a stroll to the woods; she walks further and further, deep in the woods without being mindful of her surroundings until she gotten herself lost. With fear and anxiety, she tried tracing her foot steps from where she went but unfortunately, she found nothing of her home or town except trees and night sky. She was beginning to lose hope until a mirror appeared infront of her. She wonders why would there be a mirror in the middle of the woods? could it be that someone left it here? if that what it is then shouldn’t be anyone here to take it back. She took a good look at the mirror to see a reflection of herself but as she moves closely, she was sucked inside the mirror and found herself in a different area that she’s not familiar with. Then a mysterious man with a black bird mask offers her a hand and by surprise, he tells her that she’ve been accepted to his college named “Night Raven College” and that’s where her college story begins.

Facts:

She’s anxious of making new friends and thinking that everyone aren’t interested of her

Everyone at night raven mistaken Taniya as 1st year of how short she is and doesn't like being called like that. 

She works with Leona & Ruggie as their dorm assistant on helping out their CHAOTIC dormitory. If anything happens to her dorm mates, she would gladly helps them by talking about their problems (though they don’t want to talk but she persistently did) or drags them to the infirmary and treat them with aid. She doesn't mind helping the people she hate as long as preventing them from hurting others & themselves. When there's a fight going on, she rushes between the two or more oppressor to break off their feuds and scolds them for fighting without a reason. Her dorm mates finds her annoying and persistent for acting like a peacemaker but if it weren't for her, there wouldn't be a problem at their dorm.

She would do anything to avoid Ashton's class by making up lots of excuses or shut herself in her room until it ends even it means failing her grades.

Just like Ruggie's gluttton of food, her favorite is meat.

She doesn't like her dormitory because according to the tw anthology, every students are hot-headed and likes getting into fights just for being tough which makes it annoying and troublesome to deal with them over and over again but somehow, she's happy that she fits in with her dorm mates and getting to know everyone especially that everyone are furries (i forgot how to call it) just like her.

Taniya wasn't a fan of fish and never eats one. Although, she DID eat once but she finds it very weird for her taste buds including the rotten smell and because of that, she doesn’t want to step foot on Octavinelle dorm. (she doesn’t trust them because she smells fishy about Azul, Jade, Floyd, and the rest of their dorm mates.....I'm sorry but seriously, she doesn’t trust them)

She’s not interested about having a relationship (that’s a lie) and rather help them have confident of confessing their crushes but if any boy wants to win her heart, they need to do better than giving chocolates & flowers and saying sweet words or else she might deliberately friendzoning them because this feline won’t be easy to fall for. To her, she’s really clueless when it comes of being loved but even if she DOES like someone, she won’t admit to her friends/spouse that he’s not enough for her or act a bit classic tsundere (you baka! obviously it’s-)

What everyone didn’t know that she also have a dark side but she always keep her mental at state

[theonyxpath]

…And back the Kickstarter!

Using the classic Aeon Trinity motto: Hope, Sacrifice, Unity!

Reason #1: HOPE

We’re not talking about a shiny-happy ending to every game here, but that one of the base precepts of the Continuum is that efforts produce results. It’s a continuum of settings with some of them being very dark indeed, and others much more about heroic actions delivering heroic and positive results. And then, of course, you can decide at your table how far to take things beyond how we present them.

Your group of players may decide to shoot Otha Herzog in the head and put an end to his visions of the future – possibly leaving Earth with no fore-warning of dire events, while another table might be working with ISRA to arrive at the right time and the right place with the right equipment. That’s not just an external thing players do, but it’s built in to the Trinity Continuum to allow those choices and for those settings to exist with all the other ones in the Continuum.

This, to me, is what Hope means in the Trinity Continuum, a chance that in the nigh-infinite universes that could exist in the Continuum, human potential can reach untold heights and forge a new future.

On a Kickstarter level, we have hope that this KS is indicative of the interest that folks have towards not just these first two books, the Trinity Continuum Core book and the Trinity Continuum: Aeon book and all the additional projects we can do with them, but also for the additional settings we could do next. Both the two known ones, Aberrant and Adventure!, and also the many, many additional settings that can be part of the Continuum.

    EX3‘s Eska of the Seven Blades illustrated by Mel Uran

    Reason #2: SACRIFICE

Again, your acts have consequences in the Trinity Continuum, and while it is set up as mentioned above to provide results when those actions are taken, sometimes those results have a cost. Which makes sense since we want all of the Trinity Continuum settings to allow dramatic resolutions no matter how light or dark they are.

Beyond the setting depth that Sacrifice adds, we also have game play systems within the Storypath System that function by the players using, and even encouraging, the bad things that happen to them so that they gain bonuses or advantages to further the storyline. This can be very meta-mechanical, or very story-based, or somewhere in between, but the important thing is that there are opportunities for meaningful game play even when you fail a roll.

On a Kickstarter level, a lot of folks, including some of the devs, have had to sacrifice a fair bit of patience waiting for their favorite game to come back. But since what we really don’t want are folks sacrificing cash, good will, or their excitement for the return of the Trinity Universe with our Trinity Continuum reboot during this Kickstarter campaign, we made sure that the sacrifice of time and effort was ours before the KS was good to go.

Which means that even though it took time to create what we wanted, we now have a fantastic and flexible game system that powers all of the possible Trinity Continuum settings, and both the Trinity Continuum Core and the Trinity Continuum: Aeon books are essentially done.  Don’t worry, we’ll use backer feedback to polish, tweak a few areas, and clarify a few things, but the heavy lifting earlier has paid off now and the books should easily beat the “estimated delivery” KS dates.

(He says knocking on all the wood in the house, gluing broken mirrors back together, and throwing whole shakers of salt over both shoulders just in case.)

      Beast Players Guide art by Andrew Trabbold

    Reason #3: UNITY

In the Trinity Continuum, there are a ton of characters that could easily be described as a lone-wolf, as a one-person army, as a force of one. Yet, when they work with other characters, the whole is so much greater than the sum of the parts. The organizations, from two-person team-ups to international Agencies or Orders, exist in the setting itself, not just to codify the player characters. Particularly in the Trinity Continuum: Aeon setting, they are absolutely needed to enable mankind to face the challenges of rebuilding after the Aberrant War and taking up the exploration of the universe.

Our rules reflect this as well, from how Psion powers work all the way to the Initiative system encouraging party teamwork and strategy.

On a meta-level, the Trinity Continuum may well also be greater than any individual setting within it, but regardless of whether that is how folks see it, the Continuum is designed so that no matter what happens in any given setting it remains a part of the Continuum.

The example we use in talking this over is including the City of Super-Scientific Gorillas as part of Adventure! Something excellently pulp-y like that, somewhere in the jungles or in the hollow Earth, sounds fantastic. But how would that fit into a modern day Trinity Continuum Core story? It wouldn’t have to. There might be clues that something like that once existed, but now that whole place exists essentially “out of phase” with the modern day. You could get there. but a commercial airline flying over isn’t going to see it.

This also means that no individual table’s storyline is going to contradict the history and events presented in any setting published by Onyx Path. All worlds are true and can fit in the Trinity Continuum.

On a Kickstarter level, we tried to set up the KS rewards and stretch goals to give value to backers no matter whether they are new to Trinity or fans of the Trinity Universe already. Whether they did their gaming with PDFs or with printed books. Whether they loved the original Trinity(Aeon) setting, or were fans of Aberrant or Adventure! far more than our science fiction game.

It should be said, and I think our KS Manager Jumpin’ James Bell has already touched on this, that the Trinity Continuum Core is going to be needed to run Trinity Continuum: Aberrant and Trinity Continuum: Adventure!, so even if you’re waiting for them, now is the time to come together in Unity with your fellow Trinity fans and pledge to get the TC Core book to help this KS strive for greater goals.

We hope for, and really need, a Unity of our community behind this Kickstarter and are thrilled to see how much there already is. I mention this below, but seriously, now is the time to get the word out! With only a few days to go, let’s drive this mighty ship forward with our mental energies (for Psion powers, we have the internet) and tell everyone you once knew who enjoyed the first iteration that there’s a new and exciting version that they can get in on!

      Ring of Spiragos art by Brian LeBlanc

      And with that, I think it should be obvious how apt our tagline is:

Many Worlds, One Path!

    BLURBS!

KICKSTARTER:

The Trinity Continuum Kickstarter is roaring towards the finish line on Thursday in a psychokinetic burst of energy! And yet, there are still a lot of fans of the original releases out there who aren’t connected to our current incarnation, so please, if you know a fan from back in the day: LET THEM KNOW THIS KS IS HAPPENING!

So far, we’ve passed 300% of our funding goal, over 1600 backers, and we’ve gone through sixteen Stretch Goals including VARGs, new Noetic Biotech, new Cyberware, new Espionage-Related Hardtech, and Aberrants and their cults, and a section on how to play Psions in the modern day core rulebook setting will be added to the AEon AExpansion, a Trinity Continuum: Aeon novella entitled “Dawn“, a scenario called “Caper, Incorporated” has been added to the In Media Res scenario collection PDF for the Trinity Continuum Core, and backers will be able to download the Trinity Core Dice for the Onyx Dice Rolling App.

We’ve also now grown the bundle of first edition PDFs to 15 and with the $15 buy-in that means backers get this bundle for $1 per PDF!

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/200664283/trinity-continuum-aeon-rpg

Trinity Continuum: Aeon, is our reboot of the classic Trinity (Aeon) game, and Trinity Continuum: Core is the core book that all of our Trinity Continuum game lines will spin off from. Both books will be a part of this Kickstarter and backers have already received the first two quarters of the Trinity Continuum: Core text, with more to come. James Bell, our Kickstarter Manager, has been keeping this KS hopping, so we hope you’ll check it out!

Our next Kickstarter is slated to be EX3‘s Dragon-Blooded.

      As we try and find ways to enable our community to more easily play our games, the Onyx Dice Rolling App is now live! Our dev team has been doing updates since we launched based on the excellent use-case comments by our community, and this thing is both rolling and rocking!

Last week the devs are added a whole bunch of new game lines’ dice and rolling bg’s and got caught by a bug Apple needed to fix, so be sure to update your app and soon that should be fixed.

There’s been tweaks to all elements of the UI, you can now preview every die type in the store, and you can use multiple die types per roll! Here are the links for the Apple and Android versions:

http://theappstore.site/app/1296692067/onyx-dice

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.onyxpathpublishing.onyxdice&hl=en

Three different screenshots, above.

(The Solar Anima special Dice above)

  Promethean: The Created and Demon: The Descent dice on a Demon: The Descent tabletop

  Hunter: The Reckoning and Mage: The Awakening dice on a Mage: The Awakening tabletop

      ON AMAZON AND BARNES & NOBLE:

We’re delighted to announce the opening of our ebook stores on Amazon and Barnes & Noble! You can now read our fiction from the comfort and convenience of your Kindle (from Amazon) and Nook (from Barnes & Noble). Our initial selection includes these fiction anthologies:

Vampire: The Masquerade: The Endless Ages Anthology (Kindle, Nook)

Werewolf: The Apocalypse: Rites of Renown: When Will You Rage II (Kindle, Nook)

Mage: The Ascension: Truth Beyond Paradox (Kindle, Nook)

Chronicles of Darkness: The God-Machine Chronicle Anthology (Kindle, Nook)

Mummy: The Curse: Curse of the Blue Nile (Kindle, Nook)

Beast: The Primordial: The Primordial Feast Anthology (Kindle, Nook)

  And here are six more fiction books:

Vampire: The Masquerade: Of Predators and Prey: The Hunters Hunted II Anthology (Kindle, Nook)

Werewolf: The Apocalypse: The Poison Tree (Kindle, Nook)

Werewolf: The Apocalypse: Songs of the Sun and Moon: Tales of the Changing Breeds (Kindle, Nook)

Vampire: The Requiem: The Strix Chronicle Anthology (Kindle, Nook)

Werewolf: The Forsaken: The Idigam Chronicle Anthology (Kindle, Nook)

Mage: The Awakening: The Fallen World Chronicle Anthology (Kindle, Nook)

  Andand six more more:

Vampire: The Masquerade: The Beast Within Anthology (Kindle, Nook)

Werewolf: The Apocalypse: W20 Cookbook (Kindle, Nook)

Exalted: Tales from the Age of Sorrows (Kindle, Nook)

Chronicles of Darkness: Tales of the Dark Eras (Kindle, Nook)

Promethean: The Created: The Firestorm Chronicle Anthology (Kindle, Nook)

Demon: The Descent: Demon: Interface (Kindle, Nook)

  And even more books are now on Amazon and the Nook store!:

Scarred Lands: Death in the Walled Warren (Kindle, Nook)

V20 Dark Ages: Cainite Conspiracies (Kindle, Nook)

Chronicles of Darkness: Strangeness in the Proportion (Kindle, Nook)

Vampire: The Requiem: Silent Knife (Kindle, Nook)

Mummy: The Curse: Dawn of Heresies (Kindle, Nook)

    OUR SALES PARTNERS:

We’re working with Studio2 to get Pugmire out into stores, as well as to individuals through their online store. You can pick up the traditionally printed main book, the Screen, and the official Pugmire dice through our friends there!

https://studio2publishing.com/search?q=pugmire

    Looking for our Deluxe or Prestige Edition books? Here’s the link to the press release we put out about how Onyx Path is now selling through Indie Press Revolution: http://theonyxpath.com/press-release-onyx-path-limited-editions-now-available-through-indie-press-revolution/

You can now order wave 2 of our Deluxe and Prestige print overrun books, including Deluxe Mage 20th Anniversary, and Deluxe V20 Dark Ages! And Screens…so many Screens!

And you can now order Pugmire: the book, the screen, and the dice! http://www.indiepressrevolution.com/xcart/manufacturers.php?manufacturerid=296

    DRIVETHRURPG.COM:

Look for the next two installments of our Exalted 3rd Edition monthly releases, and for new EX3-related merchandise on our RedBubble store on sale this Wednesday!

      With a howl of RAGE, the W20 Changing Ways PDF and physical book PoD charges at you this Wednesday on DTRPG.com! http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/229183/W20-Changing-Ways

Changing Ways is an in-depth look at what it means to be a werewolf, both on a personal level and as part of a pack. It digs deep into what it feels like to have bones re-knit after breaking, the range of senses available across all forms, and the sudden heady rush of the Gifts and Rites bestowed by spirits. It also provides a look at what life is like for lupus and metis werewolves, characters who have had experiences alien to any person. It shows the many ways that werewolves organize in packs, and how those packs are designed as groups of warriors, rather than aligned to the behavior of wolves.

Changing Ways contains:

• A detailed look at what it means to grow up as a lupus or metis werewolf, and how that colors a character’s perspective.

• More information on what it feels like to be a werewolf, a creature that changes in both body and mind.

• Frameworks and organizations for packs, along with new tactics and systems for forging the pack as part of play.

        Appearing on DriveThruRPG this Wednesday are the PDF and PoD physical book versions of Arms of the Chosen for Exalted 3rd Edition! http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/226224/Arms-of-the-Chosen

Take up the panoply of legendary heroes and lost ages, and awaken the world-shaking might of their Evocations. Before the dawn of time, the Exalted wielded god-metal blades to cast down the makers of the universe. In an ancient epoch of forgotten glories, Creation’s greatest artificers forged unimaginable wonders and miracle-machines.

Now, in the Age of Sorrows, kingdoms go to war over potent artifacts, scavenger princes risk everything to uncover relics of the past, and the Exalted forge great arms and armor on the anvil of legend. These treasures are yours to master.

Discover the mystical power of the five magical materials and the secrets of creating your own Evocations. Wield weapons of fabled might and don the armor of mythic heroes, making their puissance your own. Claim Creation’s wonders: the miraculous tools of the Chosen, living automatons, flying machines, hearthstones, and more. And unleash the mighty warstriders, titanic god-engines of conquest and devastation, to once more shake Creation with their footfalls.

        Coming this Wednesday as an Advance PDF on DTRPG, we reveal The Secret of Vinsen’s Tomb, a Jumpstart adventure for Pugmire. (And yes, there will be a physical book PoD version coming soon). www.drivethrurpg.com/product/232337/The-Secrets-of-Vinsens-Tomb–A-Pugmire-Jumpstart

A cat living in Pugmire disappears, but neither the police dogs nor the cats of the Cat Quarter know why. When zombies attack the heroes, however, all signs point to an invasion by the Monarchies of Mau. But how does this intrigue tie into the lost tomb of the first king of Pugmire?

The Secret of Vinsen’s Tomb is a Pugmire story for three to six characters. This jumpstart contains all the rules and characters you need to play — just grab some dice and go! You can also use this adventure with the full version of Pugmire.

The Secret of Vinsen’s Tomb contains:

• An evocative and mysterious setting that’s both family friendly and deep enough to create compelling stories.

• A summary of Pugmire’s traditional fantasy rules system. It’s designed for streamlined play, with an emphasis on cooperation and action over competition and violence.

• A complete adventure for a Guide to run for three to six players. Also useful for Guides running a full Pugmire game of first or second level characters!

• Six ready-to-play characters, so you can jump into the action.

Can your good dogs discover the secret of Vinsen’s Tomb?

  Also releasing this Wednesday on DTRPG is the physical book PoD version of the Pugmire Core Rulebook itself!

          We unveil Vampire: The Requiem 2e‘s Half-Damned as PDF and PoD versions on DTRPG.com this Wednesday!

http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/227500/Half-Damned

I love her, she’s family, but I don’t love what she is.

– Antonio Ramírez, dhampir

This book includes: 

• An exploration of what it means to be one of the Half-Damned, dhampir, revenants or ghouls.

• Mechanics for creating Half-Damned characters.

• Information for creating and running chronicles using the various Half-Damned character types, both with vampires and alone.

• Information on Half-Damned antagonists for vampire chronicles.

          At last, one of the most legendary of Kindred will share his personal journal with you! V20 Beckett’s Jyhad Diary goes on sale in PDF and PoD versions on DTRPG.com! http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/225322/V20-Becketts-Jyhad-Diary

It’s ever been a loaded word among vampires. Jyhad is in force everywhere from lofty, perfumed Elysium to cloying, smoke-filled blood feasts. Jyhad’s the eternal game played by elders, Methuselahs, and worse — it’s the agenda of beings so utterly beyond humanity, one such as yourself could scarcely understand its movements. 

Luckily for you, you’ve picked up a copy of my diary. With my help you may just take a step on the first rung of understanding. Information worth having is information you must earn through blood, and oh, how I’ve bled for what’s contained within these pages. 

— Beckett 

Beckett’s Jyhad Diary serves as the definitive book of setting and plot for Vampire: The Masquerade, containing 30 chapters spanning different geographical regions, encountering vampires of every clan, profiling obscure and profound segments of the mythology, and providing countless story hooks on every page.

Masterfully written by the likes of Neall Raemonn Price, Joshua Alan Doetsch, Myranda Sarro, Steffie de Vaan, Malcolm Sheppard, Alan Alexander, Renee Knipe, and Matthew Dawkins, Beckett’s Jyhad Diary is as fascinating to read as to use for your game Chronicles.

          A Land Where Legends Walk

Drawing enthusiastically on Greek mythology, the revised and re-imagined Scarred Lands nonetheless retains its place as a modern fantasy RPG setting. This is a world shaped by gods and monsters, and only the greatest of heroes can expect to be counted among them. The most populous continent of Scarn, Ghelspad, plays host to vast unexplored regions, hides unsolved riddles from ancient cultures, and taunts adventures with the promise of undiscovered riches hidden among the ruins of older civilizations.

Yet the myths of the Scarred Lands are relatively recent events. The effects of the Titanswar still ripple through the world, and the heroines and villains of many of these stories are part of living memory, if not still living.

The Award-Winning Fantasy Setting Returns

Scarred Lands has been a favorite fantasy setting since the release of the Creature Collection for the d20 System in 2000. In subsequent years, over 40 titles were published for Scarred Lands, making it one of the most fully supported fantasy RPG settings ever and the premiere product line of Sword & Sorcery Studios.

Available in both 5th Edition and Pathfinder compatible versions! PDF and PoD formats available NOW!

http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/193014/Scarred-Lands-Players-Guide-Pathfinder

http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/197803/Scarred-Lands-Players-Guide-OGL-5e

      CONVENTIONS!

This week (2/26-3/5) Mighty Matt McElroy will be in Seattle for Emerald City Comic Con. He plans on spending some time in Artist Alley checking out artists – so if you are an artist interested in working for us, particularly with super-hero genre based Trinity Continuum: Aberrant coming up, say hi to Matt as he comes by!

    And now, the new project status updates!

DEVELOPMENT STATUS FROM FAST EDDY WEBB (projects in bold have changed status since last week):

First Draft (The first phase of a project that is about the work being done by writers, not dev prep)

M20 Gods and Monsters (Mage: the Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition)

M20 Book of the Fallen (Mage: the Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition)

C20 Novel (Jackie Cassada) (Changeling: the Dreaming 20th Anniversary Edition)

Deviant: The Renegades (Deviant: The Renegades)

CofD Contagion Chronicle (Chronicles of Darkness)

M20 The Technocracy Reloaded (Mage: the Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition)

M20 Victorian Mage (Mage: the Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition)

Dystopia Rising: Evolution (Dystopia Rising: Evolution)

Spilled Blood (Vampire: The Requiem 2nd Edition)

  Redlines

Guide to the Night (Vampire: The Requiem 2nd Edition)

  Second Draft

WoD Ghost Hunters (World of Darkness)

Tales of Good Dogs – Pugmire Fiction Anthology (Pugmire)

  Development

Signs of Sorcery (Mage: the Awakening Second Edition)

GtS Geist 2e core (Geist: the Sin-Eaters Second Edition)

Night Horrors: The Tormented (Promethean: The Created 2nd Edition)

Hunter: the Vigil 2e core (Hunter: the Vigil 2nd Edition)

Fetch Quest (Pugmire)

They Came From Beneath the Sea! Rulebook (TCFBtS!)

  WW Manuscript Approval:

  Editing:

Ex Novel 2 (Aaron Rosenberg) (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Exalted 3rd Novel by Matt Forbeck (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Trinity Continuum: Aeon Rulebook (The Trinity Continuum)

Monarchies of Mau (Monarchies of Mau)

Trinity Continuum Core Rulebook (The Trinity Continuum)

  Post-Editing Development:

Changeling: the Lost 2nd Edition, featuring the Huntsmen Chronicle (Changeling: the Lost 2nd Edition)

Dragon-Blooded (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Pan’s Guide for New Pioneers (Pugmire)

The Realm (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Kithbook Boggans (Changeling: the Dreaming 20th Anniversary Edition)

Scion: Hero (Scion 2nd Edition)

  Indexing:

    ART DIRECTION FROM MIRTHFUL MIKE:

In Art Direction

Cavaliers of Mars – Art is contracted.

Ex3 Monthly Stuff

Scion Hero

Changeling: the Lost 2

Trinity Continuum

Ex3 Dragon Blooded – KS artwork in and approved.

Boggans – Contracted.

Monarchies of Mau – Sorting through buy and figuring out roster.

Fetch Quest – KS art contracted.

  Marketing Stuff

  In Layout

Scarred Lands Community Content

Scion Origin

Wraith 20 Screen – Front approved… now waiting for errata phase to assemble all the charts.

  Proofing

Beast PG – At WW for approval.

DtD Enemy Action – At WW for approval.

Book of Freeholds – Maggie has 2nd proof.

Pugmire – Pan’s Explorer’s Guide (or whatever)

  At Press

Beckett Screen – Shipped to shipper.

Scarred Land PGs & Wise and the Wicked PF & 5e – To fulfillment shipper. PDF and PoD physical book versions on sale at DTRPG.

Changeling: the Dreaming 20th Anniversary Edition (Changeling: the Dreaming 20th Anniversary Edition) – Books and Screens created and preparing to ship from printer to fulfillment shipper.

Prince’s Gambit – At press.

V20 Beckett’s Jyhad Diary– Deluxe edition files sent to printer.

C20 Ready Made Characters – PoD proofs on the way.

Pugmire Artisan Cards – PoD proofs on the way.

Pugmire Shepherd Cards – PoD proofs on the way.

Scion Dice Packaging – At press.

Wraith 20 – Backer PDF out, and errata is coming in.

Ring of Spiragos – PoDs uploading.

Pugmire Vinsen’s Tomb – PoD proofs on the way.

  TODAY’S REASON TO CELEBRATE: It’s George Harrison’s birthday today, and while he is in fact now dead, we’re sure glad he was around to add his creative magic to the Traveling Wilbury‘s and some other, less important, earlier musical group that did a couple of records back when music was only available as records.

[sweetwatersound-blog1]

Riverdale S2E7 Review

So sorry this is late. And for the length. And for the way I flip out near the end.

CHAPTER TWENTY: TALES FROM THE DARKSIDE

 Well, well. Look who’s trying something new. Riverdale experimented with tone and style in the seventh episode of this season. As a storyteller in my own right, I appreciate the effort for variety. Of course, there were things about it that worked for me and things that didn’t, but let’s get to that in a minute.

What exactly were we all watching Wednesday night? A young adult anthology penned by Stephen King? Or was the dark, tingling quality in the show’s atmosphere a byproduct of fanfiction fumed with Queen hits?

Huh, you say? Let’s break down that observation, in order.

 Bert and Ernie Archie and Jughead

Lawyers in general earn a mixed reputation for their practice. I grew up hearing of comparisons to sharks and parasites. But Penny Peabody has carved herself a special box of awfulness here. After all, every snake is a serpent but not all of Riverdale’s Serpents are snakes.

After Riverdale received a message from the Black Hood (his basic blah, “sin and die” stuff) the whole town reacts by…ahem, business as usual?

Betty, evidently distressed by her failure to keep Jughead’s drug-dealing English teacher alive, spent the night in her boyfriend’s arms. He did his best to console, and I could have gone for more than that, but then his phone sang the song of eternal damnation, and he had to run off to appease the Snakecharmer.

Penny, using Jughead’s concern for his father’s welfare in prison to her advantage, promised she can get FP out if Jughead did one little job for her.

Which led to him making a midnight drug run, with Archie as his co-pilot, his conscience torn between his determination to support Jughead and his passive desire to stop him.

Overall, the night was full-moon freak worthy. Jughead and Archie met a man on the road whose interest in the Black Hood suggests that the masked killer has been sending fan mail in the wrong direction. The boys also randomly encountered a set of deer, one bloody and the other bloody-dead. Poor Jug had so many jumpscares, I was surprised that it didn’t end with Archie checking him into a mental health clinic.

But they were in a hurry, after all, and like the song Headlong says

It ain’t no time to figure wrong from right, cause reason’s out the window, better hold on tight – you’re rushin’

  Josie

 Oh, good, a character who deserves more attention has finally got some! I always loved Josie’s friendship with Cheryl before, and now there are layers to go with that slice of cake. Granted, when you go a’ explorin’ the foundations of friendship, you might not always like what turns up from the dirt. But even if I don’t have quite the same love for Josie/Cheryl anymore, I am definitely more intrigued by them.

So, this is the (long overdue) spotlight on Josie McCoy. Pussycat by day, the next Whitney Houston by night. Might I add Ashleigh Murray’s pipes are fabulous, and I could fall asleep listening to Josie play the piano. No one knew she was composing alone except for her bff Cheryl, who is paying for studio time. Because the beginning of their story intersects with Jughead and Archie’s, we get the pleasure of hearing Cheryl snap at them as “Bert and Ernie” TWICE while chatting with Josie. Then Josie opened her locker to find a stuffed animal with a stalker-note attached. She rolled her eyes and tossed it, assuming it was from a secret admirer. Because it wasn’t like there was a Ra’s al Ghul wannabe ready to waste a town that day. At least Cheryl was wary, but her devotion to Josie seemed more intense here than it had been in previous episodes.

Then Josie encountered Chuck Clayton. Instead of skirt-chasing for the sake of humiliating his dates, Chuck goes to church. Chuck takes art classes. Chuck is ready to start going by Charles now.

There was in fact something softer about him in this episode, enough to leave both me and Josie hoping he’d changed. That dance between them at the diner was so cute.

But whether this was a one-shot tale or a to-be-continued setup, we’ll have to wait and see. Because while Josie did have a stalker in this episode, it wasn’t the Black Hood. It wasn’t Chuck.

Cheryl, you break my heart.

In honor of Josie’s rollercoaster of a trip, I give you The Invisible Man.

 When you hear a sound that you just can’t place, feel somethin’ move that you just can’t trace, when something sits on the end of your bed. Don’t turn around when you hear me tread/

I’m your meanest thought, I’m your darkest fear

But I’ll never get caught, you can’t shake me, shake me dear

 Veronica & Betty

 The last story goes back to what Betty did after saying goodbye to Jughead. While talking to him about the teacher murdered in Sheriff Keller’s station, a lightbulb sparked in her brain – who could find it easier to get into the cell than Keller himself? Not one of her better ideas, I feel, but she ran ahead with it. She told Veronica, who insisted the Sheriff was just exhibiting the signs of practicing infidelity. Still, the girls agreed for Kevin’s sake they would have to be careful. While Betty worked her Veronica Mars magic at the department, Veronica invited herself to a sleepover at Kevin’s house. Being the warm treasured heart he is, he taught her how to dominate his favorite fantasy board game. Taking a break, Veronica took a call from Betty. (virtually the only time I’ve ever been truly disappointed in my girl – more on that later.)

Betty learned from V that a bunch of doors were locked at the Keller house. She bobby-pinned them open until she found Sheriff Keller’s evidence office. Crime scene pictures here, letters from the Black Hood there. Betty was just picking up the black mask that Keller had confiscated from Archie earlier this season, when the Sheriff showed up.

However, when the scene bounced to Betty and her father sitting, facing Keller, he wasn’t enraged. He seemed quite understanding of her suspicions, and downright sad she had them. He promised her he wouldn’t tell Kevin, because she and his son were so important to one another, and knowledge of this incident would break his heart.

But for relentless Betty, it wasn’t over. She wanted to know where Keller was sneaking off to at night. Tailing him alongside a reluctant Veronica led them to a motel. Keller knocked on one of the doors, and out stepped Mayor McCoy – Josie’s mom – into his arms.

The girls swore a pact they’d never reveal the truth to Kevin. I felt like they also should have promised each other to never investigate with Veronica’s Cheat-Buster’s intuition. This was one secret that would have been better left uncovered.

 Because Kevin remarked upon “the pressure” his dad was facing so much, here’s Under Pressure.

Pressure pushing down on you, no man ask for

Under pressure that burns a building down

Splits a family in two

Puts people on the streets

  Odds and Ends

 These are a few of my other Darkside observations, pros and cons:

We had a break from Toni. Yes I know some still like her, and yes I know she’s not a bug mucking up Bughead’s windshield. For the record, though? I wanted to like Toni Topaz. Really. I was so hoping she’d be the Toni from my South Side Story fic. That Toni took a stand, had integrity, and had a kind-of-crush on Betty. She was interesting, and I was hoping Vanessa Morgan’s version would at least have some interesting lines. Sadly, something fell flat for me along the way, and with this absence I hope the writers have thought of a new way to make her more appealing as a person.

 Bert and Ernie. BERT AND ERNIE. Though I see Jughead as more the cynical-ish Bert, and Archie is more the rubber ducky type methinks. Still, never getting old.

 But unfortunately, I have some nitpicks now.

 Archie owes Jughead? You know, I’m not entirely certain Jughead would have won that race with the Ghoulies. And if it had been a clear loss...Jughead clearly needs glasses if he’s that shortsighted. Archie bailed him out of a high-risk situation. If it had been me in that fix I daresay I would be treating Archie Andrews to burgers and milkshakes for a month.

Even worse friends are the Pussycats. Setup or no, I just wanted someone to point out to High and Mighty Valerie that cutting Josie out for working on songs by herself when just a few months ago she was crushed for writing songs with Archie seems either very petty (if revenge) or hypocritical.

I hate to bring up hypocrisy now, but let’s examine Betty’s actions when her boyfriend’s father was under suspicion for murder. She. Would. Not. Have. It. Everyone, from Archie and Veronica to her own damn mother wanted her to look a bit more closely beyond Jughead’s words that FP was innocent.

Cut to today, when she doggedly pursued the father of one of her closest friends, and someone she’s been quite frankly more familiar with over the years than FP Jones, for his potential ability to walk into a jail cell and shoot someone. And for Veronica to remind Betty that investigating Kevin’s dad would hurt their friend, only for Betty to keep gunning for him like the Kellers meant so little to her.

*I’d like to think I know what this is about. Betty has been traumatized by the Black Hood. She’s so freaked Dark Betty has had to come out of the woodwork. Dark Betty is colder, a bit more obsessive than the Girl Next Door version. She’s probably determined not to rest until the culprit can’t hurt her or her friends anymore.

I see this possibility. Of course, I could be dead wrong.

 But now that I’ve mentioned the Black Hood, I’m going to say what I should have said the last time:

Where tf is the FBI?

I mean, there’s a psychopath in a mask that has declared war on an entire town. When he starts sending encrypted messages vowing to erase all sin from Riverdale, Jesus sorry but that’s when you send in the Feds.

 Riverdale has forty-eight hours to stop sinning or he’ll kill again. Doesn’t anyone take this threat seriously?

Obviously not, including the very people he’s threatening. WTF kind of a test is that anyways? A town without sin, wow, really? He might as well come for all of us.

  With this theme song:  Innuendo

 show yourself, destroy our fears – release your masks

[soto-translates]

Saiyuki Reload Blast Anthology: Saiyuki OVERNIGHT + extras

Thank you @seiten-taisei for sharing this, and a bunch of drama CDs!  Go here to check out what she's shared.  Go here for links to my translations of the other stories in this anthology.

Goku helps a baby panda in this last story of the anthology.

P110 Saiyuki OVERNIGHT Kouga Yun Baby Panda: Mother, humans are interesting.  They don’t eat bamboo. Mama Panda: Well, you mustn’t go near humans.  Oh my, what happened to your leg? sfx: munch munch Goku: I’m hungry!! sfx: Guwah Goku: Hey, don’t we have anything to eat!?

P111 Goku: I’m sick of camping out!! Gojyo: Shut it.  We get it already. Hakkai: The map must be old.  There’s no village either... Goku: Food food food.  I can’t sleep like this! sfx: flail flail Narration: Matter of life and death Sanzo: Suck it up.  Noisy... Narration: Totally composed Narration: Flexible Gojyo: It’s just one night; you won’t die. Hakkai: Though there’s no guarantee we’ll be able to eat tomorrow. Ahahaha. Narration: Thoroughly prepared

P112 sfx: Jaw drop Hakkai: Well sfx: tadah Hakkai: I have some manju. Goku: Seriously!?  Great job Hakkai!! Hakkai: I bought them in the previous town just in case.  There’s only one per person though. Goku: Aw yeah. Gojyo: Wait!! Goku: Huh? sfx: tummy rumble Gojyo: Just one ain’t enough.  If you’re a man it should be all or nothin’, life or death!! sfx: babaaaam Gojyo: Not one per person, winner takes all four: a battle royale!! Goku: Whaaat!?

P113 Gojyo: Rock, paper Goku: Uwaaah sfx: crack Gojyo: You don’t play, you lose!!  Scissors. sfx: pop Hakkai: Ah, I got lured in. Gojyo: Dog-eat-dog, I eat manju. Goku: No fair, pervy kappa!!  Waah. sfx: pompf Sanzo: Quit fucking around.  Servants should suck it up.  Hand them over to Sanzo-sama.  It’s just food... Gojyo: Tyrant!  Boo!  Boo! Goku: You don’t play you lose!  Boo!  Boo! Hakkai: Ahahaha.

P114 Goku: That’s what happened.  Can you believe it? sfx: leaves rustling, panda whines Goku: So then I got mad and went searching for food. sfx: toss Goku: There, that’s better, yeah? Mama Panda: That can’t be.  A human wouldn’t be able to loosen the trap by himself. Baby Panda: Mother, that boy was a youkai.

P115 Goku: There. sfx: ties Goku: Don’t get caught again. sfx: tummy rumble Goku: Pandas’re lucky... You can eat bamboo... sfx: tummy rumble, blowing wind Baby Panda: Are you hungry?  You can’t eat bamboo?  Come with me. Goku: Huh? sfx: rustle Baby Panda: Youkai get hungry too?

P116 Hakkai: Hm?  Sanzo?  There’s one manju left. Sanzo: Yeah.  Guess I couldn’t eat all four.  The monkey is annoying, so leave it for him. sfx: puff Gojyo: Sanzo!  You’re too nice to the monkey. Sanzo:  You just clutch your empty stomach and sleep. Hakkai: That was your bad, Gojyo. Gojyo: The starving brat just fussed too much.  Boo, boo. Sanzo: He’s filling himself up now, after 500 years of starvation.

P117 Goku: Wow!  Amazing!  That looks tasty! Baby Panda: Can you eat this? Goku: Yum!! sfx: chomp Goku: ‘S okay?  Thanks! Baby Panda: Uh huh, go ahead. Goku: All right, Imma eat ‘em all myself. Baby Panda: Go for it.

P118 Mama Panda: Son, youkai don’t eat peaches.  They eat humans when they get hungry. Baby Panda: No Mother, he ate them like they tasted good. sfx: chomp chomp Goku: ........... Baby Panda: ? What’s wrong? Goku: ............

P119 sfx: leaves falling Baby Panda: What’s wrong?  You’re not going to finish? Goku: “Sanzo, I’m hungry.” Sanzo: “Again?!  There’s no more food.” sfx: grumble Goku: “How come I’m so hungry?” Sanzo: “...... Eh, guess you can’t help it.” sfx: crush

P120 Sanzo: “You’re taking back the time you lost.  If you’re hungry, eat.  Go where you like.  Obtain what you want.  For yourself.  You’re already” sfx: hmpf

P121 Sanzo: “Free.” Goku: (thinking) You reached out and taught me.  You made me realize

P122 Goku: (thinking) that I didn’t have anything or anyone.  Loneliness, hunger, and how to ease them

P123 Goku: (thinking) You taught me all of that.  That’s the freedom you gave me. Goku: ...... Heh.  Hehehe.  I don’t believe it.  Heheh.  I’m full. sfx: Panda whines Baby Panda: You’re full now? Goku: Hehe... Did you know?  I don’t get hungry if I’m alone.  Thanks. sfx: pick pick

P124 Goku: I’m gonna take these back and eat ‘em in front of Gojyo.  Guess I can give some to Hakkai. Sanzo: “Everyone, no matter who they are, lives to ease their hunger and thirst.  But, that’s not limited to the hunger of the body.  It’s the hunger of the soul, too.”

P125 Baby Panda: Mother, humans (youkai?) get hungry in their “soul” too. Mama Panda: Well, I don’t really understand. Goku: I’m back ♡ Gojyo: Oh!?  Whaddya bring back? Goku: I’m not giving any to you!! Hakkai: Welcome back.  We were worried, Goku.  Sanzo was waiting too. Sanzo: What are you talking about? Goku: Huh? Hakkai: Well, the manju was. sfx: hop END

P126 Saiyuki Reload Blast Anthology

P127 Saiyuki Reload Blast Anthology Author Comments

AU Congratulations on the Saiyuki Reload Blast anime and sale of the anthology.  Thank you very much for the opportunity to work with such a wonderful creation.  I look forward to seeing what lies ahead for the Sanzo Ikkou.

Akanatsu Congratulations on publication of the Saiyuki Reload Blast Anthology!  I was able to draw for the Saiyuki Gaiden Anthology too, so I’d be happy if you read that as well!

Usatoru I am so grateful I was able to participate in this!  I had a lot of fun drawing.  I wasn’t able to put him in this time, but my favorite is Hazel.

Ueda Shinsyu Congratulations on 20 years of Saiyuki!  I’m very happy to have been able to participate in the Anthology at this memorable point in time.  Goku is becoming more and more manly, and I look forward to seeing how he continues to grow and where the story goes from here.

Katagiri Ikumi Before I knew it, the mini Goku-chan story I had planned to draw transformed into a Gojyo manga.  Congratulations on the new new new Saiyuki anime!

Endou Minari This is Endou who was supposed to be a Sanzo fan, but recently Goku’s smile has seeped into my heart.  I wonder if this is what it means to get old... My favorite character is Sharak Sanzo, and I love everything about her so much.  Also, I reread all the books to prep for this anthology, and I think Hakkai and Kanan are just too cute!  Huh?  This isn’t the place to talk about that?  Character limit?  So heartless.  It’s too bad there are so many fascinating characters and I don’t have space to write about them all.  I’m looking forward to what’s going to happen in Saiyuki, now that it’s entered the final stage and is getting more and more exciting.

P128 Kogami Nana Thank you very much for inviting me to participate in this.  Congratulations on the anime!  I really love how Kougaiji interacts with Lirin-chan.  I love Lirin-chan’s personality, her muscular yet flexible legs, and her voluptuous chest.

Kouga Yun I’ve had a long relationship with the Sanzo gang.  I’ll always love them.  I plan to continue stalking Sanzo and watching over him for years to come.  I pray for Minekura Sensei’s health above all!

Tachibana Congratulations on 20 years of the Saiyuki series!!  The difficulty increases 1.5 times when the hotness (and nakedness) goes up!  I got to have fun and draw my beloved Gojyo getting defiant!

Suzumoto Jun Thank you so much for letting me participate in this Saiyuki Anthology!  I’m from the generic generation so this is a huge honor.  I was happy I got to draw Kougaiji because I like him.  It was fun having lots of characters appear!

naked ape Congratulations on 20 years of the Saiyuki series and the Saiyuki Reload Blast anime!  I got to draw an image that contrasts with the Gaiden anthology, and exclaim over the coolness of the Sanzo Ikkou.  Thank you very much for this opportunity!

D・Kissan Congratulations on 20 years of the Saiyuki series!  I started thinking of a plot that would let me draw a lot of the cool Sharak Sanzo-sama, but it ended up being a manga all about silly Hassan-san.  I’m so sorry...

Mikawa Verno I wanted to draw an amusing, slap-stick...-y tale about the Ikkou that wouldn’t usually be drawn, but whaaaat!?

P129 EXTRA PAGES Saiyuki Reload Blast Anthology Ichijinsha Comic Zero-Sum Presents Book front cover ※Writing is from time of comic sale

P130 EXTRA PAGES Book back cover ※Writing is from time of comic sale

P131 EXTRA PAGES Saiyuki Reload Blast Anthology Zero-Sum Anthology Series Eroko Ichijinsha

KAZUYA MINEKURA LINEUP ZERO-SUM Comics Saiyuki 9 volumes total Saiyuki RELOAD 10 volumes total Saiyuki RELOAD BLAST 1-2 Saiyuki Gaiden 4 volumes total Saiyuki Ibun 1 WILD ADAPTER 1-7 Shiritsu Araiso Koutou Gakkou Seitokai Shikkoubu 2 volumes total Minekura Kazuya short story Hachi no Su 1 volume total BUS GAMER THE PILOT EDITION 1 volume total

REX Comics BUS GAMER 1

Art Books salty dog 1-9 sugar coat excess Backgammon Rimix

Original Image Reproduction Collections Saiyuki Series Original Image Reproduction Collection Saiyuki RELOAD Original Image Reproduction Collection

Post Card Books Saiyuki POSTCARD “PURPLE” “YELLOW” “RED” “GREEN”

Fan Books Original “Saiyuki” Series Perfect Guide Saiyubito Saiyuki Character Book Sanzo & Goku / Gojyo & Hakkai

Anthologies Saiyuki ANTHOLOGY Saiyuki RELOAD BLAST Anthology Saiyuki Gaiden Anthology

Novels Novel Saiyuki 1-3     Author: Misaki Hijiri Saiyuki OMNIBUS     Author: Minekura Kazuya and others Saiyuki Kourou Tengi     Author: Uozumi Yukiko

Spine・Cover flap ※Writing is from time of comic sale

P132 EXTRA PAGES Cover illustration Minekura Kazuya

Illustration naked ape

Manga AU; Akanatsu; Ueda Shinsyu; Usatoru; Endou Minari; Katagiri Ikumi; Kogami Nana; Suzumoto Jun; Tachibana; D・Kissan; Mikawa Verno

Rerecording Koga Yun

The world begins to go crazy. You can’t take your eyes off them. Cover・Back cover ※Writing is from time of comic sale

P133 Zero-Sum Comics Saiyuki Reload Blast Anthology

Author/Anthology Publisher/Koyanagi Yoshio Publication/Kabushiki Gaisha Ichijinsha 〒160-0022 Tokyo-to, Shinjuku-ku, Shinjuku 2-5-10 Seishi Building 8F TEL 03-5312-6851 (editing) TEL 03-5312-6150 (sales) On sale from: Kabushiki Gaisha Kodansha (Kodansha・Ichijinsha)

Book design/Minekura Kazuya Miyata Yuusuke・Sano Yura (Banana Grove Studio)

ISBN 978-4-7580-3306-0 ©Minekura Kazuya/Ichijinsha 2017     Printed in JAPAN ID Comics ●This is a work of fiction.  There is no relation to actual people, groups, or events.

[themyskira]

The 18th Letter: A Love Story - Part 1

I’ve been meaning to talk about this one for a while and, re-reading it, it’s even more awful than I remember.  Practically its only saving grace was that it was cut down from the originally proposed 96-page hardcover graphic novel to a 66-page three-parter that languished in the anthology comic Legends of the DC Universe, where it went almost completely ignored by mainstream continuity.

Christopher Priest has written acclaimed cape comics for both Marvel and DC, including what’s often cited as the definitive Black Panther run. Unfortunately, I only know him through his work on Wonder Woman, which, I think it’s safe to say... isn’t his best.

Writing about his experiences as an occasional WW fill-in writer, Priest describes the frustrations of having to treat lightly with the character and not rock the boat. Wonder Woman is, of course, a major corporate property, and it seems at the time (in the mid-to-late nineties) DC was particularly anxious to protect that. Says Priest, “I was absolutely forbidden from making Diana interesting”. (I take some issue with that, but okay.)

So The 18th Letter arose out of a desire to do something with Wonder Woman that had never been done before. A story that was “edgy and controversial” and had something to say about the character. A story that was “relevant to the political and social climate at the turn of the century” -- and one that “could only happen to Wonder Woman”.

Which is how we ended up with this utterly execrable story about a man who uses mass slaughter to blackmail Wonder Woman into fucking him.

Priest got one thing right: you ain’t gonna see any writer trying to pull this shit on Superman.

Needless to say, there are some heavy trigger warnings for what follows. This story is rife with abusive and coercive behaviour, attempted date rape, victim blaming, slut shaming, normalising of abuse and general shitty treatment of women.

Prolog

We open on scenes of a city being pounded by missiles and civilians dying horrifically while Wondy struggles against the bombardment.  In the accompanying narration boxes, an unseen character pervs after Diana.

She was too late. Much too late.

(Here we pause dramatically on what is meant to be Diana straining with the effort of catching a downed helicopter before it crashes, but instead appears to be a porno tracing worthy of Greg Land.)

Her name was Diana. And I adored her. Which was why I sent for her— in the most compelling way I could think of.

The most compelling way he could think of was a missile that killed dozens of civilians. Because this is a love story.

Diana’s surrounded by human desperation and she’s struggling to save them all. The people cry out to her in broken English, and a bearded man confronts her angrily: “Help us!! I demand it, American hero—!!” Diana protests that she’s trying and the man responds by slapping her in the face and screaming that she’s a liar.

…it’s hard not to read this as a cynical, simplistic commentary on American foreign relations. “We do our best to help them and they spit in our face and accuse us imperialism! We just can’t win!! Like, I know you’re dying and stuff, but do you have to be so angry about it? Can’t you see you’re making Wonder Woman sad?”

Okay, maybe I’m reading too much into it. It’s possible Priest is just trying in a hamfisted way to establish that Diana wants to save everyone and it pains her that she can’t, setting up a clear reason for to seriously consider the gross “proposal” she’s about to receive.

Voiceover again:

She was the soul of an unborn child incarnated within a body of clay and endowed with special gifts from the gods themselves. I was a homeless spirit cursed to wander the earth. Reaching out for a moment of peace— and finding only— a living death.

Then a blonde in gold spandex and rocket boots attacks Diana with a shooty-energy-staff.

Sigh. This is Helena Kosmatos, aka Fury, and she deserves so much better than what Priest has planned for her.

Helena exists due to an accident of continuity. See, after Crisis on Infinite Earths rebooted DC’s continuity in 1986, the modern Fury — Lyta Trevor-Hall, best known for her role in Neil Gaiman’s Sandman — still existed, but her mother — the Golden Age Wonder Woman — didn’t any more. DC had to come up with a new parentage for her, so Helena Kosmatos was introduced as a World War II-era heroine who is an avatar of the goddess Tisiphone, one of the three Furies.

I don’t believe she’d ever interacted with Wondy before this story, and I actually think reintroducing her in the modern era as a Wonder Woman supporting character was a great idea… if only it hadn’t been handled so spectacularly badly.

Diana and Fury’s exchange is clunky and reads like an unproofed second draft: Diana asks Fury who she is and why she’s attacking, but Fury responds instead as though she’s been asked who sent her. The answer to that is nobody: “I just heard you were coming here — and thought it was high time we met.”

Then she drops the bombshell:

“I’m your sister. And I hate you for what you’ve done to me.”

Then she proceeds to pound Diana into the ground while deriding her legendary powers. “Somebody told you you were unique. Somebody said you were her only child. You were lied to. And, ever since your first appearance, I’ve meant to correct things.”

(Check out Diana’s gravity-defying cape)

Diana breaks free and beats Fury into the pavement while protesting that her mother had no other daughters. Fury… it’s not clear how she does this, but apparently she uses her super-strength (and rocket boots?! fuck if I know.) to rapidly tunnel underneath the pavement and pop up behind Diana, then throws a tank at her and flies off.

those hips those thighs what the fuck am i looking at

(In retrospect, I don’t think they’re even rocket boots, I think it’s just shitty art.)

Diana is then approached by a soldier, who announces that she has been sent by “Michael Lysander, leader of the East Vladonian Resistance” — in other words, the man responsible for all the bloodshed. Her message: Come see my master and he will stop the war. Diana replies that she will see him only after he declares a ceasefire. The soldier says she will relay the message and, oh, by the way, Lysander “prefers to be called by his Epigoni birth name— Alcmaeon.”

The name causes Diana to make this face:

...yeeeeeeup, that’s what alarm and perhaps some puzzlement looks like, alrighty.

Voiceover again:

My agent saw it in her eyes. Alarm— and perhaps some puzzlement. It was a name she’d heard before. And, I’m sure she must have wondered… why a dead man wanted to see her.

Interlude: Parados

The Justice League discuss Diana’s decision to involve herself in the conflict in Vladonia.  The JLA’s charter prohibits taking sides in international disputes, but Diana’s mission in Man’s World is to bring peace, and in this instance, J’onn worries that these two mandates might come into direct conflict.  This is actually an interesting idea, and it’s a shame that Priest didn’t try to explore it in more depth instead of going full Indecent Proposal on Diana.

Interlude: First Episode

Three editing fuckups in one, with a title boxes that is

incorrect (it should read “First Episode”; the interlude is over),

uses the wrong lettering style (it’s inconsistent with all the other title boxes, which use a distinctive font and border), and

in the wrong place (it's at the bottom of the Interlude page, whereas it should be at the start of the following page).

Back to the voiceover.

Which was how I knew she would come. Immediately after I ordered the cease-fire. I could hardly breathe. After all, I’d waited a lifetime…

fuuuuuuuuck offfffffff.

Writing elsewhere about this story, Priest has described Alcmaeon as — direct quote — “Tom Cruise. He is the most arrestingly, unexpectedly charming and disarming person to ever appear in a DC comic … a guy most any woman on the planet would fall immediately in love with”.

So naturally he looks like Doctor Psycho’s younger brother.

Also, when Diana meets him, he’s cleaning a gross shit-covered toilet. Because he might be a supreme dictator, but he’s also a manly man of the people, I guess? His explanation is that he’s short on staff at the moment and, well… and…

um.

HE DOESN’T KNOW IF AMAZONS NEED TO SHIT

WHAT THE ALMIGHTY EVERLOVING FUCK CHRISTOPHER PRIEST

WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU

WHAT--

YOU--

FUCK--

Alcmaeon invites Diana to dine with him — after his female lieutenants help her to “freshen up”, of course, because dinner with a sleazy predator just wouldn’t be complete without a change of costume into an outfit that he has specifically picked out.

If she stayed in there more than thirty seconds, I knew I could begin to build trust between us. And trust was all we needed. I’m sure she looked for cameras that weren’t there. Advanced science to trap her in my castle. Not yet realising I didn’t want to trap her— I wanted to win her.

mate, you’ve used the threat of further civilian deaths to lure her into your creepy castle and now you’re manipulating her into donning a hand-picked outfit and sitting down to dinner with you; I think we’ve already established you don’t give two fucks about consent.

Here’s Diana “freshened up”, by way:

Diana isn’t amused, either: “Children are dying, and you’ve got me playing games with some lunatic claiming to be my sister.” And again we run into some bad continuity. Diana has no reason to connect Fury with Alcmaeon, and in fact Fury explicitly said she wasn’t working for anybody. Considering this story reportedly took Priest almost three years to write, this is some very sloppy work.

Alcmaeon: Ah. I see you’ve met Fury. Diana: Fury? I’ve heard that name… she was a heroine… Alcmaeon: Yes. During the Second World War. Now she’s a little, well, loopy— and obsessed with me.

noooope nope nope nope nooooo thank you.

Things the world does not need more of:

Waifishly beautiful heroines driven mad by the inability of their female minds to handle ~terrible power~

Hysterical women antagonists acting craaaazy because of a maaaaan

Pretentious-ass writer bros sabotaging powerful heroines to prop up their Deep and Complex date-rapist warlord villain

Alcmaeon says that he has brought Diana here to fulfil a prophecy — the 18th Letter — and then dives into his backstory, and we get a half-page of prose summarising the story of Alcmaeon from Greek mythology. Here’s the potted version:

Alcmaeon’s mother conspired to kill his father by sending him into a fatal battle.

Alcmaeon killed his mother to avenge his father’s murder, and was hounded by the Furies for his crime of matricide.

He’s basically Orestes but less interesting.

Anyway, then some other stuff happened and he wound up being killed, it’s really not important to this story.

Diana’s getting fairly shitty with Alcmaeon now, particularly as she’s noticed that there’s a forcefield surrounding the palace, which he claims is defensive, but also conveniently prevents her from leaving. Not creepy at all.

And now we’ve come to the Indecent Proposal part of the story.

Alcmaeon bullshits long and hard about how this is his ancient homeland by right, and he’s fighting a war of liberation, and there’s going to be a lot more large-scale civilian death and suffering before it’s done, and there’s nothing that the UN or the US or even the JLA can do about it— but it juuuuuuust so happens…

“I’ll give it all up — recall my forces, end the bloodshed — stop the war — in exchange for one night with you.”

THE END WHAT A SATISFYING CONCLUSION I’M SURE WE CAN ALL AGREE THIS WAS QUITE THE ah fuck there’s more.

Alcmaeon is shocked!! shocked!! that Diana would even think that he’s trying to coerce her into sex against her will! Nonono, he’s just trying to coerce her into hanging out with him against her will, in the hope that she will realise the fundamental truth that they are meant to be together now and forever! Noooothing predatory about that!

And again, I remind you that this bloke is supposed to be the most sexy and charming and arresting man in the DC universe.

As Diana leaves to (ugh) contemplate his bullshit offer, Fury appears in the door and goads him.

Fury: Crash and burn, Alcmaeon. Alcmaeon: No… not yet, anyway. Her mission in life is to teach the virtues of her people. She wants to teach me. Fury: So do I, Alcmaeon. So do I.

And we end on a final voiceover from Alcmaeon:

She was too late. Much too late. Which was what I had in mind when I started that war. For the express purpose of winning her— in the most compelling way I could think of.

YEP. THAT’S RIGHT. This worthless shitheel started a massive civil conflict, killing innocent civilians and destroying countless lives, for the express purpose of coercing Wonder Woman into banging him.

[obsidianarchives]

Ajuan Mance

Ajuan Mance is a Professor of African American literature at Mills College. A lifelong artist and writer, she works in acrylic on paper and canvas, ink on paper and, for the 1001 Black Men project, ink on paper and digital collage. Ajuan's comics and zines include The Ancestors’ Juneteenth, A Blues for Black Santa, the Gender Studies comic book series, and 1001 Black Men, featuring images from the online portrait series of the same name. Ajuan has participated in solo and group exhibitions from the Bay Area to Brooklyn. Both her scholarly writings and her art explore the relationship between race, gender, and representation. Ajuan is partly inspired by her teaching and research in U.S. Black literature and history. Her most recent scholarly book, Before Harlem: An Anthology of African-American Literature from the Long Nineteenth Century, was published in 2016. Her art has appeared in a number of publications and media sites, including The Women’s Review of Books, Cog Magazine, The San Francisco Chronicle, The New York Times, Buzzfeed.com, BET.com, SFGate.com, and KPIX.com. Her comics have appeared in the Alphabet and We’re Still Here anthologies, from Stacked Deck Press and the upcoming Drawing Power anthology, from Abrams Press.

Black Girls Create: What do you create?

In my work as a Professor in the English Department at Mills College, I describe myself as a literary historian of the Black nineteenth century. This means I teach and write about U.S. Black writers of the 1800s.

In my work as an artist, I create comics, paintings, drawings, and illustrations that use humor and lots of bright colors to explore the complexity of race and gender in the 21st century.

BGC: Why do you create?

In all honesty, I create because it's what I've always done. Some of my earliest memories are memories of making art. I've often said that I've been an artist almost as long as I've been Black; and when you've been drawing and painting for that long, art simply becomes part of the way you experience and process your world. I don't think it's an exaggeration for me say that art helps me understand who I am.

BGC: Who is your audience?

There are two answers to this question. The first is that I create the art I want to see in the world, and I hope it resonates with other people. That said, while my art is really, truly for all audiences who find it compelling, I feel especially accountable to the people I depict in my work; and those are, for the most part, Black people and communities of color. In my comics and zines, I also depict the experiences of queer and trans folks of color, and I hope that these communities find my works relatable and reflective of some of their experiences.

BGC: Who or what inspired you to do what you do? Who or what continues to inspire you?

I take a lot of inspiration from people who are thriving in their art practice and who are creating work that I love. I try to learn from those who are doing some of the things I want to do. I am very much inspired by those artists who are doing interesting figurative work, as well as those who are using comics and other visual media to tell stories that center the experiences of people of color. Some living artists whose careers I actively follow are the visual artists Kerry James Marshall, Kara Walker, Iona Rozeal Brown, Paula Scher, and Mickalene Thomas. I am also very much inspired by the work of the comic creators John Jennings (co-creator of the graphic novel version of Octavia Butler's Kindred), Thi Bui, Jimmie Robinson (some of whose work is set in the Bay Area), Spike Trotman, and Jillian Tamaki. I could list a whole lot more, but I'll stop there.

By the same token I don't know if I'd call it inspiration, but I was very much motivated as a developing artist by the support of my mom and dad. Even as an elementary and middle school student, my parents took my art as seriously as I did. I grew up in the New York area, and they took me to museums where I could study the work of others. They also took me to buy my supplies at the same stores where art school students shopped. All of this helped me to think of myself as a professional, even at a very young age.

BGC: What inspired you to become an English professor?

As an undergraduate, I was very much focused on earning an MFA and becoming a professor of creative writing. One day, though, one of my former advisors, Suzanne Woods, pulled me aside to discuss my plans for graduate school. She encouraged me to apply to PhD programs in English and to become a literature professor. She even told me where to apply. I changed course (away from the MFA), and I've never looked back.

BGC: Is there a connection between your work as a professor and your work as an artist?

There is a definite connection between my academic work and my art. Both forms of work revolve around the experiences of people of African descent. Also, in some ways, I use art as a research tool. I use art to explore issues and questions about Black life, Black history, and Black futures. My research in early African American literature and history has taught me a lot about the depth and breadth of Black creative experience (literature, art, and activism), and this directly feeds and informs my art. This knowledge of our long history of using creative work as a tool of resistance, celebration, and exploration has strengthened my sense of entitlement to a public voice.

BGC: How do you balance creating with the rest of your life?

I prioritize my art and illustration work, in order to make sure it doesn't simply fall prey to the myriad other tasks demanding my attention. I think of the common financial advice that you should, "pay yourself first." Prioritizing art is my way of doing that — of prioritizing the art practice that sustains me and helps me navigate my world.

BGC: You recently completed your 1001 Black Men Project. What inspired you to create this and how did you decide who to sketch?

The 1001 Black Men Project was inspired by my concern that even those Black-owned media outlets that seek to celebrate Black men seem to depict only the narrowest vision of what Black manhood and masculinity can be. I wanted to try my hand at creating a body of portraits of Black men that was truly representative of the full diversity of Black men's experiences, aesthetics, classes, and identities. Initially, I started by drawing the men I noticed when I was out and about in the Bay Area. I drew the security guard at our local grocery store, the men I saw during my regular trips to the public library, the people seated near me during my annual trips to San Diego Comic Con. Then, around my 300th drawing, I started to use each century point (300 drawings, 400, 500, et cetera) as a check-in, to consider which constituencies I'd somehow left out, which groups of Black men seem to be over-represented, and why. Over time, I became more aware of my own biases and more intentional about depicting those Black male populations I'd somehow seemed to overlook.

BGC: Why is it important, as a Black woman, to create?

As Black women our lens on the present, the past, and the imagined future is critically important. Everyone benefits when a broader range of perspectives is represented, and the constellation of identities and experiences that shapes each of our lives as Black women gives every one of us a unique vision and creative imagination. In addition, art in any form — performing, visual, literary — can be a wonderfully sustaining and affirming practice, and Black women deserve to access every available avenue for affirmation, sustenance, and creativity.

BGC: Advice for young creators/ones just starting?

My advise for young creators is to commit yourself to your creative work. Do it every day, with little attention to what others might think. By the same token, pay attention to the work of others, learn from other artists, and allow their work to inspire you. Go to gallery shows, museums, and comic and zine fests. Be open to community and connection with other artists. Also, set goals and work toward them — a drawing each day, a finished comic, a collection of short stories, etc. Then celebrate with friends when you've reached that milestone. And celebrate yourself whenever you've created something new, something you like, or something that was hard for you. 

BGC: Any future projects you’re working on?

I enjoy long-term projects that I can manage to sustain in 3-5 hours a day. I'm currently developing three projects. One is, Bay Area Heart and Soul: Black Artists in a Time of Change (with Filmmaker Pam Uzzell). I am creating a series of portraits of Bay Area Black artists (visual, performing, and literary), and I will be posting them on a website, in much the same way as I did with 1001 Black Men. The difference is that these portraits will also incorporate the words of the artists themselves. Pam Uzzell is creating short video interviews with roughly one in every 5 of the artists I'm drawing. Check All that Apply is a web-based comic strip about life as a Black nerd, and it's inspired by events in my own life. I'll be launching that project in early April. In addition, I'm working on a bi-monthly web comic about time travel. Stay tuned!

[recentanimenews]

Anime NYC 2018, Day Two

Yesterday was light to nonexistent. The same for tomorrow. But today? We had ALL THE THINGS! Starting off with the joint Kodansha and Vertical panel, which was in a nice big panel room and there was no line. A good start!

Ben Applegate was there from Kodansha and Tomo Tran from Vertical. They talked about all the giveaways they had at the booth, with Summer Wars stickers, After the Rain music download cards, Devils’ Line stuff, Pop Team Epic “shitty merchandise” (nicely done), and some of the Monogatari art exhibit being available to look at. Vertical then announced a new artbook from VOFAN, the artist for the Monogatari Series novels. This is actually a collection of his non-commercial art, so it should be far more intriguing than just another collection of stuff you’ve seen before in a larger size. It’s coming in Fall 2019.

Kodansha ran through some of their titles currently being released, including the Sailor Moon Eternal Edition, and mentioned the Sailor Moon musical is coming to NYC and DC. They then got on to new titles, though one is a collected edition: Princess Jellyfish is getting a Complete Box Set! Given at one point they weren’t sure they’d even finish the series, this is terrific news. Tales of Berseria is a three-volume series from Ichijinsha’s Comic REX, and is a fantasy title based off of a video game – I think it has an anime as well.

Fate/Grand Order gets its first manga adaptation license with the mortalis stella series, a 2-volume manga that is also Ichijinsha, from their Comic Zero Sum. I believe this stars Mash. Lastly, Kodansha is doing a new Cardcaptor Sakura edition with all the bells and whistles – hardcover, some new covers, new translation – the whole nine yards. I was a bit surprised by this, given it wasn’t too long ago that Dark Horse had re-released the series, but I’ve heard this will be worth the repurchase.

There were also two new digital announcements, coming out the first and second week of December, respectively. Red Riding Hood’s Wolf Apprentice (Akazukin no Ookami Deshi) is a Betsushonen title with Little Red Riding Hood as a beast hunter, and it’s supposed to be amusing. And on a more ridiculous note, we have Crocodile Baron, a Weekly Morning title that is three volumes long. Kodansha emphasized that the synopsis was irrelevant because there was a crocodile in a top hat on the cover. They’re not wrong.

After this there was Q&A, but I had to leave right away to get to the debut panel for Denpa Books, run by Ed Chavez (ex-Vertical) and Jacob Gray (ex-Fakku). They had special guests at the panel, though they quickly had to leave, so weren’t the focus – Range Murata, character designer for Last Exile and others, whose futurelog artbook is out next month and has ALL the bells and whistles – seriously, I could not believe how tricked out this artbook is. Hiroyuki Asada is known here for Tegami Bachi, but is putting out a more experimental title via Denpa, PEZ.

Most of the titles talked about have been mentioned before in some way or another. I was most interested in Invitation from a Crab and Maiden Railways, both of which seem to come from Hakusensha’s Rakuen Le Paradis, as well as Dining with the Emiya Family, for Fate/Stay Night fans who know what the most important thing in the Fate franchise is – FOOD.

The new titles included Super Dimensional Love Gun, a Shintaro Kago title that Fakku had previously released, but this is a nicer edition. It contains the usual Shintaro Kago warnings – if you aren’t a fan of his, you’ll likely be grossed out. Heavenly Delusion (Tengoku Daimakyou) is a brand new seinen series running in Kodansha’s Afternoon, and Denpa managed to license it before the first volume was even out in Japan. They’re super excited for it – it’s post-apocalyptic slice of life, a popular genre lately. The creator may be better known for SoreMachi. The last Denpa title was Pleasure and Corruption (Tsumi to Kai), from Square Enix’s Young Gangan. Honestly, it feels more like a Fakku title than a Denpa title, but it’s being sold to those who liked the sort of dark sexuality of Flowers of Evil. Expect BDSM themes.

After eating lunch, I had a choice: I could go to Viz, or go to Vertical’s Katanagatari panel. I chose the latter (sorry, Viz, I always seem to miss you at these events). Vertical’s panel had the translator, Sam Bett, who walked through some of the things they’re doing with the title – the footnotes, which are half gag and half serious, as well as the hardcover omnibus editions. Given its author, you can imagine how much sword wordplay and how many sword puns there are. Most of the audience has already seen the anime, but Sam was quick to note that even given the novels are short (each is approximately 100 pages in English, meaning the omnibus is 300), there is a lot the anime had to adapt or leave out.

Even leaving aside that it was Nisioisin, translating it could be difficult – these are not “light” novels, and there’s lots of obscure or archaic Japanese terms that need adapting. He also explained why he used “mutant blades” rather than “deviant blades” – he felt the latter made them sound more evil than they really should be seen. It takes him longer to do Nisio’s translation than other titles, but not a LOT longer – about 20% longer, on average. He said even a Japanese reader might find themselves reaching for a dictionary to look up words with this one.

Despite not being at the Viz panel, I will be looking at their announcements anyway, at least the manga ones. My Hero Academia SMASH! is a 5-volume comedy series that ran in Shonen Jump +, and is, as you might have guessed, a wacky 4-koma take on the popular series. This license was obvious, but I am quite pleased nevertheless. Komi Can’t Communicate (Komi-san wa Komyushou Desu) was a very popular license announcement, being a Shonen Sunday title with a lot of buzz. Komi is the cool, aloof beauty according to the school, but in reality, she’s just bad at communication.

Beastars is a Weekly Shonen Champion title (nice to see Akita Shoten stuff out over here in a (mostly) post-Tokyopop world), and it’s an award winning manga about anthropomorphic high school students. It’s 11+ volumes, and looks dark but cool. Lastly, Haikasoru has a new sci-fi novel announcement with Automatic Eve, that seems to be a steampunk title.

I was lurking waiting for Yen Press, so I checked out the GKids panel. They’re a group that puts out a lot of the “anime movie” series we’ve seen recently, the most recent varieties being Mirai and Fireworks: Shall We See It from the Side or the Bottom?. They’re also now in charge of the Ghibli line, with nice handsome DVD/Blu-Ray releases of those titles. They are clearly cery excited about getting these releases into theaters, and the trailers for the movies looked exciting and fun – I particularly liked the Miyazaki documentary.

My last panel of the day was Yen Press, but they also announced the most titles – easily. The panel room filled up rapidly, being near standing room only 15 minutes before, but I think everyone who wanted to get in was able to. Announcing for Yen were Kurt Haessler and Tania Biswas, as well as Carl, Ivan, and Anna, who sadly remained last name-less. Unlike all the other panels I went to, Yen knew it had a pile to announce, so did not do a run-through of any recent releases – through they did have some poster giveaways, including Psycome, much to my surprise.

We began with the novel of Wolf Children: Ame and Yuki. Yen had previously released the manga, but they now have the novel adaptation of this popular movie. (Anna spoiled a death when describing the plot, which Kurt mercilessly mocked her for.) Whenever Our Eyes Meet is a yuri anthology a la Eclair, but this time the protagonists are all adult women, for those who are tired of the usual high school girls. Speaking of yuri, we also have Killing Me!, a one-volume title from Comic Cune about two high school girls who are a vampire and a vampire hunter. It looks very much like a “yuri for guys” series.

Also one volume is Little Miss P (Seiri-chan), an Enterbrain series about an anthropomorphic period. As in menstruation period. The audience was taken aback, but Yen clearly really enjoyed talking about this one, and think it will be great fun. Last Round Arthurs: Scum Arthur and Heretic Merlin is a brand new fantasy title – brand new in Japan too, so there’s not much info about it. The author did Akashic Records of Bastard Magical Instructor, the artist does Index. It seems to be about an Arthurian tournament, and is two volumes to date.

On a darker note, they have both the novel and the manga for Torture Princess (Isekai Goumon Hime), whose artist has also done Black Bullet. It’s a Media Factory title and is apparently quite violent, about a man who is reincarnated in an artificial body and the demon hunter who wants his help. The German subtitle is Fremd Torturchen, and the manga runs on Kadokawa’s Comic Walker site. We also get an Enterbrain light novel called The Dirty Way to Destroy the Goddess’ Hero (Megami no Yuusha wo Taosu Gesu na Houhou). No, not that kind of dirty. The demon lord just wants to eat tasty food, but heroes keep trying to kill them. So… they summon their own hero.

Back to manga with The Monster and the Beast (Bakemono to Kedamono), a BL title from Asuka Ciel, about a nice monster and a nasty older man, and their budding relationship. Yuri Life is another yuri title, this one taken from Pixiv artist Kurikurihime, and also features two women in their late twenties, not late teens. It’s very sliec-of-yuri life. For fans of Beasts of Abigaile, we have a title from the same creator. Kaiju Girl Caramelizer (Otome Monster Caramelize) runs in my old nemesis, Comic Alive (pauses to shake fist at sky), but looks good anyway, and is about a girl who has an affliction that when she gets upset, her body parts “monsterize”.

More light novels with Bottom-Tier Character Tomozaki (Jaku Chara Tomozaki-kun), a Shogakukan title (in other words, expect print-only for this one) about a loser gamer guy who thinks the world is awful, and a winning gamer girl who shows him the “cheats” to help him succeed at life. It gets points for not being a fantasy title, I’ll say that. The artist is also pretty fly. (I’m so sorry.) Back to manga for God Shining Moonlight Howling Moon (Mahou Shoujo Flaming Star), by the creators of Trinity Seven and High School of the Dead. Given that combo, you know there will be breasts a plenty. It also runs in Bessatsu Dragon Age, which sort of clinches that, and is about a Magical Girl called upon to save the Earth… but is she one of the good guys?

The last one is another light novel, The Hero Is Overpowered But Overly Cautious (Kono Yuusha ga Ore Tueee Kuse ni Shinchou Sugiru), a fairly recent Kadokawa series. A fantasy world is in desperate straits. They need a hero. They get a really strong one… but he’s far too wary, never wanting to attack unless he knows he can win. What makes this interesting is that the book is from the POV of the goddess who summoned him, and she has to find a way to make him do what needs to be done. It’s five volumes in Japan. After that came Q&A, but honestly, let’s just move along now.

And with that, I wrapped up my second and busiest day of Anime NYC. Again, I was pretty happy. The staff was nice and knowledgeable, the crowds were large but reasonable, and I got to see everything I wanted. Tomorrow I have no panels I want to see, so will take in Artist’s Alley, and may also scope out the AMV contest.

By: Sean Gaffney

[animatedinsights]

Look Back at WonderCon 2007 -- Day 2 (Saturday)

AS ORIGINALLY POSTED ON LIVE JOURNAL

Look Back at WonderCon 2007 -- Day 2 (Saturday)

Mar. 9th, 2007 at 7:39 PM

[COMMENT: I am SO sorry for the delay in these posts! I went to my doctor this past Monday about getting antibiotics but it turned out she left them off the prescription (it had numbers for two items but only contained one) and it wasn't until TODAY that I got her on the phone she finally called in something. So I have been in much misery since Sunday night. But let's lead back into the great times before we got to that point...]

I actually attended only the afternoon of WonderCon on Saturday. My morning plans consisted of getting up relatively early, actually eating breakfast at the Argent, and leaving the Argent at 9am, riding the Powell and Hyde cable car from downtown all the way to the other end of the line at Fisherman's Wharf, have lunch at a place where I'd made reservations right when they opened, then take the historic F-line streetcar which started across the street from the restaurant back to basically out front the block of the Argent while still making sure I had plenty of time not to be late for the panel I was moderating. You'll notice between this paragraph and my mentions of BART last time that I have this thing for public transit. Then again I've lived in LA for a decade and don't drive which quite frankly confounds everyone I meet.

Eating breakfast at the Argent (which by the way has been bought by Westin and is transitioning to the Westin San Francisco this summer) was a bit of a mistake. Due to all their renovations, they were only offering an overpriced breakfast buffet, no lunch, and cocktails at dinnertime. I knew I'd have to figure out an alternative for Sunday after seeing that bill.

The cable car ride was an incredible experience from beginning to end. I was actually in the back half but fortunately seated as my balance isn't always the best. Given the hills, I think I felt a little safer being enclosed. It was interesting watching how the driver worked with the wooden breaks and how he coordinated with the conductor. We got up to the Wharf before 9:30 which left me to do a little walking and exploring, which was fine as that had been the intent. My lunch reservations at Castignola's (which apparently is the oldest restaurant on the Wharf) were at 11. One thing I hadn't planned on was that the main office for Tower Tours (with whom I would be taking a trip Sunday) was right at the Wharf below Ghiradelli Square; had I known that I might have planned a little differently but I'm not sure. What I also hadn't planned on was it being so windy, which on top of the temperature was a bit much. At one point I even ducked into a Starbucks for a Green Tea Latte just to get out of the wind. I continued to walk all the way past the cruise and ferry pier to Pier 39, where there are a bunch of shops. Here I was not only able to get new batteries for my digital camera but they were kind enough to recycle my old ones; I also picked up a postcard of Moscone Center for my parents. Overall I found Pier 39 very boring though, maybe this is because I'm not a heavy shopper or maybe it reminds me of something I've seen before -- Pike's Place Market in Seattle if it were an outdoor mall. Same type of shops and everything, just California merchandise not Washington State.

I make it back to Castignola's with a half hour to wait until they even open, so I buy a book of letter stamps (need them when I get home anyway) and decide to put a little extra postage on the postcard for my parents. I fill that out and then find there doesn't seem to be a post office box nearby. But then who should appear at Castignola's but the local letter carrier! I politely ask him if he can take it, and he does. Cool.

Castignola's was a nice place, with a friendly staff and good food. Did a shrimp, scallion, and crab leg combo plate. This was the one meal I had budgeted to be my largest because I knew that seafood would cost more. Even with that taken into consideration, the cost was reasonable. The waitress, who was Chinese, told me about everyone getting ready downtown for the Chinese New Year parade (turned out she was jumping the gun about that just a little as I had no trouble getting back). Due to her comments, and the fact I'd lounged in the Wharf area long enough, I just hopped the streetcar back to the Argent. For those who don't know, the streetcar is the same type of vehicle that the old Red Car systems down here used to run on, so now I have an idea of what transit here would have evolved from if everything hadn't been ripped out for cars...

Made it back to the Argent earlier than expected, so I relaxed a little but not too long, and also made sure that I had my mock-up of the final cover of the book (for which the publisher had sent me the art file earlier in the week, and then I mounted in pieces at home and completed at the hotel). Decided to arrive at Moscone in time to go down to the SLG Publishing booth one more time and pick up Issues 3, 4, and 5 of REX LIBRIS to finish the arc and then attend the 2PM panel that preceded ours at 3PM. The panel featured artists currently being shown at the San Francisco Cartoon Art Museum -- Gene Yang, Gene Colan, Linda Medley, and Pia Guerra. A wide diversity of styles and opinions indeed. Also made sure to identify the Con staff member in the room so we could build a rapport for the following hour. Smart move as it made it a lot easier to pick him out later.

And then, after that panel was over, it was our turn.

The Con staffer handed me all the names to put out as I wished (I followed the program and put them alphabetically, which put Adam Beechen closest to me and the podium on the far left of the stage, then Stan Berkowitz, then Dwayne McDuffie, and then Greg Weisman at the end. The alphabet is the great equalizer... heh.) I also put the display board of the book cover between the DVD player on the table -- which we weren't using -- and Adam, as it wouldn't fit with me on the podium. We then proceeded to practically pack the room with probably about 100 people or so (the largest crowd I've ever talked to) and talk shop for an hour, walking the animation process from development to the animation coming back from overseas, which sort of follows the flow of certain chapters in the book but shared the personality and interaction of multiple pros at once versus the spotlight interviews at various portions of my book, GARDNER'S GUIDE TO WRITING AND PRODUCING ANIMATION, which is slated for late April release. So we got the flavor of the book in the panel, while letting it be its own thing. The four guys did great, as for me I can tell places I still need to work on public speaking but as someone highly accustomed to rigid outlines I didn't do half bad.

After our time was done I stayed around for Greg Weisman's spotlight panel moderated by Dan Vado, owner of SLG Publishing (for whom I must again thank for his generosity of letting Greg be with our group as well). Greg mainly wound up talking about GARGOYLES, though in theory the panel was open to anything. Even though I've had chances to interact with Greg, and admittedly knew a fair amount of what was said, there's always that twist that something you could use a good reminder on or something completely new could come out -- like the announcement of the limited issue GARGOYLES: BAD GUYS comic.

I saw Greg briefly after that panel (not that I was looking for him, he found me) and we basically said what I thought would be our goodbyes as I had at that time no plans to be back at the Con Sunday. I was very pleased with the whole day, and even now I'm still happy I went.

Upon returning to the Argent, I discovered that the Chinese New Year parade was happening within the block of the hotel and hung out watching it most of the time, though briefly I had to duck into the Subway down the block for dinner at one point. Interesting mix of the traditional and the commercial, and not everything was Asian or even Asian-themed.

Originally I had planned to try to go out after the parade was over, but watching all those people disperse and realizing I'm a woman alone in San Francisco who got lost in the daytime -- I quickly change my mind and decide this is not a good idea. Had I had someone to go with, I probably would have kept going. But instead I retreated to my room again, knowing I was going to get up early again to check out and go on my 9AM tour.

Several hours later, I wake up. Coughing. I think my throat's just dry and get a drink of water and go back to sleep. Better make that try to go back to sleep. My coughing keeps waking me up, and waking me up. I begin to realize it's going to keep me from going back to sleep. At first it's not as big a deal as I can hear others still returning from the Masquerade, but as it gets later in the night it begins to drive me crazy. I burn through all three of the REX LIBRIS comics and several short stories in the TURN THE OTHER CHICK anthology edited by Esther Friesner that I brought on the plane (one of my finds from last year's WonderCon), making several attempts to sleep between that are short lived. At one point I literally but quietly start pounding on the bed in frustration. I feel for my hotel neighbors, quiet getaway they did not get.

Next rock will pick up at 5:30 AM Sunday morning, with where I went on my tour despite my struggles, how I nearly got seriously lost in San Fran, why I wound up back at Moscone, and late night flight adventures with Mark Evanier...

[nettvnow-blog]

Justin Chambers, Travis Laidlaw, Ben Robinson | Darkland

What do you get when three creatives decide to take on their next project? Darkland. A web series created by Justin Chambers, Travis Laidlaw and Ben Robinson. Currently going through Phase One of IPF, the trailer is eerie in all of the right ways and will leave you begging for more. Check out the interview with the trio below (replies are a combination of all three creatives) and be sure to like, share and watch their trailer!

netTVnow: Before we get into the trailer, can you each share a bit of your background in the industry? Have any of you worked with web series before?

Ben Robinson: I work primarily as a commercial producer to pay the bills but my heart lies in writing, producing, and directing narrative content.

Travis Laidlaw: I’m a director and VFX guy.  I also write obsessively and edit our projects. I do a lot of design and vfx working for BellMedia as my day job.  Justin and I also run our production company ‘Ethereum Films’ and our equipment rental company ‘Epic Toronto’ together. This is my first stab at a web series.

Justin Chambers: I’ve been a Cinematographer/DOP for 10 years now, but I’ve been producing for the past 6 years as well. I’m also an Electric Member with IATSE 873. This will be my first foray into web series.

NTN: Tell me about your series Darklandand what each of your roles are for the series?

Darkland is the love child of Travis’ extensive list of ideas that he keeps on his phone, combined with a number of twisted ideas Ben has pitched to Justin over the past two years. It finally just made sense to get the three of us in a room together and start seeing how we can make these thoughts and fragments blend into something coherent and creative. We’ll all be producing, writing and directing throughout the series. We like to wear many hats.

NTN: Without spoiling too much, what are some overarching themes you’ll be exploring in the series?

Oh, there are some deep things that we can’t get into here – you’ll have to watch to figure that stuff out. But what we can say is that there will be serious themes of horror and sci-fi throughout. Just think of it this way, Darkland is a place where everything we take for granted in this world is thrown out the window. Rules are flipped on their heads and the unexpected becomes commonplace. Anything that can be imagined, can be, in Darkland.  

NTN: Darkland seems to have a bit of a Black Mirror vibe, what are you hoping audiences takeaway from the series?

We can see how Black Mirror jumps out as it’s so popular right now. The thing with Black Mirror is that they’re really focused on technology and its effect on people and society both individually and as a whole. We don’t see ourselves trying to make any specific social commentary at the moment. To us, Darkland harkens back more towards The Twilight Zone; strange unbelievable stories, dealing with monsters, ghosts and the generally weird and unusual. We want Darkland to be a fun trip, and not take itself too seriously. But that doesn’t mean there won’t be some downright freaky and disturbing stuff. Anticipate some shocks for sure.

NTN: Your IPF trailer is amazing and immediately grabs the audience’s attention, where did the concept for the series come from?

Well with Travis’ list of ideas, we had been thinking of trying to do something as an anthology for a while. We knew it would revolve around sci-fi and horror concepts as that made up the bulk of our notes and interest. It seemed to be the most fun and open world of storytelling to explore. Lots of the ideas had great setups, or strange characters or environments, but weren’t necessarily something that could fill a feature film or series on its own. 

Anthology web series just fit perfectly. When we finally got serious about it, we brought Ben in as well as he had some solid concepts and really speaks the same language as us. Travis tends to name things very hastily with a super basic title while writing so that he can easily find it on his phone. Darkland was one of those titles. It was never meant to stick around but after time it sort of just took hold and we grew to love it. It became a thing. Initially our stories were meant to be completely individual to themselves, but as we started pitching all of our ideas to one another we started to realize that Darkland didn’t have to just be a title under which we’d make our random scary or weird stories, but could actually be its own universe, with its own rules and internal continuity. 

NTN: Is this your first time going through IPF? How has the process been for you so far?

This is our first time, its been interesting. A little nerve-wracking somedays, but ultimately the quest has been fun. We heard about IPF a couple years ago and know a few people who have gone through the process, both successfully and not. 

NTN: Can you talk about the importance of having an organization like IPF available to you as creators?

Well as anyone in the arts knows, funding is your number one stumbling block. So the importance of any type of investor – especially someone who is as transparent and readily available as IPF, well you just can’t put a value on that. At the end, it at least allows someone to make something that realistically, they probably wouldn’t be able to. The biggest hurdle is knocked down for you and you can let the creative do its thing.

NTN: What do you love most about the web series community?

While we’re still getting our feet wet, we have noticed that there does seem to be a really positive, supporting community here. It’s nice to see that even though everyone is ultimately in it to get their own show picked up, they also acknowledge other quality work. That’s always great to be a part of. There is also a great direct connection to audiences in the web series community. Fans interact with web creators more directly through comments and social media and can actually have a direct impact on the way a series develops, assuming the creators listen to their audiences, and that’s fantastic.

NTN: Where do you hope the web series community will be in the next few years?

Hopefully still on the web, with a bit more power!

NTN: Any other upcoming projects for you guys?

We have a short film called Dead House which should be coming out in the next few months. Just wrapping up post on that now.  Lot’s more in the works but too early to talk about any of them!

Follow Justin Chambers Instagram | Twitter | Website

Follow Travis Laidlaw Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | Website

Follow Ben Robinson Twitter

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