#this is on one egg. it's smaller so the music staff lines were hard

[luna-loveboop]

Linktober day three- Zelda

Skyward sword Zelda my baby <3 I carved her riding her loftwing and didn't like it too much, so I did her playing her harp on the egg as well.

The top two lines of music have the notes for the Ballad of the Goddess, and the bottom three are Zelda's lullaby. The Ballad of the Goddess is Zelda's lullaby backwards so I wanted to have both :)

@hero-of-the-wolf @la-sera

[tsukikento]

The Gala

Pairing: Todoroki Shouto x Reader

Word Count: ~2500

Genre/Warnings: Fluff, second-hand embarrassment

Summary: Momo convinces you to go to a gala. After being abandoned, you spend the night complaining to Todoroki about just how boring this party is. Little did you know, Todoroki was the host of this party.

A/N: I wrote this during finals week and I’ve barely edited it, just look at that detailed header lol. Also posted on my ao3 @allie_win

(masterlist)

You had no clue how you got here.

Well, you had some ideas.

It all started a week ago when Momo Yaoyuozu, otherwise known as Creati, invited you to a gala.

~~

“It will be the perfect place to get your feet out there,” She exclaimed while rummaging through her closet to try and find a dress that would fit you.

“You don’t have to keep babying me,” You demanded while watching her pull out a pale green dress you had seen her wear multiple times. “Just because you were my buddy in my first year at U.A. doesn’t mean you always need to guide me.”

“Listen, Y/N-chan,” She sighed. She sat down at the glorious armchair by her closet, “You have been a hero for a year now and an intern with me since your first. I loved helping you during my third year, I loved seeing you grow!” She tucked her hair behind her ear and debated her next words carefully. “However, even after a whole year of hero work, you haven’t made a name for yourself. You are so amazing and should be in at least the top 100 heroes.”

You groaned and let your body fall onto her soft bed. “I hate how you are always right,” You mumbled.

It had been a tough year for you.

Mistake after mistake pulled you lower and lower on the hero ranking. It felt impossible to climb back up.

Yaomomo, as kind as ever, got up from her chair and made her way to you. She kindly moved your hair out of your face and scratched your scalp. “This is an important gala, going will get you an amazing opportunity to make connections.”

“Yeah,” You agreed, closing your eyes. “I want a black dress.”

Momo gasped and immediately got up. “I know just the one,” She exclaimed.

~~

So, now here you were.

You had just arrived with Momo, who immediately got you a glass of champagne before abandoning you to go say hello to some colleagues.

“Go ahead and make some friends,” She called out while being dragged away by some friends.

You sighed and turned around to looked around the room. You tipped your glass and chugged down the bubbly liquid courage. You immediately placed your empty glass on a dish passing by and grabbed another glass.

There were so many heroes around the room and all of them were chatting away with each other and exchanging cards. You saw a few familiar faces in the crowd, some being people you’ve worked with and some being past classmates.

However, the person that really caught your attention was Todoroki Shouto. He was dressed in a dark blue suit and matching tie with velvet linings. His hands were empty and shoved in his pockets. He was standing in a corner in a very similar way to you.

What really interested you in Todoroki was that he wasn’t chatting with anyone. He was one of the top heroes and rarely worked on his friendship with heroes or approval ratings. And yet, he was in the top 3 in approval rating.

You took another sip of your drink and pushed yourself forward. If you wanted to talk to anyone at this party, it was him. You wanted to find out how he climbed to the top without having to waste his time talking to people at parties.

“Todoroki Shouto,” You greeted once you were in range for him to hear you.

The reserved man looked up from the ground to see you.

“Ah,” He said, taking his hands out of his pockets and holding it out to shake yours. “Y/L/N Y/N. It’s a pleasure.”

You graciously took his hand to shake it. “The pleasure is all mine,” You smiled.

“How are you enjoying this party?” He asked.

Although it threw you off that he would be asking you about the party or ready and willing to talk to you, the champagne in your stomach made it a little too difficult to figure anything out. “Rather boring, honestly,” You explained. “I haven’t been here long, but I’m not one for parties.”

He hummed in reply. “Neither am I,” He agreed which helped calm your nerves.

Talking to one of the top heroes could be nerve-wracking, so his comment about not being one for parties made you feel much more comfortable. “Yeah,” You sighed in agreement, “It’s not like this party is that great anyway.”

“Oh really?” Shouto inquired, his eyes piercing into you. “Please elaborate.”

His heavy gaze made your face feel much hotter than usual, but you ignored the feeling and continued on. “Well, the food is all seafood and garlic. By the end of the night, this place is gonna smell like alcohol and dead fish.”

You drank the rest of your glass and had it immediately replaced by one of the staff members.

“I do like the staff,” You noted while the young man holding a tray politely bowed to Todoroki.

You looked back to the handsome man in front of you. Maybe you were babbling more than usual because of how attractive he was and how nervous he made you. Regardless, the drinks in your system made it impossible to tell.

Suddenly the song changed to one rather basic. It felt like a pop song that was made in a lab to simply reach the top 100. It hurt your ears and your tipsy personality couldn’t help but comment on it.

“Oh,” You exclaimed, grabbing Todoroki’s attention. “I also hate this music. The DJ really sucks!” You shouted over the obnoxious beat.

“Would you like to move away from the stage then?” Todoroki offered.

That took you by surprise.

You were well aware of how much more loud you could get while drinking and you did not expect Todoroki to actually want to keep a conversation with you. You nodded and attempted to sober up while following him to one of the many tables in the back. Along the way, you were both frequently stopped by people greeting the multi-chrome man. You didn’t think too much of it because you were too busy trying to figure out why he actually wanted to keep talking to you.

Despite that, each person greeted Todoroki, complimented the party, and then curtly nodded at you. Of course, no one would want to talk to you or introduce themselves. You were a nobody. And you were sure you looked like a red mess with a glass of alcohol in your hand. If only they knew the redness was more for the man they were currently talking to.

By the time you made it to the table, the song had already changed again.

“You sure are popular,” You commented while maneuvering your dress to take a seat in the chair.

“Ah,” Todoroki began, “I am sorry I had to turn my attention away. I hope you understand.”

You smiled at the shy man in front of you. “Don’t apologize. I would kill to have had any of those people even know my name. I’m not the best publicly and I need a drink in me to really get me to start talking.”

Todoroki hummed in response. “I understand. I also find it hard to speak up sometimes. Although I am glad you had enough courage to speak to me tonight.” Cue the redness once again spreading across your face. “I’m enjoying our conversation.” Shouto looked up and smiled kindly at you.

To think the most handsome student from high school, the guy all your friends dreamed to be with even though they were two years younger, actually enjoyed talking to you? Impossible. You needed water. You really needed water.

Your mouth was dry and you were suddenly very hot despite your flowy dress.

“Are you okay?” Todoroki asked while observing your body language. You could tell he was about to go into hero mode.

“I’m fine,” You waved him off. “I think I just need some water.” You looked around the large hall in hopes of finding I tray with water on it.

Before you could spot one, Todoroki spoke up, “Allow me.” He grabbed your now empty champagne glass and filled it with ice. You used his opposite hand to slowly heat up the glass and melt the ice into water. He finished off by putting a few ice cubes back into the water to cool it down.

You graciously took the glass from him, surprised he would be willing to show off his quirk so easily in public. You took a sip of the rather refreshing water before thanking him.

“My pleasure,” He replied. There was a slight lull before Shouto spoke up once again. “So, please tell me more about this tragically horrible party.”

Laughter erupted from your stomach, not expecting him to ask you to complain more. “Hmm,” You mumbled, putting your chin in your hand in thought. “Well, the color scheme is tacky. Purples and golds are the classic color of royalty so whoever threw this party is pretty stuck up.”

“And what would you recommend?” Todoroki inquired.

Before you could really hold yourself back, each thought you had about this party began rushing out of your mouth. “Pale blue instead of purple, but keep the gold. Replace the seafood with more vegetable-based dishes. The egg tarts for dessert don’t even go with fish. You need something light like mousse. If they went with veggie dishes then I would have suggested elegant little cakes, like cupcakes, but smaller and less icing. It would help sober people up against all the drinking. Also! I haven’t even mentioned that they only have champagne! Jeez, they really should have white and red wine, especially white for the fish and red for the cake. Or whatever…” You faded out after realizing how long you had been babbling on.

“Sounds like you should be a party planner instead of a hero,” Shouto commented. You thought he may be trying to tease you, but the plain look on his face made him seem quite serious.

“Maybe,” You sighed, “It’s not like I’m doing very well as a hero. I hate all this politics and rating stuff.”

Shouto hummed in response. “Don’t dwell on sadness when you have a horrible party to complain about.”

“You actually like to hear me complaining?” You asked, quirking your eyebrows.

Todoroki simply nodded and motioned for you to continue.

“Okay,” You looked around the large hall. “Not to be too nitpicky, but this party is just boring. No one has gone on the stage to say anything. No one is dancing. Should people even be dancing? Or maybe I’m missing something. Who am I to say? This is my first hero gala.” You shrugged your shoulders sheepishly smiled. You were sobering up enough to know you were embarrassing yourself, but not enough to actually stop yourself from babbling.

Regardless, it seemed Todoroki actually liked listening to you complain.

The attentiveness made you all the more aware of everything. You suddenly felt sweat on the back of your neck. “Maybe I should just leave,” You mumbled to yourself, getting a little too frazzled as Todoroki’s attention.

“Are you not feeling well?” He questioned, perking up slightly.

“No,” You began, “It’s just that this party is so utterly boring--”

“Y/N-chan,” Mom called a few feet away. “I’m so sorry I lost you!”

You sheepishly smiled, too kind to tell her off. “It’s okay, I’ve had great company,” You explained while motioning to Todoroki.

“Ah, of course! Hello again, Shouto-san,” She greeted while politely shaking his hand. “You know, Y/N-kun, it is very unlike you to befriend people so easily at parties nevertheless the host of the party.”

It took you a moment to register what she said.

In fact, you almost started talking before shutting your mouth after realizing just what Yaomomo said.

Todoroki Shouto is the host of the party.

The party you have been bad-mouthing for the past half an hour.

“I-uh-I,” You babbled, unsure how to approach such a sensitive topic.

Before you had a chance, Todoroki stood up and buttoned up his velvet blazer. “Although I would love to stay and chat, I must make an announcement.” He politely bowed, which you and Momo returned, before he made his way to the stage.

“Y/N-kun, are you okay?” Momo asked, “You look a bit pale.”

You looked at your kindred friend and gulped down the lump in your throat. Momo always wanted to help you, so maybe she could help you now. “I have spent the last half hour with Todoroki talking about how boring and badly planned this party is,” You recalled.

“Oh no,” Momo whispered.

“Oh yes.”

The mic clicked and Todoroki began a short and sweet speech. He thanked everyone who came and started discusses why he planned this gala. It was something about charity, but you were lost in your own world.

“What do I do, Momo-san?” You pleaded, hoping your mentor would have some insight into the popular hero.

“I’m surprised he didn’t stop you, honestly,” She debated, her hand holding her chin in thought.

“That’s just the thing,” You hissed, “He asked me to keep going. It was like he thought it was entertaining.”

Momo hummed. “Well,” She started, “Shouto has never liked parties like these so that may be true. I bet his manager made him throw this party.”

“Do you think he hates me?” You asked, worried for your life. You had made only one new connection during this party and it may as well have been a new enemy.

Momo chuckled lightly. “Todoroki has a short list of people he hates and you are nowhere near it. Don’t stress, Y/N-kun.”

“Either way,” You mumbled while standing up, “I think I should leave. I am not in the right mind to deal with something so embarrassing.”

“Are you sure?” Momo asked.

You sighed and nodded, “I’ll just call a taxi.”

“No need,” Momo stopped you. “My chauffeur can drop you off and come back later for me.”

And so, you walked out to wait for the small car to arrive. You gingerly sat while you were driven to your small apartment. When you got home, you immediately dawned on a much comfier outfit and washed your face free of the cakey makeup you had been wearing.

During this time, you ran over your interaction with Todoroki. Overall, you were sure he didn’t hate you. However, you were much too nervous to ever talk to him again. Not like you got his phone number anyways.

You got into bed and pulled your laptop to you to put on a comforting video. It was barely 10 pm, but you were ready for this night to be over.

As you let your mind run free of your concerns, you heard a small ding of your phone. You snatched it from the side of your bed, remembering you forgot to text Momo that you got home safe. However, when you clicked on the screen, and unfamiliar number flashed before your eyes.

Momo said you needed to leave early, which is a shame. I enjoyed our conversation tonight. Shall we pick it up over dinner? -Todoroki Shouto

[condiscum]

!!!!! All the white shades for Lierik pls!!!!! 💜

God this is literally a year late im so sorry, but i finally finished it so here we gooooo!

White - Do you consider yourself a good person? What’s the best thing you’ve ever done for somebody?

“I mean, yeah. But doesn’t everybody?” he asks plainly, crossing his arms. “I work hard, look after my own. Almost everything I create impacts somebody besides me. I’m not gonna sit here and tally deeds or some shit. It’s a stupid thing to try to prove to somebody.”

Snow - Have you ever seen snow? Do you like it? What do you like to do in the snow?

“Absolutely!” he says, grinning. “I have to travel out to Hoelbrak from time to time— y’know, standard conferences with my northern marketing team ‘n stuff— and that shit’s gorgeous. Have you ever seen the way the sun glints off of the snow in the early morning? Or taken a good look at all of the intricate crystalline structures of the frozen water when you see a large flake intact? It’s great. Sign me the fuck up.”

Frost - What do you like to wear in cold weather?

“Well, first of all, Rata Sum’s in the Maguuma. We don’t get a whole lot of cold weather down there in the tropics, as you might imagine.” he quips. “But when I do have reason to venture outside of the mundane, muggy, incalescence, I bundle appropriately. Hypothermia and frostbite are for dipshits.”

Bone - When was the first time you ever witnessed death? How did it impact you?

“Hard pass.” he says with immediate finality. “Next?”

Author’s Note: Lierik’s parents died in a lab accident in their home when he was still young. It was pretty awful and really traumatizing, and he doesn’t talk about it.

Cotton - What do you like to wear for pajamas?

“Okay, so hear me out.” he says with a grin. “You know those full-body onesie type things progeny wear? Well, those things are comfortable as hell except for one problem. Your feet get cold, right? So— I wish this was one of my own brilliant innovations, but I’m not a fuckin tailor, so I’ve gotta give credit where it’s due: the humans came up with this shit.” 

He sticks his leg out, gesturing at his own feet. 

 “There’s like. Socks attached to these things. But they’re non-slip on the bottom and stuff so you can just wander around in them in the middle of the night. I had some modified for the superior three-digit anatomy and voila! Instant coziness. You should try them sometime.”

Cream - Do you prefer Tea, Coffee, or Cocoa? (If your world has those things. If not, what sort of hot drinks do you have?)

“Well, nothing beats a good hot-chocolate when you’re cold. All sweet and delicious. Buuuuut, trouble is it’s not… energizing enough, y’know?” he says. “Plus, it only has a single static state of being if you want to enjoy it. You can’t throw it on ice. So, coffee is the obvious choice, here.” 

He starts up again, counting each of his reasons on a finger as he does. 

“It’s good hot, sends you right on into the project zone, picks your ass up off the floor at 4:30 in the fucking morning when your incompetent staff can’t problem-solve— and when you get back from that 4:30am problem solving? And your coffee is all tepid and gross? You can just throw it right in an ice cube tray and chuck it in the coolerator. It’s truly one of the best multitools of the engineering world.”

Coconut - What would be your ideal vacation?

He hums, pausing a moment to think more seriously. 

“I guess anywhere less hectic. Somewhere out with my buds. I’ve never been one to keep still for very long, but its always a relief to get away from the hustle and bustle for a while. Just enjoy some time living simpler, wherever that might be.”

Pearl - What do you look for in a romantic partner?

“I’m flattered.” he jokes. “But she’d have to be Asura, for starters. Sorry, mysterious likely-human interviewer, you must be this tall—” he says, gesturing a bit above him “—or under to ride this ride. 

“Past that, though, we’ve just gotta jive. Sure, looks are a plus, but that’s not what it’s about for me.” 

He crosses his arms and leans to one side, smirking. 

“What really drives me wild, though? Smarts. I want a woman who can run circles around me— a tall order, I know, so I’m not in a rush.”

Parchment - Do you like to read or write?

“Reading’s fine.” he says. “Generally, if I’m learning something new, books will hold my attention. New theses from time to time, articles.” 

He shrugs.  

“It’s a little passive for me though. I’d rather be working with something than reading about it any day. It’s hard to improve on a concept without having it in front of you, whether its a drawing on paper or something more three-dimensional. And, frankly, the most writing I’ve done since graduation has been in bullet-points.”

Lace - What would you name your child if you were to have one?

“Oh man,” he manages, “glitch, I don’t know… it sounds like a lot of pressure to name a real, live person. But, progeny are not in my near future anyway, I can tell you that. If it happens, I guess we’ll figure it out then.”

Porcelain - Do you consider yourself a delicate person? Do you fall apart easily?

“Hell no.” he says, rolling his eyes. “Where do you even get these things?”

Salt - Would you consider yourself a mean person? What is it like to fight with you?

“I’ve got a temper, sometimes, I’ll admit.” he says, scratching his head. “But, I’d like to think it’s hard to push my buttons to that point. I’ll tolerate a lot, and I don’t get purposely pointed, but past a certain line, I make no promises of being ‘nice’.”

Ghost- Are you easily scared? What scares you the most?

“I’d like to think I’m pretty fearless.” he says, crossing his arms. “But that’s not to say I don’t have a sense of self-preservation either. Just because I graduated from Dynamics doesn’t mean I’m not well aware of how much precaution has to go into innovation if you don’t want to wind up letting your prototypes take you down with them.” 

He pauses to crack his knuckles before adding “You want something really scary, though? Wasted potential.”

Ivory - Do you play any musical instruments? If so, which ones and how well?

“Eeeehhh—” he starts, waving a hand side to side. “Nothing classical or anything boring like that. But if you’re into some sweet electronica? I’m killer with a drum machine. Gotta have something to put under my sick rhymes.”

Chiffon - Do you prefer a larger and cleaner environment, or a smaller and cozier one?

“Large and clean, for sure.” he says. “I’ve been spoiled for choice for a long while, but the straight fact is that if you want to be able to do anything wherever you are, you need room to do it. A crowded room is stress. An empty room is inspiration.”

Alabaster - What is the most recognizable thing about you? What are people most likely to notice about you when they first meet you?

“Other than my dashing good looks and cutting edge sense of fashion?” he teases. “Well, I do try to keep one statement piece on me at all times: what’s style without a pair of good old fashioned aviators?”

Egg-nog - Do you celebrate Christmas Wintersday? If so, what traditions do you have? Which are your favorite?

“Everybody celebrates Wintersday! Well, everybody who likes fun, I guess. I haven’t been able to go every year, but I try to make it to Tixx’s Infinirarium at least once a year for the Toypocalypse. The mayhem! The adrenaline! The toy carnage!” 

He sighs wistfully. 

“There’s just never a safe chance to cause that much ruckus otherwise. Reminds me of a couple’a friends I had in college…”

Ecru - Do you have curly, wavy, or straight hair?

He grabs a fistful of the thick curly locks on his head and tugs. “Gee, I dunno. Pretty straight, I’d say.”

[magmacannon]

whites for romab...

Rohug................

White - Do you consider yourself a good person? What’s the best thing you’ve ever done for somebody?

Roman does consider himself a good person! He’s... gosh, I think that he’d start by saying that bringing Vince out of the cold and keeping him there, though REALLY not smart considering he was a stranger going through his garbage, was the best thing he’s done. Close seconds are offering to have Warren as his apprentice/eventual son, and deciding that he was going to start a guild. That’s been the best for the most people, and pretty darn good for him, too. 

Snow - Have you ever seen snow? Do you like it? What do you like to do in the snow?

Oh absolutely, he loves it!! He loves to cast magic in the snow and throw snowballs at friends and roll around in it and!!! Make snowmen/sculptures with whoever he can convince to be outside with him. 

Frost - What do you like to wear in cold weather?

MANY layers. He has a winter mage robe that he loves a lot and that he’ll double up with heavy pants/a good undershirt. Since he was gifted the Ring of Warmth though, he can go in a water-resistant layer and do just fine. 

Bone - When was the first time you ever witnessed death? How did it impact you?

The first time he witnessed death was in a Teiwaz arena, where a fight got too intense. He was... terrified of it for a brief moment, but then a healer came out and the dead person popped up and had their arms raised and the crowd cheered. He’s... had a weird view of death since then! It’s felt scary, but escapable (if you have the right friends/support/money to get resurrections). Since he started adventuring it’s become much more frightening, though. It feels more real now than it did when he only knew death from opera and arena matches. 

Cotton - What do you like to wear for pajamas?

When he’s at home he’ll go full nude fghfjkd

But! He’ll wear boxers/his whole robe when he’s around others, depending on the temperature. His clothes are comfortable enough to wear for sleeping (until he gets tangled in them). 

Cream - Do you prefer Tea, Coffee, or Cocoa? (If your world has those things. If not, what sort of hot drinks do you have?)

Tea and Cocoa! He also likes hot milk but he got called names for that once so it’s a thing to help him get to sleep now when he’s at home (he... won’t let others see him drinking it;;) He likes mild and sweet flavors for hot drinks, though a hot toddy-like drink isn’t bad either. 

Coconut - What would be your ideal vacation?

Wa.... He’s been a number of places he’d like to visit now actually! I think a good vacation for him would be taking his family and friends to a nice cabin area, just hanging out there for a week or two and having a good time away from any possible source of issues. 

Pearl - What do you look for in a romantic partner?

h..................... husband qualities. Apparently Roman looks for Ranger Aesthetics, warm rough hands, soft hair, and a nice friendly laugh. He grew up around lumberjacks and Huge Dudes and ended up with a forest man, so some of those old aesthetics still Get Him. 

Parchment - Do you like to read or write?

Yup!! Roman likes to read more than write though. 

Lace - What would you name your child if you were to have one?

HMM........... Yew, maybe. Or something a bit more noble, maybe another plant name??? Both his kids had names when he met them fghjfkd

Porcelain - Do you consider yourself a delicate person? Do you fall apart easily?

He wouldn’t say that he is! He DEFINITELY is though! usually he just gets Big Emotional and then is fine but things stick with him very easily. Words can turn to worries that he’ll remember five years down the line, thinking about life at night. Every problem he’s ever faced still lives in his head and gets turned around sometimes, especially the ones that weren’t ever ‘solved’ in a way that he felt good about. Regardless of that though, he’s resilient to actually falling apart. He tries very hard and succeeds most of the time to keep himself together and keep going. 

Salt - Would you consider yourself a mean person? What is it like to fight with you?

no!!!! wadda hell.... Roman’s a very nice person if you say like. two words to him. The only time he doesn’t hesitate in a fight (which, as a high level evocation wizard, is a terrifying and very readily deadly experience) is if you’ve hurt his friends and he has no reason to think you’re a decent person. 

Ghost- Are you easily scared? What scares you the most?

uhhhHHH depends??? I think he DOES get easily scared, but mostly by silly things (spiders, loud noises, whatever his brain cooks up when he hears a noise at night) - having some form of physical comfort can help with those. Physical comfort also helps with the more abstract fears, too. 

Ivory - Do you play any musical instruments? If so, which ones and how well?

He’s learning how to play the guitar and knew a bit of piano once upon a time! Mainly he just zones out (in a gay way) while Vince tries desperately to teach him guitar hand positions. 

Chiffon - Do you prefer a larger and cleaner environment, or a smaller and cozier one?

Small and cozy absolutely. His tower isn’t the biggest but every room in it feels like home for him, and he loves it that way. 

Alabaster - What is the most recognizable thing about you? What are people most likely to notice about you when they first meet you?

He looks like the velveteen rabbit turned into a little baby wizard and grabbed the biggest staff it could find. Idk what strangers would notice first though, other than that he’s definitely a wizard - maybe his hair? Or (probably) his smile, since it’s kind of his go-to expression unless something serious is happening. 

Egg-nog - Do you celebrate Christmas? If so, what traditions do you have? Which are your favorite?

I think Dorna has Candlenights???? His old traditions were ‘go back to his parent’s house, eat good food until he enters a food coma, open presents, and sing carols,’ and when he’s away from home he mostly does the same thing, though idk about singing as much. He loves spending time with friends and family so it’s all good!! I wonder if Roman could convince his friends to sing/play songs with him, though.... waa

Ecru - Do you have curly, wavy, or straight hair?

wavy dirty blond/light auburn(??) hair! Recently the back part got shaved and he looks like a Don Bluth character now 

[make-it-mavis]

The Right Thing (pt 1 of 3)

Wreck-it Ralph AU 1842 words Content warnings: themes of violence, drugs, conversation of police brutality Characters: Surge Protector, Dr. Mario, Turbo, Fix-it Felix, Make-it Mavis, Maribo ( @nijimarii‘s OC )

Premise: Being in charge of safety for all games plugged into Game Central Station, the Surge Protector has the ability to instantly incapacitate a violent character. This is used only in the most dire circumstances, and only when he can be certain the move will be non-lethal. But what happens when his certainty is near disastrously wrong?

>Part 2<

Surge did the right thing.

He made a tough call. He made a snap decision that saved a life. He was only doing his job. He only ever did his job.

It was just an ugly truth of said job that sometimes, doing the right thing would feel so wrong.

He tried to hold onto these facts as he walked down the hospital halls. The game was actually fairly quiet that evening, the only sounds being soft beeping, muffled conversation between volunteer staff, and the echo of his own shoes clopping against the floor. Part of him wished for more hustle and bustle, if only to impede the numbness creeping into him. It had been hard enough fighting it as he spoke to the victim only minutes prior.

Surprisingly, she was not calling for any punishment of her attacker. It seemed possible that she may have been too shaken and confused to make a clear decision -- after all, her own account of the events seemed very vague, even when he asked her to repeat herself. He hated making her say it again, but her words just kept pushing him far away, back into the moment it happened. He could see it so vividly.

One moment, she was saying hello. The next, hands were around her neck, and the attacker’s furious screams echoed through GCS.

Then he saved her. That was what mattered.

Slightly raised voices perked him to attention as he found himself approaching the waiting room. He could see the back of Dr. Mario’s coat, but as he began to round the corner, something in his stomach dropped.

It was the attacker’s friends and family.

Well… friend and family member.

He had not been looking forward to facing Turbo and Fix-it Felix after what he had done. But, holding onto his resolve, he reminded himself that part of the job was also dealing with the aftermath of tough decisions. Civilians did not always understand why he did the things he had to do, but keeping them safe was always so much more important than being liked.

To his slight relief, the two did not actually seem to notice him at first. He passed them by carefully, finding a place to stand in the deserted waiting room while Turbo and Felix spoke to Dr. Mario. The doctor seemed to be calmly talking them both down, but for different reasons.

“Oh, Doc, are you sure there’s nothin’ I can do? I’ve healed Mavy outta some real nasty pain,” Felix was insisting.

“I’m afraid a’not,” Dr. Mario shook his head gently but firmly. “This is a problem with’a code, not’a hit points. The a’very best a’we can do is keep’a her brain active with’a electrolytes and’a music, and’a wait for her to’a stabilize.”

Felix seemed no less anxious, but he resigned. “Alright. You’re the doctor…”

Turbo was, unsurprisingly, less understanding. He tried to push past Dr. Mario, but he was blocked with a strong hand across his collar.

“What?” he protested. “You said all you’re doin’ is waitin’. How could I possibly get in your way?”

“I told’a you -- it’s not’a safe. For’a now, she’a needs to be isolated. Anyone being in’a proximity to’a her code poses a risk to’a both’a parties.”

“You’re puttin’ your own party at risk here, Doc,” Turbo threatened half-heartedly.

“I’ll’a take my’a chances,” Dr. Mario said flatly. “I’a promise, I will let’a you in the moment it is a’safe to’a do so. Both of’a you.”

“No,” Turbo said sharply. “Just me.”

Felix just sighed, giving the impression they had been over it a few times.

Over the intercom, a volunteer called Dr. Mario away, and he bid the boys goodbye for the time being. Left to their own devices, they immediately settled back into anxious, but tired bickering. Surge swallowed dryly, knowing it was time to own up and explain his actions to at least one sprite who would not want to hear it. Back straight, he approached slowly, until he caught Turbo’s eye.

As the Surge Protector, he had to deal with a whole lot of dirty looks in his life. For the most part, he was used to it. But the look in Turbo’s eyes was unlike any he had been served before. It was not dirty -- it was filthy.

Surge opened his mouth to speak, but Turbo cut him off immediately.

“Aw, look, Fix-it,” he growled. “He’s come to finish the job.”

Felix turned, and to Surge’s relief, his eyes were more concerned than anything else. “Mr. Surge Protector,” Felix greeted him shakily, cautiously, as if he believed Surge should not have been there.

“Gentlemen,” Surge finally managed to say gently but clearly, “I feel I owe you an explanation for my decision tonight--”

“Oh,” Turbo laughed in his throat, turning to face Surge fully. “Yeah. Yeah, y’do. ‘Cause, y’know, I find it real interestin’ that y’saw a girl who weighs like ten pounds n’ decided, ‘Hmm, I’m too chickenbits to fight her. Better freakin’ kill her.’”

Surge felt a punch inside his chest.

“Turbo,” Felix scolded quietly. “Sir, Mavy’s not-- she’s not-- I mean, she’s alive.”

“Oh, don’t, you’ll break his heart,” Turbo spat.

“I know she is,” Surge nodded. “Thank the Devs. I… understand that you must be angry with me. But please, believe me when I say it truly was the only way to save the little one’s life. Another second longer, and Mavis could have snapped her tiny neck in two. Trying to physically pull her off would’ve just been too risky for Maribo.”

“Ah! Okay!” Turbo grinned, spreading his arms a bit. “Now I get it. Ya had to decide whose life was more important, and obviously some innocent lil’ potato’s more valuable than a buff-poppin’ Easter Egg, right?”

He did not kill her, he assured himself. He did not know. He had no idea. He did the right thing.

When he heard the screaming, and he saw little Maribo dangling from Mavis’ hands, he came at the situation with what he knew. Mavis was high, which was risky in and of itself. But even with her violent outburst and her eyes shining a bright binary blue, she should have been safe. Her sprite’s colors were correct, she was perfectly opaque, she was upright and mobile, she was even forming full (angry) sentences.

All signs that it would have been safe to shock her.

“No,” Surge replied as calmly as he could. “I assure you, I had no idea how lethal a shock would have been for her in that moment. She was still exhibiting all signs of a sprite within safe shocking range. Had I known that her code was so fragile, I’d have never--”

“Oh, cut the bullcrit already!” Turbo advanced into his space, and Surge held his ground. “Y’just couldn’t wait for an excuse to off her, could ya? You’ve hated her since the day ya met her!”

“That’s not true,” Surge furrowed his brow. His eyes darted to Felix for a moment, who had clearly given up already, electing to sit hunched in one of the chairs, rubbing his face.

“Yeah,” Turbo nodded, smiling without a trace of happiness. “Yeah, y’have. Y’didn’t shock her to save anybody -- y’just wanted to get off to the sight of her hittin’ the ground.”

Ice water seeped from Surge’s heart at the memory.

It was not really the sight that stuck so viciously in his mind. It was the sound. Her body burst immediately into grating, distorted hissing and popping before she could even hit the floor. He remembered the dull thud of her head striking the ground, Maribo’s urgent coughing, and the alarmed gasps and shrieks of passersby.

The way her body lay motionless, her sprite glitching, flashing, shuddering, her binary darting in and out in warped clusters, making him think that he had just pushed her over the brink of corruption… That would not soon leave his mind.

“I took absolutely no joy in what I did,” Surge said slowly. “I’ve never wanted to hurt Mavis, not once.”

Turbo shook his head, his eyes venomous, stepping in even closer. “I know what this is, a’ight? Even if y’did kill her, it wouldn’t matter, because she’s a ‘junkie’. She’s a ‘problem.’ Her life’s not important to you, n’ there’s proof a’ that lyin’ in a hospital bed in here, barely alive, because y’didn’t care enough to try not to kill her. Ya freakin’ coward.”

Felix moaned in protest.

Surge met Turbo’s molten gaze, looking down with as much composure as he could find. Authoritatively, he instructed, “Step away from me, sir.”

“No,” Turbo hissed, barely above a whisper. “Shock me.”

Surge stared.

“Go on. Do it. Or am I somehow less threatenin’ than an Easter Egg with a tiny code?”

In his heart, he could feel the desire to push back, even a little bit. There was the fleeting thought that he was letting the little racing champion drive all over him, but his mind knew better. Turbo was in distress, and he was lashing out by trying to bully him. He dealt with his fair share of bullies in his line of work, and he knew that the very last thing one should do with a bully is give them what they want.

So he gave Turbo no reaction.

The smaller man’s face fell into a disgusted sneer, but still, there was some self-satisfied air to it that made Surge wonder if he had still gotten what he wanted after all. “That’s what I thought,” Turbo muttered, turning a cold shoulder and prowling out of Surge’s bubble. “Freakin’ coward.”

Surge took a deep breath and blew it out slowly. It seemed to him that he had long overstayed his welcome -- probably since the second he walked in, if he were honest with himself. But he did all he could.

“Well,” he sighed plainly, “I tried. If you wanna be mad, that’s fine. I get it. Just know that you both have my apology for worryin’ you.”

Felix looked up from his hand and returned the sigh. “I’m not mad,” he said gently.

Hands curled into obvious fists in his pockets, Turbo growled something behind his teeth that almost sounded like “I ain’t worried.”

“And…” he continued a bit more cautiously, “hopefully at least one of you understands why I did what I did.”

Both boys answered immediately, “I do.”

Surge swallowed. “Then… I’ll be on my way.”

As he turned to leave, part of him wanted to offer well wishes for Mavis, but it almost seemed like a bad idea. After all, it was his fault she was in there. Even if he only did what he had to.

It was his fault.

But he had to.

He had to.

Over the sound of his shoes on the hospital floor as he made his way out, as he fought the numbness creeping back in, he could have sworn he heard Felix’s voice say, “Turbo, for land’s sake. He was just doin’ his job.”

[sol1056]

I've just read that word of god post you've reblogged and i agree that if it's not in the canon then it's not in the story. but what is the canon exactly? if we take vld as an example, can the extra materials like the guide books or interviews be considered canon when they give us information that is never talked about in the source material, that is in the show itself?

Canon, at its simplest, is “what the community consider the official record.” Its ‘things recognized as authentic,’ and by extension also ‘a standard by which something is judged [as genuine]’. Frex, to say ‘this album is modern jazz’ requires comparing the music to the modern jazz canon. 

For fiction, canon applies the idea of an ‘official record’ to the story itself. The purpose is to delineate the ‘actual’ (genuine) story, and the standards by which new stories (sequels, spin-offs, etc) become canon. The common standards tend to be: who created it and/or was involved, form of distribution (ie official channels), and how widespread it was. Frex, a song played once in a small club in Chicago and never recorded would probably not be considered part of the ‘canon’ of modern jazz (that is, would not be used as the ‘standard’ by which newer works could be judged, because the work is too obscure). 

That brings us to the next level (and often the most fiercely debated): which texts are deuterocanonical. It’s a fifty-cent word but it’s exactly the word we need, here. It means ‘secondary canon’ and it’s texts that could be canon but fell short by some measure. Different author (or ghostwritten), written years later or years earlier, retcons everything, completely different story but with cameo of canon character, and so on. 

Adaptations are often deuterocanonical: a book to a movie, a movie to a TV series, a TV series to graphic novels. Each media has different storytelling conventions, so the story changes, and if you were a fan of the ‘real’ story, you might see the adaptation as just a shade too different. Plenty of fans of the Fullmetal Alchemist manga see the first anime (which diverged wildly) as a secondary canon — interesting, but not crucial; fewer say the same of the second anime, which was much more faithful.  

Continuations also tend to be deuterocanonical, especially when the media changes. If your intro to a fandom includes the warning that everyone ignores a certain continuation, sequel, or spin-off, the community may have decided the later works are a secondary canon. This dismissal comes with the usual flamewars, at least until the fandom agrees to disagree.  

Best criteria is whether parallel or subsequent stories impact or develop the ‘main’ story. Agents of SHIELD is a spin-off of the Avengers movie series, and it pivots mid-story due to movie events. The TV show may be deuterocanonical for movie fans, but the movies are canonical for TV show fans, because those stories have significant impact on the events in the TV show’s storyline.

And then we get to words about the story: meta. Tolkien’s estate has published his drafts and notes; these books satisfy canon per authenticity (written by Tolkien), and stamped as official by the estate. You don’t have to read every rough draft to get the final version, so Tolkien’s notes aren’t really primary canon, but they probably would be considered deuterocanonical. 

The same doesn’t apply when it’s just anyone writing meta, even a published Field Guide or Annotated Glossary — a fancier and footnoted version of the same kind of meta fans have always written on their favorite works. No matter how well-researched, that third-party meta is not canon, no matter who wrote it or where it was published.  

And then we get to word-of-god, however it’s relayed (panel quotes, interviews, tweets, blog posts, etc). Word-of-god, like handbooks and marketing material, are not the story; it’s talk about the story. It’s meta, and as such it can never be more than – at best – secondary canon, and even then under limited circumstances. 

The next thing to consider in word-of-god is: who’s the god, here? It’s easy enough with Tolkien, Rowling, Kipling, Austin, any one-author work where one voice did the bulk of shaping the ideas and words and story. It’s another matter when we get into multi-creator, collaborative stories like movies, television shows, even stage plays or dance where the work passes through multiple hands on the way to becoming a final product. 

If the actor chose to read those lines as though the character were in love, that has an impact on your experience of the story. Is it enough of an impact? Does that make the actor right to say, “this character is in love”? Does the actor have that authority? Or an executive producer who didn’t write the script, direct the episode, voice any of the lines, storyboard any scenes, or animate any frames? How do we measure the contribution of ‘enabling others to create’ to determine whether word-of-god applies? What about a story editor whose outline was informed entirely by exec notes? Can we say the writer of a particular episode even has word-of-god authority, if every line was altered by the actors to a smaller or larger degree? 

Beyond that — and this applies from one-author texts up to multi-season series with a production staff in the hundreds — we cannot assume the author (if there is a single identifiable hand in the story) actually knows the story they’ve written. We writers can tell you what we meant to write, and what we wanted to write, but what we ended up with isn’t always where we’d planned to be. Hell, sometimes we don’t see the themes until a long time after the work is written, the same way we don’t always see where the story’s failed on other counts (representation, gender, cliches, plot holes, etc). 

I could add a lot of words, but here I’m just going to quote some of TV Tropes at you, since the entry does a good job of covering all the bases. 

A number of people reject [word-of-god]… If the creator had wanted a certain fact to be canon, the thinking goes, they should have included it in the work to begin with. [Others] go even further, considering the uncertainty and ambiguity of canon to be a good thing… Wimsatt and Beardsley’s “The Intentional Fallacy” and Barthes’ Death of the Author essay both argue that the interpretation of a work cannot be limited to attempts to discern the “author’s intentions.”

Another thorny issue is … collaborators may not actually agree with interpretations of their story that weren’t made explicit in the work. This is especially likely if they no longer work together, and particularly if they had a real-life falling out. In this case, there are multiple “Gods” given potentially contradictory explanations, so whose word is to be considered correct?

If a story requires the author pop up to explain each scene in some nightmarish reverse-MST3K scenario, then the story has failed. Point blank, full stop, do not pass go, do not collect two hundred dollars. The story has failed. 

But let’s pretend the story is fine, and you just can’t take lying awake at night wondering about that damn watermelon. There’s a place and time for creator explanations; easter eggs (like in-jokes and homages) definitely count, and can be a lot of fun. There’s nothing wrong with word-of-god, after all, so long as it’s taken in moderation. In the end, it’s just a slightly more knowledgeable voice, but never let it drown out your voice or your experience. 

Ultimately, this incessant emphasis on word-of-god has two sources. 

One is the current penchant for throwing wild swerves as a way to combat audience boredom. These get called ‘plot twists’ but in the hands of less-skilled creators, they’re just cheap shocks. Pushed too far, they’ll break the story. Groundwork and foreshadowing are left off the page or screen for fear the audience will ‘figure it out’ too soon, and the result is an audience struggling to make sense of the quagmire. Word-of-god doesn’t fix the story, but it can at least provide closure. You know why the watermelon was there, and you can move on to obsess about something else. 

The other source is our immediate and seeming direct access to a lot of creators: writers, directors, storyboard artists, voice actors, producers, all up and down the line. We could sit down and think hard about the story (if the story isn’t so broken that’s moot, at least), or we could just tweet or blog or tag a creator and ask. Or hope someone asks our question at a panel, or a podcast, or some other interview. Why bother with meta, when you can get a slightly more-informed meta from someone who looks like an authority? 

Hey, authors have been getting questions from readers since Lady Murasaki sat down to write. No, the real issue are creators who’ve come to crave (and encourage) the audience asking how to interpret the story. It’s a pretty heady thing, getting that kind of attention, and it can get away from you really fast. What began as a simple question about indestructible fruit becomes an ongoing interpretative dance by the author on behalf of the work. 

It’s flattering to have the audience clamoring for your words, but… it’s not about you, as the creator. It’s about the story. A creator needs to step back and let the story do the talking. The sooner some creators remember that, the sooner some fandoms will calm the fsck down. 

Primary or secondary canon, word-of-god or radio silence; in the end, the story’s got to stand on its own. If it can’t do that, no amount of explanation in the world will prop the story back up again. 

[travelfoody]

[Click above for the video review.]

Flight: PR104

Route: MNL-SFO

Equipment: Boeing 777-300ER

Registration: RP-C7776

Cabin: Business Class

Seat: 5A & 5C

Background

As someone who does trip reports, it’s always a nice treat to be able to fly a new product. Needless to say, I was very excited to be flying Philippine Airlines’ (PAL) Boeing 777-300ER in Business Class from Manila to San Francisco.

I’ve already reviewed PAL’s SFO-MNL flight on their Airbus A340-300 in Business Class on our outbound flight here. Although the food and service was great, the tired hard product left much to be desired.

Thankfully our return flight was on PAL’s Boeing 777-300ER, which is a much newer plane.

Check-in

PAL mostly operates at Manila’s NAIA Terminal 2, although there are talks that there will be a re-shuffling of airline assignments across NAIA’s 4 terminal buildings, which you can read about here.

Quick tip: Make sure you have your itinerary and eTicket printed with your name and flight number, as the security guard at the building entrance will look for it before letting you into the check-in area.

Upon entering the building, our bags were x-rayed and we had to walk through a metal detector. Terminal 2 was a zoo when we got there. There were a few PAL transpacific flights leaving around the same time, so it the terminal was packed. Thankfully, business class passengers and Mabuhay Miles elites have a separate line, so we didn’t have to wait long for check-in. The PAL check-in agent was friendly and very efficient. She quickly printed our boarding passes and checked our luggage. We were also reminded that we would need to undergo secondary security checks since we were on a US-bound flight.

As we exited the check-in counter, we were approached by a PAL security agent and she mentioned that she had a few security questions for us. We underwent the usual security questions: who packed your bags, did you leave your bags unattended, did anyone ask you to bring anything questions. There were a lot of questions, but the process was mostly painless. After the interrogation security screening, they affixed a small sticker on the back of our passports to show that we have already been screened.

From there, we walked over to immigration, to get our exit stamp. There was no line and we didn’t have to wait.

After immigration was the actual airport security which we all know and love. There was also no line, so we were through within 2 minutes.

We still had a couple of hours left before our flight, so we headed to the Mabuhay Lounge to relax and grab a few bites.

The Lounge

Upon arriving at the lounge, the lounge attendants scanned our boarding passes and welcomed us in. As expected, there were a lot of people, but at least there were still some seats left unlike our experience at SFO.

As you walk-in the lounge, there’s a small seating area on the right which has a TV. The center section is the dining area with some steam tables, and made to order soups, and a small manned bar.

Past the dining area is another rather long room with more seating.

We decided to get a table in the dining area and check out the food options. On offer on the steam table was rice, marinated milkfish filet, vegetable dumpling, siomai, made to order noodle soups, and of course PAL’s signature chicken arroz caldo complete with accoutrements. There were also a selection bread, pastries, fresh fruit slices, and some desserts.

I was intrigued by the noodle soup, so I ordered a bowl and some coffee as well. They were both very good.

I also had the chicken shawarma wrap, corned beef roll, and arroz caldo later on before the flight. Awesome!

Security Screening Part Deux

With just under an hour left before departure, we made our way to gate 2, which is a good 5 minute walk from the lounge. When we got to the gate, everyone had to go through the metal detector, have their bags x-rayed again, and undergo a secondary ticket validation. When we got to the secondary ticket validation booth, they looked for the sticker on the back of our passports. They asked us our final destination and if we packed our own bags. All in all it took 5 minutes to get through the second security theater.

Boarding

After the validation booth, we followed the signs to the business class line and waited for boarding to be announced.

Seniors and People with Disabilities (PWD) pre-boarded, followed by passengers traveling with small children. I swear there were at least 35 wheelchair-assisted passengers and a whole bunch of passengers traveling with small children. By the time they were done pre-boarding, it felt like half of the passengers were already on board before they even started to board business class.

Soon enough business class and Mabuhay elites were called to board and we made our way down the jetbridge only to find that the wheelchair-assisted passengers still haven’t completely boarded. There were still about 6 wheelchairs on the jetbridge and it took  a while before we got on the plane.

Everyone boarded using door 1L.

At the door we were greeted by the purser and directed to turn right past the main business class cabin and the galley. There’s a mini business class cabin behind the galley with only 2 rows of seats.

PAL’s Boeing 777-300ER has 42 angled flat seats in a 2-3-2 configuration. Rows 1-4 are in the forward cabin, while rows 5-6 are in the aft (mini) cabin after the galley and right in front of economy. We were seated in seats 5A and 5C, bulkhead seats on the port side of the airplane.

Image courtesy of Philippine Airlines

We stowed our bags in the overhead bins got settled. Waiting at our seats were the full size pillow, duvet, and menu. The noise canceling headphones and slippers were in the seat pocket attached to the bulkhead.

The Seat

After settling in, I checked out the seat and its features. PAL uses Recaro branded seats in both Business Class and Economy. The business class seats are the Recaro CL6510 angled flat seats with 78″ of pitch and 20″ width. The seats recline to 165-degrees (a little short of 180-degree flat).

There are 2 seat controls. One is a basic one with all the presets for takeoff/landing, dining, lounging, and sleeping. The other one is hidden under the arm rest, which you can use to fully adjust the seat to your liking.

Also tucked under the center arm rest is a large tray table.

The outer arm rest is also adjustable and can be lowered when the seat is converted into a bed.

In between the seats at shoulder level is an adjustable reading lamp and a small privacy divider.

PAL’s IFE of choice for the 777 is the Panasonic EX2 system with audio/video on demand (AVOD). Since we were on the bulkhead, the IFE monitors are tucked inside the center console between the 2 seats. You have to pop it up and swivel it to view. I noticed that our IFE screen was smaller (10.6″) compared to the rest of the business class IFE screens which is 15.4″ and are installed on the back of the seat in-front.

The monitors are touchscreen, but you can also use the wired IFE remote located on the side of the seat, attached to the center console. As I mentioned above, noise canceling headphones were provided. They are not Bose branded, but they worked well.  The AC power outlet, and USB ports are installed on the front of center console.

There are a dozen or so new Hollywood movies and a few dozen classics. There were also some Asian and Filipino movies available. There were a handful of TV shows available as well. The audio selection also had music in English, Filipino, other foreign, and instrumental tracks new and old.  There were 8 games available, which was pretty limited. There was also a pretty basic moving map app as well.

After checking out our seats, one of the male flight attendants, came up and asked if we cared for a drink. We asked for some champagne and it was hand poured at our seat. Soon after, another flight attendant, Amanda introduced herself and welcomed us onboard. She had a tray with glasses of  mango smoothie, which she also offered to us. After a few minutes, she came back with some hot towels. She also took our meal orders for the flight and asked if we wanted to be woken up for the pre-arrival meal service.

The Flight

20 minutes before our scheduled departure time of 10:00pm, boarding was complete and the captain went on the PA to announce our on time departure. He also mentioned our  flight time to San Francisco will be 13 hours, but we might be arriving a few minutes early. The purser asked all ground staff to leave the plane and the doors were closed soon after. We pushed back from the at 9:55pm. I guess PAL’s plane aren’t always late after all! 😉

The safety video played, and we had a relatively short taxi to the end of the runway, and had a relatively short takeoff roll (compared to the “lumbering” A340-300 on the outbound flight). We hit a few bumps on the initial climb, but it wasn’t too bad.

10 minutes after takeoff, the seatbelt sign was turned off, and the flight attendants started their onboard service.

Amanda came by with the cart to offer us amenity kits and newspapers and magazines. We took the amenity kit, but declined the reading materials. PAL partnered with L’Occitane for their amenity kit. The pouch is good quality and definitely reusable, while the contents were pretty decent as well.

After a few minutes, beverage service commenced. We continued with the champagne and it was served with an amuse bouche.

Soon after Amanda came back to set our tables with white linen and settings, followed by a selection of warm breads. I opted for the mini baguette.

For the starter course, I opted for the prawn salad and chicken galantine. The portion was generous and it was tasty.

Next up was the beef solomillo morconitos served with rice. Morconitos is a diminutive form of the word morcón, which is a Filipino-Spanish dish. It is typically a beef roll stuffed with sausages, hard-boiled egg, and some pickled veggies. The meat was tender, and the portion was generous, but I thought the dish lacked flavor.

Meanwhile, my companion ordered the Aristocrat® chicken BBQ with java rice. I’ve had this dish on one of our previous PAL flights and it was delicious!

For dessert, we opted for a Filipino favorite: sans-rival (French for “without rival”). It is a meringue cake with buttercream and chopped cashews. This version was rolled into a ball and served with a side of crème anglaise. Awesome way to end the meal!

The meal service ended about 2 hours into the flight with some hot towels.

After dinner, I went to the lavatory to freshen up. The business class lavatory was on the small size, but just like the outbound flight it was kept clean and stocked with basic amenities, including a L’occitane handwash, lotion, mouthwash, and cologne.

When I went back to my seat, bottled waters were distributed to all business class passengers.

As I mentioned above, these seats are angled flat, and some angled flat seats I’ve been on before are on such a high slope that I ended up sliding down the seat. I’m happy to report that this is not the case for this seat. The seat reclines to close to 180-degrees, but since the airplane flies with the nose up at a slight angle, it compensates. I reclined the seat all the way and made my bed. Sadly, PAL does not offer mattress pads in business class, but the duvet was full size pillow was very comfortable. I slept comfortably for 6 hours.

I woke up with a little over 4 hours left on the flight. I was feeling peckish, so I asked one of the flight attendants in the galley to make me a warm bowl of chicken arroz caldo, one of the mid-flight snacks and he was happy to oblige. I also asked for a glass of diet coke.

I dozed off for another couple of hours and woke up right before the pre-landing meal service.

The service started with hot towels.

Then Amanda came by and offered us some mango smoothies.

Then our tables were set and warm breads were offered. I chose the ensaymada, which is a Filipino style brioche topped with butter, sugar, and cheese – YUM!

For the starter dish, I had the assorted sliced fruits.

Then we were offered some coffee or tea.

I ordered the Filipino breakfast, which was skinless chicken longanisa (Filipino sausage), with salted egg and tomato salad, and garlic rice (Longsilog). We were also offered side dishes of marinated milkfish (bangus) and tuyo (dried fish). As a big fan of Filipino breakfast plates, I was in absolute heaven!

My companion opted for the Mahi Mahi Fish with Penang Sauce and Nasi Goreng (Indonesian fried rice). He liked it a lot.

Another round of hot towels were distributed to passengers after the meal service.

I went to the lavatory to freshen up and beat the mad rush before landing, but not before taking a few shots of the main business class cabin.

Soon the captain went on the PA to announce our initial descent into the San Francisco Bay Area. He also asked the crew to ready the cabin for landing.

I put my seat upright, opened the window shades, and stowed some last minute personal items in the overhead bin.

The crew did another hot towel service before landing and Amanda thanked us for flying Philippine Airlines.

Arrival

It was a clear day during landing, so we got some really nice views of the South Bay and Peninsula during our approach. We had a smooth descent and textbook landing at SFO at 7:44pm (16 minutes early). We taxied for a few minutes and parked at gate A5, next to a PAL Airbus A340-300.

The doors were soon opened, and we were one of the first people to disembark. Immigration was quick at SFO thanks to our Global Entry membership.

The only problem we encountered during arrival was that it took a long time for our luggage to come out. I know PAL priority tags all their business class and mabuhay elite bags, but for some reason our bag was one of the last ones out. Oh well!

The friendly CBP customs officer just waved us through and welcomed us home.

Thoughts

PAL’s Boeing 777-300ER was definitely a much better product than what we had on the outbound flight. The cabin felt more spacious, the seats were more comfortable, and the plane is a lot newer than the A340-300. That being said, the seats and amenities are still not up to par with other competing Asian carriers like Cathay, EVA Air, Korean Air, Japan Airlines and Asiana to name a few. The above carriers (and even some mainland Chinese carriers like Hainan) offer better seats and added amenities like mattress pads, pajamas, and high-end champagnes. However come to think of it, PAL doesn’t really have any competition on direct flights to Manila from the US or Canada, so they can get away with offering a lower-end business class hard product.

Just like the outbound, I think where PAL really shines is the catering and in-flight service. The food was consistently very good throughout the flight, and the presentation was excellent. Like the last flight, meal trays were not used during meal service. Instead, the dishes were placed right on the linen, which I prefer. The service from the crew was also great on this flight. Amanda and the rest of the crew were very warm, proactive, and very eager to please the passengers in business class. Our glasses were always refilled with drinks without us asking, our dishes were cleared right away after, and we were addressed by name with a smile.

Ground service in Manila was surprisingly pretty good too. The check-in agent who helped us clearly knew what she was doing, and was very efficient. The lounge staff were also very hospitable. We were asked by the staff a few times if we wanted to order any drinks at the bar, and our dishes were cleared right away after we were done.  The only thing I didn’t like was having to go through security 3 times and being interviewed by PAL’s security agents.

Disembarking at SFO was quick and painless, I just wished we didn’t have to wait for almost an hour at baggage claim for our bags to come out when they should have been one of the first ones out since they were priority tagged.

Overall a very nice and comfortable flight on PAL. I can’t wait to try PAL’s newer Boeing 777-300ER seats, which are similar to Turkish Airlines business class seats on their Boeing 777-300ER. Kudos to the crew, especially Amanda who took good care of us during the flight. Thanks, PAL!

(Note: As with all trip reports on travelingfoody.com, this flight was not subsidized by the airline. All flights and accommodations were paid for by us.)

            Philippine Airlines Business Class Manila to San Francisco | Boeing 777-300ER Flight: PR104 Route: MNL-SFO Equipment: Boeing 777-300ER Registration: RP-C7776 Cabin: Business Class Seat: 5A & 5C…

[barinacraft]

Buffalo Cocktail - A Goblet Of Fire Water

Don't Be Buffaloed By Goblet Sized Highball - Dash Don't Change A Thing

The Buffalo Cocktail was one of the first in a long list of highball style drinks concocted over the years. Similar to a Gin and Tonic or a Scotch and Soda, it started out as a goblet of whiskey and water (sparkling mineral to be exact), but a dash of lemon juice was added later to enhance the flavor a bit.*

Hardly enough to matter much though. It just makes it sort of a hybrid highball is all.

Whiskey, water, sugar, lemon juice and bitters chart 5 of the most popular cocktail ingredients of all time. You could add some sugar and a few more dashes of lemon juice to Buffalo Drink Recipe No. 2 to make a Whiskey Sour for example.

Behind The Bar - How To Make A Buffalo Cocktail At Home

Buffalo Cocktail Recipe:

1 drink whiskey

1 dash lemon

1 - 2 oz seltzer water

Be sure to leave a little room, but add as much of your fire water of choice as you choose to a small goblet filled with three gobs of ice. Dash on some lemon juice and top with mineral, seltzer, soda or tonic water. Stir and serve.

History Of The Buffalo Cocktail

Let's Splif The Difference

The Buffalo Cocktail began life in 1895 as a larger version of the Splificator.† Or, maybe the Splificator, a form of ‘splificate’ said by some to mean “to cut in half,” was the smaller bison.

Either way, the two drinks were originally one in the same as far as ingredients go. Whiskey and Apollinaris sparkling mineral water from Germany‡ on the rocks with the Splificator served in a medium thin glass and the Buffalo upsized to a small goblet. Depending on your glassware back then, small bar glasses were typically 5 to 8 ounces in size, while goblets tended to be 8 ½ ounces and up, although the Mixicologist didn't specifically say or pictorially illustrate this like many other books of that same era did.

Who's Joe Wheeler?

Joseph "Fighting Joe" Wheeler was a general in both the Confederate States Army and the United States Army who in between the Civil War and the Spanish-American war served multiple terms as a democratic congressman from the state of Alabama pictured third from left above.1 He also had a namesake cocktail published in 1900 which was essentially a rye whiskey Splificator served in a small sour glass with 'one' piece of ice, unstirred and garnished with a slice of lemon on top.2

So, what's the connection?

The addition of a hint of lemon is unknown and having commanded the 9th and 10th Calvary Divisions of Buffalo Soldiers during the invasion of Cuba in 1898 is probably just a coincidence (to this drink recipe), but the glass size may be related as far as rations, etc. Who knows.

However, here's the fun part:

During a Confederate reunion a story was told about how, just before going to battle, General Wheeler offered a Lieutenant a drink from his canteen and the junior officer seemed disappointed after he drank. When asked, "what's the matter," the Lieutenant replied, "I thought it was whiskey."

But, I never drink anything stronger than water.

~ General Joseph Wheeler

At least before battle anyway. His orders were that, prior to an engagement, all canteens must be filled with water and not whiskey, which is probably what inspired this mixture as his signature drink.3

Whiskey and Water (and Lemon)

A couple years later, Bishop & Babcock Co., a manufacturer of beer pumps, bar cocks, faucets, ice boxes and other bartending supplies, decided to add a splash of lemon juice to a drink of whiskey topped with seltzer water as described above. Their recipe had gobs of ice, but let the fancy stemwared Buffalo go roam the Great Plains of containers in a small bar glass instead of a chalice.4

GameDay Parties and Tailgating

The Buffalo Cocktail makes a great themed drink for sports teams branded with this bovid breed like the City of Buffalo Bandits (NLL Lacrosse), Bills (NFL Football), Bison (IL Baseball), Sabres (NHL Hockey) and others in Upstate New York including the University Of Buffalo Bulls. There's also the Oklahoma City Thunder (NBA Basketball) and a host of collegiate clubs as shown below.

List Of College Sports Teams With A Bison Or Buffalo Mascot (location - name):

Bethany College Bison (Bethany, West Virginia - Boomer)

Bucknell University Bisons (Lewisburg, Pennsylvania - Bucky)

Gallaudet University Bison (Washington, D.C. - Gally)

Harding University Bisons (Searcy, Arkansas - Buff)

Howard University Bison (Washington, D.C. - Bison)

Lipscomb University Bisons (Nashville, Tennessee - Lu)

Manhattan Area Technical College Bison (Manhattan, Kansas - Bodi & Brandi)

Marshall University Thundering Herd (Huntington, West Virginia - Marco)

Milligan College Buffaloes (Milligan College, Tennessee - The Buffalo)

Nichols College Bison (Dudley, Massachusetts - Thunder)

North Dakota State University Bison aka The Thundering Herd (Fargo, North Dakota - Thundar in costume)

Oklahoma Baptist University Bison (Shawnee, Oklahoma - Belshazzar)

University of Colorado Buffaloes (Boulder, Colorado - Buffalo Chip in costume / Ralphie the live American Bison)

University of Manitoba Bison (Winnipeg, Canada - Billy)

West Texas A&M University Buffaloes or Buffs (Canyon, Texas - Thunder live)

Williston State College Tetons (Williston, North Dakota - buffalo mascot named after the mountain range)

Dumb And Dumbledore

Thankfully, none of these reputable schools of higher learning will teach Cliff Clavin's buffalo theory of drinking to their students. And, just like in the Harry Potter movie, this Goblet Of Fire Water is surrounded by Dumbledore's “Age Line” charm, which prevents underage wizards from drinking until they have reached the legal age to do so. Young Harry Potters, collegiate and otherwise, will have to stick with butterbeer until then.5

DO NOT try to fool the goblet with aging potion or you will grow a long white buffalo beard. Cheers!

References

* - Not to be confused with the Buffallo [sic] Fizz which also adds powdered sugar, sherry wine and egg white to the mix.

† - C. F. Lawlor, The Mixicologist Or How To Mix All Kinds Of Fancy Drinks (Cincinnati: Lawlor & Co., 1895), 37. Print.

‡ - Cincinnati's namesake cocktail mixed with half lager beer and half soda water or ginger ale was published in the same year. With the city's large population of German immigrants, you have to wonder if that spirits and H2O formulation along with the use of a German mineral water in the Buffalo Cocktail was a recipe with ties to Germany that was brought over from Europe at the time.

1 - Pictured above left to right are the staff of the 1st US Volunteer Regiment, the "Rough Riders," in Tampa, Taylor MacDonald, Major Alexander Oswald Brodie, former Civil War Confederate General Joseph Wheeler, person unknown, Leonard Wood and then Lieutenant Colonel Theodore Roosevelt via.

2 - “Bartenders of Prominence” The National Police Gazette: New York 28 Apr. 1900: 14. Print. Joe Wheeler cocktail recipe submitted by "Doc" Dortic, Royal Music Hall, Savannah, Ga.

3 - Pendleton, B. A. "General Joe Wheeler and the Lieutenant." The Myrtle: Boston via The New Voice: 24 May 1902: 84. Print.

4 - Bishop & Babcock Co., Fancy Drinks : How They Are Mixed (Cleveland, Chicago, St. Paul, New York: Bishop & Babcock Co., 1902), 24. Print.

5 - The Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry is divided into four houses whose mascots are the Gryffindor lion, the Hufflepuff badger, the Ravenclaw eagle and the Slytherin serpent. When the Triwizard Tournament's wooden goblet isn't spouting participate's names in a fountain of magical fire, Harry Potter probably has it filled with butterbeer.

[stanleyuriis]

the losers club + disneyland

this is my life and soul i did so much research and drank so much coffee 

the losers club + disney

just an fyi this does take place in the 60’s, the losers are in their senior year of high school

-since the beginning of the losers senior year, they wanted to go somewhere fun for their senior trip at the end of the year. they tossed around ideas of going to the beach, but everyone was going to go to the beach. ben remembered the way beverly talked about rollercoasters and remembered the (horrible) mickey mouse voice richie would do whenever disney was mentioned, then piped up with the idea of going to Disneyland for their senior trip. everyone was immediately on board.

-the losers picked up extra hours and covered other people’s shifts at work to save for the trip. per usual, ben kept track of the money and divided it up between gas, hotel rooms, tickets to the park, and food. driving two days to california wasn’t going to be cheap.

-richie worked on all of his disney park character voices all year

-the losers started walking everywhere in order to save money for gas

-finally, senior trip season came and the losers were so excited for their trip

-the plan was to drive two cars, because not everyone and their luggage would fit into just one car. eddie, mike, and richie loaded their things in eddie’s ford consul classic, and bill, stan, beverly, and ben loaded up stan’s toyota publica.

-the night before setting out they all stayed over at stan’s house because if they didn’t, everyone knew richie would wake up late and hold everyone up an extra hour.

-they woke up early so they could drive as long as they could, so around 4:30am (the original plan was to leave at 4, but they quite literally had to drag richie out of bed), the loser’s finally set out on the road.

-in eddie’s car, richie was asleep in the passenger seat and mike was laid out across the back seat, and eddie was humming to himself to stay awake. whenever richie would start snoring (LOUDLY), eddie would push his head to the other side

-in stan’s car, ben and bev shared the backseat. bill offered to drive first because he could tell that stan was still exhausted. stan slept in the passenger seat with his head resting on top of the middle compartment. bill would occasionally comb the hair out of stan’s eyes with his hand.

-around 6am, richie finally woke up because eddie pushed his head a little too hard and it hit the window. richie complained for three hours, which woke mike up. the complaining didn’t stop with richie’s head: “Eds, I will eat my hand if we don’t eat soon.” “Eddie why is this road so bumpy?” “Your poor driving skills are hurting my head.” “Just honk at Bill until he pulls over so we can talk about breakfast!!”

-in response to this, eddie swerved the car back and forth to get him to stop. finally, bill started to slow down and turned onto a side street, so eddie followed them to a small diner off the interstate.

-they all sat on the bar area then ordered massive amounts of food. it was hard for the cooks and waitresses to keep up. richie had no less than six plate-sized waffles, a dozen eggs, and too much sausage and bacon. the others eventually stopped counting and wondered how he stayed so skinny. stan and eddie topped off an entire pot of coffee. between beverly and bill, they polished off five tall glasses of chocolate milk. stan and bill demolished three dozen eggs. eddie and stan tore through a massive batch of french toast. mike downed one bowl of grits and one bowl of oatmeal. bev and ben lost count of how many hashbrowns they consumed. then finally, stan and mike split a blueberry parfait.

-full bellies, they hit the road again, only this time mike drove eddie’s car and beverly joined him, eddie, and richie. stan drove his car with bill riding shotgun and ben in the backseat.

-after countless hours of driving and numerous bathroom stops, ben, now driving stan’s car, pulled over and so did mike. they all got out of the car and decided to drive through the rest of the night in hour and a half shifts while the other people in the car would sleep

-they stuck with this all night, and when the sun came up, they repeated the whole process again. breakfast, drive, gas, lunch, drive, gas, drive, diner, gas, midnight snack, gas, drive and sleep in shifts.

-after nearly two days on the road, everyone was ready to kill each other. between richie’s often complaining and loud music, beverly and eddie having to pee constantly, bill not being able to sit still, mike and ben’s never ending hunger, and stan’s lack of sleep and energy, everyone was ready to murder.

-at three am, stan finally saw the lights of the massive Disneyland Hotel and nearly started crying, he was so happy to get out of his car. he laid on the horn to alert mike driving behind him, and mike honked back, just as relieved as stan.

-they parked side by side in the parking lot and awoke anyone else who was sleeping. bill literally had to pull richie and eddie out of the backseat of the car. they checked in and went up the stairs to their rooms. richie, eddie, and bev stayed in a two bed room, and bill, stan, mike, and ben stayed in another. their rooms were across from one another and they had keys to each other’s rooms.

-the second the losers saw their beds, they kicked off their shoes and went straight to sleep. no one even bothered to change clothes.

-they slept until noon. bev was the first person awake and she did her best on waking up richie and eddie. it wasn’t easy at all. richie would not let go of his pillow, and eddie kept rolling around and avoiding her. she went across the hall to get the others up, because she knew if anyone would get richie and eddie out of bed, it would be bill or mike.

-bill got eddie and richie out of bed, finally, then everyone got dressed and ready to get something to eat and maybe hit one of the parks today. they walked downstairs to the small, overpriced in-hotel restaurant and got a table for seven.

-after a very late brunch, they decided to go into the parks. they drove a short drive to the massive lot, then made the trek up to the front of the park. they purchased their first day passes and excitedly waited for one another at the opening of main street.

-richie was the last one out and got so excited he did a cartwheel, nearly knocking over a hot dog seller.

-they walked through some of the Main Street shops and looked at souvenirs for what felt like hours.

-richie dared mike to squeeze into a snow white dress for five bucks and mike sure as hell did it. bev pulled out her mom’s polaroid camera she was allowed to borrow and snapped a photo of mike

-ben spent a solid twenty five minutes looking at the collection of character pins, picking out the perfect one for beverly. he ended up going with the classic minnie mouse, wearing a red polka dot skirt. he purchased it and tucked into the pocket of his newer, smaller pair of blue jeans.

-richie ended up buying himself and eddie each a pair of mickey ears to wear around the parks.

-stan bought bill those ridiculous oversized slippers that were shaped like donald duck feet

-mike bought a tinkerbell charm bracelet for his girl back in derry

-after they spent too much money on souvenirs, they walked more of main street and looked for any characters that were out. bev especially wanted to see pinocchio and “honest” john.

-richie declared that he was hungry and dragged eddie to go find something to eat with him while the other losers continued looking for characters and sights to see

-richie bought one of those huge turkey legs and ate everything except a few bites that eddie stole. they walked around a bit, richie holding the turkey leg and taking huge bites out of it, all the while holding eddie’s hand with his free one. families passing watched in awe as the tall, skinny, lanky boy utterly demolished the giant sized turkey leg.

-they met back up with the other losers in front of the castle and saw that the sky was beginning to turn orange and pink as the sut set. they agreed on eating at the Casa de Fritos for dinner. despite already eating a turkey leg the size of jupiter, richie ate like a king. eddie lost count of how many tacos richie put down, but he already knew it was going to be fart city in their room tonight.

-when they got out of the restaurant it was dark and a lot less crowded. bev and ben suggested that they hit the rides that were still open, so the losers rolled into Tomorrowland and got in line for the Matterhorn first.

-since the bobsled cars were two person cars, one person had to stay behind and watch everyone else’s stuff. bill called nose goes and richie was the last one, so he took everyone’s stuff and sat on a bench. eddie said that he would ride it again with him and some of the others did too. bill and eddie in one car, mike and stan in another, and bev and ben in another.

-when they came off the ride with wet hair and damp clothes, bev opped to sit out and try to dry her white bell sleeved top. ben pulled off his teal zip up jacket and gave it to bev, who looked rather cold and uncomfortable

-in total they rode Matterhorn, Rocket to the Moon, and Astrojet before the parks began to close.

-a tired richie dragged alongside eddie, a worn out bill walked beside stan, stan’s arm around bill’s shoulders, and a near-sleep bev holding onto ben and mike. The losers trudged toward their cars and drove back to the hotel.

-eddie basically had to drag and toss richie into bed, which was not an easy task. richie kept pulling eddie’s hair and telling him to just let him sleep. “Yeah, great idea Rich. I’m sure the hotel staff would love a bunch of little kids’ Disneyland dreams ruined because there was a freakishly tall man who reeks of turkey legs lying on the floor.”

-mike and ben dropped bev off at her, eddie, and richie’s room then went back to their shared room with stan and bill, only to find bill asleep and stan trying to pull bill’s shoes off.

-midnight rolled around. bev couldn’t take it anymore. richie was farting up a mighty storm. she gathered her things, wrote a note for eddie and richie, ran downstairs for the front desk, and asked for another room. luckily, she got one on the same floor as the other losers, but a few rooms down.

-the next day, the plan was to hit as many parks as possible. Fantasyland was first on the list and even though none of them would admit it, they were all giddy

-they walked down main street and through Sleeping Beauty’s Castle and into Fantasyland. the second richie saw the Mad Tea Party cups, he screamed “FUCK YES” and nearly got them kicked out of the park.

-On Dumbo’s Flying Elephants, bill and richie would reach out as far as they could to try and touch the top of surrounding tents, continuously getting yelled at

-in Frontierland, they rode the Mine Train twice, then got lunch in the New Orleans Square. the waitress was very annoyed because richie kept talking to her in his overdrawn southern accent, and as he said “topped of with a louisiana dialect, it’s the bees knees”

-richie, mike, and ben ate six plates of beignets

-ben threw up on the way to Safari Jungle Cruise

-on the Jungle Cruise, richie got sprayed by one of the fake elephants and bev snapped a polaroid just before it happened, titling it “A Moment Before Disaster”

-stan dipped his hand in the water and a duck quacked at him

-they went back to Fantasyland in hopes of finding and taking pictures with some of the characters

-bev spotted pinocchio and “honest” john by Monstro the Whale as they walked into Fanstasyland and screamed at the top of her lungs. she dragged ben by the arm and the others followed. she posed and snapped numerous photos with them. she had the biggest smile.

-eddie spotted peter pan, who had been richie’s favorite for years, and they took pictures with him. richie’s favorite was the one of himself and Peter standing in the famous Peter Pan stance with their fists on their hips and their chests puffed out

-they all snapped polaroids with their favorite characters until bev only had two photo films left

-they shopped around a bit more, buying keychains and magnets for siblings and family members

-the sun began to set again, and families with younger kids began leaving the parks. the losers all got mickey mouse shaped warm pretzels and sat in front of Sleeping Beauty’s Castle. bev asked a bystander to take a photo of them, all sitting together on the pink and blue sidewalk. the photo came out of the camera and the losers watched it develop. bill was sitting farthest to the left, taking a bite of his pretzel and winking. stan sat next to him, looking and grinning at bill and holding the mickey ears of his pretzel behind bill’s head. ben and bev sat next to each other, their arms crossing each others and taking a bite of each other’s pretzel. richie sat between mike and eddie his arms slung around both of their shoulders. richie and eddie were wearing their matching mickey mouse ears. mike was taking a bite of the pretzel in richie’s hand, and eddie had his head on richie’s shoulder, his tongue out and eyes crossed. bev grinned and titled the sweet, quintessential losers club photo : “SENIOR TRIP / THE LOSERS TAKE DISNEYLAND.”

-later that night, there was a firework show above the castle. the losers sat and watched the glowing bursts of lights in the sky. it was a sweet moment for them.

-bev held up her camera and told the boys to scoot in. with her last photo film, she snapped the photo of her and her best friends on the best night of their lives.

ahhhHHHHHHHHHH

[exotahu]

Bronycon 2019 “THE END”

Okay so... I kinda procrastinated on putting this out. I wrote the shell right after the con but only now finished it for posting. I don’t use tumblr much anymore but I couldn’t think of anywhere else to put this. Here is my rundown of the 2019 Bronycon. As per usual, this was written in pieces over time and might be a bit of a mess. I’m not the most coherent person when it comes to writing this sort of thing. So for one final time, Here we go. I apologize if tumblr breaks it all. 

Wednesday

The power went out as I was getting ready to leave. I had everything pretty well prepared ahead of time this time.

 I was super stressed about things going wrong and of fucking shit up actually helped me get my shit together. Still thought, I left the goddamn pop-tarts behind I had bought to have cheap easy breakfasts, but oh well, wasn't the worst thing that could have happened. Left a little bit later than planned but, we weren't too terribly late either despite all this, and we got to Baltimore in good time. Made a couple stops a long the way. Found a nowhere gas station with a super yikes level sticker display next to a rack of GFT comics. Place sure had an aura about it that did not suit my pastel-horse ribbon wearing shenanigans. Made another stop and bought some twisted tea tall boys that I never ended up drinking at some other rando gas station. Made another stop at the Speedway that was a Hess and got some hot dogs. The one with the M&T next to it, that I've stopped at almost every time I've gone down. It’s dumb, but I’m gonna miss that spot. Some of these places, though dumb and random to anyone else, have memories. Like sitting on the hood of my Geo just shooting the shit with friends on the way to Otakon, or my first solo trip where I unintentionally scared the shit outta my parents cause I accidently made them think I was on the wrong side of the state or how I always took the wrong turn and had to use a middle school parking lot to turn around. Recorded a bunch with my phone cause its gonna be a long time until I’m back to some of these places. Little videos or pictures for nostalgic purposes. Made it into the hotel. No issues with the weirdness with the room reservation, thank god. (I had to do some nonsense with having two reservations and rewards points and stuff due to not getting Sunday night in the con block) Pre-reg was starting at 6 and going until late some time so we did other stuff instead. We went to Tir na Nog for dinner and hung out in the inner harbor, went to Barnes and Noble then the ice cream place. Just some of the staples of hanging out in the Inner Harbor. Went to CVS and I bought some more pop-tarts to replace the ones I left at home. Then we went to pre-reg to pick up badges. Line was pretty huge at the start when we walked past to go get dinner, figured it’d get smaller over time, but holy fuck it didn’t. Pretty sure they had no idea that many people were going to show up which was unfortunately a pretty accurate descriptor of the whole weekend tbh. We waited in line for like two hours, but it went fast enough and was kinda fun. Lots of songs being sung and merriment, especially for a two hour line. A bunch of people asked me about my digital badge or goggles. It’s funny how often the answer to “Where did you get those” is so often “Here a couple years ago” or “Otakon, a whole bunch of year ago”. A 4th of all the people registered showed up supposedly. So many people showed up that they capped line but we were already in. Not much to do after so we went back to the hotel for sleep. Got to bed Pretty early. The bar trot wasn't this night so we just went back. Got a great night of sleep sleeping on a mattress that wasn't butt, almost 8 hours. I wish my mattress at home was as good as this hotel one.

 Thursday

 Today was the bonus day. There wasn't much going on con-wise, which was fine. It was good to just relax and wander. I got to meet up with a friend from a discord server I'm in. Wandered around a while and took pictures. Also met up with someone who is actually from Baltimore but is moving to Syracuse (and only like a couple days after the con) Waited for vendor hall to open and hung out as a group for a while. There was a big line to get into vendor. It was in a weird spot this time, inside of the harmony plaza and not its own space. Bought a KDA Akali mask but mostly just did a scope out. The vendor was packed. A little more cramped due to the limited space. It was a little hard to move. Couldn’t maintain unit cohesion. Learned the layout though and where most of the vendors were. Got to briefly see a few other cool people from that Discord sever. Planned to do most of my buying, but Justin lost his hotel key (always get spares), had to go let him in the room. On the way back I did a Rayquaza raid with a couple friends. Me and Josh forgot we were one day away from best friends in game and that raids count towards the daily interaction so we didn't pop a lucky egg, whoops. Ate at Jimmy Johns before going to meet up for opening. Unfortunately, Opening got capped due to space. The BCC got shared with a Rubix cube competition so we only had half the space because I don't think they planned on having their highest attendance ever at over 10k people. We didn't have the top floor big hall so the Mane Hall was in where palooza was and it's certainly not sized to hold that many people. This would be a difficulty the whole weekend. I got back into the Harmony Plaza/Vendor Hall. They were livestreaming the Mane Hall, so the staff set up a huge monitor in Harmony Plaza to watch it sorta live. It was pretty emotional. Even the BCC president showed up and said we should keep going. That was a little rough. Then they did something neat. They got Gilbert Gottfried to sing/read This Day Aria. Everyone in the room went bananas. It was hilarious. I met back up with everyone at the hotel and we headed to the bars. Part of our group went to a ramen place they all like. There wasn't enough space for all of us without waiting an forever, so me and Justin just went to the bars. I started drinking at the Dogs Watch. They didn't have any pony themed drinks but there were pony decorations and music playing. It's a nice atmosphere, it's a bit hard to explain, being in an alcohol establishment with music from a colorful pastel horse show playing. I had 3 vodka cranberries. Met back with everyone and went to The Admiral. They had almost no Trixie left, but still enough for me to have one. And I fucking did it, I got the recipe or at the very least I know the materials. Had some of the other drinks too. There was a Pinkie, Twilight and I believe Tempest? The bartender used Champagne for the Pinkie themed drink because it was the last Bronycon. I had a bunch of those, a couple of the others, then a mix of everything. Everyone in our group went back in groups. Me, Sam and Cody were the last ones in our group. Met up with some cool people. One of the guys ordered a Vodka shot for everyone, and then a Tequila shot. After that before I left I thanked the bartender one more time for all he's done to make the bar one of the highlights of our yearly trip and all the cool theme drinks. (Seriously, if you're ever in Baltimore and drink alcohol, go to Fells Point. Find the Admiral Fell Inn, it's a little underground bar and it is AMAZING, and the bartender is a really cool guy.) Our newly formed group left. We didn't want to walk all the way back to our hotels drunk, which funny enough were all next to each other so we summoned a Lyft. While waiting we took a group selfie. We took two, Cody was missing from the first one and then Sam was missing from the other. Plus there was a random guy in both of them we didn't know who it was. THey were seconds apart and I still don't know how that happened. I got a selfie in front of a lingerie shop which amused drunk me greatly. The Lyft came and we all got in, Don't Stop Believing started playing and we all started singing along. It was a good ride back. We got back and me and one other person decided hey, Palooza is still going, lets go. Met up with a fursuiter on the way. Got to catch the last couple acts. It’s a hell of a time drunk. I could feel the soles of my feet vibrating. I had a blast and then went back to the hotel after it ended. Got to bed at like 3. It's fun to stay up doing the late things but it makes it hard to do early things.

  Friday

 I tried to get up early so I could get there earlier to get one of Baron's commission slots. Alcohol didn't cause many problems outside of a minor headache and mild plumbing problems. Still slowed me down a little. Surprisingly not really hung over aside from that, despite how much I drank. Drink water everybody, it really does help. I went to the con and got into vendor hall. I bought some stuff. I got a Soarin' daki, a game for a friend, among some other things. I bought some original art from Baron too. Didn't get there in time for a commission though. Went to the comic vendor and bought my comics. I'm only missing a couple now. Ended up getting into the line for Whoves Line almost on accident. Got in with no issues, which was cool. It’s good fun, they put on a good show. There was a proposal too which was neat, especially how they did it. Dropped stuff off at the hotel. Went to meet up with our other group and got to see the other hotel we’ve never stayed in. It's fancy af. Our group went to Bubba Gumps and I went in. I figured if it's gonna be my last time here for a very long time I was gonna do it big. Someone jokingly said I should get two Shrimper's Heavens. And then I did it, plus my usual shrimp cocktail. The Great Shrimp Massacre of 2019. Also discovered that their cheese sticks are fuckin massive and I wish I had known. I got a bunch of them that the others couldn't eat. I ate all of that. I did it big. Plumbing didn’t even break. Dropped 100$ at once. It's the most I have very spent on one restaurant trip. I don’t think I’ll be doing that again, but hey, for the final BronyCon that's kinda the point isn't it? We went to ice cream place. (Okay so I don't eat ice cream but they sell some really good tea) Then we went to the Palooza. Forgot to change my socks. Knee-high stockings no good for rave as I discovered. Vylet’s set was absolutely fantastic. (I mean all the acts were great, but she’s a favorite). Also got to see the secret guest whose name was obscured the whole time. I knew who I wanted it to be, and it was. Garnika came back for one more and played a wonderful set. Like usual we stayed the whole thing. It’s so much fun despite knowing waking up will be hard cause I’ll only get like 4 sleep. There is like this odd sense of dread knowing the effect the late night is going to have on you, but you stay anyway because there is such an energy you can't pull yourself away from.

  Saturday

Once again I tried to get up early to get a commission slot form Baron. Didn’t end up making it, however, he said he’d do it anyway, and mail it out. (I'm referring to Baron Engel, he's an artist I really like, go look him up!) It's a picture of Fluttershy dressed as Jotaro from JJBA. I've gotten it now and it's really good! I bought more stuff, including another daki that Kyle and Josh jokingly pointed out to me. Didn't think I was going to, but I couldn't turn down the price the guy gave me. I lined up for VA panel script reading. It was an EqG script about the cast graduating and the Celestias swapping places and causing chaos. It was not so subtly about the end of the con. I started to tear up. I realized that was gonna be a common theme throughout the weekend, I fuckin knew it. I do not like crying, especially in public. The closer we got to the end the worse it got. Ran into the cosplay photoshoot which was neat, and there was another proposal. After that I made a hotel deposit and got some Jimmy Johns, and then went to anthology panel. Because of course it was, Gardevoir community day was the same weekend as the con. I bought a new Pokemon+ thing that does it automatically, so I still got to play despite being in a panel or in line for most of it. It was alright. Anthology was great (and holy shit a little raunchier than usual), But then at the end they told us that it was actually longer and they had to cut it for time. (To which I call bullshit, any additional content I’ve seen was far too explicit for the actual con, lul). Went to the Palooza for one final time. I remembered to change my socks this time. Saw Black Gryph0n and Michelle Creber, and then the super band made up of a large variety of fandom musicians. It was really cool. Even got to hear an orchestral performance of one of 4everfree's songs which is something I've not seen them do before. Things ran a little long and it threw the schedule off a bunch. 2 AM hit and Eruobeat hadn't gone yet. (2 is usually when we have to leave by) But Eurobeat did get to do his set despite this because whoever was in charge decided to be cool. "We're suposed to be out by 2, but its 2 and Eurobeat has to play still. We can stay for this but, but when it’s over I'm gonna need y’all to get the fuck out.” And then Eurobeat performed he was one of the first fandom musicians and one of the first to perform at the original BronyPalooza. And of course, for his final song, he performed his 2019 version of Discord. The whole fuckin' room went nuts. It was nothing short of magical. It was the perfect way to end it, the final Bronypalooza. The energy in the room was insane. Bronypalooza was always one of my favorite parts of the con. I’m told other EDM concerts are crazier, but I don’t know if I want crazier. There was something absolutely magical about a room full of all different kinds of people losing their shit to pastel horse based music waving dakis and plushies and some in full fursuit and some in cosplay and some in plain clothes and every kinda nonsense you can imagine. Just rocking out and having a good time. It's an experience and a kind of magic that I don’t know what will ever be able to compare. I'll never forget it.

 Sunday

THE FINAL DAY. I switched over reservations with no issues and went to the con. Ended up mostly wandering around the vendor hall yeeting money away before lining up for closing. I recorded a bunch of wandering around. There was a Bronycon memorial shrine that was set up too that people had left all sorts of crazy stuff at too. I bought some random but cool stuff. I also commissioned a badge of my pony character! (Better late than never huh?) Was gonna buy a couple things but ended up not. I ran into Vylet wandering the vendor hall! Got a picture with her and Namii!. Lined up for closing, which turned into a bit of a clusterfuck. It got capped again due to room. In the clusterfuck I was able to meet back up with Andy, Sam, and Justin. However while in line I got to see a whole bunch of con staff set up huge monitors to stream it to the overflow room so as many people as possible can see it. It was... very emotional, was pretty much just sobbing in a whole room full of people. Got a conclusion to the mascot storyline too. I never want to forget how I feel after these things. Walking out of the con center for the last time was fucking surreal. I've been there so many times. I remember being confused by the layout the first couple times and by the end, I had the whole thing memorized. (Okay, I couldn't remember lobby names for shit, but I knew where it all was.) I cried a whole bunch as we all walked out together reminiscing. We sat in the hotel room as a group just kinda being sad and reminiscing and decompressing for a little while. Then we went to a bar after party event things in a place I’d never been. It was a pretty relaxing atmosphere. Instead of being in the bar we sat outside on these sofa things on the deck rather than watching the concert on the inside (But hoenstly it was so loud you could hear it well enough). A lot of the non-EDM rock musicians there. It was honestly really nice sitting there under the open sky just listening to music. Feeling the sunset while the city lights get brighter and the sky fades to dark was nice. I checked Pokemon Go since I had my automatic bracelet thing doing it's thing, turns out I caught a random Shiny Alolan Geodude. I nicknamed it the Bronycon Memorial Rock, it's a Golem now. Had some shots too. After a while we went back to the hotel. We decided to do a Insomnia Cookie order, since it went so well last year. And oh was it a clusterfuck. So we made our order. I forgot to mention that we were in a hotel so I called them and they said they'd call us when they got there and that I would come down. Roughly 15 minutes later, the call came. I said I'd be down. I went to the lobby and found a delivery man with a white box. He comes up to me and asks me if I was the one that ordered pizza. Nope, wasn't me. He got a little frustrated but continued to wait for his people. No cookie delivery guy. I call him back. This was basically the convo: "Hello, I'm down in the lobby but I can't find you" "Wait, it wasn't you that picked up the cookies?" "No I just got here, there is a confused pizza man down here though." (I should note that they're both white square boxes) "Oh fuck I'm so sorry I gave it to the wrong person we'll remake your order and come back" "No problem man, it happens to the best of us, I'll just wait down in the lobby this time" I repeated the order, he apologized and hung up. The pizza guy just left the pizza with the front desk. I saw that they still had the menus up for the pony themed alcohol so I ordered an Applejack(Apple brandy, hard cider and ice). Accidentally ended up calling another friend trying to call the cookie guy back who also happened to be at a bar back home and had a chat about what we were drinking/doing so that was cool. Eventually the cookie guy came back and we had cookies. Then everyone wanted pizza. Yet another clusterfuck occurred, turns out they ran out of dough or something so after like a half hour wait, we got our money back. After that we just went to sleep.

  Monday

We packed everything up and loaded the car when we got up. Then we decided to have one last day in the inner harbor. We went to Tir Na Nog as a big group for one last time, then headed to the aquarium. The aquarium is nifty. I like to watch the jellyfish. They're so goddamn relaxing. Even one of the employees said the same thing. We left and took a group picture in the harbor before finally heading back. Once again, leaving was a bit sombre, there was just such a finality to it, walking past the BCC down Pratt St. After hanging out in the hotel lobby for a little bit, we got on the road to home. During the ride back, It ended up coming up why the area is significant to me and why I wanted to do certain things and why this whole crazy thing started in the first place. I never really bring it up, but it felt kinda good to talk about it. It was a relatively uneventful ride home. We stopped at a McDonalds at some point. Got home, unpacked and crashed, feeling exhausted from the weekend.  

  Conclusion:

 Yeah it's no secret I procrastinated writing/finishing this for a couple months. I guess I just didn't want to deal with it being over. I've mentioned before that this con and the surrounding area is pretty important to me. A yearly tradition that I looked forward to and saved for. I had gone to Otakon almost every year between 2006-2012. Once I realized interest in Otakon had waned, I got kinda sad, but then something wild happened. Bronycon announced they were moving down to a new location. The Baltimore Inner Harbor in the BCC. I had been talking with a couple friends about going to the next Bronycon and that absolutely cemented it. That was 2013. Then in 2014, I was contacted by some guy my dad worked with who was wondering if I had intended to go the next year. That's how I met Andy. I made a bunch of friends through the con/show and reconnected with old ones too. I made sure to go down every year since. Aside from 2010, I've gone to the Baltimore Inner Harbor every year since 06. It's gonna be hard knowing I won't be back there for a while most likely. I've got a bunch of memories down here across many years. I know this has been totally disjointed because I'm writing it months later, coming off the MLP series finale, so I'm feeling some feels. I think that's part of why I decided to finish it now. I've said for a while that Bronycon was one of the best conventions I've ever attended. The atmosphere was something unique and magical. I don't think I could ever describe it properly. I don't think I'll ever find anything that quite captures the magic, but one thing is sure, I'm never gonna forget the times we've had here. It really has been magic.

[asia2themacs-blog]

Most weekdays...

Most mornings we get up later than planned and are in a rush. (Some things never change). If there is time, one of us will usually shower. Our shower consists of a nice, smooth, flat, marbled stone floor with sliding glass doors and a modern showerhead. The other side of the shower, however, is a full length window looking out at an identical apartment building about 200 feet away. Yes, it is a clear window from floor to ceiling. To protect the bather’s privacy, there is a shower rod and curtain hanging over the window.

Suzie calls the elevator while I lock the apartment door. Leaving our building, we walk across the large courtyard at the center of the seven identical towering apartment buildings. It is a meticulously landscaped area with covered spaces, a playground, simple exercise machines, and instructions how to clean up after your dog. In the mornings there are always several older, retired Chinese walking around the stone pathways while stretching their arms or using the exercise machines. Often a man is practicing tai chi in traditional dress, making the slow, graceful movements alone in a small, separate courtyard.

We walk briskly among hordes of young Chinese professionals in business-casual dress that spill out of the apartment buildings and head down to the street with us. At the bottom of a small hill, a half-dozen large coach buses are waiting for the Chinese workers. They line up and file into each bus until it is full. Each full bus departs and is soon replaced by another identical bus. I have heard that some companies provide housing for their employees in the apartment buildings and shuttle them to and from work every day. There are hundreds of them that leave on the identical buses every morning. The gender ratio of the workers seems to be 50/50, but the age range looks to be extremely narrow – perhaps between 24-28.

On a smaller scale, the school where I teach and Suzie studies also provides housing for its foreign employees and a bus takes us to and from school as well. A single bus takes employees and their children from two apartment complexes to the school which is a short 15-minute drive.

Our school is in an elegant 7-story office building. We are let in the gate by security guards and every teacher and student swipes their badges as they enter. Practically all students eat their breakfast and lunch in the school cafeteria which provides hot, cooked meals. The teachers can eat at the cafeteria for free so Suzie and I always have breakfast together before her first class. Most Chinese students, as young as 1st graders, typically eat a steaming bowl of noodles with balls of meat to which they have added spoonsful of hot chili sauce. They also drink milk from small, metal bowls. Being vegetarian, Suzie and I are usually limited to some steamed buns, bread, a hard-boiled egg, and a small sweet cake. The exception is when they have vegetarian dumplings! On these days, the food servers behind the glass windows wave me and Suzie down, point to the dumplings, and give us a thumbs-up. They drop the dumplings into boiling water for about one minute and then serve them to us in metal bowls. Suzie puts soy sauce on hers and I put soy sauce and chili sauce on mine. They are delicious! We don’t even notice anymore that there are no forks in the entire school – just a container in the middle of every table filled with metal chopsticks and spoons for soup.

The students are let into the cafeteria about ten minutes after we arrive and they line up for breakfast. Many students greet their teachers enthusiastically, especially the younger ones.

After breakfast, Suzie heads to her first class, AP Comparative Government, and I either make a quick run to the Starbucks down the street or head up to the 7th floor where I can work at a desk outside the administrative offices. I review my lesson plans for the day or do some grading before my first class. This year I am teaching Social Studies to 4th graders and Classics to 5th graders. It is my first time teaching students this young.

I am currently teaching the 4th graders about the origins and structure of the U.S. government. The school uses a U.S.-based curriculum as it is meant to prepare students for universities in the United States. Last week, after teaching the students about the separation of powers, elections, and the system of checks and balances, my Chinese co-teacher told me that the students are having a hard time understanding the content because it is so far removed from their life experience. There are no civics classes in China and the idea of power being divided or of individual citizens having any political power is hard for them to comprehend.

When I was teaching about the Declaration of Independence, I projected on the board the famous line:

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

As I was about to read it to the class, my Chinese co-teacher interrupted me and asked if she could read it to the class. “Of course,” I replied.

As she started to read it, she teared up and could barely finish it. The students stared, startled by seeing their teacher choked up. “Are you crying, Ms. Chen?” they asked.

“It is a very emotional sentence!” she responded defensively. The students then turned to me. I was just as surprised as the students by the teacher’s reaction. “Are you crying, Mr. Mac?”

“Ummm….no. I guess I have heard it so many times I am just used to it.” I didn’t want to belittle my colleague’s reaction and it did remind me of the profundity of the statement – especially for its time in history.

In my Classics classes, I teach the 5th grade about the four major “classical” civilizations – Mesopotamia, Egypt, Greece, and Rome. On the first day of class, the students asked “What about China?” I responded that the four we would learn about were classical only to western civilization and that Chinese civilization was SO important that they would study it for an entire year in 7th grade, which is true. This satisfied their national pride.

Friends and family in the U.S. often ask me if students in China are different from students in the U.S. They assume they are more disciplined, respectful, and hard-working. In fact, some teachers who had taught in China told me that was the case. My experience, however, has been that there is no difference at all. They are just as rambunctious, fidgety, frustrating, inspiring, hilarious, and idiosyncratic as my students in Arizona. Some are unruly, some have a 5-second attention span, some amaze me with their questions, some are extremely organized, and some cannot remember to bring a pencil to class.

Every day I eat lunch with other teachers and there are usually a few vegetarian options. There is always rice and a tofu, eggplant, sweet potato, and/or bok choy dish. They are usually pretty heavy on the oil, but there is also fruit and salad. After lunch I have recess duty where I keep a close eye on the interactions between the Chinese students and the few American students as they have been tense lately.

Most days after school I have either a staff meeting, a parent meeting, or Student Hours. Suzie has Arabic Club and World Scholars Club as well. Afterwards, we take the bus home. We often order dinner to be delivered because it is cheap and we are too exhausted to cook before studying or grading. A deliveryman comes to the door with pesto pasta, a small pizza, Indian food, or some paninis and I pay him with WeChat. Suzie and I talk about our day and share gossip.

Around 8pm every night I use WeChat to video-chat with my girlfriend back home. We are 15 hours ahead of Tucson so she wakes up at 5am to chat for an hour or so. I share the events of my day and she shares those of her previous day. She wishes me a goodnight and I tell her to have a good day. We are counting the days until we can see each other again.

After we hang up, I use the VPN to watch Seth Meyers’ latest video on YouTube or the latest soccer highlights. Sometimes I read a chapter or two in the book I am reading or listen to some music. Suzie studies, goes out to see friends, or watches shows on the laptop. Then we go to sleep.

[lillseehorse]

A new beginning so it seemed. A place full of hidden treasures was calling me to reveal its beautiful secrets. 

Excited and nervous at the same time about what the following 72h would bring me, I jumped into my next adventure and stepped on the plane towards unknown.

  At arrival I chose an Uber to be the best option as it was already passed 10pm and the owner of my rental apartment was waiting for me for the handover of the keys. Dimas, the driver did not spare the effort to wait and look for me while I was was lost on the parking of the airport. Not only that, but he even insisted on carrying my luggage and walked me to the doorsteps of my apartment, promising he would work on his English as the body language workout we just went through made us sweat more than we wanted. I couldn’t wish more than that and that was just the kick off.

The apartment CASA ESPERA was located in Bairro Alto, the heart of the city, from where you can easily walk to every part of town with the waterfront just a few hundred meters away. Checking into Casa Espera was a little adventure by itself. The steep narrow staircase to the 3rd floor left little room for luggage and carrier, however, is worth every single step as it is the entrance to a little comfortable kingdom. The apartment was decorated with an eye for detail and a touch of vintage, leaving alone the eye catcher of music player in the living room. Satisfied with my choice of accommodation I stripped off my travel jumper, put on my adventure outfit and headed out to seize the night.

It started with a Mojito shared with another couch surfing soul in a bar called SPOT. As we both weren’t fond of the karaoke show the bar delivered we moved to Park Bar, a dazzling place on the roof of a parking garage. The place was packed with people from all over the world. We quickly mingled with some locals, teamed up with a tourist group of five Dutch ladies and two expats from Columbia/France and formed a party group with endless positive vibes. The night was young and we had our dance shoes on. So we continued the party at LUX, a well-known club at the Tagus riverside, danced the night away as light as feather and welcomed the sunset with the hands high up in the air.

Riiight…The next day started rather slow. Tram28 was on the menu for the afternoon. 1.5 hours under the burning heat of beautiful 31° C welded together my newly found connection with two German ladies. They, too, were on a treasure hunt, sensing that we were on the right track to something big. I understood why people preached to head to Marnim Moniz Square to enter the tram at its point of departure. Not only for the sake of the hangover cure the window seat was worth the wait. Standing all along on the 1h tramride holding on to some battered grab rails wasn’t exactly on my to do list, and God forbid, should the photos have turned out poorly. We tingled along amazing neighboorhoods such as Graca, Baixa, Estrela and Alfama which were filled with many tiny cosy stores offering everything your heart could desire. It was great!

That much that I decided to take the same line back, however, made my plan without checking the tram route and eventually ended up seeing other photogenic parts of the city.

After a little siesta I grabbed a real late night dinner at Taberna Portuguesa. Their staff was super courteous and the food to die for. I ordered the bread covered with chicken sausage, smoked ham, tomato and roasted cheese which blew me away and decided to eliminate the dessert at the Mirador Santa Lucia. With my thoughts dipping deeply into every bite of that heaven of chocolate cake I almost missed out on the enchanted encounter with Haio, but only almost.

He gave me a private city tour throughout the entire night. Stops worth to mention are certainly the Praca de Comercio with the Arco da Rua Augusta at its side, the Elevador de Santa Justa made out of iron elevator that connects the lower streets of quarter Baixa with Chiado and Praca de Figueira. One of my favorites was to pass Rua da Bica de Duarte Belo which was hustling at daytime, given the fact that it is most likely the most photographed street of the city, and so incredibly peaceful at night. In my opinion the best way to get a closer look at the iconic funicular which carries passengers all day up and down.

My third day I entirely dedicated to Sintra, an official UNESCO World Heritage site and heavenly place with majestic palaces, castles and blooming estates from medieval times. The train ride took no longer than 40 minutes and departed at station Rossio. First I felt like being brave and walk all the way up to the National Palace de Pena, but luckily due to lack of time I changed my mind and did not regret to do so. It turned out to be a very steep and curvy way up and would have taken me certainly 1,5 hours to climb up those monstrous winding roads.

Arriving up there, the bright colors of the palace were reflecting and shining in all their glory making me wonder how a princess’ life back then would have looked like. Oh boy, and the view from up there was just priceless so there’s no other way than to go and check it out with your own eyes.

After soaking up a fair portion of sun on the Tritone Terrace of the palace and feeling like a queen, I moved on to Quinta de Regaleira, a romantic park complex with fountains, lakes, grottoes and a palace. My personal highlight here was the Unfinished Well, the smaller of the two Initiation wells which never served as a water source as the name might suggest. From one of the towers I embraced the last sun rays of the day and made sure to reward myself with a gigantic ice cream in the historic center of Sintra before heading back to Lisbon. The day was topped off with a dinner close to Castelo de Sao Jorge and some hot Salsa dance moves later the night at the Mirador das Portas do Sol.

So came the last day so much faster than expected and all I had in mind was to make that day count. I started with a delicious jamon y queso sandwich at mercado da ribera, a place with more than 30 food stalls offering tasty portuguese delicacies rather at the expensive end of the bill, nevertheless totally worth a visit considering how little I actually had spent that far. Happily stuffed I negotiated my way on a Tuktuk whose driver agreed to a private tour (I tried really hard to convince him to let me drive but for whatever reason he didn’t wanna give in). This ride was the best decision eeever! The only must do I had in mind even before coming to this beautiful city was to pay a visit to Antiga Confeitaria Belem, the bakery known to be the navel of the world of egg tarte pastries which are best enjoyable still warm. 15000 Pasteis de Belem how they are called are freshly produced and sold every single day. There was a queue of more than 100 meters that caused me pain only from looking at it. The easiest way to enter THE temple of custard cakes is so simple and at the same time the best way possible- with a local.

I had spent years on imagining how they would taste and there I was, devouring this sweet dream of desserts on the back of a Tuktuk while having the history of Lisboa explained to me. We passed the most famous sights such as the Monastery Jeronimo, Sao Bento Palace and Monument of Discoveries and I caught myself thinking how amazing it would be to live in this magical city and was determined to at least gather information to make this thought reality. .

Could it get any better than this? Absolutely so…

Diving my toes into the refreshing blue and building sand castles at Costa da Caparica, a beach easily reachable via the 25de Abril Bridge which 100% lives up to its reputation. Impressed and totally sold my mind got carried away from the sound of the roaring waves of the Atlantic Sea.

  My dearest Lisboa, as shy and innocent as you first may seem, the moment you showed me your hidden gems and wilderness you took my heart by storm and there is only one thing left to say: Muito obrigada! You always see each other twice in life! And without doubt you and me rather sooner than later.

  Stay tuned and be part of my little adventures and share the love to travel! To be continued…

the expedition to terra nova A new beginning so it seemed. A place full of hidden treasures was calling me to reveal its beautiful secrets. 

[topsolarpanels]

Set us on the map, please: China’s smaller cities go wild for starchitecture

From mountain-shaped apartment blocks to the centre of braised chicken reinventing itself as Solar Valley, Chinas second( and third) tier cities are hiring big-name designers to get them noticed

From egg-shaped concert halls to skyscrapers reminiscent of big pairs of gasps, Chinas top cities are famously full of curious monuments to architectural ambition. But as land costs in the main metropolises have shot into the stratosphere, developers have been scrambling to buy up plots in the countrys second and third-tier cities, spawning a new generation of delirious schemes in the provinces. President Xi Jinping may have issued a directive last year proscribing oversized, xenocentric, weird houses, but many of these schemes were already well under way; his diktat has proved to be no obstacle to mayoral hubris yet.

From Harbin City of Music to Dezhou Solar Valley, provincial capitals are branding themselves as themed enclaves of culture and industry to attract inward investment, and commissioning ratings of bold builds to match. Even where there is no demand, city bureaucrats are relentlessly selling off land for growth, hawking plots as the primary kind of income accounting for 80% of municipal revenues in some cases. In the last two months alone, 50 Chinese cities received a total of 453 bn yuan( 54 bn) from land auctions, a 73% increase on last year, and its the provincial capitals that are leading the way.

At the same time, Xis national culture drive has seen countless museums, concert halls and opera houses spring up across the country, often used as sweeteners for land deals, conceived as the jewels at the centre of glistening mixed-used visions( that sometimes never arrive ). Culture, said Xi, is the prerequisite of the great renaissance of the Chinese people, but it has also proved to be a powerful lubricant for ever more real estate supposition even if the production of content to fill these great vestibules cant quite keep abreast with the insatiable house boom. From mountain-shaped apartment blocks to cavernous libraries, heres a glimpse of whats emerging in the regions.

Fake Hills, Beihai

A render of how the Fake Hills would look. Illustration: MAD architects

Forming an 800 metre-long cliff-face along the coast of the southern port city of Beihai, the Fake Hills housing block is the work of Ma Yansong, Chinas homegrown conjuror of sinuous, globular sorts whose practice is appropriately named MAD. Having examined at Yale and worked with Zaha Hadid in London, where he nourished his penchant for blob, Ma has expended the past decades dreaming up improbable mountain-shaped megastructures across the country.

Less scenic mountain and more lumpen crash of colossal cruise-liners The first phase of construction on Fake Hills has been completed. Photo: MAD

As it rises and falls, the undulating roofline of Fake Hills kinds terraces for badminton and tennis courts, as well as a garden and swimming pool. Sadly the overall consequence is less scenic mountain range than a lumpen collision of colossal cruise-liners.

Greenland Tower, Chengdu

Greenland Tower, Chengdu. The house harks back to the crystalline dreamings of early 20 th-century German designer Bruno Taut. Illustration: Adrian Smith and Gordon Gill Architecture

A crystalline spire rising 468 metres above the 18 million-strong metropolis of Chengdu, the Greenland Tower will be the tallest building in southwestern China, standing as a sharply chiselled monument to the countrys( and by some countings the worlds) largest property developer, Greenland Holdings. It is designed by Chicago-based Adrian Smith and Gordon Gill, designers of Dubais Burj Khalifa, who say the faceted shaft is a reference to the unique ice mountain topography of the region. It harks back to the crystalline dreams of early 20 th-century German designer Bruno Taut, who imagined a dazzling glass city crown to celebrate socialism and agriculture; whether Sichuans farmers will be welcomed into the penthouse sky garden remains to be seen.

Sun-Moon mansion, Dezhou

A challenger to Silicon Valley the Sun-Moon mansion of Solar Valley, Dezhou. Photo: Alamy

Once known as a centre of braised chicken production, the city of Dezhou in the north-eastern province of Shandong now brands itself as Solar Valley, a renewable energy centre are aiming to rival Californias Silicon Valley. At its heart is the Sun-Moon mansion, a vast fan-shaped office build powered by an arc of solar panels on its roof. It is the brainchild of Huang Ming, aka Chinas sun king, an oil industry technologist turned solar energy tycoon who heads the Himin Solar Energy Group, the worlds biggest producer of solar water heaters as well as purveyor of sun-warmed toilet seats and solar-powered Tibetan prayer wheels.

Harbin Opera House

Harbin Opera House, with the St Petersburg of the east in the background. Photo: Opinion Pictures/ Rex/ Shutterstock

Nicknamed the St Petersburg of the east, the far northern city of Harbin have all along had a thriving culture scene as a gateway to Russia and beyond. In the 1920 s, manners from Paris and Moscow arrived here before they reached Shanghai, and it was home to the countrys first symphony orchestra, made up of largely Russian musicians.

Inside Harbin Opera House. Photo: View Pictures/ Rex/ Shutterstock

Declared city of music in 2010, Harbin has recently pumped millions into a gleaming new concert hall by Arata Isozaki, a gargantuan neo-classical conservatory and an 80,000 sq metre whipped meringue of an opera house by MAD. Shaped like a pair of snowy dunes, up which guests can climb on snaking tracks, the building contains a sinuous timber-lined auditorium designed as an eroded block of wood.

Tianjin Binhai library

Tianjin Binhai library. Illustration: MVRDV

Due to open this summer in the sprawling port city of Tianjin, this space-age library by Dutch designers MVRDV is imagined as a gaping cave of books, carved out from within an oblong glass block. The shelves form a terraced landscape of seat, wrapping around a giant mirrored sphere auditorium that nestles in the middle of the space like a pearl in an oyster.

Inside the space-age Tianjin Binhai library. Illustration: MVRDV

Along with a new theater, congress centre and a science and technology museum by Bernard Tschumi, the building forms part of a new cultural one-quarter for the city, itself being swallowed into the planned Beijing-Tianjin mega-region population 130 million, thats more than Japan .

Huaguoyuan Towers, Guiyang

Arups twin towers are almost complete. Illustration: LWK& Partners

Nowhere in China is the disparity between economic reality and architectural aspiration more stark than in Guiyang, capital of rural Guizhou, the most severe province in the country, which has the fifth most skyscraper schemes of any Chinese city. The twin 335 -metre towers of the Huaguoyuan developing, by Arup, are now almost complete, standing as the centrepiece of a new mixed-use office, retail and entertainment complex, while SOM is busy conjuring the even higher Cultural Plaza Tower, a 521 -metre glass spear that will soar above a new riverfront world of shopping mall and theatres. It has the glitz and gloss of any other Chinese citys new central business district, but as Knight Franks David Ji points out: It will be hard for a city like Guiyang to find quality renters to fill the space.

Yubei agricultural park, Chongqing

Will Alsops Yubei agricultural park. Illustration: Will Alsop

Architectural funster Will Alsop may finally have found his calling in the supercharged furnace of Chinas second-tier cities booming leisure economy, crafting a number of fantastical dreamworlds from his new satellite studio in Chongqing where he is busy building a new culture quarter around his own office, with a restaurant, bar and distillery. He is also plotting an enormous agricultural leisure park in Yubei, 20 miles north of the city, designed to cater to the new middle classes nascent appreciation of the countryside, a place hitherto links with peasants and poverty. The rolling landscape is likely to be dotted with cocoon-like treehouses, a flower-shaped hotel and a big pond covered by an LED-screen canopy, so visitors can enjoy projected blue skies despite the smog.

Zendai Himalayas centre, Nanjing

A limestone mountain range: Zendai Himalayas Centre, Nanjing. Illustration: www.i-mad.com

Erupting across six city blocks like a limestone mountain range, the Zendai Himalayas Centre will be Mas most literal interpretation yet of his philosophy of fusing architecture and nature. Taking inspiration from the traditional style of shanshui scenery brush paint( literally entailing mountain-water ), the 560,000 sq metre complex is designed to look as if it has been eroded by millennia of gust and water , not thrown up overnight by an army of migrant labourers. Once again, Ma appears to be forgetting that elegant feathery brushstrokes dont often translate well into clods of glass and steel. It is one of many such green-fingered schemes in Nanjing, including Stefano Boeris vertical forest towers and the Sifang art park, where Steven Holl, SANAA, David Adjaye and others have built pavilions in a rolled scenery as another decoy for a luxury real estate project.

Huawei campus, Dongguan

A render of Huawei campus, Dongguan, which is based on 12 European towns

Telecoms giant Huawei has courted suits for copying from challengers in the past, but its love of mimicking clearly extends to architecture too. The companys new campus, under building on a 300 -acre site in Dongguan, is based on 12 European townships. There are the dreaming spires of Oxford, the quaint redbrick houses of Bruges, the palazzos of Verona and the chateaux of Burgundy, all connected by a meander Swiss railway. It might look like a theme park, but the employees will have little time for leisure: Huaweis founder likens his staff to a pack of hungry wolves and offers them a dedicated employee agreement to voluntarily forgo paid holiday and overtime.

Guardian Cities is dedicating a week to the huge but often unreported cities on the front line of Chinas unprecedented urbanisation. Explore our coverage here and follow us on Facebook. Share stories via WeChat( GuardianCities) and by using #OtherChina on Twitter and Instagram

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I guess I’ll admit, I had my concerns about Japan. It being the first non-Western country I’ve really ever visited, I balked at the language barrier, worried about inadvertently committing some unforgivable faux pas, or not being able to order food. Despite my anxieties, or perhaps because of them, Tokyo was the destination I was most excited about. A goal for this trip was to experience the world outside of my comfort zone, and Tokyo has been where I’ve felt that the most vividly, and it’s also been the most rewarding.

But of these existential cultural fears, my most immediate concern on arrival was figuring out the dizzying labyrinth of colors and lines and numbers and characters that is the Tokyo subway system. At midnight, when we arrived, we were afraid that some lines would be closed. Luckily for us, the staff at the airport information desk was extremely helpful and nice, and they had a helper stationed by the subway ticket machines (the kind of ticket machine that has online tutorials for foreigners) to help confused souls like us. We were taken care of.

I suppose I only realized that taking care of others here extends beyond airport officials just trying to make everything go smoothly when we were transferring trains, and a man who had ridden the same subway car from the airport saw me looking at a map, and went out of his way to ask where we were going in order to help us find the right platform.

Following this, acts of common graciousness towards us foreigners have not stopped; a cashier helped me count out exact change when I was struggling with their currency, a restaurant owner offered to give us an umbrella when it started raining outside, and another woman held the door open for the elevator for the subway and when I proceeded to face front, she kindly let me know that the doors would be opening behind us. And these are all accompanying smaller things.

It is still intimidating to enter a restaurant, being unable to effectively communicate (I only know about a dozen words and phrases), but those few who don’t speak English are still very committed to trying to figure out what they can help you with, without getting annoyed. I never want to be presumptuous about what others are willing to help me with because I came to their country without being able to speak the language, but my concerns have not come to fruition, and at this point I don’t expect them to in the slightest.

This common courtesy extends beyond foreigners; I have yet to see one person litter, jostle the person next to them, or be a public nuisance in any way. The streets and subway are impeccably clean, and the people are considerate and keep to themselves. It’s also—incredibly, considering the population—one of the safest cities in the world; the crime rate is one of the lowest. Tokyo prioritizes safety, and it seems to me, especially for young women. There are entire subway lines for only women (certain ones allow men if they are accompanying women), there are female-only bars, and lone men are prohibited from entering purikura (cutesy, editing photo booths aimed at teenage girls) as a way to protect the intended clientele. All of these precautions seem to have had an actual real effect on the way women are treated outside of these safe spaces, and I see young women walking casually by themselves very late at night, with earbuds in and unconcerned about those around them. This all feels somewhat liberating, especially compared with Rome (as well as Paris to some degree, not to mention the US) where it’s hard to go anywhere alone without having to deal with unwanted attention. Here, I can go out alone without it being a big deal, and that truly is enfranchising.

Tokyo itself is like New York but much cleaner, more polite, and with more bright lights and video advertisements. There are jingles and advertisement screens on the subways and there are parts of the city where no square footage goes to waste where advertisers are concerned; every building is covered in flashing lights and billboards. Central Shinjuku—about a 15 minute walk from our apartment—is one certain hub. Walking among the large screens flashing advertisements about one thing or another, navigating between arcades leaking smoke, bright, colored lights, and aggressively happy music, and negotiating the crowds of a big city is a sensory experience in itself. Even after having visited NYC, I can honestly say I’ve never experienced anything like it.

a typical street in Shinjuku

golden gai

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streets and streets of advertisements

the view from our apartment

But I have to say, my favorite parts of Tokyo are the small backstreets and corners hiding tiny yakitori and soba bars that seat five people at a time. It’s in these cramped tangles of alleys in between buildings that locals find themselves looking for a meal after work or a night in the city and this is where we found ourselves, partly by accident, late at night one day. One soba bar in particular recommended itself by the six-seven person line of young, smartly dressed businessmen waiting for a quick seat to slurp some noodles at the end of their day. We ended up eating at a dumpling shop nearby that day, but the next time I was looking for a place to eat (Andrew had eaten a particularly big meal earlier that day), I was surprised to somehow find myself again at the shop and this time, there was no line. The shop itself is on a corner so it fits a few more seats than the average shop around there; about nine people can eat there at a time, but by the time I got there (it was quite late), only four seats were taken.  The two granite bars enclose what can only be described as a very cramped kitchen, but I might say the word “kitchen” is generous. There’s a rack of portion-sized tempura vegetables, “fried balls” (I have no clue what those are), eggs, and some other ingredients, and on the other side, a huge pot of hot broth with a specialized strainer in it, and standing room for the shop owner to make everything. Using the Japanese word for “I would like”, I clumsily ordered their special: soba broth and noodles with a harf boiled egg and tempura vegetables (sic.). It came quickly—hot and steaming—by the expert hands of someone who has clearly been here so long, his hands no longer need instructions. I asked him, as he handed my my bowl, if I could have “mizu” (water), but unable to pronounce it correctly, the older woman next to me and her daughter translated then told me you get it from a little container next to her, and she filled up a glass for me. The older woman asked if I liked my food, and when I told her how amazing it was, she translated my complements to the chef, who bowed and smiled. Then we made small talk for a bit, and she gave me bits of advice. When they left, she held my shoulder and said it was good to meet me and wished me the best of luck. I paid a little while later and when I stood up, I bowed and said domo arrigato (thank you) and sugoi oishii (very delicious). 

The size of these restaurants make sense when you see how many people dine alone. Even at full size restaurants, there are often those eating alone; it’s a Western cultural faux pas that does not exist here in the least. We went to a ramen bar yesterday, and the entire restaurant is geared towards solo eaters, and designed to mitigate human interaction. It was so incredibly different from anywhere I’ve ever been before. And it is one of the best meals I’ve ever had. We found it (mostly due to luck) and descended a flight of stairs to be greeted by two ticket machines. After paying and ordering at the machine, you are given tickets for each item and you find a booth. Each stool along the bar is separated with a wooden divider, that you can fold away if you happen to come with more than one person, and separated from the kitchen by a wall that cuts away just below chin level so that you can hand over your tickets and get your food (without making eye contact). After taking a seat, we were passed small order forms in Japanese. After struggling for about five minutes with Google Translate and best guessing, someone came around on the other side of the wall and passed us English forms. After filling out what toppings, spice-level, and level of noodle softness, our forms were swiftly taken and our food came a few minutes later. Once we got our steaming ramen topped with green onions and spices, and an egg on the side, our waitress turned sideways, bowed low enough that we could glimpse her red kimono, said something in Japanese, and brought the shutters down so that we were now facing a solid wall. Very little human interaction at all. Then came the first taste. It was the best ramen I’ve ever had, and our local ramen restaurants are pretty amazing. All I can say is that this was the first time I’ve ever finished an entire bowl. Sugoi oishii.

Speaking of sugoi oishii, I want to mention two street foods that I had while visiting Sensoji temple in Asakusa yesterday: agemanju and dango. Agemanju are warm bites of fried rice batter filled with red bean paste. The one I got was sesame rice batter, and it was crispy and warm and perfectly light, sweet, and substantial and I’ve wanted another one since. After walking a bit to try and get a bit more hungry, I decided to try dango: skewers of grilled rice flour dumplings glazed with a sweet soy sauce. These spherical dumplings are crunchy and browned on the outside and warm, glutinous, and gently sweet on the inside.

age manju: grilled rice balls glazed in sweet soy

red bean paste pastry from the supermarket

the amazing soba noodles

an unidentified (but delicious) edamame and bread concoction from the bakery

the. best. ramen. I’ve. ever. had.

At Sensoji temple, I got my first taste of old Tokyo. The street food is only the first thing. I’ve never been to a buddhist temple before and there were many traditions that had not been included in the articles I read about how to visit respectfully. There was a washing/purification basin and a structure burning incense that I expected, but there was also a wall lining the pathway to the temple filled with drawers that you could pay 100 yen to shake vigorously. I still do not know what this was.

Koi pond next to the Sensoji temple

Sensoji temple

Sensoji temple

The last thing I can talk about Shinjuku station. The busiest in the world, it is truly dizzying. There is a maze of food, clothing, and trinket stores accompanying restaurants and bakeries interspersed with entrances to vast numbers of different subway lines as everyone bustles and weaves their way to their own individual destinations. Each time I’ve gone into the station, I’ve ended up going around in circles until finally finding what I’m looking for.

I wish I had a few more months in Tokyo. The days are going by so quickly, and I’m still constantly discovering things. The other day, for example, I was sitting and reading in the Shinjuku-Chuo park quite early in the morning (so early that there was no one around me) when I looked up and found myself surrounded by senior citizens all wearing loose-fitting white shirts. I decided to get up and walk around, and a few minutes later, music started emanating from the center of the park and everyone had got up and begun stretching. There were probably hundreds of seniors spilling out from the center, following directions from what I later learned is called radio taiso. It’s a form of stretching and conditioning that is broadcasted on the radio every morning, and projected in the parks. I will miss that sense of wonder and discovery when we go home. In a few days, we’re off to Kyoto, and then our trip comes to a close. I’m still having trouble wrapping my head around that.

Tokyo, Japan: I guess I'll admit, I had my concerns about Japan. It being the first non-Western country I’ve really ever visited, I balked at the language barrier, worried about inadvertently committing some unforgivable faux pas, or not being able to order food.

[viralhottopics]

Put us on the map, please: China’s smaller cities go wild for starchitecture

From mountain-shaped apartment blocks to the centre of braised chicken reinventing itself as Solar Valley, Chinas second (and third) tier cities are hiring big-name architects to get them noticed

From egg-shaped concert halls to skyscrapers reminiscent of big pairs of pants, Chinas top cities are famously full of curious monuments to architectural ambition. But as land prices in the main metropolises have shot into the stratosphere, developers have been scrambling to buy up plots in the countrys second and third-tier cities, spawning a new generation of delirious plans in the provinces. President Xi Jinping may have issued a directive last year outlawing oversized, xenocentric, weird buildings, but many of these schemes were already well under way; his diktat has proved to be no obstacle to mayoral hubris yet.

From Harbin City of Music to Dezhou Solar Valley, provincial capitals are branding themselves as themed enclaves of culture and industry to attract inward investment, and commissioning scores of bold buildings to match. Even where there is no demand, city bureaucrats are relentlessly selling off land for development, hawking plots as the primary form of income accounting for 80% of municipal revenues in some cases. In the last two months alone, 50 Chinese cities received a total of 453bn yuan (54bn) from land auctions , a 73% increase on last year, and its the provincial capitals that are leading the way.

At the same time, Xis national culture drive has seen countless museums, concert halls and opera houses spring up across the country, often used as sweeteners for land deals, conceived as the jewels at the centre of glistening mixed-used visions (that sometimes never arrive). Culture, said Xi, is the prerequisite of the great renaissance of the Chinese people, but it has also proved to be a powerful lubricant for ever more real estate speculation even if the production of content to fill these great halls cant quite keep up with the insatiable building boom. From mountain-shaped apartment blocks to cavernous libraries, heres a glimpse of whats emerging in the regions.

Fake Hills, Beihai

A render of how the Fake Hills would look. Illustration: MAD architects

Forming an 800 metre-long cliff-face along the coast of the southern port city of Beihai, the Fake Hills housing block is the work of Ma Yansong, Chinas homegrown conjuror of sinuous, globular forms whose practice is appropriately named MAD. Having studied at Yale and worked with Zaha Hadid in London, where he nourished his penchant for blobs, Ma has spent the last decade dreaming up improbable mountain-shaped megastructures across the country.

Less scenic mountain and more lumpen collision of colossal cruise-liners The first phase of construction on Fake Hills has been completed. Photograph: MAD

As it rises and falls, the undulating roofline of Fake Hills forms terraces for badminton and tennis courts, as well as a garden and swimming pool. Sadly the overall effect is less scenic mountain range than a lumpen collision of colossal cruise-liners.

Greenland Tower, Chengdu

Greenland Tower, Chengdu. The building harks back to the crystalline dreams of early 20th-century German architect Bruno Taut. Illustration: Adrian Smith and Gordon Gill Architecture

A crystalline spire rising 468 metres above the 18 million-strong metropolis of Chengdu, the Greenland Tower will be the tallest building in southwestern China, standing as a sharply chiselled monument to the countrys (and by some counts the worlds) largest property developer, Greenland Holdings. It is designed by Chicago-based Adrian Smith and Gordon Gill, architects of Dubais Burj Khalifa, who say the faceted shaft is a reference to the unique ice mountain topography of the region. It harks back to the crystalline dreams of early 20th-century German architect Bruno Taut, who imagined a dazzling glass city crown to celebrate socialism and agriculture; whether Sichuans farmers will be welcomed into the penthouse sky garden remains to be seen.

Sun-Moon mansion, Dezhou

A rival to Silicon Valley the Sun-Moon mansion of Solar Valley, Dezhou. Photograph: Alamy

Once known as a centre of braised chicken production, the city of Dezhou in the north-eastern province of Shandong now brands itself as Solar Valley, a renewable energy centre intended to rival Californias Silicon Valley. At its heart is the Sun-Moon mansion, a vast fan-shaped office building powered by an arc of solar panels on its roof. It is the brainchild of Huang Ming, aka Chinas sun king, an oil industry engineer turned solar energy tycoon who heads the Himin Solar Energy Group, the worlds biggest producer of solar water heaters as well as purveyor of sun-warmed toilet seats and solar-powered Tibetan prayer wheels.

Harbin Opera House

Harbin Opera House, with the St Petersburg of the east in the background. Photograph: View Pictures/Rex/Shutterstock

Nicknamed the St Petersburg of the east, the far northern city of Harbin has long had a thriving cultural scene as a gateway to Russia and beyond. In the 1920s, fashions from Paris and Moscow arrived here before they reached Shanghai, and it was home to the countrys first symphony orchestra, made up of mostly Russian musicians.

Inside Harbin Opera House. Photograph: View Pictures/Rex/Shutterstock

Declared city of music in 2010, Harbin has recently pumped millions into a gleaming new concert hall by Arata Isozaki, a gargantuan neo-classical conservatory and an 80,000 sq metre whipped meringue of an opera house by MAD. Shaped like a pair of snowy dunes, up which visitors can climb on snaking paths, the building contains a sinuous timber-lined auditorium designed as an eroded block of wood.

Tianjin Binhai library

Tianjin Binhai library. Illustration: MVRDV

Due to open this summer in the sprawling port city of Tianjin, this space-age library by Dutch architects MVRDV is imagined as a gaping cave of books, carved out from within an oblong glass block. The shelves form a terraced landscape of seating, wrapping around a giant mirrored sphere auditorium that nestles in the middle of the space like a pearl in an oyster.

Inside the space-age Tianjin Binhai library. Illustration: MVRDV

Along with a new theatre, congress centre and a science and technology museum by Bernard Tschumi, the building forms part of a new cultural quarter for the city, itself being swallowed into the planned Beijing-Tianjin mega-region population 130 million, thats more than Japan.

Huaguoyuan Towers, Guiyang

Arups twin towers are almost complete. Illustration: LWK & Partners

Nowhere in China is the disparity between economic reality and architectural ambition more stark than in Guiyang, capital of rural Guizhou, the poorest province in the country, which has the fifth most skyscraper plans of any Chinese city. The twin 335-metre towers of the Huaguoyuan development, by Arup, are now almost complete, standing as the centrepiece of a new mixed-use office, retail and entertainment complex, while SOM is busy conjuring the even higher Cultural Plaza Tower, a 521-metre glass spear that will soar above a new riverfront world of shopping malls and theatres. It has the glitz and gloss of any other Chinese citys new central business district, but as Knight Franks David Ji points out: It will be hard for a city like Guiyang to find quality tenants to fill the space.

Yubei agricultural park, Chongqing

Will Alsops Yubei agricultural park. Illustration: Will Alsop

Architectural funster Will Alsop may finally have found his calling in the supercharged furnace of Chinas second-tier cities booming leisure economy, crafting a number of fantastical dreamworlds from his new satellite studio in Chongqing where he is busy building a new cultural quarter around his own office, with a restaurant, bar and distillery. He is also plotting an enormous agricultural leisure park in Yubei, 20 miles north of the city, designed to cater to the new middle classes nascent appreciation of the countryside, a place hitherto associated with peasants and poverty. The rolling landscape will be dotted with cocoon-like treehouses, a flower-shaped hotel and a big lake covered by an LED-screen canopy, so visitors can enjoy projected blue skies despite the smog.

Zendai Himalayas centre, Nanjing

A limestone mountain range : Zendai Himalayas Centre, Nanjing. Illustration: www.i-mad.com

Erupting across six city blocks like a limestone mountain range, the Zendai Himalayas Centre will be Mas most literal interpretation yet of his philosophy of fusing architecture and nature. Taking inspiration from the traditional style of shanshui landscape brush painting (literally meaning mountain-water), the 560,000 sq metre complex is designed to look as if it has been eroded by millennia of wind and water, not thrown up overnight by an army of migrant labourers. Once again, Ma appears to be forgetting that elegant feathery brushstrokes dont often translate well into lumps of glass and steel. It is one of many such green-fingered schemes in Nanjing, including Stefano Boeris vertical forest towers and the Sifang art park, where Steven Holl, SANAA, David Adjaye and others have built pavilions in a rolling landscape as another decoy for a luxury real estate project.

Huawei campus, Dongguan

A render of Huawei campus, Dongguan, which is based on 12 European towns

Telecoms giant Huawei has courted lawsuits for copying from rivals in the past, but its love of imitating clearly extends to architecture too. The companys new campus, under construction on a 300-acre site in Dongguan, is based on 12 European towns. There are the dreaming spires of Oxford, the quaint redbrick houses of Bruges, the palazzos of Verona and the chateaux of Burgundy, all connected by a meandering Swiss railway. It might look like a theme park, but the employees will have little time for leisure: Huaweis founder likens his staff to a pack of hungry wolves and offers them a dedicated employee agreement to voluntarily forgo paid holiday and overtime.

Guardian Cities is dedicating a week to the huge but often unreported cities on the front line of Chinas unprecedented urbanisation. Explore our coverage here and follow us on Facebook. Share stories via WeChat (GuardianCities) and by using #OtherChina on Twitter and Instagram

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from Put us on the map, please: China’s smaller cities go wild for starchitecture

[readbookywooks]

As Esk tried to work out how to move the staff the ripples spread out in the magical ether, changing the Discworld in thousands of tiny ways. Most went entirely unnoticed. Perhaps a few grains of sand lay on their beaches in a slightly different position, or the occasional leaf hung on its tree in a marginally different way. But then the wavefront of probability struck the edge of Reality and rebounded like the slosh off the side of the pond which, meeting the laggard ripples coming the other way, caused small but important whirlpools in the very fabric of existence. You can have whirlpools in the fabric of existence, because it is a very strange fabric. Esk was completely ignorant of all this, of course, but was quite satisfied when the staff dropped out of thin air into her hand. It felt warm. She looked at it for some time. She felt that she ought to do something about it; it was too big, too distinctive, too inconvenient. It attracted attention. “If I'm taking you to Ankh-Morpork,” she said thoughtfully, “You've got to go in disguise.” A few late flickers of magic played around the staff, and then it went dark. Eventually Esk solved the immediate problem by finding a stall in the main Zemphis marketplace that sold broomsticks, buying the largest, carrying it back to her doorway, removing the handle and ramming the staff deep into the birch twigs. It didn't seem right to treat a noble object in this way, and she silently apologised to it. It made a difference, anyway. No one looked twice at a small girl carrying a broom. She bought a spice pasty to eat while exploring (the stallholder carelessly shortchanged her, and only realised later that he had inexplicably handed over two silver pieces; also, rats mysteriously got in and ate all his stock during the night, and his grandmother was struck by lightning). The town was smaller than Ohulan, and very different because it lay on the junction of three trade routes quite apart from the river itself. It was built around one enormous square which was a cross between a permanent exotic traffic jam and a tent village. Camels kicked mules, mules kicked horses, horses kicked camels and they all kicked humans; there was a riot of colours, a din of noise, a nasal orchestration of smells and the steady, heady sound of hundreds of people working hard at making money. One reason for the bustle was that over large parts of the continent other people preferred to make money without working at all, and since the Disc had yet to develop a music recording industry they were forced to fall back on older, more traditional forms of banditry. Strangely enough these often involved considerable effort. Rolling heavy rocks to the top of cliffs for a decent ambush, cutting down trees to block the road, and digging a pit lined with spikes while still keeping a wicked edge on a dagger probably involved a much greater expenditure of thought and muscle than more socially-acceptable professions but, nevertheless, there were still people misguided enough to endure all this, plus long nights in uncomfortable surroundings, merely to get their hands on perfectly ordinary large boxes of jewels. So a town like Zemphis was the place where caravans split, mingled and came together again, as dozens of merchants and travellers banded together for protection against the socially disadvantaged on the trails ahead. Esk, wandering unregarded amidst the bustle, learned all this by the simple method of finding someone who looked important and tugging on the hem of his coat. This particular man was counting bales of tobacco and would have succeeded but for the interruption. “What?” “I said, what happening here?” The man meant to say: “Push off and bother someone else.” He meant to give her a light cuff about the head. So he was astonished to find himself bending down and talking seriously to a small, grubby-faced child holding a large broomstick (which also, it seemed to him later, was in some indefinable way paying attention). He explained about the caravans. The child nodded. “People all get together to travel?” “Precisely.” “Where to?” “All sorts of places. Sto Lat, Pseudopolis . . . Ankh-Morpork, of course . . . .” “But the river goes there,” said Esk, reasonably. “Barges. The Zoons.” “Ah, yes,” said the merchant, “but they charge high prices and they can't carry everything and, anyway, no one trusts them much.” “But they're very honest!” “Huh, yes,” he said. “But you know what they say: never trust an honest man.” He smiled knowingly. “Who says that?” “They do. You know. People,” he said, a certain uneasiness entering his voice. “Oh,” said Esk. She thought about it. “They must be very silly,” she said primly. “Thank you, anyway.” He watched her wander off and got back to his counting. A moment later there was another tug at his coat. “Fiftysevenfiftysevenfiftysevenwell?” he said, trying not to lose his place. “Sorry to bother you again,” said Esk, “but those bale things ....” “What about them fiftysevenfiftysevenfiftyseven?” “Well, are they supposed to have little white worm things in them?” “Fiftysev - what?” The merchant lowered his slate and stared at Esk, “What little worms?” “Wriggly ones. White,” added Esk, helpfully. “All sort of burrowing about in the middle of the bales.” “You mean tobacco threadworm?” He looked wild-eyed at the stack of bales being unloaded by, now he came to think about it, a vendor with the nervous look of a midnight sprite who wants to get away before you find out what fairy gold turns into in the morning. “But he told me these had been well stored and - how do you know, anyway? ” The child had disappeared among the crowds. The merchant looked hard at the spot where she had been. He looked hard at the vendor, who was grinning nervously. He looked hard at the sky. Then took his sampling knife out of his pocket, stared at it for a moment, appeared to reach a decision, and sidled towards the nearest bale. Esk, meanwhile, had by random eavesdropping found the caravan being assembled for Ankh-Morpork. The trail boss was sitting at a table made up of a plank across two barrels. He was busy. He was talking to a wizard. Seasoned travellers know that a party setting out to cross possibly hostile country should have a fair number of swords in it but should definitely have a wizard in case there is any need for magic arts and, even if these do not become necessary, for lighting fires. A wizard of the third rank or above does not expect to pay for the privilege of joining the party. Rather, he expects to be paid. Delicate negotiations were even now coming to a conclusion. “Fair enough, Master Treatle, but what of the young man?” said the trail boss, one Adab Gander, an impressive figure in a trollhide jerkin, rakishly floppy hat and a leather kilt. “He's no wizard, I can see.” “He is in training,” said Treatle- a tall skinny wizard whose robes declared him to be a mage of the Ancient and Truly Original Brothers of the Silver Star, one of the eight orders of wizardry. “Then no wizard he,” said Gander. “I know the rules, and you're not a wizard unless you've got a staff. And he hasn't.” “Even now he travels to the Unseen University for that small detail,” said Treatle loftily. Wizards parted with money slightly less readily than tigers parted with their teeth. Gander looked at the lad in question. He had met a good many wizards in his time and considered himself a good judge and he had to admit that this boy looked like good wizard material. In other words, he was thin, gangling, pale from reading disturbing books in unhealthy rooms, and had watery eyes like two lightly-poached eggs. It crossed Gander's mind that one must speculate in order to accumulate. All he needs to get right to the top, he thought, is a bit of a handicap. Wizards are martyrs to things like asthma and flat feet, it somehow seems to give them their drive. “What's your name, lad?” he said, as kindly as possible. “Sssssssssssssss” said the boy. His Adam's apple bobbed like a captive balloon. He turned to his companion, full of mute appeal. “Simon,” said Trestle. “- imon,” agreed Simon, thankfully. “Can you cast fireballs or whirling spells, such as might be hurled against an enemy?” Simon looked sideways at Trestle. “Nnnnnnnnnn” he ventured. “My young friend follows higher magic than the mere hurling of sorceries,” said the wizard. “-o,” said Simon. Gander nodded. “Well,” he said, “maybe you will indeed be a wizard, lad. Maybe when you have your fine staff you'll consent to travel with me one time, yes? I will make an investment in you, yes?” “Just nod,” said Gander, who was not naturally a cruel man. Simon nodded gratefully. Treatle and Gander exchanged nods and then the wizard strode off, with his apprentice trailing behind under a weight of baggage. Gander looked down at the list in front of him and carefully crossed out “wizard”. A small shadow fell across the page. He glanced up and gave an involuntary start. “Well?” he said coldly. “I want to go to Ankh-Morpork,” said Esk, “please. I've got some money.” “Go home to your mother, child.” “No, really. I want to seek my fortune.” Gander sighed. “Why are you holding that broomstick?” he said. Esk looked at it as though she had never seen it before. “Everything's got to be somewhere,” she said. “Just go home, my girl,” said Gander. “I'm not taking any runaways to Ankh-Morpork. Strange things can happen to little girls in big cities.” Esk brightened. “What sort of strange things?” “Look, I said go home, right? Now!” He picked up his chalk and went on ticking off items on his slate, trying to ignore the steady gaze that seemed to be boring through the top of his head. “I can be helpful,” said Esk, quietly. Gander threw down the chalk and scratched his chin irritably. “How old are you?” he said. “Nine.” “Well, Miss nine-years-old, I've got two hundred animals and a hundred people that want to go to Ankh, and half of them hate the other half, and I've not got enough people who can fight, and they say the roads are pretty bad and the bandits are getting really cheeky up in the Paps and the trolls are demanding a bigger bridge toll this year and there's weevils in the supplies and I keep getting these headaches and where, in all this, do I need you?” “Oh,” said Esk. She looked around the crowded square. “Which one of these roads goes to Ankh, then?” “The one over there, with the gate.” “Thank you,” she said gravely. “Goodbye. I hope you don't have any more trouble and your head gets better.” “Right,” said Gander uncertainly. He drummed his fingers on the tabletop as he watched Esk walk away in the direction of the Ankh road. A long, winding road. A road haunted by thieves and gnolls. A road that wheezed through high mountain passes and crawled, panting, over deserts.