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maotranslates · 4 years ago

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Chapter 4

Novel: Life Going Wild With Plug-ins 带挂装逼, 最为致命 by Shi Zi Qing 十字卿

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Before sunset, at the doctor’s place, I finally learned how to eat sunflower seeds with the little medicine boy who lacked front teeth. When the doctor wiped his hands and came out of the building, the children around disappeared.

　　 The night wind was very cold.

　　 I shook off the sunflower seed shells from my body and eagerly looked towards the doctor.

"The injury is really not light. Fortunately, as long as he carefully recuperates for three to five years, he won't be disabled." The doctor spoke a bunch of words solemnly, and then concluded while shaking his head, "But to do martial arts again, I am afraid it is not very possible."

　　 I couldn’t really understand what he was saying, so I picked a question that I was more concerned about: "When will it stop hurting?"

　　 The doctor was at a loss when he looked at me.

　　 "The wounds on his body, when will they stop hurting?"

　　 "...This...will heal in less than a month."

　　 Such a long time, having to lie down for a month, I felt that he was a bit miserable. I nodded to the doctor and slipped inside to visit him.

　　 The Shadow Guard lay quietly on the bed, breathing so softly to the point that it was hard to perceive. The former tattered clothes on his body that were mixed with blood and adhered to his wounds were all removed and replaced with layers of bandages. Probably due to serious injury, there was no rosy color anywhere on his body.

　　His hair had also finally been tidied up, and it fell softly over the edge of the bed, making his complexion look even paler in comparison.

　　 Hey, this face is so good-looking, and I haven't seen it on Taobao before. Could it be that I, the creator god, customized it myself? I'm kind of awesome.

　　 I sat next to him, gazing down at him silently, using my eyes to soothe his trauma.

　　 "...Master." He spoke first, asking, "Where are your clothes...?"

　　 I said, "I exchanged them for money to buy medicine."

　　 "……"

　　 The night was very cold.

　　 Us two naked men, were mutually silent.

　　 "You haven't eaten anything, aren’t you hungry?" I took out a handful of sunflower seeds from the only remaining underwear on my body, passing it over to him.

　The Shadow Guard glanced, and painfully shook his head.

　　 So he doesn't like sunflower seeds. Feeling disappointed, I tucked the seeds back into my underwear.

　　 The doctor said that he needed peace and quiet to recover from his injuries, so I quickly took my leave.

　　 There was nowhere to go, so I squatted back outside the building to eat sunflower seeds. Yet, it was not fulfilling.

　　 Hungry and cold.

　　 It felt a bit miserable to be alive.

After squatting for a long time, I heard the sound of people walking and talking in the hall. The male voice was low so I couldn’t hear clearly, but there was a woman whose pitch was higher, and a few words floated to my ears: "I already heard of robbers and bandits being rude and unreasonable, but they actually deceived their way into our Changluo!... I already thought that the materials of those clothes were by no means ordinary people's... No problem, no problem, don't thank me, this little bit of help is not a problem... It's not peaceful over there either, you guys take care when you leave..."

After talking inside for a while, the woman's voice sounded farther as she walked away. There was the sound of footsteps coming towards me, and someone put a piece of clothing on me, blocking most of the cold wind. Feelings of unspeakable gratitude flooded my heart. I turned around and saw it was the Shadow Guard, hey, why did this guy get up?

　　 "Master, the wind is strong here, let's go inside first."

"Alright."

　　 After a while, seeing that I didn't move, the Shadow Guard asked in confusion: "...Master?"

　　 "My legs are numb, I can't stand up." The human physical body is truly hard to control.

　　 "..." The Shadow Guard sighed lightly, leaning over and holding my hand. Probably because I was sitting in the cold wind for a long time, his temperature seemed particularly hot.

　　 The Shadow Guard checked my hand temperature that was like cold stone.

　　Suddenly, he picked me up.

　　 I was curled up in a strange posture.

　　 "Wait, what about your injuries that haven’t healed?"

　　 "It’s already fine." The Shadow Guard carried me back into the room without any explanation, and put me down on the bed.

　　 After putting me down, the Shadow Guard sat up and found my hands firmly under his armpits.

　　 "...Master, what are you doing?"

　　 "It's warm here."

　　 "……"

　　 The Shadow Guard resolutely forced my hands out of his armpits.

Oh!! Cold! Heartless!

　　 The Shadow Guard expressionlessly helped me put on layers upon layers of clothes. The plain cotton and linen, without the former mess of jade ornaments, was actually comfortable to wear. It was only then that I realized he had also changed into plain robes, his hair tied low. The bloody smell on his body was long gone, and the scent of herbs was faintly released. Hm? Where did you get clothes?

"This servant told the mistress that Master was originally a wealthy merchant who was robbed on the road to Changluo, so all his belongings and servants are gone. Master’s clothes and accessories were all very valuable, so the mistress trusted the story and agreed to help for a few days." After reporting this, he repented as usual, "This servant is incompetent, and has even made Master spend so much money and be ashamed."

　　 After putting on my clothes, the Shadow Guard tucked me back into the bed and then reached out to hold my ice bar hands. His hands were large and broad, just enough to cover my ice bar, no, I mean my hands. When my temperature recovered a little, he conscientiously let go and took a step back, kneeling at the side of the bed.

A woman lifted the curtain and came in with a smile. Based on the voice, it was the same woman who had just talked to the Shadow Guard. She put a large plate on the table and said, "Come here come here, I just made a few small dishes, eat it while it’s hot! I don’t know your taste, but if it’s too salty or too mild, make sure you let this big sister know."

　　I cheerfully sat down, and the woman put down the food and left. The Shadow Guard refused to dine at the same table with me, which made me spend some time convincing him before he moved his chopsticks. I didn’t know how to use chopsticks, so I grabbed the food with my bare hands. After a few bites, I couldn’t help saying, “This is better than what you make.”

　　 "...This servant is incompetent."

　　 You’re incompetent again? Why are you always incompetent? How old are you* incompetent?

* “How old are you” is written in English in the original text

　　 "Does being a Shadow Guard require cooking skills? Are other Shadow Guards very good at cooking?"

　　 "No. Most of them only know how to make a few dishes needed to maintain health," the Shadow Guard said.

"Then since cooking is not in the Shadow Guards’ skill range, why do you blame your own ‘incompetence’?" I frowned and said, "Right now, I don’t understand a lot of things, and your wrong wording is very misleading. I hope you pay attention to it in the future."

　　 The Shadow Guard was mute.

Not sure if he understood, I added: "I find that you always like to blame things on yourself. This is your own problem. Regardless of what your mentality is, I hope that when we talk, you can convey more intuitive and effective information to me, rather than ambiguous self-loathing. Is that difficult? Can it be done?"

　　 "...This servant...will do as you say."

　　 I nodded in satisfaction. He doesn't look stupid, so he should be able to understand.

　　 I continued to eat after speaking, and the temperature of the stir fried dishes was not low, it hurt to grab the food with bare hands, and the temperature of the soup was even more scorching... But those floating meatballs were truly really tempting, and I thought about it over and over again, making up my resolve to get them.

　　 It burned so much that I wailed out miserably.

　　 Fortunately, the Shadow Guard’s eyes and hands were quick, immediately wrapping a towel soaked in cold water around my burned hand, and the temperature dropped and eased the pain by a lot. Huh? When did you prepare the cold towel?...

　　 "Master..." The Shadow Guard hesitated many times before asking, "Is it that you think the chopsticks here are not clean? How about, I go down and find new chopsticks..."

　　 I shook my head in pain: "I don’t know how to use chopsticks."

　　The Shadow Guard looked lifeless, unable to continue.

　　 "Can you get me a meatball?" I had suffered a serious injury, but I still could not forget, it could be said that my appetite was like a drug addiction.

　　 Shadow Guard hurriedly took up a new pair of chopsticks, then hesitated after picking up a meatball, looking at my face and then looking at my bowl, then finally deciding to put it in the bowl. I used my uninjured hand to dump the contents of the bowl into my mouth, chewing and carelessly saying thank you at the same time.

　　 "...I don't... dare..." His tone was awkward.

　　 The Shadow Guard removed the towel, held my hand and inspected it carefully, and said with relief that there were no burn wounds. Then he found several spoons of different sizes so I could avoid suffering a burn again. A true confidant, I shed tears of gratitude.

　　 After peacefully finishing the meal with no more incidents, the mistress of the doctor’s place came to clean up with a smile. While chatting with her, I asked about the Shadow Guard’s injury and heard that he needed to lie down for more than a month before getting out of bed. Hey, he just said that he was already fine and started going everywhere, it turned out that this guy lied to me again.

　　 I angrily shoved the Shadow Guard back into bed, reprimanding him for a long while. The Shadow Guard's small and pale face was hidden in the covers, and he listened quietly to my criticism, very pitifully.

　　 "This servant… Although I am overstepping my boundaries, I have some questions… I would like to ask Master." Before I left, the Shadow Guard opened his mouth, seeming to have misgivings.

　　 "Did you not hear anything I said just now? The doctor wants you to rest, so rest first." I blew out the candle for him and moved out of the room step by step, feeling my way in the dark. "There will be ample time for us, we are in no hurry."

　　 The inner room was extremely quiet, there was a long pause before a barely audible "thank you" was heard.

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sepiadice · 5 years ago

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NavyDice Campaign (2019/8/30): Poor use of Apples

So I was sitting about, attempting to play more Fire Emblem: Three Houses. Due to a pleasant kismet, it was my first day off of four in a row. I was also awake until Four AM being sick, so it was a mixed sort of day.

Anyways, I suddenly got a text from NavyDice[1] asking if I was up to play Dungeons & Dragons in about ninety minutes, at a location I hadn’t yet visited that was a half to full hour away (depending on traffic).

So obviously I agreed. Because I’m desperate and IndigoDice’s campaign has apparently fallen.[2]

So I got the address, plugged it into the Google Maps app, and went off, listening to a Dungeon World Actual Play podcast episode,[3] brainstorming my character since my original plan to transfer Autumn Quill over had to be abandoned due to everyone else playing a spellcaster.

So time to experiment with other new things. Like using the full strength of the Souvenir Mug Rule!

Anyways, this new campaign features three members of the improv group (Navy[4] GMing, as well as GoldDice[5] and LimeDice[6]) plus a friend of NavyDice who we’ll assign the nickname… Tetrahedron.[8]

In true NavyDice fashion, prepare for time shenanigans!

CAST

Acer ‘Maple’ Palmatum (SepiaDice/Me) Level 5 Elf Fighter. I recalled this image while brainstorming, and decided to just run with it.[9] While making the character, I’d decided she had a military history and a desire to help the helpless. Also likes cute things. We’ll see if any of that pays off. I’d give her a Scottish accent if I could remember to do character voices. As she’s named for a tree, her given name is probably actually ‘Palmatum’.

Garland (LimeDice) A spellcaster of some sort?

Poppi (GoldDice) Another spellcaster, who used Intelligence and Wisdom as her dump stats so… there’s concerns?

Mumble (Tetrahedron) Bard. Talks very quiet, as is his namesake.

Once characters were complete, we took turns inventing a brief history of the party and why we’re hanging out together.

For the actual campaign, we heard of a job dealing with a band of brigands bothering a town. We travel there and meet with the local marshall, Masem, who is grateful for our help.

The party rents a place at a bed & breakfast and waits to be needed.

So we open on the party doing small things that reveal character. Garland is reading a book. Poppi is mesmerized by a pretty mobile that was hanging about. (I forget what Mumble was doing). Maple is doing push ups.

A knock comes on the door. It’s Masem. The brigands are coming to attack the market space. Maple follows the marshall, the squishier party members follow behind.

In the market, Masem and Maple pose as they wait for the brigands to arrive. Garland and Mumble position themselves for optimal support. Poppi gets distracted by apples, and failing to purchase them since everyone else ran.

Combat ensues. The first wave of six brigands fall to sword and spell, and a second wave (featuring a very definite midboss) arrives, and similarly gets cut down.

As the citizenry start to celebrate, Maple hears a ticking coming from the midboss.

After a short back and forth between me and NavyDice to determine if Maple would know the concept of a bomb, we determine she wouldn’t immediately come to that conclusion. Maple investigates the midboss, and discovers he has a vest under his shirt with many magic scrolls that are starting to autocast. I decide that’s enough information to follow my initial instinct, and Maple shouts for people to run.

Maple attempts to scoop Poppi up, but fails the strength check, kinda ruining the moment but whatever.

Most of the town’s out of the blast range as the scrolls deploy in a massive fireball. Once the smoke clears, Maple removes her excess equipment and gets to work cleaning rubble and moving bodies. The local lord rides a carriage down to thank the heroes (our party) and announce a feast. Maple irritably asks him why his bodyguards aren’t helping with disaster response, and the lord sends the guards to do so.

The rest of the party goes to enjoy the celebratory feast the lord was announcing, but Maple stays until the work is done. I’d decided to play her as a Capital-Aytch Hero, so that’s what I’m sticking to, possibly to my occasional detriment.

Eventual she notices those helping the effort beginning to get awkwardly antsy to attend the feast, but don’t want to leave before one of the people who just saved the market from brigands. So Maple relents and leaves for the party, probably with plenty of soot on her.[10]

Everyone’s gathered at the feast, medals are awarded, toasts are started, all that stuff ceremony that Maple lost a taste for due to her time serving in a military.[11]

Then the church bells ring, and a darkness envelops the town, killing everyone.

Cycle 2

There’s a knocking on the front door.

Ah, so Navy is repeating a campaign he’s told me the story of. I decide not to beat around the bush and just let Maple be immediately be on the ball. Call it battle-won instincts of quickly reading the situation.

Maple answers the door and tries to inform Masem about the groundhog day loop we’ve entered, but the marshall is too concerned by the brigands to listen. Maple instead runs off to the market without listening to the mission text.

This time, she intends to save more people.

This time, she’s not going to waste time with the random mooks.

This time, Maple heads straight to the mid-boss with the bomb vest. If she can stop him before he gets to the marketplace, maybe she can mitigate the damage.

However, running towards the guy triggers some attacks of opportunity[12] from the generic brigands, but Maple ignores them. They don’t matter.

However, when she’s facing Bomb-Vest and the brigands flanking him, their combined attacks do drop her to exactly zero, and Maple falls and I begin making death saves.

Then Poppi decides it’d be hilarious to throw an apple at me. Tetrahedron points out that any damage taken while in this state means autodeath, so GoldDice rolls to hit.

And succeeds. Killing Maple with an apple. My friends, readers!

So I’m out of the cycle, and tune out because I’m an inattentive jerk and wanted to try and find the visual reference for my character.[13]

Eventually, the brigands are felled through a method that nearly kills Mumble, the local lord rides his coach down for easy publicity points as he rewards our party and mourns the fallen, there will be a feast, Maple will be given a hero’s funeral, and other familiar notes.

Some investigation might’ve occurred? I think mostly it was just a tad more somber because Maple died.

Then the church bells ring, and a darkness envelops the town, killing everyone.

Cycle 3

There’s a knocking on the door.

Okay, this time the party’s a little smarter. Mumble uses Leomund’s Tiny Hut to contain the explosion, and only he and Bomb Vest dies.

Okay, successfully saved the innocents. Maple takes the time to fill Masem in, who is skeptical despite magic being real so such temporal shenanigans shouldn’t be out of possibility. But using the evidence of (limited) precognition, Maple gets him to accept that maybe this is a thing that happens.

Masem gets called away to a crime scene, and Maple and Garland invite themselves along. Because information is important, and you don’t know what’s relevant.[14] Poppi goes to church, because… well, out of character, to investigate the church bells. In character, Poppi thinks its the Lord’s Day.

Someone blew a hole in the side of a vault, then a second one to escape. Masem investigates with the help of player characters who do what they want by virtue of being player characters.

We manage to, through the powers of basic deductive reasoning and basicer math, figure out which safety deposit box was emptied despite the bank manager’s attempts to be as unhelpful as possible.

Masem gets called away to officiate an execution. Maple assigns Garland to stay back and keep investigating as she keeps following Masem to learn what his day’s like.

Garland and two to three town guards (played by NavyDice, Tetrahedron, and myself)[15] do some more investigation of the vault, before eventually finding and descending into… either the showers or just inexplicable underground tunnels. The guards banter about why they’re taking orders from this random spellcaster guy, how this is an obvious horror movie set-up, how Garland’s orders to split up flies in the face of local bards tales of Scoobert Doobert and the company of mystery,[16] and other fun. They die there when the cycle ends.

Maple follows Masem away, and learns they are hanging the leader of the brigands they’ve been fighting. Which is fun.[20]

Public death spectacle concluded, Maple and Masem go to attend the lord’s feast. Maple notices Masem getting called away for some new distraction, but she decides not to push her luck in case observing it would affect it, and because she’d inserted herself a lot into Masem’s day as is.

Then the church bells ring, and a darkness envelops the town, killing everyone.

Cycle 4

There’s a knock on the door.

The rest of the party wants to regroup and discuss. Maple wants to save people and immediately rushes off, ignoring pleas that people dying don’t matter.

Instead of helping, Garland and Mumble decide to investigate the bank early, and Poppi hangs out at the church belltower to watch what happens in the market.

I roll percentile to determine Maple’s fate. 08. So, due to negligence by the rest of the party (again), Maple dies. Again. As does Masem. And a bunch of innocent standerbys. And also the lord’s manor via explosion I think? I was still trying to find that piece of art. Which I found used as a gentle nudge to the rest of the table that Maple’s a girl. Cut, but still obviously feminine.

Anyways, no one gets to learn what Maple learned yesterday, because screw them, they left her and everyone else to die, and Maple doesn’t write off anyone if there’s a chance to save them.

And there’s always a chance.[21]

Anyways, Poppi spends the day observing while Garland and Mumble annoy a bank clerk, find the brigands hideout, and Mumble convinces one of them he’s a god.

When Maple dies, I use it as an opportunity to take a break and look through social media. Tempers out of character knowledge and lets me take a break from being Permanently ‘On’ for hours at a time.[24]

Eventually, the church bells ring, and a darkness envelops the town, killing everyone.

So ends the first session.

I’m excited for the rest of the campaign, though I am (progressively) remembering details from the last time NavyDice ran it, so hopefully that doesn’t ruin the fun. Especially since I’m super excited to play Maple, and I don’t want to add her to the list of characters who deserve a second chance.[25]

Until next time, may your dice make things interesting.

[1] Who has not formally adopted the ColourDice naming convention, but does have a D&D Instagram? [2] I’ve got plans for that group, however, so stay tuned. [3] Concluded my prejudices against Powered by the Apocalypse is true and I will never willingly touch it. [4] Previously credited as Lyons. [5] Previously credited as Maddie. [6] Previously credited as Jose. He assigned himself the color green, but my brother took that color and I couldn’t convince him to pick something more specific. I rudely haven’t consulted Jose on the reassignment. He can yell at me if he reads this.[7] [7] No one reads these. [8] I’ll figure out a consistent guest player naming convention one of these essays. [9] Next time: glasses. Maybe. [10] There’s an amount of Vimes in this character. Actually, Maple may turn out to just be Sam Vimes. Which I’m okay with, even if I want to play her with an amount of bloodthirsty glee when fighting bad guys… [11] For once, 5e’s dumb background rules actually helped flesh out my character in a satisfying manner. [12] A mechanic I don’t think has ever added fun to D&D. It always feels petty. [13] Which took hours to find! But the references are saved to my phone now. [14] Hint: anything the GM draws attention to is relevant. [15] Always allow players to play NPCs so they can take the mickey out of other players. [16] GM tip! Always let real world media exist in universe. Makes it easier to make references, and justifying it is a lot of fun![17] [17] GM tip! Regardless, someone will always be confused by the concept of sandwiches due to the apocryphal tales of John Montagu, despite insisting sandwiches only existing since the 18th century is ridiculous, and evidence of similar food arrangement has existed long before the famed event.[18] [18] There was a tedious argument with the High School group that I’m apparently still annoyed by. But Good Eats has my back, so I’m confident.[19] [19] While my footnotes are cascading, I’ve been humoring the concept of a ‘Adventurer’s Cookbook’. Which would likely just be a camping cookbook with genre writing as flavor, and the recipes arranged in esculating terms of difficulty. [20] Not actually fun. [21] One of this campaign’s experiments: using the ‘It’s what my character would do’ defense. Because I like to try and justify things.[22] [22] Maybe someday I’ll experiment with justifying Failure to Communicate and Teacher/Pupil relationships.[23] [23] Because, to be clear, I really hate both. [24] GM tip! Let players (and GMs) take breaks. Either by pausing the game, or letting there be lulls where portions of the table can get away from losing focus and think about Other Things. [25] A list that includes Trix and Teddi.

#SepiaDicePlays #NavyDiceCampaign #Dungeons and Dragons #Fifth Edition #Maple

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phoenixisstrange · 5 years ago

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The Best Day Forever Chapter 1 (Edited)

But I am wrong. It begins with me, in a nice suburban house doing my own thing going about my day. I guess I live here? I don't know who I live with or if I live alone but I encounter neighbors and friends (I don't remember specific interactions). I don’t even know how I got this beautiful house OR what town it’s in. It’s like someone created me and my life, peppered in some aspects of my personality and memory and dropped me into it. So I wake up in my? bed.

I wake up, make myself breakfast, and acquaint myself with my neighborhood. As if I haven’t lived here for quite some time-- judging off of the bills I have sitting on the counter waiting to be paid. I open the front door. It’s a big wooden door with a little window that has decorative iron bars encasing it. Whoever designed this house did a damn nice job. I admire my front door as if I’ve never seen it before. As I step out onto my front porch I am greeted by a symphony of wildlife and a beautiful panorama of the forest. This was an intentional design point of the house. The way the forest sits inside of the frame of my porch is so perfect that it must be deliberate. The facade of my house faces a dense forest but I do have neighbors on either side of my property.

To the left I see a mother herding her 3 kids into her minivan, well trying at least. One of the kids is running around screaming; wearing only one flip flop on. The other kid has dropped her bookbag on the ground. The third sits strapped into the car quietly. “Brandy stop moving and put your damn flip flop on, we’re going to be late!” the mom corrals her child into the van.

I chuckle and breathe in the crisp morning air as it mingles with the scent of my piping hot coffee. The house to the right is a bit smaller and nobody seems to be home. After I finish my coffee, I go back inside and look at my schedule. It’s my day off.

I text my girls, Iz and Cree to see what they’re up to. I guess they also live in the area. Whatever the area is. The girls arrive and we set up camp in my warmly-lit living room. A low-budget Netflix horror movie plays in the background as we sip our Rosé.

“So how’s Carter?” I ask Iz.

“He’s good, he’s interviewing for a job at a new dealership as a sales manager”

“Good for him, I wish him luck in all his managerial endeavors” I say with a little too much enthusiasm.

“Phoenix---How’s your love life??” She did it. She asked the dreaded question.

“Heh, funny you should ask… You would probably have an easier time finding a human being on Mars than I would finding a lover. ” Wow, I’ve actually lost count of how many times I’ve answered that. Me? Jaded? Never. Just realistic. I have too much going on to focus on finding someone right now. That’s what I tell myself at night when the loneliness hits.

“Unfortunately my lover either doesn’t exist or doesn’t want me.” I add. You can practically see my dignity leaving the room.

“Sometimes you just gotta ride the wave alone...” Cree-- who appears to be catatonic on the couch-- mutters from beneath a blanket.

“Facts” Iz and I say in unison.

We finish a bottle of wine and cook some ramen. I never eat Ramen, I can’t stand it. But Iz and Cree love it so I guess that’s why my cabinets are stacked with the stuff. Either that or I am preparing for the inevitable collapse of our organized society. In that case, I know for a fact that I won’t go hungry. There’s so many packets of chicken flavored instant noodles hiding in my cabinets that I could feed a tribe in the post apocalyptic world.

The fragrance of the salty noodles dances with the incense that burns in the living room. The sound of a woman being possessed by the devil blares from the tv speakers.

“Haven’t we watched this movie already?” Iz clearly isn’t into it. “Probably, but all Netflix horror movies are the same. They usually end up as white noise anyway.”

“I like it.” Cree chimes in

“If Cree thinks it’s a good movie, then obviously it’s a good movie Iz.” Sarcasm.

“Cree said Suicide Squad was her favorite movie. She cannot be trusted to judge a good movie!”

“Everyone thought that movie was so bad but y’all just don’t appreciate good art.” Cree stands firmly by her decision.

The movie concludes with the predictable ending where the antagonist--who has succumbed to demonic possession-- is cleansed of evil through a dramatic exorcism. The entire house that the movie is set in is destroyed. This forces the traumatized family to move out of the beautiful home they recently purchased. The movie ends on a cliff-hanger where a new family moves into the very house--which has now been repaired--in hopes to start a life. Boring.

The girls leave at about 11 pm. I take a quick shower and pour myself a glass of seltzer. Nights like this are ideal for stargazing. Not a cloud in the sky and cool enough to have the windows open in the house. Apparently, I missed my mark. I open my door to a rather jarring sight. Expecting the usual chirping of the cicadas and a star speckled sky; I am met with a rising sun. The sky is not an 11 pm sky it’s a 6 am sky. I’m confused and kind of scared. My mind starts to race. How drunk did we get last night? It was just a few glasses of wine not enough to black out the entire fucking night. I text Cree and Iz. No response. I figure they’re sleeping.

My phone says 5:47 am on Saturday, 7/23. My day off is Saturday, which would be the 23rd. Saturday was yesterday. I turn on the TV to verify the date and News 12 confirms my fear of today’s date, 7/23. The annual family cookout is being held tomorrow at the park. 4 pm sharp, don’t miss it! Did I skip work yesterday? No way, I would’ve gotten a call. My head is spinning at this point and I decide to lay down for a bit.

The sound of the news 12 anchorwoman echoes in my head. “This weekend is going to be a hot one. Anyone planning on traveling west towards the coast should take care to leave a little bit early because of heavy delays along all major highways.”

I drift in and out of consciousness and finally give up. I’ve watched the sun rise through the skylight that is fixed above the couch. That big ball of fire has climbed straight into the center of the skylight. The big ball of fire is blinding me. The time is 8:30 according to my phone. I barely slept a wink. My mind was too busy trying to figure out if I was going batshit or if I was actually trapped in a temporal loop. I mean, that would be cool because then that would mean that time loops do exist but not cool because of the fact that I would be caught in one by myself.

My phone buzzes to life with a message from Iz. “What are you talking about? Ladies night didn’t happen hunny.” I’m wigged.

“Must’ve dreamt it! We need a night soon, hunnies.” I reply.

“Ok Phoenix… This is the sitch, yesterday was Friday. You accidentally skipped work and today is Saturday. Wine night was just a dream because you have been missing Cree and Iz lately…” I am rambling to myself in the dark. Yes, that will spare my sanity. I drag myself off the couch since sleep isn’t happening. I step outside at around 9. Once again, the forest is roaring with life and so is the mother next door…

“Brandy stop moving and put your damn flip flop on, we’re going to be late!”…. I need to leave.

I go to the store and begin piling snacks and random food items into my cart. It’s been a while since I’ve been food shopping so this is OK.

“Ice cream and wine. Check.” I say to myself. Drink myself out of the loop. Yeah, that’ll work. I see this really cute girl staring intently at a box of Gushers. For a second, it’s as if my world isn’t imploding on itself and I’m just at the store looking at a beautiful girl I’d like to know. For some reason, she’s engrossed by these artificially flavored fruit snacks. It looks as if she’s deep in thought, something is on her mind so she is occupying the time with food shopping. She’s about my height; she’s got long and silky chocolate brown hair that’s pulled back into a messy bun. I realize that I’m staring at her with as much focus as she is at those Gushers. She feels my eyes and returns to reality, she glances at me. A subtle smirk spreads across her face as she looks me and my wine bottles up and down.

“The bigger the bottle the bigger the problem huh?” She jokes.

“No bottle will solve this problem but at least it’ll make me forget about it.”

She chuckles and walks away. I buy my wine bottles and go home to forget what day it is.

Listen, I won’t lie, I like to party. I love day drinking. But cracking open a fresh bottle of wine the size of a bowling pin at 10 am by myself after realizing I may never live to see tomorrow is new for me. I can’t say I hate it. I sit on the couch. The News 12 anchor-bitch is still blabbering about the family cookout-- that is supposed to take place tomorrow-- too bad. I drunkenly type away on my laptop. Scouring the darkest corners of the internet to find out anything about time loops that exist outside of science fiction. Turns out, not many people who find themselves in my situation take to Reddit to write about it... I take notes from the Twilight Zone subreddit because at this point I’m desperate for answers. My quest for information bears no fruit.

I did learn that a time loop is different from a causal loop, which would occur because of a previous event. My situation however, is anomalous and is unrelated to anything as far as I know. I’ve started a fresh note on my laptop titled “The Best Day Forever! :)).” This is where I dump everything I know about the situation.

So far, I know that this loop resets but I don’t know the interval or the trigger. Things that I interact with seems to stay the same with the exception of people, they don’t remember our interactions. The coffee I made the first go around was still in the pot when I went for coffee round 2. People and things outside of my control reset as if they’re characters in a video game who have a script and a path. I begin thinking, dangerous thinking.

“Why is this happening? Why to me?” I ask aloud as if someone is going to answer me. At this point, I wouldn’t be shocked if I got an answer from some omniscient voice.

“What is the point of all of this?” I ask out loud again. Then I begin to think of everything I had done leading up to the moment I woke up on the morning of July 23rd the first time. My memory is extremely fogged, almost non-existent. I’m struggling to produce even the vaguest memory of anything that happened before Saturday. Was it raining yesterday? Did I even leave my house yesterday? I don't know.

Come to think of it I don't remember much of anything before Saturday. I don’t know how I got this house. I don't know who Iz and Cree are except that we’re friends and have wine nights pretty often--though they have been less frequent for some reason. I don’t know Carter…But I do.

It’s as if these memories were fabricated. I remember the facts. I, Phoenix, own this house in this pacific northwestern town and I am a barista at a local coffee shop. I moved to this town after graduating-- in hopes to pursue my dream of opening my own shop and building a house in the forest. Anything beyond that is smudged. I can make out the memory if I hyper-focus. But even then it’s just the blueprint of a life, details are scarce. I’m spiraling, existential crisis mode has initiated and now I’m just stressed out and drunk at 1 in the afternoon. I need air.

I step outside and check my phone. The time is exactly 1:27 pm and a blue Subaru drives down my road with a big old husky hanging out the window living his best life. I start down the road towards the forest.

#chapter 1 #The Best Day Forever #fiction #science fiction #writing #My writing #short story #storytelling #beginner #writeblr #wip #work in progress #work #books

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forasecondtherewedwon · 6 years ago

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Omg can you do 23 and 60 (from the prompts) for an imagine (bonus point if Sweet Pea and reader low key can’t stand each other at first)??

I didn’t quite go for the bonus points because it wouldn’t have worked for the idea I had. Hope you enjoy it though!

23. “Just pretend to be my date.”

AND

60. “If Ididn’t know any better, I’d say you were trying to seduce me.”

Oh god, you think, cringing backinto the wall as your eyes sweep the room. Stepping on a discarded soda canmakes you jump like it’s a land mine. The place is packed; on sofas, indoorways, sitting on the stairs, pouring drinks in the kitchen, people areeverywhere―your peers in age if not in acquaintance. This suburban house partymakes you shifty, squirrely, and needy for the bright lights of home.

It didn’t seem so threatening earlier, when you were chatting in the livingroom with your mom, Mary, and Mr. Andrews, then hanging out drinking lemonadein their backyard. Mary and your mom have been friends for ages, back inChicago where you live. They met volunteering, which is something your mom doesto make the large city feel a little more like a community, and which Maryclaims to do because it makes her feel less like a lawyer. Meaning human.Lawyer jokes, in your opinion, expired sometime before the turn of the 21stcentury, but Mary makes them tolerable.

Of course, you would never have started being so much in Mary’s company ifnot for her son. Last summer, he came to stay with his mom over March Break.You met and it was… something… at first sight. Before you could tell if thething between you and the easygoing redhead with the earnest smile would turninto more than your mom going, “Hey, Y/N! Why don’t you and Archie check outthe aquarium/the museum/the art gallery/the park today?” (you playing the partof prospective love interest/tour guide), he was on a bus back to Riverdale.When he returned for the sliver of time between end of exams and IndependenceDay, the two of you did a little less sightseeing and a little more smooching,yet the chemistry just wasn’t there.

Nope, no fireworks in time for the 4th of July, just plenty oflingering weirdness like the smell of yesterday’s dinner that the distancebetween Chicago and Riverdale allowed you not to face. Until your mom decidedto tag along with Mary when she headed to her hometown for a visit. A realcommunity! A diner! A town hall! A post office! You accepted the inevitabilityof imminent travel plans, crossing your fingers that Archie would somehowmiraculously not be around to bump into.

Except that Mary and your mom decided to make their own plans and leave youto attend Archie’s party (promised to be very responsibly controlled, despitethe absence of Mr. Andrews). And now Archie’s over there in the other room andyou very much don’t want to look like the pathetic child of his mom’s bestfriend, dumped on him for the evening. The fact that it’s been a year since youdumped him is beside the point. You need a human life raft, or something largeto hide behind.

The front door―opening and closing so often since you arrived that you thinkthe Andrews should consider putting in a revolving door―flies inward yet againand the answer to your desperate party prayers walks through it. Who knows ifhe’d float, but he’s definitely big enough to conceal you, between the heightand the bulky leather jacket he wears unzipped over a black t-shirt.

“Perfect,” you mutter to yourself, eyes going side to side to check that youhave not just become the weird muttering girl on top of the pathetic child ofArchie’s mom’s best friend. Etc. etc. Your real and imagined humiliation endshere and now!

Mr. Tall, Dark, and Obstructing starts to follow the friends he came in withthrough to the other room, so you, desperate, grab his sleeve as he passes anddon’t let go. You are bold. You are determined. You are… possibly acting like abadly behaved Jack Russell, with this clamping onto and tugging of the sleeve,but hey, you seem to have gained your unwitting plus one’s attention. He stopswhile his pals go on ahead, looking after them.

“It’s cool, Northsider,” he says, barely glancing at you. “Everybody’sfriends now, remember? Do you need to check my invitation?” The guy snorts andlooks at you again. Starts to look away, and looks harder. “You don’t go toRiverdale High.”

“I’m not exactly on the bus route. Chicago,” you explain. He shrugs likehe’ll allow it, which might piss you off if it weren’t so confusing a response.You introduce yourselves, but your focus is elsewhere.

The guy is doing his job as a barrier so well, not that he has any idea, that you’ve lostsight of Archie. For the first time all night, you willingly move away from thewall and peer around. Shit, he’s heading in your direction, giving andreceiving backslaps like life’s just one big football game. You remember yoursurroundings. Small town. Student athletes. You reassess and mentally dial backthe prejudice. Just not enough that you’re suddenly feeling the need toactively be friendly to the host.

“You just escape prison or something?” the Great Wall of Leather asks you.“You’re acting a little… shifty.”

“If that helps you develop a backstory for our relationship, sure,” you fireback, panicking as Archie gets closer. You grab the guy’s hand. “Just pretendto be my date.”

“Uh, no.”

He begins to untangle his fingers from yours and you look down, noticing thelarge ring he’s wearing. This ring says ‘bite me,’ ‘fuck you,’ and ‘boy oh boywill this leave a mark if you make me want to punch you.’ With Archie on hisway over, evidently undeterred by the handhold you’re struggling to maintain, youdecide to gamble.

“So are you, like, really good friends with Archie Andrews?”

The guy looks at you like you just spit in his (hypothetical future) drink.

“No.”

“Great,” you assure him with a slap to his chest, quickly glancing sideways.“Then you can stick around for a sec and help me not interact with him.”

You hear Archie call your name in greeting, but you’re catching your ‘date’by the dog tags around his neck and yanking him down into a kiss. Your eyes aresqueezed shut and you throw your arm around the back of the guy’s neck (holycrap, he’s tall) to make it look convincing. You don’t hear your name again,though you listen carefully, like counting the seconds between rolling thunderclaps. While you’re working hard to determine whether the situation has beenresolved, Mr. Feisty with the dog tags and the tough-guy ring starts kissingyou for real, fingers searching forthe shape of your back through your denim jacket.

Roughly, you pull away, touching your lips to make sure he didn’t keep themover there with him. That was, youthink, feeling lightheaded, now that was a kiss.

“If I didn’t know any better, I’d say you were trying to seduce me,” he concludes,curling his lower lip into his mouth as his tongue runs over it.

“I…” you attempt to protest, your tongue tying itself up like it’s trying tomake a suggestion for a second lip-lock. “You… you kissed me!”

“Uh, my brain and the marks you probably left on the back of my neck frompulling me down like that both say, ‘bullshit!’” he argues.

“Yeah,” you debate, poking a finger into his chest, “but I just kissed youto keep Archie away, you kissed mekissed me.”

“I did notice a difference,” he concedes.

“Good,” you shoot back, annoyed.

“The difference being the kissing’s better when I’m in control.”

“What?!” You spread your hands,trying to get this idiot to understand. “No-no-nuh-nuh-no. The only purpose ofthe kiss was to repel Archie. The kiss was mosquito spray. The kiss was a mousetrap.”

“Mouse traps attract mice.”

“Well, you’re confusing me! I’m screwing up my metaphors!”

He’s smiling down at you and you’re blushing and telling yourself it’sanger, but it’s not.

“Come meet the Serpents,” he invites, nodding towards the kitchen. Younarrow your eyes.

“Is there some sort of subliminal phallic messaging there?”

He snorts and throws an arm around your shoulders.

“It’s a gang.”

“You’re in a gang?”

“Yep,” he says―with disturbing casualness, in your opinion―as he steers youtowards these ‘Serpents,’ “and you’remy date.”

Prompts come from the narrowed down list here!

#my writing #drabble #riverdale drabble #riverdale #riverdale fanfiction #southside serpents #southside serpents drabble #southside serpents fanfiction #sweet pea x reader #sweet pea x reader drabble #archie andrews #sweet pea

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its-annanguyen · 6 years ago

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Final Thoughts on Experience

INTRODUCTION

As a Bachelor of Applied Science candidate, I am more focused on the interface design aspect, mainly dealing with web + mobile design & development. I enjoy creating digital arts with a combination of computer programming in HTML/CSS. My hope is to become a UI/UX developer at a high-tech company like Google, Amazon, or even Yelp. That is why I am thankful to have interned at One Wave Designs during the summer of 2018 from June 1st to August 31st as a Web Design & Development Intern.

INTERNSHIP PROCESS

Learning Experience

As a Yelp Elitist, I searched up the “Best Web Design Company” on Yelp, in which One Wave Designs popped up as the first search with a 5-star rating! I gave it a shot and emailed the President/CEO/Owner of the company, Paul. He responded back asking for my resume and portfolio where I finally got a response a month later that I got the internship position!

During my time as an intern, I was responsible for mainly 3 things: web design & development, layout concepts, and SEOs. I mainly worked on 8 projects in 10 weeks. I learned that SEOs (Search Engine Optimization) is very important in web development because websites with good SEOs will always appear at the top of the search list depending on keywords that you use. For instance, if I were to type “Hawaii Web Design” in Google Search, One Wave Designs will be the first to pop up under all the other Google ads search. I learned how to hyperlink emails (mailto:) and phone numbers (tel:), which are also important factors in SEOs. Hierarchy, or the way you order the sizes of the header and texts, also matters too. When you’re adding images or links, it’s good to add a title or alt texts to increase SEO keyword searches. Lastly, saving/uploading images that are 200K or less is great for websites because it loads a lot faster.

I learned how to use 2 types of content management system (CMS), DNN Software and WordPress. I am very familiar with WordPress, it was my first time hearing about DNN. Unfortunately, though, DNN is not used as often anymore and non-developers are shifting to easy CMS like WordPress.I really liked using DNN because of how much coding is involved, whereas WordPress is almost dragging-and-dropping... this is more ideal for non-coders.

I learned how to use an FTP (File Transfer Protocol) software called FileZilla. This allows me to be flexible and customize a website through HTML/CSS coding. Basically, I can manipulate a style of the website by changing up the codes - which can only be done by FTPing and coding. It’s very confusing to explain and understand... I never heard anything like it before until I interned here! After taking web design & development course here at UHWO, I learned that it’s always a smart idea to make copies of the original files that I’ll be editing incase I mess up the codings. Don’t want to repeat that mistake again because there was a time where I had to reset the entire website and build it from scratch. :(

Layout concepts were the MOST STRESSFUL projects I had to do when I interned here. I honestly kind of dreaded it. Paul hated doing layout concepts too! Which explains why I always worked on them instead of him. These 4 software helped me a great deal when I had to make layout concepts/drafts for potential clients:

WhatTheFont.com

Google Fonts

Pantone Color Picker

iStockPhoto.com

WhatTheFont.com allowed me to upload a screenshot of a word so that it can identify the font types for me. Once it generates a few options of fonts, I’d download them (for free) using Google Fonts. Fonts that I find on Google Fonts are great for websites because it doesn’t have to be embedded. Another thing with the web is determining the color, so that’s why I always use the color picker on the Pantone website. Lastly, copyrights and permissions on images/videos/etc. are always questionable. That’s why I always look up stock photos on iStock since we have a subscription with them anyways.

Discoveries

I feel like I’ve grown as a person over the years. I used to be so shy and quiet, never being the first person to speak or raise my hand. Through this internship among other things, I learned how to speak up and ask questions when I needed to. If this is an unpaid internship that I am devoting much of my time to, I EXPECT to learn quite a few things. It never hurts to ask questions because that’s how you learn -- this is my motto. I learned that I am not that great at criticisms or taking in constructive feedback. I want to learn how to be more patient because there were times I’d get super annoyed when my supervisors would tell me what to do when I’m already doing it or will do it. Also, seeing how much projects I’ve done in such a short time span, I discovered that I am a very quick self-learner. As Paul mentioned, every client will have different expectations when it comes to building their website, which is why he couldn’t help/guide me as much as he should’ve. But in a field like web design/development, everything to customizable and flexible, so there’s never just “one way” to work on every single project.

Sample Work

Here’s a GIF image I found that totally speaks to me when it comes to designing layout concepts: the struggle with making the sizes exact. I was able to learn what the difference is between changing an “image size” and a “canvas size” on Photoshop because of this!

CONCLUSION

I wouldn’t mind working in a place similar to my internship~ I mean, I accepted a job position with One Wave Designs after finishing up my internship hours so that says something :D until this day (December) I am still with them. After 6 months, I learned a lot from working at a small yet successful company. There’s sooOoOoOoo much stress that comes with it. There were several times when Paul would dump a handful of projects on me despite my limited schedule and time constraint. I would lose my cool with him at times, and that’s where I reached my boiling point and told him I had enough. That’s when I discovered how much courage I had. Just a few days ago, I turned in a 30-day resignation letter to him, planning to resign by the end of this year since my last semester of college will be a stressful one yet. After Paul received my letter, he decided to give me a freelance position and allowed me to work whenever I can and work from home instead of in the office (lolol). This is what I’ve always wanted!

To conclude, it was a great experience interning here, but it was even better when I actually got paid. Sometimes I would question whether the amount of work I’m doing would even equate to how much I was getting paid by the hour. Ultimately, I was in it for the long run to build my experience and resume. I finally learned when/where to draw the line, which I should’ve done a lot sooner.

In the end, I learned that it’s good to build relationships with others and never be afraid to ask questions. Since I showed a lot of dedication and commitment when working here, I was able to earn Paul’s trust and was able to get things my way most of the time. I take internship experience very seriously. I’m here to learn so I’m not afraid to ask questions when I need to.

Whoops, forgot to add my presentation slides here: CM 390 Presentation

#journal

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cyrildegillern-blog · 6 years ago

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How To Traveling Intelligently.

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thisnerdsadventures · 4 years ago

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a 2021 update

Ah, so I have forgotten to update in a million years, per usual

~ Random thought section ~

I woke up this morning and read this tweet thread about Alice Wu's director's note for her movie The Half of It. It's streaming on Netflix, and I highly encourage to go watch it, it's probably one of my favorite movies from the past few years. Anyways, she talks about how she produced the film while digesting the heartbreak of a friendship breakup - the whole thread hit me on a different level, but here's a quote that really hit home for me, especially a month from graduation: "The end of the film is each of their beginnings. And for my characters, I can think of no happier ending." We spend a lot of time worrying about the end of things and the uncertainty of things to come. Yet, there was a time where we worried about the exact same things for the very chapter we are now so nervous about leaving.

1. I'm nervous about leaving school and starting the..... rest of my life???

2. I'm nervous that my friends will slowly fade away. I'm nervous that they'll get on with their lives and I'll be slowly still trying to get my bearings, stuck in limbo.

3. I'm nervous that starting adulthood will be difficult because there are no more college orientations, no more awkward freshman dinners, perfect opportunities to meet new friends who are just as nervous as you are.

In writing this out, I felt a sense of deja-vu, like I had written these words before. So I just looked back at some of my posts right before entering college, and lo and behold:

08-18-2016: Today I said goodbye to one of my closer friends, and i realized that without even knowing it, Sunday’s party was the last time I would see some of my closest friends. It’s awful that way, that you don’t even know it’s the last time until it’s passed, and you’re left to pick up the the end of a chapter of a relationship from the scraps of an unexpected and improper farewell.

I feel like I’m in a weird twilight zone between college and high school where my present friends are all beginning to fade away to move on in their lives, and I’m yet to really meet anyone in my class yet, so at the moment,,,,,,there really isn’t anyone.

I wrote this less than a week from moving to Boston, and it's so shocking to me that I also experienced the "unexpected and improper farewell" part in senior year. It's almost the exact same thing that happened in COVID and is continuing to happen. You never know when the last time you might see someone might be, except instead of consolidated over the course of one pre-college summer, it's over the course of more than a year, the time that this pandemic has been going for.

And I hate that I said the "fade away and move on" thing verbatim, literally nearly five years ago. To be honest though, it's true, a lot of them did fade away and move on. But so did I, I wasn't left behind. To some extent, I was the one who did a lot of the moving away. And like many things in life, a couple of us continue to hang around, and maybe our friendships cycled in and out over college, but have come around again after a few years. I guess those are the ones that you know will stick around. The limbo period between chapters is a hard one, and it's nice to know that present-day me isn't the only one who has felt this. It's nice to know that past me met so many incredible people so fast, that I forgot this limbo period happened.

I know this part is getting a little long, but there's just a couple more snippets I want to share:

08-13-2016: I recently read Marina Keegan’s essay The Opposite of Loneliness, and one line resonated with me a lot: We’re so young. It seems silly and almost pretentious for me to think that this party would be so final, and yet it does, even though we have decades upon decades to build and connect or reconnect.

We’re so young, but that doesn’t stop the understanding that we are going to a new chapter in our lives and that it’s going to redefine our relationships. I hope it doesn’t change them too much.

I suppose much of the anxiety of going to college results from having to build my own community from the ground up again.... I tell myself the pieces will fall together and everything will be ok, but it doesn’t stop the increasing anxiety from, well, increasing.

I loved this collection of essays, if you haven't read it, I recommend you do. In moving around for so many years, I haven't been able to keep a lot of books in my possession, but I kept this one because that essay really hit home for me, and continues to, no matter what part of life I'm currently experiencing.

I think moving to college did change my relationships. But change is not a bad thing - your childhood friendships, the few of them that survive, end up strengthening and growing into adult friendships. And in the end, isn't that better than not changing at all? I'm hoping that a few of my college friendships will do that too - we'll go from college friends to family friends, and my kids will call them "Aunt" and "Uncle" and they'll grow up watching their parents talk for hours in the front yard before finally getting in the car and leaving for home.

08-13-2016: But hey, this is part of what I signed up for, I knew I wasn’t going to have much of an initial safety net, but I’m sure I’ll survive. We, as humans, always find a way to adapt right?

I think I survived and adapted. Not in the way I saw things going, but we can never really fully predict things, can we? One day, I'll learn to give myself a safety net for the next chapter, I'm sure. Today's not that day though.

Going back to her director's note, there was one more thing that just struck an emotional chord for me:

Fun fact, Alice Wu actually went to MIT for a bit before transferring to Stanford, and then she became a software engineer at Microsoft! I relate a little too much to her. Maybe one day I too will dump coding for my art form. But for now, in this above example, I relate far too much. I worked on my album, Imperfect, a little too obsessively this past winter while trying to digest the throes of heartbreak from one of my own friendships that ended. I still don't know if there was an ending for that friendship. I think I've spent a lot of time trying to put off the end, like a TV series that just keeps adding more and more seasons. Regardless of whether it needs to end or not (which I have not decided and will continue not to do so), I spent a lot of time thinking about who I was before and after that friendship, and I've concluded that a lot of who I am now, what my life looks like now is a result of that friendship. I'll give you a hint: I really like who I am now, compared to who I was before, and it showed me a lot of parts of life and friendship that I never expected would happen. That friendship was (is?) one of the most beautiful things that has happened to me in my life.

Let's finish off this reflective post with a quote from Khalil Gibran, that's kinda related to that point about how transformative the past can be, and how we're far better off in future chapters of our lives because of it.

When you part from your friend, you grieve not;

For that which you love most in him may be clearer in his absence, as the mountain to the climber is clearer from the plain.

Again, if you haven't read his collection of poems, you should absolutely 100% drop whatever you're doing right now and do so! Wow, I really just assigned an entire reading list in this post.

I hope in making this movie, Alice found peace. I would hesitate to say that I found peace when making my album. I wrote a lot of songs about the heartbreak I felt from that whole experience. But the last song I wrote, "Best Friends," ends the whole thing on a positive note, that at the end of the day, I remember how my friends (past and present) literally saved my life and how things are looking a little better, and whatever happens, I hope my best friends will be there waiting for me, whoever they end up being.

- OK I PROMISE I DIDN'T SET OUT TO BE 100% SO EMO -

But yeah, I haven't really been doing much otherwise? I guess just tryna stay alive, I've been cooking a lot and cooking a lot of good good food, I did apply to an MBA program, I got my COVID vaccine (second shot this week!), I am excited to announce I am publishing a paper in my MEng lab, which is a really big accomplishment imo, I am thriving in my (1) econ class that I kept, even though I didn't realize we had readings assigned like for the past month, I went to try pastries from this Turkish bakery, I biked, probably, 15 miles over the past month, I've read at least 4 or 5 books this year so far, and am hoping to knock another one out today. Currently dying because trying to finish my thesis in like . a week, which is looking a little challenging, but I'm sure it'll happen!!!??

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imagine-loki · 7 years ago

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dear diary

TITLE: Dear Diary

CHAPTER NO./ONE SHOT: Chapter 2 of 4 AUTHOR: Eclectica-posts ORIGINAL IMAGINE: Imagine Loki comforting you when you’re crying. He knows exactly what to do or say to help you through it. RATING: Mature, with a lot more mature in further chapters. NOTES/WARNINGS:

THOR RAGNAROK SPOILERS

Smut, fluff and bad jokes.

The children of Asgard weren’t the only ones of that cliff in Norway.

Sophie recalls the events of Sakaar and Ragnarok from her point of view, as she found herself thrust into a Universe beyond her imagining, and meets a familiar face.

— This is Chapter 2, 2 more to be uploaded, smut sort of starts in this one starts from Chapter 2.

Story so far can be found at Archive of our own

Canon compliant, it’s written with the same timeline and series of events as per Thor Ragnarok - like a story line that happened but didn’t make it into the film.

—————————————————————–

The big tournament fights luckily didn’t happen that often, I think mainly because the Grandmaster was currently quite short of contenders, so he had devised other ways of passing the time.

This, unlike the fight, I do remember clearly.

“We have to do what???” I cried as I picked and clutched a minute gold bikini in disbelief.

“The Grandmaster likes to show his gladiators off to his top clients so they clean us up, oil us down and get us to serve drinks and generally walk around looking buff” said Korg who was trying, and failing, to pick up a long length of the same gold fabric with his huge boulder hands.

“You might have to help me with this loin-cloth actually, Mike used to do it, but…” Korg looked as sad as a face made of granite could for a moment “and I’m not asking Miekke” he concluded, rather sensibly since his friend had knives for hands.

“And do it tight, last time I had women trying to play with my pebbles all night” Despite the appalling situation about to unfold I burst into helpless giggles.

“It wasn’t funny” Korg sniffed, hurt by my laughter. I patted his arm consolingly, accidently starting a small rockfall of shale.

From my studies in Roman history when I was an undergrad student, I knew that this had been a common ritual back back on Earth - all the rich and powerful liked a bit of rough to grope and leer at. Only thing was I had never thought I’d be the bit of rough.

The only upside of the whole demeaning thing was that I got the chance to have a wash and change into something other than the leather armour I’d been wearing for days. A team of giggling women had descended into the gladiator pen tasked with getting us ready for the evening’s entertainment. The two that had brushed and done up my hair looked quite annoyed they had missed out on helping one of the other male fighters who were taking great delight in being oiled all over.

They awkwardly held the perfumed oil bottle out to me, but I declined. I looked silly enough wearing a bikini with a little train of fabric attached to my arse like a chicken, let alone being shiny. The gold arm rings they wrapped around my upper arms were a nice touch though, I had to concede, and they hide the scar of my healing war-wound. They might also come in useful as I could try and ram them down the throat of anyone who tried to touch my pebbles or anything else.

Deciding I should find out how ridiculous I really did look, I tentatively stepped in front of a full length mirror. My blonde hair had been curled and pinned up so I looked less scruffy than usual when it was down on my shoulders loose. As someone who on Earth wore a one piece and who had always felt a little too big, a little too chunky I was shocked that I was delighted by the reflection staring back at me. My body looked strong but lush - curves and strength combined. For all I hated the idea of a bikini it certainly did great things for my boobs, I had to admit. I felt like a warrior princess and the knowledge that I still had Loki’s knife in my boot gave me a sense of power and confidence.

The column of gladiators made an impressive sight as we walked silently and impassively into the huge neon-lit ballroom, pulsing with techo synth. We were directed to stand along the wall, like a live art installation or cattle market. We were the walking advertising for the power and wealth of the Grandmaster while the guests danced languidly or lounged on huge bright velvet couches. As the only woman in the line I could feel the eyes of the party goers on my body so I made sure I kept my eyes resolutely above their heads and looked i around room instead, taking in the fantastically dressed party goers.

We’d been warned that any violence or attempt at escape would have rather fatal consequences, but I still couldn’t keep my eyes from darting to the guarded doors looking for an opportunity to find a way out. Of course, even if I’d made it out the doors I had no idea how to get back to Earth, and outside the city seemed more perilous than in here. Frankly, after seeing what lived out in the rubbish dumps, dying in the arena was a better way to go than being cannibalised.

Slowly I realised that one by one the gladiators were being called away by the guests, chosen like cakes from a window front. They followed their new masters either looking rather pleased when they had been selected by an attractive woman or man or impassively if their new ‘friend’ was less to their liking. The line was getting shorter and shorter, and this was one time that I was definitely not going to be concerned about being picked last for the team. This was one game I did not want to play.

“Hello there pretty, are you a pussy cat or a tiger?” simpered a short fat man, with more chins than I’d thought physically possible to possess. He was so diminutive that I hadn’t seen him walk up to me as he was so far below my eyeline. Dressed in a shiny silver wrap he reminded me of a well done baked potato in tin-foil. Worse than his appearance was that I realised that in his hands he held two chains, each attached around the necks of two miserable looking young girls, thin, mottled with bruises and even more underdressed than me.

“I, I…” I stammered. Of course we had been warned that saying no wasn’t an option, it would be seen as the deepest offence to the Grandmaster’s friends, but I knew that there was no way I could go anywhere near this person and do whatever it was he was going to expect me to do.

I was abruptly aware of a presence close by my side, his scent now familiar. Where the hell had he come from, I wondered. I hadn’t spotted him the room. Not that I had been looking, of course.

“Lord Perris, Your Magnificence, apologies for my rude intrusion but I happened to notice you appeared to be giving this unworthy specimen the gift of your company.” I gave Loki a surprised look, wondering where he was going with this, not sure whether to be insulted or grateful. Loki ignored me completely, smiling in a concerned and deeply attentive manner at my new friend.

“While I can understand your initial interest, I thought it only best to warn you. Last week I had the unfortunate experience of spending some time with this creature, and I could not in good conscious allow you to make the same grave error.” He concluded, giving me a stern look. Taking his lead, I tried to look suitably admonished and shamed, while desperately trying to hide a smile.

“But sir, whatever do you mean? If you mean she’s not biddable, then I have more than enough experience at breaking their spirits” the baked potato simpered back in reply.

Loki lent down and whispered something in his ear. Perris visibly recoiled, staring in horror at me. I had no idea what he had said, but it must have been bad to put him off. He patted Loki on the arm “you poor man, I must commend you for saving me from such a distasteful experience! Come, we go!” he spun on his heels, his two slaves dragged in his wake. I watched him waddle off and then share the news with with others from his group, all of whom then shot me equally appalled looks.

“What did you say to him?” I whispered.

“That you gave me an incredibly awful rash and I almost lost my manhood to the infection. It was touch and go for a while there I told him” Loki whispered back, still gifting the room with his charming smile. I was so relieved I broke out into giggles but quickly tried to look solemn, and even a bit apologetic for my diseased state.

“I think it may be best for you to leave before you attract any further attention” he added, taking my hand in his.

I followed him to a quieter side chamber, mostly empty except for two low couches and walls covered in book shelves. It was beautiful, I had always loved libraries and this was awe inspiring, books and scrolls gathered on hundreds of shelves, just waiting to be explored. I opened up a gorgeously bound volume and sighed in regret - I’d been silly of course to expect it to be in any language I could speak. The text was foreign to me and impenetrable.

“Give it to me” Loki held out his hands and gently took the book from me. He made a small gesture with his right hand and a pale green light illuminated the pages. He handed it back and each page was now in written in elegant script - in English.

“Now that’s impressive!” I gazed around me, a whole library, thousands of texts, all there for the reading - most never seen before by someone from Earth, and with Loki’s magic…

“Would you like a drink?”, I nodded and eagerly accepted a goblet of something that turned out to taste a bit like champagne, but sweeter and, looking back now, probably a lot more alcoholic. I wasn’t concerned about that at the time and managed to neck it in two gulps. Ah, all that practice I had got at university was coming in handy. I helped myself to another.

He motioned for me to sit on the couch not far from him. We were opposite each other, within touching distance but not touching. He gave me another of the appraising glances he seemed to specialise in, a glance that made the tightness in my stomach leap and my head feel whoozy, although that could have been the wine .

I was all too aware that sitting brought my ample bosom even more in his eye line. I was also conscious of my little tummy roll, and placed her hands on her lap to hide it, then instantly rebuked myself for being worried with he thought of me. His presence made me feel, complicated? I didn’t trust him, although to his credit he hadn’t done anything to hurt me, but his past made me wary. That didn’t stop me becoming more and more aware just how attractive he was, his pale skin, dark hair and cheekbones you could slice cheese on.

“Everytime I see you you seem to be wearing less and less. Is this some sort of desperate cry for attention?” he smirked, leaning forward as his voice grew lower

I wasn’t quite sure how to answer that, so I stayed silent, and sipped my third drink.

“Now…I remember that when it was a choice of death or…other options “ His eyes left my eyes and lazily trailed down my neck and to the top of my breasts.

“..you seemed quite keen to choose death. While you have been surprisingly resilient, I thought that perhaps you would like to reconsider your answer pet?”

Through the alcohol fuelled fog I became aware that he might be propositioning me.

“Well, given I have yet to apparently die, I really depends i suppose” I replied slowly after a pause, my heart beating fast.

“will it be horrible, long, slow and painful?” I smiled

He chuckled. “probably”

“Hmm..and the death option?”

He threw back his head with laughter, giving me a split second to try reach for the blade in my boot, slightly hampered by holding a wine glass at the same time and feeling ever so slightly not very coordinated. Just as quickly though, he’d cast it out of my hand and grabbed me, pulling me onto his couch and basically onto his lap. He was holding me,one arm wrapped over my hips, the other higher, his hand grazing my right breast. I sat frozen for a minute, his breath on my neck, painfully aware of the thinness of the fabric of my bikini, and the warmth and hardness of his leather clad body behind me.

“Stop playing games and stop fighting me. I’m being nice, but I can make you submit to me you know”

“I could make you beg for me” Loki whispered into my ear as a shiver engulfed my whole body.

His hand left my breast and touched my forehead, and I felt a strange sensation in my head, like a pulling, and although it wasn’t logical, I knew he was there, in my mind and in my thoughts. I heard him hiss as he recognised the depth of my desire and the dying echoes of my fear of him. His hand slide from my hip down into the cleft of my thighs. I so desperately wanted to spread my legs and welcome him into my core that I could feel growing wetter by the second. “Oh pet, I can feel how much you want me..give in to it…you and I are going to have so much fun…”

Using perhaps my entire lifetime of willpower, I pulled myself away from his grasp and to my feet, standing just outside of the reach of his arms. I raised my hands, in a more metaphorical, rather than serious attempt to fend off any further advances. He looked… amused.

I have no idea how I looked, but I knew how I felt - drunk, horny and yet increasingly angry. The horny part of me wanted to walk over, undo his leather pants and impale myself on his cock, riding him until I came in shuddering ecstasy. (LOL, If I knew what I knew now, I wouldn’t have been able to stop myself.)

But there was another voice in my head, drunk sure, but hurt and angry, and it drowned out everything else.

He sat there, always so sure that I would throw myself at him, and always with the subtle threats if I didn’t. I knew he had magic, and I knew he could probably use mind control. Well, fuck him, fuck them all. He’d been having a lovely time making new friends and partying. I’d been thrown into a cell and made to fight for my life. I chose to ignore that some of that outcome may have been down to my own choices, but still, it definitely didn’t seem fair.

I realized with sudden clarity that I’d done that too many times before, given in to my feelings, said yes only to later regret it. I’d always been the one to give in, back down, make excuses for their actions, make all the effort, make the running - all so I wouldn’t be alone. That’s the real reason I’d put up with my ex for so long even after his comments and his insensitivity ripped me apart. I had simply been too scared to be by myself after my mother had died. She’d been alone, been with no one else since my father, so was I that desperate not to end up like her?

But I was alone, because everyone had walked away, and I was so sure, that if I gave in now, it would happen again. And I couldn’t do that. Not again, not that pain, it had been bad enough being rejected by a man in the past, but to be rejected by a God?

Someone else might have gotten teary, I, well, I got sweary.

“Look, arsehole, with your smile and your leather, I want a lot of stuff that I know is bad for me, liking eating chocolate for breakfast and cocktails all day instead of going to work. But, I don’t do them, just because my body wants something, doesn’t mean my mind is going to agree, so don’t think you know what I want!” I was flustered, but to my credit I was still managing to resist the urge to run to him and climb him like a tree.

“Anyway, why is this always about me? Wanting me to beg, wanting me to submit you, why you get to sit there, fully clothed, and all …leathery?” I was getting quite into this now. Did I mention the three glasses of wine?

I closed the gap between us and poked him in the chest with my finger. He looked down at my finger and arched an eyebrow. This may not have been the usual mortal behaviour he was used to.

“Is it some weird God thing? Why the power games and the threats? God, I’d shag Mr Potato Head out there if it meant I could spend an hour in here with these books and in peace. Making someone submit to you out of fear or a worse alternative isn’t power you know. It’s not hard” I was quickly running out of steam as he continued to stare at me impassively. I had no idea what he was thinking.

“I know you are the god of mischief, or chaos or green… whatever, but seriously. I think you are so used to stirring shit up and laughing as we all run around screaming that you don’t even why you do it any more. We are just playthings - little chess pieces you throw across a board for a laugh.” He wasn’t smiling anymore.

“Why not decide what you actually want, not what chaos you can cause, and then have the guts to stop the threats and the tricks and actually ask for it? Preferably nicely. Maybe even use the word please. Unless you’re scared people would say no” I finished, although what I really had wanted to add was: and in case you are wondering, I wouldn’t say no. Not now, not since I met you, even though it made no sense, even though I had no idea what he was capable of, I wouldn’t have said no.

Dear gods, he was quick and strong, he was up and grabbing my arm, pulling me into him before I had a chance to move. He put his lips to my ear.

“I want…”

Steps echoed in the room and I could feel him freeze. The pressure in my arm suddenly increased as Loki twisted my wrist so I yelped with pain. He turned to the intruders with his usual charming smile firmly in place. It was the entourage of the Grandmaster - masked bodyguards accompanying their leader, who hovering like a Dalek in a floating chair, had made no sound. He smiled at us disconcertingly, looking from one to the other, curious and obviously seeking an explanation for what he had walked/hovered in on.

“My lord. Apologies for manhandling your property.” said Loki, sounding like a charming, but very apologetic guest, “I was just reminding her of what I did to the last mortals I came across who didn’t cooperate with a God” he paused, and gave me a cold dismissive look “But actually, on second thoughts, they do rather tend to break too easily to be diverting” he flung my arm away, and I was left standing there, rubbing my aching wrist.

The Grandmaster, shared a questioning glance with Topaz who had stomped in after the group, looking as dour as ever.

“I’ll find you a more pleasing diversion, but first I think I’ve decided the party is over” He motioned to his guards, two of whom took my arms and walked me away, although I didn’t resist. After whatever that had been I was more than happy to leave their company and go back to my nice cell with Korg and the simplicity of being with people who mostly didn’t talk to me or could be discouraged from coming near me with a blade. It would also give me time to sober up and try to remember what the hell I had said, and possibly even more time to work out why I had said it. Argh, had I really told a God to say please?

I probably shouldn’t admit that I spent the next couple of days going over what the hell he might actually have been going to say, or whatever the hell the whole damned encounter actually even meant.

I considered various possible options for what he was going to actually say, and calculated probability likelihoods for each. Example: “I want”… hmm, ‘to make you scream and bleed and die painfully until I feel slightly better about my thwarted attempt to rule your planet’ - seemed quite likely

‘I want to have a 3 year relationship with you but then decide that actually I want someone more ‘emotionally available’ (which seemed to mean even blonder, thinner and less damaged by the death of her mother) - that one seemed relatively unlikely I had to concede.

Also unlikely was the reason he’d given to the Grandmaster, I didn’t understand the dynamic between those two, but I didn’t believe that Loki had really been about to say what he did - although, knowing (or should I say, not really knowing) Loki, I could have been completely wrong. I gave it a 50-50 odds.

More likely though it was ‘I want you to shut up, you drunk cow, because I want a quick fuck and then never see you again while you hopefully die in a stinking prison while I wile away my hours drinking more of this wine and plotting my next evil deeds. And shagging everything in sight”. And we have a winner! Fucker.

Oops, I suppose I should have mentioned that by the time I was in Day Two of ‘What would Loki Have Said’, his brother had arrived. He looked less pleased to be there than I did and apart from a quick exchange of hellos, and oh, are you from Earth and me slightly putting my foot in it by saying sorry to hear Jane had dumped him, we left each other alone to our own thoughts. Well I did, Korg chatted to him. A lot.

Also, I was feeling very much over Gods in general, and possibly slightly sulking that I hadn’t heard or seen Loki since the library. Oh, until he had suddenly appeared in front of Thor the day after his arrival.

I was sitting to his right, a little around the curve of the cell wall from him. When he materialised I sat stock still, hoping he wouldn’t notice me. Luckily he seemed much more concerned with his brother, who seemed to have as much time for him as I did and was lazily throwing small stones through Loki’s body. Something in me relaxed when I realised belatedly he wasn’t actually there in person, and so I laughed as Thor managed to get a shot right through Loki’s smug head.

Loki heard the sound and for a moment diverted his attention from Thor to me “Oh I see you’ve met my little pet. Don’t let her near the wine whatever you do” he winked. I hefted a large stone though his chest, which made a gratifying clunk as it hit the wall behind him. Loki laughed and disappeared.

“Piss off Ghost!” Korg stomped on Loki’s departed shadow.

“So, I see you’ve met my brother?” Thor asked

“Your brother is…” I stopped, not sure if I should give a frank opinion of his sibling, although to be honest, they didn’t seem to have the best relationship either. I was also wishing the English language had a word for ‘someone who you would like to simultaneously take you over and over again in all the worse possible ways, while slapping them around the head for being so bloody annoying and yet also a little afraid they might try and stab you’. I bet the Germans have a word for that…

“Selfish? Charming? Self centred? Capable of great evil? Ambitious? A complete pain in the arse?” he ventured. I laughed and then grew silent.

“Is he the same man he was when he attacked Earth? Is there any capacity for kindness in him?” I asked softly, embarrassed by my question, but unable not to ask it.

Thor bit back a quick retort, and sighed

“I don’t know, sometimes I think he regrets the things that he has done, and can care for others, in his own way, but I don’t honestly know” I could feel him looking at my curiously, but I avoided his gaze.

“He loved your mother and Odin, of course, even though he felt betrayed by him. But losing Frigga hurt him deeply. Think he feels like he’s betrayed her memory and now there’s no way back. I think he takes what he wants through force and pain and control because he doesn’t think anyone would show him kindness or love. It would make him too vulnerable…” I stopped as I looked up and saw Thor staring at me intently, his face confused.

“How do you know our mother’s name?” he asked quietly. “ Did Loki tell you this? Did Jane tell you?”

I shook my head, a bit taken aback by his reaction.

“No, I just…just ignore me. Too little sleep and too much stress - I’m going mad” I laughed until he looked away.

I rubbed my forehead, realising that I didn’t know how I knew this, where it had all come from. I knew he hadn’t told me, because we’d barely talked in truth. We certainly weren’t at the deep and meaningful, talk about your feelings and past traumatic events stage.

No, it felt more like unlocking the memory of a dream, except I knew it was true - I knew what Loki felt, I’d sensed it clear as day. Somewhere in the depths of my mind I began to feel the same ache in my temples that I’d felt at the party when Loki had touched me - and it all came rushing back.

I knew he’d read my emotions and thoughts, but what I hadn’t realised at the time was that it had been a two way street. Had he realised this? I hadn’t even known until now, so maybe not. How he would react I couldn’t predict, but I wasn’t in a rush to tell him that I’d seen his pain and his fragility. And then I remembered what other emotions I’d picked up from him.

Oh. My stomach, and slightly lower parts, did a little flip. Oh indeed. Although, I thought with a smile, I’m still going to make him say please.

#Loki #Lover #God of Mischief #Imagine #Submitted fic #submission #Eclectica-posts #Dear Diary #Chapter 2 #thor ragnorok spoilers #comfort #crying

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goodbysunball · 7 years ago

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Best of 2017

Countering the truly embarrassing news cycle of the past year was the deluge of great new music released upon the world, so much so that I’m leaving a good chunk of more than deserving albums hanging. To simplify everything, this is a compendium of what was played most around here, along with a handful of new-to-me reissues/archival releases.

I skipped doing the rap recap this year because my list was so pathetically brief, and doing so seemed both short-sighted and irrelevant. That being said: Quelle Chris’ Being You Is Great, I Wish I Could Be You More Often was my favorite album, followed by Starlito’s Manifest Destiny and Playboi Carti’s vapid, relentlessly fun album. Goldlink’s “Crew” featuring Brent Faiyaz and Shy Glizzy was my favorite song, like everyone else.

Full list of 30 records below. We’ll do better next year.

12. Mount Trout, Screwy (self-released)

This unassuming, digital-only gem crept up on me as the months turned cold. Scraps of paper with notes written on them are held afloat by spare guitar lines; elsewhere winds whip in and chaos overtakes clarity. Lots of the lyrics sound like half-thoughts that forced themselves out after extended periods of solitude, sometimes peaceful, sometimes anguished. Screwy rewards patient attention without dragging you through the mud - but it’s there, should you need to cool off.

11. Group Doueh & Cheveu, Dakhla Sahara Session (Born Bad)

The intriguing pairing on Dakhla Sahara Session turns out to be one of the best surprises of the year, and easily one of the most listenable. Cheveu’s robotic yet effervescent contributions are immediately recognizable, as are Group Doueh’s swirling guitar lines and sweeping vocals; the two fit in and around each other, explosion welded together into a foundation for a colored smoke tower.

10. Leda, Gitarrmusik III-X (Förlag För Fri Musik)

The two people behind Neutral put out a lot of music this year, most of it well worth hunting down despite its highly limited, premium price barrier. I can’t claim to have heard everything, but by my count the two best were Neutral’s När mini-LP and Leda’s limited-to-100 Gitarrmusik III-X LP. Most of this sounds like King Blood collaborating with Robert Turman, looping machinations mixing with heavily distorted shredding, all of it recorded in a metal-walled bunker. Doesn’t sound like much on paper, but when you arrive at “Gitarrmusik VIII” and “IX,” time just about stops. (If you missed out, “Gitarrmusik I” and “II” are available here.)

9. The Body & Full of Hell, Ascending a Mountain of Heavy Light (Thrill Jockey)

The first collaboration between these two heavyweights was a slow grower, both bands clearing the land by seeing how far out they could push their respective versions of extreme metal. Ascending, then, is the sound of the two bands communicating as one. The immediate standout is “Farewell, Man,” exactly what comes to mind when one imagines what kind of song the Body and Full of Hell could write together. But tracks like “Our Love Conducted With Shields Aloft,” all free drumming, violently humming noise and sandblasted vocals, hint at a broader, uglier horizon.

8. Bad Breeding, Divide (Iron Lung/La Vida Es Un Mus)

One of the year’s nastier hardcore records, and a reminder that the shitstorm at home extends across the Atlantic, too. The band’s got enough chops to rip through every track here - check out that stuttering riff on “Anamnesis,” and how it comes roaring back after a quick respite - but the best songs close each side. The screaming of “Now what?” that concludes “Leaving” is chilling, and serves as one of the best summations of this mess of a year.

7. The Terminals, Antiseptic (Ba Da Bing)

I’ve been hankerin’ for more Steven Cogle ever since that self-titled Dark Matter LP, and if that’s one of your favorite records of recent yore like it is mine, you oughta get your mitts on Antiseptic. The long-running band is absent Brian Crook, but he is ably replaced by Nicole Moffat, who also appeared on Dark Matter; her violin seeps into the empty pores, creating a dense, beautiful atmosphere ripe for Cogle’s powerful vocals. The deal’s done by the time “Edge of the Night” hits.

6. Taiwan Housing Project, Veblen Death Mask (Kill Rock Stars)

Wrecking crew led by Kilynn Lunsford and Mark Feehan brings the heat, here as two parts of a six-piece ensemble. The ten tracks on here range from caustic to catchy (”Eat or Be Eat” into “Luminous Oblong Blur” for the former, “Multidimensional Spectrum” for the latter), accentuated by sax blurts and ever-present static grime. If that ain’t enough, lyrics acidic enough to melt bone make Veblen Death Mask a complete meal worth droolin’ over.

5. Sida, s/t (Population)

The Theoreme LP that came out last year turned into one of my favorites this year, syrupy-thick industrial body music from one Maissa D. She fronts Sida, and she turns in the vocal performance of the year on their first LP. She seemed more restrained as Theoreme but that’s all out the window here; "Qu'Est-Ce Qui T'As Pris?” ups the ante and things don’t slow down from there. The band, for their part, turn in a burly and caustic punk/no wave hybrid that does all it can to keep up. An aural steamroller.

4. Omni, Multi-task (Trouble In Mind)

It was a real mistake to not include Omni’s deceptively catchy debut Deluxe on my year-end list last year, so when they came back and made an even better record, credit is due. Not sure how Frankie Broyles doesn’t sprain his wrist or let melodies go off the rails, but his snappy drumming and spindly guitar work are the stars of the show. The lyrics slyly present a general malaise with modern romance, and when it all clicks, like on “Supermoon” into “Date Night,” strap in.

3. Bed Wettin’ Bad Boys, Rot (R.I.P. Society/What’s Your Rupture?)

Ready for Boredom was a great album full of weary-headed anthems, and it looks like growin’ up hasn’t come any easier for these bedwetters on Rot. The Boys left their glam rock tendencies (i.e., “Sally”) behind this time, and they stick to making gruff pop songs for people whose weeks slip by uneventfully more and more frequently. Songs like “Plastic Tears” and “Device” are urgent and unbelievably catchy, and whoever did the vocals on “Work Again” needs more time at the mic. The Replacements are still a good reference point for these guys, but after two rock-solid albums, it’s time they get to shed that flattering-yet-overbearing label and lay claim to this sound that they’ve perfected.

2. Dreamdecay, YÚ (Iron Lung)

Man, Dreamdecay are so good. They’ve softened the edges from N V N V N V but they’re even more potent this time around, figuring out how to include big slow-moving guitar riffs in a nominally punk framework. Songs like “Mirror” just about leave you on the floor with the guitar theatrics, while “IAN” is a one-way ticket to the stratosphere. All of it sounds incredible, and I think Andrew Earles said it best, so I’ll let him do the honors: “YÚ could easily rearrange how someone thinks about music… in that unforgettable way that stays with the experiencer forever.”

1. Aaron Dilloway, The Gag File (Dais)

What more can I say about The Gag File? I have gushed. Not only a complete statement of an album, but one of the only records to force a localized shutdown when it’s on, keeping everything else at arm’s length. A world unto its own. Clear the cobwebs out.

7″/12″

Anxiety, Wild Life 7″ (La Vida Es Un Mus)

There’s a good bit of cornball humor present in Anxiety’s lyrics and credited band member names, the sort of thing that has persisted/pervaded a lot of modern punk and hardcore. But these guys sell it, and more: with better (read: less juvenile) lyrics, sly and self-deprecating; a monster vocal performance (”Dumped” especially); and a blistering intensity that oughta put their peers on notice.

Bent, Mattress Springs 7″ (Emotional Response)

Bent’s been on my radar since their Non Soon tape, and this year they dropped the Snakes & Shapes LP, every bit the shifting, shambling and at times annoyingly silly experience Non Soon prepped me for. The Mattress Springs 7″ came soon after, and compressed all the best parts of the LP (including “Mattress Springs”) into several minutes of leaky roof drums, hypnotic bass lines and smothered, frantic guitar parts.

Crack Cloud, Anchoring Point 7″ (Good Person)

Whereas Bent are happy to let their songs droop and flow, Crack Cloud come across as almost militaristic in their approach. Perfectly rehearsed, not a hair out of place, and yet as urgent as anything released under the banner of post-punk in the past however-many-years. The first three jagged and dense tracks whip in and cut out, just in time but somehow just too soon; “Philosopher’s Calling” is the payoff.

Hothead, Richie Records Summer Singles Series 7″ (Richie)

The Richie Records Summer Singles Series once again distinguished itself in a household where 7″s aren’t really given the time of day. Sure, Writhing Squares Too breathed life into krautrock in 2017, and David Nance’s "Amethyst” is kingdom come on the right day, but Hothead? Their shambling take on two covers (and a quick sketch) netted them the gold.

Mordecai, What Is Art? 7″ (Sophomore Lounge)

Mordecai is one of America’s great treasures, ain’t no way around it. Their Abstract Recipe LP on Richie from this year is great, reclaiming the highs of Neil’s Generator while pushing further from their influences - but the two disparate sides of this 7″ compress everything great about the band into a tidy package. The A-side rambles out of the gate in the same way Abstract Recipe does, whereas the B-side goes all Don Howland: low fidelity, downtrodden but toe-tapping. Buy everything they’ve recorded.

Mutual Jerk, s/t 7″ (State Laughter)

“He’s really a nice guyyy” begins the A-side track “He’s Harmless,” and hoo boy you better sit down for this one, because that bass line is not quitting anytime soon. Feeble excuses pile up, a disinterested defense of a friend presented with a mocking snarl until the constant pummel causes the dam to burst. The flip cynically covers comfortable suburban lifestyles and macho hardcore, two new takes on No Trend's vast influence, but not quite reaching the impossible heights of song-of-the-year “He’s Harmless.”

Neutral, När 12″ (Omlott)

Neutral’s self-titled LP quickly turned into a favorite here in the early months of 2017. The duo kept busy all year, eventually releasing this mini-LP that favors electronics over guitars. The brittle backbone is the perfect support for Sofie Herner’s fragile yet mechanical vocals, a fitting soundtrack for a walk home so cold your eyelashes freeze. Shadow music that lacks a distinct time or place but leaves a flood of sensory overload in its wake.

Scorpion Violente, The Stalker 12″ (Bruit Direct Disques)

“The Wound”’s slow ooze remains one of my favorite musical moments of the year; there’s a reason it’s the only one you can’t stream via Bandcamp. Pay up, because if any modern label deserves your money, it’s Bruit Direct Disques.

The Shifters, “A Believer” b/w “Contrast of Form” (Market Square)

Brilliant little single of downer pop from the Shifters, whose self-titled cassette gained them a lot of Fall comparisons and was previously mined for a 7″ by It Takes Two. But it looks like they’ve got ambitions beyond the record nerd cadre: both songs are immediately satisfying without imparting a sticky sweetness - who can find fault with that?

Straightjacket Nation, s/t 12″ (La Vida Es Un Mus)

This is the punk record of the year for me, one that maybe got lost in the deluge of releases from La Vida Es Un Mus. If you wanna learn about effective vocal delivery in hardcore, please see “2021.” Eight tracks, all meat. Please tour the US.

Reissue/Archival

I don’t really feel too qualified to comment on music largely made before I was born, especially since I am the owner of several 2017 reissues with flowery press kits that I will probably never listen to again. But if you’re gonna be a sucker, let a sucker clue you in to these tried-and-true slabs deserving of any and all accolades. Unrepresented here, somewhat criminally, is the Black Editions, a label doing really amazing work reviving the P.S.F. catalog.

The And Band / Perfect Strangers, Noli Me Tangere split 7″ (Look Plastic/Noisyland)

Noli Me Tangere is two sides of barely-music from early ‘80s Christchurch, with this new edition featuring extensive liner notes from George Henderson, he of the And Band (and perhaps more recognizably, the Spies and the Puddle). Both sides showcase a coupla outcasted NZ bands supporting each others’ avant-scrawl, as inspirational as it is baffling.

Byron Morris & Gerald Wise, Unity LP (Eremite)

Freedom music, full of raw intensity (”Byard Lancaster did push-ups when not playing”) and fiery exchanges. The two sidelong pieces are demanding of your full attention, repaid in kind with chills so deep you’ll swear a spirit passed through ya.

Cosey Fanni Tutti, Time to Tell LP (Conspiracy International)

Gorgeous reissue with a foil-stamped gatefold and a huge booklet full of ephemera from the recording period. Less Throbbing Gristle menace than new age shimmer, especially on the B-side; the gentle ascent is the natural conclusion once you’ve lived through the stunning title track. Cosey, take me away.

Die Tödliche Doris, “ “ LP (États-Unis)

Brutally minimalistic post-punk from early ‘80s Germany, painstakingly restored by the Superior Viaduct sub-label États-Unis. The A-side is full of blistering, manic bursts; the flip smoothes things out, allowing ideas to stick around, proving this approach works in both short- and long-form. Call it ZNR meets DNA.

Harry Pussy, A Real New England Fuck Up LP (Palilalia)

Two live sets, one on each side, both monstrous and in shockingly high fidelity, especially given the circumstances detailed by Tom Lax and Tom Carter on the sleeve. The show from T.T. the Bear’s is the performance I always want (”Harry Pussy took the stage and sandblasted the night into oblivion”) and rarely get.

Khan Jamal Creative Art Ensemble, Drum Dance to the Motherland LP (Eremite)

Capping off a brilliant year for Eremite was a beautiful reissue of Drum Dance to the Motherland’s cosmic transmission. All of the hyperbolic reviews ring true when “Inner Peace” stumbles into a groove, but my favorite part is the almost painfully shrill horns on the title track.

Meat Thump, “Metal Gun” b/w “Left to Rust” 7″ (Coward Punch)

Coward Punch Records kept the memory of Brendon Annesley alive with a couple of archival Meat Thump 7″ers this year. The earlier one was good, but didn’t quite hit home; here, “Metal Gun” could be twice its length, and “Left to Rust” rambles down my spine in the same way that still-great “Box of Wine” 7″ does.

V/A, Oz Waves LP (Efficient Space)

I did not have more fun this year than when I was dancing along to this record like a poorly operated marionette, which was every time “Will I Dream?” started. Efficient Space continues to deliver the goods I didn’t know I needed.

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furederiko · 7 years ago

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A School of Stars!!! Time to go back to class... or in Kyuranger's case, HALF of its members actually attends one! NOTE: This recap-view could have been released much sooner. In fact, I had planned to publish it several days earlier, since the show didn't air last Sunday. But as always, my health got in the way that I simply couldn't finish this piece until... just now. My body and bad weathers are definitely at odds with each other... T_T

- "Uchu Sentai Kyuranger: High School Wars" is a spin-off from the recently released "Episode of Stinger" V-Cinema bluray. This web-series is made available on TOEI Tokusatsu Fan Club app on September 9th, 2017, and will be concluded by a special 5th episode to be released on DVD. Technically, both "High School Wars" and "Episode of Stinger" CAN be regarded as unofficial 49th and 50th episode (though the latter alone has the duration of more). - If we put all currently available "High School Wars" episodes into one, it serves as a full 22.42 minutes feature, which is the average length of a weekly broadcast. Episode 1 (including opening, excluding credits and preview) is 5.12 minutes, Episode 2 is 05.40, Episode 3 is 6.20, and Episode 4 is 5.30 minutes. - Each episodes for "High School Wars" is called 'Period'. In chronological order, they can be generally translated as "Morning Assembly" (Chourei) , "Art Class" (Bijutsu), "Science Class" (Rika), "Physical Education" (Taiiku), and "Suplementary Exam" (Suishi). - For the record, this recap-view does not cover the last one, because as far as I know, it's not released yet (nor has an official release date). It might however, plays out in parallel to the "Episode of Stinger" storyline. FYI, the plot of its first 4 episodes bleeds directly to that V-Cinema story. A direct prologue, if you will. Anyway, I'll be recap-viewing these 4 available episodes separately below (in the style of my take on "Kamen Rider Build"). Read on...

01 - "Commander's Mischief"

- Rebellions sans Tsurugi, receive an undercover mission by Commander Xiao. Their destination is Planet 3B (TV-Nihon, to which this review is based, fansubbed it as such, eventhough other outlets called it as 'Sleeby' or 'Sleevy') of the Norma System. Jark Matter has installed their largest education facility, obviously using one to brainwash people to be their minions. Our Away Team is sent to inflitrate and defeat its Malistrate. - The name of this planet is clearly a shoutout to actor Tetsuya Takeda's popular drama series "3-nen B-gumi Kinpachi-sensei". Raptor even mimics the gesture of Takeda's character when she utters its name. This is a well-known and popularly used gag in Japanese entertainment. Pretty much most if not all parody shows have included nods to this long-running show. - Best part of this episode, is when an unusually giddy Xiao practically spills the bean about one important thing: that the Kyulette system is rigged. As it turns out, he's been hiding the Kyu Globes of several members to ensure the outcome for the rest! And Raptor says, that it's NOT the first time. LOL. Even better, he claims that it's due to "conditions to production", a statement that sounds 'odd' to the others, but works so darn well as a brilliant joke to us audience. I've said before, how Xiao is parroting like a TOEI executive or producer. This is yet another very meta-joke that reinforces that notion! Also, do you notice that the first selected Away Team consists of all suit-characters and not the human ones? There's this unconfirmed fact that it's considerably cheaper to use voice + suit actors instead of the young talents. Hence... productional conditions. LOL. - As much as I would love to see the entire cast wearing school uniforms (Raptor has prepared for ALL of them, Garu's in particular looks Yankee-cool), Kyulette actually ends up choosing all the human cast. Human-looking one of course, if we factor the case of Stinger. All dressed up to portray different kind of student stereotypes, the Away Team heads to Planet 3B. While at the same time, Xiao needs to do some explaining to Champ, Garu, and Balance. - By the way, Raptor's comment that it would be nice to wear uniform, could be a neat callback to when her voice actress dressed up as a maid in one of Go-kaiger's episode. Notice that she's wearing Spada's chef-hat while saying this? So sweet. And Balance's concern about Naga and brainwashing is certainly a jab to his Dark-Naga arc. Lucky's outfit and the high school angle in general, in a way serves as a homage to "Denji Sentai Megaranger" as well. Don't forget, it was the first season/series that aired on 07.30 JST, while Kyuranger is the last to air on the schedule.

Comment: This was undeniably my favorite episode of these web-series. Not just because every members are onboard, but the jokes were simply spot-on, and I just love all those the minor details included here. Especially that brilliant nod to "Kinpachi-sensei" that I didn't catch on my first viewing.

02 - "How Great Thou Art"

- Our Away Team arrives on the facility, and the web-series' face-slapping running gag starts here. Each time the school bell rings, the boys instantly get brainwashed. Lucky becomes lazy, Stinger is all smiley and giggly, Naga is twitching, Spada mopes like a fish, and Kotarou looks... high. Yikes! That's disturbing to see. Hammy is luckily wearing a headset (appropriately in green), most likely listening to Hoshi Minato's song. Thus she gets the privilege to... ugh, slap the others back to their senses. - Their first 'enemy' is Student Council President Indaver, voiced by... *drumrolls* Yousuke Itou, who is none other than Deka Green Sen-chan himself! This is his second participation in Kyuranger, following that minor guest appearance in the "Space Squad" crossover episode. The Indaver points out Naga's silver hair and Hammy as violation to the all-boys school. He challenges the team for a three-rounds duel. - Subject is... ART. Lucky wins the first, eventhough his painting doesn't resemble like the model. Spada loses the second, but he most definitely wins the joke of the day by drawing a delectable fruit parfait as his rendition of a basket of fruits. His chef jokes, smooth catchy foreign phrases, and dandy mannerism never ceases to amaze me. "Originality is vital in cooking!", he says. LOL. Naga is up to do the last task, and it has the most challenging model: the idol Hoshi Minato! Turning this episode into a small "Magiranger vs Dekaranger" flick. - Of course, the final duel's result plays for laughs, as Minato chooses Naga's more gorgeous shoujo-manga rendition as the result, compared to Council President's more realistic one. Angry about this, Council President tries to attack Naga, but Minato hands him the #59 Pictor Kyu Globe to... paint the Indaver's defeat. Ouch! Minato then leaves the room by repeatedly saying "THANK YOU"... or "SAN-KYU" in Japanese. Get it? 3-9? :D - Minato's appearance is nice and all, considering he's underused in the TV series. Unfortunately, it also serves as the most problematic aspect of this web-series. Particularly, in 'WHEN' this series take place. As I said on the extra note for episode 35, Hoshi still has the creepy puppet on his shoulder here. The general assumption is that he's still under the influence of Don Armage. Am I right? But why does he hand out a Kyu Globe then? It does NOT make sense. This action implies that Minato's already a supporter for the Kyuranger, because he's been rallying against Jark Matter since episode 36. Then again, it contradicts the fact that he can even walk freely into this school! Why would Jark Matter let him in if he's supporting the Rebellion, right? - The easiest way to address this, is by ignoring two things: First, the puppet's significance. Hoshi clearly has ditched it ever since he was freed from control, so let's just assume he put it back in as... I don't know, random accessory? Second, Hammy's odd reaction, as if she hasn't met Hoshi before inspite of the aftermath of Pavo's Got Talent. Let's just assume she's fangirling or something. These two measures will allow this spin-off to take place AFTER episode 35, so it makes more sense. Probably not BEFORE episode 36 though... because well, let's just say, the ending of "Episode of Stinger" will contradict this even further. Does that sound confusing? Oh well, let's just proceed to the next period for now...

Comment: In general, it's a fun episode with both Spada and Naga being the episode's MVP. Not to mention, that brief yaoi slur between Magi Yellow and Ophiucus Silver would make their respective fans glee in fangasmic joy. Unfortunately, as I've pointed out above, it's also a major flaw in design. Placing this web-series in the continuity have become... conflicting, all thanks to this one episode. Such a big shame, because the show has been VERY good at keeping things in check prior to this.

03 - "The 88 Quiz"

- Spada and Kotarou discover that they are all trapped inside the classroom. The only way to get out, is by defeating the next 'enemy' that comes walking in. Oh, yes... there's that face-slapping bit again. Yeesh, this gag gets tired REALLY FAST. - Next subject that our Away Team needs to overcome... is Science. In charge of this subject, is the female Vice Principal Indaver, who apparently is the mother of the Student Council President. This one isn't voiced by a Super Sentai alumn, but by Sakura Miyajima from Project R. who... is also a Super Sentai Super-Fan. Duh? - And the new task involves... massive information dump! This is the infamous episode that basically confirms ALL entries of the 88 Kyu Globes. Yes, the listing has been kept wrapped as a tight mystery ever since the show started, yet this one decides to blatantly ignore that restriction and unveils all of them in one strike. Thus, we get a detail Constellation Systems shoutout from #01 Leo until #88 Puppis (Argo Navis and the special ones are not included). LOL. By the way, did you know that the naming is deliberately done in Japanese and not Latin, to avoid similarity to "Saint Seiya"? Tom Constantine of The Tokusatsu Network recently shared this enlightening fact. - What strikes me as peculiar here... is that Tsurugi hasn't been around or even mentioned thus far. Even during this Constellation quiz, Phoenix isn't referenced to him, eventhough Hammy clearly points out the Argo components. It gives off another conflicting impression, that this web-series takes place before Tsurugi's debut in episode 21. I might be reading too much on this, but what if... the web-series was filmed before Tsurugi's actor join the team? On the other hand, Naga's emotion clearly indicates that it at least takes place after episode 31. See? Contradictory indeed! - Anyway, Kotarou gets to be the focus of this episode, because the final 4 missing Constellations relies heavily on his educational background. As in, only those who goes to school SHOULD know them. Hmmmm... really? I'd argue that's not entirely accurate (you'll see why... on the next part), but... let's just play along. - Vice Principal is defeated, hence the big baddie shows up to confront our team. Not only Principal Indaver is the wife of Vice Principal and naturally father of Student Council, and the Malistrate of Planet 3B, but he's also voiced by Yousuke Itou. "There are logistical reasons for why our faces are the same", he says, practically screaming "budgetary limitations" to our ears. His spotlight is saved for the next episode, as a seventh Kyuranger member joins in... simply because his inclusion will be necessary. How so? Read on...

Comment: Biggest highlight from this episode, is undeniably the complete listing to EVERY Kyu Globes. Whether the ones that have been used, or haven't in any form of the series (TV, V-Cinemas, Summer Movie, and/or random sweepstakes). Sadly, it came bringing another continuity issue, though not as massive as the previous one. It's enough to bother me to the bones though...

04 - "Useless Kyu Globes"

- We have arrived in the final part... considering the 5th episode is called 'Suplementary'. And things get... physical this time around. A Super Sentai episode needs to contain a fully-suited action sequence, as well as giant mecha battle. This is where we get both for "High School Wars". Well, one half of it, to be precise. - That 7th Kyuranger I mentioned above? Who else but Champ. But why is his inclusion (and not any other members) necessary? Because... he's the lead supporting character in "Episode of Stinger", being its lead protagonist's partner and all. For your information, this episode directly cuts to the V-Cinema, so Champ's presence is urgently required. So nope, he's not just there because Chamaeleon Green's slap-fest no longer in effect to cure the pesky brainwashing gag. - By the way, Champ arrives wearing a delinquent-style costume. Similar to the one worn by Gentarou of "Kamen Rider Fourze", or Jousuke in "JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Diamond is Unbreakable". If only we can see the others in their cosplays too. - Those 4 supposedly school-related Constellations? The Kyurangers actually utilize their Kyu Globes in the battle against a kendo-based Principal Indaver, so it's time to talk about... why I have issues with them. I can give #49 Circinus and #46 Norma a pass, because compass (the mathematical tool, NOT one used for navigation... that's assigned to Pyxis) and ruler are used at school, eventhough Norma is specifically a Carpenter's Level. But #79 Sextans and #80 Octans? Both Sextant and Octant are navigational tools generally used for NAVAL exploration. How on Earth would Kotarou knew or even used them both at school?! He must have gone to a VERY advanced school if that's the case. Because even a guys as old as me have NEVER seen neither one directly with my own pair of eyes. - Apart from Norma, these Kyu Globes are practically... useless. The Away Team can't even use most of them. Norma somehow works because Leo Red is miraculously able to use it as a finishing move. I'd argue that being in the Norma System is the sole reason, hence it gets a spontaneous power up. But let's not be bothered by such useless details... - Our final special cameo appears, this time in person. Kouta!!! I mean... Kouhei Yamamoto a.k.a. Hurricane Yellow himself appears as the school's Chairman. Like most if not all cast members of "Ninpuu Sentai Hurricaneger" (and also "Tokusou Sentai Dekaranger", hence Sen-chan's participation), Yamamoto is well-known for his loyalty to Super Sentai franchise. He's one of the reason why we even had that "Hurricaneger 10 Years After" V-Cinema. So seeing him here doesn't feel remotely like a surprise. - This episode still has one final scene before it ends. Principal Indaver escapes the 'Ruler Attack', and jumps aboard his Consumarz to attack the Away Team. Kyuren-Oh is summoned, and... "TO BE CONTINUED". Wait, for real? Yep. The conclusion to this mecha battle *spoiler alert*, will be available as the opening scene for "Episode of Stinger". We even get an extended preview (featuring that amazing new song by Stinger's actor) for the V-Cinema as a quick reminder...

Comment: This final episode ended VERY annoyingly. That's the general complaints resonating throughout Kyuranger's fanbase. Along with one more thing: useless Kyu Globes. How could I counter that, when those arguments were mostly accurate? Strangely, this was an OKAY episode for me, and not as problematic as the 2nd and 3rd. That's why I'm giving it a mediocre score...

Overall: Overall, "High School Wars" has been a light, mostly clausthrophobic and/or secluded academic-themed gag, that gave the human actors the chance to cosplay as students. Of course, being a highly comedic distraction was not all that bad. Unfortunately, it also served the weakest link among Kyuranger's canon. That slapping-face gag was rather violent, especially when a minor such as Kotarou had to endure the same treatment. That's downright child abuse, right? And then there's that overlaying continuity problem, that made the writing felt... weak and sloppy in general. I'm not sure who wrote this, but if it's the same writer who worked on "Episode of Stinger"... then it sort of make sense (Kento Shimoyama's portofolio includes... "Shuriken Sentai Ninninger"! No wonder...). Sadly, as you would find out soon, this issue also affected that V-Cinema. It will make anyone to question whether both features actually connects to the TV series or not at all. An alternate universe take? As of writing, I'm STILL waiting anxiously for the official answer to this. There's a speculation that we'll be getting some actual closure and proper timeline explanation in that exclusive 5th episode. Tell you the truth though, I'm NOT so sure about that... Next: "Episode of Stinger"... what else? *grins* PS: Assuming I can get it done without any external (unexpected situations) nor internal (my health is still not in full prime) interferences, expect recap-view for Stinger's V-Cinema to arrive tomorrow. Or the day after. Also, this recap-view will not include the Overall Score for "High School Wars". That will be posted alongside review for Episode 5... IF and only IF I can see one, of course.

Episode 01 Score: 8 out of 10 Episode 02 Score: 6 out of 10 Episode 03 Score: 6,5 out of 10 Episode 04 Score: 7 out of 10

Visit THIS LINK to view a continuously updated listing of the Kyutama / Kyu Globes. Last Updated: October 31st, 2017 - Version 3.04. (WARNING: It might contain spoilers for future episodes)

Trailer used above is officially available through MaiDigiTV Youtube Channel. "Uchu Sentai Kyuranger" is produced by TOEI, and airs every Sunday on TV-Asahi. Credits and copyrights belong to their respective owners.

#tokusatsu #SuperSentai #kyuranger #uchu sentai kyuranger #uchuu sentai kyuranger #review #Just for Fun

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terresdebrumestories · 8 years ago

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Watching with Fanfan: Shadowhunters

Season 02 - Episode 01: This guilty blood

No reviews on this blog for months, and we’re picking up the habit—though certainly not the same rhythm I had going last summer, I’m afraid—with a Shadowhunters review. I’m starting to think I might be part of this fandom, after all, even if it’s a fairly specific fringe of it.

Anyway, I know I never finished the detailed criticism of season one, mostly because I never really had enough time for it—and also because watching every episode once is far more than enough for my taste—but I have now watched the first episode of Season 2 and since I’ve been asked to share my opinion of it, I might as well seize the occasion to get back to reviewing things.

In this case, sadly—but unsurprisingly enough, if you know the show and what my problems with it are—there isn’t much good to be said.

Last season ended when Jace, under threat, followed Valentine to his lair with the Mortal Cup in their possession. This, understandably, threw everyone in a feat of panic and, when the episode opens, we see Clary hop up on Valentine’s ship, more-or-less says she’s here to rescue Jace...and proceeds to spend the next five minutes doing nothing but look vaguely anxious while Jace fights with and kills Valentine.

Obviously, it turns out—several scenes later—that Jace didn’t really kill Valentine, who was in fact masquerading as Clary to test Jace’s loyalty...so in other words, we open with a scene that is both sexist (in that, as usual, “Clary” has zero influence on the plot and, when “she” does, it’s by getting revealed as Valentine’s disguise) and utterly pointless because the entire conflict of it turns out to be a fake out. It’s not quite as annoying as opening on a dream sequence—which I thought it was at first—but it’s still starting with something that goes nowhere.

(Some may argue that the point was to show us Jace doesn’t want to be with Valentine, but considering he was blackmailed/threatened into following the villain in the first place, that point has already been made last season, and even if you want to re-make it for the newcomers, there are other ways to do it, thank you very much.)

As far as the general quality of the episode goes, though, the opening is actually a fairly good indicator of what we’re about to get.

True, the plot sort of moves forward, in that ever-confusing way that comes when things evolve because the plot demands it and not because the characters really do anything useful. Clary continues to react to the plot—when, in good storytelling, the plot should react to her—while saying things that make it sound like she’s acting while, in effect, we mostly just see her stand around and complain.

(Example: At one point of the episode, Clary is supposed to be locked in the Institute. To get out, she uses a glamour that makes her look like Aldertree, the new Clave representative who was sent from Idris because we like Lydia now. This is accompanied by a grossly misused quote from “The art of war” and about ten seconds of Luke being confused as to why Aldertree speaks to him. Do we see Clary put the glamour on? No. Do we see her figure out how to use said glamour without being caught mid-lie? No. Isabelle gave her an idea—aka: Clary didn’t even come up with her brilliant idea on her own—then jazz hands and voila, no problem, no conflict, no use for our heroine, she can go straight to the ‘be locked out of the action by another character’ part of the episode.)

The fact that the plot moves on its own by virtue of ‘It has to move’ more than real logic for the most part—or at least, not a logic that makes sense to me in terms of how characters react—is, honestly, not the biggest problem this show has, though. I mean, let’s face it, sometimes a story where the plot advances because it has to (as opposed to advancing because the hero does something) can be enjoyable enough, if not the best in the world. It’s not really my thing, but it happens.

The biggest problem in this episode, imported straight from season one, is that it literally will not let go of its offensive tropes.

Aside from the fact that all the Adults are Useless at best, or obstacles at worst—like Maryse who, we’re supposed to resent for “trying to take back the Institute from Lydia” (1), which we were rooting for her to do last season, and who went from having Jace as a favorite to literally saying it was a mistake to take Valentine’s son in(2) (3)—Shadowhunters also continues with its dubious casting choice for the minor characters. The guy who gets killed while posing as Valentine? A black man. The vampire who massacred her family, killed innocent people, and is a meanie to Jace so he can kill her illegally? A woman of color. The Bad Guy that was sent from Idris? A black man. His co-minor villain? A woman of color. Do we continue?

I mean, this is far from the worst I’ve seen in terms of racism, and I suppose that’s a good thing—somewhat...is ‘not as bad as it could be’ a good thing, really?—but that doesn’t mean these choices are innocent given the racial context of US TV (4) and the show shouldn’t be let off the hook from it just because it has four main-ish characters of color—aka Luke, Simon, Magnus and Isabelle, though in Izzy’s case (as in Maryse’s case) it’s unclear if we’re supposed to read the character as a woman of color.

Plus, if you thought racism was the only problem in the series, you’d be wrong. I’ve talked extensively about the problems with Magnus and Alec’s relationship last season—and before that, I’ve discussed the problems with the way they’ve been handled in the books—so if you were already reading this blog last year this may sound a little repetitive, but here it is anyway: Malec, as a relationship, is incredibly badly handled.

Aside from Magnus’ depiction as a an aggressively—and creepily—sexual guy (5) who has repeatedly ignored Alec’s boundaries and requests throughout the first season, this first episode (re–) establishes several things that don’t do anything to endear me to the relationship.

First, this episode takes place a few days—maybe a week, top—after Alec outed himself by publicly dumping the woman he was supposed to marry (which, by the way, would have been a politically advantageous move for him and his family) thereby standing to “lose everything” (6) and they’re already fighting. Considering they’ve known each other for a grand total of one month, at the very best and that they got together less than one week ago, Alec and Magnus should be in the honeymoon phase of their relationship. The fact that they aren’t doesn’t speak well for their future as a couple.

Second, we now know that Alec is willing to use emotional blackmail against Magnus (“Why won’t you [help me do something that could kill me and therefore land you in trouble] after everything I’ve done/sacrificed for you?”) which is a tactic of abuse and a definitely shitty thing to do to anyone. True, Alec is (implicitly) called out on it an he apologizes later on, but that doesn’t change the fact that Magnus would have every right to dump him right then and there, thank you very much.

Third, during their second scene, Magnus entirely dismisses the risks Alec took in order to be with him (which, might I add, Magnus pretty much harassed Alec into). True, this is as much shitty worldbuilding as it is bad characterization, but given that Shadowhunters were established as very homophobic in season one (again: “I could lose everything”, plus the mention Magnus made of “Don’t ask, don’t tell”) Magnus saying that Alec “didn’t sacrifice anything for [him]” makes him an asshole who Alec would have had every right to dump right then and there, thank you very much. In short—and I might get flame for this again but that won’t change the truth of it—Magnus and Alec are terribly bad for each other, their relationship is dysfunctional at best, unhealthy at worst, and no amount of fake hype, freeform propaganda or straight fetishistic fangirl screaming will convince me otherwise.

So, what can I say to conclude this review? None of what I saw yesterday night—yeah, it took me two days to download the thing. I’m questioning my life choices—was a surprise. The problems present in this first episode were already present last season, and I’m fairly sure they’ll still be present this season. Hopefully, they won’t get worst. Either way, I’m probably going to keep watching, if only for a while—and to motivate me into working on my rewrite project—but I’m also going to keep telling everyone I know not to embark on that franchise. There are, after all, less infuriating trainwrecks to watch ;)

-------------------------

(1) We’re supposed to believe Lydia & Izzy when they assume Maryse is the one who decided to ask for the Clave to send someone new to direct operations. It’ll probably turn out to be true, given that the show wants to make her into the bad parent, but in real life (or a setting meant to imitate real life) you don’t always decide who is appointed to supervise you.

(2) Remember: back in Season 1 Maryse, like everyone else, thought Jace was a Wayland. Now, for some reason, she’s acting like she knew about his dad all along and is regretting her choices. Outstanding characterization and logic right there.

(3) I’m actually more forgiving of what they did with Jocelyn given that they establish Jace’s demon blood in this episode, too. I’m expecting the reveal to be uselessly dragged out next week, and for the whole determinism thing to grow at least as ridiculous and nonsensical—and hypocritical—as it was in the books, but at least it makes sense for Jocelyn to try and shoot Jace. It makes zero sense for Maryse to suddenly despise Jace, and it’s also not required to explain why she doesn’t want to look for him too hard.

(4) Western media in general has a race problem, don’t get me wrong, but Shadowhunters is a US TV show so let’s stick to the context at hand.

(5) A trope used to paint both bisexuals—which Magnus is—and men of color in a negative light, might I add. Admittedly, I’m not sure if Asian men are more often oversexualized or desexualized so I might be wrong on that one. Still rubs me the wrong way though.

(6) Direct quote from Alec’s season 1 dialogue.

#My Posts #Review #Reviews #TV Review #TV Reviews #Shadowhunters #TV: Shadowhunters #Done with wooden queues

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topworldhistory · 5 years ago

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The explorers not only produced maps from their 1804-1806 expedition to the American West, they also recorded some 122 animals new to science, including the grizzly bear, coyote, prairie dog and pronghorn sheep.

Meriwether Lewis and William Clark are known as trailblazing explorers of the American West, not pioneering scientists. But during their 8,000-mile journey from Missouri to the Pacific Ocean and back between 1804-1806, Lewis and Clark discovered 122 plant and animal species, including iconic American animals like the grizzly bear, coyote, prairie dog and pronghorn sheep.

When President Thomas Jefferson first charged his assistant Lewis with the mission of finding a passable river route to the Pacific, he included an assignment to “[observe] the animals of the country generally, & especially those not known in the U.S. the remains and accounts of any which may [be] deemed rare or extinct.”

Jefferson was especially enticed by fossils recovered of mastodons and a type of giant land sloth he dubbed the megalonyx (“big claw”). Unsure of what species the men would encounter in the wilds beyond Missouri, Lewis took crash courses in botany, zoology and specimen collection and preservation from the best scientific minds in Philadelphia.

Clark Describes a 'Village of Small Animals'

Lewis and Clark came upon prairie dogs in 1804 and described them as "little animals" that "make a whistling noise."

One of the most remarkable periods of the expedition (zoologically speaking) occurred between September 4 and September 24, 1804 during a 263-mile trek from the Niobrara River in Nebraska to the Teton River in modern-day Pierre, South Dakota. In a span of just over two weeks, Lewis and Clark encountered four classic Western animals for the first time: the prairie dog, pronghorn, coyote and the jack rabbit.

READ MORE: 10 Little-Known Facts About the Lewis and Clark Expedition

In his September 7, 1804 journal entry, Clark describes a “Village of Small animals” discovered in Boyd County, Nebraska. The men found a sloping hillside containing “great numbers of holes on top of which these little animals Set erect make a Whistling noise and whin alarmed Step into their hole.”

Anxious to capture a live specimen, the men tried digging down into the burrows, but after reaching a depth of six feet, they switched tactics and attempted to flush the critters out.

“They spent an entire day hauling buckets of water up from the Missouri River and dumping them down the holes,” says Jay Buckley, a history professor at Brigham Young University and author of several books on Lewis and Clark, and Western exploration. “Eventually they flushed one out, put it in a cage and sent it to Jefferson. Incredibly, it made the trip alive.

There was some disagreement over what to name the curious creatures. Lewis called them “barking squirrels” while Clark referred to them as “ground rats” or “burrowing squirrels.” It was Sergeant John Ordway, an Army volunteer, who first called them prairie dogs.

Lewis Marvels at a 'Jackass Rabbit'

A Blacktail jackrabbit. Lewis noted the rabbit with remarkable ears could leap 18 to 20 feet in a single bound.

On September 14, 1804, near Chamberlain, South Dakota, one of the men killed a large white hare whose long, donkey-like ears inspired the name “jackass rabbit,” later shortened to jack rabbit. In his journal, Lewis marveled at the jack rabbit’s flexible ears, which the animal could “dilate and throw… forward, or contract and fold... back at pleasure.” He observed the jack rabbit could leap 18 to 20 feet in a single bound.

On the very same day near the mouth of Ball Creek in South Dakota, Clark shot a “Buck Goat” of an intriguing species of deer. In his journal, Lewis described the striking animal as having forked horns or “prongs” and its “brains of the back of his head.” Consulting his eight-volume A New and Complete Dictionary of Arts and Sciences, published in 1764 by W. Owen, Lewis concluded that “he is more like the Antilope or Gazelle of Africa than any other Species of Goat.”

In fact, the pronghorn is neither goat, antelope or deer, and belongs to its own family, Antilocapridae. The pronghorn is also the fastest four-legged species in North America, reaching top sprinting speeds of 60 mph. Lewis and Clark stuffed two pronghorn, one male and one female, and shipped them back East to Jefferson.

The mournful wails and yelps of coyotes followed Lewis and Clark to the Pacific and back, but the team shot and identified the first of this new species on September 18, 1804 near Chamberlain, South Dakota, and Clark called it a “Prairie Wolff.”

“I killed a Prairie Wolff, about the size of a gray fox, bushy tail head and ears like a Wolf, Some fur burrows in the ground and barks like a Small Dog,” wrote Clark.

Grizzlies, Rattlesnakes, Bison Nearly Killed the Explorers

An illustration from Lewis and Clark's journal of the Corps of Discovery, 'American having struck a Bear but not killed him escapes into a tree.'

Not all of Lewis and Clark’s animal encounters were so calm and collected.

“One of my favorite moments is when Lewis is all alone at the Great Falls in Montana,” says Buckley. “In a 24-hour period, he’s nearly bitten by a rattlesnake, attacked by a wolverine, charged by a bison and eaten by a grizzly bear. That night, in his journal he says, ‘The entire animal kingdom has conspired against me!’”

As for grizzlies, Lewis and Clark were skeptical at first of the native Mandan and Hidatsa’s accounts of “white bears” weighing over 1,000 pounds, and the explorers scoffed at the war paint and other “supersticious rights” the Indians performed before setting out to hunt the mythical beasts.

But later, while traversing Montana, Lewis and Clark became believers. In his trademark creative spelling, Lewis described “a most tremendious looking anamal, and extreemly hard to kill notwithstanding he had five balls through his lungs and five others in various parts… and made the most tremendous roaring from the moment he was shot.”

When Lewis had his close call with a grizzly in Great Falls, he described a massive bear chasing him “open mouthed and full speed” into the river. With nowhere to run, Lewis spun around to face the grizzly armed only with his spear-headed “espontoon.” To his great relief, the animal retreated.

“So it was, and I feelt myself not a little gratifyed that he had declined the combat,” wrote Lewis.

Despite the great care taken by Lewis and Clark to collect specimens and include detailed descriptions and measurements of plants and animals in their journals, the men never achieved scientific fame in their lifetimes. After their triumphant return in 1806, Lewis planned to write a three-volume account of their expedition with an entire volume dedicated “exclusively to scientific research, and principally to the natural history of those hitherto unknown regions.”

But Lewis, overburdened in his new post as governor of Louisiana, died suddenly in 1809, and when the expedition journals were finally published in 1814, the editors left out almost all of the zoological and scientific reports. It wasn’t until 1893 that a new edition of the journals was published by naturalist Elliott Coues, who correctly credited Lewis and Clark as scientific trailblazers as well as daring American explorers.

from Stories - HISTORY https://ift.tt/2s89CB2 January 07, 2020 at 11:55PM

#Worldhistory

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mixtrendingupdates-blog · 7 years ago

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