#thinking of making a Tarbell to go with him

[puhpandas]

made a homemade Rab sticker to glue on the cover of my sketchbook!!

[hearts401]

"do NOT ask me about ggy or patient 46 because i WILL begin ranting"

You see, I am incapable of ever listening to anyone, ever, so I must ask about GGY and patient 46

I have absolutely no knowledge of modern FNaF lore; I have not read any of the books (something I plan to fix whenever my bank account stops bleeding) so you're gonna have to do some heavy lifting here and tell me all about it

Ooh boy rubs my hands together

okay so im gonna start with ggy because i love Tony and Ellis. (i dont have the book in front of me tho so this isnt gonna be 100% every detail)

GGY is about a kid named Tony Becker who has an assignment in his 6th grade english class. He has to write a fictional mystery with side plots that tie into the main plot. He chooses to do this with his two friends. They use pen names whenever they do their english projects together (sobs and wails and cries into my hands) and Tony picked Tarbell, and his friends were Boots and Dr. Rabbit (or Rab for short).

Tony wants to start working on their project, but Boots and Rab want to go to the fazcade. Tony gives in when rab backs up boots (tony sees boots as immature and worries about outgrowing him and hanging out more with rab) tony wanders around the fazcade trying to find inspo, and then notices someone named GGY with top scores on some of the games. when he asks other people about it, they tell him the scores are seemingly impossible, but when he asks a staff member, he's told they haven't been hacked.

At some point he makes an online blog to ask about it and a girl he'd talked to in the fazcade asks him to meet her. she tells him that she thinks this is more than just high scores, and that he should stay out of it.

Oh also freddy keeps watching tony and at some point begins following him.

Tony finds out that GGY has a hacked party pass (or it was like a fun pass or smth) that gives them access to much more than it should, working almost like a security card.

Tony then finds out one of the school counselors has gone missing, and he sneaks into the librarian's office to learn more about it. he finds out two other counselors have also gone missing, all of them having gone to the pizzaplex before disappearing.

tony writes his paper and gives it to Rab and Boots to look over, and when they come back the next day, they've changed it into a fantasy story. And GGY is labled as the wizard's favorite apprentice, rather than someone getting high scores on arcade games.

tony is upset with rab and boots and begins calling htem by their actual names.

Rab is Greg, Boots is Ellis.

tony is also in trouble for sneaking into the librarian's office and using her laptop, so he has detention shelving books.

Greg come and offers to take him to the pizzaplex when he's done, and it's kind of implied he killed him there.

again i have bad memory and i dont have the book in front of my so anyone can feel free to correct anythign i got wrong or missed

now onto patient 46 who's from the therapy tapes in sb.

this'll be undeniably easier because i can just listen to the tapes. patient 46 is also not confirmed to be gregory, its just a theory, so im just gonna call them 46.

its important to note that 46 does not speak.

everything here is things implied to have been nonverbally communicated to the therapist.

Tape 2:

It starts with the therapist talking about how the day is nice, but 46 doesnt like the light, so the therapist draws the blinds. she then comments on how 46 is not talking to her today, and says that she gets reviews from patients, and when 46 doesn't let her help them, she gets bad reviews. she tells 46 she could get in trouble and get put in timeout, which 46 finds funny.

Tape 4:

New therapist is here, she asks if 46 is going to talk to her, and they dont reply. she asks whats wrong, and they gesture to the flowers. the therapist comments on them being particularly fragrant and moves them. The therapist then comments on 46 staring at something, and says they're "amazingly alert." she says shed like to have 46 tell her about themself, but 46 does not. the therapist instead chooses to look through their notes. she also comments on the chair not fitting 46, but its not specified if its too big or too small. she then asks if 46 is bothered by a new therapist, but 46 doesnt seem surprised or confused at all. the therapist says shes surprised by whats in 46's notes. she says they have a "rebellious side" and a knack for computers, and explains the word phenom to them. the tape ends with her asking if 46 considers themself a hacker

tape 6:

new therapise again! she tells 46 shes already read their files and knows what theyve worked on. 46 asks for a candy, and she gives one to them, taking one for herself as well. she says she wants to start with 46's parents, and claims it was tragic but she doesnt think 46 has processed it emotionally. she says they wrote it like they had read it off of a book. (her exact words are they wrote an objective rather than a subjective narrative, but 46 didnt know what that meant.) she says 46 spends a lot of time alone and is good at self-dialogue, which she explains is "asking urself questions and getting answers" she tells them to try asking themself how they feel about what happened to them. she tells them to let themself be upset about it so they can let it go.

tape 8:

same therapist as 6! she asks 46 if theyve thought about what they talked about. 46 had told them their past had made them sad and scared. the therapist asks if they had written down exactly what made them feel that way. she then says she works with many people who respond to tragedy differently. she asks 46 if their fantasies would be different had this tragedy not happened to them.

Tape 13:

new therapist again! she says when shes getting to know a client, she likes to find out abt their hobbies. when she doesnt get a reply, she asks if they like sports. 46 tells her they like to watch sports, but not play them. and that they like to stay inside. the therapist then reluctantly tells 46 that their previous therapists have gone missing. except one who was found dead, and they said her body looked to be mangled by machinery. the therapist also comments that 46 doesn't look concerned about it. she jokes about watching her back, which 46 finds funny.

Tape 14:

same therapist as 13. she asks if 46 knows about the pizzaplex, and says the technicians who work there know them. theyve seen what they think is 46 on the security cameras. they say 46 was accused of hacking their systems. the therapist says that the hacks are causing tons of problems, but that there's no solid proof it was 46, and 46 finds it funny that the techs are having issues. she says she finds it weird that 46 would spend time in such a busy, crowded place despite their loner attitude. she asks if its the electronics that 46 likes. she also says theyve designed programs that talk to them and repeat phrases. she says it asks them questions and prompts for responses, like their own little therapist. she said at first she had thought they were talking to themself, but it seems more like they were talking to someone else. she asks who it was.

Tape 15:

same therapist as 13+14. she starts with asking if 46 wants to do an ink blot test. she shows them an image, and 46 asks to hold it. 46 says it reminds them of a mask. the therapist asks if 46 likes the idea of being disguised, and how they make you invisible. she says being invisible lets you get away with anything, and asks 46 if they like that idea. she then moves on to something else, telling 46 that it seems theyve been talking to someone else. she says the techs think that its someone trying to lure 46 away, or manipulate them. the therapist moves to where she can see 46's eyes, and says she got something different from the communications. she accuses 46 of manipulating someone, rather than being manipulated. she says they were recorded on the security cameras with someone else. she says that it looks like the person theyre with has rabbit ears, which 46 finds amusing.

Tape 16:

Same therapist as 13+14+15. she says shes gotten another message from the pizzaplex that says that theres a glitch in the system that makes the animatronics more eerie than entertaining. she says the glitch spread system-wide and infected all the machines. she also says it was traced back to 46. she says the glitch broadcasted a dangerous message. she also says that when the techs were trying to fix it, the source shifted. she says that the glitch changed from a glitch and became a set of sub-routines that were made to do exactly what the glitch was doing. (which basically means it stopped just being a glitch and became part of the system?? i think?? idk shit abt computers bruh) when 46 does not reply, she presses, saying she is on their side and wont tell anyone what is told to her during the session and that the techs have no proof it was 46, so theyre not in trouble. when 46 doesnt reply still, she brings up their past. 46 refuses to look at her, but she continues. she says it doesnt matter if they look at the floor, because nothing they told her about their parents was true. she says they had great parents, and a great childhood. she asks 46 why they lied, and tells them to look at her. she then says she understands why 46 would be upset about the confrontation, and says they can come back to this another day. the last line she says is "you're shaking your head like that's not going to happen."

UHM YEAH IM NORMAL ABOUT THEM LOL.

i have a lot of thoughts on both of these parts and i personally believe 46 is Gregory. but if i dumped all my thoughts we'd be here all day so have this long ass explanation instead

[timtimtara]

Finished my first watch of the live action Avatar The Last Airbender series. I'm definitely going to be watching this a few times.

Initial thoughts after the season 1 finale is that I'm impressed by the level of love shown to the original series. The changes they made to the story for it to translate to 8 live action episodes weren't that bad. I tried to stay away from all the fan grumblings about this series so I wouldn't be looking for faults and I'm glad I did. I was able to see it without someone else's opinions clouding my judgment.

I liked that we got to see more of Azula's descent into madness. Ozai really was a horrible parent on top of being a garbage human being. I think the live action really highlighted just how horribly Azula was treated by Ozai and just how young she really is to have to deal with his mindgames. She really had absolutely zero positive support under Ozai's influence.

I enjoyed the additional focus on the past Avatars outside of Roku in this one. Kyoshi and Kuruk are such fascinating characters on their own. I look forward to seeing more of them in future seasons.

The casting on this series was really well done. The younger cast especially was delightful in their joy. They really hammered home just how overwhelmed they felt becoming child soldiers in a madman's war.

Gordon Cormier as Aang did really well depicting Aang's heartbreak and loneliness as the last of the Airbenders. Aang as a character has always been about the tragedy of being the last and how one learns to be hopeful on the face of that tragedy. His Aang really made me think about how much he struggles being the sole source of Air Nomad culture and he's 12, so there's so much he just doesnt know or experienced. I look forward to seeing how his Aang grows into his role as the Avatar.

Kiawentiio Tarbell as Katara just made me love her so much. Katara has always been one of my favorites because she's so determined and hopeful about life. I loved seeing a Katara who was just learning how to be herself, learning her powers, and just being a badass by holding her own against the forces that wanted her to be less than herself. She's gonna be amazing when she comes into her own. I can't wait to see it.

Sokka, my beloved. What can I say that isn't just me gushing about how much I love him and relate to his struggles as the elder sibling with so much responsibility on his shoulders. Sokka is the character that makes the world of Avatar so relatable. So thank you Ian Ousley for being a Sokka that showed him at his most loveable and hard headed and self doubting and annoying and absolutely the bravest warrior of the Southern Water Tribe. Ousley's Sokka is a gift, imo. He understood where Sokka's determination comes from and he did a great job depicting everything that makes Sokka who he is. Even when he's being an annoying little shit, he's just so...Sokka. I need more Sokka in my life, is all I'm saying.

Zuko. My goodness, Zuko. Dallas Liu is a phenomenal Zuko. He embodied the determination and internal conflict that is Zuko so well. And he remembered to be funny! Zuko is such a moody little teenager trying to be a strong leader and Liu did such a good job at showing all aspects of Zuko's character. And his relationship with Iroh!

Omg, Iroh, you break my heart. Paul Sun-Hyung Lee was the perfect Uncle Iroh. He was the elder statesman who'd seen too much war and had lost too much in it. I felt like you could see how much he regretted his lack of empathy for the people his nation warred against until it was too late. He's a man who has many regrets in his life and trying to guide his nephew towards being the Fire Lord the world needs is the one small thing he can do to make up for his mistakes. Also, I didn't realize hearing "Leaves from the Vine" would have me legit crying each time they played it. Well played Netflix, well played.

Which brings me to the music. Thank you for keeping the iconic background music because this series wouldn't have been what it is without those audio beats. The music of Avatar is what makes so many of the dramatic moments what they are. The Avatar theme song has always given me chills and they used it really well here.

There were only a few points that I didn't think were well dome, but in the overall story that we got told, they weren't that distracting. I'm sure I'll have some grumblings I'll share as I do rewatches.

[kenobihater]

so, uh... netflix avatar certainly is a show, huh? i just finished episode 1 and i'm gonna ramble on about it below. blacklist "#len watches natla" or "natla spoilers" if you either don't wanna see this shit or you don't want spoilers.

fair warning that i was relatively neutral going into the show, but episode 1 was... hmm. i'm still struggling to formulate words on it. i didn't love it, but it wasn't shyamalan levels of bad by any means. i'm gonna hop right into episode 2 after this post bc i've heard the pilot and the finale are the weakest episodes and i genuinely wanna give it a fair chance before i cast judgment.

so, they open with the air nomad genocide. i knew this going in, but it certainly sets a Tone, a Tone that does NOT feel like avatar. like, i understand they wanted to elevate the level of maturity a bit and make things more serious, but was it rlly necessary to see a shit ton of air nomads get fireballed to death, culminating in gyatso getting burned alive trying to protect a room of children, who also presumably get incinerated?? they didn't show that part, instead doing a hard cut to katara waterbending a century later (resulting in EXTREME whiplash for me), but them violently dying is the only way that ends.

also, minor quibble: the firebending looked normal to me, but the general who killed gyatso said smthn like "you might have beaten me any other day, but today we have the power of the comet!" but their bending doesn't look very different from zuko's bending later? it's a little more flamey ig, but in s3 when ozai gets juiced up the motherfucker is out here destroying whole forests from his airship.

onto the acting. gordon cormier's portrayal felt a little too rehearsed and theatrical rather than natural, but he's a kid and acting is hard so i'm def gonna cut him some slack, and he does seem pretty happy and earnest, even if his delivery is a bit forced. kiawentiio tarbell is pretty good, but her dialogue left a bit to be desired, which isn't on her and i'll complain about later. ian ousley gave the best performance imo, tho ymmv bc ik there's some controversy around his heritage that i don't feel i have the right to get into due to tribal registration being a complex topic, blood quantum being awful, and me being white. gran gran was barely there and just exposited everywhere in a weird callback to the og intro, so i don't really feel like she's that important even tho i liked her casting. uncle iroh... i'm not sure. he wasn't too prevalent, which is understandable this early on. i liked paul sun-hyung lee's warmth, but don't have much to say otherwise yet. and then there's dallas james liu. i think his acting was pretty solid, at least on the level of dev patel's performance (which i swear is a compliment bc he was the only good part of shyamalan's dumpster fire of a film imo). i think the issue i have with the performance is down to the writing, which i guess i'll get into now bc it's my biggest issue with episode 1.

the dialogue flow was mid, and there was a bit of info dumping from gyatso in his scene with aang which i found distracting. speaking of info dumping, gran gran was just kinda there to explain the last hundred yrs to aang and then have zero interactions with her grandchildren before they flew off, which was dumb.

still on the topic of writing: i mentioned the tone set by the opener, and i think that's bad, but it also fucked up the pacing by not starting at the same point the og did. by the end of the episode they shoehorned in the trip to the southern air temple with like 11 mins left (i checked) and so that made aang's grief triggering the avatar state feel rushed. i also thought the flashback to gyatso's earlier dialogue when aang saw his corpse was unnecessary. like bitch, i watched that 30 mins ago, i remember it fine! by the end, aang seemed waaaay more driven than he did in s1 of the original, almost as self-confident as he was in s3. like, he accepted being the avatar real quick. i'm pretty sure he'll display a bit more uncertainty later in the season (at least, i hope he does), but that still felt off to me.

my biggest complaint about the writing is zuko. i KNOW he's a brat, i am well aware of that as a lifelong zuko girlie, but was him trying to kill sokka necessary??? he was literally about to throw a fireball at him when he was lying defeated in the snow before aang stepped in. he also commanded his soldiers to burn the village to the ground at one point. i understand he's a villain and that they're attempting to corner the Prestige TV market here, so they've decided to make him grittier. i don't like it, though. in the cartoon, zuko is driven in his awful quest, but he's also honorable - in the village he nods his head in agreement when aang asks if he'll leave the village alone if aang goes with him. that little moment showed his honor, his true honor, peeking through. also in the cartoon, he's really bad at finding the avatar despite being very skilled in combat. i don't know how they're gonna have him show up very much in this season if he's gonna be more of a ruthless asshole tbh.

overall, i'm left just kinda confused with the tone and character writing of the show. i'm going to watch the whole season because it's only 8 episodes and i genuinely hope it improves somewhat, but i'd give it either a 6 or a 6.5/10, i can't quite decide.

[sogno-ao3]

a list of named books in still waters

writing this because it is late and i am going crazy with work and wanted to write this as a diversion--won't include jane eyre and huckleberry finn for spoilery reasons!

--

The Jungle, Upton Sinclair

Ah, the first book we see in Still Waters and one that Mollie wonders if Tommy has read. It is evocative of Tommy's own dirty business; Sinclair writes about the violent and unsanitary meat-packing industry and how the main character is a decent man but his circumstances force him into less-than-moral doings...?

North and South, Elizabeth Gaskell and Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen

Contributes to the feeling for Mollie's inexperience with romance--Pride and Prejudice is certainly one of the canonical romance greats, North and South in the third tier...?

The History of the Standard Oil Company, Ida Tarbell

Mostly just to be evocative of Tommy's penchant for empire building, and something that he'd probably read.

Wuthering Heights, Emily Brontë

To be frank, nothing is really going on here... I suppose one can draw parallels between Heathcliff and Tommy, but that would make this romance rather monstrous...? Hate to disappoint, but revenge plots are not the focus of this story.

House of Mirth, Edith Wharton

Nothing of note, except period accuracy.

A Doctor's Education: a Guide to Medical Schools

A book that I made up.

A Doll's House, Henrik Ibsen

I admit, a little too on the nose, but too perfect to resist as a play and its thematic material--Tommy has trapped Mollie in a doll's house; further commentary on how Mollie is circumscribed by her position in society, and whether she can break out of it or not. Further hilarious references when she tries to escape the Shelby family meeting and abandons a child.

The Tempers, William Carlos Williams

Personally, I am a fan of WCW and just about died when I re-read the poem with Grace the cat--and so it was purrfect to include. Another thing I do love about WCW is that many poems can be interpreted from very surface-level to very abstract, from serious to playful--depends on your mood. This dichotomy I also try to illustrate between Tommy and Mollie.

Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad

Can you tell that I hate this book? I'm amazed that it always ends up on the top lists; writing is insipid even without the awful treatment of colonization. Again, a book that inspires differences of opinions between Tommy and Mollie.

Poems, Wilfred Owen

"Written by a war veteran" is how I imagined it was sold in stores, and Tommy just chose it, and then realized he doesn't want to relive any of that, and so neglects to read it, leaving a very chagrined Mollie to pick up the pieces.

The Education of Henry Adams, Henry Adams

Chosen for the themes of growth and change, but most importantly, it was period appropriate.

Agnes Grey, Anne Brontë

An echo to Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre. Also a bildungsroman for a young woman of a lower class.

Tenant of Wildfell Hall, Anne Brontë

Nothing too important except that it's in the Brontë family.

Poems, Emily Brontë

I don't think Emily Brontë ever published a solo book of poetry (she did publish a book with her sisters), but nonetheless, someone aggregated them and when I visited home, I discovered I had a book of her lesser-known poems. I think I had bought this book when I was in my own e-girl era... uh.... anyway, many great poems to give life to Tommy's own e-boy era.

[sparklyjojos]

THE SAIMON FAMILY CASE recaps [9/13]

In which a demon makes a move, the greatest secret of the magical world is revealed, and a boy becomes supernaturally beautiful.

--

PART 6

The first person narrator of the framing device shares a memory from May 19th, when he was in Tsuwano anticipating the next case. He was walking down Tonomachi street, a short distance behind a mother holding hands with two daughters; the three were Tsukumo Yumeji with little Emu and Nemu.

He was so wrapped up in looking at them that he didn’t notice him early enough.

He appeared in burial clothes—white kimono and pants, black prayer beads in his hand—and with the Noh mask of a white demon covering his face.

At his side was a sword.

--

The ninth murder happens right in front of Ajiro and Kirigirisu.

They’re walking down Tonomachi street, a short distance behind Tsukumo Yumeji holding hands with little Emu and Nemu.

They are so wrapped up in looking at the happy trio that they don’t notice him early enough.

A person in white hiding behind a demon mask comes out of nowhere and strikes Yumeji down with a sword.

Kirigirisu stands frozen in shock until Ajiro yells at him to call for help, himself breaking into a sprint to chase the white demon.

“Please, just hang on!” Kirigisu holds the still alive, but heavily bleeding woman. “The help is on the way!”

“...of seven stars,” Yumeji tells him with the last of her strength. “...with the Big Dipper…”

She dies on her way to the hospital.

This is the first incident in the case that was undoubtedly murder.

--

When the two detectives are being questioned by the police about Yumeji’s murder, they learn that this incident (and only this one, no other Saimon deaths) is considered an L Crime—something that can’t be revealed to the public unless through a very vague description. Ajiro knows this term well, as his own family’s murder case from 1970 is also considered an L Crime. But why Yumeji’s murder specifically?

The answer comes later when they talk to Uyama. He explains that another case has been going on simultaneously ever since the Saimon Case started. A murderer dubbed Shiroyasha (literally a “white demon”) kills people on 19th every month. Yumeji was therefore the 9th victim of both the Saimon Family Case and the Shiroyasha Case. Just looking at the dates involved, there has to be a connection between the two cases—but what is it?

--

--

Ever since Kirigirisu watched the magic show in November, he’s been practicing the art of illusion: bought the Tarbell Course in Magic, trained whenever he had some free time, and expanded his arsenal of tricks, mostly using coins and cards. Kano is a wonderful spectator, who just like him is overtaken by surprise and wonder at even simple tricks and never demands to be taught their secrets. Ajiro comments positively on his progress and whenever they have to go to Tsuwano each month, they also visit the Magic Key, a magic shop in Yamaguchi owned by Tousen Maki, Yomiko’s mother. (Kirigirisu was afraid it would be a horrible faux-pas to have a fun shopping trip when investigating a murder, but the Saimons are deeply understanding of his passion.)

Kirigirisu finds some information about the Circus in all those magic books. They were never really the best performers in any era, but they did succeed at bringing magic and circus arts together for wide audiences. There’s even an old picture showing their famous old illusion, Courtisane and Bell, in which the performer appeared and disappeared inside three giant bells, seemingly teleporting between them in an instant, like a more dramatic version of the classic Cups and Balls. The method may seem obvious to anyone who knows about there being three Tamakos, but it seems that may not be the only secret behind the illusion.

It’s astounding how so many decades later Soga Tensui still performs a variant of Soga Tenju’s trick. History truly repeats itself.

Incidentally, Maki’s late husband, Tousen Yomi, created many magic tools used by the Circus. Yomi was unfortunately the classic type of a young genius who passed away too soon. As his wife, Maki is able to tell Kirigirisu a bit more about the secrets of the show.

For example, the Dancing Demon illusion uses a mirror box in which Tensui can hide. The stagehands bring in the wooden cross, position it over him, and Tensui takes care of the rest, the hanging edge of the black cloth allowing him to progressively climb on top of the cross without being seen. Once he reveals himself and the stagehands lower the cross, in the same moment the mirror box is being lowered through the trapdoor.

Adult Koyomi’s disappearance near the end also used a mirror, which was positioned beneath the chair so that she wouldn’t be seen as she entered the trapdoor.

As for the changing portraits on the front wall of the Origami Doll Box, it had all three illustrations already attached to it on top of each other. One just had to remove a picture reaching from the trapdoor, like pulling off a calendar page. 

Yomi was also the inventor of the Magic Hands… which, as it turns out, may have been not only a tool of magic, but of murder.

--

Back in January, Tsukumo Mitama fell and drowned in the bathtub in a locked room situation. The room had a window, but iron bars wouldn’t let even a child squeeze through.

Ajiro thinks that this “accident” may have been murder. The culprit would hide outside the window, wait for Mitama, then deploy the Magic Hands through the bars and do something to make the old woman fall, perhaps yank the bath mat away from under her feet.

There’s just one problem with that reasoning: only a single pair of Magic Hands was ever made, and at the time of the murder it was in the children bedroom in Kami-Saimon. Kotensui’s actor Saimon Juku must wear the Magic Hands at all times, even during sleep, so that he’s fully used to them. The only time he takes them off is when his brother Joukei is doing his own Kotensui training (Joukei is supposed to substitute for Juku in case of an emergency, though he never actually performed in the show before and he’s nowhere near as good as his brother.) Joukei claims that Juku was sleeping with the Magic Hands at the time of the murder.

--

A month later, in February, Akio was found in the family’s pond, he and all the fish electrocuted to death by a faulty water filter. The water was dyed red with the same chemicals the family used for the show.

The miraculous change of a transparent liquid into white “milk” or red “wine”, as well as they both turning transparent when mixed, were results of simple chemical reactions. As for the magically appearing fish, it was in the tank all along, but in a separated portion near the back covered with a mirror.

By the way, the illusion with the warrior’s burning fist was also possible thanks to chemistry. The heavy glove was first soaked in water for protection, then in acetone which was set aflame.

People like Kirigirisu, who barely knows anything about chemistry thanks to his amnesia, would never be able to fully explain the secret behind such an illusion. Similarly, those who didn’t consider the use of mirrors would never figure out much of the show. Without understanding the principles and tools behind the illusion, especially those based on new scientific inventions, maybe no one would be able to unravel an illusion.

Around that time, Kirigirisu reads two books recommended by Ajiro: Juuichi-mai no toranpu and Midare karakuri, both mystery novels written by an amateur magician Awasaka Tsumao. [Incidentally, both books were released by the publishing company Geneijo. I keep forgetting that it was an actual company and not just the place from Joker.] The first of these novels actually features an explanation of how a red liquid could turn transparent.

Kirigirisu realizes that reading and watching more media related to magic could help him solve the case, especially after he and Kano watch that one episode of Columbo with a magician, in which Peter Falk’s hand is intact after seemingly being cut off with an arm guillotine in a magic shop. The secret behind the illusion (as Tousen Maki explains to Kirigirisu) is that the blade is actually L-shaped, and the magician can secretly rotate it a certain way to avoid slicing through someone’s hand. If he makes a mistake, it could result in a seriously bruised wrist… or, if one is particularly unlucky, a missing hand or even death.

Just like what happened to the victim of March 19th, Saimon Chisato.

The next incident from April 19th was Daisetsu’s death from alcohol poisoning. This too could be tied to one of the show’s illusions, Miser’s Drinks & Drops, in which a clown poured an endless stream of beer from an empty bottle. The secret here was that the beer was pumped from off-stage using a tube leading through the clown’s sleeve and into the bottle.

It’s becoming more and more obvious that each murder really is tied to the magic show.

--

--

On May 19th, the serial murderer known as Shiroyasha runs away chased by Ajiro and several other people. Once he reaches the foot of a steep forested hill Shiroyasha suddenly stops, turns to face the pursuers with his arms crossed, then—starts flying backwards up the hill and disappears inside the forest. No one is able to find him afterwards.

Ajiro, Kirigirisu and Soga Tensui walk into each other in the hospital after Yumeji dies.

“Where is the other one, Tensui?” Ajiro asks.

“I am the only Tensui, Souji.”

“No one asked. Answer my question, Gensui.” Ajiro seems unusually furious.

“My older brother should be inside Seiryoin right now.”

“Should be or is? Do we have a way to check?”

“Only by going there.”

Once the three arrive at the pond, Soga Tensui starts his Sea Walk towards the island. Kirigirisu is surprised seeing Ajiro follow in his footsteps with no hesitation.

“What are you standing there for, Kirigirisu? Let’s go!”

Kirigirisu carefully steps forward and realizes there’s a hard surface underwater.

“Invisible boards,” Soga Tensui explains. “Made from transparent plastic. They reach all the way to the island.”

“But when I checked earlier, I could swear these weren’t here…”

“The boards have hinges. They can be turned in order to protect the secret.”

Once they make it to the island, Soga Tensui and Ajiro both casually walk through the wall. Kirigirisu follows them and realizes it’s not actually a wall, but hanging stripes of material with a printed pattern that looks like a wall from afar, a great example of trompe-l'œil.

But behind the fake wall there’s an actual wall, which also doesn’t seem to have a door.

“Once upon a time, only Saimon Tamako could enter this place,” Soga Tensui says. “Now it’s only me and my brother who know the trick. Open Sesame!”

Like in the old tale, the wall splits in half in front of them, revealing Tensui—the actual Tensui—sitting inside in his usual tailcoat.

“Have you been sitting here all this time?” Ajiro asks. Tensui nods in an answer, completely silent like always.

“I understand your suspicions, but he couldn’t be the same man who killed Yumeji,” Gensui says. “It would be next to impossible for him to make it back here so fast, and even then he would be spotted. Neither of us could do it.”

Even while listening to Gensui’s fair observations, Kirigirisu can’t help but feel that something is off here. His intuition keeps telling him that no one else other than one or both of the two brothers can be the culprit of the Saimon Family Case. But how?

--

As they leave the shrine, Gensui explains how the hidden door works. When one brother outside shouts “Open Sesame!”, the one who’s inside opens it using a machine—yet another invention of Tousen Yomi. This makes it so no one can enter the shrine if the brother inside doesn’t want them to. If both Soga Tensuis have to be outside at the same time, like during a show tour, they use a special tool to close the passage.

“Gensui,” Ajiro suddenly says looking up at the shrine, “this really is supposed to be Yumedono, isn’t it? I didn’t notice at first, since you’ve been using a different pronunciation.”

Kirigirisu has no idea what he means, but Ajiro seems full of confidence as he looks straight at Gensui and continues.

“I think this Seiryoin is actually Shouryouin (聖霊院). The “temple” of the “holy” “ghost”.”

“Oh, I really didn’t tell you that’s how you wrote it,” Gensui says. “It’s not that I tried to hide anything, you just haven’t asked and I forgot.”

Kirigirisu is still confused why they’re talking about it now, so Ajiro adds another hint.

“It has something to do with the last words Yumeji told you.”

...of seven stars… with the Big Dipper…

“She told you what she noticed during the attack,” Ajiro continues. “Shiroyasha’s sword had seven stars engraved on the blade in the shape of the Big Dipper. Just like the Sword of Seven Stars kept in the Shitennou-ji temple in Osaka. Shiroyasha having a sword with seven stars is yet another point in common, just like Shouryouin resembling Yumedono...”

Kirigirisu is still lost, but Ajiro doesn’t waste time on further explanations.

“Gensui, if we are to solve Shiroyasha’s case, I think it’s time for a lecture on the secret you’ve been hiding from Kirigirisu. The biggest secret of the magical world.”

“So the time has finally come,” Gensui says in a serious tone.

--

Gensui invites the detectives to the stage by the house, the same place where Saimon Tamako died. Ajiro is straightforward about deeply suspecting him and Tensui.

“I understand your thoughts, Souji,” Gensui answers. “But we are not murderers. We wouldn’t request your help if we were.”

“Requesting detective services is not proof of innocence. All the incidents are related to illusions and props from the show. Until we explain the connection, my doubts won’t clear.” Ajiro really seems angrier than usual, probably because he witnessed the murder of a woman looking so similar to his wife. “I don’t want to brag, but when I was part of the field-and-track team in my school years, I stood at the top of the country. No one could beat my hundred meter sprint record. I spend my free time running. It’s unthinkable that I wouldn’t be able to catch up with that masked man. Even among all the Circus athletes I can think of only two members of the Troupe who could be that fast and match the man’s physique: you and Tensui. What’s more, the masked man then floated up a hill without moving his limbs. There are maybe five magicians in Japan I know of that could perform such a feat. Physical constitution, knowledge of illusion, ability to act, terrain familiarity—all of that together leads to you two.”

Gensui takes the accusation calmly; he understands he’s the most suspicious person right now (if we assume someone from the Circus was at fault), and promises to keep helping them. Ajiro calms down a little.

"If the hypothesis about the incidents symbolizing the illusions is correct," Gensui says, "then today's case must relate to the warrior pierced with a sword… Well then, before we reveal the greatest secret of the magical world, let us touch upon illusions that have to do with penetrating and bending. Actually, Kirigirisu—I’ve heard you have improved lately. Would you please demonstrate an effect of this kind?"

It's a bit stressful when two magicians observe your act, but Kirigirisu performs the classic Coin Through Handkerchief and Coin Through Hand, and the others give him a small applause and words of praise.

Gensui then shows his own illusion: produces a 500 yen bill, folds it a few times, sets it on fire with a lighter, and once it burns out he's holding a 500 yen coin instead—which is not a coin denomination that would actually exist in 1978. (Kirigirisu thinks that Gensui actually switched the bill with a piece of flash paper before using the lighter.)

Gensui then magically perforates the coin with a cigarette, pulls it out, and lets the coin be inspected. Kirigirisu figures out that he must have used a gimmick that has an openable hole in it, but swapped it for a normal coin before letting it be inspected. Gensui confirms this hypothesis, then explains that these sort of gimmicks can't really be sold openly, since fake coins are prohibited in Japan… and right after he says that, he gives both coins to Kirigirisu. (Is it okay to accept presents from a suspect? Ajiro doesn't say anything, so…)

"The flag penetration in the show works on a similar principle." Gensui has them hold the big flag of Japan and demonstrates getting his fist through it only from the front. Apparently there is a vertical slit in the material that the audience won't spot if it's pushed gently from behind.

For the purposes of yet another explanation Gensui asks Kirigirisu to lend him a bill. But before the detective can pull out his wallet, Ajiro suddenly springs to occasion.

"It won't make any difference if I lend you one of mine, right?" There's a challenge in his voice.

"Not at all."

"I have all sorts of denominations, would you prefer a particular one?"

"Anything but one thousand yen should do."

Kirigirisu is a bit surprised (what kind of an illusion can't be done with specifically a 1000 yen bill?), but Ajiro says nothing and pulls out 10,000 yen. Gensui swiftly perforates the bill with a pen between the portrait and the watermark (a bit strange location to choose), removes the pen and gives the bill back completely intact. The secret this time is that the pen can be split in half, each part having a magnet at the end.

"It seems like it would work with any bill," Kirigirisu points out. "Why not with the 1000 yen one?"

"Please do not read too much into it." Gensui gives him a bitter, somewhat awkward smile. "It is simply an issue of personal interest. About fifteen years ago, there was a case of mass counterfeiting. As a result, the authorities changed the portrait printed on the 1000 yen bill. That change felt quite unsettling at the time, and we ended up not using this particular bill at all afterwards…"

"We—you mean yourself and Tensui?"

"No. I mean everyone related to our family. Whether a Saimon, a Tsukumo or a Tousen, not a single one of us will ever use that bill."

Kirigirisu once again gets the feeling that something is very odd here.

Ajiro doesn't say anything, just nods a few times with an intense expression, as if a hypothesis he was testing just got confirmed.

--

Done with explaining illusions to do with penetration, Gensui moves to the next topic, bending. The term reminds Kirigirisu of Uri Geller, who claims he’s able to bend spoons with the power of his mind.

“I have never personally met Uri Geller, so I cannot be sure whether he really is a psychic or not,” Gensui says. “There are many unbelievable phenomena in this world, and it would be dangerous to make claims before seeing something with your own two eyes. What I can say is that all of Uri Geller’s extraordinary feats can be reenacted by performing mental magic. Before he became known as a self-proclaimed psychic, he was a magician. A lot of those who claim to have special powers are magicians, I would say. Some even perform illusions looking like miracles and start religions.”

He seems very bitter. Ajiro adds that with the current boom for “supernatural powers”, some people start believing in “true” magic and become condescending towards magicians, treating them like “fakes”. It even led to job loss in the industry.

To brighten up the mood, Gensui shows them another illusion, Spoon Bending in the Sky. He throws a normal-looking spoon up and it falls down already bent. The method is very simple: the magician just brings the spectator’s attention to the sky before quickly pushing the spoon against his body and throwing it.

Ajiro adds that a lot of illusions rely on the spectator’s preconceptions. For example, spoons aren’t even that hard to bend.

Kirigirisu is a bit shocked at all those revelations, since he always believed in Uri Geller’s powers. Even when he and Kano once tried bending spoons with brutal force, it wouldn’t work, and besides, there was one show in which Uri Geller demonstrated he can fix the viewers’ clocks—and it worked with their own clock!

Ajiro has to explain to him that a mechanical clock can stop working due to problems with oil, but can magically start functioning again when said oil is warmed up… for example, in the hands of an excited viewer told by Uri Geller to hold the clock tight. No wonder many people believe in supernatural powers after those TV performances.

Ajiro then passes him a spoon from Gensui, asking that Kirigirisu tries bending it. He can’t. However, when Ajiro shows him how to position his hand to use the principle of leverage, he can bend the spoon with the slightest amount of force.

Now that the spoon tangent is done… Gensui gives Kirigirisu his lighter to investigate. It looks like a normal cheap plastic lighter. Gensui takes it back, covers it with his hands for a moment, uncovers it, and the plastic part is now bent. A lighter bending like that is clearly impossible… so was there a switch? But when…?

“The method is quite the same as in Change The World,” Gensui brings up the illusion he showed them months ago, the single disappearing card. “I will lecture you on that too, eventually.”

(Kirigirisu realizes at this moment that by letting himself be pulled into the world of magic so easily, his mind is being misdirected away from the case. It’s quite scary. Perhaps this sort of attractive force of illusion may be lurking behind the case too...)

“Just one more example: Chopsticks Bending.” Gensui holds two wooden chopsticks, asks Kigiririsu to choose one, them gives him the chosen chopstick and keeps the other. The detective isn’t even sure where to start, but Gensui somehow manages to make the end of his chopstick bend.

Kirigirisu actually guesses the method behind this one. It’s based on the principle known as equivocation or forcing: giving the spectator an apparently free choice that actually is anything but free. Kirigirisu chose a chopstick and got it handed to him. But if he tried to choose the other one, Gensui would just go "all right, I'll use this one for the show, you can take the other one". By doing that, Gensui would always get to keep his choice: the prepared chopstick that was already bent, and could be held in such a way to hide it before the reveal.

Gensui finally explains why he’s giving them all these lectures right now: because the sword illusion in the show was an example of both penetration and bending.

"Harimoto Isao, one of the greats of the Japanese baseball scene, once used a phrase I like: Hit the ball making use of your bat bending. A baseball bat is of course made of hard material and won't bend that much even with a forceful swing. What you actually need is achieving a swing so splendid that you're under the illusion that even the bat got significantly bent."

Kirigirisu has already heard that name somewhere before. Harimoto Isao... one of the people featured on the posters in the local bar. Is Gensui also a fan...?

Gensui reveals that Harimoto Isao's words were what inspired him to create the illusion with the sword. It's not actually made of steel; it's a special type of plastic.

"But enough theory already, time for practice. Let me show you the actual effect." Gensui reaches behind his back and—retrieves a sword. "A magician is prepared for every situation," he says seeing their faces. "Planning is our entire life. Souji, won't you please use this sword to stab me?" He passes it to Ajiro and presents his defenseless body. "Go ahead. No need to hold back."

Ajiro and Gensui stand against each other.

A confrontation between a detective and a murderer—is what comes to Kirigirisu's mind.

Ajiro wields the sword with grace, gallant like a true warrior. Gensui points at his own body in encouragement.

Ajiro makes a move and stabs just where Gensui is pointing to, between the buttons of his dress shirt. In an instant, the tip of the blade sticks out of Gensui's back.

But Gensui is completely fine, takes the sword out and asks Kirigirisu to have a go at him next. Kirigirisu hesitates.

"If you're still worried, let me make this easier to understand." Gensui takes off his tailcoat and shirt, leaving only a thin undershirt over his well-tempered physical beauty. [Yes, this is how the narration describes it. Thanks, Seiryoin.] There's something like a tube attached to his body. When Kirigirisu stabs into its opening, the blade bends inside the tube, wrapping around Gensui's side and emerging from another opening in the back.

"Today's incident was meant to allude to this illusion," Gensui says removing the sword and putting his clothes back on, "though of course the sword used was an entirely different one. You wouldn't be able to kill someone with the gimmick."

Ajiro doesn't seem fully satisfied, saying there is another illusion alluded to by today's incident: Soga Tensui's famous Sky Walk. Shiroyasha escaped by floating up a hill.

Gensui makes sure to properly fix his bowtie in place before answering to Ajiro’s accusation.

"It feels like you want me to be the culprit no matter what," he says bitterly. "While I haven't witnessed it myself, I've been told Shiroyasha floated up rather than Sky Walked."

"Is there a difference?" Kirigirisu asks.

"They are quite different things. Two types of illusions can take the magician in the air, floating and flying. Floating means just simply being in the air above ground. Flying additionally means the magician is moving around at will. My Sky Walk is neither of these. To walk in the air, I use "the biggest secret of the magical world" that Souji mentioned. We already got so far with our lectures that I simply cannot hide that secret any longer. I will gladly allow you to know it, Kirigirisu. You are both the ideal spectator and an excellent magician."

Gensui takes out the pouch that held those chopsticks from earlier. "Kirigirisu, do you think that invisible thread really exists? Just like the one made into clothing in Emperor's New Clothes?" As he speaks, he mimes tying thread around the pouch, and it suddenly rises a little… supported by Gensui's own finger from behind. "That was just a little trick on the side, don't worry. Now, let me show you the true invisible illusion."

He gestures to his bowtie, then moving his hands strangely makes it start magically floating. (Kirigirisu emits a surprised "oh!" that almost sounds like Uyama the journalist.) In the middle of this spectacle his fingers suddenly go still, and so does the bowtie—in mid-air.

"Please look closely at the bowtie, Kirigirisu," he says. "...a bit closer, please." (Kirigirisu is so close he almost touches Gensui, but still can't see anything.) "Closer!"

Kirigirisu puts his face right next to the bowtie and only then—sees it. It's so minuscule that at first he's not even sure if he's not just seeing things.

"Is this… thread…?"

"The newest weapon in the arsenal of magic, our biggest secret. The invisible thread."

Kirigirisu has heard about magicians using thread, but never of a version this delicate. It’s hard to see even from a centimeter away. But doesn’t that mean even the magician himself can’t see the thread while performing? It’s true. Gensui explains that using it effectively is still possible with enough training and relying on touch.

Invisible threads of different strength were used all throughout the magic show. For example, the globe ball hit the ground without bouncing not because it was heavy, but because it was suspended on just enough length of thread that it wouldn’t actually hit the ground. The loud sound was pre-recorded. As the ball was already suspended, it’s easy to explain how it would then start floating. The globe was actually a red ball covered in flash paper with the Earth’s map printed on it, so it could be ignited easily and would leave behind a red surface, making it seem like the clown was extinguishing a still burning ball with his cape. After the ball zoomed over the auditorium enough, it returned to the stage and was tackled by the clown. During the fake struggle, the clown cut the invisible thread and covered the ball with another piece of cloth: the big flag of Japan. Then the ball and the first cloth were taken off-stage through the trapdoor below, making it seem like the ball got flattened and disappeared, leaving the flag behind.

The invisible thread was also what allowed the giant flag card to rise from its deck and what was used to pull a glass pane into the frame in the mirror double illusion—just like Kirigirisu suspected earlier, the glass pane really was attached at a 90 degree angle to the frame. This doesn’t explain its sudden change into a mirror at the end, but Gensui wants to leave that explanation for a little later.

Ajiro strongly suspects that Shiroyasha used invisible thread tied to trees on the hill to pull himself up. Gensui can’t deny the possibility.

“Few people would be able to do it. If your hypothesis is correct, then it’s true that only my brother and I fulfill all the criteria for being the culprit. It’s quite a complicated feeling—to help strengthen accusations against yourself…”

Kirigirisu follows with another question out of curiosity: was invisible thread what allowed Kotensui to take a stroll in the air?

“It was, except it wasn’t him that was suspended, but the individual stairs under his feet. We used invisible boards, similar to the ones in the pond.”

And another invisible board attached to Tensui’s shoes allowed him to be pulled off stage without him moving his limbs.

That’s all fine and good, but Tensui’s Sky Walk near the end seemed a bit different than Kotensui’s stroll; more of an actual walk than climbing stairs.

Gensui demonstrates it again by Sky Walking off the stage and over the auditorium, where he stops and beckons the detectives to come and take a look. Once again Kirigirisu has to move really close before he spots a length of invisible thread that must be stretching all the way from the stage to somewhere in the auditorium. Gensui is balancing on top of it. The Sky Walk is actually a tightrope walk.

Gensui asks them to sit down for a moment while he shows them the last illusion of the lecture. He Sky Walks back to the stage, bows to the almost empty auditorium, then raises his right hand. The lights turn off, leaving only a spotlight for him. He raises his right hand again and the spotlight also disappears, only to return the next moment—

—but instead of Gensui, standing in the spotlight is a little boy in a tailcoat. One of Tensui’s twins. As far as Kirigirisu can tell from the boy’s confident stance, it’s Juku.

The spotlight blinks off and on again, returning Gensui to the stage instead. All other lights are turned on again, but there’s no sight of Juku (or Joukei?) anywhere. Gensui invites the detectives back to the stage and shows them a giant pane of glass standing there, turned 45 degrees so it partially faces both the auditorium and the backstage. 

Ajiro explains that with proper lighting a pane of glass can work as a mirror, just like when you see your own reflection in a window when standing in a bright room at night.

“This principle is used for many illusions,” Gensui adds. “When you were paying attention to my Sky Walk just now, Juku quickly prepared the glass. Then I stood behind the tilted pane and gave Joukei the signal to change the lighting. In the same moment when the stage was left completely dark, a spotlight illuminated Juku, who was standing in the backstage. The glass reflected his image.” A similar principle was used in the show, with the framed glass in an instant reflecting Tensui’s elegant image instead of showing the warrior on the other side. “Juku, Joukei, thank you so much for the help.”

He gestures to the backstage where the boys are standing, one in a dignified pose, the other with his usual air of helplessness. Joukei bows clumsily and scuttles away. Juku just gives them a quiet, expressionless look, and just before he leaves with his brother, he mutters a quiet kudaranai… ima wa kudaranai. The same strange line Kirigirisu heard from him a few months ago.

“Gensui, why does Juku keep repeating that?”

Gensui once again smiles in that somewhat strained, bitter way.

“It seems to be his favorite phrase. Saimon Tamako used to repeat it all the time. You know how children sometimes mindlessly parrot someone’s words.” 

This sounds like a fair explanation, but Ajiro’s face suddenly becomes grim as his eyes follow the leaving twins. Gensui falls eerily silent before announcing the lecture is over and asking if they have any questions.

“Did your Change The World also use invisible thread?” Kirigirisu asks.

“Oh my, you guessed it. I attached the thread to the card using magician’s wax, then put it on top of your card in my hand. When I was moving my other hand over it, I pulled the card up my sleeve at the right moment.“

Gensui doesn’t want to show them Change The World again for fear of it becoming too boring, so instead he asks for that gimmick coin he gave Kirigirisu.

“People tend to feel disappointment in magic after a lecture gives them a lot of answers, so I will leave you with a new interesting illusion to ponder. Here is the coin version of Change The World.” Gensui rolls his sleeves up. “I’m not going to use invisible thread or magician’s wax this time.”

He holds the coin on his open left palm, moves his right hand a far distance over it—and the coin has disappeared, just like that. No matter how hard Kirigirisu investigates, he can’t figure out where it may be hidden.

Yet another trick that Changes The World for Kirigirisu.

The case is close to changing its course too.

--

A month later, in the evening of June 19th, little Joukei suddenly goes missing. A few hours later he dies when a drunk driver hits him on the side of the dark road between Tsuwano and Yamaguchi.

The incident takes place even though both Soga Tensuis obediently spend the entire June 19th closed in Shouryouin together with Ajiro and Kirigirisu.

The drunk driver claims that he suddenly saw a car driving straight towards him and swerved to the side to avoid a head-on collision. Ajiro theorizes that someone brought Joukei there, had him stand in the right place, and put a pane of glass on the road, so it reflected the cars from the other lane—a driver who saw those phantom cars coming straight at him would instinctively drive to the side to escape, accidentally hitting Joukei in the process. But it’s just a theory with many gaps and the police classifies the case as a normal traffic accident.

After Joukei’s death, something... strange happens to his brother Juku.

Even his own family can’t explain it. It’s like the boy’s unusual angelic beauty became even more perfect, the sight of his eyes not only making others forget about the world, but outright making them fall unconscious. The boy is given a pair of sunglasses to shield the world from his unreal beauty and still repeats as if possessed: kudaranai… ima wa kudaranai.

--

A month later, on July 19th, Tsukumo Souma falls into the tank while feeding the sharks and is torn apart. It’s the third Tsukumo to die, after his mother Mitama and wife Yumeji. The sharks are quickly relocated to a professional aquarium in Tottori.

--

A month later, on August 19th, the former yakuza boss Fujita Kyuuzou is stung by a hornet in his garden and dies due to anaphylaxis. Other people from the house can clearly hear the insect’s buzzing in the garden at the time, though nobody can spot it.

This makes the twelfth victim of the Saimon Family Case; an entire dark year full of death. Shiroyasha also continues his own simultaneous murder spree in that mysterious darkness.

But perhaps a new dawn is starting to show on the horizon; the clues are just waiting for the right detective to put them together.

--

[>>>NEXT PART>>>]

[7r0773r]

Regarding Charlottesville Music: An Oral History by Rich Tarbell

CHRISTIAN BREEDEN (American Dumpster): There was Charlottesville before the Dave Matthews Band, and there was Charlottesville after the Dave Matthews Band. I don’t know what kind of music the Dave Matthews Band is, but it’s pretty progressive music. It’s also got a lot of pop sensibilities. Non-confrontational music. It’s college rock and jam band kind of music, but I think the reason they went so far is the personalities involved and the way it looked. It was an interracial band, and for white college kids there is something in that which feels very progressive. But it’s safe. We’re still in the South. We are learning faster and faster how segregated we still are, and how many different stories there are here. I think it is kind of weird and sad to say, but I think a lot of that band’s success came because they were able to epitomize integration. (pp. 14-15)

***

ANDY DEANE (Bella Morte): I don’t believe regional music exists the way it once did. It can’t. The last big scene I remember was when grunge hit in the 90s, and you had the Seattle sound. There is no Seattle or Chicago or anything sound anymore, because the minute somebody does something and does it well, it is on the internet and that sound gets adopted everywhere. Back then there were still regional scenes. For example, our metal scene had this melodic sort of Charlottesville sound to it that we could travel with. You could hear it, you could hear the town in the music, because it did not spread so quickly. It spread as you started touring. (p. 15)

***

BOB GIRARD (The Casuals):  The Mineshaft was open seven nights a week. Maybe on a Monday night you’d have an acoustic guy or some duo in there. Nobody saw them; there were maybe twelve people there. But the thing was, they were fucking open. They had rent to pay. They said they’d be open. It was open every day. On a winter night, before cable TV, before multiplexes, before the internet and watching movies in your living room, you would go out. People would say, “Let’s meet at the Mineshaft, and get a pitcher of beer, make a plan.” If the music was good, maybe you’d stay. Maybe you’d take a chance at another spot. It was always in the context of “Let’s go by there and see what’s going on,” because it was always open. That’s not completely true anymore. The Southern doesn’t always have music, the Jefferson certainly doesn’t always have music, the Paramount rarely has music. (pp. 17-18)

***

CHARLIE PASTORFIELD (Skip Castro): In the early 80s in this town, there was a band called The Deal that came so freakin’ close to stardom. They were signed by Albert Grossman, who discovered Bob Dylan and Janis Joplin and a million other people. The Deal had recorded an album. Grossman was on a plane flying to Europe to arrange the release of the record in Europe, and on the plane on the way over he had a fatal heart attack. Todd Rundgren took over the label, Bearsville. Rundgren did not like The Deal, and ultimately dropped them from the label. You don’t get closer than that. (p. 45)

***

JOHN BEERS (Musician) [Happy Flowers]: We decided we would play live with The Landlords at Muldowney’s Pub. We used to do sets that would last from five to ten minutes. It was basically “Mom I Gave the Cat Some Acid”, and whatever requests the audience would want to hear. They’d yell out a song title, and if we knew the song, we would maybe halfway approximate it with just a bass and a guitar and tons of distortion and screaming. If we didn’t know the song, we would do it anyway. We would do Echo and the Bunnymen’s “Bring on the Dancing Horses”, which I had never heard before. In fact I did not hear it until about a year ago. We played that live at CBGB’s and recorded it probably in about 1987. I finally heard the song in 2017. (p. 72)

***

JONNY FRITZ (Musician): [Erik “Red” Knierim] lives on the James River, on the Buckingham side. He has a cabin that he built with his dad. It is the most incredible place, like stepping back in time. It feels like a moonshiner’s cabin, but a Dwell Magazine version of a moonshiner’s cabin. It’s extraordinary, a phenomenal place. When I first met him, he would get in his canoe and float down to Scottsville to busk at some bar there. I didn’t even know there was a bar in Scottsville. He’d play for drinks, and then he’d get in his canoe and paddle upstream back home. That’s like Civil War era. Who the hell does that? He’s incredible. Salt of the earth. (p. 152)

***

MICHAEL BISHOP (GWAR): Anything that was cool that was happening here, a lot of it didn’t come from the kids, from the UVA students. It was coming from people who just lived here. The kids never did, and they don’t do, shit. It is the people who live here. Richmond is totally different, their college being VCU. The art department at VCU produced all of the Richmond rock bands for years. It was supported by urban decay being filled in, creating spaces for art to happen, and by a college to supply an audience for that shit. In Charlottesville, it was different. It felt more precarious to me here. I don’t know where these people come from. Like how do you fill a room at The Jefferson? Where do they come from. There’s not enough fucking people. Not in the town, not in Crozet, not in Albemarle County. Where are they coming from? It seems to me like there almost isn’t enough of a base here. But at the same time, The Jefferson will be packed for shows. You go there, and you can’t move. The people here really do come out and watch shows, and in a way that people in Richmond don’t. Charlottesville is an impressive town for its size. (pp. 166-67)

[the-master-cylinder]

Bug (1975)

SUMMARY An earthquake releases a bunch of mutant cockroaches that can create fire by rubbing their cerci together. Eventually, most of the bugs die because they cannot survive in the low air pressure on the Earth’s surface, but a scientist, Professor James Parmiter (Dillman), keeps one alive in a pressure chamber. He successfully breeds the mutant cockroach with a modern cockroach, creating a breed of intelligent, flying super-cockroaches.

DEVELOPMENT/PRODUCTION Filmed in Panavision and Technicolor by cinematographer Michel Hugo, “Bug”, based on Thomas Page’s novel “The Hephaestus Plague”, is brought to the screen as a William Castle Production for Paramount Pictures. Jeannot Szwarc served as director. The assignment marks Paris-born Szwarc’s second credit as a theatrical film director. Szwarc also has a long list of credits as a writer, producer and director of television shows and made-for-television movies. The screen adaptation of “Bugs” was written by author Thomas Page and producer Castle.

In “Bug”, a deadly force is loosed among us. Not Martians or lethal bacteria from outer space, but fire roaches, thousands of them swarming, black and eyeless from a chasm opened in California by an earthquake.

As old as the dinosaurs and intelligent as the primates, they feed upon carbon, creating their dinners instantly by burning cars, houses, people, animals, whatever is in their path, with a flame that spurts from their exhaust. Moving by an ingenius method and shrugging off all attempts to destroy them, the bugs threaten to ignite the entire city of Riverside, California, before moving on to take over and destroy the rest of the country.

The plot becomes increasingly tense with the slow realization that something is terribly wrong. Events slide imperceptibly from what is real to what is conceivable and then perhaps beyond. Then, the fascinated scientist, who has come to identify himself with the dreadful bugs, discovers how to kill them, and they are killed-except for one that he breeds to a common roach. Then emerges the second generation: more deadly, alarming, intelligent and versatile than before.

The principal cockroach actors playing title roles in “Bug” are laboratory-grown cockroaches trained for their screen chores by an entomology scientist at the University of California at Riverside. Two weeks of location scenes were filmed at Riverside and its surroundings. Numerous outdoor sites were utilized by the camera as background in this historical territory, including the University of California (Riverside). The script called for the story to be laid in a small university town, and Castle felt that Riverside was an absolutely perfect choice.

The location filming generated extreme interest with the local residents, with many natives and UC college students hired to work as actors in the film.

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Hollywood has a stimulating effect on a town whenever a film unit arrives to shoot location scenes. To begin with, a record fleet of equipment-carrying vehicles, including an $85,000 Chapman camera crane truck, rolled into Riverside for the shooting. Almost 100 studio technicians scurried about, changing local landmarks to fit the script’s requirements.

“Bug” was a real event to the residents of this quiet, agricultural center, which is the home of the first navel orange grown in America, and the filming meant a huge financial boost to Riverside. Motels, banks, restaurants, sporting goods stores, gift shops, etc., were all the recipients of a financial bonanza as the result of the movie company locating there. Producer Castle estimates that a half million dollars was spent in Riverside before the company headed for home and the interior scenes filmed on the sound stages at Paramount in Hollywood.

The living room and kitchen sets from The Brady Bunch were reused in this film, although the living room set was rearranged slightly to a smaller footprint. Aside from a paint job, the kitchen set was otherwise unaltered.

CAST/CREW Directed Jeannot Szwarc

Produced William Castle

Written William Castle Thomas Page

Based The Hephaestus Plague (1973 novel) by Thomas Page

Bradford Dillman as Professor James Parmiter Joanna Miles as Carrie Parmiter Richard Gilliland as Gerald Metbaum Jamie Smith-Jackson as Norma Tacker Alan Fudge as Professor Mark Ross Jesse Vint as Tom Tacker Patty McCormack as Sylvia Ross Brendan Dillon as Charlie

CREDITS/REFERENCES/SOURCES/BIBLIOGRAPHY Quasimodos Monster Magazine#07

  The Nest (1988)

SUMMARY The sheriff of this small island town called North Port has a roach problem in his house. According to the local exterminator Homer (played by Stephen Davies), it turns out the whole town is about to have a big roach problem. Pets, and then people, begin to disappear or turn up dead and mutilated.

Although Sheriff Richard Tarbell (played by Frank Luz) is dating Lillian, the owner of the local eatery, his high school sweetheart Elizabeth Johnson returns to the island after a four-year absence and their romance blooms again. Elizabeth (played by Lisa Langlois) happens to be the daughter of the town’s mayor, Elias Johnson (played by Robert Lansing), who is in cahoots with an evil corporation called INTEC that has been secretly breeding mutant roaches that are immune to normal insect repellants. They also seem to have the ability to assume the form of anything they kill, leading to some animal/roach hybrids and even 2 roach/human combos.

DEVELOPMENT Made by Concord Pictures, directed by Terence H. Winkless, who will be making his debut. He is a co-author of The Howling (1981) script and a horror movie freak. Kelly Howe, who is also a member of the SFX team “Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood (1988)” is in charge of SFX. He is a newcomer and creates a powerful monster that is as competitive as a real cockroach flock.

The filmmakers utilized 2,000 flying cockroaches during filming at Quicksilver Studios in Venice, Los Angeles. When some of the insects escaped into nearby dressing rooms, the American Humane Association were unable to assist them as the organization must be contacted prior to shooting on matters concerning insects.

The result is yet another first: the first solid, quality horror film from Concorde, which usually turns out campy cheapies like Munchies and Chopping Mall. Not only is it gut-level effective, but it sports a surprisingly slick, polished look for its budget of less than $1 million. Based on a novel by Eli Cantor (published under the pseudonym Gregory A. Douglas).

What attracted Winkless to Robert King’s screenplay, however, was not the horror as much as the story’s potential for humor. “What I liked about the script was the fact that you could do some comedy with it,” he explains. “If you try to take the bugs completely seriously, you’re going to fall on your face. I think the movie bears that out. Life gets really absurd sometimes, and what better way to talk about how absurd it is than when the fat lady is lying in bed and the bugs are crawling down her cast? You can’t take it seriously; it would never be true horror like Halloween or ALIEN, but it could be sort of comic horror.”

The movie’s best comic achievement is the character of Homer (Stephen Davies), the island’s resident exterminator, who prefers to be called a “pest control agent” and is barely fazed by the horrific goings-on around him. “Ostensibly, the hero of the piece is the sheriff (Franc Luz), but I’ve always been sort of a closet anarchist, so my hero in the movie is Homer. He’s really the guy who winds up saving the island.” Winkless reserves special praise for Davies, an old friend he fought Concorde to use. “He’s a brilliant actor,” raves the director. “One of these days he’s going to be a big star.”

Winkless first met Davies through fellow USC film school alumnus John (The Razor’s Edge) Byrum, who wasn’t the only classmate of his to become well known; John Carpenter, Dan O’Bannon and Nick Castle attended the school at the same time. Prior to working behind the camera, Winkless’ first professional job was as an actor of sorts, playing the gorilla in the kids’ TV show The Banana Splits. He went on to become a scriptwriter, his best-known credit undoubtedly the one he shares with John Sayles for the screenplay adaptation of Gary Brandner’s The Howling.

According to Winkless, though, this work was not collaborative; he has never actually met Sayles. “I worked only with Joe Dante and producer Mike Finnell,” Winkless recalls. “They had bought the book, and all they kept was the title. They threw out the book, and we started from scratch. I did my draft, and then they had Sayles do another draft after me. I admire his work – and I hope he admires mine!”

Winkless had been in constant contact with Concorde president Roger Corman since then, and his agent was a friend of Corman’s wife Julie, who produced The Nest. When said agent found out that the Cormans needed a director for the buggy saga, he advised Winkless to go for it, and Winkless found himself attaining every scriptwriter’s dream: directing his first feature. He describes the experience as “my greatest fantasy and my worst nightmare. The scariest thing about it was that, to a certain extent, I could predict what the actors would do, what the cameraman would do and what the editors would do, but you couldn’t at all predict what the bugs were going to do. For a first-time director, having this great unknown factor was a thrill.

“Actually, that was more humorous than anything else,” Winkless continues. “I was constantly shouting, More bugs! More bugs! Of course, there were never enough bugs, and they were always escaping. I kept stooping down and picking them up, and I’d get pissed off finally and start stepping on them because I was angry that they were getting away. Then I would stop and think, ‘My God, I’m stepping on my stars!

As the movie’s roaches continue to mutate, they begin to genetically combine with the creatures they eat, resulting in a number of grotesque hybrids. FX man Cary Howe was responsible for creating the monsters, including a feline roach creature and a man transformed into a humanoid insect. There’s also a giant roach/human “queen” that is faced down by the sheriff and the mayor’s daughter (Lisa Langlois) in the finale.

Originally, this last monster was to have lurked in the shadows, but Winkless found Howe’s work impressive enough to bring it out into the light. “Cary had put an arm on it that would move, and the producers said, “Gee, that’s terrific, can you put another arm there, and there, and over there?’ So they kept adding appendages. It was all for the same money, so Cary had his work cut out for him. But it worked out great.”

The genesis was that I had the type of assistant everyone needs, and that is someone who comes in Monday morning and says, “You haven’t read this script, you need to have this meeting” and gives you the agenda for the week. Her name was Lynin Whitney. She came in one Monday morning and said, “Hey, wanna make a bug movie?” and I said, “Only if you do all the work.” The Nest was a novel [by Eli Cantor, using the pseudonym Gregory A. Douglas] Lynn found. We acquired the rights, and the screenplay was written by Robert King, who went on to create the series The Good Wife with his wife, Michelle. The director, Terry Winkless, was originally an actor-a clown, in fact-on television, so he is very good with actors. He went to film school and became a director. I think The Nest is underrated. – Roger Corman on The Nest

CAST/CREW Directed Terence H. Winkless

Produced Julie Corman

Written Robert King

Based on The Nest by Eli Cantor

Robert Lansing Lisa Langlois Franc Luz Terri Treas Diana Bellamy

Music Rick Conrad

CREDITS/REFERENCES/SOURCES/BIBLIOGRAPHY Gorezone#02 Fangoria#328

DOUBLE FEATURE RETROSPECTIVE – Bug (1975)/The Nest (1988) Bug (1975) SUMMARY An earthquake releases a bunch of mutant cockroaches that can create fire by rubbing their cerci together.

[topworldhistory]

Under cripplingly cold winter conditions, American troops proved their mettle.

On December 14, 1944, American GIs stationed in the Belgian-German border town of Bastogne were in a jolly holiday mood. Hollywood star Marlene Dietrich was in town on a USO tour performing songs for a crowd of fresh-faced new arrivals and war-worn infantry on much needed R&R.

It was six months after the D-Day invasion at Normandy and the Allies had reason to celebrate. The Americans and British had chased the Nazis out of France and the Russian army was quickly closing in from the East. The surrender of the German menace was in sight.

READ MORE: D-Day: Facts on the Epic 1944 Invasion That Changed the Course of WWII

But that’s not how Adolf Hitler saw it. The Nazi leader, paranoid and agitated after a failed assassination attempt by the Operation Valkyrie conspirators, believed Germany had one last chance to strike at the heart of the Allies in the West. Hitler ordered his commanders to prepare for an all-out offensive against a strategic soft spot in the Allied line located in the densely forested region known as the Ardennes.

Hitler’s last-ditch gamble would result in the largest land battle in American military history and cost tens of thousands of lives on both sides. But in the month-long slog known as the Battle of the Bulge, the Americans proved their mettle under frigid winter conditions to seal the fate of the Nazis for good.

Nazi Front Line Gives Battle of the Bulge Its Name

A gun motor carriage firing on enemy positions at night during the Battle of the Bulge, 1945. 

The Battle of the Bulge is the Allied name for the massive German offensive that the Nazis codenamed Wacht am Rhein or the “Watch on the Rhine.” More than 1 million Allied and German soldiers fought in the Battle of the Bulge, nicknamed for the westward bulge created in the Allied line after Nazi tanks and infantry temporarily captured territory during Hitler’s surprise attack.

The Allies were indeed unprepared for the German onslaught, says Martin King, a World War II historian and author of eight books about the Battle of the Bulge. The Ardennes region was known to American GIs as the “honeymoon sector,” a remote stretch of the Allied front line where new arrivals could ease into the war effort and battle-weary vets could recuperate and refit for battle.

“In December of 1944, there were only four American divisions in the Ardennes covering an 89-mile front,” says King. “Two of the divisions had never fired a shot in anger and two were recovering from the grueling Battle of Hürtgen Forest.”

Allied commanders dismissed intelligence from the British ULTRA codebreakers that large numbers of German troops and equipment were being pulled from the fight with Russia and amassing along the Western front. The assumption, soon proven wrong, was that the Nazis were simply bracing their defenses for the coming Allied push into Germany. No one thought that Hitler would have the gall to attempt a counterstrike with a German army already decimated by months of heavy fighting on two fronts.

Hitler’s plan was to power through the weak link at the Ardennes and then move northeast to take the Belgian port city of Antwerp. Without Antwerp, the Allies would have difficulty resupplying for their final push toward Berlin. With that strategic position secured, Hitler believed he could negotiate terms with the Allies and avoid an unconditional surrender, allowing him to continue the war with Russia in the East.

Hitler Counted on Cold to Help Defeat the Allies

Camouflaged tanks and infantrymen wearing snow capes move across a snow-covered field during the Battle of the Bulge.

Also, by attacking through the Ardennes in winter, Hitler bet on bad weather grounding the Allied air support. The Ardennes are famously fogged in during December, making it impossible for bombers and supply planes to hit their targets.

And so it was on the morning of December 16, with a thick mist blanketing the mountainous Ardennes Forest, that a German fighting force numbering 200,000 men and 1,000 tanks launched an all-out attack on the unsuspecting Allies. In King’s interviews with dozens of Battle of the Bulge veterans, they describe eerie red and purple lights streaking through the pea-soup fog followed by the bone-chilling sound of “screaming meemie” Nebelwerfer rockets and earth-shattering detonations in every direction.

Two regiments of the 106th Division were quickly surrounded by German infantry leading to the single largest field surrender of Allied troops in World War II. More than 6,800 American soldiers in the 422nd and 423rd regiments taken as prisoners. Elsewhere, near the Belgian town of Malmedy, 84 American prisoners were summarily killed by German Waffen SS in the largest mass execution of the war.

Just 24 hours after the initial bombardment, German tanks had broken through the thinly defended center of the Ardennes region and rolled West to the Meuse River, creating the infamous bulge in the Allied line that gave the battle its peculiar name. Using the weather and intelligence breakdowns to their advantage, the Nazi offensive appeared to be working.

But if Hitler thought that the outmanned Americans were going to lay down and let the German tanks roll all the way to Antwerp, he was mistaken. After the initial confusion and chaos of the Nazi surprise attack, American soldiers regrouped and relied on old-fashioned ingenuity to hold off the German advance until reinforcements could arrive.

American Troops' Capacity to Improvise Save the Day

American troops advance on a German machine gun position in the Ardennes region of Belgium. The Battle of the Bulge was Adolf Hitler’s last major offensive in World War II against the Western Front.

View the 13 images of this gallery on the original article

“Talking to both American and German veterans, you realize how very different these two armies were in their methods and methodologies,” says King. “The Americans had this incredible capacity to improvise, to think on the hop and operate autonomously right down to the squad level. The Germans couldn’t operate below the regimental level without written orders.”

General James Gavin of the 82nd Airborne, already a hero at Normandy and during Operation Market Garden, shined yet again in defense of the strategic Belgian town of St. Vith’s. He hopped in his Jeep, spied on the enemy’s positions and divided his men into squads to hunt down the Nazis using the terrain to their advantage.

The Fighting 30th, nicknamed “Roosevelt’s SS,” used similar guerrilla tactics to halt the progress of the German army in the North.

“The Fighting 30th engineers were phenomenal—they blew up everything,” says King. “There’s a town called Trois-Ponts for the three bridges that crossed the Amblève River. Not after the engineers had been there.”

Albert Tarbell was a full-blooded Mohawk with the 82nd Airborne who was “the best scout you could possibly have,” says King, when you’re up to your knees in snow and hunting the enemy through the forests. Nazi commanders thought their soldiers were hallucinating when they swore they were taking fire from “Indians.”

Surrender? 'Nuts!' 

Battle of the Bulge (TV-PG; 2:52)

Click here to watch the full episode on the Battle of the Bulge and more from WWII in HD on History Vault

But perhaps the most famous stand of the Battle of the Bulge happened at Bastogne, where the 101st Airborne was pinned down and surrounded by Nazi infantry for five long days. The Americans dug trenches in a wide perimeter around Bastogne, and relied on locals for warm clothing and rations.

Temperatures plunged to -20°C (-4°F) and soldiers who didn’t die of hypothermia were crippled by frostbite and trench foot. When medics ran out of supplies, life-saving amputations had to be performed with kitchen knives and cognac as the only anesthesia.

When things looked worst for the Americans, the Nazi field commander issued an official call for surrender. General Anthony McAuliffe of the 101st Airborne replied with one of the most famously blunt rebuffs in the history of warfare: “Nuts!”

(King says that there’s more to that much-told story. While McAuliffe’s gut reaction was indeed to yell out, “Nuts!” to the Nazi’s demands, he tried the more conventional approach. A West Point graduate, he dictated a two-page response to the German commander. When McAuliffe’s intelligence chief read back the formal letter, he said he liked McAuliffe’s first response better. So they scrapped it and went with “Nuts!”)

The 101st airborne held out long enough for the skies to clear and the first supply drops to arrive from Allied bombers. Within days, General George Patton had turned his 350,000-man army North and punched through the German flank to relieve the beleaguered 101st Airborne and turn the tide of the Battle of the Bulge.

By January 13, 1945, the Allies had fully repelled the German attack and ironed out the bulge on the Western front. But the Allied forces, particularly the Americans, paid a high price for victory in the Battle of the Bulge. All told, 19,000 U.S. soldiers died, 47,500 were wounded—many from the brutal conditions—and more than 23,000 went missing.

It’s estimated that more than 100,000 German soldiers were killed, wounded or missing in action as a result of Hitler’s ill-fated final gamble. 

from Stories - HISTORY https://ift.tt/35n4LKo December 13, 2019 at 10:12PM

[puhpandas]

Honestly you've probably gotten this ask or something similar before, but I offer you my Beckory crumbs anyway. Don't feel the need to post this or anything, I just wanted to rattle this off somewhere lol.

Lately I've been bouncing a concept around in my brain where Tony and Gregory are both controlled by Afton, which leaves Ellis and Monty as the heroes of the adjacent Security Breach.

Maybe instead of Tony presumably dying or at the very least getting attacked at the ending of GGY by Gregory, he's instead pulled into the same mind control and the two end up as partners in crime. Both boys subsequently go missing instead of continuing their daily lives, prompting Ellis to go searching for his best friends in the last place anyone had seen them at. There, he meets a decommissioned Monty Gator who, due to not being on because of Glamrock Bonnie's very abrupt (and painful) return to the spotlight, is the only one not controlled by the virus. They navigate through the Pizzaplex together similarly to how Gregory and Glamrock Freddy do in the game, which according to Monty has pretty much been flipped upside-down.

I wanna say Tony reappears pretty quickly, like a stand-in for Vanessa, but leaning more into the "deceptively kind" aspect, as he tries to trick Ellis into walking right into his death. Likewise Gregory, or GGY/Dr. Rabbit is the replacement for Vanny, and actively pursues Ellis with clear intentions. From there it's up to Ellis to either try and find a way to free his friends from their curse, or to end them, or even escape altogether without looking back. There's presumably a whole confrontation between Monty and Bonnie, Dr. Rabbit takes Freddy's head after they manage to decommission his body, Ellis does lots of reflecting through the course of the events on how he kinda acted shitty towards Tony and regrets letting him dig so deeply into things on his own to where he ended up like this.

Also had the thought on the topic of Tony and Gregory working as a sort of double "Vanessa/Vanny" unit respectively, Tony's costume would be a bear to play into the parallels between Fronnie and Beckory. Maybe Vanessa replaces Cassie, or hell, maybe even Crystal, Luis or Cassie's dad. Not sure, it's just my excuse to have an AU where Beckory are evil boyfriends and are shadowed by their equally as evil gay robotic parental figures. Is it cliché? Yeah, absolutely, but them both being mentally brainwashed and still simultaneously being able to finally navigate their feelings for one another is a really tasty concept to me.

AGH YES I've thought about a glitchtrapped tony au where he and Gregory are under the virus at the same time and have to deal with that and have little moments where they're free together and are able to be miserable and scared as themselves. of course Tony's name would be Tarbell. I've never done much with that au but man... this is making me think more about glitchtrapped tony

ellis protag with a monty plot with bonnie is so interesting and it gives screentime to everyone and everything. in my au I had Gregory accidentally free himself and then in sb he would want to free both tony and vanny who are working together against him but seeing glitchtrapped beckory in action next to eachother is a great idea

[dailydatguybroadcast]

Duty: There is a Duty to care for our Parent - especially in their elder age. I explain why I sleep alone. For which the evil are using to destruct. They've come up with all these reasons why they attacked innocent people- and none of them are real. All of the reasons are based on jealousies and shielding a previous falsified story. They simply LIED. That is all it is to it. And I hope to save those that they dragged into their greed scheme - having held them captive. Like their mother. My mother. What woman wouldn't give in being abused, tortured, may even been beaten by her whole family- until- UNTIL she succumbed? The most sickening thing I have ever heard in my life. About a son that didn't even believe in this type of thing. Thank the spirits above for the ability and the voice to set it all straight as breath reign in my body. For that in itself is a blessing. Millions even billions have gone on to heaven not having such say. I sleep alone to steer away the bad things: the social ills that I am not into - things that are not apart of me- which they are trying to place around me from society. Those things that is part of them - which they are trying to pass off - receive buy in. You see, once you buy in - in business terms - you are then a stakeholder. And being a stakeholder - once it fails you have as much to lose as the murderer of the bunch. To not know the role of staking - equates to you not knowing what it means when you buy into something. I sleep alone to steer these things away from me. Most everyone that they bring into my presence have all THESE THINGS going on with them - addictions, drugs, self-inflicted pain, filth that they desire for their own pleasures. To me these things are self-destructive. Every one enjoys themselves a while - but only the weak become addicted. I don't pride myself in weak- I pride myself in strength, power, resilience and endurance. If I allowed these things into my space- I would have given in to weaknesses - and that is not me. those vices and the people that house those vices would destruct me, my soul and my internal peace through invisible methods. I can't allow that to happen without safeguards. On contrary to what you have been told - that is why I sleep alone until I can find a safe place with safe people that do not have all these things which would destroy my life. And that includes a person who would be my partner in life - who would be WITH me - not against me. You don't stand in my way of a single desire sleeping in my bed with me. Or even in my house with me- you do NOT stand in my way. For that is what they TOLD you to do- that is not the way it is. You should have better sense on your own - to have know better - I shouldn't have to chastise you. No one is perfect - and some ill's are tolerable. But those that have drastically gone overboard - must be left to destruct the bodies that houses them. Not me! A drugged up black male - or any male or woman I correct myself- seeking more drugs at 5 am after a hangover - is drastically gone to me. To even see him with a cigarette in his mouth- means he is looking for something stronger to curb addictive urges. And that is spiritually an abomination in my sight. No sex, money, and definitely affection of any sort could replace the destruction he/she would bring to a decent life. It is for these reasons that I steer myself away from these people. These things. These mentalities. These lost causes. Causes that are lost due to their own desire not to quit. I can't impact their vices - unless I want to. And I don't. Because I am not here to save the world. The world is not mine and I won't accept responsibility to save it on anyone's behalf. I can't be tricked into believing that I am so good that I can. No one is that good. That you love me so much that I should try. No. No love is that great. Even that kind of love is a trick. Sorry- I don't buy it. No one is that big, that lovable, or that good to save the world. That is why I spend time alone. By the same token, those people that aren't doing these self destructive things- seems to be prejudice against progressive blacks like me. They see me as "too much" for them. They see my denial of drugs, addictions, their vices as "thinking I am more than them!" And that sends them on attack. But on contrary- they see admiration and embracement for those just like me of another race - who could be in my same exact body with a different skin. I am a narcissist, as a black progressive male, for being clean, good spirited, high on nature, not on drugs, no chase, straight laced- about the goodness of life! but the other race identical to me - it's normal. So vengeance is theirs so they thought - and they tried to give the parts of me that the others didn't have to the other races. And that would have placed the other races above me. Sorry! My heart say "whatever!" The teachings of Ida Tarbell and my world voice says- nope mister- Vengeance is NOT yours! It's mine! Do your drugs yourself - and stay away from me with those drugs. there is NO secrets when racism tells all that is decency to leave one based on race and go to another based on their race. In other words, one is saying race defines decency. And that is racism. That in itself is Indecent. How dare you define me as indecent based on race. And tell all decent to ignore me because I am of a race that has been defined as indecent. That is why I sleep alone. I sleep alone to steer badness away from my space. And when these things are in my space without my approval - I come prepared. To have steered good people away from me because of race, leaves a person who prides himself on good things alone - if he is of the race that you steered good people from. And that is exactly what you did. I don't do bad people. Bad things on a consistent basis. Good things as good people can't do me because of instructions. And that leaves me in the middle - having to accept bad or no one. And I do not accept these vices in my life. Not for you or anyone. I don't walk the street with a pot-head partner pimping up and down no body's street with a joint or a cigarette in my hand. I won't. That is why I sleep alone. I see you trying to be with me but you have all these things going on with you - addictions, aggressions, hate, and this ruins my reputation. On that note- I can't be me with a "YOU" on my arms. I can't be me with an "ADDICT" as my partner. I can't be me with a "known prostitute or whore" as my mate. If I even tried, MY life would be over! And I may as well DIE! On contrary-I don't sleep alone because of reasons that they, who want me, said. I steer away from the bad things that they are trying to place in my presence. Drugs. Addictions. Filth. Vulgarity. Aggression. Things that would ruin my career. As they try - To continue to bring these things to me after I said no - makes them a threat, which to me is greater than a risk. That brings about fear and added terror. Any threat consistently planted in a person's space is knowing that you are trying to terrorize that person. I don't do threats. I squash threats. My way was turning risks into useful fears and was mitigating risks converting them to safety zones. Their way- constantly placing threats in my presence exploited risks and turned them into greater threats. Regardless what they were trying to do, that is what they have done! I sleep alone so my prospective employers would see my goodness. In behavior, in mentality and in my intent. And also in my thoughts as I accept your social Ill for you when you are forced in my vicinity when I can't control it. but immediately my employers would see that I mitigate your social ills for me - and let you have your problems. Your addictions are yours- even when I see them, shake your hand, smile at you, and respect you - they are still YOURS. Do not try to share your ill's with me. Especially when i have not asked for them. My prospective employers should see that I am straight laced - nice and like to be nice - who can step out of my face a second to handle the business. Then go back to being myself. And I don't do addictions - of any sort! Respect them and the people that it has captured- but not me! I steer away to protect myself, my interests, my reputation, my life from the residual impact of the social ills. That is so my employers see that it's YOU not me. While I respect people doing them- I don't do those things. If I don't do those things, how would I support those things. The people are victims - to a social Ill from my perspective. To be addicted to anything - even sex - makes you victims - to me. My employers should see ME, not those social ills that out of my control may be placed in my vicinity. For evil! My employers would see the "respect" that I have for all people regardless of their issues. They shall see the love for humanity and the people that may have been captured. They shall see the maturity that separates the people from the things in their lives. They shall see the professionalism in carrying out duties that are even uncomfortable. They shall see the huge human being in a 5 feet 8 inch frame. They all shall see grace in a male figure - a black male figure. They shall see gratefulness in the blessed spirits and souls that came before us and layed the pavement. They shall be able to see the beauty in masculinity that converts so easily into strength and power and soul that can't be conquered by external forces. It all is within. I sleep alone to ensure that this is seen! When it is- then employers would give my job back! To desire is not to destruct the person you want! Not even for selfish reasoning. I desire to know what have you done! To my mom! If you have hurt my mom - you shall be put to death. That is my desire. There should not be any other questions!