#they also got big horns... 10/10 sheep to me

[hoofpeet]

Awassi ewe 🐑❗

[heyiwrotesomethings]

Hi everybody! I’m mostly settled in back home and I’m feeling a lot more energized and ready to finish up those last few requests so I can go into September with a clean slate. Thank you all for your patience, it feels good to be back :D

Under the cut are some pictures from my trip for those who may be interested to see what I was up to.

Starting off strong with a black bear we saw on the side of the road! We saw 5 total I think. All while driving, which was be a theme for most of the animals we hoped to see on our trip. One of the scariest moments was when one bounded into the road in front of us. A very close call, but nobody (person or animal) was hurt. (Riding Mountain NP, Manitoba, Canada)

This elk silently strode right into our campsite one morning. I looked up and I had a heart attack because he emerged from the bushes like a reverse Homer Simpson. He was very chill though, went to go eat leaves in the little island surrounded by campsites. He came back the next morning too. You really don’t think about how big an elk is until the only thing separating you is a picnic table. (Prince Albert NP, Saskatchewan, Canada)

Bison, also seen on the side of the road while driving by. This was also the same place where I saw the beavers and because of that I think that’s why this place is ultimately my favorite from the whole trip. I’ve only seen one wild beaver in my life before I came here so getting to see a bunch chew and swim around made me very happy. Also, you could not pay me to get into the water there. Never mind the fact that they had a blue-green algae bloom, but they also had leeches that you could see swimming around just by looking in from the dock. Icky, but fun to watch. (Elk Island NP, Alberta, Canada)

Moose, also brought to you by simply driving down the road. Which is funny because we went on a trail that pretty much guaranteed you to see moose and we didn’t see a single one. But this one was just hanging out on the side of the road maybe 40/50km away from the critically acclaimed moose spot. She was the only moose we saw, and some people were disappointed to have not seen one with antlers, but I say better one than none. (Jasper NP, Alberta, Canada)

Jasper probably had the most cool views. Love me a mountain with a big ol’ glacier on it. There was a nice, cool wind that blew through this area almost constantly. (Jasper NP, Alberta, Canada)

Another elk, but this one was too cool not to share in my opinion. Another from the car shot as we left Jasper. He’s running with the mountains in the background and he’s got the biggest antlers I’ve ever seen. Super neat. (Jasper NP, Alberta, Canada)

Here’s a nice little artsy photo I took. We saw a lot of these purple flowers around and I think they’re really pretty, especially paired with the beautiful glacial waters and rugged mountains. Wish I could see views like this all the time. (Yoho NP, British Colombia, Canada)

I know this probably doesn’t look like much, but I think it’s so neat to look at. It’s a mountain that still has snow (maybe a very small glacier idk) on it but also has a little dune that looks like it belongs in the desert and a refreshing little stream curving around the rock. I took this photo while on a 10 mile (~16km) hike too much elevation gain and the down didn’t feel much better, but on those rare stretches of flat ground I felt like Rock Lee when he took off his ankle weights. Also, 10 mile hike up a mountain, barely any people around, you think we saw any animals? No. No we did not. (Yoho NP, British Colombia, Canada)

I think these birds are called Clark’s Nutcrackers if my quick googling is to be trusted. I thought they were really cute, but also kind of vicious. I saw one dive bomb a woman and steal a good chunk of her wrap/burrito. (Banff NP, Lake Louise, Alberta Canada)

A whole herd of big horn sheep seen while waking around the campground. Some of them looked really menacing. Really big horns and super buff. If one wanted to mess you up, it definitely could. Still really neat to see from a distance! We also checked out the hot spring nearby. Too hot for me, so I spent most of my time in the little cool pool, a refreshing 55F (~13C). (Kootenay NP, British Colombia, Canada)

[muffinrecord]

Support Point Farming

Updated: November 10, 2021

Want to farm some Support Points in hopes of getting some delicious random four-star memoria? Well, here is a quick guide!

When To Farm?

The best time to farm for Support are during events where costs for battles is halved and the Support Point reward is doubled. You can check the news for when these events are being run; here is the banner you should look for:

You can generally you can expect this banner to occur during new chapter releases (for the Main Story only), during Anniversaries, and during very special Events such as the New Years Celebrations. You can also occasionally see this pop up during “_____ Days Since Release!” Campaigns (example here).

If you want a better idea of when to expect a Halved AP / Double Support event to occur, please check out the valuable resource that is Kamihama Clock Tower. This site has timers which show the duration of current events, when new events are expected to start, when Anniversaries will begin, and when a login event can be expected to occur.

It’s not recommended to farm for Support points outside of this. Instead, you should plan on saving your AP potions with the intent to spend them for big events like this.

Where to Farm?

So you’ve got a Halved-AP/Double Support Campaign going on! Now what?

It’s time to farm of course! However, the first step here is that you should decide is what kind of farming you’re going to do. Here are the options:

Farm for Materials: You’re choosing specific battles with the goal of getting more Sheep Horns alongside getting those valuable Support Points. The bonus here is that you’re gathering material you might need for your units (or might need in the future), but the problem is that this isn’t the most efficient way of getting that tasty SP.

Farm for Shards: You’re choosing low-AP battles to farm SP and also for the smaller Shards.

Farm for SP: You’re choosing low-AP battles with the sole purpose of getting Support Points. All you’re going to get here are a thousand+ Aqua Orbs+.

I’m going to cover the third option. The fastest options for farming SP would be either:

1-1-3-4 (fight a single Yachiyo)

or

1-2-1-4 (fight a single Rena)

The second option is slightly faster, as Rena has a shorter intro fight animation than Yachiyo does. Note that these will be for Arc 1 and are not Challenge mode fights.

What Character to Use?

If you’re doing the third option, then use whoever you want. Even Konomi Haruna can one-shot Rena or Yachiyo here. 

Additionally, turn off the options for using your skills/connects (like this)

Just remember to turn these features back on when you’re done!

Choosing A Support

The support you use should ideally have high damage, but the most important thing is to make sure they are a mutual. That means you have the blue icon, as shown above (near where you see the +60 Support Point notice). 

This whole activity is pointless if you don’t use a mutual-- otherwise, you’re no longer getting 60 Support Points per battle...

...but 20.

That’s worse than when you use a mutual without a Double-AP Campaign bonus. So make sure you’re always using a Mutual for this!

Lastly: AP Pots and Blue AUTO

The last thing to note here is that you can use a bunch of AP potions in preparation for your farming. Just keep drinking those pots until you can’t anymore:

You can see I was able to get to 528 Action Points there^

Pick a good Support and then use the Blue Auto button and leave your game in a nice place while you busy yourself for the next hour.

Last Minute Thoughts

If you have an old phone (like I do) then it’s gonna suffer through this and it’s a really good battery drain. I like to set the screen brightness to the lowest it can go so that it doesn’t completely die on me.

There is no pity system for the Support Gacha. I’ve spend 50 full AP pots before and got nothing except for crappy gems and pitiful 1* memoria-- and conversely, I’ve spent one AP pot and gotten three four-star memoria in one pull. It’s all based on luck. Additionally, you can get a four-star memoria but there is no guarantee it’s a four-star memoria you actually want. This is something to do if you just want more four-star memoria or if you want to collect some personal memoria (again, with no guarantee that you’ll get any or even get what you want). Don’t feel like you need to do this, especially if you’re low on AP pots. It might be wiser to save those for future events, especially if you’re the kind of person to do everything last minute.

You can use characters who need Episode Level XP, but I find the return you get to be extremely low. Personally, I’d rather use a character who kills things faster and use the Clear Albums to level girls-- but there’s nothing wrong with trying to maximize the amount of stuff you accomplish while farming!

Conclusion

I think that’s about everything? I apologize if I wrote a guide that no one needs (or if there are multiple errors in here, I haven’t slept in a while [again]). If you have a correction or a suggestion, please leave a reply or reblog this post and I’ll edit it in later!

[ameth18blog]

Unexpected Encounters. Chapter 10: The Search (Part 3)

Washimi and Gori were in the east of the city, they had just left Gori's apartment. The two friends reflected calm in their faces and ways of walking as when they were at work. They passed everywhere with their eyes fixed ahead.

"How long do you think it will take us to find them?" Gori asked.

"I ignore it. This city is very big, so they could be anywhere. We could take hours on this," Washimi replied.

"Well, if that's the case, then I think we should start there" said the gorilla pointing to the park, which was the same one they had visited the day before.

"And why there?" asked the eagle.

"If that was where Koka and Hana found the emeralds, perhaps we could find some clue of the others who came to this dimension because of them" said Gori.

Well, not a bad idea. Then let's go" said Washimi.

Both friends came to the park. It was not as crowded as the day before, and more considering what had happened the day before. It was noticeable that for that reason there were not many children, but there were few. Although it was noted that they were being cautious for some situation that seems suspicious that put them in danger.

"Washimi I have thought something" said the gorilla.

Her friend watched her without saying anything.

"Maybe those beings if they want to use my App when they find out about it."

"Don't tell me you've been thinking about that since yesterday."

"Of course, after years ago the app said that Haida and Retsuko were soul mates and it was 100 percent correct. And since it has come to unite other couples, I thought it could be extended to beings from other universes".

"Perhaps you think that the beings who are lost in this universe are at this time more interested in finding a partner than in going home."

"Of course there is, there is always time to find love and be happy with that other person."

"You never change".

Washimi lowered her head when she suddenly noticed that her communicator and Gori's were blinking.

"Gori, our communicators" said the eagle as she and the gorilla looked at her arms.

"That means they are close. I'm going to show you my application".

"Concentrate."

She could see those who were in the park were a lot of parents with their children, but she could see that some of them had unusual coat colors. They thought it must be them, so they calmly approached. There were a total of 5 families and each of them had children.

The first was a family of two male spouses who had two sons:

One was an orange bear and afro hair with dark orange sideburns. He wore a yellow disco shirt and pants and cream and orange platform shoes.

The other was also a bear, but he was cream-colored, wearing a red hat, a red robe, red pants, and red slippers.

One of the children was a cream-colored bear like the second adult bear. He wore a small yellow and red cap with a propeller on top, a long-sleeved yellow shirt, red pants, red and yellow shoes.

The other child was also a cream colored bear like the second adult bear and the other little one, although unlike the other bear this was a baby, it also had orange hair like the first adult bear, only this baby had curly hair and it was not an afro. He wore a long-sleeved red button-down shirt, yellow pants, and red and yellow shoes.

The second family if it was of two male and female spouses who had a son:

One was a green bear. He wore a green beret with a colored logo of varying shades of orange. He wore a button-down shirt and green military pants, black shoes, and a gray identification tag. On his shirt were orange stripes on his shoulders denoting his rank as a sergeant.

The other was a red porcupine, his quills were a darker red color which were full of flake-like dander. He wore a pink shirt and skirt and light blue shoes.

The boy was a red bear, which had a green abdomen. He wore a green beret with a colored logo of different shades of orange like his father's. He wore a white shirt, black pants and shoes, and a blue jacket.

The third was another family of two male spouses who had a daughter and a son:

The first was a green chameleon with three dark green lines between its eyes, above and below them. He wore a green beret with a colored logo of varying shades of orange. He wore a green military button-down shirt and cream pants, black shoes, and a gray identification tag.

The second was a cream-colored mouse with black ears, they had a stereotypical French-style mustache and black eyebrows. He wore a green beret with a colored logo of varying shades of orange. He wore a green military button-down shirt and cream pants, black shoes, and a gray identification tag. His ears were wrapped in white bandages.

The girl was a dark purple cat, she wore an orange long-sleeved shirt, a green skirt, pink socks and black shoes.

The boy was a green mouse with three cream-colored lines between his eyes and black ears, although unlike the girl, the boy was a baby. He wore a long-sleeved green shirt, blue pants, and black shoes.

The fourth family was another of two male and female spouses who had a daughter:

The first was a sky-blue boar, which had black hooves instead of hands and feet. He wore a dark blue sailor suit with white, including a white hat with a pink stripe, and black shoes.

The other was a purple sheep, with some white woolly hair on its head. She wore a white wool sweater, pants, and white shoes. She wore a purple bow on her head.

The girl was a hybrid, her fur was purple, she inherited her mother's nose, shaggy hair, hands and feet, while she inherited her father's ears, tail, and fangs. . She wore a dark blue dress, with a white ribbon at the waist, and black shoes.

The girl carried in one of her arms a green pickle that had arms, legs, eyes, a mouth and a stereotypical French-style mustache. She also wore a black top hat with a blue stripe. At first glance the pickle looked like a toy.

The fifth and final was another family of two male spouses who had a son

The first was a sea-water-colored sea otter, which had three whiskers on either side of its head. This otter was missing his right hand, instead he used a hook. Both legs were missing and instead had wooden legs. He was missing his right eye and instead had an eye patch. He was wearing a red and white striped shirt, which was ripped at the sleeves and bottom. She is wearing black pants and a black pirate hat with the design of a skull with white crossbones.

The second was a purple deer, whose antlers were pink. He wore white mime makeup, his cheeks were pink, over his eyes he had dark purple makeup. He wore a purple and white striped long-sleeved shirt, black pants, and purple shoes.

The boy was a hybrid, his coat was aquamarine, his cheeks were pink, he had a deer tail, but it was aquamarine on top and purple on the bottom. He had small horns that were beginning to grow on the top of his head and three whiskers on either side of his head. He wore a torn red and purple shirt on the arms and bottom, black pants, purple shoes and a black pirate hat, but without the skull and bones design. This child was a baby.

Something that all these families had in common was that most had rabbit teeth that protruded from their mouths, with the exception of the chameleon, the wild boar, and the hybrid between wild boar and sheep. They all had heart-shaped pink noses, except the chameleon and the boar. The irises in everyone's eyes were shaped like a pacman, except for the chameleon, the two mice, and the cat.

Just when they were about to reach the families, four of the children began to run in various directions while playing, while the three babies stayed playing with their respective parents watching the other children.

"Remember, you have to speak calmly with them, maybe they are still not used to being in this place" said Washimi.

"I understand" Gori said with all seriousness.

They both approached the adults. When they noticed their presence they were watching.

"Good morning" said the eagle.

"Good morning" all the adults replied.

"You come from another dimension and have been trapped in this universe for 3 months, right?" the gorilla said suddenly.

"Gori, I told you that we had to talk things calmly" said Washimi.

"Umm, excuse me. You know what that white light was that brought us here" asked the green bear.

"Yes, those who sent us to look for them explained it to us" replied the eagle.

"Well, before you explain it to us, wait a moment," said the aquamarine sea otter and then called the children who were playing.

When they heard them, they approached.

"Something happens?" asked the little cream-colored bear.

"These ladies are going to explain how we got here" replied the cream-colored mouse.

Really?" said the 4 children sitting on the laps of their respective parents.

Gori and Washimi told everything they knew to the 5 families in front of them.

"So we have to wait for the missing emeralds to be found?" asked the green chameleon.

"Yes, at the moment those who sent us to look for them have 3 in their possession" replied the eagle.

"Well, now that you know everything, you could tell us their names," said the gorilla.

"I'm Disco Bear and this is my Pop husband" said the orange bear with orange afro hair.

"Pleasure. And they are our two sons: Cub and Rory" said the cream bear, pointing first to the little cream bear with a hat on his head and then to the cream baby bear with orange hair.

"I'm Flippy and this is my wife Flaky" said the green bear.

"And this is our son Fluffy" said the red porcupine pointing to the bear with red color and green abdomen.

"I'm Sneaky and this is my husband Mouse Ka-Boom" said the green chameleon.

"This is our adopted daughter Denisse and our son Bomb" said the cream colored mouse pointing first to the dark purple cat and then to the baby green mouse.

"I'm Truffles and this is my wife Lammy" said the sky blue boar.

"This is our daughter Bella and this is Mr. Pickles" said the purple sheep pointing to the purple hybrid and the pickle.

"I'm Russell and this is my mate Mime. And this is our son Robby" said the aquamarine sea otter pointing to the purple deer and the aquamarine hybrid.

The purple deer didn't speak as it was a mime, but still he greeted them with a hand gesture.

After Washimi and Gori introduced themselves. They didn't find it strange to meet same-sex couples and with children, since they already knew several such families.

Then they asked how they got to that universe.

"Well, most of us had gone to pick up the children from school after classes finished, everything was normal. We are all neighbors, so we would go home together," said Lammy.

"Along the way they met Mime and me who were walking Robby and were on our way home. Everything was normal like any other day" said Russell.

"But when we were in front of our house, that strange light appeared that enveloped us all in less than 10 seconds" said Flaky.

"When we woke up, although we were separated, fortunately the children were not left alone, since Flaky and Lammy were with them when they got here," said Pop.

"It took us about two days to meet again, and since we got here we have stayed in a hotel with the money we have gotten by finding certain jobs that we can do," said Sneaky.

"Well, at least we know they haven't had a difficult time here," Washimi said.

At that moment Gori's communicator began to ring therefore he answered.

"Hi. Oh, it's your Retsuko. Yes, we have already found them. And you? How good! They left? Oh I see. Well, if we can meet there. Goodbye" said Gori after finishing the call.

"What was Retsuko saying?" asked the eagle.

"She said that she, Fenneko and Judy already found a group. She also said that they contacted Haida, Ookami and Nick and also found another group. I told them that we too" said the gorilla.

"That is a relief."

"But she told me that Sonic and his friends left, and Jack went with them. It seems they found the location of the master emerald and went looking for it before Eggman finds it."

"I hope they can find it in time."

"I hope so too. He told me that in the meantime we can go to my apartment to meet with the others".

They both turned to the 5 families.

"And what do you say?" Washimi asked.

"Do you want to come with us?" Gori asked.

They all looked at each other and agreed with a nod. The group left the park with Washimi and Gori in front, while behind them were the 5 families carrying their respective children in their arms.

"It's a shame" Gori said.

"What thing?" Washimi asked.

"That all of them are happily united, and they don't need my app and that the children are too young to use it."

"I think you need a new hobby."

After that they continued walking back towards Gori's apartment.

[comebeonetwothree]

Blog #8: Country Roads

07/13/2021

Currently driving through roads where pro-life billboards are placed in front of graveyards… we are officially on the road back home.

Traveling fast but seeing the most we have while covering 1,500 miles and two time zones in the last week. 900 miles to go. We jumped from Portland to northern and southern Montana then all the way through to Chicago… our last stop ;(

We met some really nice people out here- the kind of people that want to take time out of their day to interact with you. People actually smile at you and mean it when they say “have a good day.”

There were a lot of experiences this week that were indescribable. All senses were at full throttle from sleeping in the heart of Portland to camping in National Parks.

Being our last stretch of the trip, it has been hard to not feel sad when we are closing such a big chapter of our life. It’s a weird feeling of being sad but also still being so excited for the next stop. I hope the excitement doesn’t end.

Who

Who is ready to rumble…

In Portland we got to meet up with Maya’s cousin, Michael and his daughter Thea. He moved out there 13 years ago and never looked back.

He was telling us he did a similar trip with his college buddies back in the day and fell in love with the city, so moved there shortly after the trip.

Sounds fun, might fuck around and move…

Batman was ready to rumble, and fumble and everything in between. While whitewater rafting in Glacier National Park, we had the pleasure of riding with Batman The Guide. Batman, because you can’t change who you are but if you can always choose Batman.

He had been living in Montana for 17 years after moving from Oregon. He had previously worked in the park as a shuttle bus driver and recently switched over to a whitewater rafting instructor.

He was a funny fucking dude; the whole crew was super hyped but he had a comedic sense that made it an entertaining day.

While on the water, we were joking around and splashing the neighboring rafts, an independent rafter said they will bomb us with beers if we splash them. One of the other people on the boat yelled back, “Are they full beers?” and they responded by launching three full miller lite beers at our raft.

At the end of our tour, Batman gave us the three beers then we dedicated those three beers to him with a funnel.

More Friends!!! Its wild how many people we got to see throughout this trip. Hitting Yellowstone National Park, we met up with Mayas friends from home: Cole, Jamie and Declan.

They were just starting their cross-country trip from Nyack, NY, hitting the Northern route to the southern, vs our trip ending in the North. Funny coincident.

We camped out with them for two nights… it was too beautiful to just stay one night, so we pushed back our trip to badlands and stayed the extra night.

We were all out at this joint called Buffalo Bar, it had a great outdoor area with corn hole, ring toss and puppiesss. There is something so fulfilling in petting random dogs with a beer in your hand.

This one dog I was petting had an exceptional owner who was traveling him across states to bring him home. I spoke with the owner for quite a while, she was so friendly about letting me pet her dog. She really was doing it all, back at home she has three kids and two other dogs.

When people hear about our travels, their reactions usually make us realize how cool it is to have the opportunity to do a trip like this.

Many times they wish they did the same when they were our age, *cough, cough, go travel right now, cough, cough.*

This woman explained how she jumped right into working out of school and has always regretted it. Her children were already teenagers so I told her she should get out there and do it. Traveling her new dog home was a great start to the on-the-go lifestyle, she seemed to be enjoying it.

I later found out she picked up our tables tab… thank you Jennifer, you have a heart of gold and a generous soul. She explained her hopes that her kids will one day get out there and see the world like she always wished, and we were accomplishing. It was a pass it forward request, when I am able to cover the bill of a lovely traveling stranger. I hope I cross paths with this family eventually and pay it forward for her children that may travel.

What

What a reality…

The National Park pass is something you buy and are given access to all the national parks in the US. We got one in the beginning of the trip knowing we would be reaching quite a few parks. Unfortunately, we lost it after just seeing the Grand canyon.

It fell in a black hole… the area where your dashboard and windshield meet. Remember this when you put shit on the dashboard. It can slide right down to its death, the only way to get the shit out is by taking off the windshield.

Those passes are irreplaceable, of course.

In badlands, we posted up around 10 p.m. in our hammocks. It was a new experience for us, we thought hey its our last time camping, lets try it a new way. 

We set our hammocks up underneath this podium and slept there. It was perfect for a quick and easy set up/clean up. There was a solid amount of people around us, so we weren't too worried about getting attacked by coyotes again. 

Where

When driving to Portland we drove through the Redwood National Forest. This made me realize how long this Earth has been around.

Trees take a while to grow, and these trees were as thick as three full grown pine trees and as tall as two stacked on top of each other.

Neck breaking tall.

After crossing through, we hit the upper west coast and traveled on route 101 until we hit Portland. It was filled with jaw dropping views, so much so I woke Mary and Maya up every 5 minutes to show them the views. Most times it was the same view as before, just with a new massive rock to look at.

It was a relatively foggy day, so we couldn’t see certain lookout points, but there was something so majestic about the fog within the forests and hanging on the coast.

There were points where you cross over a bridge and there was nothing around you, just white. It appeared as being stuck in a dream or driving my bitchass to heaven.

Arriving in Portland, we stayed at a place in ChinaTown. It was so cute and located on top of a great deli, Charlie’s Deli.

We checked out a bunch of shops and stores while in Portland. While we were walking around, this coffee shop had the sweetest workers. They enjoyed interacting with their customers and weren’t just looking to take your money.

Portland is filled with mockingly friendly people, they weren’t mocking anyone though, they were just that fucking friendly. They actually want to converse with people... what a concept.

For dinner we went to this food truck pod place, which is about 15 different food trucks serving food, with a communal sitting area to eat the food.

We met up with Maya’s cousin there for a drink and to catch up.

Hitting Glacier National Park, we started our camping excursion. We started off sleeping in our car since we arrived late to our campground after driving 10 hours to get there. It was pretty comfortable and with the knowledge of bear attacks in the area, it was a secure place to sleep.

While in Glacier, we decided to go whitewater rafting, a whole new way of seeing the parks. It was so dope, the rapids were on the weak side since the heat waves.

After rafting, we found a great lake front public access point where we hung our hammocks up and took a nice long nap.

There are lakes EVERYWHERE here in Montana and great fishing! Let’s travel and fish all over Montana, okay? Cool.

We waited until 5 p.m. when the park lets you in without a pass, to do a sunset hike in the park. We took Going-to-the-sun road to the highline hike, where we got to see some wild animals!

In the parking lot we got to see a horned sheep (looks like a ram) and more mountain goats!! We saw three full grown goats and one baby goat.

This horned sheep actually stormed at us and we had to jump into our car. The people that parked in the spot before us left their cheetos on the ground. This guy was hungry as fuck I guess. Relentless to say the least. 

This National Park is my new favorite spot-on Earth. Spread my ashes here. Moseying through the park was a full body experience.

All your senses are involved, the smells of the forest are beyond refreshing. The touch of the crisp air brings goosebumps to your skin, and the taste of wind in your face emphasizes the overload of oxygen in that area.

There are no commercialized areas for hours outside the park. Just a fuck ton of trees.

The sounds of different birds chirping harmonizes in your ears with the wind blowing and the rocks falling below you. Your sight is spiked the highest out of the senses. These views seemed so unreal they appeared fake. When you finally touch the grounds around you, you realize how really unreal this land is.

Heading to Yellowstone the following day brought a similar element of nostalgia. We camped right outside the park, on the state border lines of Wyoming and Idaho.

Our friends we stayed with luckily still had their national park pass, so we all took our car and got into the park early that next morning. We got to see some bison! Fun Fact: Bison and Buffalos are actually the same thing.

There were so many beautiful trees and hot springs throughout the park. So many cool colors to see. We also watched Old Faithful blow her hole!!

Getting to Badlands eventually, we got a campground directly in the park. Since we got there later than five it was free. We posted up our hammocks for our last night camping on the trip ;( when we woke up, the views were so cool.

Badlands is a shit ton of clay forming giant sandcastle hills all over. But there is so much green for a desert it was an interesting combination.

When

When can we shower…

We have completed so much of the drive home its wild. We stayed in an apartment for the first two nights in Portland and then spent the rest of the week camping.

We hit our record of days without a shower… 5 full ass days. I’m so proud of Mary and Maya, they really can’t stand being dirty.

When driving long ass 10 hour plus drives for a week you find yourself enjoying nothingness. Head empty is such a vibe after jamming to music and listening to murder mystery podcasts for hours on end.

Our music ranges widely, depending on crashing periods. Whenever Mary is driving, she is either blasting screamo edm music or 2000s pop music.

Maya plays some bomb bops; I really don’t know any of the songs, but it has opened my mind to all these new artists!!

I personally love the murder mystery podcasts, there were a few times I had to change it though because it got too spooky. In the case of this week, we were driving to camp in Montana and a murder mystery came on about the Montana Child Killer… dope.

Why

I have ruled out ever living in a city. From the driving on busy ass streets to the dirty smells everywhere, I will happily reside somewhere in the country. Where? Still have no idea… Why? Because there are so many pros and cons to all these places we saw.

I guess i'll just have to come back out here!

I’m really thinking somewhere up north on the west coast. The west coast will forever hold my heart, but I really don’t have the money or the ability to live in a city out there. Maybe one day with a bombass money making job.

Coming back to the East has made me realize how much nicer people are out west and how much slower of a pace it is.

How

How are we coming up on our last spot…

We are hitting our last stop… Chicago. Shoutout to my cousin for going to school here and letting us use and abuse his apartment! Hehe just kidding we will take care of it for ya, Owen!

It feels so strange to be this close to New York. Our license plates being from New York is no longer that cool.

I’m going to miss people peeping our plates and asking us about our travels and/or wishing us luck!

Thanks everyone throughout, we are almost accomplished with this chapter!

[pandjseetheworld]

FULL - Glacier National Park - FULL

Day 1:

I went into this National Park with high expectations. Everyone who we spoke with about Glacier has had nothing but positive comments about the park. Well, not us. Everything was FULL!

First, the park was full of smoke. Yupp!, The air quality, which we checked beforehand said “good” so we thought the visibility might be “good” too. Well it wasn’t, it sucked.

Then everyone said “oh man, Going-to-the-Sun is a MUST if you’re going to Glacier! The views are gorgeous and you gotta go.” So we spent 6-7 mornings waking up at 6:45 to set the computer up at 7am to win lottery tickets to the road. Ha! Nothing! AND we have my in-laws, thank you Barb and Flint, also trying and NO LuCK! Silver lining: Pearce was checking Glacier campgrounds daily and signed on right as a cancellation occurred so we scooped in a campground in the park AND that means we got Going-to-the-Sun tickets (they come with the campground)!! So we Lucked out there! (By the way, people are jerks because they book a campground just for the Road to the Sun tickets then don’t camp, leaving campgrounds empty- frustrating those of us who are looking for a campground!)

Anywho, here we are on the Road to the Sun driving among glaciers and mountains and only looking at smoke. Of course, we had some hikes planned for the day but as we got to any and every pull-off spot to park it was completed mobbed with people. No parking anywhere, it was worse than Disneyland.

Okay fine, so onto our next option. We decide to go outside the park and drive to “Many Glacier” which is on the East side of the park. It takes us a while to get there and as we pull up “FULL! Park Closed”. This entire part of Glacier National park is closed. The rangers said there is no parking anywhere and too many people that it’s been closed and closes daily from 11am-4pm so if we want to get in to see more smoke we can come in the morning or afternoon. So now we’ve been in the car all day, without hiking, constantly looking at smoke, and unsure of what to do next.

In the afternoon, we decided to cruise back through the Going-to-the-Sun road to see if the crowds had dispersed and we could squeeze in a hike or two! Thankfully we found a parking spot at Siyeh Creek for a little hike! We all needed out of the car and it was a nice hike, right along a cool creek. Of course, we walk about 1 mile in and Pearce rolls his ankle. It wasn’t that bad and he shook it off and then immediately rolled his other ankle. Ha! Two ankles in two minutes!!! Again, it wasn’t that bad but we decided today just was not our day (it happens!). On the way back he rolled his ankle one more time just to solidify the need for us to just go home and end our day. Everyone and everything was screaming , “go home!” So we headed back to our campsite.

Tomorrow morning we have plans to wake up at 5am to get backcountry tickets but even if we get them, the shuttle is FULL until December (thank you COVID)so I may end up waiting for a cancellation or just hitch hiking! Honestly, I wouldn’t mind meeting new people and changing up the ride. Who knows, I’ll probably get there at 5am and everything be FULL - trust me, you’ll hear about it if this is the case.

One positive for the day- we saw a big horn sheep and mountain goats! I’ve never seen big horn sheep before so that was cool!! Loki and the sheep made eye contact and he cried as we continued driving by. And to rid us of this “bad” Day Pearce and I both took a dip in McDonald Lake, in hopes for a better tomorrow!

Day 2:

We woke up at 5am and directly hopped in the car to get to the Backcountry station. We were second in line when we arrived so we set up our camp chair, got our blanket out, and rested until 8 when it opens. As opened time arrived, the line had grown with 8-10 people behind us and there are few other backcountry stations offering permits as well so we were a little anxious. Thankfully all our efforts paid off and we got our #1 pick for backcountry backpacking and we would be heading out on the trail tomorrow. It was already a better day then yesterday, woooo!

After snagging our permit we went back to the campsite to make breakfast and get ready for the day. We picked a hike to do not far from our campground since we did so much driving yesterday. We hike to a swampy lake called Howe Lake. It wasn’t the glacier picturesque lake we had anticipated but at least we did a hike and saw something other than smoke!

Post hike we headed to Red Rock a little watering hole along the main road Going-to-the -Sun road. It was nice but crowded of course so we stayed for lunch and a little dip then headed back to the picnic area by our campground. It was right on Lake McDonald and much less crowded. We both needed an area or hang out and get away from the crowds! BIG NEWS: Loki swam on his “own” for the first time here. Well, he was on leash but I was so proud of him. Pearce and I had been trying to coax him into the water to cool off and clean off for a while. We kept throwing a stick a little further and further in the water but he always stopped right as the water got to his belly. Finally, I put him on leash and off he went. It was like I had a horse in a ring and he needed me to guide him for security. He swam 3 separate times into the lake and we were so proud!! Our little boy is 2 and really growing up, haha!

We called it a night early with a yummy quesadilla and nacho dinner! Mmmm! Tomorrow morning we have to get up early to drop Loki off at his sleepover (boarding) so we can backpack without having to worry about him!

[a-patheticapathetic]

Rishloo - Feathergun: Review

New year, new me. Let’s repeat that until it becomes true. 

There seems to be a pattern with how I discover music. At a very young age, I hear a song in a very specific circumstance. It has a big impact on me, but I make absolutely zero effort to check out any of the artist’s other music and instead meander onto another earworm. Then, years later, I have another chance meeting with the same song/album/artist and fall completely down a rabbithole that foundationally changes my taste in music. It happened with Radiohead (High and Dry as one of the default songs in the original Rocksmith), Queens of the Stone Age (Lost Art of Keeping a Secret in a stick figure animation), and Nine Inch Nails (Hurt (Quiet) on Spotify radio). Then, there was this strange song called “Scissorlips” that I saw on a very small Rock Band 3 drum channel. I showed it to my brother because of how fun the chart looked, and made the mistake of watching his reaction to the video. His disinterest embarrassed me enough that I never chased the music. That is, of course, until many years later, when I was introduced to Tool. The rest is history, and is frankly stalling me from starting the actual review. Let’s get to it.

Scissorlips - 8/10

The strange, dark jungle the album begins with is a nice representation of the album cover, although it won’t rule over the entire runtime. Don’t let the de-tuned guitar under the vocals deter you; the rest of the guitarwork here is beautiful. As we reach the pre-chorus, the percussionists may hear why I was interested in this song as a kid. This is also where the sonic background really opens up, swallowing you for a moment before the intro verse comes back. The lyricism here is also very abstract, yet isn’t impossible to follow. A couple of metallic bites taken out of the mostly psychedelic walls of guitars, then, the first of many beautiful delay effects. The build-up got me pretty good when I heard this so many years ago, and It’s still damn good. For the love. There are so many guitar lines here that just intertwine and enlace you. Then, something a bit heavier (yet oddly hopeful) to round the song out.

Turning Sheep into Goats - 7/10

This intro is more of what can be expected for the rest of the album, sonically speaking. A lone guitar with delay playing a complicated and alluring line in a strange time signature, then built upon. The path you may assume this song will follow is extremely suddenly changed at the chorus, the vocals really driving it home. Then, back into that nice opening riff like nothing happened. The next time that chorus comes thundering around, listen to that low guitar and the way it combines with the drums. Then drop out the ugliness into a floating mesh of palm mutes and synthetic strings. And don’t miss the fl

Systematomatic - 7/10

awless transition into the next song. Immediately, a new riff rises from the pond of reverb. You may not identify it immediately, but don’t worry, you’ll get more chances to. Very fast guitar-work that somehow doesn't sound so frantic, although the chorus definitely has a certain desperation to it. The mood gets heavy again, before quickly sliding into a strange, feverish haze. Some hits of percussion, then a recontexutalized and slower return to the riff at the start of the song. Weave us back into war.

River of Glass - 8/10

Now this is an ear-catching introduction. What seems to be a calm wave of delay is punctuated by war drums and a grimier lead. The mood builds, then crescendos into the song proper. The chorus is hear damn near immediately, and is extremely catchy for prog. This album is really just full of extremely memorable vocals, and the instrumentals complement them perfectly. We get two goes-around before we fall into these twisting and sliding strings. The drummer is also on his A-game here. Then, the guitars push into the clouds before coming back down with another short but heavy low. Then it all cuts out for a second, juts to make the burst into the final chorus that much more effective.

Keyhole in the Sky - 7/10

This one is simpler, but also very filling and peaceful. Unfortunately it does begin to showcase my only problem with this album; the vocals are mixed too loud at times. And while the singer is absolutely incredible, sometimes I’d like the instrumentals to breathe a bit more. The walls of high guitar come back around, this time feeling much more friendly and familiar. One last chorus, closing on a quiet note. Though it’s not over; an alien feedback loop and somber, echoey horn passage lead us into the next track

Downhill - 10/10

This song has two main phases, and is absolutely perfect throughout. An easy start; a relatively simple and serene riff fed through a pleasant delay pedal, with some subtle synth and bass backing. The vocals shine through, as clear as ever. And wave, goodbye. Then, like stepping through a portal into phase one. A very interesting, rhythmic and almost bluesy instrumental accompanies the title-drop. Then, we fall for miles down a well of piano. The bottom greets us with a moonlit key solo, then an incredible Floydian guitar solo. Hanging on the last note, phase two begins with an ominous drone and repeating guitar line. The drums rise, give a false start. then... perfection. I cannot do phase two justice with words. Just close your eyes, listen, and be swept away in what I believe to be one of the greatest vocal performances of all time.

Lost.

Feathergun in the Garden of the Sun - 9/10

Not to be outdone by the previous masterpiece, the title track opens with another wonderful soundscape, before the distortion comes in. The drums pick up the tension, bringing us into the pre-chorus. That riff is going to be impossible to tap your foot to at first, but the next ones should be easier. And here we have perhaps the best chorus on the record; extremely powerful in writing and execution on the parts of every band member. The second time around is just as good as the first, then the brdige begins. Ready, aim... The heaviest riff on the album, and an abrupt switch into the last chorus. Fade out.

Dreamcatcher - 7/10

A nice break from the intensity. This feels like a peaceful tidepool on an alien world, with creatures and colors beyond the world floating around my head. Short but sweet.

Diamond Eyes - 6/10

By no means bad, I do feel like this one may be the weakest track on the album. While it’s certainly beautiful, I feel like it doesn’t do a whole lot that’s new or interesting. Also, when listening at high volume (which is the proper way to listen to this album), the faults in the mixing really rear their ugly heads during the choruses. Still, there are some very pleasant rolling delay loops here during the bridge, and a nice and satisfying buildup towards the end.

Katsushika - 7/10

While the guitar opening this track may be the most straight-forward and least effects-driven riff we’ve heard so far, this song will eventually become the most alien one of the entire lineup. In a good way, of course. I can barely even decipher exactly what’s going on in the instrumentation during that build. The chorus also ends with a nice drop-off into the next verse. You may be noticing a pattern with the songwriting, where the chorus usually leads into the second verse, following the pattern of the first one but with more layering. I like it; it gives the ideas present more time to mature and develop. Anyways, here comes the bridge, where everything changes. Out of everything going on here, I feel like the drums and the background vocals are the most striking thing about this outro. What a fantastic progression and dropout. Beautiful monsters.

Weevil Bride - 8/10

The finale. This riff here is extremely well-done. The tone here is somehow piercingly bright and concerningly dark at the same time. The lyricals themes of the album also come to a head here. This chorus is another incredibly written and performed beast; just wait until it’s modulated. The second verse lays away with the subtleties and strikes at the head. And I just need to know that everything is fine, and everyone’s alright. This bridge also kicks ass, with its heart-pouding combination of guitars and toms. Then, comes the heaviest part of the entire album: Yes, please. Then we are snapped out of the masochism and lifted back to hear the main point of the album, before the intro riff carries us into an uncertain but complete conclusion. After the “true” song ends, there is a long passage of somber horns and a tranquil, almost lullaby-esque keyboard. There’s something extremely nostalgic about this outro to me, but I still can’t put my finger on where it comes from. This section almost feels like the music they play after the end of a play, as the lights come on and you make your way down the dimly-lit theater steps on slightly numb and shaky legs. The story is over; this is your time to reflect.

The main reason I wanted to write about this album in particular is because I feel like it hasn’t gotten the attention it’s deserved. It truly feels like a masterpiece worthy of widespread recognition and praise, but despite being released over a decade ago, few people have even heard of this band. It feels like injustice, not only for Rishloo’s efforts, but for the people who would connect with this album as much as I have. Also, there’s the slightly selfish hope that increased attention would incentivize the band to work on more new stuff, or better yet, remaster their older works.

In any case, It’s very late, my back hurts because my spine hates my nervous system, and I need to actually get to sleep tonight so I can heal the godforsaken nerve that wedged itself in my inner workings yesterday. On a scale from “Your all-time low just lowered again”, to “Want some? Yes, please”, I give Feathergun a “Oh, what beautiful monsters”.

[atrainernamedradish]

Top 10 Favorite Pokemon

You’d think a top 10 for my favorite Pokemon of all times would be easy, but it has taken me quite a while with some soul searching to actually comprise this list together. While I feel as though most of this list is slightly unique compared to most top 10s, you will still find a few Pokemon in here on typical favorite lists.

Since this is a top 10 some Pokemon had unfortunately to be cut. So here are my Honorable Mentions: Slurpuff, Rowlet, Furret, Leafeon, Bulbasaur, Maractus, Appletun, Vanillite, Girafarig, and Braixen.

Top 10 Favorite Pokemon:

10) Cradily

I’m not normally one for fossil Pokemon. Don’t get me wrong, I think reviving fossils is a cool concept with Gen VIII expanding on the idea of creating abominations against what nature intended, but other than that… the concept falls flat for me after that. Not to mention most of the fossil Pokemon designs don’t do much for me. However, the Cradily line has come a long to be that exception towards my general distaste for them.

I’d like to think it was the typing of grass that gave this old fossil the charm to win me over. My Sun Wonderlocke is also a big metagaming factor with Cradily having survived on the winning team that beat the challenge.

It’s got a unique typing and a weird design being the oddball on this top list, but it deserves its spot nonetheless.

9) Gogoat

Sometimes you just need a Pokemon that has a good design, a favorite typing, a decent move pool, and fun to use on a team to become someone’s favorite, and that’s exactly what this Pokemon did to earn its spot on this list. Plus, whenever I play XY I always wanna use one lol!

8) Roserade

Some might disagree with me, but giving Roselia a pre-evolution and evolution was one of the best things to ever happen to it. Roserade is just so cool yet so elegant all in one design. (Budew is hands down my favorite baby Pokemon, if anyone is curious~) I also have this weird fixation on roses so that’s another reason why I adore its design~

Every time I play in the Sinnoh games I almost always want to use one on my team. (Playing a Torterra playthrough and fighting that urge haha!)

And not only is it a solid grass type, but a poison one to boot!~

7) Ampharos

...speaking of Pokemon that I almost always wanna use when I’m in their native region…

Three Pokemon on this list are here from my fondness of them as a child/pre-teen with Ampharos being one of them. Ampharos is definitely an odd one for its typing: slower and bulkier despite being a pure electric type, which had a niche of being faster and fragile. Not to mention it’s a sheep that sheds and grows into a llama! So I guess you could say its oddness is what I find so charming about it~

6) Breloom

...and also speaking of childhood favorites that are charmingly odd…

Breloom’s design and typing makes no sense, unless you wanna count the fact that it looks like it has some kangaroo in there for the fighting part… *shrugs* and I couldn’t care less. I have no idea (besides the mushroom part) what this Pokemon is supposed to be and I love that! It’s just so useful and good and it’s almost always on my Hoenn team.

5) Eevee

There are people probably rolling their eyes and groaning in dismay, but I will forever stick by this Pokemon. When I was a kid I was obsessed with this Pokemon! I had to have anything Eevee I could get my grimey little mitts on! My mom even made me an Eevee costume for Halloween that I remember fondly to this day!~

I know Eevee has reached overrated status, but honestly, and not saying this because it’s on my top list or anything, but uh… Eevee actually has a good reason for being popular besides being those who are the mascot (Pikachu) or nostalgia (Charizard). It’s cute and versatile. Do you need a certain type on your team? An Eeveelution can almost always fill that missing spot. Plus one of Pokemon’s biggest gimmicks in evolution, which Eevee sells pretty well since that’s its claim to fame!

But I will admit that Eevee is on here for nostalgia purposes and not putting it on here wouldn’t have felt right.

(If the Let’s Go games hadn’t have been a thing then this list would have been starterless… go figure.)

4) Sawsbuck

This Pokemon was originally lower on the list till I really sat down to explain why it was on here. Normally I have a hard time pinpointing what I like in a Pokemon design, and I was thinking of what I liked so much about it had I finally have a Pokemon to sort of show that in.

What I like about Sawsbuck’s design is that it’s not just a normal deer. It’s a deer mixed with a tree and its seasonal cycles. I like that it has forms that tie into an in-game mechanic instead of just bloating up the dex that fit its typing. Its name sneakily hints at the form changes too, which is brillant! You can clearly tell what its typings are just by looking at it. Some might argue that the Normal typing not so much, but, and myself included before, I have met a few people who have mistakenly slapped that typing onto the likes of Gogoat because Normal is usually associated with animals. Not to mention deer are a huge problem in the country in which the region is based off of so that was a smart decision in kaing one for those games. Sawsbuck is also quite handy at tanking a lot of physical damage, especially when you’ve got moves like Leech Seed and Horn Leech on it. So I thoroughly enjoyed using one the first and only time I have (though I plan to use it again at some point).

I hope I’ve made sense with why this particular Pokemon qualifies as the example of my choices in choosing Pokemon.

(Oh and if anyone is curious… the Autumn one is my favorite aesthetically out of the four forms.)

3) Ludicolo

This goofy looking thing puts a smile on my face. Its idle animation is charming, and it makes me giggle when it shimmies in its attack animation. I don’t know what it is about this thing that I simply adore, but finally having since used one in my first playthrough of Alpha Sapphire I almost cannot be in Hoenn and not use one. Not to mention I love the dual typing of water/grass. It’s so handy and such a good combination~ Overall Ludicolo is *chuckles* an odd duck that makes me feel joy every time I see or use one.

2) Alcremie

This was THE Pokemon I was the most excited to use in Galar upon its reveal!~ It was already so cute being a part of a theme of Pokemon I simply love: food-based Pokemon, and then what does it do? It can turn into a giant fucking cake! Like holy shit…! And then down the line in another reveal trailer what was the first thing I immediately noticed; an alternative colored one! What’s what Game Freak? Different flavors of this thing? Sign me up!

From its design, to its Gigantamax form, to its flavor forms, its shiny, and even the way you evolve it I just love everything about this Pokemon!~

(My only gripe is that if I want to Gigantamax one I have to go out of my fucking way to find one, and that irritates the fuck out of me! Not to mention two of its candy options are event exclusive, which is horse shit! But that’s just a personal gripe more than anything so don’t mind me…)

1) Aromatisse

This Pokemon is fat, pink and sassy, and I fucking LOVE it!~ It looks like someone tried to fuse a fuzzy perfume bottle with a cancan dancer, a flamingo, and a plague doctor mask, and we go this beautiful mess!~ I also love the fact that this thing is 50/50 on the gender scale so you could essentially have a drag queen on your team, which makes sense for its over-the-top design. I also love how it literally screams and whoops at you in its model cry. If it shows up you’ll see and hear it.

People talk about how cute its pre-evolution is and how they prefer it to Aromatisse, and honestly I’ve always felt the opposite of that. Spritzee is cute but Aromatisse is wonderful!~

It saddens me that my fandom will almost always put my favorite on the hated lists, but that’s how different opinions and tastes can be… *shrugs* 

(I’m sure many of you are cringing seeing this as #1 and that’s okay lol!)

[musicallynerdy]

hey ryn long time no see that d&d ask meme is insanely cool (frankly I love all of them so I tried to choose but there are still a lot, feel free not to answer all of these), so: 2, 3, 7, 9, 11, 12, 15, 16, 20, 23, 24, 26, 27, 31, 33, 35, 44, 60, 72, 77, 87, 93, 94, 97!

Hi Taylor! Long time no see! I hope you’re hanging in there! @hoot-h00t So, Hannah sent me a few of these last night on my D&D sideblog (@gmsguild) so I’ll skip those ones but I’m gonna do the rest! I’m gonna focus on my primary character, Sahar, my tiefling wizard in my home Tal’Dorei game.  2. Who in the party would your character trust the most with their life? I think our party rogue most likely. A few weeks ago (in game time) the rogue saved her life (literally- failed death save, would have been dead if that shadow hit me again), and Sahar returned the favor in a fight with a succubus, so there’s some trust there. 

3. What are your character’s core moral beliefs? I think she’s redeveloping her morals for the first time in a decade. She’s becoming a better person and it’s interesting really interesting to play. She never hurts kids, she’s willing to do whatever it takes to protect those she loves, and she’s devoted to the pursuit of knowledge. She’s got a dark side and isn’t afraid to hurt or kill to get what she needs, but she’s starting to try not to cause more harm. I think she feels the need to make up for what she’s done in the past. 

7. Describe your character’s current appearance: clothes, armor, scars they’ve picked up along the journey, etc? Sahar Tel’Urdyn is a deep purple-skinned tiefling with these stormy grey eyes with catlike pupils and a light blue nictitating membrane that she can flick over them. Her horns come from her forehead and then curl back forward similar to but not the same as a bighorn sheep (I don’t really know how to describe them?), and she has a thin pointed tail that flicks like a cat’s when she’s excited. Her hair is a darker purple, close to black, and is pulled back in a single french braid. She has a number of piercings, earlobes and cartilage. One of her cartilage piercings has a thin chain that connects to a band around one of her horns. She also has a belly button piercing, a nose stud, and a ring in her tail, all in silver tones. With the exception of the chain, she wears almost entirely studs, bars, or rings. Nothing that could catch on something or make noise. She has a number of scars and tattoos from the Tragic Backstory, but the most interesting is probably a lot of blackwork on her left arm that extends from her hand up to her elbow, almost like she dipped her arm in ink (although there is a triangular design on the hand, almost looking like a bit of that type of glove that only attaches to the middle finger?)-- or more accurately it looks like blackwork but it’s actually a lot of really intricate work, lots of script and sigils.  She wears a white, v-necked, with lacing in the V, like a flowy pirate shirt sorta thing, with black pants and brown leather boots, and a dark blue almost black sash around her waist. She has a dagger at her waist and her spellbook sort of sits in a bit of a holster thing in the small of her back. She hasn’t actually picked up much over the journey... she’s got a really nice dark gray traveling cloak she took off of... some dead body somewhere. She’s also got a wand of magic missiles tucked into a leather thigh sheath. She’s probably got a scar or two from the one battle I’ll detail below in number 15.  9. What deity, if any, does your character worship? What’s their opinion on other people’s worship? She grew up worshiping the Moonweaver but sort of lost a lot of her faith during the Tragic Backstory period. As a wizard she also prays occasionally to Ioun. She doesn’t really have opinions on other people’s worship so long as it doesn’t start causing her problems.  

11. Describe your character’s current relationship with the player character sitting to your right. So my group is a crew of old friends from my hometown, so we haven’t played in person in a while. 

12. What is your character’s current goal, summed up in one sentence? To crack this puzzle cube and learn more about conjuration and transmutation magic in the process. 

15. What battle in the campaign has been most memorable to your character? Oof so we broke this girl out of prison, she’s the daughter of a crime lord, but in the process we sort of... alerted the entire town to what we were doing and our barbarian punched the guard captain in the face? So we were burnt and tried to get out of town and hide, but they sent guards after us and we had no spells left and our barbarian had one rage and our rogue, our warlock, and our druid all went in with like low health and Sahar ended up having to be a tank for the battle and was just casting shocking grasp and somehow we still won? We killed six guards coming after us and somehow got away. That was the moment it was like ok we’re a team and we have each other’s backs even when shit royally hits the fan. 

16. If your character wasn’t whatever class they are, what would they be instead? Probably a bard or a warlock. Magic is just like, ingrained in her and she’s a curious motherfucker so like, if her troupe had lived she probably would have become a bard, or she would have stumbled into something deep and dark and made a pact with something for knowledge. If she had focused in her Tragic Backstory more on the sneaking bit of being an assassin rather than the “i will kill people creatively with magic” bit, possibly a rogue too. 

23. If your character could go back in time and change one thing about their life, what would it be? To not get kidnapped by the crew of the Talon’s Breath because that just started a decade of bad things. On the other hand, without that she probably would never have gotten to Tal’Dorei from Marquet and would never have found the party, which she’s starting to count as the best experience in her life. But it doesn’t erase the previous decade. 

24. Which other player character does your character find themselves having the most in common with? Definitely our party rogue. Tragic Backstory Buddies

26. What would your character say their best trait would be? “My Wit, of course” (her virtue name she used for years was Wit, so that’s a pun)

27. What is your character’s greatest fear? Deep, irrational? Ooh tough one. She’s afraid of losing her powers, I think. Her magic has been what has kept her alive and allowed her to become who she is and I think she’s wrapped up so much of her identity into the magic she wouldn’t know who she is without it. She uses minor illusion like people in the real world use a fidget spinner. I think she’d have a hard time functioning without her magic. It was a source of trauma and now it’s the way she’s helped herself through that trauma. She’s definitely going to need to deal with that at some point but therapists are hard to come by in Tal’Dorei. 

31. What stereotypical group role does your character play in the party? (The Mom, the Mess, the Comic Relief, etc. Optionally: What role would your character play in the “Five Man Band” structure?) Ya know I’m not sure. She’s sort of the brains (her intelligence is like a full 4 points above anyone else’s in the party) but really our party is six dumbasses held together by spit and a prayer and the fact that they keep stumbling on sketchy shit in every small town they come to (literally, they’ve had one town that hasn’t had sketchy shit going on in it) (well, and one city. So two stops on their entire journey). 

33. What person does your character admire most? In our party? Tough choice. Probably Thea, our warlock. She’s a 16 year old human girl and Sahar just thinks the world of this kid. She also has this huge Big Sister drive to keep this girl safe and also teach her about magic. 

35. Why is your character’s lowest stat their lowest (the in-character reason, not “because there’s no reason for a wizard to have 16 strength, duh”)? 10 in strength (I rolled well) but in character, she never really had a chance to develop it. She was the prisoner of a cartel for years and just didn’t have the space or the means to build up her strength. 

44. Does your character think more with their heart or their brain? Brain. 18 intelligence. She’s a wizard. Everything is logic. 

60. What decision would the party have to make in order for your character to consider splitting off from the group? Answered over at @gmsguild with number 20!

72. Who in the party would your character trust the most to keep an important secret? Oof yikes... honestly? Probably Mire, our barbarian. 

77. If your character had to multiclass into a class they currently aren’t the next time they level up, what would it be and what reason would they have for doing so? hmmm..... Something with spells. She’s such a magic nerd she would do something stupid for knowledge. 

87. What major arcana tarot card best represents your character? I’m only skipping this one because I’m not really familiar with tarot

93. Who in the party does your character trust the least? All of them. We all have flaws that make us untrustworthy in particular circumstances. But also she knows all of them have her back if she needs it. She just needs to know their weaknesses so she can help protect them. 

94. What is your character’s biggest flaw? She always has to be in control. It comes from years of not being in control and now she’s a bit of a control freak. 

97. What is most important to your character: health, wealth, or happiness? Happiness. I don’t think she knows what that means yet, but she left employment with a crime lord that could have made her very rich because she knew it wasn’t making her happy.  Thanks, Taylor, that was fun! Took me like 2 hours, but whatev. Hope you’re hanging in there!  Also I’m reading back through this and realizing like, folks trying to piece together her Tragic Backstory from this and my post on @gmsguild are going to have a rough time Much love to my party yall are amazing and I love you (@geekoz87, @skirtsandbattleaxes, @miniaturetanks, @vaguelyconcerning, @tenebris-felidae)

[azuremist]

Around a month ago (or a few weeks ago, I don’t have long term memory), I made a post along the lines of ‘should I make a top ten Animal Crossing villagers list’? And even if it got no notes, I knew I was going to do it anyways, because I wanted to infodump about Animal Crossing and I still do! But I don’t think I actually knew what I was getting into; when I went through the list of all the Animal Crossing villagers, picking my favorites, I ended up with over 30 villagers that I really loved. So it’s now a top ten list, plus five honorable mentions that would have killed me upon impact to exclude. (And even then, I still ended up excluding some villagers that physically hurt me to leave out.)

So anyways, what I’m saying is, here’s my top ten Animal Crossing villagers, plus honorable mentions, AKA literally just one big infodump.

#10: Carmen

Carmen is a peppy rabbit whose color scheme is clearly based off of mint chocolate chip. She’s one of my current villagers, and honestly, I got so excited when I saw her. I didn’t know she existed before, and I adore mint chocolate chip/food-themed villagers! One of my favorite fun facts about her is her catchphrase. I thought her catchphrase, ‘nougat’, was just a funny way of saying ‘nugget’, to go with her food theme. However, it’s a reference to a completely different food, which is made with nuts! Going back to her design, something about the way she looks makes her look both sassy and soft, and I love the vibes she gives off. So glad to have this funky bunny in my village.

(Rest is under the cut! :])

#9: Stella

I honestly didn’t realize how partial I was towards sheep villagers until after I made this list.

So anyways, Stella just looks so calm and almost sleepy, which is a look that I really love on sheep-based characters, because of the tradition of counting sheep to fall asleep. She is perpetually blushing, which is an instant plus in the character design department for me. But her catchphrase, ‘baa-dabing’, just makes me think of her as a huge dork! A very sleepy and soft dork who I love.

#8: Fauna

I consider Fauna a fairly popular villager, and I completely understand why. Her warm color scheme makes her look extremely welcoming, plus her cute appearance (again, with the blushy cheeks) makes her seem sweet and kind. Even her catchphrase, ‘dearie’, gives off almost motherly vibes. Adding to her motherly view from me is her skill being math and her goal being to become a teacher, which would help me a ton, because I suck at math! One of my favorite things about her comes in her Pocket Camp profile, which describes her as being very friendly and getting along with everyone, and her only true flaw being her competitive streak. This is followed up by advice to not look at her while playing cards. I love characters who are friendly and cutesy, but once you flip a certain switch, they enter ‘serious mode’.  I love Fauna, and I would let her beat me in Mario Kart.

#7: Mitzi

I love Rosie as much as the next person, but personally, my favorite blue cat has to be Mitzi. She was one of the original villagers in my very first Animal Crossing towns, and she was very quickly one of my favorites in the village, because of her resemblance to a Siamese cat, which was one of my favorite breeds of cats. She was the first villager I ever sent a letter to or talked to, because I was drawn to her design, and I consider her my best friend in-game. She’s very nostalgic for me, but even if she didn’t have that tie to my childhood, I still think I’d adore this funky little cat!

#6: Cherry

I don’t know to describe why I love Cherry except she gives me goth lesbian big sister vibes. Her personality type is literally ‘uchi’, which translates to ‘big sister’, which means she’s tough but caring and protective. Her profile says that she’s good to take to a concert, because you’d never lose each other, hinting she may make sure you’re safe. Even despite this, she has huge goth/emo vibes, with her appearance and catchphrase being ‘what what!’ I desperately want this fictional red dog to take me to a rock concert and be my older sibling.

#5: Etoile

Remember how I said I love sleepy sheep? Yeah. Etoile is everything I love about Stella, but bass boosted. More pastel? Check. More themes of sleep and nighttime, with her name translating to ‘star’? Check. Blushy cheeks? Check!

Etoile is one of the Sanrio villagers, based off of the Little Twin Stars. I adore all of the Sanrio villagers, but Etoile is easily my favorite, despite my favorite actual Sanrio character being Cinnamoroll. And, despite not usually taking interior design into account, holy CRAP does Etoile have her aesthetic on POINT with her house! Like, I want to live in her house with everything within me, and it fits her perfectly.

I may not know much about the Little Twin Stars, but I adore Etoile.

#4: Lucky

Honestly, my favorite thing about Lucky is simply about how his name ties to his appearance in irony. He’s in a full-body cast, and his catchphrase insinuates he constantly hurts himself on accident, making him extremely unlucky. So imagine addressing someone as Lucky as he continuously trips and hurts himself. I love it. Also, I look WAYYY too deep into his lazy personality and take it as him having depression because of his presumably-permanent injuries, and so, when I got him in my village when I was going through a depression spell, it made me super happy. Something about Lucky makes me look way too deep into his character, but I love him because of it! Super good comfort character.

#3: Pietro

Pietro gets a lot of hate because of his clownish appearance. I’m sure you’ve either seen the comic of someone hitting him with a net over and over to make him move away, or the picture of someone using the megaphone to call him an abomination in-game. But those people are, uh, how do you say it…

COWARDS.

Pietro is a GOOD lad, and I’m happy to see lots of people liking him more with the rise of clowncore. This is another one of the villagers that was in my first town, though he moved in later. I was never afraid of clowns that weren’t purposefully coded as scary, so I ended up really liking him! As a kid I loved extremely colorful characters, so his rainbow theme really made me attached to him, which has lasted until this day!

#2: Goldie

Goldie is another fairly popular villager who I adore. I didn’t like her that much, though, until Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp. She comes with the ‘natural’ theme, and one of her quotes describes her reading a book that the sun makes people feel happy. She also wants for you to craft a harpsichord. This makes her come across as a helpful, bookish sweetheart. Like, she seems like the kind of girl who would dream of living in a cottage, and she seems like a great gal to have as a friend.

Also, she and Cherry are uhhhhh girlfriends. Thank you and goodnight.

HONORABLE MENTIONS

I have a lot of favorite villagers, but I didn’t want to make this too long, so here are some honorable mentions that only just barely didn’t make the cut.

Muffy:

Are you KIDDING? A PASTEL GOTH SHEEP?! It’s like they were attempting to design a character to cater specifically for me! I honestly was shocked when she didn’t find her way onto the final top ten. I love her.

Stitches:

Again, another villager that feels like it was made for me specifically. I love stuffed animals so much, and I specifically have memories of loving a well-worn teddy bear, making me love Stitches instantly.

Chai:

Remember how I said I loved the Sanrio villagers? And how Cinnamoroll was my favorite Sanrio character? And how I love pastels? Oh, and did I mention that I love tea and tea-themed characters? Yeah.

Okay! With those friends out of the way, it’s time to announce my #1 friend!!

#1: Merengue

What can I say except ‘I’m predictable?’

I’ve jokingly asked multiple friends to kinassign me an Animal Crossing villager, and almost every time they assigned me Merengue. Which, I mean, understandable. She’s pink, always blushing, and food-themed. Plus, she’s a baker! I’ve, personally, always wanted to learn to cook and bake; I’ve only ever really made cake and brownies. Her hobby is also doodling, meaning she likes to draw, just like me! I love the creative use of the horn to put a strawberry on her, and (I’m probably projecting with this) I like how large she is? I don’t know, I love the fact that the most food-related animal is a big animal like a rhino, and it makes me feel super happy.

Merengue also reminds me of Alcremie, a new Pokemon which I really like, so I guess that the pink and whipped cream-related idea just sort of makes me drawn to something! She’s an extremely large and friendly gal, and she seems like she would make me muffins when I’m sad. 10/10, would actually die for this pink baker rhino.

[knitmoregirls]

Planning To Get Messy - Episode 554 - The Knitmore Girls

This week's episode is sponsored by:

            No matter what you need, the barmaids have you covered from head to toe. Face pudding to keep you smiling, Lolo lips keep them kissable, probiotic deodorant for keeping you fresh as a rose, oh for feet’s sake to keep your feet soft and sandal ready, and the Lolo body bar for everything in between. You can find all this - and more! at bar-maids.com

  Dragonfly Fibers creates hand-dyed, artisan yarns and fibers in vivid and sophisticated colorways. We can be found in select local yarn shops and at fiber festivals around the country.

Our last two shows as owners of Dragonfly Fibers are this month. Come see us at New York Sheep and Wool in Rhinebeck, New York and SAFF in Fletcher, North Carolina.

All of our products are available on our website, www.dragonflyfibers.com. Come see why we say that Dragonfly Fibers are the colors of happiness.

            Carry your creativity with Erin Lane Bags! Whether you show your fiber fandom with the woolly wonder Sheepleverse, or dive into history with the Curiosities collection, our project bags, totes, and hook and needle organizers are at the ready to keep your hobby happy.

    We all have it, we all snicker about it.

Fun Fur.

Whether it’s eyelash, boucle, or just generally furry, it’s hard to find projects for novelty yarn.

With a sweet face, spiraling horns, and delightfully rotund body, Friendsheep by Cate Carter-Evans lets you transform your novelty and textured yarns into sweet, fleecy little friends. Pattern available on Ravelry; more info at infinitetwist.com

  Books plus knitting plus happy memories. That’s Little Skein in the Big Wool. We make kits, yarn and project bags that bring your favorite stories to life. Find *your* favorite story at littleskein.com

      On the Needles:(0:37)

Jasmin started AND finished the Namu Cowl by Knitboop out of Lisa Souza Cashmere in

“squashblossom” (#MyRhineBIPOCSweater Join the Ravelry Group! , #BIPOCMAL2019). Jasmin

mentions the  #BIPOCMAL2019, which started in September and ends in November.

She loves Knitcompanion

There is a dopamine response that we get from checking off a completed task; I couldn't find a technical term for the specific instance.

Gigi made more hexagons for the Polygon blanket.

  Jasmin is nearly finished with her Polwarth pullover.

And the Cottongrass pullover is done.

Gigi  worked on the  Regia Pairfect .

  We will be collecting hats (locally) for refugees in New England:

  Maine Access Immigrant Network

237 Oxford St., Suite 25A

Portland, ME 04101

  Gigi knitted an Armley beanie by Woolly Wormhead out of pink yarn.  It has been blocked, still needs

end weaving 

SPOILER: Woolly Wormhead has a new book coming out!

  Jasmin cast on the Gatsby shawl by Dawn Henderson out of Ocean by the Sea’s Quill in “Peach Fizz”

and worked on it during “A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder”

  Events: (19:11)

- #ChooseYourOwnAdventureKAL is ongoing. 

-#MyRhineBIPOCSweater

- #WHINEBECKBINGO

- #BIPOCMAL2019 Sep-Nov

- PIQF October 17-20

- True North Hearts and Hands donations:

https://subcultureyarn.com/craftivism-hearts-hands-baby-layette-bag-donation/ 

-Half marathon for the knitting group to work on baby layette

-We will take a break from podcasting from January until March.

If you have suggestions for what to bring for the Podcast Tune-Up, let us know!

  In Stitches (24:04)

Jasmin wore her Dissent Cardigan, and stripey Canon Hand Dyes cowl, the BostonJen Greyhaven hat.

Gigi is wearing her A-line skirt from the beginning clothing construction class

Nightshirts with modesty panel. Night cap

  Mother Knows Best:(24:47)

2663 - taking photos

Knitting Butterflies & Tightly Spun 

Photographing your Knits , 

Franklin Habit's Class

Stephen West

  When Knitting Attacks: (40:10)

Vitamin D cardigan: Discovered that it suffered a serious snag. Need to repair it.

  And Sew On:(41:34)

In Gigi’s sewing class at Cañada College, she got the muslin for her skirt fitted; next step is the waistband.  

Also, got started on the bodice 

  Couture Embellishments class at West Valley College continues. 

Gigi turned in smocking and cartridge pleating samples.  

Working on beading and sequin Techniques 

The midterm project is supposed to be Embellishment and rejuvenation of something out of the closet;

the final is supposed to be sewn from scratch 

We are supposed to hand in a project plan, a description of what we are planning, I think that time and

cost estimates are supposed to be included. 

Check out this episode!

[5evahbeyou]

THE BIG FOUR:AND THE MISSING GEM (BOOK 1)

Chapter 9: Continuation

Rapunzel’s POV:

The weeks became days, and days became hours away, the upcoming dragon race was soon to start and I was very eager to see Hiccup and Merida up in the air. All of us hadn’t seen each other lately because of the extra school work we needed to take up and to finish other works that the Professor’s gave us. It wasn’t much of a hassle, but it was tiring to even do much per day. As I got out of my house, the Sphinx. Eugene and Jack was already waiting for me outside, a blush crept on to my face seeing Eugene. They turned around to the sound of the door closing, Jack gave me a smirk but i simply rolled my eyes at the white headed boy. “Jack, Eugene.” I said, giving them a smile and a nod. “Come on Punzie, the race is about to start, you don’t want to miss it.” Jack said, turning his whole body and started running. “Race you there! Slowpoke is a rotten egg!” He shouted, I gave out a giggle, thankfully I braided my hair today. I looked at Eugene, “See you, slowpoke.” I said and quickly ran to Jack’s direction. I heard Eugene scream my name but I couldn’t stop now. I didn’t want to be the rotten egg this time!

As I reached the stadium, Jack had reserved the perfect sit for the three of us. “Wow, so Eugene is the rotten Egg.Who knew?” Jack said, smiling at me. I sat beside him, he handed me a drink to quench my thirst which I took with a smile. “That wasn’t fair! You guys went earlier than me!” Eugene said, having the struggle to breathe normally. Me and Jack just laughed at him, but I quickly scootched a little for him to take a sit right next to me. Jack also handed him a drink. “Ahhh, nothing like a cold water to fix myself up.” He said and gave me his signature wink. I just rolled my eyes at him while I saw Jack trying to conceal his chuckles. Their was a trumpet and a loud booming sound, it seemed the race was about to start. Professor Gobber himself was seen on the other side of the stadium. “First things first, please don’t push one another since you can fall and die to a horrible death.” He explained, which is fairly true. I mean, I think the fall could be at least 14 feet high. “With that, the Annual Dragon Racing is finally here! Please give the racers the loudest cheer you got!!!” Gobber shouted through his makeshift horn. It echoed throughout the stadium so that everyone could hear him. “I present to you, the racers of the house of Hydra!” Gobber boomed, The racers flung up into the sky one by one and settled on air. “Starting from the left, Snotlout Jorgenson along with his trusty dragon Hookfang!” “ Snotlout, Snotlout, Snotlout! Oi! Oi! Oi!” He screamed, the Hydra roared his name. “Next to him, is the pranksters given by Loki himself’ The twins, Tuffnut and Ruffnut, along with their two-headed dragon, Barf and Belch!” “Give us that Trophy!!!!” “Aughh!!” Both of the twins shouted in sync. I giggled at their shout, since it gave a boost of cheers from the Hydra’s uproar. “Any moment now, the Hydra’s will tore their throat.” I said, but Jack and Eugene was screaming their name. When they finished, I look at them with a raised eyebrow. “What? They’re in our house!” Jack and Eugene said and screamed again with the rest of the Hydra.

“I present to you, the racers of the house of Phoenix!” The uproar of the Phoenix filled the Stadium, I for one was screaming on top of my lungs, “ Go get ‘em Merida!” I shouted, Jack and Eugene also shouted along by my side. The racers flung high and was now floating on air. People staired in awe, as the two racers had the whole stadium’s attention. “Starting on the Right, the person with a feisty red hair is none other than Merida Dunbroch, along with her new tamed dragon, Kryton!” Everyone shouted and so does me, “I feel like I might faint any moment because of all the shouting.” Jack said, drinking his water almost half empty. “Next to her, is the excellent student of this Academy, Astrid Hofferson along with her intelligent dragon, Stormfly!” Astrid and Merida looked at each other and shouted, “For the house of Phoenix!” Everyone in Phoenix shouted, it felt like it was the roar of a lion for some reason. “For a moment, I thought I heard the lion itself.” Eugene said, “Me too.” I said and laughed along with him. I heard Jack screamed, “Go red-head!” Merida looked at us and quickly gave a wave. “And finally, I present to you, the racers of the house of Sphinx!” Gobber shouted, The Sphinx shouted louder, me also doing my part of the screaming. “You got this Hiccup!” I shouted, “Yeah! Break another leg!” Jack shouted, I gave him a look before giving him a sharp nudge on the side with my elbow. Jack only gave a quick laugh before turning his head to the racers again. The racers got up so high, Hiccup’s dragon did a full on circle before settling down on the air. “Starting from the Left, I give you the smartest viking, Fishlegs Ingerman along with his beloved dragon, Meatlug!” “We got this girl!” Fishlegs shouted, the dragon seemed enthusiastic also. “Wait, that’s a girl?” Jack asked, “Yes Jack, stop showing dumb.” I said, along with some giggles. “Give me five!” Eugene said and I obliged. 

Jack’s POV:

“Hey stop teaming up on me!” I said, as both of them started to laugh more. I shook my head at the two and looked up once more. “To his side is the viking who introduced dragons, Hiccup Haddock III along with his dragon, the offspring of lighning and death itself, Toothless!” Hiccup gave a battle cry, along with Toothless giving a shot of his blue flame.The Sphinx roared more as Hiccup did. “Wow what a battle roar!” I said, giving him a slow clap.” Hiccup waved at the three of us before looking up again. “ The goal is to catch as many white sheep as you can. Each is worth 1 point. But watch out! You only want the sheep with targets painted on their wool. Plain sheep are out of bounds. I just hope there’s no dragon eating the sheeps.” Gobber said, the riders gave a laugh while looking at Snotlout. “Hear than Snottie?” Astrid shouted, “Shut up Astrid!” Snotlout retorted. “Each race has a single black sheep that is worth 10 points. The black sheep get launched by a catapult during the last lap and must be caught midair. When is the last lap? That changes every game-just listen for the game horn! Riders drop every sheep they've caught into their specialized game baskets. There is an individual winning trophy, and a house trophy. Who ever gets the highest house points wins! While who ever gets the highest points wins and gets the individual trophy! Oh and in this racing, there are no rules!” Gobber shouted and everyone shouted in joy. “That’s what I call a real competition!” I shouted, “Go Hiccup and Merida!” Punzie shouted on top of her lungs. “May the odds be on yours!” Gobber said, and as he blew the horn, it gave out a sound signaling the start of the game.

Nobody's POV:

The dragons zoomed all around the stadium, and even went off of the area to get the sheeps that are placed all around the Academy. The numbers increased as each baskets are slowly filled with white sheeps.”Give me that, I will win this race!” “We are both on the same team muttonhead!” The twins argued, and because of that, Snotlout had a chance to snatch the sheep off of their grip. “See you later losers!” Snotlout shouted, but not longer later, Hiccup got the sheep and dropped it on his basket. "Hey no fair!" "Sorry Snotlout!" Hiccup shouted and zoomed away. Jack and Punzie watched in eagerness, as the time ticks, the basket gets filled more and more. "Go Merida!! You can do this!" Punzie shouted, She got three sheeps, the two that she was carrying while the other was carried by her dragon. "No fair, her dragon is bigger than any of us!" Snotlout shouted, Hookfang seemed irritated and plummet down fast. "Okay sorry Hookfang!!" Snotlout shouted, Everyone in the stadium laughed at how Snotlout's dragon was a handful. Snotlout zoomed over to Merida, but Kryton had a thing or two to protect itself and Merida. “Now Kryton!” Merida shouted, Kryton twirled, whipping it’s tail to Snotlout, causing him to fall off of Hookfang. Everybody gasped, as Snotlout screaming, but suddenly Snotlout was catched by none other than Kryton. “Sor’y te do tha’.” Merida shouted, giving Snotlout a grin. “You’re lucky I like pretty girls.” Snotlout shouted, as he dangles at the grasp of Kryton. Merida swooped down to drop the sheeps. Kryton also dropped the ship it was holding and flung Snotlout up, which Hookfang catched.”Go Merida! You got this scottie!” Jack shouted, cheering for her louder and louder, but the other Hydra’s were looking at him. "You got this Hydra!!" Eugene shouted, then Jack also did causing a massive roar from the other Hydra.

 “Hey, thanks Eugene.” “No problem, lover boy.” Eugene smirked, which Jack rolled his eyes at his teasing. Punzie was shocked by the sudden outburst of the information, but tried not hearing anything. She knew something was behind does stares. "We are finally on the last lap, here comes the black sheep!" Gobber announced, and instantly, the Black sheep was flunged way up high. The racers moved fast to get the sheep. Fishlegs had it but Astrid stole it jumping over them and landing on her dragon swiftly." Thanks for the sheep Fishlegs!" Fishlegs let out a frustrated sigh. Astrid almost dropped it on her basket, when the twins took it. "Hey, that's my sheep!" "Not anymore!" Ruffnut shouted, Barf and Belch made a powerful boom so that the others couldn't see them. "We are going to win!" Tuffnut shouted, but Hiccup got it out of their hands. "I'll take that, thank you!" The Sphinx roared and cheered for Hiccup. Hiccup got cornered by Merida and Astrid, "Hey ladies, want this sheep?" Merida signaled her dragon to move, because of her big dragon, it was difficult to maneuver her dragon. "Oops, too slow red-head!" Hiccup shouted, Merida let out a groan, "Yer goin' te get it dragon breath!" Merida shouted. Astrid was a few inches behind her, and when she finally got reached Hiccup, Toothless went down along with Hiccup. Hiccup was about to throw the Sheep but Astrid took it, despite the almost thrilling scene, Hiccup jumped off of his dragon and got the Sheep back. He was almost half way to plummet the ground. Everyone yelped at what seemed to be Hiccup falling. But suddenly, he spread out his wings and flew, well more like glided towards his basket. As he glide down, he finally got a chance to throw it in his basket and got on Toothless before crashing down. The Sphinx roared with glee. "You almost got us scared for a minute Hiccup!" Jack shouted feeling the excitement and adrenaline. "You go dragon breath!" Punzie teased. "And the winner of the House trophy with number of 38 points! The Hydra!" Gobber announced, the Sphinx gave a mighty roar that almost shooked everyone. The Phoenix took second place while the Sphinx was on third. Although the Hydra won the House trophy, There was someone who won on the other house. "And our first, dragon champion is, Hiccup Haddock III of Sphinx with a wooping 25 points!!" Everyone cheered but the Sphinx had the uproar of the win. Toothless Twirled before landing down. The list of who got the scores started from Hiccup, Astrid, Tuffnut, Merida, Snotlout, and lastly, Meatlug. The house team starting from the winner is the Hydra, Phoenix, and Sphinx.

The three got down as fast as they can and waited for the others to go down from the air. "That was so cool Hiccup! You got us riled up!" Punzie shouted, giving him a big hug. "Nice one Viking, you got us off of our sit." Jack said, giving him a fist bump. "Thanks you guys." Hiccup said, His face including Toothless had a face paint. The color black and red. Toothless rubbed himself to Hiccup which Hiccup began to baby talk Toothless. "Yes you did boy, you did great!" Jack, Punzie and Eugene gave a laugh because of his action. Merida finally landed and got off of Kryton. "Nicely done Kryton, ye did great!" She said, rubbing on Kryton's chin which the dragon nuzzled into her more."Not bad Merida, you did pretty good for your first race." Astrid said, getting off of her dragon. "Thanks, et was nothin'. Kryton did all te work." She said patting Kryton's body. "Are you kidding? You beat Snotlout!" "Astrid is right, the speed of a Scauldron and a Monstrous Nightmare are different." Hiccup explained, the other riders got down as well, huddling up with the rest. "The Monstrous Nightmare has a speed of 16 while a Scauldron can only fly up to 6 of speed." Fishlegs said, as he stand beside Hiccup. "Pretty cool for a newbie, right Tuffnut?" Ruffnut said, looking eager. "Oh yeah! And when you signaled your dragon to push Snotlout of the way? Classic move!" Tuffnut said and raised his hand for a high five. Merida let out a laugh and gave the twins the high five they waited for. "Still can't believe I've been beaten." Snotlout said, crossing his arms at Merida. "Well, ye always have a next time lass." Merida said, winking at Snotlout. "Woah, hey princess, don't you wink at me. As much as I love it, I still am mad." Snotlout half flirtatiously said. Which everyone laughed at. Merida went near to Snotlout,” I like yer competitive side, lass.” Merida said, as she pushed down Snotlout’s helmet so that he couldn’t see.” “Wow, I think I’m getting the feeling she likes me.” Snoutlout said, his pride starting to rise. Astrid and Merida both laughed, “In your dreams snottie!” Astrid laughed, causing Snotlout to glare at her. "Come on now, change up!" Gobber said shooing everyone to go back to the dorms.

"Now what?" Merida asked, her face paint, blue and red, almost mixing together because of her smudging it a lot. "Stop wiping your face, you're getting all the paint spread!" Jack said, he got out a cloth and wiped some of the excess paint. Jack tried to remove it, but keep on slowing down when he sees how he’s close to Merida’s face. "You do it, I feel like a Nanny." Jack said, but got stopped midway. "Jack, ar' ye blind o' ye fergettin' I can' see?" Merida said, Jack let out a sigh and wiped away the paint. Punzie and Eugene decided to get some food for Merida, While Hiccup went to the Sphinx dorm to change. Jack dragged Merida to a lake near the big tree on the bigger meadow. There, he helped removed the paint by deeping the cloth to the water. “Ahk! It’s cold!” “Get used to it wigman.” Jack joked, wiping the paint. When he finally removed the paint on the right eye, Merida opened her eyes slowly, seeing how they’re both near at each other. But Merida didn’t budge, it felt nomral for her and Jack. “Ye know Jack. I think yer a sweetheart.” Merida started, Jack got taken aback by Merida said, finally wiping the last paint off of her left eye.”Sometimes, you’re a monster.” Jack said with a smirk, Merida galred and was about to tackle him. Jack manouvered himself and got away from Merida. “Still slow! You got to lay off of the pie!” Jack said, he heard Merida yelling his name as Merida tried to catch up to him. The day was normal, well, for now. 

      »»————-　★　————-««            »»————-　★　————-««

I finally had the chance to update this! College has been keeping me busy with a lot of production especially in video making. (I’m taking up Media).

Oh and check out my Wattpad story, “Harsh Life, in Twisted Love.” It’s a Rise of The Brave Tangled Dragon Fan Fic, along with an OC a friend and I made.

However, the story isn’t half-way to the story. And Rapunzel in this story is with the cool kids. So I hope you guys read it! I’ll see you guys soon!

Book 1:  CHAPTERS: 1 - 2 - 3(1) - 3(2) - 4(1) - 4(2) - 5(1) - 5(2) - 6(1) - 6(2) - 7(1) -7(2) - 8(1) - 8(2) - 9(1)

[nozomijoestar]

1-10 for an oc of yr choice (since i don't know any of yrs (yet))

meme here

I’ll use my FFXIV OCs bc I’m finicky abt sharing anything on my manuscript OCs in public

Vaste/U’ralhana Odh:

1. What is/are your OC’s nickname(s) and how did it come about?

Her name situation is a little messy but theres a reason behind each one both canon and non-canon! The game by default gives the WoL many titles across the game to reflect your progress to NPCs like eikon-slayer, Azure Dragoon, khagan etc. all tied to feats or positions earned in the MSQ. 

For non canon titles and nicknames I’ve given her Desert Dragon due to her origin of birth from a desert tribe and their guardian animal being Drakes (as well as the fact that she’s a Dragoon and DRGs are traditionally a class associated heavy with dragons), Nine Lives because of the Echo preventing her from true death which also fits with her being a cat race etc. For more personal nicknames one of her younger brothers calls her Rala after her Sun Seeker name being U’ralhana Odh, dearest is also the most common pet name Yugiri has for her, aside from having the privilege of calling her only by her first name for her Sun Seeker side

Her formal naming convention gives her three viable names,

U’ralhana Odh - name the Sun Seekers gave her when she was born to them, the U designates tribe affiliation, followed by her given name, the surname is her father’s first name indicating he sired her (official FFXIV Sun Seeker naming convention) together the name means Ralhana of the Drakes, daughter of Odh

Osha Tayuun - this is the name her mother gave her before she left to rejoin the Moon Keepers in The Black Shroud, she never learned it was hers until the day they finally met well into her adulthood as the WoL, because Moon Keepers are matriarchal unlike Sun Seekers, the last name is also her mother’s while the given name is a normal girls name (i also made it start with O and try to sound similar to her mother’s first name, Oghii)

Vaste Valescoere - she gave herself this name after once being taught a few ancient Garlean (irl Classical Roman Latin) words by a traveling scholar from what little outside contact the tribe saw, once she made the decision to leave to be an adventurer forever she was banished for forsaking tradition, thus she felt she died and needed a new name - this was the first name i gave her because when i first started playing FFXIV i didnt know the races had naming conventions so i just wanted something that sounded like a fantasy name ( i literally just looked two words up in my latin-english dictionary fddjfd)

2. What is the color of your OC’s eyes/hair/skin?

Blue hair with natural black highlights, green eyes, light skin but not pale- all generally Moon Keeper traits but when i was starting out i knew none of that and did what i wanted, her bizarre appearance once i decided she was from the U tribe influenced her being half Sun Seeker and Moon Keeper 

3. How tall is your OC?

5′2 but only because i thought the CC slider meant 5′6 (cuz it lists height in inches and i didnt bother to check ujhghugj shes sometimes embarrassed by her height especially standing next to much taller people, shes still taller than Yugiri though so she enjoys the slight height advantage

4. What is a noticeable physical attribute of your OC?

Her hair, then her eyes

5. What does your OC normally wear? What would your OC wear on a special night?

She’s usually in her armor with her current spear glamoured to appear weaker than it actually is because the simple style reminds her of what she used as a teen before leaving home:

^^ necklace and earrings are different but the second necklace is more typical

im weak for the one arm/shoulder armored while the other isnt or not as much aesthetic

For more special/formal occasions w/o armor she likes wearing this:

6. What is one word you would use to describe your OC’s appearances?

Every time she shows up there’s something dramatic (but not always over the top) happening

7. Does your OC have any markings, such as a birthmark or a scar?

She has the usual pinkish red stripes on her cheeks all Sun Seeker women are born with, in addition to a scar across her nose bridge she got during her huntress rite of passage when a sundrake struck her face (this rite is also how she got the black marks under her eyes afterwards, originally i just liked how they looked and made a backstory for them because the game lists them as tribal tattoos in CC)

The scar i gave her in CC as a ref to Guts from Berserk cuz his is similar (she obtained hers very young like he did as well):

8. How does your OC talk/what does your OC’s voice sound like?

i chose the CC voice 2 option for female miqo’te (you can kinda hear what it sounds like here and here @2:10 since i cant find a video with just vc2 range) and im happy with it (to me it kinda sounds like Rie Tanaka? as far as i know the CC voice VAs have never been revealed so i cant say for certain, i know shes done voicing for FFXIV as Kan E Senna and Sadu and plays it as a huge fan tho) as far as how she talks all Miqo’te are said to have their own racial language unique to them that no other race can accurately pronounce or understand due to all the hissing, purring, and spitting of certain sounds (bc theyre cat ppl lol) so she’ll roll/purr her Rs, hiss her Hs etc.

On top of this system i imagine the U have their own dialect accent too which i hc sounds closer to Xhosa and Zulu mixed if a cat tried to speak it,so it gets complex! Her native accent however becomes slightly toned down the longer she spends away from the U as the WoL, but its still present and obvious enough

9. What does your OC’s bedroom look like?  His/her living area?

the only description valid for this is an organized mess lmao

10. What does your OC keep in a special drawer?

anything small enough to fit given to her by people from her past or those she cares about that linger on her mind, shes somewhat sentimental sometimes

—-

Gan Arulaq

1. Lizard boi has no nicknames that stick outside of being called Bataar playfully by his parents esp his mother bc he liked playing pretend as a heroic figure when he was little (i was aware when i made him in CC that Xaela use Mongolian names and are based a lot on Mongol culture of the 14th century so he follows this convention)

His first name is Mongolian for Steel, his last name denotes his tribe following the game’s convention, simple

2. he is a tan/reddish brown color for skin with black hair and natural red highlights in a short swept back style (his eyes are also green bc i wanted to see what Vaste’s eye color would look like on a Xaela model, tdlr they glow!)

3. Gan is 7′1! the tallest of my characters period, he sees everything from up there and it creates some hilarious and awkward situations (poor guy and most doors, rip)

4. his eyes and his big curved horns

5. he loves wearing primarily clothes that expose a lot of his chest and skin in general because thats most natural to what he wore on the steppe valley back home (as well as being a little vain about his physical appearance and liking the feel of freedom in less clothes) however he can and will wear regular clothes, though in this case his fashion sense is terrible

6. when he appears you can associate him with change (succession is another word that comes to mind given his role to Vaste)

7. with the exception of minor scars from martial training and small accidents he’s the picture of normal for a Xaela

8. i actually cant remember what CC voice i gave him by number, but he does have a somewhat deep, rough voice fitting for a boisterous young man while also being capable of sentimentality and some wisdom, he has a handsome voice, he speaks bluntly but full of feeling and often truth

9. his room would be very organized and everything is neatly assigned to its place as well as being primarily spartan in layout/decoration, he’s used to practicality and function from his childhood on the steppe, lots of trinkets from nature, weapons and trophies of victory etc.

10. a ring given to him by his mother carved from sheep bone, it was her archery thumb ring

[footloose-travel]

Wyoming, Truly Awe Inspiring

        I will try not to gush ad nauseam, but I LOVE WYOMING. Who knew how much there was to see, how beautiful the landscapes and how real “American” it is? Not me, that’s for sure. As much as I liked South Dakota I pretty much thought Wyoming would be about the same. The terrain goes on forever and at times while driving it was mesmerizing to see the same rolling hills and plains. But then, when we reached Wind River Canyon we perked up and ended up driving through the canyon 4 times to get photos and just admire the beauty. Even now at this time in history there is a real old town western feel about Wyoming, and being from the east I never experienced it like this.         Every day and in every place we went we got a strong feeling of pride from the people and felt how much they loved living where they were and being from Wyoming. They always talked about the history and I learned and saw first hand what I had only read about or seen in movies. We went to various museums and in Thermopolis we spent several hours in an incredible Dinosaur museum that also had digs you could go on to collect more bones. So the history goes back way further than the old West. Almost every town, no matter how small has an interesting local museum. In the larger towns they all boast about something to do with Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Either they used to drink in their local “Hole In The Wall” Bar or stayed in one of the old hotels or gambled in the town saloon. We even went to a refurbished prison in Laramie that was the only prison Butch Cassidy never escaped from. We saw original clothing, housing, forts, photos and drove across the Continental Divide. We saw how the first people came from the east traveling over the South Pass, the Oregon Trail and other places during the gold rush. Everything is documented, recorded and preserved and we spent days emerging ourselves in the history. We also watched the Butch Cassidy movie to see how accurate it was to the real thing and enjoyed it even more.         Driving through from place to place we had two close encounters with almost hitting a deer. Fortunately we have deer whistles on the truck and they really do work. The second time I saw the deer step out and it’s foot was still raised ready to cross the road when it stopped and stayed still when it heard the whistles and stared right at us. There truly are places where you see the deer and antelope roaming, some buffalo, and of course lots of horses, sheep, cattle and even prairie dogs. All of the animals are highly respected. The weather has been hot, sunny and dry. The town of Centennial by The Snowy Mountains got 12” of snow in June so we were up quite high, around 7000 feet. It was cool to still see snow in places during July and it was a reminder of how cold and snowy in gets in the winter.         Flaming Gorge, that straddles the states of Wyoming and Utah is a magnificent sight and really does have a fire-like look in many places. Due to eons of erosion, volcanic activity, makeup of the strata, overall climate, etc. each area is unique with a different look. The Bighorn Mountains had us up to 10,000 feet and the temperature went from 84 degrees to 57. In the Bighorn Canyon National Recreation Area we stood in awe at the Devil Canyon Overlook and drove through looking for the wild mustangs and big horn sheep that roam protected on the range. Another day we drove from Sheridan to Lovell through the Big Horn Mountains which was rather exhilarating with the 10 degree downgrades while hauling our travel trailer. Fortunately John is an excellent driver and deserves extra points for getting us through alive. Even at the campground we stayed that night other travelers we spoke to were impressed.         In Cody (named after Wild Bill Cody) we spent a couple days in an impressive museum that had several wings dedicated to various parts of the history ranging from Wild Bill, Natural History, Fire Arms and Art, to the Plains Indians. We spent one evening at a dinner/show/rodeo that was recommended to us at the campground. The food was really tasty, western style and the entertainment was a local 3 piece band that was very talented. The guitar player was exceptional and his charisma on stage and keeping things going was quite entertaining. I’m not a fan of country western music but these guys did a good job and were skilled musicians. The rodeo was a lot of fun and included tie-down roping, team roping, saddle bronc riding, bull riding and barrel racing. It was really fun and exciting to view it live. Now I can truly say this is not my first rodeo. Everyone had a great time and we enjoyed all the people we met too.         Right before the 4th of July while we were still in South Dakota the slider on our travel trailer broke and would not retract. John tried to fix it out based on what he was told initially by a technician, but that didn’t work, although we were able to figure out how to manually push it in so we could drive with it. Since we are still under warranty he called the manufacturer and they agreed to send us the part we needed to get it fixed. Because it was a long weekend holiday we had the part shipped afterwards to a campground we booked by the RV repair place. It was supposed to ship overnight but it ended up going by truck and taking several days. We were baffled by this until we showed up at the repair place and saw the box containing the part was quite large and weighed almost 40 pounds. Turns out they sent us the wrong part! Fortunately the folks at the repair place were really on the ball and got on the phone with the manufacturer to determine exactly what we needed. The parts by this time were once again to be shipped overnight but ended up not arriving until a day later than expected. We had to regroup a few times through this fiasco and also keep ourselves from rising blood pressure and overall annoyance. Our lifestyle is not always fun and games and there are times when shit happens. But we don’t let it deter us from having a good time. Did I mention I love Wyoming?         For all the photos see John and Charlotte’s flickr sites. Just click on either of our names.

[tontontonberry]

Let me tell you about my girl Nemeia.

Tiefling bard. Red skin, gold eyes, big floofy mane of black hair, nearly black ram’s horns. Four foot eight. Her hair and her clothes give her the appearance of a piece of cotton fluff or a wooly sheep.

She’s the Devil’s Tongue variant of tiefling, so she knows Vicious Mockery. Tiny fluffball insults you and you Suffer. :D

Her family is semi-nomadic, traveling around in a caravan. They do some trading in herbs, textiles, and things, and they also do some entertainment. Music, dancing, magic tricks, that sort of thing. At least a good half of the family is family by adoption. Aunts, uncles, and cousins are just as likely to be not-tiefling as they are to be tiefling. Even her little brother, a tiefling with horns similar to hers, is not a biological relation. Family, to her, is who you want it to be!

She is very self-confident, but in a very soft and sweet way. She knows she is hot shit! But since she knows it already she doesn’t feel the need to rub it in people’s faces. 

She also is a big believer in being nice to people. First off, why not? And secondly, her parents have taught her that the best and bravest thing to be in a world that can sometimes be cruel is to be kind. To say “no, I will not let this change me and harden me!” She has taken those lessons to heart.

Her charisma is 19 and at level 3 she got expertise in Persuasion. She talk real good.

Her intelligence, on the other hand...is a 7. Investigation check? Haha, nope. History? Pff. Math? Dear gods, she’s horrible at math. She could haggle really well if only she was any good at knowing when the price is particularly high or what a 10% discount is.

She has no respect for currency systems. She’s like, what is this shit? I can’t eat it? It has no value except what people give it through government fiat??? This circle of metal with a face on it doesn’t work in this country because they use a metal circle with a different face??? What the fuck??? Heaven forbid she ever end up somewhere like America where the money is paper and isn’t backed up by the gold standard.

Since she can’t overthrow currency and capitalism (yet), she does have money. But she would much rather hand someone a gold piece than figure out the change. Saves her the trouble of maths, and they could probably use it anyway! Found some money while adventuring and need to split it up with the party? Eh, she’ll eyeball the piles of money by size and color. Fuck counting. If she absolutely has to convert between gold, silver, and copper pieces, she has a carefully folded piece of parchment on which her brother wrote out the conversion rates.

Speaking of her brother! He is six years her junior, so when she’s 18 and starting her adventures, he is 12. She found him when he was four and she was ten. He was just a small child living on the street and she promptly decided he needed looking after. She looked for his parents! She really tried! But he didn’t remember having any, and no one claimed any guardianship over him. So she brought him home! A baby brother, she was so excited! Her parents were confused, but delighted, and after doing some investigating of their own to make sure they weren’t running off with someone else’s kid they adopted him officially.

I rolled stats for him. They’re ridiculously good. His intelligence is 19. All his other stats other than wisdom (which is the same) and charisma (where he has an 11) are higher than hers.

He is a very sweet, very earnest Nerd. He wants to be a wizard! He’s managed to learn Dancing Lights and Message! He’s an avid reader and will read whatever he can get his hands on. Sometimes, if he’s being naughty, he’ll hide from his chores and go read somewhere instead.

Nemeia is incredibly proud of him and will gladly gush about what a wonderful and talented and sweet little brother she has at the smallest opportunity.

[bogwithanlforluck-blog]

Stalker Songs, for Your Valentine

Although folks have posted online their favorite “stalker songs” from the pop/R&B category before, I don’t think we can ever get enough of these treasures. So here are some more. A lucky #13 of them, at that. 

This list evolved after I heard a certain song in the car while driving recently (2019). I thought, “This is a perfect stalker song.” Of course that thought led me to ponder what other songs might make the list of “Greatest Stalker Songs” in pop/R&B music. I enlisted the support of a friend of mine, Scott (known here as “headonaplatterboy”), and together we compiled a completely incomplete list of stalker songs, which I have decided to rank according to my own thoughts, experiences, and tastes. Thus, what you see here is the work of two people who know a smattering of good music, and a whole lot of not-so-good-music, but we both believe that stalker songs happen to fall on the “good music” end of the spectrum. We both also happen to agree that this list is a perfect Valentine’s Day gift for any of you Valentine’s Day cynics out there, like Scott and myself. What do you think? Please consider the list — go online and listen to any ones you don’t know — and then add your contributions if you so desire. You can even re-order my list according to your own tastes.

13. “Hungry Like the Wolf” — Duran Duran: Here he comes, with a “howl” and a “whine,” he’s “after you”! Yes, that’s Simon LeBon of Duran Duran doing his best to nab his object of desire. Good luck, wolfman. I’ve heard that when the band originally tried to pitch this song, DJs and the like were like, “Meh,” but in the end, it became Duran Duran’s first hit, and a top 10 hit at that. The predatory nature of the song helps — it relentlessly pushes towards its goal, ever on the hunt; just like the song itself, it does not give up, stinky and all (“smell like I sound”), in its quest for the Top 40. And it made it.

12. “One Way or Another” — Blondie: Girl power, my friends! And girl-with-an-agenda-power, at that. Deborah Harry stands tall as one of the premium women in rock, and she has left a definite, blonde-colored imprint on rock history. However, in this song, she simply rocks, and she gives her listeners an idea of how determined she is. This song even has a snarky little side-bit about catching the object of her prey only to “give [it] the slip,” because she can chase it down, play with it, then dump it. Great stalking technique and certainly a plus for women turning the tables on creepy guys.

11. “I Want You” — Elvis Costello: Ouch. This one starts out as a beautiful ballad, then a couple minutes in, a jangly guitar chord changes the scene entirely. That ballad turns into a nasty, twisted, ever-obsessive rant on a love gone astray, and the singer’s need to get that love back. The chorus line “I want you” sounds so desperate and hostile towards the end that it’s hard to hear without cringing. Costello knows all the tricks on writing great songs; he does not fail here.

10. “I Put a Spell On You” — Screamin’ Jay Hawkins: Love this — perfect stalker material. The lyrics contain almost what I would think of as the FBI profile for “stalker,” but never mind that. Hawkins sings the song with sorcerous mastery — no escaping the voodoo magic here. His voice draws out the menace and the all-encompassing, Halloween-like “I’m Coming To Get You” vibe. In short, this one gives me chills, so the stalker threat is real, my friends.

9. “I Will Possess Your Heart”— Death Cab For Cutie: This song has a repetitive assuredness that kind of jangles one’s nerves (mine at least). Ben Gibbard sings nearly every line of the song as an address to his “love,” so that the song takes on an almost hypnotic effect: a siren tune that impels the listener to “believe me,” in a magical sense. The bass background tells a more sinister story — it has an ominous quality, and with the addition of the piano — the minor keys playing on top of that bass — well, something wicked this way comes, no matter the reassurances the singer conveys. Good freaky-factor there, and the band name helps.

8. “This Tornado Loves You” — Neko Case: A song that has all the innocence and earnestness of a crush behind it, except for the fact that the crush is literal: it’s a tornado that chases down the object of the singer’s favor with one of the most destructive forces on the planet. Bodies, houses, fields, livelihoods are all sacrificed in the search for that hidden someone. Case does a nice job of playing the nice girl, but in the end, she’s a tornado. One heck of a destructive stalker, there.

7. “Run For Your Life” — The Beatles: No pop/R&B “best of” list can contain a song without the Beatles, because the Beatles covered all the bases, and because they covered them expertly. John Lennon sounds utterly monomaniacal in this song — no room for argument or stepping out of line, because if so, “That’s the end, little girl.” The “little girl” characterization does not escape me; definitely Lennon weakens his prey by reducing her size and power. And the death threat that pervades this song gives it that extra “ooh, scary stalker!” edge, so kudos (yet again) to the Beatles for making the Stalker Chart with a quality entry.

6. “Don’t You Want Me” — Human League: This duet between lovers on the quits gives us the movie-version of a possessive maniac much like that in “Run For Your Life” who cannot conceive of the fact that his girlfriend is hitting the high road. A whole story appears here: the woman admits that the stalker helped turn her from a waitress into a star, but in her attempt to leave him and “live her life on her own,” her onetime savior turns stalker. He sings, “You know I don’t believe you when I hear that you won’t see me/….You’d better change your mind/ You’d better change it back or we will both be sorry!” The man’s hysteria increases as the song goes along, and as listeners, we get a bit frightened for the young woman’s future. Good stalking here; well done in duet-form — also a great, classic dance-tune that reached #2 in the U.S.

5. “Little Red Riding Hood” — Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs:  This song gets a hundred gold stars for various moments of glory throughout. Sam the Sham goes for high drama in his delivery of the song, for one thing. At first, he sounds just like a cool guy on the street seeing a pretty woman pass by — “You sure are looking good” sung to a slinky, Kool Kat beat — and he goes on to warn this lady that a big, bad wolf might try to snatch her. Then Sam goes on to inform her that he’s not the bad wolf, at least not outwardly: he’s got his sheep-suit on, until he can be trusted. And then, somewhere thereafter, he turns ‘Baaaad” (sung like a sheep). C���mon, people, this song is genius, and a near-perfect example of stalker self-delusion in its proud revelation of the creep’s expert methods.

4. “(I Am) Superman” — REM: Admittedly, this is the song that started me doing some stalking of my own: i.e., finding the best stalking songs I could imagine (with the help of Scott). So, REM gets a relatively high ranking here because their stalking prowess is readily evident in this song. Every phrase of the music ends in a full stop, with the effect that listeners just cannot deny the dominance of this self-professed Superman. Written and delivered with such confidence and finality, I find it hard to argue that Michael Stipe is not Superman here. And he can see everything, the stalking madman. That’s a strong declaration, but I believe it.  

3. “Vehicle” — Ides of March: You want a stalker song that has it all? “Vehicle” is your Uber, no pun intended. This song includes a go-for-broke introduction with a fantastic horn blast, plus a beat to get down to, but don’t forget: there’s danger here. This song brings us the “friendly stranger in the black sedan” (sounds like a hearse to me) who’s putting on the breaks beside you, rolling down the window, and trying to get you in that car with “pictures, candy” and the “lovable man” driving. Yikes! However, let’s be reverent. This is a religious stalker, because, as he puts it, in near gospel-like vocalization: “I want you; I need you; I want to got to have you child: Great God in Heaven you know I looooove you!” Bang!

2. “14th Street” — Laura Cantrell: Ha! Do not be fooled by the sweetness and shyness conveyed in this song. Despite the beautiful melody and Cantrell’s gentle, charming vocals, listeners cannot ignore the fact that “14th Street” is about a woman following her object of desire stealthily down the road. Sounds like stalking to me. The song makes it all the way to #2 on my list because it describes the potential stalker in all of us: at some points in all our lives, we just want to know what those whom we love are doing, but we don’t want them to know that we want to know.

1. “Every Breath You Take” — The Police: This is the G.O.A.T. of stalker songs because it is so sneaky. Sting may not have written it as a veiled love song, but it came out that way, to the extent that the public in 1983 snatched it up as one of the most romantic pieces of all time. Frequently played at weddings, unendingly played on the radio, one would not believe, perhaps, that this song is about a jealous lover surveilling his ex. Because the stalker’s guilt is so completely masked by the beautiful melody and seemingly loving, protective lyrics, this song ranks as the #1 stalker song on my list — it is the most successful stalker song, because to this day, it remains undercover as a favorite love song.

NB: I have left out several great songs -- some music-expert friends suggested a couple of George Jones songs, though since I am sticking to Pop/R&B, Ol’ Possum isn’t on my list -- but his stalking expertise is worth notice. Just let me know what you think of the list; what you’d add. It’d be great to cue up all these monsters on Valentine’s Day to provide the soundtrack for the holiday!